Admission Test GRE-Verbal Actual Free Exam Questions & Community Discussion

Marie Curie was one of the most accomplished scientists in history. Together with her husband, Pierre,
she discovered radium, an element widely used for treating cancer, and studied uranium and other
radioactive substances. Pierre and Marie's amicable collaboration later helped to unlock the secrets of the
atom. Marie was born in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, where her father was a professor of physics. At the
early age, she displayed a brilliant mind and a blithe personality. Her great exuberance for learning
prompted her to continue with her studies after high school. She became disgruntled, however, when she
learned that the university in Warsaw was closed to women.
Determined to receive a higher education, she defiantly left Poland and in 1891 entered the Sorbonne, a
French university, where she earned her master's degree and doctorate in physics. Marie was fortunate to
have studied at the Sorbonne with some of the greatest scientists of her day, one of whom was Pierre
Curie. Marie and Pierre were married in
1 895 and spent many productive years working together in the physics laboratory. A short time after they
discovered radium, Pierre was killed by a horse-drawn wagon in
1 906. Marie was stunned by this horrible misfortune and endured heartbreaking anguish. espondently she
recalled their close relationship and the joy that they had shared in scientific research. The fact that she
had two young daughters to raise by herself greatly increased her distress. Curie's feeling of desolation
finally began to fade when she was asked to succeed her husband as a physics professor at the
Sorbonne. She was the first woman to be given a professorship at the world-famous university. In 1911
she received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for isolating radium. Although Marie Curie eventually suffered a
fatal illness from her long exposure to radium, she never became disillusioned about her work.
Regardless of the consequences, she had dedicated herself to science and to revealing the mysteries of
the physical world.
Marie ___ by leaving Poland and traveling to France to enter the Sorbonne.

The amount of bone in the elderly skeleton-a key determinant in its susceptibility to fractures-is believed
to be a function of two major factors. The first is the peak amount of bone mass attained, determined to a
large extent by genetic inheritance. The marked effect of gender is obvious: Elderly men experience only
one-half as many hip fractures per capita as elderly women. But also, African- American women have a
lower incidence of osteoporotic fractures than Caucasian women. Other important variables include diet,
exposure to sunlight, and physical activity. The second major factor is the rate of bone loss after peak
bone mass has been attained. While many of the variables that affect peak bone mass also affect rates of
bone loss, additional factors influencing bone loss include physiological stresses such as pregnancy and
lactation. It is hormonal status, however, reflected primarily by estrogen and progesterone levels, that
may exert the greatest effect on rates of decline in skeletal mass.
It can be inferred from the passage that the peak amount of bone mass in women

WAR : OFFENSIVE ::

The Galapagos Islands are in the Pacific Ocean, off the western coast of South America.
They are a rocky, lonely spot, but they are also one of the most unusual places in the world. One reason is
that they are the home of some of the last giant tortoises left on earth. Weighing hundreds of pounds,
these tortoises, or land turtles, wander slowly around the rocks and sand of the islands. Strangely, each of
these islands has its own particular kinds of tortoises. There are seven different kinds of tortoises on the
eight islands, each kind being slightly different from the other. Hundreds of years ago, thousands of
tortoises wandered around these islands. However, all that changed when people started landing there.
When people first arrived in 1535, their ships had no refrigerators. This meant that fresh food was always
a problem for the sailors on board.
The giant tortoises provided a solution to this problem. Ships would anchor off the islands, and crews
would row ashore and seize as many tortoises as they could. Once the animals were aboard the ship, the
sailors would roll the tortoises onto their backs. The tortoises were completely helpless once on their
backs, so they could only lie there until used for soups and stews. Almost 100,000 tortoises were carried
off in this way. The tortoises faced other problems, too. Soon after the first ships, settlers arrived bringing
pigs, goats, donkeys, dogs and cats. All of these animals ruined life for the tortoises.
Donkey and goats ate all the plants that the tortoises usually fed on, while the pigs. Dogs and cats
consumed thousands of baby tortoises each year. Within a few years, it was hard to find any tortoise
eggs-or even any baby tortoises. By the early 1900s, people began to worry that the last of the tortoises
would soon die out. No one, however, seemed to care enough to do anything about the problem. More
and more tortoises disappeared, even though sailors no longer needed them for food. For another fifty
years, this situation continued. Finally, in the 1950s, scientist decided that something must be done. The
first part of their plan was to get rid of as many cats, dogs and other animals as they could.
Next, they tried to make sure that more baby tortoises would be born. To do this, they started looking for
wild tortoise eggs. They gathered the eggs and put them in safe containers. When the eggs hatched, the
scientists raised the tortoises in special pens. Both the eggs and tortoises were numbered so that the
scientists knew exactly which kinds of tortoises they had-and which island they came from. Once the
tortoises were old enough and big enough to take care of themselves, the scientists took them back to
their islands and set them loose. This slow, hard work continues today, and, thanks to it, the number of
tortoises is now increasing every year.
What happened soon after people brought animals to the islands?

