Vocabulary Set 5 - A

Thursday, August 17, 2006

1. acrid
   adj. sharp; bitterly pungent
   The acrid odor of burnt gunpowder filled the room after the pistol had been fired.
   


2. acrimonious
   adj. stinging, caustic
   His tendency to utter acrimonious remarks alienated his audience.
   


3. actuarial
   adj. calculating; pertaining to insurance statistics
   According to recent actuarial tables, life expectancy is greater today than it was a century ago.
   


4. actuate
   v. [actuated; actuated; actuating] motivate
   I fail to understand what actuated you to reply to this letter so nastily.
   


5. acuity
   n. sharpness
   In time his youthful acuity of vision failed him, and he needed glasses.
   


6. acumen
   n. mental keenness
   His business acumen helped him to succeed where others had failed.
   


7. adage
   v. wise saying; proverb
   There is much truth in the old adage about fools and their money.
   


8. adamant
   adj. hard, inflexible
   He was adamant in his determination to punish the wrongdoer.
   


9. addendum
   n. [addenda, addendums] addition; appendix to book
   Jane's editor approved her new comparative literature text but thought it would be even better with an addendum on recent developments in literary criticism.

<< Vocabulary #4- A || Table of Contents || Vocabulary #6 - A >>

Vocabulary Set 4 - A

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

1. accolade
   n. award of merit
   In Hollywood, an "Oscar" is the highest accolade.
   


2. accord
   n. [accords] agreement
   She was in complete accord with the verdict.
   


3. accost
   v. [accosted; accosted; accosting] approach and speak first to a person
   When the two young men accosted me, I was frightened because I thought they were going to attack me.
   


4. accoutre
   v. equip
   The fisherman was accoutred with the best that the sporting goods store could supply
   


5. accretion
   n. growth; increase
   The accretion of wealth marked the family's rise in power.
   


6. accrue
   v. [accrued; accrued; accruing] come about by addition
   You must pay the interest that has accrued on your debt as well as the principal sum.
   


7. acidulous
   adj. slightly sour; sharp
   James was unpopular because of his sarcastic and acidulous remarks.
   


8. acme
   n. peak; pinnacle
   Welles's success in Citizen Kane marked the acme of his career as an actor; never again did he achieve such popular acclaim.
   


9. acquiesce
   v. [acquiesced; acquiesced; acquiescing] assent; agree passively
   Although she appeared to acquiesce to her employer's suggestions, I could tell she had reservations about the changes he wanted made.
   


10. acquittal
    n. [acquittals] deliverance from a charge
    His acquittal by the jury surprised those who had thought him guilty.

<< Vocabulary #3- A || Table of Contents || Vocabulary #5 - A >>

CAT Bulletins - Hurry!!

