Sensing Airflow

Sensing the flow of air over the body can be useful to an animal that flies. On a large scale,
if an animal can sense the speed and direction of the relative wind, it can keep itself aligned
with its intended flight direction by correcting for the transient effects of wind gusts. On a
much finer scale, if an animal could detect the fine details of airflows, particularly on its
wings, it could, in principle, adjust its movements to optimize its wing stroke. Biologists have
demonstrated a variety of large-scale wind sensors in flying animals, but they have not yet
found any fine-scale mechanisms.

We know much more about insect wind sensors than about those of vertebrates. This
surprising situation is largely because of the constraints of the insect exoskeleton (outer
casing) and the relative simplicity of the insect nervous system. The exoskeleton forms a rigid
body covering, so that every sensory receptor must have some structural specialization to
allow it to detect anything outside the body. Often, these modifications take the form of a
hair. Some biologists have become quite adept at determining what type of stimulus – wind,
sound, odors – triggers a given hair, and how that hair’s sensation are used by the insect’s
brain.

Most flying insects use either their antennae or wind-sensitive hairs on their heads as large-
scale wind detectors. Desert locusts (large grasshoppers) have been favorite subjects of
researchers interested in wind sensing. In locusts, wind-sensitive hairs on the head trigger
reflex steering responses, which is probably their function in other insects as well. Antennae
are alternate wind sensors in many insects. Insects use their antennae for all sorts of sensing –
smell, hearing, touch – and aphids, flies, bees, grasshoppers, and moths use them for wind
sensing as well. When insects use their antennae to detect wind, they typically hold their
antennae in a characteristic orientation during flight. If wind strikes them from some
orientation other than head-on, the relative wind deflects the antennae slightly. A nerve at the
base of the antenna senses this deflection, and the insect uses this sensation to trigger a
steering reflex.

The insects studied so far seem to use both antennae and head hairs for wind sensing. But
why bother? Having more than one system may simply be redundant, so that if a predator
happened to bite off the antennae, the head hairs could take over their functions, but this kind
of redundancy is rare in biology.  The two systems may detect slightly different aspects of
the relative wind, for example, the antennae might be more sensitive to speed, while the hairs
detect direction.  Or the antennae might respond more to horizontal gusts and the head hairs
to vertical gusts.  They also probably operate on different scales; the hairs may respond to

1
smaller, quicker disturbances, while the larger antennae respond to larger, more prolonged
changes. 

Birds and bats surely have sensing abilities similar to those of insects, but these abilities
are more difficult to study in birds and bats. Their tactile sensors (sensors for detecting touch)
are much denser and more numerous than those of insects, and they are not necessarily
associated with obvious structural modifications – birds and bats have no obstructing
exoskeleton. Moreover, the complexity of vertebrate nervous systems means that researchers
have much more difficulty demonstrating a physiological connection between a stimulus (like
a change in wind direction) and a particular steering response. These animals may not even
have specialized wind sensors (sensors that only detect wind). For instance, although humans
are not fliers, a person can easily determine the direction of a brisk wind just from the
sensation of the wind on his or her skin. Because birds and bats actually have an important
use for such sensations, they ought to be at least as good as humans at detecting the speed and
direction of wind on their faces. In addition, fur or feathers could make very sensitive small-
scale flow detectors if coupled with a sensitive tactile nerve ending (as are many vertebrate
hairs). As yet, however, biologists have done little or no work trying to connect wind sensing
with flight steering behavior in birds and bats, and have not searched for small-scale flow
sensors.

P1: Sensing the flow of air over the body can be useful to an animal that flies. On a large
scale, if an animal can sense the speed and direction of the relative wind, it can keep itself
aligned with its intended flight direction by correcting for the transient effects of wind gusts.
On a much finer scale, if an animal could detect the fine details of airflows, particularly on its
wings, it could, in principle, adjust its movements to optimize its wing stroke. Biologists have
demonstrated a variety of large-scale wind sensors in flying animals, but they have not yet
found any fine-scale mechanisms.

