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Medical College Admission Test: Verbal Reasoning, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Writing Sample Questions 182–186 (page: 37)

Updated On: 9-Feb-2026

Breast milk is proven to be the best form of nutrition for infants and is recommended for at least 1 year after birth. Unfortunately, a recent survey of breastfeeding mothers revealed that only 20% continue breastfeeding or to provide breast milk through pumping after 4 months, after which they switch to formulA. When asked about reasons for stopping breastfeeding, the top three reasons were: going back to work, lack of support, and difficulties pumping. A socioeconomic study of the mothers revealed that women who choose to breastfeed for longest tend to have a higher level of education and come from more affluent backgrounds. Conversely, those mothers who breastfeed for the least amount of time tend to belong to minority groups and are from poorer backgrounds. It has been proposed that cultural differences also have a significant impact on the duration of breastfeeding.
Does the tone of the passage support breastfeeding?

  1. Yes, the author states that breast milk is the only way to provide infants with sufficient nutrition.
  2. No, the author states that formula is more nutritious.
  3. No, the author implies that there are too many problems associated with breastfeeding.
  4. Yes, the author talks positively about breastfeeding.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

In the first sentence, the author states that breast milk is the best form of nutrition and also demonstrates support for breastfeeding through the use of the word "unfortunately" at the start of the second sentence.



Breast milk is proven to be the best form of nutrition for infants and is recommended for at least 1 year after birth. Unfortunately, a recent survey of breastfeeding mothers revealed that only 20% continue breastfeeding or to provide breast milk through pumping after 4 months, after which they switch to formulA. When asked about reasons for stopping breastfeeding, the top three reasons were: going back to work, lack of support, and difficulties pumping. A socioeconomic study of the mothers revealed that women who choose to breastfeed for longest tend to have a higher level of education and come from more affluent backgrounds. Conversely, those mothers who breastfeed for the least amount of time tend to belong to minority groups and are from poorer backgrounds. It has been proposed that cultural differences also have a significant impact on the duration of breastfeeding.
Based on the information in the passage, would a mother with a supportive family environment be more or less likely to continue breastfeeding for a full year?

  1. She would be less likely because there are many more influential factors that stop mothers breastfeeding.
  2. She would be more likely because family would be able to help with feeding.
  3. It is impossible to say because the survey only looked at mothers who stopped breastfeeding after 4 months.
  4. She would be more likely because lack of support was one of the top three reasons for mothers stopping breastfeeding.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

Lack of support was one of the top three reasons mothers said they stopped breastfeeding. Although the survey only questioned mothers who had stopped breastfeeding after 4 months, the results imply that a more supportive environment would make them more likely to continue breastfeeding.



As Alice Echols went on to claim, "Nothing seems to conjure up the 1970s quite so effectively as disco. Even at the time, critics remarked upon disco's neat encapsulation of that decade's zeitgeist. `It must be clear by now to everyone with an ear or an eye that this era,' wrote journalist Andrew Kopkind in 1979, `is already the Disco Years, whether it will be called by that name or not.' A former sixties radical, Kopkind was by turns fascinated, bemused, and appalled by the disco epoch, and he likely imagined that in years to come fellow cultural critics would share his interest. But the seventies have not loomed large in our national imagination, except perhaps as comic relief. For many Americans, these were the forgettable years.
That forgettability owes a lot to the 1960s, the outsized decade that dwarfs all others in recent memory. The sixties will always be remembered for their audacity, whether found in the courage of civil rights protesters who put their bodies on the line or in those doomed but beautiful rock stars who tried breaking through to the other side. By contrast, the seventies seem the decade when nothing, or nothing good, happened ­ an era memorable for the country's hapless presidents, declining prestige, bad fashions, ludicrous music, and such over-the-top narcissism that Tom Wolfe dubbed it the `Me Decade.' Before the decade was out, this narrative of decline had become routine. `After the poetry of the Beatles comes the monotonous bass-pedal bombardment of Donna Summer,' huffed one New York Times writer in 1979. It is a measure of the era's persistent bad press that a recent book challenging this view carries the pleading title Something Happened.
As for the sixties, it doesn't matter how much silliness went down, we still invest those times with seismic significance. Take Joe Cocker's performance at Woodstock. His spasmodic thrashing about and his vocals, slurred to the point of incomprehensibility, are something of a joke today. Cringe-inducing though it may be, however, Cocker's performance is never made to stand in for the whole of the sixties. The sixties remain enveloped in the gauzy sentimentalism of what might have been. Yet the iconic image of John Travolta as dance-floor king Tony Manero in white polyester suit, arm thrust to the disco heavens, has come to symbolize the narcissistic imbecility and inconsequentiality of the disco years.
Were it not for the Rubaiyat, I, too, might well regard the seventies as a lamentable and regrettable period in American history. The Rubaiyat was, yes, a disco. It was located in the heart of sixtiesland: Ann Arbor, Michigan, the home of the University of Michigan and legendary incubator of radical activism. At the height of the seventies, the town's annual Hash Bash ­ a smoke-in to reform marijuana laws ­ was still going strong and so were its two food co-ops-one reform, the other orthodox when it came to selling white foods (that is, rice, sugar, and flour of the white variety). Ann Arbor also had bookstores galore, including the original, wonderful Borders Bookstore, and any number of hippie-ish restaurants and bars such as the Fleetwood Diner, the Del Rio, and the Blind Pig. Musically, it prided itself on its vintage music (it hosted one of the earliest blues festivals), but at heart it was a rock town besotted with Iggy Pop and the Stooges and Sonic's Rendezvous, a band fronted by Patti Smith's future husband, Fred Smith. Its leading music store, Schoolkids' Records, stocked disco, but never played it. All of this is to say that disco-averse Ann Arbor came close to providing something of a safe haven from glitterball culture.
The Rubaiyat was no red-velvet-rope disco where fashionista doormen determined who was sufficiently fabulous to gain entry. This would never have worked in a town where down jackets and army surplus were hardly an unusual sight. The club did have some pretensions to classiness, but the mismatched, sagging booths and bordello red defeated occasional efforts at upmarket sophistication. What the Rubaiyat did have were better-than-average speakers, a heterogeneous clientèle, and a weekend cover of three dollars."
Echols, A. (2011). Hot stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. New York: W. W. Norton.
What is the author's main argument in this passage about the public perception of disco?

