The passage mentions which of the following as an objection to still-life painting raised by critics before 1900?
|
It can be inferred from the passage that before 1900 critics' discussions of still-life painting would have been LEAST likely to include which of the following?
|
According to data collected in England in the early nineteenth century, children working in coal mines were much shorter than other children of the same ages. Since the coal mines had many tight spaces, a frequent explanation has been that mine managers would have avoided employing tall children. Some scholars have rejected this explanation, pointing out that since exposure to sunlight is necessary for the body`s production of a growth hormone, deprivation of sunlight probably caused child miners growth to be stunted. But, clearly, the true explanation is that both of these factors were at work. For one thing, they can in fact operate independently. More importantly, the differences in children's heights were so extreme that neither explanation alone would account for them satisfactorily.
|
In the argument given. the two highlighted portions play which of the following roles?
|
The passage implies that Du Bois attributed which of the following beliefs to Spencerian sociologists?
|
The passage implies that Du Bois believed which of the following statements about sociology?
|
Among the scientific anachronisms in the United States Endangered Species Act is the absence of specific reference to interactions among species, which can greatly affect ecological and species diversity. It is now understood that the disappearance of a strongly interactive species can cause profound changes in ecosystem composition and structure. For instance, decimation of great whales by industrial whaling affected other species that, like the whales, consume krill(small, shrimplike crustaceans), and the dynamics of coastal marine ecosystems worldwide have been greatly altered by overfishing of certain species. Decreased numbers and reduced geographic range may render a species functionally extinct in terms of its interactions well before the species itself has completely disappeared. Nevertheless, most conservation laws emphasize short-term, single-species demographic viability in only a few circumscribed areas.
|
It can be inferred that the author of the passage would agree with which of the following statements about the United States Endangered Species Act?
|
The author alludes to functional extinction primarily in order to imply that
|
In 1644 Descartes described Earth as consisting of a central nucleus of hot primordial fluid surrounded by a solid opaque layer and then succeeding layers of rock, metal, water, and air. Geophysicists still subscribe to the notion of a layered Earth. In the current view, however, Earth possesses a solid inner core and a molten outer core, both consisting of iron-rich alloys at enormous temperatures and pressures, followed, at about 2,900 kilometers below the surface, by a mantle of solid, less dense magnesium-iron silicates; the boundary between the upper and lower mantle lies 670 kilometers below the surface. At 30-50 kilometers below the continental surface (less than 10 kilometers below the seafloor), the Mohorovicic discontinuity marks an additional boundary--that between the mantle and the less dense crust above it.
|
According to the current view, a feature that distinguishes Earth's mantle from its core is that the mantle
|
In the passage, Descartes' description of Earth's interior is presented as
|
A primary value in early twentieth-century Modernist architectural theory was that of "truth to materials"; that is, it was essential that a buildings design express the "natural" character of the building materials. This emphasis would have puzzled the architects of the Italian Renaissance (sixteenth century) a period widely regarded as the apex of architectural achievement, for Renaissance architects' designs were determined only minimally by the materials employed.
The diversity of Italy's natural resources provided Renaissance architects with a wide variety of building materials. The builders of the Pitti Palace (1558-1570) used great blocks of Tuscan stone, just as Etruscans living in the same part of Italy had done some twenty centuries earlier. Had the Florentine Renaissance builders aped the Etruscan style, it might be said that their materials determined their style, since Etruscan style matched the massive, stark, solid character of the stone. But these same materials, which so suited the massive Etruscan style, were effectively used by the Florentine Renaissance to create the most delicate and graceful of styles.
A similar example of identical materials used in contrasting styles characterizes the treatment of Roman travertine marble. When Baroque architects of seventeenth-century Rome desired a massive and solid monumental effect, they turned to travertine marble, whose "natural effect" is, indeed, that of spacious breadth and lofty smoothly rounded surfaces. Yet during the Renaissance. this same material had been used against its "nature, " in the Florentine tradition of sharply carved detail.
Italian Renaissance architecture was shaped less by the "nature" of the materials at hand than by the artistic milieu of Renaissance Italy, which included painting and sculpture as well as architecture. While roman travertine marble may have lent itself to fine carving, the Florentine passion for fine detail is no less marked in Florentine Renaissance painting than in Florentine Renaissance architecture. Similarly, in the next century, the emphasis on shading and corporeal density in Baroque painting mirrored the use of Roman travertine marble in Baroque architecture to create broad shadow and powerful masses.
The ingenuity of Renaissance architects extended beyond merely using a material in a way not suggested by its outward natural appearance. If they conceived a design that called for a certain material either too expensive or difficult to work with, they made no scruple about imitating that material. Their marbles and their stones are often actually painted stucco. When the blocks of masonry with which they built were not in scale with the projected scheme, the real joints were concealed and false ones introduced. Nor were these practices confined, as some scholars insist, to the later and supposedly decadent phases of the art. Material, then, was utterly subservient to style.
|
The passage is primarily concerned with
|
The author of the passage mentions the Renaissance practices of substituting stucco for marble and of concealing joints in blocks of masonry in order to support the contention that Renaissance architects were
|
The author's mention of Florentine painting serves in the context of the passage to support which of the following assertions?
|
The passage suggests which of the following about the cited "scholars"?
|
Use of conventional flu medications remains common. However, in recent years, use of Sabocin, a nonconventional herbal remedy for the flu has increased. Sabocin's effectiveness relative to conventional medications is unproven, but it is clear Sabocin is less likely to cause unpleasant side effects: Only 35 percent of people who have used Sabocin recall an unpleasant side effect, whereas 55 percent of those people recall having experienced an unpleasant side effect when they took conventional flu medication.
|
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
|
Eleanor Roosevelt made it her business to reaffirm by word and deed her belief in equality of opportunity for all. But she was more than a symbol of the New Deal's conscience, she was also able to influence her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She sparked his conscience when necessary, and it was useful for the President to have his wife absorb some of the criticism from those who wished to maintain discriminatory policies.
Because his wife publicly advocated equal opportunity, President Roosevelt rarely felt the need, before 1935, to mention Black Americans in his public statements. Between 1935 and 1941, his references to Black Americans increased in frequency and directness, but his eye was on the balance of political forces, and he did not come out forthrightly for equal rights. Roosevelt did not directly commit himself, as his wife did, until June 1941, when he established the Fair Employment Practices Commission to supervise all defense-contract industries.
|