Form, Structure, and Sense Questions

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Page 1 of 105
1 - The radiation that ______ during the decay of radioactive atomic nuclei is known as

gamma radiation.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. occurs

B. have occurred

C. occur

D. are occurring

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2 - 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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3 -On April 5, 1977, Kitty Cone and 150 other disability rights activists entered a San

Francisco federal building. After pleading for years—to no effect—for the passage of key

antidiscrimination legislation, ______ until their demands were addressed. Finally, on

April 28, the legislation was signed.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. pressure on lawmakers increased when the activists staged a sit-in protest

B. a sit-in protest staged by the activists increased pressure on lawmakers

C. lawmakers came under increased pressure when the activists staged a sit-in protest

D. the activists increased pressure on lawmakers by staging a sit-in protest

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4 - In recent years, economists around the world have created new tools that quantify the

overall well-being of a country’s citizens. Economists in India, for example, use an Ease

of Living Index. This tool ______ economic potential, sustainability, and citizens’ quality

of life.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. measures

B. had measured

C. would have measured

D. will have been measuring

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5 - Mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz used the metaphor of the “butterfly

effect” to explain how seemingly minor events can have major impacts on future weather.

According to Lorenz’s metaphor, the wind from a butterfly flapping ______ in Brazil

might eventually grow into a storm elsewhere across the globe.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. its wings

B. its wings’

C. it’s wing’s

D. it’s wings’

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6 - Bonnie Buratti of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ______ data about Saturn’s rings

collected by the Cassini spacecraft when she made an interesting discovery: the tiny

moons embedded between and within Saturn’s rings are shaped by the buildup of ring

material on the moons’ surfaces.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. studies

B. has been studying

C. will study

D. was studying

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7 - 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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8 - 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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9 - In 1903, environmentalist John Muir guided President Theodore Roosevelt on a

scenic, sprawling trip through California’s Yosemite Valley. Upon returning from the

three-day excursion, Roosevelt ______ to conserve the nation’s wilderness areas, a vow

he upheld for his remaining six years in office.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. is vowing

B. vowed

C. will vow

D. vows

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Page 10 of 105
10 - To survive when water is scarce, embryos inside African turquoise killifish

eggs ______ a dormant state known as diapause. In this state, embryonic development is

paused for as long as two years—longer than the life span of an adult killifish.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. enter

B. to enter

C. having entered

D. entering

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11 - In 1637, the price of tulips skyrocketed in Amsterdam, with single bulbs of rare

varieties selling for up to the equivalent of $200,000 in today’s US dollars. Some

historians ______ that this “tulip mania” was the first historical instance of an asset

bubble, which occurs when investors drive prices to highs not supported by actual

demand.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. claiming

B. claim

C. having claimed

D. to claim

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12 - Professional American football player Fred Cox invented one of the world’s most

popular toys. In the 1970s, he came up with the idea for the Nerf football, which ______

of the harder and heavier regulation football.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. were a smaller, foam version

B. are smaller, foam versions

C. were smaller, foam versions

D. is a smaller, foam version

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13 - Formed in 1967 to foster political and economic stability within the Asia-Pacific

region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was originally made up of five

members: Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. By the end of

the 1990s, the organization ______ its initial membership.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. has doubled

B. had doubled

C. doubles

D. will double

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14 - Atoms in a synchrotron, a type of circular particle accelerator, travel faster and faster

until they ______ a desired energy level, at which point they are diverted to collide with a

target, smashing the atoms.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. will reach

B. reach

C. had reached

D. are reaching

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15 - Led by Syrian American astronomer Shadia Habbal, the Solar Wind Sherpas are an

intrepid team of scientists who travel the globe to study solar winds, the streams of

particles emanating from the Sun that are only visible from certain locations during a

total solar eclipse. When such an eclipse is imminent, the Sherpas pack up their

telescopes and ______ ready.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. get

B. had gotten

C. got

D. were getting

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16 - Farouk El-Baz, a geologist and space scientist, ______ part of the team that selected

the lunar landing sites for the Apollo program during the 1960s and 1970s.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. are