1. The word “intended” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) correct
B) desired
C) expected
D) required

2. The phrase “in principle” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) as needed
B) with little effort

2
 C) quickly
D) theoretically

3. According to paragraph 1, large-scale wind sensors help a flying animal to

A) determine how fast it needs to fly to make use of the relative wind
B) avoid being caught in wind gusts
C) maintain its course when hit by passing wind gusts
D) adjust its movements for effective wing stroke

P2: We know much more about insect wind sensors than about those of vertebrates. This
surprising situation is largely because of the constraints of the insect exoskeleton (outer
casing) and the relative simplicity of the insect nervous system. The exoskeleton forms a
rigid body covering, so that every sensory receptor must have some structural specialization
to allow it to detect anything outside the body. Often, these modifications take the form of a
hair. Some biologists have become quite adept at determining what type of stimulus – wind,
sound, odors – triggers a given hair, and how that hair’s sensation are used by the insect’s
brain.

4. The word “constraints” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) design
B) materials
C) limitations
D) characteristics

5. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about the insect exoskeleton?
A) It is less rigid in insects with simple nervous systems than in insects with more complex
nervous systems.
B) It prevents the insect nervous system from detecting external stimuli except through
special structures.
C) Its rigidity determines how effective insect sensory receptors are at detecting external
stimuli.
D) It controls where in the insect brain sensory information is sent.

6. According to paragraph 2, scientists have sometimes been able to tell which of the
following about insects?
A) Exactly how many structural specializations a specific insect has
B) How often a stimulus must occur before it triggers a given hair

3
 C) Why sensory modifications often take the form of a hair
D) How a hair’s sensations are used by the insect brain

P3: Most flying insects use either their antennae or wind-sensitive hairs on their heads as
large-scale wind detectors. Desert locusts (large grasshoppers) have been favorite subjects of
researchers interested in wind sensing. In locusts, wind-sensitive hairs on the head trigger
reflex steering responses, which is probably their function in other insects as well. Antennae
are alternate wind sensors in many insects. Insects use their antennae for all sorts of sensing –
smell, hearing, touch – and aphids, flies, bees, grasshoppers, and moths use them for wind
sensing as well. When insects use their antennae to detect wind, they typically hold their
antennae in a characteristic orientation during flight. If wind strikes them from some
orientation other than head-on, the relative wind deflects the antennae slightly. A nerve at the
base of the antenna senses this deflection, and the insect uses this sensation to trigger a
steering reflex.

7. According to paragraph 3, what indicates that a flying insect is using its antennae for wind
sensing?
A) The specific location of the antennae on the insect’s head
B) The way the insect holds its antennae while flying
C) The size and shape of the insect’s antennae
D) The increased sensitivity of the nerves at the base of the antennae

8. According to paragraph 3, what happens when the antennae of a flying insect are deflected
by wind?
A) The deflection is detected by sensitive hairs on the insect’s head.
B) The antennae stop responding to smell, sounds, and touch and focus completely on wind
sensing.
C) The deflection produces a sensation that triggers a steering reflex.
D) The insect adjusts its antennae so that they point in the direction of the relative wind.

P4: The insects studied so far seem to use both antennae and head hairs for wind sensing. But
why bother? Having more than one system may simply be redundant, so that if a predator
happened to bite off the antennae, the head hairs could take over their functions, but this kind
of redundancy is rare in biology.  The two systems may detect slightly different aspects of
the relative wind, for example, the antennae might be more sensitive to speed, while the hairs
detect direction.  Or the antennae might respond more to horizontal gusts and the head hairs
to vertical gusts.  They also probably operate on different scales; the hairs may respond to

4
smaller, quicker disturbances, while the larger antennae respond to larger, more prolonged
changes. 

