GRE Exam Verbal Ability One Word Substitution

Questions 1 to 3 are based on this passage.
Historian F. W. Maitland observed that legal documents are the best—indeed, often the only—available evidence about the economic and social history of a given period. Why, then, has it taken so long for historians to focus systematically on the civil (noncriminal) law of early modern (sixteenth- to eighteenth-century) England? Maitland offered one reason: the subject requires researchers to “master an extremely formal system of pleading and procedure.” Yet the complexities that confront those who would study such materials are not wholly different from those recently surmounted by historians of criminal law in England during the same period. Another possible explanation for historians’ neglect of the subject is their widespread assumption that most people in early modern England had little contact with civil law. If that were so, the history of legal matters would be of little relevance to general historical scholarship. But recent research suggests that civil litigation during the period involved artisans, merchants, professionals, shopkeepers, and farmers, and not merely a narrow, propertied, male elite. Moreover, the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw an extraordinary explosion in civil litigation by both women and men, making this the most litigious era in English history on a per capita basis.

Question 1
The passage suggests that the history of criminal law in early modern England differs from the history of civil law during that same period in that the history of criminal law
(A) is of more intellectual interest to historians and their readers
(B) has been studied more thoroughly by historians
(C) is more relevant to general social history
(D) involves the study of a larger proportion of the population
(E) does not require the mastery of an extremely formal system of procedures

Question 2
The author of the passage mentions the occupations of those involved in civil litigation in early modern England most likely in order to
(A) suggest that most historians’ assumptions about the participants in the civil legal system during that period are probably correct
(B) support the theory that more people participated in the civil legal system than the criminal legal system in England during that period
(C) counter the claim that legal issues reveal more about a country’s ordinary citizens than about its elite
(D) illustrate the wide range of people who used the civil legal system in England during that period
(E) suggest that recent data on people who participated in early modern England’s legal system may not be correct

Question 3
The author of the passage suggests which of the following about the “widespread assumption” ( )?
(A) Because it is true, the history of civil law is of as much interest to historians focusing on general social history as to those specializing in legal history.
(B) Because it is inaccurate, the history of civil law in early modern England should enrich the general historical scholarship of that period.
(C) It is based on inaccurate data about the propertied male elite of early modern England.
(D) It does not provide a plausible explanation for historians’ failure to study the civil law of early modern England.
(E) It is based on an analogy with criminal law in early modern England.

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GRE Other Question
Questions 1 and 2 are based on this passage.
Geese can often be seen grazing in coastal salt marshes. Unfortunately, their intense grazing removes the grassy covering, exposing marsh sediment; this increases evaporation, which in turn increases salt concentration in marsh sediments. Because of this increased concentration, regrowth of plants is minimal, leading to increased erosion, which leads to a decrease in the fertile topsoil, leading to even less regrowth. In time, the salt marsh becomes a mudflat. This process challenges one of the most widely held beliefs about the dynamics of salt-marsh ecosystems: supposedly, consumers such as geese do not play a large role in controlling the productivity of marsh systems. Rather, the standard view claims, marshes are controlled by bottom-up factors, such as nutrients and physical factors.

Question 1
The author discusses “the standard view” most likely in order to identify a view that
(A) explains the occurrence of the chain of events described in the passage
(B) provides a summary of the chain of events described in the passage
(C) is called into question by the chain of events described in the passage
(D) advocates reassessment of the widely held belief described in the passage
(E) is undermined by the widely held belief described in the passage

Question 2
According to the passage, which of the following is a widely held belief about geese?
(A) They are not often seen grazing in coastal salt marshes.
(B) They are not the primary consumers in salt-marsh ecosystems.
(C) They play only a minor role in the productivity of salt-marsh ecosystems.
(D) They are the primary determinants of which resources will thrive in coastal salt marshes.
(E) They control the productivity of salt-marsh ecosystems through a bottom-up process. Question
If one could don magic spectacles—with lenses that make the murky depths of the ocean become transparent—and look back several centuries to an age before widespread abuse of the oceans began, even the most (i)…………… observer would quickly discover that fish were formerly much more abundant. Likewise, many now-depleted species of marine mammals would appear (ii)………. . But without such special glasses, the differences between past and present oceans are indeed hard to (iii)……….. .
Blank (i)
(A) casual
(B) prescient
(C) clearheaded
Blank (ii)
(D) threatened
(E) plentiful
(F) unfamiliar
Blank (iii)
(G) ignore
(H) discern
(I) dismiss