GRE Reading Comprehension

Home > GRE Test > GRE Reading Comprehension Questions

Next steps

Source: XDF

Since 1953, many experimental attempts to synthesize the chemical constituents of life under "primitive Earth conditions" have demonstrated that a variety of the complex molecules currently making up living organisms could have been present in the early ocean and atmosphere, with only one limitation: such molecules are synthesized far less readily when oxygen-containing compounds dominate the atmosphere. Therefore some scientists postulate that the Earth's earliest atmosphere, unlike that of today, was dominated by hydrogen, methane, and ammonia. From these studies, scientists have concluded that the surface of the primitive Earth was covered with oceans containing the molecules fundamental to life. Although, at present, scientists cannot explain how these relatively small molecules combined to produce larger, more complex molecules, some scientists have precipitously ventured hypotheses that attempt to explain the development, from larger molecules, of the earliest self-duplicating organisms.

Question List: 1 2

It can be inferred from the passage that "some scientists" assume which of the following concerning " larger, more complex molecules"

  • A The earliest atmosphere was forward primarily of these molecules.
  • B Chemical processes involving these molecules proceeded much more slowly under primitive Earth conditions.
  • C The presence of these molecules would necessarily precede the existence of simple organisms.
  • D Experimental techniques will never be sufficiently sophisticated to produce in the laboratory simple organisms from these chemical constituents.
  • E Explanations could easily be developed to explain how simple molecules combined to form these more complex ones.

Show Answer

Previous       Next