9. Why does the author point out that having “both antennae and head hairs for wind sensing”
is a “kind of redundancy” that is “rare in biology”?
A) To challenge the idea that insect antennae detect exactly the same aspects of the wind
that insect head hairs do
B) To point out a specific way in which the insects studied so far differ from most other
insects
C) To explain why it is thought that the insects studied so far are likely to have predators
that bite off their antennae
D) To argue that it is unnecessary for the insects studied so far to have two different
mechanisms for sensing wind

10. According to paragraph 4, head hairs may be better than antennae at performing all of the
following functions EXCEPT
A) sensing wind speed
B) responding to brief changes in the wind
C) sensing the direction of the wind
D) responding to vertical gusts of wind

P5: Birds and bats surely have sensing abilities similar to those of insects, but these abilities
are more difficult to study in birds and bats. Their tactile sensors (sensors for detecting touch)
are much denser and more numerous than those of insects, and they are not necessarily
associated with obvious structural modifications – birds and bats have no obstructing
exoskeleton. Moreover, the complexity of vertebrate nervous systems means that researchers
have much more difficulty demonstrating a physiological connection between a stimulus (like
a change in wind direction) and a particular steering response. These animals may not even
have specialized wind sensors (sensors that only detect wind). For instance, although humans
are not fliers, a person can easily determine the direction of a brisk wind just from the
sensation of the wind on his or her skin. Because birds and bats actually have an important
use for such sensations, they ought to be at least as good as humans at detecting the speed and
direction of wind on their faces. In addition, fur or feathers could make very sensitive small-
scale flow detectors if coupled with a sensitive tactile nerve ending (as are many vertebrate
hairs). As yet, however, biologists have done little or no work trying to connect wind sensing
with flight steering behavior in birds and bats, and have not searched for small-scale flow
sensors

5
11. The word “surely” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A) generally
B) actually
C) additionally
D) certainly

12. According to paragraph 5, wind-sensing abilities are more difficult to study in birds and
bats than in insects for each of the following reasons EXCEPT:
A) Birds and bats have far more tactile sensors that are capable of detecting wind than
insects have.
B) The nervous systems of birds and bats are much more complex than those of insects.
C) Birds and bats are less affected by wind than insects are.
D) The tactile sensors of birds and bats are not always connected to body structures that
have a clear sensory function.

13. Look at the four squares [] that indicate where the following sentence could be added
to the passage.

A more likely explanation is that each one has its own function.

Where would the sentence best fit?

14. Prose Summary

Sensing airflow can be very useful to an animal that flies, particularly in terms of
triggering flight-steering behavior.

Answer Choices:
A) Insects detect outside stimuli through specialized structures – often hairs – that transmit
signals to the nervous system, thereby triggering behavioral responses.
B) Animals that can detect the fine details of airflow on their wings are better at steering
than animals that sense wind speed only, but animals that can do both have the best
steering response.
C) In addition to using wind-sensitive hairs, insects use antennae as large-scale wind
detectors, with a nerve at the base of the antenna triggering a steering reflex.
D) If an insect’s antennae are bitten off by predators, insects can then grow new head hairs
that develop the function of wind sensing.
E) Flying animals have primary as well as secondary wind sensors, using the primary

6
 sensors in moderate wind conditions and the secondary sensors in extreme wind
conditions.
F) Flight-steering behavior has not yet been linked to wind sensing in birds and bats, whose
complex nervous systems and tactile sensors make study difficult.

Wool Industry in Fifteenth-Century Europe

Cloth manufacture dramatically changed in fifteenth-century Europe. Production was

moving out of urban workshops and into the countryside. In many Italian cities, masters of
the wool guild (the wool trade association) controlled workers, salaries, and techniques,
ensuring that quality, prices, and profit margins remained high. Industries in rural areas
tended to be free of controls on quality or techniques. As a result, the production of light,
cheap woolens, for which there was a significant demand, moved out of the cities and into the
countryside. Rural production became the most dynamic part of the industry.

Especially in southwest Germany and parts of England, production was organized through
the putting-out system. In this system, merchants who owned the raw wool contracted with
various artisans in the city, suburbs, or countryside – wherever the work could be done most
cheaply – to process the wool into cloth. Rural manufacture was least expensive because it
could be done as occasional or part-time labor by farmers, their wives, or children during
slack times of the day or season. Because production was likely to be finished in the
countryside (beyond guild supervision), the merchant was free to move the cloth to wherever

7
it could be sold most easily and profitably; guild masters had no control over price or quality.

