MCAT verbal test (25)

Passage II Questions 7–12 It has long been a commonplace that the idea of a state of nature is the conceptual starting point of Hobbesian political thought.. Saccente cautions against fr

MCAT Section Tests

Dear Future Doctor,

The following Section Test and explanations should be used to practice and to assess your mastery of critical thinking in each of the section areas Topics are confluent and are not necessarily in any specific order or fixed proportion This is the level of integration in your preparation that collects what you have learned in the Kaplan classroom and synthesizes your knowledge with your critical thinking Simply completing the tests is inadequate; a solid understanding of your performance through your Score Reports and the explanations is necessary to diagnose your specific weaknesses and address them before Test Day

All rights are reserved pursuant to the copyright laws and the contract clause in your enrollment agreement and as printed below Misdemeanor and felony infractions can severely limit your ability to be accepted to a medical program and a conviction can result in the removal of a medical license We offer this material for your practice in your own home as a courtesy and privilege Practice today so that you can perform on test day; this material was designed to give you every advantage on the MCAT and we wish you the best of luck in your preparation

Sincerely,

Albert Chen

Executive Director, Pre-Health Research and Development

Kaplan Test Prep

© 2003 Kaplan, Inc

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by Photostat, microfilm, xerography or any other means, or incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronic

or mechanical without the written permission of Kaplan, Inc This book may not be duplicated,

distributed or resold, pursuant to the terms of your Kaplan Enrollment Agreement

Verbal Reasoning

Time: 85 Minutes Questions 1-60

DO NOT BEGIN THIS SECTION UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

VERBAL REASONING

DIRECTIONS: There are nine passages in the Verbal Reasoning

test Each passage is followed by several questions After reading a passage, select the best answer to each question If you are not certain of an answer, eliminate the alternatives that you know to be incorrect and then select an answer from the remaining alternatives Indicate your selection by blackening the corresponding oval on your answer document

Passage I (Questions 1-6)

If the ancient Greeks first inspired the ideological

commitment to democracy that gripped Western thought

especially during and after the Enlightenment, the Greek

philosophers contributed to this development less by their

embrace of the democratic principle than by their rejection

5

of tyranny In Aristotle’s schema, tyranny is the most

perverse of six types of government; Plato designated five

types, with tyranny the least desirable, followed by

democracy Yet less clear than Plato’s disregard for the

tyrannical character is his sense of its basic constitution

10

The best-known platonic depiction of tyranny appears

in Republic, where the tyrant is beastly, subject to base and

unnecessary appetites: power, vainglory, luxury, lust, and

gluttony To the extent that passions control him—a

decidedly male figure—the tyrant is a sort of slave, who

15

depends on both taxation to support him and his

“drink-mates…and…mistresses,” as well as bodyguards to

protect him from assassins and other “worthless creatures”

who proliferate under tyrannical rule An argument

recently propounded by the historian of philosophy Matteo

20

Giovannini threatens to unsettle this widely held view of

the platonic tyrant as brutish slave According to

Giovannini, the traditional view, while sound as far as it

goes, is incomplete in that it ignores insights into the

tyrannical character that are offered by Plato in the earlier

25

and more obscure dialogue, Lysis

According to Giovannini, Lysis forms a counterpoint

to Republic by depicting a tyrant whose status derives, not

from his slavish dependency, but from his utter

self-sufficiency; he is complete, or (to use the language of the

30

ancient philosophers) perfect For such a figure,

friendship—for many of the Greek philosophers, the

foundation of healthy political community—is ultimately

impossible, because “the one who is perfect does not

depend on the many who are imperfect, but the many who

35

are imperfect depend on the one who is perfect.” In short,

Giovannini argues, the tyranny found in Lysis is the wake

of a doomed union between the needy masses and the

singular, complete one Viewed in the double light of

Republic and Lysis, the platonic tyrant depicted by

40

Giovannini is a paradoxical figure: here a slave, there the

epitome of wholeness

Giovannini’s account thus purports to complicate the one-dimensional view of tyranny associated with

