Test - GRE-Reading Comprehension

Select one answer choice from the given options.

1

The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made with plates. In a flash of insight, Eastman saw that if the film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he could dramatically broaden the population of photographers. Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis of its simplicity.

The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an expert can do. It furnished anybody, man, woman or child, who has sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom and without chemicals. For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came pre-loaded with film, and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography.

It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following may not have happened as a result of Kodak invention?

There was an increase in the manufacture of emulsion-coated paper film.

Competition was seen among photographers as there were now more people into this profession.

People who could not put too much monetary investment were also able to click pictures.

Privacy concerns arising from sending rolls out for development led to the revival of plate photography.

Many efforts were made to refine the techniques and equipment related to photography.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

2

The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made with plates. In a flash of insight, Eastman saw that if the film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he could dramatically broaden the population of photographers. Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis of its simplicity.

The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an expert can do. It furnished anybody, man, woman or child, who has sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom and without chemicals. For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came pre-loaded with film, and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography.

According to the information provided in the passage, in which of the following ways did Eastman's invention change the process of photography?

Photography was no more a task that could be considered an art form due to the simplicity of the new process.

It differentiated technical work from a simple task so that pictures could be clicked easily by appropriately qualified person.

It eliminated the need for technical knowledge and infrastructure previously needed to capture an image.

The art of photography became accessible to all age groups as roll films were far easier to use than plates.

Photography was now only limited to clicking a button and getting the picture out of the camera.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

3

The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made with plates. In a flash of insight, Eastman saw that if the film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he could dramatically broaden the population of photographers. Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis of its simplicity.

The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an expert can do. It furnished anybody, man, woman or child, who has sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom and without chemicals. For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came pre-loaded with film, and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography.

According to the passage, which of the following was a limitation of the process of photography in use before 1888?

Photography demanded expertise which hindered its widespread adoption by amateurs and the unskilled.

The plates on which the photograph was printed were rigid and needed to be held by multiple components.

This technique necessitated the use of numerous spindles to hold plates which made the process slower.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

4

Publishers often structure their business to make more revenue, by creating numbers. When publishers start journals with overlapping domains, they do not coordinate communication to make sure that the titles will not compete with each other for articles. Along with the pressure to publish more studies, this could promote the publication of marginal or even questionable articles. Publishers with multiple overlapping journals and journals with very narrow specialties also increase the demands on the time and efforts of willing reviewers. With a limited pool of qualified experts to review a given article, and the fact that reviewers are generally not compensated for their time and effort, journal editors are often unable to find enough reviewers to keep up with the increased publication rate.

To improve the situation and increase the trust in scientific community, the pressure to publish must be reduced. The value put on publication record drives scientists to publish marginal advances, which predatory publishers are all too happy to post online. Funding and promotion decisions should not be based on the number of publications, but on the quality of those publications. We also need to identify predatory publishers, to alert scientists to fake journals and fake articles.

In the context in which it is used, the term "predatory publishers" most likely refers to those that

are always on the lookout for research work of no mean origin

start multiple journals with overlapping domains

take advantage of the scientists' perceived value of publication

run fake journals and peddle fake articles

play dual role of scientists and businessmen

Select one answer choice from the given options.

5

Publishers often structure their business to make more revenue, by creating numbers. When publishers start journals with overlapping domains, they do not coordinate communication to make sure that the titles will not compete with each other for articles. Along with the pressure to publish more studies, this could promote the publication of marginal or even questionable articles. Publishers with multiple overlapping journals and journals with very narrow specialties also increase the demands on the time and efforts of willing reviewers. With a limited pool of qualified experts to review a given article, and the fact that reviewers are generally not compensated for their time and effort, journal editors are often unable to find enough reviewers to keep up with the increased publication rate.

To improve the situation and increase the trust in scientific community, the pressure to publish must be reduced. The value put on publication record drives scientists to publish marginal advances, which predatory publishers are all too happy to post online. Funding and promotion decisions should not be based on the number of publications, but on the quality of those publications. We also need to identify predatory publishers, to alert scientists to fake journals and fake articles.

