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OR
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OR
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Topic
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In 1803 the United States negotiated the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. With a stroke of a pen America doubled in size, making it one of the largest nations in the world. The sale included over 600 million acres at a cost of less than 3 cents an acre in what today is the better part of 13 states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. For President Thomas Jefferson it was a diplomatic and political triumph. In one fell swoop the purchase of Louisiana ended the threat of war with France and opened up the land west of the Mississippi to settlement. By any measure the purchase of Louisiana was the most important action of Jefferson’s two terms as president. Jefferson knew that acquiring the very heart of the American continent would prove to be the key to the future of the United States.

Initially Jefferson sent his minister to France, Robert Livingston, offered Napoleon $2 million for a small tract of land on the lower Mississippi. There, Americans could build their own seaport. Impatient at the lack of news, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to offer $10 million for New Orleans and West Florida. Almost at the same time, and unknown to Jefferson, France had offered all of Louisiana to Livingston for $15 million.

Though the transaction was quickly sealed, there were those who objected to the purchase on the grounds that the Constitution did not provide for purchasing territory. However, Jefferson temporarily set aside his idealism to tell his supporters in Congress that “what is practicable must often control what is pure theory.” The majority agreed. Jefferson later admitted that he had stretched his power “till it cracked” in order to buy Louisiana, the largest single land purchase in American history.

1. What is the passage mainly about?
(a) Jefferson’s most important action during two terms as President
(b) how America doubled in size overnight, through its largest single land purchase
(c) testing the United States Constitution
(d) Jefferson and his most important action of the Purchase of Louisiana

2. According to the passage, how much was paid for each acre of land
(a) less than 3 cents
(b) 8 cents
(c) 15 million dollars
(d) over 600 million dollars

3. The word it in line 6 refers to
(a) ending the threat of war with France
(b) opening up land west of the Mississippi
(c) the sale
(d) doubling the size of America overnight

4. The word acquiring in line 10 is closest in meaning to
(a) going to
(b) obtaining
(c) abandoning
(d) including

5. Which of the following, according to the passage, is NOT true
(a) Jefferson acted outside his constitutional powers
(b) Congress did not fully support Jefferson
(c) Jefferson sent Robert Livingston to France with an offer for New Orleans and West Florida
(d) America wanted to build its own seaport

6. The word idealism in line 20 is closest in meaning to
(a) vision
(b) principles
(c) realism
(d) philosophy

7. The phrase pure theory in line 22 is closest in meaning to
(a) meant to be
(b) rules that are meant to be broken
(c) untested rules
(d) the unworkable

8. According to the passage, the word power in line 23 refers to Jefferson using
(a) the negotiations
(b) constitutional power
(c) his idealism
(d) practical power

At a certain school, the ratio of the number of second graders to the number of fourth graders is 8 to 5, and the ratio of the number of first graders to the number of second graders is 3 to 4.  If the ratio of the number of third graders to the number of fourth graders is 3 to 2, what is the ratio of the number of first graders to the number of third graders?

A) 16 to 15
B) 9 to 5
C) 5 to 16
D) 5 to 4
E) 4 to 5

HUMDRUM : BORE

A) grim:amuse
B) nutritious:sicken
C) stodgy:excite
D) heartrending:move
E) pending:worry

7 identical balls have to be distributed to 4 people such that each one gets at least one ball. What are the number of ways of distribution such that at least one gets 3 balls?

A) 7
B) 28
C) 81
D) 2401
E) None of these

Years after the movement to obtain civil rights for black people in the United States made its most important gains, scholars are reaching for a theoretical perspective capable of clarifying its momentous developments. New theories of social movements are being discussed, not just among social psychologists, but also among political theorists.

Of the many competing formulations of the “classical” social psychological theory of social movement, three are prominent in the literature on the civil rights movement: “rising expectations,” “relative deprivation,” and “J-curve.” Each conforms to a causal sequence characteristic of classical social movement theory, linking some unusual condition, or “system strain,” to the generation of unrest. When these versions of the classical theory are applied to the civil rights movement, the source of strain is identified as a change in black socioeconomic status that occurred shortly before the widespread protest activity of the movement.

