GRE Verbal Practice Test: Practice Test 10

Read the passage and answer the question.

In archaeology, some researchers propose that ancient trade networks can be reconstructed primarily through geochemical “fingerprinting” of artifacts, matching trace elements to specific source regions. The technique has sharpened debates that once relied heavily on stylistic comparison, and it can sometimes rule out long-assumed origins. However, the confidence with which provenance maps are occasionally presented exceeds what the data warrant. Source signatures can overlap, artifacts may be recycled or mixed, and sampling strategies often privilege sites that are already well studied. Geochemical methods are powerful tools, but they are most persuasive when integrated with contextual evidence—settlement patterns, historical records, and stratigraphy—rather than when treated as self-sufficient arbiters of past exchange.

The passage conveys an attitude that is primarily…

An environmental organization argues that a coastal town should restrict nighttime beachfront lighting during sea turtle nesting season. The organization cites monitoring data showing that on beaches with bright artificial lighting, a larger proportion of hatchlings crawl inland rather than toward the ocean. It also notes that neighboring towns that adopted lighting restrictions reported higher hatchling survival rates in subsequent seasons. The organization concludes that limiting nighttime lighting will improve local sea turtle hatchling survival.

The author relies on which of the following as a premise?

Select the answer choice that best completes the sentence. The manager promised to simplify reporting, yet the revised form is even more  , adding new sections that duplicate information already collected elsewhere.

Read the passage and answer the question.

In an analysis of urban tree planting, the nonprofit CanopyWorks compared survival rates for saplings planted in two different years. In 2016, the group planted 1,200 saplings across 18 sites and contracted watering to a private vendor for the first 12 weeks after planting. In 2019, it planted 1,050 saplings across 20 sites but relied on volunteer watering teams, who followed a schedule of twice-weekly watering for 10 weeks. A follow-up inspection conducted exactly 24 months after each planting found that 2016 plantings had a 64% survival rate, while 2019 plantings had a 58% survival rate. The report noted that the 2019 summer had 11 days above 35°C, compared with 4 such days in 2016. It also stated that soil compaction was measured at only five sites in 2019 and was not measured at all in 2016.

The passage states that…

Read the passage and answer the question.

A public health report summarizes a 2018–2020 evaluation of a county-level naloxone distribution program. The county partnered with 14 pharmacies and 6 community organizations to provide naloxone kits at no cost. The passage explicitly states that each kit contained two 4-mg intranasal doses and an instruction card written at an eighth-grade reading level. Distribution records show that 8,420 kits were provided in 2019 and 9,105 kits in 2020; the report notes that 2018 data were excluded from year-to-year comparisons because the program began in September 2018. To assess reach, the evaluators conducted a telephone survey of 600 residents in early 2021 and report that 18% of respondents had heard of the program. The passage also states that pharmacies were reimbursed $12 per kit dispensed and that community organizations received a separate annual stipend, though the stipend amount is not provided.

According to the passage, which of the following is true?

A city’s transportation office reports that after installing adaptive traffic-signal software on three major corridors last year, average commute times on those corridors fell by 12%. The office concludes that expanding the same software to all intersections citywide will reduce overall city commute times by a similar amount. The office notes that the three corridors were selected because they are among the busiest in the city and argues that improvements there indicate the software’s effectiveness in general. Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?

Read the passage and answer the question.

In recent years, some legal scholars have advocated for “algorithmic sentencing” tools that estimate recidivism risk to guide judges. Supporters argue that statistical models can reduce idiosyncratic disparities by making decisions more consistent. Yet the apparent objectivity of such tools can be misleading: the models are trained on historical data shaped by policing patterns, charging practices, and plea bargaining, all of which embed prior inequities. Additionally, the choice of outcome variables—rearrest, reconviction, or violation—quietly encodes normative judgments about what counts as reoffending. Risk scores may help structure discretion, but they can also launder contested values through technical vocabulary, making policy choices harder to contest in public terms.

The passage conveys an attitude that is primarily…​

Passage:

In the philosophy of science, some accounts portray scientific laws as mere summaries of observed regularities. On this view, laws do not govern nature; they simply describe patterns that happen to hold. The attraction of the view is its austerity: it avoids positing mysterious necessities beyond what observation reveals.

Others argue that this austerity comes at a cost. If laws are only summaries, it becomes difficult to explain why they support counterfactuals—why, for example, we think an object would fall even if it had not been dropped. Moreover, scientific practice often treats laws as tools for explanation and prediction, not just as bookkeeping devices.

A third approach attempts to bridge the gap by treating laws as features of models rather than as direct components of the world or mere lists of data. Laws, on this account, capture stable relationships within idealized representations that scientists use to navigate complex systems. This proposal aims to preserve the empiricist’s caution while accounting for the explanatory work laws appear to do.

