3. Two underlined sentences are followed by a question or statement. Read the sentences, and then choose the best answer to the question or the best completion of the statement.

Anxious to ensure that America would depart from European traditions regarding religion and royalty, the early U.S. could be described as a place that focused more on work than on the entertainment offered by spectacle and ceremony in the Old World.

However, national celebrations such as the lighting of the White House Christmas Tree and the ceremonies used to swear in new federal officials give the American people some experiences that are based upon national tradition.

What does the second sentence do?

4. Read the passage below and choose the best answer to the question.

The Earth's past climate--including temperature and elements in the atmosphere--has recently been studied by analyzing ice samples from Greenland and Antartica. The air bubbles in the ice have shown that, over the past 160,000 years, there has been a close correlation between temperature changes and level of natural greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. One recent analysis from Greenland showed that at the end of the last glacial period (when the great ice sheets began to retreat to their present position), temperatures in southern Greenland rose from 5 to 7 degrees in about 100 years.

Air bubbles are not the only method of determining characteristics of the Earth's ancient climate history. Analysis of dust layers from ancient volcanic activity is another such method; as is the study of ice cores, which interpret past solar activity that may have affected our climate.

This passage states that:

Before video cameras were widely used, home and business owners had to rely only on written reports and photos as a way to document their valuables for insurance purposes. This form of documentation was difficult for some insurance policy holders. They found it was easy to lose lists, forget to add new items they purchased, or delete items they no longer had. As a result these insurance inventories were often inaccurate.

While video taping is not an option for every home or business owner, this kind of insurance documentation is helpful for some.

How are these passages related?

6. Two underlined sentences are followed by a question or a statement. Read the sentences, and then choose the best answer to the question or the best completion of the statement.

Public speaking is very different from everyday conversation.

First of all, speeches are much more structured than a typical informal discussion.

How are these sentences related?

French physicist Charles Fabry found ozone gas in the atmosphere in 1913. At room temperature, ozone is a colorless gas; it condenses to a dark blue liquid at -170 F. At temperatures above the boiling point of water, 212 F, it decomposes.

Ozone is all around us. After a thunderstorm, or around electrical equipment, ozone is often detected as a sharp odor. Ozone is used as a strong oxidizing agent, a bleaching agent, and to sterilize drinking water. This gas is also highly reactive. For example, rubber insulation around a car's spark plug wires will need to be replaced eventually, due to the small amounts of ozone produced when electricity flows from the engine to the plug.

These passages imply that:

In most cases little birds lay little eggs. The kiwi is an astonishing exception to this rule--it is a smallish bird that lays a big egg. The kiwi, a flightless bird found in New Zealand, weighs about four pounds, and its egg weighs, believe it or not, about one pound. That is one-fourth of the bird's body weight! If an ostrich laid an egg that was in the same proportion to the ostrich as the kiwi egg is to the kiwi, an ostrich egg would weigh a whopping seventy-five pounds instead of the usual three pounds.

Which statement below best describes the organizational method used in this passage?

The rise in personal debt in recent years is due largely to aggressive and unwarranted hustling by credit-card companies. Between 1990 and 1996, credit card debt doubled. Today it is still rising. Credit cards with interest rates reaching nearly 20 percent are a remarkably lucrative part of the loan business. Debtors pay an average of $1000. a year in interest and fees alone, money that could instead have been used for a college or retirement fund. Using subtle tactics to tempt unwary consumers to borrow, credit-card companies have led consumers to hold more cards and to fork over a bigger and bigger fraction of their income to the companies.

Which statement best reflects the organization used in this passage?