AzM2 Reading Test 2
Read the following passage(s) and answer the questions that follow.
Passage 1
How the Hyperloop Works
​by Catherine Casteel
​
(1) The Hyperloop is an idea for a high-speed transportation system that was proposed by Son Musk in 2013. Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor who founded SpaceX and is the co-founder of Zip2, PayPal, and Tesla Motors.
​
​(2) The Hyperloop is different from bullet trains or high-speed rail. Bullet trains use magnetic levitation (maglev) to move vehicles without touching the ground. With maglev, a vehicle travels along a guideway, using magnets to create both lift and propulsion, which reduces friction and allows for very high speeds to be achieved. High-speed rail is more like a traditional train system, but uses a system of specialized train cars and tracks.
​
(3) The Hyperloop uses magnets and fans to push aluminum pods through pressurized tubes. The steel tubes are topped with solar panels and carry battery packs to store energy that can be used at night or in cloudy weather.
​
​(4) While there are some innovations, a lot of technology already exists to support the project. It's very similar to the old pneumatic tubes that used air pressure to move messages in banks and other buildings in the twentieth century.
​
​(5) In Hyperloop transportation, the pods or capsules travel inside tubes elevated by pylons that are 17 to 20 feet above ground.
Choose two ways in which the visual in Passage 1 helps the reader understand the Hyperloop.
Please select 2 correct answers
Correct!
Wrong!
The correct answer
It shows the technology of the Hyperloop in greater detail.
It shows how the Hyperloop could be suitable for sizable cargo and freight.
Plenty to Do at the Zoo
​by Rachel Young
​
1) Can't wait to start that homework? No? But what if you were stuck in an empty room with no books, no toys, no TV or computer, not even a copy of Ask? "Maybe then homework wouldn't seem so bad," says Steve Ross of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
​
2) With keepers to feed them, vets to cure them, and no predators to eat them, animals in a zoo usually live much longer than animals in the wild. Zoo life is safe, but it can also be boring.
​
3) In the wild, survival is a full-time job, what with finding food, taking care of babies, and steering clear of all the things that might want to eat you. Compared with their wild cousins, says one zoo veterinarian, zoo animals are unemployed.
​
4) Scientists observing animals in their natural environments realized that some zoo animals were doing all sorts of unnatural things those species don't do in the wild. Tigers paced back and forth endlessly. Elephants bobbed their heads up and down.... Monkeys groomed to the point of giving themselves sores. These are signs of boredom and stress. And scientists have learned that being stressed out can actually make animals, and people, sick.
​
5) Giving zoo animals food and shelter isn't enough to keep them healthy. They also need something to do. These days, problems like pacing are less common because zoos try to make life interesting for the animals that live there, with habitats, games, and even toys that encourage natural skills and behaviors. These things are just as important for the animals' good health as the proper diet or a visit from the vet.
​
​Work for your food
​
6) Tomatoey and sweet, the smell of ketchup wafts from inside a big artificial termite mound in the corner of the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo. One chimpanzee is hungry for a taste. He grabs a piece of hay and tries to poke it into a small hole in the mound, but the hay is too limp and flexible. Frustrated, the chimpanzee presses his lips against the hole and reaches in with his tongue. Again, no luck. The hole is too deep and the ketchup too far away. Finally, he grabs a branch and goes to work, ripping off leaves and shredding bark until he has a narrow stick that just fits in the hole. When he pulls the stick out, the end is slathered with ketchup. Success! He slurps up the treat and goes back for more.
​
7) In the wild, chimpanzees spend more than half their time foraging for food. They fish for termites (not ketchup) and sometimes roam 7 miles (11 km) a day to look for bugs, leaves, and other morsels.
​
8) But what takes all day in the forest could take five minutes at the zoo: once the keeper plunks down a plate of fruit and monkey chow, a chimp has the rest of the day to stare into space.
​
9) But that's changing. Now, for many zoo animals, feeding time is a chance to sharpen their skills by hunting or foraging. To keep the animals on their toes, zookeepers like to scatter or hide food rather than leaving it in one place. That way the animals can spend many enjoyable hours searching and sniffing and climbing for treats.
​
Let the game begin
​. . .
