Happy New Year 2012

Achievers Family wish you a v v v Very Happy New Year 2012

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