DAILY EXERCISES: RC - Set 3 (July 25 )

The Tokugawa period Japan (1603–1867) serves as a laboratory for organizational behavior historians

for the same reason that Iceland works for geneticists—isolation removes extraneous variables. The Tokugawa

shoguns brought peace to a land of warring feudal lords. To preserve that tranquility, the Tokugawa shogunate

forbade contact with the outside world,

allowing only a few Dutch trading ships to dock at one restricted port. Domestically, in pursuit of the same

goal, the social order was fixed; there were four classes—warriors [samurai], artisans, merchants, and farmers

or peasants—and social mobility was prohibited. The ensuing stability and peace brought a commercial

prosperity that lasted nearly two hundred years.

However, as psychologists, social historians, and Biblical prophets have all observed, in

varying ways, humans inevitably fail to anticipate unintended consequences. In the Tokugawa period, the fixed

social hierarchy placed the samurai on top; they and the government were essentially supported by levies on

the peasantry, as the other two classes were demographically and economically inconsequential. However,

prosperity brought riches to the commercial classes and their numbers burgeoned. Eventually, their economic

power dwarfed

that of their supposed superiors, the samurai. Simultaneously, the increasing impoverishment of the samurai

adversely affected the finances of the peasantry and the government. By the early 19th century, this imbalance

between social structure and economic reality eroded the stability of the society. This condition, in

conjunction with increasing pressure for access from foreigners, such as Admiral Perry in 1853, led to the

collapse of the shogunate in 1867. In short,

20 the success of this imposed order led to its undoing through consequences that were beyond the ken of the

founders.

71. The primary objective of the passage is to

(A) compare the Tokugawa period to modern Iceland

(B) demonstrate the folly of imposing a social order

(D) illustrate how a society can model a common human failing

(E) argue that commerce is more successful than militarization

72. Which of the following would provide further support for the main reason cited for the decline of the Tokugawa

period?

(A) a samurai becomes a successful merchant

(B) a successful artisan becomes a samurai

(D) a peasant revolt against the samurai

(E) a military invasion by American marines

Questions 73–74 are based on the following reading passage.

The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–14, began as a quarrel over whether an Austrian Habsburg or

French Bourbon would succeed the childless Charles II of Spain. The conflict eventually embroiled most of

Europe, with Austria, England, Holland, and Prussia the major powers opposing France, Spain, and Bavaria. For

centuries afterward, school children learned of

the Duke of Marlborough's victory at Blenheim, the military brilliance of Prinz Eugen of Savoy, an

independent territory east of France, as well as the opposing brightness of Louis XIV of France, known as the

Sun King, who also built the famous palace at Versailles. Today, however, virtually all those names would

elicit only blank stares.

Although this war and its personages have now vanished into obscurity, its effects greatly

affected the course of European and world history. The Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the war in 1714, ceded

the Spanish island of Gibraltar to England. The "Rock of Gibraltar" became an invincible British fortress that

controlled the Mediterranean and thus was of paramount importance in both world wars. Conversely, the same

treaty elevated Prussia to a kingdom, thus setting in motion a chain of events that led to a unified Germany

under a Prussian Kaiser

15 instead of one governed by the Austrians, arguably making the bloodshed that consumed the 20th century more

likely.

73. The author implies that a possibly negative aspect of the Treaty of Utrecht was

(A) awarding Gibraltar to the British

(B) reducing the Duke of Marlborough to obscurity

(D) failing to resolve the Spanish succession

(E) unifying Germany

74. Which of the following must be true, according to the passage?

(A) Not all of the important military personages were from major powers.

(B) The battle of Blenheim was the most important engagement of the war.

(D) France was defeated in the war.

(E) The transfer of Gibraltar was the most important result of the war.

Questions 75–76 are based on the following reading passage.

Michael Lewis, the American journalist and non-fiction writer, originally studied art history as an

undergraduate and worked for a prominent art dealer before obtaining a masters degree in economics at the

London School of Economics. After a short stint at Salomon Brothers, he wrote Liar's Poker, which became a

tremendous success. However, his fame and fortune

continued to arc upward with the publication of Moneyball and The Big Short. Some argue that his education

in the humanities, in addition to finance, greatly contributed to the popularity of his work. However, most

adherents of that view are ensconced in ethereal rather than commercial disciplines.

