Using a layered model 01 stratification, most sociolo-gists describe the class system In the United States as divided into several classes: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and
Trang 1MOOEL TEST -READ I NG SECTION 317
READING SECTION
The Reading section lesls your ability 10 understand reading passages like those in college textbooks The passages are about 700 words in length
This is tho long format for tho Reading section On the long format, you will respond to fIVe passages After each passage, you will answer I 2-14 questions about it Only three passages
will be graded The other passages are part of an exerimental section for future tests Because you will not know which passages will be graded, you must try to do your best on all of them
Most questions are worth I point, but the last question in each passage is worth more than
1 point
You will have 100 minutes to read all of the passages and answer the questions You may take notes while you read, but notes are not graded You may use your notes to answer tho ques-tions Some passages may include a word or phrase that is underlined In blue Click on the word or phrase to see a glossary definition or explanation
Choose the best answer for muHiple-choice questions Follow the directions on the page or on tho saeen lor computer-assisted questions Click on Next to go to the nOld question Click on Back to return to the previous question You may return to previous questions lor all 01 the passages in the same reading part, but after you go to the nen part, you will not be able to return to passages in a previous part Be sure that you have answered all of the questions lor tho passages in each part before you click on Next at the end 01 the passage to move to the neld part
You can click on Review to see a chart 01 the questions you have answered and the quastions you have not answered.ln each part rom this screen, you can return to the question you want
to answer In the part that Is open
A clock on the screen will show you how much time you have to complete the Reading section
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PART I
Radlll, 1 "LByets., $scull ~
people's social standing Using a layered model 01 stratification, most
sociolo-gists describe the class system In the United States as divided into several
classes: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and lower class Each class
educa-tional attainment The different groups are arrayed along a continuum with
l!2H with the most money, education, and prestige at the top and those with
the least at the bottom
In the United States, the upper class owns the mater share 01 corporate and
personal wealth; it includes Ihose who have held wealth lor generations as well
as those who have recenlly become rich Only a very small proportion of
pe0-ple actually constitute the upper class, but they control vast amounts 01 wealth
and power in the United States They exercise MMWUUII: control throughout
SOCiety Most 01 their wealth Is Inherited
-II!i Each year, the business magazine Forbes
publishes a list of the "Forbes 400" -the four hundred wealthiest fami ~es and
individuals in the country 01 all the wealth represented on the Forbes 400 list,
more than hall is inherited Those on the list whO could be called "sell-made"
were not typically of modest origins; mosl Inhemed significant assets (Forbes,
1997; Sklar and Collins,1997) Those In the upper class with newly acquired
of money, they are often not accepted into "old rich" circles
~ The upper middle class includes those with high Incomes and high SOCial
prestige They tend to be well-educated professionals or business executives
earn millions of dollars a year Ills difficult to estimate exactly how many people
fall into this group because of the difficulty 01 drawing lines between the upper,
upper middle, and middle class Indeed, the upper middle class is often thought
of as "middle class" because their lifestyle sets the standard to which many
aspire but this lifestyle Is simply beyond the means 01 a maJority 01 people In
the United States
~ The middle dass is hard to define; In part, being "middle class' is more than
just economic position By lar the majority 01 Americans Identify themselves as
middle class even though they vary widely in lifestyle and In resources at their
disposal But the Idea that the United States Is an open-class system leads
Malc'ltll chrancnv a' ~rTl prav~
Trang 3MOOEL TE S T -READ I NG SECTION 318 many to th i nk that the majority have a middle-class lifestyle because , in general ,
people te nd not to want to recognize class distinctions i n the Un ited States
Thu s, the middle class becomes the u biquitous norm even though many who
call themselves middle class have a tenuous hold on th i s class position
