QUESTION EXPLANATIONS

1. (C) — Selden knows Lily, but nothing indicates they are especially close; “acquaintances” accurately describes their relationship. Furthermore, seeing Lily brings Selden “surprise” (line 1), so their meeting is unexpected. Thus, answer (C) provides the best summary of the passage. As they are not close, and their meeting is unplanned, (A) is incorrect. Nothing indicates Lily is acting suspiciously, and although Selden is in a train station he is returning home, not traveling, so (B) is incorrect. Selden and Lily are not romantically involved, so (D) is incorrect.

2. (B) — Lily inspires in Selden “interest” and “speculation” (lines 17-18); “fascination” (B) fits with this reaction. Although he notices her physical appearance, Selden does not indicate that he is especially personally attracted to her, so (A) is incorrect. His attitude towards her is overall positive, and the idea of spending time with her is “diverting”; therefore, (C) and (D), both of which name negative attitudes, are incorrect.

3. (C) — Answer (C) describes the reaction Selden has to Lily, and it specifically characterizes his primary attitude towards her as one of fascination; it aligns with the topic addressed in the previous question, and it supports the correct answer. (A) primarily describes a factual event without giving insight into Selden’s attitude towards Lily, so it is incorrect. (B) captures his confusion at finding Lily in this particular circumstance, but not his attitude towards her as a person, so it is incorrect. (D) describes his amusement at one particular aspect of her, not her generally, so it is incorrect.

4. (D) — Lines 1-24 describe Selden’s thoughts about Lily, and the rest of the passage describes their interaction, which is friendly and leads to them spending more time together. This matches with answer choice (D). No one in the passage has a “grim and suspicious attitude,” so (A) is incorrect. No one is revealed to have had meticulous plans for the day or in general, so (B) is incorrect. Selden does notice Lily’s beauty, but it is not the focus of the passage, nor does the passage remark on a general appreciation of beauty, so (C) is incorrect.

5. (D) — When Selden asks about how he is supposed to “rescue” her (line 42), Lily explains that she missed her train and there isn’t another for two hours (lines 49-52) and asks Selden to spend time with her until then (lines 53-54); this matches answer (D). Lily does not say anything about being in danger, so (A) is incorrect. Although she is glad to see him, she does not indicate that she had been wanting to talk to him before today, so (B) is incorrect. She does not compare how she feels about him as opposed to the people she is meant to be visiting by train, so (C) is incorrect.

6. (C) — In lines 59-60, Lily expresses her boredom while she waits, which explains why seeing Selden is lucky; this fits both the topic and the correct answer for the previous question, making (C) correct. (A) talks about Selden’s perspective, but the previous question asked about Lily’s, so it is incorrect. (B) describes Selden’s response to her greeting without illuminating Lily’s reasons for that greeting, so it is incorrect. (D) includes Lily’s request for company, but not her reasons for it, so it is incorrect.

7. (D) — The lines in question come after the first mention of Selden’s surprise. They explain that he can think of no reason for Lily to be there, and conclude by reaffirming that he is “perplexed” to see her as she is, all of which support answer (D) The reader does not know from these lines whether Lily lives in town during other seasons or not, so (A) is incorrect. Although the lines suggest Lily visits many houses in Newport, they do not suggest that she owns them, so (B) is incorrect. Nothing in the lines implies Selden thinks Lily is untrustworthy, so (C) is incorrect.

8. (A) — The passage states that “an impulse of curiosity” brought Selden towards Lily (line 21). Since this comes after a description of his confusion at seeing her here, the reader can infer that his curiosity is connected to that confusion, making (A) the correct answer. Although he agrees to spend time together, nothing at the beginning of their interaction suggests that he is particularly hoping she will suggest it, so (B) is incorrect. Nothing implies that he is in doubt over whether she remembers him, so (C) is incorrect. Although he likes her and has not seen her for some time, nothing in the text suggests that he has missed her since he last saw her, so (D) is incorrect.

9. (D) — The sentence is talking about the fact that passersby often “linger” in order to look at Lily longer; this suggests both ceasing motion and having their interest captured. Of the answer choices, only (D) conveys both those implications, and replacing “arrest” with it in the sentence makes sense. (A), (B), and (C) all have meanings relating to ceasing motion, but none of them carry the implication of doing so because of great interest, so they are incorrect.