For example, the theory of rising expectations asserts that protest activity was a response to psychological tensions generated by gains experienced immediately prior to the civil rights movement. Advancement did not satisfy ambition, but created the desire for further advancement. Only slightly different is the theory of relative deprivation. Here the impetus to protest is identified as gains achieved during the premovement period, coupled with simultaneous failure to make any appreciable headway relative to the dominant group. The J-curve theory argues that the movement occurred because a prolonged period of rising expectations and gratification was followed by a sharp reversal.

Political theorists have been dismissive of these applications of classical theory to the civil rights movement. Their arguments rest on the conviction that, implicitly, the classical theory trivializes the political ends of movement participants, focusing rather on presumed psychological dysfunctions: reduction of complex social situations to simple paradigms of stimulus and response obviates the relevance of all but the shortest-term analysis. Furthermore, the theories lack predictive value: “strain” is always present to some degree, but social movement is not. How can we know which strain will provoke upheaval?

These very legitimate complaints having frequently been made, it remains to find a means of testing the strength of the theories. Problematically, while proponents of the various theories have contradictory interpretations of socioeconomic conditions leading to the civil rights movement, examination of various statistical records regarding the material status of black Americans yields ample evidence to support any of the three theories. The steady rise in median black family income supports the rising expectations hypothesis; the stability of the economic position of black vis-à-vis white Americans lends credence to the relative deprivation interpretation; unemployment data are consistent with the J-curve theory. A better test is the comparison of each of these economic indicators with the frequency of movement-initiated events reported in the press; unsurprisingly, none correlates significantly with the pace of reports about movement activity.

1) It can be inferred from the passage that the classical theory of social movement would not be appropriately applied to an annual general election because such an election
(A)  may focus on personalities rather than on political issues
(B)  is not provoked primarily by an unusual condition
(C)  may be decided according to the psychological needs of voters
(D)  may not entail momentous developments
(E)  actually entails two or more distinct social movements

2) According to the passage, the “rising expectations” and “relative deprivation” models differ in which one of the following ways?
(A)  They predict different responses to the same socioeconomic conditions.
(B)  They disagree about the relevance of psychological explanations for protest movements.
(C)  They are meant to explain different kinds of social change.
(D)  They describe the motivation of protesters in slightly different ways.
(E)  They disagree about the relevance of socioeconomic status to system strain.

3) The author implies that political theorists attribute which one of the following assumptions to social psychologists who apply the classical theory of social movements to the civil rights movement?
(A)  Participants in any given social movement have conflicting motivations.
(B)  Social movements are ultimately beneficial to society.
(C)  Only strain of a socioeconomic nature can provoke a social movement.
(D)  The political ends of movement participants are best analyzed in terms of participants’ psychological motivations.
(E)  Psychological motivations of movement participants better illuminate the causes of social movements than do participants’ political motivations.

4) Which one of the following statements is supported by the results of the “better test” discussed in the last paragraph of the passage?
(A)  The test confirms the three classical theories discussed in the passage.
(B)  The test provides no basis for deciding among the three classical theories discussed in the passage.
(C)  The test shows that it is impossible to apply any theory of social movements to the civil rights movement.
(D)  The test indicates that press coverage of the civil rights movement was biased.
(E)  The test verifies that the civil rights movement generated socioeconomic progress.

5) The validity of the “better test” as proposed by the author might be undermined by the fact that
(A)  the press is selective about the movement activities it chooses to cover
(B)  not all economic indicators receive the same amount of press coverage
(C)  economic indicators often contradict one another
(D)  a movement-initiated event may not correlate significantly with any of the three economic indicators
(E)  the pace of movement-initiated events is difficult to anticipate

6) The main purpose of the passage is to
(A)  Persuade historians of the indispensability of a theoretical framework for understanding recent history.
(B)  Present a new model of social movement.
(C)  Account for a shift in a theoretical debate.
(D)  Show the unity underlying the diverse classical models of social movement.
(E)  Discuss the reasoning behind and shortcomings of certain social psychological theories.

