1.

The word precursor in the passage is Periodic Table

closest in meaning to
Humans have always known about certain
® summary
elemental substances, such as gold and
® sequel
(1) forerunner silver, that occur in nature and cannot be
C framework broken down into other substances. A Other
chemical elements were discovered gradually
beginning in 1669, when a German merchant,
Look at the four squares [NI] on the
above passage that indicate where the Hennig Brand, accidentally found phosphorus
following sentence could be added to while attempting to find a way to create gold
the passage. out of more common metals. B By 1809, the
number of known elements had increased
But no one had succeeded in organizing
to 47. IE Chemists studying the elements
the elements in a format that showed
began to notice patterns in the way chemicals
those patterns.
reacted. D
Where would the sentence best fit?
The first modern chemistry textbook was
Click on a square [M] to add the written in 1789 by Antoine-Laurent de
sentence to the passage. Lavoisier. He listed the known elements,
which he classified into metals and nonmetals.
But his listing omitted the gases and included
Which of the following best expresses
the essential information in the some things that were not substances, such
highlighted sentence in paragraph 3? as light and calories. Thus, his list was not
Incorrect choices change the meaning accepted as an accurate organizing system.
in important ways or leave out essential
An important trait of elements is their
information.
periodicity: similarly acting elements tend to
® Elements with the same number of
occur at regular intervals when arranged by
protons do not react with each other.
their atomic weight (the number of protons plus
CD Periodicity refers to an element's
neutrons in the nucleus). A French geologist,
tendency to periodically gain an extra
Alexandre-Emile Beguyer de Chancourtois,
proton.
was the first to notice this periodicity. He
© An element has protons and neutrons
designed a precursor to the periodic table,
in the nucleus of its atoms.
the telluric helix. That system arranged the
© The properties of elements tend to
reoccur at fixed intervals of their elements on a spiral-shaped cylinder in order
atomic weights. of their atomic weight. The elements with
similar physical properties appeared vertically
on the cylinder. But because Chancourtois's
1862 paper used geological terms and did not
include drawings, his periodic system was not
accepted by those in the field of chemistry.

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4. According to the passage, the first As new elements were discovered through
chemist to notice periodicity was the first half of the 1800's, chemists confirmed
CD Mendeleev the regular repetition of the physical properties
• Chancourtois of the elements. Chemists studied ways to
Lavoisier classify the elements in order to reflect this
C) Newlands periodicity. In 1863, an English chemist, John
Newlands, divided the 56 known elements into
5. The word breakthrough in the passage groups, each sharing the same characteristics.
is closest in meaning to As each group seemed to contain eight
CD discovery elements, he referred to his system as
C) quest the Law of Octaves, after the eight keys in
CD experiment an octave on the piano. But Newlands's
© goal idea was ridiculed and his theory dismissed.
Not until 1919 did it become accepted that the
6. Why does the author mention the card elements should be grouped by eights.
game of solitaire?
But the underlying concept of the periodicity
C) To name the favorite game of of the elements was adapted to better effect
Mendeleev in 1869 by the Russian chemist Dmitri
© To identify the source of the organizing Mendeleev. His great breakthrough was to
plan of the periodic table see that the two key characteristics of an
© To describe the solitary nature of element—atomic weight and atomic number
chemistry studies
(the number of protons in the nucleus)—could
CD To give an example of a precursor to
be combined in a single table. His table came
the periodic table
to be called the periodic table.

7. According to the passage, Mendeleev's Mendeleev's table was inspired by the card
main discovery was that game of solitaire, in which cards are arranged
(D some elements have similar physical horizontally by suit and vertically by number.
properties that reoccur at regular Borrowing the same organizing patterns,
intervals of their atomic weights Mendeleev arranged the elements in groups
C) an element's atomic weight and of seven. He grouped them horizontally by
number could be shown in a single their atomic number in ascending order and
table vertically by their similar qualities in groups
C) similarly acting elements appear in of seven. Thus similar metals such as gold,
groups of eight silver, and copper appear in the same
© the rarest elements have the lowest vertical column. Similarly reacting gases
atomic weights such as helium, argon, and neon appear in
another column. The most common elements
(hydrogen, helium, lithium) have lower atomic

277
 8. The word their in the passage refers to numbers and thus appear near the beginning
® the most common elements of the table in the first horizontal row. The
i® lower atomic numbers rarest elements (uranium and plutonium) have
© the rarest elements the greatest number of protons in their nuclei.
© protons They are ordered near the end of the table.

