Exam 4: Critical Analysis & Reasoning Skills

Passage In September 1940, near the tiny village of Montignac in the southwest region of France, a band of four youths and a dog accidentally stumbled upon the opening to a series of underground caverns whose walls were covered with prehistoric paintings.  Their monumental discovery unleashed a mystery that has continued to puzzle scholars: What function did these magnificent caves perform for the society that painted them?  One plausible theory, yet unproven, is that they constituted a kind of sacred space, perhaps a site for religious ceremonies.Decades of work recording and analyzing the contents of this labyrinthine underworld, which came to be called Lascaux, have yielded some clues.  Pollen testing, carbon-14 dating, and the examination of flint and bone tools within the caves have been used to calculate the time period during which these subterranean reaches were painted and served their function.  The paintings date from between 17,000 and 12,000 BCE, which places them within the Upper Paleolithic era.  More specifically, they belong to the Magdalenian period of the last ice age that preceded the dawn of the current geological epoch and the invention of agriculture.More than 2,000 paintings and symbols cover the insides of the caverns.  Approximately 900 of these depict horses, bison, stags, large felines, and hares, clearly reflecting a society of hunter-gatherers.  Various pigments, mainly red, yellow, and brown, were used.  By employing a novel method that took advantage of the edges and curvatures of the cave walls, the artists were able to give lifelike dimensions to these images and endow them with a sense of motion.  Nevertheless, the cave art of Lascaux suggests a purpose that goes beyond artistic expression.It is likely these chambers served as a sanctuary within which the paintings would have corresponded to the iconography of a temple.  Moreover, countless footprints shown to have belonged to adolescent males suggest that the caves may have hosted initiation rituals marking a boy's passage from childhood to maturity.  At this critical juncture, the youths would have traditionally been separated from their families by the adult males and put through frightening ordeals.  The boys might have been tattooed, confined, or presented with physical challenges.  The purpose of such traumas was to prepare the adolescent for the physical and psychological rigors of the hunt, the brutalities of warfare, and the inevitable trials of adulthood.  Theologian Karen Armstrong describes such experiences as triggering "a regressive disorganization of the personality" followed by "a constructive reorganization" of the individual's faculties.  In other words, the rites were meant to force the youth to call upon inner resources of which he was not yet aware, thereby inducing a kind of psychological death and rebirth.Lying deep within the earth, the caves would have provided the perfect container for these traumatic rites-a fact that became evident when Lascaux was opened to the public in 1948.  As mythologist Joseph Campbell recalled of his visit there, when the lights were out, all normal orientation and sense of time were suspended and "you were never in darker darkness in your life."  In primitive societies, descending into the darkness of the caves must have seemed like immersing oneself in what religious historian Mircea Eliade has termed "sacred time," a kind of dissociative state conducive to the deeply transformative experience of the initiate.  When illuminated against the blackness, the realistic murals would have become a moving spectacle that simulated the hunt, the wonder and gravity of which was forever imprinted upon the boys' psyches. -The author of the passage is primarily attempting to explain the:

Passage An untamed but generative masculine spirit, ubiquitous though often elusive, haunts the interconnection of humans with nature.  Among its most prominent images are the carved faces, formed from leaves or sprouting them, that peer out from medieval church ceilings and walls.  At once comic and forbidding, this foliate head is neither a gargoyle nor a merely decorative motif, but an archetype whose history stretches as deeply into the mists of time and myth as the roots of a tree.  Nevertheless, it was only as recently as 1939 that British scholar Julia Hamilton Somerset, better known as Lady Raglan, noting a carved face of entwined leaves in a church in southeast Wales, initiated a study of similar images and christened this mysterious male presence the "Green Man."Like many mythological figures, the Green Man is syncretic, interweaving several images and themes or variations on a pattern.  He is, as writer John Matthews claims, "far larger than any simple attempt to define him."  Chiefly, the Green Man symbolizes the union of humans and nature.  Indissolubly linked with the vegetative cycle and the agricultural year, he exudes vitality and fertility and signals both material and spiritual abundance.  Whether as the foliage-covered King of the May Day, also called Jack-in-the-Green, or as the King of the Harvest, John Barleycorn, the Green Man has been an indispensable element of traditional European village celebrations.  He is Keeper of the Forest as well as woodwose, the wild man of the woods, and is sometimes recognized as the consort of Mother Nature.Green Man images can be found in mosaics and carvings from the early Roman Empire.  Originally a pagan icon, the Green Man was incorporated into early Christian iconography, reaching a zenith of architectural popularity in Europe from the eleventh through the fifteenth century.  Notably, Chartres Cathedral in France, built in 1194, features 70 foliate heads, while in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, constructed in 1446, no fewer than 103 such heads can be counted.  The Green Man was also known farther east; for instance, near Hatra in present-day Iraq, an imposing leafy countenance stares out from the façade of an ancient temple.The Green Man's lineage is multifaceted.  In the West he is a variant of Dionysus, the god of the vine who dies and is reborn.  Indeed, the fifth-century BCE statue of a leaf-clad Dionysus or Bacchus in Naples, Italy, is perhaps his oldest surviving image, although Dionysus may himself descend from the green-skinned Egyptian god Osiris who likewise dies and rises.  The Green Man is thought to be related to the rustic Greco-Roman deities Pan and Silvanus, and, more speculatively, to Cernunnos, the Celtic horned god of the hunt and lord of the animals.  In the East this mythic being manifests in the figure of Al-Khidir, the Verdant or Green One who is a spiritual guide of heroes in the Koran.Green Man figures also pervade Western literature, which was influenced at its origin by the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh and its character of Enkidu, a wild, shaggy nature man fashioned by the gods as a counterpart to the young King Gilgamesh.  Later the medieval tales of King Arthur feature the baffling Green Knight, who, like the eastern Al-Khidir, is a warrior guide.  In the fifteenth century, the Green Man reemerges as Robin Hood; in the twentieth century, J. M. Barrie's eternally youthful Peter Pan is tellingly "clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that flow from trees."In Matthews' view, the Green Man is the embodiment of "unvanquishable greenness."  This perspective might explain the recurrence of his image and its recent adoption by environmental awareness movements as an assurance of ecological renewal. -The passage's main idea is that the figure of the Green Man

