Free Admission Tests GRE Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 6

The snow-covered surface of the lake presents a reassuring illusion of________. but beneath the snow the ice is riven with treacherous cracks.

The danger often facing authors of satirical works is that if the audience is not (i)_________the joke, the piece may

end up (ii)_________the behavior it was trying to (iii)_________.

Recent studies of the gender gap in the history of United States politics tend to focus on candidate choice rather than on registration and turnout. This shift in focus away from gender inequality in political participation may be due to the finding in several studies of voting behavior in the United States that since 1980. differences in rates of registration and voting between men and women are not statistically significant after controlling for traditional predictors of participation. However. Fullerton and Stern argue that researchers have overlooked the substantial gender gap in registration and voting in the South. While the gender gap in participation virtually disappeared outside the South by the 1950s, substantial gender differences persisted in the South throughout the 1950s and 1960s, only beginning to decline in the 1970s.

The passage is primarily concerned with

Which of die following is a reasoning error committed by the argument?

There is a long-standing historical presumption that social custom during the early years of the United States forbade women from public speaking. In fact, though, the standard mode of education of the 1790s and early 1800s. which emphasized oral recitation and performance, taught girls that educated and well-spoken women had an important role to play in American society. By depicting skilled speech as a necessary talent for women in a civilized society, elocutionary education encouraged a certain degree of female ambition and even political involvement. Transmitted via standard, inexpensive schoolbooks. this message reached virtually all who read schoolbooks or attended schools. This environment did not last long, however: even by the 1S10s. attitudes about women's education had changed considerably.

The author would probably agree with which of the following statements about the "historical presumption"?

As originally formulated, the selfish-herd theory of prey species aggregation assumed that predatory attacks were equally likely to be launched from any position within the environment. In some circumstances (e.g.. avian predators attacking prey from above), such an approach is appropriate. However, as James et al. argue, in many predator-prey associations, attacks are unlikely to occur from positions within the group. For example, it is likely that an ambushing predator waiting in the path of a group would be detected before the group moves over its position. Hence, in many ecological situations, predatory attacks on grouped prey will occur exclusively from outside the group. In such circumstances, there is a strong premium to a group member in being in the interior of the group.

James would most likely describe the original formulation of the selfish-herd theory as

The book's approach to modern art was hardly_________: it aimed simply to give readers a deeper understanding of prevailing perspectives in the field.

There are far too many (i)________in the report, such as incorrect data (albeit on (ii)________points).

inconsistency between the text and related tables, and discrepancies between the citations and the references.

The appropriateness of_________with those to whom one owes loyalty is evident in the Confucian view

that rulers who are not living up to their roles should be urged to rectify their behavior.

Even the most complex models used in fishery management are cartoons of reality. They reduce hundreds of links in food webs to a handful and inadequately represent processes operating over space. Many of their assumptions are as flawed today as those of the simplest models of the past. Fish stocks, for one. are still assumed to be populations of a species that are isolated from one another. Yet many populations mix at their edges and some even migrate through areas occupied by other populations. Furthermore, the more complex models suffer from a "crisis of complexity"—more is really less. Adding layers of detail, each carrying its own set of assumptions, produces instability. The model's behavior becomes erratic, and conclusions drawn from it can be downright misleading.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about "models of the past"?