In Mendeleev's time, only 63 elements had

Which of the following can be inferred
been discovered. The brilliance of his periodic
about hydrogen?
table, however, was that it predicted that new
® Its atomic number is less than
elements would be found to fit into the missing
uranium's.
slots in his original table. Today the table
C It appears in a vertical row.
shows 120 elements, 92 naturally occurring
C) It reacts with helium.
and 28 created in the laboratory. Scientists
© Its atomic weight is greater than
believe that many more will be found. The
lithium's.
periodic table has been called "the most
elegant organizational chart ever devised."
10. The word valid in the passage is
closest in meaning to Mendeleev's chart remains valid today. But it
® studied has been modified by the continual discovery
CD misleading and manufacture of new elements. And in
© legal 1914, Henry Mosely discovered a relationship
CD accurate between an element's X-ray wavelength
and its atomic number. Thus, he rearranged
11 All of the following are true about the the elements by electric charge. Another
periodic table EXCEPT: important improvement was suggested by
® It is constantly changing as new Glenn T. Seaborg in 1945: the addition of a
elements are found. vertical group of certain heavy elements called
C It originally predicted that more the actinide series.
elements would be discovered.
© It will never contain more than 120
elements.
© It arranges elements according to
their physical properties.

Al

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 VIEW TEXT

12 Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below.
Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most
important ideas in the passage. Some answer choices do not belong in the summary because
they express ideas that are not in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage.
This question is worth 2 points.

This passage explores the history of the periodic table.

Answer Choices

Chancourtois was the first to notice the (_b) By 1809, there were 47 known elements.
periodicity of elements.

CD The periodic table is constantly changing C) The most common elements appear
as new elements and new ways of near the end of the table while the least
classifying them are discovered. common are near the beginning.

CD Lavoisier's list of elements included light CD Mendeleev organized the elements into
and calories. a table based on their atomic weight.

Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong.

To remove an answer choice, click on it. To review the passage, click View Text.

279
 legit

13. The phrase keep track of in the History of Counting

passage is closest in meaning to
The earliest signs of counting have been found
® preserve
in ancient hunting artifacts. Notches in animal
® account for
bones from 30,000 B.C. may have been a
© describe
tallying system. Tallies were used to keep
® line up track of things. A sheepherder would put a
pebble in a pile each time a sheep was let out
14. According to paragraph 1, the first to graze. When the sheep returned at night,
signs of counting were found in the owner would remove the pebble. Any
C) tallies pebbles that remained represented missing
C) sheep sheep. But such tallying was not true counting.
© rocks It merely compared two sets of objects.
E animal bones Egypt was one of the first civilizations to
adopt a real number system. Beginning
15. According to paragraph 2, Egypt's in about 3000 B.C., Egyptians expressed
counting system used which of the numbers with pictographs, or symbols to
following to show numbers? represent numbers. Thus, the numbers from
C) tallies one to nine were combinations of vertical
C) pictographs strokes. Ten was an inverted U, 100 was a
© place values coiled rope, and 1,000 was a lotus flower.
© an inverted U Different cultures used different base
numbers for their counting systems. Many,
16. The author mentions the number 236 such as the Egyptians, used a base 10, a
in order to reflection of the numbers of fingers on both
® illustrate the importance of the zero hands. Others, like the Babylonians, used
in the place-value system a base 60. But that system was awkward
C) explain how the Arabs invented because it required either separate symbols
Arabic numerals for each number up to 60 or clusters of 10
numbers. But the base of 60 survives today
CD, identify the first numeral that was
in geometry (60 seconds and minutes of
written with place values
angular measurement, 360 degrees in a
C) show a number that does not contain
circle, and 180 degrees in a rectangle) and in
a zero
time-keeping (60 seconds in a minute and 60
minutes in an hour).

The first great advance in numbering was

the place-value concept. Invented by the
Babylonians, place values were needed to
show the value of each digit in a numeric
notation. For example, without place values,
the number 236 was complicated to write in

