Irrelevant Sentences Advanced Level Test – Quiz (Online Exercise With Answers) 3

(Please read the following set of sentences carefully and identify the sentence that does not directly contribute to the main topic or is unrelated to the other sentences. This sentence may introduce a different subject or provide information that is not relevant to the main idea. Choose the option that best represents the irrelevant sentence.)

(I) When Europeans first arrived in North America, the forests were full of bears. (II) There were more than half a million of these wild animals. (III) Then the Europeans began to cut down the forests where the bears lived. (IV) They also began to hunt them in great numbers. (V) Therefore, by 1800 the number of bears had doubled.

(I) Many Amish families earn their living from farming. (II) The Amish people dress in very plain clothes. (III) The men and boys wear dark jackets and trousers, plain shirts and hats. (IV) The women and girls wear long dresses and small bonnets. (V) They have long hair and don’t wear any make-up or jewellery.

(I) To an outsider, Istanbul may at first seem like a Western city. (II) The Western dress, the many new buildings, the traffic problems all make the city seem very modern. (III) But there is another side to this great city, its rich past as the capital of the Ottoman Empire. (IV) In the narrow back streets, the bazaars, and the mosques, this past seems very near and real. (V) The Blue Mosque is one of the best examples of Islamic architecture in Istanbul.

(I) For more than three years, Anna Feng didn’t tell her husband that she had sunk nearly half of their savings into the Shanghai stock market. (II) Everyone seems to be so optimistic about the markets now. (III) While he thought all their money was safely sitting in a bank, the value of the stocks plunged by almost 75%. (IV) But over the past couple of months, the Shanghai market has shown signs of life, and Feng, a 56-year-old retiree, has recouped half her losses. (V) She’s quietly hopeful that maybe she’ll make it all back before her husband has noticed what has been happening to their savings.

(I) Skin cancer used to be considered an affliction mainly of older people, and indeed, it was rising among the over-50s. (II) About 1 million Americans are diagnosed each year with nonmelanoma skin cancer. (III) Some 800,000 of these are basal cell, the most common type, and another 200,000 are squamous cell. (IV) If left untreated, these skin cancers may become invasive, requiring fairly major surgery. (V) But these types rarely metastasize and are relatively easy to cure if caught early on.

(I) Right now the only treatment for food allergy is to avoid the food for life. (II) But researchers are looking for better options. (III) One that has received a lot of attention is Anti-IgE, which tries to block the antibody that causes allergic reactions. (IV) Another focus is finding ways to prevent the immune system from attacking the food protein in the first place, which may teach the immune system to tolerate the food. (V) When people complain of allergies, they have hives or a scratchy throat.

(I) One of the few things people can agree on about Britain's class system is that it is always out of date. (II) “The peculiarity of English class distinctions is not that they are unjust —for after all, wealth and poverty exist side by side in almost all countries— but that they are anachronistic,” George Orwell wrote back in 1947. (III) More recently, Andrew (now Lord) Adonis, one of the brains behind this week's education white paper, helped write a book arguing much the same. (IV) Old ideas about monocles and stately homes were misleading. (V) An adolescence spent at an expensive school with archaic rules and an absurd dress code was until recently thought to be a handicap for a politician.

(I) Bedrooms should be devoid of clutter and have adequate lighting. (II) Light-sensitive night lights can make getting up in the middle of the night safer. (III) Many people today like to paint their bedroom walls in bright, cheerful colours. (IV) Minimizing clutter and ensuring ample space around the bed is also important. (V) Comforters or blankets should be well fitted so they are not dragging on the floor.

(I) The city of Greenvale allows residents to keep bees only under strict conditions - the hives cannot even be placed next to a neighbour's fence. (II) The beekeeper must be an adult, must register with the city council and must keep no more than two hives. (III) Honey has been used as a medicine since ancient times. (IV) There is no requirement to have any formal training. (V) Two inspections of the hives must be carried out each year, separated by an interval of at least six months.

(I) No country in modern history has moved so swiftly from worldwide adulation to dismissal or even contempt as did Japan, in a process that began more or less as the temple bells were tolling in the new year of 1990. (II) In the 15 years that followed, amid crashing stock and property markets, mountains of dud debt, scores of corruption scandals, vast government deficits and stagnant economic growth, Japan mutated from being a giver of lessons to a recipient of lectures, all of which offered recipes for its reform and revival. (III) Since then, Japan has suffered a price deflation that has still not come to an end. (IV) Those lectures, although received politely by a newly self-deprecatory Japanese elite, seemed to be ignored. (V) Now, however, the time for lectures is over; Japan is back.

(I) Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neuroscientist at the University of Parma in Italy who studies the origins of language, says the game is interesting because it shows the importance of imitation in language development. (II) The birth of a new language is such a rare event that scientists who want to watch it happen generally have to make do with computer simulations. (III) Bruno Galantucci, a cognitive scientist at Yeshiva University in New York, has developed a human alternative, based on the principle that necessity is the mother of invention. (IV) He asks pairs of strangers to play a computer game in which they have to find one another in a virtual bungalow. (V) This requires them to communicate, but the only way they can do so is by inventing a language.

