1. The new Dance Tunes CD has proved to be very popular. It has sold 80,000 copies over the last year. How are these two sentences related?

2. Most people collect Star Wars toys for sentimental reasons. Some people collect them strictly to make money. What is the relationship between the two sentences?

3. Setting out a birdfeeder is a common practice in most residential areas. By some estimations, for example, feeders provide nourishment for as many as 30 million birds in Great Britain per year. Despite this fact, however, a scientist in Switzerland has concluded that feeding birds might not be in their best interest. Some male birds, after going without food all night, need to arise early and sing a dawn chorus in order to attract a female. In general, males that sing earliest attract the best mates. When food was introduced overnight, however, 36% of the males didn't start singing until after sunrise, indicating that the well-fed birds became lazy and more ill-prepared to mate and to defend their territories from rivals. According to the passage, which one of the following statements is correct?

4. There are two kinds of jewelry that I do. There is commercial jewelry-class rings, necklaces, the kinds of things most people wear. I sell these items to meet my expenses for raw materials, supplies, and to make my living. The other, more creative work I do makes me feel that I am developing as a craftsperson. The author of this passage implies that:

5. Zebra mussels are filter feeders that cleanse freshwater lakes and therefore have helped increase the populations of smallmouth bass. Zebra mussel populations grow at an alarmingly fast rate, often dominating ecosystems to the detriment of other organisms. What does the second sentence do?

6. Currently, institutional investors are prohibited from owning a majority of the shares of a U.S. corporation, or to exert any influence in the way the company is run. Furthermore, any investment entity that owns at least 20 percent of a corporation's stock may not sell those shares without a full day's notice. A sale of that magnitude would cause a panic among the other investors in that company and start a massive sell-off that would cause the stock price to drop precipitously. Having prior knowledge of that sale would give larger investors a considerable advantage over smaller ones who mostly likely would not be aware of the intent to sell. According to the passage, the purpose of the one-day notice requirement to sell shares is to

7. Experienced truck drivers often travel in a convoy.a group of trucks that are traveling to the same part of the country. Convoys can help truckers to stay alert. The author implies that professional long-distance truck drivers may avoid traveling alone because:

8. Although jazz is mostly an improvisational form, it is easy to detect from its exotic sound its many disparate musical roots. The fundamental syncopation and the common inclusion of a piano and brass instruments—such as the cornet, trumpet, and trombone—suggest the influence of ragtime. The subsequent addition of saxophones stems from the debt jazz owes to dance orchestras. Brass bands were also one of the chief inspirations of jazz's ensemble mentality, whereby all musicians play lead and counter melodies simultaneously. But the most striking features of jazz originate directly from the blues, where musical soloists often mimic the vocals while distorting them using various unique effects. This passage is mainly about:

9. From 1910 to 1930, more than ten percent of the African-American population in southern American states moved northward, presumably to meet the increased labor demand in many northern cities. It had been widely assumed that most of these workers came from rural areas, but in fact more than a third of them were engaged in skilled trades before they left the South. It may seem curious that such a significant percentage of securely employed people would migrate northward, but in truth workers' conditions in the South were declining rapidly at the time. Therefore, most of these participants in the Great Migration were not enticed by the opportunity to live a more urban lifestyle, but rather by the simple promise of higher wages and a more secure standard of living. The primary purpose of this passage is to

10. Voters are poised to reject the referendum for spending municipal taxes to build a new baseball stadium. If the new stadium is not built, the local team's owner has threatened to move his franchise. What does the second sentence do?

11. Movies that are rated "R" usually dramatize scenes of extreme violence and are thus restricted to children aged 17 or over. Many children under 17 years of age routinely witness violent scenes on television. What does the second sentence do?

12. In order to stimulate spending, Congress authorized a rebate check for all individual taxpayers. When taxpayers received their rebate checks, they were more likely to save the money than to spend it. What does the second sentence do?

13. Health professionals argue that too much butter in a person's diet increases the chance of a heart attack. In South Korea, where per-capita consumption of butter is very low, heart attacks are no less prevalent than in countries where butter is served at every meal. How are the two sentences related?

14. Although the federal government requires public elementary schools to begin reading education in kindergarten, many private schools delay reading instruction in favor of basic classes in phonetics and storytelling. Some of these private schools cite studies indicating that early reading is a specific skill not necessarily related to intelligence. And small children who are able to sound out words are not always capable of comprehending the words they recognize. As one educator put it, "Education is not a race." According to the passage, some private schools believe reading instruction in kindergarten is

15. Sometimes when we don't get enough sleep we become very shorttempered. It is important to set a time to go to bed that is realistic. How are these two sentences related?

