GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: OG2

Tocqueville, apparently, was wrong. Jacksonian America was not a fluid, egalitarian society where individual wealth and poverty were ephemeral conditions. At least so argues E. Pessen in his iconoclastic study of the very rich in the United States between 1825 and 1850.

Pessen does present a quantity of examples, together with some refreshingly intelligible statistics, to establish the existence of an inordinately wealthy class. Though active in commerce or the professions, most of the wealthy were not self-made but had inherited family fortunes. In no sense mercurial, these great fortunes survived the financial panics that destroyed lesser ones. Indeed, in several cities the wealthiest one percent constantly increased its share until by 1850 it owned half of the community's wealth. Although these observations are true, Pessen overestimates their importance by concluding from them that the undoubted progress toward inequality in the late eighteenth century continued in the Jacksonian period and that the United States was a class-ridden, plutocratic society even before industrialization.

Question List: 1 2

During the day in Lake Constance, the zooplankton D. hyalina departs for the depths where food is scarce and the water cold. D. galeata remains near the warm surface where food is abundant. Even though D. galeata grows and reproduces much faster, its population is often outnumbered by D. hyalina.

Which of the following, if true, would help resolve the apparent paradox presented above?

  • A The number of species of zooplankton living at the bottom of the lake is twice that of species living at the surface.
  • B Predators of zooplankton, such as whitefish and perch, live and feed near the surface of the lake during the day.
  • C In order to make the most of scarce food resources, D. hyalina matures more slowly than D. galeata.
  • D D. galeata clusters under vegetation during the hottest part of the day to avoid the Sun's rays.
  • E D. galeata produces twice as many offspring per individual in any given period of time as does D. hyalina.

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