​
10) With hanging vines and twisting tree trunks, the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo looks a lot like a jungle. It's also a fun house. Trees are booby-trapped with touch pads that set off water misters or scatterguns loaded with food. Scientists like observing how and when chimpanzees figure out the hidden tricks, and the chimpanzees like solving the puzzles and being rewarded with a cooling mist of water or a round of snacks.
​
11) Other animals get toys that are less high-tech but still fun to play with. Hippos and elephants push big rubber balls, and wolves tug on bits of fur. Of course, toys with food inside are always popular. Lions at the Detroit Zoo got to stalk a zebra, although it wasn't much of a challenge; the zebra was papier-mâché. When they tore open the piñata, the lions were rewarded with a belly full of food.
​
12) Research has already shown that keeping life interesting changes things for the better. Animals act more naturally—and they get sick less from stress-related illness. They're livelier, and they interact more with friends and family. It just goes to show—a bit of homework keeps you healthy.
Which of the following sentences best summarizes the passage?
Correct!
Wrong!
Correct answer:
Zoo animals are healthier when they can behave like wild animals.
Plenty to Do at the Zoo
​by Rachel Young
​
1) Can't wait to start that homework? No? But what if you were stuck in an empty room with no books, no toys, no TV or computer, not even a copy of Ask? "Maybe then homework wouldn't seem so bad," says Steve Ross of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
​
2) With keepers to feed them, vets to cure them, and no predators to eat them, animals in a zoo usually live much longer than animals in the wild. Zoo life is safe, but it can also be boring.
​
3) In the wild, survival is a full-time job, what with finding food, taking care of babies, and steering clear of all the things that might want to eat you. Compared with their wild cousins, says one zoo veterinarian, zoo animals are unemployed.
​
4) Scientists observing animals in their natural environments realized that some zoo animals were doing all sorts of unnatural things those species don't do in the wild. Tigers paced back and forth endlessly. Elephants bobbed their heads up and down.... Monkeys groomed to the point of giving themselves sores. These are signs of boredom and stress. And scientists have learned that being stressed out can actually make animals, and people, sick.
​
5) Giving zoo animals food and shelter isn't enough to keep them healthy. They also need something to do. These days, problems like pacing are less common because zoos try to make life interesting for the animals that live there, with habitats, games, and even toys that encourage natural skills and behaviors. These things are just as important for the animals' good health as the proper diet or a visit from the vet.
​
​Work for your food
​
6) Tomatoey and sweet, the smell of ketchup wafts from inside a big artificial termite mound in the corner of the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo. One chimpanzee is hungry for a taste. He grabs a piece of hay and tries to poke it into a small hole in the mound, but the hay is too limp and flexible. Frustrated, the chimpanzee presses his lips against the hole and reaches in with his tongue. Again, no luck. The hole is too deep and the ketchup too far away. Finally, he grabs a branch and goes to work, ripping off leaves and shredding bark until he has a narrow stick that just fits in the hole. When he pulls the stick out, the end is slathered with ketchup. Success! He slurps up the treat and goes back for more.
​
7) In the wild, chimpanzees spend more than half their time foraging for food. They fish for termites (not ketchup) and sometimes roam 7 miles (11 km) a day to look for bugs, leaves, and other morsels.
​
8) But what takes all day in the forest could take five minutes at the zoo: once the keeper plunks down a plate of fruit and monkey chow, a chimp has the rest of the day to stare into space.
​
9) But that's changing. Now, for many zoo animals, feeding time is a chance to sharpen their skills by hunting or foraging. To keep the animals on their toes, zookeepers like to scatter or hide food rather than leaving it in one place. That way the animals can spend many enjoyable hours searching and sniffing and climbing for treats.
​
Let the game begin
​. . .
​
10) With hanging vines and twisting tree trunks, the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo looks a lot like a jungle. It's also a fun house. Trees are booby-trapped with touch pads that set off water misters or scatterguns loaded with food. Scientists like observing how and when chimpanzees figure out the hidden tricks, and the chimpanzees like solving the puzzles and being rewarded with a cooling mist of water or a round of snacks.