SPECKLE : SPOTS ::

(A) Demand : Changes
(B) Perforate : Stamps
(C) Emboss : Planes
(D) Ornament : Stripes
(E) Striate : Grooves

Having sufficient income of her own constituted for  Alice _______ independence that made possible  a degree of  _______ in her emotional life as well.

A) a material . . security
B) a profound . . conformity
C) a financial . . economy
D) a psychological . . extravagance
E) an unexpected . . uncertainty

EQUANIMITY

A) clamour
B) volume
C) disparity
D) agitation
E) caution

The credibility of her _______ description of the  conflicts experienced by many contemporary  women in their everyday lives was undermined by  her _______ conclusions.

A) even-handed . . partisan
B) biased . . lopsided
C) detailed . . careful
D) general . . far-reaching
E) realistic . . valid

INSOLVENCY

A) ability to sustain growth
B) concentration
C) coherence
D) ability to pay one’s debts
E) compatibility

Nearly every writer on the philosophy of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., makes a connection between King and Henry David Thoreau, usually via Thoreau’s famous essay, “Civil Disobedience” (1849) . In his book Stride Toward Freedom (1958) , King himself stated that Thoreau’s essay was his first intellectual contact with the theory of passive resistance to governmental laws that are perceived as morally unjust. However, this emphasis on Thoreau’s influence on King is unfortunate: first, King would not have agreed with many other aspects of Thoreau’s philosophy, including Thoreau’s ultimate acceptance of violence as a form of protest; second, an overemphasis on the influence of one essay has kept historians from noting other correspondences between King’s philosophy and transcendentalism. “Civil Disobedience” was the only example of transcendentalist writing with which King was familiar, and in many other transcendentalist writings, including works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, King would have found ideas more nearly akin to his own.

The kind of civil disobedience King had in mind was, in fact, quite different from Thoreau’s view of civil disobedience. Thoreau, like most other transcendentalists, was primarily interested in reform of the individual, whereas King was primarily interested in reform of society. As a protest against the Mexican War, Thoreau refused to pay taxes, but he did not hope by his action to force a change in national policy. While he encouraged others to adopt similar protests, he did not attempt to mount any mass protest action against unjust laws. In contrast to Thoreau, King began to advocate the use of mass civil disobedience to effect revolutionary changes within the social system.

However, King’s writings suggest that, without realizing it, he was an incipient transcendentalist. Most transcendentalists subscribed to the concept of “higher law” and included civil disobedience to unjust laws as part of their strategy. They often invoked the concept of higher law to justify their opposition to slavery and to advocate disobedience to the strengthened Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In his second major book, King’s discussion of just and unjust laws and the responsibility of the individual is very similar to the transcendentalists’ discussion of higher law. In reference to how one can advocate breaking some laws and obeying others, King notes that there are two types of laws, just and unjust; he describes a just law as a “code that squares with the moral law” and an unjust law as a “code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” Thus, King’s opposition to the injustice of legalized segregation in the twentieth century is philosophically akin to the transcendentalists’ opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law in the nineteenth century.

1) Which one of the following best states the main idea of the passage?
(A) King’s philosophy was more influenced by Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience than by any other writing of the transcendentalists.
(B) While historians may have overestimated Thoreau’s influence on King, King was greatly influenced by a number of the transcendentalist philosophers.
(C) Thoreau’s and King’s views on civil disobedience differed in that King was more concerned with the social reform than with the economic reform of society.
(D) Although historians have overemphasized Thoreau’s influence on King, there are parallels between King’s philosophy and transcendentalism that have not been fully appreciated.
(E) King’s ideas about law and civil disobedience were influenced by transcendentalism in general and Thoreau’s essays in particular.

2) Which one of the following statements about “Civil Disobedience” would the author consider most accurate?
(A) It was not King’s first contact with the concept of passive resistance to unjust laws.
(B) It was one of many examples of transcendentalist writing with which King was familiar.
(C) It provided King with a model for using passive resistance to effect social change.
(D) It contains a number of ideas with which other transcendentalists strongly disagreed.
(E) It influenced King’s philosophy on passive resistance to unjust laws.

