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Test: Practice Test - 10 - Class 10 MCQ


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20 Questions MCQ Test The Complete SAT Course - Test: Practice Test - 10

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Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 1

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. The narrator of the passage can best be described as

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 1

Choice A is the best answer. Throughout the passage, the narrator refers to Miss Spivey’s 1938 class as “we” and “us” and describes interactions between Miss Spivey and her students as a firsthand observer, indicating that the narrator was a member of this 1938 class. Therefore, the narrator of the passage can best be described as one of Miss Spivey’s former students. Choice B is incorrect because the narrator refers to Miss Spivey’s predecessor, Miss Chandler, by name, not as “I” or “me,” and therefore the narrator isn’t Miss Spivey’s predecessor. Choice C is incorrect because the passage identifies the narrator as a member of Miss Spivey’s 1938 class and also mentions the narrator’s mother and brother, Ralphord. Choice D is incorrect because the narrator refers to Miss Spivey by name and as “she” and “her,” not as “I” or “me,” and thus can’t be Miss Spivey herself.

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 2

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. In the passage, Threestep is mainly presented as a

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 2

Choice B is the best answer. The description of the train’s arrival in the first paragraph suggests that Threestep is a rural town: instead of a paved platform, the tracks are lined with “burned grass.” Meanwhile, the description of the school in the sixth paragraph implies that the community is small: instead of individual rooms for separate grade levels, the school’s single room contains twenty-six students spread “across seven grade levels.” Therefore, Threestep is mainly presented in the passage as a small rural town. Choice A is incorrect because the narrator describes Threestep as uncomfortably hot for its residents, not as a summer retreat for vacationers. Choice C is incorrect because Miss Spivey refers to prominent universities located in other cities, not ones located in Threestep. Choice D is incorrect because in the first paragraph Threestep is characterized as a small rural town that is experiencing “hard times,” not as a comfortable suburb.

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Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 3

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that some of the people at the train station regard Miss Spivey’s comment about the Georgia heat with

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 3

Choice D is the best answer. In the first paragraph, Miss Spivey remarks that the heat in Georgia is nothing compared to the heat she experienced in Timbuktu. Later in this paragraph the narrator states, “I believe her remark irritated some of the people gathered to welcome her on the burned grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this is nothing compared to someplace else.” Hence it can reasonably be inferred from the passage that some of the people at the train station regard Miss Spivey’s comment about the Georgia heat with resentment because they feel that she is minimizing their discomfort. Choice A is incorrect because Miss Spivey informs the people at the train station that she has experienced even more extreme heat, so they wouldn’t have assumed that she is experiencing intense heat for the first time. Choice B is incorrect because the passage indicates that the people at the station know Miss Spivey is coming to Threestep to work, not that they doubt she will stay there very long. Choice C is incorrect because the passage doesn’t indicate that the people at the train station imagine that she is superior to them.

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 4

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 4

Choice B is the best answer. The previous question asks what can be inferred from the passage about the reaction of the people at the train station to Miss Spivey’s comment about the Georgia heat. The answer, that it can be reasonably inferred from the passage that some of the people at the train station regard Miss Spivey’s comment about the Georgia heat with resentment because they feel that she’s minimizing their discomfort, is best supported in the first paragraph: “I believe her remark irritated some of the people gathered to welcome her on the burned grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this is nothing compared to someplace else.” Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because the cited lines don’t provide the best evidence for the answer to the previous question. Instead, they describe Miss Spivey’s appearance (choice A), reflect on why people viewed her arrival positively in spite of their irritation over her remark (choice C), and outline her education (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 5

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. Miss Spivey most likely uses the phrase “fruitful intermission” (line 26) to indicate that

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 5

Choice A is the best answer. In the second paragraph, Miss Spivey describes a break she took from her formal education as a “fruitful intermission.” She explains that she “traveled extensively in the Near East and Africa with a friend of her grandmother’s, one Janet Miller” during this time. Therefore, Miss Spivey most likely uses the phrase “fruitful intermission” to indicate that she benefited from taking time off from her studies to travel. Choice B is incorrect because Miss Spivey’s use of the phrase “fruitful intermission” doesn’t indicate that her travels with Janet Miller encouraged her to start medical school. Choice C is incorrect because Miss Spivey uses the phrase “fruitful intermission” to refer to a break in her formal education after boarding school, not during her early years there. Choice D is incorrect because Miss Spivey’s use of the phrase “fruitful intermission” doesn’t indicate that this break lasted longer than she had expected.