​
11) Other animals get toys that are less high-tech but still fun to play with. Hippos and elephants push big rubber balls, and wolves tug on bits of fur. Of course, toys with food inside are always popular. Lions at the Detroit Zoo got to stalk a zebra, although it wasn't much of a challenge; the zebra was papier-mâché. When they tore open the piñata, the lions were rewarded with a belly full of food.
​
12) Research has already shown that keeping life interesting changes things for the better. Animals act more naturally—and they get sick less from stress-related illness. They're livelier, and they interact more with friends and family. It just goes to show—a bit of homework keeps you healthy.
What are the passage's key points? Select two options.
Please select 2 correct answers
Correct!
Wrong!
Correct answer:
Zookeepers and vets create activities for zoo animals to keep them healthy.
Scientists learned that zoo animals were showing signs of stress because they were bored.
Plenty to Do at the Zoo
​by Rachel Young
​
1) Can't wait to start that homework? No? But what if you were stuck in an empty room with no books, no toys, no TV or computer, not even a copy of Ask? "Maybe then homework wouldn't seem so bad," says Steve Ross of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
​
2) With keepers to feed them, vets to cure them, and no predators to eat them, animals in a zoo usually live much longer than animals in the wild. Zoo life is safe, but it can also be boring.
​
3) In the wild, survival is a full-time job, what with finding food, taking care of babies, and steering clear of all the things that might want to eat you. Compared with their wild cousins, says one zoo veterinarian, zoo animals are unemployed.
​
4) Scientists observing animals in their natural environments realized that some zoo animals were doing all sorts of unnatural things those species don't do in the wild. Tigers paced back and forth endlessly. Elephants bobbed their heads up and down.... Monkeys groomed to the point of giving themselves sores. These are signs of boredom and stress. And scientists have learned that being stressed out can actually make animals, and people, sick.
​
5) Giving zoo animals food and shelter isn't enough to keep them healthy. They also need something to do. These days, problems like pacing are less common because zoos try to make life interesting for the animals that live there, with habitats, games, and even toys that encourage natural skills and behaviors. These things are just as important for the animals' good health as the proper diet or a visit from the vet.
​
​Work for your food
​
6) Tomatoey and sweet, the smell of ketchup wafts from inside a big artificial termite mound in the corner of the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo. One chimpanzee is hungry for a taste. He grabs a piece of hay and tries to poke it into a small hole in the mound, but the hay is too limp and flexible. Frustrated, the chimpanzee presses his lips against the hole and reaches in with his tongue. Again, no luck. The hole is too deep and the ketchup too far away. Finally, he grabs a branch and goes to work, ripping off leaves and shredding bark until he has a narrow stick that just fits in the hole. When he pulls the stick out, the end is slathered with ketchup. Success! He slurps up the treat and goes back for more.
​
7) In the wild, chimpanzees spend more than half their time foraging for food. They fish for termites (not ketchup) and sometimes roam 7 miles (11 km) a day to look for bugs, leaves, and other morsels.
​
8) But what takes all day in the forest could take five minutes at the zoo: once the keeper plunks down a plate of fruit and monkey chow, a chimp has the rest of the day to stare into space.
​
9) But that's changing. Now, for many zoo animals, feeding time is a chance to sharpen their skills by hunting or foraging. To keep the animals on their toes, zookeepers like to scatter or hide food rather than leaving it in one place. That way the animals can spend many enjoyable hours searching and sniffing and climbing for treats.
​
Let the game begin
​. . .
​
10) With hanging vines and twisting tree trunks, the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo looks a lot like a jungle. It's also a fun house. Trees are booby-trapped with touch pads that set off water misters or scatterguns loaded with food. Scientists like observing how and when chimpanzees figure out the hidden tricks, and the chimpanzees like solving the puzzles and being rewarded with a cooling mist of water or a round of snacks.
​
11) Other animals get toys that are less high-tech but still fun to play with. Hippos and elephants push big rubber balls, and wolves tug on bits of fur. Of course, toys with food inside are always popular. Lions at the Detroit Zoo got to stalk a zebra, although it wasn't much of a challenge; the zebra was papier-mâché. When they tore open the piñata, the lions were rewarded with a belly full of food.