According to the passage, which of the following factors may well contribute to growth of publishing business but will seriously jeopardize the quality of scientific inquiry?

Scientists taking the role of the journal publishers

Undertaking decisions for funding and promotion of scientific journals

Reviewers not getting adequate financial rewards

Select one answer choice from the given options.

6

Early Chinese dynasties were formed on the Loess Plateau around the Yellow River. The rich Loess soil was easy to work with and people congregated in large numbers on that plateau. In Europe, by contrast, fertile soil was much scarcer and geographically isolated, which led to smaller settlements that were harder to govern. This allowed those early Chinese dynasties to map soil much more effectively and in turn develop much stronger state bureaucracies. If a strong state preceded early democracy, democratic roots would struggle to take hold in the longer run.

Which of the following inferences can be drawn about the type of governance in a country if the assertion made in the passage is true?

Due to its favorable history of settlements, China is more likely to develop an effective democratic government than Europe.

Early history of fractured governance dictates that democratic tradition was more robust in Europe than in China.

A weaker bureaucratic system in the early history is a favorable factor for prevalence of a democratic system.

The type of government in a country is dictated by the size of early settlements.

Europe owes its strong democratic system to lack of fertile soil for the first settlements.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

7

Entropy tells us something about the particular state of a physical system; specifically, it measures how disorderly the system is. The entropy of a cup of coffee along with a separate teaspoon of milk is low, because there is a particular orderly segregation of the molecules into "milk" and "coffee," while the entropy of the two mixed together is comparatively large. All of the irreversible processes that reflect time's arrow - we can turn eggs into omelets but not omelets into eggs, perfume disperses through a room but never collects back into the bottle, ice cubes in water melt but glasses of warm water don't spontaneously form ice cubes - share a common feature: Entropy increases throughout, as the system progresses from order to disorder. Whenever we disturb the universe, we tend to increase its entropy. The reason why entropy wants to increase is deceptively simple: There are more ways to be disorderly than to be orderly, so (all else being equal) an orderly arrangement will naturally tend toward increasing disorder. And if everything in the universe evolves toward increasing disorder, it must have started out in an exquisitely ordered arrangement. This whole chain of logic, purporting to explain why you can't turn an omelet into an egg, apparently rests on a deep assumption about the very beginning of the universe: It was in a state of very low entropy, very high order.

All of the following statements are true in respect of 'entropy' as defined in the passage, EXCEPT:

It always increases in a system.

It always represents disorder.

It is always physical.

It is always irreversible.

It always follows the same sequence.

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The passage is scrollable

Entropy tells us something about the particular state of a physical system; specifically, it measures how disorderly the system is. The entropy of a cup of coffee along with a separate teaspoon of milk is low, because there is a particular orderly segregation of the molecules into "milk" and "coffee," while the entropy of the two mixed together is comparatively large. All of the irreversible processes that reflect time's arrow - we can turn eggs into omelets but not omelets into eggs, perfume disperses through a room but never collects back into the bottle, ice cubes in water melt but glasses of warm water don't spontaneously form ice cubes - share a common feature: Entropy increases throughout, as the system progresses from order to disorder. Whenever we disturb the universe, we tend to increase its entropy. The reason why entropy wants to increase is deceptively simple: There are more ways to be disorderly than to be orderly, so (all else being equal) an orderly arrangement will naturally tend toward increasing disorder. And if everything in the universe evolves toward increasing disorder, it must have started out in an exquisitely ordered arrangement. This whole chain of logic, purporting to explain why you can't turn an omelet into an egg, apparently rests on a deep assumption about the very beginning of the universe: It was in a state of very low entropy, very high order. .

8

Select the sentence that lays out a condition to describe the nature of our origin.

Number	Status	Marked
1	Not answered
2	Not answered
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4	Not answered
5	Not answered
6	Not answered
7	Not answered
8	Not answered

GRE-Reading Comprehension - 14

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