Questions 1-11 are based on the following passage.

A) NO CHANGE
Benjamin Banneker: Marketing Time B) their
C) it’s
Benjamin Banneker gained local fame for making a D) its
working clock in 1753, a time when few people owned
clocks, let alone understood 1. they’re mechanics. A
twenty-two-year-old free black man living in Maryland,
Banneker learned how to make the clock by examining
the inside of a watch a merchant friend had lent him. His
sharp skills in measuring the passage of time would
eventually lead Banneker to the job of determining the
official borders of the new United States capital.

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 Studious from an early age, Banneker completed his
formal education only up through algebra, at which point A) NO CHANGE

his father pulled him out of school to help on the family B) sky. Charting

farm. A former teacher, however, encouraged Banneker C) sky, charting

to pursue his education independently and lent him the D) sky, he also charted

books to do so. Banneker also studied the 2. sky, he

charted how the migration of the stars relates to the
passage of time. Which choice most effectively establishes the main
topic of the paragraph?

3. When the wealthy Ellicott family built a flour A) In the 1770s, Banneker made a fortuitous

mill not far from his farm, Banneker befriended George friendship.

4. Ellicott. Ellicott’s knowledge about science and B) The 1770s were filled with social and political

astronomy impressed him. They met regularly at the upheaval.

flour mill and 5. Banneker’s home, where they met to C) Banneker’s life was significantly influenced by

discuss debates in astronomy. From Ellicott, Banneker several people.

borrowed books by authors such as James Ferguson, D) Banneker continued his studies in science

a leading astronomer of the time and math.

Which choice most effectively combines the

sentences at the underlined portion?
A) Ellicott of whom
B) Ellicott, from whom his
C) Ellicott, while Ellicott’s
D) Ellicott, whose

A) NO CHANGE
B) at Banneker’s home, meeting
C) Banneker’s home
D) Banneker’s home, meeting

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 [1] In that same decade, the United states became a A) NO CHANGE
fledgling nation with no permanent capital. [2] Federal B) will be
legislators met in eight different northern cities before C) have been
they decided that, as part of a broader compromise, a D) was
capital should be built farther south. [3] His cousin
George likely recommended Banneker for the job. [4]
In 1791 President Washington issued a directive: the
A) NO CHANGE
capital would be situated on the Potomac River and
B) particular about
encompass a ten-mile square that included the booming
C) particularly
port s of Georgetown, then a part of Maryland, and
D) in particularly
Alexandria, Virginia. [5] Leading the team to determine
the capital’s boundaries 6. were Major Andrew Ellicott,
a well known land surveyor who needed a capable To make this paragraph most logical, sentence 3
assistant. [6] Land surveying, the art of measuring should be placed
horizontal and vertical distances between objects, A) where it is now.
demands a strong command of trigonometry and B) after sentence 4.
astronomy, 7. particularly to the ability to chart C) after sentence 5
mathematically the course of celestial bodies in relation D) after sentence 6
to the curvature of the rotating Earth—skills Banneker
possessed. 8.

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 Banneker and the rest of Major Ellicott’s crew set up
A) NO CHANGE
camp on Jones Point in early March 1791. A peninsula
B) Not surprisingly,
extending into the Potomac river, the point offered an
C) After some time,
expansive view of the territory. 9. Additionally, a
D) Today
National Park Service plaque at Jones Point 10.
commemorates the men’s contributions in shaping the
capital. On a clear day, looking north across the water,
visitors can see the domed Capital building rising toward A) NO CHANGE

the sky. 11. B) memorizes

C) magnifies
D) fossilized

At this point, the writer is considering adding the

following sentence.

Visitors to Jones Point can also enjoy activities

such as fishing and kayaking.

Should the writer make this addition here?

A) Yes, because it contributes to the description of
Jones Point as it is in the present.
B) Yes, because it encourages reader to visit a place
of historical importance.
C) No, because it strays from the paragraph’s focus
on Banneker’s publications.
D) No, because it tacks on irrelevant information at
the end of the passage.

