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Medical College Admission Test: Verbal Reasoning, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Writing Sample (Page 9 )

Updated On: 4-Sep-2026
Page 9 of 164
PDF with 811 Questions

Millenialism is, generally speaking, the religious belief that salvation and material benefits will be conferred upon a society in the near future as the result of some apocalyptic event. The term derives from the Latin word for 1,000; in early Christian theology, believers held that Christ would return and establish his kingdom on earth for a period of a thousand years.
Millenialist movements, Christian and non-Christian, have arisen at various points throughout history, usually in times of great crisis or social upheaval. In "nativistic" millenialist movements, a people threatened with cultural disintegration attempts to earn its salvation by rejecting foreign customs and values and returning to the "old ways." One such movement involving the Ghost Dance cults, named after the ceremonial dance which cult members performed in hope of salvation, flourished in the late 19th century among Indians of the western United States.
By the middle of the 19th century, western expansion and settlement by whites was seriously threatening Native American cultures. Mining, agriculture and ranching encroached on and destroyed many Indian land and food sources. Indian resistance led to a series of wars and massacres, culminating in the U.S. Government's policy of resettlement of Indians onto reservations which constituted a fraction of their former territorial base. Under these dire circumstances, a series of millenialist movements began among western tribes.
The first Ghost Dance cult arose in western Nevada around 1870. A Native American prophet named Wodziwob, a member of a Northern Paiute tribe, received the revelation of an imminent apocalypse which would destroy the white man, restore all dead Indians to life, and return to the Indians their lands, food supplies (such as the vanishing buffalo), and old way of life. The apocalypse was to be brought about with the help of a ceremonial dance and songs, and by strict adherence to a moral code which, oddly enough, strongly resembled Christian teaching. In the early 1870s, Wodziwob's Ghost Dance cult spread to several tribes in California and Oregon, but soon died out or was absorbed into other cults.
A second Ghost Dance cult, founded in January 1889, evolved as the result of a similar revelation. This time Wovoka ­ another Northern Paiute Indian, whose father had been a disciple of Wodziwob ­ received a vision during a solar eclipse in which he died, spoke to God, and was assigned the task of teaching the dance and the millennial message. With white civilization having pushed western tribes ever closer to the brink of cultural disintegration during the previous twenty years, the Ghost Dance movement spread rapidly this time, catching on among tribes from the Canadian border to Texas, and from the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevadas ­ an area approximately one-third the size of the continental United States.
Wovoka's Ghost Dance doctrine forbade Indian violence against whites or other Indians; it also involved the wearing of "ghost shirts," which supposedly rendered the wearers invulnerable to the white man's bullets. In 1890, when the Ghost Dance spread to the Sioux Indians, both the ghost shirts and the movement itself were put to the test. Violent resistance to white domination had all but ended among the Sioux by the late 1880s, when government- ordered reductions in the size of their reservations infuriated the Sioux, and made them particularly responsive to the millenialist message of the Ghost Dance. As the Sioux organized themselves in the cult of the dance, an alarmed federal government resorted to armed intervention which ultimately led to the massacre of some 200 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in December of 1890. The ghost shirts had been worn to no avail, and Wounded Knee marked the end of the second Ghost Dance cult.
All of the following characteristics are described in the passage as common to all millenialist movements EXCEPT:

  1. the desire for salvation.
  2. the belief in imminent apocalypse.
  3. attempts to preserve cultural integrity.
  4. adherence to Christian doctrines.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

This is in the "all of the following EXCEPT" format. The correct answer will NOT be a characteristic ascribed to millenialist movements. The question stem's key phrase, "millenialist movements," echoes back to the first paragraph. There we learn that followers of millenialist movements hope for salvation, or to be saved, which eliminates choice (A), because it IS a characteristic of such movements. And there we also learn that followers of such movements believe in a fast-approaching apocalyptic event, which eliminates choice (B). In the fourth sentence of paragraph 1, the author says that members of nativistic millenialist movements attempt to stave off cultural disintegration by returning to the "old ways;" another way of saying this is that they attempt to preserve their cultural integrity, which eliminates choice (C). Choice (D) is the correct answer. And indeed, though the word "millenialist" has Christian origins, the author never says that all millenialist movements adhere to Christian doctrines. Choice (D) is slightly confusing since the author notes that an odd element of the Ghost Dance cults was the resemblance of their moral code to Christian teachings. But the Ghost Dance cults are only one example of millenialist movements; presumably there have been others which had nothing to do with Christian doctrine. In fact, the author says in the third sentence of paragraph 1 that "millenialist movements, Christian and non-Christian," have appeared throughout history, so choice (D) is the best answer.