10. (D) — The lines in question emphasize the span of time during which Lily has often gone dancing, which is a recreational activity; as she is in her late twenties, this time would have been during her youth. This is best summarized by answer choice (D). The passage does not suggest that Lily dances professionally, so (A) is incorrect. Although the quote suggests she likes late parties, it does not comment on whether she likes them better than daytime activities, so (B) is incorrect. “Late hours” in this context refers to parties that go well into the night, not lateness, so (C) is incorrect.

11. (B) — Johnson defines the Great Society many ways, but when he says “most of all” to suggest that one in particular is most important (line 29), he defines it as “a challenge constantly renewed” (lines 30-31) and goes on to describe the opportunities the present generation has for improving themselves and the future. This idea is captured by answer choice (B). Although Johnson does say the Great Society “rests on abundance and liberty for all” (lines 14-15), he does not call for that abundance to be distributed equally, so (A) is incorrect; it is also too narrow to encompass his vision. Johnson wants the Great Society to encompass all of society, not just the most powerful people, so (C) is incorrect. The Great Society is a concept, not a specific organization, so (D) is incorrect.

12. (C) — The lines in answer choice (C) explicitly state what Johnson considers to be most important about the Great Society, and calls it “a challenge constantly renewed”; it matches the topic of the previous question as well as the correct answer. Although (A) also speaks to a challenge, Johnson is referring to the challenge of following his call to forge the Great Society, not to something that would be part of the Great Society itself, so (A) is incorrect. (B) captures his optimism about achieving the Great Society, but it does not describe his vision of what that means, so (B) is incorrect. (D) refers to previous generations, not to those of the future who will make the Great Society a reality, so (D) is incorrect.

13. (A) — In the first paragraph, Johnson connects the founding of the country to “the challenge of the next half century” (line 4), thus linking the country’s origin to his proposed future. Thus, (A) is the correct answer choice. Johnson does not compare previous generations negatively to current ones, so (B) is incorrect. Johnson also does not compare current generations negatively to previous ones, so (C) is incorrect. Johnson’s mention of the country’s past is brief and not very informative, so (D) is incorrect.

14. (D) — In the selection in answer choice (D), Johnson explicitly links what he hopes future generations will achieve to the “mission” of “those who came to this land” (lines 56-57); this fits both the topic and the correct answer of the previous question. (A) talks about the future of the society but makes no reference to the founding of the country, so it is not strongly related to the topic of the previous question; therefore, it is incorrect. (B) describes just one aspect of the Great Society and does not connect it to the founding of the country, so it is not relevant to the previous question; therefore, it is incorrect. (C) does refer to “history,” but in this context history refers to the forces that have laid problems on the current generation, not the mission of the founders of the United States, so (C) is incorrect.

15. (A) — Answer choice (A) contains both “growth” (the increasing profits) and negative symptoms (forcing employees to increase their workload against their will). (B), (C), and (D) all contain growth, but none of them contain negative symptoms, since more railroad tracks, more children in school, or more people buying books are either good or neutral things without further information; therefore, they are all incorrect.

16. (D) — Johnson says that the Great Society “rests on” abundance and liberty; this implies that abundance and liberty are required for the Great Society to exist, matching answer (D). (A) flips this relationship: if the Great Society were what made abundance and liberty for all possible, then abundance and liberty would rest on the Great Society, which is the reverse of what Johnson says. Thus, (A) is incorrect. After mentioning abundance and liberty for all, as well as some other things, Johnson explicitly says “that is just the beginning”; if abundance and liberty for all were the ultimate goals of the Great Society, there would be nothing after them, so (B) is incorrect. Johnson clearly connects abundance and liberty for all to the Great Society; they cannot be mutually exclusive if he expects them both to exist, so (C) is incorrect.

17. (D) — Johnson is portraying fighting poverty as something that “we” are choosing to do wholeheartedly; (D) is the only answer choice that carries a connotation of deliberate choice by the people fighting poverty. (A), (B), and (C) all carry a sense of long-term commitment in the sense of an inability to stop, but they also imply that fighting poverty is a goal that has been externally imposed on those doing it, which is the opposite of what Johnson is conveying. Therefore, they are all incorrect.

