Gre verbal section 9 pdf

19. Let it be remembered that this plan is neither
recommended to blind approbation, nor to
blind ____________, but to a sedate and can-
did consideration.
a. idiosyncrasy
b. pathology
c. appeasement
d. uniformity
e. reprobation
20. Speak not but what may benefit others or
yourself; avoid ____________ conversation.
a. trifling
b. assertive
c. laudable
d. dormant
e. implausible
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Reading Comprehension
Instructions: Read the passages that follow. After each passage, answer the content-based questions
about it. Each question must be answered using only the information that is either implied or stated
in the passage.
Laughter appears to stand in need of an echo. Listen to it carefully: It is not an articulate, clear, well-
defined sound; it is something which would fain be prolonged by reverberating from one to
another, something beginning with a crash, to continue in successive rumblings, like thunder in
a mountain. Still, this reverberation cannot go on forever. It can travel within as wide a circle as
you please: The circle remains, nonetheless, a closed one. Our laughter is always the laughter of a
group. It may, perchance, have happened to you, when seated in a railway carriage or at table
d’hote, to hear travelers relating to one another’s stories which must have been comic to them, for
they laughed heartily. Had you been one of their company, you would have laughed like them; but,
as you were not, you had no desire whatsoever to do so. A man who was once asked why he did

not weep at a sermon, when everybody else was shedding tears, replied: “I don’t belong to the
parish!” What that man thought of tears would be still more true of laughter. However sponta-
neous it seems, laughter always implies a kind of secret freemasonry, or even complicity, with other
laughers, real or imaginary. How often has it been said that the fuller the theater, the more uncon-
trolled the laughter of the audience! On the other hand, how often has the remark been made that
many comic effects are incapable of translation from one language to another, because they refer
to the customs and ideas of a particular social group! It is through not understanding the impor-
tance of this double fact that the comic has been looked upon as a mere curiosity in which the
mind finds amusement, and laughter itself as a strange, isolated phenomenon, without any bear-
ing on the rest of human activity. Hence those definitions that tend to make the comic into an
abstract relation between ideas:“an intellectual contrast,”“a palpable absurdity,”etc.,—definitions
that, even were they really suitable to every form of the comic, would not in the least explain why
the comic makes us laugh. How, indeed, should it come about that this particular logical relation,
as soon as it is perceived, contracts, expands, and shakes our limbs, while all other relations leave
the body unaffected? It is not from this point of view that we shall approach the problem. To
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understand laughter, we must put it back into its natural environment, which is society, and above
all, we must determine the utility of its function, which is a social one. Such, let us say at once, will
be the leading idea of all our investigations. Laughter must answer to certain requirements of life
in common. It must have a social signification.
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131
1. Which of the following titles best describes this
passage as a whole?
a. Comedy: The Misunderstood Art
b. Observations on the Function of Laughter
c. The Logical Relation of Comedy to

Laughter
d. Laughter: A Social Function
e. Echoes of Laughter
2. It can be inferred from the passage that a per-
son would be least likely to laugh
a. in a crowded theater.
b. in a half-full theater.
c. while reading a book.
d. while watching a television sitcom.
e. while sitting alone in a comedy club.
3. According to the passage, an individual may
fail to understand the comic because
I. the comic does not mesh with specific cus-
toms and ideas of his or her society.
II. the individual feels apart from the
intended audience.
III. laughter is an isolated phenomenon.
a. II only
b. III only
c. I and II only
d. II and III only
e. I, II, and III
4. The author supports the assertion in line 1 that
laughter is in need of an echo by which of the
following means?
a. by comparing it to a storm
b. by saying it wants to pass from person to
person
c. by relating an anecdote about a parish
d. by comparing it to thunder in a mountain