B. was

C. have been

D. were

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17 - 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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18 - Obsidian is a kind of volcanic glass formed when lava cools so quickly that the

atoms inside it cannot arrange themselves in a crystalline structure. You ______ more

about obsidian’s structure, which is classified as amorphous, in a later chapter.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. had learned

B. had been learning

C. will learn

D. have learned

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19 -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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Page 20 of 105
20 - Public-awareness campaigns about the need to reduce single-use plastics can be

successful, says researcher Kim Borg of Monash University in Australia, when these

campaigns give consumers a choice: for example, Japan achieved a 40 percent reduction

in plastic-bag use after cashiers were instructed to ask customers whether ______ wanted

a bag.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. they

B. one

C. you

D. it

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21 - Midway through her 1968 jazz album A Monastic Trio, Alice Coltrane switches

instruments, swapping the piano for the harp. With the same fluid style that Coltrane was

famous for on piano, she ______ her fingers across the harp strings and creates a radiant

sound.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. sweep

B. are sweeping

C. were sweeping

D. sweeps

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Page 22 of 105
22 - 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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23 - Objects ranging from the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle to the Yamaha VMAX

motorcycle to the Komachi bullet train ______ designed by twentieth-century industrial

designer Kenji Ekuan.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. was

B. is

C. has been

D. were

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24 - In the historical novel The Surrender Tree, Cuban American author Margarita Engle

uses poetry rather than prose ______ the true story of Cuban folk hero Rosa La

Bayamesa.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. tells

B. told

C. is telling

D. to tell

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25 -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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26 - Classical composer Florence Price’s 1927 move to Chicago marked a turning point

in her career. It was there that Price premiered her First Symphony—a piece that was

praised for blending traditional Romantic motifs with aspects of Black folk music—

and ______ supportive relationships with other Black artists.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. developing

B. developed

C. to develop

D. having developed

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27 -Like other amphibians, the wood frog (Rana sylvatica) is unable to generate its own

heat, so during periods of subfreezing temperatures, it ______ by producing large

amounts of glucose, a sugar that helps prevent damaging ice from forming inside its cells.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. had survived

B. survived

C. would survive

D. survives

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28 - While exploring Nevada’s Gypsum Cave in 1930, Seneca and Abenaki archaeologist

Bertha Parker made her most famous discovery: the skull of a now-extinct ground sloth

(Nothrotheriops shastensis) alongside human-made tools. Parker’s crucial finding was the

first ______ humans in North America as far back as 10,000 years ago.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. places

B. placed

C. place

D. to place

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29 - The sun never sets during the Arctic summer in the Far North. In response, reindeer

in this region must change their sleep habits. Instead of resting when it gets dark, they

rest when they need ______ their food.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. digest

B. will digest

C. to digest

D. digesting

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30 - British scientists James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize in part for

their 1953 paper announcing the double helix structure of DNA, but it is misleading to

say that Watson and Crick discovered the double helix. ______ findings were based on a

famous X-ray image of DNA fibers, “Photo 51,” developed by X-ray crystallographer

Rosalind Franklin and her graduate student Raymond Gosling.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. They’re

B. It’s

C. Their

D. Its

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31 - In the 1950s, a man named Joseph McVicker was struggling to keep his business

afloat when his sister-in-law Kay Zufall advised him to repurpose the company’s product,

a nontoxic, clay-like substance for removing soot from wallpaper, as a modeling putty for

kids. In addition, Zufall ______ selling the product under a child-friendly name: Play-

Doh.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. suggested

B. suggests

C. had suggested

D. was suggesting

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32 -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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33 - 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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34 - In order to prevent nonnative fish species from moving freely between the

Mediterranean and Red Seas, marine biologist Bella Galil has proposed that a saline lock

system be installed along the Suez Canal in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lakes. The lock would

increase the salinity of the lakes and ______ a natural barrier of water most marine

creatures would be unable to cross.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. creates

