Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Apr 2212:30 AM EDT
-01:30 AM EDT
At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
Apr 1612:00 PM EDT
-11:59 PM EDT
You’re first to know: Save $200 on GMAT prep starting tomorrow, 4/13. Get 6 official practice tests and study with real questions. Be ready to save!
Apr 2301:30 AM EDT
-02:30 AM EDT
Struggling with GMAT Verbal as a non-native speaker? Harsh improved his score from 595 to 695 in just 45 days—and scored a 99 %ile in Verbal (V88)! Learn how smart strategy, clarity, and guided prep helped him gain 100 points.
Apr 2308:00 PM PDT
-09:00 PM PDT
Video explanations + diagnosis of 10 weakest areas + 150+ short videos + study plan!
Apr 2610:00 AM EDT
-11:00 AM EDT
The Target Test Prep course represents a quantum leap forward in GMAT preparation, a radical reinterpretation of the way that students should study. Try before you buy with a 5-day, full-access trial of the course for FREE!
Apr 2711:00 AM EDT
-12:00 PM EDT
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors
Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
Whether you are just beginning your MBA journey or fine-tuning your path to a 700+ score, GMAT Day is designed to give you a competitive edge.
20 Aug 2007, 16:24
Kudos
Bookmarks
Archeologists excavating sites in the “Fertile
Crescent” region of the Middle East have
found huge amounts of small clay tokens.
These tokens varied greatly in size and
5 shape and had fairly detailed pictographs
pressed into them. Anthropologists fiercely
debated the function of the tokens. Many
researchers thought the tokens had religious
significance; after all, the region had a rich,
10 well-documented spiritual tradition, as
evidenced by the splendidly designed temple
at Uruk. Other scholars believed that the
tokens were a sort of game piece or toy.
However, neither explanation was wholly
15 satisfying to the anthropological community.
Finally, in 1970, Denise Schmandt-Besserat
unlocked the secret of the tokens. They
were accounting tools, with the quantity and
type of the good indicated by the pictograph
20 on the piece.
Cognitive scientists have since shown
that all humans, and even some animals,
possess the ability to subitize—that is, to
recognize instantly the difference between
25 one, two, and three objects, although
Kaufman et al have established that this
ability differs from actual counting. In order
to move from mere subitizing to actual
counting and arithmetic requires the ability
30 to employ metaphor, according to Lakoff
and Nunez. Arithmetic began, contend
Lakoff and Nunez, when early humans used
metaphor to map from the domain of
concrete physical objects to the domain of
35 abstract or symbolic numbers. Lakoff and
Nunez have shown that by starting with a
tangible collection of objects and then
adding or subtracting from that collection
allows all of the abstract arithmetic axioms
40 to be construed. The ancient Sumerian
tokens, which used symbols to represent
actual quantities of items, represent perhaps
the first instance of this sort of metaphorical
mapping. Indeed, many credit ancient
45 Sumerians with the invention of
mathematics.
1:
Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage?
A The discovery of ancient Sumerian tokens depicting quantities of goods provides compelling evidence that the ability to subitize is universal.
B The ability to metaphorically map concrete objects as abstract symbols first occurred in ancient Sumerian civilizations.
C Discoveries in cognitive science concerning the nature of mathematical thought coupled with archeological evidence indicate that the Sumerians were one of the founders of mathematics.
D Mathematics would not have developed without the emergence of a metaphorizing capacity.
E Counting and arithmetic differ from subitizing in that subitizing is a universal phenomenon while counting and arithmetic are localized.
2: The author’s claim about the ability to subitize would be most strengthened by the discovery of which of the following?
A Wedda man from a Sri Lankan tribe who represents the number of coconuts in his collection by assigning a corresponding clam shell to each coconut
An individual who, after sustaining a serious head injury, loses the ability to add and subtract numbers
A numbering system from an early Chinese civilization that closely resembles a system developed by a Meso-American culture
A tribe with lifestyles and customs unchanged since the Stone Age whose language contains words which designate only between “few” and “many”
A nomadic people who keep track of the days of their wandering by making notches in a thighbone
3:
The author of the passage would most likely agree with which of the following statements:
A The discovery of the ability in some chimpanzees to count would not cause cognitive scientists to rethink their position on the nature of mathematics.
B Cognitive scientists should expect human infants to be able to differentiate up to three objects.
