READING TRYOUT

The Sun today is a yellow dwarf star. It is fueled by thermonuclear reactions near its
center that convert hydrogen to helium. The Sun has existed in its present state for
about 4 billion, 600 million years and is thousands of times larger than the Earth. By
studying other stars, astronomers can predict what the rest of the Sun's life will be
like. About 5 billion years from now, the core of the Sun will shrink and become
hotter. The surface temperature will fall. The higher temperature of the center will
(10) increase the rate of thermonuclear reactions. The outer regions of the Sun will
expand approximately 35 million miles, about the distance to Mercury, which is the
closest planet to the Sun. The Sun will then be a red giant star. Temperatures on the
Earth will become too hot for life to exist. (15) Once the Sun has used up its
thermonuclear energy as a red giant, it will begin to shrink. After it shrinks to the size
of the Earth, it will become a white dwarf star. The Sun may throw off huge amounts
of gases in violent eruptions called nova explosions as it changes from a red giant to a
white dwarf. (20) After billions of years as a white dwarf, the Sun will have used up
all its fuel and will have lost its heat. Such a star is called a black dwarf. After the Sun
has become a black dwarf, the Earth will be dark and cold. If any atmosphere remains
there, it will have frozen onto the Earth's surface.
It is said that George Washington was one of the first to realize how important the building of canals
would be to the nation’s development. In fact, before he became President, he headed the first company in
the United States to build a canal which was to connect the Ohio and Potomac rivers. It was never
completed, but it showed the nation the feasibility of canals. As the country expanded westward, settlers
in western New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio needed a means to ship goods. Canals linking natural
waterways seemed to offer an effective solution. In 1791 engineers commissioned by the state of New
York investigated the possibility of a canal between Albany on the Hudson River and Buffalo on Lake
Erie, which would link the Great Lakes area with the Atlantic seacoast. It would avoid the mountains that
served as a barrier to canals from the Delaware and Potomac rivers. The first attempt to dig the canal, to
be called the Erie Canal, was made by private companies, but only a comparatively small portion was
built before the project was halted for lack of funds. The cost of the project was an estimated five million
dollars, an enormous amount for those days. There was some on-again-offagain Federal funding, but the
War of 1812 put an end to this. In 1817 DeWitt Clinton was elected Governor of New York and persuaded
the state to finance and build the canal. It was completed in 1825, costing two million dollars more than
expected. The canal rapidly lived up to its sponsors' faith, quickly paying for itself through tolls. It was far
more economical than any other form of transportation at the time. It permitted trade between the Great
Lake region and East Coast, robbing the Mississippi River of much of its traffic. It allowed New York to
supplant Boston, Philadelphia, and other Eastern cities as the chief center of both domestic and foreign
commerce. Cities sprang up along the canal. It also contributed in a number of ways to the North's victory
over the South in the Civil War. An expansion of the canal was planned in 1849. Increased traffic would
undoubtedly have warranted its construction had it not been for the development of the railroads.
It's a sound you will probably never hear, a sickened tree sending out a distress signal. But a group
of scientists has heard the cries, and they think some insects also hear the trees and are drawn to
them like vultures to a dying animal. Researchers with the u.s. Department of Agriculture's Forest
Service fastened sensors to the bark of parched trees and clearly heard distress calls. According to
one of the scientists, most drought-stricken trees transmit their plight in the 50- to 500- kilohertz
range. (The unaided human ear can detect no more than
20 kilohertz.) Red oak, maple, white pine, and birch all make slightly different sounds in the form
of vibrations at the surface of the wood. The scientists think that the vibrations are created when
the water columns inside tubes that run the length of the tree break, a result of too little water
flowing through them. These fractured columns send out distinctive vibration patterns. Because
someinsects communicate at ultrasonic frequencies, they may pick up the trees'vibrations and
attack the weakened trees. Researchers are now running tests with potted trees that have been
deprived of water to see if the sound is what attracts the insects. "Water-
stressed trees also smell differently from other trees, and they experience thermal changes, so
insects could be responding to something other than sound," one scientist said.
The concepts of analogy and homology are probably easier to
exemplify than to define. When different species are structurally
compared, certain features can be described as either analogous or
homologous. For example, flight requires certain rigid aeronautical
principles of design, yet birds, bats, and insects have all
conquered the air. The wings of all three types of animals derive
from different embryological structures, but they perform the same
functions. In this case, the flight organs of these creatures can
be said to be analogous. In contrast, features that arise from the
same structures in the embryo but are used in different functions
are said to be homologous. The pectoral fins of a fish, the wings
of a bird, and the forelimbs of a mammal are all homologous
structures. They are genetically related in the sense that both
the forelimb and the wing evolved from the fin.
Probably the most famous film commenting on twentieth century technology is Modern Times, made in 1936.
Charlie Chaplin was motivated to make the film by a reporter who, while interviewing him, happened to describe
working conditions in industrial Detroit. Chapli to the city to work on automotive assembly lines. Within four or
five years, these young men's health was destroyed by the stress of work in the factories. The film opens with a
shot of a mass of sheep making their way down a crowded ramp. Abruptly the scene shifts to a scene of factory
workers jostling one another on their way to a factory. However, the rather bitter note of criticism in the implied
comparison is not sustained. It is replaced by a gentler note of satire. Chaplin prefers to entertain rather than
lecture. Scenes of factory interiors account for only about one-third of the footage of Modern Times, but they
contain some of the most pointed social commentary as well as the most comic situations. No one who has seen
the film can ever forget Chaplin vainly trying to keep pace with the fast-moving conveyor belt, almost losing his
mind in the process. Another popular scene involves an automatic feeding machine brought to the assembly line
so that workers need not interrupt their labor to eat. The feeding machine malfunctions, hurling food at Chaplin,
who is strapped into his position on the assembly line and cannot escape. This serves to illustrate people utter
helplessness in the face of machines that are meant to serve their basic needs. Clearly, Modern Times has its
faults, but it remains the best film treating technology within a social context. It does not offer a radical social
message, but it does accurately reflect the sentiments of many who feel they are victims of an over-mechanized
world.n was told that healthy young farm boys were lured