Princeton Review MCAT Exam 1
CARS with Complete Solutions
Passage 1:
In a scholarly article directed towards teachers and school administrators, a writer
arguing against educating children as if they are miniature adults incorporate
several relevant case histories and concludes with recommendations for more
developmentally appropriate interactions with children. It would be most reasonable
to infer that this writer would agree with which of the following statements from the
passage? - ANSWER - D. "Essential to rhetoric, then, is a notion of audience as
person or persons whom the speaker or writer hopes to influence"
- The writer referred to in the question stem speaks to a specific audience (teachers
and administrators) and seeks to influence them (with recommendations for how to
best educate children) . Therefore, based on paragraph 4 (where the statement in
this choice appears), you can infer that this writer would be most likely to agree
with the statement in this answer choice.
With the phrase "stylizing and reifying the writer's audience" (paragraph 1), the
author most likely means to indicate: - ANSWER - D. Teaching writing appropriate for
a broad, generic audience rather than for a targeted, defined population.
- The author's purpose in the first paragraph is to discuss several causes for the
increasing abstraction of the audience: that is, writing without a specific intended
audience in mind (the equivalent of an audience for a speech). The author argues
that one cause of this abstraction was literacy programs that taught how to write
words that would be acceptable to everyone, that is, a broad or generic audience.
See also in which the author continues the discussion of the "standardizing" effect
of the schools
A guide to academic writing identifies the intended reader as a hypothetical
professor. What bearing would this have on the author's argument? - ANSWER - A. It
would challenge the idea that academic discourse proceeds without reference to an
actual reader
, -See paragraph 1. Since a hypothetical professor is identified as the intended reader
of the academic guide, the existence of this reference contradicts the author's
argument.
The author blames all of the following for contributing to the abstraction of audience
in rhetoric EXCEPT: - ANSWER - C. The changing attitudes of eighteenth and
nineteenth century orators
- See paragraph 1. This is a trap based on the passage's mention of eighteenth and
nineteenth century oratory; the passage does not discuss the orators themselves
Passage 2
The authors make all of the following claims about Bergum's classification of
continuous work tasks EXCEPT the Bergum's taxonomy: - ANSWER - A. Included
production line tasks in his study on how division of attention affects the
performance of monotonous work
- This claim is NOT made in the passage; this choice confuses arousal theory with
theories that study the division of attention. Bergum's work was based on arousal
theory (paragraph 2) and paragraph 1 contrasts arousal theory with "theories
concerned with division of attention"
An article in behavioral psychology journal makes the claim that all systems of
taxonomic classification are fundamentally based on one or more theoretical
foundations. This article most challenges which of the author's claims as indicated
in the passage - ANSWER - A. A task classification system can be found in which the
determination of the effect of a task on performance is not dependent on the use of
any particular theoretical construct
-If the journal article's claim that all taxonomic classification is based on one or
more theories is valid, then all task classification systems are inherently biased. This
is inconsistent with the author's argument that theoretical neutrality is necessity
(paragraph 3). Finally, the author states that a theoretically neutral system is one in
which task characteristics are not determined or defined by a particular theoretical
approach
CARS with Complete Solutions
Passage 1:
In a scholarly article directed towards teachers and school administrators, a writer
arguing against educating children as if they are miniature adults incorporate
several relevant case histories and concludes with recommendations for more
developmentally appropriate interactions with children. It would be most reasonable
to infer that this writer would agree with which of the following statements from the
passage? - ANSWER - D. "Essential to rhetoric, then, is a notion of audience as
person or persons whom the speaker or writer hopes to influence"
- The writer referred to in the question stem speaks to a specific audience (teachers
and administrators) and seeks to influence them (with recommendations for how to
best educate children) . Therefore, based on paragraph 4 (where the statement in
this choice appears), you can infer that this writer would be most likely to agree
with the statement in this answer choice.
With the phrase "stylizing and reifying the writer's audience" (paragraph 1), the
author most likely means to indicate: - ANSWER - D. Teaching writing appropriate for
a broad, generic audience rather than for a targeted, defined population.
- The author's purpose in the first paragraph is to discuss several causes for the
increasing abstraction of the audience: that is, writing without a specific intended
audience in mind (the equivalent of an audience for a speech). The author argues
that one cause of this abstraction was literacy programs that taught how to write
words that would be acceptable to everyone, that is, a broad or generic audience.
See also in which the author continues the discussion of the "standardizing" effect
of the schools
A guide to academic writing identifies the intended reader as a hypothetical
professor. What bearing would this have on the author's argument? - ANSWER - A. It
would challenge the idea that academic discourse proceeds without reference to an
actual reader
, -See paragraph 1. Since a hypothetical professor is identified as the intended reader
of the academic guide, the existence of this reference contradicts the author's
argument.
The author blames all of the following for contributing to the abstraction of audience
in rhetoric EXCEPT: - ANSWER - C. The changing attitudes of eighteenth and
nineteenth century orators
- See paragraph 1. This is a trap based on the passage's mention of eighteenth and
nineteenth century oratory; the passage does not discuss the orators themselves
Passage 2
The authors make all of the following claims about Bergum's classification of
continuous work tasks EXCEPT the Bergum's taxonomy: - ANSWER - A. Included
production line tasks in his study on how division of attention affects the
performance of monotonous work
- This claim is NOT made in the passage; this choice confuses arousal theory with
theories that study the division of attention. Bergum's work was based on arousal
theory (paragraph 2) and paragraph 1 contrasts arousal theory with "theories
concerned with division of attention"
An article in behavioral psychology journal makes the claim that all systems of
taxonomic classification are fundamentally based on one or more theoretical
foundations. This article most challenges which of the author's claims as indicated
in the passage - ANSWER - A. A task classification system can be found in which the
determination of the effect of a task on performance is not dependent on the use of
any particular theoretical construct
-If the journal article's claim that all taxonomic classification is based on one or
more theories is valid, then all task classification systems are inherently biased. This
is inconsistent with the author's argument that theoretical neutrality is necessity
(paragraph 3). Finally, the author states that a theoretically neutral system is one in
which task characteristics are not determined or defined by a particular theoretical
approach
