16.The passage provides support for all of the following generalizations¹ about large interactive² systems EXCEPT:

　(A) They can evolve to a critical state.
　(B) They do not always yield to traditional analysis
　(C) They make it impossible for observers to make any predictions about them
　(D) They are subject to the effects of chain reactions
　(E) They are subject to more minor³ events than major events.
　
17. According to the passage, the criticality of a sandpile is determined⁴ by the

　(A) size of the grains of sand added to the sandpile
　(B) number of grains of sand the sandpile contains
　(C) rate at which sand is added to the sandpile
　(D) shape of the surface on which the sandpile rests
　(E) balance between the amount of sand added to and the amount lost from the sandplie

18. It can be inferred from the passage that the theory employed by the investigators⁵ mentioned in the second paragraph would lead one to predict that which one of the following would result from the addition of a grain of sand to a sandpile?
　
　(A) The grain of sand would never cause anything more than a minor disturbance⁶
　(B) The grain of sand would usually cause a minor disturbance, but would occasionally cause a small avalanche⁷
　(C) The grain of sand would usually cause either minor disturbance or a small avalanche, but would occasionally cause a catastrophic event
　(D) The grain of sand would usually cause a catastrophic event, but would occasionally cause only a small avalanche or an event more minor disturbance
　(E) The grain of sand would invariably cause a catastrophic event
　　　
19. Which one of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

　(A) A traditional procedure is described and its application to common situations is endorsed⁸: its shortcomings in certain rare but critical circumstances are then revealed
　(B) A common misconception is elaborated and its consequences are described a detailed⁹ example of one of these consequences is then given.
　(C) A general principle is stated and supported by several examples; an exception to the rule is then considered and its importance evaluated
　(D) A number of seemingly unrelated events are categorized: the underlying¹⁰ processes that connect them are then detailed
　(E) A traditional method of analysis is discussed and the reasons for its adoption¹¹ are explained: an alternative is then described and clarified by means of an example.

20. Which one of the following is most analogous¹² to the method of analysis employed by the investigators mentioned in the second paragraph?

　(A) A pollster gathers a sample of voter preferences and on the basis of this information makes a prediction about the outcome of an election
　(B) A historian examines the surviving documents detailing the history of a movement and from these documents reconstructs a chronology of the events that initiated¹³ the movement
　(C) A meteorologist measures the rainfall over a certain period of the year and from this data calculates the total annual rainfall for the region.
　(D) A biologist observes the behavior of one species of insect and from these observations generalizes about the behavior of insects as a class.
　(E) An engineer analyzes¹⁴ the stability of each structural¹⁵ element of a bridge and from these analyses draws a conclusion about the structural soundness of the bridge.

21. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with
　　
　(A) arguing against the abandonment of a traditional approach
　(B) describing the evolution of a radical¹⁶ theory
　(C) reconciling conflicting points of view
　(D) illustrating¹⁷ the superiority of a new theoretical approach
　(E) advocating the reconsideration of an unfashionable explanation

　Historians have long accepted the notion that women of English descent who lived in the English colonies of North America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were better off than either
　
(5) the contemporary women in England or the colonists¹⁸' own nineteenth-century daughters and granddaughters. The "golden age" theory originated in the 1920 with the work of Elizabeth Dexter who argued that there were relatively¹⁹ few

(10)women among the colonists, and that all hands-male and female-were needed to sustain the growing settlements. Rigid²⁰ sex-role distionctions could no exist under such circumstances; female colonists could accordingly engage in whatever

(15)occupations they wished encountering few legal or social constraints²¹ if they sought employment outside the home. The surplus of mate colonists also gave women crucial bargaining power in the marriage marke since women's contributions were vital to

(20)the survival of colonial households.

　Dexter's portrait of female colonists living under conditions of rough equality with their male counterparts was eventualiy incorporated into studies of nineteenth-century middle-class women
　
(25)The contrast between the self-sufficient colonial woman and the oppressed nineteenth--century woman confined to her home by stultifying²² ideologies²³ of domesticity and by the fact that industrialization eliminated employment

(30)opportunities for middle -class women gained an extraordinarily²⁴ tenacious²⁵ hold on historians. Even scholars who have questioned the "golden age" view of colonial women's status have continued to accept the paradigm²⁶ of a nineteenth-century

(35)decline from a more desirable past. For example. Joan Hofi-Wilson asserted that there was no "golden age" and yet emphasized that the nineteenth century brought "increased loss of function and authentic²⁷ status for" middle-class

(40) women

　recent publications about colonial women have exposed the concept of a decline in status as simplistic and unsophisticated, a theory that based its assessment²⁸ of colonial women's status solely²⁹ on
　
(45)one factor (their economic function in society) and assumed all too readily that a relatively simple social system automatically brought higher standing³⁰ to colonial women. The new scholarship presents a far more complicated picture, one in which

(50)definitions of gender³¹ roles, the colonial economy, demographic patterns, religion, the law, and household organization all contributed to defining the circumstances of colonial women's lives. Indeed, the primary concern of modern scholarship is not to

(55)generalize about women's status but to identify the specific changes and continuities in women's lives during the colonial period. For example, whereas change for colonial women before 1800 the new
　
(60)scholarship suggests that a three-part chronological³² division more accurately³³ reflects colonial women's experiences. First was the initial period of English colonization (from the 1620s to about 1660); then a period during which patterns of family and

(65)community were challenged and reshaped (roughly from 1660 to 1750); and finally the era of revolution (approximately 1750 to 1815), which brought other changes to women's lives

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