CliffsNotes GRE General Test Cram Plan: 2nd Edition (CliffsNotes Cram Plan) - Softcover

Wheater, Carolyn; Burstein, Jane R.; McMenamin, Catherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470878738 ISBN 13: 9780470878736

Publisher: CliffsNotes, 2011

Synopsis

Get a plan to ace the exam—and make the most of the time you have left!

 

Whether you have two months, one month, or even just a week left before the exam, you can turn to the experts at CliffsNotes for a trusted and achievable cram plan to ace the GRE General Test—without ever breaking a sweat!

 

First, you'll determine exactly how much time you have left to prepare for the exam. Then, you'll turn to the two-month, one-month, or one-week cram plan for week-by-week and day-by-day schedules of the best way to focus your study according to your unique timeline.

 

Each stand-alone plan includes:

 

• Diagnostic test—helps you pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses so you can focus your review on the topics in which you need the most help
• Subject reviews—cover everything you can expect on the actual exam: text completions, sentence equivalences, vocabulary, reading comprehension, analytical writing, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and applications
• Full-length practice test with answers and detailed explanations—a simulated GRE exam gives you an authentic test-taking experience

About this title

About the Authors

Jane R. Burstein taught English at Herricks High School in New Hyde Park, New York, for thirty-six years. She has been an ACT and SAT tutor for twenty-five years, and a Reader for the Advanced Placement English Language exam.

CATHERINE MCMENAMIN teaches English at The Nightingale-Bamford School.

Carolyn C. Wheater is a math instructor at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City and writes extensively on standardized test mathematics. She resides in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CliffsNotes GRE General Test Cram Plan

By Carolyn Wheater Catherine McMenamin Jane R. Burstein

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-87873-6

Chapter One

Diagnostic Test

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning

Time: 30 minutes

20 questions

Directions (1–6): For each blank, select the word or phrase that best completes the text. (Your answer will consist of one, two, or three letters, depending on the number of blanks in each question.)

1. With a __________ common among those to whom short-term fixes are expedient, Senator Noah Julian refused to consider a complete overhaul of the election funding issue.

A. aestheticism

B. myopia

C. skepticism

D. inventiveness

E. paranoia

2. Settling into what he thought would be cosmopolitan suburban community, Seth was confounded by the __________ of his neighbors.

A. erudition

B. urbanity

C. insularity

D. gentility

E. affluence

3. In his interesting preface, Mr. Shorthouse alludes to William Smith's philosophical novel, Thorndale. As a picture of thought developments in the early Victorian period, the work has special historical interest for the (1) __________ and theological student; in this respect, it may be (2) __________ to Pater's Marius the Epicurean, which also vividly reproduces the intellectual ferment of an earlier age.

Blank 1 Blank 2

philosophical abstracted secular adapted antithetical likened

4. Indeed, it is a source of common (1) __________ among engineers, who smirk that the average layman cannot differentiate between the man who runs a locomotive and the man who designs a locomotive. In ordinary (2) __________, both are called engineers.

Blank 1 Blank 2

irritation parlance wrath colloquialism amusement hyperbole

5. The Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields is certainly the most imperfect of Toru Dutt's writings, but it is not the least interesting. It is a wonderful mixture of strength and weakness, of genius (1) __________ great obstacles and of talent succumbing to ignorance and inexperience. That it should have been performed at all is so extraordinary that we forget to be surprised at its (2) __________. The English verse is sometimes (3) __________; at other times the rules of our prosody are absolutely ignored, and it is obvious that the Hindu poetess was chanting to herself a music that is discord in an English ear.

Blank 1 Blank 2 Blank 3

performing constancy exquisite overriding propinquity gauche recapitulating unevenness unintelligible

Directions (7–12): Questions follow each of the passages. Using only the stated or implied information in each passage, answer the questions.

Questions 7–9 are based on the following passage.

The Vietnam War began in 1956 and ended in 1975. It had dire consequences for millions of Americans. The American military pushed forward to South Vietnam to assist its government against the communist regime, who were supported by North Vietnam. By the late 1960s, the United States entered this war in which almost 60,000 Americans would die. Two million Vietnamese lives may have been lost, including those of many thousands of civilians, due to intensive bombing by the opponents. Also, a highly toxic chemical caused defoliation, the elimination of vegetation. The Vietnam War is estimated to have cost approximately $200 billion.

Returning Vietnam veterans, approximately 2.7 million in all, did not receive a positive welcome from American civilians. Instead, they returned to widespread public opposition. Their moral opposition to the war made it difficult for many Americans to show support for these veterans.

