Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension Preparing for the PSAE and for LIFE

PSAE Day 1 Text selections Social Studiesanthropology, archaeology, biography, business, economics, education, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology Natural Scienceanatomy, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology, medicine, meteorology, microbiology, natural history, physiology, physics, technology, and zoology Fictionintact short stories, excerpts from short stories/novels Humanitiesarchitecture, art, dance, ethics, film, language, literary criticism, music, philosophy, radio, television, and theater

Strategies for Constructing Meaning Nonfiction Summarizing Fiction Summarizing Predicting Connecting Examine first and last sentences Uses repeated words and synonyms Categorizes similar words and details Notices transitions Combines techniques Identifies important sections of text Makes connections to all areas of background knowledge Creates visible connections Focuses connections Previews text Creates predictions Monitors predictions Identify plot Identifies theme

Strategies for Constructing Meaning Imaging Questioning Inferring Creates isolated sensory and/or conceptual images Organizes sensory and/or conceptual images Combines imaging techniques Creates single types of inference Creates varied types of inferences Understands a continuum of inference Asks questions Asks, answers, and evaluates questions Adjusts answers to questions Asks a variety of questions

Vocabulary • As used in line XXX the term XXX refers to • According to the explanation provided in the XXX paragraph, the use of the word XXX instead of XXX implies which of the following • As used in line XXX, the phrase XXX most nearly means:

Recall/ Summarizing • The XXX paragraph establishes all of the following EXCEPT • Which of the following statements is supported by the passage • According to the passage which of the following most closely identifies • One of the author’s main points about XXX in the passage is that: • Based on the passage • One of the main points made in the XXX paragraph is • Which of the following sentences best summarizes the XXX paragraph • Which of the following most nearly paraphrases • The main point of this passage is to: • The main point made in the XXX paragraphs is • When the author compares XXX to XXX, he/she is most nearly illustrating her point that: • The passage states

Inferring • The point of view from which the passage is told can best be described as • It can be reasonably inferred from the passage • From information in the XXX paragraph it can reasonably be inferred that: • The passage suggests • The author feels that • Which of the following best states the author’s response to • The XXX paragraph suggests • Which of the following would the author of the passage be LEAST likely to • When the author refers to XXX, he/she is most likely suggesting

Repeated words synonyms Details/ similar words After the transition Concepts First sentence Last sentence Key point

Example 1 New research suggests that among smokers who get lung cancer, women are nearly twice as likely as men to develop the most deadly form of the disease. Experts say that the British study represents the first time scientists have discovered a significant difference between the sexes in the risk of small-cell lung cancer. Virtually always caused by smoking, it is the hardest form of lung cancer to treat successfully. The study showed that women under 65 were 1.7 times more vulnerable than men to small-cell lung cancer, which spreads so rapidly that by the time it is diagnosed, it is usually too late to operate.

Example 2 Laws are the collection of rules by which any state maintains order within a society. In Great Britain, the law-making process is conducted by Parliament. Proposed new laws are presented as Bills and if, after debate, they are accepted by a majority vote in the House of Commons, they duly become law. In Great Britain, as in most countries, there are several distinct types of laws. Constitutional law is concerned with the processes of the government itself Company law deals with the operation of many of the nation’s commercial and financial activities. These are branches of State law, that is, laws made by acts of Parliament. Common law, by contrast, is based on past decisions taken by the courts on various issues.

The word ‘politics’ comes from the Latin politia, meaning ‘policy’, and politics is generally defined as the science or art of government. Politics has played an increasing part in human affairs since men and women first organized themselves into societies, and most of history is an account of politics in one form or another. There were brief periods, of relatively free or representative government during the Greek and Roman eras. But until the seventeenth century, politics was mostly the concern of powerful monarchs or other people in positions of high authority, such as church leaders. The rise of political parties during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries introduced the concept of government by consent rather than by force. Example 3

The origins of a written literature can be found in most of the civilizations of the ancient world. China and among the Jewish people, whose great work of literature is the Old Testament of the Bible. However, it is the Greeks whose literature is taken to represent the start of Western literature. Their greatest single contribution was drama, a form of literature that has continued undiminished to the present day. Other literary forms that developed from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans onward have been poetry in its many different styles and forms, the essay, biography and autobiography, and the novel. Other types of written work from these periods, dealing with such matters as history, philosophy, politics, religion, science and criticism may also be classified as literature from the point of view of style.