Two other developments also changed the fifteenth-century woolen trade: the
transformation of Spain into an exporter of unprocessed wool and the emergence of England,
long recognized as a source of prime wool, as a significant producer of finished cloth. Spain
was an ideal region for the pasturing of livestock. Flocks of sheep regularly moved from
mountainous summer pastures onto the plain in the late fall and winter. By the fifteenth
century, highly prized Spanish wool from merino sheep was regularly exported to Italy and
England. By 1500 there were over 3 million sheep in Castile alone, and revenues from duties
on wool formed the backbone of royal finance.

In England, in contrast, economic transformation was tied to cloth production.  Over the
course of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, unprocessed wool exports declined as
cloth exports rose.  A key to the growth of the English cloth industry was the availability of
waterpower, which allowed manufacturers to take advantage of new mechanical fulling mills
for process cloth.  A water-driven mill mechanically pounded a mixture of earth, alum, and
even urine into the cloth to soften it and increase its weight.  Using the mechanical mill
allowed a single artisan to full much more cloth than the older methods of working by hand.

The growth of cloth exports furthered the expansion of London. Located on the Thames
River and easily reached by sea, the city was ideally placed to serve as a political and
economic capital. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, English commerce was
increasingly concentrated in the hands of the London merchant investors. Although
manufacturing continued to thrive in rural areas, soon after 1500, over 80 percent of the cloth
for export was in the hands of Londoners. This development, coupled with the growth of
London as a center of administration and consumption, laid the foundation for the economic
and demographic growth that would make London the largest and the most prosperous city in
western Europe by the eighteenth century.

Industrial changes in the fifteenth century challenged customs and institutions by

allowing new entrepreneurs into the marketplace. The ruling classes in many European
towns, however, acted to dampen competition and preserve traditional values. In northern
Europe, governments in towns like Leiden restricted the concentration of resources in the
hands of the town’s leading cloth merchants to ensure full employment for the town’s
laborers, political power for the guild masters, and social stability in the town. These efforts
to ensure stability by restricting competition made it more difficult for younger craftspeople
to complete the transition from apprentice to master and open their own shops.
P1: Cloth manufacture dramatically changed in fifteenth-century Europe. Production was

8
moving out of urban workshops and into the countryside. In many Italian cities, masters of
the wool guild (the wool trade association) controlled workers, salaries, and techniques,
ensuring that quality, prices, and profit margins remained high. Industries in rural areas
tended to be free of controls on quality or techniques. As a result, the production of light,
cheap woolens, for which there was a significant demand, moved out of the cities and into the
countryside. Rural production became the most dynamic part of the industry.

1. According to paragraph 1, which of the following was true of rural industries in fifteenth-
century Europe?
A) They were more common in Italy than in most other European countries.
B) They were usually not subject to quality controls.
C) They moved from producing cheap to more expensive woolens.
D) They often manufactured goods that were not in demand in cities.

P2: Especially in southwest Germany and parts of England, production was organized
through the putting-out system. In this system, merchants who owned the raw wool
contracted with various artisans in the city, suburbs, or countryside – wherever the work
could be done most cheaply – to process the wool into cloth. Rural manufacture was least
expensive because it could be done as occasional or part-time labor by farmers, their wives,
or children during slack times of the day or season. Because production was likely to be
finished in the countryside (beyond guild supervision), the merchant was free to move the
cloth to wherever it could be sold most easily and profitably; guild masters had no control
over price or quality.

2. According to paragraph 2, which of the following is true about the putting-out system?
A) Work was typically performed on a full-time basis in rural areas.
B) Work could be done at equal cost in the city, suburbs, or countryside.
C) Merchants respected guild controls on manufacturing.
D) Merchants arranged work directly with artisans.

