QUESTION EXPLANATIONS

1. (C) — The number of “veterinarian” should match the number of “young animal lovers.” Since “many young animal lovers” cannot become a single veterinarian, the plural “veterinarians” is correct. (A), (B), and (D) are each singular, and thus incorrect.

2. (D) — Although the comparison between animal patients and humans in (A), (B), and (C) all make grammatically complete sentences, they each use the possessive—implying a comparison between the people treating the patients, rather than the patients. That would imply a comparison between “veterinarians” and “humans,” which is not a logical comparison. In this case, answer (D), “humans,” is the only option that appropriately compares humans to animal patients.

3. (A) — Answer (A) NO CHANGE is the most effective choice of transitional phrases because it continues the point stated in the previous sentence that veterinarians don't have the advantage of working with patients who can describe their symptoms. Though answers (B) and (D) may be tempting, both are problematic—(B) suggests that the conclusion is only another fact, and thus fails to express the correct relationship between the two sentences. (D) is too vague, and fails to express the correct relationship between the sentences. (C) implies a contradiction between the ideas in the two sentences, which is not correct.

4. (D) — This question asks you to determine how best to improve the focus of the paragraph. The change suggested by answer (B) would place information in an illogical order and disrupt the flow of the paragraph. Answer (C) suggests deleting a sentence that supports the main idea in the paragraph, so it is incorrect. Answer (A) may be tempting, because it moves the information about parrot speech to a more logical place in the paragraph, but that information is extraneous. The passage is exploring the ways veterinary practice differs from treatment of humans; information about the limited ability of parrots to speak does not advance the main point of the passage, so (D) is the correct answer.

5. (B) — The underlined portion of the passage shows two sentences separated with a period and a capitalized word after the period. While the original second sentence does include a verb and a subject, it starts with the conjunction “whereas” and is actually the second clause in a compound sentence. (A) and (D) are therefore incorrect. A colon is not the correct punctuation for joining these two independent clauses, so (C) is incorrect. Only answer (B) combines these sentences and uses the correct punctuation to do so.

6. (D) — When we look at the graph, we see that the percentage of veterinarians in private practice that treat companion animals is 75%. Answer (A) is mathematically incorrect, because 75% is more than half. (B), 6%, is the percentage of veterinarians treating "Other/Unspecified" animals or veterinarians with equines and mixed animal practices. (C) Gives the correct percentage, but refers to the percentage of animals being treated rather than the veterinarians treating them; (D) gives the correct percentage, and correctly identifies it as the percentage of private practice veterinarians, and is thus the correct answer.

7. (B) — In the context of this sentence, we are looking for a word that means to safeguard or protect the health of large zoo animals. (A) and (C) both mean to relieve bad feelings, but generally only in an emotional sense, while (D) means to publicly support, as in supporting an idea or policy. All of the answer options share connotations of helping or supporting, but only (B), "ensure," expresses the correct meaning of safeguarding.

8. (C) — This paragraph discusses the training that veterinarians receive, including a bachelor's degree with a concentration in science, a four-year doctoral degree, and practical experience. (C) summarizes all these requirements, and so it is the correct answer. Answer (A) comments on the difficulties of entering the field, while (B) offers conjecture about the similarities between practicing veterinarian and human medicine. Both sentences are somewhat related to information in the paragraph, but neither is the main topic. (D) is off-topic entirely, as specialization is not discussed in the rest of the paragraph.

9. (A) — (A) correctly separates the items in a list using commas. (B) omits the necessary comma after "anatomy;" “chemistry and anatomy” could be a single list item, but “chemistry and anatomy and other sciences” cannot be a single item. (C) incorrectly uses semicolons to separate the items on the list, and (D) incorrectly uses a colon after "biology."

10. (D) — The original "you need to" (A) is too casual in the context of the passage, and changes from the third to second person voice. (B) is also too casual, and changes to the first person. (C) is in the correct voice, but “probably ought to” again has a more casual tone than the rest of this passage. (D) best matches the tone and voice of the rest of the passage.

