646 McGRAW-HILL’S SAT
2 2 222 2
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Excerpted from “The Renaissance Interlude,” in Socrates to
Sartre,by Samuel Enoch Stumpf, McGraw-Hill, New York,- Reproduced with permission of The McGraw-Hill
Companies. - Passage 1 mentions each of the following
as benefits of public education to the poor
EXCEPT
(A) the diminishment of social distinctions
(B) the improvement of living standards
(C) better ability to counteract greed
(D) increased self-sufficiency
(E) the reduction of crime - Passage 1 suggests that the obliteration of
“factitious distinctions” (lines 13–14) requires
(A) unlimited access to education
(B) a rigorous curriculum in civics
(C) hostility toward the rich
(D) dedicated teachers
(E) aggressive legislation - The author of Passage 2 characterizes the
“struggle” (line 21) as
(A) regretful
(B) empowering
(C) illusionary
(D) unwinnable
(E) foreign
formation of temporary hypotheses. The
method of observation implied two things:
namely, that traditional explanations of the
behavior of nature should be empirically
demonstrated, the new assumption being that
such explanations could very well be wrong,
and that new information might be available
to scientists if they could penetrate beyond
the superficial appearances of things. People
now began to look at the heavenly bodies with
a new attitude, hoping not solely to find the
confirmation of Biblical statements about the
firmament but, further, to discover the princi-
ples and laws that describe the movements of
bodies. Observation was directed not only
upon the stars but also in the opposite direc-
tion, toward the minutest constituents of
physical substance.
To enhance the exactness of their observa-
tions, they invented various scientific instru-
ments. Tippershey, a Dutchman, invented the
telescope in 1608, although Galileo was the
first to make dramatic use of it. In 1590 the
first compound microscope was created. The
principle of the barometer was discovered by
Galileo’s pupil Torricelli. The air pump, which
was so important in creating a vacuum for the
experiment that proved that all bodies regard-
less of their weight or size fall at the same rate
when there is no air resistance, was invented
by Otto von Guericke (1602–1686). With the
use of instruments and imaginative hypothe-
ses, fresh knowledge began to unfold. Galileo
discovered the moons around Jupiter, and
Anton Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) discovered
spermatozoa, protozoa, and bacteria.
Whereas Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)
formed a new hypothesis of the revolution of
the earth around the sun, Harvey (1578–1657)
discovered the circulation of the blood.
William Gilbert (1540–1603) wrote a major
work on the magnet, and Robert Boyle
(1627–1691), the father of chemistry, formu-
lated his famous law concerning the relation
of temperature, volume, and pressure of10
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Questions 13–18 are based on the following passage.
The following is an essay from a textbook on the
history of philosophy published in 1999.The scientists of the Renaissance brought
about the most fundamental alterations in the
world of thought, and they accomplished this
feat by devising a new method for discovering
knowledge. Unlike the medieval thinkers, who
proceeded for the most part by reading tradi-
tional texts, the early modern scientists laid
greatest stress upon observation and theLine5