A study by Augusta D. Gaspar and Joana Carneiro Pinto found that a bank’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts, including environmental and social campaigns, improve its corporate image. When CSR was mentioned in bank marketing strategies, favorability scores assigned by study participants tended to ______ the scores assigned by participants when CSR wasn’t mentioned.

Researchers have long debated the origins of silver used in European coins from the 600s through the early 800s CE. Geochemical analysis by Kershaw et al. of 49 coins dating to 660‒820 CE provides concrete evidence that reconciles two competing theories: early coins were made from Byzantine silver, and later coins used Frankish silver, findings that provide firm details in a previously ______ area of study.

The following text is adapted from Alice Dunbar Nelson’s 1899 short story “The Fisherman of Pass Christian.” Pass Christian is a city in the US state of Mississippi.
The swift breezes on the beach at Pass Christian meet and conflict as though each strove for the mastery of the air. The land-breeze blows down through the pines, resinous, fragrant, cold, bringing breath-like memories of dim, dark woods shaded by myriad pine-needles. The breeze from the Gulf is warm and soft and languorous, blowing up from the south with its suggestion of tropical warmth.

Science fiction has long served as a ______ real-world technological advancements. Indeed, from Jules Verne’s 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon inspiring developments in aerospace engineering to the television show Star Trek sparking the design of the ancestor of today’s smartphones, these narratives have spurred many actual innovations.

Any effort to raise the toll that drivers must pay to use the Lewis and Clark Bridge, which spans the Ohio River to connect Indiana and Kentucky, should explain why a higher toll is necessary; no amount of justification, however, is likely to persuade some drivers who believe the current toll is ______

Moving beyond a simple “present or absent” designation, researchers created a new classification system that allows for a nuanced understanding of bioluminescence in marine organisms that was unavailable under binary classification systems. The new six-point scale considers varying levels of supporting evidence used to identify bioluminescent species. For example, the firefly squid scores 1 because of inconsistent reports, the emperor squid scores 4 because of its anatomical similarity to known luminous relatives, and the shaggy anglerfish scores 6 because of substantiated direct observations.

Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity (PSP) refers to the presence of extensions of an animal’s lungs and air sacs inside its bones. These extensions are known as pneumatic diverticula. Vascularity and other identifying characteristics of pneumatic diverticula tend not to fossilize, so paleontologists have relied on studies of living bird species to document these qualities, augmenting their findings from fossil analysis to glean additional insights into the respiratory systems of extinct genera such as Tyrannosaurus, Euhelopus, and other Cretaceous theropods and sauropods that may have also exhibited PSP.

Adult glass eels can be found off the coast of Maine, but the eels begin their lives in the Sargasso Sea, a biodiverse area in the North Atlantic Ocean where they are born and later return to breed. Though biologists believe they have identified the general area in the Sargasso Sea that is crucial to the endangered eels’ survival, little is yet known about how the animals spawn there. Scientists believe that solving the mystery will lead to better conservation of glass eels and their habitat, helping in turn to sustain several other species that rely on them as a food source.

Seesaw Girl was Linda Sue Park’s debut novel. It was published in 1999. A debut novel is the first book that an author has published. Debut novels are especially interesting to literary critics (people whose job it is to evaluate books) and readers because these books offer a look at new voices in the literary world.

While doing research for a paper about metal exports, a student finds a table indicating how much copper was mined in each of four countries in 1995 and 2020. The student notes that in1995, Mexico mined ______

Peter Pan is a 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. In the fantasy novel, Peter is a young boy who can fly. He brings Wendy, John, and Michael to Neverland, the mythical island where he lives. The narrator suggests that activity on the island stops when Peter is away and starts again when he is about to return: ______

The Underdogs is a 1915 novel by Mariano Azuela, originally written in Spanish. In the novel, Azuela depicts the character Camilla as experiencing a change in how she perceives her immediate surroundings: ______

The Rarámuri language of northern Mexico has 20 vowel and consonant sounds. In contrast, the Taa language of southern Africa has over 100. Why would languages differ in this way? One researcher has claimed that when modern humans arose in Africa, they spoke a single language, but as humans gradually spread throughout Africa and then around the globe, that language developed into new languages. Those developed into still more languages as small bands of humans spread even farther, with each new language retaining fewer sounds from humanity’s original language.

