Text 1

Public policy researcher Anthony Fowler studied the history of elections in Australia, a country that requires citizens to vote. Fowler argues that requiring citizens to vote leads to a significant increase in voters who would otherwise not have the time or motivation to vote. Thus, election results in countries that require citizens to vote better reflect the preferences of the country as a whole.

Text 2

Governments in democratic countries function better when more people vote. However, forcing people to vote may have negative consequences. Shane P. Singh and Jason Roy studied what happens when a country requires its citizens to vote. They found that when people feel forced to vote, they tend to spend less time looking for information about their choices when voting. As a result, votes from these voters may not reflect their actual preferences. Based on the texts, how would Singh and Roy (Text 2) most likely respond to the research discussed in Text 1?

A. Only countries of a certain population size should implement mandatory voting.

B. People who are forced to vote are likely to become politically engaged in other ways, such as volunteering or running for office.

C. Requiring people to vote does not necessarily lead to election outcomes that better represent the preferences of the country as a whole.

D. Countries that require voting must also make the process of voting easier for their citizens.

Text 1

Dance choreographer Alvin Aileyʼs deep admiration for jazz music can most clearly be felt in the rhythms and beats his works were set to. Ailey collaborated with some of the greatest jazz legends, like Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, and perhaps his favorite, Duke Ellington. With his choice of music, Ailey helped bring jazz to life for his audiences.

Text 2

Jazz is present throughout Aileyʼs work, but itʼs most visible in Aileyʼs approach to choreography. Ailey often incorporated improvisation, a signature characteristic of jazz music, in his work. When managing his dance company, Ailey rarely forced his dancers to an exact set of specific moves. Instead, he encouraged his dancers to let their own skills and experiences shape their performances, as jazz musicians do.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

A. Dancers who worked with Ailey greatly appreciated his supportive approach as a choreographer.

B. Aileyʼs work was strongly influenced by jazz.

C. Audiences were mostly unfamiliar with the jazz music in Aileyʼs works.

D. Ailey blended multiple genres of music together when choreographing dance pieces.

Text 1

Historians studying pre-Inca Peru have looked to ceramic vessels to understand daily life among the Moche people. These mold-made sculptures present plants, animals, and human faces in precise ways—vessels representing human faces are so detailed that scholars have interpreted facial markings to represent scars and other skin irregularities. Some historians have even used these objects to identify potential skin diseases that may have afflicted people at the time.

Text 2

Art historian and archaeologist Lisa Trever has argued that the interpretation of Moche “portrait” vessels as hyper-realistic portrayals of identifiable people may inadvertently disregard the creativity of the objectsʼ creators. Moche ceramic vessels, Trever argues, are artworks in which sculptors could free their imagination, using realistic objects and people around them as inspiration to explore more abstract concepts.

Based on the texts, what would Lisa Trever (Text 2) most likely say about the interpretation presented in the underlined portion of Text 1?

A. Depictions of human faces are significantly more realistic than depictions of plants and other animals are.

B. It is likely that some depictions of human faces with extensive markings are intended to portray the same historical individual.

C. Some vessels may have been damaged during their excavation and thus provide little insight into Moche culture.

D. Markings on depictions of human faces are not necessarily intended to portray particular details about the physical appearance of individuals.

Text 1

Italian painters in the 1500s rarely depicted themselves in their work. Even more rare were self-portrait paintings that portrayed the artist as a painter. At the time, painting was not yet respected as a profession, so painters mostly chose to emphasize other qualities in their self-portraits, like their intellect or social status. In the city of Bologna, the first artist to depict themself painting was a man named Annibale Carracci. A painting of his from around 1585 shows Carracci in front of an easel holding a palette.

Text 2

In their self-portraits, Bolognese artists typically avoided referring to the act of painting until the mid-1600s. However, Lavinia Fontanaʼs 1577 painting, Self-Portrait at the Keyboard, stands out as the earliest example of such a work by an artist from Bologna. Although the artist is depicted playing music, in the background, one can spot a painting easel by a window.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1?

A. Carracci and Fontana were among the most well-respected painters in Bologna at the time.

B. The depiction of Fontana in Self-Portrait at the Keyboard was intended to underscore the artistʼs creativity.

C. Fontana likely inspired the reference to an easel and palette in Carracciʼs painting.

D. Self-Portrait at the Keyboard was painted earlier than Carracciʼs painting and also refers to the artistʼs craft.

Text 1

Today the starchy root cassava is found in many dishes across West Africa, but its rise to popularity was slow. Portuguese traders brought cassava from Brazil to the West African coast in the 1500s. But at this time, people living in the capitals further inland had little contact with coastal communities. Thus, cassava remained relatively unknown to most of the region's inhabitants until the 1800s.

Text 2

Cassavaʼs slow adoption into the diet of West Africans is mainly due to the nature of the crop itself. If not cooked properly, cassava can be toxic. Knowledge of how to properly prepare cassava needed to spread before the food could grow in popularity. The arrival of formerly enslaved people from Brazil in the 1800s, who brought their knowledge of cassava and its preparation with them, thus directly fueled the spread of this crop.

Based on the texts, the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement?

