Part 2
Directions: Below each passage, there are several multiple-choice questions. Select the best
suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate answer sheet provided
for you.
Text
Besides the actual outside temperature, there are many other factors that make someone feel
“cold.” Arguably, the most popular guideline is wind chill. In November 2001, the National Weather
Service (NWS) changed the wind chill temperature index, and the latest formula is used extensively
throughout Canada and the United States. The old index calculated wind speed in terms of how
quickly water freezes at 33 feet above ground (the typical height of an anemometer, an instrument
that measures wind speed), while the newer replacement index is based on readings at a height of
five feet above ground—the average “face level.”
A scientific definition to that elusive characteristic of the weather known as “cold” was first
put forth by Antarctic explorer Paul A. Siple and his colleague Charles F. Passel in 1939. Some of
the tests used water-filled plastic cylinders to measure the speed at which water freezes at different
air temperatures and wind speeds. Siple coined the term “wind chill” to describe their concept of the
relative cooling power (or heat removal) of the human body with various combinations of wind speed
and low temperatures.
The widely accepted wind chill formula is designed to provide a consistent measure to ensure
public safety. There are a number of definitions for the wind chill factor, but simply put, it combines
air temperature and wind speed to come up with a reading of what it really feels like outside. The
stronger the wind during a given temperature reading, the lower the wind chill factor. Wind moving
past exposed skin during cold weather increases the body’s heat loss. If the temperature is low, and
the wind is strong, the body often cannot keep up with heat loss, and the skin temperature decreases.
Wind chill pertains to all warmblooded animals—including pets, wildlife, livestock, and of course,
people.
Outdoor enthusiasts who create their own wind or increase the existing wind—by skiing,
snowmobiling, or running for example—can increase the apparent wind chill. Air movement
evaporates moisture from the exposed skin, decreasing the temperature. In the summer this feels
great—a reason fans are so popular—because it has a cooling effect on an overheated person.
However, this same experience can have serious consequences during cold weather in situations
where it’s good to retain as much heat as possible. Any part of the body touching a cold surface also
takes away body heat (known as conduction), as does breathing cold air. Other elements of the
weather such as wind speed, relative humidity, and sunshine also influence comfort. The health and
metabolism1 of a person— along with the type of clothing worn—will also affect how cold a person
feels. Becoming extraordinarily cold can have adverse effects; two of which are outlined below.
Frostbite is tissue damage caused by exposure to intense cold, and usually occurs when wind
chill temperatures fall below 25 degrees F. The early stages of frostbite are a burning or stinging
sensation in the affected parts. The skin will be bright pink at first as ice crystals begin to form under
the surface. Numbness sets in as the skin turns to pale white, with a hint of gray or yellow spotting.
When actual frostbite occurs, parts of the body begin to freeze. It usually starts with the
extremities—spreading to the cheeks, and on to the hands and feet. Medical attention is essential!
Until help arrives, or the victim can be taken to the nearest treatment center, keep affected body parts
as warm as possible. Fingers are usually frostbit first, and they can be slipped under the arm pits,
inside the upper thighs, or in the mouth for warmth. You can also make body temperature rise by
flexing the affected hand or foot. Without assistance—and sometimes even with it—possible
consequences of frostbite are gangrene, severe infection, and in extremely bad instances, amputation.
Another result of wind chill is hypothermia, the rapid cooling of the body’s inner core to
below its normal temperature of 98.6 degrees F. Some of the symptoms are violent shivering, slurred
speech, exhaustion, drowsiness, disorientation, and impaired judgment. Hypothermia gradually
overcomes a person who has been chilled by wet clothing, low temperatures, or brisk winds.The
important thing to remember is, temperatures do not have to drop below freezing for this condition to
set in. Smoking, drinking, or taking prescription drugs or illegal narcotics present added dangers in
wind chill conditions. All of these dull your sensitivity to the circumstances, and have physical
effects that will make you more susceptible to frostbite and hypothermia.
With winter always offering the possibilities of low temperatures, it’s important to be aware
of the wind chill factor, and what it can mean. Wind chill charts for regular reference are available
wherever outdoor equipment is sold. When you venture out in winter, dress for both the weather and
the wind. Wear loose-fitting, lightweight, warm clothing in several layers, which can be removed to
prevent perspiration and subsequent chilling. Snug mittens are better protection than fingered gloves.
If you take the proper precautions, when wind chill comes whipping at your nose you’ll be ready!
— Tom and Joanne O’Toole
adapted from “Wind Chill Makes It Colder Than You Think”
New York State Conservationist, February 2004
1. The new method for calculating windchill used by the National Weather Service is based on
readings taken
(1) at a 5-foot elevation
(2) every day at noon
(3) near the Canadian border
(4) above the Arctic circle
2. In cold weather, a body loses heat more rapidly than normal when
(1) air pressure fluctuates
(2) heartrate is elevated
(3) wind hits exposed skin
(4) movement is restricted
3. As used in line 37, the term “adverse” most nearly means
(1) significant (3) lasting
(2) excessive (4) harmful
4. What conditions will most likely cause frostbite to occur?
(1) Air temperature decreases and wind speed decreases.
(2) Air temperature decreases and wind speed increases.
(3) Air temperature increases and wind speed decreases.
(4) Air temperature increases and wind speed increases.
5. Which symptom is characteristic of frostbite?
(1) irritated skin
(2) slurred speech
(3) violent shivering
(4) impaired judgment
Text
…Some call it the “blender effect,” others “a giant biology experiment with no one in charge.”
What it boils down to is this: All over the world, in nearly every region and kind of ecosystem, animals
and plants that evolved somewhere else are turning up where they’re not wanted—having been
transported by us, inadvertently or intentionally. Burmese pythons are imported to Florida from Asia for
the pet trade and end up being dumped in the Everglades by people who find that they don’t make such
great pets after all. Pythons are generalists—longlived, not too fussy about what they eat—so they
survive, find one another, and breed.
Likewise, Western species pop up in the East. The red-eared slider turtle, native to the Mississippi
Basin, has been shipped all over the world as a pet and for food. The turtle is spreading across Asia and
southern Europe, devouring native frogs, mollusks1, and even birds.
Some alien species are beneficial. Most agricultural plants and animals in North America are
aliens, for instance—native to Europe, South America, or elsewhere. Japanese oysters and clams are
mainstays of the shellfish industry worldwide. But some transplants have an outsize effect on the
ecosystems into which we deliver them. Ecologists call these “invasive species.”
It’s too soon to know how invasive the Burmese python will prove, but consider the case of the
brown tree snake, a native of New Guinea and Australia. A few of them stowed away aboard military
equipment after World War II and disembarked on the island of Guam. There they found no brown tree
snake enemies and no brown tree snake rivals and tens of thousands of birds that had
never known a terrestrial2 predator. In this land of milk and honey the snakes have multiplied
exponentially, reaching densities of up to 13,000 a square mile. Their venomous bites account for a
disquieting number of emergency room visits; their climbing habits have caused more than 2,000
electrical outages; and 8 of Guam’s 11 native forest bird species have been wiped out.
North America got its wake-up call with the arrival of the zebra mussel, a thumbnail-size mollusk
native to the Black Sea that showed up in Lake St. Clair, Ontario, in 1988. Zebra mussels like to attach
themselves to a hard surface, and they don’t mind a crowd. They’ll clump on rock, they’ll clump in pipe,
and they’ll clump mussel-next-to-mussel-atop-mussel in astonishing congregations of as many as 70,000
individuals a square foot. Within two years zebra mussels tiled the shallows of the Great Lakes. Intake
pipes from utilities and factories became choked with mussels. Lights dimmed. Ships’ rudders jammed.
Businesses closed. Eradication proved impossible, and today the U.S. and Canada lose about 140 million
dollars a year to the mussels.
