PICAT VERIFICATION TEST PARAGRAPH

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COMPREHENSION) EXAM QUESTIONS

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-Format: Multiple-choice / Flashcard

Question 1: Robbins' phone call, opening in Washington, D.C., Candide interruption, opening in New York

Answer:

The two men wanted to do a musical version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set in the gritty streets of New York City. In their rendition of the story, the conflict would be between two neighborhood gangs, rather than the families portrayed in Shakespeare's play. Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins had talked about it and worked on it since 1949, when Robbins first called Bernstein with the idea.Bernstein's musical, Candide, had interrupted the show's development in 1956, but the following year they finally saw their creation, West Side Story, open on Broadway in New York. West Side Story, beginning with the pre-New York opening in Washington, D.C., was a triumph, and went on to become a classic.Question 9 of 10 According to the passage, which of the following best describes the creation of West Side Story from beginning to end?

Question 2: They involved interruptions to the flow of gravity-driven water.

Answer:

Before calling a technician this time, only to learn the culprit was a hairball in a sink drain, I decided to troubleshoot the plumbing problem myself. I consulted resources and learned that my home's drain, waste, and vent system took advantage of gravity and was designed so that water into my home's drains flowed downhill from start to finish. The waste water from each sink, toilet, shower, tub, and appliance collected into ever larger pipes, finally merging into the main sewer line from my home to the city sewer. Based on my research, the fact that I had two sinks, a tub, and the toilets all backing up indicated that the solution was beyond a few simple doses of chemical drain cleaner this time. Instead, it

was more likely that there was a clog in the main sewer drain from my home, meaning tree roots, a damaged pipe, or a major clog was responsible. According to the passage, which of the following is true about the author's plumbing problems?

Question 3: biting

Answer:

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

• 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

Question 4: brings both dollars and recognition to International Falls.

Answer:

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 1s 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

Question 5: admiring of Carnegie for donating a large part of his wealth

Answer:

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?

Question 6: explain what political satire is and why it is important.

Answer:

In every healthy democracy one will find, in addition to lively discussion and a thriving press, lots of political satire. Political satiré 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 tG 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 Question 7: restrictions on publishing by professors will likely have a negative effect on universities.

Answer:

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

Question 8: are not at risk from mercury vapor.

Answer:

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

Question 9: cannot produce their own food there.

Answer:

Similar to how snow falls from above on a winter's day, marine snow falls from the ocean's sunlit surface waters to animals at the deepest depths of the world's oceans. Marine snow is composed of organic material, such as decaying plant and animal matter, and of inorganic material, such as sand and soot.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists have studied the composition of the marine "snowflakes" and found them to have high carbon content. Without the light necessary for organisms that use photosynthesis to produce their own food, the ocean's bottom-dwelling scavengers eagerly devour this carbon-rich material from above for their sustenance provided the flakes do not break apart

or are not consumed by organisms at a shallower depth. Based on the passage, marine snow is a good source of food for creatures at or near the ocean's floor because these organisms

Question 10: are less alike than the 1.5 percent difference their DNA suggests.

Answer:

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