16. The first photographs were created when a sheet of glass was coated with collodion, a sticky substance containing silver halide crystals that produced metallic silver when exposed to light. Soon, photographers used plastic triacetate, which was more versatile and pliable than glass. Decades later, collodion was replaced by a gelatin that swelled in liquid, and therefore held tightly to the base as the processing chemicals reacted with the silver halides. After the gelatin dried, it shrunk back to normal thickness, creating a shape and position of the image that were more true and undistorted than ever before. We can conclude from the information in this passage that collodion

17. Domesticated cats and dogs both see their human owners as pseudoparents, but for different reasons. Cats develop a bond with their masters early in life, when they respond to the food and comfort given to them by their human guardians. Dogs, by contrast, view their masters through the lens of their innate pack mentality, which confers on the human a very important status relationship. This is why, when they leave the house, the cat runs off to explore independently, while the dog's innate response is to look back to find packmates with which to roam. The primary purpose of the passage is to:

18. Seismologists use the Richter scale to measure an earthquake's magnitude by measuring the energy that the earthquake releases. The levels on the scale are related exponentially, in factors of 32. For example, a quake of magnitude 6 releases 32 times the energy of a quake of magnitude 5, and a staggering 1,024 (or 322) times the energy of a quake of magnitude 4. As precise as this scale is, it is not equipped to measure an earthquake's effect on the people and/or buildings above. For this assessment, the modified Mercalli scale is used. The scale ranges from Level I to Level XII, the latter indicating that the surface has incurred catastrophic damage. According to the passage, which of the following statements is correct?

19. While comparing economic data, a group of sociologists concluded that, among all people at a certain income level, individuals in rural areas have greater purchasing power than those living in urban or suburban regions. The group factored in several data points, including the population density within a certain radius of city centers, the number of people per household, and the percentage of those households that included two working parents. Ultimately, however, the main premise was that the money spent by urban and suburban dwellers on their fundamental need for food and shelter could be spent by rural households on discretionary items. From the passage above, it can be inferred that

20. Now is the perfect time to buy a home, because housing prices in Essex County are so low. Property taxes in Essex County have recently risen to a 10-year high. What does the second sentence do?

21. A recent book about Florence Nightingale tries to undermine her idealized reputation and downplay her contributions to the field of military medicine. The author asserts that Nightingale did not become supervisor of all female nurses until late in the Crimean war, and contributions from nurses during that war were, at best, marginal. In contrast, a new volume of Nightingale's correspondence casts her influence in a much more positive light. The editors cite her crucial role in the creation of the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army, as well as her founding of a nurses' training hospital in London. The passage is primarily concerned with

22. Consumer spending has dropped more than 30% over the past 12 months. Unemployment has risen by 2.2% since this time last year. What does the second sentence do?

23. Did you know that the U.S. postal service handles 40% of the world's mail volume? Japan is the second largest carrier of cards and letters, but it handles only 8% of the world's mail. Perhaps the reason that the U.S. handles such a large volume of mail is the large number of personal letters American citizens write. Personal letters do not require a strict format, but they do have a few guidelines. The date should be written at the top of the letter, either in the center or in the right-hand corner. The salutation, "Dear ____,"should begin the letter and should be followed by a comma instead of a colon which is used in the salutation of a business letter. The body of the letter should sound like you, and say the things you intend to say. Unlike in a business letter, you can use slang words, dashes, smiley faces, sentence fragments, and other kinds of casual forms of communication. Closing for personal letters are also a matter of personal preference. While a business letter requires you to use more formal closings such as "Sincerely,""Regards," or "Best Wishes," a personal letter can end with more casual phrases such as "Later," "Talk to you Soon," Or "Bye." As with the rest of the letter, the closing should express your own feelings.

24. The Earth's past climate-including temperature and elements in the atmosphere-has recently been studied by analyzing ice samples from Greenland and Antarctica. The air bubbles in the ice have shown that, over the past 160,000 years, there has been a close correlation between temperature changes and level of natural greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. One recent analysis from Greenland showed that at the end of the last glacial period (when the great ice sheets began to retreat to their present position), temperatures in southern Greenland rose from 5 to 7 degrees in about 100 years. Air bubbles are not the only method of determining characteristics of the Earth.s ancient climate history. Analysis of dust layers from ancient volcanic activity is another such method; as is the study of ice cores, which interpret past solar activity that may have affected our climate. This passage states that:

25. Many modern naval vessels have been fitted with a sophisticated new sonar system called S2076 Stage 5. Environmentalists lament that the soundbursts emitted by the system, some of which exceed 250 decibels, are seriously damaging marine wildlife. To support this claim, they point to an extraordinary number of seal carcasses found washed up near areas where vessels have used S2076 Stage 5. The developers of this technology have responded by asserting that, although the number of seal deaths is unfortunate, no one has found a causal link between them and the use of S2076 Stage 5. They maintain that the system is safe. The primary purpose of the passage is to