An alternative explanation exists. Although baseball and Wall Street are not commonly

associated, Lewis's works concerning both those topics share more than the common theme of lucre. All the

books cited above focus on mavericks "gaming the system." Lewis's protagonists, such as Billy Beane of the

small market Oakland Athletics and the small, out of the establishment traders that bet against mortgage

derivatives, are smart non-conformists who rebel against monolithic systems by exploiting inherent

inconsistencies. Such a theme

echoes the American nation-building construct—lone, free individuals winning against great odds by

employing common sense and ingenuity. This is a story line that Americans hear from birth; it is no wonder

that Lewis's books are popular despite subjects that are not necessarily of universal interest. Further support

for this thesis is that Moneyball became a major motion picture and a film of Liar's Poker is in development.

Of course, unlike baseball games, such

20 debates can never be definitively scored.

75. The author primarily does which of the following?

(A) contrasts two opposing theories for a process

(B) discusses two suppositions and implicitly favors the latter

(D) describes a writer's work and its dearth of popularity

(E) outlines the biography of a writer and critiques his work

76. The author does all of the following EXCEPT:

(A) employ an idiomatic expression

(B) describe the protagonists in question

(D) discuss the parallels shared by two professions

(E) mention his subject's formative influences

Questions 77–78 are based on the following reading passage.

The term free rider originates from the idea of someone who rides public transportation without paying

the fare. The free rider problem is what results when too many people do this: the transit system will go

bankrupt. More broadly, the free rider is someone who uses or enjoys the benefits of something without

paying, or takes more than his or her share of a public

5 good. Free riders can cause others to curtail their own contributions, not wanting to be taken advantage of.

In some cases, the free rider problem is viewed as a necessary cost of government. When citizens pay for

national defense or environmental protection, everyone benefits, even those who evade paying taxes.

Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.

77. Which of the following examples matches the definition of a free rider problem as described in the passage?

A skateboarder grabs onto the back of a car and is able to travel effortlessly for over a mile before

letting go.

A senior citizen pays less for a movie ticket than do the other people in the theater.

A yearly school bake sale based on the honor system is suspended when too many people take food

without paying.

78. The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements?

(A) Free riders cannot be blamed for their actions, because they are an inevitable part of any government.

(B) Free rider problems are not worth worrying about, because they are an inevitable part of any

government.

inevitable part of government.

(D) National defense is a perfect example of why free rider problems need to be stamped out as quickly

as possible.

(E) Free riders are morally at fault, and ought to be punished.

Questions 79–80 are based on the following reading passage.

In 2010, a team of biologists led by Svante Paabo announced evidence that modern humans interbred with

Neanderthals some 60,000–100,000 years ago. These researchers compared the full sequence of Neanderthal

DNA to that of five modern humans from China, France, sub-Saharan Africa, and Papua New Guinea, and

looked for DNA shared by both

Neanderthals and non-African modern humans, but not by sub-Saharan Africans. Because Neanderthals and

modern humans are known to have diverged hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans left Africa,

Paabo attributed any such common DNA to interbreeding in Eurasia. Paabo's team announced that the modern

humans from China, France, and Papua New Guinea all have the same proportion of Neanderthal DNA, and

inferred

that interbreeding with Neanderthals must have taken place before the ancestor population of those Eurasians

divided. Paabo maintained that these two events, the migration of modern humans out of Africa and the

division of the Eurasian population, mark the interval during which the interbreeding must have taken place, and

that for roughly forty thousand years of that window, Neanderthals and modern humans lived near one another

in the Middle East.

The team's conclusions were answered with skepticism on a number of fronts. Critics pointed out that an

earlier report reached similar conclusions based on Neanderthal samples later found to be contaminated with

DNA from modern humans. Paleontologists and archaeologists charged that the conclusion was unsupported

by archaeological evidence. Further, Paabo's team found evidence only of Neanderthal DNA in modern

humans, not of

20 modern human DNA in Neanderthals, but critics claim that interbreeding would result in gene flow in both

directions.

Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.

79. The passage implies that which of the following claims is true?

Modern humans and Neanderthals share a common ancestor.

Modern humans and Neanderthals interbred.

Modern humans and Neanderthals lived near one another approximately 80,000 years ago.

Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.

80. The passage suggests which of the following is true of Paabo's critics?

they doubt Paabo's integrity

they ignore DNA evidence

they sometimes appeal to archaeological evidence

Questions 81–82 are based on the following reading passage.

Though an echo is a fairly simple acoustic phenomenon—a reflection of sound waves off some hard

surface—it occurs only under very specific circumstances. Imagine a listener standing at the sound source.