11. (B) — Although the four possible words have similar meanings, "daunting" provides the most precise choice in the context of the passage. (A) "ominous" means portending evil, but preparing to become a veterinarian is only difficult—not evil; (C) "forbidding" means grim or hostile, which might seem like a plausible choice but, because of the connotation of hostility, is too strong of a word; and (D), “disconcerting,” means disturbing to one's composure, which is actually too weak of a choice in context. Because (B) "daunting" means intimidating, in the context of the passage (B) is the most precise choice.

12. (C) — All of the answer options combine the sentences to create a grammatically complete sentence, but one choice is the most effective. (A) is excessively wordy, and (B) and (D) use incorrect transitional phrases. (C) uses the conjunction “as” to link the sentences in a clear and succinct way, and is therefore the best answer.

13. (A) — The question requires choosing the correct pronoun; (B), and (D) are incorrect because the Académie des Beaux-Arts, as an institution, should be treated as a singular, gender-neutral subject. (C) is incorrect because the academy is neither a person, nor being referred to as one of a set of institutions. (A), “it,” is the correct pronoun to refer to an institution.

14. (B) — This sentence continues to enumerate what the Académie deemed "appropriate," therefore answer (B) provides the best signal word; (C) and (D) both signal a change in the Académie's standards. (A) suggests that the recommended subjects of paintings are “a result” of the other standards, but there is no suggestion that one set of standards caused the others.

15. (D) — This question asks for the correct coordinating conjunction; the connection implied by the context of the passage is that breaking the rules was integral to developing bold new forms, therefore (D) is the correct answer. (A) and (B) imply that there is a contrast between the Impressionists' breaking of the rules set by the Académie and the development of bold new forms in painting, while (C) implies that impressionists did one or the other.

16. (D) — This question is asking for the word that most precisely completes the sentence. All of the options are verbs, and we’re looking for a verb that a painting can ‘do’ to beauty. (A) and (B) mean to seize and detain, and are thus incorrect. While (C), which in this context means “to understand,” may express part of the process artists must go through to create art, paintings themselves do not understand the ideas they express. Only (D) correctly indicate what the painting itself does, which is to convey the beauty of fleeting moments by ‘capturing’ it in an image.

17. (C) — Answers (A) and (B) are incorrect because this sentence provides support for sentences 1, 3, and 4, and should logically follow them. Sentence 6 concludes the idea in the paragraph, so answer (D) would disrupt the conclusion of the paragraph. Therefore, answer (C) is the best choice.

18. (C) — (A) shifts to the first-person voice, and the phrase “handy trick” in (D) is not consistent with the overall tone of the passage. (B) is repetitive and unnecessarily uses the conjunction “thus.” (C) is the correct answer because it is both concise and tonally consistent.

19. (B) — (A), “invoke,” is commonly confused with (B), "evoke." “Provoke” and “revoke” are similar-sounding words which might also potentially be confused with one another. “Invoke” means to cite some kind of authority, “provoke” means to cause or incite a reaction, and “revoke” means to take away or repeal; none of those options are correct in this sentence. (B), “evoke,” means to bring something to mind, and is correct in the context of the sentence.

20. (C) — The question asks for the proper punctuation to connect two clauses within a compound sentence. (A) is incorrect because this comma creates a comma splice, in (B) the comma following "his" is unnecessary, and (D) omits punctuation. Only (C) properly punctuates the two clauses.

21. (A) — Because the paragraph cites examples of artists whose work was influenced by the Impressionists, (A) is correct. (B) references artists who rejected the style, (C) references art critics rather than artists, and (D) makes a claim that, while perhaps relevant, is too broad.

22. (C) — The sentence discusses the Impressionists' influence on van Gogh and Seurat's paintings. As such, the "unique methods of painting" mentioned in the sentence must be those of the Impressionists (C). While this could be suggested by (A), the pronoun "their" is ambiguous, and could refer either to the Impressionists or van Gogh and Seurat. (B) is an ambiguous singular pronoun, which could refer to van Gogh or Seurat and is incorrect in either case. In (D) the antecedent incorrectly refers to Van Gogh and Seurat.

