SNMPTN Tahun 2012 Kode Soal 321

Bacalah teks berikut untuk menjawab soal Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
nomor 1 sampai dengan nomor 5! Forest Degradation in Developing Countries –
that offers a powerful financial incentive to
Green plants use light to transform keep forests intact.
carbon dioxide, absorbed from the
atmosphere, and water into organic 1. In the passage the author clearly tries to
compounds, with oxygen as a by-product. …
The process is called photosynthesis, and it (A) explain the amount of greenhouse
enables forests like Ulu Masen, Aceh Jaya, to gas emissions.
play a critical role in regulating our climate. (B) link forests and current changes of
Forests store an estimated 300 billion world climate.
tons of carbon, or the equivalent of 40 times (C) argue for vast damage of Indonesian
the world’s total annual greenhouse-gas forests.
emissions – emissions that cause global (D) describe needs for reforestation
warming. Destroy the trees and you release projects.
that carbon into the atmosphere, putting the (E) show roles of forests in climate
great challenge of our age – averting regulation.
catastrophic climate change – beyond reach.
Forest destruction accounts for 15% of global 2. Which of the following best describes
emissions by human activity, far outranking the link between paragraphs 3 and 4?
the total from vehicles and aircraft (A) Issues – example
combined. (B) Problems – solution
Forests are disappearing so fast in (C) Challenges – explanation
Indonesia that, incredibly, this developing (D) Explanation – solution
country ranks third in emissions behind (E) Cases – example
industrial giants China and the U.S. Since
1950, estimates Greenpeace, more than 182 3. What does the woed ‘it’ in “… and it
million acres (740,000 sq km) of Indonesian enables forests like UluMasen to play a
forests, the equivalent of more than 95 Ulu critical role …” (paragraph 1 line 2) refer
Masens, have been destroyed or degraded. to?
The good news is that protecting forests (A) Water
“is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to (B) Oxygen
take a big bite cut of the apple when it comes (C) By-product
to emissions,” says Greenpeace spokesman (D) Carbon dioxide
Daniel Kessler. UluMasen will be one of the (E) Photosynthesis
first forests to be protected under a
pioneering U.N. program called REDD –

