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The four Galilean satellites of Jupiter probably experienced early, intense bombardment. Thus, the very ancient surface of Callisto remains scarred by impact craters. The younger, more varied surface of Ganymede reveals distinct light and dark areas, the light areas featuring networks of intersecting grooves and ridges, probably resulting from later ice flows. The impact sites of Europa have been almost completely erased, apparently by water outflowing from the interior and instantly forming vast, low, frozen seas. Satellite photographs of Io, the closest of the four to Jupiter, were revelatory. They showed a landscape dominated by volcanoes, many erupting, making Io the most tectonically active object in the solar system. Since a body as small as Io cannot supply the energy for such activity, the accepted explanation has been that, forced into a highly eccentric orbit, Io is engulfed by tides stemming from a titanic contest between the other three Galilean moons and Jupiter.
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According to the passage, which of the following is probably NOT true of the surface of Io?
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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) estimates music piracy is the source of over, $4 billion each year in lost profits. Though music piracy is a general term that encompasses a broad array of illegal practices involving the duplication and distribution of recorded music (such as counterfeiting and bootlegging for personal monetary profit), the one area of piracy that occupies the majority of the nation's attention is the contentious practice of music file sharing on peer-to-peer (P2P) websites. Despite the RIAA's recent crackdown on illegal file sharing by levying heavy fines against offenders, P2P websites are still thriving. Though there is a small minority of the file-sharing population who truly believe they should not have to pay to listen to their favorite music, this percentage hardly occupies the lion's share of illegal downloaders. So why are so many people breaking the law? The RIAA equates the illegal downloading of an album of music to the act of shoplifting that same album from a record store, and it has a logically sound argument. However, the devious act of physically pilfering something from a record store, and all the tangible consequences it entails, is hardly present in the action of pressing a keyboard button from the repose of one's home.
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The author states that all of the following are true of file sharing EXCEPT
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The Gaelic revival movement of late 19th and early 20th century Ireland attracted some of the leading social, intellectual, and political figures of the time to the study of Gaelic. Primarily nationalistic in purpose, and located within the context of the Irish struggle for independence, the revival advocated the use of the traditional Irish language, Gaelic, in lieu of English. It was felt that a more robust use of a national language was necessary to crystallize Ireland's fractious sense of national identity. The idea was not without parallel; modern Israel rescued its traditional language, Hebrew, from what was exclusively academic and liturgical use, and reintroduced it into an active, living vernacular in the newly independent state of Israel. Prior to this unqualified success, however, was Ireland's attempted linguistic revival, which met with more debatable results. While many writers did incorporate Gaelic, and sometimes even write in it, English is still far more prevalent, except in isolated, rural areas on the western coast, and did not become the primary native language of subsequent generations. This arrestingly similar set of historical and cultural circumstances, coupled with different results, subverts the notion that language and cultural identity are inseparable. The writers and intellectuals that did study Gaelic did so primarily because it provided a romanticized connection to their heritage, not because they wished to integrate it into the fabric of their daily lives.
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In the argument given, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
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In examining a source for information on a particular event or individual, a historian is confronted with a multitude of difficulties, including dating the source, conceptions of truth and history at the time of its composition, the intentions of the author, and so on. Although there is a scattering of historical treatises from the past that have been praised for their apparent historicity, such as Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War, even in these there are concerns about impartiality. Thucydides is often considered the first "modern historian" -- eschewing the gods or fate as an explanation for events, focusing rather on human actions and choices -- but many of his political rivals are painted in a particularly unflattering light, once again raising the question of his intent and objectivity.
The greatest difficulty in the study of history may well be summarized in the phrase "history is written by the victor" intentionally or not, the author's "side" will inevitably be painted as the "good guys." This is even true in modern times, such as the downplaying of atrocities by the Allies in World War II, particularly Joseph Stalin and the NKVD. Nevertheless, in the study of history, information must come from somewhere, and so it is important to take care in assessing the values and interests of any given author (of course, in some cases the author's identity may not even be known). Many efforts have been made to counteract the biases of historical documents, but some doubts will inevitably remain.
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Which of the following statements is NOT supported by the passage?
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Although viticulture was already an established trade in many parts of the world, until the 1970s, New World wine -- particularly that of California -- was not taken seriously internationally, especially in France. Steven Spurrier, a British expatriate and Parisian wine merchant, organized The Judgment of Paris in 1976, in which a panel of nine French judges selected Californian wines for the best cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. It was difficult to dismiss the results; only the scores of top expert French judges had been used in the final tally. Furthermore, the Californian wines had been transported in personal luggage while the French bottles had been properly stored locally. Spurrier later admitted that he had been certain of the superiority of French wine and had done his best to tilt the contest in their favor.
