Townview CIP - Science Reading Exercises for TAKS

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Multiple Choice

Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Critical Reading

What is the best way to describe how the people in Hiroshima are feeling in the days and hours preceding the atomic bomb explosion?

a.	calm	c.	riotous
b.	uneasy	d.	hopeful

Unaware of the threat of an atomic bomb, what do people in Hiroshima believe is inevitable?

a.	an end to the war	c.	a population increase
b.	a surrender	d.	an air raid

In Hiroshima, what is the main reason John Hersey provides so many details about the activities of people in Hiroshima in the hours before the bomb was dropped?

a.	to lengthen his story
b.	to give readers insight into their lives, which have been disrupted by the war
c.	to entertain readers
d.	to show how people in the community interact with one another

What might you infer about the theme of Hiroshima from the following passage?

They still wonder why they lived when so many others died. Each of them counts many small items of chance or volition—a step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next—that spared him.

a.	The theme deals with the idea that some people are much more fortunate than others.
b.	The theme deals with the idea that people are safe only inside their homes.
c.	The theme deals with the cruel and random destruction caused by the bomb.
d.	The theme deals with the different ways in which people deal with tragedy.

What theme is implied in the following passage from Hiroshima?

. . . but undoubtedly she also felt a generalized, community pity, to say nothing of self-pity. She had not had an easy time. Her husband, Isawa, had gone into the Army just after Myeko was born, and she heard nothing from or of him for a long time, until, on March 5, 1942, she received a seven-word telegram: “Isawa died an honorable death at Singapore.”

a.	that it is dangerous to be a soldier
b.	that war cruelly and coldly destroys the lives of individuals
c.	how different people deal with self-pity
d.	that fathers should not be soldiers

Who are the speakers in the poem “Losses”?

a.	families of soldiers	c.	planes
b.	soldiers	d.	teachers

Which of the following images from Hiroshima is ironic?

a.	Dr. Fujii sat down cross-legged in his underwear on the spotless matting of the porch, put on his glasses, and started reading the Osaka Asahi.
b.	There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.
c.	Mrs. Nakamura went back to the kitchen, looked at the rice, and began watching the man next door.
d.	Mr. Tanimoto is a small man, quick to talk, laugh, and cry. He wore his black hair parted in the middle and rather long . . .

In Hiroshima, why does Hersey describe over and over the moment of the bomb’s explosion, each time from a different person’s perspective?

a.	to add a level of suspense to the piece
b.	so that people can understand the terror felt by individuals at that moment
c.	to show how people handle themselves under stress
d.	so that people can see which structures withstood the explosion and which did not

What theme can you infer from the following lines from “Losses”?

In bombers named for girls, we burned / The cities we had learned about in school— / Till our lives wore out . . .

a.	War gives young men a chance to travel.
b.	Pilots become emotionally attached to their planes.
c.	Young men fighting in war should be educated.
d.	War is violent and cruel.

10.

In “Losses,” when are soldiers given medals?

a.	when they save lives	c.	when they die
b.	when they last long enough	d.	when they burn a city

11.

In “Losses,” what idea is emphasized by the line “When we died they said, ‘Our casualties were low.’ ”?

a.	In war, every death is seen as a tragedy.
b.	War is an exciting experience.
c.	In war, death is often treated with indifference.
d.	People die because they make mistakes.

12.

In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” what woke the speaker when he was six miles from earth?

a.	enemy antiaircraft fire	c.	the voice of his pilot
b.	the sound of a hose	d.	the engine of the plane

13.

In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” to what does the gunner compare the ball turret in which he sits?

a.	a cloud	c.	a womb
b.	a dream	d.	black flak

14.

In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” what is thematically significant about the fact that Jarrell chose to write about a gunner rather than any other type of soldier?

a.	The gunner sat in a glass sphere beneath a World War II aircraft.
b.	The gunner’s sole function was to shoot at aircraft, so he constantly confronted death.
c.	The gunner fired his gun from an upside-down position.
d.	The gunner constantly thought of his mother.

15.

What is implied by the following line from “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”?

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

a.	It is difficult to remove someone from a turret.
b.	People grieved for the gunner.
c.	Treatment of the gunner’s body is cold and inhuman.
d.	The gunner died nobly.

Vocabulary and Grammar

16.

Choose the meaning of rendezvous in this phrase: “. . . for at that time the B-29s were using Lake Biwa, northeast of Hiroshima, as a rendezvous point . . .”

a.	resting place	c.	communication
b.	destruction zone	d.	meeting place

17.

In which pair of sentences is a transition used correctly to show the relationship between ideas?

a.	Miss Sasaki prepared her family’s meals. She left for work.
b.	Miss Sasaki prepared her family’s meals. However, she left for work.
c.	Miss Sasaki prepared her family’s meals. Then, she left for work.
d.	Miss Sasaki prepared her family’s meals. Therefore, she left for work.

18.

Choose the meaning of incessant in this sentence: “Mrs. Nakamura was at first annoyed as she listened to the sound of her neighbor’s incessant hammering.”

a.	constant	c.	violent
b.	loud	d.	deliberate

19.

Choose the best transition or transitional phrase to show the relationship between the ideas in these two sentences: “The Reverend Mr. Tanimoto was alone. His wife had been commuting with their year-old baby to spend nights in Ushida.”

a.	for some reason	c.	even though
b.	therefore	d.	because

20.

Choose the meaning of convivial in this phrase: “At fifty, he was healthy, convivial, and calm . . .”

a.	reserved	c.	bitter
b.	sociable	d.	sluggish