B. create

C. creating

D. created

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35 - The African Games Co-production Market, one of over 180 annual international

conferences supporting video game development, ______ the growth of the African

gaming industry by helping start-up studios in Africa find partners.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. promote

B. are promoting

C. promotes

D. have promoted

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36 - In 1966, Emmett Ashford became the first African American to umpire a Major

League Baseball game. His energetic gestures announcing when a player had struck out

and his habit of barreling after a hit ball to see if it would land out of ______ transform

the traditionally solemn umpire role into a dynamic one.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. bounds helped

B. bounds, helping

C. bounds that helped

D. bounds to help

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37 - The classic children’s board game Chutes and Ladders is a version of an ancient

Nepalese game, Paramapada Sopanapata. In both games, players encounter “good” or

“bad” spaces while traveling along a path; landing on one of the good spaces ______ a

player to skip ahead and arrive closer to the end goal.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. allows

B. are allowing

C. have allowed

D. allow

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38 - Literary agents estimate that more than half of all nonfiction books credited to a

celebrity or other public figure are in fact written by ghostwriters, professional authors

who are paid to write other ______ but whose names never appear on book covers.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. people’s stories

B. peoples story’s

C. peoples stories

D. people’s story’s

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39 - Based on genetic evidence, archaeologists have generally agreed that reindeer

domestication began in the eleventh century CE. However, since uncovering fragments of

a 2,000-year-old reindeer training harness in northern Siberia, ______ may have begun

much earlier.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. researcher Robert Losey has argued that domestication

B. researcher Robert Losey’s argument is that domestication

C. domestication, researcher Robert Losey has argued,

D. the argument researcher Robert Losey has made is that domestication

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40 - In the early twentieth century, Joseph Kekuku and other Hawaiian ______ in the

mainland United States to the bright and lilting sound of the kīkā kila, or Hawaiian steel

guitar. The instrument soon became a fixture in American blues and country music.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. musicians introduced audiences

B. musicians’ introduced audiences’

C. musician’s introduced audience’s

D. musicians’ introduced audiences

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41 - 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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42 - Smaller than poppy seeds, tardigrades are tiny, but they are tough. These minuscule

animals can survive for thirty years without food or water, and ______ can withstand

extreme temperatures as low as minus 328 degrees and as high as 304 degrees

Fahrenheit.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. that

B. it

C. they

D. he

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43 - African American Percy Julian was a scientist and entrepreneur whose work helped

people around the world to see. Named in 1999 as one of the greatest achievements by a

US chemist in the past hundred years, ______ led to the first mass-produced treatment for

glaucoma.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. Julian synthesized the alkaloid physostigmine in 1935; it

B. in 1935 Julian synthesized the alkaloid physostigmine, which

C. Julian’s 1935 synthesis of the alkaloid physostigmine

D. the alkaloid physostigmine was synthesized by Julian in 1935 and

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44 - The US Geological Survey wants to map every human-made structure in the United

States, and it is asking volunteers to help. Cassie Tammy Wang and Ashish D’Souza are

just two of the many volunteer map editors who ______ to the project since it began in

2012.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. contribute

B. will contribute

C. have contributed

D. will be contributing

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45 - Far from being modern inventions, ______ more than 5,000 years ago.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia used drinking straws

B. drinking straws were used by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia

C. the use of drinking straws by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia happened

D. ancient Mesopotamia was home to Sumerians who used drinking straws

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46 - Cheng Dang and her colleagues at the University of Washington recently ran

simulations to determine the extent to which individual snow ______ affect the amount

of light reflecting off a snowy surface.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. grain’s physical properties’

B. grains’ physical properties

C. grains’ physical property’s

D. grains physical properties

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47 - In his groundbreaking book Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian

America, Vivek Bald uses newspaper articles, census records, ships’ logs, and memoirs to

tell the ______ who made New York City their home in the early twentieth century.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. story’s of the South Asian immigrants

