2023.7.26 The Problem with Microplastics 1.

According to paragraph 1, ultraviolet sunlight can have which of

Scientists think that about 10 percent of all plastic, which includes the following
plastic bags and bottles, ends up in the ocean. The attributes that effects on plastic?
make plastic useful material for a large number of products are its A.The chemical bonds in the plastic can become tighter.
light weight and the strong chemical bonds in its internal structure, B.The plastic can dissolve and disappear.
which make the material durable. Because plastic by itself is less C.The plastic can become less durable.
dense than water, it floats along the ocean surface where it is D.The plastic's ability to float can increase.
continuously exposed to ultraviolet light from the Sun, which has
the effect of loosening its chemical bonds. Ocean waves smash
these weakened pieces of plastic against each other, and they are
broken down into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually creating
vast numbers of microplastics (pieces less than 5 millimeters
across) that disperse throughout the water.
Due to the widespread increase in plastic production, there is six 2.According to paragraph 2, why were the results of the 2010-2011
times as much plastic in the oceans as there was 40 years ago. study unexpected?
Based on the amount of manufactured plastic, scientists have A.Previous studies of the surface of the ocean had found many
estimated that there are many trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean. more microplastics than the 2010-2011 study did.
To obtain a more precise idea about the amount, scientists B.Scientists conducting the 2010-2011 study found that larger,
conducted a study in 2010-2011 that involved sampling the ocean heavier pieces of plastic remained on the surface instead of sinking
surface at 141 locations. After six months they concluded that only to the bottom.
7,000 to 35,000 tons of plastic were present on the ocean surface. It C.Scientists believed that a much larger quantity of plastics had
is widely believed, however, that tens of millions of tons of plastics entered the ocean than were found in the 2010-2011 study.
have entered ocean waters. Moreover, the scientists primarily D.The 2010-2011 study revealed that different locations on the
found larger pieces of plastic, which means that the quantity of ocean's surface had very different quantities of microplastics.
microplastics found diverged from expectations to an even greater
degree.
Copepods-tiny, free-swimming organisms that eat algae-are 8.Paragraph 5 suggests that the lower eneray intake caused by
among the filter feeders that have been found to ingest ingesting microplastics affects copepods in which of the following
microplastics. But then, in an apparent attempt to avoid taking in ways?
even more of these materials, copepods switch to feeding on A.They cannot catch enough prey.
smaller algae, ones that are even tinier than microplastics. As B.They cannot reproduce successfully.
aresult of this diet change, copepods' energy intake can drop by as C.They are only able to swim short distances.
much as 40 percent. These copepods lay smaller eggs that are D.They can no longer eat algae.
unable to hatch successfully. Microplastics may also get stuck in
the antennae of copepods and other zooplankton, where they
interfere with the organisms' ability to sense food in the
surrounding waters, and also in copepods' joints, limiting their
ability to move and catch prey.
2023.7.26 Echinoderm Evolution 1.According to paragraph 1, what is one reason that many
The echinoderms are a phylum of invertebrate animals that echinoderms were
includes starfish, sea urchins, and sand dollars. One feature that preserved as fossils?
distinguishes echinoderms from other groups of organisms is their A.Echinoderms do not have backbones.
system of locomotion——the bottoms of echinoderms are covered B.Echinoderms have many small body parts that can be easily
with a number of tiny tube feet, which aid the echinoderm in preserved.
feeding and slow movement on the ocean floor. Like other C.Echinoderms have hard structures inside their bodies.
invertebrates, echinoderms lack a backbone and have a fairly D.Echinoderms have feet allow them to move across the seafloor.
primitive nervous system. Unlike many invertebrates, the soft
bodies of which are often poorly preserved as fossils, echinoderms
have hard internal skeletons made of calcite. For this reason,
echinoderms are well represented in the fossils, there are several
puzzles surrounding the evolution of echinoderms.