18. (D) — The lines in question enumerate different benefits that will exist when the Great Society is achieved; (D) summarizes this function. In the speech, Johnson is speaking of the Great Society as it has not yet been achieved, which (A) contradicts, so (A) is incorrect. The things Johnson describes in these lines are benefits, not hardships, so (B) is incorrect. Johnson makes no reference to how he developed this vision, so (C) is incorrect.

19. (A) — In context, “loosed” suggests that the “powerful forces” have been set in motion to have increasingly more power in the world; answer (A) is the only choice that does not contradict this implication. Replacing “loosed” with “unleashed” in the sentence makes sense, so (A) is incorrect. Answer choices (B) and (D) both carry connotations of growing weaker, not increasing in strength, so they are incorrect. Answer choice (C) is not a verb it would make sense to use with “powerful forces,” so it is incorrect.

20. (B) — Johnson’s goal in this speech is to convince his listeners to fight the “battle” for the Great Society; his use of repetition near his conclusion is meant to heighten his appeal to their emotion as he invites them to join his plan. (B) summarizes that goal, so it is correct. (A) is incorrect; although Johnson lists different things, he is emphasizing their unified overarching goal. (C) is incorrect; it contradicts the tone of the speech, which is optimistic, not scolding. (D) is incorrect; he is not repeating information across the repetitions of the phrase in question.

21. (B) — After a short introduction, lines 10-35 and 45-61 describe the study, while the rest of the article talks about what the study’s findings might mean for people in certain fields. This is best summarized by answer choice (B). Although the article talks about sports, they are not the primary focus of the passage, and the ways sports are discussed do not include anecdotes; therefore, (A) is incorrect. Although the article extrapolates from the study’s findings to potential advice for managers, it is not primarily an advice piece, so (C) is incorrect. The passage is primarily informative, not argumentative, and does not address recruitment methods in detail, so (D) is incorrect.

22. (A) — The passage establishes in the first paragraph that most people think team success primarily relies on higher concentrations of top talent; it then describes research that suggests team success often depends on other factors just as much or more, implying that most people’s beliefs are incorrect. Thus, answer choice (A) is correct. The passage implies that sports recruitment focuses on attracting top talent above all other goals, and it also says that may not actually correspond to team success; it challenges, not confirms, the conventional wisdom of sports recruitment, so (B) is incorrect. The study looked at real-world sports results, not laboratory experiments, so (C) is incorrect. The article explicitly states that the findings about basketball and soccer did not apply to baseball (line 54), so they do not explain team results in all sports and therefore (D) is incorrect.

23. (A) — The lines in answer (A) both invoke most people’s beliefs about team success and state the study finding that seems to contradict these beliefs; it matches both the correct answer and the general topic of the previous question. (B) sums up the study finding, but it does not connect it to most people’s beliefs, so it does not directly support the answer for the previous question and is therefore incorrect. (C) offers an explanation for the researchers’ results, but it does not relate to the relationship between those results and most people’s beliefs. (D) gives a particular study finding that is in line with most people’s beliefs, so it is incorrect.

24. (C) — The passage states that in all sports, “top talent did in fact predict team success” (line 30), but that in basketball and soccer, teams with the most top talent had less success than those with moderate amounts of top talent (lines 34-35). Choice (C) encapsulates both of these facts, and is thus the correct answer. It also captures the findings in lines 45-61 that in basketball and soccer, teams with the most top talent showed less intrateam coordination, which the researchers thought explained the results about success. In all cases, top talent did matter to a point, and in baseball, teamwork did not matter more than top talent, so (A) is incorrect. The study’s findings directly contradict the fact that individual talent is always the most important quality for sports teams, so (B) is incorrect. The study did find that teams with the lowest top talent performed the worst, suggesting that weak talent harms team success, so (D) is incorrect.

25. (D) — The lines in answer choice (D) expand on what the researchers’ findings suggest, which aligns with the topic of the previous question; these lines also makes specific reference to the fact that teamwork is necessary to “get the job done” in specific circumstances, which matches with the correct answer of the previous question. (A) refers to interpreting the researchers’ findings, but it does not refer to the importance of teamwork, so it is incorrect. (B) only restates particular findings without interpreting them, so it is incorrect. While (C) it mentions team goals, it does not explicitly refer to the importance of teamwork in achieving those goals or reference in what situations teamwork is most important; thus, it is incorrect.

