ID: de55ec71

Generations of mystery and horror ______ have been influenced by the dark, gothic stories of celebrated American author
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849).

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. writers

B. writers,

C. writers—

D. writers;
 ID: 89fbc3eb
The Mission 66 initiative, which was approved by Congress in 1956, represented a major investment in the infrastructure of
overburdened national ______ it prioritized physical improvements to the parks’ roads, utilities, employee housing, and visitor
facilities while also establishing educational programming for the public.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. parks and

B. parks

C. parks;

D. parks,
 ID: 960dec02
A recent study tracked the number of bee species present in twenty-seven New York apple orchards over a ten-year period.
______ found that when wild growth near an orchard was cleared, the number of different bee species visiting the orchard
decreased.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Entomologist Heather Grab:

B. Entomologist, Heather Grab,

C. Entomologist Heather Grab

D. Entomologist Heather Grab,

 ID: 37e5c794
Despite being cheap, versatile, and easy to produce, ______ they are made from nonrenewable petroleum, and most do not
biodegrade in landfills.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. there are two problems associated with commercial plastics:

B. two problems are associated with commercial plastics:

C. commercial plastics’ two associated problems are that

D. commercial plastics have two associated problems:

 ID: 2c49940e
French philosopher René Descartes doubted whether he could prove his own existence. Eventually, he found proof in his
famous phrase “I think, therefore I am.” The ______ complexity: only those who exist would be able to ponder their existence.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. phrases’ simplicity masks its

B. phrases simplicity masks their

C. phrase’s simplicity masks their

D. phrase’s simplicity masks its

 ID: 7f226b4b
In a 2023 study, researchers documented a fascinating behavior in the aquatic plant Elodea densa. When exposed to low
levels of light, the plant’s ______ the cellular organs that generate energy from light—reshuffled to form a tightly packed,
glass-like surface ideal for collecting more light.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. chloroplasts

B. chloroplasts;

C. chloroplasts,

D. chloroplasts—
 ID: 74ce2f05
A study led by scientist Rebecca Kirby at the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that black bears that eat human food
before hibernation have increased levels of a rare carbon isotope, ______ due to the higher 13C levels in corn and cane sugar.
Bears with these elevated levels were also found to have much shorter hibernation periods on average.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. carbon-13, (13C)

B. carbon-13 (13C)

C. carbon-13, (13C),

D. carbon-13 (13C),
 ID: a2816c7f
American abstract artist Richard ______ his installations to make passersby keenly aware of how one’s movements are
affected by the physical features of one’s environment, assembles large-scale steel plates into sculptures that dominate the
outdoor spaces they occupy.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Serra is intending

B. Serra, intends

C. Serra, intending

D. Serra intends
 ID: eb95235b
The Limón technique, developed by Mexican-born dancer and choreographer Jose Limón, is known for its emphasis on
breath control and its interplay of weight and ______ dancers may explore, for example, the moment of mid-air suspension at
the top of a jump.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. weightlessness

B. weightlessness which

C. weightlessness,

D. weightlessness;
 ID: adf210e7
The haiku-like poems of Tomas Tranströmer, which present nature- and dream-influenced images in crisp, spare language,
have earned the Swedish poet praise from leading contemporary ______ them Nigerian American essayist and novelist Teju
Cole, who has written that Tranströmer’s works “contain a luminous simplicity.”

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. writers. Among

B. writers among

C. writers; among

D. writers, among
 ID: b7363ba2
Mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz used the metaphor of the “butterfly effect” to explain how seemingly minor
events can have major impacts on future weather. According to Lorenz’s metaphor, the wind from a butterfly flapping ______
in Brazil might eventually grow into a storm elsewhere across the globe.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. its wings

B. its wings’

C. it’s wing’s

D. it’s wings’
 ID: 13fcf575
Roughly 300 nights a year, when the cold air descending from the Andes Mountains meets the warm air rising from
Venezuela’s coastal Lake Maracaibo, the result is a spectacular lightning storm, its strikes so bright, so localized, and so
______ that it has become known as “Maracaibo’s Lighthouse.”

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. dependable:

B. dependable;

C. dependable

D. dependable,
 ID: 940ff6f7
Jamaican British artist Willard Wigan is known for his remarkable ______ so small that they are best viewed through a
microscope, Wigan’s sculptures are made from tiny natural materials, such as spiderweb strands.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. microsculptures creations

B. microsculptures, creations

C. microsculptures. Creations

D. microsculptures and creations

 ID: 333b2b65
While one requires oxygen and one does ______ and anaerobic respiration are both forms of cellular respiration—that is, they
are processes by which cells break down glucose to use as energy.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. not aerobic

B. not. Aerobic

C. not, aerobic

D. not; aerobic
 ID: aaa1907f
To serve local families during the Great Depression, innovative New York City librarian Pura Belpré offered storytelling in both
English and Spanish, an uncommon ______ celebrated el Día de los Tres Reyes Magos, an important community holiday; and
put on puppet shows dramatizing Puerto Rican folktales.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. practice, at the time

B. practice at the time;

C. practice, at the time,

D. practice at the time,

 ID: 7f48b098
Photosynthesis, the mechanism by which plants use sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water into ______ is fueled in part by
an enzyme called Photosystem II that harvests energy-giving electrons from water molecules.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. nutrients

B. nutrients and

C. nutrients,

D. nutrients—
 ID: 148be4da
Human-made (synthetic) fibers used in clothes and many other consumer products are more durable than most natural plant
______ the manufacture of synthetic fibers requires toxic chemical solvents that can pollute air and water.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. fibers,

B. fibers but

C. fibers

D. fibers, but
 ID: 0f39b19c
After a spate of illnesses as a child, Wilma Rudolph was told she might never walk again. Defying all odds, Rudolph didn’t
just walk, she ______ the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, she won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and clinched first
place for her team in the 4x100-meter relay, becoming the first US woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. ran—fast—during

B. ran—fast during

C. ran—fast, during

D. ran—fast. During
 ID: 155239cf
By analyzing ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team at Sweden’s Lund University discovered evidence of a
solar storm that occurred 9,200 years ago. Scientists had previously thought the Sun to be in a relatively “quiet” phase at that
______ the Lund team’s finding suggests otherwise.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. time but

B. time, but

C. time,

D. time
 ID: ac5536c1
Beatrix Potter is perhaps best known for writing and illustrating children’s books such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), but
she also dedicated herself to mycology, the study of ______ more than 350 paintings of the fungal species she observed in
nature and submitting her research on spore germination to the Linnean Society of London.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. fungi; producing

B. fungi. Producing

C. fungi producing

D. fungi, producing
 ID: 9c3630b9
Using natural debris, such as dried ______ such as plastic bags; and more traditional art supplies, such as tree glue, Ghanaian
artist Ed Franklin Gavua creates his striking Yiiiiikakaii African masks, which he hopes can help viewers rethink how waste is
used in their communities.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. leaves, man-made trash:

B. leaves; man-made trash,

C. leaves, man-made trash,

D. leaves; man-made trash;

 ID: 77bf77cd
Farouk El-Baz, a geologist and space scientist, ______ part of the team that selected the lunar landing sites for the Apollo
program during the 1960s and 1970s.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. are

B. was

C. have been

D. were
 ID: 3a2d77d7
In the 1950s, novel audio technologies allowed the addition of another instrument to jazz and swing ______ relatively quiet
instrument, its full range of sound was finally audible alongside the blaring brass instruments of the time, allowing flautists
like Bennie Maupin and Bobbi Humphrey to perform with other jazz greats.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. music, the flute, a

B. music. The flute, a

C. music; the flute, a

D. music: the flute. A

 ID: 435809d8
On March 23, 2021, a gust of wind wreaked havoc on global trade. Ever Given, an international shipping container vessel,
became lodged in Egypt’s Suez Canal, a major shipping route between Europe and Asia. The vessel took six days to ______
it’s as heavy as two thousand blue whales when fully loaded.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. dislodge in part due to its sheer size,

B. dislodge, in part due to its sheer size:

C. dislodge, in part due to its sheer size,

D. dislodge, in part, due to its sheer size

 ID: 83898524
In addition to advocating for South America’s independence in two political treatises, the Cartagena Manifesto and the Letter
from Jamaica, Simón Bolívar personally led armies against the Spanish, liberating three South American territories—New
Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama), Venezuela, and Quito (present-day ______ from colonial rule.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Ecuador,)

B. Ecuador)

C. Ecuador),

D. Ecuador)—
 ID: fba5d8d1
In a 2016 study, Eastern Washington University psychologist Amani El-Alayli found that, among the study participants who
experienced frisson (a physiological response akin to goosebumps or getting the chills) while listening to music, there was
one personality trait that they scored particularly ______ openness to experience.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. high. On

B. high on;

C. high on

D. high on:
 ID: 6fece68e
Emperor Ashoka ruled the Maurya Empire in South Asia from roughly 270 to 232 BCE. He is known for enforcing a moral
code called the Law of Piety, which established the sanctity of animal ______ the just treatment of the elderly, and the
abolition of the slave trade.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. life

B. life;

C. life:

D. life,
 ID: 886dc9f9
On July 23, 1854, a clipper ship called the Flying Cloud entered San Francisco ______ left New York Harbor under the
guidance of Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy and his wife, navigator Eleanor Creesy, a mere 89 days and 8 hours earlier, the
celebrated ship set a record that would stand for 135 years.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Bay and having

B. Bay. Having

C. Bay, having

D. Bay having
 ID: 59a246dc
When external forces are applied to common glass made from silicates, energy builds up around minuscule defects in the
material, resulting in fractures. Recently, engineer Erkka Frankberg of Tampere University in Finland used the chemical ______
to make a glassy solid that can withstand higher strain than silicate glass can before fracturing.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. compound, aluminum oxide

B. compound aluminum oxide,

C. compound, aluminum oxide,

D. compound aluminum oxide

 ID: a153ad6a
While light is known as one of the fastest-moving substances, it slows down when passing through some types of matter.
One such type of matter is a form of cooled, condensed gas called a Bose-Einstein condensate ______ Dutch physicist Lene
Hau famously used a BEC to slow a beam of light to a complete halt.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. (BEC),

B. (BEC) and

C. (BEC);

D. (BEC)
 ID: eeb14722
The soundtrack to Mira Nair’s 1991 film Mississippi Masala expressively captures the clashing of cultures that happens
when ______ (a young Indian woman from Uganda and a young African American man from Mississippi) meet. Featured
throughout the film are songs from Uganda’s Afrigo Band, the Indian composer L. Subramaniam, and the Mississippi blues
musician Sam Chatmon.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. it’s two protagonists

B. its two protagonist’s

C. it’s two protagonist’s

D. its two protagonists

 ID: 6e071432
In 1986, conceptual artist Sophie Calle asked twenty-three people, all of whom had been born without sight, to describe “their
image of beauty” in rich detail. Calle paired excerpts of these conversations with photographs—both of interviewees and the
items they ______ to powerful effect in her exhibition The Blind.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. described, from hair to grass to sculptures

B. described, from hair to grass to sculptures—

C. described—from hair to grass to sculptures,

D. described: from hair to grass to sculptures

 ID: 20ea68b7
It can take time for proposed amendments to the US Constitution to become law. For example, the Twenty-Second
Amendment, which limits the number of ______ can serve, was first proposed in 1947 but wasn’t approved by the required
three-fourths majority of state legislatures until 1951.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. terms presidents

B. term’s presidents

C. term’s president’s

D. terms president’s
 ID: 6ea8c23f
In 2018, a team of researchers led by Dr. Caitlin Whalen compiled every available measurement of ocean mixing rates from
the past two decades. With this novel data set, the team was able to determine how current-driven mixing varies across
______ and what impact it has on the distribution of heat and nutrients in the ocean.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. regions,

B. regions:

C. regions;

D. regions
 ID: aab74a3b
Researcher Lin Zhi developed a process for increasing the tensile strength—measured in gigapascals, or GPa—of silkworm
______ dissolving and reweaving the silk in a solution of iron metal ions, zinc, and sugar, Zhi increased the amount of force
required to stretch it from approximately 0.5 GPa to 2 GPa.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. silk, by

B. silk by

C. silk and by

D. silk. By
 ID: 1724dac2
A subseasonal weather forecast attempts to predict weather conditions three to four weeks in ______ its predictions are
therefore more short-term than those of the seasonal forecast, which attempts to predict the weather more than a month in
advance.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. advance,

B. advance

C. advance;

D. advance and
 ID: a9e5b788
In discussing Mary Shelley’s 1818 epistolary novel Frankenstein, literary theorist Gayatri Spivak directs the reader’s attention
to the character of Margaret Saville. As Spivak points out, Saville is not the protagonist of Shelley’s ______ as the recipient of
the letters that frame the book’s narrative, she’s the “occasion” of it.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. novel