One major mystery surrounding echinoderms is how they 4. According to paragraph 2, why do some scientists believe that
originated. The first clearly recognizable echinoderms appeared Tribrachidium may not actually be an ancestor of the
around 540 million years ago during the Cambrian period; echinoderms?
however, these first echinoderms were already fairly complex. A.It appears at the same point as echinoderms in the fossil record.
Paleontologists have been unable to conclusively identify a B.Its body plan is not the same as that of adult echinoderms.
simpler organism that could have been the ancestor of the C.Its body parts are arranged symmetrically around a center.
echinoderms. One fossil that has been tentatively suggested as an D.It is more primitive than paleontologists would have expected an
ancestral echinoderm is Tribrachidium, which dates to the echinoderm ancestor to be.
Ediacaran period just before the Cambrian. Tribrachidium is a
round, flat, disc-shaped fossil that was discovered in 1959. Some
paleontologists have suggested that Tribrachidium could have
been a primitive echinoderm, as it shares the radial body plan of
modern echinoderms. A radial body plan is one in which an
organism’s body is composed of parts that are arranged
symmetrically around the center, like the petals of a flower. Since
most known echinoderms have radial body plans, the radial
symmetry of Tribrachidium has been viewed as suggestive of an
evolutionary relationship. However, Tribrachidium has now been
discounted as an ancestral echinoderm since it has triradial ( three-
point) symmetry instead of the pentaradial ( five-point) symmetry
found in adult echinoderms. In 1985 Tribrachidium was placed in
its own phylum, a group with no known living descendants.
Another puzzle related to echinoderm evolution is how and why 5.The word “ distinctive” in the passage is closest in meaning to
these organisms acquired their distinctive radial body plan. A.familiar
Among animals, all but the most primitive have bilateral B.characteristic
symmetry—the left sides of their bodies are roughly mirror images C.complex
of the right sides. Two main groups of animals have radial D.attractive
symmetry instead. One of these groups is jellyfish, which are
extremely primitive and are assumed never to have evolved 6.According to paragraph 3, in which of the following ways are
bilateral symmetry. The other radially symmetrical group is the jellyfish different from echinoderms?
echinoderms, which are fairly sophisticated. In fact, biologists A.Jellyfish have the same body plan through all stages of life.
know that the echinoderms did once have bilateral symmetry B.Jellyfish are not as primitive as echinoderms.
because the free-swimming larvae (young) of echinoderms are C.Jellyfish develop radial symmetry later than echinoderms do.
bilaterally symmetrical. Once the larvae settle down on the ocean D.Jellyfish larvae live on ocean surface.
floor, they develop the radial symmetry of adult echinoderms. It is
not clear why echinoderms do not retain bilateral symmetry as
adults.
A group of animals called carpoids, which are only known through 8.According to paragraph 5, what is one reason scientists have
the fossil record, have been considered to be intermediate concluded that carpoids are echinoderms and that they are not
between echinoderms andchordates, a group that includes all related to chordates?
vertebrates. Carpoids share several characteristics with A.Chordates have been traced back to fossils found in southern
vertebrates, including gill slits and a complex nervous system. In Europe in 2012.
fact, some experts have placed them near or at the beginning of B.Present-day carpoids are very different from vertebrates.
chordate evolution. However, carpoids possess a skeleton of C.Carpoids and echinoderms both have complex nervous systems.
calcite plates identical to that of echinoderms. A calcite skeleton is D.Carpoids have a calcite-plate skeleton just like that of
not present in any chordates. Furthermore, no ancestral genes for echinoderms.
calcite skeleton development have been identified in any
present-day chordates, which indicates that chordates and
echinoderms most likely followed their own evolutionary paths
and that carpoids are echinoderms. In 2012 scientists reported the
discovery in southern Europe of fossils from the early middle
Cambrian period; these fossils show adult echinoderms with a fully
bilateral body plan. The animals represented by these fossils may
be the earliest echinoderms from which all other echinoderms
evolved.
