SECTION I TIME - 30 minutes 40 QUESTIONS :RA For each question in this section, choose the best answer. Each question below consists of a word in capital letters, followed by five lettered words or phrases. Choose the word or phrase that is most nearly OPPOSITE in meaning to the word in capital letters. Since some of the questions require you to distinguish fine shades of meaning, consider all the choices before deciding which is best. :RA :Q0 1. STRINGENT: (a) strict (b) modest (c) lax (d) pensive (e) oblivious :RCC :Q0 2. JOCOSE: (a) solid (b) lugubrious (c) ascetic (d) bantering (e) straight :RCB :Q0 3. SOVEREIGN: (a) dependent (b) avid (c) fictitious (d) lordly (e) slavish :RCA :Q0 4. MUNDANE: (a) insipid (b) refulgent (c) vociferous (d) spiritual (e) strident :RCD :Q0 5. INDOLENT: (a) lackadaisical (b) assiduous (c) perfunctory (d) gay (e) restraining :RCB :Q0 6. ELATED: (a) dejected (b) doomed (c) exalted (d) fashionable (e) included :RCA :Q0 7. EXTINCT: (a) clouded (b) extant (c) inconspicuous (d) cast out (e) permanent :RCB :Q0 8. OBDURATE: (a) inflexible (b) crotchety (c) praiseworthy (d) tawdry (e) conciliatory :RCE :Q0 9. PHLEGMATIC: (a) taciturn (b) flimsy (c) doleful (d) fervent (e) dilatory :RCD :Q0 10. GREGARIOUS: (a) noteworthy (b) silent (c) sparing (d) unsociable (e) munificent :RCD Each question below consists of a related pair of words or phrases, followed by five lettered pairs of words or phrases. Select the lettered pair that BEST expresses a relationship similar to that expressed in the original pair. :RA :Q1 11. EULOGY:IMPRECATION:: (a) howl:whisper (b) castigation:vilification (c) elegy:lamentation (d) laud:degrade (e) ingenuity:gaucherie :RCD :Q1 12. INTEGRITY:UPRIGHT:: (a) prudery:meticulous (b) forthright:honesty (c) sedition:treason (d) austerity:jocund (e) pertinacity:persistent :RCE :Q1 13. BLOOD:VEIN:: (a) traffic:canal (b) highway:viaduct (c) water:conduit (d) river:ocean (e) dike:canal :RCC :Q1 14. BLINDNESS:VISION:: (a) sleep:insomnia (b) limp:walking (c) inaudible:hearing (d) sense:feeling (e) paralysis:movement :RCE :Q1 15. CANE:WALKING:: (a) sneakers:sprinting (b) lens:seeing (c) pencil:scribbling (d) telescope:distance (e) life buoy:swimming :RCE :Q1 16. SHIP:MARITIME:: (a) plant:terrestrial (b) map:piscatorial (c) chronicle:histrionic (d) star:celestial (e) religion:pastoral :RCD :Q1 17. THEE:YOU:: (a) antediluvian:personal (b) archaic:modern (c) personal:impersonal (d) nominative:objective (e) primitive:contemporary :RCB :Q1 18. SEEK:SOUGHT:: (a) bring:brought (b) see:saw (c) wring:wrung (d) wreak:wrought (e) eke:ought :RCD :Q1 19. LABORATORY:EXPERIMENT:: (a) poetry:imagination (b) lathe:iron (c) mind:thought (d) foundry:patent (e) cannery:food :RCC :Q1 20. FIASCO:RIDICULE:: (a) holocaust:ruin (b) procrastination:emulation (c) triumph:castigation (d) affliction:tribulation (e) success:acclamation :RCE :Q1 21. METER:CENTIMETER:: (a) kilogram:gram (b) yard:inch (c) acre:rod (d) gram:centigram (e) mensuration:commensuration :RCD :Q1 22. BLADE:PROPELLER:: (a) tooth:saw (b) barb:scalpel (c) sheath:sword (d) ladle:spoon (e) pick:ax :RCA :Q1 23. MILLINER:NEEDLE:: (a) racer:record (b) mason:trowel (c) musician:baton (d) mechanic:tool (e) pharmacist:prescription :RCB :Q1 24. AFFRONT:RESENT:: (a) curious:nettle (b) reprimand:upbraid (c) slight:pique (d) orthodox:inspire (e) irrational:chuckle :RCC :Q1 25. CUSTODIAN:GUARD:: (a) tether:emancipate (b) posse:persevere (c) sentry:adjudicate (d) diplomat:entreat (e) steward:supervise :RCE Each sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or sets of words. Choose the word or set of words that BEST fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. :RA :Q2 26. ____ is excessive ____. (a) dereliction - delinquency (b) orthodoxy - religiousness (c) excoriation - eulogy (d) cupidity - greed (e) dexterity - gaucherie :RCD :Q2 27. In 1830 conservative people ____ the newfangled railroads because they felt that it was not desirable for human beings to travel at speeds of fifteen to twenty miles an hour. (a) insinuated against (b) slandered (c) inveighed against (d) deliberated against (e) extirpated :RCC :Q2 28. His ideas would gain more ____, if he avoided expressing himself in such pompous, ____ phrases. (a) obeisance - mellifluous (b) acceptance - laconic (c) munificence - pithy (d) cadence - ardent (e) credence - sententious :RCE :Q2 29. A ____ is one who loves ____. (a) bibliophile - books (b) martinet - wine (c) sage - herbs (d) tympanist - opera (e) duenna - travel :RCA :Q2 30. Among the many remarkable things that are related to the great Furius Camillus, it seems ____ and strange above all that he who continually was in the highest commands and obtained the greatest successes, was five times chosen dictator, triumphed four times, and was styled a second founder of Rome - yet never so much as once served as consul. (a) unfortunate (b) ambiguous (c) singular (d) grotesque (e) specious :RCC Each passage below is followed by questions based on its content. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is STATED or IMPLIED in that passage. :RA :PB The original genius of Social Security was precisely that it did treat everyone the same. No one need feel humiliated by accepting its benefits, because it was not welfare. Everyone was included in the plan. As a political ideal, this is most attractive; but it may simply have become too costly to sustain. Consider two of the major proposals for bringing Social Security's commitments into line with its resources. One is to raise the retirement age. Raising the retirement age to sixty-eight by the end of this century would keep the average time in retirement one quarter as long as the average adult life-span. Another :RA proposal is to hold down the automatic increases in Social Security benefits, by gearing them to the Consumer Price Index or the average increase in wages, whichever was less in a given year. But if changes like these were applied "fairly", with equal effect on all, the results would be unfair. Some people need the payments; others do not. To speak of "the aged", or "Social Security recipients", as one homogeneous group no longer makes sense. As recently as twenty years ago, it did. Those above sixty-five were then an economically distinct group. They were on the whole poorer than other people. The economic :RA differences within the group were less important than the gap between them and the American norm. To aim a program at all retired people not only made political sense, in avoiding the taint of welfare; it also made economic sense, for it transferred money to people in need. That has changed. Older Americans are now economically very much like their children's generation, and their grandchildrens'. As the differences between the generations have diminished, the differences among older people have grown more acute. On the average, those above sixty-five enjoy parity with those below; but the average conceals :RA many retired people who are desperately poor. About a fifth of all retired couples have incomes above $24,000; but of the 5.8 million single women sixty-five or older, fully half have incomes below $5,000. As the world works, the wealthiest couples generally receive the highest Social Security benefits (because they earned more when working) but depend on them least. For the couples making more than $24,000, the comparatively large Social Security check represents about one sixth of their income. For the poorest elderly women, their smaller check is more than 80% of their total support. Can it be fair to treat these people :RA "equally", to hold the widow's $300 a month and the couple's $900 a month to an "even" 5% increase? It is this kind of equity that our evenhanded entitlement policy now serves. In practical terms, the solution might be to make Social Security benefits subject to federal income tax. Yet to tax Social Security would be heresy; that attitude is nearly universal, its emotional and political power a legacy of the era when we could effortlessly afford to treat everyone "equally". The only political proposition more challenging than taxing Social Security would be carrying the logic to its next step and asking why there should be extra exemptions on Form :RA 1040 for everyone over the age of sixty-five. We are reluctant to face questions such as these. As individuals, we deserve help; but if all of us are entitled, where will the money come from? The cost of ignoring them is not simply the obvious - the automatic growth of federal spending - but also the subtle destruction of other public goals. All causes are in jeopardy as long as more and more of us are "entitled" to support from everyone else. :RA :PE :Q3 31. The title below which best expresses the main idea of the passage is: (a) Social Security Benefits (b) Per Capita Income of the "Aged" (c) Social Security's Resource Problems (d) Taxing Social Security (e) Social Security and Its Destruction of Public Goals :RCC :Q3 32. Older Americans today: (a) demand fewer entitlements than the aged did in years past (b) are victims of housing-cost bias (c) are on economic par with other age groups (d) have grown powerless to change the current Social Security System (e) demand the lifting of the burden of taxation from American entrepreneurs :RCC :Q3 33. If Social Security benefits were subject to a federal income tax, the writer suggests that: (a) untaxed investment income would still make distribution of benefits unequal. (b) the IRS would have to increase the number of its administrators (c) the problem of treating all recipients fairly would be solved (d) the middle class would rebel (e) "entitlements" would be equitable :RCA :PQ :PB Ambassador Mike J. Mansfield never fails to get a round of applause from sober-suited Japanese businessmen when he calls it the most important relationship either country has. Ambassadors, of course, often talk like that. If true, such propositions would make all of them the most important ambassador. But the former Senate majority leader speaks from a very long personal association with Japan, going all the way back to December 1944, when he was supervising saturation bombing of the country from air force bases on mainland China. Still, few of Mansfield's Japanese listeners hold this against him. The leveling of Japan's major cities by :RA fire and atom, and the subsequent ignominious surrender, turned out to be one of those heavily disguised blessings Japanese history so often records. The conqueror has gone on to become Japan's biggest market by far. Put simply, the $50 billion or so Japan earns in the U.S. every year just about pays for the oil that keeps Japanese industry turning, Japanese houses warm, and life pleasant or even possible for the 117 million people jammed into the Japanese home