Question: The second paragraph primarily functions to…

Read the passage and answer the question.

Economists who study innovation often assume that patents stimulate research by granting temporary monopolies, thereby allowing inventors to recoup development costs. Yet in industries where products combine many components—such as smartphones—patents can also create “thickets” that make it expensive to negotiate rights, especially for smaller firms. One survey of start-ups reported that founders frequently delayed product launches to avoid litigation, even when their designs were independently developed.

Policy proposals to reduce thickets typically recommend narrowing patent scope or increasing the evidentiary burden for granting patents. Opponents respond that such reforms would weaken incentives for genuine breakthroughs and would mainly benefit large firms that can already imitate quickly. But this objection assumes that current patent breadth is the only way to reward invention, ignoring alternatives such as prizes, procurement contracts, or shorter exclusivity periods in fast-moving sectors.

The primary function of the highlighted sentence is to:

A university library replaced most staffed service desks with self-checkout kiosks. In the semester after the change, the library recorded a 20% increase in the number of items checked out. The library director concludes that the kiosks caused the increase and therefore plans to remove the remaining staffed desks to further boost circulation. The director adds that students prefer faster transactions and that kiosks provide them. Which statement most seriously undermines the author’s conclusion?

Select the answer choice that best completes the sentence. Although the committee praised the proposal’s ambition, it rejected the timeline as  , noting that key permits typically take many months to secure.

A university committee surveyed 25 seniors who attended a new "capstone writing" workshop and found that 22 of them reported feeling more confident about writing. The committee concludes that the workshop is effective and therefore should be required for all students in every major. Which of the following criticisms best applies to the argument?​

A school district replaced its traditional math curriculum with a new program emphasizing conceptual understanding and group problem-solving. After one year, classroom observations showed more student participation and more time spent discussing reasoning. Yet standardized test scores in math declined slightly. The district also changed the test-preparation schedule, reducing the number of weeks devoted to practice tests, and many teachers reported needing time to learn the new curriculum. Which of the following, if true, best resolves the apparent discrepancy?

A language-learning app added a gamified feature that awards points for daily practice. After the change, the number of daily active users increased substantially. Yet the company’s internal assessment found that the average improvement on a standardized proficiency test among users decreased slightly. The assessment also noted that many new daily users engaged primarily in short, repetitive exercises that yield points quickly, while fewer users completed longer writing and speaking modules. Which of the following helps explain the seeming contradiction?

Select the answer choice that best completes the sentence. The lab’s new protocol reduced contamination, but it also made each run slower; thus, the overall throughput was   rather than improved.

Read the passage and answer the question.

Conservation plans sometimes prioritize protecting large, contiguous wilderness areas on the assumption that bigger reserves always preserve more biodiversity. The passage argues that while size can matter, focusing exclusively on area can overlook how landscapes actually function. In fragmented regions, small habitats may serve as stepping-stones that allow species to move between larger patches, maintaining genetic diversity and enabling migration in response to climate shifts. In such cases, connectivity can be as important as total protected acreage.

The passage also notes that some species thrive in edge environments or depend on specific microhabitats that do not require vast tracts of land. Conversely, certain large reserves may be poorly located relative to future environmental change, offering less long-term protection than their size suggests. The passage concludes that conservation should be planned as a network problem: decision-makers should evaluate how protected sites interact, which corridors exist or can be restored, and which ecological processes are being supported. The goal is not to reject large reserves but to avoid a simplistic “bigger is always better” rule.

Which of the following best describes the main idea of the passage?

A consumer advocacy group compared two sets of neighborhoods: those with curbside compost pickup and those without it. In neighborhoods that added compost pickup, landfill-bound household waste decreased by an average of 9% within a year, while recycling rates remained stable. The program’s operating cost was offset by reduced landfill fees, according to the city’s budget office. Since the city’s waste-reduction target focuses specifically on lowering landfill tonnage, the group argues that the city should expand curbside compost pickup to all neighborhoods.

Which of the following best states the conclusion of the argument?

Read the passage and answer the question.

In many workplaces, “productivity” is treated as a single, easily measured quantity, often proxied by hours logged or tasks completed. Yet these metrics can obscure the distinction between activity and value. A team may increase output by producing more reports, emails, or meetings, while simultaneously reducing the time available for analysis and decision-making. Some managers respond by introducing tighter monitoring, assuming that visibility will deter wasted effort; however, heightened surveillance can prompt employees to optimize for what is measured rather than for what matters, such as long-term problem prevention or creative experimentation. A more informative approach separates productivity into at least two components: efficiency (how quickly resources are converted into deliverables) and effectiveness (whether the deliverables advance the organization’s goals). This distinction clarifies why certain interventions—like reducing unnecessary meetings, improving documentation, or empowering employees to decline low-impact requests—can raise effectiveness even if they lower visible activity. The point is not that measurement is futile, but that organizations should choose indicators that align with desired outcomes and remain alert to behavioral shifts caused by the indicators themselves.

