HESI A2
HESI A2 Reading Comprehension Practice Test Questions
Extract:
AMAZON RAINFOREST:
About 6% of the earth is covered by rainforests. The largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon Basin, which stretches over 2.3 million square miles in nine different South American countries. This area is double the length of all the other remaining rainforests in the world. Brazil contains 60%of the Amazonian rainforest, since it lies at the mouth of the river Amazon. This river is the second largest in the world and contains more than one-fifth of the world's fresh water.
The Amazon rainforest is a type of wet broadleaf forest. The weather there is very humid and warm as it rains quite a bit. Because of the high rainfall, the forest is very rich and green. The tree leaves are pointed and narrow so that the raindrops can easily drop off wet plants. This tropical rainforest has more living species than the entire European continent. There are over 400 types of insects living in one single rain forest tree for a total of 2.5 million species. One square kilometer of rainforest may contain over 75,000 types of trees and approximately 438,000 different kinds of plants, which comes to a total of 90,000 tons of greenery overall. The Amazon rainforest is home to 2,000 birds
and mammals, with one in every five birds in the world living there.
Local farmers have lived off this rich and diverse land for thousands of years. They have been able to find food and water here without destroying the land. The Kayapo people of Brazil farm in an environmentally-friendly way. Instead of chemicals, they use burned wood to enrich the soil, and plant banana trees, which attract wasps. These wasps then feed on leafcutter ants and get rid of these harmful insects. The rainforest also offers a lot of tropical fruits, such as bananas and coconuts, as food. Cinnamon is made from the bark of a rainforest tree. Amazonian Indians use the fruit and stem of the Buruti plant as a drink, to make bread and to build houses. Many other plants are used as medicine. But the Amazon rainforest is in very big danger of disappearing. 9,169 square miles of forest have been cut down in 2003 in Brazil alone. An area of the size of a football field is burned down basically every minute, which means that the rain forest may be gone by the year 2030.The dangers related to this type of activity are obvious. Trees take in poisonous carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen. There is more oxygen and less carbon dioxide around a rainforest. When trees are cut down, however, the amount of carbon dioxide increases, and the air gets warmer. This leads to global warming, which is extremely harmful to the environment.
It is estimated that the burning of Brazilian rainforests alone produces 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. Another danger connected with destroying the rainforest is the disappearance of plants and animals. When trees are cut down, plants and animals have no more food left and slowly die out. Killing wild animals is illegal in Brazil, but there is plenty of stealing going on. 38 million animals are stolen and sold illegally each year. The most hunted animals are birds, especially parrots, followed by snakes and the jaguar.
Question 1 of 5
What is implied about the rainforest's role in global climate?
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: The rainforest plays a crucial role in regulating the global climate by absorbing carbon dioxide. The extract highlights the fact that trees take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. When trees are cut down, the amount of carbon dioxide increases, contributing to global warming. This emphasizes the significant impact of rainforests on the climate.
Choice A is incorrect as the extract clearly states the importance of rainforests in absorbing carbon dioxide.
Choice C, while true, is not directly related to the implied role of rainforests in regulating the climate.
Choice D is also incorrect as the destruction of rainforests does have global consequences, such as contributing to global warming.
Extract:
DAY LIGHT SAVINGS TIME:
It is a well-known fact that it takes the Earth approximately 365 days to move around the sun. At the same time, the Earth revolves or spins around itself over the course of 24 hours, which explains why there is day and night. One half of the Earth is always facing the Sun and the other half is facing away from it. As a result, there are different time zones dividing the globe. Moving suddenly from one time zone into the other, as when flying for example from Asia to North America, causes jetlag. People feel tired, they wake up suddenly during the night and cannot go back to sleep. It takes time to get used to a new time zone.
Another thing to consider is the slight tilting of the Earth towards the sun. The Earth does not stand straight but leans a little to one side. Therefore, when it revolves around the Sun, the middle part of the Earth is always closer to the Sun and gets more heat. This part is called the equator, and above it lathes tropics. Countries at the tropics get the same amount of daylight all the time. The sun always rises at 6 am and sets at 6 pm. In contrast, the tips of the Earth or the Poles get hardly any light at all because they are so far away from the sun.
