Test Prep MCAT Test - Medical College Admission Test: Verbal Reasoning, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Writing Sample Exam
Page: 1 / 163
Total 811 questions
Question #1 (Topic: Verbal Reasoning)
In the early nineteenth century a large number of communal experiments, both secular and religious, sprang up in the northeastern United States. Perhaps the
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
The passage implies that the end of the Brook Farm experiment was probably brought on by:
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
The passage implies that the end of the Brook Farm experiment was probably brought on by:
A. faltering commitment in the face of hardship.
B. a failure to attract members of sufficient intellect or ability.
C. the completion of the communityג€™s aims.
D. the incompetence of philosophers at field labor.
Answer: A
Question #2 (Topic: Verbal Reasoning)
In the early nineteenth century a large number of communal experiments, both secular and religious, sprang up in the northeastern United States. Perhaps the
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
According to the passage, the Oneidans believed that:
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
According to the passage, the Oneidans believed that:
A. men and women were equal in the eyes of God.
B. monogamy was wrong in principle.
C. rules and standards of behavior were unnecessary.
D. they were destined to witness Christג€™s second coming.
Answer: B
Question #3 (Topic: Verbal Reasoning)
In the early nineteenth century a large number of communal experiments, both secular and religious, sprang up in the northeastern United States. Perhaps the
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
The passage implies that Brook Farmג€™s economic system:
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
The passage implies that Brook Farmג€™s economic system:
A. did not include the selling of produce outside the farm.
B. was based on the hiring of farm hands.
C. efficiently utilized time and labor.
D. was primarily intended to maximize collective profit.
Answer: C
Question #4 (Topic: Verbal Reasoning)
In the early nineteenth century a large number of communal experiments, both secular and religious, sprang up in the northeastern United States. Perhaps the
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
According to the passage, all of the following were characteristic of the Oneida community EXCEPT:
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
According to the passage, all of the following were characteristic of the Oneida community EXCEPT:
A. complex marriage.
B. maintenance of order through social pressure.
C. belief in present grace.
D. shared living quarters.
Answer: D
Question #5 (Topic: Verbal Reasoning)
In the early nineteenth century a large number of communal experiments, both secular and religious, sprang up in the northeastern United States. Perhaps the
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
The Shakers resembled the Oneidans in their attitude toward:
most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and
culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor
by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began
outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farmג€™s members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly
interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens
in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes.
One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christג€™s second coming had already
occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans
embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle
extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one ג€complexג€
marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through ג€criticismג€ ג€" anyone acting out of
line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved
on Noyesג€™ son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company.
Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding
light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less
adamant on the last point ג€" maintaining social relations and some commerce with their neighbors ג€" they insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal
property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large ג€Unitary Dwellingג€ and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could
speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long-
lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their heyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight
separate ג€familiesג€ throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number
of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith.
The Shakers resembled the Oneidans in their attitude toward:
A. sexual practices.
B. equality of men and women.
C. personal property.
D. contact with the outside world.
Answer: C