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4. Which of the following can Indonesia do
to reduce carbon dioxide emissions?
(A) Minimizing degradation and
deforestation
(B) Adopting strategies used in greening
UluMasen
(C) Integrating agriculture into
forestration programs
(D) Programing a flora conservation
project like REDD
(E) Improving human settlement quality
near the forests
5. The author’s view regarding reducing
greenhouse-gas emissions is that …
(A) deforestation is vital.
(B) fauna conservation is critical.
(C) keeping forests green is a key.
(D) massive funding is unavoidable.
(E) awareness raising is necessary.
Bacalah teks berikut untuk menjawab soal
nomor 6 sampai dengan nomor 10!
Everyone likes to group things.
Language students group words as verbs,
nouns and so on; collections of words are
classified as phrases, or clauses, or
sentences, and these again are reclassified
according to their function. In the same way,
botanists classify plants as algae, or fungi, or
gymnosperms, etc. Zoologists classify animals
as vertebrates and invertebrates. The
vertebrates can be further classified as
mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, etc.
Classification enables us to keep hold of
more information and, if it is based on the
right data, enables us to understand better
the ideas we are studying.
Chemists are no exception. The
chemical classification of materials, if it is
based on a good system, should enable us to
understand better the many substances
which exist in our world. What is to be the
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basis of our classification? Perhaps the most
obvious on is appearance. Materials could be
classified as solid, liquid or gas with some
mixed types as, for example, mud being
solid/liquid material and steam a liquid/gas
material. Appearance could enable us to
subdivide our main classification groups a
little further; the solid may be green, or
black, powdery or crystalline; the liquid may
be colored, oily, thick, or free flowing; the gas
may be colored. However, we soon realize
that many probably quite different materials
have the same appearance. Both air and the
deadly carbon-monoxide gas, are colorless,
odorless gasses, but we would not like to
group them as the same thing. Many
different liquids are colorless, water-like
materials.
6. The examples provided in paragraph 2
clarify that …
(A) many kinds of liquid should be
grouped as one.
(B) different kinds of gas can be
colorless and odorless.
(C) materials in chemistry should be
classified differently.
(D) chemistry materials have more
complicated classification.
(E) taxonomy can be made and applied
further to other areas.
7. Paragraph 2 exemplifies the idea about
classification that …
(A) chemicals may be solid, liquid, and
gaseous.
(B) appearance is not a useful basis in
chemistry.
(C) the use of colors is better than that
of appearance.
(D) both colors and appearance should
be considered.
(E) colors should be included for
identifying appearance.
8. The sentence “Chemists are no
exception” (Paragraph 2 line 1) could
possibly be restated as …
(A) chemical materials can also be put
into classification.
(B) classification of chemical materials is
without exception.
(C) chemist may also classify materials
using certain criteria.
(D) when appearance is the basis,
chemists are not involved.
(E) in material classification, chemicals
should not be included.
9. The paragraph following the passage
most likely deals with the classification
of …
(A) flora and fauna.
(B) human sounds.
(C) liquid and gases.
(D) human behaviors.
(E) words and phrases.
10. How does the author organize the ideas?
(A) Putting the main idea with examples
(B) Presenting causes followed by
effects
(C) Interpreting different ways of
classifying
(D) Presenting the strength of the main
idea
(E) Exposing supporting details
chronologically
Bacalah teks berikut untuk menjawab soal
nomor 11 sampai dengan nomor 15!
Passage A
The nuclear industry is in near-
terminal decline world-wide, following its
failure to establish itself as a clean, cheap,
safe or reliable energy source. The on-going
crisis in nuclear waste management, in safety
and in economic costs have severely
undermined the industry’s credibility. It is
currently desperate to find a valid rationale
and justification for renewed state support
and funding. It is promoting the claim that as
nuclear power stations do not emit carbon
dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, switching
from fossil fuels to nuclear power is the only
way to cut Carbon Dioxide (CO2) without
radically changing consumption patterns.
Passage B
Nuclear energy produces no
greenhouse gases, but it has many
drawbacks. Now a radical new technology
based on thorium promises what uranium
never delivered: abundant, safe and clean
energy – and a way to burn up old
radioactive waste.
Named after Thor, the warlike Norse
god of thunder, thorium could ironically
prove a potent instrument of peace as well as
a tool to soothe the world’s changing
climate. With the demand for energy on the
increase around the world, and the
implications of climate change beginning to
strike home, governments are increasingly
considering nuclear power as a possible
alternative to burning fossil fuels.
A thorium reactor is different. And, on
paper at least, this radical new technology
could be the key to unlocking a new
generation of clean and safe nuclear power.
It could prove the circuit-breaker to the two
st
most intractable problems of the 21
century: our insatiable thirst for energy, and
the warming of the world’s climate.
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11. What of the following best reflects the
theme discussed in the passages above?
(A) Impact of nuclear power on
environment
(B) Link of nuclear power and global
warming
(C) Thorium as an alternative for
nuclear energy
(D) Climate change and conventional
nuclear power
(E) Use of nuclear power as a clean
source of energy
12. Which of the following is factual
according to the passages above?
(A) Nuclear power emits no carbon
dioxide.
(B) Fossils fuels are possibly replaced by
nuclear power.
(C) Governments strongly support the
use of nuclear power.
(D) Nuclear-powered electricity is
efficient and clean to environment.
(E) Thorium is empirically cleaner and
less dangerous to environment.
13. Both passages are different in terms of …
(A) negative impacts of nuclear power.
(B) nuclear energy as an alternative
power.
(C) governments’ supports to nuclear
power.
(D) the role of nuclear power to climate
change.
(E) greenhouse effects caused by
nuclear power stations.
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14. The ideas in the passages above can be
best summarized as …
(A) nuclear power is empirically
expensive and dangerous.
(B) nuclear energy is a choice which is
clean, safe, and long lasting.
(C) the use of nuclear power is an
alternative preferred by
governments.
(D) nuclear power needs replacing by
carbon-emission free and safe ones.
(E) nuclear energy requires
governments to have good waste
management.
15. If the thorium technology is efficient in
generating energy, …
(A) nuclear power will reduce global
warming better.
(B) more finance is needed to run the
technology.
(C) governments will build more power
plants.
(D) carbon emissions will be reduced to
zero.
(E) global warming will not take place.
 SBMPTN Tahun 2013 Kode Soal 123

Numbers 1 to 3 refer to the following passage.

