Reading Passage
Reading Passage
Grade and Section: _______________________ impact of printed books on the environment. Since
e-readers use no trees, they represent a significant
Date: ______________________ amount of preservation in terms of the
environment and its resources.
Right now, I am looking at a shelf full of Finally, e-readers are superior to books
relics, a collection of has-beens, old-timers, because they provide helpful reading tips and tools
antiques, fossils. Right now I am looking at a that printed books do not. The typical e-reader
shelf full of books. Yes, that's right. If you have allows its user to customize letter size, font, and
some spare cash (the going rate is about $89) and line spacing. It also allows highlighting and
are looking to enhance your reading experience, electronic bookmarking. Furthermore, it grants
then I highly suggest you consider purchasing an users the ability to get an overview of a book and
e-reader. E-readers are replacing the books of then jump to a specific location based on that
old, and I welcome them with open arms (as you overview. While these are all nice features,
should). perhaps the most helpful of all is the ability to get
If you haven't heard of an e-reader and dictionary definitions at the touch of a finger.
don't know what it is, then please permit the On even the most basic e-reader, users can conjure
following explanation. An e-reader is a device instant definitions without having to hunt through
that allows you to read e-books. An e-book is a a physical dictionary.
book-length publication in digital form, It can be seen that e-readers are superior to printed
consisting of text, images, or both, and produced books. They save space, are environmentally
on, published through, and readable on computers friendly, and provide helpful reading tips and tools
or other electronic devices. Sometimes the that printed books do not. So what good are printed
equivalent of a conventional printed book, e- books? Well, they certainly make nice decorations
books can also be born digital. The Oxford
Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an Instruction: UNDERLINE the letter of your correct
electronic version of a printed book," but e-books answer.
can and do exist without any printed equivalent.
So now you know what an e-reader is. But 1) As used in paragraph 1, it can be inferred
you still may be wondering why they put printed that "relics,” “has-beens, old-timers,
books to shame. E-readers are superior to printed antiques, fossils" are all words that describe
books because they save space, are something _____.
environmentally friendly, and provide helpful
reading tips and tools that printed books do not. A. ancient
E-readers are superior to printed books B. useless
because they save space. The average e-reader C. outdated
can store thousands of digital books, providing a D. pathetic
veritable library at your fingertips. What is more,
being the size and weight of a thin hardback, the 2) The tone of the author can best be described as
e-reader itself is relatively petite. It is easy to
hold and can fit in a pocketbook or briefcase A. shrewd
easily. This makes handling ponderous B. conniving
behemoths such as War and Peace, Anna C. persuasive
Karenina, and Les Misérables a breeze. Perhaps D. authoritative
the only drawback to the space-saving aspect of
an e-reader is that it requires you to find new 3) According to the author, e-books
things to put on your shelves.
In addition, e-readers are superior to books I. were all once printed books
because they are environmentally friendly. The II. may be "born digital"
average novel is about 300 pages long. So, if a III. are able to display images
novel is printed 1000 times, it will use 300,000
pieces of paper. That's a lot of paper! If there are A. I only
about 80,000 pieces of paper in a tree, this means B. I and II only
it takes almost 4 trees to make these 1000 books. C. II and III only
Now, we know that the average bestseller sells D. I, II, and III
about 20,000 copies per week. That means that it
takes over 300 trees each month to sustain this 4) As used in paragraph 3, which of the following
rate. And for the super bestsellers, these figures describes something that has been "put to
increase dramatically. For example, the Harry shame"?
Potter book series has sold over 450 million
copies. That's about 2 million trees! Upon viewing
A. A dog is left outside on a frigid, dreary the biggest challenge to the author's argument
winter night. set forth in paragraph 5?
B. Team A defeats Team B in a humiliating
rout. A. Books are not made only from whole trees,
C. Martha is caught stealing at the mall and is but from wood chips and forest waste as
arrested in front of a crowd of curious well.
bystanders.
D. The machine has countless moving parts and B. The natural resources required to read
Dustin has trouble assembling it. an e-book on an e-reader are greater
than the natural resources required to
5) A thesis statement is a sentence that clearly make a printed book.
describes what the author plans to discuss. C. The results of a recent survey show that
Based on this information, which of the people who read e-books are more likely to
following sentences from the passage is the be distracted during their reading and
thesis statement? remember less of the book.
D. Although the printing of the extremely
A. If you have some spare cash (the popular Harry Potter book series had
going rate is about $89) and are significant environmental impact, the
looking to enhance your reading Harry Potter movie series cost almost no
experience, then I highly suggest you trees to make and was also very well-
consider purchasing an e-reader. liked.
B. E-readers are replacing the books of old, and
I welcome them with open arms (as you 10) According to the author, which of the following
should). reading tips and tools are offered by the e-
C. An e-reader is a device that allows you to reader?
read e-books. An e-book is a book-length
publication in digital form, consisting of I. line spacing customization
text, images, or both, and produced on, II. the ability to quickly jump to the end of a
published through, and readable on book
computers or other electronic devices. III. access to an online thesaurus at the touch of
D. E-readers are superior to printed books a finger
because they save space, are
environmentally friendly, and provide A. I only
helpful reading tips and tools that printed B. I and II only
books do not. C. II and III only
D. I, II, and III
6) Based on its use in paragraph 4, it can be
inferred that petite belongs to which of the
following word families?
A. authored by Europeans
B. dense and impenetrable
C. timeless classics
D. awkward or unwieldy
A. maintain
B. allow
C. enforce
D. yield