Directions: Choose the appropriate answer to identify the…
Directions: Choose the appropriate answer to identify the pattern or patterns in each reading. Dogs are mammals, so are squirrels and people. Because mammals come in a bewildering variety of sizes and shapes, the question is what characteristics define the class known as mammals? The answer to that question has several parts because mammals have a number of defining characteristics. Mammals are vertebrates. That means they have a backbone. Mammals are also warm-blooded, have lungs, and breathe in air. Mammals are the only animals with real hair and the ability to produce milk. A mammal’s heart and lungs are divided from the stomach by a wall of muscle called the diaphragm. Mammals also have different types of teeth that are appropriate for different uses. Then, too, and not to be forgotten, mammal brains are more highly developed than the brains of other animals.
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Directions: Choose the appropriate letter to indicate the conclusion that can be drawn from each passage. Most Americans think that sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are much safer than sports cars. And it’s true that a 5,000-pound SUV like the Chevrolet TrailBlazer is better at what the automotive industry calls “passive safety”; in other words, in a head-on collision with a car, a vehicle like a Ford Explorer is not going to be the one that’s crushed. However, many cars are much better than SUVs at what the automotive industry calls “active safety.” Midsize cars like the Toyota Camry and subcompact cars like the Volkswagen Jetta are more nimble, so their drivers have the ability to maneuver them to avoid crashes with the Explorers and the TrailBlazers. Being nimble and maneuverable, therefore, is often better than being big. Take, for example, emergency-stopping tests performed on both the TrailBlazer and the two-seater Porsche Boxster convertible. At 60 miles per hour, bringing the TrailBlazer to a sudden stop took about 150 feet and was not accomplished easily, for 5,000 pounds of rubber and steel does not stop that fast without a lot of screeching and bucking. The Boxster, however, can come to a complete stop in about 124 feet, which is a difference of about two car lengths. Obviously, two car lengths can, in many situations, mean the difference between life and death. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that the accident fatality rate for drivers of even some subcompact cars is half that for drivers of SUVs like the Ford Explorer, and drivers of the midsize imports, cars like the Camry and the Honda Accord, have the lowest accident fatality rates of all. (Source of information: Malcolm Gladwell, “Big and Bad,” The New Yorker, January 12, 2004, pp. 28–33.) From this passage, a reader might logically draw which conclusion?
Read DetailsQuiz 2: Effective and Ineffective Paraphrasing Directions:…
Quiz 2: Effective and Ineffective Paraphrasing Directions: Read each passage. Then select the letter of the best paraphrase. Dean Kamen, award-winning inventor, has created a new battery-powered personal transportation device called the Segway Human Transporter. This device averages eight miles an hour, which is three times faster than walking pace, weighs only sixty-five pounds, and runs about fifteen miles for the cost of about ten cents’ worth of electricity. Mr. Kamen says that the Segway could cause cities to be redesigned, help wean the world from oil dependence, compress time and space for pedestrians, and raise productivity for corporations and government agencies. (Adapted from Amy Harmon, “An Inventor Unveils His Mysterious Personal Transportation Device,” The New York Times, Dec. 3, 2001, www.nytimes.com.) Paraphrase
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Directions: Choose the appropriate answer to identify the pattern or patterns in each reading. Nortec is a style of electronic music popular among young people who frequent Tijuana nightspots. The world is derived from norte, northern Mexico, and techno, or electronic music. Nortec blends complex electronic rhythms with traditional Mexican variations of the polka and waltz. The sounds of accordions, drums, and tubas dominate the music, which is said to capture the unique cultural flavor of Tijuana. Nortec contains few lyrics. Instead the emphasis is on a high-volume, pulsating beat that inspires energetic dancing.
Read DetailsDirections: Read each passage. Then select the appropriate a…
Directions: Read each passage. Then select the appropriate answer to indicate the presence or absence of an error in reasoning. Some print media, such as the Chicago Times, are acting responsibly by refusing to report school shooting incidents on their front page. Television journalists should follow this example by refusing to broadcast intensive coverage of a child’s violent rampage. These reports do more harm than good. To attract viewers and increase their ratings, television news organizations emphasize the lurid details of a shooting incident and report it over and over again, especially when it involves children. This kind of television coverage desensitizes viewers to violence, and in the case of children, may well inspire them to commit copycat crimes in their own schools. After all, this is what happened when an Arkansas teenager acknowledged that he brought a gun to school after seeing footage of the Columbine tragedy on television. How much more proof do networks need and how much damage will they cause before they stop focusing so heavily on adolescent violence?
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