ASVAB Paragraph Comprehension Practice Test 759133

Questions 5

Study Guide

Paragraph 1
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.
Paragraph 2
The Criminal Grand Jury of Los Angeles County attends hearings brought by the District Attorney’s Office . The objective of this jury is to determine, on the basis of evidence presented by the District Attorney’s Office, whether certain persons should be charged with crimes an d required to stand trial in Superior Court. The Criminal Grand Jury is an accusatory body and not a trial jury; therefore, the burden of proof is much lower. Specifically, the Criminal Grand Jury must decide if there is a strong suspicion the individual committed the alleged crime.
Paragraph 3
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that began in the United States around 1870. Pragmatism is a rejection of the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists develop their philosophy around the idea that the function of thought is as a instrument or tool for prediction, action, and problem solving. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics - such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science - are all best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes rather than in terms of representative accuracy.
Paragraph 4
On Monday, after a long quarter-century, West Virginians said goodbye to their state's 6 percent food tax. Now to see what, if any, business we've been missing. In 1989, retailers warned that sales in West Virginia would go down if legislators imposed a 6 percent tax on food. "Whatever they put on would be passed on to the consumer," Charles Forth, who owned supermarkets in both West Virginia and Ohio, told the newspaper in February 1989. "Six percent is $6 on $100. That will make a difference when people are already hurting and trying to make ends meet." It's a lot easier to drive customers away than to win them back, a fact legislators should bear in mind when it comes to taxation.
Paragraph 5
The expert predicted that America's gross domestic product will return to more than 3 percent yearly expansion. For example, Dow Chemical is investing $4 billion in Texas plastics production that will be operational by 2019. Such growth requires cheap oil and natural gas - and "by 2022 or so, the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia in oil output, and Russia in gas." He continued: "The big attraction is the low price of natural gas, the lowest-carbon fossil fuel, which can be produced profitably at about a third the price per unit of energy as other hydrocarbons. That is particularly attractive to chemical companies. It is the raw material for plastics, Styrofoam, tires, sealants, adhesives, films, liquid crystal screens, nylons, polyesters - nearly everything around us."