​
12) Research has already shown that keeping life interesting changes things for the better. Animals act more naturally—and they get sick less from stress-related illness. They're livelier, and they interact more with friends and family. It just goes to show—a bit of homework keeps you healthy.
Which passage detail supports the responses to question 3?
Correct!
Wrong!
The correct answer
"Research has already shown that keeping life interesting changes things for the better." (paragraph 12)
Plenty to Do at the Zoo
​by Rachel Young
​
1) Can't wait to start that homework? No? But what if you were stuck in an empty room with no books, no toys, no TV or computer, not even a copy of Ask? "Maybe then homework wouldn't seem so bad," says Steve Ross of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
​
2) With keepers to feed them, vets to cure them, and no predators to eat them, animals in a zoo usually live much longer than animals in the wild. Zoo life is safe, but it can also be boring.
​
3) In the wild, survival is a full-time job, what with finding food, taking care of babies, and steering clear of all the things that might want to eat you. Compared with their wild cousins, says one zoo veterinarian, zoo animals are unemployed.
​
4) Scientists observing animals in their natural environments realized that some zoo animals were doing all sorts of unnatural things those species don't do in the wild. Tigers paced back and forth endlessly. Elephants bobbed their heads up and down.... Monkeys groomed to the point of giving themselves sores. These are signs of boredom and stress. And scientists have learned that being stressed out can actually make animals, and people, sick.
​
5) Giving zoo animals food and shelter isn't enough to keep them healthy. They also need something to do. These days, problems like pacing are less common because zoos try to make life interesting for the animals that live there, with habitats, games, and even toys that encourage natural skills and behaviors. These things are just as important for the animals' good health as the proper diet or a visit from the vet.
​
​Work for your food
​
6) Tomatoey and sweet, the smell of ketchup wafts from inside a big artificial termite mound in the corner of the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo. One chimpanzee is hungry for a taste. He grabs a piece of hay and tries to poke it into a small hole in the mound, but the hay is too limp and flexible. Frustrated, the chimpanzee presses his lips against the hole and reaches in with his tongue. Again, no luck. The hole is too deep and the ketchup too far away. Finally, he grabs a branch and goes to work, ripping off leaves and shredding bark until he has a narrow stick that just fits in the hole. When he pulls the stick out, the end is slathered with ketchup. Success! He slurps up the treat and goes back for more.
​
7) In the wild, chimpanzees spend more than half their time foraging for food. They fish for termites (not ketchup) and sometimes roam 7 miles (11 km) a day to look for bugs, leaves, and other morsels.
​
8) But what takes all day in the forest could take five minutes at the zoo: once the keeper plunks down a plate of fruit and monkey chow, a chimp has the rest of the day to stare into space.
​
9) But that's changing. Now, for many zoo animals, feeding time is a chance to sharpen their skills by hunting or foraging. To keep the animals on their toes, zookeepers like to scatter or hide food rather than leaving it in one place. That way the animals can spend many enjoyable hours searching and sniffing and climbing for treats.
​
Let the game begin
​. . .
​
10) With hanging vines and twisting tree trunks, the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo looks a lot like a jungle. It's also a fun house. Trees are booby-trapped with touch pads that set off water misters or scatterguns loaded with food. Scientists like observing how and when chimpanzees figure out the hidden tricks, and the chimpanzees like solving the puzzles and being rewarded with a cooling mist of water or a round of snacks.
​
11) Other animals get toys that are less high-tech but still fun to play with. Hippos and elephants push big rubber balls, and wolves tug on bits of fur. Of course, toys with food inside are always popular. Lions at the Detroit Zoo got to stalk a zebra, although it wasn't much of a challenge; the zebra was papier-mâché. When they tore open the piñata, the lions were rewarded with a belly full of food.
​
12) Research has already shown that keeping life interesting changes things for the better. Animals act more naturally—and they get sick less from stress-related illness. They're livelier, and they interact more with friends and family. It just goes to show—a bit of homework keeps you healthy.
Choose two reasons why zoo animals live longer than wild animals.
Please select 2 correct answers
Correct!
Wrong!
Correct answer:
Zoo animals do not have predators hunting them.