Antonia Olivia Dolan and colleagues had musicians and nonmusicians with clinically average hearing listen to recordings of nature sounds and music in popular genres like acoustic folk and funk and adjust the volume to optimize their listening enjoyment. The researchers found that for a given recording that a musician and nonmusician identified as their favorite among those included in the study, optimal volume tended to be higher for the musician than for the nonmusician. Thus, if a musician and nonmusician both identified Jose Gonzalez’s “Heartbeats” as their favorite recording and the musician preferred to listen to it at a volume of 82.2 decibels, the nonmusician would be expected to ______

Outi Tervo and team studied the effect of human-caused noise on narwhals (Monodon monoceros), arctic marine mammals that are sensitive to acoustic changes in their environment. Hypothesizing that elevated sound levels affect foraging among narwhals, Tervo’s team compared narwhal diving behaviors in natural sound conditions with those behaviors in two human-caused sound exposure conditions—ship sounds and ship sounds coupled with sonic pulses. Both exposure conditions resulted in significant decreases in the number and target depth of deep dives (associated with foraging) relative to natural conditions. However, differences between diving behaviors in the two exposure types were negligible, a finding that could be attributed to the fact that ______

Many works of the Greek mathematician Euclid (3rd century BCE) are ______ his Elements, a treatise of mathematical knowledge, is an extant work: it can still be read.

A 2024 study cataloged all the trees in Amsterdam to evaluate the biodiversity of the city’s urban forest. The researchers, finding that administrative unit GK13 had a 0.62 ratio of native to non-native trees, ______ efforts to improve the biodiversity of the trees in that unit and other areas with a similarly moderate ratio.

Growing as large as three meters in diameter, the leaves of the giant Amazonian waterlily feature a complex network of radiating veins that provide structural ______ in thickness from the center to the edges, these veins allow the leaves to maintain their large size and buoyancy with minimal material, optimizing light capture and photosynthesis.

______ a US state when it ratified the US Constitution on December 12, 1787, was thereby empowered, via its representatives to the US Congress, to vote on whether to admit Louisiana as a state on April 30, 1812.

Though largely eclipsed by her success as a novelist, Jessie Redmon Fauset’s contributions as literary editor of The Crisis, a New York City‒based periodical whose influence was arguably at its peak during her Harlem Renaissance‒era tenure, ______ in recent scholarship that explores Fauset’s instrumental role in shaping the magazine’s aesthetic and debuting the work of Langston Hughes and other emerging Black writers.

Resins play several important roles in maintaining the health of conifers and many other kinds of trees. ______ resins quickly seal wounds, which helps prevent harmful insects and fungi from entering trees. These sticky substances also help trees retain water that is needed for them to survive.

Giant dust plumes from the Sahara Desert that blow across the Atlantic Ocean can have complex and opposing effects on tropical cyclones. On one hand, the dust can enhance the formation of ice clouds in the cyclone’s core, increasing precipitation. ______ the dust can lower sea surface temperatures around the cyclone’s core, weakening the storm.

Elvis Presley’s iconic jumpsuit Red Pinwheel featured rhinestones arranged in pinwheel patterns. Historians note that adornments such as these added between twenty-five and fifty pounds to each of Elvis’s stage outfits. ______ the fabric used to make the outfits was light and flexible, enabling freedom of motion.

In a 1998 study by Smith et al., the researchers used microhistological fecal analysis to determine the ratio of three plant subtypes (graminoids, forbs, and browse) within the diets of North American ungulates. The researchers did not perform this analysis on all such ungulates, ______ they focused exclusively on pronghorns and wild horses in New Mexico.

Though its onboard laboratory allowed it to analyze rock samples on-site, the 2011 Mars Curiosity rover was unable to preserve samples for future analysis. ______ when creating the 2020 Mars Perseverance rover, robotics technologist Yumi Iwashita and other members of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory sought to implement a mechanism that could do exactly that.

As Iestyn Barr and his team of researchers discovered when establishing the glacial timeline of Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains―a 3,500-km mountain range spanning the continent―are home to glaciers of at least 60 million years in age. ______ the researchers concluded, Antarctica had glaciers long before the formation of its continent-wide ice sheet 34 million years ago.

• Thomas Edison is regarded as one of the most important inventors in US history.
• Having received little formal schooling, Edison relied on specialist employees at his various laboratories and offices to complete the technical work for many of his inventions.
• William Joseph Hammer was a laboratory assistant who worked at the Menlo Park laboratory.
• He is best known for curating the most comprehensive collection of historic light bulbs anywhere in the world.
• William Symes Andrews was an electrical engineer who worked at the Edison Electric Light Company.
• He is best known for establishing more than thirty power plants across New York and Pennsylvania.

Louisa May Alcott contributed A Modern Mephistopheles to the No Name Series, a collection of novels published anonymously between 1876 and 1887. The series challenged readers to guess authors’ identities, reflecting the era’s fascination for literary mystery. This ______ approach to publishing allowed Alcott to experiment beyond her established style.

Though copies of The Adventures of Indiana Jones in Wenceslas Square in Prague on January 16, 1989—an underground computer game that was created anonymously in 1989 as an act of political protest against the authoritarian regime of what was then Czechoslovakia—were originally distributed ______, the game is now readily available online for anyone to play.