23. (D) — The question asks for the word that is most precise. (A), “intent,” means determined or eager, which doesn’t make sense when applied to the noun “eyesight.” (B), “fervent,” means passionate and intense. It also doesn’t make sense as a word to describe eyesight. (C), “avid,” means having interest and enthusiasm, which fails to describe eyesight for the same reasons as (A) and (B). (D), “keen,” can also mean having interest an enthusiasm. However, it also has senses of “pungent,” or “sharp.” “Keen” in the sense of “sharp” is a good work for describing eyesight in this conext, therefore (D) is correct.

24. (A) — The question concerns concision. (B), (C), and (D) are all redundant. (A), therefore, is the best answer.

25. (C) — The first clause of this sentence is an adjective clause that is intended to describe microbats themselves. In (C), it is clear that the adjective clause describes the microbats, while in the other choices it is ambiguous (A), (B), and (D) all turn the first clause into a dangling modifier by placing a mentioned of something other than the bats right next to it.

26. (D) — This question prompts you to select the option which best combines the sentences. Both (A) and (C) imply that echolocation allows nocturnal hunting because darkness keeps bats safe, and while it may be true that darkness keeps bats safe, it is incorrect to imply that that is the reason why echolocation allows them to hunt at night. (B) is too wordy. Only (D) combines the sentences in a way that succinctly expresses a logical relationship between them.

27. (B) — The question asks for proper subject-verb agreement. Because the subject "prey" in this case is plural—referring to multiple insects—the verb must be as well, so (A) is incorrect. (C) is incorrect because it is the wrong tense. (D) may seem reasonable, but the word "must" makes this option a conjecture. Only (B) is the proper verb form for this sentence.

28. (D) — The question asks for the correct way to punctuate a nonrestrictive clause. Nonrestrictive clauses should usually be set off by commas, or sometimes em-dashes. (A) is incorrect because of the comma after "mammals" and the lack of a comma after "whales." (B) is incorrect because of the lack of a comma after "whales." (C) is incorrect because of the comma after "includes." Only (D) correctly punctuates the nonrestrictive clause in this sentence.

29. (C) — These answer options sound similar and might be easily confused. (A), “omit,” means to leave out. (B), “admit,” means to let in or to confess. (D), “permit,” means to allow. (C), “emit,” means to put something out or produce a sound, and is therefore the correct choice in this context.

30. (B) — Sentence [3] introduces how echolocation works in the cetaceans' environment. (B) is correct because the phrase “these marine creatures” refers to the subject of sentence [1], and sentence [3] supports the proposition in sentence [1] and sets up the subsequent sentences about marine creatures’ use of echolocation. Option (A) is not as good as (B), because sentence [3] provides a more effective transition between sentences [1] and [2] than sentence [2] provides between sentences [1] and [3]. (C) and (D) would disrupt the flow of the paragraph, which follows an order of increasing specificity, and are therefore incorrect options.

31. (D) — Sonar is one example of the “various forms of echolocation” used by humans. (D), “For example,” is therefore the best transitional phrase for this sentence. (A) and (C) are phrases which would modify the sentence of which they are a part, but do not provide effective transitions from the preceding sentence. (B) is a transitional phrase, but expresses a contrast, which is not the correct relationship.

32. (C) — (C) provides details about new diagnostic information made available by ultrasound, and therefore supports the claim that “ultrasound … provid[es] previously unavailable diagnostic information.” (A) introduces information about another type of technology, which does not support the claim about ultrasound. (B) discusses an advantage of ultrasound, but does not specifically address a claim made in the previous sentence. (D) only discusses a limitation of ultrasound, and therefore fails to support a claim in the preceding sentence.