The reflecting object must be more than 11.3 meters away from the sound source, or the echo will return too

soon to be distinguishable from the

original sound. A reflecting object more than about 170 meters, on the other hand, will rarely produce an

audible echo, since sound dissipates with distance. Further, multiple surfaces each reflecting the same original

sound to the same listener will likely not produce an echo, but a reverberation, a persistent sound gradually

decreasing in amplitude until the listener can no longer hear it. Common though echoes are then, it is

unsurprising that some sounds seem to

10 produce no echo.

A centuries-old tradition holds that a duck's quack does not echo. Scientists in the Acoustics Department

of the University of Salford set out to test and explain this claim. They recorded a duck, Daisy, first in an

anechoic chamber filled with sound-absorbing fiberglass wedges, then in an echo chamber with the acoustical

properties of a small cathedral. The

sound of the duck quacking in the anechoic chamber was clearly different from the sound of the duck quacking

in the echo chamber, but the researchers acknowledged that it would be very hard to recognize an echo in the

latter recording without having very recently heard the former. Partly this is because

a quack isn't a single burst of sound, but fades in and out, so that the beginning of the echo might blend with the

end of the original sound. Partly it is because a quack is just not very loud. The Salford researchers also

speculate that most people may simply not encounter ducks in proximity to reflectors such as buildings or

mountains. A further complication, though one the researchers leave unremarked, is that people generally hear

ducks in flocks, where one quack might be indistinguishable from the echo of another.

81. According to the passage, all of the following make an audible echo unlikely EXCEPT:

(A) a reflecting surface too close to the original sound

(B) a reflecting surface too far from the original sound

(D) multiple listeners

(E) sound-absorbing materials

Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.

82. The passage suggests that which of the following would propagate echoes?

an anechoic chamber

a cathedral

a mountain

Questions 83–85 are based on the following reading passage.

Simone de Beauvoir's feminism was heavily informed by existentialist ethics. Within this frame of

thought, good and evil are expressed in human beings' transcendence and "immanence," respectively. Human

existence can only be justified via continually expanding into the future by engaging in freely chosen projects

—i.e., transcendence. Transcendence

is thus a general goal for human beings, while its opposite—immanence—is considered a degradation of

existence, from "liberty into constraint." Freely chosen, immanence is a moral fault, but when inflicted, it is

described as "oppression." In a social environment where women are prevented from choosing and engaging in

serious projects because of their status as women, their ability to transcend is systematically thwarted, so

transcendence becomes a

10 specifically feminist goal. De Beauvoir explains that women are viewed as intrinsically passive and immanent,

in opposition to men who are meant to be active and transcendent.

In the society observed by de Beauvoir, "[women] live … attached through residence, housework,

economic condition, and social standing to certain men—fathers or husbands…" It is specifically women who

are attached to men—not men to women nor women and men

15 to each other. As de Beauvoir notes, the nature of this relationship, overlapping the assumption that men are

the active transcendent half of humanity, leaves women in a position of forced immanence.

Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply

83. According to the passage, Simone de Beauvoir believed which of the following?

In society, women are attached to men.

Women are intrinsically passive and immanent.

Self-constraint is worse than imposed constraint.

Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.

84. According to the passage, immanence is always

a moral fault

a degradation of existence

oppression

85. The passage could best be described as which of the following?

(A) an explanation of existentialist ethics and transcendence

(B) an explanation of feminist theory and female immanence

(D) a description of a philosopher's influences and framework

(E) an outline of social structure and conflicts

Questions 86–87 are based on the following reading passage.

What differentiates science and non-science? According to the modern definition of science, the

Ancient Greeks were not scientists but rather philosophers. Their investigations were performed in an

unscientific manner, as is illustrated by Aristotle and his conclusions about the properties of water. Before

studying water, Aristotle discovered that matter existed in

three main categories: solid, liquid, and gas. He concluded that a solid was the least expanded of the three and

verified this by seeing that a solid always sank in a liquid of the same type. However, when Aristotle

encountered water, he saw that it had properties that contradicted his previous categorization. In order to

reconcile this disparity, he postulated that water was an exception and that the shape of solid water caused it to

stay afloat. This, of course, is incorrect.

To the contrary, the studies of Galileo Galilei followed a certain self-made doctrine for gathering data

and performing scientific experiments. Galileo's method forced one to first form a hypothesis, then design an

experiment to confirm or deny this hypothesis, and then accept or discard the hypothesis based on one's

findings. Using this method, Galileo disproved many commonly held misconceptions about the rules of

physics. In one of his more

famous experiments, Galileo hypothesized that the Earth's gravitational field resulted in the same acceleration

of all objects, regardless of mass. To prove this, he dropped two iron balls of different masses from an

elevated place and showed that gravity pulled on both masses evenly. This experiment disproved the commonly

held belief (at the time) that an object with greater mass would fall to the ground more quickly.

