Reading comprehension 1

University of the Philippines

Samahan ng mga Iskolar Mula sa Bulacan
(UP SIMBULAN)
MOCK EXAMINATION (2014-2015): READING COMPREHENSION

Read each selection carefully and answer the questions that follow. In your answer sheet, blacken the letter
corresponding to your answer.

SELECTION I.

Everyone has a vision of their ideal home,
whether you live in an upscale loft in Mexico or a duplex
in Los Angeles. Your home can be a lavish oasis of
sweet and exotic smells and bright, delicious colors. But
due to
5
a lack of time and tight budget constraints you
may be left with no choice but to sacrifice small parts of
your dream home. If youre planning to redecorate your
home in order to create a warmer, livelier aura, consider
adding some greenery to your abode. It is the
10
easiest
and most affordable way of enlivening the dcor! The
straight ridged lines of your home and its sharp corners
can be softened by using just the right amount of
greenery. Plants make beautiful additions to any rooms
15
appearance. Houseplants are commonly grown for
decorative and health reasons such as indoor air
purification. All houseplants require specific growing
conditions to survive and flourish. The most important
factors in growing healthy houseplants are light,
20
water,
fertilizer, temperature, humidity, and air circulation. Once
you have decided to decorate your space with some
plants, you will need to consider the complementary
aspects of walls, floors, and
25
furniture. Choosing the
right place to keep your plants ensure that they blend
well into your house. Use your imaginationthink of tall
plants beckoning from your bedroom balcony, and its
lush greenery being the first thing you see when you
wake up in the morning.
30
If youre not keen on making
drastic changes, opt for window gardening. There are
hundreds of different houseplants that are fully qualified
for filling windowsill displays. Some folks prefer the start
lines of cacti; others gravitate towards leafy, bulky
plants.
35
Decorate your sit-outs with hanging plants for a
warm, pleasant feel. They not only give a new
dimension to interior decoration but also draw attention
to the architectural details of your building. However,
choosing the proper hanging plants requires an extra
40
degree of precision and information that many amateur
decorators may not have. Once youve chosen the areas
of your home that could benefit from the addition of
greenery, the next step is to decide how many plants
you need to arrange, so that
45
you achieve a proper
decorative balance. Try to use various shapes, textures,
colors, and sizes to avoid creating a monotonous look.
Use plants to highlight and accent the various attractive
facets of your home. A green house is more than just
aesthetically
50
appealing. The air of your home will be
fresh and scented; plants provide relief for your eyes
and can refresh the atmosphere, leaving you calmer and
more relaxed. Artificial varieties, no matter how well they
are produced, are no match for the real thing. Real
55

plants are for more charming and aesthetically
appealing. Incorporating a green theme into your home
is a great way to unite artistic and utilitarian values of
design.

1. Which of the following is the best title for the
passage?
a. interior decoration
b. a green office
c. gardening outside your home
d. green theme for your home
e. the benefits of neighborhood greenery

2. The passage talks about all of the following except:
a. terrace decoration
b. balcony decoration
c. window gardening
d. decorating sit-outs
e. decorating the corners of the house

3. The term gravitate towards (line 34) most nearly
means
a. vivid
b. curtail
c. cull
d. prone
e. augment

4. The author feels that the introduction of greenery into
the home is both
a. ornate and cumbersome
b. imaginative and functional
c. lithe and complex
d. mechanical and essential
e. astute and esoteric

5. What does the author want to convey through this
passage?
i. Decorating the house with green plants shows
creativity.
ii. The green theme should be implemented on recently
built houses.
Reading comprehension 2

iii. Practical design is a hallmark of a green theme for
your home.
a. i only
b. ii only
c. iii only
d. i & ii only
e. i & iii only

6. All of the following are mentioned by the author as
potential benefits of a green home except:
a. an attractive house
b. functional design
c. warmth
d. a relaxed atmosphere
e. cooler house temperatures

