Practice Reading D - Powered By Eduhyme.com

Eduhyme.com

Practice Reading D

Index:

Back

Question 1- 9

	In the 1500's when the Spanish moved into what later was to become the
	southwestern United States, they encountered the ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo,
	Hopi, and Zuni peoples. These ancestors, known variously as the Basket Makers, the
	Anasazi, or the Ancient Ones, had lived in the area for at least 2,000 years. They were
	an advanced agricultural people who used irrigation to help grow their crops.
	The Anasazi lived in houses constructed of adobe and wood. Anasazi houses were
	originally built in pits and were entered from the roof. But around the year 700 A.D.,
	the Anasazi began to build their homes above ground and join them together into
	rambling multistoried complexes, which the Spanish called pueblos or villages.
	Separate subterranean rooms in these pueblos – known as kivas or chapels – were set
	aside for religious ceremonials. Each kiva had a fire pit and a hole that was believed to
	lead to the underworld. The largest pueblos had five stories and more than 800 rooms.
	The Anasazi family was matrilinear; that is, descent was traced through the female.
	The sacred objects of the family were under the control of the oldest female, but the
	actual ceremonies were conducted by her brother, or son. Women owned the rooms in
	the pueblo and the crops, once they were harvested. While still growing, crops
	belonged to the men, who, in contrast to most other Native American groups, planted
	them. The women made baskets and pottery; the men wove textile and crafted
	turquoise jewelry.
	Each village had two chiefs. The village chief dealt with land disputes and
	religious affairs. The war chief led the men in fighting during occasional conflicts that
	broke out with neighboring villages and directed the men in community building
	projects. The cohesive political and social organization of the Anasazi made it almost
	impossible for other groups to conquer them.

1. The Anasazi people were considered "agriculturally advanced" because of the way they

(A) stored their crops
(B) fertilized their fields
(C) watered their crops
(D) planted their fields

Correct Answer: C

2. The word "pits" in line 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) stages
(B) scars
(C) seeds
(D) holes

Correct Answer: D

3. The word "stories" in line 12 is closest in meaning to

(A) articles
(B) tales
(C) levels
(D) rumors

Correct Answer: C

4. Who would have been most likely to control the sacred objects of an Anasazi family?

(A) A twenty-year-old man
(B) A twenty-year-old woman
(C) A forty-year-old man
(D) A forty-year-old woman

Correct Answer: D

5. The word "they" in line 16 refers to

(A) women
(B) crops
(C) rooms
(D) pueblos

Correct Answer: B

6. The word "disputes" in line 20 is closest in meaning to

(A) discussions
(B) arguments
(C) developments
(D) purchases

Correct Answer: B

7. Which of the following activities was NOT done by Anasazi men?

(A) Making baskets
(B) Planting crops
(C) Building homes
(D) Crafting jewelry

Correct Answer: A

8. According to the passage, what made it almost impossible for other groups to conquer the Anasazi ?

(A) The political and social organization of the Anasazi
(B) The military tactics employed by the Anasazi
(C) The Anasazi's agricultural technology
(D) The natural barriers surrounding Anasazi village

Correct Answer: A

9. The passage supports which of the following generalizations?

(A) The presence of the Spanish threatened Anasazi society.
(B) The Anasazi benefited from trading relations with the Spanish.
(C) Anasazi society exhibited a well-defined division of labor.
(D) Conflicts between neighboring Anasazi villages were easily resolved.

Correct Answer: C

Questions 10-19

	Barbed wire, first patented in the United States in 1867, played an important part in
	the development of American farming, as it enabled the settlers to make effective
	fencing to enclose their land and keep cattle away from their crops. This had a
	considerable effect on cattle ranching, since the herds no longer had unrestricted use of
	the plains for grazing, and the fencing led to conflict between the farmers and the cattle
	ranchers.
	Before barbed wire came into general use, fencing was often made from serrated
	wire, which was unsatisfactory because it broke easily when under strain, and could
	snap in cold weather due to contraction. The first practical machine for producing
	barbed wire was invented in 1874 by an Illinois farmer, and between then and the end
	of the century about 400 types of barbed wire were devised, of which only about a
	dozen were ever put to practical use.
	Modern barbed wire is made from mild steel, high-tensile steel, or aluminum. Mild
	steel and aluminum barbed wire have two strands twisted together to form a cable that
	is stronger than single-strand wire and less affected by temperature changes. Singlestrand
	wire, round or oval, is made from high-tensile steel with the barbs crimped or
	welded on. The steel wires used are galvanized – coated with zinc to make them
	rustproof. The two wires that make up the line wire or cable are fed separately into a
	machine at one end. They leave it at the other end twisted together and barbed.The
	wire to make the barbs is fed into the machine from the sides and cut to length by
	knives that cut diagonally through the wire to produce a sharp point. This process
	continues automatically, and the finished barbed wire is wound onto reels, usually
	made of wire, in lengths of 400 meters or in weights of up to 50 kilograms.
	A variation of barbed wire is also used for military purposes. It is formed into long
	coils or entanglements called concertina wire.