Monday, August 14, 2006

List of UTI Bank Branches/ Head Post Offices handling Sale of CAT Bulletins
State UTI Bank Branch/ Head Post Office (HPO)
Andhra Pradesh Hyderabad Main (Begumpet Road)
Secunderabad (Rashtrapati House)
Kakinada (Subhash Road)
Kurnool ( Railway Station Road)
Chittoor (Prakasam High Road)
Vijaywada (Rajagopalachari Street)
Vishakapatnam (Dwaraka Nagar)
Warangal (Station Road)
Arunachal Pradesh Head Post Office Itanagar
Assam Guwahati (G. S. Road, Dispur)
Jorhat (A.T. Road)
Bihar Bhagalpur (Patal Babu Road)
Muzaffarpur (Club Road)
Patna (S.P. Verma Road)
Chhattisgarh Bhillai (Off. G.E. Road)
Korba (Power House Road)
Bilaspur ( Near New Bus Stand)
Raipur(Jeevan Bima Marg)
Delhi Delhi Main (Barakhamba Road)
Malviya Nagar
Vasant Kunj (Nelson Mandela Road)
Defence Colony
Daryaganj (Netaji Subhash Marg)
Greater Kailash - II
RajouriGarden (Vishal Enclave)
Goa Panaji(Dr. Atmaram Borkar Marg)
Gujarat Ahmedabad Main (Ellisbridge)
Ahmedabad (Vastrapur)
Ahmedabad (Maninagar)
Vallabh Vidyanagar (Near H.M. Patel House)
Baroda (Race Course Circle - North)
Bhavnagar(Waghawadi Road)
Rajkot (Kalawad Road)
Surat Main (Ghod Dod Road)
Haryana Ambala (Jagadri Road, Ambala Cantt.)
Faridabad (N.I.T)
Gurgaon (Sector 14)
Panipat (G.T. Road)
Kurukshetra (Railway Road)
Rohtak (Delhi Road)
Himachal Pradesh Shimla (Kasumpti)
Jammu and Kashmir Head Post Office Jammu
Head Post Office Srinagar
Jharkhand Dhanbad (Bank More)
Jamshedpur Main (Bistupur)
Ranchi (Main Road)
Karnataka Bangalore Main (M.G. Road)
Banglore (J.P.Nagar)
Banglore (Jayanagar )
Bangalore (Koramangala)
Bangalore (Marathahalli)
Bellary (Main Road)
Davanagere (P.B. Road)
Belgaum (Congress Road)
Karwar (Green Street)
Gulbarga (Super Market)
Hubli (Deshpande Nagar)
Mangalore (Bunts Hostel Circle)
Mysore (Temple Road)
Kerala Kozhikode (YMCA Cross Road)
Kochi (Rajaji Road)
Thiruvanthapuram (M.G. Road)
Madhya Pradesh Bhopal (M.P. Nagar)
Gwalior (Madhavrao Scindia Marg)
Indore (Yeswant Niwas Road)
Jabalpur (Shastri Bridge Chowk)
Satna (Rewa Road)
Maharashtra Mumbai Main (Fort)
Mumbai (Andheri-West)
Mumbai (Borivli -West)
Mumbai (Shivaji Park)
Mumbai (Bandra-West)
Mumbai (Mulund-West)
Mumbai (Vashi)
Thane Main (LBS Marg)
Amravati (Near Jaisthamb Chowk)
Aurangabad (Adalat Road)
Kolhapur (Station Road)
Ahmednagar (Tilak Road)
Nagpur Main (Sitabuldi)
Nashik (Sharanpur Road)
Pune Main (J.M. Road)
Manipur Head Post Office Imphal
Meghalaya Shillong (Jail Road)
Mizoram Head Post Office Aizawl
Nagaland Head Post Office Kohima
Orissa Berhampur (Ganjam - Tata Benz Square)
Bhubaneshwar (Satyanagar)
Cuttack (Badambadi)
Angul (Main Road)
Balasore (O.T. Road)
Rourkela (Kachery Road)
Sambalpur (V. S. S. Marg)
Punjab Jalandhar (Mahavir Marg)
Amritsar (Court Road)
Ludhiana Main (The Mall)
Patiala (Rajwara Road)
Rajasthan Ajmer (Kutchery Road)
Bikaner (Rani Bazar Road)
Jaipur Main (Ashok Marg)
Jodhpur (Chopasni Road)
Kota (Shopping Centre)
Udaipur (Chetak Marg)
Sikkim Gangtok (M.G. Road)
Tamil Nadu Chennai Main (Mylapore)
Chennai (Adyar)
Coimbatore (Avinashi Road)
Madurai (Goods Shed Street)
Salem (Omalur Main Road)
Tiruchirappali (Salai Road)
Tirunelveli (East Car Street)
Tripura Agartala(H. G. Basak Road)
Uttaranchal Dehradun (Rajpur Road)
Rudrapur (Nainital Road)
Roorkee (Civil Lines)
Uttar Pradesh Agra (Sanjay Palace)
Aligarh (Ramghat Road)
Allahabad (M.G. Marg)
Bareilly (Civil Lines)
Gorakhpur (Bank Road)
Jhansi (Civil Lines)
Kanpur (The Mall)
Lucknow Main (Ashok Marg)
Meerut (Boundary Road)
Noida (Sector - 16)
Varanasi (Shastri Nagar)
West Bengal Kolkata Main (Shakespeare Sarani)
Kolkata (Behala)
Kolkata (Salt Lake City)
Kolkata (Golpark )
Kolkata (Dalhousie Square)
Kolkata (Shyam Bazar)
Burdwan (G.T. Road)
Durgapur (City Centre)
Kharagpur (Malancha Road)
Siliguri (Sevoke Road)
Chandigarh Chandigarh (Sector 34 A)
Pondicherry Pondicherry (Bussy Street)

For Online purchase of IIM CAT bulletin @ http://www.iimcat2006.com/

Parts of Speech - The Noun

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The Noun: As we have seen earlier, a noun is a word that refers to a name of the person, place, animal or thing. The word thing is used to mean anything that we can think of.

