Victory for the ACT Student Text 15e

110 • R EADING

PASSAGE V NATURAL SCIENCE: The following passages suggest two plausible scenarios for an E. coli outbreak. Passage A An E. coli outbreak at a county fair sickened hundreds of people. Epidemiologists concluded that individuals ™‹–Š…—Ž–—”‡Ǧ…‘ϐ‹”‡†…ƒ•‡• ‘ˆ E. coli ‹ˆ‡…–‹‘ ™‡”‡ ‡š’‘•‡† ‘ —‰—•– ʹͺ „› consuming beverages sold by vendors supplied with water from Well 6. A dye study performed in late September showed a hydraulic connection between the septic system of a nearby 4-H dormitory and Well 6. Tests of a cattle manure storage area suspected as a possible contamination source did not show a hydraulic connection with Well 6 nor with the presence of the relevant strain of E. coli . Therefore, the outbreak was caused by leakage from the dormitory septic system. Passage B Manure runoff from the nearby cattle barn cannot be ruled out as a cause of the ‘—–„”‡ƒ „‡…ƒ—•‡ ‡šƒ…– ‡˜‹”‘‡–ƒŽ conditions, including drought followed by heavy rain, could not be replicated during the later study. Additionally, manure in the storage area was removed daily. Thus, it can never be known if manure-contaminated water percolated from the manure storage area to Well 6. Passage A and Passage B are ‡š…‡”’–• ˆ”‘ –™‘ †‹ˆˆ‡”‡– •‘—”…‡•ǡ „‘–Š ’—„Ž‹•Š‡† ‹ ͳͻͺͻǡ †‹•…—••‹‰ –Š‡ Šƒ„‹–• ‘ˆ two nineteenth-century authors. Passage A Many readers, faced with Thoreau’s enigmatic Yankee persona, have resorted to a kind of pop-culture shorthand for describing his life: Thoreau was an oddball loner who lived by a lake and wrote Walden ȋ’—„Ž‹•Š‡† ‹ ͳͺͷͶȌ ‹ ’”ƒ‹•‡ ‘ˆ ƒ–—”‡ ƒ† against modern progress. But the full story of Thoreau’s life involves subtleties that call this popular image into question. PASSAGE VI HUMANITIES:

Question 14 asks about Passage B.

In line 26, the word percolated

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nearly means: F. boiled. G. infected. H. tested. J. seeped.

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Question 15 asks about both passages. Which of the following best describes the relationship between the two passages? A. The two speakers agree that E. coli caused the illnesses but believe that two different strains were involved. B. The two speakers agree that E. coli caused the illnesses but disagree about the source of the contamination. C. The two speakers agree that the same strain of E. coli caused the outbreak and agree that the dormitory septic system was the source. D. Speaker 1 maintains that E. coli was the cause of the outbreak of illness, but Speaker 2 thinks that some other agent might have been involved. Thoreau’s retreat into the backwoods was more like a child pitching a tent in the backyard. His cabin was only a half-mile from his nearest neighbor and just two miles from the village, so he could easily obtain any needed supplies. The so-called New England Hermit circulated petitions for neighbors in need; he was involved in the Underground Railroad; his essay “Civil Disobedience” was a tract against both slavery and imperialism, two vital social and political issues.

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