READING COMPREHENSION FOR 10º

ACTIVITY

Read the text and answer the questions about it.

 Passage

When we are young, we learn that tigers and sharks are dangerous animals. We might be scared of them because they are big and powerful. As we get older, however, we learn that sometimes the most dangerous animals are also the smallest animals. In fact, the animal that kills the most people every year is one that you have probably killed yourself many times: the mosquito.

While it may seem that all mosquitoes are biters, this is not actually the case. Male mosquitoes eat plant nectar. On the other hand, female mosquitoes feed on animal blood. They need this blood to live and produce eggs. When a female mosquito bites a human being, it transmits a small amount of saliva into the blood. This saliva may or may not contain a deadly disease. The result of the bite can be as minor as an itchy bump or as serious as death.

Because a mosquito can bite many people in the course of its life, it can carry diseases from one person to another very easily. Two of the most deadly diseases carried by mosquitoes are malaria and yellow fever. More than 700 million people become sick from these diseases every year. At least 2 million of these people will die from these diseases.

Many scientists are working on safer and better ways to kill mosquitoes, but so far, there is no sure way to protect everyone in the world from their deadly bites. Mosquito nets can be placed over beds to protect people against being bitten. These nets help people stay safe at night, but they do not kill any mosquitoes. Mosquitoes have many natural enemies like bats, birds, dragonflies, and certain kinds of fish. Bringing more of these animals into places where mosquitoes live might help to cut down the amount of mosquitoes in that area. This is a natural solution, but it does not always work very well. Mosquitoes can also be killed with poisons or sprays. Even though these sprays kill mosquitoes, they may also harm other plants or animals.

Although mosquitoes may not seem as scary as larger, more powerful animals, they are far more dangerous to human beings. But things are changing. It is highly likely that one day scientists will find a way to keep everyone safe from mosquitoes and the diseases they carry.

Questions

1)    According to the author, some people are more afraid of tigers and sharks than mosquitoes

because tigers and sharks

A. kill more people than mosquitoes

B. are big and powerful

C. are found all over the world

D. have no natural enemies

2) Based on the information in paragraph 2, we can understand that

I. male mosquitoes and female mosquitoes have different eating habits

II. male mosquitoes are harmless to humans

III. female mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting diseases to humans

A. I only

B. I and II only

C. II and III only

D. I, II, and III

3) In paragraph 2 the author writes, "This saliva may or may not contain a deadly disease." The purpose of this statement is to

A. oppose a previous argument

B. question an upcoming conclusion

C. confirm a hypothesis

D. support a later statement

4) As used in paragraph 2, minor most nearly means

A. insignificant

B. deadly

C. frustrating

D. dangerous

5) Based on information in paragraph 3, it can be understood that if you get sick with malaria or yellow fever, your chances of survival are

A. terrible

B. mediocre

C. good

D. excellent

6) It can be understood that the introduction of dragonflies might reduce the number of flies in a given area because dragonflies

A. work together with mosquitoes

B. kill mosquitoes

C. cannot be killed by poiso

D. attract bats

7) Which of the following best summarizes the information in paragraph 4?

A. Mosquito nets provide adequate protection from deadly mosquitoes.

B. Poisons and sprays provide adequate protection from deadly mosquitoes.

C. The introduction of the mosquito's natural enemies provides adequate protection from deadly mosquitoes.

D. There is no perfect solution to the mosquito problem.

8) Which of the following words best describes the author's overall attitude towards the prospect of solving the mosquito problem?

A. despondent, meaning hopeless or dejected

B. exasperated, meaning extremely irritated or annoyed

C. equivocal, meaning doubtful or uncertain

D. optimistic, meaning hopeful or taking a favorable view

READING COMPREHENSION FOR 11º

ACTIVITY

Read the text and answer the questions about it

 Passage

In the early 1920's, settlers came to Alaska looking for gold. They traveled by boat to the coastal towns of Seward and Knik, and from there by land into the gold fields. The trail they used to travel inland is known today as the Iditarod Trail, one of the National Historic Trails designated by the Congress of the United States. The Iditarod Trail quickly became a major thoroughfare in Alaska, as the mail and supplies were carried across this trail. People also used it to get from place to place, including the priests, ministers, and judges who had to travel between villages. In the winter, the settlers’ only means of travel down this trail was via dog sled.

Once the gold rush ended, many gold-seekers went back to where they had come from, and suddenly there was much less travel on the Iditarod Trail. The introduction of the airplane in the late 1920’s meant dog teams were no longer the standard mode of transportation, and of course with the airplane carrying the mail and supplies, there was less need for land travel in general. The final blow to the use of the dog teams was the appearance of snowmobiles.