Passage The word "edutainment" refers to educational entertainment, media designed to educate while entertaining the audience.  One of the more successful of such enterprises was Square One, a television show that aired in the 1980s and 1990s.  Focusing on mathematics, Square One aimed to instruct elementary school children in a way that captured their attention and made them eager to learn.  Such objectives are common to most attempts at teaching.  But well-made educational entertainment goes a step further than simply trying to make learning enjoyable; ideally, the program is of a quality such that audiences find it worthwhile to watch for its entertainment value alone.Square One approached this goal in a number of ways, its iconic music videos being one of the most memorable.  Songs like "Angle Dance" and "Less Than Zero" described concepts such as acuteness or negative numbers, while the lyrics of "Archimedes" lauded the mathematical insights of that famous thinker.  Most of the songs contained humorous elements: the exhausted singers of "That's Infinity" tried vainly to reach the largest number, while "Eight Percent of My Love" saw a boy serenade his girlfriend about the small fraction of love he could give her (having already given away 92 percent to friends, the USA, his bicycle, and other things).  All of the songs boasted high production values and talented performers, subconsciously encouraging viewers to continue humming their lessons to themselves even after the show's closing credits.The creativity of these songs featured popular culture aspects that were often more noticeable to parents than to the child viewers themselves.  For instance, adults could easily guess that "Ghost of a Chance" (a song about probability) was inspired by Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and "Juan Cougar" was a reference to an actual singer, John Cougar Mellencamp.  Other parts of the show included similar references.  Details such as these functioned as a bonus, however, as the target audience found the material compelling despite not grasping all the references that elicited smiles from their elders.  Cabot and Marshmallow's "What's in a Name?" was comedic even without knowledge of the famous Abbott and Costello "Who's on First?" skit from which it was derived.  The math-based detective work of "Mathnet" was amusing and instructional even to those too young to have seen Dragnet.In addition to the music, skits, cartoons, and parodies constituting many of the program's segments, game shows were another way in which Square One imparted instruction.  The prizes were unexciting (everyday apparel bearing the Square One logo), but that was to be expected for a production that aired on public broadcasting.  Of course, the prizes were also not the point.  Part of the draw of a commercial game show may be a fabulous package of expensive prizes and money, but the game shows of Square One focused on education.In light of that distinction, one can imagine the most typical criticism of any educational entertainment program.  Education and entertainment are, at their cores, not aimed at the same ends.  Whether it is the worse crime to be insufficiently didactic or to be excessively didactic may depend on whom one asks; either way, one might worry that a work attempting to impart both amusement and instruction would ultimately fail in at least one of those objectives.  Yet Square One was that rare instance in which both goals were met.  Many children who disliked mathematics in school still enjoyed viewing a show with songs and skits about the subject, and for those who already enjoyed mathematics, all the better.  Teachers had good reason to be happy about the show's existence, and its lively presentation of educational concepts can surely be credited with the improved academic performance of many students. -Which of the following claims made by the author is LEAST supported by evidence in the passage?

Passage Certain schools of thought that arose in the mid- to late 20th century and have since been labeled "poststructuralist" are well known for their propensity to "problematize," "destabilize," or "radicalize" the concepts of previous thinkers.  For example, the controversial French poststructuralist and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan sought to reenvision the concept, first introduced by Freud in the early 1900s, of the ego as the autonomous agent of the psyche.  Hence in his salient 1949 essay, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the 'I' Function as Revealed in the Psychoanalytic Experience," Lacan variously describes the formation and consequent function of the ego as a schismatic event of misrecognition, an epiphenomenon of narcissism, and a process of dialectical tension.  The latter sets up an interchange between identification and alienation, generating confusion between being a subject as opposed to an object, between self and other, between what is "me" and "not me."The drama of the ego's emergence in what Lacan has designated "the Mirror Stage" explains its contrary nature.  Somewhere between 6 and 18 months of age, an infant will likely encounter his (or her) own reflection in a mirror.  At this phase of development, the child lacks any sense of a unified self but, encouraged by an adult, is able to recognize his reflection in the glass and, at the same time, comes to understand that the specular image looking back at him is, in fact, not himself.  In other words, the image provides the infant with the first glimpse of himself as an object and specifically as "other."  According to Lacan, the initial fascination and pleasure the child experiences upon self-recognition dissolves into confusion at being unable to distinguish between what is and what is not himself.  Therefore, such recognition amounts to a kind of misrecognition, the French term for which, méconnaissance, implies an essential misunderstanding or lack of knowledge.Furthermore, while the reflection in the mirror appears coherent, coordinated, and whole, the child himself continues to perceive his body as uncoordinated and fragmentary, resulting in a profound sense of incongruity and disharmony.  By exuding mastery and harmony, the mirror image serves as a gestalt; it holds up an "Ideal-I" or future self that promises completeness and perfection-a condition, Lacan believes, that is ultimately unattainable, though we will likely spend the rest of our lives in pursuit of it.  Overall, the infant's reaction to the image or Ideal-I is narcissistic: he feels both attraction to it as a model and aggression toward it as a rival.Alienation, lack, absence, and conflict are thus constitutive of the Lacanian ego.  The child's image and, hence, the emerging ego mark an ontological gap that serves as a repository for the projections and desires, whether conscious or unconscious, of parents and others.  Consequently, this image is, as Adrian Johnston points out, "always already overwritten" with words that are not the child's own.  For Johnston, the ego could more properly be described as "a coagulation of inter- and trans-subjective alien influences."  Rather than a "fluid and autonomous subject," it becomes a rigid and "heteronomous" entity.  Derived from the desires of others, this ego is, in Lacanian terms, "extimate," or internally exterior.  It is an irreducible contradiction, both alien and alienating.This ego paradigm diverges from the more familiar and cohesive Freudian notion of the ego as the sovereign organizer of the personality, the rational mediator between internal drives and social pressures that in the interests of self-preservation will also resort to deceptions and defense mechanisms.  From a Lacanian perspective, the ego is intrinsically and irreparably divided; it functions mainly to support the fictional construct we identify-or rather, misrecognize-as the "self." -The author most likely introduces the topic of the Victorian Internet by discussing the sociological conditions of the period to:

Passage The 1929 stock market crash in the United States, also known as the Great Crash, affected virtually every American who had a stake in the financial market.  In its wake, a deep economic crisis creating political and social unrest caused the United States government to create a strict financial regulatory system that worked effectively from the 1930s through the 1960s.In the late 1930s, as experts clamored to unravel the source of this financial disaster, British economist John Maynard Keynes organized a dynamic revolution in neoclassical macroeconomics, purporting that free markets could ultimately lead to more adequate employment, rather than the normative "boom and bust" cycle of fiscal recessions and depressions in the United States.  However, Keynes also supported government interference, contending that a reduction in consumer spending due to economic hardship must be adequately supplemented by government expenditure.  The American economics professor Hyman Minsky joined the Keynesian cause two decades later, adding that an accumulation of debt by the national government drives an unstable economy toward crisis, especially in the nongovernment sector.Preceding the Great Crash, the financial market was already unstable, which in hindsight has proven to be one of the many warning signs for emerging crises.  Regrettably, these "red flags" were not characterized until after the collapse.  To prevent another crash as experienced in 1929 and, to a lesser extent in 2008, changes must be made as financial markets expand and become more intricate.  Many economists agree that the mainstream theory of financial markets, which is the foundation of support for the archaic New Financial Architecture (NFA), must be replaced by the realistic economic theories proposed by Keynes and Minsky.  In opposition to singular market ownership, Keynesian economics points to a macroeconomic system wherein a "mixed economy" places the bulk of financial responsibility on households, to be supplemented by governmental spending when necessary.  However, NFA regulations tout the practice of "business as usual," allowing the market to cycle in and out of recessions.Progress has been made toward overall reform, however slowly.  A January 2009 report from the Comptroller General's Office to the United States Congress was delivered in hopes of shaping potential regulatory reform efforts.  These efforts "seek to: 1) describe how regulation has evolved in banking, securities, thrifts, credit unions, futures, insurance, secondary mortgage markets and other important areas; (2) define several key changes in the financial sector in recent decades that have highlighted significant limitations and gaps in the existing regulatory system; and (3) present an evaluation framework that can be used by Congress and others to restructure regulatory reform."Also, there must be a broad political mandate in support of serious financial regulatory reforms.  For too long, monetary elites such as lobbyists, private bankers, and commercial investors have controlled a potentially fragile financial system.  Regulation is needed for remedying market failure and protecting the economy from an imminent collapse.These conjectures are meant to replace fragmented and complex arrangements of federal and state regulations-put into place over the past 150 years-that have not kept pace with major developments in financial markets and commercial products in recent decades.  Without safeguards in place, the American financial market will face a continuous ebb and flow of prosperity and may be forced to face another crisis. -Based on the passage, it is reasonable to conclude that the current financial market is significantly affected by the:

