Notable as important nineteenth-century novels by women, Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights treat women very differently.
Shelley produced a “masculine” text in which the fates of subordinate female characters
seem entirely dependent on the actions of male heroes or anti-heroes. Bronte produced
a more realistic narrative, portraying a world where men battle for the favors of
apparently high-spirited, independent women. Nevertheless, these two novels are alike
in several crucial ways. Many readers are convinced that the compelling mysteries of
each plot conceal elaborate structures of allusion and fierce, though shadowy, moral
ambitions that seem to indicate metaphysical intentions, though efforts by critics to
articulate these intentions have generated much controversy. Both novelists use a
storytelling method that emphasizes ironic disjunctions between different perspectives
on the same events as well as ironic tensions that inhere in the relationship between
surface drama and concealed authorial intention, a method I call an evidentiary
narrative technique.
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. defend a controversial interpretation of two novels
B. explain the source of widely recognized responses to two novels
C. delineate broad differences between two novels
D. compare and contrast two novels
E. criticize and evaluate two novels
2. According the passage, Frankenstein differs from Wuthering Heights in its
A. use of multiple narrators
B. method of disguising the author’s real purposes
C. portrayal of men as determiners of the novel’s action
D. creation of a realistic story
E. controversial effect on readers
3. Which of the following narrative strategies best exemplifies the “evidentiary
narrative technique” mentioned in the last line?
A. Telling a story in such a way that the author’s real intentions are discernible only
through interpretations of allusions to a world outside that of the story
B. Telling a story in such a way that the reader is aware as events unfold of the
author’s underlying purposes and the ways these purposes conflict with the
drama of the plot
C. Telling a story in a way that both directs attention to the incongruities among
the points of view of several characters and hints that the plot has a significance
other than that suggested by its mere events
D. Telling a story as a mystery in which the reader must deduce, from the
conflicting evidence presented by several narrators, the moral and philosophical
significance of character and event
E. Telling a story from the author’s point of view in a way that implies both the
author’s and the reader’s ironic distance from the dramatic unfolding of events
4. According to the passage, the plots of Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein are
notable for their elements of
A. drama and secrecy
 B. heroism and tension
C. realism and ambition
D. mystery and irony
E. morality and metaphysics

The Food and Drug Administration has recently proposed severe restrictions on the
use of antibiotics to promote the health and growth of meat animals. Medications added
to feeds kill many microorganisms but also encourage the appearance of bacterial
strains that are resistant to anti-infective drugs. Already, for example, penicillin and the
tetracyclines are not as effective therapeutically as they once were. The drug resistance
is chiefly conferred by tiny circlets of genes, called plasmids, that can be exchanged
between different strains and even different species of bacteria. Plasmids are also one of
the two kinds of vehicles (the other being viruses) that molecular biologists depend on
when performing gene transplant experiments. Even present guidelines forbid the
laboratory use of plasmids bearing genes for resistance to antibiotics. Yet, while
congressional debate rages over whether or not to toughen these restrictions on
scientists in their laboratories, little congressional attention has been focused on an ill-
advised agricultural practice that produces known deleterious effects.
1. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with
A. discovering methods of eliminating harmful microorganisms without
subsequently generating drug-resistant bacteria
B. explaining reasons for congressional inaction on the regulation of gene
transplant experiments
C. describing a problematic agricultural practice and its serious genetic
consequences
D. verifying the therapeutic ineffectiveness of anti-infective drugs
E. evaluating recently proposed restrictions intended to promote the growth of
meat animals
2. According to the passage, the exchange of plasmids between different bacteria can
results in which of the following?
A. Microorganisms resistant to drugs
B. Therapeutically useful circlets of genes
C. Anti-infective drugs like penicillin
D. Viruses for use by molecular biologists
E. Vehicles for performing gene transplant experiments
3. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes that those in favor of
stiffening the restrictions on gene transplant research should logically also
A. encourage experiments with any plasmids except those bearing genes for
antibiotic resistance
B. question the addition of anti-infective drugs to livestock feeds
C. resist the use of penicillin and tetracyclines to kill microorganisms
 D. agree to the development of meatier livestock through the use of antibiotics
E. favor congressional debate and discussion of all science and health issues
4. The author’s attitude toward the development of bacterial strains that render
antibiotic drugs ineffective can best be described as
A. indifferent
B. perplexed
C. pretentious
D. insincere
E. apprehensive

Although pathogenic organisms constantly alight on the skin, they find it a very
unfavorable environment and, in the absence of injury, have great difficulty colonizing
it. This “self-sterilizing” capacity of the skin results from the tendency of all well-
developed ecosystems toward homeostasis, or the maintenance of the status quo.
Species that typically live in soil, water, and elsewhere rarely multiply on the skin.
Undamaged skin is also unfavorable to most human pathogens. The skin is too acid and
too arid for some species. The constant shedding of the surface skin layers further
hinders the establishment of invaders. The most interesting defense mechanism,
however, results from the metabolic activities of the resident flora. Unsaturated fatty
acids, an important component of the lipids in sebum collected from the skin surface,
inhibit the growth of several bacterial and fungal cutaneous pathogens. These acids are a
metabolic product of certain gram-positive members of the cutaneous community,
which break down the more complex lipids in freshly secreted sebum.
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. offer an analysis of metabolic processes
B. detail the ways in which bacteria and fungi can be inhibited
C. describe mechanisms by which the skin protects itself against pathogens
D. analyze the methods whereby biological systems maintain the status quo
E. provide a specific example of the skin’s basic defenses against pathogens
2. The “resident flora” mentioned in the fourth line of second paragraph refer to
A. “Unsaturated fatty acids”
B. “sebum collected from the skin surface”
C. “bacterial and fungal cutaneous pathogens”
D. “certain gram-positive members of the cutaneous community”
E. “more complex lipids”
3. Among the natural defenses of the skin against pathogenic organisms are all of the
following EXCEPT the
A. dryness of the skin
B. acidity of the skin
C. tendency of the pathogens toward homeostasis
D. shedding of surface layers of the skin
E. metabolic breakdown of lipids
4. The author presents her material in which of the following ways?
A. Stating a problem and then supplying a solution
B. Presenting a phenomenon and then analyzing reason for it
C. Providing information and then drawing a conclusion from it
D. Making a general statement and then arguing by analogy
E. Making an inference and then developing it by illustration

Answers:

Passage 1:

1. D
2. C
3. C
4. D

Passage 2:

1. C
2. A
3. B
4. E

Passage 3:

1. C
2. D
3. C
4. B