Reading Passages Advanced Level Test – Quiz (Online Exercise With Answers) 3

(Please note: The following questions are related to a specific reading passage, which is available solely before the first question. Remember, it may be helpful to refer back to the reading text while answering the questions to ensure accuracy.)

The best-performing oil investment comes from trees in Malaysia, not the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Vegetable oils from palm trees are being used in products like Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Snickers chocolate bars. After petroleum prices doubled in the past three years and governments encouraged renewable fuels, the use of palm oil started to grow. Right now, it is the cheapest and most efficient of vegetable oils. Palm oil, however, is not without its detractors. The growing use of palm oil as fuel may threaten virgin rainforests in Southeast Asia and quicken deforestation, raising the likelihood of legal challenges from environmentalists, say some investors. The biggest challenge to palm oil is sustainability. In other words, biodiesel aims to be environmentally friendly. Nonetheless, this would not be the case if the feedstock were only grown at the expense of virgin rainforest.

It is stated in the passage that vegetable oils from palm trees _____.

As it is emphasized in the passage, the reason why the use of palm oil is increasing is that _____.

One may infer from the passage that _____.

One of the world’s best-known waterfalls is Niagara Falls, on the border between Canada and the United States. Tourism was practically invented there. But the astonishing thing about Niagara’s fame is how overrated it is. Niagara is nowhere near the biggest waterfall in the world. Nor is it even the longest waterfall in the United States. What is it that makes a waterfall the best? It isn’t height. There are many immensely long waterfalls, some cascading thousands of feet such as Strupenfossen in Norway or Mutarazi Falls in Zimbabwe. Of course, when people go to see a waterfall they expect to see a serious amount of water. And Niagara’s one claim to fame is that it is the biggest waterfall in North America in terms of volume.

According to the passage, what makes Niagara the biggest waterfall in North America is that _____.

As is mentioned in the passage, _____.

As concluded in the passage, _____.

Stress has become a scourge afflicting not only busy executives but also teenagers. What makes it such a common conversation piece these days is the fact that it's not a proper disease but a silent debilitator that takes its toll on the body over years or decades. Chronic stress, researchers have come to agree, can lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, impaired cognitive function and a weakened immune system. A recent study by British researchers at University College London reported that elevated chronic stress levels at the workplace lead to an increased risk of obesity, insulin intolerance and high cholesterol. Other research has shown a correlation between chronic stress and asthma, allergies, and even the time it takes for wounds to heal.

The passage is mainly concerned with _____.

It is asserted in the passage that what makes stress a common issue being talked about these days _____.

It can be inferred from the passage that according to one of the studies, _____.

Charles Dickens was born on the South coast of England, near Portsmouth, in 1812. He began writing in his early twenties and wrote his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, in 1836. He always saw himself as a crusading novelist. He had great sympathy for the poor and downtrodden and many of his books highlight the injustices to be found in the society of the time. Charles Dickens was perhaps the greatest novelist of the nineteenth century. All his novels are still in print and they present a rich canvas of life and behaviour at all levels of contemporary society. Many of his works, such as Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol, have been filmed, televised and presented as both straight plays and musicals, revealing the power and timelessness of his writing.

As mentioned in the passage, Charles Dickens _____.

One may conclude from the passage that _____.

It is stated in the passage that Charles Dickens’ novels _____.

A long line of people waiting for check-in: tired, anxious, and not a few of them close to tears. Children separated from their parents. Armed and uniformed guards who make arbitrary-seeming selections. Intrusive body searches. Personal belongings turned carelessly out of bags. A dreary atmosphere of threat and intimidation. An African state close to collapse? Not at all. This is a scene repeated in a hundred first-world cities every hour and an experience guaranteed to anyone who happens to have an airline ticket and is determined to use it. Hard as it may be to believe, air travel was an adventure and a luxury not that long ago. As for airports, they were more like branch-line railway stations than today’s industrial-sized holding and storing centers for human beings. And check-in? Check-in had still to be invented.

In the passage, the setting is _____.

As is stated in the passage, check-in procedures of the airports _____.

It may be understood from the passage that _____.

In Kashmir, it has been a year and a half since the world turned upside down. Buildings crumbled, villages slipped off mountainsides, and lakes formed where rivers once flowed. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hammered northern Pakistan and India on Oct. 8, 2005 took some 75,000 lives, injured 130,000 and left nearly 3.5 million people without food, jobs or homes – refugees in their own land. Almost overnight, scores of tent villages bloomed across the region, tended by international aid organizations, military personnel and jihadi groups working furiously to shelter the survivors before the onslaught of winter. Mercifully, the season was mild. Fears of a second wave of death and suffering due to the cold proved unfounded. However, in many villages, electrical lines have not been repaired, and neither have roads. Aid workers estimate that it will take years to rebuild what the earthquake took away. And for the thousands of survivors – many of them children, left maimed and bereft by the destruction – the recovery will never be complete.

One may infer from the passage that the 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Kashmir _____.

It is stated in the passage that the weather conditions during the winter in Kashmir _____.

According to the passage, for aid workers, reconstruction of what the earthquake knocked down will last for years but _____.

Modern Formula One is a multibillion-dollar sport that couldn’t function without skilled teamwork and the latest technology. This season, the Orange Arrows team is strengthening its arsenal of technology solutions to streamline collaboration between team members and boost its racing competitiveness. Along with the usual wrenches and screwdrivers, Orange Arrows engineers now utilize handheld wire-free terminals that collect, synchronize and distribute all information relating to any of the thousands of possible vehicle settings. Car and race data are downloaded from the track to Orange Arrows headquarters where they are referenced to performance databases and computer models. This allows design teams to predict what effect a modification might have and to remotely offer advice on how to fine-tune the live vehicle configurations, and thus improve the chances of victory.

As mentioned in the passage, Formula One today is a kind of sport _____.

It is stated in the passage that handheld wire-free terminals _____.

As it is mentioned in the passage, Orange Arrows headquarters _____.

Normally the streets of Oaxaca, a city of some 250,000 people in southern Mexico, are full of tourists. They come to enjoy the nearby Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban and the city’s colonial churches, Indian markets and art galleries. But Oaxaca, designated a world heritage site by the United Nations, is today a much sorrier sight. For the past four months, it has been in the grip of a bitter political conflict that one local politician calls "a low-intensity urban war". The Zocalo, the main square, is permanently occupied by several thousand protestors; more are camped out around the city. They have seized several radio stations and public offices. Many streets are blocked by barricades of parked buses or corrugated iron. Angry graffiti, in red and black spray paint, disfigure many historical buildings. Not only has this conflict driven off the tourists; it also threatens the peaceful nature of the citizens in the country.

It is understood from the passage that Oaxaca _____.

One may infer from the passage that Oaxaca _____.

As is stated in the passage, the bitter political conflict in the city _____.