Zoo animals have food provided for them.
Plenty to Do at the Zoo
​by Rachel Young
​
1) Can't wait to start that homework? No? But what if you were stuck in an empty room with no books, no toys, no TV or computer, not even a copy of Ask? "Maybe then homework wouldn't seem so bad," says Steve Ross of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
​
2) With keepers to feed them, vets to cure them, and no predators to eat them, animals in a zoo usually live much longer than animals in the wild. Zoo life is safe, but it can also be boring.
​
3) In the wild, survival is a full-time job, what with finding food, taking care of babies, and steering clear of all the things that might want to eat you. Compared with their wild cousins, says one zoo veterinarian, zoo animals are unemployed.
​
4) Scientists observing animals in their natural environments realized that some zoo animals were doing all sorts of unnatural things those species don't do in the wild. Tigers paced back and forth endlessly. Elephants bobbed their heads up and down.... Monkeys groomed to the point of giving themselves sores. These are signs of boredom and stress. And scientists have learned that being stressed out can actually make animals, and people, sick.
​
5) Giving zoo animals food and shelter isn't enough to keep them healthy. They also need something to do. These days, problems like pacing are less common because zoos try to make life interesting for the animals that live there, with habitats, games, and even toys that encourage natural skills and behaviors. These things are just as important for the animals' good health as the proper diet or a visit from the vet.
​
​Work for your food
​
6) Tomatoey and sweet, the smell of ketchup wafts from inside a big artificial termite mound in the corner of the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo. One chimpanzee is hungry for a taste. He grabs a piece of hay and tries to poke it into a small hole in the mound, but the hay is too limp and flexible. Frustrated, the chimpanzee presses his lips against the hole and reaches in with his tongue. Again, no luck. The hole is too deep and the ketchup too far away. Finally, he grabs a branch and goes to work, ripping off leaves and shredding bark until he has a narrow stick that just fits in the hole. When he pulls the stick out, the end is slathered with ketchup. Success! He slurps up the treat and goes back for more.
​
7) In the wild, chimpanzees spend more than half their time foraging for food. They fish for termites (not ketchup) and sometimes roam 7 miles (11 km) a day to look for bugs, leaves, and other morsels.
​
8) But what takes all day in the forest could take five minutes at the zoo: once the keeper plunks down a plate of fruit and monkey chow, a chimp has the rest of the day to stare into space.
​
9) But that's changing. Now, for many zoo animals, feeding time is a chance to sharpen their skills by hunting or foraging. To keep the animals on their toes, zookeepers like to scatter or hide food rather than leaving it in one place. That way the animals can spend many enjoyable hours searching and sniffing and climbing for treats.
​
Let the game begin
​. . .
​
10) With hanging vines and twisting tree trunks, the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo looks a lot like a jungle. It's also a fun house. Trees are booby-trapped with touch pads that set off water misters or scatterguns loaded with food. Scientists like observing how and when chimpanzees figure out the hidden tricks, and the chimpanzees like solving the puzzles and being rewarded with a cooling mist of water or a round of snacks.
​
11) Other animals get toys that are less high-tech but still fun to play with. Hippos and elephants push big rubber balls, and wolves tug on bits of fur. Of course, toys with food inside are always popular. Lions at the Detroit Zoo got to stalk a zebra, although it wasn't much of a challenge; the zebra was papier-mâché. When they tore open the piñata, the lions were rewarded with a belly full of food.
​
12) Research has already shown that keeping life interesting changes things for the better. Animals act more naturally—and they get sick less from stress-related illness. They're livelier, and they interact more with friends and family. It just goes to show—a bit of homework keeps you healthy.
Read the passage's first sentence.
​
"The ape enclosure at Lincoln Park Zoo looks a lot like a jungle, with hanging vines and twisted tree trunks" (paragraph 10)
​
Which of the following statements best explains what habitat is?
Correct!
Wrong!
The correct answer
an area where an animal lives
Plenty to Do at the Zoo
​by Rachel Young
​
1) Can't wait to start that homework? No? But what if you were stuck in an empty room with no books, no toys, no TV or computer, not even a copy of Ask? "Maybe then homework wouldn't seem so bad," says Steve Ross of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
​
2) With keepers to feed them, vets to cure them, and no predators to eat them, animals in a zoo usually live much longer than animals in the wild. Zoo life is safe, but it can also be boring.