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17. The word complicated in the passage most systems, as it required multiple symbols
is closest in meaning to and strokes. But with a value assigned to each
place (in a system based on 10), we know
C) precise
that the digit 6 represents 6 ones, the digit 3
CD difficult
represents 3 tens, and the digit 2 represents 2
C) simple
hundreds.
© definite
For place value to accurately reflect a
18. The author's description of zero number, a "zero" was needed to eliminate any
mentions which of the following? confusion over, for example, whether the digits
236 were intended to represent 236 or 2360
CD It was invented by the Babylonians. or 2036 or 2306. The zero or "empty" place
0, It was first expressed with Roman
value was originally indicated by leaving a gap
numerals.
between numbers, as in 23_6 to mean 2306.
© It was needed to make place values
Eventually, a special symbol was designed
accurate. to show zero, the "0" digit that we use today.
CD It was used widely by 3000 B.C. That symbol was invented for the Arabic
counting system and was in common use by
19. According to the passage, all of the about 650 A.D.
following are true about place values
EXCEPT: For zero and place values to be useful in
mathematics, it was necessary to invent a
C) They were invented by the symbol for each number up to the base figure.
Babylonians. Thus, different symbols for one through nine
ED They show the value of each digit in were adopted, with the zero added after each
a multiple-digit number. symbol to reflect another 10 (10, 20, 30, 40,
© They allowed calculations with written and so on). And multiple zeros were added to
numerals. represent even larger numbers (100, 1,000,
C) They were included in the system of and 10,000).
Roman numerals.
Arabic numerals ultimately replaced the
Roman numerals that had dominated Western
20. In paragraph 7, why does the author European history until the seventeenth
mention the abacus?
century. Those are the numerals used in
To contrast it with written numbers most of the world today. Early forms of Arabic
regarding speed of calculating numbers appeared in India by 200 B.C.
C) To give an example of the means of Indian mathematicians found that a place-
counting used after the year 1600 value system that included a symbol for
© To describe how sheepherders kept zero allowed them to perform mathematical
track of their sheep operations by writing down and manipulating
© To mention a device invented by Al- numerals. That was faster than the abacus,
Khwarizmi a mechanical device that had been the
principal means of counting. Using written

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PLutual "[-Lt

According to the passage, numerals to calculate did not become known

Al-Khwarizmi's treatise was unknown outside India until the ninth century, when
in Europe until the twelfth century an Arab mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, wrote
because a treatise about numbers. But his work was
C) it was not yet translated into Latin not translated into Latin until the twelfth
C) printing was not invented until then century and thus did not become known
C) Arab mathematicians wanted to keep in Europe until then. An Italian, Leonardo
it secret Fibonacci, popularized the Arabic numbering
(1) European mathematicians were not system (called "algorism") by writing books
interested in other counting systems about it that were read by bookkeepers and
merchants. They started to use the system in
their commercial transactions.
22. The word supplanted in the passage is
closest in meaning to For a few hundred years after Fibonacci,
® revised scholars and merchants debated the merits of
® replaced algorism versus the abacus. With the invention
CD reinforced of printing, books about algorism became
C) resurrected widely known, leading to its becoming the
accepted method from about 1500 and after.
By about 1600, Roman numerals had been
23. According to the passage, which of
supplanted by Arabic numerals for performing
the following is true of algorism?
most computations.
® It was a mechanical device for
counting.
® It was the Roman system of counting.
C) It was the Arabic number system.
CD It was not used after printing was
invented.

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r-

24. Directions: Complete the table below to summarize information about the two ideas that
permitted counting with written numerals. Match the appropriate statement to the idea with
which they are associated. This question is worth 3 points.

Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong.

To remove an answer choice, click on it. To review the passage, click View Text.

Place value Select 3

Zero Select 2
•

Answer Choices

C) Computation required that a number C) The idea was first invented by the
show the value of each digit. Babylonians.

® Tallying was used to keep records. CD Roman numerals were replaced by

Arabic numerals.

© Numbers were complicated to write. C) The symbol was first used by the Arabs.

CD A special symbol was needed to show

an empty place value.

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PaALLal_ 1-L±sit

According to paragraph 1, which of Minerals

the following is a characteristic of
minerals? Minerals are naturally occurring solid
crystal structure C) organic matter substances formed by geologic movements in
© hardness © smooth surface the Earth. Their main defining characteristics
are that 1) they are inorganic (composed
26. The word the latter in the passage of non-living matter); 2) they have a crystal
refers to structure; and 3) they have a unique chemical
composition. The type of mineral is determined
mineral C) diamond
both by its crystal structure and its chemical
© graphite C) carbon
composition. A crystal structure occurs when
the atoms inside the mineral are ordered in a
27. Which of the following best expresses
the essential information in the geometric pattern that repeats itself throughout
highlighted sentence? Incorrect the mineral. All crystal structures fit into one
answer choices change the meaning in of 14 possible "lattice"—regular pattern—
important ways or leave out essential arrangements of atoms, which lattices can be
information. detected by X-rays.
(I) The sheets of graphite's carbon
A mineral's physical traits are influenced by
atoms slide past the sheets of
its crystal form. For example, both diamond
diamond's carbon atoms.
and graphite are composed of the same
ED Graphite contains a network of
element (carbon), but the former is the
carbon atoms that create a strong
hardest mineral while the latter is soft. This is
crystal structure.
© Diamond is harder than graphite because graphite's crystal structure arranges
because of its carbon atoms' the carbon atoms in sheets that can slide past
interlocking structure. each other, while diamond's carbon atoms are
© The networks of carbon atoms in arrayed in a strong, interlocking network.
diamond and graphite make each
Two minerals with identical crystal structures
mineral very hard.
can have different chemical compositions.
Thus, halite and galena share the same
28. The word identical in the passage is
crystal structure but are composed of different
closest in meaning to
chemicals. Conversely, two minerals with the
ED similar same chemical ingredients can differ in their
(DI complex crystal structure. For example, pyrite and
© same
marcasite both are made of iron sulfide, but
© contrasting
the arrangement of their atoms differs.