6. One step in social order leads to another, and thus is furnished a means of utilizing without waste all of the individual and social forces. Yet how irregular and (1) __________ are the first steps of human progress. A step forward, followed by a long period of readjustment of the conditions of life; a movement forward here and a (2) __________ force there. Within this irregular movement we discover the true course of human progress. One tribe, on account of peculiar advantages, makes a special discovery, which places it in the (3) __________ and gives it power over others.

Blank 1 Blank 2 Blank 3

catastrophic retarding echelon dramatic dominating nadir faltering impulsive ascendancy

A few years after the Vietnam War, veterans started a fund for construction of a memorial to those who had died; they raised nearly $9 million. A competition was held for the proper design, with the proviso that the memorial should not express any political view of the war.

In a funerary design course at Yale University, 21-year-old architecture student Maya Lin submitted a proposal for the design competition for the memorial. The popular conception of a war memorial recalled the heroic equestrian statues of Civil War generals, but in Lin's opinion, such representations were too simplified. Her design consisted of two walls of polished black granite built into the earth, set in the shape of a shallow V. Carved into the stone are the names of all the men and women killed in the war or still missing, in chronological order by the date of their death or disappearance. Rising up 10 feet high, the names begin and continue to that wall's end, resuming at the point of the opposite wall and ending at the place where the names began. Visitors can easily access the wall and touch the names, an integral part of Lin's design.

After the judges evaluated thousands of entries for this competition in the spring of 1981, Maya Lin won. The public's reaction to this particular design was sharply divided, reflecting their opposing feelings about this war. Yet more than one million visitors view the memorial each year.

7. What is the author's primary purpose of the passage?

A. To propose ideas about Maya Lin's submission from Yale University

B. To dissect the Vietnam Memorial's proposition

C. To discuss the history of the design of the Vietnam Memorial and the response to it

D. To critique the judges reviewing Lin's sculptural proposal

E. To discuss the history of the Vietnam War and its aftermath

8. Select the sentence that presents Lin's reasons for not creating a conventional war memorial.

9. What details in the narrative suggest that it was possible to fulfill the requirement that the monument express no political view of the war?

A. Those opposing it said it degraded the memory of those who had given their lives to this cause.

B. The United States government wanted a memorial that would honor the dead.

C. Carved into the stone are the names of all the men and women killed in the war or still missing, in chronological order by the date of their death or disappearance.

D. One wall points toward the Washington Monument and the other wall points toward the Lincoln Memorial, bringing the Vietnam Memorial into proper historical reference.

E. Many Americans were unwilling to confront the war's many painful issues.

Questions 10–11 are based on the following passage.

Alfred Tennyson was born August 6, 1809, at Somersby, a little village in Lincolnshire, England. His father was the rector of the parish; his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Fytche, and whose character he touched in his poem "Isabel," was the daughter of a clergyman; and one of his brothers, who later took the name of Charles Turner, also was a clergyman. The religious nature in the poet was a constant element in his poetry, secrets to an observation that was singularly keen, and a philosophic reflection that made Tennyson reveal in his poetry an apprehension of the laws of life, akin to what Darwin was disclosing in his contemporaneous career.

In his early "Ode to Memory," Tennyson has translated into verse the consciousness that woke in him in the secluded fields of his Lincolnshire birthplace. For companionship, he had the large circle of his home, for he was one of eight brothers and four sisters; and in that little society there was not only the miniature world of sport and study, but a very close companionship with the large world of imagination.

Frederick Tennyson was already at Cambridge when Charles and Alfred went to that university in 1828 and were matriculated at Trinity College. Alfred Tennyson acquired there, as so many other notable Englishmen, not only intellectual discipline, but that close companionship with picked men that is engendered by the half-monastic seclusion of the English university.

Tennyson regarded his post as Poet Laureate in the light of a high poetic and patriotic ardor. Starting with his first laureate poem "To the Queen," the record of Tennyson's career from this time forward is marked by the successive publication of his works.

10. According to the passage, what role does religion play in Tennyson's poetry?

A. It plays a direct role as his poetry is mostly piously devotional in substance.

B. Rejection of orthodoxy is a constant refrain in Tennyson's poetry based on nature.

C. It plays a significant role based on the poet's religious nature and pastoral observation.

D. It does not play a crucial role, even though Tennyson grew up with clergymen as relatives.

E. Religion was studied at Trinity College and weaved into verse at that time.

11. It can be inferred from the passage that the author regards Tennyson as which of the following? Consider each of the three choices and select all that apply.

A. Being influenced by his family's role in society and religion as well as the patriotic fervor of peers

B. Receiving national recognition for his talents and his beliefs

C. Acquiring more than a purely intellectual education at university

Question 12 is based on the following passage.

