GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

Question 1

GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING . While many books have emphasized the differences between Delaney and his father—and his need to differentiate himself from his father—Delaney takes pains in this memoir to _________ his closeness with his dad.

• underscore
• question
• repudiate
• sidestep
• trivialize

Question 2

While early biographies of Florence Nightingale tended to be quite _________. Lytton Strachey’s irreverent 1918 essay about her ushered in a new era, making it acceptable, even fashionable, to criticize her.

• unsympathetic
• sycophantic
• unsentimental
• censorious
• pedantic

Question 3

Recent scholarship has questioned the (i)_________ of tropical forests around the world. Archaeologists have shown, for example, that the largest contiguous tract of what was thought to be virgin rain forest in the southern Amazon had been transformed into a cultural parkland before European contact, and many of the forest islands in West Africa’s savanna-forest transition zone are (ii)_________ as well.

Blank (i)

• diversity
• naturalness
• sustainability

Blank (ii)

• isolated
• endangered
• anthropogenic

Question 4

Elephants are known to use a wide variety of calls, many of them infrasonic (below the level of human hearing), in coordinating group behavior. The infrasonic calls usually have a component that is (i), but these higher frequency aspects of the calls (ii) very quickly with distance, so that in the wild, human observers are often (iii)_________ sudden coordinated movements of large groups of elephants when no signal was apparent to the observer.

Blank (i)

• somewhat muted
• distinctly sonorous
• humanly audible

Blank (ii)

• attenuate
• repeat
• differentiate

Blank (iii)

• ignorant of
• alert to
• astonished by

Question 5

The early-nineteenth-century British economy did not experience a rapid and wholesale “industrial revolution,” as scholars once claimed. Nevertheless, the more gradual and uneven picture that has emerged at the aggregate level should not disguise the fact that in some regions and industries dramatic discontinuities occurred, creating an economic configuration (and a cultural response) that became very different very quickly.

Perhaps paradoxically, the recent scholarly emphasis on gradualism has placed focus on the 1830s as a decade of critical change, when economic development accelerated significantly and a recognizable “industrial” economy first became visible, with many industries and occupations rapidly evolving. Factories and machines did not become ubiquitous, but they became dominant images of the age and a powerful motor for the development of new social identities.

The primary purpose of the passage is to

• revisit a model that scholars have recently abandoned
• qualify a scholarly view that has superseded a previous one
• offer reasons for a recent shift in a scholarly consensus
• illustrate the cultural consequences of an economic phenomenon
• explain why a historical phenomenon is easily misinterpreted

Question 6

The early-nineteenth-century British economy did not experience a rapid and wholesale “industrial revolution,” as scholars once claimed. Nevertheless, the more gradual and uneven picture that has emerged at the aggregate level should not disguise the fact that in some regions and industries dramatic discontinuities occurred, creating an economic configuration (and a cultural response) that became very different very quickly.

Perhaps paradoxically, the recent scholarly emphasis on gradualism has placed focus on the 1830s as a decade of critical change, when economic development accelerated significantly and a recognizable “industrial” economy first became visible, with many industries and occupations rapidly evolving. Factories and machines did not become ubiquitous, but they became dominant images of the age and a powerful motor for the development of new social identities. GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

The author of the passage suggests which of the following about the early-nineteenth-century British economy?

• It did not develop in a uniform fashion in every part of the country.
• It did not evolve as rapidly as recent scholars have claimed.
• It changed in ways that fostered cultural and social changes. GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

Question 7

Tree Swallow nestlings’ survival rates appear to be higher among those fathered by males with bluer plumage. In a studied population, older male Tree Swallows were found to be bluer and brighter than younger males. This result appeared to be caused by individuals increasing in brightness over time and the higher likelihood of bluer males returning to the breeding site.

Thus, bluer males may be of higher quality and have more breeding experience, which could have improved the chance of their young surviving compared with younger, less experienced males with greener plumage. Alternatively, younger males with greener plumage may have favored a self-maintenance strategy to improve their chance of future reproductive success, whereas older males with bluer plumage may have invested more in their current reproductive attempt. Furthermore, adults may adjust their level of parental care in response to the quality of plumage ornamentation displayed by their mate.

