GRE Verbal Reasoning Sample Questions Set F

Categories: GRE (The Graduate Records Examination)

Questions 6 through 8 are based on the following reading passage.

Music critics have consistently defined James P. Johnson as a great early jazz pianist, originator of the 1920s Harlem “stride” style, and an important blues and jazz composer. In addition,

 Line:   however, Johnson was an innovator in classical music, composing

  5: symphonic music that incorporated American, and especially African American, traditions.

                Such a blend of musical elements was not entirely new: by 1924 both Milhaud and Gershwin had composed classical works that incorporated elements of jazz. Johnson, a serious musician

 10:  more experienced than most classical composers with jazz, blues, spirituals, and popular music, was particularly suited to expand Milhaud’s and Gershwin’s experiments. In 1927 he completed his first large-scale work, the blues- and jazz-inspired Yamekraw, which included borrowings from spirituals and Johnson’s own

 15: popular songs. Yamekraw, premiered successfully in Carnegie Hall, was a major achievement for Johnson, becoming his most frequently performed extended work. It demonstrated vividly the possibility of assimilating contemporary popular music into the symphonic tradition.

Question.6. Select and indicate the best answer from among the five answer choices:

The passage states that Johnson composed all of the following EXCEPT

A. jazz works

B. popular songs

C. symphonic music

D. spirituals

E. blues pieces

Answer: (d)

Question.7. Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.

The author suggests which of the following about most classical composers of the early 1920s?

A. They were strongly influenced by the musical experiments of Milhaud and Gershwin.

B. They had little working familiarity with such forms of American music as jazz, blues, and popular songs.

C. They made few attempts to introduce innovations into the classical symphonic tradition.

Answer: (b)

Question.8. Select and indicate the best answer from among the five answer choices:

The author suggests that most critics have

A. underrated the popularity of Yamekraw

B. undervalued Johnson’s musical abilities

C. had little interest in Johnson’s influence on jazz

D. had little regard for classical works that incorporate popular music

E. neglected Johnson’s contribution to classical symphonic music

Answer: (e)

Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following reading passage.

Scholarship on political newspapers and their editors is dominated by the view that as the United States grew, the increasing influence of the press led, ultimately, to the neutral reporting from

Line: which we benefit today. Pasley considers this view oversimplified,

  5: because neutrality was not a goal of early national newspaper editing, even when editors disingenuously stated that they aimed to tell all sides of a story. Rather, the intensely partisan ideologies represented in newspapers of the early republic led to a clear demarcation between traditional and republican values. The editors

 10: responsible for the papers’ content—especially those with republican agendas—began to see themselves as central figures in the development of political consciousness in the United States.

Question.9. Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.

The passage suggests that Pasley would agree with which of the following statements about the political role of newspapers?

A. Newspapers today are in many cases much less neutral in their political reporting than is commonly held by scholars.

B. Newspapers in the early United States normally declared quite openly their refusal to tell all sides of most political stories.

C. The editorial policies of some early United States newspapers became a counterweight to proponents of traditional values.

Answer: (c)

Question.10. Select and indicate the best answer from among the five answer choices:

The word “disingenuously” appears underlined and in boldface in line 6 of the passage. In the context in which it appears, “disingenuously” most nearly means

A. insincerely

B. guilelessly

C. obliquely

D. resolutely

E. pertinaciously

Answer: (a)