Magoosh GRE Verbal Diagnostic Test

1) Read the passage and choose the option that best answers the question.

People associate global warming with temperature, but the phrase is misleading—it fails to mention the relevance of water. Nearly every significant indicator of hydrological activity—rainfall, snowmelt, glacial melt—is changing at an accelerating pace (one can arbitrarily pick any point of the hydrological cycle and notice a disruption). One analysis pegged the increase in precipitation at 2 percent over the century. In water terms this sounds auspicious, promising increased supply, but the changing timing and composition of the precipitation more than neutralizes the advantage. For one thing, it is likely that more of the precipitation will fall in intense episodes, with flooding a reasonable prospect. In addition, while rainfall will increase, snowfall will decrease. Such an outcome means that in watersheds that depend on snowmelt, like the Indus, Ganges, Colorado river basins, less water will be stored as snow, and more of it will flow in the winter, when it plays no agricultural role; conversely, less of it will flow in the summer, when it is most needed. One computer model showed that on the Animas River an increase in temperature of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit would cause runoff to rise by 85 percent from January to March, but drop by 40 percent from July to September. The rise in temperature increases the probability and intensity of spring floods and threatens dam safety, which is predicated on lower runoff projections. Dams in arid areas also may face increased sedimentation, since a 10 percent annual increase in precipitation can double the volume of sediment washed into rivers.

The consequences multiply. Soil moisture will intensify at the highest northern latitudes, where precipitation will grow far more than evaporation and plant transpiration but where agriculture is nonexistent. At the same time, precipitation will drop over northern mid-latitude continents in summer months, when ample soil moisture is an agricultural necessity. Meanwhile the sea level will continue to rise as temperatures warm, accelerating saline contamination of freshwater aquifers and river deltas. The temperature will cause increased evaporation, which in turn will lead to a greater incidence of drought.

Perhaps most disturbing of all, the hydrological cycle is becoming increasingly unpredictable. This means that the last century’s hydrological cycle—the set of assumptions about water on which modern irrigation is based—has become unreliable. Build a dam too large, and it may not generate its designed power; build it too small, and it may collapse or flood. Release too little dam runoff in the spring and risk flood, as the snowmelt cascades downstream with unexpected volume; release too much and the water will not be available for farmers when they need it. At a time when water scarcity calls out for intensified planning, planning itself may be stymied.

The passage is primarily concerned with

2) For each blank, select only one word that best completes the sentence.

Managers who categorically squelch insights from low-tiered employees run the obvious hazard of (i) ____________ creativity; conversely, these very same managers are more likely to (ii)____________ any ideas that flow down from the top brass.

3) Select exactly two words that best complete the sentence and produce sentences that are alike in meaning.

A knack for ______, it can be argued, allows one access to a whole range of careers, many of which require one to forsake direct, honest speech.

4) Read the passage and choose the option that best answers the question.

What little scholarship has existed on Ernest Hemingway—considering his stature—has focused on trying to unmask the man behind the bravura. Ultimately, most of these works have done little more than to show that Hemingway the myth and Hemingway the man were not too dissimilar (Hemingway lived to hunt big game so should we be surprised at his virility, not to mention that of many of the author’s—chiefly male—protagonists?). In the last few years, several biographies have reversed this trend, focusing on Hemingway near the end of his life: isolated and paranoid, the author imagined the government was chasing him (he was not completely wrong on this account). Ironically, the hunter had become the hunted, and in that sense, these latest biographers have provided–perhaps unwittingly–the most human portrait of the writer yet.

It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers the latest Hemingway biographies a departure from traditional biographies in that these latest biographies

5) For each blank, select only one word that best completes the sentence.

Just as consummate chess players must hold in their minds the positions of each piece on the board, and know too the ramifications of each move, so must skilled politicians have an awareness of the choices at their (i)____________ and the ability to anticipate the (ii)____________ of their actions.

6) Select exactly two words that best complete the sentence and produce sentences that are alike in meaning.

Through mere ____________, Hirasaki, in her delightful vignettes of a childhood spent living in two divergent cultures, is able to communicate far more cogently about alienation and belonging than those of her contemporaries who believe verbosity is tantamount to profundity.

7) For each blank, select only one word that best completes the sentence.

The movie comprises several vignettes, each presenting a character along with his or her foil: a staid accountant shares an apartment with a(n) (i)____________ musician; a tight-lipped divorcee on a cross-country roadtrip picks up a(n) (ii)____________ hitchhiker; and finally, and perhaps most unconvincingly, an introverted mathematician falls in love with a(n) (iii)____________ arriviste.

8) Read the passage and choose the option that best answers the question.

The average size of marine life that washes up on the shore of the Japanese island Ryukyu is smaller than the average size that washes up on the Western coast of Australia. Giant squid have recently been found washed up on the shores of Ryukyu as well as the Western coast of Australia. It can be concluded that the average size of the giant squids on the shore Ryukyu must be less than that of giant squids washed up on the shores of Western Australia.

The argument above can be attacked on the grounds that it does which of the following?

9) Read the passage, consider each of the choices separately, and select all that apply.

Vladimir Nabokov, the scientist and the author have been treated as discrete manifestations of a prodigious and probing mind, until now. In her recent biography on Nabokov, Temoshotka makes the bold assertion that these two apparently disparate realms of Nabokov’s polymorphous genius were not so unrelated after all. While Temoshotka cannot be faulted for the boldness of her thesis—Nabokov’s hobby as a lepidopterist (a butterfly collector) and his experience as a novelist informed each other—she fails to make a convincing case. Surely, with enough ingenuity, one can find parallels, as Temoshotka does, between the creative products of Nabokov the naturalist and Nabokov the writer: the intricate butterfly wings that he pored over in his laboratory and the intricate prose that he crafted with sedulous care. But to say the prose of Lolita and Speak, Memory would not have coalesced into their current incarnations had Nabokov’s hobby been, say, lawn tennis is simply reaching too far.

According to the author of the passage, Temoshotka, in her estimation of Nabokov, does which of the following?

10) Select exactly two words that best complete the sentence and produce sentences that are alike in meaning.

Unlike many poets, who are inspired by ____ settings, Harrison relied on urban backdrops to summon his muse.