In a meta-analysis, Horváthová et al. concluded that when paired with a more attractive mate, females in general invested more into reproduction. Therefore, the females paired with males displaying more blue plumage also may have provided better care to the nestlings, thereby increasing the [nestlings’] chance of surviving. In Tree Swallows, however, Dakin et al. showed that adults (females and males) paired with a partner with greener plumage had higher feeding rates, which contradicts the previous possibility. It is important to note, however, that Dakin et al. quantified provisioning when offspring were only three days old and demands on parents would have been small.

The author of the passage most likely considers the conclusion reached by Horváthová et al. to be

• reasonable
• definitive
• misguided
• incomplete
• controversial

Question 8

Tree Swallow nestlings’ survival rates appear to be higher among those fathered by males with bluer plumage. In a studied population, older male Tree Swallows were found to be bluer and brighter than younger males. This result appeared to be caused by individuals increasing in brightness over time and the higher likelihood of bluer males returning to the breeding site.

Thus, bluer males may be of higher quality and have more breeding experience, which could have improved the chance of their young surviving compared with younger, less experienced males with greener plumage. Alternatively, younger males with greener plumage may have favored a self-maintenance strategy to improve their chance of future reproductive success, whereas older males with bluer plumage may have invested more in their current reproductive attempt. Furthermore, adults may adjust their level of parental care in response to the quality of plumage ornamentation displayed by their mate.

In a meta-analysis, Horváthová et al. concluded that when paired with a more attractive mate, females in general invested more into reproduction. Therefore, the females paired with males displaying more blue plumage also may have provided better care to the nestlings, thereby increasing the [nestlings’] chance of surviving. In Tree Swallows, however, Dakin et al. showed that adults (females and males) paired with a partner with greener plumage had higher feeding rates, which contradicts the previous possibility. It is important to note, however, that Dakin et al. quantified provisioning when offspring were only three days old and demands on parents would have been small.

The passage suggests which of the following about the “meta-analysis”? GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

• It supported a hypothesis about the effect of a self-maintenance strategy on reproductive success.
• It identified a factor that might account for a phenomenon cited at the beginning of the passage.
• It confirmed earlier findings about male swallows’ plumage and their nestlings’ survival rates.
• It highlighted a criterion for mate attractiveness that is particularly important for Tree Swallows.
• It helped to rule out a claim about the relationship between male swallows’ age and their reproductive GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING success.

Question 9

Tree Swallow nestlings’ survival rates appear to be higher among those fathered by males with bluer plumage. In a studied population, older male Tree Swallows were found to be bluer and brighter than younger males. This result appeared to be caused by individuals increasing in brightness over time and the higher likelihood of bluer males returning to the breeding site.

Thus, bluer males may be of higher quality and have more breeding experience, which could have improved the chance of their young surviving compared with younger, less experienced males with greener plumage. Alternatively, younger males with greener plumage may have favored a self-maintenance strategy to improve their chance of future reproductive success, whereas older males with bluer plumage may have invested more in their current reproductive attempt. Furthermore, adults may adjust their level of parental care in response to the quality of plumage ornamentation displayed by their mate.

In a meta-analysis, Horváthová et al. concluded that when paired with a more attractive mate, females in general invested more into reproduction. Therefore, the females paired with males displaying more blue plumage also may have provided better care to the nestlings, thereby increasing the [nestlings’] chance of surviving. In Tree Swallows, however, Dakin et al. showed that adults (females and males) paired with a partner with greener plumage had higher feeding rates, which contradicts the previous possibility. It is important to note, however, that Dakin et al. quantified provisioning when offspring were only three days old and demands on parents would have been small. GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

The passage suggests which of the following about the “breeding site”?

• Whether male Tree Swallows return to it at a given time may depend in part on the number of nestlings those males produced in the preceding year.
• At certain times of year, it is visited by a larger number of male Tree Swallows with green plumage relative to the number of males with blue plumage.
• It was chosen for study by researchers because its Tree Swallow population regularly produced nestlings whose survival rate was higher than average.
• If studied at a time when male Tree Swallows are returning to it, the number of older males present would be higher than their prevalence in the overall population would suggest.
• It may have differed in important respects from the breeding sites featured in the studies used in the meta-analysis that Horváthová et al. conducted.

