In 1879, in an effort to determine the longevity of certain seeds left in soil, botanistWilliam Beal buried 20 glass bottles filled with sand and seeds from a variety ofplants, including Verbascum, Lepidium virginicum, and Stellaria media. Since then, some of the bottles have been retrieved in the periodic checks of seed viabilityresearchers are conducting. After 60 years had elapsed, most of the seeds in thosebottles stopped germinating, but Verbascum seeds have remained viable, includingthose from a bottle dug up in 2021 by Margaret Fleming, Lars Brudvig, andcolleagues.

[1] Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Jackie Ormes’s Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem (1937–38) was the first comic stripby a Black woman to appear in a widely read newspaper. The strip tells the story ofTorchy, a young woman who leaves Mississippi to become a performer in New YorkCity. Torchy’s story reflects the experience of the Great Migration (1910–1970), when millions of Black Americans left the South in search of opportunities in otherparts of the United States. Torchy Brown thus shows how Ormes used comics tocomment humorously on issues affecting Black Americans, which she continued todo throughout her career.

[2] Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Catherine L. Cardelús is a researcher who studies canopy soil. Canopy soil is formedin a tree’s branches (its canopy) when dead leaves and other falling things collect. This material breaks down, becoming canopy soil. Canopy soil helps preserve ahealthy water cycle (how water moves through the environment) in rainforests. This benefit is one reason Cardelús is interested in the canopy soils in large choibátrees in rainforests in Costa Rica.

[3] Which choice best describes the text’s overall structure?

President Richard Nixon is most famous for his participation in the 1970s Watergatepolitical scandal, a convoluted tale of criminality and eroded ethics involving aconstellation of associates such as Chief of Staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman and Secretaryof State Henry Kissinger. But Nixon's legacy is complex: he has been praised for hisrole in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, and he once made an attemptat reforming United States health care policy that is arguably a precursor to theAffordable Care Act, which became law during the Barack Obama administration.

[4] Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A number of Indigenous politicians have been elected to the United States Congresssince 2000 as members of the country’s two established political parties. In Canadaand several Latin American countries, on the other hand, Indigenous people haveformed their own political parties to advance candidates who will advocate for theinterests of their communities. This movement has been particularly successful inEcuador, where Guadalupe Llori, a member of the Indigenous party known asPachakutik, was elected president of the National Assembly in 2021.

[5] Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Thermal technologies have been used in the food industry for over 100 years, providing a way of preserving food in large batches. Recent advancements in ohmicheating were made through research in Brazil on the preservation of acerola pulp. Ohmic heating is generally considered to be an improvement over moreconventional thermal preservation methods: whereas conventional methodstransfer energy from the surface of a food to its interior, ohmic heating passeselectric current through food products to generate heat within the food itself.

[6] Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Mexican textile artist Victoria Villasana weaves stories of triumph, using her uniquemethod of applying colorful yarn to photographs of people. In some works, Villasanafocuses on celebrating cultural icons who are people of color, as she does in herdepiction of boxer Muhammad Ali. However, in other works, Villasana honorsordinary people, as she does in her captivating portrayal of a woman makingtortillas. Villasana sees both of these approaches as ways of depicting the power andinterconnectedness of all people.

[7] Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Companies are providing consumers with more opportunities to purchasecustomized products than ever before. Whether buying customized sneakers, jewelry, or clothing, consumers can participate in the design of products to meettheir specific needs and tastes. In turn, companies profit too: studies have shownthat consumers are willing to pay more and wait longer for a customized product. Still, it can be difficult for companies to offer customization while keeping costs low, as the standard methods of mass production may not be able to accommodatemaking a unique product each time.

[8] Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

In 2014 Leon Green and Fredrik Jutfelt published a study concluding that oceanacidification has a strong effect on the behavior of Scyliorhinus canicula, a species offish. However, Green and Jutfelt’s study relied on a mean sample size of only 7 fish. In a 2022 review of various scientists’ conclusions about the impacts of oceanacidification on fish behavior, Jeff C. Clements and colleagues caution that relying onsuch a relatively small sample size can increase the potential for biased analysis. Such analysis, in turn, can contribute to reports of exaggerated effects.

[9] Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?.  

Using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Mercedes López- Morales and colleagues measured the wavelengths of light traveling through theatmosphere of WASP-39b, an exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system. Different molecules absorb different wavelengths of light, and the wavelengthmeasurements showed the presence of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in WASP-39b’satmosphere. This finding not only offers the first decisive evidence of CO₂ in theatmosphere of an exoplanet but also illustrates the potential for future scientificbreakthroughs held by the JWST.

[10] Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?