PSAT Improving Paragraphs Practice Test 1

Question – 1

(1) From Ancient times, men have believed that, under certain peculiar circumstances, life could arise spontaneously. (2) This belief was held by Aristotle, Newton and Descartes, among many others, and apparently, the great William Harvey too. (3) The weight of centuries gradually disintegrated men’s beliefs in the spontaneous origin of maggots and mice, but the doctrine of spontaneous generation clung tenaciously to the question of bacterial origin.<br />(4) In association with Buffon, the Irish Jesuit priest John Needham declared that he could bring at will the creation of living microbes in heat. (5) In his Dictionaire Philosophique, Voltaire reflected that it was odd to read of Father Needham’s claim while atheists conversely should deny a Creator yet attribute to themselves the power of creating eels. (6) But, wrote Thomas Huxley, ‘The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact – which is so constantly being enacted under the eyes of philosophers, was played almost immediately for the benefit of Buffon and Needham’.<br />(7) The Italian Abbe Spallanzani did an experiment. (8) He showed that a broth sealed from the air while boiling never develops bacterial growths and hence never decomposes. (9) To Needham’s objection that Spallanzani had ruined his broths and the air above them by excessive boiling, Abbe replied by breaking the seals of his flasks. (10) Air rushed in and bacterial growth began! (11) But the essential conflict remained.

1. Which of the phrases would be the best alternative to the underlined portion of sentence (3) reproduced below:The weight of centuries gradually disintegrated men’s beliefs in the spontaneous origin of maggots and mice, but the doctrine of spontaneous generation clung tenaciously to the question of bacterial origin.

Question – 2

(1) From Ancient times, men have believed that, under certain peculiar circumstances, life could arise spontaneously. (2) This belief was held by Aristotle, Newton and Descartes, among many others, and apparently, the great William Harvey too. (3) The weight of centuries gradually disintegrated men’s beliefs in the spontaneous origin of maggots and mice, but the doctrine of spontaneous generation clung tenaciously to the question of bacterial origin.<br />(4) In association with Buffon, the Irish Jesuit priest John Needham declared that he could bring at will the creation of living microbes in heat. (5) In his Dictionaire Philosophique, Voltaire reflected that it was odd to read of Father Needham’s claim while atheists conversely should deny a Creator yet attribute to themselves the power of creating eels. (6) But, wrote Thomas Huxley, ‘The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact – which is so constantly being enacted under the eyes of philosophers, was played almost immediately for the benefit of Buffon and Needham’.<br />(7) The Italian Abbe Spallanzani did an experiment. (8) He showed that a broth sealed from the air while boiling never develops bacterial growths and hence never decomposes. (9) To Needham’s objection that Spallanzani had ruined his broths and the air above them by excessive boiling, Abbe replied by breaking the seals of his flasks. (10) Air rushed in and bacterial growth began! (11) But the essential conflict remained.

2. What would be the best word to replace ‘did’ in sentence (7)?

Question – 3

(1) Thus, doubt remained and into the controversy came the Titanic figure of Louis Pasteur. (2) Believing that a solution to this problem was essential to the development of his theories concerning the role of bacteria in nature, Pasteur freely acknowledged the possibility that living bacteria very well might be arising a new form of inanimate matter. (3) To him the research problem was largely a technical one: to repeat the work of those who claimed to have observed bacterial entry. (4) He found during the experiments that after prolonged boiling, a broth would ferment only when air was admitted to it. (6) Therefore, he contended either air contained a factor necessary for a spontaneous generation of life or viable germs were borne in by the air and seeded in the sterile nutrient broth. (7) Pasteur designed ingenious flasks whose long S-shaped necks could be left open. (8) Air was trapped in the sinuous glass tube. (9) Broths boiled in these flask tubes remained sterile. (10) When their necks were snapped to admit ordinary air, bacterial growth would then commence – but not in every case. (11) An occasional flask would remain sterile presumably because the bacterial population of the air is unevenly distributed. (12) The forces of spontaneous generation would not be so erratic. (13) He ranged from the mountain air to Montanvert, which he showed to be almost sterile, to those deep, clear wells whose waters had been rendered germ free by slow filtration through sandy oil. (14) The latter discovery led to the familiar porcelain filters of the bacteriology laboratory. (15) With pores small enough to exclude bacteria, solutions allowed to percolate through them could be reliably sterilized.