For the last two decades many earth scientists have supported the notion that the Mediterranean was once a huge, dry desert, lying 3,000 meters below sea level. This "death valley" was thought to have existed at the end of Miocene time, about 6 to 5.5 million years ago...
...From a geological point of view, the Mediterranean is a tectonically mobile land-enclosed depression ­ small (about 3,000,000 square kilometers) in comparison to the major world oceans...Immediately obvious on all charts is the highly variable topography and relief of both the seafloor and adjacent borderland. The coastline is highly irregular and continental shelves, though generally narrow, are well developed off the major river deltas
(Nile, Rhone, Po, and Ebro). Moreover, the deep-sea basins and trenches have distinctive relief, with basin plains ranging in depth from less than 1,000 meters to more than 4,000...Observation that rocks dredged offshore are similar to those on land raised a fundamental concept ­ the key to understanding Mediterranean history lies in the adjacent emerged land masses, and vice-versa...
...Early paleographic reconstructions showed that the once-open communication with the Atlantic deteriorated during the upper Miocene. Water-mass exchange continued for a while in the Rif Strait, but then ceased completely prior to the beginning of the Pliocene...
...High relief near what is now the Strait of Gibraltar served as a barrier to the exchange of waters with the Atlantic. Exposed to a hot and dry climate, water evaporated and the then-dry basin elicited comparison with a gigantic Death Valley...Microfossil studies suggested that the depth of the Mediterranean basin at these times had been "deep." Estimates suggested a dry seafloor as far as 2,000 meters below ocean level... As a response to suddenly lowered sea level, rivers feeding the Mediterranean and canyons on the now-dry seafloor began a geologically dramatic phase of erosion. Deep, Grand Canyon-like gorges of the Nile and Rhone rivers, presently buried on land, were apparently cut during a great drawdown of water ­ when the Mediterranean floor lay exposed 1,000 meters or more below its present level...The sudden flooding through a gigantic waterfall at Gibraltar drowned the exposed basin floor. These falls would have been 1,000 times bigger than Niagara Falls...This flooding event is recorded by the Miocene Pliocene boundary, a time when open marine faunal assemblages were suddenly reintroduced from the Atlantic...
...Geological theories usually fall at a glacial pace into a sea of controversy, and this one is no exception. Today ­ charging that proof for the theory is lacking ­ many scientists believe that the Med always contained saltwater, with only the depth of the seafloor and the water being in question... Some of the tenets on which the theory was formulated are, if not defective, very seriously in question. To interpret their findings, a respectable number of geologists studying the surrounding emerged borderland as well as subsea sections indicate that alternative, more comprehensive concepts must be envisioned...
...It is not realistic to envision the Mediterranean seafloor of about 5 million years ago as a desert at 3,000 meters below present ocean level. Several years ago...the Mediterranean [was compared] to a complex picture-puzzle that comprises numerous intricate pieces, many of which are already in place. A general image is emerging, although gaps in some areas of the picture remain fuzzy and indistinct.
According to the author, which of the following is the most likely theory concerning the formation of the Mediterranean?

  1. Once a "Death Valley," the Mediterranean basin eventually filled with water to become a "sea."
  2. At the beginning of the Pliocene, an intense waterfall connected the Atlantic Ocean to the desert land mass that later became the Mediterranean.
  3. The approaching Eurasian and African land masses "pinched off" a large body of water that developed into the modern day Mediterranean.
  4. None of the above

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

The final paragraph of the passage indicates that the author believes theories concerning the formation of the Mediterranean are still developing and that much is not known.
Choice A is incorrect because the author states explicitly that "it is not realistic to envision the Mediterranean...
as a desert at 3,000 meters below present ocean level."
Again, the author does not completely support the "Death Valley" theory. Flooding of the Mediterranean by a waterfall at Gibraltar is part of this theory. Thus, choice B is incorrect.
Choice C is never mentioned in the passage. There is no evidence that the author would support this theory.



