In addition to the giant stock exchanges in places like London, Mumbai, and Tokyo, there are many smaller exchanges such as the Beirut Stock Exchange in Beirut, Lebanon. Though small, by being dedicated to Lebanon, it can better address factors that help local businesses ______, and that focus on the success of local businesses benefits investors and the local economy.

The following text is from Rudolfo Anaya's 1972 novel Bless Me, Ultima. Two of the narrator's adult brothers have decided to move away from home. Another brother has decided not to accompany them.
In the morning León and Eugene were gone, but Andrew remained. They had talked long into the night, and finally he had given up the idea of going with them. I think he did not like to follow their ways, and he wanted to please my mother.
©1972 by Rudolfo Anaya

At a conference for aspiring children's book illustrators, Wil Clay, illustrator of such lauded works as Little Eight John, was the subject of a presentation that was intended specifically to foster ______ the techniques of successful illustrators so that attendees could use that understanding to improve their own work.

Corrine Walsh and colleagues tested whether soil microorganisms from ecologically different settings—aspen grove, irrigated pasture, and so on—affect plants' flavor chemistry. Although they found associations between plants' glucosinolates (compounds that produce spicy and bitter flavors) and plants' growth conditions, variations in glucosinolates could not be ______ soil microbes specifically.

The Walt Whitman House in Camden, New Jersey, is the house where Walt Whitman lived for eight years and where he wrote later editions of his poetry collection Leaves of Grass. Now the house is a museum dedicated to Whitman's life and writings. Visitors travel to this museum to feel more connected to an author they admire. To encourage that sense of connection, the museum's curators have set up exhibits with furnishings and décor owned by Whitman. Such exhibits help visitors understand day-to-day life in the house where Whitman felt inspired.

The following text is adapted from Henrik Ibsen's 1899 play When We Dead Awaken (translated by William Archer in 1907). Ulfheim is introducing himself to Professor Rubek, a sculptor.
ULFHEIM: I believe I have the honour of addressing no less a person than the great Sculptor Rubek.
PROFESSOR RUBEK: (Nods.) I remember meeting you once or twice—the autumn when I was last at home.
ULFHEIM: That's many years ago, now. And then you weren't so illustrious as I hear you've since become.

Text 1
Brown University and the investment bank Barclays are two of the many institutions offering training programs in entrepreneurship. But what results do such programs produce? In a study of business school graduates in Norway, researchers Lars Kolvereid and Øystein Moen addressed this question and convincingly demonstrated that participants showed strong intentions to become entrepreneurs as a result of receiving entrepreneurial training.
Text 2
While studies of entrepreneurial training typically report positive results, a close look at these studies reveals widespread methodological shortcomings. For instance, a 1997 study by Lars Kolvereid and Øystein Moen found benefits of entrepreneurial education for graduates of Norwegian business schools, but the study only collected data on subjects after the training, not before, making it unclear whether the training actually had an effect.

Scientists study the abundance and the activity ratios (AR)—the relative radioactive decay rates of two isotopes—of uranium (U) isotopes in bodies of water to track sediment transport and deposition and to monitor groundwater quality. However, isotope abundance and AR are not always uniform across a single body of water, which may affect the reliability of results if sampling is not sufficiently representative. Chen Zhao et al. analyzed concentrations of the isotope U-238 and the U-234/U-238 AR at multiple depths and locations in two lakes in China, finding no significant variation in values within the same lake.

One challenge faced by researchers studying global urbanization is that different countries have different definitions of what constitutes an urban settlement. Many countries define urban settlements based on the number of people living in them. However, countries do not all use the same number; for example, Greenland uses a minimum population of 200, while Benin uses 10,000. Other countries use a combination of population and other factors, like how close buildings are to each other. This variation makes it difficult for researchers to compare aspects of urbanization in different countries.

Scientists collected information about brown bears in Katmai National Park in Alaska. This information included each bear's sex, age, and approximate weight. Among the bears whose information is shown in the table, the youngest one was the bear with identification number ______

In the 1980s and 1990s, many countries began allowing foreign investors to purchase shares of companies based in those countries.

Psychologists Gregory Bryant, Dorsa Amir, and colleagues investigated cross-cultural perceptions of spontaneous (real) laughter and volitional (fake or forced) laughter. Study participants from 21 societies, including those in Japan and Turkey, listened to randomized recordings of 18 spontaneous laughs taken from natural conversations between pairs of women and 18 volitional laughs produced separately by 18 different women in response to an instruction to laugh. Analysis of the participants' evaluations of the laughs prompted the team to conclude that the ability to distinguish between spontaneous and volitional laughter appears to be universal across cultures.

