Reading HESI V2

Amazon RainforestAbout 6% of the earth is covered by rainforests. The largest rainforest in the world is theAmazon Basin, which stretches over 2.3 million square miles in nine different South American countries. This area is double the length of all the other remaining rainforests in the world. Brazil contains 60%of the Amazonian rainforest, since it lies at the mouth of the river Amazon. This river is the second largest in the world and contains more than one-fifth of the world's fresh water. The Amazon rainforest is a type of wet broadleaf forest. The weather there is very humid and warm as it rains quite a bit. Because of the high rainfall, the forest is very rich and green. The tree leaves are pointed and narrow so that the raindrops can easily drop off wet plants. This tropical rainforest has more living species than the entire European continent. There are over 400 types of insects living in one single rain forest tree for a total of 2.5 million species. One square kilometer of rainforest may contain over 75,000 types of trees and approximately 438,000 different kinds of plants, which comes to a total of 90,000 tons of greenery overall. The Amazon rainforest is home to 2,000 birds and mammals, with one in every five birds in the world living there. Local farmers have lived off this rich and diverse land for thousands of years. They have been able to find food and water here without destroying the land. The Kayapo people of Brazil farm in an environmentally-friendly way. Instead of chemicals, they use burned wood to enrich the soil, and plant banana trees, which attract wasps. These wasps then feed on leafcutter ants and get rid of these harmful insects. The rainforest also offers a lot of tropical fruits, such as bananas and coconuts, as food. Cinnamon is made from the bark of a rainforest tree. Amazonian Indians use the fruit and stem of the Buruti plant as a drink, to make bread and to build houses. Many other plants are used as medicine. But the Amazon rainforest is in very big danger of disappearing. 9,169 square miles of forest have been cut down in 2003 in Brazil alone. An area of the size of a football field is burned down basically every minute, which means that the rain forest may be gone by the year 2030.The dangers related to this type of activity are obvious. Trees take in poisonous carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen. There is more oxygen and less carbon dioxide around a rainforest. When trees are cut down, however, the amount of carbon dioxide increases, and the air gets warmer. This leads to global warming, which is extremely harmful to the environment. It is estimated that the burning of Brazilian rainforests alone produces 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. Another danger connected with destroying the rainforest is the disappearance of plants and animals. When trees are cut down, plants and animals have no more food left and slowly die out. Killing wild animals is illegal in Brazil, but there is plenty of stealing going on. 38 million animals are stolen and sold illegally each year. The most hunted animals are birds, especially parrots, followed by snakes and the jaguar.

1. According to paragraph 1, which of the following is NOT mentioned about the AmazonRainforest?Its precipitation 2. How can you describe the Amazon rainforest? (Choose 2 answers)(A)It rains all time there so the forest is always green.(C)The plants are shaped so that rainwater can pour off them. 3. Which of the following is true about the Amazon Basin?It is more than one-fifth of all the other rainforests in the world. 4. Look at the end of paragraph 2. What does the author refer to when he says "rich and diverse land" at the beginning of paragraph 3?2,000 birds and mammals in the Amazon rainforest 5. What does the sentence "people of Brazil farm in an environmentally friendly way" mean in paragraph 3?They do not poison the soil when farming. 6. Which rainforest plant has more than one use?The Bruti plant 7. What is the biggest problem related to the disappearance of the rainforest?Cutting down trees

Glass

1. Brittle- easily broken 2. Archaeological digs have found article made of glass 3. Glass is not an element 4. The combination of several glass is an essential part of our lives 5. Science uses glass in experiments

Lightning

1. Get into a metal 2. To pierce 3. Draw light away (measuring of rod) 4. Consist of klanstruk big 5. The author did not support the eyes(?)

Isaac Asimov

1. Greatest fearFlying 2. Meaning of "prolific"High productivity 3. The big threeAsimov, Clarke, Heinlein 4. How old was Asimov when he died?72 years 5. What made him popularScience, fiction, writing

Nurseries

1. Green House creates tropical condition at nurseries 2. Too many nurseries means not enough buyers to buy the plants that need to be sold 3. Nurseries are helpful for farmers 4. Special type of farms 5. A strip of board, often material that forms a section of a wall or door

Mr. Rogers

1. Mr. Rogers started a website 2. He wants to help children 3. Uniqueness 4. Meaning of legacy: something handed down 5. The author wants to inform the audience

Healthcare

1. Premium: means amount to be paid 2. Hospitals are passing down the cost of taking care of people without insurance 3. The passage implies thatThere is a crisis in normal management in healthcare 4. Opinion or factRising

Rainforest

1. Rain forests are essential to life on earth 2. Deforestation has long term consequences that we still do not know about 3. The Nile is the longest river