B. story’s of the South Asian immigrants’

C. stories of the South Asian immigrants

D. stories’ of the South Asian immigrant’s

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48 - 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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49 - When writing The Other Black Girl (2021), novelist Zakiya Dalila Harris drew on

her own experiences working at a publishing office. The award-winning book is Harris’s

first novel, but her writing ______ honored before. At the age of twelve, she entered a

contest to have a story published in American Girl magazine—and won.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. were

B. have been

C. has been

D. are

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50 - In winter, the diets of Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, are

influenced more by food availability than by food preference. Although the monkeys

prefer to eat vegetation and land-dwelling invertebrates, those food sources may become

unavailable because of extensive snow and ice cover, ______ the monkeys to hunt for

marine animals in any streams that have not frozen over.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. forces

B. to force

C. forcing

D. forced

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51 - 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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52 - 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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53 - Food and the sensation of taste are central to Monique Truong’s novels. In The Book

of Salt, for example, the exiled character of Bình connects to his native Saigon through

the food he prepares, while in Bitter in the Mouth, the character of Linda ______ a form

of synesthesia whereby the words she hears evoke tastes.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. experienced

B. had experienced

C. experiences

D. will be experiencing

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Page 54 of 105
54 - Earth is not a perfect sphere. Due to the ______ gravitational pull, Earth bulges out

on the sides closest to and farthest from the Moon. This distorting pull is known as a tidal

force, and it is responsible for the changes in water levels that are called high and low

tides.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. Moon’s

B. Moons

C. Moons’

D. Moon

Additional Notes:
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Page 55 of 105
55 - In Death Valley National Park’s Racetrack Playa, a flat, dry lakebed, are 162 rocks—

some weighing less than a pound but others almost 700 pounds—that move periodically

from place to place, seemingly of their own volition. Racetrack-like trails in the ______

mysterious migration.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. playas sediment mark the rock’s

B. playa’s sediment mark the rocks

C. playa’s sediment mark the rocks’

D. playas’ sediment mark the rocks’

Additional Notes:
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Page 56 of 105
56 - The human brain is primed to recognize faces—so much so that, due to a perceptual

tendency called pareidolia, ______ will even find faces in clouds, wooden doors, pieces

of fruit, and other faceless inanimate objects. Researcher Susan Magsamen has focused

her work on better understanding this everyday phenomenon.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. she

B. they

C. it

D. those

Additional Notes:
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Page 57 of 105
57 - 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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Page 58 of 105
58 - Official measurements of the Mississippi River’s length vary: according to the US

Geologic Survey, the river is 2,300 miles long, whereas the Environmental Protection

Agency records its length as 2,320 miles. This disparity can be explained in part by the

fact that rivers such as the Mississippi expand and contract as ______ sediment.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. they accumulate

B. one accumulates

C. it accumulates

D. we accumulate

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Page 59 of 105
59 - Richard Spikes was a prolific African American inventor known for his contributions

to automotive engineering. Between 1907 and 1946, he patented many

inventions, ______ an automobile turn signal, a safety brake, and—most famously—the

first automatic gearshift.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. included

B. includes

C. including

D. will include

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Page 60 of 105
60 - Even though bats prefer very sweet nectar, the plants that attract them have evolved

to produce nectar that is only moderately sweet. A recent study ______ why: making

sugar is energy-intensive, and it is more advantageous for plants to make a large amount

of low-sugar nectar than a small amount of high-sugar nectar.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. explains

B. explaining

C. having explained

D. to explain

Additional Notes:
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61 - In the late 1960s, inspired in part by the sight of laundry hanging on a clothesline,

African American abstract painter Sam Gilliam began to create his iconic “Drape”

paintings. He applied bold, saturated hues to large canvases and ______ them from

ceilings or walls, causing the drooping fabric to cascade in dramatic loops and curves.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. to have suspended

B. suspending

C. to suspend

D. suspended

Additional Notes:
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62 - Slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo’s debut novel The Poet X, winner of the 2018 National