33. (D) — The question asks for the correct word from among the set of commonly confused homophones “there/their/they’re” and the word “they.” (A), “there,” refers to a place or condition. (B), “they,” refers to two or more beings, but is not possessive. (C), “they’re,” is the contraction of “they are.” Answer (D), “their,” is a plural possessive pronoun and is the word required by this sentence.

34. (D) — The question asks for the correct preposition; because one is not judgmental “with,” “for,” or “in” something but is, rather, judgmental “of” something, (D) is the correct answer.

35. (B) — The question asks you to identify which option is most relevant to the rest of the information in the passage at a certain location. The preceding sentences offer examples of priming experiments, and explain how the priming effects revealed in the experiments, and the following sentence refers back to those examples, so the most relevant addition would be a similar example. (A) describes an experiment but offers no conclusion about that experiment. (C) and (D) mention facts which are generally relevant to the topic of priming, but not clearly related to the specific content of this passage. Because (B) provides an example of an experiment and the priming effect it revealed, it is the best answer.

36. (A) — Sentence 2 should remain where it is now because it defines the phenomenon of priming introduced in the previous sentence and sets up the information that follows. Therefore, (A) is the correct answer. Because sentence 1 introduces sentence 2, switching their order as (D) proposes would be illogical. Sentence 2 defines the phenomenon discussed later in the passage, so placing it after sentences 4 or 5 as (C) and (D) propose would also be illogical and incorrect.

37. (C) — The question asks for the most concise expression of an idea in the context of the sentence. (A) is redundant, (B) is too wordy, and (D) doesn't complete the thought. Therefore, (C) is the correct answer.

38. (A) — The question asks which verb form is correct. (A) is correct because the past progressive tense refers to the single test that was successfully repeated. (B) is present tense, (C) can either be a plural past tense or a singular subjunctive tense, but neither is correct in this context, and (D) is the past perfect progressive tense; all of these choices are incorrect.

39. (D) — This question proposes several options for rewriting the underlined portion. The two sentences have verb phrases with same subject (psychologists) and object (the replication crisis). It therefore makes to combine the verb phrases using “address” and “understand,” and rewrite the two sentences as a single sentence, as in (D). (A) is too informal in the context of the passage. (B) and (C) are both unnecessarily wordy, since the sentence can be more concisely rewritten.

40. (C) — The question asks for the most effective summary of the paragraph. Although (A), (B), and (D) are plausible statements, they do not effectively summarize the paragraph; the paragraph focuses mainly on exploring various causes for the replication crisis, so (C) is the correct answer.

41. (B) — The question asks for the correct possessive noun. (A) refers to only a single researcher, and (C) is not a possessive, so neither of these options is correct. (D) is not the correct way of writing the plural possessive of “researcher,” so it is not correct. Because (B) correctly refers to the samples of plural researchers, it is correct.

42. (C) — (A) has a somewhat accusatory tone, and casually uses the pronoun “it” where it would be more appropriate to specifically indicate “the replication crisis.” (B) is too casual in tone: it uses a casual contraction and the colloquial phrase “What’s the best fix ..?” (D), like (A), uses a pronoun to refer to the replication crisis where it would be more appropriate to use a noun phrase. The phrase “does anyone have ideas” is also inappropriately casual. (C) is the most correct answer, because it refers clearly to the replication crisis and asks plainly how it can be solved in a formal tone.

43. (C) — The question asks you to identify the correct word in the context of the sentence. The sentence indicates that a process that weeds out studies which are “failed,” inconsistent with predictions made by other studies and researchers, creates an illusion of something. The best guess in context is that it’s something like approval, confirmation, or agreement. (A), “census,” means an official survey of a population. (B), “contention,” refers to controversy or argument. (D), “senses,” sounds similar to “census,” but refers to the faculties of perception. (C), “concensus,” means general agreement; therefore it is correct.

44. (D) — The question asks for the proper punctuation for the modifying participle beginning with "that," which answer (D) provides. Answer (A) improperly inserts a comma between "journalism" and "that" while (B) improperly inserts a semicolon there. (C) improperly inserts a comma after "avoids."