C. Over time the distribution of dust in a meteor stream will usually become denser at the
outside edges of the stream than at the center.
D. Meteor showers caused by older meteor streams should be, on average, longer in
duration than those caused by very young meteor streams.
E. The individual dust particles in older meteor streams should be, on average, smaller than
those that compose younger meteor streams.
PREP2012-Pack1-RC-002-05 VRC07544-05 Medium Which of the following is an assumption underlying the last sentence of the passage?
A. In each of the years between 1970 and 1979, the Earth took exactly 19 hours to cross the
Geminid meteor stream.
B. The comet associated with the Geminid meteor stream has totally disintegrated.
C. The Geminid meteor stream should continue to exist for at least 5,000 years.
D. The Geminid meteor stream has not broadened as rapidly as the conventional theories
would have predicted.
E. The computer—model Geminid meteor stream provides an accurate representation of
the development of the actual Geminid stream.
PREP2012-Pack1-RC-003
Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Anne Summers seeks to debunk the idealizations and present a reality at odds with Nightingale's heroic reputation. According to Summers,
Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until near the war's end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. Additionally, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal. The
prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition of a few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic.
Nightingale’s place in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.
By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale's letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations. They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the war. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of neighboring civilian populations, she
succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses’ training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical
intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British Army's medical services were still using the cost-accounting system she had devised in the 1860's.
I believe that the evidence of her letters supports continued respect for Nightingale's
brilliance and creativity. When counseling a village schoolmaster to encourage children to use their faculties of observation, she sounds like a modern educator. Her insistence on