Drawing Conclusions in A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole

Look at the timeline. What does the timeline show about the creation of e-mail?

E-mail was created before personal computers.

Read the excerpt from A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano. Einstein's idea of gravity had big consequences. It helped explain some observations that Newton's idea didn't account for. It also opened our minds to amazing new possibilities. For example, taking his cue from Einstein's idea that space bends, scientist Karl Schwarzschild began to think about what would happen if a place in space were extremely distorted. His answer: light would follow the hyper-bent space, never to turn away from it. This was the first prediction of a black hole. At first, some scientists (including Einstein!) rejected Schwarzschild's ideas. Others were intrigued and began searching the skies for real black holes. Just decades later, they found the first of them. It just goes to show: sometimes, as Einstein himself once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Which sentence is the best summary of the excerpt?

Einstein's idea that space bends inspired scientists to predict and later discover black holes.

Look at the timeline. What would be the best title for this timeline?

Great Inventions and Inventors

Which line from A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano helps readers to connect the scientific ideas in the text to their own experiences?

In this way of thinking, the "background" acted more like a flexible mat, or a stretchy knit blanket.

Which example shows Jorge analyzing details to draw a conclusion?

Jorge saw his friend Fatima at school during lunch, and Fatima looked pale and weak. After lunch Jorge did not see Fatima in class. Jorge decided that Fatima must have gone home sick.

Read the excerpt from A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano. Einstein's idea of gravity had big consequences. It helped explain some observations that Newton's idea didn't account for. It also opened our minds to amazing new possibilities. For example, taking his cue from Einstein's idea that space bends, scientist Karl Schwarzschild began to think about what would happen if a place in space were extremely distorted. His answer: light would follow the hyper-bent space, never to turn away from it. This was the first prediction of a black hole. At first, some scientists (including Einstein!) rejected Schwarzschild's ideas. Others were intrigued and began searching the skies for real black holes. Just decades later, they found the first of them. It just goes to show: sometimes, as Einstein himself once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." According to the excerpt, how does Karl Schwarzschild use Einstein's ideas to draw a conclusion?

Karl Schwarzschild uses Einstein's ideas about space bending to conclude that black holes are possible.

Look at the timeline. What does the timeline show about Amelia Earhart?

She flew less than thirty years after the Wright brothers' first powered flight.

Read the excerpt from A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano. However, in day-to-day experience, the strangeness of Einstein's ideas doesn't help us, and Newton's notions do just fine. In everyday life, when gravity isn't especially intense, Newton's and Einstein's ways of thinking lead to similar results. The two explanations work like different languages that express the same thing. Is an apple red (English) or rojo (Spanish)? It's okay to use either description. So we still use Newton's laws—even scientists do, much of the time. Sure, it's more exact to be Einsteinian and think of gravity as matter's effect on space. But it's all right to take a Newtonian shortcut and imagine gravity as a pull. The details in the excerpt best support which conclusion?

Some things can have more than one explanation.

Read the excerpt from A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano. The scientist who forgot to eat his lunch was busy cooking up a whole new way of thinking about gravity. He was a radical smarty-pants—somebody with a wild imagination. Someone whose brain could surprise even himself. Albert Einstein didn't mean to turn the universe upside-down on everyone. He didn't plan on leading others to discover black holes. At first, all he set out to do was think about motion, along with a few other related ideas. But almost before he knew it, he had suddenly made our dependable old universe seem strange and new. Which detail would be best to include in a summary of the excerpt?

a new way of thinking about gravity

Events on a timeline must be arranged

chronologically.