Millenialism is, generally speaking, the religious belief that salvation and material benefits will be conferred upon a society in the near future as the result of some apocalyptic event. The term derives from the Latin word for 1,000; in early Christian theology, believers held that Christ would return and establish his kingdom on earth for a period of a thousand years.
Millenialist movements, Christian and non-Christian, have arisen at various points throughout history, usually in times of great crisis or social upheaval. In "nativistic" millenialist movements, a people threatened with cultural disintegration attempts to earn its salvation by rejecting foreign customs and values and returning to the "old ways." One such movement involving the Ghost Dance cults, named after the ceremonial dance which cult members performed in hope of salvation, flourished in the late 19th century among Indians of the western United States.
By the middle of the 19th century, western expansion and settlement by whites was seriously threatening Native American cultures. Mining, agriculture and ranching encroached on and destroyed many Indian land and food sources. Indian resistance led to a series of wars and massacres, culminating in the U.S. Government's policy of resettlement of Indians onto reservations which constituted a fraction of their former territorial base. Under these dire circumstances, a series of millenialist movements began among western tribes.
The first Ghost Dance cult arose in western Nevada around 1870. A Native American prophet named Wodziwob, a member of a Northern Paiute tribe, received the revelation of an imminent apocalypse which would destroy the white man, restore all dead Indians to life, and return to the Indians their lands, food supplies (such as the vanishing buffalo), and old way of life. The apocalypse was to be brought about with the help of a ceremonial dance and songs, and by strict adherence to a moral code which, oddly enough, strongly resembled Christian teaching. In the early 1870s, Wodziwob's Ghost Dance cult spread to several tribes in California and Oregon, but soon died out or was absorbed into other cults.
A second Ghost Dance cult, founded in January 1889, evolved as the result of a similar revelation. This time Wovoka ­ another Northern Paiute Indian, whose father had been a disciple of Wodziwob ­ received a vision during a solar eclipse in which he died, spoke to God, and was assigned the task of teaching the dance and the millennial message. With white civilization having pushed western tribes ever closer to the brink of cultural disintegration during the previous twenty years, the Ghost Dance movement spread rapidly this time, catching on among tribes from the Canadian border to Texas, and from the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevadas ­ an area approximately one-third the size of the continental United States.
Wovoka's Ghost Dance doctrine forbade Indian violence against whites or other Indians; it also involved the wearing of "ghost shirts," which supposedly rendered the wearers invulnerable to the white man's bullets. In 1890, when the Ghost Dance spread to the Sioux Indians, both the ghost shirts and the movement itself were put to the test. Violent resistance to white domination had all but ended among the Sioux by the late 1880s, when government- ordered reductions in the size of their reservations infuriated the Sioux, and made them particularly responsive to the millenialist message of the Ghost Dance. As the Sioux organized themselves in the cult of the dance, an alarmed federal government resorted to armed intervention which ultimately led to the massacre of some 200 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in December of 1890. The ghost shirts had been worn to no avail, and Wounded Knee marked the end of the second Ghost Dance cult.
Which of the following was NOT part of the spiritual revelation described in the fourth paragraph of the passage?

  1. Unity among all Indian tribes
  2. Restoration of traditional Indian ways
  3. Resurrection of the dead
  4. Return of the buffalo

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

This requires the identification of the choice that was not part of the spiritual revelation described in paragraph
4. This revelation is the one that was granted to Wodziwob, who started the first Ghost Dance cult in or around 1870. The author states in the second sentence of the third paragraph that Wodziwob was told that an imminent apocalypse would destroy the white man. The apocalypse would also restore all dead Indians to life, which eliminates of choice (C). It would replenish food supplies like the vanishing buffalo, choice (D), and bring back the old Indian way of life, which restates choice (B).Choice (A), by process of elimination, is the correct answer. Nowhere does the author mention unity of all Indian tribes as part of the salvation envisioned by Wodziwob.