In their study of caterpillars in fragmented forests (formerly contiguous forests that have been broken into isolated patches by roads or other interruptions), Riley M. Anderson et al. stress that although fragmentation inevitably ______ alterations to local ecological processes, the changes will likely have a greater impact on Nola triquetrana, a specialist feeding on a limited number of plant species, than on a species like Himella intractata that feeds on several.

Yuen Yuen Ang et al. argue that merely tallying the number of patents filed per year ______ the degree of innovation occurring: truly novel patents—those, like a 2011 patent for an automated navigation system for planes, that combine previously unaffiliated technological domains—are vastly outnumbered by nonnovel patents (e.g., a 2008 patent for a method of making soup).

Magical realism, a style that weaves fantasy into realistic narratives, coalesced in Latin America in the 1960s. It is associated with Gabriel García Márquez, whose One Hundred Years of Solitude is a key text. The style was embraced by Mexican American writers, such as Ana Castillo, whose So Far from God draws on Mexican folktales as a source of fantasy. Yet The Mixquiahuala Letters, also by Castillo, features no fantastical plot events. And despite his popular reputation, García Márquez himself wrote several works of strict realism, including Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Text 1
Sidebells wintergreen (Orthilia secunda) plants are native to Alaska, where harsh conditions have historically impeded potential invasive species. As the boreal climate has warmed in recent decades, however, Siberian peashrub (Caragana arborescens) plants have established themselves in Alaska. Previous research conducted in non-boreal ecosystems has documented warming-induced increases in summer temperatures benefiting invasive species more than native species.
Text 2
At a site near Fairbanks, Alaska, Christa Mulder and Katie Spellman tracked O. secunda and C. arborescens, along with other native and invasive species, over several years. They observed that although average summer temperatures were substantially higher in some years of the study than in others, neither O. secunda nor C. arborescens showed any significant variation in summer growth patterns from year to year.

Linguist John McWhorter asserts that translation apps for smartphones and computers are—despite generally failing to convey many nuances—increasingly obviating the need to learn new languages. Advances in language processing technology have greatly boosted the utility of these apps for perfunctory tasks, like inquiring about an item on a menu, and passing interactions; be that as it may, richer communication (e.g., in business dealings or meaningful personal exchanges) often hinges on conversational patterns and gradations of meaning.

Optimal foraging theory (OFT) holds that animals’ foraging behaviors reflect cost-benefit trade-offs that vary by species and with dynamic ecological circumstances. One such circumstance is lunar intensity, which Mary V. Price and colleagues found to be negatively associated with foraging by white-throated woodrats but Simon Kenneth Bearder and colleagues found to be positively associated with foraging by Mohol bushbabies. This discrepancy is explicable in terms of OFT: the bushbabies’ greater reliance on vision means that higher lunar intensity benefits them more than it benefits the woodrats.

Working in Ghana, Emmanuel Hanyabui and colleagues compared the impact on pineapple growth of different combinations of soil additives, including NPK fertilizer (an inorganic fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), organic compost, and biochar (a carbon-rich material produced from organic waste matter). Based on data in the table, pineapple farmers with no access to inorganic soil additives would likely increase the weight and size of their fruits by the greatest amount by using ______

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in January 2024 found that three out of ten US adults make at least one New Year’s resolution (a promise for the year ahead), while half of those who make a resolution make more than one. The survey asked participants what kinds of resolutions they made and separated them into several categories. The table presents percentages of people who make particular kinds of New Year’s resolutions among those who choose to make them, indexed by age bracket.

Scholars cite One Hundred Years of Solitude, the 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, as a foundational text of magical realism, the Latin American style of fiction in which antirealistic plot devices—often borrowed from the spiritual and narrative traditions of Indigenous and colonial societies in the Americas—are deployed in an otherwise realistic mode of representation typical of the modern novel. This style has exerted a decisive influence on authors in the United States, including Toni Morrison, whose 1987 novel Beloved resembles classic magical realist novels in its juxtaposition of literary realism with long-established cultural traditions—namely, those of the Black American community.