  1. The 70s were a time when people were becoming apathetic and shallow, so their music reflects this.
  2. Disco has been made to stand in for the perceived silliness of the era as a whole.
  3. While the music of the 70s had its foolish moments, the music and culture of the 60s have been overrated and were just as foolish.
  4. Cultural critics in the 70s believed that their decade would become known as the "Disco Years," but they were proved wrong.

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

This Foundations of Comprehension question is asking for the main idea in the passage's discussion of disco.
The author begins by stating that disco was seen as a key component of 70s culture, and argues that "the seventies have not loomed large in our national imagination, except perhaps as "comic relief," and adds that the image of Tony Manero dancing in Saturday Night Fever has come to stand in for the decade. Thus, the argument is that this era is seen as foolish, and that disco is emblematic of that perceived foolishness.
A ­ incorrect. The remark from a New York Times writer in 1979 does imply the senselessness and shallowness of the era as reflected by their music. However, the author herself does not argue that people during the 70s were becoming apathetic and shallow, but rather cites this as one of the popular views about the erA. (Note: The ability to distinguish the author's argument from those of the other authors quoted in the passage is commonly tested in CARS.)
C ­ incorrect. The author does argue in paragraph 3 that foolish moments in 60s popular culture have been overlooked, but this is not a main argument and she does not describe the 60s overall as overrated D ­ incorrect. The author argues that the 70s have received less attention that might have been expected, but that the association of them with disco has remained.