Aggressive plants may be the most destructive of all invasive species. Mile-aminute weed,
Mikania micrantha, a perennial vine from Central and South America, was planted in India to camouflage
airfields during World War II. Today it camouflages large swaths of southern Asia, overrunning forests
and crops and smothering life under a green blanket.
“Before humans started moving around, the rate of species movement was a geologic rate3,” says
Jim Carlton, an invasives expert who is the director of the Maritime Studies Program of illiams College
and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut. “Now we’re moving species faster and farther than they ever
would or could have moved in nature.”
That movement comes with a shocking price tag. The state of Florida spends 50 million dollars
every year controlling invasive plants. New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and the federal government have
spent 175 million dollars battling the tree-killing Asian long-horned beetle. The 2001 hoof-and-mouth
disease outbreak in England cost businesses there nearly four billion dollars. In all, experts estimate,
invasives cost the U.S. alone more than 140 billion dollars yearly.
The less quantifiable4 effects are no less terrible. The ecologist E. O. Wilson ranks invasive
species second only to habitat destruction in the magnitude of the threat they pose. In removing natural
barriers to species movements, Wilson says, we’re changing the very nature of wild places, replacing
unique animal and plant communities with a generic, impoverished hodgepodge5 world of hardy
generalists: a world not of Sumatran rhinos, golden turtles, Blackburnian warblers, and giant saguaro but
merely one of cats, rats, crows, and West Nile virus. ...
Restricting the entry into the United States of alien species such as Caulerpa6 and zebra mussels,
already known to be invasive elsewhere, would be almost automatic, one would think. The reality is more
complex—and far more difficult. In most countries, unless a species is on a short blacklist of noxious7
weeds or injurious wildlife, or restricted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species, you’re free to import it. (Australia and New Zealand have abandoned this presumption of
innocence in favor of a more effective “clean list”of approved species; species not on the list are denied
entry.)
Further hampering prevention efforts in the U.S. is a lack of coordination between government
agencies, and the fact that agencies have multiple, sometimes conflicting mandates. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture keeps the noxious-weed list, but focuses primarily on protecting agriculture and the
nursery trade, not wilderness. Thus it took the USDA five years to list melaleuca, the highly invasive
Australian paperbark tree that had converted 500,000 acres of
native Florida wetlands to forest.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulates the trade in wild animals, but it’s also charged with
promoting industries like aquaculture8 that are often responsible for introducing invasives. When three
species of Asian carp escaped from catfish farms into the Mississippi River, Illinois petitioned the
wildlife service to add Asian carp to the injurious wildlife list; aquaculturists lobbied against the listing.
Three years later a decision is still pending. In the meantime, the U.S. and state governments are resorting
to a nine-million-dollar electric barrier to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. State departments of
fish and game, for their part, are charged with protecting the environment from invasives, but they often
manage alien game species such as feral pigs and exotic deer for hunters.
Some experts believe the answer is a well-funded national center for invasive species based on
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention model. Though Congress took a first step in 1999,
establishing the National Invasive Species Council, it has remained underfunded.
“As a society we’ve adopted an exclusively reactive mode,” says David Lodge, an ecologist at
the University of Notre Dame. “Invasives aren’t like other forms of pollution. They don’t stop spreading
when you stop releasing them. They grow, and they grow in an accelerating manner. Doing nothing to
prevent them is a particularly damaging policy.” ...
— Susan McGrath
excerpted from “Attack of the Alien Invaders”
National Geographic, March 2005
1. According to the text, Burmese pythons were brought to the United States to be used for
(1) zoo attractions
(2) pets
(3) gourmet ingredients
(4) shoes
2. As used in line 7, “generalists” most nearly means species that are
(1) adaptable
(3) native
(2) unusual
(4) harmless
3. According to the text, zebra mussels transported by ships from the Black Sea to the Great Lakes
have
(1) provided food for local fish
(2) fertilized nearby wetlands
(3) caused financial loss
(4) ruined lakefront views
4. According to the text, the estimated annual cost of all invasive species in the United States is
approximately
(1) 50 million dollars
(2) 175 million dollars
(3) 4 billion dollars
(4) 140 billion dollars
Part 2
Directions: Below each passage, there are several multiple-choice questions. Select the best
suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate answer sheet provided
for you.
Text
Organic food and materials are ringing up green for grocery stores and other retailers.
Once considered a niche1 market with questionable economic benefits, organic farming is the
fastest-growing and most profitable field in agriculture, and demand for food produced without
hormones, pesticides or other chemicals is exploding. ...
“Sales continue to grow, and there are new lines coming on every day,” said Doug Wills,
general manager of Buehler’s Parkside grocery store at Dover [Ohio]. “Of course, there’s produce,
but we’re starting to see it more in meats, dairy and deli items. More people also are switching to
organic soaps and detergents. It’s obviously a market that you just have to look at and take
seriously.”
Buehler’s has done that, starting [by] rearranging the store in February to showcase a
Nature’s Choice section, which is about 70 percent complete. Wills said that it is about 25 [feet]
long, “which is very large for within a store.” It is the fourth largest section at Dover, behind dairy,
meat and produce. The renovation was to accommodate growth in organic products and improve
traffic flow for customers.
“We get a lot of comments and requests,” Wills said. “The shopper who starts using organic
is one we find to be very dedicated to those types of products. For years, I’ve had one particular
customer who has kept me informed about new products coming out. We find these customers are a
great help because they seek out those products and places that handle them.” ...
“The thing that I’m most excited about is the continued increase in organic dairy products
with no fertilizers and no pesticides,” he said. “There are a lot of people out there looking for those
products, and I know an area dairy farmer who’s looking into going organic.”
The Organic Trade Assn. [OTA] states the U.S. organic dairy sector racked up $2.1 billion in
sales last year [2005], up 24 percent from 2004. The OTA said organics now make up 3.5 percent of
all dairy products sold in the U.S.
Buehler’s corporate spokeswoman Mary McMillen said organic business is growing steadily,
with the percentage varying by location of the Wooster-based company’s 11 stores. ...
She said the number of items available varies from thousands to hundreds, depending on
demand at individual stores. The largest volume of sales is in produce and dairy, with dairy also the
fastest growing category. Buehler’s has carried some organic items — predominately produce — for
more than 10 years. The amount of fresh organic produce changes daily and a sign is posted showing
how much is available in Giant Eagle at Dover.
“A whole section of our produce is called Nature’s Basket, and we have frozen, dairy and dry
grocery organic products,” said Mike Carrothers, assistant store manager. “It’s a growing area. We
have four, double-sized gondolas with products like spices, potato chips and juices.” ...
“I think we carry pretty much everything they offer, so compared to a few years ago, it’s
increased a thousand percent,” Carrothers said. “There are a lot more people looking for organics.
We’ve had nothing but good response from customers that we have good selection.”
Retailers are expanding organic food sections, driving up demand for people to work in the
field. Wal-Mart, the largest buyer of organic foods, is also developing additional organic products,
according to the Associated Press.
Washington State University created America’s first organic farming degree
under soils professor John Reganold. He said organic agriculture is attractive for several reasons — it
doesn’t use expensive fertilizers and other chemicals, it is perceived as healthier to eat, and it
produces less stress on farmland.
A university in Canada and one in Wales are the only ones in the world offering organic
degrees. Michigan State University and Colorado State are on the verge of offering organic degrees.
But Washington State had a headstart with three decades of pioneering research on organic farming.
It owns its [own] organic research farm.
Washington state apple growers have been leaders in converting to organic farming, largely
to cut down on pesticide use, which is expensive and hazardous to apply for a labor-intensive crop,
Reganold said. The organic farming industry, which has suffered from a lack of trained workers, is
cheering the move.
“As an organization that hires people with organic agriculture experience, I see it certainly as
significant,” said Jake Lewin of the California Certified Organic Farmers.
Made up of 1,300 businesses, the group sees the degree program as helping to legitimize
organic farming, Lewin said. Until now, organic farming courses were piecemeal.