The mores, or customs, of man began at a very early time and have been a persistent ruling power in human conduct. Through tradition they are handed down from generation to generation, to be observed with more or less fidelity as a guide to the art of living. Every community, whether primitive or developed, is controlled to a great extent by the prevailing custom. It is common for individuals and families to do as their ancestors did. This habit is frequently carried to such an extent that the deeds of the fathers are held sacred from which no one dare to depart. Isolated communities continue year after year to do things because they had always done so, holding strictly to the ruling custom founded on tradition, even when some better way was at hand.

12. The author of the passage would probably consider which of the following to be similar to the paradigm he describes?

A. Young Japanese do not perceive family as something that provides "meaning" in their lives, unlike young Americans, Chinese, and Swedes.

B. When asked to rank their values by order of importance, many German youths placed obedience last.

C. Young men of the Inuit tribe often leave their families to seek employment in large cities.

D. A ritual face-painting ceremony of prepubescent females continues in an isolated Amazonian community, long after the reason for its institution is lost.

E. A French artist paints a scene intended to evoke pathos; however, most American viewers find levity in its content.

Directions (13–16): Select two of the choices from the list of six that best complete the meaning of the sentence as a whole. The two words you select should produce completed sentences that are most alike in meaning. To receive credit for the question, both answers must be correct. No partial credit will be given; your answer must consist of two letters.

13. The art world rejects the much-touted youthful artist, finding that her __________ work lacks the maturity for serious consideration.

A. puerile

B. abstract

C. jejune

D. aesthetic

E. impressionable

F. clumsy

14. Rejoinders at the open debate quickly became rancorous; each candidate resorted to __________ to malign the opposition.

A. aspersion

B. pedantry

C. elucidation

D. exaltation

E. solicitude

F. calumny

15. Long touted as the epitome of beaux-arts architecture, the garishly elaborate decorations in the restored mansion of the former dictator struck Ella and her colleagues from the design studio as more __________ than palatial.

A. meretricious

B. magnificent

C. ostentatious

D. beneficent

E. illusory

F. antediluvian

16. As the __________ strains of the dirge filled the concert hall, many in the audience were reminded of the recent passing of the preeminent conductor who so often had graced the podium.

A. sanguine

B. plaintive

C. clandestine

D. lugubrious

E. subjective

F. explosive

Directions (17–20): Questions follow each of the passages. Using only the stated or implied information in each passage, answer the questions. For questions with five choices, select one answer choice. For questions with three choices, select all the choices that apply.

Questions 17–18 are based on the following passage.

Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of laborers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs' cheeks, the nasal chanting of street-singers, who sang a ballad about the troubles in our native land. These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.

17. In this passage, what does the narrator undergo? Consider each of the three choices and select all that apply.

A. A quasi-religious experience while grocery shopping

B. An imagined revelation of himself as heroic figure C. A prolonged confession of his ardor to his loved one

18. The passage provides information about all of the following except:

A. When the market is open

B. What is sold in the market

C. What kinds of songs are sung on the streets

D. How the boy assists a family member

E. The musical instrument that the boy plays

Questions 19–20 are based on the following passage.

Among the men and women prominent in the public life of America, there are but few whose names are mentioned as often as that of Emma Goldman. Yet the real Emma Goldman is almost quite unknown. The sensational press has surrounded her name with so much misrepresentation and slander, it would seem almost a miracle that, in spite of this web of calumny, the truth breaks through and a better appreciation of this much maligned idealist begins to manifest itself. There is but little consolation in the fact that almost every representative of a new idea has had to struggle and suffer under similar difficulties. Is it of any avail that a former president of a republic pays homage at Osawatomie to the memory of John Brown? Or that the president of another republic participates in the unveiling of a statue in honor of Pierre Proudhon, and holds up his life to the French nation as a model worthy of enthusiastic emulation? Of what avail is all this when, at the same time, the living John Browns and Proudhons are being crucified? The honor and glory of a Mary Wollstonecraft or of a Louise Michel are not enhanced by the City Fathers of London or Paris naming a street after them—the living generation should be concerned with doing justice to the living Mary Wollstonecrafts and Louise Michels. Posterity assigns to men like Wendel Phillips and Lloyd Garrison the proper niche of honor in the temple of human emancipation; but it is the duty of their contemporaries to bring them due recognition and appreciation while they live.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from CliffsNotes GRE General Test Cram Planby Carolyn Wheater Catherine McMenamin Jane R. Burstein Copyright © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission of John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: CliffsNotes
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0470878738
• ISBN 13: 9780470878736
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 312