Preptests 53 Answers and Explanations (By Ivy Global)
Section 4 – Reading Comprehension
Questions 1 – 6
Analyzing the Passage
Main Point:
Lum’s poetry is distinct from other Hawaiian Asian poetry because he avoids both romanticizing
Hawaiian life and also creating too much nostalgia for homeland life.
Structure:
Paragraph 1 introduces us to Lum, whose poetry breaks from the standard Hawaiian poetry and
is understood on its own terms: it does not romanticize Hawaii multiculturalism nor does it stick solely
to Asian American themes.
In paragraph 2 we’re told about a specific poem by Lum about the role of immigrants, which
speaks both to traditional homeland cultural and new immigration into Hawaiian society. He refuses to
line up with Chinese literary tradition and offer a stereotypical nostalgia for the past.
The final paragraph discusses another poem that discusses the relationship between heritage
and local culture. He weaves symbols that, while hopeful, are also cautious.
Answering the Questions
1. The main point is that Lum’s poetry is distinct from other Hawaiian Asian poetry because he
avoids both romanticizing Hawaiian life and also creating too much nostalgia for homeland life.
a)
b)
c)
d)
This is the correct answer.
“A desire for individual success” is not presented as a main tenet of Lum’s poetry.
Lum doesn’t reject these traditions; he just doesn’t cling blindly to them.
Lum’s work is about immigration to Hawaii and its emotional effect on him, and there’s no
support for a highlighting of differences from continental US life.
e) There’s nothing in this passage to support a characterization of Lum’s poetry as
“unsuccessful.”
2. We will have to go straight to the answer choices for this question.
a) This isn’t at all supported by the passage. We don’t know anything about explaining images.
b) Lum lives away from his homeland, but there’s no evidence that he would think that this is
necessary for growth.
c) This is the correct answer. It is important to recognize your traditional roots, but it is also
important to not let them overpower your life.
d) There’s no support for a static-transient life distinction.
e) The argument is that Lum has done this, so this is the opposite of what he would think.
3. The “flux” describes the diversity and change within the culture and people of Hawaii.
a) There’s no evidence of “social tension.”
b) This isn’t supported by the passage.
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Preptests 53 Answers and Explanations (By Ivy Global)
c) It doesn’t describe the process of all immigrants adapting. It’s moreso about the
multiculturalism and differing perspectives of Hawaiians.
d) This is the correct answer.
e) The passage supports the contention that immigrants didn’t really change their opinion
about their homeland, so this doesn’t work.
4. The first paragraph tells us that Hawaiian Asian American poetry generally portrays Hawaii as a
multicultural paradise, or focuses on familiar Asian American themes, such as generational
conflict.
a) We’re told that Lum doesn’t sacrifice his local sensibility, but not that this is characteristic of
Hawaiian Asian poetry.
b) This is more what Lum brings to the table, which sets him apart from the poetry.
c) This is the correct answer, and refers to generational conflict (line 6).
d) The poetry isn’t about retaining ties, but about literary traditions.
e) Lum searches for this—it’s not characteristic of the poetry.
5. “Striking” is used to highlight the poem’s “demand to be understood on its own terms,” as
separate from the Hawaiian Asian standard work.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
This isn’t supported by the passage.
Literary critics aren’t mentioned regarding this work.
We don’t know anything about Lum’s earlier work.
This is the correct answer.
It’s not that Lum’s poems are experimental or interesting in form—they are just very
different, content-wise, from other Hawaiian Asian works.
6. We will have to go straight to the answer choices.
a) Political ideologies are out of the scope of this passage.
b) Lum veers off the course of his literary forebears, so this doesn’t make too much sense.
c) This passage is specific to Hawaiian Asian Americans, so “any human being in any culture” is
too widespread to be applicable.
d) This is the correct answer. Lum turns a critical eye to both his past and his present.
e) Lum isn’t antipathetic toward tradition. He just explores it more thoughtfully and reservedly
than most Hawaiian Asian American poets.
Questions 7 – 14
Analyzing the Passage
Main Point:
Common law is often studied within history or one coherent system, and one theorist argues
that it should be understood through its development.
Structure:
Paragraph 1 highlights the importance of historical knowledge in order to understand common
law, which, in England, involves the studying of a lot of archaic and medieval work.
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Preptests 53 Answers and Explanations (By Ivy Global)
Jurisprudence, on the other hand, is described in paragraph 2 as a notion that is studied as a
coherent system instead of historical development. The past, in this view, is just continuous successions
of states of presence.
Paragraph 3 introduces us to Goodrich, who believes that common law is best studied as a
historical narrative and not as a set of rules or within the events occurring around it. Tradition
emphasizes preservation, transmission, and rewriting of forms.
Answering the Questions
7. The main point is that common law is often studied within history or one coherent system, and
one theorist argues that it should be understood through its development.
a) This passage doesn’t combine approaches to reveal something deeper about common law—
it just lays out the various approaches.
b) Political terms are used to describe the analysis of jurisprudence, but this doesn’t stand at
combat with theoretical approaches.
c) Goodrich still believes that development is necessary and important to the study of
common law.
d) This is the correct answer.
e) There is no revelation in this passage about the fairness of law.