3. Why does the author include the information that “there were over 3 million sheep in
Castile alone”?
A) To help explain why English wool producers were no longer able to compete with
Spanish wool produces
B) To suggest how difficult it was for Spanish wool manufacturers to find enough pasture
for their livestock
C) To support a claim that merino sheep had become the primary livestock in Spain by 1500

9
 D) To emphasize how successful unprocessed wool production had become in Spain by
1500

P3: Two other developments also changed the fifteenth-century woolen trade: the
transformation of Spain into an exporter of unprocessed wool and the emergence of England,
long recognized as a source of prime wool, as a significant producer of finished cloth. Spain
was an ideal region for the pasturing of livestock. Flocks of sheep regularly moved from
mountainous summer pastures onto the plain in the late fall and winter. By the fifteenth
century, highly prized Spanish wool from merino sheep was regularly exported to Italy and
England. By 1500 there were over 3 million sheep in Castile alone, and revenues from duties
on wool formed the backbone of royal finance.

4. According to paragraph 3, which of the following changes affected the international

exchange of wool?
A) England stopped exporting unprocessed wool.
B) England began to make large amounts of cloth.
C) Spain began exporting merino sheep to other countries.
D) Spain began to develop a cloth manufacturing industry.

P4: In England, in contrast, economic transformation was tied to cloth production.  Over
the course of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, unprocessed wool exports declined as
cloth exports rose.  A key to the growth of the English cloth industry was the availability of
waterpower, which allowed manufacturers to take advantage of new mechanical fulling mills
for process cloth.  A water-driven mill mechanically pounded a mixture of earth, alum, and
even urine into the cloth to soften it and increase its weight.  Using the mechanical mill
allowed a single artisan to full much more cloth than the older methods of working by hand.

5. Which of the following is NOT an element of the mechanical fulling process discussed in
paragraph 4?
A) The use of water as a power source
B) The transformation of raw wool into cloth
C) An increase in the weight of cloth after processing
D) The pressing of earth and other materials into cloth

P5: The growth of cloth exports furthered the expansion of London. Located on the Thames
River and easily reached by sea, the city was ideally placed to serve as a political and

10
economic capital. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, English commerce was
increasingly concentrated in the hands of the London merchant investors. Although
manufacturing continued to thrive in rural areas, soon after 1500, over 80 percent of the cloth
for export was in the hands of Londoners. This development, coupled with the growth of
London as a center of administration and consumption, laid the foundation for the economic
and demographic growth that would make London the largest and the most prosperous city in
western Europe by the eighteenth century.

6. The word “ideally” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) perfectly
B) fortunately
C) deliberately
D) centrally

7. The phrase “coupled with” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) resulting in
B) caused by
C) introduced by
D) added to

8. The word “consumption” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) industrial activity
B) use of products and services
C) education
D) labor

9. The word “prosperous” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) powerful
B) dynamic
C) wealthy
D) commercial

10. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 5 as a factor in the expansion of
London as a political and economic capital?
A) An increase in cloth export
B) An increasing concentration of commerce among London merchants
C) The ease of access to London from the sea
D) The significant political role of London merchants

11
P6: Industrial changes in the fifteenth century challenged customs and institutions by
allowing new entrepreneurs into the marketplace. The ruling classes in many European
towns, however, acted to dampen competition and preserve traditional values. In northern
Europe, governments in towns like Leiden restricted the concentration of resources in the
hands of the town’s leading cloth merchants to ensure full employment for the town’s
laborers, political power for the guild masters, and social stability in the town. These efforts
to ensure stability by restricting competition made it more difficult for younger craftspeople
to complete the transition from apprentice to master and open their own shops.

11. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted
sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave
out essential information.
A) Unlike other governments in northern Europe, the government in Leiden ensured social
stability by limiting the power of the town’s leading cloth merchants.
B) Northern European governments prevented leading cloth merchants from ensuring full
employment and social stability.
C) Some European town governments reduced the control of resources by cloth merchants
in order to protect aspects of employment, political power, and social stability.
D) In northern European towns like Leiden, the government no longer supported cloth
merchants because their increased political power threatened social stability.

12. Paragraph 6 suggests that some members of the fifteenth-century European ruling class
felt that traditional values would be threatened if
A) the ruling classes in European towns were given excessive political power
B) apprentices were permitted to work alongside their masters in the marketplace
C) new entrepreneurs were allowed to compete freely with established merchants
D) guild masters had control over the distribution of resources

13. Look at the four squares [] that indicate where the following sentence could be added
to the passage.

In the past, this treatment process had required much more human labor.

