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Given the natural variability of the Earth`s climate, it is difficult to determine the extent of change that humans cause. In computer-based models, rising concentrations of greenhouse gases generally produce an increase in the average temperature of the Earth. Rising temperatures may, in turn, produce changes in weather, sea levels, and land use patterns, commonly referred to as "climate change." Assessments generally suggest that the Earth`s climate has warmed over the past century and that human activity affecting the atmosphere is likely an important driving factor. A National Research Council study dated May 2001 stated, "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth`s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and sub-surface ocean temperatures to rise. Temperatures are, in fact, rising. The changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities, but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability."
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As used in the passage's final sentence, the word "reflection" most nearly means
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Lind`s reputation as an experimental nutritionist rests mainly on his classic experiment of 1747 in which he compared the potencies of a number of supposed anti-scorbutic remedies (cures for the vitamin-deficiency disease scurvy). Lind`s experiment had obvious commendable features. He selected six groups that were as similar as possible at the beginning of the experiment and maintained them throughout under the same general environmental and dietary conditions. The groups differed from each other only in respect of the type of treatment used. Five groups of ailing seamen failed to respond to their supposed cures; the sixth group, which received a dietary supplement of oranges and lemons, recovered from the disease.
At first sight this would appear to be an early example of the type of scientific procedure proposed by Descartes in 1637 for eliminating all but one of a number of possible relationships. In the ideal type of "critical" experiment, however, each "possibility" should be derived from existing data (or be a logical extrapolation of it) and the whole should be structured so that alternative possible explanations are excluded. Failure to satisfy these requirements reduces an experiment to a level of controlled empiricism. This was the weakness of Lind`s work; the six "possible" cures that he compared were presumably selected empirically from those currently favored by ships` surgeons; he gives no indication that his choice was governed by any other consideration. His experiment "succeeded" simply because one of the "remedies" contained vitamin C (the anti-scorbutic factor) whereas the other five did not.
It is interesting to speculate what effect a different choice of "remedies" would have had on the course of events. Had Lind used, in place of his oranges and lemons, a sixth remedy devoid of vitamin C-say the mineral waters favored by writers such as Linden, or Bishop Berkeley`s tar-water cure-then all six groups would have given a negative result. On the other hand, Lind could well have used six remedies all of which contained vitamin C. In 1745 John Wesley published his Primitive Physic, a popular manual of remedies, which by 1791 had reached its twenty-third edition. Suppose that Lind had selected six remedies from Wesley`s list of eleven anti-scorbutics. It is virtually certain that all six groups would have recovered, and the experiment would have done little more than confirm the observations of Wesley and others.
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The author`s attitude towards Lind`s experiment can best be described as one of
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A few rodent species demonstrate conditions that are neither complete hibernation nor aestivation. Instead of going into a long "sleep" during the most adverse season, they become torpid for a few hours each day. This kind of behavior is known in other animals-bats become torpid during daytime, and hummingbirds at night. The first time I appreciated this phenomenon was while working with fat mice (Steatomys) in Africa. These mice, incidentally, have a most appropriate name, for their bodies are so full of fat they resemble little furry balls. Fat storage as a method of survival has rebounded to some extent as far as the fat mice are concerned. They are regarded as a succulent delicacy by many African tribes who hunt them with great tenacity; when captured, the mice are skewered and fried in their own fat. A captive fat mouse was once kept without food or water for thirty-six days; at the end of that time it had lost a third of its weight but appeared quite healthy. During the dry season, some captives spent the day in such a deep state of torpor that they could be roughly handled without waking. The body temperature was a couple of degrees above room temperature and the respiration was most irregular, several short pants being followed by a pause of up to three minutes. Just before dusk the mice woke up of their own accord and respired normally. In this case the torpid state was not induced by shortage of food or abnormal temperatures. The forest dormouse of southern Asia and Europe also undergoes periods of torpidity during the day; this species has been recorded as having pauses of up to seventeen minutes between breaths.
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It can be inferred from the passage that fat storage as a method of survival "has rebounded" for fat mice for which of the following reasons?
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The people do not run the country; neither do its elected officials. The corporations run the country. Heads of corporations routinely and imperiously hand down decisions that profoundly affect millions of people. The people affected do not vote on the decisions, or for the corporate oligarchs. Yet we are supposed to believe that we live in a democracy.
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Which of the following statements, if true, would support the author`s views?