3) In the first paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with
(A) chronicling the development of King’s philosophy on passive resistance to unjust law
(B) suggesting that a common emphasis on one influence on King’s philosophy has been misleading
(C) providing new information about the influence of twentieth-century philosophers on King’s work
(D) summarizing the work of historians of the most important influences on King’s philosophy
(E) providing background information about nineteenth-century transcendentalist philosophers

4) According to the passage, which one of the following is true of’ Emerson and Fuller?
(A) Some of their ideas were less typical of transcendentalism than were some of Thoreau’s ideas.
(B) They were more concerned with the reform of society than with the reform of the individual.
(C) They would have been more likely than Thoreau to agree with King on the necessity of mass protest in civil disobedience.
(D) Their ideas about civil disobedience and unjust laws are as well known as Thoreau’s are.
(E) Some of their ideas were more similar to King’s than were some of Thoreau’s.

5) According to the passage, King differed from most transcendentalists in that he
(A) opposed violence as a form of civil protest
(B) opposed war as an instrument of foreign policy under any circumstances
(C) believed that just laws had an inherent moral value
(D) was more interested in reforming society than in reforming the individual
(E) protested social and legal injustice in United States society rather than United States foreign policy

6) The passage suggests which one of the following about Thoreau?
(A) He was the first to develop fully the theory of civil disobedience.
(B) His work has had a greater influence on contemporary thinkers than has the work of Emerson and Fuller.
(C) His philosophy does not contain all of the same elements as the philosophies of the other transcendentalists.
(D) He advocated using civil disobedience to force the federal government to change its policies on war.
(E) He is better known for his ideas on social and legal reform than for his ideas on individual reform.

7) The passage provides support for which one of the following statements
(A) They are an example of a way in which King’s ideas differed from Thoreau’s but were similar to the ideas of other transcendentalists.
(B) They provide evidence that proves that King’s philosophy was affected by transcendentalist thought.
(C) They suggest that King, like the transcendentalists, judged human laws by ethical standards.
(D) They suggest a theoretical basis for King’s philosophy of government.
(E) They provide a paraphrase of Thoreau’s position on just and unjust laws.

LACKEY : DEPENDENT ::

(A) Amateur : Artist
(B) Groveler : Petitioner
(C) Coward : Delinquent
(D) Envoy : Emissary
(E) Vicar : Abbot

In Democracies and its Critics, Robert Dahl defends both democratic value and pluralist democracies, or polyarchies (a rough shorthand term for Western political systems) . Dahl argues convincingly that the idea of democracy rests on political equality—the equality capacity of all citizens to determine or influence collective decisions. Of course, as Dahl recognizes, if hierarchical ordering is inevitable in any structure of government, and if no society can guarantee perfect equality in the resources that may give rise to political influence, the democratic principle of political equality is incapable of full realization. So actual systems can be deemed democratic only as approximations to the ideal. It is on these grounds that Dahl defends polyarchy.
As a representative system in which elected officials both determine government policy and are accountable to a broad-based electorate, polyarchy reinforces a diffusion of power away from any single center and toward a variety of individuals, groups, and organizations. It is this centrifugal characteristic, Dahl argues, that makes polyarchy the nearest possible approximation to the democratic ideal. Polyarchy achieves this diffusion of power through party competition and the operation of pressure groups. Competing for votes, parties seek to offer different sections of the electorate what they most want; they do not ask what the majority thinks of an issue, but what policy commitments will sway the electoral decisions of particular groups. Equally, groups that have strong feelings about an issue can organize in pressure groups to influence public policy.

During the 1960s and 1970s, criticism of the theory of pluralist democracy was vigorous. Many critics pointed to a gap between the model and the reality of Western political systems. They argued that the distribution of power resources other than the vote was so uneven that the political order systematically gave added weight to those who were already richer or organizationally more powerful. So the power of some groups to exclude issues altogether from the political agenda effectively countered any diffusion of influence on decision-making.
Although such criticism became subdued during the 1980s, Dahl himself seems to support some of the earlier criticism. Although he regrets that some Western intellectuals demand more democracy from polyarchies than is possible, and is cautious about the possibility of further democratization, he nevertheless ends his book by asking what changes in structures and consciousness might make political life more democratic in present polyarchies. One answer, he suggests, is to look at the economic order of polyarchies from the point of view of the citizen as well as from that of producers and consumers. This would require a critical examination of both the distribution of those economic resources that are at the same time political resources, and the relationship between political structures and economic enterprises.

