GRE考试题型中的阅读部分，常常让考生们很头疼，因为不仅要考验考生们的单词量，还有测验考生的逻辑能力。考生么应该了解一下GRE阅读的逻辑思路，以及不同的解题方法，如阅读分割法。
Recent studies of sediment in the North Atlantic’s deep waters reveal possible cyclical patterns in the history of Earth’s climate. The rock fragments in these sediments are too large to have been transported there by ocean currents; they must have reached their present locations by traveling in large icebergs that floated long distances from their point of origin before melting. Geologist Gerard Bond noticed that some of the sediment grains were stained with iron oxide, evidence that they originated in locales where glaciers had overrun outcrops of red sandstone. Bond’s detailed analysis of deep-water sediment cores showed changes in the mix of sediment sources over time: the proportion of these redstained grains fluctuated back and forth from lows of 5 percent to highs of about 17 percent, and these fluctuations occurred in a nearly regular 1,500-year cycle.
Bond hypothesized that the alternating cycles might be evidence of changes in ocean-water circulation and therefore in Earth’s climate. He knew that the sources of the red-stained grains were generally closer to the North Pole than were the places yielding a high proportion of “clean” grains. At certain times, apparently, more icebergs from the Arctic Ocean in the far north were traveling south well into the North Atlantic before melting and shedding their sediment.
Ocean waters are constantly moving, and water temperature is both a cause and an effect of this movement. As water cools, it becomes denser and sinks to the ocean’s bottom. During some periods, the bottom layer of the world’s oceans comes from cold, dense water sinking in the far North Atlantic. This causes the warm surface waters of the Gulf Stream to be pulled northward. Bond realized that during such periods, the influx of these warm surface waters into northern regions could cause a large proportion of the icebergs that bear red grains to melt before traveling very far into the North Atlantic. But sometimes the ocean’s dynamic changes, and waters from the Gulf Stream do not travel northward in this way. During these periods, surface waters in the North Atlantic would generally be colder, permitting icebergs bearing red-stained grains to travel farther south in the North Atlantic before melting and depositing their sediment.
The onset of the so-called Little Ice Age (1300-1860) , which followed the Medieval Warm Period of the eighth through tenth centuries, may represent the most recent time that the ocean’s dynamic changed in this way. If ongoing climate-history studies support Bond’s hypothesis of 1,500-year cycles, scientists may establish a major natural rhythm in Earth’s temperatures that could then be extrapolated into the future. Because the midpoint of the Medieval Warm Period was about A.D. 850, an extension of Bond’s cycles would place the midpoint of the next warm interval in the twenty-fourth century.
12. According to the passage, which of the following is true of the rock fragments contained in the sediments studied by Bond?
A. The majority of them are composed of red sandstone.
B. They must have reached their present location over 1,500 years ago.
C. They were carried by icebergs to their present location.
D. Most of them were carried to their present location during a warm period in Earth’s climatic history.
E. They are unlikely to have been carried to their present location during the Little Ice Age.
13. In the final paragraph of the passage (lines 47-59), the author is concerned primarily with
A. answering a question about Earth’s climatic history
B. pointing out a potential flaw in Bond’s hypothesis
C. suggesting a new focus for the study of ocean sediments
D. tracing the general history of Earth’s climate
E. discussing possible implications of Bond’s hypothesis
14. According to the passage, Bond hypothesized that which of the following circumstances would allow red-stained sediment grains to reach more southerly latitudes?
A. Warm waters being pulled northward from the Gulf Stream
B. Climatic conditions causing icebergs to melt relatively quickly
C. Icebergs containing a higher proportion of iron oxide than usual
D. The formation of more icebergs than usual in the far north
E. The presence of cold surface waters in the North Atlantic
15. It can be inferred from the passage that in sediment cores from the North Atlantic’s deep waters, the portions that correspond to the Little Ice Age
A. differ very little in composition from the portions that correspond to the MedievalWarm Period
B. fluctuate significantly in composition between the portions corresponding to the 1300s and the portions corresponding to the 1700s
would be likely to contain a proportion of red-stained grains closer to 17 percent
than to 5 percent
D. show a much higher proportion of red-stained grains in cores extracted from the far north of the North Atlantic than in cores extracted from further south E. were formed in part as a result of Gulf Stream waters having been pulled northward
As an example of the devastation wrought on music publishers by the photocopier, one executive noted that for a recent choral festival with 1,200 singers, the festival’s organizing committee purchased only 12 copies of the music published by her company that was performed as part of the festival.
20. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the support the example lends to the executive’s contention that music publishers have been devastated by the photocopier?
A. Only a third of the 1,200 singers were involved in performing the music published by the executive’s company.
B. Half of the singers at the festival had already heard the music they were to perform before they began to practice for the festival.
C. Because of shortages in funding, the organizing committee of the choral festival required singers to purchase their own copies of the music performed at the festival.
D. Each copy of music that was performed at the festival was shared by two singers. E. As a result of publicity generated by its performance at the festival, the type of music performed at the festival became more widely known.
A tall tree can transport a hundred gallons of water a day from its roots deep underground to the treetop. Is this movement propelled by pulling the water from above or pushing it from below? The pull mechanism has long been favored by most scientists. First proposed in the late 1800s, the theory relies on a property of water not commonly associated with fluids: its tensile strength. Instead of making a clean break, water evaporating from treetops tugs on the remaining water molecules, with that tug extending from molecule to molecule all the way down to the roots. The tree itself does not actually push or pull; all the energy for lifting water comes from the sun’s evaporative power.
21. Which of the following statements is supported by the passage? A. The pull theory is not universally accepted by scientists.
B. The pull theory depends on one of water’s physical properties.
C. The pull theory originated earlier than did the push theory.
22. The passage provides information on each of the following EXCEPT
A. when the pull theory originated
B. the amount of water a tall tree can transport
C. the significance of water’s tensile strength in the pull theory
D. the role of the sun in the pull theory
E. the mechanism underlying water’s tensilestrength
While the influence of British magazines in shaping public opinion predates the nineteenth century, it was during the 1800s that mass distribution became possible and an explosion in periodical readership occurred, vastly increasing magazines’ opinion-shaping powers. The role of magazines as arbiters of nineteenth-century taste is seen in their depictions of the London theater. The magazines accorded some legitimacy to East End working-class theaters that mirrored the format of the fashionable West End theaters serving middle- and upper-class audiences. However, the magazines also depicted music halls—which competed for patronage with all theaters—as places where crass entertainment corrupted spectators’ taste and morals. Finally, they suggested that popular demand for substandard fare created a market unfriendly to higher expressions of dramatic art.
23. The author of the passage attributes the influence of British periodicals in
shaping public opinion in the nineteenth century in part to
A. a growing public interest in reading opinion pieces
B. an increase in the relative number of readers from the middle and upper classes
C. changes in the way in which magazines were distributed
D. magazines’ increased coverage of theater and popular entertainment
E. changes in magazine format that attracted a wider readership
24. The author of the passage mentions East End working-class theaters primarily in order to
A. illustrate a point about the ability of magazines to sway public opinion
B. contrast the kinds of entertainment presented in East End andWest End theaters
C. make a point about how spectators’ tastes influenced the offerings at different kinds of theaters
D. explain how magazines chose which kinds of entertainment to cover
E. identify factors that helped make certain theaters fashionable
25. In the context in which it appears, “accorded” ( line 9) most nearly means
A. reconciled
B. revealed
granted
D. verified
E. maintained
PRACTICE BOOK2
Historian F. W. Maitland observed that legal documents are the best—indeed, often the only—available evidence about the economic and social history of a given period. Why, then, has it taken so long for historians to focus systematically on the civil (noncriminal) law of early modern (sixteenth- to eighteenth-century) England? Maitland offered one reason: the subject requires researchers to “master an extremely formal system of pleading and procedure.” Yet the complexities that confront those who would study such materials are not wholly different from those recently surmounted by historians of criminal law in England during the same period. Another possible explanation for historians’ neglect of the subject is their widespread assumption that most people in early modern England had little contact with civil law. If that were so, the history of legal matters would be of little relevance to general historical scholarship. But recent research suggests that civil litigation during the period involved artisans, merchants, professionals, shopkeepers, and farmers, and not merely a narrow, propertied, male elite. Moreover, the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw an extraordinary explosion in civil litigation by both women and men, making this the most litigious era in English history on a per capita basis.