Millenialism is, generally speaking, the religious belief that salvation and material benefits will be conferred upon a society in the near future as the result of some apocalyptic event. The term derives from the Latin word for 1,000; in early Christian theology, believers held that Christ would return and establish his kingdom on earth for a period of a thousand years.
Millenialist movements, Christian and non-Christian, have arisen at various points throughout history, usually in times of great crisis or social upheaval. In "nativistic" millenialist movements, a people threatened with cultural disintegration attempts to earn its salvation by rejecting foreign customs and values and returning to the "old ways." One such movement involving the Ghost Dance cults, named after the ceremonial dance which cult members performed in hope of salvation, flourished in the late 19th century among Indians of the western United States.
By the middle of the 19th century, western expansion and settlement by whites was seriously threatening Native American cultures. Mining, agriculture and ranching encroached on and destroyed many Indian land and food sources. Indian resistance led to a series of wars and massacres, culminating in the U.S. Government's policy of resettlement of Indians onto reservations which constituted a fraction of their former territorial base. Under these dire circumstances, a series of millenialist movements began among western tribes.
The first Ghost Dance cult arose in western Nevada around 1870. A Native American prophet named Wodziwob, a member of a Northern Paiute tribe, received the revelation of an imminent apocalypse which would destroy the white man, restore all dead Indians to life, and return to the Indians their lands, food supplies (such as the vanishing buffalo), and old way of life. The apocalypse was to be brought about with the help of a ceremonial dance and songs, and by strict adherence to a moral code which, oddly enough, strongly resembled Christian teaching. In the early 1870s, Wodziwob's Ghost Dance cult spread to several tribes in California and Oregon, but soon died out or was absorbed into other cults.
A second Ghost Dance cult, founded in January 1889, evolved as the result of a similar revelation. This time Wovoka ­ another Northern Paiute Indian, whose father had been a disciple of Wodziwob ­ received a vision during a solar eclipse in which he died, spoke to God, and was assigned the task of teaching the dance and the millennial message. With white civilization having pushed western tribes ever closer to the brink of cultural disintegration during the previous twenty years, the Ghost Dance movement spread rapidly this time, catching on among tribes from the Canadian border to Texas, and from the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevadas ­ an area approximately one-third the size of the continental United States.
Wovoka's Ghost Dance doctrine forbade Indian violence against whites or other Indians; it also involved the wearing of "ghost shirts," which supposedly rendered the wearers invulnerable to the white man's bullets. In 1890, when the Ghost Dance spread to the Sioux Indians, both the ghost shirts and the movement itself were put to the test. Violent resistance to white domination had all but ended among the Sioux by the late 1880s, when government- ordered reductions in the size of their reservations infuriated the Sioux, and made them particularly responsive to the millenialist message of the Ghost Dance. As the Sioux organized themselves in the cult of the dance, an alarmed federal government resorted to armed intervention which ultimately led to the massacre of some 200 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in December of 1890. The ghost shirts had been worn to no avail, and Wounded Knee marked the end of the second Ghost Dance cult.
Which of the following tribes would probably NOT have taken part in the Ghost Dance cults?

  1. The Potawatomi of Illinois
  2. The Eastern Shoshoni of Wyoming
  3. The Pawnee of Nebraska
  4. The Southern Arapaho of Oklahoma

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

This simply requires application of knowledge from the passage. The question asks for the tribe that would probably NOT have taken part in either of the Ghost Dance cults. The tribes mentioned in the answer choices are not mentioned in the passage, so determining the correct answer depends on realizing that the boundaries limiting Indian participation in each of the Ghost Dance cults are described at the end of paragraphs 3 and 4. In paragraph 3, the author says that the first cult took hold in California and Oregon. In describing the second, more widespread cult, the author says that it was adopted by tribes "from the Canadian border to Texas, and from the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevadas". In a sense this is a geography question, and the right answer will name a tribe that was somewhere outside the boundaries described in the passage. Choices (B), (C), and (D) all fall within these boundaries. The Potawatomi in choice (A), however, lived in Illinois, which is too far east to be within the environs of the Ghost Dance cults.