Book Award for Young People’s Literature, is composed of ______ protagonist, fifteen-

year-old Xiomara Batista.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. poems putatively written by the novel’s

B. poem’s putatively written by the novel’s

C. poem’s putatively written by the novels’

D. poems putatively written by the novels’

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Page 63 of 105
63 - 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

Additional Notes:
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Page 64 of 105
64 - The Progressive Era in the United States witnessed the rise of numerous Black

women’s clubs, local organizations that advocated for racial and gender equality. Among

the clubs’ leaders ______ Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, founder of the Women’s Era Club

of Boston.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. was

B. were

C. are

D. have been

Additional Notes:
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Page 65 of 105
65 - American poet Emily Dickinson wrote many of her poems on scraps of paper, but

she also took steps to collect these works. From 1858 to around 1864, for example, she

copied more than 800 of ______ into forty homemade booklets (known as fascicles).

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. them

B. this

C. that

D. it

Additional Notes:
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Page 66 of 105
66 - Scientists believe that, unlike most other species of barnacle, turtle barnacles

(Chelonibia testudinari) can dissolve the cement-like secretions they use to

attach ______ to a sea turtle shell, enabling the barnacles to move short distances across

the shell’s surface.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. it

B. themselves

C. them

D. Itself

Additional Notes:
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Page 67 of 105
67 - Occupying a significant part of modern-day Nigeria, the Kingdom of Benin was one

of the major powers in West Africa between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries.

It ______ ruled by Oba Ewuare I from 1440 to 1473.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. is

B. will be

C. has been

D. was

Additional Notes:
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Page 68 of 105
68 -In the 2011 documentary The Barber of Birmingham, civil rights activist James

Armstrong recounts how his barbershop in Birmingham, Alabama, ______ as a political

hub for members of the Black community during the 1950s.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. serving

B. having served

C. served

D. to serve

Additional Notes:
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Page 69 of 105
69 - Former First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt and Indian activist and

educator Hansa Mehta were instrumental in drafting the United Nations’ Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, a document that ______ the basic freedoms to which all

people are entitled.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. have outlined

B. were outlining

C. outlines

D. outline

Additional Notes:
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Page 70 of 105
70 - In many of her landscape paintings from the 1970s and 1980s, Lebanese American

artist Etel Adnan worked to capture the essence of California’s fog-shrouded Mount

Tamalpais region through abstraction, using splotches of color to represent the area’s

features. Interestingly, the triangle representing the mountain itself ______ among the

few defined figures in her paintings.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. are

B. have been

C. were

D. is

Additional Notes:
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Page 71 of 105
71 - 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

Additional Notes:
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Page 72 of 105
72 - In 1930, Japanese American artist Chiura Obata depicted the natural beauty of

Yosemite National Park in two memorable woodcuts: Evening at Carl Inn and Lake

Basin in the High Sierra. In 2019, ______ exhibited alongside 150 of Obata’s other

works in a single-artist show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. it was

B. they were

C. this was

D. some were

Additional Notes:
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Page 73 of 105
73 - If simple sugars such as ribose and glycolaldehyde ______ Earth from elsewhere and

survived impact—a possibility astrophysicist Nicolle Zellner outlined in a 2020 study—

the sugars could have reacted with other molecules that were already present on the

planet to form the nucleotides that are the structural components of RNA and DNA.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. reach

B. had reached

C. will reach

D. are reaching

Additional Notes:
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Page 74 of 105
74 - Inventor John Friedman created a prototype of the first flexible straw by inserting a

screw into a paper straw and, using dental floss, binding the straw tightly around

the ______ When the floss and screw were removed, the resulting corrugations in the

paper allowed the straw to bend easily over the edge of a glass.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. screw’s thread’s.

B. screws’ threads.

C. screw’s threads.

D. screws threads’.

Additional Notes:
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Page 75 of 105
75 - Photographer Ansel Adams’s landscape portraits are iconic pieces of American art.

