On your answer sheet, circle and black out the letter that best answers the questions below.Passage One Obviously, the per capita income of a country depends on many things, and any statistical test that does not take account of all important determinants is misspecified, and thus must be used only for descriptive and heuristic purposes. It is nonetheless interesting--and for many people surprising--to find that there is a positive and even a statistically significant relationship between these two variables: the greater the number of people per square kilometer the higher the per capita income. The law of diminishing returns is not invariably true. It would be absurd to suppose that a larger endowment of land ipso facto makes a country poorer. This consideration by itself would, of course, call for a negative sign on population density. Thus, it is interesting to ask what might account for the "wrong" sign and think of what statistical tests should ultimately be done. Clearly there is a simultaneous two-way relationship between population density and per capita income; the level of per capita income affects population growth just as population, by increasing the labor force, affects per capita income. The argument offered here suggests that perhaps countries with better economic policies and institutions come to have higher per capita incomes than countries with inferior policies and institutions, and that these higher incomes bring about a higher population growth through more immigration and lower death raters. In this way, the effects of better institutions and policies in raising per capita income swamps the tendency of diminishing returns to labor to reduce it. This hypothesis may also explain why many empirical studies have not been able to show a negative association between the rate of population growth and increases in per capita income. One reason why the ratio of natural resources to population does not account for variations in per capita income is that most economic activity can now readily be separated from deposits of raw material and arable land. Over time, transportation technologies have certainly improved, and products that have a high value in relation to their weight, such as most services and manufactured goods like computers and airplanes, may have become more important. The Silicon Valley is not important for the manufacturing of computers because of the deposits of silicon, and London and Zurich are not great banking centers because of fertile land. Even casual observation suggests that most modem manufacturing and service exports are not closely related to natural resources. Western Europe does not now have a high ratio of natural resources to population, but it is very important in the export of manufactures and services. In a parallel way, the striking success of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, with relatively few natural resources per capita, cannot be explained by reliance thereon. In paragraph 1, three words are in italics ______.
A. for reasons of English language style.
B. because of personal reason of style.
C. in order to highlight their importance.
D. to help the reader avoid confusion.
Passage Four Handwriting analysis (graphology) circumvents the law by frying to determine an employee’s traits (e. g. stability) according to some handwriting group stereotype to which he or she belongs. (Indeed, some graphologists have m little respect for the law and m much confidence in their stereotyping that they have proposed using the technique in lieu of court proceedings to identify and prosecute criminals!) The analysis works by comparing the speed, size, slant, form, pressure, layout, and continuity of an individual’s handwriting with various patterns and typologies, and assimilating this person’s script into these types. As a result the individual judged ceases to be an individual and becomes little more than a composite of traits. This end result differs little from judgments based on race, sex, religion, etc. Granted, no individual is totally unique. Any evaluation of character, or for that matter skills, turns, in some measure, on employing generic ideas about virtue, vice, and technical competence. Still, there is a human individuality which manifests itself in our imagination and in the innovative arguments we choose to advance. Standardized handwriting analysis is far less respectful of individuality in this latter sense than other modes of screening. Individuals who are asked to write a personal essay describing their qualifications in their own terms; and who are given an opportunity in an interview to describe their motivations in seeking a particular job retain far more of what makes them distinctive. This more personalized format gives the individual an opportunity to express unusual or provocative opinions the employer may not have previously considered. Upon reflection, the employer may think these comments so pertinent that s/he awards the job to this candidate. Handwriting analysis, though, is ostensibly purely formal. It does not provide the candidate with any opportunity to distinguish himself or herself in this substantive fashion. At best, graphology will yield some vague assessment such as "the candidate is highly creative". It is worth remembering what the driving force is behind graphological testing. Handwriting analysis, like automated telephone screening, is increasingly being used early in the hiring process because it purports to deliver salient, accurate information cheaply. Yet precisely because these techniques are standardized, the data has reduced value. Judgments about the precise relevance of some perceived character traits to a job are rarely straightforward. Good interviewers learn through training and through interaction itself to qualify previous judgments. Perhaps the candidate who fails to make eye contact has a guilty conscience (as it is standardly assumed). On the other hand, perhaps the candidate is a recent immigrant from a country where eye contact is considered rude. Alternate interpretations sometimes suggest themselves in a face-to-face encounter with individuals who are fully present in their living, acting, and speaking personhood. Handwriting analysis, done at a distance by an expert who has never even met the candidate, will not stimulate the evaluator’s imagination in the way the in-person interview 6r personal essay might. On the contrary, the cheapness of the technique stems from its elimination of the important human activity of hypothesizing about the case at hand. The main purpose of this article is ______.
A. to criticize the practice of asking would-be employees to do non-interview tasks.
B. to criticize current practices by employers in screening future employees.
C. to argue against the analysis of handwriting for the purposes of obtaining a job.
D. to argue against employers who stereotype employees.