C The ability to subitize requires the same mental faculties as the ability to count and perform arithmetic.
D The earliest known use of the metaphorizing capacity in humans involved the mapping of goods onto clay tokens.
E Arithmetic axioms, rather than being accepted as inherently true, can be proven by the manipulation of concrete collections of objects.
Crescent” region of the Middle East have
found huge amounts of small clay tokens.
These tokens varied greatly in size and
5 shape and had fairly detailed pictographs
pressed into them. Anthropologists fiercely
debated the function of the tokens. Many
researchers thought the tokens had religious
significance; after all, the region had a rich,
10 well-documented spiritual tradition, as
evidenced by the splendidly designed temple
at Uruk. Other scholars believed that the
tokens were a sort of game piece or toy.
However, neither explanation was wholly
15 satisfying to the anthropological community.
Finally, in 1970, Denise Schmandt-Besserat
unlocked the secret of the tokens. They
were accounting tools, with the quantity and
type of the good indicated by the pictograph
20 on the piece.
Cognitive scientists have since shown
that all humans, and even some animals,
possess the ability to subitize—that is, to
recognize instantly the difference between
25 one, two, and three objects, although
Kaufman et al have established that this
ability differs from actual counting. In order
to move from mere subitizing to actual
counting and arithmetic requires the ability
30 to employ metaphor, according to Lakoff
and Nunez. Arithmetic began, contend
Lakoff and Nunez, when early humans used
metaphor to map from the domain of
concrete physical objects to the domain of
35 abstract or symbolic numbers. Lakoff and
Nunez have shown that by starting with a
tangible collection of objects and then
adding or subtracting from that collection
allows all of the abstract arithmetic axioms
40 to be construed. The ancient Sumerian
tokens, which used symbols to represent
actual quantities of items, represent perhaps
the first instance of this sort of metaphorical
mapping. Indeed, many credit ancient
45 Sumerians with the invention of
mathematics.
1:
Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage?
A The discovery of ancient Sumerian tokens depicting quantities of goods provides compelling evidence that the ability to subitize is universal.
B The ability to metaphorically map concrete objects as abstract symbols first occurred in ancient Sumerian civilizations.
C Discoveries in cognitive science concerning the nature of mathematical thought coupled with archeological evidence indicate that the Sumerians were one of the founders of mathematics.
D Mathematics would not have developed without the emergence of a metaphorizing capacity.
E Counting and arithmetic differ from subitizing in that subitizing is a universal phenomenon while counting and arithmetic are localized.
2: The author’s claim about the ability to subitize would be most strengthened by the discovery of which of the following?
A Wedda man from a Sri Lankan tribe who represents the number of coconuts in his collection by assigning a corresponding clam shell to each coconut
An individual who, after sustaining a serious head injury, loses the ability to add and subtract numbers
A numbering system from an early Chinese civilization that closely resembles a system developed by a Meso-American culture
A tribe with lifestyles and customs unchanged since the Stone Age whose language contains words which designate only between “few” and “many”
A nomadic people who keep track of the days of their wandering by making notches in a thighbone
3:
The author of the passage would most likely agree with which of the following statements:
A The discovery of the ability in some chimpanzees to count would not cause cognitive scientists to rethink their position on the nature of mathematics.
B Cognitive scientists should expect human infants to be able to differentiate up to three objects.
C The ability to subitize requires the same mental faculties as the ability to count and perform arithmetic.
D The earliest known use of the metaphorizing capacity in humans involved the mapping of goods onto clay tokens.
E Arithmetic axioms, rather than being accepted as inherently true, can be proven by the manipulation of concrete collections of objects.
Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Reading Comprehension (RC) Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block below for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!
20 Aug 2007, 21:08
Kudos
Bookmarks
6mins..
AAB ???
AAB ???
I am pretty bad at RCs.
same 6 minutes.
Ans : CAB
1. C -> "I think the passage talks more abt the sumerians and the tokens than their ability to subitize"
2. A/E -> I went back to SC. I dint like "A nomadic people"
3. B -> All humans have the ability to subitize.
same 6 minutes.
Ans : CAB
1. C -> "I think the passage talks more abt the sumerians and the tokens than their ability to subitize"
2. A/E -> I went back to SC. I dint like "A nomadic people"
3. B -> All humans have the ability to subitize.