e. by invoking an image of a circle
5. The passage implies that laughter is always
contained within a specific group because
a. a larger audience portends a larger laugh.
b. the utility of laughter is a social one.
c. some people prefer one type of humor over
another.
d. the circle must remain closed.
e. in social terms, humankind is not univer-
sally connected.
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Geometry sets out from certain conceptions such as “plane,”“point,” and “straight line,”with
which we are able to associate more or less definite ideas, and from certain simple propositions
(axioms) which, in virtue of these ideas, we are inclined to accept as “true.”Then, on the basis
of a logical process, the justification of which we feel ourselves compelled to admit, all remain-
ing propositions are shown to follow from those axioms, i.e., they are proven. A proposition is
then correct (“true”) when it has been derived in the recognized manner from the axioms. The
question of “truth” of the individual geometrical propositions is thus reduced to one of the
“truth”of the axioms. Now it has long been known that the last question is not only unanswer-
able by the methods of geometry, but that it is in itself entirely without meaning. We cannot
ask whether it is true that only one straight line goes through two points. We can only say that
Euclidean geometry deals with things called “straight lines,”to each of which is ascribed the
property of being uniquely determined by two points situated on it. The concept “true”does
not tally with the assertions of pure geometry, because by the word “true,”we are eventually in
the habit of designating always the correspondence with a “real” object; geometry, however, is
not concerned with the relation of the ideas involved in it to objects of experience, but only
with the logical connection of these ideas among themselves.
It is not difficult to understand why, in spite of this, we feel constrained to call the propo-
sitions of geometry “true.” Geometrical ideas correspond to more or less exact objects in
nature, and these last are undoubtedly the exclusive cause of the genesis of those ideas.

Geometry ought to refrain from such a course, in order to give to its structure the largest
possible logical unity. The practice, for example, of seeing in a “distance” two marked posi-
tions on a practically rigid body is something that is lodged deeply in our habit of thought.
We are accustomed further to regard three points as being situated on a straight line if their
apparent positions can be made to coincide for observation with one eye under suitable
choice of our place of observation.
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132
6. In this passage, the author is chiefly concerned
with which of the following topics?
a. a definition of geometric axioms
b. the truth, or lack thereof, of geometrical
propositions
c. the reality of geometrical correspondences
d. the validity of human observations
e. the exact observation of natural objects
7. The author’s assertion in line 9 that it is in itself
entirely without meaning refers to
a. geometrical propositions.
b. the nature of straight lines.
c. the truth of the axioms of geometry.
d. the methods of geometry.
e. any question of the truth of geometry.
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8. It can be inferred from the passage that the
truth of a geometrical proposition depends on

which of the following?
a. the concept of straight lines
b. the validity of Euclidean thought
c. the logical connection of the ideas of
geometry
d. our inclination to accept it as true
e. the truth of the axioms
9. The author’s use of the term pure geometry in
line 13 refers to which of the following?
a. the relation of ideas to objects of
experience
b. the logical connection of ideas among
themselves
c. apparent observations of points and planes
d. more or less exact objects in nature
e. the existence of straight lines
10. It can be inferred from the passage that our
propensity for calling the propositions of
geometry true is due to which of the following?
a. The propositions appear to correspond to
natural objects.
b. There is a logical unity to the propositions.
c. We have been conditioned to believe they
are true.
d. Geometric principles derive from definite
ideas.
e. Observations prove the propositions to
be true.
– THE GRE VERBAL SECTION–
133

Necessity is the first lawgiver; all the wants that had to be met by this constitution were origi-
nally of a commercial nature. Thus, the whole constitution was founded on commerce, and
the laws of the nation were adapted to its pursuits. The last clause, which excluded foreigners
from all offices of trust, was a natural consequence of the preceding articles. So complicated
and artificial a relation between the sovereign and his people, which in many provinces was
further modified according to the peculiar wants of each, and frequently of some single city,
required for its maintenance the liveliest zeal for the liberties of the country, combined with
an intimate acquaintance with them. From a foreigner, neither could well be expected. This
law, besides, was enforced reciprocally in each particular province; so that in Brabant no
Fleming, and in Zealand no Hollander could hold office; and it continued in force even after
all these provinces were united under one government.
Above all others, Brabant enjoyed the highest degree of freedom. Its privileges were
esteemed so valuable that many mothers from the adjacent provinces removed thither about
the time of their accouchement, in order to entitle their children to participate, by birth, in
all the immunities of that favored country; just as, says Strada, one improves the plants of a
rude climate by removing them to the soil of a milder.
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11. The author of this passage implies which of the
following?
a. Foreigners are generally not to be trusted.
b. Crossing borders to give birth is morally
suspect.
c. Laws, as a rule, develop in response to a
need for laws.
d. Unification is a natural tendency for
smaller provinces.
e. No person should be immune to legal
restrictions.