(I) “In the future, the only thing that will get read is something that will be online. (II) MSN is initially scanning only books from the British Library that are out of copyright. (III) If it isn't online, it doesn't exist”, proclaims the director of content partnerships at Google. (IV) Yet for search companies such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN, digitising books is particularly important because it represents the next critical phase of the industry. (V) Most of the web has already been scanned and indexed— there are already between 8 billion and 10 billion items online.

(I) Despite the fact that it is difficult to study in another language, the rewards will probably last a lifetime. (II) Studying at an English-medium university in countries that are non-English speaking is a good thing if students want to have more job opportunities after graduation. (III) Many people prefer these universities because the world is becoming a global village and employers are requiring employees to speak more than one language. (IV) As a result, applicants who don’t have enough qualifications are unlikely to have a good future. (V) Furthermore, graduates who communicate well in English will find it easier to get jobs abroad as well as in their own country.

(I) Nothing could have surprised me so much as Aunt Clara’s marriage. (II) She is such an interesting person that you never guess what she’ll do next. (III) It shocked the other members of the family, too. (IV) Some of them even got very annoyed, especially my father. (V) He said he’d never approve of her marrying such a young man.

(I) Among the many peoples to settle the island of Malta were the Phoenicians, who reached it in about the 9th century B.C. (II) They were followed by the Romans. (III) In succession, the island was then occupied by the Arabs, the Knights, the French, and most recently, the British. (IV) The Phoenicians, of course, came from the area called Lebanon today. (V) All in all, there is a wide variety of population there.

(I) Legumes are a category of vegetable that includes beans, lentils and peas. (II) The cocoa bean is eaten as candy, in cakes, cookies and puddings. (III) In some places, however, it is also eaten in a nonsweet form. (IV) The Mexicans, for example, make a chicken dish with a spicy chocolate sauce. (V) In other places, it is added to hot drinks without any sugar.

(I) Different countries have different customs. (II) Sometimes, these customs are so different that what may be a traditional act in one country may be a sign of disrespect in another. (III) For instance, in Turkey, when people see each other after a long time, they hug each other and kiss each other on the cheeks. (IV) However, in Japan, this is considered impolite, and people usually bow to each other instead. (V) In many Asian countries, such as Japan, China and South Korea, people prefer to eat rice at lunchtime.

(I) Swimming at least 300 metres a day tones up all the muscles in your body; therefore, it is a good way to stay healthy. (II) Another benefit of swimming is that it’s the best way to lose weight. (III) Swimming is a sport that you can do alone. (IV) Doctors all over the world recommend swimming for overweight people. (V) Many sports centres now offer special swimming classes for people who want to lose weight.

(I) The divorce rate in many European countries has increased over the last decade. (II) One reason for this is that many men and women don’t want to be tied down to just one partner their whole lives. (III) Mainly children are affected by this rapid increase in divorce. (IV) Another reason is that men and women are so busy with their careers that they have little time to work on their marriage. (V) In the future, it has been suggested that marriage will become rare.

(I) Years ago people started fighting for animal rights. (II) They struggled in order to prevent manufacturers from testing their products on animals. (III) Some products such as make-up, perfume, and medicine are now being tested without using animals. (IV) These days some species of animals are gradually becoming extinct. (V) However, animal testing is still a major problem all over the world.

(I) Is it possible for a party to join a government and stay in the opposition at the same time? (II) Forming a government in New Zealand is no mean feat. (III) Helen Clark, who was sworn in for a third three-year term as New Zealand's prime minister on October 19th, obviously thinks so. (IV) Her minority coalition, of Labour and the one-man Progressive Party, commands fewer than half of the votes in the 121-seat parliament. (V) To give herself a working majority, she has entered into peculiar agreements with two smaller parties.

(I) Home to nearly two-fifths of humanity, two neighbouring countries, India and China, are two of the world's fastest-growing economies. (II) Both are poor countries that have made great strides in reducing poverty, especially since embarking on radical economic reform. (III) But India and China, always very different civilisations, have followed very different paths to growth. (IV) Under the reform, they have converged somewhat in the past two decades but will remain distinctive. (V) The two countries reacted to the recent deaths of two reformist leaders in the same way.

(I) China is mobilising 30,000 extra troops and 90 more helicopters to help with the rescue operation after Monday's devastating earthquake. (II) Correspondents say that hopes of finding survivors fade with each passing day. (III) About 10 million people in Sichuan province have been directly affected by the 7.9-magnitude quake that flattened entire villages, state media said. (IV) Nearly 15,000 people have been killed, and another 26,000 are still trapped. (V) China is also busy preparing to host the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

(I) Like the Indian plant-hopper, these tiny unwanted animals can strip a field completely, literally sucking the life out of the plants. (II) Scientists say they are worried about new EU proposals which could drastically restrict the number of pesticides available to farmers. (III) The registration process is changing and many commonly used chemicals are likely to fall out of use. (IV) It is claimed the replacement regime could lead to reduced yields and further increases in food costs. (V) But anti-pesticide campaigners say the changes are needed to help protect human health and the environment.

(I) Major changes in the Earth's natural systems driven by global warming are under research. (II) Since 1970, there's been about 0.5°C to 0.6°C of warming - that's the global average. (III) Glacier and permafrost melting, earlier spring-time, coastal erosion and animal migrations are among the observations laid at the door of manmade warming. (IV) The research, in the journal Nature, involves many scientists who took part in last year's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. (V) It links warming and natural impacts on a tighter regional scale.