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Despite being cheap, versatile, and easy to produce, ______ they are made from nonrenewable petroleum, and most
do not biodegrade in landfills.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. there are two problems associated with commercial plastics:
B. two problems are associated with commercial plastics:
C. commercial plastics’ two associated problems are that
D. commercial plastics have two associated problems:
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Rabinal Achí is a precolonial Maya dance drama performed annually in Rabinal, a town in the Guatemalan highlands.
Based on events that occurred when Rabinal was a city-state ruled by a king, ______ had once been an ally of the
king but was later captured while leading an invading force against him.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Rabinal Achí tells the story of K’iche’ Achí, a military leader who
B. K’iche’ Achí, the military leader in the story of Rabinal Achí,
C. the military leader whose story is told in Rabinal Achí, K’iche’ Achí,
D. there was a military leader, K’iche’ Achí, who in Rabinal Achí
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During the American Civil War, Thomas Morris Chester braved the front lines as a war correspondent for the
Philadelphia Press. Amplifying the voices and experiences of Black soldiers ______ of particular importance to
Chester, who later became an activist and lawyer during the postwar Reconstruction period.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. were
B. have been
C. are
D. was
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In the 1970s, Janaki Ammal, a prominent botanist, emerged as a powerful voice in India’s environmental
conservation movement. Her exhaustive chromosomal survey of plants in Silent Valley, a pristine tropical forest in
Kerala, India, that is home to nearly 1,000 species of native flora (many of which are endangered), ______
instrumental in the government’s decision to preserve the forest.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. are
B. were
C. have been
D. was
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The artistic talents of Barbara Chase-Riboud, most known for her 1979 historical novel Sally Hemings and the
conversation it inspired, ______ limited to the realm of prose: she first excelled in sculpture, where her affinity for
bronze—a material she described as “timeless” due to its use across eras and cultures—became part of her artistic
identity.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. hasn’t been
B. wasn’t
C. isn’t
D. aren’t
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Working from an earlier discovery of Charpentier’s, chemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna—
winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry—re-created and then reprogrammed the so-called “genetic scissors”
of a species of DNA-cleaving bacteria ______ a tool that is revolutionizing the field of gene technology.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. to forge
B. forging
C. forged
D. and forging
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In assessing the films of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, ______ have missed his equally deep engagement with
Japanese artistic traditions such as Noh theater.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. many critics have focused on Kurosawa’s use of Western literary sources but
B. Kurosawa’s use of Western literary sources has been the focus of many critics, who
C. there are many critics who have focused on Kurosawa’s use of Western literary sources, but they
D. the focus of many critics has been on Kurosawa’s use of Western literary sources; they
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When they were first discovered in Australia in 1798, duck-billed, beaver-tailed platypuses so defied categorization
that one scientist assigned them the name Ornithorhynchus paradoxus: “paradoxical bird-snout.” The animal, which
lays eggs but also nurses ______ young with milk, has since been classified as belonging to the monotremes group.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. they’re
B. their
C. its
D. it’s
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Known as Earth’s “living skin,” biocrusts are thin layers of soil held together by surface-dwelling microorganisms
such as fungi, lichens, and cyanobacteria. Fortifying soil in arid ecosystems against erosion, ______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. a recent study’s estimate is that these crusts reduce global dust emissions by 60 percent each year.
B. an estimated 60 percent reduction in global dust emissions each year is due to these crusts, according to a
recent study.
