ELA 6 – CFA 3 - Informational
- Based on the article, why is a dog-walking business called a “service”?
A. It is an example of someone being a consumer.
B. It is an example of someone manufacturing a product.
C. It is an example of someone using organizational skills.
D. It is an example of someone doing work in exchange for money.
2.Based on paragraphs 4 and 5, a person who wanted to start a new business would most likely do a market survey with which group?
A. people who might work for the business
B. people who have the same kind of business
C. people who might be customers of the business
D. people who have experience in starting a business
3.Based on paragraph 6, what is the main purpose of a business plan?
A. to inform customers that a business is starting
B. to create an outline of how the business will run
C. to help a business owner create a work schedule
D. to keep track of the number of customers that a business has
4.Read the sentence from paragraph 7 below.
You’ll also need a budget to workout the financial details of your business.
Based on paragraph 7, the term in “financial details” mainly refers to
- money.
- problems.
- schedules.
- advertising.
5.Which words best describe the author’s tone in the article?
A. strict and serious
B. humorous and joking
C. friendly and informative
D. persuasive and powerful
6.What is the main purpose of the information in the box titled “A Matter of Fact”?
A. to give an example of a successful business that started small
B. to provide practical advice to people starting businesses
C. to show that restaurant businesses usually succeed
D. to explain how a family business is run
Outstanding Violinist at Age Eight
1971–
by Marlene Targ Brill
A mature attitude paired with a brilliant musical talent is Midori's formula for worldwide success. This unique combination made her debut at the Tanglewood Music Festival unforgettable. People still talk about the youngster's extraordinary debut.
The fourteen-year-old violinist was performing with Leonard Bernstein, the legendary conductor. In the middle of a complex violin concerto, a string on Midori's violin snapped. Her violin was unusable, and Maestro Bernstein stopped the orchestra. Midori kept her cool, turned to the first violinist, and borrowed his violin. Incredibly, a string quickly broke on that violin as well, and Midori had to use yet another instrument. Such a disaster might unnerve even an experienced soloist, but Midori kept her cool and fi nished the concerto. The response was a roaring ovation from the audience and raves from critics around the world.
Young Midori had always loved music. As a little girl in Osaka, Japan, Midori lived in a musical home. Her mother, Setsu Goto, was a concert violinist. Setsu's demanding practice schedule forced her to bring little Midori tothe music studio. When Midori was just two years old, her mother was amazed to hear her child humming a complex concerto by Bach.
Midori soon began practicing on a child-sized violin. Her mother gave her music lessons and arranged private performances for family and friends. When Midori was nine years old, her mother recognized that her daughter possessed incredible musical talent. She took Midori to the United States to play at the Aspen Music Festival. After Midori performed flawlessly there, a famous music teacher named Dorothy DeLay accepted her as her student. This meant that Midori and her mother would have to move to New York City.
In New York, Midori had to learn a new language and an entirely new culture. At the same time, she maintained a busy schedule of music lessons and school. Gradually she made friends and learned to love New York City.
After her sensational Tanglewood debut, music fans eagerly waited for each of her concerts. In her early teens, Midori performed only a few times a year. She was attending the prestigious Julliard School of Music, and she wanted to leave enough time for practice and study.
When she turned sixteen, Midori decided to leave Julliard and become a full-time performer. The life of a professional violinist was everything Midori had hoped for. When she appeared onstage, audiences were enchanted by Midori's graceful, shy beauty. As she played, observers were enthralled with the lush and sophisticated sound she produced.
The adult Midori is perhaps the most famous female musician in the world. Her concerts are sold out around the world. She has received countless awards. But Midori is not just wrapped up in her career. She recently created the Midori Foundation. This agency provides lecture-demonstrations to teach children about music. Midori remembers how much she loved learning to make music as a child. Now, she is devoted to making the same beautiful experience possible for other young children.
7.Which would be the best new title for the passage?
A. "Music for Children"
B. "From Japan to Julliard"
C. "A Famous Festival Player"
D. "Musical Genius"
8. Which detail from the passage best supports the generalization that Midori “possessed incredible musical talent”?
A. Midori lived in a musical home as a little girl.
B. She spent her early years listening to her mother play the violin.
C. Midori played perfectly at the Aspen Music Festival.
D. She created the Midori Foundation.
9. In which word does “-ble” mean the same as it does in “unusable”?
A. marble
B. stable
C. likable
D. dribble
An Island Is Bornby Patricia Lauber
In mid-November of 1963 an island was born in the North Atlantic, some 20 miles off the southwestern coast of Iceland. It had given only one sign of its coming. For three days farmers on the neighboring Vestmann Islands had noticed a bad smell in the air. It was a sulfurous smell, like the odor of rotten eggs, and the farmers could not discover where it was coming from.