9. The passage suggests that the history of criminal law in early modern England differs from the history of civil law during that same period in that the history of criminal law
A. is of more intellectual interest to historians and their readers
B. has been studied more thoroughly by historians
C. is more relevant to general social history
D. involves the study of a larger proportion of the population
E. does not require the mastery of an extremely formal system of procedures
10. The author of the passage mentions the occupations of those involved in civil litigation in early modern England most likely in order to
A. suggest that most historians’ assumptions about the participants in the civil legal system during that period are probably correct
B. support the theory that more people participated in the civil legal system than the criminal legal system in England during that period
C. counter the claim that legal issues reveal more about a country’s ordinary citizens than about its elite
D. illustrate the wide range of people who used the civil legal system in England during that period
E. suggest that recent data on people who participated in early modern England’s legal system may not be correct
11. The author of the passage suggests which of the following about the “widespread assumption” (line 15) ?
A. Because it is true, the history of civil law is of as much interest to historians focusing on general social history as to those specializing in legal history.
B. Because it is inaccurate, the history of civil law in early modern England should enrich the general historical scholarship of that period.
C. It is based on inaccurate data about the propertied male elite of early modern England.
D. It does not provide a plausible explanation for historians’ failure to study the civil law of early modern England.
E. It is based on an analogy with criminal law in early modern England.
Geese can often be seen grazing in coastal salt marshes. Unfortunately, their intense grazing removes the grassy covering, exposing marsh sediment; this increases evaporation, which in turn increases salt concentration in marsh sediments. Because of this increased concentration, regrowth of plants is minimal, leading to increased erosion, which leads to a decrease in the fertile topsoil, leading to even less regrowth. In time, the salt marsh becomes a mudflat. This process challenges one of the most widely held beliefs about the dynamics of saltmarsh ecosystems: supposedly, consumers such as geese do not play a large role in controlling the productivity of marsh systems. Rather, the standard view claims, marshes are controlled by bottom-up factors, such as nutrients and physical factors.
12. The author discusses “the standard view” (line 14 ) most likely in order to identify a view that
A. explains the occurrence of the chain of events described in the passage
B. provides a summary of the chain of events described in the passage
C. is called into question by the chain of events described in the passage
D. advocates reassessment of the widely held belief described in the passage E. is undermined by the widely held belief described in the passage
13. According to the passage, which of the following is a widely held belief about geese?
A. They are not often seen grazing in coastal salt marshes.
B. They are not the primary consumers in salt-marsh ecosystems.
They play only a minor role in the productivity of salt-marsh ecosystems.
D. They are the primary determinants of which resources will thrive in coastal salt marshes.
E. They control the productivity of salt-marsh ecosystems through a bottom-up process.
Last year, Mayor Stephens established a special law-enforcement task force with the avowed mission of eradicating corruption in city government. The mayor’s handpicked task force has now begun prosecuting a dozen city officials. Since all of these officials were appointed by Mayor Bixby, Mayor Stephens’ predecessor and longtime political foe, it is clear that those being prosecuted have been targeted because of their political affiliations.
14. Which of the following, if true, most weakens the editorial’s argument?
A. Complaints of official corruption in city government have decreased since the anticorruption task force began operating.
B. Former mayor Bixby did not publicly oppose Mayor Stephens’ establishment of the anticorruption task force.
C. Almost all of the officials who have served in city government for any length of time are appointees of Mayor Bixby.
D. All of the members of the anticorruption task force had other jobs in city government before the task force was formed.
E. During the last mayoral election campaign, then–Mayor Bixby hotly disputed the current mayor’s claim that there was widespread corruption in city government.
The decrease in responsiveness that follows continuous stimulation (adaptation) is common to all sensory systems, including olfaction. With continued exposure to chronically present ambient odors, individuals’ perception of odor intensity is greatly reduced. Moreover, these perceptual changes can be profound and durable. It is commonly reported that following extended absences from the odorous environment, reexposure may still fail to elicit perception at the original intensity. Most research on olfactory adaptation examines relatively transient changes in stimulus detection or perceived intensity—rarely exceeding several hours and often less—but because olfactory adaptation can be produced with relatively short exposures, these durations are sufficient for investigating many parameters of the phenomenon. However, exposures to odors in natural environments often occur over far longer periods, and the resulting adaptations may differ qualitatively from short-term olfactory adaptation. For example, studies show that even brief periods of odorant stimulation produce transient reductions in receptors in the olfactory epithelium, a process termed “receptor fatigue.” Prolonged odor stimulation, however, could produce more long-lasting reductions in response, possibly involving structures higher in the central nervous system pathway.