26. (D) — The first paragraph sums up its main point as “Everyone wants a team of stars” (line 9); this fits with the conventional wisdom about talent and success, answer (D), which the passage goes on to question. The paragraph does not confirm that a high level of talent is important or explain why that would be true, so (A) is incorrect. The paragraph does not talk about the success of various teams at all, so (B) is incorrect. The paragraph describes a common approach to recruitment, but it does not endorse it, so (C) is incorrect.

27. (B) — Replacing “employed” with “used” (B) in the sentence makes sense: a statistic can be used. There are no contexts in which a statistic can be occupied, appointed, or hired, so (A), (C), and (D) are all incorrect.

28. (B) — Replacing “coordinated” with “synchronized” (B) in the sentence makes sense: the teams must work together, which means they must synchronize their efforts. “Negotiated” and “communicated” are both generally used as past-tense verbs, not adjectives as “coordinated” is used as in this sentence; furthermore, while teams might negotiate or communicate in order to communicate their efforts, the efforts themselves are not negotiated or communicated. Thus, (A) and (C) are incorrect. Sports teams may need to be light-footed, or nimble, but that does not match the use of coordinated in the sentence, which is about people working together; thus, (D) is incorrect.

29. (D) — The passage states that “extreme levels of top talent did not have the same negative effect in baseball, which experts have argued involves much less interdependent play,” which suggests a link between the different results for baseball and the lower amount of cooperative play involved, making answer choice (D) correct. The passage does not say anything about the cooperative play skills of top baseball players, so (A) is incorrect. The passage does not say anything about a difference between the percentage of elite athletes on baseball teams as opposed to basketball teams, so (B) is incorrect. The passage does not say anything about the role of the number of players on the field at a time, so (C) is incorrect.

30. (B) — Answer (B) features a group that must work collaboratively (the choir) to achieve a single goal (winning a singing competition); good singers who can sing well together might pay off more than great singers who can’t stop singing like soloists. This best represents a situation where teamwork may be more important than top talent. (A), (B), and (D) all feature situations in which individuals are being judged for or succeeding on their performance alone, not as part of a team; thus, these choices are incorrect.

31. (B) — The graph shows that intrateam coordination for basketball teams is highest, on average, when about half the players qualify as top talent; more or fewer elite players causes intrateam coordination to suffer, which the passage suggests also causes performance to suffer. Thus, answer choice (B) is correct. Teams with no top talent have lower levels of intrateam coordination than all-star teams (-1.5 as opposed to 0), so (A) is incorrect. The low coordination of teams with low top talent also suggests that a struggling basketball team will not gain in coordination or performance from losing top players, so (C) is incorrect. The chart does not suggest anything about how common particular levels of top talent are for basketball teams, so (D) is incorrect.

32. (B) — The author describes the study and the reasons it’s important; the author was not involved in the study, so “observer” (B) is an appropriate word to characterize the author’s position to the research. The author is not advocating for anything in particular, nor is the passage particularly emotional, so (A) is incorrect. The author does not criticize Ramirez and Liu, so (C) is incorrect. The author is not a scientist and therefore not a colleague of Ramirez and Liu, so (D) is incorrect.

33. (C) — The author says that the research supports the “extraordinary hypothesis” (lines 14-15) that “specific cells could be manipulated” to alter memories; this supports the idea that the research was important mostly because it showed that memories can be changed through specific interventions, leading to answer (C). The passage does not refer to technologies that may prevent memory loss, so (A) is incorrect. The research shows that memories can in fact be tampered with, so (B) is incorrect. The purpose of the dentate gyrus was known before the research described in the passage, so (D) is incorrect.

34. (A) — The lines in answer (A) summarize the researchers’ results, which aligns with the content of the previous question; the lines include reference to the researchers’ success at manipulating brain cells to alter memories, which matches the previous answer. (B), (C), and (D) all refer to technical aspects of the research without discussing the significance of the results, so they don’t align with the content of the previous question and are therefore incorrect.

35. (C) — The second study was the study in which the Ramirez and Liu successfully manipulated the memories of a mouse (lines 56-71), which is what is being described in the first paragraph; thus answer (C) is correct. The mouse moving around is something that happened as a part of studies, not before or after them, so (A) and (D) are incorrect. The first study was focused only on showing that the scientists had identified and labeled an engram (line 47). The reaction to the false memory that the first paragraph describes was not part of that first experiment; thus, (B) is incorrect.