SELECTION II. Passage 1 was written by D.H. Lawrence, an English novelist. Passage 2 was written by the American
novelist Henry James.
Passage 1
It begins the moment you set foot ashore, the
moment you step off the boats gangway. The heart
suddenly, yet vaguely, sinks. It is no lurch of fear. Quite
the contrary. It is as if the life-urge failed, and the heart
dimly sank. You trail past the benevolent policeman and
the inoffensive passport officials, through the fussy and
somehow foolish customswe dont really think it
matters if somebody smuggles in two pairs of false-silk
stockingsand we get into the poky but inoffensive
train, with poky but utterly inoffensive people, and we
have a cup of inoffensive tea from a nice inoffensive
boy, and we run through small, poky but nice and
inoffensive country, till we are landed in the big but
unexciting station of Victoria, when an inoffensive porter
puts us into an inoffensive taxi and we are driven
through the crowded yet strangely dull streets of London
to the cozy yet strangely poky and dull place where we
are going to stay. And the first half-hour in London, after
some years abroad, is really a plunge of misery. The
strange, the grey and uncanny, almost deathly sense of
dullness is overwhelming. Of course, you get over it
after a while, and admit that you are exaggerated. You
get into the rhythm of London again, and you tell
yourself that it is not dull. And yet you are haunted, all
the time, sleeping or walking, with the uncanny feeling: It
is dull! It is all dull! This life here is one vast complex of
dullness! I am dull! I am being dulled! My spirit is being
dulled! My life is dulling down to London dullness.
This is the nightmare that haunts you the first
few weeks of London. No doubt if you stay longer you
get over it, and find the London as thrilling as Paris or
Rome or New York. But the climate is against me. I
cannot stay long enough. With pinched and wondering
gaze, the morning of departure, I look out of the taxi
upon the strange dullness of Londons arousing; a sort
of death; and hope and life only return when I get my
seat in the boat-train, and hear all the Good-byes!
Good-bye! Good-bye!
Thank God to say Good-bye!

Passage 2
On the banks of the Thames it is a tremendous
chapter of accidentsthe London-lover has to confess
to the existence of miles upon miles of the dreariest,
stodgiest commonness.
Thousands of acres are covered by low black
houses, of the cheapest construction, without ornament,
without grace, without character or even identity. In fact
there are many, even in the best quarters, in all the
region of Mayfair and Belgravia, of so paltry and
inconvenient and above all of so diminutive a type, that
you wonder what peculiarity limited domestic need they
were constructed to meet. The great misfortune of
London, to the eye (it is true that this remark applies
much less to the City), is the want of elevation. There is
no architectural impression without a certain degree of
height, and the London street-vista has none of that sort
of pride.
All the same, if there be not the intention, there
is at least the accident, of style, which, if one looks at it
in a friendly way, appears to proceed from three
sources. One of these is simply the general greatness,
and the manner in which that makes a difference for the
better in any particular spot, so that though you may
often perceive yourself to be in a shabby corner it never
occurs to you that this is the end of it. Another is the
atmosphere, with its magnificent mystifications, which
flatters and superfuses, makes everything brown, rich,
dim, vague, magnifies distances and minimizes details,
confirms the inference of vastness by suggesting that,
as the great city makes everything, it makes its own
system of weather and its own optical laws. The last is
the congregation of the parks, which constitute an
ornament not elsewhere to be matched and give the
place a that none of its ugliness overcome. They spread
themselves with such luxury of space in the center of the
town that they form a part of the impression of any walk,
of almost any view, and, with an audacity altogether
their own, make a mood of the rich London climate that
is not becoming to themI have seen them look
delightfully romantic, like parks in novels, in the wettest
winterand there is scarcely a mood of the appreciative
Reading comprehension 3

resident to which they have not something to say. The
high things of London, which here and there peep over
them, only make the spaces vaster by reminding you
that you are after all not in Kent or Yorkshire; and these
things, whatever they be, row of eligible dwellings,
towers of churches, domes of institutions, take such an
effective gray-blue tint that a clever watercolorist would
seem to have put them in for pictorial reasons.
The view from the bridge over the Serpentine has
an extraordinary nobleness, and it has often seemed to
me that the Londoner twitted with his low standard may
point to it with every confidence. In all the town-scenery
of Europe there can be few things so fine; the only
reproach it is open to is that it begs the question by
seemingin spite of its being the pride of five millions of
peoplenot to belong to a town at all. The towers of
Notre Dame, as they rise, in Paris, from the island that
divides the Seine, present themselves no more
impressively than those of Westminster as you see them
looking doubly far beyond the shining stretch if Hyde
Park water. Equally admirable is the large, river-like
wooded shores. Just after you have crossed the bridge
you enjoy on your left, through the gate of Kensington
Gardens, an altogether enchanting vistaa footpath
over the grass, which looses itself beneath the scattered
oaks and elms exactly as if the place were a chase.
There could be nothing less like London in general than
this particular morsel, and yet it takes London, of all
cities, to give you such an impression of the country.
7. It in line 1 refers to a feeling of
a. Malaise
b. Relief
c. Depression
d. Foreboding
e. Fear
8. The author of the passage 1 makes his point mainly
by the use of
a. accumulation of details
b. repetition and exclamation
c. metaphor and simile
d. objective observation
e. irony and satire