A. Cassava did not become a significant crop in West Africa until long after it was first introduced.

B. Several of the most commonly grown crops in West Africa are originally from Brazil.

C. The climate of the West African coast in the 1500s prevented cassavaʼs spread in the region.

D. The most commonly used methods to cook cassava today date to the 1500s.

Text 1

For decades, bluegrass musicians have debated whether their genre should exclude influences from mainstream genres such as rock. Many insist that bluegrass is defined by its adherence to the folk music of the US South, out of which bluegrass emerged. Such “purists,” as they are known, regard the recordings of Bill Monroe, which established the bluegrass sound in the 1940s, as a standard against which the genre should still be measured.

Text 2 Bluegrass isnʼt simply an extension of folk traditions into the era of recorded music. In reality, Bill Monroe created the bluegrass sound in the 1940s by combining Southern folk music with commercial genres that had arisen only a few decades before, such as jazz and the blues. Since bluegrass has always been a mixed genre, contemporary bluegrass musicians should not be forbidden from incorporating into it influences from rock and other mainstream genres.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely regard the perspective of bluegrass purists, as described in Text 1?

A. As inconsistent, since bluegrass purists themselves enjoy other musical genres

B. As unrealistic, since bluegrass purists have no way of enforcing their musical preferences

C. As shortsighted, because bluegrass could enlarge its audience by including influences from mainstream genres

D. As illogical, because the purists overlook crucial aspects of how the bluegrass sound first originated.

Text 1

Literary scholars have struggled with the vastness of Nigerian writer Wole Soyinkaʼs collective works of drama (spanning over 20 plays in total). It is best, however, to understand Soyinkaʼs body of work as a dramatist chronologically. Soyinkaʼs progression as a playwright can be considered to fall into three periods, with each one representing a particular thematic and stylistic cohesion: the 1960s, the two decades between 1970 and 1990, and lastly, from roughly 1990 onwards.

Text 2

It is tempting to impose a linear sense of order on the expanse of Wole Soyinkaʼs body of work as a dramatist. However, critics who have considered Soyinkaʼs plays to fit neatly into three phases overlook potential commonalities in Soyinkaʼs work that span across these phases. Additionally, this view may discount significant differences in the styles and content of plays written around the same time.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view the study of Soyinkaʼs works of drama?

A. While the author of Text 1 believes that thinking about Soyinkaʼs works of theater in phases is useful, the author of Text 2 views such an approach as limiting.

B. Although the author of Text 1 claims that Soyinkaʼs style as a dramatist has evolved over time, the author of Text 2 argues that Soyinkaʼs style has remained consistent throughout his career.

C. The author of Text 1 considers Soyinkaʼs plays to showcase his strongest writing, whereas the author of Text 2 believes that Soyinkaʼs poetry is where he is most skilled.

D. The author of Text 1 argues that Soyinkaʼs early plays were his most politically charged, whereas the author of Text 2 claims that Soyinkaʼs most recent plays are the most politicized.

Text 1

Although food writing is one of the most widely read genres in the United States, literary scholars have long neglected it. And within this genre, cookbooks attract the least scholarly attention of all, regardless of how well written they may be. This is especially true of works dedicated to regional US cuisines, whose complexity and historical significance are often overlooked.

Text 2

With her 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis popularized the refined Southern cooking she had grown up with in Freetown, an all-Black community in Virginia. She also set a new standard for cookbook writing: the recipes and memoir passages interspersing them are written in prose more elegant than that of most novels. Yet despite its inarguable value as a piece of writing, Lewisʼs masterpiece has received almost no attention from literary scholars.

Based on the two texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely regard the situation presented in the underlined sentence in Text 2?

A. As typical, because scholars are dismissive of literary works that achieve popularity with the general public

B. As unsurprising, because scholars tend to overlook the literary value of food writing in general and of regional cookbooks in particular

C. As justifiable, because Lewis incorporated memoir into The Taste of Country Cooking, thus undermining its status as a cookbook

D. As inevitable, because The Taste of Country Cooking was marketed to readers of food writing and not to readers of other genres

Text 1

Some animal species, like the leopard, can be found in many kinds of areas. On the other hand, tropical mountain bird species tend to be limited in the types of spaces they can call home. This is because many mountain bird species are only able to survive at very specific elevations. Over time, these species have likely become used to living at a specific temperature. Therefore, these species struggle to survive at elevations that are warmer or colder than they are used to.

Text 2

A new study reviewed observations of nearly 3,000 bird species to understand why tropical mountain bird species live at specific elevations. They noted that when a mountain bird species was found in an area with many other bird species, it tended to inhabit much smaller geographic areas. It is thus likely that competition for resources with other species, not temperature, limits where these birds can live.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

A. Tropical mountain bird species are restricted in where they can live.

B. Scientists have better tools to observe tropical mountain birds than they did in the past.

C. Little is known about how tropical mountain birds build their nests.

D. Tropical mountain bird species that live at high elevations tend to be genetically similar.

The following text is from Yann Martelʼs 2001 novel Life of Pi. The narratorʼs family owned a zoo when he was a child.

It was a huge zoo, spread over numberless acres, big enough to require a train to explore it, though it seemed to get smaller as I grew older, train included.

©2001 by Yann Martel

As used in the text, what does the word “spread” most nearly mean?

A. Hidden

B. Discussed

C. Extended

D. Coated