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 6

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. The interaction between Miss Spivey and Ralphord serves mainly to

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 6

Choice A is the best answer. In the second paragraph, Miss Spivey tells her class that she went to Barnard College in New York City, which prompts Ralphord to ask her what she studied at “Barnyard College.” In response, Miss Spivey explains that Barnard College “was the sister school of Columbia University, of which, she expected, we all had heard.” This interaction implies that, contrary to Miss Spivey’s expectations, the names of prestigious East Coast schools aren’t common knowledge among her pupils. Thus the interaction between Miss Spivey and Ralphord serves mainly to suggest that Miss Spivey has an exaggerated view of what information should be considered common knowledge. Choice B is incorrect because the interaction between Miss Spivey and Ralphord establishes an atmosphere of misunderstanding, not friendliness. Choice C is incorrect because Ralphord’s question demonstrates his naivety rather than his precociousness. Choice D is incorrect because the passage doesn’t suggest that Ralphord’s question is an attempt to amuse Miss Spivey

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 7

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. In the third paragraph, what is the narrator most likely suggesting by describing Miss Spivey as having “wandered” (line 40) in one situation and “marched” (line 49) in another situation?

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 7

Choice D is the best answer. The third paragraph describes Miss Spivey as having “wandered,” or walked aimlessly, into a lecture by John Dewey. Following her interactions with the professor, Miss Spivey was inspired to work as an educator; consequently, she “marched,” or walked purposefully, to sign up for the Teacher’s College. Hence, by describing Miss Spivey as having “wandered” in the former situation and “marched” in the latter, the narrator is most likely suggesting that Miss Spivey’s initial encounter with Dewey’s ideas was somewhat accidental but ultimately motivated her to decisive action. Choices A and C are incorrect because the narrator’s description of Miss Spivey as having “wandered” into Dewey’s class and “marched” to sign up for the Teacher’s College suggests that her accidental encounter with him motivated her to begin studying to be a teacher, not that Dewey saw Miss Spivey as lacking confidence in her ability to teach (choice A) or that she was anxious to be in charge of her own classroom (choice C). Choice B is incorrect  because Miss Spivey didn’t express a desire to teach in the poorest, most remote corner of America until two years after talking with Dewey over coffee.

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 8

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. According to the passage, Miss Spivey ended up in Threestep as a direct result of

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 8

Choice C is the best answer. According to the third paragraph, after two years at the Teacher’s College, Miss Spivey told a woman from the WPA that “she wanted to bring democracy and education to the poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner of America.” Consequently, “they sent her to Threestep, Georgia,” according to the fourth paragraph. Thus Miss Spivey ended up in Threestep as a direct result of talking with a woman at the WPA. Choices A and B are incorrect because Miss Spivey ended up in Threestep as a direct result of talking with a woman at the WPA, not as an immediate consequence of her friendship with Janet Miller (choice A), or her decision to attend college in New York City (choice B). Choice D is incorrect because Miss Chandler is mentioned as Miss Spivey’s predecessor in Threestep, but Miss Spivey’s arrival in town doesn’t occur as a direct result of Miss Chandler’s retirement.