Where would the sentence best fit?

14. Prose Summary

12
 Fifteenth-century Europe saw dramatic changes in cloth manufacturing practices

Answer Choices:
A) Much of the production of woolens moved from urban locations to the rural countryside,
weakening the control of wool guilds.
B) Guild masters objected strongly to the lack of supervision over wool production taking
place outside of Europe’s cities.
C) Spain and England began participating in the fifteenth-century woolen trade in new
ways that changed the nature of that trade in various ways.
D) London’s riverside location ensured the ample supply of water required for new cloth
manufacturing techniques.
E) An increase in young entrepreneurs in the cloth production industry resulted in a wider
variety of cloth being available for export.
F) Many Europeans town governments attempted to preserve stability and tradition in the
cloth market by suppressing competition.

The Formation of New Species

Speciation is the process by which new species form. It begins with the isolation of two
populations. If two populations are to become sufficiently distinct that interbreeding is

13
difficult or impossible, then there must be relatively little gene flow (migration) between
them (because if there were a great deal of gene flow, then genetic changes in one population
would soon become widespread in the other as well). However, it is not enough for the two
populations to simply be isolated; they will become separate species only if, during the period
of isolation, they evolve sufficiently large genetic differences. Thus the second factor in
species formation is genetic divergence. The genetic differences must be large enough that if
the isolated populations are reunited, they can no longer interbreed and produce vigorous,
fertile offspring. If isolated populations are small, chance events may generate significant
genetic differences by genetic drift (changes in the frequency of a characteristic in a
population caused by chance rather than reproductive fitness). In both small and large
populations, different environmental pressures in separate environments may favor the
evolution of large genetic differences.

Speciation has seldom been observed in the wild. Nevertheless, evolutionary biologists
have synthesized theories, observations, and experiments to devise hypothetical mechanisms
for the origin of new species. These mechanisms fall into two broad categories: (1) allopatric
speciation, in which two populations are geographically separated from one another, and (2)
sympatric speciation, in which two populations share the same geographical area.

At first glance, it might seem that sympatric speciation violates the principle of isolation of
populations, because the speciating populations live in the same locale. However, it is
isolation from gene flow that is crucial to speciation. Although such isolation may be most
commonly imposed by a physical barrier such as a river, two populations living in the same
area can also experience restricted gene flow if they occupy different habitats within the area
(for example, marshes as opposed to forests) or breed in different non-overlapping time
periods. Therefore, the principle still holds: isolation from gene flow is the key to both
allopatric and sympatric speciation.

Allopatric speciation can occur when different parts of a population become physically
separated by a difficult-to-cross barrier. Physical separation could occur, for example, if some
members of a population of land-dwelling organisms drifted, swam, or flew to a remote
oceanic island.  A population of water-dwelling organisms might be split when geological
processes such as volcanism or continental drift create new land barriers that subdivide
previously continuous seas or lakes.  Geological change can also divide terrestrial
populations.  Portions of populations can become stranded in patches of suitable habitat that
become isolated by climate shifts. 

If two or more populations become geographically isolated for any reason, little or no

14
migration (and therefore little or no gene flow) can occur between them. If the pressures of
natural selection differ in the separate locations, then the populations may accumulate genetic
differences. Genetic differences may also arise if one or more of the separated populations is
small enough for genetic drift to occur. For example, genetic drift may be especially likely in
the aftermath of a founder event, in which a few individuals become isolated from the main
body of the species. In either case, genetic differences between the separated populations may
eventually become large enough to make interbreeding impossible. At that point, the two
populations will have become separate species. Most biologists believe that geographic
isolation followed by allopatric speciation has been the most common source of new species,
especially among animals.

Sympatric speciation occurs within a single geographic area. Like allopatric speciation, it
requires limited gene flow. One of the likely mechanisms whereby gene flow can be reduced
between members of a single population in a given area is ecological isolation. If the same
geographical area contains two distinct types of habitats (for example, distinct food sources,
nesting places, and so on), different members of a single species may begin to specialize in
one habitat or the other. If conditions are right, natural selection for habitat specialization may
cause the formerly single species to split into two species.