9. The extensive use of pronoun you in passage one
indicates that the author
a. is speaking to one particular person
b. is describing the experience of someone else
c. believes that his feelings will be shared by many
others
d. wishes to add variety to his style
e. is distancing himself from the experience he
describes

10. Lawrence apparently believes that the nightmare is
a. uniquely caused by city life
b. dispelled by a longer stay in London
c. made worse by the weather
d. only over when he leaves the country
e. something that is never entirely conquered

11. The word that James uses in Passage 2 that best
conveys Lawrences poky is
a. dreariest
b. cheapest
c. diminutive
d. stodgiest
e. low

12. The second paragraph of Passage 2 in relation to
the first does which of the following?
a. analyses a problem raised in paragraph 1
b. continues the delineation of limitations
c. substantiates a negative impression
d. enlarges the viewpoint with the aid of wider
examples
e. describes more specific locations

13. The word atmosphere refers to
a. the authors mood
b. surroundings
c. artistic impression
d. the mood of the place
e. the London air

14. By the use of the word congregation the author
suggests that the parks are
a. numerous
b. religious
c. unlimited in extent
d. too crowded
e. limited in extent

15. James mentions Notre Dame in order to
a. provide an example of a monument finer than
anything that London has to offer
b. give an example of a sight more suited to a town
or city
c. highlight the impressive nature of a certain
London building and its setting
d. prove that London and Paris are both attractive
cities
e. make the image more realistic to the reader

16. It can be inferred that James would be less likely
than Lawrence to
I. complain about the weather
II. rejoice on leaving the city
III. find the English countryside dull
Reading comprehension 4

a. I only
b. II only
c. I and II only
d. II and III only
e. I, II, and III

17. The contrast between James and Lawrence
revealed by the passages involves all of the following
except
a. a London lover versus a London hater
b. concern with architectural impression versus
apparent indifference to architecture
c. concern with visual impact versus effect in an
individuals state of mind
d. appreciation of quiet places and scenic walks
versus need for excitement
e. taste for the quaint and limited in scale versus
dislike of dreariness and pokiness

18. To counter Lawrences charge of one vast complex
of dullness, James would most likely point out that
London
a. is bright and vast
b. is uniformly attractive
c. is always romantic and pastoral
d. juxtaposes the ugly and the visually attractive
e. offers vistas unmatched in the rest of Europe

19. The tones of the two passages differ in that Passage
2 is
a. less strident
b. more emotionally charged
c. less mellow
d. less contemplative
e. more subjective


SELECTION III. The passage is taken from a
description of the life of certain Pacific islanders written
by a pioneering sociologist.

By the time a child is six or seven she has all
the essential avoidances well enough by heart to be
trusted with the care of a younger child. And she also
develops a number of simple techniques. She learns to
weave firm square balls from palm leaves, to make
pinwheels of palm leaves or frangipani blossoms, to
climb a coconut tree by walking up the trunk on flexible
little feet, to break open a coconut with one firm well-
directed blow of a knife as long as she is tall, to play a
number of group games and sing the songs which go
with them, to tidy the house by picking up the litter on
the stony floor, to bring water from the sea, to spread
out the copra to dry and to help gather it in when rain
threatens, to go to a neighboring house and bring back a
lighted faggot for the chiefs pipe or the cook-house fire.
But in the case of the little girls all these tasks are
merely supplementary to the main business of baby-
tending. Very small boys also have some care of the
younger children, but at eight or nine years of age they
are usually relieved of it. Whatever rough edges have
not been smoothed off by this responsibility for younger
children are worn off by their contact with older boys.
For little boys are admitted to interesting and
important activities only so long as their behavior is
circumspect and helpful. Where small girls are brusquely
pushed aside, small boys will be patiently tolerated and
they become adept at making themselves useful. The
four or five little boys, who all wish to assist at the
important business of helping a grown youth lasso reef
eels, organize themselves into a highly efficient working
team; one boy holds the bait, another holds an extra
lasso, others poke eagerly about in holes in the reef
looking for prey, while still another tucks the captured
eels into his lavalava. The small girls, burdened with
heavy babies or the care of little staggerers who are too
small to adventure on the reef, discouraged by the
hostility of the small boys and the scorn of the older
ones, have little opportunity for learning the more
adventurous forms of work and play. So while the little
boys first undergo the chastening effects of baby-
tending and then have many opportunities to learn
effective cooperation under the supervision of older
boys, the girls education is less comprehensive. They
38
have a high standard of individual responsibility, but
the community provides them with no lessons in
cooperation with one another. This is particularly
apparent in the activities of young people: the boys
organize quickly; the girls waste hours bickering,
innocent of any technique for quick and efficient
cooperation.
Adapted from: Coming of Age in Samoa, Margaret Mead
(1928)

