AccelePrep for the ACT Test 2nd Edition Student Text

148 • S URGE TO S UCCESS ! R EADING T EST P REP

In the previous chapter, you learned the basics about the Reading test. Now it’s time to break down the test by learning about each of the ACT item-types. Before we begin, take a couple of minutes to read through the following paired passages. We’ll be using them to learn about the seven item-types. Ready . . . go!

PACING TIP If you’re feeling especially motivated, grab a timer and see if you can preview and read the passages in two-and- a-half minutes.

DIRECTIONS: Each passage or pair of passages is followed by a set of items. Read the passage or pair of passages and choose the best answer for each item. You may refer to the passage(s) as often as necessary to answer the items. Natural Science: These passages are excerpted from articles discussing research on Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybee populations. Passage A Honey bees are essential crop pollinators, and are responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value each year. Recently, honey bees have been under serious pressure from a mystery problem: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Beekeepers have reported losses of 30 to 90 percent of their hives. While colony losses are not unexpected, especially over the winter, this magnitude of loss is unusually high. The main features of CCD are very low numbers of adult bees in the hive, a live queen, honey still in the hive, and the presence of immature bees.

According to a study from Harvard’s School of Public Health, the probable cause of ‹• ’‡•–‹…‹†‡•ǡ •’‡…‹ϐ‹…ƒŽŽ› –™‘ ™‹†‡Ž› —•‡† neonicotinoids: imidacloprid and clothianidin. The research was conducted by Dr. Chengsheng Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at Harvard, and the results were published in the Bulletin of Insectology. Dr. Lu studied 18 bee colonies in three locations. Researchers separated the six colonies at each location into three groups—one treated with imidacloprid, one with clothianidin, and one untreated. The result was that in 6 of the 12 colonies that were treated with neonicotinoids, bees died ƒ– ‡Ž‡˜ƒ–‡† ”ƒ–‡• ƒ† ϐŽ‡† –Š‡ Š‹˜‡•ǡ ‡šŠ‹„‹–‹‰ symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder. There was a steady decline in the size of all of the colonies during the beginning of winter, a decline that is typical among hives during the colder months in New England. Beginning in January, bee populations in the control colonies began to increase as expected, but populations in the neonicotinoid- treated hives continued to decline. By April, 6 out of 12 of the neonicotinoid-treated colonies were lost, with abandoned hives that are typical of CCD. Only

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