Certain species, such as Hay's Spring amphipods (Stygobromus hayi), lack functional eyes or ocular organs altogether and rely on other mechanisms for navigation. Licheng Yuan and colleagues investigated such mechanisms in the Chinese red-headed centipede (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans), which has no organs with photoreceptors (light-detecting cells) but can sense and avoid sunlight. The researchers placed individual specimens in a clear container (container 1) connected to a container covered in black tape (container 2) and then exposed the containers to simulated sunlight. They observed a rapid increase in the temperature of the centipedes' antennae with the onset of exposure, followed by the centipedes' escape to container 2. Based on their observations, the researchers concluded that thermal receptors in the antennae are likely responsible for light detection in the centipedes.

Introducing a new species into a delicate ecosystem can often be harmful. The common waxbill and other fruit-eating birds have established themselves on the Hawaiian island of Oahu after being brought there in the last 150 years. Many plant species on the island rely on the activity of fruit-eating birds to maintain and increase their populations. In recent studies, common waxbills have been found to spread seeds of native forest plants that are at risk of extinction, such as the olomea shrub and the alahee tree, suggesting that ______

Many Indigenous songs serve as repositories of ecological knowledge—e.g., Yi songs about the natural environment and O'odham songs about desert plants. In a study by ethnobiologist Dana Lepofsky et al., a song keeper for the Kwakwaka'wakw people provided access to ancient songs referring to the people's creation of terraced intertidal gardens to foster clams for consumption. Cross-references of that information with both archaeological and paleoecological records have revealed significant increases in clam size and productivity concurrent with the most prevalent use of these clam gardens. This finding suggests that researchers should consider ______

The smoke point of corn oil ______ around 450 degrees Fahrenheit. When corn oil is heated past this temperature, it will begin to combust and emit smoke.

Because many of the first cattle ranchers in the US learned the trade from Spanish-speaking Mexican vaqueros (cowboys), many ranching terms in the English language come from Spanish. One example is the word "lasso." It comes from the Spanish word lazo. Another example is "rodeo." ______ comes from the Spanish word rodear.

Located in what is now Egypt, the Pyramid of Userkaf is one of the oldest known structures in the world, ______ researchers a glimpse into ages long gone.

In the Suzuki method, folk songs like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" are taught to beginning music students as young as three, while students of traditional methods often only ______ such songs at the age of five.

Marché Monge has operated for more than a century, making ______ both a popular shopping destination and an important piece of Paris's history.

When a soil is classified using the International Union of Soil Sciences' system, its similarity to each of the 32 soil reference groups—defined by several criteria—______ evaluated, one group at a time, until a match is found. The comparisons are made in a specific order; thus, the criteria for kastanozems (soils with highly organic topsoil) are only applied if the soil doesn't match the criteria for planosols.

In the early 1920s, researchers at the US Geological Survey determined the geographic center of Maine using a simple method. First, they attached a string to the middle point of a cardboard cutout of the state and suspended it in the air. ______ they adjusted the suspension point until the cutout hung perfectly flat. Ultimately, this point was determined to be the center.

When the first railroads were built in Australia in the 1800s, a variety of track sizes (gauges) were used across the continent, resulting in what historians call the "railway gauge muddle." The Mornington Railway line in Victoria used broad tracks. ______ the Rockhampton Steam Tramway line in Queensland used narrow gauge tracks.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Snow hydrologist Zoe Wellschlager helps maintain automated snow measurement stations throughout the western United States.
• They are called SNOTEL sites.
• There are around 90 sites throughout Wyoming.
• There is one at Cottonwood Creek.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Wind is a renewable energy source.
• A wind farm uses turbines to convert wind into electrical power.
• A wind farm's maximum electrical output is called its nameplate capacity.
• Hornsdale Wind Farm is located in Hornsdale, Australia.
• Its nameplate capacity is 316 megawatts.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• The Wayang Windu geothermal power plant in Indonesia uses a flash steam system to generate electricity.
• Flash steam technology requires geothermal reservoir temperatures above 180°C.
• The use of flash steam systems worldwide is limited because many geothermal reservoirs aren't hot enough.
• The Raft River geothermal power plant in Idaho uses a binary cycle system.
• Binary cycle technology can generate energy from lower-temperature (less than 180°C) geothermal reservoirs.
• Binary cycle systems involve higher maintenance costs than flash steam systems.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• ArcelorMittal Orbit is an artwork by Sir Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond.
• It is a 375-foot steel tower with a spiraling staircase and working slide.
• It is on display in a public park in London, England.
• Čumil the Sewer Worker is a work of art by Viktor Hulík.
• It is a bronze sculpture of a man emerging from under a manhole cover.
• It is on display on a public street in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The following text is adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri's 2003 novel The Namesake. Ashima and her husband, Ashoke, are traveling from the United States to India.
Ashoke puts his hand over hers as the plane begins to gather speed. And then Boston tilts away and they ascend effortlessly over a blackened Atlantic.
©2003 by Jhumpa Lahiri