There are two main seasons at the Poles. There are 6 months of summer, when the sun is always shining, even at night, and there are 6 months of winter, when there is constant darkness.
In between the tropics and the Poles lies the temperate zone, where there are 4 seasons. The sun rises and sets at different times throughout the year. In the spring and summer, it gets light earlier; in the fall and winter it gets dark earlier. People who live in temperate zones take advantage of that fact to get more daylight. At the beginning of spring, countries in Europe and North America re-adjust their clocks. They change the time on their clocks and watches by moving them an hour ahead. As a result, the sun does not set around 7 or 8 pm as usual, but an hour later. This measure is called Daylight Savings Time (DST) and lasts until the beginning of fall, when people move their clocks back one hour to Standard or regular Time.
It is thought that Benjamin Franklin first suggested the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the 18th century. But, the first serious proposal came in 1907 from William Willet. Yet his idea was shelved by the British government, who refused it because they thought it was unnecessary. Daylight Savings Time was first put into practice by the German government in 1916 in order to save energy during the First World War. Shortly after, the United Kingdom followed suit, with the United States doing the same in 1918.
The law was very unpopular since people had to wake up earlier and many experienced a feeling like jetlag. But the 1970s energy crisis forced the US to make Daylight Savings Time the law. Studies have shown that the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the spring saved the US 10,000 barrels of oil per day between 1974-1975. It also prevented 2,000 traffic injuries and 50 traffic-related deaths, saving the country $28 million.
Currently, Americans switch to Daylight Savings Time on the first Sunday in April and move back to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October. But as of 2007, the time re-adjustment happened even earlier, in March and November.
Question 2 of 5
What is implied about Benjamin Franklin in the passage on Daylight Savings Time?
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: The correct answer is C. The passage states that Benjamin Franklin first suggested the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the 18th century. However, the first serious proposal came in 1907 from William Willet. Franklin's idea was not implemented during his lifetime, but he did propose the concept.
Therefore, choices A, B, and D are incorrect.
Choice A is incorrect because Franklin did not oppose the idea.
Choice B is incorrect because he was not the first to implement it.
Choice D is incorrect because he did have a role in proposing the idea.
Extract:
THE SUMMER OLYMPICS GAME:
The Summer Olympic Games are held every four years and occur during leap years. Write a C++ program that asks the user to enter a year and then tells if this is a year of Olympic Games or not. Pass the entered year to a function that determines if it is a leap year or not. Based on the finding of this function, print an appropriate message in the main() to let the user know if the Olympic Games are going to be held or not.
All years which are perfectly divisible by 4 are leap years, except for century years (years ending with 00). Century years are leap years only if they are perfectly divisible by 400. For example, 2012, 2004, and 1968 are leap years, but 1971 and 2006 are not leap years. Similarly, 1200, 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not.
Question 3 of 5
What motivates athletes to participate in the Summer Olympic Games?
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: The main reason athletes want to participate in the Summer Olympic Games is often driven by a sense of patriotic pride. Representing their country and showcasing their skills on an international platform instills a deep sense of national pride in athletes. While winning medals is a significant goal for many athletes, the primary motivation to participate in the Olympics is often rooted in representing their nation.
Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because although athletes may aspire to win medals, travel the world, or earn money through endorsements, the core driving factor for most athletes in the Summer Olympics is the patriotic pride of representing their country.
Extract:
DAY LIGHT SAVINGS TIME:
It is a well-known fact that it takes the Earth approximately 365 days to move around the sun. At the same time, the Earth revolves or spins around itself over the course of 24 hours, which explains why there is day and night. One half of the Earth is always facing the Sun and the other half is facing away from it. As a result, there are different time zones dividing the globe. Moving suddenly from one time zone into the other, as when flying for example from Asia to North America, causes jetlag. People feel tired, they wake up suddenly during the night and cannot go back to sleep. It takes time to get used to a new time zone.