​
3) In the wild, survival is a full-time job, what with finding food, taking care of babies, and steering clear of all the things that might want to eat you. Compared with their wild cousins, says one zoo veterinarian, zoo animals are unemployed.
​
4) Scientists observing animals in their natural environments realized that some zoo animals were doing all sorts of unnatural things those species don't do in the wild. Tigers paced back and forth endlessly. Elephants bobbed their heads up and down.... Monkeys groomed to the point of giving themselves sores. These are signs of boredom and stress. And scientists have learned that being stressed out can actually make animals, and people, sick.
​
5) Giving zoo animals food and shelter isn't enough to keep them healthy. They also need something to do. These days, problems like pacing are less common because zoos try to make life interesting for the animals that live there, with habitats, games, and even toys that encourage natural skills and behaviors. These things are just as important for the animals' good health as the proper diet or a visit from the vet.
​
​Work for your food
​
6) Tomatoey and sweet, the smell of ketchup wafts from inside a big artificial termite mound in the corner of the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo. One chimpanzee is hungry for a taste. He grabs a piece of hay and tries to poke it into a small hole in the mound, but the hay is too limp and flexible. Frustrated, the chimpanzee presses his lips against the hole and reaches in with his tongue. Again, no luck. The hole is too deep and the ketchup too far away. Finally, he grabs a branch and goes to work, ripping off leaves and shredding bark until he has a narrow stick that just fits in the hole. When he pulls the stick out, the end is slathered with ketchup. Success! He slurps up the treat and goes back for more.
​
7) In the wild, chimpanzees spend more than half their time foraging for food. They fish for termites (not ketchup) and sometimes roam 7 miles (11 km) a day to look for bugs, leaves, and other morsels.
​
8) But what takes all day in the forest could take five minutes at the zoo: once the keeper plunks down a plate of fruit and monkey chow, a chimp has the rest of the day to stare into space.
​
9) But that's changing. Now, for many zoo animals, feeding time is a chance to sharpen their skills by hunting or foraging. To keep the animals on their toes, zookeepers like to scatter or hide food rather than leaving it in one place. That way the animals can spend many enjoyable hours searching and sniffing and climbing for treats.
​
Let the game begin
​. . .
​
10) With hanging vines and twisting tree trunks, the ape habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo looks a lot like a jungle. It's also a fun house. Trees are booby-trapped with touch pads that set off water misters or scatterguns loaded with food. Scientists like observing how and when chimpanzees figure out the hidden tricks, and the chimpanzees like solving the puzzles and being rewarded with a cooling mist of water or a round of snacks.
​
11) Other animals get toys that are less high-tech but still fun to play with. Hippos and elephants push big rubber balls, and wolves tug on bits of fur. Of course, toys with food inside are always popular. Lions at the Detroit Zoo got to stalk a zebra, although it wasn't much of a challenge; the zebra was papier-mâché. When they tore open the piñata, the lions were rewarded with a belly full of food.
​
12) Research has already shown that keeping life interesting changes things for the better. Animals act more naturally—and they get sick less from stress-related illness. They're livelier, and they interact more with friends and family. It just goes to show—a bit of homework keeps you healthy.
Which detail in the passage supports the assumption that animals in zoos experience stress?
Correct!
Wrong!
The correct answer
elephants bobbing their heads up and down
Passage
Out of This World: Deep Space Observation
​by Kathiann M. Kowalski
​
1) Some of America's greatest man-made marvels are literally out of this world. Space-based telescopes and ground-based observatories don't just provide awesome views of the stars, planets, and distant galaxies. They're expanding our knowledge and understanding of the universe.
​
2) "NASA's space telescopes are really tools for answering some of the most exciting questions that people have ever asked," says Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Those questions include: How did the universe begin? How did the stars and planets come to be? Are there planets around other stars? And might those planets hold life?
​
3) The Hubble Space Telescope "might be the most well-known and well-loved scientific experiment ever built," Hertz notes. Launched in 1990, the telescope celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015.