8. Part of modern jurisprudence treats common law in a way that is not indicative of its true nature
(this explanation is found at 35 – 39.)
a) This is the correct answer—treating law as it were just objective application of rules to
facts is incorrect.
b) There is no objective “proof” in this passage.
c) The author doesn’t make a judgment call about which approach is best.
d) Jurisprudence looks to find the coherence in legal tradition, so this isn’t right.
e) The mischaracterization of law is what could be dispiriting, not the lack of legal history.
9. These interpretive theories examine past sets of rule or laws without looking at how they relate
to current ones.
a) This connects modern theory with past ones.
b) This connects modern theory with the past.
c) This is the correct answer. It looks at an historical set of laws without looking at their
relationship to current ones.
d) This compares the legal systems of different nations, and so is out of scope.
e) Comparing two different legal systems is out of scope.
10. We will need to go straight to the questions.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Common law is a continually developing tradition, not a relic or a set of rules.
Goodrich makes no arguments for a current set of incoherent laws.
This is the viewpoint of modern jurisprudence, not Goodrich necessarily.
History is not useless to Goodrich; it just needs to be better utilized.
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e) This is the correct answer. Common law is continually developing and changing through
time.
11. “Political” is used to describe the maintenance of the effectiveness of the legal institution.
d) This is the correct answer.
12. British law students are required to study medieval cases, interpret Latin maxims, and explore
“timeless” doctrinal principles.
b) This is the correct answer.
13. The author thinks that modern jurisprudence understands an important part of the legal
tradition, but misses the mark in terms of the complexity of application of rules within the
common law system.
a) This isn’t mentioned.
b) This is the correct answer—they look at law as a set of rules to be applied, and miss an
entire sphere of the historical development of law.
c) The opposite is true. They lack a political need for spiriting and maintaining respect from
the public.
d) This isn’t mentioned.
e) This isn’t mentioned.
14. The passage gives us two contradictory theories of approaching common law, and then a third,
new point of view regarding it.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
This is the correct answer.
This passage is not organized chronologically.
The theorist is only mentioned in the last paragraph.
All of these legal theories are used today.
None of the traditions are advocated.
Questions 15 – 19
Analyzing the Passages
Passage A
Main Point:
Research into the public good is threatened by the trend of treating research as a commodity.
Structure:
Paragraph 1 tells us that university researchers work in a gift economy, free from market
pressures, that is being threatened now by the tendency to treat research findings as commodities.
Universities, we’re told in paragraph 2, have typically been the birthplace of new ideas, and
commercial enterprises lack the expertise and patience for the revision needed.
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Paragraph 3 argues further that entrepreneurs are apt to buy and hide research if they don’t like
it—an example is the industrial biotechnology industry.
The author expresses her concern in the final paragraph that the future of scientific discovery is
hindered by this trend.
Passage B
Main Point:
Research has been commodified and this has raised questions regarding intellectual property.
Structure:
Paragraph 1 introduces us to the fruits of pure science—they were once a public good, available
to all and produced through government support of universities.
Paragraph 2 warns us that now our “information economy” has transformed this into a
commodity. An example is given-- the biotechnology industry—and this example highlights the
importance of intellectual property rights.
Paragraph 3 argues that, while there was once a distinction between patenting a discovery and
invention, that line has now been blurred.
The industry apparently believes that they have a right to discovery or invention they have
funded the development of.
Answering the Questions
15. We will have to go straight to the questions.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
This is the correct answer.
Both A and B discuss this.
Both A and B discuss this.
Both A and B discuss this in their examples regarding biotechnology.
A discusses this, but not B.
16. Both passages pit the public good of pure science against the market commodity of research.
c) This is the correct answer.
17. We will have to go straight to the questions for this.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
A mentions this, but not B.
A mentions this, but not B.
Neither passage mentions this.
This is the correct answer. Both passages mention this.
A mentions this, but not B.
18. Both authors believe that this constraint comes from the treating of research as a marketable
commodity.
c) This is the correct answer.
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Preptests 53 Answers and Explanations (By Ivy Global)
19. We will have to go straight to the answer choices for this.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
This is not mentioned in either passage.
Only B talks about patents.
Only B talks about patents.
This is the correct answer. Both passages speak of past, free-sharing university research.
This is not supported by either passage.
Questions 20 – 27
Analyzing the Passage
Main Point:
Natural predators can often keep agricultural pests in check—an example of this is cyclamen
mites and their predator, Typhlodromus.
Structure:
Paragraph 1 tells us about the cyclamen mite, a pest whose population is best controlled when
free reign is given to its predator: Typhlodromus. These predatory mites subdue and maintain the
cyclamen population.
Paragraph 2 lays out the factors that help Typhlodromus be an effective predator: voracious
appetite, a rapidly increasing population, and seasonal synchrony.