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Questions 11-22 are based on the following passage.
The writer is considering revising the underlined
part of the sentence into
Energy Storage Under pressure

sources—gas, wind, or solar power—

Renewable energy 12. sources pose a challenge for
the businesses and utilities that use them: the need to
Should the writer make this revision here?
store surplus energy to use later, during times of 13. of
A) Yes, because it sets up how the information in the
peak demand. For example, wind fluctuates and generally
passage will be structured.
produce more energy during the night, when demand is
B) Yes, because it offers examples that clarify a key
lower. Conversely, solar power generates most of its
term in the passage.
electricity during the day and provides little power at
C) No, because it groups together examples that are
night. A method of storage called Compressed Air
too different to be used to the passage.
Energy Storage (CAES) 14. is one method that may be
D) No, because it conflicts with information
one of the best solutions to this problem
presented later in the sentence.

A) NO CHANGE
B) for peak
C) of peaked
D) for peaked

A) NO CHANGE
B) is a particular means of storage that
C) constitutes a form of storage that
D) DELETE the underlined portion.

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 [1] Power plants with CAES systems use surplus
energy produced during off-peak hours to pump air into To make this paragraph most logical, sentence 2
large underground cavities, such as naturally occurring or should be placed?
human-made salt or rock caverns. [2] The expanding air A) where it is now.
drives a turbine, generating electricity. [3] The walls of B) after sentence 3.
these spaces have been specially fortified to handle the C) after sentence 4.
high pressure and density of pressurized air. [4] As air is D) after sentence 5.
pumped into the inflexible cavern, the pressure increases
to 1,100 pounds per square inch. [5] When energy is
needed later, the power plant releases pressurized air
from the cavity, causing the air to expand. 15. A) NO CHANGE
B) CAES. One
Currently, only two power plants use 16. CAES; C) CAES: one
one in McIntosh, Alabama, and other in Huntorf, D) CAES, one:
Germany. The McIntosh power plant can produce up to
110 megawatts of electrical energy 17. power, the
German plant can produce 321 megawatts. 18.
Combined, that’s enough energy to service approximately A) NO CHANGE
431,000 homes. There are a few other CAES projects in B) power, as well as
progress across the United States, including pilot projects C) power, and
in Ohio, California, and New Jersey. D) power; while

The writer is considering deleting the underlined

sentence. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?
A) Kept, because it shows the impact of the two
CAES plants currently in use.
B) Kept, because it provides a transition to another
point about how to provide electricity to homes.
C) Deleted, because it ignores differences in the
levels of energy usage of individual homes.
D) Deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph’s
description of the McIntosh facility.

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 There are a number of reasons that so few CAES
units have been built, despite the fact that CAES is one of A) NO CHANGE

only a few reliable ways to store energy from renewable B) CAES;

energy sources. First, huge underground cavities are C) CAES

possible only in certain types of land. Second, even D) CAES—

where these formations exist, reinforcing them and

building the infrastructure for 19. CAES, can cost
upwards of $100 million. Finally, traditional methods of
CAEF 20. requires heat to compress the air, which can A) NO CHANGE
lower the energy efficiency of the process B) had required
C) does require
Though the system is initially expensive and involves D) require
an expenditure of energy, CAES has proven to be
reliable and economically viable in the long term.
Furthermore, researchers have developed methods of
CAES that reach much better efficiency levels by 21.
A) NO CHANGE
apprehending the heat required to compress the air and
B) capturing
reusing it to heat the decompressing air. These methods
C) arresting
can be used in CAES units built in the future. Given the
D) seizing
growing shift to renewable energy, 22. the only
stumbling blocks to additional innovations may be
national energy policies that make potential investors
hesitate.
The writer wants a conclusion that restates the main
idea of the passage. Which choice most effectively
accomplishes this goal?
A) NO CHANGE
B) CASE is a promising solution to one of alternative
energy’s biggest challenges.
C) it is dismaying that CAES technology is not yet as
efficient as it could be.
D) residential appliections of CAES technology—in
addition to large operations—are likely to become
feasible soon.

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Questions 23 - 33 are based on the following passage.
Which choice best combines the sentences at the

A Man of Many Words underlined portion?

A) Johnson announced an ambitious plan for a new

In 1747 the author Samuel 23. Johnson announced English-language dictionary and was encouraged

an ambitious plan for a new English-language dictionary. by a group of London booksellers.