​
​4) Costs up through its 1990 launch were around $2.5 billion, and five subsequent repair missions brought the figure up to around $10 billion by 2010. Although it is expensive, Hubble's legacy is a wealth of scientific information.
​
5) For example, scientists using Hubble have shown that expansion of the universe is accelerating, because of a force scientists now call dark energy. Hubble helped scientists show that 95 percent of the universe is composed of dark energy or dark matter—something other than the atoms we understand. Hubble has also measured atmospheres of planets around other stars.
​
6) And then there are the photos. "Hubble has given us some of the most vivid pictures of our very beautiful universe and helped those of us who spend our lives here on the ground feel that we can soar through space like the astronauts and see the universe in all its grandeur," Hertz says.
​
7) But no one telescope can show everything, just as no one tool can do every job. Thus, there are multiple space-based telescopes. Another space telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, detects X-rays in hot and other regions of space. It was launched in 1999 and flies in an elliptical orbit that reaches much higher than Hubble's orbit. Its pictures are helping scientists locate and study high-energy phenomena, such as areas around black holes, remnants of supernovas, and million-degree gas found in clusters of galaxies.
​
8) "One question everybody has been asking for thousands of years is, Are we alone?" Hertz says. Launched in 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope's four-year mission was to find planets beyond our solar system. Hubble and other telescopes can't detect such planets because stars near them are too bright. The Kepler telescope used a different strategy. It basically "stared at 150,000 stars for four straight years without 'blinking," Hertz says. "It was looking to see if a planet around any of those stars would pass between us and the star and block out a very tiny fraction of that star's light—as small as one-millionth of the light."
​
9) Using that strategy, Kepler found thousands of stars with planets. "Because of Kepler, we now know that probably almost every star in the night sky has planets around it," Hertz notes. Kepler could not hold its position much beyond the planned four years. But it earned a bonus mission, known as K2. As it changes position, Kepler has been able to capture things such as flares on stars, black holes swallowing asteroids, and even pulsing on the surface of the planet Neptune.
​
10) NASA's next big telescope launch in 2018 will be beyond cool—it will be frigid! Working at 40 degrees above absolute zero, it will detect infrared light from far away. "The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to detect the very first galaxies and the very first stars that arose after the Big Bang and that are at the edges of the visible universe," explains Hertz.
​
11) Ground-based telescopes are marvels as well. "It's always cheaper to build a telescope on the ground than to put one into space," notes Hertz. For instance, the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope atop Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii, is the first of four such telescopes. It was designed primarily to detect hazardous objects in space, and it began operating in late 2008 with the world's largest digital camera. Its images have 1.4 billion pixels each. Most cellphone cameras, in contrast, have fewer than 10 million pixels. A second telescope, Pan-STARRS-2, should soon operate nearby.
​
12) "Pan-STARRS, among other things, is looking at large pieces of the sky, looking for new asteroids and other things that are changing," explains Hertz. "The more of the sky you can see at a time, the more things you can discover." The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in the next decade will be even more sensitive.
​
13) Plans also call for NASA's space-based Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST, to have a large camera. It will be "100 times larger than the Hubble camera," notes Hertz. "Every time we take a picture with the WFIRST, it will be like putting 100 pictures with Hubble together." WFIRST images should help scientists understand more about dark energy and planets outside our solar system.
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14) Telescopes in space and on the ground represent amazing feats of engineering. Mankind's curiosity about space has sparked an effort to build things that allow us to see and experience that vast frontier. Together, these tools give us amazing views and help us understand how our universe works. ​
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Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Choose three sentences from the passage that should be included in a summary.
Please select 3 correct answers
Correct!
Wrong!
The correct answer
The photographs that telescopes take have led to remarkable discoveries beyond our world.
The use of telescopes has helped researchers understand some of the most complex mysteries in the universe.
Scientists work to build more refined telescopes in order to collect increasingly detailed information about space.
Passage
Out of This World: Deep Space Observation
​by Kathiann M. Kowalski
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1) Some of America's greatest man-made marvels are literally out of this world. Space-based telescopes and ground-based observatories don't just provide awesome views of the stars, planets, and distant galaxies. They're expanding our knowledge and understanding of the universe.