1. Proper Nouns: The name of some particular person, place or thing is a proper noun. (Ram is from India. Ashoka was a great king.) Here Ram and Ashka are a proper noun.


2. Common Nouns: The name given to every person or thing of the same class or kind is a common noun. (The boys are smarter than the girls.) Here boys and girls are common noun. In the above example king is a common noun.


3. Abstract Nouns: The name given to a quality, action or state considered apart from the object to which it belongs, is an abstract noun. (Honesty is the best policy). Abstract Nouns are formed from Adjectives (Kindness from Kind), Verbs (growth from grow) and from Common Nouns (slavery from slave)


4. Collective Nouns: The name given to a collection of persons or things taken together and spoken of as one whole is a collective noun. (The police are searching for clues. The Indian nation should be considered as one family.) Here police, nation and family are collective nouns.
   *Note: Team, Jury, Committee are examples of collective nouns which can take a singular or a plural verb depending on the context. Police always takes a plural verb.

Examples:

1. The crowd was very big. ~ crowd - collective


2. Always speak the truth. ~ truth - abstract


3. We all love honesty. ~ honesty - abstract


4. Our class consists of twenty pupils. ~ class and pupils - collective


5. The elephant has great strength. ~ elephant - common, strength - abstract


6. Solomon was famous for his wisdom. ~ Solomon - proper, wisdom - abstract


7. Cleanliness is next to godliness. ~ Cleanliness and godliness - abstract


8. We saw a fleet of ships in the harbour. ~ fleet - collective, ships and harbour - common


9. The class is studing grammar. ~ class - collective, grammar - abstract


10. The Nile overflows its banks every year. ~ Nile - proper, banks and year - common


11. A committiee of five was appointed. ~ committiee - collective


12. Nelson is famous for his victory at Trafalgar. ~ Nelson and Trafalgar - proper, victory - abstract


13. The soldiers were rewarded for their bravery. ~ soldiers - common, bravery - abstract


14. Without health there is no happiness. ~ health and happiness - abstract


15. He gave me a bunch of grapes. ~ bunch - collective, grapes - common


16. I recognized your voice at once. ~ voice - common


17. Our team is better than theirs. ~ team - collective


18. Never tell a lie. ~ lie - abstract


19. Wisdom is better than strength. ~ Wisdom and strength - abstract


20. He sets a hight value on his time. ~ value and time - abstract


21. I belive in his innocence. ~ innocence - abstract


22. This room is thirty feet in length. ~ room and feet - common, length - abstract


23. I often think of the happy days of childhood. ~ days - common, childhood - abstract


24. The streets of some of our cities are noted for their crookedness. ~ streets and cities - common, crookedness - abstract


25. What is your verdict, gentlemen of the jury? ~ verdict - abstract, gentlemen - common, jury - collective

Parts of Speech

Monday, August 07, 2006

Parts of Speech - Words are divided into different kinds or classes, called Parts of Speech, according to their use.

1. Noun - A word used as the name of a person, animal, place, or thing. (Akbar was a great King.)


2. Pronoun - A word used instead of a noun. (He was a great King.)


3. Adjective - A word used to say something more about a noun or a pronoun. (Akbar was a great King.)


4. Verb - A word used to denote action or state of being. (She dances very well.)


5. Adverb - A word used to add something to the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. (This flower is very beautiful)


6. Preposition - A word used with a noun or a pronoun to show how the person or thing denoted by the noun or pronoun stand in relation to something else. (There is a cow in the garden)


7. Conjunction - A word used to join words or sentences. (Rama and Hari are cousins)


8. Interjection - A word which expresses some sudden feeling. (Alas! she is dead.)

As the words are divided into different classes according to the work they do in sentences, it is clear that we cannot say to which part of speech a word belongs unless we see it used in a sentence.

