Passage A — Minerals, water, air, organic matter, and organisms make up the material we call soil. This material covers the Earth's surface and supports life. Without soil, plants would not grow, and animals would not survive. Even though speaking about soil seems simple enough, it is actually very complex. That is because soil comes in many different forms which are made of layers, called horizons. When you look at the horizons together, you get a soil profile. Each horizon has its own set of characteristics. Some soil characteristics are the amount of sand, the type of minerals, and the amount of decomposing leaves found in the soil. All of these characteristics will help determine what kind of plant life the soil can support.

Passage B — Healthy plants are plants that are able to take sunlight, water, and nutrients and turn them into food. Their roots absorb two of these ingredients from the soil around them. The ideal soil for growing is one that contains the right amount of water without being too wet. It also contains many nutrients.

How do nutrients make it into the soil? The answer is actually quite complex. Nutrient-rich soil contains organic matter, which is broken-down plant and animal matter. As the plant and animal matter decays, or decomposes, it releases nutrients into the soil. Then, it is absorbed by living plants and turned into food. Therefore, the richer the nutrients in the soil, the healthier the plant.

Based on the information in Passages A and B, how do the nutrients in the soil determine what kind of plant it can support?

a
In order to get nutrients into the soil, plants and animals decompose, which means they are broken down and absorbed as food.

b
Plants absorb the nutrients they need from the soil to make food, so the type of nutrients in the soil need to match the type of nutrients needed by the plant.

c
Soil horizons share their nutrients so that plants and animals have enough food to survive, especially during the summer season.

d
The minerals, water, and organic matter in the soil keep plants from growing large, so plants need to choose a spot that doesn't have any of those things.

Read the passage: canines may not be the deepest thinkers in the world. but perhaps that's for the best. the life of a dog—sitting alone all day, waiting for everyone to come home—can be pretty boring. super-smart animals would probably get totally stressed out, says university of pennsylvania researcher james serpell. look at it this way: if dogs were any smarter, they probably wouldn't choose to hang around with us. which best describes the tone of the passage?

Memories of a memory have you ever witnessed something amazing, shocking or surprising and found when describing the event that your story seems to change the more you tell it? have you ever experienced a time when you couldn't really describe something you saw in a way that others could understand? if so, you may understand why some experts think eyewitness testimony is unreliable as evidence in scientific inquiries and trials. new insights into human memory suggest human memories are really a mixture of many non-factual things. first, memory is vague. imagine your room at home or a classroom you see every day. most likely, you could describe the room very generally. you could name the color of the walls, the floors, the decorations. but the image you describe will never be as specific or detailed as if you were looking at the actual room. memory tends to save a blurry image of what we have seen rather than specific details. so when a witness tries to identify someone, her brain may recall that the person was tall, but not be able to say how tall when faced with several tall people. there are lots of different kinds of "tall." second, memory uses general knowledge to fill in gaps. our brains reconstruct events and scenes when we remember something. to do this, our brains use other memories and other stories when there are gaps. for example, one day at a library you go to quite frequently, you witness an argument between a library patron and one of the librarians. later, when telling a friend about the event, your brain may remember a familiar librarian behind the desk rather than the actual participant simply because it is recreating a familiar scene. in effect, your brain is combining memories to you tell the story. third, your memory changes over time. it also changes the more you retell the story. documented cases have shown eyewitnesses adding detail to testimony that could not have been known at the time of the event. research has also shown that the more a witness's account is told, the less accurate it is. you may have noticed this yourself. the next time you are retelling a story, notice what you add, or what your brain wants to add, to the account. you may also notice that you drop certain details from previous tellings of the story. with individual memories all jumbled up with each other, it is hard to believe we ever know anything to be true. did you really break your mother's favorite vase when you were three? was that really your father throwing rocks into the river with you when you were seven? the human brain may be quite remarkable indeed. when it comes to memory, however, we may want to start carrying video cameras if we want to record the true picture. part a and part b below contain one fill-in-the-blank to be used for all three question responses. your complete response must be in the format a, b, c including the letter choice, commas, and a space after the commas. part a: which of the following best explains why memories from childhood are unreliable? fill in blank 1 using a, b, or c. our brains add details and general knowledge to childhood memories. our brains are not as reliable as video cameras are. our brains create new stories to make the past more interesting. part b select one quotation from the text that supports your answer to part a. add your selection to blank 1 using e, f, or g. but the image you describe will never be as specific or detailed as if you were looking at the actual room. when a witness tries to identify someone, her brain may recall that the person was tall, but not be able to say how tall. to do this, our brains use other memories and other stories when there are gaps. select one quotation from the text that supports your answer to part a. add your selection to blank 1 using h, i, or j. documented cases have shown eyewitnesses adding detail to testimony that could not have been known at the time of the event. with individual memories all jumbled up with each other, it is hard to believe we ever know anything to be true. when it comes to memory, however, we may want to start carrying video cameras if we want to record the true picture answer for blank 1:

Read the excerpt from”do not go gentle into that good night” which statement best describes the effect of the refrains in this excerpt?