12. Which of the following justifications does the
author offer for the exclusion of foreigners
from all offices of trust?
I. The laws were extremely complex,
necessitating extensive familiarity with
their nuances.
II. Stringent enforcement of the laws was
required.
III. Mutual distrust prevailed at this time
among the various provinces.
a. II only
b. III only
c. I and II only
d. I and III only
e. I, II, and III
13. It is implied in this passage that the first close
ties among the mentioned provinces devel-
oped as a result of which of the following?
a. the cooperation required to write a
constitution
b. interprovincial trade
c. intraprovincial trade
d. the practice of giving birth in Brabant
e. the evolution of legal systems within the
provinces
14. In this passage, the author maintains that
which of the following continued after unifica-
tion of the provinces?
a. a complex relationship between sovereign
and people

b. a zeal for liberty
c. the practice of giving birth in Brabant
d. the pursuit of freedom by residents of
Brabant
e. the exclusion of foreigners from
office-holding
15. This passage can best be described as a
a. defense of a thesis that increased freedom
leads to more vigorous commerce.
b. reconciliation of opposing views of consti-
tutional development.
c. contrast and comparison of vagaries of
provincial law, preunification.
d. review of similarities and contrasts among
preunification provincial laws.
e. polemic advocating the desirability of legal
reciprocity among neighboring provinces.
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134
The discovery that shows, beyond all others, that Hipparchus possessed one of the master-
minds of all time was the detection of that remarkable celestial movement known as the pre-
cession of the equinoxes. The inquiry that led to this discovery involved a most profound
investigation, especially when it is remembered that in the days of Hipparchus, the means of
observation of the heavenly bodies were only of the rudest description, and the available
observations of earlier dates were extremely scanty. We can but look with astonishment on
the genius of the man who, in spite of such difficulties, was able to detect such a phenome-
non as the precession, and to exhibit its actual magnitude. I shall endeavor to explain the
nature of this singular celestial movement, for it may be said to offer the first instance in the
history of science in which we find that combination of accurate observation with skillful
interpretation, of which, in the subsequent development of astronomy, we have so many

splendid examples.
The word equinox implies the condition that the night is equal to the day. To a resident on
the equator, the night is no doubt equal to the day at all times in the year, but to one who lives
on any other part of the Earth, in either hemisphere, the night and the day are not generally
equal. There is, however, one occasion in spring, and another in autumn, on which the day
and the night are each twelve hours at all places on the Earth. When the night and day are
equal in spring, the point which the sun occupies on the heavens is termed the vernal equi-
nox. There is similarly another point in which the sun is situated at the time of the autumnal
equinox. In any investigation of the celestial movements, the positions of these two equinoxes
on the heavens are of primary importance, and Hipparchus, with the instinct of genius, per-
ceived their significance, and commenced to study them. It will be understood that we can
always define the position of a point on the sky with reference to the surrounding stars. No
doubt we do not see the stars near the sun when the sun is shining, but they are there never-
theless. The ingenuity of Hipparchus enabled him to determine the positions of each of the
two equinoxes relatively to the stars which lie in its immediate vicinity. After examination of
the celestial places of these points at different periods, he was led to the conclusion that each
equinox was moving relatively to the stars, though that movement was so slow that 25,000
years would necessarily elapse before a complete circuit of the heavens was accomplished.
Hipparchus traced out this phenomenon, and established it on an impregnable basis, so that
all astronomers have ever since recognized the precession of the equinoxes as one of the fun-
damental facts of astronomy. Not until nearly 2,000 years after Hipparchus had made this
splendid discovery was the explanation of its cause given by Newton.
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