However, many of the ______ of landscapes were intended not as art but as marketing; a

concessions company at Yosemite National Park had hired Adams to take pictures of the

park for restaurant menus and brochures.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. photographer’s early photo’s

B. photographers early photo’s

C. photographer’s early photos

D. photographers early photos

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Page 76 of 105
76 - Each year in the fall, when the weather starts to cool in the northern hemisphere,

millions of North American monarch butterflies journey south. Searching for food and

warmer habitats, they ______ thousands of miles—from as far north as Canada all the

way down to Mexico—on this annual migration.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. flew

B. were flying

C. had flown

D. fly

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Page 77 of 105
77 -Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier’s star quilt poems offer an unusually open-

ended reading experience. With ______ eight panels of text stitched together in the shape

of a traditional eight-pointed Lakota star quilt, the poems present viewers with a

seemingly infinite number of ways to read them.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. their

B. it’s

C. they’re

D. its

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Page 78 of 105
78 - “Praise Song for the Day,” Elizabeth Alexander’s 2009 inaugural poem, asserts that

“We cross dirt roads and highways…to see what’s on the other side.” Alexander’s use of

“we” ______ Americans’ collective efforts and shared desire to seek new opportunity.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. evokes

B. are evoking

C. have evoked

D. evoke

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Page 79 of 105
79 - By the time Hawaiian king Kamehameha III ______ the throne, the number of

longhorn cattle, first introduced to the islands in 1793, had drastically increased, and so

too had the need for paniolo (Hawaiian cowboys) to manage the wild herds that then

roamed throughout the volcanic terrain.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. ascended

B. will ascend

C. ascends

D. is ascending

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Page 80 of 105
80 - Wanda Diaz-Merced is an astrophysicist who lost her sight when she was young.

Diaz-Merced’s condition inspired her to develop software that can translate scientific data

into sound. Sound-based tools ______ scientists to detect subtle patterns in data. Such

patterns may not be evident in traditional graphs.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. has enabled

B. enable

C. is enabling

D. enables

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Page 81 of 105
81 - Nuhād al-Ḥaddād, known as Fairuz, was one of the most beloved Lebanese singers

of the twentieth century. Her broad singing repertoire—which included traditional forms,

such as the Arabic qasida and maqam, alongside modern pop and jazz styles—lent Fairuz

a timeless, cross-generational appeal, ______ her the moniker “the soul of Lebanon.”

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. earned

B. had earned

C. earning

D. earn

Additional Notes:
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Page 82 of 105
82 - 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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Page 83 of 105
83 - If you try on one of artist Nick Cave’s signature Soundsuits, you can expect to swish,

rustle, or clang every time you move. Cave makes his suits out of found objects,

everything from ceramic birds to broken record players. He carefully considers the sound

an object makes before using ______ in a suit.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. this

B. that

C. these

D. it

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84 - In 1899, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius developed an equation to answer a long-

standing question: why do chemical reactions speed up at higher temperatures? The

Arrhenius equation, named for its creator, ______ an important concept in modern

chemistry.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. have remained

B. remain

C. remains

D. are remaining

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Page 85 of 105
85 - 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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86 - 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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Page 87 of 105
87 - The violins handmade in the seventeeth century by Italian craftsman Antonio

Stradivari have been celebrated as some of the finest in the world. In close collaboration

with musicians, Stradivari introduced changes to the shape of a traditional violin,

flattening some of the instrument’s curves and making ______ lighter overall.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. those

B. one

C. them

D. it

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88 - In his 1963 exhibition Exposition of Music—Electronic Television, Korean American

artist Nam June Paik showed how television images could be manipulated to express an

artist’s perspective. Today, Paik ______ considered the first video artist.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. will be

B. had been

C. was

D. is

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Page 89 of 105
89 - Known for her massive photorealistic paintings of African American figures floating

or swimming in pools, Calida Garcia ______ was the logical choice to design the book

cover for Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer, a novel about an African American man

who can travel great distances through water.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. Rawles—

B. Rawles:

C. Rawles,

D. Rawles

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90 -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