An experiment in paragraph 3 confirms the assertion that predation is important for keeping
cyclamen in check—the plants stocked with predators were low in cyclamen, but the ones sprayed with
parathion, which kills both predator and prey, were infested.
Paragraph 4 is a conclusive paragraph, reiterating the importance of predators to keep cyclamen
in check, and suggesting that using parathion clearly does more harm than good.
Answering the Question
20. The main point is that natural predators can often keep agricultural pests in check—an example
of this is cyclamen mites and their predator, Typhlodromus.
a) The main point is that some plants are best protected through predators—the failed use of
some pesticides is used in support of this, so is not the main point itself.
b) The experiment was used as support, but there’s no indication that it was a necessary piece
of evidence.
c) This is the correct answer.
d) Predation is, according to the author, a better way than through pesticide. This doesn’t
mean it’s necessarily the best way.
e) This is only one of the factors that make Typhlodromus effective.
21. This answer will likely be based on one of the factors in paragraph 2—appetite, ability to rapidly
reproduce, or seasonal synchronous reproduction and consumption—but it’s hard to predict
which direction the answer will go in, so we’ll have to go straight to the answer choices.
a) The reproduction doesn’t have to be synchronized if the predator can survive without the
prey. Typhlodromus can’t survive as well in the winter without the cyclamen, so their
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Preptests 53 Answers and Explanations (By Ivy Global)
b)
c)
d)
e)
population dwindles to live off the small bits of subsistence. They reproduce once they
begin consuming mites again.
The experiment was just used as evidence; there’s no evidence that the author believes it to
be a necessary component of determining applicability.
This is definitely not necessary, since we’re told in the second paragraph that the dwindling
of the population of Typhlodromus happens once the cyclamen decline.
This is the correct answer—the Typhlodromus adapt to the number of cyclamen and can
reproduce and consume at whatever rate the cyclamen produce.
This isn’t at all helpful, and discussion of using pesticides is out of the scope of an argument
about long-term predatory control.
22. Three factors are mentioned in paragraph 2: appetite, ability to rapidly reproduce, or seasonal
synchronous reproduction and consumption.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
This isn’t mentioned.
This isn’t mentioned.
This isn’t mentioned.
This isn’t mentioned (remember, we lose cyclamen in the winter months).
This is the correct answer (lines 34 – 36).
23. According the paragraph 2, Typhlodromus change their reproduction rate based on the
availability of cyclamen—so if fewer cyclamen were produced, then Typhlodromus would simply
slow their reproduction to the same rate as cyclamen and effectively control that population.
a) This is the correct answer.
b) Typhlodromus would work just as well no matter how many cyclamen, and would be better
at controlling the population than an insecticide that decreased but didn’t eliminate
cyclamen. This answer tells us the opposite.
c) Typhlodromus can adapt to the cyclamen’s reproductive schedule.
d) The Typhlodromus population would decrease to synchronize with the cyclamen, but
there’s no evidence that they would increase again unless the cyclamen did.
e) Typhlodromus can adapt to the cyclamen’s reproductive schedule so the levels of cyclamen
would, in the end, be about the same.
24. We will have to go straight to the answer choices for this.
a) Parathion has been proven ineffective in controlling cyclamen, according to paragraph 3, so
this wouldn’t work.
b) There’s no hint of caution regarding the use of predators in this passage—they’ve been
proven effective.
c) This is the correct answer. Natural predators are a better option than pesticides, and so
should be the go-to choice.
d) The author doesn’t talk about useful insecticides, so we can’t make any inferences about
them.
e) Harm is not the reason that predators are more effective; they are simply better at
controlling the pest population (according to paragraph 4).
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Preptests 53 Answers and Explanations (By Ivy Global)
25. The reproduction of each species is mentioned in order to support the claim that Typhlodromus
mites can reproduce as fast as or faster than cyclamen mites.
a) We don’t know about any mites other than Typhlodromus and cyclamen.
b) Reproductive life span is out of scope; this is about the frequency of reproduction.
c) This is the third factor of the second paragraph. This claim is about the speed, not cycles, of
reproduction.
d) This is the correct answer.
e) The opposite of this is true, according to paragraph 2.
26. We will have to go straight to the answers for this question.
a) Life span does not necessarily correlate with frequency of reproduction—this isn’t
supported by the passage.
b) This is stated in the passage already.
c) The length of winters doesn’t matter; the Typhlodromus can adapt to reproductive changes.
d) This would weaken the author’s argument by suggesting a way that Typhlodromus would
not be able to do their work.
e) This is the correct answer; it helps by suggesting that Typhlodromus won’t die during a
particularly bad winter or dry spell.
27. We will have to go straight to the answer choices.
a) This is the correct answer. There’s no suggestion that strawberry plants affect either
species in any way.
b) This is a benefit that Typhlodromus have, and not necessarily required for predation.
c) Other pests are out of scope and so we cannot make any inferences about them. The
author doesn’t mention them at all.
d) There is no support for a need for pesticides—in fact, in paragraph 3, the author states that
parathion actually damages the crop.
e) We don’t know why cyclamen mites have become a problem.
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