An organic farming degree is also a natural for Washington [State], where many citizens are
interested in protecting the environment. There are 597 organic farms in Washington, and lots of
farmers markets and organic food stores.
Enrollment in traditional agricultural programs has been declining at Washington State in the
past decade, in part because of a declining number of family farms and more farm kids seeking
better-paying careers.
Reganold said interest in organic farming has been rising, even among students who were not
raised on farms. ...
Graduates in organic farming can also expect to be hired by grocery and restaurant chains.
“Large corporations increasingly interested in meeting the nation’s growing appetite for
organic foods are seeking employees who understand organic agriculture systems, which are
significantly different than conventional agriculture,” Perillo said.
Spurred by the widening acceptance of all things organic, many boutique retailers and some
mainstream chains are adding new lines of apparel stitched together using cotton that has been grown
without genetic modification and without chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. ...
Organic cotton advocates say organic farming is better for the soil. Traditional cotton farming
can use up to one-third of a pound of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to produce one pound of
cotton, according to a recent report by the Sustainable Cotton Project in Davis, Calif.
Sales of organic-cotton products reached $275 million last year, up more than two-fold from
2001, according to a new study by the Oakland-based advocacy group Organic Exchange. That sales
number includes apparel, home textiles and personal-care products, but the majority of sales are
apparel.
— Lee Morrison
excerpted and adapted from “Going natural:
Organic food keeps growing in popularity”
The Times Reporter, August 14, 2006
1 In order for a product to be classified as “organic,” how must the product be grown?
(1) without mechanical equipment
(2) in a laboratory setting
(3) without chemical additives
(4) on a family farm
2 Production of organic soaps and detergents is evidence that the organic product industry is
undergoing a period of
(1) imbalance
(3) uncertainty
(2) expansion
(4) conflict
3 According to the article, the Organic Trade Association (OTA) reports that a product
segment that experienced explosive growth after 2004 is
(1) dairy
(3) produce
(2) clothing
(4) beverages
4 Growers in Washington State pioneered organic farming of what crop?
(1) potatoes
(3) corn
(2) cotton
(4) apples
5 Jake Lewin expresses the opinion of many in the organic field that there is a need for
(1) education programs
(2) health controls
(3) economic management
(4) foreign marketing
6 Since 2001, the sale of organic cotton has
(1) declined
(2) leveled
(3) doubled
(4) quadrupled
Text
When teacher Jeremy Gypton was reviewing the Civil War material for his American history class at
Empire High School in Vail, Arizona, he found something he’d never read before, even though he
has a degree in history: the complete Constitution of the Confederate States of America.
A traditional textbook might have made a passing reference to the document. But there are no
textbooks at Empire.…
When Empire High School opened in July of last year [2005], students weren’t issued
backpack-breaking stacks of textbooks. They were handed an Apple iBook with a wireless Internet
connection, because the school eschews textbooks in favor of laptops and electronic content.
In science class, they don’t just discuss cell division. They go online and watch it in real time.
In Michael Frank’s first-year biology class, students access their lab instructions, then organize data
and graph the results of their work. Later, they will correlate the data from the experiment in a
PowerPoint presentation. In Melinda Jensen’s honors math class, students went online to learn about
game theory when two game-theory researchers won the Nobel Prize in economics. “It was a great
class discussion. You can’t do that in a regular classroom,” Jensen notes. “It would have been
something you had to plan ahead of time.”
Plenty of schools have instituted pilot programs using laptops to supplement their traditional
curriculum. But Empire is one of very few in the country — perhaps the only school — that has
eliminated textbooks almost entirely in grades nine through 12.
“The key to making this work is not having the textbooks,” says Calvin Baker,
superintendent of the Vail Unified School District. “You walk in any of the classrooms in this school
and it’s a different feel, different from a textbook school, different from a school where kids just
happen to have laptops so they’re doing their homework on laptops, but sometimes they use them
and sometimes they don’t.”
“Laptops are part of the fabric of everything that goes on at Empire. That’s the way it should
be,” he adds. “We all use laptops to gather information, store information, and distribute information.
That’s the way the world turns now.”
Of course, there are downsides. The computers crash. A few weeks into the project, students
hacked the filters that had prevented them from going to forbidden places online, though security was
soon restored. Some tried to get away with playing games during work time. That didn’t last long;
teachers can view what’s on any student’s screen at any moment and virtually reach out and
throw games in the desktop trash.
“The laptops don’t change human nature,” Baker says. “Students are always going to be
testing limits.”
For teachers, it’s a matter of monitoring and keeping control, just as always. “It comes down
to teaching skills and classroom management,” says Matt Donaldson, an assistant principal and math
teacher. “Whether you’re using computers or a notebook, if the teacher is on top of what’s going on
in the classroom, you aren’t going to have those problems.”
Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software & Information Industry
Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, says the most recent survey, two years ago,
indicated that about 600 school districts nationwide had pilot programs supplying laptops to
individual students.
Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia began using laptops for 23,000 middle and high
school students in 2001. The state of Maine opened an ambitious program to supply more than
30,000 students in 243 middle schools with laptops in January 2002. Legislators later expanded the
program to about a third of the state’s high school students. But in those schools and others, laptops
are used in tandem1 with old-fashioned textbooks.
“My sense is that the situation in the Vail school is relatively unique,” Schneiderman says.
“There may be a few other, smaller such efforts under way, but it’s pretty unique.”
That’s just what school officials intended when they began planning a new school to alleviate
overcrowding in the district. They were already aggressively using technology, linking schools with a
wireless system and showing grades and attendance online in real time. They visited a laptop high
school in the California Bay Area and talked to Apple about the resources available.
“There was no question students at the laptop school were more engaged,”Baker says. “But
we were confident we could do it better.”
The schools the Empire planning team visited were using laptops as frosting, as another layer
to traditional instruction. “It wasn’t fundamentally changing the structure of what was happening in
classrooms, so we had the idea that if you really wanted to change what was happening in school,
you had to take away textbooks,” Baker says.
Empire was a new school without old textbooks. So they simply didn’t order any. Making it
easier and logical to move away from textbooks, Baker adds, is thenational trend of teaching to
standards. No longer do teachers start at the beginning of a textbook, make sure they’re halfway
through by Christmas, and then race through the Vietnam War in May. Even if they use textbooks,
they jump back and forth, extracting what they need to meet the standard.…
“One of our teachers expressed it well,” Baker says. “She said, ‘The way I explain it to
friends is the difference between teaching in a traditional high school and Empire is the difference
between swimming in a pool and swimming in the ocean.’ ”
Students can go as deep as they want into material. “Books can be very limiting,” Jensen
says. “It’s very interesting to work without the boundaries that are created by a book.”
Striding outside those boundaries also means students have to evaluate the material they find,
something Gypton thinks provides more teaching moments. “I’ve come to realize that critical
thinking may not be a natural thing,” Gypton says. “It is a skill that has to be taught. It has to be
developed. And you can’t develop critical thinking if your material is shallow and only painted in
broad brush strokes.”
They also didn’t anticipate how clueless students were about using the technology. They may
know about video games and myspace.com, but the notion that middle school and high school
students are digital experts is overstated, Gypton says.
“It’s bunk,” he says. “I had kids for three or four weeks who didn’t know how to work
Microsoft Word. When they’d save something they’d look at me with this sad look in their eyes and
say, ‘Where did it go?’ ”
Paper does show up, though rarely. Jensen has her students do math problems on paper. And
her honors class wanted textbooks so they could work ahead.…
It’s too early to gauge the effect on learning at Empire. But a study of Maine’s laptop
initiative by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine
concluded there were numerous advantages. Among them:
• More than four out of five teachers reported students were more engaged in learning.
• More than 70 percent of teachers reported that the laptops more effectively helped them
meet curriculum goals and individualize curriculums.
• Students who took the laptops home were more likely to complete class work.
• Students who no longer had laptops reported getting less work done.