Additional Notes:
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91 - A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mary Golda Ross is renowned for her

contributions to NASA’s Planetary Flight Handbook, which ______ detailed

mathematical guidance for missions to Mars and Venus.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. provided

B. having provided

C. to provide

D. providing

Additional Notes:
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92 - 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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Page 93 of 105
93 -Botanists recognize over fifty different species of sunflower. One species, the

silverleaf sunflower, ______ both an early-flowering ecotype that tends to grow in coastal

areas and a late-flowering ecotype that grows inland.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. having included

B. including

C. to include

D. includes

Additional Notes:
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94 - In 1990, California native and researcher Ellen Ochoa left her position as chief of the

Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at a NASA research center ______ the space

agency’s astronaut training program.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. to join

B. is joining

C. joined

D. joins

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95 - Why are Rome’s famous concrete structures, such as the Colosseum, still standing

after 2,000-plus years, when modern concrete may not even last for fifty?

Scientists ______ that the secret to Roman concrete’s durability was its unique blend of

ingredients, which included volcanic ash and seawater.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. explain

B. having explained

C. explaining

D. to explain

Additional Notes:
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96 - 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

Additional Notes:
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97 - For thousands of years, people in the Americas ______ the bottle gourd, a large bitter

fruit with a thick rind, to make bottles, other types of containers, and even musical

instruments. Oddly, there is no evidence that any type of bottle gourd is native to the

Western Hemisphere; either the fruit or its seeds must have somehow been carried from

Asia or Africa.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. to use

B. have used

C. having used

D. using

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98 - In 1881, French chemist Camille Faure redesigned the rechargeable lead-acid

battery. Faure’s design greatly increased the amount of electricity that the original battery,

which the French physicist Gaston Planté ______ fifteen years earlier, could hold.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. is inventing

B. will invent

C. invents

D. had invented

Additional Notes:
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99 - A pioneer in the field of taphonomy (the study of how organic remains become

fossils), ______ may be just as prevalent in the fossil record as those of thick-shelled

organisms.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. fossils of thin-shelled organisms, Anna Behrensmeyer demonstrated in a 2005

analysis,

B. Anna Behrensmeyer demonstrated in a 2005 analysis that fossils of thin-shelled

organisms

C. it was demonstrated in a 2005 analysis by Anna Behrensmeyer that fossils of thin-

shelled organisms

D. a 2005 analysis—by Anna Behrensmeyer—demonstrated that fossils of thin-

shelled organisms

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100 - Because a cycle of lunar phases ______ 29.5 days to complete, it’s possible to

observe two full moons in a single month, one at the beginning and one at the end.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. are taking

B. have taken

C. take

D. takes

Additional Notes:
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101 - The alga species Chlorella vulgaris is very efficient at making oxygen. For this

reason, scientists are currently exploring ways to use this species in space. C.

vulgaris might be used, for example, to build future biological air exchange systems

that ______ oxygen for astronauts.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. are producing

B. produced

C. produce

D. have produced

Additional Notes:
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102 - With its towering, six-spired exterior of granitelike quartz monzonite, the Salt Lake

Temple is one of the most instantly recognizable structures in the state of Utah. However,

many people do not know that ______ built over the course of forty years, with

construction beginning in 1853 and ending in 1893.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. it was

B. one was

C. they were

D. both were

Additional Notes:
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103 - After winning the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln appointed Edward

Bates, Salmon P. Chase, and William H. Seward to his cabinet. Lincoln’s decision was

surprising, since each of these men had run against him, but historians have praised it,

noting that Lincoln ______ his rivals’ diverse talents to strengthen his administration.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. has leveraged

B. is leveraging

C. will leverage

D. leveraged

Additional Notes:
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104 - Dr. Rocío Paola Caballero-Gill is a paleoceanographer. This means that Dr.

Caballero-Gill doesn’t just study oceans as they are today. She uses chemistry and fossil

evidence ______ oceans as they were in the past.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard

English?

A. has studied

B. to study

C. studied

D. studies

Additional Notes:
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