Example 5 • The ‘forest fire season’ in Canada generally extends from the latter part of April to mid-October. During last year’s fire season, 9,317 forest fires burned a total of 2,618,299 acres of forest land. Weather conditions contributing to fire spread, coupled with unusually frequent and violent electrical storms, resulted in one of the most severe outbreaks of forest fires on record. Over the, season, 35.3% of all fires ‘were caused by lightning. While these fires are generally considered to be more disastrous because of their tendency to start in difficult-to-reach areas -’88% of the total acreage burned last was attributed to lightning - man is nonetheless responsible for the greatest portion of forest fires. Human negligence was blamed ‘for a total of 6,018 forest fires last year.

Example 6 • That evening we arrived in Delhi, the great walled city of the Mogul Empire, scattered with tombs and forts, many decayed or built over. Some scholars say that there are seven cities on the sites of Old and New Delhi, while some say more. The history is rich and stretches back centuries. At one time, Shah Jahan, the ruler who built the Taj Mahal, reconstructed Old Delhi, restoring large bazars and streets leading to the fortress. As there was no wall on the eastern side, where the River Yumuna flows; Delhi was sacked regularly over the centuries, the last time being in the eighteenth century, when the Persian ruler Nadir Shah looted treasures that included the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-noor diamond.

Example 7 • Cities are a universal symbol of civilization. They have been found in every country that has gone beyond a simple agricultural economy, regardless of whether there was industrial or technological development. The history of civilization is the history of the city. From their origins as places where people gathered for mutual safety or defense, cities have gone on to become marketplaces for goods and ideas, seats of government, and centers of religious devotion. By division of labor and by easing communication between people, cities created the opportunity to invent new technologies and new ways of viewing life. While many individual geniuses have come from rural backgrounds, it has been in the cities that they have found inspiration and scope for their talents.

Example 8 • Mozart made his first visit to Prague with his wife Constance in 1787, staying with his friend and patron Count Thun. A year earlier, his opera The Marriage of Figaro, which had failed to please the opera snobs in Vienna, was given a marvelous reception in Prague. Encouraged by this, he chose to premiere his next opera, Don Giovanni, in Prague rather than in Vienna. He arrived with an incomplete score in hand, and finished it there, dedicating it to the ‘good people of Prague’. Mozart’s final visit to Prague took place in 1791, the year of his death. The climax of the stay was the premiere of Mozart’s final opera, La Calmness di Tito, according to legend, completed on the coach from Vienna to Prague.

Example 9 • Each year, about 7,000 people in the United States are bitten by poisonous snakes. Fewer than a dozen of these persons die, but many are left with disability of a limb and scarring at the site of the bite. Persons at greatest risk are those who handle snakes for purposes of entertainment, religion or science. Outside the high-risk group, hunters, farmers and fishermen are the most likely to be bitten. The best way to tell the difference between a poisonous and a non-poisonous bite is to identify the snake. A non-poisonous bite doesn’t usually cause much pain or swelling, though the wound may bleed freely. When there is any doubt as to whether the snake is venomous, presume that the bite was poisonous and take precautions.

Example 10 • There are two kinds of water pollution. The first is when rubbish, sewage or chemicals are thrown into the water. This waste upsets the natural environment and can prove dangerous or fatal to fish and other life in the water. The second type of pollution is thermal, or warm water pollution. This is most commonly caused by hydroelectric power plants. These take water from a lake or river, convert it into steam for running the plant’s turbines, change the steam back into water, then return the water to the original lake or river. Though this water is no dirtier than when it was taken out, it is often five to ten degrees above its original temperature. This causes a change in the environment which can be as dangerous to, aquatic life as waste pollution.

Example 11 • The term ‘castle’ is most commonly applied to the fortresses belonging to European kings or important nobles during the Middle Ages. The first of this type were built by the Normans in France, during the eleventh century. They were constructed of wood and consisted simply of a tower built on a mound and stood in a courtyard, which was surrounded by a fence and a ditch. By the twelfth century, the wooden tower had given way to a stone one, containing living accommodation for the whole household, centered on the Great hall, and surrounded by a strong wall. As new methods of attack developed, the outer fortifications became more elaborate in order to withstand them.

Example for Summarizing a longer passage:

“They’re Made Out of Meat”By: Terry Bisson

"They're made out of meat." "Meat?" "Meat. They're made out of meat." "Meat?“ "There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat." "That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?" "They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines." "So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact." "They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines." "That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat." "I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat." "Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage." "Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?" "Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through." "No brain?" "Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you." "So ... what does the thinking?" "You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat." "Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!" "Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?" "Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat." "Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.“ "Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?" "First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat." "That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing." "They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?" "Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat." "I thought you just told me they used radio." "They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat." "Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?" "Officially or unofficially?" "Both." "Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing." "I was hoping you would say that." "It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?" "I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?" "Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space.

Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact." "So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe." "That's it." "Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?" "They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them." "A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream." "And we marked the entire sector unoccupied." "Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?" "Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again." "They always come around." "And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..." The End

Reading Comprehension