Republic But this account, while ingenious and

45

provocative, is not beyond question Most significantly, Giovannini appears not to have anticipated an obvious

objection to his research design While Lysis first appeared

during Plato’s formative period of aporetic dialogues in which the principal interlocutors frequently pose questions

50

but rarely provide lasting answers, Republic dates from a

later, more mature period in the development of Plato’s thought, when conclusions are more frequent and less concealed The point is that if Plato intended the

conception of tyranny that appears in Republic to be

55

somehow bound up in a paradox with the conception of

tyranny in Lysis, he would presumably have hinted as

much Absent such indications, the danger is heightened that Giovannini may have invented, rather than discovered, subtle interconnections in Plato’s thought

60

1 In paragraph 4, the author is primarily concerned with:

A providing a richer alternative to the

one-dimensional view of tyranny furnished in

Republic

B establishing a relationship between the content

of platonic dialogues and the order in which they first appeared

C dismissing Giovannini’s findings on the

grounds that they are more imagined than real

D supplying an overall assessment of

Giovannini’s argument about the platonic conception of tyranny

2 What does Giovannini suggest about tyrannical

regimes as depicted in Lysis?

A They fulfill the brutish desires of the tyrant

B They are typically incompatible with the

political community

C They result from a severe imbalance in the

relationship between the ruler and the ruled

D They promote strength and self-reliance among

the general populace

3 The author most likely mentions Aristotle in order

to:

A illustrate Greek philosophers’ rejection of

tyranny as a desirable form of government

B link ancient Greek political thought with that

of the Enlightenment

C exemplify the seminal nature of Plato’s

political thought

D provide a contrast to the position of tyranny in

Plato’s classification of regimes

4 Which of the following is NOT presented as

evidence for the best-known platonic

characterization of the tyrannical figure?

A reliance on taxation to support his personal

social pursuits

B slavish attachment to the friendship of the

populace

C excessive indulgence of base desires

D dependence on physical protection from

enemies

5 Suppose conclusive evidence emerged that, in order

to shield his audience from confusion, Plato on occasion intentionally avoided revealing complex

or seemingly contradictory conclusions in his dialogues What relevance would this information have to the passage?

A It would weaken Giovannini’s claim that the

platonic tyrant is a paradoxical figure

B It would verify the author’s assertion that

Republic provides a reasonable but only partial

depiction of Plato’s conception of the tyrannical character

C It would weaken the author’s major criticism

of Giovannini’s research

D It would weaken the author’s assessment of

Giovannini’s work as ingenious and provocative

6 The author of this passage criticizes Giovannini primarily on the basis of his:

A bias against the slavish dependency of the

platonic tyrant

B over concern for the situation of the “needy

masses”

C failure to use original source materials in his

research

D treating Plato’s earliest works as deliberate

contrasts to his mature works

Passage II (Questions 7–12)

It has long been a commonplace that the idea of a state

of nature is the conceptual starting point of Hobbesian

political thought A war in which “every man is Enemy to

every man” chiefly characterizes this state in which,

because of limited resources and the absence of any

5

summum bonum to fortify a moral order, anarchy rules

and life is never without want and fear Even scholars who

offer otherwise contrasting readings of Hobbes agree that

its foundation is the state of nature For LaJoie, Hobbes’s

state of nature “sets in motion the dominoes of deduction”

10

from which ultimately issue the politics proper Saccente

cautions against framing Hobbes’s thought within an

“architectural analogue according to which the state of

nature is the foundation of a structure and civil philosophy

is its roof,” yet she too maintains that for Hobbes “civil

15

philosophy begins with knowledge of human nature.”