20. According to the passage, the phenomenon of olfactory adaptation may cause individuals who are reexposed to an odorous environment after an extended absence to
A. experience a heightened perception of the odor
B. perceive the odor as being less intense than it was upon first exposure
C. return to their original level of perception of the odor
D. exhibit a decreased tolerance for the odorous environment
E. experience the phenomenon of adaptation in other sensory systems
21. The passage asserts which of the following about the exposures involved in the “research on olfactory adaptation”(line 11 ) ?
A. The exposures are of long enough duration for researchers to investigate many aspects of olfactory adaptation.
B. The exposures have rarely consisted of reexposures following extended absences from the odorous environment.
C. The exposures are intended to reproduce the relatively transient olfactory changes typical of exposures to odors in natural environments.
D. Those exposures of relatively short duration are often insufficient to produce the phenomenon of receptor fatigue in study subjects.
E. Those exposures lasting several hours produce reductions in receptors in the olfactory epithelium that are similar to the reductions caused by prolonged odor stimulation.
22. The author of the passage discusses “receptor fatigue”(line 24 ) primarily in order to
A. explain the physiological process through which long-lasting reductions in response are thought to be produced
B. provide an example of a process that subjects would probably not experience during a prolonged period of odorant stimulation
C. help illustrate how the information gathered from most olfactory research may not be sufficient to describe the effects of extended exposures to odors
D. show how studies of short-term olfactory adaptation have only accounted for the reductions in response that follow relatively brief absences from an odorous environment
E. qualify a statement about the severity and duration of the perceptual changes caused by exposure to chronically present ambient odors
Among academics involved in the study of Northern Renaissance prints (reproducible graphic artworks), an orthodox position can be said to have emerged. This position regards Renaissance prints as passive representations of their time—documents that reliably record contemporary events, opinions, and beliefs—and therefore as an important means of accessing the popular contemporary consciousness. In contrast, pioneering studies such as those by Scribner and Moxey take a strikingly different approach, according to which Northern Renaissance prints were purposeful, active, and important shaping forces in the communities that produced them. Scribner, for example, contends that religious and political prints of the German Reformation (ca.1517–1555) functioned as popular propaganda: tools in a vigorous campaign aimed at altering people’s behavior, attitudes, and beliefs.
23. The passage suggests that an adherent to the “orthodox position”(line 3) would agree with which of the following statements?
A. Northern Renaissance prints should be regarded as passive representations of their time.
B. Northern Renaissance prints were part of a campaign aimed at altering contemporary thinking.
C. Northern Renaissance prints provide reliable records of contemporary events, opinions, and beliefs.
24. Replacement of the word “passive”(line 5) which of the following words results in the least change in meaning for the passage?
A. disinterested
B. submissive
C. flaccid
D. supine
E. unreceptive
Recently an unusually high number of dolphins have been found dead of infectious diseases, and most of these had abnormally high tissue concentrations of certain compounds that, even in low concentrations, reduce dolphins’ resistance to infection. The only source of these compounds in the dolphins’ environment is boat paint. Therefore, since dolphins rid their bodies of the compounds rapidly once exposure ceases, their mortality rate should decline rapidly if such boat paints are banned.
25. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
A. The levels of the compounds typically used in boat paints today are lower than they were in boat paints manufactured a decade ago.
B. In high concentrations, the compounds are toxic to many types of marine animals.
C. The compounds break down into harmless substances after a few months of exposure to water or air.
D. High tissue levels of the compounds have recently been found in some marine animals, but there is no record of any of those animals dying in unusually large numbers recently.
E. The compounds do not leach out of the boat paint if the paint is applied exactly in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions.
The work of English writer Aphra Behn (1640–1689) changed markedly during the 1680s, as she turned from writing plays to writing prose narratives. According to literary critic Rachel Carnell, most scholars view this change as primarily motivated by financial considerations: earning a living by writing for the theatre became more difficult in the 1680s, so Behn tried various other types of prose genres in the hope of finding another lucrative medium. In fact, a long epistolary scandal novel that she wrote in the mid-1680s sold quite well. Yet, as Carnell notes, Behn did not repeat this approach in her other prose works; instead, she turned to writing shorter, more serious novels, even though only about half of these were published during her lifetime. Carnell argues that Behn, whose stage productions are primarily comedies, may have turned to an emerging literary form, the novel, in a conscious attempt to criticize, and subvert for her own ends, the conventions and ideology of a well-established form of her day, the dramatic tragedy.