3. What would be the most suitable place for the sentence: ‘Pasteur preferred to work logically.’

Question – 4

(1) Thus, doubt remained and into the controversy came the Titanic figure of Louis Pasteur. (2) Believing that a solution to this problem was essential to the development of his theories concerning the role of bacteria in nature, Pasteur freely acknowledged the possibility that living bacteria very well might be arising a new form of inanimate matter. (3) To him the research problem was largely a technical one: to repeat the work of those who claimed to have observed bacterial entry. (4) He found during the experiments that after prolonged boiling, a broth would ferment only when air was admitted to it. (6) Therefore, he contended either air contained a factor necessary for a spontaneous generation of life or viable germs were borne in by the air and seeded in the sterile nutrient broth. (7) Pasteur designed ingenious flasks whose long S-shaped necks could be left open. (8) Air was trapped in the sinuous glass tube. (9) Broths boiled in these flask tubes remained sterile. (10) When their necks were snapped to admit ordinary air, bacterial growth would then commence – but not in every case. (11) An occasional flask would remain sterile presumably because the bacterial population of the air is unevenly distributed. (12) The forces of spontaneous generation would not be so erratic. (13) He ranged from the mountain air to Montanvert, which he showed to be almost sterile, to those deep, clear wells whose waters had been rendered germ free by slow filtration through sandy oil. (14) The latter discovery led to the familiar porcelain filters of the bacteriology laboratory. (15) With pores small enough to exclude bacteria, solutions allowed to percolate through them could be reliably sterilized.

4. Which among the following would be the most suitable beginning for sentence (7)?

Question – 5

(1) The highest priced words are ghost-written by gagmen who furnish the raw material for comedy over the air and on the screen. (2) They have a word-lore all their own, which they practise for five to fifteen hundred dollar a week, or fifteen dollars a gag at piece rates. (3) That’s sizable rate for confounding acrimony with matrimony, or extracting atar of roses from the otter. (4) Gag writer’s tricks with words point up the fact that we have two distinct levels of language. (5) The first is composed of familiar, ordinary words that everybody knows; and the second is that of words that are more elaborate that don’t turn up so often. (6) But many of these words are the ones, which we need to know if we are to feel at home in listening and reading today.

5. In sentence (3), the author puts two opposing gestures- ‘acrimony’ and ‘matrimony’ on the same plane. Which among the following pairs of words is not in line with this pairing?

Question – 6

(1) The highest priced words are ghost-written by gagmen who furnish the raw material for comedy over the air and on the screen. (2) They have a word-lore all their own, which they practise for five to fifteen hundred dollar a week, or fifteen dollars a gag at piece rates. (3) That’s sizable rate for confounding acrimony with matrimony, or extracting atar of roses from the otter. (4) Gag writer’s tricks with words point up the fact that we have two distinct levels of language. (5) The first is composed of familiar, ordinary words that everybody knows; and the second is that of words that are more elaborate that don’t turn up so often. (6) But many of these words are the ones, which we need to know if we are to feel at home in listening and reading today.

6. What would be a better way to put the underlined part of sentence (5) reproduced below?The first is composed of familiar, ordinary words that everybody knows; and the second is that of words that are more elaborate that don’t turn up so often.

Question – 7

(1) It is an interesting fact that despite the ringing declaration of Pasteur, the issue did not die completely. (2) And although far from healthy, it is not yet dead. (3) In his fascinating biography of Pasteur, Rene Dubos has traced the later developments, which saw new eruptions of the controversy, new technical progress in criticism, and new energetic figures in the breach of the battle such as Bastion. (4) There was also a new ‘sorrow’ for Pasteur as he read years later, in 1877, the last jottings of the great physiologist Claude Bernard. (5) He saw in them the ‘mystical’ suggestion that yeast may arise from grape juice. (6) Even at this late date, Pasteur was stirred to new experiments again to prove to the dead Bernard and his followers the correctness of his position.

7. Which would be the correct preposition to be used in the reproduced phrase from sentence (3)?‘new eruptions of the controversy’

Question – 8

(1) It is an interesting fact that despite the ringing declaration of Pasteur, the issue did not die completely. (2) And although far from healthy, it is not yet dead. (3) In his fascinating biography of Pasteur, Rene Dubos has traced the later developments, which saw new eruptions of the controversy, new technical progress in criticism, and new energetic figures in the breach of the battle such as Bastion. (4) There was also a new ‘sorrow’ for Pasteur as he read years later, in 1877, the last jottings of the great physiologist Claude Bernard. (5) He saw in them the ‘mystical’ suggestion that yeast may arise from grape juice. (6) Even at this late date, Pasteur was stirred to new experiments again to prove to the dead Bernard and his followers the correctness of his position.

8. What would be the best method to join sentences (4) and (5) reproduced below?(4) There was also a new ‘sorrow’ for Pasteur as he read years later, in 1877, the last jottings of the great physiologist Claude Bernard. (5) He saw in them the ‘mystical’ suggestion that yeast may arise from grape juice.

Question – 9

(1) It is not an exaggeration then to say that the emergence of the cell theory represents biology’s most significant and fruitful advance. (2) The realization that all plants and animals are composed of cells which are essentially alike, that cells are all formed by the same fundamental division process, that the total organism is made up of the activities and inter-relations of its individual cells, opened up horizons we have not even begun to approach. (3) The cell is a microcosm of life, for in its origin, nature and continuity resides the entire problem of biology.

9. Which among the following pairs of words is not a suitable alternative for the highlighted words in sentence (1) reproduced below?It is not an exaggeration then to say that the emergence of the cell theory represents biology’s most significant and fruitful advance.