Millenialism is, generally speaking, the religious belief that salvation and material benefits will be conferred upon a society in the near future as the result of some apocalyptic event. The term derives from the Latin word for 1,000; in early Christian theology, believers held that Christ would return and establish his kingdom on earth for a period of a thousand years.
Millenialist movements, Christian and non-Christian, have arisen at various points throughout history, usually in times of great crisis or social upheaval. In "nativistic" millenialist movements, a people threatened with cultural disintegration attempts to earn its salvation by rejecting foreign customs and values and returning to the "old ways." One such movement involving the Ghost Dance cults, named after the ceremonial dance which cult members performed in hope of salvation, flourished in the late 19th century among Indians of the western United States.
By the middle of the 19th century, western expansion and settlement by whites was seriously threatening Native American cultures. Mining, agriculture and ranching encroached on and destroyed many Indian land and food sources. Indian resistance led to a series of wars and massacres, culminating in the U.S. Government's policy of resettlement of Indians onto reservations which constituted a fraction of their former territorial base. Under these dire circumstances, a series of millenialist movements began among western tribes.
The first Ghost Dance cult arose in western Nevada around 1870. A Native American prophet named Wodziwob, a member of a Northern Paiute tribe, received the revelation of an imminent apocalypse which would destroy the white man, restore all dead Indians to life, and return to the Indians their lands, food supplies (such as the vanishing buffalo), and old way of life. The apocalypse was to be brought about with the help of a ceremonial dance and songs, and by strict adherence to a moral code which, oddly enough, strongly resembled Christian teaching. In the early 1870s, Wodziwob's Ghost Dance cult spread to several tribes in California and Oregon, but soon died out or was absorbed into other cults.
A second Ghost Dance cult, founded in January 1889, evolved as the result of a similar revelation. This time Wovoka ­ another Northern Paiute Indian, whose father had been a disciple of Wodziwob ­ received a vision during a solar eclipse in which he died, spoke to God, and was assigned the task of teaching the dance and the millennial message. With white civilization having pushed western tribes ever closer to the brink of cultural disintegration during the previous twenty years, the Ghost Dance movement spread rapidly this time, catching on among tribes from the Canadian border to Texas, and from the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevadas ­ an area approximately one-third the size of the continental United States.
Wovoka's Ghost Dance doctrine forbade Indian violence against whites or other Indians; it also involved the wearing of "ghost shirts," which supposedly rendered the wearers invulnerable to the white man's bullets. In 1890, when the Ghost Dance spread to the Sioux Indians, both the ghost shirts and the movement itself were put to the test. Violent resistance to white domination had all but ended among the Sioux by the late 1880s, when government- ordered reductions in the size of their reservations infuriated the Sioux, and made them particularly responsive to the millenialist message of the Ghost Dance. As the Sioux organized themselves in the cult of the dance, an alarmed federal government resorted to armed intervention which ultimately led to the massacre of some 200 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in December of 1890. The ghost shirts had been worn to no avail, and Wounded Knee marked the end of the second Ghost Dance cult.
The author answers all of the following questions EXCEPT:

  1. What was the magical property attributed to the "ghost shirts"?
  2. Was there any connection between the prophets of the two Ghost Dance cults?
  3. What distinguishes "nativistic" millenialist movements from other millenialist movements?
  4. What caused the first Ghost Dance cult to die out?

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

This seeks the answer choice that asks a question which the author didn't address in the passage. Quickly scan the choices, looking for one that leaps out immediately. If this dies not reveal the correct answer, carefully check the choices one by one. Choice (A) asks about the magical powers of the "ghost shirts." This refers back to the first sentence of paragraph 5, where the author says that the shirts "supposedly rendered the wearers invulnerable to the white man's bullets." Thus, choice (A) will not be the answer to Q42. Choice (B) asks
if there was a connection between the prophets of the two Ghost Dance cults. This is answered in the second sentence of paragraph 4, where the author states that the father of the second prophet, Wovoka, "had been a disciple of Wodziwob," prophet of the first cult. There was a connection, so choice (B) is also eliminated. Choice (C) inquires whether the passage describes the difference between "nativistic" and other millenialist movements. That question is answered in the third and fourth sentences of the first paragraph, where the author says that millenialist movements are brought on by crises and social upheavals, while nativistic millenialist movements arise out of the specific threat of cultural disintegration. In addition, believers in nativistic millenialist movements are said to have a specific recipe, as it were, for being saved: they try to earn salvation by "rejecting foreign customs" and "returning to the `old ways.'" No such plan of attack is mentioned for non- nativistic millenialist movements, so choice (C) is eliminated, and choice (D) is left as the correct answer.And indeed, the author never says why the first Ghost Dance cult died out. He only notes, at the very end of the third paragraph, that it "soon died out or was absorbed into other cults," without explanation.



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