RW Timed Quiz 4

Artist Justin Favela explained that he wanted to reclaim the importance of the piñata as a symbol in Latinx culture. To do so, he created numerous sculptures from strips of tissue paper, which is similar to the material used to create piñatas. In 2017, Favela created an impressive life-size piñata-like sculpture of the Gypsy Rose lowrider car, which was displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. The Gypsy Rose lowrider was famously driven by Jesse Valadez, an early president of the Los Angeles Imperials Car Club.

According to the text, which piece of Favela's art was on display in the Petersen Automotive Museum in 2017?

• A. A painting of Los Angeles

• B. A painting of a piñata

• C. A sculpture of Jesse Valadez

• D. A sculpture of a lowrider car

In a study of new technology adoption, Davit Marikyan et al. examined negative disconfirmation (which occurs when experiences fall short of one's expectations) to determine whether it could lead to positive outcomes for users. The team focused on established users of "smart home" technology, which presents inherent utilization challenges but tends to attract users with high expectations, often leading to feelings of dissonance. The researchers found that many users employed cognitive mechanisms to mitigate those feelings, ultimately reversing their initial sense of disappointment.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• A. Research suggests that users with high expectations for a new technology can feel content with that technology even after experiencing negative disconfirmation.

• B. Research suggests that most users of smart home technology will not achieve a feeling of satisfaction given the utilization challenges of such technology.

• C. Although most smart home technology is aimed at meeting or exceeding users' high expectations, those expectations in general remain poorly understood.

• D. Although negative disconfirmation has often been studied, little is known about the cognitive mechanisms shaping users' reactions to it in the context of new technology adoption.

The ice melted on a Norwegian mountain during a particularly warm summer in 2019, revealing a 1,700-year-old sandal to a mountaineer looking for artifacts. The sandal would normally have degraded quickly, but it was instead well preserved for centuries by the surrounding ice. According to archaeologist Espen Finstad and his team, the sandal, like those worn by imperial Romans, wouldn't have offered any protection from the cold in the mountains, so some kind of insulation, like fabric or animal skin, would have needed to be worn on the feet with the sandal.

What does the text indicate about the discovery of the sandal?

• A. The discovery revealed that the Roman Empire had more influence on Norway than archaeologists previously assumed.

• B. The sandal would have degraded if it hadn't been removed from the ice.

• C. Temperatures contributed to both protecting and revealing the sandal.

• D. Archaeologists would have found the sandal eventually without help from the general public.

NASA's Cassini probe has detected an unusual wobble in the rotation of Mimas, Saturn's smallest moon. Using a computer model to study Mimas's gravitational interactions with Saturn and tidal forces, geophysicist Alyssa Rhoden and colleagues have proposed that this wobble could be due to a liquid ocean moving beneath the moon's icy surface. The researchers believe other moons should be examined to see if they too might have oceans hidden beneath their surfaces.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• A. Rhoden and colleagues were the first to confirm that several of Saturn's moons contain hidden oceans.

• B. Research has failed to identify signs that there is an ocean hidden beneath the surface of Mimas.

• C. Rhoden and colleagues created a new computer model that identifies moons with hidden oceans without needing to analyze the moons' rotation.

• D. Research has revealed that an oddity in the rotation of Mimas could be explained by an ocean hidden beneath its surface.

Disco remains one of the most ridiculed popular music genres of the late twentieth century. But as scholars have argued, the genre is far less superficial than many people believe. Take the case of disco icon Donna Summer: she may have been associated with popular songs about love and heartbreak (subjects hardly unique to disco, by the way), but like many Black women singers before her, much of her music also reflects concerns about community and identity. These concerns are present in many of the genre's greatest songs, and they generally don't require much digging to reveal.

What does the text most strongly suggest about the disco genre?

• A. It gave rise to a Black women's musical tradition that has endured even though the genre itself faded in the late twentieth century.

• B. It has been unjustly ignored by most scholars despite the importance of the themes addressed by many of the genre's songs.

• C. It has been unfairly dismissed for the inclusion of subject matter that is also found in other musical genres.

• D. It evolved over time from a superficial genre focused on romance to a genre focused on more serious concerns.

The following text is adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's 1849 story "Landor's Cottage." During a pedestrian trip last summer, through one or two of the river counties of New York, I found myself, as the day declined, somewhat embarrassed about the road I was pursuing. The land undulated very remarkably; and my path, for the last hour, had wound about and about so confusedly, in its effort to keep in the valleys, that I no longer knew in what direction lay the sweet village of B——, where I had determined to stop for the night.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• A. The narrator explains the difficulties he encountered on a trip and how he overcame them.

• B. The narrator describes what he saw during a long trip through a frequently visited location.

• C. The narrator recalls fond memories of a journey that he took through some beautiful river counties.

• D. The narrator remembers a trip he took and admits to getting lost.

In 2022, researchers rediscovered ancient indigenous glyphs, or drawings, on the walls of a cave in Alabama. The cave's ceiling was only a few feet high, affording no position from which the glyphs, being as wide as ten feet, could be viewed or photographed in their entirety. However, the researchers used a technique called photogrammetry to assemble numerous photos of the walls into a 3D model. They then worked with representatives of tribes originally from the region, including the Chickasaw Nation, to understand the significance of the animal and humanoid figures adorning the cave.

According to the text, what challenge did the researchers have to overcome to examine the glyphs?

• A. The cave was so remote that the researchers couldn't easily reach it.

• B. Some of the glyphs were so faint that they couldn't be photographed.

• C. The cave's dimensions prevented the researchers from fully viewing the glyphs.

• D. The researchers were unable to create a 3D model of the cave.

Alma and her brother Jose has won the state robotics competition for high school students.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. NO CHANGE

• B. have won

• C. is winning

• D. was winning

"We only have three weeks until our fall issue goes to print," say Elena as a reminder to the Life and Art Magazine editors who lagged on deadlines.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. NO CHANGE

• B. were saying

• C. have said

• D. said

Abdullah were pumping the brakes gingerly, as if it were raining. “Maybe I should reconsider this exit,” he said under his breath.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. NO CHANGE

• B. have been

• C. are

• D. was