At Empire, students like using laptops, though they chafe 2 at the restrictions placed on them
— filtering software prevents instant messaging, the teens’ communication choice these days, even
when they’re using the laptop at home.
“A lot of people think we should have fewer restrictions when we’re at home,” says Jason
Ash, a 15-year-old sophomore. Ash says he’s more organized because everything from assignments
to grades is in one place online.
Brad Morse, a 17-year-old junior, liked the fact he could go online and view more
illustrations when his class was studying the Continental Congress. “If I don’t understand something,
I can go on Google and look it up and learn more,” he says.
That’s typical, Jensen says. “Students come in all the time with websites where they’ve found
helpful resources about what we’re learning. It really creates a feeling of community.”
Morse and others admit they were initially easily distracted, sometimes using e-mail and
playing games during class in the first few weeks. But the school put a stop to that. “Now they have
all the teachers monitor us so we’re not as easily distracted,” says Ashley Coulter, a 15-year-old
sophomore.
Jensen, in her fourth year of teaching, is energized daily. “I feel like the kids here are so
interesting and so creative and so much fun that every day I look forward to seeing them,” she says.
“I don’t know if they’re more interesting because they’re more engaged or if we got students who
were more willing to think outside the box.”
—Jim Morrison
excerpted from “Ending the Paper Chase”
Southwest Airlines Spirit, May 2006
1. As used in line 9, the word “eschews” most nearly
means
(1) reduces
(3) censors
(2) arranges
(4) rejects
2. Empire is different from other high schools in the country because Empire
(1) has eliminated almost all textbooks
(2) uses only classroom discussion
(3) follows a traditional curriculum
(4) has expanded testing
3. Some early problems with Empire’s laptop program were a result of
(1) inadvertent training errors
(2) inadequate technical support
(3) inappropriate computer use
(4) insufficient budget allocations
4. According to Matt Donaldson (lines 41 through 44),
effective use of computers in the classroom is
directly related to a teacher’s
(1) knowledge of technology
(2) skill in supervising students
(3) ability to evaluate students
(4) willingness to experiment
5. According to the text, what did Empire hope to
achieve with its policy regarding textbooks and
laptops?
(1) increase in textbook use
(2) improvement of test scores
(3) uniformity of teaching standards
(4) changes in instructional techniques
Part 2
Directions: Below each passage, there are several multiple-choice questions. Select the best
suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate answer sheet provided
for you.
Text
Early in the 20th century, bicycling to do errands or to work was common in the United
States, and seeing bikes on racks on the back of streetcars was not unusual. Commuters often used a
combination of walking, cycling and taking mass transit. Even in the 1940s, bicycling was still a
major means of transportation for not-too-distant trips….
But that began to change in the 1950s and 60s, when car use rapidly accelerated, fueled by
the building of the high-speed Interstate highway system, heavily subsidized through federal funding.
Ultimately crisscrossing over 40,000 miles, the new freeways chiseled through cities and towns,
sometimes splitting neighborhoods in two, and created new pathways for development and sprawl far
away from urban centers.
Bicycling and walking increasingly took a back seat to driving or riding in cars. By 1990, the
Federal Highway Administration called bicycling and walking “the forgotten modes” of
transportation.
Rising population has worsened traffic snarls and pollution
But bicycling was not forgotten for long. Over the last five decades, as the U.S. population
nearly doubled and development pushed farther and farther from town centers, commutes grew
longer, and pollution and traffic congestion worsened. Increasingly, city leaders and urban planners
began to see that building more and more roads did little to solve traffic congestion and only seemed
to add to the problems. But offering commuters ‘carrots’ — more travel choices including ‘nonmotorized’ transportation like bicycling — did prodmotorists out of their cars and help alleviate
gridlock and traffic jams.
As the merits of bike- and pedestrian-friendly cities began to emerge, federal policies shifted,
too. Also in 1990, the Department of Transportation adopted a new national transportation policy
aimed at increasing bicycle use and spurring transportation planners to accommodate cyclists and
pedestrians. Federal funding for bicycling and walking projects shot up from $6 million in 1990 to
$422 million by 2003. And the 2005 federal transportation bill dedicated $1 billion to bicycling
alone.
Today, bicycling as a workhorse means of travel is experiencing a resurgence, thanks in part
to our [Environmental Defense] transportation expert Michael Replogle, who has long advocated for
more livable cities and increased federal funding for bicycling and walking. People are once again
taking bicycling seriously as a welcome transportation alternative. And they are finding more
commuter-friendly bikes. Today’s are lightweight and faster than ever and, like best-loved cars,
come in a variety of models, styles and colors.
Bicycling to work is healthy for cyclists and the planet
For those who bike to work the payoffs are many: saving money on gas, avoiding traffic,
getting exercise, helping curb global warming pollution and often saving time, too....
“Getting more physical activity is key to better health whether or not you’re overweight,”
says Dr. John Balbus, Environmental Defense health program director, medical doctor and an avid
bicyclist himself. “Not enough exercise is associated with heart disease and diabetes, as well as
depression and certain types of cancer. Pedaling to work 30 minutes a day or even twice a week is a
great way to get more exercise while also helping reduce air pollution.”
Physical inactivity is a main culprit for higher rates of cardiovascular disease in developed
countries, according to a recent study from the World Health Organization. The study implicates road
design and inadequate pedestrian and cycling infrastructure for significant injuries from traffic
accidents. The upshot is that better transportation design and more options for walkers and bikers is a
double health benefit.
Moreover, cars in the U.S. contribute a staggering amount of global warming pollution. The
U.S. has 30 percent of the world’s cars, but they account for 45 percent of automotive carbon dioxide
(the main gas that contributes to global warming). Consider this: If everyone who lives within 5
miles of their workplace were to cycle to work just one day a week and left the car at home, nearly 5
million tons of global warming pollution would be saved every year, the equivalent of taking about a
million cars off the road.
Bike paths and secure storage entice people out of their cars
In 2001 and 2002, nearly 2 million Americans cycled to work or used a bike as part of their
job (compared with nearly 10 million who walked to work), according to the Bureau of ransportation.
Bicycling trips have doubled since 1990, reported the 2004 [N]ational Bicycling and Walking Study.
But in spite of rising numbers of Americans who cycle to work, national polls and surveys indicate
that significantly more adults would bike to work if they had safe routes and secure workplace
parking and changing facilities....
Cities and states around the country are making biking safer
As both numbers of bicyclists and bike stations swell, cities and states across the country are
devoting more resources to creating more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly roadways. In mega-states
California and Texas — where it’s not unusual to hop in your car and drive a few blocks — and in
large dense cities anchored by mass transit networks, planners are working more bike paths,
greenways and bike lanes into development blueprints.
For example, in Austin, downtown neighborhoods have long had a network of hike-and-bike
trails. There, a new commuter rail line connecting the northern exurbs1 to the urban center is on track,
feasibility studies are underway for biking and walking trails alongside the route and for parking and
locked facilities for bicycles at some stations. Also, statewide plans are afoot to create 200 new miles
of scenic and historic bicycle routes.
New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spearheaded an ambitious plan, unveiled in
2002, to ring Manhattan with recreational multiuse paths and greenways to make the entire
waterfront accessible to walkers and cyclists. City Hall recently pledged to improve safety and to add
200 more miles of bicycle lanes throughout the five boroughs. And Chicago’s Mayor Daley recently
announced his Bike 2015 Plan, which outlines a bevy of projects and policies to promote bicycling in
the Windy City over the next decade.
If bicyclists can make it [in] Houston, they can make it anywhere
Even notoriously spread-out Houston, tied with Atlanta as the worst cycling city in North
America in Bicycling magazine, has gotten into the act. Mayor Bill White, an avid bicyclist himself,
was key in creating the new annual bicycling event Tour de Houston through historic neighborhoods.