Passage Of the myriad problems facing translators, perhaps the most significant lies in the tension between what a text conveys and the words used to convey it.  Strict fidelity to the specific words of a text often fails to capture the full sense of its meaning.  Beyond this loss of meaning can also arise a loss of artistry and structural features which often cannot be replicated.For instance, a fully evocative rendering of the 119th Psalm seems unattainable.  Comprising twenty-two strophes of eight lines each, the one hundred and seventy-six verses do appear somewhat poetic in translation.  But in the original Hebrew the Psalm is an acrostic: the verses of the first strophe all begin with the letter Aleph, those of the second with Beth, and so on, with Tav, the last letter of the alphabet, commencing the final eight verses.  The reader of a translation would, understandably, be ignorant of this fact.  While this does not affect the essential meaning of the verses, it does affect their character-something is lost from the original in its non-native presentation.  Although there have been occasional attempts to mimic this structure in other languages, they have all been unsuccessful.  The tortured and unnatural wording that results proves the wisdom of most translators in prioritizing readability.  Nevertheless, the Psalmist wrote with a particular purpose that is left untransmitted.  The sacrifice of the acrostic, however necessary, is regrettable.Another concern is what might be called translational multiplicity.  Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges famously remarked: "The Quixote, due to my congenital practice of Spanish, is a uniform monument, with no other variations… the Odyssey, thanks to my opportune ignorance of Greek, is an international bookstore of works in prose and verse."  To speak of "the" Odyssey, or more generally, "the" text of any work, runs headlong into the reality that for translated works, "the text" is not a unitary entity but a collection of candidates.  Thus, a perennial difficulty of translation is conveyed through Borges' idiosyncratic presentation.  Or is it?  For Borges' remarks are elsewhere listed as: "Since Spanish is my native language, the Quixote is to me an unchanging monument, with no possible variations….  But the Odyssey, thanks to my opportune ignorance of Greek, is a library of works in prose and verse."  That we might ask which of these translations more closely represents his actual words is a fact that Borges would likely have found amusing.Considerations of this sort are magnified when one approaches the writings not only of individual authors, but of past civilizations.  Despite being one of the world's foremost sinologists, the late D. C. Lau was convinced that none of us truly understand classical Chinese.  The sentiment was no mere expression of modesty; fellow scholar Roger Ames described Lau as "[h]aving assimilated the classical corpus through a lifetime of careful study and reflection."  Rather, Lau was keenly aware of the difficult truth that the fluidity of language and culture over time can shroud the works of the ancients in obscurities that may be inscrutable to even their most passionately curious descendants.Modern works may also be altered, however, and sometimes through more subtle types of translation.  The book known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in England was changed to refer instead to the "Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States, reportedly due to a belief that the original title would be unpalatable to an American audience.  While that depressing assumption may indeed have been correct, the change removes a titular connection to a pre-existing myth.  The generic fantasy idea with which it is replaced thus fails to embody the full character of the original work. -Based on the passage, "certain critics" (Paragraph 5) would have judged that:

Passage The name "Sun Tzu" is readily recognized by scholars and non-scholars alike; as the author of The Art of War, he is identifiable even to those who have never studied Chinese history or military strategy.  Much less familiar to the layman is his descendant Sun Bin, who one and a half centuries later (circa 350 BCE) extended the discussion of battlefield tactics with his own insights.  Although some deem Sun Bin's thinking to lack the philosophical depth displayed by his predecessor, the two strategists in fact bear many similarities, and we should not be overhasty in our evaluation of Sun Bin's contribution.An instructive example can be found in a historical record of his advice to another commander concerning a horse race: Sun Bin then said to Tian Ji, "You just go ahead and make a large wager; I will see to it that you win."…Just as the contest was to begin, Sun Bin counseled Tian Ji, "Pit your third-best team against their finest, your finest against their second-best, and your second best against their third."  When all three horse races were finished, though Tian Ji had lost the first race, his horses prevailed in the next two, in the end winning a thousand pieces of the king's gold.It would be easy to dismiss this episode as a demonstration merely of cunning or desire for personal gain.  However, Sun Bin's tactic essentially aligns with Sun Tzu's famous maxim: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."  Nothing had changed about the horses, but Sun Bin arranged their deployment in a way that ensured an overall victory.  Hence, the story is not out of place in a context of military tactics because it illustrates the adaptation of circumstance to one's advantage.Similarly, while The Art of War remains of interest to the modern military mind, its study is even more often applied to non-martial contexts, such as commerce, politics, or simply how to live.  In one chapter, Sun Tzu gives the instruction to "throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight.  If they will face death, there is nothing they may not achieve."  The military application is obvious, but the underlying idea extends much further: when one cannot give up, there is no choice but to strive for victory with full abandon.  The question then becomes whether one can play both general and soldier, throwing oneself into the inescapable position that must be confronted.Sun Bin refers to the success or failure of an army when saying: "If you take a road that goes nowhere, even Heaven and earth cannot make you prosper; if you take the right road, even Heaven and earth cannot waylay you."  Nevertheless, his words apply far beyond a military perspective.  By situating warfare within "the pattern of the heavens and the earth," Sun Bin conceives it as a microcosm of a larger and more abstract natural harmony.  To act in accordance with this harmony is to secure victory; to fail to do so is to ensure defeat.  Consequently, success in battle is achieved in the same way as success in any endeavor; as with the horse race, one must adapt to the natural propensities of a situation.  Ultimately, Sun Bin provides a compelling picture of battlefield tactics and strategy.  As with Sun Tzu's more famous insights, however, the true depth and value of Sun Bin's thinking lie in its broader scope and application. -Some historians have suggested that parts of The Art of War were actually written by Sun Bin rather than Sun Tzu.  If true, how would that information affect the author's argument about the value of Sun Bin's military insights?

Passage Christ Church, a colonial-era Anglican church near Weems, Virginia, is far from a typical house of worship.  Completed in 1735, the building has been conjectured by some to be based on a prototype by the renowned English architect Christopher Wren-indeed, it bears a more than canny resemblance to Farley Church in Wiltshire, England, which Wren designed back in the 1660s.  Christ Church was originally an unassuming wooden construct commissioned in 1665 by John Carter, a wealthy Virginia tobacco planter who sailed from his native England to American shores in 1635.  In 1730, his son Robert-who had by then become one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in the region-was determined to replace the wooden structure with a brick one.  He died in 1732, leaving three male offspring to oversee the completion of what experts would later hail as "the most finely crafted Anglican parish church in all of colonial Virginia."  Historical websites laud the church as "an extraordinary example of eighteenth-century architecture, featuring meticulous brickwork, vaulted ceilings, and gorgeous compass-headed windows."  Notably, it also contains a triple-decker pulpit-a rare but distinctive feature of its era.  In recent decades, however, Christ Church has become an object of interest more for what it conceals than for what it reveals.The remarkable intricacies of this church's architecture point to its dual nature as not just a religious sanctuary, but as a veritable temple to the Enlightenment, a kind of shrine to rationality.  Beneath its surface, Christ Church represents an architectural feat of mathematical precision in harmony with nature's laws.  In fact, horologist H. Stephen Stewart has characterized it as "a building of numbers"-specifically, calendric, solar, and lunar numbers.  As Stewart explains, two weeks after the vernal equinox, on the mean date for Easter, a sunbeam shines through the oval window above the main entrance that faces due west and rests upon the altar; this phenomenon repeats itself two weeks prior to the autumnal equinox.  Additionally, a shadow cast from a cornice of the church tracks the progression from spring to fall as it moves vertically along the church's outer west wall at the pace of a single row of bricks per day.  Moreover, for eight hours each day, the building serves as a sundial, casting its shadow on its north lawn.  This seemingly multifunctional edifice has been aptly pronounced "a time machine" by Stewart.The church's locale and physical orientation are critical; not just any site could have offered the perfect astronomical alignment.  Yet, as journalist Joy Aschenbach describes, "The Church's location was a rather lonely one, with woods all around, few or no houses near, and no good roads."  Its geographical remoteness and splendid isolation are reminiscent of another unusual sanctuary, the fifth-century BCE Temple to Apollo, the god of the sun and rationality, at Bassae in Greece.  As with the church, the temple's structure has been attributed to a famous architect, Iktynos, designer of the Athenian Parthenon.  Thrust deep into the countryside, it sits atop Kotylion Mountain, holding dominion over a desolate landscape through which, until the last century, no truly passable road led.  Thus, virtually inaccessible, the imposing sanctuary stood long forgotten.  In contemporary times it has been under restoration and studied for how, positioned north to south rather than east to west, it tracks the annual phases of the sun.  Likewise, Christ Church has resurged from encroaching dilapidation to bask in "lonely majesty" even as scientists figure the calculus of its blueprint.Clearly neither of these structures acquired its characteristics through happenstance.  The spaces created are at once pragmatic and sacred, their purposes overtly divine even while their designs honor nature and extol reason. -The passage author probably compares Christ Church with an ancient temple of Apollo primarily to establish:

Passage The name "Sun Tzu" is readily recognized by scholars and non-scholars alike; as the author of The Art of War, he is identifiable even to those who have never studied Chinese history or military strategy.  Much less familiar to the layman is his descendant Sun Bin, who one and a half centuries later (circa 350 BCE) extended the discussion of battlefield tactics with his own insights.  Although some deem Sun Bin's thinking to lack the philosophical depth displayed by his predecessor, the two strategists in fact bear many similarities, and we should not be overhasty in our evaluation of Sun Bin's contribution.An instructive example can be found in a historical record of his advice to another commander concerning a horse race: Sun Bin then said to Tian Ji, "You just go ahead and make a large wager; I will see to it that you win."…Just as the contest was to begin, Sun Bin counseled Tian Ji, "Pit your third-best team against their finest, your finest against their second-best, and your second best against their third."  When all three horse races were finished, though Tian Ji had lost the first race, his horses prevailed in the next two, in the end winning a thousand pieces of the king's gold.It would be easy to dismiss this episode as a demonstration merely of cunning or desire for personal gain.  However, Sun Bin's tactic essentially aligns with Sun Tzu's famous maxim: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."  Nothing had changed about the horses, but Sun Bin arranged their deployment in a way that ensured an overall victory.  Hence, the story is not out of place in a context of military tactics because it illustrates the adaptation of circumstance to one's advantage.Similarly, while The Art of War remains of interest to the modern military mind, its study is even more often applied to non-martial contexts, such as commerce, politics, or simply how to live.  In one chapter, Sun Tzu gives the instruction to "throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight.  If they will face death, there is nothing they may not achieve."  The military application is obvious, but the underlying idea extends much further: when one cannot give up, there is no choice but to strive for victory with full abandon.  The question then becomes whether one can play both general and soldier, throwing oneself into the inescapable position that must be confronted.Sun Bin refers to the success or failure of an army when saying: "If you take a road that goes nowhere, even Heaven and earth cannot make you prosper; if you take the right road, even Heaven and earth cannot waylay you."  Nevertheless, his words apply far beyond a military perspective.  By situating warfare within "the pattern of the heavens and the earth," Sun Bin conceives it as a microcosm of a larger and more abstract natural harmony.  To act in accordance with this harmony is to secure victory; to fail to do so is to ensure defeat.  Consequently, success in battle is achieved in the same way as success in any endeavor; as with the horse race, one must adapt to the natural propensities of a situation.  Ultimately, Sun Bin provides a compelling picture of battlefield tactics and strategy.  As with Sun Tzu's more famous insights, however, the true depth and value of Sun Bin's thinking lie in its broader scope and application. -The passage author believes that "we should not be overhasty in our evaluation" of Sun Bin's ideas because:His insights can provide people with guidance for achieving excellence in their endeavors.His insights reflect more than a century of intellectual development in military strategy.Sun Bin offers a deep and comprehensive system of thought.

Passage In the 1890s, the world of American dance underwent a profound transformation when a group of pioneering dancers dared to challenge the rigid 350-year-old protocols of classical ballet.  The likes of Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and Ruth St. Denis rebelled against ballet tradition while simultaneously rejecting the alternative world of vaudeville.  Duncan, in particular, was a proponent of what was deemed "uninhibited freedom of movement."  Appearing on stage in a loose tunic with bare feet and her hair down, she performed natural, flowing movements she claimed "emanated from her solar plexus."  For her part, Fuller combined billowing costumes, dramatic lighting, and improvised movements in attempting to imitate natural phenomena, as exemplified by her "serpentine" dance.  Meanwhile, St. Denis and her partner Ted Shawn incorporated elements of Native American and East Asian ritualistic dance into their work.  These artists managed to break through the prejudice of tradition, clearing the way for the advent of modern dance in the20th century.The second generation of artists, which included Doris Humphrey and Lester Horton, continued to loosen dance from the restraints of classical ballet.  Many were also determined to raise the audience's consciousness about contemporary social concerns during a time that witnessed the aftermath of World War I, increased industrialization, the Great Depression, and the rise of fascism in Europe.  For a while, the modern dance movement became more than an assault on classical ballet; by dramatizing events on stage to inspire a collective emotional response, dance became a vehicle designed to spur sociopolitical change.Martha Graham, a student of St. Denis and Shawn, went on to develop a radical new system of movement.  The "Graham technique" originated from her cardinal belief that movement expresses the emotions that people attempt to conceal and words are inadequate to express.  The new technique was organic; based on the natural rhythm of breathing, it exaggerated the muscular contraction and release, as well as the consequent flexion of the spine, required to breathe.  The visual effects were startling, and the iconoclastic Graham went so far as to assert that the technique "represented the human being's inner conflicts."  Furthermore, the movement of contraction became a regular feature of modern dance, which, as some sources stress, was "used, altered, and redefined by many subsequent choreographers."As modern dance evolved, it became the antithesis of ballet, which followed strict patterns of movement and aimed to be light and graceful.  By contrast, the new dance style was often angular, jagged, and stark; the choreography featured nonlinear movements and irregular contours.  Instead of working against gravity as in ballet's sequences of vertical leaps, the contemporary style made gravity the dancers' ally in initiating movements from the lower abdomen with their bare feet rooted to the floor.  Whereas ballet emphasized the body's limbs, the new dance mode accentuated the torso.  While ballet was made to appear effortless, Graham's main goal as a choreographer was to display the physical exertion of articulating emotion through the body's movement.Graham also strove to make the works she created and choreographed holistic.  She collaborated with sculptor Isamu Noguchi on stage sets, consulted with the designer Halston on costumes, and partnered with composers such as Louis Horst and Samuel Barber.  Aaron Copland wrote the score to the highly acclaimed modern "ballet" Appalachian Spring, which Graham choreographed and in which she performed the lead female role in 1944.  Building on the foundation of her precursors, Graham-who continued to dance until age 76 and to choreograph until shortly before her death at 96-made modern dance, in one scholar's estimation, "an established art form that was no longer merely regarded as an avant-garde aberration." -For which of the following claims about Egyptology does the author provide the LEAST support in the passage?