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 9

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. In the passage, when Miss Spivey announces that she had seen camels, the students’ reaction suggests that they are

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 9

Choice C is the best answer. The ninth paragraph describes the students’ reaction to Miss Spivey’s announcement that she had seen camels on her trip to Baghdad: “We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard, until Mavis Davis spoke up.” Mavis reminds the other students that camels appear in a story they are familiar with. Thus, when Miss Spivey announces that she had seen camels, the students’ reaction suggests that they are baffled. Choices A, B, and D are incorrect because when Miss Spivey announces that she had seen camels, the students’ reaction suggests that they are baffled, not delighted (choice A), fascinated (choice B), or worried (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 10

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel. ©2010 by Mary Helen Stefaniak.
Miss Grace Spivey arrived in Threestep, Georgia,
in August 1938. She stepped off the train wearing a
pair of thick-soled boots suitable for hiking, a navy
Line blue dress, and a little white tam that rode the waves
5 of her red hair at a gravity-defying angle. August was
a hellish month to step off the train in Georgia,
although it was nothing, she said, compared to the
119 degrees that greeted her when she arrived one
time in Timbuktu, which, she assured us, was a real
10 place in Africa. I believe her remark irritated some of
the people gathered to welcome her on the burned
grass alongside the tracks. When folks are sweating
through their shorts, they don’t like to hear that this
is nothing compared to someplace else. Irritated or
15 not, the majority of those present were inclined to see
the arrival of the new schoolteacher in a positive
light. Hard times were still upon us in 1938, but, like
my momma said, “We weren’t no poorer than we’d
ever been,” and the citizens of Threestep were in the
20 mood for a little excitement.
Miss Spivey looked like just the right person to
give it to them. She was, by almost anyone’s
standards, a woman of the world. She’d gone to
boarding schools since she was six years old; she’d
25 studied French in Paris and drama in London; and
during what she called a “fruitful intermission” in her
formal education, she had traveled extensively in the
Near East and Africa with a friend of her
grandmother’s, one Janet Miller, who was a medical
30 doctor from Nashville, Tennessee. After her travels
with Dr. Miller, Miss Spivey continued her education
by attending Barnard College in New York City. She
told us all that at school the first day. When my little
brother Ralphord asked what did she study at
35 Barnyard College, Miss Spivey explained that
Barnard, which she wrote on the blackboard, was the
sister school of Columbia University, of which, she
expected, we all had heard.
It was there, she told us, in the midst of trying to
40 find her true mission in life, that she wandered one
afternoon into a lecture by the famous John Dewey,
who was talking about his famous book, Democracy
and Education. Professor Dewey was in his seventies
by then, Miss Spivey said, but he still liked to chat
45 with students after a lecture—especially female
students, she added—sometimes over coffee, and see
in their eyes the fire his words could kindle. It was
after this lecture and subsequent coffee that Miss
Spivey had marched to the Teacher’s College and
50 signed up, all aflame. Two years later, she told a
cheery blue-suited woman from the WPA1 that she
wanted to bring democracy and education to the
poorest, darkest, most remote and forgotten corner
of America.
55 They sent her to Threestep, Georgia.
Miss Spivey paused there for questions, avoiding
my brother Ralphord’s eye.
What we really wanted to know about—all
twenty-six of us across seven grade levels in the one
60 room—was the pearly white button hanging on a
string in front of the blackboard behind the teacher’s
desk up front. That button on a string was something
new. When Mavis Davis (the only bona fide seventh
grader, at age thirteen) asked what it was for, Miss
65 Spivey gave the string a tug, and to our astonishment,
the whole world—or at least a wrinkled map of
it—unfolded before our eyes. Her predecessor, Miss
Chandler, had never once made use of that map,
which was older than our fathers, and until that
70 moment, not a one of us knew it was there.
Miss Spivey showed us on the map how she and
Dr. Janet Miller had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
and past the Rock of Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean Sea. Using the end of a ruler, she
75 gently tapped such places as Morocco and Tunis and
Algiers to mark their route along the top of Africa.
They spent twenty hours on the train to Baghdad, she
said, swathed in veils against the sand that crept in
every crack and crevice.
80 “And can you guess what we saw from the train?”
Miss Spivey asked. We could not. “Camels!” she said.
“We saw a whole caravan of camels.” She looked
around the room, waiting for us to be amazed and
delighted at the thought.
85 We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard,
until Mavis Davis spoke up.
“She means like the three kings rode to
Bethlehem,” Mavis said, and she folded her hands
smugly on her seventh-grade desk in the back of the
90 room.
Miss Spivey made a mistake right then. Instead of
beaming upon Mavis the kind of congratulatory
smile that old Miss Chandler would have bestowed
on her for having enlightened the rest of us, Miss
95 Spivey simply said, “That’s right.”
1The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government
agency that hired people for public and cultural development
projects and services.