He did so with the encouragement of a group of London B) Johnson, announcing an ambitious plan for a new

Booksellers. Johnson’s goal was to produce an English-language dictionary, was encouraged in

authoritative guide to the language “by which its purity this by a group of London booksellers.

may be preserved.” The completed Dictionary of the C) Johnson announced an ambitious plan for a new

English language finally appeared in 24. 1755, its English-language dictionary; he was encouraged

release was every bit the publishing event that the writer in this by a group of London booksellers.

and his backers had 25. one’s laborious journey from D) Johnson, encouraged by a group of London

planning to publication, however, Johnson’s Dictionary booksellers, announced an ambitious plan for

had become a book with more humble ambitions—one a new English-language dictionary.

that no longer aspired to preserve the purity of the

language. Johnson had come to realize that, like all
language, the English language was living, changing
thing that could not be preserved, only described. A) NO CHANGE
B) 1755, and
C) 1755, as
D) 1755 with

A) NO CHANGE
B) each one’s
C) it’s
D) its

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 Johnson had begun his work in 1746, furnishing his
A) NO CHANGE
house with several large tables and massive heaps of
B) foremost
books. To provide examples of proper word use for his
C) big name
Dictionary, Johnson looked to those he considered the
D) primo
26. hotspot experts on the English language: the leading
English writers of the past and present. Johnson read
through the works of hundreds of 27. writers, his
marking the passages he viewed as exemplary. He then A) NO CHANGE

handed the books off to six scribes he had hired to copy B) writers,

out his chosen excerpts. C) writers, and

D) writers by

28. Johnson was extremely selective in the passages

he used to illustrate his words. No earlier English
lexicographer, or dictionary writer, had attempted to
define words as precisely as Johnson did. However, Which choice best introduce the topic of this

Johnson’s careful analysis of his sources revealed subtle paragraph?

but inexorable changes in the ways words were used by A) NO CHANGE

different writers at different times. When the Dictionary B) It is unknown precisely how much work

was published in 1755, Johnson’s preface 29. Johnson’s scribes did beyond copying down

acknowledged this inherent mutability of language, passages.

noting that no lexicographer “shall imagine that his C) Johnson was not the first writer to create a

dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from dictionary of the English language.

corruption and decay.” D) Next, Johnson undertook the more difficult

task of composing definitions.

Which choice best sets up the quotation from

Johnson later in the sentence?
A) NO CHANGE
B) bemoaned the low status of dictionary writers,
C) explained how the writer determined words
to include,
D) stated that the quotation were carefully chosen
for their style or subject matter,

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 This recognition did not mean that Johnson had no A) NO CHANGE
opinions about how words should be used. On the B) had used
contrary, Johnson 30. used the Dictionary to promote C) will use
words he favored and to protest words he disliked. 31. In D) uses
the definition for “pictorial,” a term coined by Sir
Thomas Browne, Johnson described the word as one
“not adopted by other writers, but elegant and useful.” 32.
By the same token, the word “writative,” which Johnson The writer is considering adding this information.
had found in the letters of Alexander Pope, was not even
granted a definition; Johnson simply wrote “A word of He also included words’ roots and definitions, both
Pope’s coining: not be imitated.” Johnson understood that from Latin and ancient Greek, in his Dictionary.
he could not preserve his language—but he
33. could—at the very least, try to shape its future use. Should the writer make this addition here?
In that more modest goal he appears to have succeeded: A) Yes, because it provides relevant contextual
Johnson’s work stood as the definitive English dictionary information about eighteenth-century dictionaries.
for well over a century, influencing generations of B) Yes, because it puts in perspective just how many
English writers and readers words Johnson had influence over.
C) No, because it interrupts the discussion of how
Johnson used his Dictionary to affect the English
language.
D) No, because it merely repeats information about
Johnson’s Dictionary that appears earlier in the
passage.