1. They arrived soon after. (Adverb)


2. They arrived after us. (Preposition)


3. They arrived after we had left. (Conjunction)

Examples:

1. Still waters run deep.
   ~ Adjective - adds something to the meaning of the noun 'waters'.


2. He still lives in the house.
   ~ Adverb - adds something to the meaning of the verb 'lives'


3. After the storm comes the calm.
   ~ Preposition - shows the relation between 'storm' and 'comes'.


4. The after effects of the drug are bad.
   ~ Adjective - adds something to the meaning of the noun 'effects'.


5. The up train is late.
   ~ Adjective - adds something to the meaning of the noun 'train'.


6. It weighs about a pound.
   ~ Adverb - adds something to the meaning of the verb 'weigh'


7. He told us all about the battle.
   ~ Preposition - shows the relation between 'all' and 'battle'


8. He was only a yard off me.
   ~ Preposition - shows the relation between 'yard' and 'me'


9. Suddenly one of the wheels came off.
   ~ Adverb - adds something to the meaning of the verb 'came'


10. Mohammedans fast in the month of Ramzan
    ~ Verb - says something about 'Mohammedans'


11. He kept the fast for a week
    ~ Noun - the name of something


12. He is on the committee.
    ~ Preposition - shows the relation between 'is' and 'committee'


13. Let us move on.
    ~ Adverb - adds something to the meaning of the verb 'move'


14. Sit down and rest a while.
    ~ Noun - the name of something


15. I will watch while you sleep.
    ~ Conjunction - joins the two parts 'I will watch' and 'you sleep'


16. They while away their evenings with books and games.
    ~ Verb - says something about 'they'

Next, we are going to cover types of nouns in details.

Intro - Sentence, Subject & Predicate

We all have learned English in school, at least many of us, it's a continuous process. But most of us, that includes me, have forgotten the basics or need to brush up with the basics. Also the English tested in competitive exams is far more than just elements of grammar or vocabulary, its focus is on reasoning and contextual usage. For the sake of completeness I will start with the basics, if you are good in English you can skip it.

The Sentence
When we speak or write we use words, e.g. The earth revolves around the sun. A group of words like this, which makes complete sense, is called a Sentence.

There are four kinds of sentences.
1. Declarative or Assertive sentence - statement or assertion (The early bird catches the worm.)
2. Interrogative sentence - question (Where do you live?)
3. Imperative sentence - command, requests (Stop!)
4. Exclamatory sentence - strong feeling (How romantic the night is!)

Subject and Predicate
When we make a sentence, we name some person or thing (subject) and say something about that person or thing (predicate). Usually the subject of the sentence comes first, sometimes it is put after the predicate. E.g. Long live the King.

Examples:
1. All roads lead to Rome.
2. A guilty conscience needs no excuse.
3. No man can serve two masters.
4. Nature is the best physician.
5. Bad habits grow unconsciously.
*(bold face is subject, rest is predicate)

*Tip: Basically CAT / GMAT or any other tests will not ask you to spot subject or predicate, but it is essential to get the basics strong, which will later help in sentence correction and other topics.

Passage #5

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Passage:

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways, our social statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930's when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mitigated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies.

Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.

As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate-that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.

Questions:

1. Which of the following is the principal topic of the passage?
(A) What causes labor market pathologies that result in suffering
(B) Why income measures are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty
(C) Which of the currently used statistical procedures are the best for estimating the incidence of hardship that is due to unemployment
(D) Where the areas of agreement are among poverty, employment, and earnings figures
(E) How social statistics give an unclear picture of the degree of hardship caused by low wages and insufficient employment opportunities

2. The author uses "labor market problems" in lines 1-2 to refer to which of the following?
(A) The overall causes of poverty
(B) Deficiencies in the training of the work force
(C) Trade relationships among producers of goods
(D) Shortages of jobs providing adequate income
(E) Strikes and inadequate supplies of labor

3. The author contrasts the 1930's with the present in order to show that
(A) more people were unemployed in the 1930's
(B) unemployment now has less severe effects
(C) social programs are more needed now
(D) there now is a greater proportion of elderly and handicapped people among those in poverty
(E) poverty has increased since the 1930's

4. Which of the following proposals best responds to the issues raised by the author?
(A) Innovative programs using multiple approaches should be set up to reduce the level of unemployment.
(B) A compromise should be found between the positions of those who view joblessness as an evil greater than economic control and those who hold the opposite view.
(C) New statistical indices should be developed to measure the degree to which unemployment and inadequately paid employment cause suffering.
(D) Consideration should be given to the ways in which statistics can act as partial causes of the phenomena that they purport to measure.
(E) The labor force should be restructured so that it corresponds to the range of job vacancies.