The ______ Wendy Wan-Long Shang's book The Great Wall of Lucy Wu has been very positive. Many reviewers have praised the book, and it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

Described in treatises mainly published between 1768 and 1950 (such as William Holdsworth and William Aldridge’s Natural Short-Hand), musical stenography used quickly written squiggles and dots in an attempt to preserve, in print and in real time, the ______ features of live performances—those that result from impromptu deviations of performers when fidelity to an established musical score is not mandated.

Research on Chaenocephalus aceratus and other icefishes of the Teleostei class has shown that their hearts are pale due to low levels of myoglobin expression, which was once thought to be related to their polar habitats. Recently, researchers have found that some tropical teleost species (such as Sphaeramia nematoptera) also have pale hearts, raising the possibility that myoglobin deficiency in teleosts could be ______ habitat.

In 2013 Bridie J.M. Allan and colleagues published a study concluding that ocean acidification has a strong effect on the behavior of Pomacentrus amboinensis, a species of fish. However, Allan and colleagues' study relied on a mean sample size of only about 18 fish. In a 2022 review of various scientists' conclusions about the impacts of ocean acidification on fish behavior, Josefin Sundin and colleagues caution that relying on such a relatively small sample size can increase the potential for biased analysis. Such analysis, in turn, can contribute to reports of exaggerated effects.

Editor Jared Shurin's 2023 anthology The Big Book of Cyberpunk contains 108 stories, an enormous number when compared to the 1986 cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades, which has only twelve. Encompassing both early (e.g., Fritz Leiber's 1950 story "Coming Attraction") and more recent (e.g., Erica Satifka's 2021 story "Act of Providence") contributions, the broad chronological scope of Shurin's volume may make it seem more comprehensive than Mirrorshades, but Mirrorshades's focus is more carefully considered, rendering it the more authoritative anthology of this science fiction subgenre.

Wenheng Zhang and colleagues have explored how convergent evolution—a phenomenon that occurs when the same trait evolves independently in two reproductively separate lineages—can result from a genetic mechanism shared by both lineages. Meanwhile, Patricia J. Wittkopp and colleagues have investigated how convergence occurs through different genetic mechanisms, but the relative prevalence of convergence through shared and different genetic processes is still poorly understood. This motivated biologists Delbert A. Green II and Cassandra G. Extavour to evaluate both types of convergence in a single study for their 2012 paper.

Text 1
As part of a study of ungulates (hoofed mammals) native to the Yellowstone River basin, fresh dung samples from identified individuals were collected in the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Bison Range of Montana. Based on steroidal analysis, on average the bison and elk samples had similar levels of beta-sitosterol and stigmastanol, which distinguished these species' profiles from that of moose.
Text 2
Although fecal-steroidal profile alone is not sufficient to distinguish between samples from bison and those from elk, the relative levels of zoostanols (steroids with animal origins), such as coprostanol and 24-ethyl-coprostanol, in sediments at Buffalo Ford Lake in Yellowstone National Park show that bison, elk, or both were the predominant ungulates in the lake's watershed for all strata of sediment examined, going as far back as 2,300 years.

Did you know that the Warwick is just one of around three million known shipwrecks spread across the world's oceans? Leila Hamdan and team wanted to find out how wooden shipwrecks affect the distribution of microbes on the seafloor. The researchers studied two wooden shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico. They placed pieces of pine and oak between 0 and 200 meters away from each shipwreck to collect samples of microbes. They found that pine and oak pieces placed about 125 meters from the shipwrecks had the most species of microbes on them.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum. In the novel, the narrator describes Dorothy's dog, Toto, as causing Dorothy to feel cheerful: ______

Baleen whales eat up to 30 percent of their total body mass in krill (tiny shrimplike creatures) per day. So in one day, a humpback whale weighing 30,000 kg could eat 9,000 kg, while a southern right whale weighing 80,000 kg could ingest a whopping 24,000 kg. Over the last century, baleen whale populations have declined, and contrary to some scientists' expectations, so have krill populations. Matthew S. Savoca and colleagues resolve this apparent discrepancy by pointing out that baleen whales cycle iron in the ocean, helping support phytoplankton populations, which, in turn, sustain krill populations.