In the hierarchy 01 socia l class, the lOwer middle Cl8ss incl ud es workers in
the skilled trades and low-Income bur eaucratic workers, many of whom may
actualty defi ne themselves as middle class Ex amples are blue-collar workers
( t hose in skilled trades who do manual labor) and many service workers , such
as sec r etaries, ha i rdressers, waitresses , pol i ce , and firef i ghters Medium to low
income , education, and occupat i onal prestige del i ne the lower middle c lass re
l-ative to the class groups above it Th e te rm "lOwer" in this class deSignation
refers t o th e relative position 01 the group in the stra tif ica t ion system , but it has
a pejorative sound t o m any people , especially to people who are m e m bers 01
this class
-+ The lOwer class is composed P£kIi.iitiol the displaced and poor P eople in
t his class h ave litt l e formal education and are often unemployed o r working In
m i nimum -w age jobs (!J Forty percent of the poor work; 10 percent work
year-rou nd and lull lime - a proportion thai h a s generally inc r eased ove r t i me
Recently , the concept 01 t he underctass has been added to t h e lower class
IBl The underc l ass includes th ose who have been left behind by
ecooomic developments ICl Rejected from the economic system, t hose in the
underclass may become dependent on public assistance or illegal activit i es !Ill
1 The word lhIlsfI i n the passage r efers to
(!) characteristics
<D groups
CO classes
en:> con t inuu m
2 The word enormo u s in t he passage is closest in mean i ng t o
CD very large
<D very new
<0 very ea rl y
a> very good
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3 Which of the senlences below best expresses the Informalion I n the highlighted statement
in the passage ? The other choices change the meaning or leave oot important information
future wealth
CD You can ach i eve great future wealth In spite of the family in which yoo may h ave been
born
<£) \I is nOltrue that your f amity will restrict the acquisition of your future wealth and level
01 social status
~ Social myths are contrary to the facts abou t the future wealth and soc i al status of your
family
4 Why does t he author mention the " Fornes 400· In paragraph 31
CD To exp l ain the mean i ng of the listing thai appears every year
CD To support the statement that most wealthy people Inherit the i r money
<D To cas t doubt on the claim that t a~ity income predicts individual wealth
G> To give eKamples of successful people who have modest family connections
Paragraph 3 is marked with an arrow [-+]
5 In paragraph 4, the author states that bus i ness and professiona l people with educational
advantages are most o ften members of the
<D tower middle class
cD upper middle class
<£) nouveau fiche
~ upper class
Paragraph 4 is marked with an arrow [-+]
8 The word primarily i n the passage i s closest in mean i ng to
<I> moslly
cD somewha t
!XI finally
G> always
7 The word contemooraCi in the passage I s closest In meaning to
<D uneKpec\ed
CD modern
<£) strateg i c
~ reliab l e
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Trang 5MODE L TEST "/READ I NG SE C TION 32 1
8 According 10 paragraph 5, why do most people identify themselves as middle class in lhe
United States?
<D They have aboutlhe same lifestyle as everyone else In the count!)'
cD They prefer not to admit that there are class distinctions In the United States
«> They don't really know how to deline lheir status because it is unclear
CD> They Identify themselves with the majority who have nonnallilestyles
Paragraph 5 is marked with an arrow I ~ J
9 What can be inferred about poor people in the United States?
<D They are nol able to find entry-level jobs
<D They wor1t in jobs thai require little education
<D They are service wo~ers and manuatlaborers
m They do not Iry to find employment
10 According to paragraph 7, why has the underclass emerged?
<D The new lerm was necessary because the lower class enjoyed a higher lifestyle than
it had previously
<D The increase in crime has supported a new class of people who live by engaging in illegal activities
<D Changes in the economy have caused an entire class of people to survive by wellare
or crime
CD Minimum-wage jObs no longer support a class of people at a standard level in the
ec0-nomic system
Paragraph 7 is marked with an arrow I ~ I
11 All 01 the following are indicators of prestige in the United States EXCEPT
<D the level 01 education that a person has achieved
<D the amount 01 money that an Individual has acquired
<D the type 01 employment that someone pursues
CD) the hard wOOl: that a person does on a consistent basis
12 Look al\he four squares ,_ ]that show where the following sentence could be inserted in
the passage
The wonting poor constitute a large portion of those who are poor
Where could the sentence best be added?