As news began to spread of the results, the impact of the tasting became apparent. Leaders of the French wine industry were outraged at the results, and the French press was both slow to respond and dismissive of the event. The only journalist who witnessed the event, George M. Taber of Time magazine, published an article about the tasting and word quickly spread. Viticulture in California spread rapidly, and exports to many countries besides France skyrocketed. Many criticisms of the methodology of the tasting were soon raised, particularly the assertion that French wines aged better than those of California. However, repeat blind tastings in 1978, 1986, and 2006 of the same vintages all favored the same Californian wines.
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According to the passage, which of the following criticisms of contest was weakened by later tastings?
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When a property owner discovers that oil or natural gas exist beneath property for which a title has been legally and completely obtained, rights to the embedded minerals can be leased to others. Once the commodity rights are leased, the lessee will issue the owner an up-front payment to explore the property and investigate possible ways to extract the commodity. This is nonrefundable, even if the source of the mineral is less prevalent than the lessee predicted it to be or if it is in an unextractable form. Once the lessee locates the oil or gas source and is able to implement an extraction method that is sanguine to both lessee and property owner, the owner may demand a share of the profits from the commodity. Customary royalties on commodities is about 12.5%, but in cases of highly desirable properties or where there is a great deal of disruption to one's home or property, the rate can be 25% or higher.
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Based on the passage, which of the following are possible reasons that a greater royalty than the customary 12.5% can be required?
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A recent biostatistical study attempted to determine the relationship between childhood and adult obesity. Across all weight, sex, racial, and ethnic groups, most of the severely obese teenagers in the study-defined as having a body mass index greater than or equal to 40-did not become severely obese as adults. However, a large proportion of severely obese teens remained so into adulthood. At greatest risk of becoming severely obese were black females.
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According to the passage, which of the following is a consequence of severe obesity?
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Beyond its great influence on American literature, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is often credited with popularizing cetology, the study of whales, in the United States. Much of Melville's interest and information originated during his own time on a whaling ship, and the narrator's comments likely reflect his own observations. Although the narrator recognizes some previous studies of whales, he instead creates his own definitions, describing the whale as a "spouting fish with a horizontal tail," as well as any other creature Nantucket whalers have referred to as a whale. Continuing in his taxonomy, he groups whales into three major categories, or books, by size: the folio whale, the octavo whale, and the duodecimo whale, with smaller chapters within.
There have been various explanations offered as to why Melville chose to include this chapter in his book. It does not lend itself to the overall narrative nor does it help to develop any of the characters. Indeed, in abridged editions of Moby-Dick, it is often one of the chapters omitted. Some opine that Melville was simply wishing to demonstrate his knowledge of whales, others that is meant to raise the tension of the plot, mimicking the long and slow journey, still others that Melville simply found the information interesting and wished to share it. Nevertheless, its topic and placement in an otherwise fictional work make the chapter as remarkable as it is strange.
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According to the passage, where did Melville gain most of his information about whales?
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Literature is frequently a crucible through which the practice of censorship is refined. A controversial text occasions a public forum for a culture to articulate its moral standards and values. When James Joyce's Ulysses was first published in The Little Review in the United States, it provoked outrage from some readers who felt its content was obscene in nature. When the publisher tried to import copies of the novel into the US, they were seized by customs on the grounds that the novel was obscene. The case went to trial, with the U.S. attorney contending that the book was obscene and subject to seizure. The presiding judge felt differently. His justification for the ruling was that after reading the work in its entirety, and not merely the excerpts that had been found objectionable, the work was clearly not written with pornographic intent. He stated that nowhere does it produce "sexually impure and lustful thoughts." Pursuant to this, the book was not, objectively speaking, obscene. When the graphic passages were read, in the context of the novel as a cohesive, artistic whole, the effect did not tend to function as an "aphrodisiac," but it was "emetic" at times. The same could be said for scientific and medical texts dealing with human anatomy and sexuality, as well as classic works of Greco-Roman literature. As a result of this ruling, censors would now have to account for not only community standards of morality, but also the text's effect on the average reader, as well as the work in its entirety.
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In the context of the passage, the word "emetic" most nearly means:
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One of S?ren Kierkegaard's recurring philosophical preoccupations was the study of morality. |~His writing touches upon whether there is an external, objective ethical standard, such as the Ten Commandments, or if there is something beyond ethics upon which right and wrong were predicated.| Kierkegaard's thinking trends towards the latter. Traditional Hegelianism would assert that there is an external code from which any deviation is unjustified. Kierkegaard's view is more nuanced. To illustrate his point, he cited the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. In the story, God instructs Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Kierkegaard points out that this is abhorrent by any normative code of ethics, but that Abraham is traditionally regarded as having behaved virtuously. |~He resolves the apparent contradiction by suggesting that morality is subject to teleological suspension of the ethical, from the Greek telos, meaning "end," or "goal."| He saw Abraham as a paradigm of morality vis-à-vis his faith in that telos. At the conclusion of the biblical narrative, Abraham obeys the command to sacrifice his son, but at the last second his hand is stopped by divine intervention, thus sparing his son.
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The passage's description of Kierkegaard's views on ethics suggests which of the following conclusions?
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