10. What is the main topic of the passage?

(A) Cattle ranching in the United States
(B) A type of fencing.
(C) Industrial uses of wire.
(D) A controversy over land use.

Correct Answer: B

11. The word "unrestricted" in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) unsatisfactory
(B) difficult
(C) considerable
(D) unlimited

Correct Answer: D

12. The word "snap" in line 9 could best be replaced by which of the following?

(A) freeze
(B) click
(C) loosen
(D) break

Correct Answer: D

13. What is the benefit of using two-stranded barbed wire?

(A) Improved rust-resistance
(B) Increased strength
(C) More rapid attachment of barbs
(D) Easier installation

Correct Answer: B

14. According to the author, the steel wires used to make barbed wire are specially processed to

(A) protect them against rust
(B) make them more flexible
(C) prevent contraction in cold weather
(D) straighten them

Correct Answer: A

15. The word "fed" in line 20 is closest in meaning to

(A) put
(B) eaten
(C) bitten
(D) nourished

Correct Answer: A

16. The knives referred to in line 21 are used to

(A) separate double-stranded wire
(B) prevent the reel from advancing too rapidly
(C) twist the wire
(D) cut the wire that becomes barbs

Correct Answer: D

17. What is the author's purpose in the third paragraph?

(A) To explain the importance of the wire
(B) To outline the difficulty of making the wire
(C) To describe how the wire is made
(D) To suggest several different uses of the wire

Correct Answer: C

18. According to the passage, concertina wire is used for

(A) livestock management
(B) international communications
(C) prison enclosures
(D) military purposes

Correct Answer: D

19. Which of the following most closely resembles the fencing described in the passage?

Correct Answer: A

Questions 20-28

	Under certain circumstances, the human body must cope with gases at greater-thannormal
	atmospheric pressure. For example, gas pressures increase rapidly during a dive
	made with scuba gear because the breathing equipment allows divers to stay
	underwater longer and dive deeper. The pressure exerted on the human body increases
	by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters of depth in seawater, so that at 30 meters in
	seawater a diver is exposed to a pressure of about 4 atmospheres. The pressure of the
	gases being breathed must equal the external pressure applied to the body; otherwise
	breathing is very difficult. Therefore all of the gases in the air breathed by a scuba
	diver at 40 meters are present at five times their usual pressure. Nitrogen, which
	composes 80 percent of the air we breathe, usually causes a balmy feeling of
	well-being at this pressure. At a depth of 5 atmospheres, nitrogen causes symptoms
	resembling alcohol intoxication, known as nitrogen narcosis. Nitrogen narcosis
	apparently results from a direct effect on the brain of the large amounts of nitrogen
	dissolved in the blood. Deep dives are less dangerous if helium is substituted for
	nitrogen, because under these pressures helium does not exert a similar narcotic effect.
	As a scuba diver descends, the pressure of nitrogen in the lungs increases. Nitrogen
	then diffuses from the lungs to the blood, and from the blood to body tissues. The
	reverse occurs when the diver surfaces; the nitrogen pressure in the lungs falls and the
	nitrogen diffuses from the tissues into the blood, and from the blood into the lungs. If
	the return to the surface is too rapid, nitrogen in the tissues and blood cannot diffuse out
	rapidly enough and nitrogen bubbles are formed. They can cause severe pains,
	particularly around the joints.
	Another complication may result if the breath is held during ascent. During ascent
	from a depth of 10 meters, the volume of air in the lungs will double because the air
	pressure at the surface is only half of what it was at 10 meters. This change in volume
	may cause the lungs to distend and even rupture. This condition is called air embolism.
	To avoid this event, a diver must ascend slowly, never at a rate exceeding the rise of the
	exhaled air bubbles, and must exhale during ascent.

20. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The equipment divers use
(B) The effects of pressure on gases in the human body
(C) How to prepare for a deep dive
(D) The symptoms of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream

Correct Answer: B

21. The words "exposed to" in line 6 are closest in meaning to

(A) leaving behind
(B) prepared for
(C) propelled by
(D) subjected to

Correct Answer: D

22. The word "exert" in line 15 is closest in meaning to

(A) cause
(B) permit.
(C) need.
(D) change.

Correct Answer: A

23. The word "diffuses" in line 19 is closest in meaning to

(A) yields
(B) starts
(C) surfaces
(D) travels

Correct Answer: D

24. What happens to nitrogen in body tissues if a diver ascends too quickly?

(A) It forms bubbles.
(B) It goes directly to the brain.
(C) It is reabsorbed by the lungs.
(D) It has a narcotic effect.

Correct Answer: A

25. The word "they" in line 21 refers to

(A) joins
(B) pains
(C) bubbles
(D) tissues

Correct Answer: C

26. The word " rupture " in line 26 is closest in meaning to

(A) hurt
(B) shrink
(C) burst
(D) stop

Correct Answer: C

27. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following presents the greatest danger to a diver?

(A) Pressurized helium
(B) Nitrogen diffusion
(C) Nitrogen bubbles
(D) An air embolism

Correct Answer: D

28. What should a diver do when ascending?

(A) Rise slowly.
(B) Breathe faster.
(C) Relax completely.
(D) Breathe helium.

Correct Answer: A

Questions 29-38

	Each advance in microscopic technique has provided scientists with new perspective,
	on the function of living organisms and the nature of matter itself. The invention of the
	visible-light microscope late in the sixteenth century introduced a previously unknown realm
	of single-celled plants and animals. In the twentieth century, electron microscopes
	have provided direct views of viruses and minuscule surface structures. Now another
	type of microscope, one that utilizes X rays rather than light or electrons, offers a
	different way of examining tiny details; it should extend human perception still farther
	into the natural world.
	The dream of building an X-ray microscope dates to 1895; its development, however,
	was virtually halted in the 1940's because the development of the electron microscope
	was progressing rapidly. During the 1940's electron microscopes routinely achieved
	resolution better than that possible with a visible-light microscope, while the
	performance of X-ray microscopes resisted improvement. In recent years, however,
	interest in X-ray microscopes has revived, largely because of advances such as the
	development of new sources of X-ray illumination. As a result, the brightness available
	today is millions of times that of X-ray tubes, which, for most of the century, were the
	only available sources of soft X rays.
	The new X-ray microscopes considerably improve on the resolution provided by
	optical microscopes. They can also be used to map the distribution of certain chemical
	elements. Some can form pictures in extremely short times; others hold the promise of
	special capabilities such as three-dimensional imaging. Unlike conventional electron
	microscopy, X-ray microscopy enables specimens to be kept in air and in water, which
	means that biological samples can be studied under conditions similar to their natural
	state. The illumination used, so-called soft X rays in the wavelength range of twenty to
	forty angstroms (an angstrom is one ten-billionth of a meter), is also sufficiently
	penetrating to image intact biological cells in many cases. Because of the wavelength of
	the X rays used, soft X-ray microscopes will never match the highest resolution possible
	with electron microscopes. Rather, their special properties will make possible investigations
	that will complement those performed with light- and electron-based instruments.

29. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The detail seen through a microscope
(B) Sources of illumination for microscope
(C) A new kind of microscope
(D) Outdated microscopic techniques

Correct Answer: C

30. According to the passage, the invention of the visible-light microscope allowed scientists to

(A) see viruses directly
(B) develop the electron microscope later on
(C) understand more about the distribution of the chemical elements
(D) discover single-celled plants and animals they had never seen before

Correct Answer: D

31. The word "minuscule" in line 5 is closest in meaning to

(A) circular
(B) dangerous
(C) complex
(D) tiny

Correct Answer: D

32. The word "it" in line 7 refers to

(A) a type of microscope
(B) human perception
(C) the natural world
(D) light

Correct Answer: A

33. Why does the author mention the visible-light microscope in the first paragraph?

(A) To begin a discussion of sixteenth-century discoveries
(B) To put the X-ray microscope in a historical perspective
(C) To show how limited its uses are
(D) To explain how it functioned

Correct Answer: B

34. Why did it take so long to develop the X-ray microscope?

(A) Funds for research were insufficient.
(B) The source of illumination was not bright enough until recently.
(C) Materials used to manufacture X-ray tubes were difficult to obtain.
(D) X-ray microscopes were too complicated to operate.