Q. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 10

Choice B is the best answer. The previous question asks what the students’ reaction suggests about them when Miss Spivey announces that she had seen camels. The answer, that their reaction suggests that they are baffled, is best supported in the ninth paragraph: “We all hung there for a minute, thinking hard, until Mavis Davis spoke up.” Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because the cited lines don’t provide the best evidence for the answer to the previous question. Instead, they describe Miss Spivey’s anticipation of a delighted or amazed response to her announcement that she had seen camels (choice A), relay Mavis’s reference to a story familiar to the students (choice C), and reflect on the subdued nature of Miss Spivey’s response to Mavis (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 11

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q Based on the passage, textbook authors in the early 1990s would most likely have expected which condition to result from the blocking of fast fibers?

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 11

Choice D is the best answer. The first paragraph asserts that textbook authors in the early 1990s believed that “sensations of pressure and vibration . . . travel only along myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers.” Thus, based on the passage, textbook authors in the early 1990s would most likely have expected that the ability to perceive vibrations would be impaired as a result of blocking fast fibers. Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because the passage indicates that textbook authors in the early 1990s believed blocking fast nerve fibers would impair sensations of vibration, not that blocking would increase the firing rate of other fibers (choice A), cause gentle stimuli to be perceived as painful (choice B), or make the body compensate by using slow fibers to sense pressure (choice C).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 12

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 12

Choice B is the best answer. The previous question asks what condition textbook authors in the early 1990s would most likely have expected to result from blocking fast fibers. The answer, that they would most likely have expected blocking fast fibers to result in an impairment of the ability to perceive vibrations, is best supported in the first paragraph, which refers to the views of textbook authors in the early 1990s: “Sensations of pressure and vibration were believed to travel only along myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also give information about location.” Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because the cited lines don’t provide the best evidence for the answer to the previous question. Instead, they assert that textbook authors in the early 1990s believed slow-conducting nerves responded only to pain and temperature stimuli (choice A), noted that blocking slow fibers only seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or small painful shocks (choice C), and knew that fast-conducting fibers responded to touch at a signal rate of 35 to 75 m/s (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 13

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. As used in line 18, “active” most nearly means

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 13

Choice A is the best answer. The second paragraph states, “Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure might be active in humans as well as in other mammals.” In other words, the researchers wondered if these nerves were present, or existent, in humans and other mammals. Therefore, in the context of the passage, the word “active” most nearly means present. Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because in the context of the passage, “active” most nearly means present, not attentive (choice B), movable (choice C), or restless (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 14

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. As used in line 24, “capture” most nearly means

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 14

Choice C is the best answer. The second paragraph states, “Using a technique called microneurography, in which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves fired.” In other words, the researchers used the technique known as microneurography to record, or register, the electrical signals sent by nerve fibers. Therefore, in the context of the passage, the word “capture” most nearly means record. Choices A, B, and D are incorrect because in the context of the passage, “capture” most nearly means record, not occupy (choice A), seize (choice B), or influence (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 15

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. Which conclusion is best supported by the findings of Olausson’s 1993 experiment?

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 15

Choice C is the best answer. According to the passage, different types of nerve fibers carry signals at different speeds, either fast or slow. The second paragraph outlines a study led by Håkan Olausson in 1993 that measured the response time of nerves when exposed to gentle pressure. Olausson and his team found that “soft stroking prompted two different signals” in test subjects’ nerve fibers, “one immediate and one delayed.” Therefore, the conclusion that is best supported by the findings of Olausson’s 1993 experiment is that gentle pressure is sensed not only by fast fibers but also by slow fibers. Choices A and D are incorrect because according to the passage, Olausson’s 1993 study didn’t compare how signal speed was affected by stimulation in different bodily areas (choice A) or by different amounts of pressure applied to the nerve (choice D). Choice B is incorrect because the passage notes that only human hairy skin contains slow nerve fibers, not that hair causes signal speeds to slow.