20. The primary purpose of the passage with reference
to the society under discussion is to
a. show that young girls are trained to be useful to
adults
b. criticize the deficiencies in the education of girls
c. give a comprehensive account of a day in the life
of an average young girl
d. delineate the role of young girls
e. explain some differences in the upbringing of girls
and boys

21. The word brusquely most nearly means
a. quickly
b. gently
c. nonchalantly
d. abruptly
e. callously
Reading comprehension 5


22. The list of techniques in paragraph one could best
be described as
a. useful social skills
b. rudimentary physical skills
c. important responsibilities
d. household duties
e. monotonous tasks

23. It can be inferred that the high standard of individual
responsibility (line 38) is
a. taught to the girl before she is entrusted with
babies
b. only present in girls
c. developed mainly through child-care duties
d. actually counterproductive
e. weakened as the girl grows older

24. The expression innocent is best taken to mean
a. not guilty of
b. unskilled in
c. unsuited for
d. involved in
e. division of labor

25. It can be inferred that in the community under
discussion all of the following are important except
a. domestic handicrafts
b. formal education
c. well-defined social structure
d. fishing skills
e. division of labor

26. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the
authors contention about lessons on cooperation?
I Group games played by younger girls involve
cooperation
II Girls can learn from watching boys cooperating
III Individual girls cooperate with their mothers in
looking after their babies
a. I only
b. II only
c. III only
d. I and II only
e. I, II, and III

27. Which of the following is the best description of the
authors technique in handling her materials?
a. Both description and interpretation of
observations
b. presentation of facts without comment
c. description of evidence to support a theory
d. generalization from a particular viewpoint
e. close examination of preconceptions

SELECTION IV.

1 As the thunderstorm roared overhead, Daniel sensed
an
ominous presence in the distance. Without his
spectacles, though, his ability to discern which was not
in his immediate vicinity was diminished; he
5 had no idea that his savior had been waiting for him for
many hours.
The school security alarm had gone off about two hours
before, but the drone of the alarm bell had now
completely disappeared. In the place where a statue of
10 the Jerseyville Jaguar, the school mascot, once stood
in a proud, roaring posture, now sat three hundred
rolls of toilet paper playfully sculpted with duct tape
and coat hangers into the shape of a cow.
A week earlier, Daniel had been cut from Timson
15 Academys football team, which was Jerseyvilles chief
rival, for skipping class. At that point, he felt that his
fate had been decided for him; instead of preparing to
help his football team win next weeks game on the
field, he would help them gain a psychological edge off
20 of it. And so he hatched a plan to kidnap Jerseyvilles
precious Jaguar.
He arrived at the school at 5:30 am on the Saturday of
the big game, and entered the Main Hall of the
Jerseyville campus. He carried with him a myriad of
25 tools that would aid in the theft of the effigy, such as
screwdrivers, a crowbar, duct tape, and paper clips for
picking locks. He entered via a service entrance near
the back of the cafeteria, which he had carefully rigged
the day before to stay open even when it
30 appeared to be locked.
He unbolted the Jaguar from its firmly planted base,
and laboriously hoisted it upon his shoulders for a
moment, before it clattered loudly to the ground, too
heavy for his clutches. As he attempted to flee the
35 scene of the crime with the Jaguar in tow, it dawned
upon Daniel that he had not taken into full account the
unbelievably massive weight of what he thought
appeared to be a manageably-sized bronze statue.
After scraping the Jaguars head on the ground for the
first 50 meters
40 of his escape route. Daniel put his skateboard to use
and wheeled the thing the rest of the way, attempting to
avoid suspicion by obscuring the statues form with a
blanket taken from the schools supply closet. In his
hurried exit, he mistakenly exited through the front
45 door of the hall, setting off a loud and potentially
fatal security alarm. Fortunately, he was able to
disappear from the vicinity of the building before the
closest septuagenarian security guard arrived on the
scene.
50 His father, who had been keeping track of
Reading comprehension 6

