Questions 30–35 refer to the following passage.
(1)Most great scientists and artists are familiar
with the so-called “eureka phenomenon.” (2)This
is the experience that a thinker has when, after they
thought about a problem long and hard, they
suddenly come upon a solution in a flash when they
are no longer thinking about it. (3)The name of the
phenomenon comes from the legend of Archimedes.
(4)He had been thinking for days about a hard
problem that had come from the king, King Hieron
II. (5)The problem was how to determine whether
the king’s crown was pure gold without destroying
it. (6)As he was bathing, the solution to the
problem came to Archimedes in a flash and he ran
naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting
“Eureka!” meaning “I have found it!”
(7)Students should understand this also. (8)You
have probably had the experience of thinking about
a paper or a math problem for so long that it’s like
one’s brain gets frozen. (9)When this happens, it is
best to get away from the problem for a while rather
than obsess about it. (10)Isaac Asimov, one of the
most prolific writers of all time, used to go to the
movies every time he got writer’s block. (11)He
claimed that he always came out of the movie
knowing exactly how to get his story back on track.
(12)Unfortunately, many students today don’t
have time for that. (13)They feel so much pressure
to get everything done—their homework, their jobs,
their sports, their extracurricular activities—that
they think that taking “time out” to relax their
brains is just a costly waste of time. (14)This is
really too bad because very often relaxation is more
valuable to a student than just more hard work.
- Which of the following is the best revision of
the underlined portion of sentence 2 (repro-
duced below)?
This is the experience that a thinker has when,
after they thought about a problem long and
hard, they suddenly come upon a solution in a
flashwhen they are no longer thinking about it.
(A) that a thinker has when, after they thought
long and hard about a problem,
their solution suddenly arises like a flash
(B) that thinkers have when a solution sud-
denly had arisen like a flash after they
were thinking long and hard about a
problem
(C) that a thinker has when, after having
thought long and hard about a problem,
they suddenly come upon a solution
(D) that thinkers have when, after having
thought long and hard about a problem,
they suddenly come upon a solution
(E) that thinkers have when, thinking long
and hard about a problem, they suddenly
come upon a solution in a flash
CHAPTER 16 / PRACTICE TEST 2 669
6 6 666 6
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Directions:The following passage is an early
draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage
need to be rewritten.
Read the passage and select the best answers
for the questions that follow. Some questions
are about particular sentences or parts of sen-
tences and ask you to improve sentence struc-
ture or word choice. Other questions ask you
to consider organization and development. In
choosing answers, follow the requirements of
standard written English.