A) NO CHANGE
B) On the other hand,
C) For example,
D) Nevertheless,

A) NO CHANGE
B) could, at the very least—
C) could, at the very least,
D) could; at the very least,

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Questions 23 - 33 are based on the following passage
and supplementary material. A) NO CHANGE
B) habitual
Retailers Profit from Paying Well C) routine
D) accustomed
Many retailers rely on discount prices to attract
customers, and these companies’ executives and
managers often assume that they must maintain low
A) NO CHANGE
employee costs to preserve these discounts. However, in
B) benefits—and they have done so
recent years, several retailers have challenged this 34.
C) benefits: and they have done so,
conventional wisdom, offering better-than-average wages
D) benefits and they have done so,
and 35. benefits, and they have done so, while keeping
costs down and performing well financially.

The cost for better compensation for employees is Which choice most effectively combines the

lower than many employers may realize. A 2012 study by sentences at the underlined portion.

Demos, a public policy research and advocacy A) If stores increased their prices to make up for this

organization, noted that if retail workers’ annual earnings expenditure, the additional cost to consumers

were increased so that on average the lowest-paid B) Increasing their prices to make up for this

workers received a 27 percent raise, the additional cost to expenditure, stores could make an additional

employers would amount to only 0.5 percent of total cost to consumers that

retail sales. 36. Stores could increase their prices to make C) The additional cost to consumers to make up for

up for this expenditure. The additional cost to consumers this expenditure would be increased store prices

if they did so would average 30 cents per shopping trip— so that they

hardly enough to keep most customers away. D) If the additional cost to consumers made up for
this expenditure by increasing store prices, it

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 Yet this modest price increase would probably be
unnecessary because increasing pay at retail businesses A) NO CHANGE

increases sales performance. When Professor Zeynap Ton B) stores,

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compared C) stores:

two chains of warehouse club 37. stores—one with D) stores;

better-than-average pay and benefits and another with

lower employee wages, she found that the average
number of sales per employee at the higher-wage club
store was double 38. the employees at the lower-wage
club store. According to Ton’s study, well-paid workers A) NO CHANGE
are friendlier and more helpful to customers, and they B) the ones
were more knowledgeable about the company’s products. C) the number
As a result of their experiences with these employees, D) DELETE the underlined portion
customers were more likely to make purchases.

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 By contrast, many employees at retail stores that pay
A) NO CHANGE
average or below-average wages quit each year, a
B) An examination of
phenomenon known as employee turnover, forcing these
C) When they examined
businesses to rely on inexperienced workers and to
D) Examining
devote resources to finding, hiring, and training new
workers. 39. When examined, the same pair of club
stores that Ton studied, Professor Wayne F. Cascio of
Which choice provides accurate information from the
the University of Colorado found that 40. full- time
table to support the writer’s argument?
employees at the lower paying club store make an
A) NO CHANGE
average of $17 per hour, which costs the firm an
B) 44 percent of full-time employees at the
estimated $5,274 per full-time employee. He found
lower-paying club store leave their jobs each year.
that the turnover rate at the higher-paying club store,
C) 110,200 full-time employees at the lower-paying
however, was lower— 41. the firm’s 67,600 full-time
club store leave their jobs each year.
employees made an average of $17 per hour.
D) full-time employees at the lower-paying club
store make an average of $5,274 each year.

The writer wants to include relevant information

from the table to illustrate the point made in the
first part of the sentence. Which choice best
accomplishes this goal?
A) NO CHANGE
B) and its staff, at 67,600 full-time employees, was
significantly smaller.
C) 17 percent, at a lesser cost of $3,628 per full-time
employees.
D) and it paid its full-time employees $17 per hour
compared with its competitor’s $10 per hour.

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 The club store chains that Ton and Cascio studied 42.
are both successful. Grocery stores, convenience stores, Which choice best introduces the information that
and numerous other businesses have been able to thrive
follow?
in their respective industries while paying significantly
A) NO CHANGE
higher employee wages than their rival. The success of B) have a large workforce.
these businesses 43. highlight that paying workers well
C) are not unique.
44. can be a profitable strategy for retailers.
D) are managed differently.

A) NO CHANGE
B) have highlighted
C) would highlight
D) highlights

Which choice provides the most logical conclusion

to the passage?
A) NO CHANGE
B) may be surprisingly difficult to implement.
C) is one of several ways to boost employee morale.
D) is still the subject of much debate among
employers.

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