Daniels mysterious disappearances, and who was no
stranger to mischief himself, or to hating Jerseyville
football, had no extraordinary sense of insight when it
came to his son. And so when he heard his son exit the
55 house at such an absurdly early hour for a Saturday
morning, he followed his instincts, jumped out of bed,
and tailed his son from afar. Although unlikely, his
fathers covert accompaniment during Daniels most
heinous misdeed proved fruitful, for when he saw
Daniel
60 approach the one fatal flaw of his mostly well-planned
escape routethe massive hill right outside the
Jerseyville campus, one far too steep to carry or wheel
a 400-pound animal uphe pulled his pickup truck out
of the shadows and into his sons path, waving
65 frantically at his son.
The sight of his father at the apex of what Daniel
considered to be his most grievous offense nearly
jolted Daniels arms from his body, but the fear that
swept over him caused him to continue walking steadily
70 and directly towards that old, familiar pickup. When it
dawned upon him that his father was actually
attempting to help him, a strange new feeling swept
over him, something that as a lifelong, committed
miscreant he had only rarely felt. While they quickly
piled the
75 metal beast into the bed of the truck Daniel thought he
perceived a smile turning at the corners of his fathers
mouth.
Where are your glasses, son? his father asked, once
they had begun the fleeting drive back home. And his
80 spectacles sat on the floor in the same spot where they
had fallen off, right where the Jaguar had initially
clattered to the floor in Jerseyvilles Main Hall, still
internally inscribed with the lettering that Hank had
ordered for his son: I once was blind but now I
85 see.

28. According to the passage, Daniel was not planning to
play in the big game against Jerseyville because
a. he had already committed to a family engagement.
b. he was not good enough to play in the game.
c. his spot on the team had been taken by a better
player.
d. he had been cut from the team for skipping class.
e. he did not want to play football.

29. In the passage, Daniel had in his possession all of the
following at one point in time except
a. crowbar
b. blanket
c. Jerseyville Jaguar
d. paper clip
e. keys

30. It is implied in the passage that Daniel
a. has always been a troublemaker
b. has been acting strange for a few weeks
c. is not a very good football player
d. isnt a very large person
e. plays quarterback

31. In line 25, the word effigy most nearly means
a. figurine
b. mannequin
c. model
d. statue
e. doll

32. The tone of the passage is
a. narrative
b. expository
c. persuasive
d. argumentative
e. sensationalistic

33. In line 60, the word fatal most nearly means
a. costly
b. superficial
c. deadly
d. poisonous
e. redundant

34. The use of the phrase jolted Daniels arms from his
body in line 68 is an example of
a. hyperbole
b. metaphor
c. simile
d. irony
e. sarcasm

SELECTION V.

Passage 1
1 Growing up in Atlanta during the heyday of the citys
baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, gave me a unique
perspective of Americas national pastime. Witnessing
the team and the city win a World Series title in 1996
5 forever connected my destiny with that of professional
baseball; wherever I might be after that point in time, I
will always remember the joy and emotion that I was
filled with on that day.
There are some who denigrate the sport because it
does
10 not appear to incorporate a traditional sporting skill
set, but it is baseballs unique nature that makes it
remarkable. Instead of requiring athletes to run for
extended lengths of time, like so many traditional
forms of sport, baseball is an exercise in skill and
Reading comprehension 7