By the mid 1960's, most Alaskans didn’t even know the Iditarod Trail existed, or that dog teams had played a crucial role in Alaska’s early settlements. Dorothy G. Page, a self-made historian, recognized how few people knew about the former use of sled dogs as working animals and about the Iditarod Trail’s role in Alaska’s colorful history. To raise awareness about this aspect of Alaskan history, she came up with the idea to have a dog sled race over the Iditarod Trail. She presented her idea to an enthusiastic musher, as dog sled drivers are known, named Joe Redington, Sr. Soon the Pages and the Redingtons were working together to promote the idea of the Iditarod race.

Many people worked to make the first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race a reality in 1967. The Aurora Dog Mushers Club, along with men from the Adult Camp in Sutton, helped clear years of overgrowth from the first nine miles of the Iditarod Trail. To raise interest in the race, a $25,000 purse was offered, with Joe Redington donating one acre of his land to help raise the funds. The short race, approximately 27 miles long, was put on a second time in 1969.

After these first two successful races, the goal was to lengthen the race a little further to the ghost town of Iditarod by 1973. However in 1972, the U.S. Army reopened the trail as a winter exercise, and so in 1973, the decision was made to take the race all the way to the city of Nome—over 1,000 miles. There were many who believed it could not be done and that it was crazy to send a bunch of mushers out into the vast, uninhabited Alaskan wilderness. But the race went! 22 mushers finished that year, and to date over 400 people have completed it.

Questions

1) The primary purpose of this passage is to

A. recount the history of the Iditarod trail and the race that memorializes it

B. describe the obstacles involved in founding the Iditarod race

C. outline the circumstances that led to the establishment of the Iditarod Trail

D. reestablish the important place of the Iditarod Trail in Alaska’s history

2) Based on information in the passage, it can be inferred that all of the following contributed to the disuse of the Iditarod Trail except

A. more modern forms of transportation

B. depleted gold mines

C. highway routes to ghost towns

D. reduced demand for land travel

3) As used in paragraph 2, which is the best definition for mode?

A. formula

B. way

C. preference

D. option

4) According to the passage, the initial Iditarod race

A. was funded through the sale of musher entrance fees

B. was founded by an advocate for Alaskan history

C. ended at the ghost town of Iditarod

D. boasted a total of 400 entrants

5) As used in paragraph 3, the phrase “self-made historian” implies that Dorothy G. Page

A. was employed by the state to keep its dog sled history alive

B. was determined to honor the glories of the gold rush in spite of her questionable credentials

C. had pursued the study of Alaska’s history out of her own interest

D. had personally educated others about Alaska’s history

6) In 1925, when a diphtheria outbreak threatened the lives of people in the remote town of Nome, the government used the Iditarod Trail to transport medicine nearly 700 miles to the town. If the author chose to include this fact in the passage, it would best fit in

A. paragraph 1

B. paragraph 2

C. paragraph 3

D. paragraph 5

7) Based on information in the passage, it can be inferred that because the U.S. Army reopened the Iditarod Trail in 1972,

A. more people could compete in the Iditarod race

B. the mushers had to get permission from the U.S. Army to hold the race

C. the trail was cleared all the way to Nome

D. the Iditarod race became a seasonal Army competition

READING COMPREHENSION

ACTIVITY
 CITY GIRL
I am a city girl at heart. I’ve never milked a cow – never wanted to.
 I was shocked when I attended my first “pig pickin’” after my husband and I moved to North Carolina from Boston. I had to avert my eyes from the huge pig, skin and head still on, splayed open across an oil drum that had been sawed in half lengthwise and fitted with hinges so it opened and closed. This, I later learned, was called a “pig cooker.” Part of the pig’s insides were chopped up in a pan beside it and referred to as “barbecue.” Seeing all of this did not improve my appetite.
“Y’all in thuh country now, gul,” the host told me happily, apparently thrilled to be the one to indoctrinate me into country living.
When, at 8 months pregnant, I volunteered to chaperone my son’s strawberry-picking field trip, the other mothers looked at me strangely. I thought strawberries grew on tall bushes, not low to the ground. All that squatting sent me into early labor.
You should keep these incidents in mind in order to understand my attitude when I heard a “huge hurricane” was headed toward our town. I thought back to the snowstorms forecast during my days growing up in Philadelphia. The “20 inches” predicted by the weatherman never seemed to materialize.
The local newspaper ran a long checklist of things townspeople should get to prepare for the hurricane. My neighbor, Wayne, aware that I was new to town, made a point of giving me a copy of the list. I took a cursory glance and thought nothing more of it.
While my neighbors were running around taping their windows, buying fresh batteries, and prepping their generators, I was, quite literally, sitting in my glass house playing with the kids on the floor.
The rains started at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. To my amazement, this was exactly what the weatherman had predicted.
These were no ordinary rains, either. From my glass living room, I could no longer see the front lawn or the trees. The rain was as thick as a woolen curtain. By nightfall, my husband’s car had begun to float out of the driveway. The water started insidiously creeping up our front steps, overturning potted plants and benches in its wake.
“This is unbelievable!” I yelled. I reached for the phone to dial Wayne. He had been born and raised in these parts; surely he would know what to do.
“Wayne,” I said worriedly into the receiver. “The water is coming up our front steps. It’s almost to our door!”
“Ours, too,” he said, quite calmly, I thought, given the circumstances.
“What should I do?”
“Put out your sandbags. It will keep the water out as long as it doesn’t get too high.”
“Sandbags?”
“You didn’t get any?” he asked in disbelief. “They were on the list.”
No, I hadn’t.