“Houston is a big car city, but there is a current [trend] to make it very bike friendly,” says Robin
Stallings, the executive director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition. The city now has 277 miles of onstreet bikeways (bike lanes, bike routes and shared lanes) and another 13 miles totally off-limits to
vehicles. Federal funding to the city has also enabled it to install 100 bike racks at locations such as
schools, libraries and parks.
Some cities plagued by poor air quality that falls short of federal health air quality standards,
like Houston and Dallas, have tapped federal funds for walking and bicycling projects as one tool to
curb air pollution.
Bad news: Even as bike trips grew, car trips grew more
But despite great strides since the 1990s, the picture is not all rosy. Although the number of
bicycling trips has increased dramatically in recent years (nearly doubling from 1.7 billion trips in
1990), the number of driving trips has also exploded (from 249 billion in 1990 to 407 billion in
2001), according to the 2004 National Bicycling and Walking Study. That means that the percentage
of bicycle trips of all trips counted by the study, has edged up only slightly, to 0.8, from 0.7.
(Counting both biking and walking together, the percentage went up to 9.5 percent, from 7.9
percent.)
“It’s not surprising that the share of walking and cycling trips has barely budged in relation to
driving,” says Replogle. “As a nation, we’ve designed most communities with unwalkable roads and
with little thought to land use patterns and connectivity between jobs and homes. The good news is
that the progress we’ve made on the funding front has begun to address the lack of cycling and
walking options in communities.
“For a half a century, the Department of Transportation was throwing huge amounts of
money to subsidizing roadways and sprawl while underfunding walking, cycling and public
transportation — and it’s going to take us many years to restore transportation choices and provide
safe walking and cycling routes to schools and employment.”
—Environmental Defense Fund
excerpted from “Bicycle Commuting Enjoys a Rebirth”
www.environmentaldefense.org, September 14, 2006
1. According to the article, bicycles were a major mode of transportation in the United States until
about
(1) 1900
(3) 1950
(2) 1940
(4) 1990
2. The decline in bicycle use for commuting was largely due to the development of
(1) highways
(3) skyscrapers
(2) subways
(4) teleconferencing
3. In line 20, the phrase “offering commuters ‘carrots’” most nearly implies
(1) continuing construction
(2) using incentives
(3) collecting opinions
(4) funding legislation
4. According to the article, in 2005, federal funding
for development of bike paths increased to
(1) $1 billion (3) $6 million
(2) $5 billion (4) $422 million
5. According to the article, the United States is
responsible for nearly half of the world’s
(1) traffic accidents
(2) automotive pollution
(3) bicycle manufacture
(4) oil depletion
6. According to the article, Austin, Houston, and
New York City have allocated funding for and
begun to
(1) construct car-free zones
(2) repair roadways
(3) improve housing
(4) develop subway systems
Text
…Straw-bale building is a practical and perhaps under utilized construction method. Initiated
in the United States at the turn of the century [1900], strawbale building is showing new merit in
today’s marketplace. Walls of straw, easily constructed and structurally sound, promise to take some
of the pressure off of limited forest resources….
History of Straw Bale Construction
People have built homes using straw, grass, or reed throughout history. These materials were
used because they were reliable and easy to obtain. European houses built of straw or reed are now
over two hundred years old. In the United States, too, people turned to straw houses, particularly
after the hay/straw baler entered common usage in the 1890s. Homesteaders in the northwestern
Nebraska “Sandhills” area, for example, turned to baled-hay construction, in response to a shortage
of trees for lumber. Bale construction was used for homes, farm buildings, churches, schools, offices,
and grocery stores….
In Wyoming, straw-bale structures have consistently withstood severe weather and
earthquakes. “The earthquake was in the 1970s and it was either 5.3 or 5.8,”1 Chuck Bruner, a
resident of one of the houses told The Mother Earth News. “There wasn’t a single crack in the house.
You can live in this house comfortably during the summer. It stays nice and cool. We have never
needed any air conditioning, and in summer we get days up in the 90s. Also, last winter, I only turned
our small bedroom heater on twice. If I had to guess how our utility bills compare to those of our
neighbors, I’d have to say our bill is about half.”
Straw: A Renewable Resource
Straw, the stalks remaining after the harvest of grain, is a renewable resource, grown
annually. Each year, 200 million tons of straw are under utilized or just wasted in this country alone.
Wheat, oats, barley, rice, rye, and flax are all desirable straws for bale walls. Even though the early
bale homes used hay for the bales, hay is not recommended because it is leafy and easily eaten by
creatures great and small. Straw, tough and fibrous, lasts far longer. Straw-bale expert Matts
Myhrman estimates that straw from the harvest of the United States’ major grains could be used to
construct five million, 2,000 square-foot houses every year! More conservative figures from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture indicate that America’s farmers annually harvest enough straw to
build about four million, 2,000 square-foot homes each year, nearly four times the
houses currently constructed.
Building a straw-bale house is relatively simple. A basic 2,000 square-foot house requires
about 300 standard three-wire bales of straw (costing approximately $1,000). Placed on a foundation,
the bales are skewered on rebar pins2 like giant shiskabobs.3 After wiring and plumbing, the walls are
sealed and finished. Because grains are grown in almost every region of the country, straw bales are
readily available, with minimal transportation costs. Lumber from trees, in addition to becoming
more scarce and expensive, must be transported over longer distances.
Types of Straw Bales
Straw bales come in all shapes and sizes, from small two-string bales to larger three-string bales and
massive cubical or round bales. The medium sized rectangular three-string bales are preferred for
building construction. Three- string bales are better structurally, have higher R-value, and are often
more compact. A typical medium-sized, three-wire bale may be 23" × 16" × 42" andmay weigh from
75 to 85 pounds. The smaller two-wire bales, which are easier to handle, are roughly 18" × 14" × 36"
and weigh 50 to 60 pounds. If the current trend continues, it may not be long before “constructiongrade” bales begin to appear….
How Affordable Is a Straw-Bale House?
The cost of a straw-bale house depends on the size of the building, the cost of materials
including bales, the design of the house, and the amount of “sweatequity” donated by the owner and
friends. Straw-bale costs range from fifty cents each when purchased from the fields of Montana to
$3.50 to $5.00 for three-wire bales delivered to a site in Arizona. Homes have been built for as little
as $5,000 to well above $200,000. Construction costs range from $5 to $120 per squarefoot.
($53 per square-foot is the national average for conventional construction.) Straw-bale houses come
in a variety of shapes and sizes from A-frames to tipis to two-story custom homes. Simple, ownerbuilt structures tend to be less expensive.
Long-lasting, low maintenance building materials and protection from the elements are key
for a long-term, maintenance-free house. Providing proper site drainage is the most important factor
for the home’s longevity. If the ground around the house remains dry and the house is sufficiently
maintained, the lifespan could be hundreds of years. The roof is another crucial component. Leaky
roofs damage many homes each year. Steeper roofs constructed of more permanent roofing materials
are preferred. Properly built and maintained, strawbale walls can last hundreds of years….
Frequently Asked Questions About Straw-Bale
This section answers some of the most commonly asked questions about
straw-bale construction.
Will the bales rot? Without adequate safeguards, rot can occur. The most important safeguard
is to buy dry bales. Fungi and mites can live in wet straw, so it’s best to buy the straw when it’s dry
and keep it dry until it is safely sealed into the walls. Paint for interior and exterior wall surfaces
should be permeable to water vapor so that moisture doesn’t get trapped inside the wall. Construction
design must prevent water from gathering where the first course of bales meets the foundation. Even
if straw bales are plastered, the foundation upon which the bales rest should be elevated above
outside ground level by at least six inches or more. This protects bales from rain water splashing off
the roof.
Will pests destroy the walls? Straw bales provide fewer havens for pests such as insects and
vermin than conventional wood framing. Once plastered, any chance of access is eliminated.