All the Jazz Jazz has been called "the art of expression set to music", and "America's great contribution to music". It has functioned as popular art and enjoyed periods of widespread public response, in the "jazz age" of the 1920s, in the "swing era" of the late 1930s and in the peak popularity of modern jazz in the late 1950s. The standard legend about Jazz is that it originated around the end of the 19th century in New Orleans and moved up the Mississippi River to Memphis, St. Louis, and finally to Chicago. It welded together the elements of Ragtime, marching band music, and the Blues. However, the influences of what led to those early sounds goes back to tribal African drum beats and European musical structures. Buddy Bolden, a New Orleans barber and cornet player, is generally considered to have been the first real Jazz musician, around 1891. What made Jazz significantly different from the other earlier forms of music was the use of improvisation. Jazz displayed a break from traditional music where a composer wrote an entire piece of music on paper, leaving the musicians to break their backs playing exactly what was written on the score. In a Jazz piece, however, the song is simply a starting point, or sort of skeletal guide for the Jazz musicians to improvise around. Many of the early Jazz musicians were bad sight readers and some couldn't even read music at all. These early musicians couldn't make money very much and were stuck working menial jobs to make a living. The second wave of New Orleans Jazz musicians included such memorable players as Joe Oliver, Kid Ory, and Jelly Roll Morton. These men formed small bands and took the music of earlier musicians, improved its complexity, and gained greater success. This music is known as "hot Jazz" due to the enormously fast speeds and rhythmic drive. A young cornet player by the name of Louis Armstrong was discovered by Joe Oliver in New Orleans. He soon grew up to become one of the greatest and most successful musicians of all time, and later one of the biggest stars in the world. The impact of Armstrong and other talented early Jazz musicians changed the way we look at music.

1. The Passage answers which of the following questions?What were the origins of Jazz and how did it differ from other forms of music? 2. According to the passage, Jazz originated inNew Orleans 3. The word "welded" in line 6 is closest in meaning tobound 4. Which of the following distinguished Jazz as a new form of musical expression?improvisation 5. The word "skeletal" in line 15 is closest in meaning toframework 6. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?many early Jazz musicians had little formal musical training 7. The word "menial" in line 18 is closest in meaning todegrading 8. According to the passage, which of the following belonged to the second wave of New Orleans Jazz musicians?Joe Oliver 9. All the following are true EXCEPTJoe Oliver is generally considered to be the first real Jazz musician10. The word "its" in line 21 refers toearlier music11. Which of the following terms is defined in the passage?"improvisation" (line 12)

The BicycleToday, bicycles are so common that it's hard to believe they haven't always been around. But two hundred years ago, bicycles didn't even exist, and the first bicycle, invented in Germany in 1818, was nothing like our bicycles today. It was made of wood and didn't even have pedals. Since then, however, numerous innovations and improvements in design have made the bicycle one of the most popular means of recreation and transportation around the world. In 1839, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Scottish blacksmith, dramatically improved upon the original bicycle design. Macmillan's machine had tires with iron rims to keep them from getting worn down. He also used foot-operated cranks like pedals, so his bicycle could be ridden at a quick pace. It didn't look much like a modern bicycle, though, because its back wheel was substantially larger than its front wheel. In 1861, the French Michaux brothers took the evolution of the bicycle a step further by inventing an improved crank mechanism. Ten years later, James Starley, an English inventor, revolutionized bicycle design. He made the front wheel many times larger than the back wheel, put a gear on the pedals to make the bicycle more efficient, and lightened the wheels by using wire spokes. Although this bicycle was much lighter and lesstiring to ride, it was still clumsy, extremely top heavy, and ridden mostly for entertainment. It wasn't until 1874 that the first truly modern bicycle appeared on the scene. (14) Invented by another Englishman, H.J. Lawson, the "safety bicycle" would look familiar to today's cyclists. This bicycle had equal-sized wheels, which made it less prone to toppling over. Lawson also attached a chain to the pedals to drive the rear wheel. With these improvements, the bicycle became extremely popular and useful for transportation. Today they are built, used, and enjoyed all over the world.

1. The main idea of this passage is best expressed in which sentence?Sentence (4): Since then, however, numerous innovations and improvements in design have made the bicycle one of the most popular means of recreation and transportation around the world.2. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?A Ride through the History of Bicycles3. Which sentence best expresses the main idea of paragraph 3?Macmillan made important changes in bicycle design.4. An innovation, as it is used in Sentence (4), isa new way of doing something.5. Revolutionized, as it is used in Sentence (10), most nearly meanschanged drastically.6. The word prone, as it is used in Sentence (15), meanslying down.7. Which of the following sentences from the passage represents the writer's opinion?Sentence (1) The safety bicycle would look familiar to today's cyclists.8. Sentence (8), "It didn't look much like a modern bicycle, though, because its back wheel was substantially larger than its front wheel," follows which pattern?opinion, fact9. Macmillan added iron rims to the tires of his bicycle toMacmillan added iron rims to the tires of his bicycle to10. The first person to use a gear system on bicycles wasJames Starley.11. Starley's addition of wire spokes made the bicyclelighter.