Questions:

1) What other title might fit this passage best?
A. "An Urban Attitude"
B. "Learning Hurricanes"
 C. "Picking Strawberries"
D. "Snow Storms that Don't Come"

2) What seems to be the author's main purpose in the first four paragraphs of this passage?
A. to let the reader know that the narrator went into early labor
B. to let the reader know that the narrator does not like barbecue
C. to let the reader know that the narrator is unfamiliar with country life
D. to let the reader know that the narrator wants to move back to Boston

3) “I had to avert my eyes from the huge pig, skin and head still on, splayed open across half of an oil drum that had been sawed in half lengthwise. ”
Which of the following is the best way to rewrite the above sentence (from paragraph 2) while keeping its original meaning as used in the story?
A. I had to open my eyes to the huge pig, skin and head on, splayed open across an oil drum that had been sawed in half lengthwise.”
B. I had to direct my eyes towards the huge pig, skin and head on, splayed open across an oil drum that had been sawed in half lengthwise.
C. I had to turn my eyes away from the huge pig, skin and head on, splayed open across an oil drum that had been sawed in half lengthwise.
D. I had to fix my eyes upon the huge pig, skin and head on, splayed open across an oil drum that had been sawed in half lengthwise.

4) As used in paragraph 5, which is the best definition for materialize?
A. to be false
B. to increase in size
C. to become actual or real
D. to be concerned with consumer goods.

5) Which literary term best applies to the following quote: “Y’all in thuh country now, gul.”
A. yarn, meaning an improbable tale
B. trait, characterized as a habit or tendency in one’s personality
C. caprice, characterized as expressing fanciful or odd notions
D. vernacular, meaning the native language of people in a particular geographical area

6) Which best describes the narrator's attitude in this passage?
A. disdainful of rural life
 B. unaware of country ways
C. anxious to get back to Boston
 D. wishful for her children to grow up in the city

7) As used in the middle of the story, which is the best antonym for cursory?
A. angry and willful
 B. fast and intelligent
C. slow and deliberate
D. slow and superficial

 8) What does it mean to literally do something?
A. to think about doing something
B. to do something exactly as said
 C. to do something and regret it later
D. to do something with a bad attitude

9) What message does the author convey by having the narrator wait out the storm in a glass room?
 A. It signifies how vulnerable she is.
B. It signifies the narrator's nontraditional tastes.
C. It lets the reader know that she has not taped up her windows.
D. It lets the reader know she can see everything that's going on.

10) Which best describes the use of woolen curtain in this passage?
A. simile, meaning the direct comparison of two different things using “like” or “as.”
B. comic relief, meaning it offers humor in a tense situation.
C. personification, meaning something described as if it were human.
D. satire, meaning it ridicules the weakness of an institution.

11) If the story were to continue, what might reasonably happen next?
I. Water might get into the house.
II. The narrator might flee to Wayne’s house for safety.
III. The narrator might drive back to the store to get sandbags.
 A. I only
B. I and II
C. II and III
D. I, II, and III

12) Which lesson does the narrator most likely learn during the hurricane?
A. The early bird catches the worm.
B. Marry in haste and repent at leisure.
C. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
 D. Actions speak louder than words.

13) How might the narrator have been better able to deal with her immediate problem?
A. She could have taped her windows.
B. She could have replaced the old batteries in her appliances.
C. She could have prepped her generator.
D. She could have purchased the items from the hurricane list.

FORMING NEW WORDS

Affixes and roots

Añadir afijos a palabras ya existentes (la base o raíz) para formar nuevas palabras es común en el  Inglés.  Los prefijos se añaden a la parte frontal de la base , mientras que los sufijos se agregan al final de la base. Los prefijos no suelen cambiar la clase de la palabra base, pero sufijos suelen hacer cambiar la clase de la palabra.

Los prefijos más comunes que se utilizan para formar nuevos verbos en Inglés son : re-, dis-, over-, un-,mis- out-. Los sufijos más comunes son:-ise,-en,-ate, - (i) fy.