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In the long run a government will always encroach upon freedom to the extent to which it has the power to do so; this is almost a natural law of politics, since, whatever the intentions of the men who exercise political power, the sheer momentum of government leads to a constant pressure upon the liberties of the citizen. But in many countries society has responded by throwing up its own defenses in the shape of social classes or organized corporations which, enjoying economic power and popular support, have been able to set limits to the scope of action of the executive. Such, for example, in England was the origin of all our liberties-won from government by the stand first of the feudal nobility, then of churches and political parties, and latterly of trade unions, commercial organizations, and the societies for promoting various causes. Even in European lands that were arbitrarily ruled, the powers of the monarchy, though absolute in theory, were in their exercise checked in a similar fashion. Indeed the fascist dictatorships of the mid-twentieth century were the first truly tyrannical governments that Western Europe had known for centuries, and they became possible only because on coming to power they destroyed all forms of social organization which were in any way rivals to the state.
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According to the passage, the natural relationship between government and individual liberty is one of
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Formerly in an election year it took a high degree of courage for a politician to risk his or her career by introducing federal legislation requiring the registration and licensing of guns. While some advocacy organizations argued that the elimination of private ownership of firearms would cure America`s societal ills, a strong gun lobby in Washington, led by the National Rifle Association`s Institute for Legislative Action, maintained that to deprive Americans of their guns would be an invasion of personal liberty and a transparent violation of the Second Amendment.
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The sentence "Formerly-licensing of guns" has which of the following functions in the passage?
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Initially, scientists suspected a high dietary calcium intake of increasing the risk of kidney stones. A high intake of calcium, however, reduces the urinary excretion of oxalate, which is thought to lower the risk. Therefore, the concept that a higher dietary calcium intake increases the risk of kidney stones, and the mechanism underlying their formation, required examination. Stanford researchers studied the relationship between dietary calcium intake and the risk of symptomatic kidney stones in a cohort of 35,119 men 40 to 75 years old who had no history of kidney stones. Dietary calcium was measured by means of a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire in 1998. During four years of follow-up, 535 cases of kidney stones were documented by LifeWork analysts. After adjustment for age, dietary calcium intake was inversely associated with the risk of stones; in fact, a high calcium intake decreased the risk of symptomatic kidney stones. Surprisingly, intake of animal protein was directly associated with the risk of stone formation.
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The passage provides information on each of the following EXCEPT
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Order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of people of nominal-some even say symbolic-importance, practiced by sundry organizations and governments. One's position in an order of precedence does not unequivocally indicate one's responsibilities; rather, it reflects ceremonial or historic relevance; for instance, order of precedence may dictate where a host seats dignitaries at formal diners. Moreover, order of precedence potentially determines the order of succession for heads of state removed from office or incapacitated, although the two terms are not often interchangeable. Universities and the professions frequently have their own rules of precedence, applied parochially and based on professional rank, with each rank being ordered within itself by seniority, meaning the date one attains that rank.
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The author of this passage would agree with which of the following statements about order of precedence:
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In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen rejects and satirizes English Jacobin political Gothicism. In the unfamiliar setting of Northanger Abbey, Catherine makes many dramatic mistakes in interpretation. Lacking the worldly experience to chasten and direct her subjective, "natural" sympathies and imagination, she relies on what she has learned in reading novels and interprets her present world as if it were a Gothic romance: Catherine sees General Tilney as a tyrant and Northanger Abbey as a facade for secret horrors. Catherine's suitor and Tilney's son, Henry, recognizes her error and reminds her of the current social and political reality, his speech asserting a particular view of the present constitution of Britain and thus of British society. Critic Goldstein found it characteristic of Austen's disregard of novelistic excess that Henry's perception of Catherine's error does not diminish the value of her character in his eyes, nor lead him to reject her as a prospective wife-which would be too indicative of a mere Gothic novel.
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Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?
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Our system of justice is based on the ideal that our judges are principled, objective, and nonpartisan. But let's consider the infrequent "bad apple" among judges. Historian Brewer contends that corrupt judges are no more prevalent today than they were in the past 240 years. Jergens, nevertheless, asserts that the current threat to judiciary independence rivals any other in history, primarily due to the influences of (she persuasively argues) money, fundamentalist ideology and special interests. Laine specifies that an influx of money into the judicial system has influenced the election process: The United States Chamber of Commerce, a conservative group, has spent $50 million on judicial races since 1998. That faction is playing a coercive role in approximately 50% of current judicial races.
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In the argument given, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
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