2 Early in the morning of November 14, the crew of an Icelandic fishing vessel noticed the same smell. The engineer thought that it might have something to do with the ship, but he could find nothing wrong. About 7:15 the cook, who was on watch, saw something rise out of the sea to the southeast. At first, in the dim light of dawn, he could not make out what it was. Then he realized it was smoke. Thinking that a ship was on fire, he went below and woke the captain. Through his binoculars the captain saw black columns erupting from the sea. He suspected that he was seeing not a burning ship but a volcano rising from the ocean. The hours that followed proved him right. He was watching the volcanic eruption1 that built the island later named Surtsey.
Some days earlier a volcano had started to erupt 425 feet below the surface of the sea. It poured out gases and volcanic ash and cinder. The gases, bubbling to the surface, accounted for the sulfurous smell in the air. The ash and cinder began to build a mountain. By the morning of November 15 the top of the volcano was 33 feet above the water and still growing rapidly. Columns of smoke and gases rose two miles into the air. Explosions blew out tremendous quantities of ash, cinder, and pumice.2 These materials rained down and built a cone that within six weeks rose 500 feet above sea level.
4 Violent eruptions continued through the winter. The sea steamed. Lightning flashed and crackled in the rising column of electrically charged ash, while the claps of thunder could be heard for miles. Whirlwinds formed in the hot, rising gases. Winter storms and heavy seas attacked the new island, sweeping away parts of it and changing its shape. At times it seemed as if the sea must win and the island disappear. But eruptions continued and material piled up faster than the sea could wash it away.
5 In April 1964, the violent eruptions stopped and lava began to flow. Red-hot lava flows covered the ash and cinder and cooled into a tough, hard surface. Lava reaching the sea hardened into a collar that surrounded the island and protected the beach and cliffs. Surtsey, it seemed, had come to stay. By summer the island covered nearly a square mile of area and its peak was more than 500 feet tall. These fi rst lava flows stopped in May 1965, but new flows have since added to the island.
6 Surtsey had risen from the sea barren of life. Yet life of one kind or another soon appeared on the island. First to arrive were the seagulls. Surtsey was only two weeks old when observers saw seagulls lighting on it between explosive eruptions. In May 1964, a biologist began to look for life on the island. He found large numbers of microbes3 in the air above it. By summer, although the lava flows were continuing, there were butterflies and flies on Surtsey. Migratory birds had started to rest on the island in spring. Seals came ashore on the beaches. By the summer of 1965 kittiwakes4 were nesting on lava cliffs built only six months earlier.
Seeds of coastal plants such as sea rocket, lyme grass, and angelica5 drifted to the island shores, as did some living plants. By early June of 1965 sea rockets were growing on Surtsey. They had struck root in a place where they were sheltered by seaweed that had washed ashore. These first “settlers” were soon buried under volcanic ash and dust. But later new plants took their place, giving promise of the day when the bare black and gray rock of the island would wear the green colors of plant life.
8 To earth scientists and to biologists Surtsey was endlessly fascinating. It offered a chance to study a new volcano, to see new land take shape, to watch life win a foothold on barren rock. Earth scientists hoped that by studying what was happening to Surtsey they would gain a better understanding of the forces behind its growth, for in one sense Surtsey was not a surprise.
9 Surtsey rose from a huge underwater mountain range that runs down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and is called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The ridge is the center of many earthquakes, and it is highly volcanic. Here and there its volcanic action has built mountains that thrust through the surface of the ocean, creating small islands such as Surtsey. Long ago vast outpourings of lava from the ridge built the big island of Iceland.
10 The ridge, however, is much more than a builder of islands. It is a sign of mighty forces at work within the earth. Many earth scientists are certain that these same forces are builders of continents and mountains and are the cause of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. They see the ridge as a key to understanding the most basic secrets of the earth. Powered by the great heat energy within the earth, these forces helped to shape our planet when it was young, to give it land and sea and air, and so to make it the kind of planet where life could develop. The same forces have helped to keep the earth both a planet of life and a planet that is hospitable to many forms of life. They have made the earth the one very special planet among the nine that orbit our sun.