Verbs

e.g. prefix + verb verb

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
re-	again or back	restructure, revisit, reappear, rebuild, refinance
dis-	reverses the meaning of the verb	disappear, disallow, disarm, disconnect, discontinue
over-	too much	overbook, oversleep, overwork
un-	reverses the meaning of the verb	unbend, uncouple, unfasten
mis-	badly or wrongly	mislead, misinform, misidentify
out-	more or better than others	outperform, outbid
be-	make or cause	befriend, belittle
co-	together	co-exist, co-operate, co-own
de-	do the opposite of	devalue, deselect
fore-	earlier, before	foreclose, foresee
inter-	between	interact, intermix, interface
pre-	before	pre-expose, prejudge, pretest
sub-	under/below	subcontract, subdivide
trans-	across, over	transform, transcribe, transplant
under-	not enough	underfund, undersell, undervalue, underdevelop

Suffix	Example
-ise	stabilise, characterise, symbolise, visualise, specialise
-ate	differentiate, liquidate, pollinate, duplicate, fabricate
-fy	classify, exemplify, simplify, justify
-en	awaken, fasten, shorten, moisten

Nouns

Los prefijos más comunes para formar nuevos sustantios son: co- y sub-

Los sufijos más comunes son: -tion, -ity, -er, -ness, -ism, -ment, -ant, -ship, -age, -ery.

e.g. prefix + noun noun

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
anti-	against	anticlimax, antidote, antithesis
auto-	self	autobiography, automobile
bi-	two	bilingualism, biculturalism, bi-metalism
co-	joint	co-founder, co-owner, co-descendant
counter-	against	counter-argument, counter-example, counter-proposal
dis-	the converse of	discomfort, dislike
ex-	former	ex-chairman, ex-hunter
hyper-	extreme	hyperinflation, hypersurface
in-	the converse of	inattention, incoherence, incompatibility
in-	inside	inpatient,
inter-	between	interaction, inter-change, interference
kilo-	thousand	kilobyte
mal-	bad	malfunction, maltreatment, malnutrition
mega-	million	megabyte
mis-	wrong	misconduct, misdeed, mismanagement
mini-	small	mini-publication, mini-theory
mono-	one	monosyllable, monograph, monogamy
neo-	new	neo-colonialism, neo-impressionism
out-	separate	outbuilding,
poly-	many	polysyllable
pseudo-	false	pseudo-expert
re-	again	re-organisation, re-assessment, re-examination
semi-	half	semicircle, semi-darkness
sub-	below	subset, subdivision
super-	more than, above	superset, superimposition, superpowers
sur-	over and above	surtax
tele-	distant	telecommunications,
tri-	three	tripartism
ultra-	beyond	ultrasound
under-	below, too little	underpayment, under-development, undergraduate
vice-	deputy	vice-president

.g. Suffix added to a verb (V), noun (N) or adjective (A) noun

Suffix	Meaning	Examples
-tion -sion	action/instance of V-ing	alteration, demonstration expansion, inclusion, admission
-er	person who V-s something used for V-ing	advertiser, driver computer, silencer
-ment	action/instance of V-ing	development, punishment, unemployment
-ant -ent	person who V-s	assistant, consultant student
-age	action/result of V	breakage, wastage, package
-al	action/result of V	denial, proposal, refusal, dismissal
-ence -ance	action/result of V	preference, dependence, interference attendance, acceptance, endurance
-ery/-ry	action/instance of V-ing place of V-ing	bribery, robbery, misery refinery, bakery

Suffix	Meaning	Examples
-er	person concerned with N	astronomer, geographer
-ism	doctrine of N	Marxism, Maoism, Thatcherism
-ship	state of being N	friendship, citizenship, leadership
-age	collection of N	baggage, plumage

Suffix	Meaning	Examples
-ity	state or quality of being A	ability, similarity, responsibility, curiosity
-ness	state or quality of being A	darkness, preparedness, consciousness
-cy	state or quality of being A	urgency, efficiency, frequency

Adjectives

Muchos adjetivos son formados de una de una base de clase diferente con un sufijo e.g. –(less, -ous). Los adjetivos pueden también ser formados de otros adjetivos, especialmente por los prefijos negativos  (un-, in- and non-).  Loas sufijos más comunes son -al, -ent, -ive, -ous, -ful, -less

e.g. Suffix added to verbs or nouns adjective

Suffix	Example
-al	central, political, national, optional, professional
-ent	different, dependent, excellent
-ive	attractive, effective, imaginative, repetitive
-ous	continuous, dangerous, famous
-ful	beautiful, peaceful, careful
-less	endless, homeless, careless, thoughtless
-able	drinkable, countable, avoidable,

e.g. negative + adjective adjective

Prefix	Examples
un-	unfortunate, uncomfortable, unjust
im-/in-/ir-/il-	immature, impatient, improbable, inconvenient, irreplaceable, illegal
non-	non-fiction, non-political, non-neutral
dis-	disloyal, dissimilar, dishonest