Calculations may be inexact due to rounding.
A student in an economics course is examining the decline since 1950 in average hours worked per person per year in various nations due to both increased productivity and the adoption of policies that limit working hours. The first task in this investigation is to determine how the decline in Switzerland compares to that in other countries. The student finds that ______

The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by Edith Wharton set in New York City in the 1870s. In the novel, Newland Archer attends an opera. Newland compares his intellect favorably to that of other men of New York City society who are in the audience: ______

Paleontologist Amane Tajika and colleagues analyzed the shells of two marine mollusks called nautilids that were harvested from New Caledonia. The researchers found that samples from shell sections that formed before hatching, including sample F04, formed in 20–22°C water, whereas samples from sections that formed after hatching, including M27, formed in 13–15°C water. These findings are consistent with the temperatures Fijian nautilids encounter during their corresponding stages of development. Because water temperature varies with depth, a biology student hypothesized that the New Caledonian nautilids lay their eggs at approximately the same depth as Fijian nautilids do.

The Mammillaria cactus M. guerreronis occurs naturally only in the state of Guerrero in Mexico, and the smallness of its range makes it especially vulnerable to extinction. The traditional single-species approach to conservation emphasizes the need to focus on individual species most at risk, like M. guerreronis, but recently, conservationists have argued that an ecosystem-based approach that incorporates the many interactions between the climate, terrain, and various species of a given geographical area may lead to better outcomes for all the species in a given location. An ecosystem-based approach to the conservation of M. guerreronis could thus ______

In 1927, the Swedish Academy presented Henri Bergson of France with an ______ that few authors would turn down: the Nobel Prize in Literature.

When first looking at San Carlos Apache artist Evalena Henry's woven baskets, viewers are likely to notice the baskets' detailed animal imagery. Upon closer inspection, Henry's careful construction ______ apparent.

The Hereford map is a mappa mundi from the fourteenth century. Currently held at Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England, it is one of over 1,000 such world maps from the European Middle Ages still remaining, with the even older Vercelli map from the thirteenth century (now held at the Archivio Capitolare in Vercelli, Italy) ______ another one.

When documenting butterfly diversity at Rupa Lake in Nepal, researcher Alyssa B. Stewart and her colleagues spotted a very rare butterfly of the Hesperiidae family and, after careful examination, knew exactly what species it belonged ______ Ochus subvittatus.

The relationship between grassland arthropod populations and agricultural fertilizers containing macronutrients—such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—was the focus of a 2013 study in the ______ by the researcher Laura A. Burkle, the study examined a variety of arthropod specimens, which had been collected by hand.

A writer whose debut novel is a success may struggle to live up to that first book's promise. ______ as in the case of Tommy Orange, author of the popular debut There There (2018) and the sequel Wandering Stars (2024), the follow-up actually elevates the writer's reputation. (Wandering Stars was labeled a "towering achievement" by the New York Times.)

Alabama is one of several US states to enact statutes supporting the incorporation of worker cooperatives, businesses with democratic governance. Many scholars testify to the economic sustainability of the co-op model while acknowledging its challenges. ______ those who declare the model inherently unviable can discount documented successes, while those who champion it may understate its challenges.

Until 1992, most Olympic Games included demonstration sports, which did not award medals. ______ a demonstration of glíma, a traditional Nordic form of wrestling, was featured at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

Many places that gained their independence from Spain in the nineteenth century still bear the legacy of the Spanish Empire in their language, including Spanish-speaking Cuba, which left the empire in 1898. ______ which ceased to be part of the Spanish Empire in 1648; Spanish is rarely spoken in the Netherlands in the twenty-first century.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) was a celebrated African American artist.
• She is best known for creating sculptures and prints that explore the Black experience.
• Catlett's sculpture Sister is made of bronze.
• She created this sculpture in 1973.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• NASA mission Expedition 14 took place from September 18, 2006, to April 21, 2007.
• Astronauts Michael López-Alegría and Sunita Williams were crew members of Expedition 14.
• January 31, 2007: López-Alegría and Williams performed an extravehicular activity (EVA) to replace instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope.
• An EVA (also known as a spacewalk) is an activity done by astronauts outside the spacecraft.
• The duration of their EVA was 7 hours and 55 minutes.
• Theirs is counted among the longest completed spacewalks to date.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Cheryll is the nickname of a Triceratops fossil specimen housed at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History.
• The Palm Beach Museum of Natural History is located in Wellington, Florida.
• Cheryll lived in the Late Cretaceous period.
• Dio is the nickname of a Triceratops fossil specimen housed at the Royal Ontario Museum.
• The Royal Ontario Museum is located in Ontario, Canada.
• Dio lived in the Late Cretaceous period.