Click on a square r J to inserllhe sentence in the passage
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1 Directions: An introduction for a short summary of the passage appears below Complete
the summary by setectlng the T H REE answer choices that mention the most important
points in the passage Some sentences do not belong In the summary because they
ekpress ideas that are I"IOt included in the passage or are mil"lOr points from the passage
Thl questIon I s worth 2 po i nt s
The levels 01 education, the acquisition 01 wealth, and occupational prestige
deter-mine social status in the United States,
•
•
•
Answer Choices
I!I People who have made their money
more recenlly tend not to be accepted by
those who have inherited their wealth
from family holdings
IBI The lower class includes working people
with low incomes and a new underclass
of people who are dependent on welfare
or engage in crime
It! The upper class tends to acquire wealth
through inheritance, whereas the upper
middle class has a high Income thai they
earn In their professions
PART II
Rn4111f 2 " WpMBr ."d ClJaDtic SystMJIS "
IDl Although the lifestyle of the upper middle class is the goal for the majority, it is diffi-cult for many people to maintain this
standard of living lEI Most people identify themselves as mid-dle class including blue·collar workers and service workers as well as
bureau-cratic employees
lEI It is still possible to move from one social class to another in the United States by
working your way up the ladder in a cor-porate environment
Scientists today have a very good understanding of the physical laws and
mathematical equatJoos that govern the behavior and motion 01 atoms in the
air, oceans, and land Why, then, do we have so much trouble predicting the
weather? For a long time, most scientists liS@r!i8d.thatthedifficultyofweather
prediction would go away once we had enough weather stations to collect data
from around the world aoo sufficiently powerfut computers to deal with all the
data However, we now know that weather is ru==ncIiiiiiiiiIiI!V , unpredictable on
lime scales longer than a few weeks To understand why, we must look at the
nature of scientific prediction
Milt rial chrancny il ' sk~ml pravv
Trang 7MODEL TEST 4IAEADlNG SEC T ION 323
~ SUppose you want to predict the looation 01 a car on a road 1 minute Irom
n w You need two basic pieces 01 Information: where the car is now, and how
fast it is moving II the car is now passing Smith Road and heading north at 1
mile per minute, It will be 1 mile north of Smith Road in 1 minute
Now, suppose you want to predict the weather Again, you need two basic
types of information: (1) the current weather and (2) how weather changes Irom
one moment to the next You oould attempt to predict the weather by creatill9 a
-model world," For example, you oould overlay a globe 01 the Earth with graph
paper and then specify the current temperature pressure, cloud cover and
wind within each square These are your starting points, or initial conditions
Next, you oould input all the initial conditions into a oomputer, along with a set
of equations (physical laws) that describe the processes that can chanOA
weather from one moment to the next
-+ Suppose the initial conditions represent the weather around the Earth a
this very moment and you run your computer model to predict the weather lor
the next month In New York City The model might tell you that tomorrow will be
warm and sunny, with cooling during the next week and a major storm passing
through a month from now Now supposo you rvn tho modol again but mako
one minor change In the Inilial conditions-say, a small change In the wind
speed somewhere over Brazil ~ For tomorrow's weather, this slightly dillerent
initial conditiorl will not change the weather prediction lor New York City [SI But
for next month's weather, the two predictions may no agree a alll lCl
The disagreement between the two predictions arises because the laws
governing weather can cause very tiny changes in Initial conditions to be
greally magnified over time IDI This extreme sensitivity to Initial conditions is
sometimes called the bufterlly effect: If initial conditions change by as much as
the flap 01 a butterfly's wings, the resulting prediction may be very different
-+ The butterfly effect Is a chaotic systems Simple systems are
described by linear equations wbichJ for example, increasing a cause pr
o-duces a proportional increase in an In contrast, chaotiC systems are
described by nonlinear equations, whk;h allow for subtler and more intricate
interactions For example, the economy is nonlinear because a rise in Interest
rates does not automatically produce a corresponding change in consumer
spending Weather Is nonlinear because a change in the willd speed in one
location does not automatically produce a correspolldlng change in another
location Many (but not all) nonlinear systems exhibit chaotic behavior
-+ Despite their name, chaotic systems are not completely random In facl,
many chaotic systems have a kind 01 underlying order that explains the general
liItiiiiiIlol their behavior even while details at any partJcular moment remain
unpredictable In a sense, many chaotic systems are ·predictably unpre
-dictable." Our understallding of chaotic systems is increasing at a tremendous