ASVAB Paragraph Comprehension Practice Test 848350 Results

Your Results Global Average
Questions 5 5
Correct 0 2.78
Score 0% 56%

Review

1
Ohio started the month of July with its pedal to the metal. The Buckeye State became the 34th state to adopt the 70 miles-an-hour speed limit. Drivers can now do up to 70 on more than 570 of Ohio's 1,332 miles of interstate highway. Congress repealed the 55 mph national limit in 1995. Despite predictions of calamity and carnage on the highways, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in October 1998 that "the traffic death rate dropped to a record low level in 1997". That pattern has continued since then.
You can infer from this paragraph that higher speed limits _______________ the traffic death rate.
71% Answer Correctly
reduce
have no impact on
increase
are not linked to

Solution
The paragraph cites research that indicates a long term decrease in the traffic death rate since the national speed limit was repealed in 1995. This lends credence to the opinion that higher speed limits reduce the traffic death rate.

2
The Doppler effect (or Doppler shift), named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who proposed it in 1842 in Prague, is the change in frequency of a wave (or other periodic event) for an observer moving relative to its source. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from an observer. The received frequency is higher (compared to the emitted frequency) during the approach, it is identical at the instant of passing by, and it is lower during the recession.
In this paragraph, what is "relative"?
44% Answer Correctly
The hearing of the observer compared to the source.
The speed of the observer compared to the source.
The position of the observer compared to the source.
The frequency of the observer compared to the source.

Solution
According to this passage, the Doppler effect is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave. This indicates a difference in the movement and therefore the position of the observer and source.

3
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which analyzes the internal development of a single language over time.
Which of the following would be the most useful for someone using the comparative method in linguistics when studying a particular language?
66% Answer Correctly
Old folk songs that have been passed down among generations of speakers of the language.
An ancient text written in the language.
The same text written in two different dialects of the language.
Two editions of the same text written one-hundred years apart.

Solution
The wrong answers all provide insight into how a single language has changed over time while the text written in two different dialects offers an opportunity to compare languages that share a common ancestor.

4
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution.
Based on this passage, which of the following statements is false?
47% Answer Correctly
Endemism requires an organism be unique to a defined geographic location.
An organism that is endemic to Australia can be found in India.
An organism that is indigenous to Australia can be found in India.
An organism that is endemic cannot have a cosmopolitan distribution.

Solution
You don't necessarily need to know the definitions of the words in a paragraph to figure out the correct answer. Just go through the answers one by one and logically compare the answer to the the paragraph and eliminate the answers that aren't supported by the facts.

5
The 1980 New York Mets season was the 19th regular season for the Mets, who played home games at Shea Stadium. Led by manager Joe Torre, the team had a 67-95 record, yielding a 5th place finish in the National League East.
In the context of this paragraph, the word "yielding" most closely means:
52% Answer Correctly
Complying with the requests or desires of others.
Being flexible.
Giving way under pressure.
Being submissive.