Passage 1
Over this decade, employment in jobs requiring education beyond a high school
diploma will grow more rapidly than employment in jobs that do not; of the 30 fastest growing
occupations, more than half require post-secondary education. With the average earnings of
college graduates at a level that is twice as high as that of workers with only a high school
diploma, higher education is now the clearest (31) … into the middle class.
In higher education, the U.S. has been outpaced internationally. While the United States
ranks ninth in the world in the proportion of young adults enrolled in college, we have fallen to
th
16 in the world in out share of certificates and degrees awarded to adult ages 25-34 – lagging
behind Korea, Canada, Japan and other nations. While more than half of college students
graduate within six years, the (32) … for low-income students is around 25 percent.
Acknowledging these factors early in his administration, President Obam challenged
every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or post-secondary training.
(33) …: that by 2020, America would once again have the highest proportion of college
graduates in the world.
(www.whitehouse.gov)

1. The option that best completes (31) is …. 3. The option that best completes (33) is ….
(A) endeavour (A) American people will deserve higher
(B) advantage education for their future
(C) opening (B) The President has also set up an
(D) direction innovative goal for the country
(E) pathway (C) President Obama has reminded
Americans of their college
2. The option that best completes (32) is …. completion
(A) completion rate (D) American students and workers
(B) academic potential became encouraged to take further
(C) learning achievement studies
(D) academic absorption (E) Middle class people of America are
(E) logical understanding encouraged to go to American
colleges

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Questions 4 – 7 refer to the following passage.

Passage 2
Fires such as the Las Conchas one leave behind few seed sources, strip soils of nutrients
and increase the likelihood of landslides. In their wake, vegetation of any kind can struggle to
take root. When trees and shrubs do regrow, the region’s warming temperatures and more
frequent dry spells are likely to favour heat- and drought-tolerant species. By looking at tree
rings, Park Williams of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and his colleagues have been able
to assess how droughts stress southwestern forests. They forecast that if temperatures rise as
projected by climate models, trees will face worse drought stress in the first half of the
twenty-first century than they have experienced for 1,000 years, probably driving a
transformation of the ecosystem.
In some places in the Jemez, the transformation seems to have started. In 1996, the
Dome Fire burned almost 7,000 hectares in the mountains, leaving patches of dead trees that
at the time seemed surprisingly large. Swathes of shrubby vegetation, dominated by scrub
oaks, sprouted in the burned patches, surrounding small islands of surviving ponderosa pine
and other conifers. When the Las Conchas fire roared through some of the same areas last
summers, the oaks burned hot and fast, killing almost all the conifers that had survived the
Dome fire.
Because the shrubs are better adapted to warmer, drier conditions than the trees,
researchers expect that they will regrow in even larger patches. Eventually, they could
dominate the entire landscape and establish a pattern of intense and frequent fires that is
currently more common in coastal California and other Mediterranean-style ecosystems.
(www.nature.com)

4. With reference to the ideas described in
paragraph 1, paragraph 2 ….
(A) provides a case of an environmental
shift
(B) elaborates types of vegetation after
the fires
(C) supports arguments for the
importance of forest fires
(D) exemplifies the effects of drought
on trees after the forest fires
(E) provides examples of vegetation
keeping the climate not to change
5. When forest areas are on fire and rain
falls shortly in the areas afterwards ….
(A) the fertile soil will be gone replaced
by rock
(B) the areas will turn into a desert
(C) only palm trees will grow
(D) bush will dominate the vegetation
(E) the areas will turn to be hot during
the day and very cold in the night
time
6. What does the author assume about the
environment described in the passage?
(A) Fires enable seeds to grow and form
a new dense forest.
(B) Climate helps environment select
appropriate vegetation.
(C) Types of soils influence the growth
of types of vegetation.
(D) A model of future environmental
change can be predicted.
(E) A process of selection by nature
takes place in the forest fires.

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 st
7. Points discussed in paragraph 3 confirm (D) the 21 century temperature is
that …. much hotter than it was in the
(A) after the fire all forests will be previous millennium
replaced by the shrubs (E) only in a relatively warmer condition
(B) only temperature rise influences the does the transformation of
change of vegetation landscape take place
(C) warmer environment conditions
give bushes a way to grow massively

Questions 8 to 11 refer to the following passage.

Passage 3
Hopes that a Mediterranean diet would be as good for the head as it is for the heart
may have been dampened by a French study that found little benefit for aging brains from the
diet rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, wine and olive oil. The study, published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at the participants’ dietary patterns in their
middle age and measured their cognitive performance at around age 65, but found no
connection between Mediterannean eating and mental performance.
“Our study does not support the hypothesis of a significant neuro-protective effect of a
Mediterranean diet on cognitive function,” wrote study leader Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot at
the nutritional epidemiology research center of the French national health research agency
INSERM. It has been suggested that the “good” fats in Mediterranean diet might benefit the
brain directly, or that low saturated fats and high fiber in the diet could help stave of cognitive
decline indirectly by keeping blood vessels healthy.
Previous research has seemed to uphold that premise. One large study in the US
Midwest, for example, found that people in their 60s and older who ate a mostly
Mediterranean diet were less prone to mental decline as they aged. Another study of
residents of Manhattan linked a Mediterannean style diet to a 40 percent lower risk of
Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers in the French study used data on 3,083 people who were
followed from the mid-1990s, when they were at least 45 years old.
(www.huffingtonpost.com)