5. The author's purpose in citing those who are repeatedly unemployed during a twelve-month period is most probably to show that
(A) there are several factors that cause the payment of low wages to some members of the labor force
(B) unemployment statistics can underestimate the hardship resulting from joblessness
(C) recurrent inadequacies in the labor market can exist and can cause hardships for individual workers
(D) a majority of those who are jobless at any one time to not suffer severe hardship
(E) there are fewer individuals who are without jobs at some time during a year than would be expected on the basis of monthly unemployment figures

6. The author states that the mitigating effect of social programs involving income transfers on the income level of low-income people is often not felt by
(A) the employed poor
(B) dependent children in single-earner families
(C) workers who become disabled
(D) retired workers
(E) full-time workers who become unemployed

7. According to the passage, one factor that causes unemployment and earnings figures to overpredict the amount of economic hardship is the
(A) recurrence of periods of unemployment for a group of low-wage workers
(B) possibility that earnings may be received from more than one job per worker
(C) fact that unemployment counts do not include those who work for low wages and remain poor
(D) establishment of a system of record-keeping that makes it possible to compile poverty statistics
(E) prevalence, among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of families in which others are employed

8. The conclusion stated in lines 33-39 about the number of people who suffer as a result of forced idleness depends primarily on the point that
(A) in times of high unemployment, there are some people who do not remain unemployed for long
(B) the capacity for self-support depends on receiving moderate-to-high wages
(C) those in forced idleness include, besides the unemployed, both underemployed part-time workers and those not actively seeking work
(D) at different times during the year, different people are unemployed
(E) many of those who are affected by unemployment are dependents of unemployed workers

9. Which of the following, if true, is the best criticism of the author's argument concerning why poverty statistics cannot properly be used to show the effects of problems in the labor market?
(A) A short-term increase in the number of those in poverty can indicate a shortage of jobs because the basic number of those unable to accept employment remains approximately constant.
(B) For those who are in poverty as a result of joblessness, there are social programs available that provide a minimum standard of living.
(C) Poverty statistics do not consistently agree with earnings statistics, when each is taken as a measure of hardship resulting from unemployment.
(D) The elderly and handicapped categories include many who previously were employed in the labor market.
(E) Since the labor market is global in nature, poor workers in one country are competing with poor workers in another with respect to the level of wages and the existence of jobs.

Note: Post your answers along with explanations if required. Highlight this note to check your answers. Answers: 1-E, 2-D, 3-B, 4-C, 5-B, 6-A, 7-E, 8-D, 9-A

Passage #4

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Passage:

The fossil remains of the first flying vertebrates, the pterosaurs, have intrigued paleontologists for more than two centuries. How such large creatures, which weighed in some cases as much as a piloted hang-glider and had wingspans from 8 to 12 meters, solved the problems of powered flight, and exactly what these creatures were-reptiles or birds-are among the questions scientists have puzzled over.

Perhaps the least controversial assertion about the pterosaurs is that they were reptiles. Their skulls, pelvises, and hind feet are reptilian. The anatomy of their wings suggests that they did not evolve into the class of birds. In pterosaurs a greatly elongated fourth finger of each forelimb supported a wing-like membrane. The other fingers were short and reptilian, with sharp claws. In birds the second finger is the principal strut of the wing, which consists primarily of feathers. If the pterosaurs walked on all fours, the three short fingers may have been employed for grasping. When a pterosaur walked or remained stationary, the fourth finger, and with it the wing, could only turn upward in an extended inverted V-shape along each side of the animal's body.

The pterosaurs resembled both birds and bats in their overall structure and proportions. This is not surprising because the design of any flying vertebrate is subject to aerodynamic constraints. Both the pterosaurs and the birds have hollow bones, a feature that represents a savings in weight. In the birds, however, these bones are reinforced more massively by internal struts.

Although scales typically cover reptiles, the pterosaurs probably had hairy coats. T. H. Huxley reasoned that flying vertebrates must have been warm-blooded because flying implies a high rate of metabolism, which in turn implies a high internal temperature. Huxley speculated that a coat of hair would insulate against loss of body heat and might streamline the body to reduce drag in flight. The recent discovery of a pterosaur specimen covered in long, dense, and relatively thick hairlike fossil material was the first clear evidence that his reasoning was correct.

