6. Melodramas, which presented ________ oppositions between innocence and criminality, virtue and corruption, good and evil, were popular precisely because they offered the audience a world devoid of ________.
(A) full . . . theatricality
(B) stark. . . neutrality
(C) paradoxical . . . adversity
(D) lurid . . . polarity
(E) absurd . . . circumstantiality

2. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein has generated scores of cinematic offshoots aimed mainly at mass-market audiences, but in fact, the book is highly literary and ________, the work of a very ________ young writer. (A) melodramatic . . . deep (B) esoteric . . . passionate (C) arcane . . . warped (D) bizarre . . . talented (E) allusive . . . erudite

3. The natural balance between prey and predator has been increasingly ________, most frequently by human ________. (A) celebrated . . . alteration (B) predicted . . . fabrication (C) observed . . . arbitration (D) investigated . . . ingenuity (E) disturbed . . . intervention

4. The Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz applied his studies of the ________ behavior of fish in school to the social ________ of human interaction in groups. (A) responsive . . . paradigm (B) intrinsic . . . interpretation (C) distinctive . . . facade (D) instinctive . . . dynamics (E) ulterior . . . function

5. Rhetoric often seems to ________ over reason in a heated debate, with both sides ________ in hyperbole. (A) cloud . . . subsiding (B) prevail. . . yielding (C) triumph . . . engaging (D) reverberate . . . clamoring (E) trample . . . tangling

7. In the current research program, new varieties of apple trees are evaluated under different agricultural ________ for tree size, bloom density, fruit size, ________ to various soils, and resistance to pests and disease. (A) circumstances . . . proximity (B) regulations. . . conformity (C) conditions . . . adaptability (D) auspices . . . susceptibility (E) configurations . . . propensity

8. It is to the novelist’s credit that all of the ________ in her novel are presented realistically, without any ________ or playful supernatural tricks. (A) scenes . . . elucidation (B) scenarios. . . discrimination (C) chapters . . . artlessness (D) backdrops . . . authenticity (E) episodes . . . whimsy

9. Nineteenth-century scholars, by examining earlier geometric Greek art, found that classical Greek art was not a magical ________ or a brilliant ________ blending Egyptian and Assyrian art, but was independently evolved by Greeks in Greece. (A) apparition . . . amalgam (B) paradigm. . . construct (C) conversion . . . annexation (D) exemplar . . . synthesis (E) stratagem . . . appropriation

10. The characterization of historical analysis as a form of fiction is not likely to be received ________ by either historians or literary critics, who agree that history and fiction deal with ________ orders of experience. (A) contentiously . . . realistic (B) enthusiastically. . . shifting (C) quietly . . . significant (D) sympathetically . . . distinct (E) passively . . . unusual

1. According to the passage, a major factor responsible for the rise of third parties in the U.S. is the (A) domination of major parties by powerful economic interests (B) ability of third parties to transcend regional interests (C) ready acceptance by mainstream voters of issues with strong minority support (D) appeal of fringe issues to the average American voter (E) slowness of major parties to respond to new issues

2. The author cites all of the following as contributing to the weakness of third parties EXCEPT (A) their tendency to avoid sharply defined political programs (B) an electoral system that denies them proportional representation (C) their tendency to adopt programs that fail to attract mainstream voter support (D) the ability of major parties to undercut their appeal (E) the fact that many are based on issues of only temporary relevance