Correct Answer: B

35. The word "enables" in line 22 is closest in meaning to

(A) constitutes
(B) specifies
(C) expands
(D) allows

Correct Answer: D

36. The word "Rather" in line 28 is closest in meaning to

(A) significantly
(B) preferably
(C) somewhat
(D) instead

Correct Answer: D

37. The word "those" in line 29 refers to

(A) properties
(B) investigations
(C) microscopes
(D) X rays

Correct Answer: B

38. Based on the information in the passage, what can be inferred about X-ray microscopes in the future?

(A) They will probably replace electron microscopes altogether.
(B) They will eventually be much cheaper to produce than they are now.
(C) They will provide information not available from other kinds of microscopes.
(D) They will eventually chance the illumination range that they now use.

Correct Answer: C

Questions 39-50

	Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its freshness, its originality of
	perspective. Satire rarely offers original ideas. Instead, it presents the familiar in a new
	form. Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they do is look at
	familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish,
	harmful, or affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked
	realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don Quixote
	makes chivalry seem absurd; Brave New World ridicules the pretensions of science; A
	Modest Proposal dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas
	is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists objected to the claims of
	pure science before Aldous Huxley, and people were aware of famine before Swift. It
	was not the originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was the manner of
	expression, the satiric method, that made them interesting and entertaining. Satires are
	read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally
	wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulating and refreshing because with
	commonsense briskness they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With
	spontaneous irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles familiar objects into
	incongruous juxtaposition, and speaks in a personal idiom instead of abstract platitude.
	Satire exists because there is need for it. It his lived because readers appreciate a
	refreshing stimulus, an irreverent reminder that they live in a world of platitudinous
	thinking, cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod people into an
	awareness of truth, though rarely to any action on behalf of truth. Satire tends to
	remind people that much of what they see, hear, and read in popular media is
	sanctimonious, sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in only a slight
	degree the popular image of it. Soldiers rarely hold the ideals that movies attribute to
	them, nor do ordinary citizens devote their lives to unselfish service of humanity.
	Intelligent people know these things but tend to forget them when they do not hear them
	expressed.

39. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) Difficulties of writing satiric literature
(B) Popular topics of satire
(C) New philosophies emerging from satiric literature
(D) Reasons for the popularity of satire

Correct Answer: D

40.The word "realization" in line 6 is closest in meaning to

(A) certainty
(B) awareness
(C) surprise
(D) confusion

Correct Answer: B

41. Why does the author mention Don Quixote, Brave New World, and A Modest Proposal in lines 6-8?

(A) They are famous examples of satiric literature.
(B) They present commonsense solutions to problems.
(C) They are appropriate for readers of all ages.
(D) They are books with similar stories.

Correct Answer: A

42. The word "aesthetically" in line 13 is closest in meaning to

(A) artistically
(B) exceptionally
(C) realistically
(D) dependably

Correct Answer: A

43. Which of the following can be found in satiric literature?

(A) Newly emerging philosophies
(B) Odd combinations of objects and ideas
(C) Abstract discussion of morals and ethics
(D) Wholesome characters who are unselfish

Correct Answer: B

44. According to the passage, there is a need for satire because people need to be

(A) informed about new scientific developments
(B) exposed to original philosophies when they are formulated
(C) reminded that popular ideas are often inaccurate
(D) told how they call be of service to their communities

Correct Answer: C

45. The word "refreshing" in line 19 is closest ill meaning to

(A) popular
(B) ridiculous
(C) meaningful
(D) unusual

Correct Answer: D

46. The word "they" in line 22 refers to

(A) people
(B) media
(C) ideals
(D) movies

Correct Answer: A

47. The word "devote" in line 25 is closest in meaning to

(A) distinguish
(B) feel affection
(C) prefer
(D) dedicate

Correct Answer: D

48. As a result of reading satiric literature, readers will be most likely to

(A) teach themselves to write fiction
(B) accept conventional points of view
(C) become better informed about current affairs
(D) reexamine their opinions and values

Correct Answer: D

49. The various purposes of satire include all of the following EXCEPT

(A) introducing readers to unfamiliar situations
(B) brushing away illusions
(C) reminding readers of the truth
(D) exposing false values

Correct Answer: A

50. Why does the author mention “service of humanity" in line 25?

(A) People need to be reminded to take action
(B) Readers appreciate knowing about it
(C) It is an ideal that is rarely achieved
(D) Popular media often distort such stories.

Correct Answer: C