Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

33. The tone and style of this piece make it
appropriate for which of the following types of
publications?
a. a scientific report on human-bear interaction
b. a pamphlet on bear safety such as the one the
Marsdens read
c. a statistical study on bear fatalities in the
Western mountains
d. a human interest article in the Sunday maga-
zine of a newspaper
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P O S T T E S T
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1 6 1

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“A Plains Childhood”
When I think of my family’s history on the land, I experience a pang of regret. Unlike much of the arid West, where
the land has gone virtually unchanged for centuries, my place of origin, western Kansas, has been torn up by agri-
culture. The flat plains, excellent soil, and sparse but just adequate rainfall permitted farming; therefore farming
prevailed, and a good 90% of the original sod prairie is gone. The consequence, in human terms, is that our rela-
tionship to our place has always felt primarily mercantile. We used the land and denied, or held at bay, its effect
on us. Yet from my earliest childhood, when most of the Kansas prairie was still intact, I’ve known that the land
also had a romantic quality. I’ve felt moved by the expanse of it, enthralled by its size. I take pride in my identity
as a plains daughter.
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P O S T T E S T
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1 6 2
34. Which of the following is the most accurate
restatement of the author’s position?
a. The presence of people has enriched the plains
habitat.
b. Farming has improved the soil of the plains.
c. Farming has eroded the natural beauty of the
plains.
d. Farming has chemically polluted the plains.
35. The argument in this paragraph is based
primarily on