Hobbes presents no exception to the rule that at the outset,

every social theorist, whatever else he or she argues, of

necessity makes fundamental and seminal assumptions

concerning human nature

20

To the extent that it involves a politics—what Hobbes

calls civil philosophy—built on a philosophy of human

nature, Hobbes’s thought constitutes a system in which the

problems of political life in civil society are intertwined

with the basic nature of the human condition By this view,

25

humankind exists in a universe the entire content of which

is no more or less than matter and motion A strict, raw,

nominalist materialism circumscribes reality in this

billiard-ball world of efficient causes, which manifest in

personality as the passions that drive behavior What is

30

usually termed ‘will’ is unreal, nothing more than the final

derivative of appetite or aversion To understand the

operation of these passions in human behavior, we are

invited by Hobbes to explore a setting in which nothing

impedes people’s acting on appetites and aversions This

35

setting is, of course, the state of nature In addition to the

absence in this state of any positive law, there is also no

natural law in the scholastic sense of

providentially-prescribed rational commands of right conduct for

everyone ‘Good’ is radically individual and utilitarian; it

40

is always and only that to which appetite or aversion drives

a person Possessed of a natural liberty to compete for

limited resources and to win what security they can by

whatever means they choose, actors in the natural state vie,

according to the famous phrase, for “Power after power,

45

that ceaseth only on Death.”

It is still an open question precisely how Hobbes

conceptualized the state of nature; neither he nor his

interpreters have been completely clear Hobbes offers

three scenarios In De Cive, the state of nature is an

50

empirical physical location in which war “is perpetuated in

its own nature….They of America are examples hereof.” In

Leviathan, Hobbes appears to conceive of the state of

nature as a facet of personality, accessible through

introspection or intuition: “Nosce teipsum, read

55

thyself…whosoever looketh into himself…shall thereby read and know what are the thoughts and passions of all

other men.” In De Corpore, Hobbes suggests that

principles of human nature can be derived by ratiocination from “the first part of philosophy, namely, geometry and

60

physics.” Among Hobbes scholars consensus lacks regarding how, and indeed whether, these scenarios reconcile Conclusions seem to change sometimes within a single tract Within the space of two lines in Konstantin’s

influential Leviathan Logic, the state of nature changes

65

from a mere “act of imagination” into a far more ambitious “ideal conception.” (What is more, Konstantin’s assertion that the state of nature could never be empirically observed contradicts Hobbes’s own reference to “they of America.”) LaJoie calls the state of nature a creation of

70

logic, not history, while for Saccente the state of nature is

a “thought-experiment” designed not to chronicle the essential condition of humankind, but to illuminate it

7 Which of the following is NOT addressed in the passage?

A the relationship between physics and human

nature

B Hobbes’s basic conception of the nature of

universe

C the role of self-reflection in relation to the

principles of human nature

D the requirements for emergence from the state

of nature into civil society

8 As used in the passage, the words “billiard-ball

world of efficient causes” (lines 29–30) refer to:

A the rejection of belief in transcendent or

universal standards of right conduct

B the philosophical relationship between political

and pre-political society

C the foundation of positive law in human nature

D the derivation of will from basic appetites and

aversions

9 Which of the following best characterizes the claim (lines 18-20) that “every social theorist, whatever else he or she argues, of necessity makes

fundamental and seminal assumptions concerning

human nature?”

A It supports a viewpoint regarded by the author

as widespread but groundless

B It is at odds with the subsequent claim that

Hobbes’s conception of the state of nature is an

open question

C It broadens the scope of a claim with which the

author agrees

D It demonstrates the systemic character of

Hobbesian thought

10 A key distinction between two types of social

agreements—compacts of immediate performance

and covenants of mutual trust—is that the latter,

unlike the former, depend significantly on the

presence of good faith and the expectation of

long-term future cooperation among the parties to the

covenant Given this, which of the following does

the passage suggest would be LEAST likely to

occur?

A a compact of immediate performance in the

state of nature

B a compact of immediate performance in civil

society

C a covenant of mutual trust in the state of nature

D a covenant of mutual trust in civil society

11 According to the author, which of the following would be most analogous to conditions in the state

of nature?

