GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: OG2

In a recent study, David Cressy examines two central questions concerning English immigration to New England in the 1630s: what kinds of people immigrated and why? Using contemporary literary evidence, shipping lists, and customs records, Cressy finds that most adult immigrants were skilled in farming or crafts, were literate, and were organized in families. Each of these characteristics sharply distinguishes the 21,000 people who left for New England in the 1630s from most of the approximately 377,000 English people who had immigrated to America by 1700.

With respect to their reasons for immigrating, Cressy does not deny the frequently noted fact that some of the immigrants of the 1630s, most notably the organizers and clergy, advanced religious explanations for departure, but he finds that such explanations usually assumed primacy only in retrospect. When he moves beyond the principal actors, he finds that religious explanations were less frequently offered, and he concludes that most people immigrated because they were recruited by promises of material improvement.

Question List: 1 2 3 4

Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

  • A large masses of floating sea ice would continue to form in the wintertime
  • B significant changes in Arctic sea temperatures would be accompanied by changes in sea temperatures in more temperate parts of the world
  • C such a warm Arctic Ocean would trigger the melting of massive land-based glaciers in the Arctic
  • D an ice-free Arctic Ocean would support a very different ecosystem than it does presently
  • E in the spring, melting sea ice would cause more icebergs to be created and to drift south into shipping routes

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