According to the International Mineralogical

Association, 4,000 minerals have been
identified to date. Only about 150 of them

284
 REVIEW

According to the passage, two are plentiful, and about 50 are classified as
minerals with the same crystal "occasional." The remainder are rarely found,
structure can be different because some consisting of only small grains of rock.
ED they have different specific gravities
Minerals are often found as components
C) they are found in different locations
of rocks, which may contain organic matter
© they were formed by different
as well. Some rocks consist wholly of one
geologic processes
mineral, such as calcite in limestone rock.
CD they have different chemical
compositions Other rocks may host many minerals. Almost
all of the rocks visible today contain one
or more of a group of about 15 minerals,
30. According to paragraph 3, halite and
galena are different elements because including quartz, mica, and felspar.

they have the same crystal structure The kinds of minerals found in any given
® they have different chemical rock are determined by three factors. First,
compositions the rock's chemical composition must
© they were formed by different be hospitable to a particular mineral. For
geologic processes example, rocks containing silicon will likely
® they have different rankings on the contain quartz. Second, the conditions under
Mohs scale which the rock was formed will influence the
kinds of minerals found in the rock. Thus,
31. The word hospitable in the passage is rock born from volcanic movements at high
closest in meaning to temperatures and pressures may contain
® welcoming granite. Third, mineral distribution is affected
(T hostile by the geological stages through which the
© comparable rock passed before reaching its present state.
® reactive For example, exposure to moisture and acids
may decay some minerals and cause others
32. Why does the author discuss the role to take their place. During the changes from
of volcanic movements in creating one ecological stage to another, the rock may
rocks? disintegrate into sand or soil.
® To give an example of one of the
Earth's geologic forces Mineralogists classify minerals according
To identify a factor that determines to either physical properties or chemical
what kinds of minerals are found in composition. Minerals have numerous
rocks measurable physical properties. Hardness is
© To explain why some rocks contain measured on the "Mohs scale," which ranks
silicon hardness from one to 10. Any mineral can
© To criticize the theory that minerals be cut or marked by a mineral with a higher
are created only, by chemical ranking on the Mohs scale. Thus a diamond,
reactions

285
 33. The word disintegrate in the passage with a rank of 10, can cut into quartz, with
is closest in meaning to a rank of 7. Luster measures the reflection
C) decompose of light by the surface of the mineral. Metals
C) imbed have a higher luster than gypsum, which
C) pressurize has a porous surface. Cleavage refers to the
® decline way a mineral splits apart along its natural
grain, and fracture refers to its breakage
34. Which of the following can be inferred against its natural cleavage planes. Streak is
about minerals on the Mohs scale? the color of the residue left by a mineral as
Graphite is softer than gypsum. it is rubbed across a special plate. Specific
CD Quartz can cut a mineral with a rank gravity measures the density of the mineral;
of 8. it is computed by comparing the mass of the
C) Diamond can cut a mineral with a mineral to the mass of an equal volume of
rank of 9. water.
© The hardest minerals are metals.
Minerals can also be classified by their
chemical characteristics. The most frequently
35. According to the passage, all of the
following are properties of minerals occurring minerals are called silicates because
EXCEPT: of their large shares of silicon and oxygen.
Almost all rocks fit this category. The second
C) cleavage
most common minerals are carbonates, which
CD luster
contain carbon and oxygen. Carbonates are
© streak
C) weight found on the ocean floor as the deposits of
decayed plankton. Another grouping, halides,
are found where water has evaporated, as in
36. The word residue in the passage is
closest in meaning to dried lake beds and landlocked seas such as
the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Other common
CD engraving
classes include sulfates, oxides, sulfides, and
C) picture
phosphates.
© outline
C) remains

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37. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below.
Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most
important ideas in the passage. Some answer choices do not belong in the summary because
they express ideas that are not in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This
question is worth 2 points.

This passage discusses the characteristics of minerals.

Answer Choices

® When a mineral is exposed to moisture ED Carbonates are deposits of dead

and acid, it may decay and allow a new plankton that are found on the ocean
mineral to form. floor.

C) Minerals are classified by their physical C) Minerals are often found in rocks,
properties or chemical composition. and each rock may host one or many
minerals.

C) The kind of mineral is defined by its ® Cleavage is the property of minerals

crystal structure and its chemical that concerns the way it breaks along its
composition. natural cleavage planes.

Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong.

To remove an answer choice, click on it. To review the passage, click View Text.

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