Another thing to consider is the slight tilting of the Earth towards the sun. The Earth does not stand straight but leans a little to one side. Therefore, when it revolves around the Sun, the middle part of the Earth is always closer to the Sun and gets more heat. This part is called the equator, and above it lathes tropics. Countries at the tropics get the same amount of daylight all the time. The sun always rises at 6 am and sets at 6 pm. In contrast, the tips of the Earth or the Poles get hardly any light at all because they are so far away from the sun.
There are two main seasons at the Poles. There are 6 months of summer, when the sun is always shining, even at night, and there are 6 months of winter, when there is constant darkness.
In between the tropics and the Poles lies the temperate zone, where there are 4 seasons. The sun rises and sets at different times throughout the year. In the spring and summer, it gets light earlier; in the fall and winter it gets dark earlier. People who live in temperate zones take advantage of that fact to get more daylight. At the beginning of spring, countries in Europe and North America re-adjust their clocks. They change the time on their clocks and watches by moving them an hour ahead. As a result, the sun does not set around 7 or 8 pm as usual, but an hour later. This measure is called Daylight Savings Time (DST) and lasts until the beginning of fall, when people move their clocks back one hour to Standard or regular Time.
It is thought that Benjamin Franklin first suggested the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the 18th century. But, the first serious proposal came in 1907 from William Willet. Yet his idea was shelved by the British government, who refused it because they thought it was unnecessary. Daylight Savings Time was first put into practice by the German government in 1916 in order to save energy during the First World War. Shortly after, the United Kingdom followed suit, with the United States doing the same in 1918.
The law was very unpopular since people had to wake up earlier and many experienced a feeling like jetlag. But the 1970s energy crisis forced the US to make Daylight Savings Time the law. Studies have shown that the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the spring saved the US 10,000 barrels of oil per day between 1974-1975. It also prevented 2,000 traffic injuries and 50 traffic-related deaths, saving the country $28 million.
Currently, Americans switch to Daylight Savings Time on the first Sunday in April and move back to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October. But as of 2007, the time re-adjustment happened even earlier, in March and November.
Question 4 of 5
What is the relationship between the tilt of the Earth and seasons as explained in the passage on Daylight Savings Time?
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: The correct answer is B: 'The tilt of the Earth creates seasons.' The passage explains that the tilt of the Earth causes the different seasons by changing the amount of sunlight different regions receive. This tilt results in varying angles at which sunlight reaches different parts of the Earth, leading to the seasonal changes in temperature and daylight hours.
Choice A is incorrect because the passage clearly states that the tilt of the Earth does have an effect on the seasons.
Choice C is incorrect because the tilt of the Earth remains relatively constant throughout the year.
Choice D is incorrect as the tilt of the Earth is not random but follows a consistent pattern.
Extract:
EATING:
Consumption of food is a universal necessity. Different cultures have developed different methods to accomplish the task. It is interesting to discover these differences and learn new ways to do things.
European cultures developed cutlery (knives, forks, and spoons) to enable people to efficiently eat their food. Correct use of this tools changes with the times- what was polite in 1800 may not be considered proper manners today.
China developed the chopstick as an efficient tool for eating. Mastery of the use of chopsticks can be difficult for the person not raised in the culture. The attempts of a novice to use chopsticks can be very amusing to the watcher, but frustrating for the hungry diner.
Space travel has created new challenges for consuming food. Squeeze bottles and other unique packaging have enabled space travelers to get their needed nutrition. Chopsticks and forks do not work well in space.
Question 5 of 5
What statement from the article draws a conclusion?
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: The correct answer is C: 'It is interesting to discover new ways to do things.' This statement draws a conclusion by summarizing the learning experience mentioned throughout the article. It reflects on the diversity of eating habits across cultures and the fascination in discovering and adapting to new methods of accomplishing tasks.
Choice A is incorrect as it describes a fact rather than drawing a conclusion.
Choice B is incorrect as it also presents a historical fact without concluding or summarizing any information.
Choice D is incorrect because it states a fact about the challenges of space travel without offering a concluding remark or summarizing the topic.