Political opinion and analysis outside the mainstream rarely are found on television talk shows, and it might be thought that this state of affairs is a product of the political agenda of the television stations themselves. In fact, television stations are driven by the same economic forces as sellers of more tangible goods. Because they must attempt to capture the largest possible share of the television audience for their shows, they air only those shows that will appeal to large numbers of people. As a result, political opinions and analyses aired on television talk shows are typically bland and innocuous.

The explanation offered by the author of the passage makes the assumption that

A. television station executives usually lack a political agenda of their own

B. bland and innocuous political opinions and analyses are generally in the mainstream

C. political analysts outside the mainstream are relatively indifferent to the effect their analyses have on television viewers

D. most television viewers are prepared to argue against allowing the expression of political opinions and analyses with which they disagree

E. the political opinions of television station executives are not often reflected in the television shows their stations produce

A crew of up to five workers is to install a partition in at most three days. The crew completes five tasks in this order: framing, wallboarding, taping, sanding, priming. The crew is selected from the following list, which specifies exactly the tasks each person can do:

George: taping Helena: sanding, priming Inga: framing, priming Kelly: framing, sanding Leanda: wallboarding, taping Maricita: sanding Olaf: wallboarding, priming

The following conditions must apply:

At least one task is done each day.

Taping and priming are done on different days.

Each crew member does at least one task during the installation, but no more than one task a day.

Each task is done by exactly one worker, completed the day it is started and before the next task begins.

Each of the following could be a complete and accurate list of the members of the crew EXCEPT:

A. Helena, Inga, Kelly, Maricita

B. Inga, Kelly, Leanda, Olaf

C. George, Helena, Inga, Leanda

D. Inga, Leanda, Maricita, Olaf

E. Kelly, Leanda, Maricita, Olaf

For all species of higher animals, reproduction requires the production of eggs but not necessarily the production of sperm. There are some species whose members are all female; the eggs produced by a rare female-only species of salamander hatch without fertilization. This has the drawback that all offspring have genetic codes nearly identical to that of the single parent, making the species less adaptive than species containing both male and female members.

If the statements above are true, each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

A. There are some species of salamanders that have both male and female members.

B. There are some species of higher animals none of whose members produce eggs.

C. There is a significant number of female-only species of higher animals.

D. Some species of higher animals containing both female and male members are not very adaptive.

E. Some offspring of species of higher animals containing both female and male members have genetic codes more similar to one parent than to the other parent.

Many great inventions are greeted with ridicule and disbelief. The invention of the airplane was no exception. Although many people who heard about the first powered flight on December 17, 1903, were excited and impressed, others reacted with peals of laughter. The idea of flying an aircraft was repulsive to some people. Such people called Wilbur and Orville Wright, the inventors of the first flying machine, impulsive fools. Negative reactions, however, did not stop the Wrights. Impelled by their desire to succeed, they continued their experiments in aviation. Orville and Wilbur Wright had always had a compelling interest in aeronautics and mechanics. As young boys they earned money by making and selling kites and mechanical toys. Later, they designed a newspaper-folding machine, built a printing press, and operated a bicycle-repair shop. In 1896, when they read about the death of Otto Lilienthal, the brother's interest in flight grew into a compulsion. Lilienthal, a pioneer in hang-gliding, had controlled his gliders by shifting his body in the desired direction. This idea was repellent to the Wright brothers, however, and they searched for more efficient methods to control the balance of airborne vehicles. In 1900 and 1901, the Wrights tested numerous gliders and developed control techniques. The brothers' inability to obtain enough lift power for the gliders almost led them to abandon their efforts. After further study, the Wright brothers concluded that the published tables of air pressure on curved surfaces must be wrong. They set up a wind tunnel and began a series of experiments with model wings. Because of their efforts, the old tables were repealed in time and replaced by the first reliable figures for air pressure on curved surfaces. This work, in turn, made it possible for them to design a machine that would fly. In 1903 the Wrights built their first airplane, which cost less than one thousand dollars. They even designed and built their own source of propulsion- a lightweight gasoline engine. When they started the engine on December 17, the airplane puffed wildly before taking off. The plane managed to stay aloft for twelve seconds, however, and it flew one hundred twenty feet. By 1905 the Wrights had perfected the first airplane that could turn, circle, and remain airborne for half an hour at a time. Others had flown in balloons or in hang gliders, but the Wright brothers were the first to build a full-size machine that could fly under its own power. As the contributors of one of the most outstanding engineering achievements in history, the Wright brothers are accurately called the fathers of aviation.

The old tables were __________ and replaced by the first reliable figures for air pressure on curved surfaces.

A. destroyed

B. canceled

C. multiplied

D. discarded

E. not used

Many political economists believe that the soundest indicator of the economic health of a nation is the nation's gross-national product (GNP) per capita ?a figure reached by dividing the total value of the goods produced yearly in a nation by its population and taken to be a measure of the welfare of the nation's residents. But there are many factors affecting residents' welfare that are not captured by per capita GNP; human indicators, while sometimes more difficult to calculate or document, provide sounder measures of a nation's progress than does the indicator championed by these economists. These human indicators include nutrition and life expectancy; birth weight and level of infant mortality; ratio of population level to availability of resources; employment opportunities; and the ability of governments to provide services such as education, clean water, medicine, public transportation, and mass communication for their residents.

The economists defend their use of per capita GNP as the sole measure of a nation's economic health by claiming that improvements in per capita GNP eventually stimulate improvements in human indicators. But, in actuality, this often fails to occur. Even in nations where economic stimulation has brought about substantial improvements in per capita GNP, economic health as measured by human indicators does not always reach a level commensurate with the per capita GNP. Nations that have achieved a relatively high per capita GNP, for example, sometimes experience levels of infant survival, literacy, nutrition, and life expectancy no greater than levels in nations where per capita GNP is relatively low. In addition, because per capita GNP is an averaged figure, it often presents a distorted picture of the wealth of a nation; for example, in a relatively sparsely populated nation where a small percentage of residents receives most of the economic benefits of production while the majority receives very little benefit, per capita GNP may nevertheless be high. The welfare of a nation's residents is a matter not merely of total economic benefit, but also of the distribution of economic benefits across the entire society. Measuring a nation's economic health only by total wealth frequently obscures a lack of distribution of wealth across the society as a whole.

In light of the potential for such imbalances in distribution of economic benefits, some nations have begun to realize that their domestic economic efforts are better directed away from attempting to raise per capita GNP and instead toward ensuring that the conditions measured by human indicators are salutary. They recognize that unless a shift in focus away from using material wealth as the sole indicator of economic success is effected, the well-being of the nation may be endangered, and that nations that do well according to human indicators may thrive even if their per capita GNP remains stable or lags behind that of other nations.

Based on the passage, the political economists discussed in the passage would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements?

A. A change in a nation's per capita GNP predicts a similar future change in the state of human indicators in that nation.

B. The level of human indicators in a nation is irrelevant to the welfare of the individuals in that nation.

C. A high per capita GNP in a nation usually indicates that the wealth in the nation is not distributed across the society as a whole.

D. The welfare of a nation's residents is irrelevant to the economic health of the nation.

E. The use of indicators other than material wealth to measure economic well-being would benefit a nation.