Duckweed is a small freshwater plant that is often exposed to zinc pollution. Sofia Vámos and colleagues collected samples of four duckweed ecotypes (genetically and geographically distinct populations within a species), along with water from each ecotype’s habitat. Hypothesizing that each ecotype is adapted to its local conditions in ways that bolster its growth and resistance to pollutants, the researchers grew each ecotype in all four water samples and with three levels of zinc (none, low, high). (The researchers did not replicate local differences in light or temperature.) They found that the ecotypes grew equally well in all four water samples and that adding zinc consistently enhanced growth, regardless of concentration, suggesting that ______

As juveniles, all white-necked jacobin hummingbirds display vibrantly blue head plumage; when they enter adulthood, males retain these blue feathers and most females molt to a drab green hue. However, 28% of adult female jacobins remain identical in coloration to juveniles and adult males. Based on field observations in Panama, a team of researchers reports that while adult males show a clear preference in mate selection for adult females with drab green feathers, they also engage in more antagonistic behavior toward those adult females than toward blue-feathered adult females when competing for resources. Therefore, the team hypothesizes that ______

In Puerto Rico, it’s not unusual for a city or town to be known by a nickname that corresponds to one of its notable features, like landscape, climate, famous residents, or chief export. For example, the Puerto Rican municipality of Manatí is well known for its history as a cultural center in the early 20th ______ this distinction has earned it the fitting nickname of “the Athens of Puerto Rico.”

Working on an unimaginably small scale of billionths of a meter, nanoengineers have found ways to leverage palladium ______ to facilitate energy generation in fuel cells.

Bertie Marshall, a key figure in the history of steel band music in Trinidad and Tobago, made several innovations to the steel ______ wheels so the instrument could be easily transported during Carnival, a cover to protect the pans from the sun, and amplification so the sound of the pans could be better heard over large crowds and other instrumentation.

In a chemical equation, the value known as molar mass is useful for converting between the mass of the reactants and the mass of the product. The liquid ______ have molar masses of 186.06 and 78.12 g/mol, respectively.

The statement “all tarantulas are venomous” is scientific because it could be proved false by a single observation to the contrary, according to Karl Popper. Popper’s theory ______ that scientific hypotheses must be refutable, termed the criterion of falsifiability, rejects the confirmationist position that uses verifiability as the standard for scientific hypotheses.

Geologist and scholar John Bostock joined with 55 other prominent British writers in 1837 to petition the US Congress for greater copyright protections. This cadre of renowned ______ that American publishers’ appropriation of their work caused, in the words of the petition, “deep and extensive injuries…on their reputation and property,” helped sow the seeds for the International Copyright Act of 1891.

In 2003, some 393 years after Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius independently discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto), scientists discovered the moon Helike in orbit around Jupiter. ______ researchers have discovered eighty moons orbiting Jupiter.

The Hornbostel-Sachs system classifies musical instruments by how they produce sound. For example, an instrument that is popular in Norway called the hardingfele produces sound primarily through the vibration of its strings. ______ under the Hornbostel-Sachs system, the hardingfele is a chordophone.

Brain imaging research led by neuroscientist Dwaynica Greaves found that actors showed suppressed responses in the left anterior prefrontal cortex (the portion of the brain associated with self-awareness) when their names were called during performances; ______ the actors’ responses were normal in nonacting contexts. These findings suggest that when embodying characters, performers may temporarily set aside their personal identities.

• The Highpointers Club is a hiking club.
• One of the main goals among club members is to reach the highest points in all fifty US states.
• Those who achieve this are called 50 Completers.
• In Suk Han became a 50 Completer on November 15, 2013.
• The highest point in West Virginia is Spruce Knob, at 4,863 ft.
• The highest point in Colorado is Mount Elbert, at 14,440 ft.

• Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) was an Italian instrument maker.
• He made about 1,000 violins in his lifetime.
• Musicians prize his Stradivarius violins for their famed sound quality.
• The Marie Hall Stradivarius is named for former owner Marie Hall, a British violinist.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Louis Ballard was a classical composer and citizen of the Quapaw Tribe.
• Ballard’s composition Desert Trilogy was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music in 1971.
• His composition Washington Festival Suite incorporates a Pueblo log drum, a traditional Native instrument.
• Ethnomusicologist Tara Browner claims that Ballard's compositions rely on elements originating within Native musical traditions.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Suzanne K. Birner led a study analyzing rocks on the seafloor to better understand the history of Earth’s mantle.
• Rock samples were collected from two seafloor ridges.
• The researchers determined the samples’ period of formation (the Archean eon) and oxidation level (extremely low).
• High temperatures in the Archean likely caused the rocks’ low oxidation.
• Birner’s team suggests the oxidation of Earth’s mantle has remained stable over time, contrary to previous theories.
• The findings help explain the unique conditions that allowed life to develop on Earth.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Leaders of the Province of Guatemala proclaimed independence for Central America from the Spanish Empire on September 15, 1821.
• The accompanying Declaration of Independence was written by Honduran scholar and politician José Cecilio del Valle.
• The 1812 Spanish Constitution had provided some degree of independence for Central America, but it was repealed by the Spanish king in 1814.
• Valle, a loyal advisor to the Spanish Empire’s administrators in Central America, had long opposed independence.
• He changed his mind after Colonel Rafael del Riego’s 1820 revolt, which demanded the return of rights lost in 1814.