Are straw-bale buildings a fire hazard? The National Research Council of Canada tested
plastered straw bales for fire safety and found them to perform better than conventional building
materials. In fact, the plaster surface withstood temperatures of about 1,850º F for two hours before
any cracks developed.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, “The strawbales/mortar
structure wall has proven to be exceptionally resistant to fire. The straw bales hold enough air to
provide good insulation value, but because they are compacted firmly, they don’t hold enough air to
permit combustion.”…
— U.S. Department of Energy
excerpted from “House of Straw —
Straw Bale Construction Comes of Age,” April 1995
1. The text implies that an increased use of strawbale construction would impact the preservation
of
(1) hardwood trees
(3) coastal habitats
(2) island waterways
(4) nature preserves
2. According to the text, straw-bale structures have withstood which type of natural disaster?
(1) landslide
(3) wildfire
(2) volcano
(4) earthquake
3. In line 22, straw is referred to as a “renewable resource” to emphasize that straw has the
advantage of being easily
(1) regulated
(3) replenished
(2) repaired
(4) refined
4. According to the text, a major savings in using straw bales for construction is in the
(1) developing of architectural plans
(2) installing of electrical wiring
(3) shipping of building materials
(4) scaling of plaster walls
5. As used in the text, the term “sweat-equity”(lines 52 and 53) refers to
(1) time invested in loan applications
(2) labor needed to build a house
(3) deductions necessary for taxes
(4) supplies ordered for construction
6. According to the text, the life-span of a strawbale structure can be extended by a
(1) weather-tight roof
(2) solar-panel unit
(3) tree-sheltered location
(4) home-security system
7. The best way to prevent straw bales from rotting is for the purchaser to
(1) choose small-sized bales
(2) buy locally grown straw
(3) order bales in bulk quantities
(4) inspect straw for dampness
8. According to the National Research Council of Canada, the amount of air in straw-bale walls
provides insulation as well as
(1) structural stability
(3) light filtration
(2) fire protection
(4) storage space
Part 2
Directions: Below each passage, there are several multiple-choice questions. Select the best
suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate answer sheet provided
for you.
Text
Erin Elovecky loves to feel the warmth of the sun on her body. Growing up, she spent many
summer days on Long Island Sound, cruising around in her parents’ boat and soaking up rays.
Elovecky admired her mother, who could quickly develop a rich, brown tan, thanks to her Lebanese
heritage. But Elovecky took after the Irish side of the family, with fair skin and green eyes, and got
burned by the sun more often than not.
Hoping to give her skin a year-round sun-kissed glow, Elovecky started visiting a tanning
salon near her Southbury, Conn., home a few times a week in her early 20s. She went for a couple of
years. “It made me feel like I didn’t need to wear a lot of makeup, and I thought I looked so much
healthier with a tan,” she remembers.
Two years ago, at the age of 27, Elovecky noticed a small red spot at the edge of her
eyebrow. It itched, and the skin kept peeling off. She didn’t do anything about it until her hairdresser
said, “You have to get that checked out right away.”
One very painful biopsy later, Elovecky got the bad news: She had basal cell skin cancer.
Cases like Elovecky’s are becoming increasingly common. A recent study published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association found that the incidence of basal cell carcinoma (a
slow-growing tumor of the basal cells at the bottom of the epidermis) among women under the age of
40 more than doubled between 1976 and 2003, to 31.6 per 100,000. The rate for men increased only
slightly during that time. The study also found that both women and men showed significant
increases in squamous cell cancer, which occurs in the middle layer of the epidermis. Like basal cell
cancer, squamous cell cancer typically doesn’t metastasize1 and is rarely ever fatal. The reasons for
the rise in skin cancer are clear, say doctors. “Either they’re getting lots of chronic sun exposure
because they’re out all the time or using tanning beds, or it’s these intense burns that they’re getting,”
says Leslie Christenson, a dermatologic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic and one of the study’s authors.
Stepped-up screening for skin cancer and the thinning ozone layer, which allows more of the sun’s
ultraviolet rays in, may also play a role. The Indoor Tanning Association notes that the study didn’t
address whether the women tanned indoors or outdoors.
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common cancer in humans, with 800,000 new cases each
year. Squamous cell cancer is the second most common skin cancer, with 200,000 new cases. Next in
line is melanoma, a tumor that begins in the cells that produce the skin’s pigment, which accounts for
only about 100,000 new cases annually. But melanoma is much more lethal, killing 1 in 4 people
who develop it. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is a principal cause of all types of skin cancer,
either from damaging sunburns or the cumulative effect of long-term exposure. Family history also
plays a role, especially in melanoma. The typical sufferer used to be an older man who had either
worked outdoors all his life or was an avid golfer or boat owner who spent long hours in the sun. But
as the new study shows, that profile is changing.
Dermatologists who treat skin cancer aren’t surprised. “A week doesn’t go by that I don’t see
a woman in her 20s or early 30s with skin cancer,” says David Leffell, a professor of dermatology
and surgery at the Yale School of Medicine.
And although basal cell and squamous cell cancers hardly ever kill, those who develop them
are at higher risk for melanoma. Among 25-to-29-year-old women, melanoma is more common than
any non-skin cancer, including breast and colon cancer.
When you’re young, though, health concerns often take a back seat to more pressing worries,
like having a tan for prom. That’s how Erika Smith felt. Her grandmother died of melanoma, so
Smith knew she was at higher risk for the disease, but that didn’t stop her from sunbathing in the
backyard of her family’s home north of Seattle or going to the tanning parlor regularly. “I felt
invincible,” says Smith.
But then melanoma struck her family again. Her uncle’s wife died of the disease last year at
age 35, and Smith, then 19, was devastated. Because she wasn’t a blood relative her risk didn’t
change, but her perspective did. She went to the dermatologist, who biopsied a mole on her calf that
looked normal but for a tiny black speck on it. Diagnosis: melanoma, at a very early stage. Now she
goes to the dermatologist every six months for a full-body skin exam and avoids the sun.
Leffell and other skin cancer experts believe tanning parlors are one of the major culprits in
the rise of skin cancer among young women. A study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2002
found that 40 percent of 17- and 18-year-old girls reported visiting a tanning parlor in the past year
(compared with just 11 percent of boys in the same age group). Twenty-three states now restrict
minors’ use of tanning beds in some way, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.
Many states either require parental consent or restrict use to certain age groups.…
Even though most sun worshipers no longer aim for the deep, nut-brown tan that was popular
in the 1970s, it’s still fashionable to get a “healthy” tan in the summer. But there is no such thing, say
dermatologists. People tan when the melanin in their skin darkens to protect it from the sun’s rays.
“The fact that you’re making a tan is a sign that you’ve had an injury to your skin,” says John
Carucci, director of Mohs micrographic and dermatologic surgery for Weill Medical College at
Cornell University.
Self-tanners are a safe alternative for people who want a golden glow that doesn’t depend on
radiation. These products contain a colorless sugar that stains the skin’s surface cells darker, although
most do not offer any protection from the sun’s rays. Self-tanners were the fastest-growing sun care
product between 1999 and 2004, according to Euromonitor International, a market research
company.…
Since most skin cancers, even melanoma, are curable if caught soon enough, early detection
is key. Check your own body for new or changing moles, lesions, or other spots on your skin once a
month, and visit a dermatologist for a professional skin check annually. Any lesion that changes size,
shape, or color, or that begins to itch, doesn’t heal, bleeds intermittently, or becomes worse over the
course of a month should be examined right away. Shonda Schilling, 38, who has had five melanoma
surgeries since 2001 and who founded the Shade Foundation to educate people about skin cancer,
says some of her skin lesions didn’t look bad at all. “It doesn’t have to look nasty to be skin cancer,”
says Schilling. “If you wait until it’s as nasty looking as the pictures in books, it’s probably going to
kill you.”