As Alice Echols went on to claim, "Nothing seems to conjure up the 1970s quite so effectively as disco. Even at the time, critics remarked upon disco's neat encapsulation of that decade's zeitgeist. `It must be clear by now to everyone with an ear or an eye that this era,' wrote journalist Andrew Kopkind in 1979, `is already the Disco Years, whether it will be called by that name or not.' A former sixties radical, Kopkind was by turns fascinated, bemused, and appalled by the disco epoch, and he likely imagined that in years to come fellow cultural critics would share his interest. But the seventies have not loomed large in our national imagination, except perhaps as comic relief. For many Americans, these were the forgettable years.
That forgettability owes a lot to the 1960s, the outsized decade that dwarfs all others in recent memory. The sixties will always be remembered for their audacity, whether found in the courage of civil rights protesters who put their bodies on the line or in those doomed but beautiful rock stars who tried breaking through to the other side. By contrast, the seventies seem the decade when nothing, or nothing good, happened ­ an era memorable for the country's hapless presidents, declining prestige, bad fashions, ludicrous music, and such over-the-top narcissism that Tom Wolfe dubbed it the `Me Decade.' Before the decade was out, this narrative of decline had become routine. `After the poetry of the Beatles comes the monotonous bass-pedal bombardment of Donna Summer,' huffed one New York Times writer in 1979. It is a measure of the era's persistent bad press that a recent book challenging this view carries the pleading title Something Happened.
As for the sixties, it doesn't matter how much silliness went down, we still invest those times with seismic significance. Take Joe Cocker's performance at Woodstock. His spasmodic thrashing about and his vocals, slurred to the point of incomprehensibility, are something of a joke today. Cringe-inducing though it may be, however, Cocker's performance is never made to stand in for the whole of the sixties. The sixties remain enveloped in the gauzy sentimentalism of what might have been. Yet the iconic image of John Travolta as dance-floor king Tony Manero in white polyester suit, arm thrust to the disco heavens, has come to symbolize the narcissistic imbecility and inconsequentiality of the disco years.
Were it not for the Rubaiyat, I, too, might well regard the seventies as a lamentable and regrettable period in American history. The Rubaiyat was, yes, a disco. It was located in the heart of sixtiesland: Ann Arbor, Michigan, the home of the University of Michigan and legendary incubator of radical activism. At the height of the seventies, the town's annual Hash Bash ­ a smoke-in to reform marijuana laws ­ was still going strong and so were its two food co-ops-one reform, the other orthodox when it came to selling white foods (that is, rice, sugar, and flour of the white variety). Ann Arbor also had bookstores galore, including the original, wonderful Borders Bookstore, and any number of hippie-ish restaurants and bars such as the Fleetwood Diner, the Del Rio, and the Blind Pig. Musically, it prided itself on its vintage music (it hosted one of the earliest blues festivals), but at heart it was a rock town besotted with Iggy Pop and the Stooges and Sonic's Rendezvous, a band fronted by Patti Smith's future husband, Fred Smith. Its leading music store, Schoolkids' Records, stocked disco, but never played it. All of this is to say that disco-averse Ann Arbor came close to providing something of a safe haven from glitterball culture.
The Rubaiyat was no red-velvet-rope disco where fashionista doormen determined who was sufficiently fabulous to gain entry. This would never have worked in a town where down jackets and army surplus were hardly an unusual sight. The club did have some pretensions to classiness, but the mismatched, sagging booths and bordello red defeated occasional efforts at upmarket sophistication. What the Rubaiyat did have were better-than-average speakers, a heterogeneous clientèle, and a weekend cover of three dollars."
Echols, A. (2011). Hot stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. New York: W. W. Norton.
The author's likely purpose in introducing details about the Rubaiyat is to:

  1. demonstrate that the popularity of disco must have been overwhelming since it made its way to a hippie town like Ann Arbor.
  2. criticize disco as a genre whose fans often feign glamorousness although it is sleazy.
  3. emphasize that disco's adherents were real people, so they do not deserve to be mocked.
  4. show that the audience for disco was diverse and does not necessarily match the popular stereotypes about the genre.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

This Reasoning Within the Text question asks you to reason about the author's purpose in switching from a general discussion to personal anecdote. Echols writes that she might have looked down on disco, as others did, if she had not had personal experience with it. The final two paragraphs describe Ann Arbor as a hippie town where one would not expect to find enthusiasm for disco, and the Rubaiyat as "no red-velvet-rope disco where fashionista doormen determined who was sufficiently fabulous to gain entry" but a place with "a heterogeneous clientèle, and a weekend cover of three dollars." Thus, the Rubaiyat was a place that defied the public perception of disco as glamorous, elitist and upscale.
A ­ incorrect. This is not a main point of the anecdote since the opening paragraph already establishes that disco was wildly popular in the 70s.
B ­ incorrect. While the passage does suggest the club was sleazy, the author writes, "Were it not for the Rubaiyat, I, too, might well regard the seventies as a lamentable and regrettable period in American history." This highlights the fact that the author takes a slightly opposing stance to the criticisms of disco discussed earlier in the passage.
C ­ incorrect. The focus of the anecdote is on the author's reasons for appreciating disco and on the nonstereotypical nature of some of these fans, not on whether they deserve to be mocked.