2023.7.26 The Story of Film Editing 2.According to paragraph 2, what advantage does the editor have
Editing is the work of joining shots (scenes recorded by the in not being
camera, usually on film) to assemble the finished film. The editor present during the filming?
selects the best shots from the large amount of film footage (raw, A.The editor is able to begin cuting the film before the filming is
unedited film) provided by the director and the cinematographer, completed.
assembles these in order, and connects them using a variety of B.The editor has more time to consult with the producer and
optical transitions. In theory, the process of editing begins with the director.
completion of filming, or cinematography. In practice, however, C.The editor is free of influence from the filming when cutting the
the editor may begin consultations with the producer and director film.
and may even begin cuting the film, taking scenes and putting D.The editor spends less time completing the work.
them together, while principal filming is being completed. Most
editors, however, will not watch the process of filming or view the
locations where the film is shot. This allows them to view the
footage unhampered by knowledge about the actual conditions
that existed in front of the camera and to visualize with greater
freedom various ways of combining the shots.
With the introduction of computers, editors began to use a 5.According to paragraph 4, how does the availbility of a nonlinear
nonlinear, computer-based editing system. Film footage was editing system affect the work of an editor?
converted to videotape, which was then digitized and stored on A.It allows computerized shots to be transferred to videotape.
computer disk, giving an editor instantaneous access to any frame B.It helps the editor identify flawed shots.
or single image, shot, or edited sequence distributed anywhere in C.It enables the editor to work directly on the actual film footage.
the existing footage. The editor would then decide which footage D.It allows the editor to locate particular frames or sequences in
to work on by using notes that described the characteristics, the film footage with case.
strengths, and flaws of particular shots. Prior to the 1990s. when the
film industry adopted digital editing systems. editors worked
directly with the actual film itself and had to search manually
through all of the footage to find a desired shot or segment. This
older approach was a linear system: the editor could only search
for one shot at a time and had to do so by viewing footage
sequentially, from beginning to end.
2023.7.26 The British Economy in the Eighteenth Century 1. In saying that coal "was substituted” for wood, the author means
The British economy expanded significantly in the eighteenth that coal
century, particularly with the development of factory A. was preferred to wood
manufacturing. By the middle of the century, it had begun to alter B. was used as well as wood
the northern English landscape. "From the Establishment of C. was used instead of wood
Manufacturers we see Hamlets swell into Villages. and Villages D.was more common than wood
into Towns.,"exclaimed one gentleman in the 1770s. The 2. 2.According to paragraph 1, what was Britain's most productive
production of manufactured goods doubled in the second half of industry in the second half of the eighteenth century?
the century. Cotton manufacturing led the way: from 1750 to 1770, A. Iron production
British cotton exports doubled. The production of iron followed in B. The building trades
importance, along with wool and woolen fabrics, linen, silk, C. Wool and woolen fabrics
copper, paper, cutlery, and the booming building trades. Coal was D.Cotton manufacturing
substituted for wood as fuel.
Despite its relatively small size, Britain had significant economic 3. According to paragraph 2, which of the following is NOT one of
advantages over the other nations of Europe,helping to explain the economic advantages Britain had over other European nations?
why the manufacturing revolution began in Britain. Unlike the A.It had a common language and was politically unified.
German or Italian states, Britain was unified politically. People B. It had close ties to several other European nations.
living in England spoke basically the same language. France and C. It had free trade within its borders.
the Italian and German states still had internal tariffs that made D.It had a standardized system of weights and measures.
trade more costly. whereas in Britain there were no internal tariffs
once the union between England and Scotland had been achieved
in 1707, creating Great Britain. The system of weights and
measures in Britain had largely been standardized. Indeed, Great
Britain was by far the wealthiest nation in the world. colonies in
faraway parts of the world provided raw materials for
manufacturing and markets for goods produced in Britain; for
example, the amount of raw cotton imported from India increased
by twenty times from 1750 to1800.