Which of the following best describes the main idea of the passage?

Read the passage and answer the question.

A computer science instructor reported outcomes from a new grading policy in an introductory programming course. In 2022, the course had 180 students and used a traditional points-based system: three midterm exams (each worth 20% of the grade), weekly quizzes (20%), and a final project (20%). In 2023, with 192 students, the instructor replaced the points-based system with a “mastery” model in which students could retake quizzes up to two times, and the lowest midterm score was dropped. The report stated that the final project remained required in both years and that its rubric was unchanged. Average course grades (on a 4.0 scale) were reported as 2.74 in 2022 and 2.89 in 2023. The instructor also noted that the 2023 course used the same textbook edition as 2022.

According to the passage, which of the following is true?

A city planner concludes that Riverton should convert one downtown traffic lane into a protected bike lane. Bicycle counts on the main corridor have doubled over five years, while car counts on the same corridor have remained essentially flat. After a nearby city installed protected lanes on a comparable street, retail vacancy rates on that street fell and pedestrian injuries declined, according to that city’s annual safety report. Since Riverton’s corridor has similar block length and storefront density, the planner argues that a protected lane would likely yield comparable safety and economic benefits. Which statement functions as a reason in the argument?

Read the passage and answer the question.

In linguistics, some researchers propose that children acquire grammar primarily by inferring abstract rules, while others argue that children rely more on memorized patterns that gradually generalize. Evidence for the pattern-based view comes from corpora showing that young children often reproduce multiword chunks—such as “I wanna”—before they can reliably manipulate the component words. Still, rule-based theorists note that children can produce novel sentences they have never heard, which seems to require some abstraction.

A recent longitudinal study attempted to reconcile these positions by tracking the same children’s speech over three years. Early on, the children’s utterances clustered around a small set of high-frequency frames; later, the frames diversified and errors appeared that suggested overgeneralization (for example, applying a regular past tense to an irregular verb). The authors argue that such errors are not embarrassments for pattern learning but signs that generalization is underway.

The author includes the final sentence in order to:

An economist examined the effects of a new commuter rail line on small businesses near stations. Using tax records, she found that in the first year after the line opened, retail sales increased most in neighborhoods that also relaxed zoning rules for mixed-use development. In neighborhoods where zoning remained restrictive, sales increases were smaller and were concentrated in businesses that already had high foot traffic before the rail line. The economist also noted that commercial rents rose in all station areas, but the steepest rent increases occurred in the mixed-use neighborhoods. Interviews with business owners suggested that some long-standing low-margin shops closed after rents increased, while newly opened businesses tended to be higher-margin services. The economist cautioned that raw sales growth alone could obscure changes in the composition of businesses.

Which statement is most strongly supported by the information given?​

An airline introduced a new boarding procedure intended to reduce turnaround time between flights. After implementation, average turnaround time decreased by four minutes. Yet the airline’s on-time departure rate did not improve. During the same period, the airline changed its scheduling policy to reduce “buffer time” between flights, and it also began operating more flights out of a congested hub airport where gate availability is limited. Which of the following best accounts for the situation described?

Read the passage and answer the question.

A museum evaluated two label formats for a new exhibit: traditional paragraph labels and a question-based format that posed a short question followed by a brief answer. Visitors were randomly assigned entry times that corresponded to one of the two label formats, and their dwell time at each display case was recorded. The museum also administered a short quiz at the exit that tested recall of three factual details from the exhibit. Average dwell time was higher in the question-based condition, but quiz scores were statistically indistinguishable between the two conditions. In follow-up interviews, visitors in the question-based condition more often reported that the exhibit “felt easier to navigate,” while visitors in the paragraph-label condition more often reported that they “learned a lot.” The researchers cautioned that self-reports can reflect expectations about what “learning” should feel like and may not track objective recall.

It can be reasonably concluded that:

A museum introduced timed-entry tickets to reduce crowding and improve visitor experience. Post-implementation surveys showed that visitors rated the galleries as less crowded than before. Yet average time spent in the museum decreased by nearly 20%. During the same period, the museum opened a popular temporary exhibit in a separate building and required visitors to reserve a specific time slot for that exhibit as well. Which of the following, if true, best resolves the apparent discrepancy?