Monthly Archives: November 2008

The meticulous art student arranged her paint colors by a darkening __________

on her palette.

a. tincture                    b. juncture                c. moratorium                  

d. gradation                 e. limitation           

She is a meticulous student, which means she is a bit of a neat freak and does everything in a very orderly and regimented manner. The only choice that works here is “gradation.” She arranged her colors in order from lighter to darker. That’s exactly the kind of think a meticulous painter would do. The answer is (D).

source:  learnatest.com

The king’s —- decisions as a diplomat and administrator led to his legendary reputation as a just and —- ruler.

(A) quick . . capricious

(B) equitable . . wise

(C) immoral . . perceptive

(D) generous . . witty

(E) clever . . uneducated

Generally, someone with a “legendary” reputation is known for something good, as opposed to someone who is “infamous,” or “notorious.” We should figure therefore that the first blank is going to be a positive trait. That would rule out (C) for sure and probably, although not necessarily, (A) and (E). We should look at (B) and (D) to find the answer. A king would not be labeled a “witty” ruler for having made “generous” decisions. He could, however, be regarded as “wise” for having made “equitable” decisions. The answer is (B).

source:  www2.leapfrog.com

The questions below are based on the following passage:

That well-imagined nightmare in which a bloodthirsty Tyrannosaurus rex is chasing the family car down a lonely road in the red-rock desert as the children scream and the gas gauge hovers on empty and the dinosaur gnashes at the rear bumper is just that: a bad dream. T. rex was a slowpoke. The most feared and revered of the dinosaurs did not have the leg strength to run very fast, if at all, according to a computer model developed by two experts in the mechanical movements of living creatures.

7.     The model suggests the Cretaceous landscape was filled with large, lumbering creatures that any human with a fast car or bike or maybe even a quick sprint could outpace. The research brings the discipline of biomechanics to the long and at times contentious debate over just how fast the largest of the largest creatures ever to roam Earth could run. “Large animals need a larger fraction of their body mass as leg muscles in order to do the same things that smaller animals can do, but there is a limit to how large that fraction can be,” said John Hutchinson, co-author of the paper and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Biomechanical Engineering Division at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

15.     At 13,228 pounds (6,000 kilograms), T. rex was over that limit, he said. So, too, were some of T. rex’s potential prey, such as Edmontosaurus (large duckbill) and Triceratops (horned dinosaur). Consequently, Hutchinson and his colleague Mariano Garcia, a mechanical engineer in Ithaca, New York, concluded that the large dinosaurs must have lumbered around at a much slower pace than suggested by some paleontologists and depicted in popular movies. A classic scene in the movie Jurassic Park, for example, shows T. rex chasing a car that’s traveling about 45 miles (72 kilometers) an hour. According to Hutchinson and Garcia’s model, that’s impossible. Eighty-six percent of T. rex’s body mass would have to be leg muscle for the behemoth dinosaur to run that fast. No creatures can have most of their body weight in their legs. It doesn’t leave enough room for a skeleton, muscles, and other body parts.

25.     “An animal cannot be made 100 percent out of leg muscle,” said Hutchinson. “In fact, muscle of any kind normally is about one half of an animal’s mass, and supportive leg muscle is usually only 5 to 20 percent of an animal’s mass.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

1. The passage is concerned with the theme that

(a) Movies are correct in portraying that large dinosaurs are very fast
(b) The general perception of large animals or dinosaurs being fast is incorrect
(c) T Rex was the fastest dinosaur that roamed the earth
(d) Jurrassic park was made by a paleontologist
(e) A large dinosaur had more than 50% of its body mass as leg muscle

2. In line 9 the words “Contentious” means

(a) Disputative
(b) Callous
(c) Conclusive
(d) Incorrect
(e) Misleading

3. On the subject of leg muscle the passage says that

(a) An animal can be made of 100% leg muscle
(b) Eighty Six percent of a T Rex’s body mass is leg muscle
(c) 5 to 20% of an animal’s mass is usually the leg muscle
(d) The larger the animal the smaller the leg muscle component of body mass
(e) The smaller the animal the larger the leg muscle component of body mass

1. The author makes no reference at all to the movies; he only refers to nightmares. We can rule (A) out for that reason alone. Also, the article says just the opposite—that large dinosaurs were actually very slow.  (C) is wrong also, for pretty much the same reason. Nowhere does the article mention that Jurassic Park was made by a paleontologist, so (D) is out. (E) is never stated in the article. Clearly, (B) is the right choice—the whole point of the article is to clear up misconceptions about the speed of large dinosaurs. The answer is (B).
2. “Contentious” is used here to describe “debate.” A debate involves a dispute over a particular issue. Debate can potentially be callous, conclusive, incorrect, or misleading; however, disputative makes more sense than any of these. Remember, here you’re looking for the BEST response, not just any response that might work. The answer is (A).
3. Just read the last sentence! The answer is right there—no explanation needed! The answer is (C).

source:  sat-question-bank.cracksat.com

As is often the case, the sentence completion questions are easy if you have a good vocabulary; they are very difficult if you do not. Here, the idea is that the speakers are speaking at the same time. This is a good example of the importance of knowing your Greek and Latin roots. ”Concur” literally means to “run along with.” One meaning of “concur” is “to agree, or to go along with.” “Concurrent” literally means “running together.” We most often hear this word used in connection with prison sentences—if someone is serving concurrent sentences, it means that they are serving two or more sentences at the same time. The answer is (A).

source:  collegeapps.about.com