Laughter

1. The passage indicatesNative American humor deserves more attention 2. The passage infers thatNative American humor is often overlooked 3. The author's reason for writing this passageTo persuade people to take a broad view of Native Americans 4. The author seems to favor:Research into Native American humor

Day Light Savings TimeIt is a well-known fact that it takes the Earth approximately 365 days to move around the sun. At the same time, the Earth revolves or spins around itself over the course of 24 hours, which explains why there is day and night. One half of the Earth is always facing the Sun and the other half is facing away from it. As a result, there are different time zones dividing the globe. Moving suddenly from one time zone into the other, as when flying for example from Asia to North America, causes jetlag. People feel tired, they wake up suddenly during the night and cannot go back to sleep. It takes time to get used to a new time zone. Another thing to consider is the slight tilting of the Earth towards the sun. The Earth does not stand straight but leans a little to one side. Therefore, when it revolves around the Sun, the middle part of the Earth is always closer to the Sun and gets more heat. This part is called the equator, and above it lathes tropics. Countries at the tropics get the same amount of daylight all the time. The sun always rises at 6 am and sets at 6 pm. In contrast, the tips of the Earth or the Poles get hardly any light at all because they are so far away from the sun. There are two main seasons at the Poles. There are 6 months of summer, when the sun is always shining, even at night, and there are 6 months of winter, when there is constant darkness. In between the tropics and the Poles lies the temperate zone, where there are 4 seasons. The sun rises and sets at different times throughout the year. In the spring and summer, it gets light earlier; in the fall and winter it gets dark earlier. People who live in temperate zones take advantage of that fact to get more daylight. At the beginning of spring, countries in Europe and North America readjust their clocks. They change the time on their clocks and watches by moving them an hour ahead. As a result, the sun does not set around 7 or 8 pm as usual, but an hour later. This measure is called Daylight Savings Time (DST) and lasts until the beginning of fall, when people move their clocks back one hour to Standard or regular Time. It is thought that Benjamin Franklin first suggested the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the 18th century. But, the first serious proposal came in 1907 from William Willet. Yet his idea was shelved by the British government, who refused it because they thought it was unnecessary. Daylight Savings Time was first put into practice by the German government in 1916 in order to save energy during the First World War. Shortly after, the United Kingdom followed suit, with the United States doing the same in 1918. The law was very unpopular since people had to wake up earlier and many experienced a feeling like jetlag. But the 1970s energy crisis forced the US to make Daylight Savings Time the law. Studies have shown that the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the spring saved the US 10,000 barrels of oil per day between 1974-1975. It also prevented 2,000 traffic injuries and 50 traffic-related deaths, saving the country $28 million. Currently, Americans switch to Daylight Savings Time on the first Sunday in April and move back to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October. But as of 2007, the time readjustment will happen even earlier, in March and November

1. What is the main idea of this passage?Daylight Savings Time is the result of the Earth moving around the Sun. 2. What does the sentence "It takes time to get used to a new time zone." mean in paragraph 1?Changing time zones makes people feel tired. 3. Which part of the Earth is the closest to the Sun?The tropics 4. It is 7 p.m. Standard Time. What time is it for Daylight Savings Time?6 p.m. 5. Was Daylight Savings Time popular in the beginning?No, people felt tired because they couldn't sleep that long. 6. What can be inferred about Daylight Savings Time?It will be modified starting in 2007. 7. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?Why the British government refused Daylight Savings Time 8. As it used in paragraph 3, the word obligatory most nearly meansRequisite 9. Who first established the idea of DST?Benjamin Franklin 10. Who opposed the bill that was introduced in the House of Commons in the early 1900s?farmers 11. Which of the following statements is true of the U.S. Department of Transportation?It oversees all time laws in the United States. 12. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?The History and Rationale of Daylight Savings Time 13. The Daylight Savings Time Energy Act of 1973 was responsible forextending Daylight Saving Time in the interest of energy conservation.

Changing time

1. What is the meaning of "they" in the passage?Clock change DST 2. Irrelevant meansmeaningless 3. What was the author inferring? Should be abolished 4. Computer changed itself 5. Trying to persuade the audience

Homonyms

1. Which statement is a fact rather than an opinion?Homonyms make learning English more challenging.2. What inference can be drawn from the article?English is a difficult language to master.3. What conclusion can be drawn from the article?In order to master English, the student must learn the Homonyms.4. How does the article define homonyms?Words that sound alike and are spelled in different ways with different meaning.