A
Authorities are investigating the consultant for taking bribes from officials of other cities.
B
The mayor was aware that many of the bills were being presented to the consultant rather than to the mayor.
C
The building contractor in charge of the improvements to the mayor’s house had done business with the city in the past.
D
The improvements to the mayor’s house were done with expensive materials and involved thousands of hours of labor.
E
The amount of money that the city paid the consultant over the last year greatly exceeded the cost of the improvements to the mayor’s house.
Most management books offer advice from the perspective of the CEO.
Most managers don’t have the same perspective as CEOs.
A
Advice books rarely take the perspective of their intended audience.
B
Most people who read management advice books aspire to be CEOs.
C
Almost all CEOs have experience as lower level managers.
D
Advice is of limited use unless it is offered from the perspective of the recipient.
E
Most managers prefer to read books that they think will be useful to them in their work.
A
stand-up comedians and university professors have the same skill set
B
incorporating humor into lectures can help professors to achieve the goals they have for those lectures
C
university professors can achieve the goals they have for their lectures only if they incorporate humor into them
D
there is no reason to suppose that a lecture lasting several hours cannot hold an audience’s attention
E
university professors should treat even the most serious topics in a humorous way
For the first few weeks after birth, the dunnart has such poor control over its respiratory muscles that it cannot use them to breathe. Instead, this tiny marsupial breathes through its thin skin, which gradually thickens as the dunnart matures inside its mother’s pouch. The dunnart is unique among warm-blooded animals, the rest of which need thick skin throughout their lives to maintain body temperature and reduce water loss.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why do dunnarts, which are born with thin skin, survive even though all other warm-blooded animals need thick skin from birth in order to maintain their body temperature and reduce water loss?
Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains a key difference between how young dunnarts maintain their body temperature and reduce water loss and how all other warm-blooded animals maintain their body temperature and reduce water loss. This difference will help to explain how dunnarts can survive with thin skin at the beginning of their lives, while all other warm-blooded animals need thick skin from birth.
A
The dunnart’s respiratory muscles begin to develop a few days after birth.
We know that baby dunnarts breathe through their thin skin because they cannot yet control their respiratory muscles. But (A) does not explain how they maintain their body temperature and reduce water loss before those respiratory muscles develop.
B
The dunnart’s body temperature is higher than that of many other warm-blooded animals.
Having a higher body temperature does not explain how baby dunnarts maintain that body temperature and reduce water loss with thin skin.
C
Adult dunnarts experience more heat and water loss through their skin than other adult marsupials do.
Dunnarts’ skin gradually thickens as they mature. So we know that adult dunnarts can maintain their body temperature and reduce water loss, even if they don’t do so as efficiently as other adult marsupials. We need an explanation for how baby dunnarts can do this with thin skin.
D
Its mother’s pouch keeps a newborn dunnart warm and reduces water loss through its skin.
This explains the key difference in how young dunnarts maintain body temperature and reduce water loss. While other warm-blooded baby animals need thick skin to survive, its mother’s pouch keeps a baby dunnart warm and reduces water loss, so the baby can survive with thin skin.
E
Some dunnarts live where daytime temperatures are high and the climate is dry.
This does not help to explain how baby dunnarts can survive with thin skin. Even if they are in a warmer and drier climate, we still need to know how they are able to maintain their body temperature and reduce water loss.
A
Because the film studio owns the new technology, the studio will be able to control its use in any future films.
B
Films that introduce innovative special-effects technologies generally draw large audiences of people who are curious about the new effects.
C
The production costs of this film are so high that, even if the film is popular, it is unlikely that the film’s ticket sales will offset those costs.
D
In the past, many innovative special-effects technologies were abandoned after the films for which they were developed proved to be unpopular.
E
The use of the new special-effects technology would lower the production costs of other films that use it.
For a work to be rightly thought of as world literature, it must be received and interpreted within the writer’s own national tradition and within external national traditions. A work counts as being interpreted within a national tradition if authors from that tradition use the work in at least one of three ways: as a positive model for the development of their own tradition, as a negative case of a decadent tendency that must be consciously avoided, or as an image of radical otherness that prompts refinement of the home tradition.
Summary
For a work to be considered world literature, it must be received and interpreted by the writer’s own national tradition and by other national traditions. A work is interpreted by a national tradition if writers from that tradition use it in at least one of three ways: as a positive model for the development of their tradition, as a negative model to avoid in the development of their tradition, or as a way to refine the development of their tradition.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
A work can be a negative model in some contexts and a positive model in others and still be considered world literature.
In order to be interpreted by a national tradition, a work of literature must affect the development of that tradition in some way.
A
A work of literature cannot be well received within an external national tradition if it is not well received within the writer’s own national tradition.
Unsupported. The stimulus doesn’t connect the the writer’s own national tradition with external national traditions. Perhaps a work can still be received well in an external tradition without being received well in the writer’s own tradition.
B
A work of world literature offers more to readers within external national traditions than it offers to readers within the writer’s national tradition.
Unsupported. The stimulus does not give any information about what a work of world literature offers to different audiences.
C
A work should not be thought of as world literature if it is more meaningful to readers from the writer’s national tradition than it is to readers from external national traditions.
Unsupported. Whether a work is more meaningful to one group or another has no effect on whether it should be thought of as world literature.
D
A work of world literature is always influenced by works outside of the writer’s national tradition.
Unsupported. For a work to be world literature, it must be received and interpreted by the writer’s own national tradition and by other national traditions. We aren’t told that it’s always influenced by other works outside of the writer’s national tradition.
E
A work is not part of world literature if it affects the development of only one national tradition.
Strongly supported. A work of world literature must be interpreted by the writer’s national tradition and other national traditions. Thus, it must affect the development of both traditions either as a positive model, a negative model, or a model of refinement.