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RITE : CEREMONY

• A. clamor : silence
• B. affliction: blessing
• C. agitation: calm
• D. pall: clarity
• E. magnitude: size

Late Victorian and modern ideas of culture are indebted to Matthew Arnold, who, largely through his
Culture and Anarchy (1869), placed the word at the center of debates about the goals of intellectual life
and humanistic society. Arnold defined culture as "the pursuit of perfection by getting to know the best
which has been thought and said." Through this knowledge, Arnold hoped, we can turn "a fresh and free
thought upon our stock notions and habits." Although Arnold helped to define the purposes of the liberal
arts curriculum in the century following the publication of Culture, three concrete forms of dissent from his
views have had considerable impact of their own. The first protests Arnold's fearful designation of
"anarchy" as culture's enemy, viewing this dichotomy simply as another version of the struggle between a
privileged power structure and radical challenges to its authority. But while Arnold certainly tried to define
the arch-the legitimizing order of value-against the anarch of existentialist democracy, he himself was
plagued in his soul by the blind arrogances of the reactionary powers in his world. The writer who
regarded the contemporary condition with such apprehension in Culture is the poet who wrote "Dover
Beach," not an ideologue rounding up all the usual modern suspects. Another form of opposition saw
Arnold's culture as a perverse perpetuation of classical and literary learning, outlook, and privileges in a
world where science had become the new arch and from which any substantively new order of thinking
must develop. At the center of the "two cultures" debate were the goals of the formal educational
curriculum, the principal vehicle through which Arnoldian culture operates. However, Arnold himself had
viewed culture as enacting its life in a much more broadly conceived set of institutions. A third form is
so-called "multiculturalism," a movement aimed largely at gaining recognition for voices and visions that
Arnoldian culture has implicitly suppressed. In educational practice, multiculturalists are interested in
deflating the imperious authority that "high culture" exercises over curriculum while bringing into play the
principle that we must learn what is representative, for we have overemphasized what is exceptional.
Though the multiculturalists' conflict with Arnoldian culture has clear affinities with the radical critique,
multiculturalism actually affirms Arnold by returning us more specifically to a tension inherent in the idea
of culture rather than to the cultureanarchy dichotomy. The social critics, defenders of science, and
multiculturalists insist that Arnold's culture is simply a device for ordering us about. Instead, however, it is
designed to register the gathering of ideological clouds on the horizon. There is no utopian motive in
Arnold's celebration of perfection. Perfection mattered to Arnold as the only background against which we
could form a just image of our actual circumstances, just as we can conceive finer sunsets and unheard
melodies.
The author's primary concern in the passage is to

• A. explain why Arnold considered the pursuit of perfection to be the essence of culture
• B. trace Arnold's influence on the liberal arts educational curriculum
• C. describe Arnold's conception of culture
• D. examine the different views of culture that have emerged since the eighteenth century
• E. argue against those who have opposed Arnold's ideas

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For absolute dating of archeological artifacts, the radiocarbon method emerged during the latter half of
the twentieth century as the most reliable and precise method. The results of obsidian (volcanic glass)
dating, a method based on the belief that newly exposed obsidian surfaces absorb moisture from the
surrounding atmosphere at a constant rate, proved uneven. It was initially thought that the thickness of
the hydration layer would provide a means of calculating the time elapsed since the fresh surface was
made. But this method failed to account for the chemical variability in the physical and chemical
mechanism of obsidian hydration. Moreover, each geographic source presented unique chemical
characteristics, necessitating a trace element analysis for each such source. Yet despite its limitations,
obsidian dating helped archeologists identify the sources of many obsidian artifacts, and to identify in turn
ancient exchange networks for the flow of goods. Nor were ceramic studies and fluoride analysis
supplanted entirely by the radiocarbon method, which in use allows for field labeling and laboratory errors,
as well as sample contamination. In addition, in the 1970s, dendrochronological (tree-ring) studies on the
bristlecone pine showed that deviation from radiocarbon values increases as one moves back in time.
Eventually calibration curves were developed to account for this phenomenon; but in the archeological
literature we still find dual references to radiocarbon and sidereal, or calendar, time.
The author would probably consider which of the following the LEAST likely means of dating
archeological artifacts?

• A. Fluoride analysis
• B. Dendrochronological studies
• C. Ceramics studies
• D. Obsidian hydration-layer analysis
• E. Radiocarbon dating

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Four of the ships sought a passage along a southern ___.

• A. border
• B. coast
• C. body of land with water on three sides
• D. inland
• E. answer not available

SHIP : ARMADA ::

• A. violin : viola
• B. chemical : reaction
• C. gun : cannon
• D. atom : molecule
• E. sail : wind

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