SILVER : METAL ::

American history scholars generally attribute formation of the League of Indian Nations to Degandawida,
who convinced the warring and fiercely autonomous Iroquois nations to embrace his radical idea for a
league by tying it to familiar Iroquois customs and institutions. He associated the notion of peace and
partnership with the Iroquois custom by which the families of slain warriors adopted war prisoners into the
tribe. He invoked unquestioned social institutions as symbols, comparing the League to the traditional
Iroquois clan in which several families share a "Longhouse" and likening the Great Council, comprised of
representatives from each nation, to the Longhouse's ever-burning Council Fire. And he assigned to each
nation specific duties in order to assuage its fear of losing national identity. (For instance, he assigned to
the Onondagas, who were centrally positioned geographically, the role of perpetual hosts.) Perhaps most
persuasive, however, was how Degandawida's League replicated the power structure of the traditional
Iroquois clan. Each of the five Iroquois nations was comprised of matriarchal totemic clans in which the
chiefs were men, the clan heads were women, and the chief's children were considered members of his
wife's clan. Degandawida determined that the heads of each nation should select their League
representatives, thereby effectively precluding the possibility of League representatives passing their
power on to their sons, as well as decreasing the likelihood that a pro-war representative would be
appointed. Iroquois unification under the League lasted about two centuries, when disagreement as to
whether to become involved in the American Revolutionary war divided the Iroquois. The revolutionaries'
success and their subsequent encroachment upon Iroquois lands forced many Iroquois to resettle in
Canada, while those who remained behind lost respect from other Indian nations. The introduction of
distilled spirits led to widespread alcoholism and, in turn, to a rapid decline of the culture and population.
The Quakers' influence impeded, yet in another sense contributed, to this decline. By establishing schools
for the Iroquois and by introducing them to modern technology for agriculture and husbandry, the Quakers
instilled some hope for the future yet undermined their sense of national identity. Ironically, it was the
alcoholic halfbrother of Seneca, Cornplanter, the most outspoken proponent among the Iroquois for
assimilation of white customs and institutions, who revived the Iroquois culture. Around 1800, Handsome
Lake, a former member of the Great Council, established a new religion among the Iroquois that tied the
more useful aspects of Christianity to traditional Indian beliefs and customs. Lake's teachings quickly
became firmly entrenched among the Iroquois, sparking reunification and renewed confidence while also
curbing rampant alcoholism. Lake's influence is still evident today: many modern- day Iroquois belong
both to his religion and to one or another Christian sect Assuming that the reasons asserted in the
passage for the decline of the Iroquois culture are historically representative of the decline of cultural
minorities, which of the following developments would most likely contribute to the demise of a modern-
day ethnic minority?

CLOISTERED:

In the United States, the development of sociology was not _______ controversies; rather, it emerged
from social experience, hence the relatively _______ approach among American sociologists to
identifying and solving social problems.

The heart of the restorationist critique of environmental preservationism is the claim that it rests on an
unhealthy dualism that conceives nature and humankind as radically distinct and opposed to each other.
The crucial question about the restorationist outlook has to do with the degree to which the restorationist
program is itself faithful to its first principle- that nature and humanity are fundamentally united rather than
separate. Rejecting the old domination model, which sees humans as over nature, restoration theory
champions a model of community participation. Yet some of the descriptions of what restorationists are
actually up to-for example, Turner's description of humans as "the lords of creation," or Jordan's
statement that "the fate and well being of the biosphere depend ultimately on us and our relationship with
it"-do not cohere well with the community-participation model. Another holistic model-namely, that of
nature as an organism-might be more serviceable to the restorationists. As with the community model,
the "organic" model pictures nature as a system of interconnected parts. A fundamental difference,
however, is that in an organism the parts are wholly subservient to the life of the organism.
In asserting that the organic model"might be more serviceable to the restorationists" (lines 28-30), the
author implies that

Marie Curie was one of the most accomplished scientists in history. Together with her husband, Pierre,
she discovered radium, an element widely used for treating cancer, and studied uranium and other
radioactive substances. Pierre and Marie's amicable collaboration later helped to unlock the secrets of the
atom. Marie was born in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, where her father was a professor of physics. At the
early age, she displayed a brilliant mind and a blithe personality. Her great exuberance for learning
prompted her to continue with her studies after high school. She became disgruntled, however, when she
learned that the university in Warsaw was closed to women.
Determined to receive a higher education, she defiantly left Poland and in 1891 entered the Sorbonne, a
French university, where she earned her master's degree and doctorate in physics. Marie was fortunate to
have studied at the Sorbonne with some of the greatest scientists of her day, one of whom was Pierre
Curie. Marie and Pierre were married in
1 895 and spent many productive years working together in the physics laboratory. A short time after they
discovered radium, Pierre was killed by a horse-drawn wagon in
1 906. Marie was stunned by this horrible misfortune and endured heartbreaking anguish. espondently she
recalled their close relationship and the joy that they had shared in scientific research. The fact that she
had two young daughters to raise by herself greatly increased her distress. Curie's feeling of desolation
finally began to fade when she was asked to succeed her husband as a physics professor at the
Sorbonne. She was the first woman to be given a professorship at the world-famous university. In 1911
she received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for isolating radium. Although Marie Curie eventually suffered a
fatal illness from her long exposure to radium, she never became disillusioned about her work.
Regardless of the consequences, she had dedicated herself to science and to revealing the mysteries of
the physical world.
_ ____she remembered their joy together.

ACCLAIM: