Verbal Practice Exercise-10
Reading Comprehension:
Inference Exercise:
The cosmological constant was first dreamed up by Einstein, the inventor of general relativity. On realizing that the equations of general relativity allowed for the universe’s expansion (or, indeed, contraction), he added a parameter describing just such a constant in order to keep them from doing ether. For all his notoriously counterintuitive predictions, an expanding universe was one he was not prepared to countenance, at least not in 1917, when he published his theory. After Edwin Hubble’s discovery 12 years later that galaxies were indeed streaming away from Earth’s Milky Way backyard, Einstein dropped the tweak. No doubt miffed that he had not trusted his maths in the first place Einstein later called the cosmological constant his “biggest blunder”.
1. It can be inferred from the passage that the author uses the phrase “For all his notoriously counterintuitive predictions” to imply that
A. Prior to the realization about the possibility of expanding universe, Einstein had made more than one prediction that was contrary to intuition.
B. Einstein was not prepared to make another prediction that did not make sense.
C. Einstein’s past counterintuitive predictions were hotly contested.
D. Einstein’s average prediction was more counterintuitive to the prediction of any other scientist of his era.
The cosmological constant was first dreamed up by Einstein, the inventor of general relativity. On realizing that the equations of general relativity allowed for the universe’s expansion (or, indeed, contraction), he added a parameter describing just such a constant in order to keep them from doing ether. For all his notoriously counterintuitive predictions, an expanding universe was one he was not prepared to countenance, at least not in 1917, when he published his theory. After Edwin Hubble’s discovery 12 years later that galaxies were indeed streaming away from Earth’s Milky Way backyard, Einstein dropped the tweak. No doubt miffed that he had not trusted his maths in the first place Einstein later called the cosmological constant his “biggest blunder”.
2. As per the usage in the passage, the meaning of “miffed” can be inferred to be
A. bewildered
B. shocked
C. angered
D. relieved
E. happy
The cosmological constant was first dreamed up by Einstein, the inventor of general relativity. On realizing that the equations of general relativity allowed for the universe’s expansion (or, indeed, contraction), he added a parameter describing just such a constant in order to keep them from doing ether. For all his notoriously counterintuitive predictions, an expanding universe was one he was not prepared to countenance, at least not in 1917, when he published his theory. After Edwin Hubble’s discovery 12 years later that galaxies were indeed streaming away from Earth’s Milky Way backyard, Einstein dropped the tweak. No doubt miffed that he had not trusted his maths in the first place Einstein later called the cosmological constant his “biggest blunder”.
3. According to the passage, the original reason why Einstein invented the cosmological constant to
A. Cover up an inconsistency in the equations of general relativity
B. Ensure that universe does not expand or contract.
C. Ensure that the equations of relativity do not allow for the universe to contract or expand.
D. Ensure that the general relativity were consistent with Hubble’s discovery.
The idea to develop a multiparental recombinant inbred panel was conceived more than 10 years ago in response to a challenge positing that discovering the genetic basis of complex traits would be more efficient using genome-wide mutagenesis. Subsequently, biomedical researchers developed 1,000 strains of mice for laboratory testing, representing about 90 percent of the genetic diversity found in laboratory mice to mimic human diseases and probe the genetics evolved.
Using the strains from the set up above, Shannon McWeeney of Oregon Health & Science University and her colleagues found that 44 of the new mouse strains differ widely in their response to influenza virus. Comparing the mice that get the sickest with those that shake the virus off easily, the team found close to 2,000 genes that behave differently. In further study the researchers hope to pinpoint the genes responsible for the differences and determine whether the same genes play a role h how humans respond to the influenza.
4. What can be inferred about the “44of the new mouse strains” in the passage above?
A. They fared poorly against the influenza virus.
B. They more closely mimicked human diseases and genetics than the remaining strains of mice.
C. They contained a mix of mice who fell really sick due to the influenza virus and those who could repel of the influenza virus successfully.
D. They contained a mere 2000 genes.
In the early 1990s studies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), an all-pervading sea of microwaves which reveals what the universe looked like when it was just 380,000 years old, showed that the universe, then and now, was “flat”. The theory of relativity says that for the universe to be flat it has to have a very particular density-which in relativity is a measure not just of the mass contained in a certain volume, but also of the energy. The puzzle was that various lines of evidence showed that the universe’s endowment of ordinary matter (the stuff that people, planets, and stars are made of) would give it just 4% of that density.
5. The passage implies which of the following as a possible consequence of the discovery that the universe has been flat?
A. The finding is not aligned with what was predicted by the theory of relativity.
B. The density of the universe as defined in the passage contained a much higher energy component than was expected.
C. Ordinary matter could only account for a fraction of the density that was required as per theory of relativity for the universe to be flat.
D. The finding made physicists question their knowledge of the amount of matter in the universe.
The cosmological constant was first dreamed up by Einstein, the inventor of general relativity. On realizing that the equations of general relativity allowed for the universe’s expansion (or, indeed, contraction), he added a parameter describing just such a constant in order to keep them from doing ether. For all his notoriously counterintuitive predictions, an expanding universe was one he was not prepared to countenance, at least not in 1917, when he published his theory. After Edwin Hubble’s discovery 12 years later that galaxies were indeed streaming away from Earth’s Milky Way backyard, Einstein dropped the tweak. No doubt miffed that he had not trusted his maths in the first place Einstein later called the cosmological constant his “biggest blunder”.
6. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. The cosmological constant was Einstein’s biggest blunder.
B. Had Einstein not invented the cosmological constant, general relativity might have been more consistent with Hubble’s discovery 12 years later.
C. This was the only instance when Einstein let his emotion supersede his math.
D. Prior to Edwin Hubble’s discovery, there was little resistance to Einstein’s cosmological constant.
Many retailers’ belief that there is a tradeoff between investing in employees and offering the lowest prices is false. Highly successful retail chains-such as Quik-Trip convenience stores, Mercadona and Trader Joe’s supermarkets, and Costco wholesale clubs-not only invest heavily in store employees but also have the lowest prices in their industries, sold financial performance, and better customer service than their competitors. Customer facing employees at Costco are trained for 3 weeks and are pad twice as much as their counterparts at Walmart, yet Costco generates twice as much profit per square foot as Walmart does- driven by employee recommendations. Similarly Quick Trip’s sales per labor hour are 66% higher than those of an average convenience store chain. All these examples prove that the practice of commoditizing retail jobs and treating labor as an expense rather a profit generator is hurting stores such as Seven Eleven, Walmart, Carrefour, etc.
7. What does the passage above imply about stores like Walmart, Seven Eleven and Carrefour?
A. They have low profitability and their stock performs poorly in the stock market.
B. They can perform better financially if they invest more in employee training.
C. They compensate their employees below industry standards and do not offer benefits such as health care.
D. Their employees are the lowest paid in the industry.
Mole lizard species that occur together (sympatrically) on certain Caribbean islands occupy different habitats: some live only in the grass, some only on tree trunks, and some only on twigs. These species also differ morphologically: grass dwellers are slender with long tails, tree dwellers are stocky with long legs, twig dwellers are slender but stubby-legged. What is striking about these lizards is not that coexisting species differ in morphology and habitat use (such differences are common among closely related sympatric species), but that the same three types of habitat specialists occur on each of four islands: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica. Moreover, the Puerto Rican twig species closely resembles the twig species of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica in morphology, habitat use, and behavior. Likewise, the specialists for other habitats are similar across the islands.
The presence of similar species on different islands could be variously explained. An ancestral species might have adapted to exploit a particular ecological niche on one island and then traveled over water to colonize other islands. Or this ancestral species might have evolved at a time when the islands were connected, which some of these islands may once have been. After the islands separated, the isolated lizard populations would have become distinct species while also retaining their ancestors’ niche adaptations. Both of these scenarios imply that specialization to each niche occurred only once. Alternatively, each specialist could have arisen independently on each of the islands.
If each type of specialist evolved just once, then similar specialists on different islands would be closely related. Conversely, if the specialists evolved independently on each island, then a specialist on one island would be more closely related to other types of anoles on the same island—regardless of their ecological niches—than it would be to a similar specialist on a different island.
Biologists can infer how species are related evolutionarily by comparing DNA sequences for the same genes in different species. Species with similar DNA sequences for these genes are generally more closely related to each other than to species with less-similar DNA sequences. DNA evidence concerning the anoles led researchers to conclude that habitat specialists on one island are not closely related to the same habitat specialists elsewhere, indicating that specialists evolved independently on each island.
8. It can be inferred that the DNA evidence mentioned in the passage supports which of the following statement about the twig-dwelling anole lizards of any one of the four Caribbean islands mentioned in the passage.
A. They evolved from an ancestral species of twig-dwellers at a time when their island was connected with the other three islands.
B. They were once more similar morphologically to twig-dwellers on the other three islands than they are at present.
C. They are more closely related to tree-dwelling anoles and grass-dwelling anoles on their islands than twig-dwellers on other three islands.
D. Their habitat specialization as twig dwellers was influenced by the differences in the types of vegetation on the other three islands.
E. Their DNA more closely resembles the DNA of non-anole lizard species on their island than the DNA of anoles on the other three islands.
9. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true of the Cuban tree-dwelling anole lizard and the Jamaican tree-dwelling anole lizard?
A. They share body structure characterized by stocky bodies and long legs.
B. They have bodies that are relatively slender compared to their stubby legs.
C. They differ significantly from one another in size.
D. They share a morphology characterized by slender body with long tails.
E. They are genetically closely related to one another.
Answer Sheet:
1. A
2. C
3. C
4. C
5. C
6. B
7. B
8. C
9. A