Carnell acknowledges that Behn admired the skill of such contemporary writers of dramatic tragedy as John Dryden, and that Behn’s own comic stage productions displayed the same partisanship for the reigning Stuart monarchy that characterized most of the politically oriented dramatic tragedies of her day. However, Carnell argues that Behn took issue with the way in which these writers and plays defined the nature of tragedy. As prescribed by Dryden, tragedy was supposed to concern a heroic man who is a public figure and who undergoes a fall that evokes pity from the audience. Carnell points out that Behn’s tragic novels focus instead on the plight of little-known women and the private world of the household; even in her few novels featuring male protagonists, Behn insists on the importance of the crimes these otherwise heroic figures commit in the domestic sphere. Moreover, according to Carnell, Behn questioned the view promulgated by monarchist dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s: that the envisioned “public” political ideal—passive obedience to the nation’s king—ought to be mirrored in the private sphere, with family members wholly obedient to a male head of household. Carnell sees Behn’s novels not only as rejecting the model of patriarchal and hierarchical family order, but also as warning that insisting on such a parallel can result in real tragedy befalling the members of the domestic sphere. According to Carnell, Behn’s choice of literary form underscores the differences between her own approach to crafting a tragic story and that taken in the dramatic tragedies, with their artificial distinction between the public and private spheres. Behn’s novels engage in the political dialogue of her era by demonstrating that the good of the nation ultimately encompasses more than the good of the public figures who rule it.
9. The passage is primarily concerned with
A. tracing how Behn’s view of the nature of tragedy changed over time
B. explaining one author’s view of Behn’s contribution to the development of an emerging literary form
C. differentiating between the early and the late literary works of Behn
D. contrasting the approaches to tragedy taken by Behn and by Dryden
E. presenting one scholar’s explanation for a major development in Behn’s literary career
10. The passage suggests that Carnell sees Behn’s novels featuring male protagonists as differing from dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s featuring male protagonists in that the former
A. depict these characters as less than heroic in their public actions
B. emphasize the consequences of these characters’ actions in the private sphere
C. insist on a parallel between the public and the private spheres
D. are aimed at a predominantly female audience
E. depict family members who disobey these protagonists
11. The passage suggests that Carnell believes Behn held which of the following attitudes about the relationship between the private and public spheres?
A. The private sphere is more appropriate than is the public sphere as the setting for plays about political events.
B. The structure of the private sphere should not replicate the hierarchical order of the public sphere.
C. Actions in the private sphere are more fundamental to ensuring the good of the nation than are actions in the public sphere.
D. Crimes committed in the private sphere are likely to cause tragedy in the public sphere rather than vice versa.
E. The private sphere is the mirror in which issues affecting the public sphere can most clearly be seen.
12. It can be inferred from the passage that the “artificial distinction”(line 53-54) refers to the
A. practice utilized in dramatic tragedies of providing different structural models for the public and the private spheres
B. ideology of many dramatic tragedies that advocate passive obedience only in the private sphere and not in the public sphere
C. convention that drama ought to concern events in the public sphere and that novels ought to concern events in the private sphere
D. assumption made by the authors of conventional dramatic tragedies that legitimate tragic action occurs only in the public sphere
E. approach taken by the dramatic tragedies in depicting male and female characters differently, depending on whether their roles were public or private
Computers cannot accurately predict climate change unless the mathematical equations fed into them adequately capture the natural meteorological processes they are intended to simulate. Moreover, there are processes that influence climate, such as modifications in land use, that scientists do not know how to simulate. The failure to incorporate such a process into a computer climate model can lead the model astray because a small initial effect can initiate a feedback cycle: a perturbation in one variable modifies a second variable, which in turn amplifies the original disturbance. An increase in temperature, for example, can boost the moisture content of the atmosphere, which then causes further warming because water vapor is a greenhouse gas.
13. The passage mentions which of the following as adversely affecting the accuracy of computer predictions of climate change?
A. Failure to allow for some of the processes that influence climate
B. Mathematical equations that do not accurately reflect natural phenomena C. An overestimate of the role of feedback cycles
14. In the context in which it appears, “amplifies” (line 11) most nearly means
A. exacerbates
B. explicates
C. expatiates
D. adds detail to
E. makes louder
Extensive housing construction is underway in Pataska Forest, the habitat of a large population of deer. Because deer feed at the edges of forests, these deer will be attracted to the spaces alongside the new roads being cut through Pataska Forest to serve the new residential areas. Consequently, once the housing is occupied, the annual number of the forest’s deer hit by cars will be much higher than before construction started.
15. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
A. The number of deer hit by commercial vehicles will not increase significantly when the housing is occupied.
B. Deer will be as attracted to the forest edge around new houses as to the forest edge alongside roads.
C. In years past, the annual number of deer that have been hit by cars on existing roads through Pataska Forest has been very low.
D. The development will leave sufficient forest to sustain a significant population of deer.
E. No deer hunting will be allowed in Pataska Forest when the housing is occupied.
While chocolate was highly esteemed in Mesoamerica, where it originated, its adoption in Europe was initially slow. There is a common belief that Europeans needed to “transform” chocolate to make it appetizing. However, while Spaniards did put sugar, which was unknown to indigenous Americans, into chocolate beverages, this additive was not completely innovative. Mesoamericans were already sweetening chocolate with honey, and the step from honey to sugar— increasingly more available than honey because of expanding sugar plantations in the Americas—is a small one. Likewise, although Spaniards adjusted Mesoamerican recipes by using European spices, the spices chosen suggest an attempt to replicate harder-to-find native flowers. There is no indication the Spaniards deliberately tried to change the original flavor of chocolate.
20. The author of the passage refers to the use of honey primarily to
A. identify the origins of an additive previously untried by Europeans
B. present an example of a product that was unknown to Europeans
C. correct the misapprehension that Mesoamericans used a sweetener that was not available in Europe
D. provide an example of an ingredient that was in the process of being displaced by a substitute
E. explain why the Spanish use of sugar in chocolate was not a sign of a need to transform chocolate
21. Which sentence presents a misconception that the passage challenges?
A. The second ( “There is . . . . appetizing”)
B. The third ( “However . . . . innovative”)
C. The fourth ( “Mesoamericans . . . . one”)
D. The fifth ( “Likewise . . . . flowers”)
E. The sixth ( “There is . . . . chocolate”)
Biologists generally agree that birds and dinosaurs are somehow related to one another. The agreement ends there. Hypotheses regarding dinosaurian and avian evolution are unusually diverse—and often at odds with one another. Confusion consequently reigns over a broad spectrum of unanswered questions dealing with avian origins and the biology of dinosaurs and early birds. This confusion has been exacerbated by a paucity of serious attempts to synthesize and evaluate available data on the details of avian and dinosaurian evolution. Too often, the job of summarizing current knowledge of these subjects has fallen to well-meaning but naïve lay authors or reporters. Consequently, both the public and the scientific community have often been misled by widespread dissemination of sensational but weakly founded hypotheses.
22. The passage suggests that which of the following could help remedy the problem described in the final sentence(lines 14-17 )
A. An article written by a biologist for the general public summarizing current theories about avian and dinosaurian evolution
B. Aclose examination of available data on avian and dinosaurian evolution C. A new hypothesis regarding the connection between avian and dinosaurian evolution
23. In the context in which it appears, “sensational”(line 16) most nearly means
A. dramatic
B. false
C. excellent
D. eminent
E. horrifying
A portrait type that appeared with relentless frequency in eighteenth-century England is the familiar image of a gentleman poised with one hand inside his partially unbuttoned waistcoat. Standard interpretations of this portrait posture offer observations of correspondence—demonstrating either that it mirrors actual social behavior or that it borrows from classical statuary. Such explanations, however, illuminate neither the source of this curious convention nor the reason for its popularity. It is true that in real life the “hand-in” was a common stance for elite men. Still, there were other ways of comporting the body that did not become winning portrait formulas. And even if the “hand-in” portrait does resemble certain classical statues, what accounts for the adoption of this particular pose?
24. In the context of the passage as a whole, the primary function of the sentence in lines 10-12(“It is …men”) is to
A. emphasize the influence of a particular social class on the conventions of eighteenth-century English portraiture
B. account for the origin of a particular type of behavior frequently represented in eighteenth-century English portraiture
C. acknowledge a historical basis for two competing hypotheses about a particular portrait type
D. question the relevance of certain evidence frequently cited in support of an explanation for a particular portrait type
E. concede that one explanation for the prevalence of a particular portrait type has a basis in fact
25. Which of the following might provide an explanation for the popularity of hand-in portraits that would satisfy the author of the passage?
A. An eighteenth-century English etiquette manual discussing the social implications of the “hand-in” stance
B. A comprehensive catalogue of eighteenth-century English portraits that showed what proportion of portraits depicted gentlemen in the “hand-in” stance
C. A passage from an eighteenth-century English novel in which a gentleman considers what stance to adopt when his portrait is painted