8. The author believes that ….
(A) a Mediterranean diet contributes
less benefits to cognition
(B) saturated fats function to keep
blood vessels working well
(C) some studies rightly prove that their
finding are not identical
(D) the eating habits can be a key factor
to cognitive functionality
(E) Alzheimer’s disease and a (C) it is an obligation for dieters to be
Mediterranean style diet are
dangerous
9. In the other words, the sentence “…who
ate a mostly Mediterranean diet were
less prone to mental decline as they
aged …” (Paragraph 3 lines 2-3) may be
restated as ….
(A) efforts to improve quality of life is
excessively encouraged
(B) better life should be given a priority
in whatever it has to be
caring for their lives better

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 (D) healthier life is everyone’s
expectation including active dieters
(E) when getting older, dieters should
be alert to their mental decline
10. Another way of saying/expressing
“Another study of residents of
Manhattan linked a Mediterranean style
diet to a 40 percent lower risk of
Alzheimer’s disease.” (Paragraph 3 lines
3-4) is ….
(A) 40% of the lower risk of Alzheimer’s
diseases is correlated with people’s
diet
(B) a study conducted in Manhattan
projects only 40% of the Alzheimer’s
residents
(C) a Mediterranean diet can reduce the
risk of Alzheimer’s diseases to 40%
(D) 40% of Manhattan residents suffer
from Alzheimer’s disease due to
style diets
(E) A Mediterranean study on
Alzheimer’s disease is conducted
40% by a French
11. In organizing the ideas, the writer starts
by ….
(A) interpreting ways of classifying
things
(B) comparing one study with other
findings
(C) presenting causes followed by their
effects
(D) putting one study supported by
other findings
(E) showing an expectation supported
by examples
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Questions 12-15 refer to the following
passages.
Passage 4
The roots of writing seem to lay in the
human need to store information in order to
communicate, to store information for longer
periods of time, and to spread it over
broader areas.
Writing started with the production of
art, simple cave drawings of the
environment, a buffalo created with its horns
and paws, a human with two hands and two
legs and women with their distinctive body
organs. These works of art over time became
more popular in certain tribes and societies
and symbolized over time.
The first pully written language is the
Sumerian cuneiform script. The Sumerians in
Uruk were in search of a way to simplify their
complex administration which led them
eventually to create a standardized system of
cuneiform symbols to store and pass this
information. The cuneiform script was a
revolution and soon after we find an
explosion of thousands upon thousands of
Sumerian clay tablets.
Passage 5
The earliest dated printed book known
is the “Diamond Sutra”, printed in China in
868 CE. However, it is suspected book
printing may have occurred long before this
date. In 1041, movable clay type was first
invented in China.
Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith and
businessman from southern Germany,
borrowed money to invent a technology that
changed the world of printing. Gutenberg
invented the printing press with replaceable
wooden or metal letters in 1436. This
printing method can be credited not only for
a revolution in storing information in books,
but also for fostering rapid development in
the sciences, arts and religion through the
transmission of texts.
 The Gutenberg press with its wooden
and later metal movable type printing
brought down the price of printed materials
and made such materials available for the
masses. It remained the standard until the
th
20 century.
(www2.iath.virginia.edu)
12. What is the topic discussed in both
passages?
(A) Printing and writing methods to
store information
(B) Origins of writing traditions and
printing technology
(C) Development of written works in
the printed forms
(D) History of writing and printing in
ethnic groups
(E) Advances in the technology of
writing and printing
15. According to both passage above, what
would most likely have happened to the
sciences if storage systems of printed
had not been invented?
(A) Communication would have been
hard.
(B) Technology would have been
stagnant.
(C) Important knowledge would have
lost.
(D) Their spread would have been
hampered.
(E) Sciences would not have progressed
well.

13. Both reading passages are similar in

terms of dealing with humans’ attempt
to ….
(A) communicate using graphic and
verbal
(B) advance cultures through writing
and printing
(C) keep information for a later and
broader scope
(D) sustain technology to transmit
cultural values
(E) record important events in printed
materials

14. Which of the following statements is not

true about events of verbal
communication in both passages?
(A) Dissemination information through
books
(B) Making use of Sumerian clay tablets
(C) Publication in manuscripts
(D) Utilization of the cuneiform scripts
(E) Simple drawings of animals on cave
walls
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