A In a nuclear family, parents allow children to

share in decision-making as the children develop a capacity to communicate increasingly thoughtful opinions

B In warfare, belligerents adhere to principles

such as proportionality, non-combatant immunity, and other norms of the “just war” principle

C In international politics, sovereign states

pursue their individual interests without reference to an overarching authority whose laws are backed by the threat of coercive force

D In a crime-ridden neighborhood, a paroled

criminal burgles homes and businesses despite the emergence of a vigilante group of hostile neighborhood residents convinced that police are incapable of capturing the criminal

12 The passage suggests that LaJoie’s characterization

of the state of nature is most consistent with that expressed in:

A Leviathan

B De Corpore

C De Cive

D Leviathan Logic

Passage III (Questions 13–18)

The idea of evolution is not at all new In its most

simple form, the concept of evolution is that populations

of organisms change over time One can trace the origins

of evolutionary thought at least as far back as the Greeks

Anaximander, in 500 BC, held the belief that living

5

creatures were formed from water and that humans and

other animals were descended from fishes Empedocles,

around 400 BC, proposed an evolutionary hypothesis in

which he stated that heads, limbs, and various other parts

of animals were continuously joined in random

10

combinations – e.g human heads with cows’ bodies – and

that only some of these combinations were fit for survival

Christian philosophers later elaborated on the ideas of

Aristotle and Plato when they reasoned that because

existence is a good thing and because God is considered

15

benevolent, God must have bestowed existence on all

creatures This twist of circular reasoning, to which the

name “natural theology” was applied, dominated the

period preceding Darwin, and this philosophy resisted

change long after Darwin published his theory of natural

20

selection in 1859 The apparent change from the rather

mechanistic explanation of evolution put forth by the

Greeks to the more creationist reasoning found later in

Europe was a significant paradigm shift, yet it is clear that

the idea of evolution was not first pioneered by Darwin

25

himself

Soon after Charles Darwin published his landmark

work, universal school education began in Britain, and the

teaching of evolution was a top priority in that new

system Thomas Huxley, one of Darwin’s most ardent

30

supporters, was one of the founding members of the

powerful London School Board, which helped to set

curriculum guidelines for students and teachers Yet, back

in the United States, a strong biblical fundamentalism was

taking hold, using the Bible as both a means of

35

consolation as well as a guide for moral conduct Many

states passed laws banning the teaching of evolution in

schools, and teachers who persisted either did so quietly or

allowed themselves to be martyred, as in the case of John

Scopes, the Tennessee teacher convicted in 1925 of

40

teaching evolution in his public school biology class

Despite his conviction, his trial scored enough of a public

victory for the teaching of evolution that the rising tide of

creationism slowed considerably until many decades later

Most recently, those opposed to the teaching of

45

evolution in schools have pressed the idea of “creation

science,” a tactic devised by creationists in the late 1960s

to infiltrate America’s science classrooms with religious

ideas Creation science, despite the apparent oxymoron, is

a phrase that has been widely used by creationists to add

50

legitimacy to their claims by stating that creationism is a

scientific theory just as much as evolution By claiming

that their ideas are scientific, creationists could then

demand equal time in the classroom devoted to both

evolutionary theory and the “theory” of creationism This

55

extremely dangerous idea has been at the forefront of battles waged by so-called “creation-scientists” since the early 1970s in their attempts to overturn school curricula

It is essential to confront the creationist issue and to look at it in a scientific manner Creationism is not science

60

and doesn’t belong in the science classroom However, a frank discussion of creationism with students is also important To avoid it may suggest that perhaps there is something valid there, lurking in the irrationality The late Carl Sagan, one of the staunchest advocates of rationality

65

and reason in the increasingly irrational and superstitious world in which we live, has defended the importance of good science teaching by saying: “In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, [science] may be all that stands between us and the enveloping

70

darkness.”