—Michelle Andrews
excerpted from “Not So Sunny Spots”
U.S. News ＆ World Report, November 14, 2005
1. According to the article, between 1976 and 2003 the population that experienced a large increase
in cases of basal cell skin cancer was
(1) women under 40
(3) women over 40
(2) men under 40
(4) men over 40
2. The sun’s rays have become more dangerous because of the
(1) ineffective performance of modern sunscreens
(2) rapid increase in ocean temperatures
(3) unpredicted loss of cooling air currents
(4) continued depletion of the ozone layer
3. A factor which contributes to an increased risk of
people like Erika Smith developing skin cancer is
(1) geographic location
(2) population density
(3) family history
(4) education level
4. According to Erika Smith, she engaged in risky behavior following her grandmother’s death
because she felt
(1) angry
(3) bewildered
(2) untouchable
(4) sad
5. According to dermatologists, a tan that is labeled “healthy” (line 73) is actually
(1) preventing cancers
(3) increasing burns
(2) blocking radiation
(4) damaging skin
6. According to the article, market researchers have observed a rapid increase in the use of
(1) sunscreens
(3) self-tanners
(2) tanning beds
(4) sunglasses
7. According to the article, the cure rate for skin cancers is greatly increased by
(1) early detection
(2) modern medicine
(3) health insurance
(4) educational foundations
Text
Indoor Air Quality Concerns
All of us face a variety of risks to our health as we go about our day-to-day lives. Driving in
cars, flying in planes, engaging in recreational activities, and being exposed to environmental
pollutants all pose varying degrees of risk. Some risks are simply unavoidable. Some we choose to
accept because to do otherwise would restrict our ability to lead our lives the way we want. And
some are risks we might decide to avoid if we had the opportunity to make informed choices.
Indoor air pollution is one risk that you can do something about.
In the last several years, a growing body of scientific evidence has indicated that the air
within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the
largest and most industrialized cities. Other research indicates that people spend approximately 90
percent of their time indoors.
Thus, for many people, the risks to health may be greater due to exposure to air pollution
indoors than outdoors.
In addition, people who may be exposed to indoor air pollutants for the longest periods of
time are often those most susceptible to the effects of indoor air pollution. Such groups include the
young, the elderly, and the chronically ill, especially those suffering from respiratory or
cardiovascular disease.…
What Causes Indoor Air Problems?
Indoor pollution sources that release gases or particles into the air are the primary cause of
indoor air quality problems in homes. Inadequate ventilation can increase indoor pollutant levels by
not bringing in enough outdoor air to dilute emissions from indoor sources and by not carrying
indoor air pollutants out of the home. High temperature and humidity levels can also increase
concentrations of some pollutants.
There are many sources of indoor air pollution in any home. These include combustion
sources such as oil, gas, kerosene, coal, wood, and tobacco products; building materials and
furnishings as diverse as deteriorated, asbestos-containing insulation, wet or damp carpet, and
cabinetry or furniture made of certain pressed wood products; products for household cleaning and
maintenance, personal care, or hobbies; central heating and cooling systems and humidification
devices; and outdoor sources such as radon, pesticides, and outdoor air pollution.
The relative importance of any single source depends on how much of a given pollutant it
emits and how hazardous those emissions are. In some cases, factors such as how old the source is
and whether it is properly maintained are significant. For example, an improperly adjusted gas stove
can emit significantly more carbon monoxide than one that is properly adjusted.
Some sources, such as building materials, furnishings, and household products like air
fresheners, release pollutants more or less continuously. Other sources, related to activities carried
out in the home, release pollutants intermittently. These include smoking, the use of unvented or
malfunctioning stoves, furnaces, or space heaters, the use of solvents in cleaning and hobby
activities, the use of paint strippers in redecorating activities, and the use of cleaning products and
pesticides in housekeeping. High pollutant concentrations can remain in the air for long periods after
some of these activities.
If too little outdoor air enters a home, pollutants can accumulate to levels that can pose health
and comfort problems. Unless they are built with special mechanical means of ventilation, homes
that are designed and constructed to minimize the amount of outdoor air that can “leak” into and out
of the home may have higher pollutant levels than other homes. However, because some weather
conditions can drastically reduce the amount of outdoor air that enters a home, pollutants can build
up even in homes that are normally considered “leaky.”
How Does Outdoor Air Enter a House?
Outdoor air enters and leaves a house by: infiltration, natural ventilation, and mechanical
ventilation. In a process known as infiltration, outdoor air flows into the house through openings,
joints, and cracks in walls, floors, and ceilings, and around windows and doors. In natural ventilation,
air moves through opened windows and doors. Air movement associated with infiltration and natural
ventilation is caused by air temperature differences between indoors and outdoors and by wind.
Finally, there are a number of mechanical ventilation devices, from outdoor-vented fans that
intermittently remove air from a single room, such as bathrooms and kitchen, to air handling systems
that use fans and duct work to continuously remove indoor air and distribute filtered and conditioned
outdoor air to strategic points throughout the house. The rate at which outdoor air replaces indoor air
is described as the air exchange rate. When there is little infiltration, natural ventilation, or
mechanical ventilation, the air exchange rate is low and pollutant levels can increase.
What If You Live In An Apartment?
Apartments can have the same indoor air problems as single-family homes because many of
the pollution sources, such as the interior building materials, furnishings, and household products, are
similar. Indoor air problems similar to those in offices are caused by such sources as contaminated
ventilation systems, improperly placed outdoor air intakes, or maintenance activities.…
Indoor Air and Your Health
Health effects from indoor air pollutants may be experienced soon after exposure or,
possibly, years later.…The likelihood of immediate reactions to indoor air pollutants depends on
several factors. Age and preexisting medical conditions are two important influences. In other cases,
whether a person reacts to a pollutant depends on individual sensitivity, which varies tremendously
from person to person. Some people can become sensitized1 to biological pollutants after repeated
exposures, and it appears that some people can become sensitized to chemical pollutants as
well.
Certain immediate effects are similar to those from colds or other viral diseases, so it is often
difficult to determine if the symptoms are a result of exposure to indoor air pollution. For this reason,
it is important to pay attention to the time and place the symptoms occur. If the symptoms fade or go
away when a person is away from the home and return when the person returns, an effort should be
made to identify indoor air sources that may be possible causes. Some effects may be made worse by
an inadequate supply of outdoor air or from the heating, cooling, or humidity conditions prevalent in
the home.…
Identifying Air Quality Problems
Some health effects can be useful indicators of an indoor air quality problem, especially if
they appear after a person moves to a new residence, remodels or refurnishes a home, or treats a
home with pesticides. If you think that you have symptoms that may be related to your home
environment, discuss them with your doctor or your local health department to see if they could be
caused by indoor air pollution. You may also want to consult a board-certified allergist or an
occupational medicine specialist for answers to your questions.…
—United States Environmental Protection Agency
excerpted from “The Inside Story — A Guide to Indoor Air Quality”
April 1995
1. According to lines 1 through 7, health risks posed to individuals by indoor air pollutants can be
(1) lessened
(3) identified
(2) explained
(4) concealed
2. According to the text, outdoor air in large cities can be less polluted than air
(1) near large farms
(2) within some buildings
(3) around stagnant water
(4) above congested highways
3. Which group of people would be most likely to suffer harm from indoor pollutants?
(1) clerks in grocery stores
(2) secretaries in professional offices
(3) shoppers in retail stores
(4) residents of nursing homes
4. The amount of pollutant released by a household
item is sometimes affected by the item’s
(1) size
(3) age
(2) cost
(4) weight
5. According to the text, architects and builders may produce homes with high pollutant levels when
they attempt to
(1) control spending
(2) increase weatherproofing
(3) speed up construction
(4) alter the landscape
Part 2
Directions: Below each passage, there are several multiple-choice questions. Select the best
suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate answer sheet provided
for you.
Text
For countless American children, breakfast or lunch drops out of a vending machine at
school: a can of soda, perhaps, washing down a chocolate bar or a bag of potato chips.
