1

African Wild Dogs: Ultimate Predators?

Many books, papers, and television shows have created an image
of the African wild dog as the ultimate predator. According to
these sources, the dogs' coordinated teamwork and their unusual
endurance help them catch about eighty percent of their prey. A
2012 study tested that notion. Researchers fit a pack of wild dogs
with special collars that recorded the dogs' positions and speeds.
The data that the collars recorded allowed the researchers to learn
what the dogs did when they weren't being observed. The results
provided a surprising contrast with the dogs' fierce reputation. The
dogs never used teamwork in their hunts; they chased their prey
over short distances as opposed to long runs; and instead of
eighty percent, they brought down only about sixteen percent of
their prey.

What is the main, or central, idea of the passage?

A. African wild dogs have a reputation as fierce hunters who work in

teams, but new data suggests otherwise.

B. study shows that African wild dogs catch about sixteen percent of
their prey and do not use teamwork in hunting.

2.
Winston Churchill was the prime minister of the United Kingdom during
World War II. Considered one of the greatest wartime leaders in history,
Churchill had to overcome several challenges before he found success. Like
his father, Churchill struggled with a lisp, which made it difficult to
pronounce the letters "s" and "z." To improve his pronunciation, he did
vocal exercises. From an early age, Churchill was a poor student. In fact, he
failed the Royal Military College entrance exams twice. With the help of a
tutor, he finally passed the test on the third try.

Match the problems with their solutions.

___ 1.Churchill did not pass the entrance exam A. Churchill did exercise
___2.Churchill had a lisp B. Churchill had a tutor
 3.
Read the text.
Saffron and vanilla are the most expensive spices in the world. The vanilla
flower is a member of the orchid family. The flowers are difficult to grow,
and demand for vanilla is high, so the spice is costly. To avoid the high
cost, many consumers purchase imitation vanilla instead. Like vanilla,
saffron also comes from a flower—the dried stigmas of a type of crocus
flower. To produce one pound of dried saffron, it takes nearly seventy
thousand crocus flowers! As a result, saffron is pricey, too. The answer for
some consumers is to use inexpensive turmeric in its place. Match the
problems with their solutions.

_____1. Vanilla is expensive. A. Some people buy artificial versions.

_____2. Saffron is expensive B. Some people buy tumeric

4
Were it not for the early conservation efforts, California's national
parks may never have come to be. In the 1860s, naturalist John Muir fell in
love with California's Yosemite Valley. Alarmed by the damage caused by
grazing livestock, he wrote essays to promote the idea of turning the area
into protected land. Thanks in part to Muir's writing, Yosemite National Park
was created in 1890. Sequoia National Park, established in 1890 by
President Benjamin Harrison, was a response to loggers that wanted the
area's enormous sequoia trees for lumber. This action effectively shielded
many of California's giant sequoias from destruction.
Match the problems with their solutions.
Problem:
____1.Loggers wanted to use sequoia trees as lumber.
____2.Livestock was damaging Yosemite Valley.
Solution
A. Muir wrote essays about turning the area into a national park.
B. President Harrison made the area a national park.
 5.
Color blindness is a visual impairment that affects how people see one or more
colors. Color blindness can make some everyday tasks a bit challenging, such as
distinguishing between traffic lights or reading a website. Fortunately, assistive
technology offers some great work-arounds. Drivers who are color-blind might consider
EnChroma glasses, which help people tell the difference between red and green more
easily. What about web designers who want to ensure that their work is color-blind
friendly? They can enhance their computer monitors with a color filter to see how their
websites appear to color-blind people and make improvements using that knowledge.
Match the problems with their solutions.
Problem
____1.They can use a color filter.
____2.They can use EnChroma glasses.
Solution
A. Drivers who are color-blind need to tell traffic lights apart.
B. Designers need to design color-blind-friendly websites.
6.
Saving the Rhinos
Poachers in Africa are killing large numbers of rhinos for their horns.
Rhinoceros horns, valued for use in traditional medicines in Vietnam and
China, can fetch as much as thirty-six thousand dollars a pound. Officials
have tried to protect the rhinos: they have created fenced areas for the
animals, patrolled their habitats, and even tried removing their horns.
Despite these efforts, the number of rhinos in Africa has been dwindling.
One creative solution to the poaching problem is to remove the rhinos from
Africa altogether. Ray Dearlove, the founder of the Australian Rhino Project,
came up with a plan to relocate eighty rhinos to a safari park outside
Adelaide, Australia, where a breeding herd can be established.
What is the main, or central, idea of the passage?
_____A. Because other attempts to protect African rhinos from poachers
have failed, the Australian rhino projects is relocating rhinos to Australia.

_____B. Officials have tried to protect African rhinos from poachers by

guarding their habitats and removing their horns, but their efforts have been
largely unsuccessful.
 7.
Making Towers Bird-Friendly

The lights on tall communication towers warn pilots to avoid the

towers when flying at night. Unfortunately, the steady red lights often used
on towers have the opposite effect on birds: the bright beams attract and
confuse them. Instead of avoiding the lights, the birds fly directly toward
them, crashing into the towers or becoming entangled in power lines.
Millions of birds have died this way. However, there is a solution. Unlike
steady lights, flashing or blinking lights don't attract birds. In response to
demands from conservation groups, the Federal Aviation Administration in
2016 began requiring communication towers in the U.S. to use blinking
lights instead of steady ones.
What is the main, or central, idea of the passage? _____

A. To save birds, communication towers have begun using blinking lights.

B. Birds are attracted to the steady red lights on communication towers.

8.

For years, fishermen in Bali used dynamite and cyanide to catch fish,
which had the effect of destroying coral reefs in the area. In 2000, though,
the Biorock reef restoration project began. Under normal conditions, a reef
forms when polyps put down layers of calcium carbonate. In the Biorock
process, a low electric current is sent through steel structures under ocean
water, which causes calcium carbonate to form. Polyps attached to Biorock
structures use the energy they would have spent building calcium carbonate
and instead devote it to growing and fighting disease. The Biorock reefs
therefore grow faster than regular reefs.
Match causes with their effects.
____Fishermen used dynamite and cyanide.
____Biorock allows polyps to save energy.

1. Coral reefs collapsed.

2. Biorock reefs grow more rapidly.
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passage