13 The author contrasts the presence of Thomas Huxley on the London School Board with the growing biblical fundamentalism in the United States in order to:

A show how unimportant the Bible was in British

education

B suggest that creationism was a movement

specific to the United States

C suggest that Darwin’s ideas needed a great deal

of support in order to be allowed into England’s classrooms

D demonstrate the continued presence of natural

theology in United States curricula

14 When Carl Sagan speaks of “the demon-haunted

world that we inhabit by virtue of being human,”

what is he trying to say about us?

A Human claims that demons and other creatures

exist on Earth should be believed

B Humans are innately superstitious beings and

irrationality is part of being human

C We should put more emphasis into the teaching

of science and reason so that we can understand

better what makes us human

D We tend to turn to fantastic and irrational

explanations in order to explain phenomena in

the world which we do not understand

15 Alfred Russell Wallace is widely credited with

having arrived at an almost identical theory of

natural selection to Darwin’s at about the same

time that Darwin was ready to go public with his

ideas Yet, the one aspect of natural history that

Wallace could not reconcile with according to his

theory was human intelligence, crediting

something supernatural for the evolution of this

trait Thus, Wallace’s ideas on evolution might be

best characterized as:

A Thomas Huxley’s views with some natural

theology mixed in

B those of a natural theologist

C entirely creationist

D a combination of biblical fundamentalism and

natural theology

16 The author’s main idea in this passage is:

A to explain the differences between natural

selection and creation science

B to show how the continued spread of

creationist views is a potentially dangerous

affront to a rational, scientific understanding of

evolution

C to contrast the creationist viewpoints, such as

fundamentalism and natural theology with

more ancient views of evolution

D to explain why the concepts of evolution are

more scientifically correct than those of

“creation science.”

17 The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

A All discussions of creationism and creation

science should be eliminated from science classrooms

B Most teachers who teach evolution would

agree to splitting time in their classrooms equally between evolutionary theory and creation science

C There is no room for irrationality and

superstition, since it hides scientific truth and derails reason

D The Bible may be an essential tool for guiding

certain human behaviors, such as morals and

ethics

18 In 1968, Epperson v Arkansas legalized the

teaching of evolution while blocking attempts to ban the teaching of evolution in the state of Arkansas In doing so, however, this Supreme Court case did all of the following EXCEPT:

A allow teachers to emulate John Scopes without

fear of prosecution

B provide equal time for the teaching of

creationism alongside evolution

C prevent the teaching of creation science along

with the teaching of evolution

D grant a victory for scientists and rational

thinkers alike

Passage IV (Questions 19–25)