Question 10

The theory that the young Mercury collided with another planet appears _________ given Mercury’s abundance of volatile elements: a collision would have boiled such elements away. GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

• tenuous
• simplistic
• germane
• improbable
• apposite
• unoriginal

Question 11

Despite the _________ of medical information available through e-mail, the Internet, and mobile devices, not many patients are taking advantage of the potential of electronic communications for health-related needs.

• wealth
• complexity
• intricacy
• profusion
• resurgence
• overload

Question 12

On stage, jazz artist James Carter often veers dangerously close to the _________ : he becomes a man possessed, his tenor saxophone wailing and whimpering with a musicality so muscular it threatens to consume him.

• lugubrious
• doleful
• intemperate
• excessive
• idiosyncratic
• sublime

Question 13

In the brushland of Klanos Island, seeds of the plant Emmenanthe penduliflora normally stay dormant for years and germinate only after a brushfire. The resulting plants quickly mature, produce seed, and then die. It is the nitrogen dioxide in the smoke that induces the seeds to germinate. Because automobiles are being introduced on Klanos, and their exhaust contains nitrogen dioxide, the plants will probably be seen throughout Klanos every year.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument? GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

• All efforts to reduce the frequency and intensity of brushfires on Klanos have failed.
• Fires clear much of the brush in the habitat of E. penduliflora, allowing germinating seeds to receive enough sunlight to grow.
• A small amount of nitrogen dioxide, such as is contained in the exhaust of two or three automobiles, is sufficient to induce the germination of nearby seeds of E. penduliflora.
• The seeds of some of the other plants that are found on Klanos do not germinate unless the seed coat that protects the kernel of the seed is cracked by intense heat.
• Fires in the habitat of E. penduliflora entirely destroy the plant’s seeds in the places where the fires burn most intensely.

Question 14

Some argue that translators should be paid royalties and share in the commercial success of works they translate rather than earning a flat fee. This is nonsense. Umberto Eco was better translated by Richard Dixon than by William Weaver, but Eco’s bestseller The Name of the Rose, which Weaver translated, was an infinitely better book than Numero Zero, translated by Dixon.

Why should one translator grow rich and the other not? Popular novelists J. K. Rowling and Stieg Larsson are easy to translate. Should publishers skew translators’ earnings by giving vast sums to those doing work that is immeasurably easier than, say, Galassi’s translations of Montale’s poems? Introducing royalties would encourage the finest translators to drop literary work altogether and concentrate on popular novels.

The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about authors and their translators?

• Authors who are commercially successful generally attract the most-talented translators.
• Under current arrangements, translators typically earn more money for difficult projects than for easy ones.
• Different works in the same genre typically offer similar degrees of difficulty for translators.
• Translators are often better at assessing the literary quality of works than are the authors themselves.
• Authors typically have much more impact than translators do on the commercial success of works.

Question 15

Some argue that translators should be paid royalties and share in the commercial success of works they translate rather than earning a flat fee. This is nonsense. Umberto Eco was better translated by Richard Dixon than by William Weaver, but Eco’s bestseller The Name of the Rose, which Weaver translated, was an infinitely better book than Numero Zero, translated by Dixon.

Why should one translator grow rich and the other not? Popular novelists J. K. Rowling and Stieg Larsson are easy to translate. Should publishers skew translators’ earnings by giving vast sums to those doing work that is immeasurably easier than, say, Galassi’s translations of Montale’s poems? Introducing royalties would encourage the finest translators to drop literary work altogether and concentrate on popular novels. GRE 2026. Section 5 VERBAL REASONING

Which of the following is an assumption on which the passage’s argument depends?

• Translators are good at judging the literary value of the works they translate.
• Popular novels are typically harder to translate than literary works are.
• The best translators of literary works also produce the best translations of popular novels.
• The best translators typically eschew popular novels for literary works.
• The best translators are strongly motivated by financial gain.