Question – 10

(1) It is not an exaggeration then to say that the emergence of the cell theory represents biology’s most significant and fruitful advance. (2) The realization that all plants and animals are composed of cells which are essentially alike, that cells are all formed by the same fundamental division process, that the total organism is made up of the activities and inter-relations of its individual cells, opened up horizons we have not even begun to approach. (3) The cell is a microcosm of life, for in its origin, nature and continuity resides the entire problem of biology.

10. What would be the best alternative (with least number of changes) to the highlighted phrase in sentence (2) reproduced below?The realization that all plants and animals are composed of cells which are essentially alike, that cells are all formed by the same fundamental division process, that the total organism is made up of the activities and inter-relations of its individual cells, opened up horizons we have not even begun to approach.

Question – 11

(1) Having shown his audience the swan-necked flasks containing sterile broths in a public lecture at the Sorbonne on April 7, 1864, he concluded, ”And, therefore, gentleman, I could point to that liquid and say to you, I have taken my drop of water from nature. (2) And I have taken it full of the elements appropriated to the development of inferior beings. (3) And I wait, I watch, I question it! – begging it to recommence from new the beautiful spectacle of the first creation. (4) But it is dumb, dumb since how to produce: from the germs that float in the air, from life, for life is a germ and a germ is Life. (5) Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow of this impel experiment.” (6) And it is not. (7) Today, these same flasks stand immutable: they are still free of microbial life.

11. What would be the best expression among the following to replace the word ‘nature’ in sentence (1) reproduced below?Having shown his audience the swan-necked flasks containing sterile broths in a public lecture at the Sorbonne on April 7, 1864, he concluded, ”And, therefore, gentleman, I could point to that liquid and say to you, I have taken my drop of water from nature.

Question – 12

(1) Having shown his audience the swan-necked flasks containing sterile broths in a public lecture at the Sorbonne on April 7, 1864, he concluded, ”And, therefore, gentleman, I could point to that liquid and say to you, I have taken my drop of water from nature. (2) And I have taken it full of the elements appropriated to the development of inferior beings. (3) And I wait, I watch, I question it! – begging it to recommence from new the beautiful spectacle of the first creation. (4) But it is dumb, dumb since how to produce: from the germs that float in the air, from life, for life is a germ and a germ is Life. (5) Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow of this impel experiment.” (6) And it is not. (7) Today, these same flasks stand immutable: they are still free of microbial life.

12. Which change would make sentence (4) clearer to understand?But it is dumb, dumb since how to produce: from the germs that float in the air, from life, for life is a germ and a germ is Life.

Question – 13

(1) Another name for a double meaning of this sort is ‘insinuendo’. (2) This is a portmanteau word or ‘combo’, as the gagmen would label it, thus abbreviating combination. (3) By telescoping insinuation and innuendo, they get insinuendo, on the principle of blend words brought into vogue by Lewis Caroll. (4) ‘Shock logic’ is another favourite with gag writers. (5) Supposedly, a speciality of women comedians, it is illogical logic more easily illustrated than defined. (6) A high school girl has to turn down a boy’s proposal, she writes:<br />Dear Jerry<br />I’m sorry, but I can’t get engaged to you. (7) My mother thinks I am too young to be engaged and I’m already engaged to another boy.

13. The word ‘portmanteau’ used in sentence (2) is a complex word that has been taken from the imagery of ‘luggage’ or specifically ‘suitcase’ for ‘insinuendo’. However, which among the following would be a suitable replacement for this word such that the sentence conveys the same meaning?

Question – 14

(1) Another name for a double meaning of this sort is ‘insinuendo’. (2) This is a portmanteau word or ‘combo’, as the gagmen would label it, thus abbreviating combination. (3) By telescoping insinuation and innuendo, they get insinuendo, on the principle of blend words brought into vogue by Lewis Caroll. (4) ‘Shock logic’ is another favourite with gag writers. (5) Supposedly, a speciality of women comedians, it is illogical logic more easily illustrated than defined. (6) A high school girl has to turn down a boy’s proposal, she writes:<br />Dear Jerry<br />I’m sorry, but I can’t get engaged to you. (7) My mother thinks I am too young to be engaged and I’m already engaged to another boy.

14. Which expression would be suitable to be added in the bracketed place in sentence (7) reproduced below?My mother thinks I am too young to be engaged and (–) I’m already engaged to another boy.

Question – 15

(1) Aside from their theoretical implications, these researchers had the great practical result of putting bacteriology on a solid footing. (2) It was now clear how precisely careful one had to be to avoid bacterial contamination in the laboratory. (3) We now knew what ‘sterile’ meant and we knew that there could be no such things as ‘partial sterilization’. (4) The discovery of bacteria high in the upper atmosphere, in the mud of the deep sea bottom, in the waters of hot springs, and in the Arctic glaciers established bacterial ubiquity as almost absolute. (5) In recognition of this, Lord Lister introduced aseptic technique into the practice of surgery. (6) It was the revolution in technique alone that made possible modern bacteriology and the subsequent research connecting bacteria to phenomena of human concern, research, which today is more prodigious than ever.

15. Which words in sentence (3) reproduced below, can be deleted so as to not affect its meaning or split it into two sentences?We now knew what ‘sterile’ meant and we knew that there could be no such things as ‘partial sterilization’.