86. The author's primary purpose in writing this passage is to

(A) explain the modern distinction between science and non-science via historical examples

(B) criticize the research methods employed by the Ancient Greek philosophers

(D) compare and contrast the historical definition of science with the modern-day definition

(E) argue that the findings of Galileo are more important than those of Aristotle

87. Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

(A) Solid water has the same shape as other solid forms of matter.

(B) When dropped from the same height, an object with greater mass will fall to the ground more quickly

than an object with less mass.

(D) If Aristotle had followed Galileo's method, he would have rejected his hypothesis that solids were

the least expanded form of matter.

(E) In the absence of the scientific method, one cannot disprove commonly held misconceptions about

the rules of physics.

Questions 88–90 are based on the following reading passage.

Lousia May Alcott's Little Women opens to a common scenario—the women knitting at home and

waiting for news from the man of the family, who is at the war front. The family dynamics of Little Women, as

a microcosm of the larger society, are marked by explicitly articulated male dominance. First of all, the

division of labor has it so that women are confined

to the domestic sphere while men step into the public sphere and engage in activities there, returning to the

5 domestic sphere at night to be cared for by their spouse or female children. Alcott describes the character of

Meg, a young wife, as "often … lonely," with her husband "absent till night, and nothing to do but sew, or read,

or potter about."

Marmee later tells Meg that she ought to "take [her] part in the world's work," even

though she is a woman. Ultimately, however, "taking her part in the world's work" meant no more than talking

to her husband about politics whilst remaining at home, allowing him to continue to be the mediator between

Meg's individuality and the world at large. Chapter 38 of the novel wraps up the issue by concluding that "a

woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor the art of ruling it [as a] wise wife and mother," such

position being "the sort of

shelf on which young wives and mothers may consent to be laid, safe from the restless fret and fever of the

world." Some have read Alcott's romantic glorification of women's confinement as sarcastic, but either way,

her loving readers must have agreed with the statement, for the novel has never been out of print.

88. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) explain the continued popularity of a novel

(B) detail the domestic confinement of 19th century women

(D) argue for the emancipation of women

(E) indict the politics of a literary work

89. The passage implies that for a woman to effectively "take [her] part in the world's work," she must do which of the

following?

(A) talk to her husband about politics

(B) rule her home

(D) find a mediator to interact with the world at large

(E) leave the house

Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.

90. The passage implies which of the following about American society at the time that Little Women depicts?

it was wartime

it glorified women's confinement

the vast majority of public activities took place during the day

Questions 91–92 are based on the following reading passage.

Falsifiability is the term coined by Karl Popper for the idea that a hypothesis or theory addresses the

observable world only insofar as it can be found false as the result of some observation or physical

experiment. For instance, the proposition "All cats have fur" can easily be proven false with the observation of

a single hairless cat. The proposition "The world will

end in the year 3035" is impractical to falsify, but still passes the test of falsifiability in that there exists the

logical possibility that 3035 will come and go without the world ending. To the contrary, it is possible to posit

5 that everything that happens is the will of Zeus. No matter what experiment we design—such as praying to

Zeus to give us the answer or daring Zeus to strike us with lightning—we can always infer that the result is the

will of Zeus. Such a proposition, as

10 conceived here, is not falsifiable. Popper claimed that a falsifiable theory is the only kind that can truly be

scientific, or at least useful to the scientific community.

By that logic, we can also say that no theory should be formed that has no chance of being true. However,

seeing as that kind of theory is much less likely to be formed, it is understandable that Popper does not devote

that much time to the criterion of

15 "confirmability."

91. According to the passage, which of the following does not meet the criteria for falsifiability?

(A) All birds are black.

(B) Earth is the only planet in the universe with intelligent life.

(D) The sun will explode in 100,000 years.

(E) No human being lives forever.

92. To which of the following is the author most likely to agree regarding "confirmability"?

(A) It is a more important theory than falsifiability.

(B) It does not have much practical, scientific use.

(D) It is an unreasonable idea.

(E) Popper should have developed this idea along with falsifiability.

Questions 93–97 are based on the following reading passage.

A dictionary definition of the term political might read something like, "of or concerned with

government, political parties, or politicians." Such a definition is not precisely wrong, but rather is outdated

and falls short by not accounting for what Nancy Fraser calls "the shift from a repressive model of domination

to a hegemonic one." If at some point we believed

governments to operate exclusively through law and the threat and enforcement of concrete punishment, such

as imprisonment, monetary penalties, etc., and called this and all that directly influenced it "politics," we have

now acknowledged the role of hegemony, which legitimizes law and supports the exercise of power.