15 power, one that combines the precision of sports like
golf or archery with the pure brawn of sports like
weightlifting or the Olympic hammer throw. It is this
distinct characteristic of combination that gives
baseball its intrigue and singularity.
20 And to those critics who belittle the athletes
themselves, I must as, Have you ever played
baseball at a competitive level? While the players
themselves make their jobs look incredibly easy, it is
only because they have both been born with incredible
gifts
21 AND trained for entire lifetimes to develop their skills.
Five minutes spent competing against baseballs best
would convince any naysayer of the sports true
legitimacy.
Passage 2
The history of American sports is a long
30 and illustrious one, but it is truly foolish to consider
professional baseball as its national pastime.
Baseball is not only not Americas national pastime; it
should not even be considered a true athletic
competition. If the sight of an entire field filled
35 with bloated, steroid-using meatheads isnt enough to
convince you of its invalidity as a true sport,
consider the simple nature of the competition. Nine
people stand around an enormous grass field for four
hours at a time, barely even breaking a sweat. Over
40 the course of the competition, the average player will
run a maximum distance of less than a single mile, and
spend more than 95% of their completely uninvolved
selves in the current activity. This is not a sport. A sport
is an activity that requires an athletes focus,
45 determination, strength, endurance, and skill for an
extended period of time.
It is certainly no easy thing to be a professional
baseball player. But the mere fact that something is
difficult does not qualify it as a sport. After all,
50 would training to write your name as many times as
possible in a single hour qualify as a sport? One could
train for a lifetime, and certainly develop an
incredible skill and technique for achieving such a goal,
but that would still not make it a sport.
55 Perhaps, though, it could be considered a pastime.

35. Which of the following best describes the tone of the
author of the first passage?
a. personal and opinionated
b. narrative
c. neutral
d. ambivalent
e. equivocal

36. Which of the following best describes the tone of the
author of the second passage?
a. critical and opinionated
b. compliant
c. neutral and even
d. bewildered
e. nonchalant

37. The attitude towards baseball players of the author of
the second passage is best characterized as one of
a. undisguised veneration
b. contempt
c. fury
d. fear
e. horror

38. The attitude of the author of the first passage towards
baseball could best be described as one of
a. shock
b. intellectual inquiry
c. ambivalence
d. questioning doubt
e. nostalgia and admiration

39. The attitude towards baseball players of the author of
the first passage is most closely described as one of
a. fond recollection
b. respite
c. worship
d. respect
e. desire

SELECTION VI.

Given the philosophical implications at stake, it is
no surprise that physics and controversy often go hand-in-
hand. When Galileo first expressed support for the theory of
heliocentrism, it was at such odds with
5
the popular
geocentric perspective at the time that he was placed under
permanent house arrest by the Pope. But controversy even
exists within the walls of modern physics to this day, and no
two theories are quite as irreconcilable as Quantum
Mechanics and General
10
Relativity. The General Theory of
Relativity was published by Albert Einstein in 1915, and at
the time is accomplished the commendable feat of unifying
Newtonian Mechanics and Special Relativity. Among its
15
consequences were some interesting phenomena, which
over time have been measured and confirmed, including
gravitational time dilation, redshift, and time delay. General
Relativity, if true, also implies a completely deterministic
universe, one where the motion and action
20
of every object
in the universe could be determined comprehensively given
an initial set of unknown positions, velocities, and energies.
On the other hand, quantum mechanics is a theory that was
developed by many, many mathematicians and
25
physicsts
(Einstein included) over a longer period of time, and it
focuses primarily on the inner workings of the atom instead
of the macroscopic scale of the universe. Due to the
Reading comprehension 8

random and probabilistic nature of the mathematics behind
the theory, Quantum Mechanics
30
esoterically describes a
completely random, indeterminate universe, one where
even the most trivial physical detail cannot be determined
with absolute certainty at any time in the future. Although
baffling, the theory has been exhaustively tested and
confirmed.
35
Due to the massive technical differences
between the theories, reconciling them has proved mostly
impossible. I say mostly because String Theory, a recently
developed field of physics, attempts to accomplish that feat
in a mathematical sense. By
40
utilizing some very complex
mathematical models, the inner workings of String Theory
have been created to encompass the possibilities of both
General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Unfortunately,
although beautiful, and truly pliable, the theory itself is not
45
testable, which renders it somewhat useless. After all, what
is the purpose of having or developing a physical theory it
we cant verify its results? The most we can do now is
simply stare at the remarkable ability of string theory to
encompass and mathematically reconcile
50
the two
incompatible theories, although without a verifiable and
testable hypothesis it does almost nothing for the scientific
community, and makes no progress towards setting the
philosophical debates between the two either.

40. Which of the following statements may be inferred from
the text?
a. Quantum Mechanics is the first theory of physics that
predicts a truly random universe.
b. Physics is currently often mired in controversy.
c. String Theorys ability to encompass such
mathematically contradictory systems is extraordinary.
d. Quantum Mechanics was invented after General
Relativity.
e. Heliocentrism is still regarded with doubt to this day.


* * * * *
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,
therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Aristotle