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2) "NASA's space telescopes are really tools for answering some of the most exciting questions that people have ever asked," says Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Those questions include: How did the universe begin? How did the stars and planets come to be? Are there planets around other stars? And might those planets hold life?
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3) The Hubble Space Telescope "might be the most well-known and well-loved scientific experiment ever built," Hertz notes. Launched in 1990, the telescope celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015.
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​4) Costs up through its 1990 launch were around $2.5 billion, and five subsequent repair missions brought the figure up to around $10 billion by 2010. Although it is expensive, Hubble's legacy is a wealth of scientific information.
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5) For example, scientists using Hubble have shown that expansion of the universe is accelerating, because of a force scientists now call dark energy. Hubble helped scientists show that 95 percent of the universe is composed of dark energy or dark matter—something other than the atoms we understand. Hubble has also measured atmospheres of planets around other stars.
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6) And then there are the photos. "Hubble has given us some of the most vivid pictures of our very beautiful universe and helped those of us who spend our lives here on the ground feel that we can soar through space like the astronauts and see the universe in all its grandeur," Hertz says.
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7) But no one telescope can show everything, just as no one tool can do every job. Thus, there are multiple space-based telescopes. Another space telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, detects X-rays in hot and other regions of space. It was launched in 1999 and flies in an elliptical orbit that reaches much higher than Hubble's orbit. Its pictures are helping scientists locate and study high-energy phenomena, such as areas around black holes, remnants of supernovas, and million-degree gas found in clusters of galaxies.
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8) "One question everybody has been asking for thousands of years is, Are we alone?" Hertz says. Launched in 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope's four-year mission was to find planets beyond our solar system. Hubble and other telescopes can't detect such planets because stars near them are too bright. The Kepler telescope used a different strategy. It basically "stared at 150,000 stars for four straight years without 'blinking," Hertz says. "It was looking to see if a planet around any of those stars would pass between us and the star and block out a very tiny fraction of that star's light—as small as one-millionth of the light."
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9) Using that strategy, Kepler found thousands of stars with planets. "Because of Kepler, we now know that probably almost every star in the night sky has planets around it," Hertz notes. Kepler could not hold its position much beyond the planned four years. But it earned a bonus mission, known as K2. As it changes position, Kepler has been able to capture things such as flares on stars, black holes swallowing asteroids, and even pulsing on the surface of the planet Neptune.
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10) NASA's next big telescope launch in 2018 will be beyond cool—it will be frigid! Working at 40 degrees above absolute zero, it will detect infrared light from far away. "The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to detect the very first galaxies and the very first stars that arose after the Big Bang and that are at the edges of the visible universe," explains Hertz.
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11) Ground-based telescopes are marvels as well. "It's always cheaper to build a telescope on the ground than to put one into space," notes Hertz. For instance, the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope atop Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii, is the first of four such telescopes. It was designed primarily to detect hazardous objects in space, and it began operating in late 2008 with the world's largest digital camera. Its images have 1.4 billion pixels each. Most cellphone cameras, in contrast, have fewer than 10 million pixels. A second telescope, Pan-STARRS-2, should soon operate nearby.
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12) "Pan-STARRS, among other things, is looking at large pieces of the sky, looking for new asteroids and other things that are changing," explains Hertz. "The more of the sky you can see at a time, the more things you can discover." The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in the next decade will be even more sensitive.
​
13) Plans also call for NASA's space-based Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST, to have a large camera. It will be "100 times larger than the Hubble camera," notes Hertz. "Every time we take a picture with the WFIRST, it will be like putting 100 pictures with Hubble together." WFIRST images should help scientists understand more about dark energy and planets outside our solar system.
​
14) Telescopes in space and on the ground represent amazing feats of engineering. Mankind's curiosity about space has sparked an effort to build things that allow us to see and experience that vast frontier. Together, these tools give us amazing views and help us understand how our universe works. ​
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Which of the author's claims concerning telescopes is backed by evidence in the passage?
Correct!
Wrong!
The correct answer
Telescopes that are being constructed on the ground can gather a broader view of space.