Expanded demand for manufactured goods led to a dramatic 5. According to paragraph 4, which of the following did turnpike
improvement in Britain's transportation systems. A new process of trusts do?
road surfacing-using small pieces of stone mixed with A. They developed a new process of road surfacing using small
tar-improved travel on the main routes. Major roads were pieces of stone mixed with tar.
extended and improved, as investors formed turnpike trusts, B. They formed transportation companies that moved
repairing the highways and turning a profit by charging a toll to manufactured goods between cities in Britain.
travelers using them. In 1700 it took 50 hours to travel the 180 C. They made roads better and longer and then charged people to
kilometers from Norwich to London by coach: by 1800 the journey use them.
could be achieved in 19 hours. Moreover, England's water D.They controlled access to England's system of navigable rivers
transportation was unmatched in Europe, a gift of nature. Rich and canals.
sources of coal and iron ore lay near waterways and could be
transported with relative ease along the coast. No part of England
stands more than 70 miles from the sea. Navigable rivers and
canals built in the middle decades of the century also facilitated the
transportation of raw materials and manufactured goods.
2023.7.26 Origins of the Industrial Revolution 6. According to paragraph 4, one reason why coal mining was
revolutionized was that
Primary industries-those that gather or extract raw materials-were A. some countries, like Great Britain, had a shortage of coal
also revolutionized. The first to feel the effects of the new deposits
technology was coal mining. The adoption of the steam engine B. large quantities of coal were needed to run the newly invented
necessitated huge amounts of coal to fire the boilers and the steam engines
conversion to coke in the smelting process further increased the C.coal was easier to mine than most other materials
demand for coal. Fortunately, Great Britain had large coal deposits. D.manufacturers needed different types of coal that were suitable
New mining techniques and tools were invented, so that coal for the new industries
mining became a large-scale, mechanized activity. Coal, heavy 7.According to paragraph 4, why did manufacturers move closer to
and bulky, was difficult to transport. As a result, manufacturing coalfields?
industries began flocking to the coalfields in order to be near the A.Coalfields were usually near large cities, where the supply of
supply. Similar modernization occurred in the mining of iron ore, workers was greater
copper, and other metals needed by rapidly growing industries. B.Transportation routes had not yet reached remote mining areas
C.Coal was too heavy to be easily transported to other places
D.Coalfields also contained other metals needed by manufacturers
2023.8.15 Constraints on Natural Selection 2.According to paragraph 1, which of the following provides
Natural selection is the process in which organisms with certain evidence that natural selection does not always lead to
traits survive and reproduce while organisms that are less able to evolutionary progress?
adapt to their environment die off. As Darwin pointed out, natural A.Most evolutionary lines that once existed on Earth have become
selection does not necessarily produce evolutionary progress, extinct.
much less perfection. The limits to the effectiveness of natural B.Evolutionary lines usually weaken as they increase in age.
selection are most clearly revealed by the universality of C.The history of evolution shows that many evolutionary lines can
extinction. More than 99.9 percent of all evolutionary lines that become extinct at the same time.
once existed on Earth have become extinct. Mass extinctions D.So far, less than one percent of evolutionary lines have achieved
remind us forcefully that evolution is not a steady approach to an such perfect adaptation to their environment that they will never
ever-higher perfection but an unpredictable process in which the become extinct.
best-adapted organisms may be suddenly exterminated y a
catastrophe and their place taken by lineages that prior to the
catastrophe seemed to be without distinction or prospects.
Another constraint on natural selection is developmental 3, why must organisms compromise between competing
interaction. The different components of an individual demands?
organism—its structures and organs—are not independent of one A. A particular organ or structure may be unable to respond to
another, and none of them responds to selection without selection pressures due to the needs of other parts of the organism.
interacting with the others. The whole developmental machinery is B.An organism’s ability to respond to the forces of selection
a single interacting system. Organisms are compromises among depends on the demands of other organisms within its
competing demands. How far a particular structure or organ can environment.
respond to the forces of selection depends, to a considerable C.An organism’s environment and its genotype try at the same
extent, on the resistance offered by other structures and organs, as time to influence its ability to respond to natural selection.
well as components of the genotype (the totality of an individual’s D.Different elements of the environment call for adaptations that
genes). 5.According to paragraph are often incompatible with one another
A further constraint on natural selection is the capacity for 7. What point does paragraph 6 make about the individuals that
nongenetic modification. The more plastic the organism’s body survive a particular natural disaster?