Efforts to explain how the pterosaurs became airborne have led to suggestions that they launched themselves by jumping from cliffs, by dropping from trees, or even by rising into light winds from the crests of waves. Each hypothesis has its difficulties. The first wrongly assumes that the pterosaurs' hind feet resembled a bat's and could serve as hooks by which the animal could hang in preparation for flight. The second hypothesis seems unlikely because large pterosaurs could not have landed in trees without damaging their wings. The third calls for high waves to channel updrafts. The wind that made such waves however, might have been too strong for the pterosaurs to control their flight once airborne.

Questions:

1. It can be inferred from the passage that scientists now generally agree that the

(A) enormous wingspan of the pterosaurs enabled them to fly great distances

(B) structure of the skeleton of the pterosaurs suggests a close evolutionary relationship to bats

(C) fossil remains of the pterosaurs reveal how they solved the problem of powered flight

(D) pterosaurs were reptiles

(E) pterosaurs walked on all fours

2. The author views the idea that the pterosaurs became airborne by rising into light winds created by waves as

(A) revolutionary

(B) unlikely

(C) unassailable

(D) probable

(E) outdated

3. According to the passage, the skeleton of a pterosaur can be distinguished from that of a bird by the

(A) size of its wingspan

(B) presence of hollow spaces in its bones

(C) anatomic origin of its wing strut

(D) presence of hooklike projections on its hind feet

(E) location of the shoulder joint joining the wing to its body

4. The ideas attributed to T. H. Huxley in the passage suggest that he would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

(A) An animal's brain size has little bearing on its ability to master complex behaviors.

(B) An animal's appearance is often influenced by environmental requirements and physical capabilities.

(C) Animals within a given family group are unlikely to change their appearance dramatically over a period of time.

(D) The origin of flight in vertebrates was an accidental development rather than the outcome of specialization or adaptation.

(E) The pterosaurs should be classified as birds, not reptiles.

5. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is characteristic of the pterosaurs?

(A) They were unable to fold their wings when not in use.

(B) They hung upside down from branches as bats do before flight.

(C) They flew in order to capture prey.

(D) They were an early stage in the evolution of the birds.

(E) They lived primarily in a forest-like habitat.

6. Which of the following best describes the organization of the last paragraph of the passage?

(A) New evidence is introduced to support a traditional point of view.

(B) Three explanations for a phenomenon are presented, and each is disputed by means of specific information.

(C) Three hypotheses are outlined, and evidence supporting each is given.

(D) Recent discoveries are described, and their implications for future study are projected.

(E) A summary of the material in the preceding paragraphs is presented, and conclusions are drawn.

7. It can be inferred from the passage that some scientists believe that pterosaurs

(A) lived near large bodies of water

(B) had sharp teeth for tearing food

(C) were attacked and eaten by larger reptiles

(D) had longer tails than many birds

(E) consumed twice their weight daily to maintain their body temperature

Note: Post your answers along with explanations if required. Highlight this note to check your answers. Answers: 1-D, 2-B, 3-C, 4-B, 5-A, 6-B, 7-A

Sentence Correction #10

A large rise in the number of housing starts in the coming year should boost new construction dollars by several billion dollars, making the construction industry's economic health much more robust than five years ago.

(A) making the construction industry's economic health much more robust than five years ago

(B) and make the construction industry's economic health much more robust than five years ago

(C) making the construction industry's economic health much more robust than it was five years ago

(D) to make the construction industry's economic health much more robust than five years ago

(E) in making the construction industry's economic health much more robust than it as five years ago

Note: Post your answer along with an explanation if required. Highlight this note to check your answer. Answer: C

Sentence Correction #9

A Labor Department study states that the numbers of women employed outside the home grew by more than a thirty-five percent increase in the past decade and accounted for more than sixty-two percent of the total growth in the civilian work force.

(A) numbers of women employed outside the home grew by more than a thirty-five percent increase

(B) numbers of women employed outside the home grew more than thirty-five percent

(C) numbers of women employed outside the home were raised by more than thirty-five percent

(D) number of women employed outside the home increased by more than thirty-five percent

(E) number of women employed outside the home was raised by more than a thirty-five percent increase

Note: Post your answer along with an explanation if required. Highlight this note to check your answer. Answer: D