This is significant because, under the first definition, the only cultural products that can

be said to be political must explicitly address issues of political partisanship or governance, while under the

second definition, all cultural objects can be traced to a certain ideology—in accordance, negotiation, or

opposition to hegemony—and therefore be political.

But we do not feel that we are discussing politics or viewing politics all the time, even if we are,

according to our definition of "the political." This is because even if all subject matter is

(at least potentially) political, not all talk is so. When conducting her study on political talk, Nina Eliasoph

focused not as much on what people talked about, but rather on how exactly they talked about things: "whether

speakers ever assume that what they say matters for someone other than themselves, ever assume that they are

speaking in front of a wider backdrop." She cited Hanna Pitkin in concluding that "public-spirited conversation

happens when citizens

speak in terms of 'justice'." To use an example from the theater, then, we can say that when a director decides

to frame her production of A Streetcar Named Desire as the story of a woman who is losing her mind and

20 does not get along with her aggressive brother-in-law, she is actively depoliticizing the story, whereas she is

actively politicizing it if she decides to frame the narrative as one example of the devastating effects of an old

bourgeois morality, a changing

25 economic system and the social valuing of an abusive model of masculinity.

93. The second paragraph of the passage serves to

(A) offer an alternative to the definitions previously presented

(B) discuss a revision of the definitions previously presented

(D) delineate an exception to the definitions previously presented

(E) describe the inadequacy of the definitions previously presented

94. The author cites A Streetcar Named Desire in order to

(A) provide a counterpoint to the thesis of the passage

(B) illustrate an aspect of the subject under discussion

(D) illustrate the universality of politics

(E) illustrate a fallacy of a definition

95. All of the following provide examples of the hegemonic model of domination EXCEPT:

(A) a penitentiary sentence for assault

(B) a summary execution for treason

(D) censorship of an art exhibit

(E) a successful military coup

96. According to a theory presented in the passage, a person is engaging in public interest conversation if that person

discusses which of the following?

(A) justice

(B) theater

(D) economics

(E) politicians

97. Select a sentence from the first or second paragraph that levels an explicit criticism.

Questions 98–99 are based on the following reading passage.

Explanationism is the idea that prediction is, in itself, insufficient to confirm a theory. To adequately

confirm a theory, according to an explanationist, is to see how well it describes events and phenomena that

have already been observed. Stephen Brush, a staunch explanationist, would say that a correct prediction does

not necessarily confirm the truth of a

theory; it could be the case that a theory predicts something and yet does not provide the best explanation of it.

Take, for example, the difference in the perspectives of Copernicus and Brahe on the solar system.

Copernicus's model of the solar system was heliocentric, positing that all of the planets revolve around the

sun. Brahe's theory stated that all of the planets revolved around the sun, except the earth, which was

immobile, and that the sun actually revolved

around the earth. Even if both accurately predicted future movements of the planets, it is easy to see how

Copernicus's theory has less of an 'ad hoc' quality—and, of course, provides a superior explanation of the

mechanisms of the solar system. It is certainly true that a theory can successfully predict a certain event, yet

fail to provide an adequate explanation for why it happened, or perhaps even stumble on the prediction more by

accident than by manner of

15 understanding the mechanism behind the event.

A predictionist would argue that while a theory can provide a perfect explanation for something

happening, a theory cannot be tested for understanding or explaining the underlying mechanism of a

phenomenon unless it can also predict some event that confirms that exact mechanism at work. For instance, a

physicist might study the formation of solids and

posit that all solids will sink if they are placed in a liquid of the same element, because the solid is denser than

the liquid. Given this premise, we discover that the physicist's prediction is true, and even once he stages an

experiment with ice and water, he will not be proven wrong, but rather will have discovered a unique property

of solid water.

98. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

(A) Explanationism is a superior theory to predictionism.

(B) Two very different ideas can both be used to successfully investigate scientific theories.

(D) One cannot posit a physical theory without predictive power or previous observations.

(E) A predictionist and an explanationist will always diverge on whether a scientific theory is correct.

99. Which of the following most accurately states the author's reason for citing the Copernicus and Brahe models of

the solar system?

(A) It shows that a theory without predictive power can never be tested and verified.

(B) It reveals that some theories can have more or less of an 'ad hoc' quality.

(D) It is used to support the idea that a more complicated model will always fail to a simpler model.

(E) It provides an example of when a theory can correctly predict future events but not offer the best
explanation.

DAILY EXERCISES

Friday, 24 July 2015

RC - Set 3 (July 25 )

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