characteristics are (owing to developmental flexibility), the more A. They were the small number of organisms that happened to be
this reduces the force of adverse selection pressures. Plants, and well-adapted to survive that kind of natural disaster.
particularly microorganisms, have a far greater capacity for B. Their descendants will likely be shaped by natural selection to
individual modification than do animals. Natural selection is evolve genes that will make them fit to survive the next natural
involved even in this phenomenon, since the capacity for disaster.
nongenetic adaptation is under strict genetic control. When a C. Their survival may have been due to chance, but fitness also
population shifts to a new specialized environment, genes will be contributes to their survival over time.
selected during the following generations that reinforce and may D. They will probably have comparatively weak offspring because
eventually largely replace the capacity for nongenetic adaptation. the natural disaster eliminated the individuals that had more
favorable gene combinations.
Finally, which organisms survive and reproduce in a population is 8. According to paragraph 6, environmental forces limit the power
partly the result of chance, and this also limits the power of natural of natural selection in which of the following ways?
selection. Chance operates at every level of the process of A. They change the reproductive process in significant ways.
reproduction, from the transmission of parental chromosomes to B.They destroy potentially favorable gene combinations before
the survival of the newly formed individual. Furthermore, they can be selected.
potentially favorable gene combinations are often destroyed by B. They interfere with the transmission of chromosomes from
indiscriminate environmental forces such as storms, floods, parent to offspring.
earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions, without natural selection being D.They weaken the ability of individuals to maintain high fitness
given the opportunity to favor these genotypes. Yet over time, in levels.
the survival of those few individuals that become the ancestors of
subsequent generations, relative fitness always plays a major role.
2023.8.15 Tool Use by Capuchin Monkeys 1. Paragraph 1 supports which of the following statements about
Capuchin monkeys are medium-size primates native to the forests tool use among apes?
of Central America and northern South America. Although these A. In captive settings, apes use tools more than capuchins do
monkeys are impressive users of tools in captive settings, we have B.Apes use tools while in trees less often than capuchins do
little evidence of their systematic use of tools when in the wild. C.Apes use tools in the wild more than they do in captive settings.
Researchers have commented on this puzzling contrast by noting D.Apes' ground-dwelling lifestyle makes it easier for them to use
that capuchins have not been studied in the wild as extensively as tools.
other primates such as apes and that their more arboreal
(tree-based) lifestyle limits their opportunities to use tools 2. In paragraph 1, the author asks the reader to imagine pounding
compared with apes. In the trees. their hands are more often a nut while on the ground and then to imagine pounding a nut
needed for support; moreover, loose objects that could be used as while sitting in a tree in order to emphasize the point that
tools are less available and less easily set aside and retrieved. and A. the same task done in different settings can require different
stable, strong and appropriately shaped supporting surfaces are tools
less available in the trees than on the ground. Imagine pounding a B. an arboreal lifestyle reduces the opportunities for tool use
round nut on a log or stone that rests solidly on the ground. Then C.capuchins are extremely skillful tool users
imagine the same activity while sitting in a tree and pounding the D.tool use in trees is harder for humans to observe than tool use on
nut on a sloping tree branch. Finally, activities carried out high in the ground
the forest canopy are more difficult for terrestrial humans to see
than activities occurring on the ground.