1 eruption — a violent bursting forth of lava from a volcano
2 pumice — a form of volcanic rock
3 microbes — microscopic living things
4 kittiwakes — a species of gull
5 sea rocket, lyme grass, and angelica — names of different kinds of plants
For the following question,
10.According to the article, why is studying the Mid-Atlantic Ridge important to scientists?
A. It can aid in the discovery of new energy sources.
B. It can teach more about the formation of the earth.
C. It can warn people of dangerous volcanic eruptions.
D. It can help predict when new islands will be formed.
11.Read the sentence from paragraph 8 below.
To earth scientists and to biologists Surtsey was endlessly fascinating.
Which part of the word biologists means “living” or “life”?
A. bio
B. log
C. logis
D. gists
Are Dogs Dumb?
by Karen Hopkin
Chimps can use sign language to talk to their trainers. Monkeys can learn to count. A crow can figure out how to use a stick to get at that hard-to-reach grub. Chickens can learn to play checkers. Even worms can be taught to run mazes. So which animals are smartest? You are probably thinking that chimps are smarter than chickens. And that crows are smarter than worms. And that you are smarter than all of them.
But where do these rankings come from? Okay, you probably are smarter than the average worm. But why do we assume that bigger beasts are smarter than smaller ones? Or that furry critters are brainier than slithering wrigglers that are coated in slime?
And how come we think dogs are so smart? Sure, a dog might be clever enough to fetch his leash when he wants to go out. But the same mutt might also bark at the vacuum cleaner and spend a whole hour chasing his own tail. Is Rover really any brighter than a hamster, a chicken, or that kid who’s always eating Play-Doh? How can you measure an animal’s brainpower?
The hardest part is coming up with the right test. A dog can’t sit down with a No.2 pencil and take a multiple-choice exam. So the test has to be something the dog can learn to do, select a block by nudging it with a nose or a paw, for example. The test also has to be something the dog wants to do, a dog might stare at that block all day without budging-until she figures out there’s a treat hidden underneath.
Norton Milgram and his co-workers at the University of Toronto at Scarborough use treats to give dogs a Canine IQ test. The dog is presented with a tray with a blue block on it; underneath the block is a treat. The animal moves the block and gets the treat. So far, so good. Now the test gets tricky. The dog is presented with the same tray, but this time it has both a blue block and a yellow coffee can lid (or white bowl or back square cloth) on it; the treat is not under the yellow lid (or white bowl, etc.). The test, how long does it take for the dog to learn that the treat is always under the new item on the tray? The smarter the dog, the quicker she’ll find the treat.
That seems simple enough, but things become more complicated when you try to compare different kinds of animals. Monkeys wipe the floor with dogs on this test. Dogs may have to try hundreds of times before they select the yellow lid nine out of ten times. Monkeys learn much more quickly to find the hidden treat. Does that mean monkeys are smarter than dogs?
Not necessarily. The test was originally designed for monkeys, and it gives them an unfair advantage, by nature monkeys are curious and like to check out new things. Dogs, on the other hand, tend to be wary about approaching new things. As Stephen Budiansky reports in his Book, The Truth about Dogs, one pooch was so scared of the yellow lid that he had to be excused from the study.
If the test is made more dog-friendly, on the other hand, canines do just fine. Instead of introducing a yellow lid, the treat is put under another blue block on the opposite side of the tray. Dogs learn as quickly as any monkey that the treat is always on the side opposite the first block they saw.
Even if you could find a test that was perfectly fair to all animals, in a way it’s silly to ask whether one kind of animal is smarter than another. All animals have the ability to learn things that are important to them. Otherwise they wouldn’t survive. A chicken doesn’t need to be a chess champion to figure out where to get food or how run from a predator. So a chicken is as smart as it needs to be to earn a living as a chicken.
If you still believe that dogs are much smarter than chickens, it’s probably because dogs are good at learning the things we want them to learn: fetching the newspaper, for example. Try to convince a chicken to do that! The truth is, most dog tricks take advantage of dogs’ built-in behavior patterns-things that dogs are born knowing how to do or learn easily. Chasing and retrieving are leftover hunting behaviors. For a dog, fetching the paper or a tennis ball is not a reflection of intelligence. It’s basically a demonstration that dogs will be dogs.
Canines may not be the deepest thinkers in the world. But perhaps that’s for the best. The life of a dog-sitting alone all day, waiting for someone to come home-can be pretty boring. Super-smart animals would probably get totally stressed out, saysSerpell. Look at it this way, if dogs were smarter, they probably wouldn’t choose to hang around with us.