Now, a growing number of states are striking back, trying to curb the rise in childhood
obesity by placing strict limits on the sale of candy, soft drinks and fatty snacks in schools. Nearly a
dozen states are considering legislation to turn off school vending machines during class time, strip
them of sweets or impose new taxes on soft drinks to pay for teacher salaries and breakfast programs.
In California, legislators appear close to passing a law that would prohibit any drinks but
milk, water or juice from being sold in elementary schools, and curtail the hours older students can
fuel up at vending machines. In Hawaii, legislators are pushing to oust sodas from school machines
altogether.
The wave of legislation, unusual both for its breadth and its assertiveness, grew out of the
newest statistics on child obesity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teenagers
today are almost three times as likely to be overweight as they were 20 years ago, the agency
announced this year, prompting many lawmakers to take aim at the junk food they believe is to
blame.
“It can’t help when a child is eating chips and soda at 8 in the morning,” said Martha Escutia,
a state senator who backed California’s bill.
The food industry says children need more exercise, not fewer choices. The bills have also
angered school administrators nationwide, intensifying an already heated debate over the prevalence
of commercialism in the education system.
Once little more than a novelty in schools, vending machines have become a principal source
of extra money for districts across the nation, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars for
extracurricular activities each year. With dozens of machines lining their hallways, some schools
annually earn $50,000 or more in commissions, then use the money for marching bands, computer
centers and field trips that might otherwise fall by the wayside.
To keep such programs going, schools are emerging as the staunchest opponents of the
proposed restrictions, invoking the same principles of local control that the states themselves use to
fight federal standards for academic testing. In many cases, the resistance from schools has been
vociferous1 enough to water down or defeat measures, or at least stall them until the next legislative
session rolls around.
“Let the parents, the students and the school community sit down and decide how to handle
this,” said Robert E. Meeks, legislative director for the Minnesota School Boards Association, which
has organized against legislation to curtail soda sales. Mr. Meeks added that Minnesota schools earn
roughly $40 million a year from vending machines. “The states only seem to be interested in local
control when it suits them,” he said.
Many lawmakers say they find it odd that educators are their biggest foes, considering that
the schools are supposed to look after the welfare of their students.
Half the students in some Texas and California districts are overweight, officials say.
“I can understand why school districts go in search of extra resources,” said Jaime L. Capelo
Jr., a state representative in Texas who introduced a measure to pare down the amount of junk food
in schools. “But it’s shameful when they obtain additional resources through contracts with soda
companies with little or no regard to the health of their students.”
Even some students express concern over the abundance of snack foods in their schools. Nell
S. Geiser, a 17-year-old senior at New Vista High School in Boulder, Colo., says the vending
machines in the building never shut down. At 7:30 a.m., outside classrooms with corporate symbols
like I.B.M. painted on the walls, she says her fellow students gather in front of the humming
machines, comparing schedules on daily planners with logos of the WB network, courtesy of
a local television station.
“Plenty of kids make their breakfast from a Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos,” said Nell,
who organizes fellow students to oppose soda contracts in schools. “You’re brought up thinking it’s
all right to be constantly bombarded with ads and junk food because they’re in your school.”
Educators, in turn, say that it is the lawmakers who are hypocritical, because as tax revenues
sag in tandem with the economy, state legislatures are cutting school budgets, leaving districts with
few choices but to search for substitute funds.
“Maybe it’s not the best way of making money,” said Paul D. Houston, executive director of
the American Association of School Administrators. “But who is responsible for providing funding
for schools? The very people who are now saying that we can’t engage in creative ways of raising
money.”
Though they are often sympathetic to the economic woes of school districts, many lawmakers
argue that encouraging children to indulge at an early age is ultimately fiscally irresponsible. As
students become heavier and their health deteriorates, more serious ailments like diabetes can arise,
leading to higher health care costs over time.…
The Department of Agriculture tried to ban soda and candy sales in schools more than two
decades ago, but was thwarted by a federal appeals court in 1983. Now, federal regulations simply
require schools to turn off soda and candy machines in the cafeteria during meal times. Those that sit
outside in the hallways can stay on all day.
Several states go further. New York, which, like a handful of other states, is considering
ways to increase exercise in schools, already prohibits food of “minimal nutritional value” from
being sold until after lunch. New Jersey and Maryland have similar policies. But lawmakers say that
such rules often make little difference.
“They’re totally ignored,” said Paul G. Pinsky, a state senator in Maryland and former high
school teacher who introduced a bill this year to switch off vending machines during the school day.
“After the sugar high wore off and they were finished bouncing off the walls, my students’ heads
would fall on the desk,” he said. “It made it really difficult to teach.”
Part of the problem, legislators say, is that the agreements between schools and soda
companies sometimes deter principals from following state policy, especially since how much
schools make is often tied to how much they sell.
One contract between the Pepsi-Cola Company and the Montgomery Blair High School in
Silver Spring, Md., stated that “if the Board of Education actively enforces the policy in which
vending machines are turned off during the school day,” the school will not get its guaranteed
commission. But the company is now taking a more conciliatory stand. Officials of Pepsi, a unit of
PepsiCo, say they have redrawn the contract and others like it over the last year, so that they reflect
what the company calls the “spirit and the letter” of state policies.
In other states, legislators question whether schools have disregarded state guidelines simply
by allowing soda machines on campus. In recent years, North Carolina schools have signed vending
contracts with soft drink companies, even though the state’s official policy allows only sales that
“contribute to the nutritional well-being of the child and aid in establishing good food habits.”
“It’s a bit of a conflict, isn’t it?” said Ellie G. Kinnaird, a state senator in North Carolina who is
seeking a moratorium on soft drink contracts in schools.
Six months ago, the Coca-Cola Company said that it would scale back on binding contracts
with schools. But the new guidelines do not pertain to existing contracts, and may not affect future
ones either.
On average, Americans drink nearly 60 gallons of soda each year, almost 8 gallons more than
they did just 10 years ago. For many lawmakers, it is a given that the increase has worsened
childhood obesity. To the food industry, assigning the blame to any one type of food is simplistic.
“There are no such things as good foods and bad foods,” said Chip Kunde, a legislative director for
the Grocery Manufacturers of America, a food industry trade group. “There are just good diets and
bad diets.”
Researchers vacillate2, pointing out that children are eating more of almost everything, not
just sweets, while exercising less. In fact, only 29 percent of students attended daily physical
education classes in 1999, compared with 42 percent in 1991, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, making it harder for them to burn off the extra calories they have put on.
— Greg Winter
excerpted from “States Try to Limit
Sales of Junk Food in School Buildings”
The New York Times, September 9, 2001
1. The text indicates that the move to ban vending machines in schools came about as a reaction to
(1) parental pressure
(2) health concerns
(3) legal opinions
(4) funding uncertainty
2. According to the text, the proposed California law (lines 9 through 11) would prohibit the sale of
(1) junk food in elementary schools
(2) milk or juice in elementary schools
(3) soft drinks in high schools
(4) soft drinks in elementary schools
3. According to the text, food industry representatives argue that schools are failing to
provide students with adequate
(1) counseling sessions
(2) economic awareness
(3) physical education
(4) legislative protection
4. According to lines 29 through 40, schools often view “junk food” legislation as conflicting with
their right to
(1) make decisions
(2) teach nutrition
(3) enforce standards
(4) monitor student health
5. According to the text, vending machines in
schools send students a conflicting message
about
(1) educational opportunity
(2) user convenience
(3) physical activity
(4) good nutrition
6. The text implies that lawmakers feel the availability of “junk foods” in schools is
(1) shortsighted (3) acceptable
(2) essential (4) declining
7. Paul G. Pinsky’s opinion (lines 85 through 89) is most probably cited because of his experience
as a
(1) food distributor
(2) high school teacher
(3) cafeteria worker
(4) school board member
8. According to the text, contracts between schools
and soda companies may pressure schools to
(1) ignore existing legislation
(2) become creative fund-raisers
(3) reduce variety in cafeterias
(4) raise beverage prices