Capuchins possess two behavioral characteristics that are less 7. According to paragraph 4, one characteristic of capuchins that
widely shared with other primates and that are particularly facilitates discovery of how to use objects as tools is
relevant to using objects as tools. First, although using a tool is an A. their ability to reliably distinguish benign objects from
individual endeavor, it is acquired more readily in socially potentially dangerous ones
supportive contexts where experts tolerate novices nearby, and B.their general interest in the characteristics of objects and
capuchins are relatively tolerant of one another, particularly adults surfaces
of youngsters. Second, and fundamental for the discovery of tool C.their tendency to be far more interested in novel objects and
use, capuchins generate a great variety of explorative and surfaces than familiar ones
manipulative behaviors that involve acting with objects and on D.their tendency to rapidly switch their attention from one object
surfaces. Capuchins reliably spontaneously combine objects with or surface to another
surfaces and with each other by pounding and rubbing; they also
insert their hands and objects in holes and crevices. When captive
capuchins encounter objects they consider benign, whether novel
or familiar, they quickly approach, explore and manipulate them
with enthusiastic interest. Their interest towards objects persists
over time, even towards familiar objects. Although wild capuchins
initially often avoid novel objects, they explore and manipulate
familiar objects and substrates (layers of soil that a plant or animal
uses for support) persistently, and routinely engage in many
actions. This can allow them to discover the consequences of
actions combining objects and surfaces
All of these behavioral characteristics make it likely that a 8. Paragraph 5 suggests that capuchins may use tools in captivity
capuchin monkey upon encountering an interesting set of objects more often than they do in the wild because captive capuchins
or an interesting surface with loose objects available, and with the A.have more time and security than wild capuchins do
motivation, time and security to investigate will produce actions B. encounter more interesting objects than wild capuchins do
with objects on surfaces. Tool use relies upon perception/action C.have fewer goals than wild capuchins do
routines (e.g.., pounding, inserting) that are applied to virtually D.encounter a wider variety of surfaces than wild capuchins do
any set of objects and surfaces they encounter. As a routine
behavior, the monkey may occasionally combine one object or
surface with another object, and so discover that using an object
helps it achieve some goal. This scenario is sufficient to support the
frequent discovery of tool use by captive capuchins, but one can
see that it might not occur as often in natural settings.
2023.8.15 The Process of Domestication 3. According to paragraph 3, woolly sheep were a new form that
Domestication involves the removal of species from the wild and resulted from
their propagation by humans within a sheltered or manipulated A. natural pressures of living in a herd
setting. As a result, domesticates are subjected to different B. selective pressures favoring smaller size
selective pressures from their wild relatives and so undergo C. processes of natural selection
morphological and genetic change from their wild ancestors D.intentional selection by humans
through processes of natural selection. Domesticated species are
also subject to selection by humans, who may prefer smaller and
more docile individuals in a herd, for example, or may breed new
forms that have specially valued characteristics, such as woolly
sheep.
Other consequences of human contact may be unintentional. In a 4. Paragraph 4 suggests that humans who harvested wild stands of
now-classic experiment, Jack Harlan harvested wild stands of cereals by hand preferred tougher seed heads because those are
cereals by hand in southeast Turkey and showed that it was A.more nutritious
possible for a small family group to gather in only three weeks C. easier to collect
enough to sustain them for a year. It is important to consider the D. more common
effect of such collection on plant communities, in particular on the D.larger
way in which plants reseed themselves. Those with brittle seed
heads will drop their seeds to the ground as soon as they are
touched, so those with tougher seed heads will be preferentially
gathered by human collectors. Should human collectors use the
plants they gathered as the basis of next year's crop, they will be
sowing the tougher seed head variety, thus altering the
characteristics of the species overall. It may have been through
this sort of process of unintentional selection that domesticated
forms of wheat and barley first developed in Southwest Asia.
There were other common changes in domesticated species. A 7. In paragraph 5, the loss of natural coloring in cows or horses is
reduction in body size among animals occurred, either through presented as an example of
intentional selection or as the unintentional result of breeding A. a change that may have been an accidental effect of
conditions. It should be noted, however, that size reduction is a domestication
widespread feature of postglacial mammals and has affected B. a change that is most likely to have resulted from intentional
humans as well as animals. There is evidence also for an increase human selection
in size among cereals and tubers, through selective propagation. C. a change that resulted from natural selective pressures
In addition, incidental changes, such as twisted horns in goats, or D.a change that creased adaptive fitness in protected
the loss of natural coloring in cows or horses, may be due to the environments
relaxation of natural selective pressures in the protected humanly
controlled environment; black and white Friesian cows, for
example, would be conspicuous to predators and thus have
reduced adaptive fitness in the wild.