B. novel,

C. novel; rather,

D. novel, rather,
 ID: cdbbbf94
As British scientist Peter Whibberley has observed, “the Earth is not a very good timekeeper.” Earth’s slightly irregular rotation
rate means that measurements of time must be periodically adjusted. Specifically, an extra “leap second” (the 86,401st
second of the day) is ______ time based on the planet’s rotation lags a full nine-tenths of a second behind time kept by
precise atomic clocks.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. added, whenever

B. added; whenever

C. added. Whenever

D. added whenever
 ID: a3e87535
Julia Alvarez’s 1994 novel In the Time of the Butterflies, a fictionalized account of the lives of the Mirabal ______ can serve as
a starting point for those wanting to explore how the rule of dictator Rafael Trujillo has been represented in Dominican
American literature.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. sisters, and

B. sisters and

C. sisters,

D. sisters
 ID: a1e0c981
In her book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, author Maxine Hong Kingston examines themes
______ childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity by intertwining autobiography and mythology.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. of:

B. of

C. of—

D. of,
 ID: b35cefb7
The fine, powdery substance that covers the Moon’s surface is called regolith. Because regolith is both readily available and
high in oxygen ______ scientists have wondered whether it could be used as a potential source of oxygen for future lunar
settlements.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. content and

B. content,

C. content

D. content, and
 ID: e76e74e8
Over twenty years ago, in a landmark experiment in the psychology of choice, professor Sheena Iyengar set up a jam-tasting
booth at a grocery store. The number of jams available for tasting ______ some shoppers had twenty-four different options,
others only six. Interestingly, the shoppers with fewer jams to choose from purchased more jam.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. varied:

B. varied,

C. varied, while

D. varied while
 ID: 083a35dc
Po’Pay was a Tewa leader from Ohkay Owingeh, a pueblo located about twenty-five miles north of present-day Santa Fe, New
Mexico. He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of ______ as a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers
were expelled from the region for a time.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. 1680

B. 1680 and

C. 1680,

D. 1680, and
 ID: 486f03da
The short story “Rogue Enchantments” by Isabel Ibañez appears in Reclaim the ______ anthology of fantasy and science
fiction written by authors of Latin American descent.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Stars. An

B. Stars, while an

C. Stars an

D. Stars, an
 ID: 8b002b08
Many Samoans enjoy a sport called kilikiti. This bat-and-ball game was derived from ______ kilikiti differs from cricket in a
few key ways.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. cricket but:

B. cricket but,

C. cricket, but

D. cricket, but,
 ID: 145d5ca7
Gathering accurate data on water flow in the United States is challenging because of the country’s millions of miles of ______
the volume and speed of water at any given location can vary drastically over time.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. waterways and the fact that,

B. waterways, and the fact that,

C. waterways, and, the fact that

D. waterways and the fact that

 ID: be34a3df
In 2008, two years after the death of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, the Huntington Library in ______ received a
collection of more than 8,000 items, including Butler’s private notes, research materials, manuscripts, photos, and drawings.
Today, the Octavia E. Butler Collection is one of the most researched archives at the library.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. California,

B. California:

C. California—

D. California
 ID: 73a6603c
On sunny days, dark rooftops absorb solar energy and convert it to unwanted heat, raising the surrounding air ______ a light-
colored covering to an existing dark roof, either by attaching prefabricated reflective sheets or spraying on a paint-like
coating, helps combat this effect.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. temperature; by adding

B. temperature, adding

C. temperature. Adding

D. temperature by adding
 ID: 70ced8dc
Typically, underlines, scribbles, and notes left in the margins by a former owner lower a book’s ______ when the former owner
is a famous poet like Walt Whitman, such markings, known as marginalia, can be a gold mine to literary scholars.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. value, but

B. value

C. value,

D. value but
 ID: 6fac7f45
Butterfly is a 1988 painting by the Japanese artist Ay-O. Like many of Ay-O’s paintings, Butterfly, which portrays a swimmer
performing the butterfly stroke, attempts to make use of the entire visual light ______ sporting rainbow-striped goggles, the
rainbow-hued swimmer splashes through a wavy rainbow of water.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. spectrum

B. spectrum:

C. spectrum while

D. spectrum, while