Passage Certain schools of thought that arose in the mid- to late 20th century and have since been labeled "poststructuralist" are well known for their propensity to "problematize," "destabilize," or "radicalize" the concepts of previous thinkers.  For example, the controversial French poststructuralist and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan sought to reenvision the concept, first introduced by Freud in the early 1900s, of the ego as the autonomous agent of the psyche.  Hence in his salient 1949 essay, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the 'I' Function as Revealed in the Psychoanalytic Experience," Lacan variously describes the formation and consequent function of the ego as a schismatic event of misrecognition, an epiphenomenon of narcissism, and a process of dialectical tension.  The latter sets up an interchange between identification and alienation, generating confusion between being a subject as opposed to an object, between self and other, between what is "me" and "not me."The drama of the ego's emergence in what Lacan has designated "the Mirror Stage" explains its contrary nature.  Somewhere between 6 and 18 months of age, an infant will likely encounter his (or her) own reflection in a mirror.  At this phase of development, the child lacks any sense of a unified self but, encouraged by an adult, is able to recognize his reflection in the glass and, at the same time, comes to understand that the specular image looking back at him is, in fact, not himself.  In other words, the image provides the infant with the first glimpse of himself as an object and specifically as "other."  According to Lacan, the initial fascination and pleasure the child experiences upon self-recognition dissolves into confusion at being unable to distinguish between what is and what is not himself.  Therefore, such recognition amounts to a kind of misrecognition, the French term for which, méconnaissance, implies an essential misunderstanding or lack of knowledge.Furthermore, while the reflection in the mirror appears coherent, coordinated, and whole, the child himself continues to perceive his body as uncoordinated and fragmentary, resulting in a profound sense of incongruity and disharmony.  By exuding mastery and harmony, the mirror image serves as a gestalt; it holds up an "Ideal-I" or future self that promises completeness and perfection-a condition, Lacan believes, that is ultimately unattainable, though we will likely spend the rest of our lives in pursuit of it.  Overall, the infant's reaction to the image or Ideal-I is narcissistic: he feels both attraction to it as a model and aggression toward it as a rival.Alienation, lack, absence, and conflict are thus constitutive of the Lacanian ego.  The child's image and, hence, the emerging ego mark an ontological gap that serves as a repository for the projections and desires, whether conscious or unconscious, of parents and others.  Consequently, this image is, as Adrian Johnston points out, "always already overwritten" with words that are not the child's own.  For Johnston, the ego could more properly be described as "a coagulation of inter- and trans-subjective alien influences."  Rather than a "fluid and autonomous subject," it becomes a rigid and "heteronomous" entity.  Derived from the desires of others, this ego is, in Lacanian terms, "extimate," or internally exterior.  It is an irreducible contradiction, both alien and alienating.This ego paradigm diverges from the more familiar and cohesive Freudian notion of the ego as the sovereign organizer of the personality, the rational mediator between internal drives and social pressures that in the interests of self-preservation will also resort to deceptions and defense mechanisms.  From a Lacanian perspective, the ego is intrinsically and irreparably divided; it functions mainly to support the fictional construct we identify-or rather, misrecognize-as the "self." -Based on the discussion of Korean art in Paragraph 4, which of the following most likely represents a view held by Youngna Kim?

Passage Let us consider a widely accepted principle, what is called the "Principle of Voter Rationality."  It states that rationally motivated members of a democratic society ought to vote, as it is in their own best interest to do so.  The idea behind this principle is remarkably simple, of course: rationally motivated people ought to do whatever is in their own best interest.  Democratic societies provide citizens with the opportunity to exercise their will through the process of elections.  Rationally motivated citizens ought to vote, then, because electing candidates who will act on their behalf is in their own best interest.  If true, the principle elegantly justifies the scaffolding that upholds democracy itself: citizen engagement with the democratic process.As it turns out, there are excellent reasons to reject this principle.  Notice that the probability that any single vote will have an impact on the outcome of an election decreases as the number of voters increases.  In nationwide elections in democratic societies, the probability that any one vote will change the outcome of an election is infinitesimally small; so small, in fact, that a modest estimate for presidential elections in the US puts this probability at roughly one in one hundred million.  For all practical purposes, it is true to say that any single person's decision to vote will not affect the outcome of an election.Citizens who are rationally motivated in the relevant sense, when deciding whether to vote in an election, must weigh the potential benefits of voting against its known costs.  And there are many such costs: the loss of one's personal time, frustration caused by long lines at the polling station, the energy needed to sufficiently educate oneself about candidates' policies, and so on.  Because the probability that one's vote will have any significant impact on the outcome of the election is so minuscule, however, citizens can be practically certain that the costs of voting will outweigh its potential benefits.  Therefore, contra the Principle of Voter Rationality, citizens must conclude that it is not in their best interest to participate in the democratic process…Moreover, if we are willing to assume, in the way the principle does, that democratic citizens are rationally motivated, then, given a sufficiently large population of citizens who deliberate about whether to engage in voting behavior, the democratic process should break down.  For each citizen should find that he or she ought to abstain from participating in this process due to the aforementioned reasons…In truth, the democratic process is fully intact.  The problem with the Principle of Voter Rationality is that it assumes, falsely, that voting behavior is "rationally motivated" when and only when it is done for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election.  But other sources of justification are available.  As I see it, it is a commitment to the principles of democracy itself that should compel rational citizens, independently of whether it furthers their personal interests, to participate in the democratic process.  For with such a commitment comes a civic duty to prevent the breakdown of one's own democracy and, with this, comes the justification for voting behavior.But what can be said about the nature of "civic duties," and why should we suppose that there are any such duties in the first place?  For my part, I believe that a democratic government's policies and its citizens' civic duty to vote derive from the more general obligation upon man to help his fellow citizen, to increase the welfare of others with no expectation of a reward, a duty for altruism… -Suppose it had been established that tarot reading is a useful way to gain knowledge about the future.  How would this information affect the author's argument that Sarah acted more ethically than her employer?

Passage No one would argue that much good has ever come out of the crucible of war, and certainly not from the kinds of atrocities that characterized the Second World War.  However, the horror of the Dutch famine that occurred toward the end of the war, what in the Netherlands is commonly called the Hongerwinter, has provided epidemiologists a unique opportunity to research the long-term health effects of nutritional deficiency in utero on a specific cohort of individuals.Because it was so widespread-affecting as many as 4.5 million people in the German-occupied Netherlands-but limited in duration and swiftly followed by a return to prosperity, the Dutch famine constituted a highly aberrant situation of deprivation in a modern, developed nation.  The devastation began in September 1944 when Allied Airborne Forces failed to seize control of the bridge that crosses the Rhine River at Arnhem.  To impede German ground troops and assist the Allies, the Dutch government then ordered a railway strike, prompting the Germans to retaliate with an embargo that cut off food and fuel supplies to the central and western provinces of the Netherlands, including the country's largest urban centers.  Even after the embargo ended, railways remained dismantled and the Germans continued to requisition goods, stalling supplies.  This already dire situation was exacerbated by war-ravaged agricultural regions and an unusually harsh winter that froze the canals.  As the fighting dragged on, food rations dwindled.  Faced with escalating scarcity, urban dwellers desperately scoured the countryside seeking anything edible for which they could trade their valuables.  Many were reduced to eating tulip bulbs and grass.  The death toll from starvation alone reached 20,000.The famine was among the best documented in modern history, and the Dutch Hunger Winter Study has been the first study to examine the long-term consequences of intrauterine starvation.  The study compared 422 individuals exposed to adverse intrauterine conditions with 463 siblings who were the products of pregnancies that either came to term before the famine began or occurred afterward.  The initial results, published in 1976, revealed that, among other health consequences, individuals exposed to deprivation during early gestation had much higher than normal rates of obesity as adults.  Research by scientists from both the Netherlands and the US, together with new information from the field of epigenetics (the study of changes in gene expression barring alteration of the genetic code), now suggests that nutritional restriction during early gestation effectively inactivates specific genes.Additional studies have shown that genetic expression can be altered through the addition of a methyl group, an organic compound consisting of one carbon and three hydrogen atoms, to a DNA molecule.  This methylation can modify gene expression without altering the DNA sequence.  In other words, it changes an individual's phenotype, or the observable genetic expression, but does not change the genome.  With this discovery, scientists now theorize that in individuals whose mothers suffered near-starvation during the early stages of pregnancy, DNA methylation silenced specific genes that normally help boost the rate at which the body consumes cellular energy.  The inactivation of these genes lowers metabolism, causing an increased tendency toward adult obesity.Other factors such as diet, environment, and even stress have been shown to alter methylation patterns on genes.  Furthermore, it has now been documented that the offspring of the Hunger Winter babies frequently exhibit the same health problems as their parents, including not only obesity, but also diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  Thus, with the advancement of genomics, this unfortunate period of starvation in the Netherlands offers strong evidence that DNA methylation is heritable-invaluable knowledge that can be used to understand a multitude of disease processes. -Given the information in the passage, how might the Netherlands have escaped the German retribution?  The Dutch government could have:

Passage The word "edutainment" refers to educational entertainment, media designed to educate while entertaining the audience.  One of the more successful of such enterprises was Square One, a television show that aired in the 1980s and 1990s.  Focusing on mathematics, Square One aimed to instruct elementary school children in a way that captured their attention and made them eager to learn.  Such objectives are common to most attempts at teaching.  But well-made educational entertainment goes a step further than simply trying to make learning enjoyable; ideally, the program is of a quality such that audiences find it worthwhile to watch for its entertainment value alone.Square One approached this goal in a number of ways, its iconic music videos being one of the most memorable.  Songs like "Angle Dance" and "Less Than Zero" described concepts such as acuteness or negative numbers, while the lyrics of "Archimedes" lauded the mathematical insights of that famous thinker.  Most of the songs contained humorous elements: the exhausted singers of "That's Infinity" tried vainly to reach the largest number, while "Eight Percent of My Love" saw a boy serenade his girlfriend about the small fraction of love he could give her (having already given away 92 percent to friends, the USA, his bicycle, and other things).  All of the songs boasted high production values and talented performers, subconsciously encouraging viewers to continue humming their lessons to themselves even after the show's closing credits.The creativity of these songs featured popular culture aspects that were often more noticeable to parents than to the child viewers themselves.  For instance, adults could easily guess that "Ghost of a Chance" (a song about probability) was inspired by Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and "Juan Cougar" was a reference to an actual singer, John Cougar Mellencamp.  Other parts of the show included similar references.  Details such as these functioned as a bonus, however, as the target audience found the material compelling despite not grasping all the references that elicited smiles from their elders.  Cabot and Marshmallow's "What's in a Name?" was comedic even without knowledge of the famous Abbott and Costello "Who's on First?" skit from which it was derived.  The math-based detective work of "Mathnet" was amusing and instructional even to those too young to have seen Dragnet.In addition to the music, skits, cartoons, and parodies constituting many of the program's segments, game shows were another way in which Square One imparted instruction.  The prizes were unexciting (everyday apparel bearing the Square One logo), but that was to be expected for a production that aired on public broadcasting.  Of course, the prizes were also not the point.  Part of the draw of a commercial game show may be a fabulous package of expensive prizes and money, but the game shows of Square One focused on education.In light of that distinction, one can imagine the most typical criticism of any educational entertainment program.  Education and entertainment are, at their cores, not aimed at the same ends.  Whether it is the worse crime to be insufficiently didactic or to be excessively didactic may depend on whom one asks; either way, one might worry that a work attempting to impart both amusement and instruction would ultimately fail in at least one of those objectives.  Yet Square One was that rare instance in which both goals were met.  Many children who disliked mathematics in school still enjoyed viewing a show with songs and skits about the subject, and for those who already enjoyed mathematics, all the better.  Teachers had good reason to be happy about the show's existence, and its lively presentation of educational concepts can surely be credited with the improved academic performance of many students. -Suppose that clothing with the Square One logo currently sells for large amounts of money online and is worn throughout the country.  If true, how would this information affect the author's claims about Square One's game shows?

Passage Since the 1950s, scholars have been engaged in reconstructing a multifarious collection of ancient sacred texts, now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, from a welter of as many as 100,000 fragments of disparate size and shape.  With some fragments no larger than a postage stamp and covered with barely decipherable writing, the formidable paleographic project presents a jigsaw puzzle of epic proportions and frustrating intricacy.  Yet, despite the fragmentary condition of the scrolls, their discovery has turned out to be the most important religious archaeological windfall of the 20th century.The scrolls were found in large pottery jars hidden inside the caves that dot the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, at a site called Khirbet Qumran, 13 miles east of the city of Jerusalem, by Bedouin goatherds in late 1946.  In the desert near Qumran, members of a Jewish sect known as the Essenes had established a small community during the latter half of the Second Temple period that began in the 6th century BCE and lasted into the first century CE.  The Essenes are noted in the works of the Roman statesman and historian Pliny the Elder, the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, and the Jewish historian Josephus.  In the first century, Pliny described the Qumran community as a monastic brotherhood that followed an ascetic lifestyle of work, prayer, and the study of sacred law and esoteric doctrine.  The Essenes differed from the mainstream Jewish community in objecting to animal sacrifices and subscribing to the heretical dictum that fate is "the mistress of all."  The group had migrated to the desert, eschewing urban areas, as Philo reports, "because of the ungodliness customary among the city-dwellers."The scrolls date from approximately 250 BCE to 68 CE.  Scholars speculate that they represent either the library of the Essene community or the collected works of various local Jewish groups.  It is likely that the Essenes stashed the scrolls in jars and placed these inside the caves when they fled the imminent destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple (Herod's Temple) by the Romans in 70 CE.  The more than 900 identified manuscripts include parts of every book in the Old Testament canon except the Book of Esther, some with as many as 39 copies.  Only one scroll, the Great Isaiah Scroll, offers a virtually intact book: its 24 feet of parchment features all 66 chapters of the Book of Isaiah.  Other scrolls contain noncanonical texts, including apocrypha and pseudepigrapha-late pseudonymous writings ascribed to various biblical prophets and patriarchs.  Before the scrolls' fortuitous discovery, some of these works were known only through translations, or even translations of translations.  A few scrolls contain extra-biblical texts, chiefly sectarian manuals cataloguing the rules of the Essene community.Over 75% of the parchment and papyrus scrolls are written in Hebrew; most of the others are in Aramaic (a related language that had become the standard linguistic currency in the Near East), while a smaller number are inscribed in ancient Greek.  The writing on the scrolls moves from right to left with only the occasional paragraph break for punctuation, which makes deciphering the manuscripts almost as daunting a task as piecing together their fragments.The manuscripts demonstrate remarkable consistency with the Masoretic or medieval Hebrew text used for many English translations of the Bible, notably the King James Version. Thus, the scrolls, which predate the Masoretic text by about 1,000 years, largely substantiate its reliability and authoritative status.  They also offer a window onto a critical period in Judeo-Christian culture; in particular, they confirm the religious diversity of the time and the similarity of an eschatological, messianic Jewish sect of the first century to early Christian communities. -The author's mention of the term "linguistic currency" (Paragraph 4) to refer to the use of Aramaic most directly applies to this language's:

Passage For decades, socialism has been a pervasive bogeyman laying siege at the periphery of the American psyche.  Policies and candidates alike are dismissed out of hand by pronouncing them "socialist," the term sufficing to preclude further consideration.  However, such reactions to any topic ought to give us pause: have we truly judged an idea as unworthy, impractical, or unjust?  Or do we simply demonstrate an unreflective fear of a label?Initial prejudice notwithstanding, legitimate scrutiny is warranted.  Perhaps the gravest threat of socialist programmes to capitalist America is their perceived unfairness-that the rewards of labor or industry will be siphoned from those who rightfully own or generate them and bestowed upon those who did not contribute to their production.Shall we accept without question, however, the assumptions intrinsic to such notions of "rightful" ownership, or more generally, those of fairness itself?  In fact, capitalists and socialists will likely agree on the broad outlines of what fairness entails.  The objection to redistribution of wealth rests on the idea that it takes from the more deserving and gives to the less-if not to the lazy or the layabout.  Given equality of opportunity, why should he who toils be denied the right of harvest?  Why should he who idles be afforded an equal reward?Nonetheless, this claim of initial social equality is precisely what socialism rejects as illusory.  Let us suppose that everyone in society begins life upon equal footing.  None are afforded a greater portion of opportunity, but all are competitors in open tests of skill over time.  By merit, coupled with the vicissitudes of fortune, some ascend to the heights of success, others plummet to the depths of failure, still more inhabit some middle ground.  Equality is shattered, but justly, and from an early uniformity of status rise differences in wealth, garnered according to the abilities and enterprise displayed by each person.As time passes, however, the wealth or destitution of one generation is bequeathed to the next, and then inequality becomes ingrained.  What was before an earned difference of outcome is now an unearned difference of potential.  One individual has an advantage that another lacks-not gained through striving and perseverance but inherited through accident of birth.Such effects only compound over time.  Inevitably, dynasties of wealth accrue by which a few through mere circumstance enjoy economic mastery over the many, who face through the tyranny of chance an undeserved impediment.  The socialist's claim, then, is that complaints against redistribution of wealth fail in light of the very concern for fairness upon which they are founded.This same concern has led various leaders throughout history to implement socialism.  For instance, eleventh-century Chinese statesman Wang An-shih instituted state control of the economy "with a view to succoring the working classes and preventing them from being ground into dust by the rich."  This noble goal met with only temporary success, however, as the system later fell to governmental corruption, private greed, and untimely droughts and floods.Are the dismissive reactions towards socialism then justified?  Not as such.  Capitalism has many virtues, but it is equally liable to exploitation.  In post-industrial America, governmental reforms and regulations on commerce and industry were required to redress the systemic injustices perpetuated by dynastic wealth, as well as to protect the welfare of a multitude bound to wages insufficient to secure life's necessities.  Perhaps the lesson to be drawn is that a "pure" form of either capitalism or socialism will ultimately prove destructive.  Rather than embrace or reject one system from the outset, we must avoid a focus on labels and instead inquire which ideas, and in what combination, best promote the justice whose value we profess. -According to the author, many people reject socialism primarily due to:

Passage To consult diverse interpretations is beneficial, especially in literature purporting to speak to the fundaments of human experience.  Reviewing alternative readings not only undermines complacency in scholarship, it reminds us that questions of meaning should seldom be viewed as settled but instead as suggestive of various avenues of discovery.Nevertheless, another pitfall lies at the opposite extreme.  The fear of missing genuine interpretive possibilities may lead one to imagine more differences in readings than truly exist, obscuring a hidden homogeneity among seemingly divergent understandings.  It has been said that to truly understand a people one must synthesize its stories; we must also acknowledge that to truly understand a story one must synthesize its interpretations.David McKee's deceptively rich Not Now, Bernard is an instructive example.  The plot initially concerns the futile attempts of a child to gain his parents' attention, to which, no matter the circumstance, the busy adults invariably reply: "Not now, Bernard."  The culmination of these encounters comes when Bernard informs them of a monster outside that wants to eat him, only to receive the same dismissive response.  Bernard walks into the yard and approaches the monster, whereupon "The monster ate Bernard up, every bit."The reader's shock at this turn of events is only increased upon seeing the reaction of Bernard's parents, who are entirely unfazed.  Indeed, they are entirely unaware.  The monster enters the house, eats Bernard's dinner, breaks Bernard's toy, and even bites Bernard's father, all the while finding itself just as ignored as Bernard had been.  Finally facing the indignity of being tucked into bed, the monster complains: "But I'm a monster," only to be told-naturally-"Not now, Bernard."Marina Warner views this delightfully savage story as informed by the same primal motivations which produced the carnivorous fiends of traditional fairy tales.  Referencing the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein, Warner writes: "the ogre who used to stalk children has now been internalized as the image of inner compulsions, especially greed and the ferocious survival instinct….  [I]t is the child who can be understood to be the potentially insatiable devourer, the possible monster of greed and gratification and excess."  Bernard's parents "cannot tell the difference between a tiny tot and an angry beast because the two are all the same to them: that is how they see Bernard."  Thus Warner casts McKee's tale as an incisive commentary on "parents who are so automatic in their oblivion-and rejection-that they do not notice when their child has been eaten."Intriguingly, writer Sheila Hancock assumes that Bernard's parents are not oblivious.  On her interpretation no one has been eaten and replaced; rather, the monster is Bernard.  It is worth noting that of the two lines spoken by the monster, the first is simply "ROAR," a bestial vocalization that makes little impression upon Bernard's mother ("Not now, Bernard").  The human-sounding "But I'm a monster" comes later, after a series of events in which the presence of a monster in the house has been treated as unremarkable.  The apparent powerlessness of the monster to be perceived as anything but mundane suggests it could be merely the external manifestation of the child's frustrated psyche.Even so, Hancock's view would not completely absolve Bernard's parents, who consistently ignore their son even if they do not literally allow him to be devoured.  Nor does the story lose its significance on Hancock's symbolic interpretation of events; rather, the latent psychological motivations identified by Warner would be just as operant.  Hence, whether the monster is literal or metaphorical, these seemingly divergent interpretations in fact exhibit a clear and striking coherence. -The main point of the passage is that:

Passage Since its origins in India around the 5th century C.E., the game of chess has gradually evolved into the modern form now played across the globe.  Although most people have some idea of what chess entails, there are many misconceptions about its practice.  For instance, a non-player might wonder about the maximum number of moves that can be planned in advance, but an experienced player would find that question naïve.  The unsatisfying but accurate answer is that it depends on the position, because the opponent's potential moves will at some points require calculating numerous possibilities but at other points will be an entirely forced sequence.  Similarly, a common scenario in fiction is for a player to defeat an opponent by sudden surprise-the rival's look of confidence morphing into complete disbelief as the winner unexpectedly proclaims "Checkmate."  In real chess such abrupt triumph occurs rarely or never, as the inevitability of checkmate will have been readily apparent to both sides.Checkmate is the primary goal of chess, but it is not the only way in which games may end, nor even the only way in which games may be won.  Indeed, at higher levels of play checkmate is uncommon, because the losing side typically resigns rather than prolong an unavoidable defeat by playing until checkmate has occurred.  One may also win "by flag" if the opponent runs out of time.  Nonetheless, not all games of chess result in a win for either side.  A draw may ensue by agreement of the players, by stalemate, or under certain other conditions.Public discourse about chess can occasionally veer into the ridiculous.  In 1912, it was reported that a move made by chess champion Frank Marshall elicited such admiration from onlookers that they showered gold pieces onto the board.  While the move may indeed be considered a brilliancy (thought by some to be the most beautiful chess move ever played), the story must otherwise be spurious.  Even supposing that the viewers were so impressed as to engage in such specific and effusive praise, precisely how much gold were they supposed to have had?At one time, the prospect of machines playing chess was widely deemed absurd.  Writer Edgar Allan Poe declared that its impossibility could be established a priori because, unlike the steps of a mathematical demonstration, "[n]o one move in chess necessarily follows upon any one other."  In the early 19th century, a human-shaped machine labeled "The Turk" toured the United States as a supposed chess-playing automaton.  Although its owner claimed and seemed to prove that it was purely mechanical, Poe correctly concluded that the device was actually operated by a real person hidden inside its cabinet.  Despite this subterfuge, however, machine chess was not fundamentally impossible as Poe believed.  The early chess computers of the 1960s possessed only limited abilities, but by 1997 IBM's "Deep Blue" had defeated world champion Garry Kasparov.  Today, the strongest chess computers are unbeatable in fair contests by even the most skilled human grandmasters.Nevertheless, however unassailable in the realm of calculation, computers will always lack the most valuable trait of any chess player.  Blaise Pascal once wrote: "When the universe has crushed him man will still be nobler than that which kills him, because he knows that he is dying, and of its victory the universe knows nothing."  In a similar sense, although computers may "win" at chess, they can never experience their victory.  The artistry of a move like Marshall's will forever be lost on them, while a human being can view and partake in its beauty, making the enjoyment of chess a distinctly human pleasure. -The passage discussion about machines and chess implies that:

Passage The fledgling public television industry faced an uncertain future in the late 1960s.  Near the end of his presidency, Democrat Lyndon Johnson allocated $20 million to create the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  In 1969, however, his newly elected Republican successor Richard Nixon hoped to reduce government spending and was considering a cut of 50% or more to that appropriation.  Before a final decision was made, public broadcasting representatives were invited to appear before Congress to make their case for the full funding.  One of their leaders, future Public Broadcasting Service president Hartford N. Gunn, Jr., asked TV personality Fred Rogers to join him in testifying as a key advocate for public television.As the creator and host of the show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers embodied moral values, a deep sense of purpose, and concern for the welfare of children, all of which would later make him one of the most beloved figures in television history.  At the time of the congressional hearing, however, Rogers' show had aired nationally for only a year.  Although highly regarded by his current audience, Rogers did not yet possess the level of recognition he would eventually obtain.  His televised appearance before the Sub-Committee on Communications would be many Americans' first time seeing him.  In addition, despite having studied early childhood development under such prominent psychologists as Benjamin Spock and Margaret McFarland, Rogers was not widely known as an expert in that field.  In short, Rogers was an unusual figure to be chosen to testify before Congress.  Rogers' biographer Maxwell King describes Gunn's decision to depend so heavily on Rogers' testimony as "a pretty big gamble."Chairing the sub-committee hearing was Democratic senator John Pastore of Rhode Island, portrayed by King as "a blunt, no-nonsense social conservative who shared the Republican interest in keeping federal spending in line."  Pastore had also been critical of the television industry for what he saw as its promotion of immorality.  Although those criticisms had been leveled primarily at commercial programs, Pastore's views certainly couldn't have helped the case that Rogers needed to make.  The unproven nature of public television as a recent enterprise added an additional hurdle to securing the funding.Nevertheless, despite the odds stacked against him, Fred Rogers greatly impressed Pastore and the rest of the sub-committee.  Rather than giving the type of formal testimony that might have been expected at such a hearing, Rogers simply spoke earnestly about what, in his view, made public television so important.  He shared Pastore's worries about television's content, and was especially concerned about television geared toward children.  Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which addressed children directly and acknowledged their unique perspective, was based on Rogers' vision of public programming as a positive social force.  As he explained, taking children's problems seriously and showing them that their lives can be understood and managed makes a profound difference in the type of people they become and the society they help to create.The highlight of the testimony came when Rogers recited the lyrics to one of the songs from his show, which had been inspired by a child's question about how to deal with anger.  The song acknowledges the frustrations and fears of childhood while affirming each child's ability to control his or her feelings and behavior.  Rogers' simple but encouraging words clearly moved the sub-committee members, including Senator Pastore, who responded: "Looks like you just earned the twenty million dollars."  Hartford Gunn's gamble had paid off.  In an interesting twist of affairs, Pastore himself testified the following year at the White House Conference on Children-an event chaired by none other than Fred Rogers. -Based on passage information, which of the following countries exhibited an overconfident attitude in their attempts to build a canal in Panama?

Passage An untamed but generative masculine spirit, ubiquitous though often elusive, haunts the interconnection of humans with nature.  Among its most prominent images are the carved faces, formed from leaves or sprouting them, that peer out from medieval church ceilings and walls.  At once comic and forbidding, this foliate head is neither a gargoyle nor a merely decorative motif, but an archetype whose history stretches as deeply into the mists of time and myth as the roots of a tree.  Nevertheless, it was only as recently as 1939 that British scholar Julia Hamilton Somerset, better known as Lady Raglan, noting a carved face of entwined leaves in a church in southeast Wales, initiated a study of similar images and christened this mysterious male presence the "Green Man."Like many mythological figures, the Green Man is syncretic, interweaving several images and themes or variations on a pattern.  He is, as writer John Matthews claims, "far larger than any simple attempt to define him."  Chiefly, the Green Man symbolizes the union of humans and nature.  Indissolubly linked with the vegetative cycle and the agricultural year, he exudes vitality and fertility and signals both material and spiritual abundance.  Whether as the foliage-covered King of the May Day, also called Jack-in-the-Green, or as the King of the Harvest, John Barleycorn, the Green Man has been an indispensable element of traditional European village celebrations.  He is Keeper of the Forest as well as woodwose, the wild man of the woods, and is sometimes recognized as the consort of Mother Nature.Green Man images can be found in mosaics and carvings from the early Roman Empire.  Originally a pagan icon, the Green Man was incorporated into early Christian iconography, reaching a zenith of architectural popularity in Europe from the eleventh through the fifteenth century.  Notably, Chartres Cathedral in France, built in 1194, features 70 foliate heads, while in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, constructed in 1446, no fewer than 103 such heads can be counted.  The Green Man was also known farther east; for instance, near Hatra in present-day Iraq, an imposing leafy countenance stares out from the façade of an ancient temple.The Green Man's lineage is multifaceted.  In the West he is a variant of Dionysus, the god of the vine who dies and is reborn.  Indeed, the fifth-century BCE statue of a leaf-clad Dionysus or Bacchus in Naples, Italy, is perhaps his oldest surviving image, although Dionysus may himself descend from the green-skinned Egyptian god Osiris who likewise dies and rises.  The Green Man is thought to be related to the rustic Greco-Roman deities Pan and Silvanus, and, more speculatively, to Cernunnos, the Celtic horned god of the hunt and lord of the animals.  In the East this mythic being manifests in the figure of Al-Khidir, the Verdant or Green One who is a spiritual guide of heroes in the Koran.Green Man figures also pervade Western literature, which was influenced at its origin by the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh and its character of Enkidu, a wild, shaggy nature man fashioned by the gods as a counterpart to the young King Gilgamesh.  Later the medieval tales of King Arthur feature the baffling Green Knight, who, like the eastern Al-Khidir, is a warrior guide.  In the fifteenth century, the Green Man reemerges as Robin Hood; in the twentieth century, J. M. Barrie's eternally youthful Peter Pan is tellingly "clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that flow from trees."In Matthews' view, the Green Man is the embodiment of "unvanquishable greenness."  This perspective might explain the recurrence of his image and its recent adoption by environmental awareness movements as an assurance of ecological renewal. -According to the passage author, Colin Prior's mistaken assumption regarding the keys worn by Turkana females was based on Prior's:somewhat insufficient understanding of Blumer's principle.somewhat insufficient training as a cultural researcher.somewhat excessive attempt to avoid ethnocentrism.