Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented
opportunities-as well as new and significant risks. Civil rights activists have long argued that one of the
principal reasons why Blacks, Hispanics and the other minority groups have difficulty establishing
themselves in business is that they lack access to the sizable orders and subcontracts that are generated
by large companies. Now congress, in apparent agreement, has required by law that businesses awarded
federal contracts of more than $500,000 do their best to find minority subcontractors and record their
efforts to do so on forms field with the government. Indeed, some federal and local agencies have gone
so far as to set specific percentage goals for apportioning parts of public works contracts to minority
enterprises.
Corporate response appears to have been substantial. According to figures collected in 1977, the total of
corporate contracts with minority business rose from $77 to $1.1 billion in 1977. The projected total of
corporate contracts with minority business for the early 1980's is estimated to be over $3 billion per year
with no letup anticipated in the next decade. Promising as it is for minority businesses, this increased
patronage poses dangers for them, too. First, minority firms risk expanding too fast and overextending
themselves financially, since most are small concerns and, unlike large businesses they often need to
make substantial investments in new plants, staff, equipment, and the like in order to perform work
subcontracted to them. If, thereafter, their subcontracts are for some reason reduced, such firms can face
potentially crippling fixed expenses. The world of corporate purchasing can be frustrating for small
entrepreneurs who get requests for elaborate formal estimates and bids. Both consume valuable time and
resources and a small company's efforts must soon result in orders, or both the morale and the financial
health of the business will suffer. A second risk is that White-owned companies may-seek to cash inon the
increasing apportion-ments through formation of joint ventures with minority-owned concerns, of course,
in many instances there are legitimate reasons for joint ventures; clearly, white and minority enterprises
can team up to acquire business that neither could Third, a minority enterprise that secures the business
of one large corporate customer often runs the danger of becoming and remaining dependent. Even in the
best of circumstances, fierce competition from larger, more established companies makes it difficult for
small concerns to broaden their customer bases; when such firms have nearly guaranteed orders from a
single corporate benefactor, they may truly have to struggle against complacency arising from their
current success.
According to the passage, civil rights activists maintain that one disadvantage under which minority
owned businesses have traditionally had to labor is that they have

• A. not been able to advertise in those media that reach large numbers of potential customers
• B. been especially vulnerable to governmental
• C. been denied bank loans at rates comparable to those afforded larger competitors
• D. not had adequate representation in the centers of government power.
• E. not had sufficient opportunity to secure businesses created by large corporations

Minnie has to use a combination of four colors to prepare a card. The colors available are white, red, blue,
green, yellow, orange, purple and pink.
If white or red is chosen, the other must also be chosen.
Blue and green cannot be chosen together.
Either blue or white or both must be chosen.
Purple cannot be chosen with pink or without red.
If green is chosen which of the following pairs of colours must also be chosen?

• A. white and red
• B. blue and yellow
• C. yellow and orange
• D. white and blue
• E. purple and blue

The fossil remains of the first flying vertebrates, the pterosaurs, have intrigued paleontologists for more
than two centuries. How such large creatures, which weighed in some cases as much as a piloted
hangglider and had wingspans from 8 to 12 meters, solved the problems of powered flight, and exactly
what these creatures were-reptiles or birds-are among the questions scientist have puzzled over.
Perhaps the least controversial assertion about the pterosaurs is that they were reptiles. Their skulls,
pelvises, and hind feet are reptilian. The anatomy of their wings suggests that they did not evolve into the
class of birds. In pterosaurs a greatly elongated fourth finger of each forelimb supported a wing like
membrane. The other fingers were short and reptilian, with sharp claws, in birds the second finger is the
principle strut of the wing, which consists primarily of features. If the pterosaur walked or remained
stationary, the fourth finger, and with it the wing, could only turn upward in an extended inverted V-shape
along side of the animal's body.
The pterosaurs resembled both birds and bats in their overall structure and proportions. This is not
surprising because the design of any flying vertebrate is subject to aerodynamic constraints. Both the
pterosaurs and the birds have hollow bones, a feature that represents a saving in weight. In the birds,
however, these bones are reinforced more massively by internal struts.
Although scales typically cover reptiles, the pterosaurs probably had hairy coats. T.H. Huxley reasoned
that flying vertebrates must have been warm blooded because flying implies a high internal temperature.
Huxley speculated that a coat of hair would insulate against loss of body heat and might streamline the
body to reduce drag in flight. The recent discovery of a pterosaur specimen covered in long, dense, and
relatively thick hairlike fossil material was the first clear evidenced that his reasoning was correct.
Efforts to explain how the pterosaurs became air-borne have led to suggestions that they launched
themselves by jumping from cliffs, by dropping from trees, or even by rising into light winds from the crests
of waves. Each hypothesis has its difficulties. The first wrongly assumes that the pterosaur's hind feet
resembled a bat's and could served as hooks by which the animal could bang in preparation for flight. The
second hypothesis seems unlikely because large pterosaurs could not have landed in trees without
damaging their wings. The birds call for high waves to channels updrafts. The wind that made such waves
however, might have been too strong for the pterosaurs to control their flight once airborne.
The authors views the idea that the pterosaurs became airborne by rising into light winds created by
waves as

• A. unlikely
• B. revolutionary
• C. probable
• D. unassailable
• E. outdated

A teacher is making five children stand in a row. Each child is assigned a number tag before being made
to stand in the row. The tags are not necessarily according to their positions.
Amy, Tara, Xenia, Yana, Pam are the children and they are given numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
The following conditions apply:
Exactly one number is given to a child.
Pam must be made to stand fourth and assigned number 1.
4 must be assigned to Yana.
Tara and Xenia must each be made to stand in one of the extreme positions.
Xenia cannot be given either number 2 or 3.
If 4 and 3 are assigned to children standing second and third respectively, which of the following must be
true?

• A. Amy Is standing third
• B. 2 is assigned to the child standing first
• C. There is exactly one child standing between the one who is given number 4 and the one who is given
  number 5.
• D. Tara is standing fifth.
• E. There are exactly two children standing between Tara and Yana.

A four-year-old girl had a fatal end, she allegedly drowned in a small pond here on Monday.

• A. A four-year-old girl had a fatal end, and allegedly drowned in a small pond
• B. A four-year-old girl had a fatal end, as she allegedly drowned in a small pond
• C. A four-year-old girl had a fatal end, she allegedly drowned in a small pond
• D. A four-year-old girl had a fatal end. but allegedly drowned in a small pond
• E. A four-year-old girl had a fatal end. when she allegedly drowned in a small pond