GRE Preparation Kit 6 - Section 1[1 - 20]

[Samuel]

SECTION 1

1. While scientists dismiss as fanciful the idea of sudden changes in a genetic code (spontaneous mutation), it is possible that
    nature, like some master musician, ---- on occasion, departing from the expected or predictable.
    (A) repeats
    (B) improvises
    (C) ornaments
    (D) corrects
    (E) harmonizes

2. Despite the ---- of time, space, and history, human societies the world over have confronted the same existential
    problems and have come to remarkably ---- solutions, differing only in superficial details.
    (A) continuity.. identical
    (B) uniformity.. diverse
    (C) actualities.. varied
    (D) contingencies.. similar
    (E) exigencies.. unique

3. Although he was known to be extremely ---- in his public behavior, scholars have discovered that his diaries were written 
    with uncommon ----.
    (A) reserved.. frankness
    (B) polite.. tenderness
    (C) modest.. lucidity
    (D) reticent.. vagueness
    (E) withdrawn.. subtlety

4. With the ---- of scientific knowledge, work on the new edition of a textbook begins soon after completion of the original.
    (A) limitation
    (B) culmination
    (C) veneration
    (D) certainty
    (E) burgeoning

5. She is most frugal in matters of business, but in her private life she reveals a streak of ----.
    (A) antipathy
    (B) misanthropy
    (C) virtuosity
    (D) equanimity
    (E) prodigality

6. If the state government's latest budget problems were ----, it would not be useful to employ them as ----examples in the
    effort to avoid the inevitable effects of shortsighted fiscal planning in the future.
    (A) typical.. representative
    (B) exceptional.. aberrant
    (C) anomalous.. illuminating
    (D) predictable.. helpful
    (E) solvable.. insignificant

7. Just as some writers have ---- the capacity of language to express meaning, Giacometti ---- the failure of art to convey
    reality.
    (A) scoffed at .. abjured
    (B) demonstrated.. exemplified
    (C) denied.. refuted
    (D) proclaimed.. affirmed
    (E) despaired of .. bewailed

8. WALLET: MONEY::
    (A) bank: vault
    (B) suitcase: clothing
    (C) checkbook: balance
    (D) wealth: prestige
    (E) envelope: stamp

9. INSTRUMENTALIST: SYMPHONY::
    (A) author: drama
    (B) photographer: cinema
    (C) composer: concerto
    (D) artist: painting
    (E) dancer: ballet

10. PLATEAU: CHANGE:
      (A) respite: activity
      (B) asylum: security
      (C) terminus: journey
      (D) interval: time
      (E) lull: rest

11. ISTHMUS: LAND::
      (A) peninsula: island
      (B) canal: river
      (C) stratosphere: air
      (D) strait: water
      (E) tunnel: mountain

12. EMBARGO: COMMERCE::
      (A) abstention: election
      (B) strike: lockout
      (C) boycott: development
      (D) quarantine: contact
      (E) blockade: port

13. DILATORY: PROCRASTINATE::
      (A) recalcitrant: comply
      (B) malcontent: complain
      (C) ambivalent: decide
      (D) inept: modify
      (E) credulous: learn

14. NOMINAL: SIGNIFICANCE::
      (A) titular: honor
      (B) ephemeral: brevity
      (C) divisible: continuity
      (D) anomalous: distinction
      (E) disjunctive: unity

15. PLAGIARISM: IDEAS::
      (A) libel: words
      (B) forgery: documents
      (C) arson: buildings
      (D) kidnapping: ransom
      (E) rustling: cattle

16. POLITIC: OFFEND::
      (A) distressing: terrify
      (B) aloof: associate
      (C) misunderstood: surmise
      (D) vacuous: deplete
      (E) trivial: bore

For many years, Benjamin Quarles' seminal  account of the participation of African Americans in the American Revolution has remained the standard work in the field. According to Quarles, the outcome of this conflict was mixed for African American slaves who enlisted in Britain's fight against its rebellious American colonies in return for the promise of freedom: the British treacherously resold many into slavery in the West Indies, while others obtained freedom in Canada and Africa. Building on Quarles' analysis of the latter group, Sylvia Frey studied the former slaves who emigrated to British colonies in Canada. According to Frey, these refugees -the most successful of the African American Revolutionary War participants-viewed themselves as the ideological heirs of the American Revolution. Frey sees this inheritances reflected in their demands for the same rights that the American revolutionaries had demanded from the British: land ownership, limits to arbitrary authority and burdensome taxes, and freedom of religion.

17. According to the passage, which of the following is true about the African American Revolutionary War participants who
      settled in Canada after the American Revolution?
      (A) Although they were politically unaligned with either side, they identified more with British ideology than with
           American ideology.
      (B) While they were not immediately betrayed by the British, they ultimately suffered the same fate as did African
            American Revolutionary. War participants who were resold into slavery in the West Indies.
      (C) They settled in Canada rather than in Africa because of the greater religious freedom available in Canada.
      (D) They were more politically active than were African American Revolutionary War participants who settled in Africa.
      (E) They were more successful than were African American Revolutionary War participants who settled Africa.

18. Which of the following is most analogous to the relationship between the African American Revolutionary War participants
      who settled in  Canada after the American Revolution and the American revolutionaries, as that relationship is described
      in the passage?
      (A) A brilliant pupil of a great musician rebels against the teacher, but adopts the teacher's musical style after the
            teacher's unexpected death.
      (B) Two warring rulers finally make peace after a lifetime of strife when they realize that they have been duped by a
            common enemy.
      (C) A child who has sided with a domineering parent against a defiant sibling later makes demands of the parent similar
            to those once made by the sibling.
      (D) A writer spends much of her life popularizing the work of her mentor, only to discover late in life that much of the 
            older writer's work is plagiarized from the writings of a foreign contemporary.
      (E) Two research scientists spend much of their careers working together toward a common goal, but later quarrel over
            which of them should receive credit for the training of a promising student.

19. The author of the passage suggests that which of the following is true of Benjamin Quarles' work?
       (A) It introduced a new and untried research methodology.
       (B) It contained theories so controversial that they gave rise to an entire generation of scholarship
       (C) It was a pioneering work that has not yet been displaced by subsequent scholarship.
       (D) It launched the career of a scholar who later wrote even more important works.
       (E) At the time it appeared, its author already enjoyed a well-established reputation in the field.

20. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage concerning Britain's rule in its Canadian colonies after the 
      American Revolution?
      (A) Humiliated by their defeat by the Americans, the British sharply curtailed civil rights in their Canadian colonies.
      (B) The British largely ignored their Canadian colonies.
      (C) The British encouraged the colonization of Canada by those African Americans who had served on the American side
            as well as by those who had served on the British side.
      (D) Some of Britain's policies in its Canadian colonies were similar to its policies in its American colonies before the
            American Revolution.
      (E) To reduce the debt incurred during the war, the British imposed even higher taxes on the Canadian colonists than
            they had on the American colonists.