36. (A) — The passage states that individual memories are stored in “clusters of neurons” (line 20); this means that multiple neurons can be involved in storing a single memory, as in answer (A). The passage does not state that each neuron is only involved in one memory, so (B) is incorrect. The passage explicitly states that memories are stored in neurons, so (C) is incorrect. The passage does not say whether or not neurons can take part in storing multiple memories, so (D) is incorrect.

37. (B) — Replacing “render” with “make” (B) in the sentence makes sense. Brain cells cannot be provided or expressed, so (A) and (D) are incorrect. Brain cells can be depicted, but the sentence is talking about an action performed on brain cells, not a depiction of them, so (C) is incorrect.

38. (C) — The passage states that in the first study, Ramirez and Liu “identified, labeled, and then reactivated a small cluster of cells encoding a mouse’s fear memory” (lines 27-29), after explaining that those cells are called engrams. Thus, (C) is the correct answer. Implanting a false memory engram was the goal of the second study, not the first, so (A) is incorrect. The studies relied on previous knowledge of fear responses in mice but did not directly study fear responses, so (B) is incorrect. The researchers were making brain cells, not the mice themselves, sensitive to light; thus, (D) is incorrect.

39. (A) — The lines in answer (A) summarize Ramirez and Liu’s first study, which aligns with the content of the previous question; the lines highlight the scientists’ focus on “a small cluster of cells encoding … [a] memory,” which the passage states elsewhere is what an engram is, so it also matches the answer of the previous question. (B), (C), and (D) all describes a specific aspects of the first study but do not connect to the study’s goal, so they are incorrect.

40. (C) — Replacing “manipulate” with “engineer” (C) makes sense in the original context. The thing that is being manipulated is an engram, which cannot be handled or palpated because it is microscopic, so (A) and (B) are wrong. An engram also cannot be exploited, so (D) is incorrect.

41. (A) — The researchers used the light-sensitive cells to reactivate the memory on command, as described in answer choice (A). The research suggests that memories are encoded in engrams regularly, not as a result of the cells becoming light-sensitive, so (B) is incorrect. The light-sensitive cells were used to reactivate the memory, so the mouse was still able to recall it; therefore, (C) is incorrect. The passage does not suggest that the light-sensitive cells made the mouse’s fear responses more intense, so (D) is incorrect.

42. (C) — Passage 1 states that blue LEDs are “important” (line 1) and says that they are “all around us in the developed world” (lines 28-29), indicating that they have already had an impact. Thus, answer (C) is correct. The passage does not focus on how well we understand the physical principles behind them, so (A) is incorrect. The passage emphasizes that blue LEDs have widespread use, so (B) is incorrect. The passage states that blue LEDs are already significant, and they are also already largely used and therefore beyond the prototype phase; therefore, (D) is incorrect.

43. (D) — The lines in answer choice (D) emphasize that blue LEDs are already important, which is what the correct answer to the previous question stated. (A) describes a particular application of blue LEDs, but not their overall importance, so it is incorrect. (B) describes a physical property and does not relate to the passage’s stance on blue LEDs, so it is incorrect. (C) describes the process through which blue LEDs make white LEDs possible, but it does not discuss the broad importance of blue LEDs, so it is incorrect.

44. (C) — Replacing “vital” with “essential” (C) makes sense in the sentence. A component of white light is an inanimate quantity, and inanimate quantities cannot be lively or vigorous, so (A) and (B) are incorrect. Inanimate quantities can potentially be compelling, but that is not how the word is being used in the sentence, so (D) is incorrect.

45. (B) — Lines 15-21 in Passage 1 explain that we can make white light from green, red, and blue light because those are the only colors human eyes have receptors for. This is why blue light is important for creating white LEDs, making (B) the correct answer. The passage does not talk about the relative cost of manufacturing blue and white LEDs, so (A) is incorrect. The passage states that only green, red, and blue must be present for humans to perceive white light, which means other colors can be absent, so (C) is incorrect. The passage does not comment on how difficult or easy blue light is to produce artificially, so (D) is incorrect.