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 16

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 16

Choice B is the best answer. The previous question asks which conclusion is best supported by the findings of Olausson’s 1993 experiment. The answer, that Olausson’s 1993 experiment best supports the conclusion that gentle pressure is sensed not only by fast fibers but also by slow fibers, is best supported in the second paragraph: Olausson’s team “showed that soft stroking prompted two different signals, one immediate and one delayed.” Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because the cited lines don’t provide the best evidence for the answer to the previous question. Instead, they describe a technique used by Olausson’s team (choice A), quantify the amount of time between the fast signals and the slow signals observed by Olausson’s team (choice C), and introduce a further study conducted by Olausson’s team in 1999 (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 17

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. The sentence in lines 43-45 (“But... mystifying”) serves mainly to

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 17

Choice D is the best answer. This sentence from the fourth paragraph outlines a quandary that arose from the 1999 study conducted by Olausson’s team: “But why exactly humans might have such fibers, which respond only to a narrow range of rather subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying.” The passage presents this line of inquiry as a justification for the team’s subsequent research on CT fibers. Thus this sentence serves mainly to show a problem from the perspective of Olausson’s team. Choices A, B, and C are incorrect. The cited lines serve mainly to show a problem from the perspective of Olausson’s team, not to identify factors Olausson had previously failed to consider (choice A), propose a solution to a dilemma encountered by Olausson (choice B), or anticipate a potential criticism of Olausson by the reader (choice C).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 18

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. It can reasonably be inferred that one of the intended goals of the 1999 experiment was to determine the

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 18

Choice A is the best answer. According to the fifth paragraph, Olausson set out to discover, in his team’s 1999 research, whether a CT nerve “can distinguish where the brush touches the arm, and whether it can discern the difference between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant sensation?” Therefore, it can reasonably be inferred that one of the intended goals of the 1999 experiment was to determine the precise nature of sensations that CT fibers can convey Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because in their 1999 research, Olausson’s team didn’t seek to determine the relationship between human body hair and CT fiber function (choice B), the role played by CT fibers in the perception of pain (choice C), or the effects of microneurography on CT fiber signaling (choice D).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 19

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. The main purpose of the sixth paragraph (lines 64-75) is to

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 19

Choice D is the best answer. In the 1999 study, Olausson’s team conducted experiments on a patient known as G.L. The researchers wanted to learn more about what type of sensations slow-conducting CT nerve fibers transmit, and G.L. was of special interest to them, according to the sixth paragraph: “More than 2 decades earlier . . . she had lost responsiveness to pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s quick-conducting fibers were gone. . . . But she could still sense warmth, suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated fibers were intact.” The fact that G.L.’s slow-conducting fibers were still intact while her other nerves were unresponsive allowed Olausson’s team to study her slow-conducting CT fibers in isolation. Thus the main purpose of the sixth paragraph is to indicate why G.L.’s medical condition was of value to Olausson’s experiment. Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because the sixth paragraph doesn’t indicate that Olausson’s team set out to relieve any of the neurological conditions that G.L. exhibited (choice A), compare G.L.’s nerve function with that of other adults (choice B), or detail any procedures that G.L. had experienced during previous experiments (choice C).

Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 20

Question is based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Sabrina Richards, “Pleasant tothe Touch.” ©2012 by The Scientist.
In the early 1990s, textbooks acknowledged that
humans had slow-conducting nerves, but asserted
that those nerves only responded to two types of
Line stimuli: pain and temperature. Sensations of pressure
5 and vibration were believed to travel only along
myelinated, fast-signaling nerve fibers, which also
give information about location. Experiments
blocking nerve fibers supported this notion.
Preventing fast fibers from firing (either by clamping
10 the relevant nerve or by injecting the local anesthetic
lidocaine) seemed to eliminate the sensation of
pressure altogether, but blocking slow fibers only
seemed to reduce sensitivity to warmth or a small
painful shock.
15 Håkan Olausson and his Gothenburg University
colleagues Åke Vallbo and Johan Wessberg
wondered if slow fibers responsive to gentle pressure
might be active in humans as well as in other
mammals. In 1993, they corralled 28 young
20 volunteers and recorded nerve signals while gently
brushing the subjects’ arms with their fingertips.
Using a technique called microneurography, in
which a fine filament is inserted into a single nerve to
capture its electrical impulses, the scientists were able
25 to measure how quickly—or slowly—the nerves
fired. They showed that soft stroking prompted
two different signals, one immediate and one
delayed. The delay, Olausson explains, means that
the signal from a gentle touch on the forearm will
30 reach the brain about a half second later. This delay
identified nerve impulses traveling at speeds
characteristic of slow, unmyelinated fibers—about
1 meter/second—confirming the presence of these
fibers in human hairy skin. (In contrast, fast-
35 conducting fibers, already known to respond to
touch, signal at a rate between 35 and 75 m/s.)
Then, in 1999, the group looked more closely at
the characteristics of the slow fibers. They named
these “low-threshold” nerves “C-tactile,” or CT,
40 fibers, said Olausson, because of their “exquisite
sensitivity” to slow, gentle tactile stimulation, but
unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli like pinpricks.
But why exactly humans might have such fibers,
which respond only to a narrow range of rather
45 subtle stimuli, was initially mystifying. Unlike other
types of sensory nerves, CT fibers could be found
only in hairy human skin—such as the forearm and
thigh. No amount of gentle stroking of hairless skin,
such as the palms and soles of the feet, prompted
50 similar activity signatures. Olausson and his
colleagues decided that these fibers must be
conveying a different dimension of sensory
information than fast-conducting fibers.
Although microneurography can give
55 information about how a single nerve responds to
gentle brushing and pressure, it cannot tease out
what aspect of sensation that fiber relays, says
Olausson. He wanted to know if that same slow
nerve can distinguish where the brush touches the
60 arm, and whether it can discern the difference
between a goat-hair brush and a feather. Most
importantly, could that same fiber convey a pleasant
sensation?
To address the question, Olausson’s group sought
65 out a patient known as G.L. who had an unusual
nerve defect. More than 2 decades earlier, she had
developed numbness across many parts of her body
after taking penicillin to treat a cough and fever.
Testing showed that she had lost responsiveness to
70 pressure, and a nerve biopsy confirmed that G.L.’s
quick-conducting fibers were gone, resulting in an
inability to sense any pokes, prods, or pinpricks
below her nose. But she could still sense warmth,
suggesting that her slow-conducting unmyelinated
75 fibers were intact.
Upon recruiting G.L., Olausson tested her by
brushing her arm gently at the speed of between
2–10 centimeters per second. She had more trouble
distinguishing the direction or pressure of the brush
80 strokes than most subjects, but reported feeling a
pleasant sensation. When the researchers tried
brushing her palm, where CT fibers are not found,
she felt nothing.
Olausson used functional MRI studies to examine
85 which areas of the brain lit up when G.L.’s arm was
gently brushed to activate CT fibers. In normal
subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices
were activated, but only the insular cortex [which
processes emotion] was active when researchers
90 brushed G.L.’s arm. This solidified the notion that
CT fibers convey a more emotional quality of touch,
rather than the conscious aspect that helps us
describe what we are sensing. CT fibers, it seemed,
specifically provide pleasurable sensations.

Q. According to the passage, G.L. differed from Olausson’s other test subjects in terms of the

Detailed Solution for Test: Practice Test - 10 - Question 20

Choice A is the best answer. According to the last paragraph, “in normal subjects, both the somatosensory and insular cortices were activated [by gentle brushing], but only the insular cortex [which processes emotion] was active when researchers brushed G.L.’s arm.” Therefore, according to the passage, G.L. differed from Olausson’s other test subjects in terms of the number of cortices activated in the brain during gentle brushing. Choice B is incorrect because the passage doesn’t address the physical dimensions of the somatosensory cortex in G.L. or other test subjects. Choice C is incorrect because G.L. differed from other test subjects in terms of the number of cortices activated in the brain during gentle brushing, not in terms of the intensity of nerve signals required to activate the insular cortex. Choice D is incorrect because MRI scanning is discussed in the passage as a method used to locate brain activity, not as a focus of study in Olausson’s research.

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