Coral reef ecosystems provide habitat for many diverse

organisms The reef itself is alive with many billions of

coral colonies plus other limestone-depositing organisms,

growing among the skeletons of their predecessors Reefs

grow on the continental shelf edge, on the shelf itself,

5

along islands and atolls, and from the continental

mainland Reefs are found in two general locations: the

Indo-Pacific, where Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is

located, and the Western Atlantic, which includes

Caribbean reefs While strict requirements concerning the

10

amount of available light, and the ocean’s clarity,

temperature, and movement have restricted the geographic

locations of the Earth’s reefs, these requirements have not

limited the ecological complexity of reef communities

Species representing more phyla than those found in a

15

tropical rainforest live on coral reefs Scientists counted

1,441 worms on one coral head alone, and these worms

belonged to over a hundred different families Six of the

Earth’s seven species of marine turtles inhabit the Great

Barrier Reef Four thousand species of fishes, more than a

20

third of all marine fish species, make coral ecosystems

their home Cartilaginous sharks and rays, perciform fish

families, and some lower teleost are found Perhaps more

notably, representatives from all fish families and most

genera are reef inhabitants Although annelid, mollusk,

25

and insect faunas eclipse reef fish assemblages, fish

diversity exemplifies the richness of coral environments

Scientists study reef fishes not only because of the

diverse sampling of species but also because of the range

of behaviors and relationships between species and other

30

animals that is available for analysis Intense competition

and predation have caused fishes to carve out special

niches Mimicry and camouflage offer just two ways for

species to blend in with their surroundings Juvenile

rockmover wrasses mimic dead leaves by floating along

35

with currents, and peacock flounder blend in so well with

the sea floor that only their sudden movement will betray

location Symbiotic relationships between fish and other

organisms also occur with frequency on coral reefs Small

cleaner wrasse and gobies enter the mouth of larger

40

species and emerge unscathed because cleaner fishes eat

dead skin and external parasites from other fishes Cleaner

fishes are necessary to sustain the health of organisms on a

reef The anemonefish share their habitat with sea

anemones in a symbiotic relationship that scientists have

45

yet to unravel completely The defensive nematocysts of

the anemone are used to stun prey, but the anemonefish are

resistant to these stinging cells Researchers believe that

the fish secrets a mucous coating that mimics that of the

anemone allowing for chemical signals to prohibit the

50

firing of the cells One theory holds that the fish obtain

these chemicals by rubbing against the sea anemone’s

tentacles The benefits, if any, to the anemone for having

these fish live with them is not clear

The variety of fish reproduction techniques provides

55

another example of the adaptive complexity that ecologists have found on reefs Most spawning is synchronized with phases of the moon, and eggs are fertilized in the water column However, some species lay eggs on the sea bottom or in a protected area Damselfishes will guard

60

their nests quite aggressively, while jawfish and cardinalfish incubate eggs in the mouth Seahorse and pipefish carry their eggs in a pouch For some species sex

is determined at an early stage of development, while others have the ability to alter sex depending on

65

circumstance Most hermaphroditic species follow the protogynous pattern of the fairy basselet If the male disappears, the dominant female in his harem will change sex within days and take over his role within hours However, a few species are protandrous where the fish are

70

male first and then become female Much remains to be learned about fish reproduction, and evolutionary biologists find that the coral environment provides them with many opportunities to observe a variety of species and specialized behaviors

75

19 Based on the passage, which of the following statements would the author most likely agree with?

A More effort should be made to protect

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

B The absence of diverse phyla in terrestrial

ecosystems makes them irrelevant for Earth’s biodiversity

C The richness of coral reef diversity should be

recognized and studied

D Ecologists should focus research efforts on

environments other than coral reefs

20 It can be inferred from the passage that scientists

studying hermaphroditic reef fishes would be most

interested in research concerning:

A the complexity of reproductive behaviors of

perciform families in light of fish evolution

B the prevalence of shark attacks on reef divers

C the development of coral spawning behavior in

reef communities

D the specific temperature requirements, broken

down by latitude, for coral growth

21 The author discusses the number of species found

on a coral head (line 17) in order to:

A provide an example of an abnormal

phenomenon

B emphasize how much greater the diversity of

worms are on a reef than fish

C highlight the importance of coral reef

preservation

D illustrate the diversity found in coral reefs

22 It can be inferred from the passage that changes in

an ocean’s water clarity and temperature would

concern researchers studying coral reefs because:

A water clarity and temperature directly limit

ecological biodiversity

B symbiotic relationships between organisms are

complex and interesting

C water clarity and temperature affect the growth

of coral communities

D scientists studying reefs also study climate

change

23 Which of the following theories is supported by the

example of the anemonefish in lines 45-55?

A Coral animals and fish often operate

independently in the same realm

B Complex symbiotic relationships operate on

different levels

C Symbiotic relationships only work when both

species receive tangible benefits

D Many smaller fish will hide in coral nooks and

crannies to avoid predators

24 Evidence of which of the following would most

weaken the author’s argument concerning fish

diversity?

A More mollusk diversity can be found on a reef

than fish diversity

B Evidence of the diversity of fish behavior in

other ecosystems surpasses that of the Great Barrier Reef

C The discovery of new teleost species not found

in marine environments

D Coral bleaching causes fish species to die off

25 The passage suggests that which of the following is implicit in discussions concerning biodiversity?

A The larger the number of marine turtle species,

the greater the biodiversity

B Higher population numbers mean greater

biodiversity

C The larger the number of phyla, the greater the

biodiversity

D Geographic location correlates with the

amount of biodiversity