This reading text applied for question no. 1-11
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero, a Florentine notary and landlord, but lived on the estate and was treated as a legitimate son.
In 1483, Leonardo da Vinci drew the first model of a helicopter. It did not look very much like our modern day “copter,” but the idea of what it could do was about the same.
Leonardo was an artist and sculptor. He was very interested in motion and movement and tried to show it in his art. In order to show movement, he found it helpful to study the way things moved. One subject he liked to study was birds and how they flew. He spent many hours watching the birds and examining the structure of their wings. He noticed how they cupped air with their wings and how the feathers helped hold the air. Through these studies, Leonardo began to understand how birds were able to fly.
Like many other men, Leonardo began to dream of the day when people would be able to fly. He designed a machine that used all the things he had learned about flight, and thus became the first model of a helicopter.
Poor Leonardo had only one problem, however. He had no way to give the necessary speed to his invention. You see, motors had not yet been invented and speed was an important part of the flying process. It would be another four hundred years before the engine was invented and another fifty years before it was put to the test in an airplane. Leonardo’s dream of a helicopter finally came to pass in 1936.
The Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist, Leonardo died on May 2, 1519, and was buried in the cloister of San Fiorentino in Amboise.
1. What is the author’s main point?
- a. The invention of the helicopter.
- b. Birds cup air with their wings and use feathers to help hold the air.
- c. An overview of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s many skills.
- d. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 and died in 1519.
2. The word problem in paragraph five could best be replaced by the word:
- a. dilemma
- b. mistake
- c. danger
- d. pain
3. The word it in paragraph two refers to:
- a. Leonardo da Vinci
- b. The first model helicopter
- c. 1483
- d. motion and movement
4. Which paragraph explains why Leonardo’s helicopter was not successful in his lifetime:
- a. paragraph 1
- b. paragraph 2
- c. paragraph 4
- d. paragraph 5
5. The word illegitimate in paragraph one is closest in meaning to:
- a. against the law or illegal
- b. not in correct usage
- c. incorrectly deduced; illogical
- d. born out of wedlock
6. The following sentence would best complete which paragraph? “Since then people have been living out Leonardo’s dream of flying.”
- a. paragraph 3
- b. paragraph 4
- c. paragraph 5
- d. paragraph 2
7. What was the main problem with Leonardo’s invention?
- a. motors were not yet invented
- b. the birds lost their feathers
- c. he was illegitimate
- d. he couldn’t draw
8. The word they in the third paragraph refers to:
- a. the feathers
- b. the birds
- c. the studies
- d. the wings
9. In what year was the first helicopter flown
- a. 1483
- b. 1452
- c. 1519
- d. 1936
10. What two things did birds have that Leonardo da Vinci noticed helped them to fly?
- a. wings and beaks
- b. feathers and talons
- c. wings and feathers
- d. cups and feathers
11. The word thus in the fourth paragraph could best be replaced by:
- a. Hence
- b. After
- c. Unsuitably
- d. Inappropriately
This reading text applied for question no. 12-22
For centuries, people have searched for a way to replace dead and decaying teeth with comfortable false teeth. Many materials have been used to make a set of false teeth. The teeth themselves should be made from a hard and durable material. They should be secured to a soft material, making them easy to wear. In the last two decades, dentists succeeded in making durable false teeth that are comfortable, too.
Two thousand years ago, the Etruscans made teeth out of animal bone and gold. These materials were used-with varying degrees of success-up to the 1700’s. When George Washington was president, ivory from animals such as elephants became a popular material for false teeth. Doctors and inventors also tried silver, peal, and agate, but teeth made from these materials were very expensive. Perhaps the most successful material was porcelain, invented by a Frenchman about two hundred years ago. White, strong, and resistant to decay, porcelain is still used today for making single teeth.
Besides finding a material for the teeth, inventors also had to find a way to secure them in a person’s mouth. People tried wire, springs, and many kinds of glue to accomplish this. In most cases, however, discomfort and a likelihood of the teeth falling out plagued the person who wore them.
Around 1844, an American dentist named Horace Wells used laughing gas to put people to sleep before working on their teeth. This innovation made dental work a lot less painful. Soon after, an inventor created the first form of rubber. This was important to dentistry because teeth could be attached to the rubber, and the rubber could be molded to fit the shape of the mouth. With these two developments, dentist could work without causing pain and could fit teeth more carefully. False teeth have become more available and comfortable since then, and dentists have continued to improve the making and use of false teeth.
12. What is the main topic of this passage?
- a. Horace Wells
- b. False teeth
- c. Gold and bone
- d. The Etruscans
13. The word they in the first paragraph refers to:
- a. Teeth
- b. Materials
- c. People
- d. Dentists
14. The word varying in the second paragraph cold best be replaced by the word:
- a. Constant
- b. Changeless
- c. Fluctuating
- d. Stable
15. Porcelain was invented after the first use of:
- a. Rubber for holding for holding teeth in place
- b. Laughing gas
- c. Ivory for making teeth
- d. Electric drills
16. When did Horace Wells begin using laughing gas?
- a. 1700
- b. Two-thousand years ago
- c. 1834
- d. 1844
17. The word besides in the third paragraph means:
- a. In addition to
- b. Stand next to
- c. Anyway
- d. Together
18. The word them in the third paragraph refers to:
- a. Teeth
- b. Inventors
- c. People
- d. Wire
19. When was rubber found to be a useful material for false teeth?
- a. After laughing gas was used to put patients to sleep
- b. While George Washington was president
- c. Before a Frenchman invented porcelain
- d. While the Etruscans were making teeth of bone and gold
20. The following sentence would best complete which paragraph? “It is unimaginable what will come next.”
- a. Paragraph 1
- b. Paragraph 2
- c. Paragraph 3
- d. Paragraph 4
21. The word molded in the fourth paragraph means:
- a. Formed into a shape
- b. To form an organic growth
- c. To make an ornament
- d. The fitting of a shoe
22. The word resistant in the second paragraph could best be replaced by the word:
- a. Prone
- b. Insusceptible
- c. Hearty
- d. Sassy
This reading text applied for question no. 23-25
Bloodhounds are biologically adapted to trailing their prey. The process by which the nose recognizes an odor is not fully understood, but there are apparently specific receptor sites for specific odors. In one explanation, recognition occurs when a scent molecule fits into its corresponding receptor site, like a key into a lock, causing a mechanical or chemical change in the cell. Bloodhounds apparently sites tuned to human scents.
When a blood trails a human being, what does it actually smell? The human body, which consists of about 60 trillion living cells, sheds exposed skin at a rate of 50 million cells a day. So even a trail that has been dispersed by breezes may still seem rich to a bloodhound. The body also produces about 31 to 50 ounces of sweat a day. Neither this fluid nor the shed skin cell have much odor by themselves, but the bacteria working on both substances is another matter. One microbiologist estimates the resident bacteria population of a clean square centimeter of skin on the human shoulder at “multiples of a million.” As they go about their daily business breaking down lipids, or fatty substances, on the skin,these bacteria release volatile substances that usually strike the bloodhound’s nose as an entire constellation of distinctive scents.
23. What does the passage mainly discuss?
- a. Why people choose bloodhounds for household pets
- b. How a bloodhound’s sense of smell works.
- c. How humans compensate for an underdeveloped sense of smell
- d. The way in which bacteria work on skin cells and body sweat.
24. The author compare a scent molecule with a …..
- a. key
- b. lock
- c. cell
- d. bloodhound
25. In second paragraph (first sentence), the word “it” refers to …..
- a. bloodhound
- b. human being
- c. smell
- d. body