46. (D) — Passage 2 focuses on an experiment demonstrating that white LEDs change the behavior of some insect populations, which makes answer (D) correct. Passage 2 only focuses on one drawback of white LEDs, not multiple kinds of evidence showing that white LEDs are harmful; thus, (A) is incorrect. Passage 2 notes some differences between white LEDs and sodium lights, but only briefly; the differences are not the focus of the passage, so (B) is incorrect. Although the author cautions about potential downsides of white LEDs, the author does not specifically argue that we should use fewer white LEDs, so (C) is incorrect.

47. (D) — The passage states that the researchers found that “white LEDs attracted 48 percent more flying invertebrates than the sodium lamps” (lines 27-28) and goes on to note their concern that white LEDs will “exacerbate pest problems” (line 33). Thus, answer (D) is correct. The researchers do not express concern over insects dying or going away, so (A) is incorrect. Although the researchers do mention concern for other species sensitive to blue light, their experiment dealt specifically with insects, so (B) is incorrect. Although they are concerned about increases of invertebrates close to white LED lamps, they do not say they are worried that the number of invertebrates in an area will actually increase, so (C) is incorrect.

48. (C) — The lines in answer (C) relate to the results of an experiment finding that white LEDs attract more pets than sodium lamps do; this summarizes the correct answer of the previous question. (A) talks about sodium lamps, but not about white LEDs or pests, so it is not strongly related to the previous question and is therefore incorrect. (B) describes the researchers’ experiments but does not refer to the results that bolster their concern, so it is incorrect. (D) gives an example of the researchers’ concerns being borne out, but their concerns extend beyond just midge swarms, so it is incorrect.

49. (A) — Replacing “traditional” with “standard” (A) in the sentence makes sense. In the sentence, “traditional” is modifying “light bulbs”; light bulbs cannot be time-honored, habitual, or conservative, so (B), (C), and (D) are incorrect.

50. (C) — Midge swarms are a specific cause that the passage explicitly links to nighttime lighting (lines 34-35), making (C) the right answer. The passage mentions insects being caught in sticky material, but that was for the purposes of the experiment, not a general concern about nighttime lighting, so (A) is incorrect. The differences between white LEDs and sodium lamps might explain some of the more extreme impacts of nighttime lighting, but those differences themselves are an aspect of it, not an example of its impact; therefore, (B) is incorrect. The passage does not state that insects are drawn to things they have not seen before, so (D) is incorrect.

51. (B) — Passage 2 describes the environmental problems that might be caused by the blue LEDs described in Passage 1. This relationship is captured by answer choice (B). Passage 2 does not describe a new application of blue LEDs, so (A) is incorrect. The experiment in Passage 2 was performed to examine the results of blue LEDs, not to test blue LEDs themselves, so (C) is incorrect. Passage 2 does not criticize the inventors of blue LEDs, and the Passage 1 does not profile the researchers who invented blue LEDs, so (D) is incorrect.

52. (A) — Passage 1 states that the “biggest impact” of blue LEDs is in “giving us the ability to produce white LEDs” (lines 10-11); Passage 2 states that the invention of blue LEDs was “crucial for producing bright white LED lighting” (line 3). Thus, both authors seem to agree on this point, making (A) correct. Neither passage says that blue LEDs alone are dangerous, so (B) is incorrect. The author of Passage 1 does not mention harm caused by blue LEDs, and the author of Passage 2 focuses on their impact on insect populations, not humans, so (C) is incorrect. Neither passage mentions difficulties in manufacturing blue LEDs, so (D) is incorrect.

61. (D) — This question requires you to make inferences about the poem’s intended audience. (D) is correct because the speaker begins by saying that she “too” dislikes poetry, implying that the reader dislikes poetry as well. Then, throughout the duration of the poem, she builds an argument that “there is in it, after all, a place for the genuine” (lines 4-5). The speaker’s tone is also slightly academic and teacherly. (B) is incorrect because of the speaker’s tone and lack of familiarity. (A), (C), and (E) are incorrect because the speaker gives a description of the contemporary state of poetry and discusses how “we cannot understand” poetic forms; experienced poets, professors, and critics would be aware of the state of poetry, and likely have a deep understanding of it. More specifically, most experienced poets and professors of literature already love poetry, and so would not need to be convinced that it is worthwhile as a genre. Meanwhile, the speaker’s tone is not defensive, as it would be if she were responding to a hostile critic.