C. these crusts reduce global dust emissions by an estimated 60 percent each year, according to a recent study.
D. a recent study has estimated that these crusts reduce global dust emissions by 60 percent each year.
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Ten of William Shakespeare’s plays are classified as histories. Although each one of these plays, which include
Henry V and Richard III, ______ on a single historical figure (specifically, an English king), some, such as Henry VI
Part One and Henry VI Part Two, feature different episodes from the same monarch’s life.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. focuses
B. focus
C. are focused
D. were focused
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In the canon of North African literature, Moroccan author Driss Chraïbi’s 1954 novel The Simple Past (Le Passé
simple) looms large. A coming-of-age story, a social meditation, and a sober gaze into the dark maw of French
colonialism, ______ interrogates systemic power with memorable intensity.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Morocco gained its independence two years before the publication of Chraïbi’s debut novel, which
B. Chraïbi’s debut novel, published two years before Morocco gained its independence,
C. Chraïbi wrote a debut novel that, published two years before Morocco gained its independence,
D. published two years before Morocco gained its independence, Chraïbi wrote a debut novel that
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Planetary scientist Briony Horgan and her colleagues have determined that as much as 25 percent of the sand on
Mars is composed of impact spherules. These spherical bits of glass form when asteroids collide with the planet,
ejecting bits of molten rock into the atmosphere that, after cooling and solidifying into glass, ______ back onto
Mars’s surface.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. to rain
B. raining
C. having rained
D. rain
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Compared to that of alumina glass, ______ silica glass atoms are so far apart that they are unable to re-form bonds
after being separated.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. silica glass is at a significant disadvantage due to its more dispersed atomic arrangement:
B. silica glass has a more dispersed atomic arrangement, resulting in a significant disadvantage:
C. a significant disadvantage of silica glass is that its atomic arrangement is more dispersed:
D. silica glass’s atomic arrangement is more dispersed, resulting in a significant disadvantage:
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In 2016, engineer Vanessa Galvez oversaw the installation of 164 bioswales, vegetated channels designed to absorb
and divert stormwater, along the streets of Queens, New York. By reducing the runoff flowing into city sewers,
______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. the mitigation of both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby waterways has been achieved by
bioswales.
B. the bioswales have mitigated both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby waterways.
C. the bioswales’ mitigation of both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby waterways has been
achieved.
D. both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby waterways have been mitigated by bioswales.
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Author Madeline L’Engle, ______ to create a suspenseful tone that draws the reader in, begins her novel A Wrinkle in
Time with descriptions of “wraithlike shadows” and “the frenzied lashing of the wind.”
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. looked
B. looks
C. is looking
D. looking
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A second-generation Japanese American, Wataru Misaka ______ in World War II (1941-45) and won two amateur
national basketball championships at the University of Utah when he joined the New York Knicks for the 1947-48
season, becoming the first non-white basketball player in the US’s top professional league.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. already served
B. was already serving
C. already serves
D. had already served
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Bengali author Toru Dutt’s A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), a volume of English translations of French
poems, ______ scholars’ understanding of the transnational and multilingual contexts in which Dutt lived and
worked.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. has enhanced
B. are enhancing
C. have enhanced
D. enhance
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In 1994, almost 200 years after the death of Wang Zhenyi, the International Astronomical ______ the contributions
of the barrier-breaking 18th-century astronomer and author of “Dispute of the Procession of the Equinoxes,” naming
a crater on Venus after her.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Union would finally acknowledge
B. Union to finally acknowledge
C. Union, having finally acknowledged
D. Union, finally acknowledging
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In 2015, a team led by materials scientists Anirudha Sumant and Diana Berman succeeded in reducing the
coefficient of friction (COF) between two surfaces to the lowest possible level—superlubricity. A nearly frictionless
(and, as its name suggests, extremely slippery) state, ______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. when their COF drops below 0.01, two surfaces reach superlubricity.
B. two surfaces, when their COF drops below 0.01, reach superlubricity.
C. reaching superlubricity occurs when two surfaces’ COF drops below 0.01.
D. superlubricity is reached when two surfaces’ COF drops below 0.01.
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Researchers studying the “terra-cotta army,” the thousands of life-size statues of warriors found interred near the
tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China, were shocked to realize that the shape of each statue’s ears, like the
shape of each person’s ears, ______ unique.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. are
B. is
C. were
D. have been
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In 1453, English King Henry VI became unfit to rule after falling gravely ill. As a result, Parliament appointed Richard,
Third Duke of York, who had a strong claim to the English throne, to rule as Lord Protector. Upon recovering two
years later, ______ forcing an angered Richard from the royal court and precipitating a series of battles later known
as the Wars of the Roses.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Henry resumed his reign,
B. the reign of Henry resumed,
C. Henry’s reign resumed,
D. it was Henry who resumed his reign,
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A model created by biologist Luis Valente predicts that the rate of speciation—the rate at which new species form—
on an isolated island located approximately 5,000 kilometers from the nearest mainland ______ triple the rate of
speciation on an island only 500 kilometers from the mainland.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. being
B. to be
C. to have been
D. will be