islands. The U.S. is, knowingly or not, the source of nearly all the advanced technology Japan sells around the world, especially back to the U.S. America is the only guarantor of Japan's defense. Without the custom :RA and cooperation of Americans, glad or grudging, Japan, Inc. would be out of business. :RA :PE :Q3 34. From the passage, it is evident that Japan: (a) needs America's cooperation (b) maintains an isolationist policy (c) is self-sufficient (d) operates on an austerity budget (e) is independently wealthy :RCA :Q3 35. The "conqueror" in paragraph 2 is a reference to: (a) ambassador Mike Mansfield (b) United States (c) Japan (d) the United States Senate (e) China :RCB :Q3 36. The United States' business relationship with Japan can be best described as: (a) faltering (b) distant (c) suspicious (d) apologetic (e) amicable :RCE :PQ :PB Can Europe catch up? The answer, I fear, is no. The economic center of gravity has been shifting away from the Old World and toward the New World for over a century, and the shift shows every sign of persisting. Europe will emerge, eventually, from its current structural crisis. There will be pockets of prosperity, many opportunities for American business. Europe will remain rich in culture, a wonderful place to visit or retire to. But it will fall further behind in the race with its major competitors. I hope I am wrong. A relatively stagnant Europe, unable to deliver to the expectations of its citizens, is good news only for Yuri Andropov and his crew. :RA Europe's problems lie in its recent successes. The Common Market countries are completing an era of unparalleled growth that followed - and was stimulated by - the unparalleled destruction and misery of World War. Urbanizing and rebuilding, France has grown 6% annually since 1950; Germany, at 6%; Italy, at 7%. Compare these growth rates with the U.S.' 3% since 1950. Even Britain, for long "the sick man of Europe", is prosperous beyond anyone's pre-World War II dreams. So Europe feels rich again, but not the way the Europe of old did. This one is like a prosperous businessman who has grown weary of business and would like to retire to enjoy the :RA finer things in life. The portfolio is solid, the family provided for, the house in the sun paid for. Who wants to spend the next 40 years at the breakneck pace of the last 40? In several important industries the Europeans have already lost the race with the Americans and the Japanese. Last year it took 239,000 Volkswagen workers to generate $15.4 billion in sales - $64,000 in sales per worker. VW profits came to just $402 per worker. France's Renault and Peugeot generated sales of $72,000 and $54,700 per worker, respectively, and both lost money. Yet Ford and General Motors, hardly models of productivity, both squeezed :RA over $90,000 in sales from each of their workers. Ford lost money, but GM earned almost $1,500 per worker. The Japanese, of course, are way out in front. Honda earned $6,260 per worker on sales of $193,000 per worker. Nissan Motor Co. made $7,425 per worker on sales of $284,000 per worker. Why is Europe so slow to create new jobs? One important reason is that Europe has little in the way of venture capital markets. In Germany, for example, the giant banks control the flow of funds to business, with the big German combines getting top priority. France has nationalized its banks and many of its largest :RA companies. No one should be surprised if state-owned companies have first call on state-owned banks' funds. The Europeans know they have a problem. They are fighting back, after a fashion. Their strategy is to throw big government and big business money at the problem. The Common Market's bureaucrats and a dozen big companies cobbled together the European Strategic Program for Research , Development in Information Technologies (ESPRIT). As an American, however, I feel that the Europeans need government funding much less than they need a good shot in the arm for the entrepreneurial spirit. As it were they are just :RA throwing money at problems - much as the U.S. tried doing with its social problems in the Sixties and Seventies. What is important is not the manufacturing source of new technologies, but the knowledge of how to use and adapt the technologies. The implication, of course, is that no government program can force its citizens to think innovatively. :RA :PE :Q3 37. The writer implies that: (a) the Russians have little to gain from a stagnant Europe (b) there are few dangers facing societies whose material wants have been met (c) the Europeans are more complacent than the Americans (d) Europe will sacrifice her cultural heritage to improve her economic situation (e) the common market countries are dissatisfied with their economic growth :RCC :Q3 38. We can infer from the passage that Modern Europe: (a) had met its natural needs (b) had little time to appreciate its gains (c) was in fierce competition with America (d) was energetic (e) did not like to take risks :RCB :Q3 39. The figure of speech the writer relies on to image a prosperous Europe is: (a) alliteration (b) assonance (c) onomatopoeia (d) simile (e) metaphor :RCD :Q3 40. According to the writer, the Europeans: (a) need more government funding (b) should model their technologies after the Japanese (c) are unaware of their immediate problems (d) must join the Common Market (e) need to think creatively :RCE :ET :ET
