ASVAB PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION PRACTICE EXAM

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ASVAB PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION PRACTICE EXAM

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Question 1: In 1885, Saint Paul, Minnesota, was one of the fastest growing urban centers in the United States and had become the nation's third largest city. Despite its popularity, a news reporter from New York called Saint Paul "another Siberia, unfit for human habitation in the winter." Determined to counter this impression of their city, community leaders created a winter festival to celebrate winter and show that its residents didn't hibernate during the cold winter months. The following year, the inaugural Saint Paul Winter Carnival included parades, skiing, a giant snow slide, snow and ice sculptures, and the main attraction of the event--an ice castle. Since that first year, there hasn't always been an ice castle because of the cost. But in 2004, an ice castle was built that covered five acres and reached eight stories high. The locals like to think of the carnival as "The Coolest Celebration on Earth."The passage implie

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was created to influence public opinion.Question 2: In response to concerns at many universities that professors spend too much time publishing and not enough time educating their students, some schools are establishing rules that set strict limits on the amount of material that a full-time professor may publish over a certain time period. This policy will come back to haunt these schools, because a professor's prestige within the larger academic community is often directly related to the significance of a professor's published work. As a result, many excellent, prospective candidates will opt not to accept full-time positions, which in turn may lead to a shortage of high-quality, full-time professors at those universities.Based on the passage, the author's main point is

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restrictions on publishing by professors will likely have a negative effect on universities.Question 3: The accumulation of tiny genetic changes could account for the vast differences between humans and chimpanzees, researchers recently reported. They found that less than 1.5 percent of the DNA found on chromosome 22 in humans differs from the DNA on the equivalent chromosome in chimps. But these small variations are far from the whole story. Eight-three percent of chimpanzee chromosome 22 proteins are different from their human counterparts.This means that only 17 percent of the chromosome 22 genes are identical, indicating that the evolutionary gulf between humans and chimps is much wider than the 98.5 percent match their DNA might appear to indicate.According to the paragraph, human beings

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are less alike than the 1.5 percent difference their DNA suggests.Question 4: Anne Bradstreet, considered one of the first poets to write English verse in the American colonies, was born in England in 1612 to a well-connected Puritan family.At a time when few women were formally educated, she had private tutors and access to an extensive library. At the age of eighteen, she and her husband, Simon Bradstreet, sailed to the New World to escape religious persecution. The journey was arduous, and life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was difficult due to a lack of food and primitive living conditions.Over the years, Anne Bradstreet had eight children, contracted numerous illnesses, and survived a fire. Remarkably, she still found time to compose verse. In 1650, a collection of her poems was printed in England to popular acclaim.While there is no surviving portrait of Bradstreet and her grave is unmarked, she lives on through her lyrics.Which of the following phrases best characterizes the tone

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admiring of Anne Bradstreet's accomplishment Question 5: International Falls, Minnesota, a city on the U.S. and Canadian border, earned the legal right to call itself the "Icebox of the Nation" after battling the ski town of Fraser, Colorado, for the title. After learning that Fraser had been using the slogan, which their own town had claimed since 1948, International Falls officials headed for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and successfully obtained a registration certificate.The legal victory is about more than simple bragging rights. International Falls uses the icebox moniker to market itself as the country's best location for cold-weather testing projects.The passage implies that the "Icebox of the Nation" slogan

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brings both dollars and recognition to International Falls.

Question 6: After hearing reports on the dangers of mercury vapor from silver fillings, many people have decided to have these fillings replaced with a nonmetal material. While researchers note that mercury levels are slightly higher in people with silver fillings than in people without silver fillings, it would take at least 100 fillings to reach an unsafe level of mercury.The passage implies that people with normal numbers of silver fillings

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Are not at risk from mercury vapor Question 7: One of a group of talented, and sometimes ruthless, entrepreneurs, Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, worked his way up from modest beginnings to become one of the richest people in 19th century America. In 1873 he organized his own steel company in Pittsburg, and it soon dominated the industry. In 1901 he sold his holdings in the company for $480 million to banker J. P. Morgan. Carnegie believed that the wealthy are merely trustees of their money and are obligated to use their resources for the benefit of society. Convinced that the best way to improve the lives of others was to provide them with access to knowledge, Carnegie funded thousands of public libraries.By the time of his death in 1919, he had given away most of his fortune to support a variety of philanthropic causes.Which of the following phrases best characterizes the tone of this passage?

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admiring of Carnegie for donating a large part of his wealth Question 8: In every healthy democracy one will find, in addition to lively discussion and a thriving press, lots of political satire. Political satire is a genre of written, oral, and graphic communication that pokes fun at politicians, political parties, and the activities of government. It is humor, but humor with a purpose; by exaggerating faults and foibles, the satirist hopes to provoke laughter while making a point. Leaders of governments and political parties often suffer most at the hands of the satirist, so it is wise for those who wish to make a career of politics to be able to laugh at themselves and take a joke. Like a forest without the sounds of birds, a democracy without the sights and sounds of political satire is a sign that something is amiss.The author's main purpose in writing the passage is most likely to

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explain what political satire is and why it is important.Question 9: The American newspaper columnist Art Buchwald wrote humor columns--first for the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune in the 1950s and later for the Washington Post. Rather than the stinging wit of some of his contemporaries, Buchwald's style was kindly.Every once in a while, however, his patience with a politician, institution, or policy would wear thin, and his readers would see another, less avuncular side. Art Buchwald's newspaper column was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. Over the course of his career he would write newspaper columns and publish humorous books for half a century.One can infer from the passage that Art Buchwald's writing, when he nearly lost his patience,

was

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Biting