1) The characterization of polyarchies as “centrifugal” (line 22)  emphasizes the
(A)  way in which political power is decentralized in a polyarchy
(B)  central role of power resources in a polyarchy
(C)  kind of concentrated power that political parties generate in a polyarchy
(D)  dynamic balance that exists between economic enterprises and elected officials in a polyarchy
(E)  dynamic balance that exists between voters and elected officials in a polyarchy

2) In the third paragraph, the author of the passage refers to criticism of the theory of polyarchy democracy primarily in order to
(A)  refute Dahl’s statement that Western intellectuals expect more democracy from polyarchies than is possible
(B)  advocate the need for rethinking the basic principles on which the theory of democracy rests
(C)  suggest that the structure of government within pluralist democracies should be changed
(D)  point out a flaw in Dahl’s argument that the principle of political equality cannot be fully realized
(E)  point out an objection to Dahl’s defense of polyarchy

3) According to the passage, the aim of a political party in a polyarchy is to do which one of the following?
(A)  determine what the position of the majority of voters is on a particular issue
(B)  determine what position on an issue will earn the support of particular groups of voters
(C)  organize voters into pressure groups in order to influence public policy on a particular issue
(D)  ensure that elected officials accurately represent the position of the party on specific issue
(E)  ensure that elected officials accurately represent the position of the electorate on specific issues

4) It can be inferred from the passage that Dahl assumes which one of the following in his defense of polyarchies?
(A)  Polyarchies are limited in the extent to which they can embody the idea of democracy.
(B)  The structure of polyarchical governments is free of hierarchical ordering.
(C)  The citizens of a polyarchy have equal access to the resources that provide political influence.
(D)  Polyarchy is the best political system to foster the growth of political parties.
(E)  Polyarchy is a form of government that is not influenced by the interests of economic enterprises.

5) Which one of the following is most closely analogous to pluralist democracies as they are described in relation to the democratic principle of political equality?
(A)  an exact copy of an ancient artifact that is on display in a museum
(B)  a performance of a musical score whose range of tonality cannot be completely captured by any actual instruments
(C)  a lecture by a former astronaut to a class of young students who would like to be astronauts
(D)  the commemoration of a historical event each year by a historian presenting a lecture on a topic related to the event
(E)  the mold from which a number of identical castings of a sculpture are made

6) Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen Dahl’s defense of polyarchy?
(A)  The political agenda in a polyarchy is strongly influenced by how power resources other than the vote are distributed.
(B)  The outcome of elections is more often determined by the financial resources candidates are able to spend during campaigns than by their stands on political issue.
(C)  Public policy in a polyarchy is primarily determined by decision-makers who are not accountable to elected officials.
(D)  Political parties in a polyarchy help concentrate political power in the central government.
(E)  Small and diverse pressure groups are able to exert as much influence on public policy in a polyarchy as are large and powerful groups.

7) The passage can best be described as
(A)  an inquiry into how present-day polyarchies can be made more democratic
(B)  a commentary on the means pressure groups employ to exert influence within polyarchies
(C)  a description of the relationship between polyarchies and economic enterprises
(D)  a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of polyarchy as a form of democracy
(E)  an overview of the similarities between political parties and pressure groups in a polyarchy

Her tone of voice  _______ him:  he could not tell whether she was being ________ or whether he was to take her comment literally.

A) offended . . genuine
B) puzzled . . direct
C) comforted . . kind
D) reassured . . condescending
E) perplexed . . sarcastic

Coma : unconsciousness ::

(A) Amnesia : Exercise
(B) Delirium : Confusion
(C) Paralysis : Distress
(D) Hallucination : Insensibility
(E) Fever : Tranquility

The reception given to Kimura’s radical theory of molecular evolution shows that when _______ fights orthodoxy to a draw, then novelty has seized a good chunk of space from convention.

A) imitation
B) reaction
C) dogmatism
D) invention
E) caution