READING (12) BUILDING SKILLS CAMBRIDGE PREPARATION FOR THE TOEFL® IBT TEST

 

CAMBRIDGE PREPARATION FOR THE TOEFL® IBT TEST BUILDING SKILLS READING (12)

 

EXERCISES R1-R3 Use Reading Exercises R1-R3 to practice understanding meaning from context EXERCISE R2 Understanding the author’s meaning Read each passage. Choose the letter of the word or phrase that best completes each of the sentences that follow it.   1 Astronomers have recently gained new knowledge of the behaviour of galaxies. It has been discovered that spiral galaxies sometimes collide with each other. The huge forces created in such a cosmic event can tug long trails of stars and create new ones from compressed gases. After repeated collisions, galaxies may eventually merge, forming a single elliptical shape. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is one a collision course, with the nearby Andromeda Galaxy. Hundreds of millions of yeas from now, these two star systems may combine to form one giant configuration. In stating that ‘the Milky Way is on a collision course,’ the authors means that A the Milky Way is going to crash into our own galaxy B the Milky Way is heading toward the Andromeda Galaxy C the Milky Way is the result of an impact that created one giant configuration D the Milky Way will crash into two star systems in hundreds of millions of years 2 As long as the thirteenth century, Roger Bacon, the celebrated philosopher and Franciscan friar, postulated that humankind could fly with the aid of a large ball constructed of thin copper filled with air. Throughout the centuries, other scientific dreamers hypothesized the construction of a variety of flying devices. Leonardo da Vinci, in particular, studied aspects of flight and made sketches for flying machines. It was not until 1783 that the first people, Pilatre de Rozier and the Maquis d’Arlandes, successfully took off from the ground, in a balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers. In stating that ‘Roger Bacon ……. Postulated that humankind could fly,’ the author means that Roger Bacon A witnessed human flight B wanted to show how human could fly C knew why it was important that humans fly D thought that human flight was possible

ANSWER KEYS AND EXPLANATION