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PREP2012
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In July 1965 Mariner IV passed by Mars and took the first-ever close-up photographs of another planet, which showed that the Martian surface was like that of the Moon's in that it was pockmarked by moonlike craters and was dry and apparently dead.
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PREP2012
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Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.
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PREP2012
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The passage suggests that Krech would be most likely to agree with a theory of the Pleistocene species extinctions that
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PREP2012
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The passage mentions the extinction of species other than large animals (see highlighted text) most probably in order to
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In Forces of Production, David Noble examines the transformation of the machine-tool industry as the industry moved from reliance on skilled artisans to automation. Noble writes from a Marxist perspective, and his central argument is that management, in its decisions to automate, conspired against labor: the power that the skilled machinists wielded in the industry was intolerable to management. Noble fails to substantiate this claim, although his argument is impressive when he applies the Marxist concept of "de-skilling" —— the use of technology to replace skilled labor —— to the automation of the machine-tool industry. In automating, the industry moved to computer-based, digitalized "numerical control" (N/C) technology, rather than to artisan generated "record-playback" (R/P) technology.Although both systems reduced reliance on skilled labor, Noble clearly prefers R/P, with its inherent acknowledgment of workers` skills: unlike N/C, its programs were produced not by engineers at their computers, but by skilled machinists, who recorded their own movements to "teach" machines to duplicate those movements. However, Noble's only evidence of conspiracy is that, although the two approaches were roughly equal in technical merit, management chose N/C. From this he concludes that automation is undertaken not because efficiency demands it or scientific advances allow it. but because it is a tool in the ceaseless war of capitalists against labor.
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PREP2012
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According to information in the passage, the term "de-skilling" refers to the
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PREP2012
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Which of the following best characterizes Forces of Production as it is described in the passage?
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PREP2012
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The author of the passage commends Noble's book for which of the following?
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PREP2012
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The passage suggests that the debate among physicists mentioned in the first sentence has arisen in part because
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White tigers are neither a species nor a subspecies, but appear as a result of a recessive trait that rarely occurs in the wild. In the 1950s many zoos deliberately and indiscriminately bred white tigers, but more recently, concerns about the desirability of preserving a trait that presumably hinders tigers' to survive in the wild, and recognition that inbreeding could lead to genetic defects, have caused most zoos to such practices. However, some zoo managers argue that the popularity of white tigers provides income important to the survival of zoo sponsored scientific and conservation programs. [hl:3]They also point out that most of the white tigers captured in the wild were adults, proving that their coloration does not hinder their survival ability[/hl:3].[hl:0]Opponents of white-tiger breeding programs[/hl:0] argue that white tigers are merely Indian tigers—a subspecies well represented in both zoos and the wild—and that zoos should focus their tiger management efforts on preserving subspecies whose existence is threatened, thus preventing the Chinese and Indochinese tiger subspecies from joining the Javan, Balinese, and Caspian subspecies in extinction. Alternatively, zoos could mingle the subspecies and manage all tigers in captivity as one species. Although subspecies differences would be lost, this strategy would be advantageous because fewer animals would be necessary to maintain the genetic diversity of tigers in captivity, making scarce zoo resources available for housing other endangered felines.
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GWD
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The passage states which of the following about the effect of foreign competition on the American manufacturing sector since the 1970's?
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GWD
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It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following was true of the United States manufacturing sector in the years immediately prior to 1980?
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GWD
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Which of the following is included in the discussion of the cursorial hypothesis but not in the discussion of the arboreal hypothesis?
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GWD
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The passage suggests which of the following regarding the climbing ability of Archaeopteryx?
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A small number of the forest species of lepidoptera (moths and butterflies, which exist as caterpillars during most of their life cycle) exhibit regularly recurring patterns of population growth and decline—such fluctuations in population are known as population cycles. Although many different variables influence population levels, a regular pattern such as a population cycle seems to imply a dominant, driving force. Identification of that driving force, however, has proved surprisingly elusive despite considerable research. The common approach of studying causes of population cycles by measuring the mortality caused by different agents, such as predatory birds or parasites, has been unproductive in the case of lepidoptera. Moreover, population ecologists' attempts to alter cycles by changing the caterpillars' habitat and by reducing caterpillar populations have not succeeded. [hl:1]In short, the evidence implies that these insect populations, if not self-regulating, may at least be regulated by an agent more intimately connected with the insect than are predatory birds or parasites.[/hl:1]Recent work suggests that this agent may be a virus.For many years, viral disease had been reported in declining populations of caterpillars, but population ecologists had usually considered viral disease to have contributed to the decline once it was underway rather than to have initiated it. The recent work has been made possible by new techniques of molecular biology that allow viral DNA to be detected at low concentrations in the environment. Nuclear polyhedrosis viruses are hypothesized to be the driving force behind population cycles in lepidoptera in part because the viruses themselves follow an infectious cycle in which, if protected from direct sun light, they may remain virulent for many years in the environment, embedded in durable crystals of polyhedrin protein. Once ingested by a caterpillar, the crystals dissolve, releasing the virus to infect the insect's cells. Late in the course of the infection, millions of new virus particles are formed and enclosed in polyhedron crystals. These crystals reenter the environment after the insect dies and decomposes, thus becoming available to infect other caterpillars.One of the attractions of this hypothesis is its broad applicability. Remarkably, despite significant differences in habitat and behavior, many species of lepidoptera have population cycles of similar length, between eight and eleven years. Nuclear polyhedrosis viral infection is one factor these disparate species share."
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GWD
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Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author's conclusion in lines 25-30(the highlight text)?
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GWD
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According to the passage, before the discovery of new techniques for detecting viral DNA, population ecologists believed that viral diseases
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GWD
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The primary purpose of the passage is to
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GWD
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The passage implies that the results of the Ultimatum Game undermine theoretical economists' characterization of human beings by
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GWD
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The author refers to the sum of one dollar (line 21) in order to
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