As Alice Echols went on to claim, "Nothing seems to conjure up the 1970s quite so effectively as disco. Even at the time, critics remarked upon disco's neat encapsulation of that decade's zeitgeist. `It must be clear by now to everyone with an ear or an eye that this era,' wrote journalist Andrew Kopkind in 1979, `is already the Disco Years, whether it will be called by that name or not.' A former sixties radical, Kopkind was by turns fascinated, bemused, and appalled by the disco epoch, and he likely imagined that in years to come fellow cultural critics would share his interest. But the seventies have not loomed large in our national imagination, except perhaps as comic relief. For many Americans, these were the forgettable years.
That forgettability owes a lot to the 1960s, the outsized decade that dwarfs all others in recent memory. The sixties will always be remembered for their audacity, whether found in the courage of civil rights protesters who put their bodies on the line or in those doomed but beautiful rock stars who tried breaking through to the other side. By contrast, the seventies seem the decade when nothing, or nothing good, happened ­ an era memorable for the country's hapless presidents, declining prestige, bad fashions, ludicrous music, and such over-the-top narcissism that Tom Wolfe dubbed it the `Me Decade.' Before the decade was out, this narrative of decline had become routine. `After the poetry of the Beatles comes the monotonous bass-pedal bombardment of Donna Summer,' huffed one New York Times writer in 1979. It is a measure of the era's persistent bad press that a recent book challenging this view carries the pleading title Something Happened.
As for the sixties, it doesn't matter how much silliness went down, we still invest those times with seismic significance. Take Joe Cocker's performance at Woodstock. His spasmodic thrashing about and his vocals, slurred to the point of incomprehensibility, are something of a joke today. Cringe-inducing though it may be, however, Cocker's performance is never made to stand in for the whole of the sixties. The sixties remain enveloped in the gauzy sentimentalism of what might have been. Yet the iconic image of John Travolta as dance-floor king Tony Manero in white polyester suit, arm thrust to the disco heavens, has come to symbolize the narcissistic imbecility and inconsequentiality of the disco years.
Were it not for the Rubaiyat, I, too, might well regard the seventies as a lamentable and regrettable period in American history. The Rubaiyat was, yes, a disco. It was located in the heart of sixtiesland: Ann Arbor, Michigan, the home of the University of Michigan and legendary incubator of radical activism. At the height of the seventies, the town's annual Hash Bash ­ a smoke-in to reform marijuana laws ­ was still going strong and so were its two food co-ops-one reform, the other orthodox when it came to selling white foods (that is, rice, sugar, and flour of the white variety). Ann Arbor also had bookstores galore, including the original, wonderful Borders Bookstore, and any number of hippie-ish restaurants and bars such as the Fleetwood Diner, the Del Rio, and the Blind Pig. Musically, it prided itself on its vintage music (it hosted one of the earliest blues festivals), but at heart it was a rock town besotted with Iggy Pop and the Stooges and Sonic's Rendezvous, a band fronted by Patti Smith's future husband, Fred Smith. Its leading music store, Schoolkids' Records, stocked disco, but never played it. All of this is to say that disco-averse Ann Arbor came close to providing something of a safe haven from glitterball culture.
The Rubaiyat was no red-velvet-rope disco where fashionista doormen determined who was sufficiently fabulous to gain entry. This would never have worked in a town where down jackets and army surplus were hardly an unusual sight. The club did have some pretensions to classiness, but the mismatched, sagging booths and bordello red defeated occasional efforts at upmarket sophistication. What the Rubaiyat did have were better-than-average speakers, a heterogeneous clientèle, and a weekend cover of three dollars."
Echols, A. (2011). Hot stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. New York: W. W. Norton.
Which of the following possible approaches to studying the music of the 60s would the author be LEAST interested in?

  1. A historical study that aims to see the decade as it really was and explore its failures to live up to its idealistic goals.
  2. A sociological study that examines fans of 60s rock who did not fit the stereotypes of counterculture members.
  3. A musicological study that uses the music of the Beatles to encapsulate what the decade was really about.
  4. A memoir exploring how a person from small-town Kansas used the music of the Beatles to experience the counterculture from afar.

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

This Reasoning Beyond the Text question asks you to make generalizations about the author's approach to music criticism in order to determine which other works would interest her.
The author criticizes the existing one-sided view of the 60s, stating that they "will always be remembered for their audacity...in those doomed but beautiful rock stars who tried breaking through to the other side" although they contained many embarrassing moments. Thus, the 60s have been viewed in a skewed way since the era's greatest moments have stood in for its entire culture. This suggests the author would be against using a single popular band as an encapsulation of an entire era.
A ­ incorrect. The author writes, "The sixties remain enveloped in the gauzy sentimentalism of what might have been." This suggests she would prefer seeing it in a realistic light.
B ­ incorrect. The author focuses on her personal experience with non-stereotypical disco fans, so she might be interested in the same approach applied to other genres.
D ­ incorrect. The author incorporates elements of memoir and focuses on people far from the center of disco culture, so this approach might interest her.



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