1. The word “vigorous” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) normal
B) strong
C) similar
D) numerous

2. According to paragraph 1, if gene flow between two populations is unrestricted, then

A) speciation will inevitably occur
B) the size of the populations will increase
C) genetic differences between the two populations will increase
D) changes in one population will spread to the other

3. Paragraph 1 implies that the defining factor in determining whether two populations belong
to the same species is whether they
A) can interbreed and produce vigorous, fertile offspring
B) occupy the same geographic area
C) share common ancestors
D) are subject to the same environmental pressures

15
4. The word “seldom” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A) rarely
B) directly
C) certainly
D) commonly

5. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted
sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave
out essential information.
A) A restriction of gene flow between groups can result from differences in habitat or
breeding period as well as from separation by a physical barrier.
B) Changes in habitat may cause some species to become isolated from other populations
living in the same location.
C) When gene flow is restricted, groups within a species tend to migrate to different habitats
within the same area.
D) Although isolated populations can find a way to overcome physical barriers, they
sometimes remain separate because there is no breeding between them.

6. What is the purpose of paragraph 3 in the passage?

A) To recognize that the requirements for speciation described in paragraph 1 have some
exceptions for some populations
B) To clarify what seems to be a contradiction between information in paragraph 1 and
paragraph 2 regarding the requirements for speciation
C) To present a third hypothetical mechanism for speciation beyond what is described in
paragraph 1 and 2
D) To argue that there is only one valid mechanism for speciation in spite of information
given in paragraph 2

7. The word “suitable” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) changing
B) appropriate
C) separate
D) reduced

8. According to paragraph 4, which of the following is a situation that may lead to allopatric
speciation?
A) A small group of insects is carried by a storm to an island that was previously
uninhabited by their species.

16
 B) Two herds of the same species unite to form one large herd.
C) Because of geological activity, individual populations of an organism are able to expand
over a much wider area.
D) A species of bird builds nests in both marshes and forests.

9. The phrase “the aftermath of a founder event” is closest in meaning to

A) the situation leading to a founder event
B) the period during which a founder event is occurring
C) the location where a founder event is occurring
D) The situation that results from a founder event

10. According to paragraph 5, genetic drift is most likely to occur in which of the following?
A) in relatively simple organisms
B) in water-dwelling populations
C) in small, isolated populations
D) in populations that interbreed

11. According to paragraph 5, it is generally accepted by biologists that allopatric speciation

is
A) likely to occur before geographic isolation occurs
B) most frequently caused by a single genetic change
C) the usual cause of the formation of new animal species
D) slower than the process of sympatric speciation

12. According to paragraph 5 and 6, which of the following necessarily occurs in both
allopatric and sympatric speciation?
A) Two groups of the same species become geographically separated.
B) Two populations of the same species experience a reduction in gene exchange between
the two groups.
C) Two groups of the same species focus on different food sources.
D) One group of a species adapts better to its environment than another group of the same
species.

13. Look at the four squares [] that indicate where the following sentence could be added
to the passage.

Alternatively, it might occur when a population remains more or less in the same area
but a physical barrier arises separating some members of the population from

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 others.

Where would the sentence best fit?

14. Prose Summary

Speciation is the process through which new species form.

Answer Choices:
A) Biologists have demonstrated that speciation within most habitats is usually allopatric
rather than sympatric.
B) For a new species to arise, a population must be prevented from interbreeding with other
populations and become sufficiently different genetically from other populations.
C) Physical barriers, differences of habitat, or mismatched breeding cycles can lead to
reduced gene flow between populations, resulting in genetic divergence.
D) A group is considered a distinct species when its members are no longer able to produce
fertile offspring with members of other populations.
E) Because species living in ecologically diverse areas are unlikely to migrate, speciation is
more common in such areas than in less diverse ones.
F) Shifts in climate can cause a portion of a population to become isolated in what becomes
a new habitat.

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