McGraw-Hill Education GRE 2019

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Questions 8 to 10 refer to the passage below. For each question, select one answer
choice, unless the instructions state otherwise.

[Sigmund] Freud was also a social critic. He believed that society,
which has been fashioned by man, reflects to a great extent man’s
irrationality. As a consequence, each new generation is corrupted by
being born into an irrational society. The influence of man on society
and of society on man is a vicious circle from which only a few hardy
souls can free themselves.
Freud felt that the situation might be ameliorated by the application
of psychological principles in raising and educating children. This
would mean, of course, that parents and teachers would have to
undergo a psychological reeducation before they could be effective
agents of reason and truth. Freud did not minimize the immensity of
this task, but he did not know any other way by which to create a better
society and better people. Freud’s social criticism is presented in his
book Civilization and Its Discontents.
What then was Freud? Physician, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst,
psychologist, philosopher, and critic—these were his several vocations.
Yet, taken separately or together, they do not really convey Freud’s
importance to the world. Although the word ‘‘genius” is used
indiscriminately to describe a number of people, there is no other
single word that fits Freud as well as this word does. He was a genius.
One may prefer to think of him, as I do, as one of the few men in
history who possessed a universal mind. Like Shakespeare and Goethe
and Leonardo da Vinci, whatever Freud touched he illuminated. He
was a very wise man.


  1. The passage is primarily concerned with
    A explaining how Freud wanted to change society
    B identifying the appropriate categorization for Freud
    C analyzing Freud’s beliefs about society
    D discussing ways to reeducate society
    E comparing Freud to other great thinkers

  2. The author most likely mentions “Shakespeare and Goethe and Leonardo
    da Vinci” in order to
    A give examples of people whose impact on the world was comparable
    to Freud ’s
    B suggest that it is impossible to truly define a genius
    C highlight the uniqueness of Freud’s way of thinking
    D underscore the sorts of impact that deep thinkers can have on
    society
    E support the claim that Freud was a genius


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CHAPTER 16 ■ PRACTICE TEST 2 541

05-GRE-Test-2018_463-582.indd 541 12/05/17 12:14 pm

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