The word ‘monumental’ in Paragraph 2 means __________.

Hummingbirds are small, often brightly colored birds of the family Trochilidae that live exclusively in the Americas. About 12 species are found in North America, but only the ruby-throated hummingbird breeds in eastern North America and is found from Nova Scotia to Florida. The greatest variety and number of species are found in South America. Another hummingbird species is found from southeastern Alaska to northern California. Many hummingbirds are minute. But even the giant hummingbird found in western South America, which is the largest known hummingbird, is only about 8 inches long and weighs about two-thirds of an ounce. The smallest species, the bee hummingbird of Cuba and the Isle of Pines, measures slightly more than 5.5 centimeters and weighs about two grams. Hummingbirds' bodies are compact, with strong muscles. They have wings shaped like blades. Unlike the wings of other birds, hummingbird wings connect to the body only at the shoulder joint, which allows them to fly not only forward but also straight up and down, sideways, and backward. Because of their unusual wings hummingbirds can also hover in front of flowers so they can suck nectar and find insects. The humming- bird's bill, adapted for securing nectar from certain types of flowers, is usually rather long and always slender, and it is curved slightly downward in many species. The hummingbird’s body feathers are sparse and more like scales than feathers. The unique character of the feathers produces brilliant and iridescent colors, resulting from the refraction of light by the feathers. Pigmentation of other feathers also contributes to the unique color and look. Male and female hummingbirds look alike in some species but different in most species; males of most species are extremely colorful. The rate at which a hummingbird beats its wings does not vary, regardless of whether it is flying forward, flying in another direction, or merely hovering. But the rate does vary with the size of the bird - the larger the bird, the lower the rate, ranging from 80 beats per second for the smallest species to 10 times per second for larger species. Researchers have not yet been able to record the speed of the wings of the bee humming-bird but imagine that they beat even faster. Most hummingbirds, especially the smaller species, emit scratchy, twittering, or squeaky sounds. The wings, and sometimes the tail feathers, often produce humming, hissing, or popping sounds, which apparently function much as do the songs of other birds. 

According to the passage, where are hummingbirds found?

The word "appealing" is closest in meaning to ........

All of the following are defined in the passage EXCEPT ............

Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He played for the New York Yankees in their years of glory. From the time Mantle began to play professionally in 1951 to his last year in 1968, baseball was the most popular game in the United States. For many people, Mantle symbolized the hope, prosperity, and confidence of America at that time. Mantle was a fast and powerful player, a “switch-hitter” who could bat both right-handed and lefthanded. He won game after game, one World Series championship after another, for his team. He was a wonderful athlete, but this alone cannot explain America’s fascination with him. Perhaps it was because he was a handsome, red-haired country boy, the son of a poor miner from Oklahoma. His career, from the lead mines of the West to the heights of success and fame, was a fairy-tale version of the American dream. Or perhaps it was because America always loves a “natural”: a person who wins without seeming to try, whose talent appears to come from an inner grace. That was Mickey Mantle. But like many celebrities, Mickey Mantle had a private life that was full of problems. He played without complaint despite constant pain from injuries. He lived to fulfill his father’s dreams and drank to forget his father’s early death. It was a terrible addiction that finally destroyed his body. It gave him cirrhosis of the liver and accelerated the advance of liver cancer. Even when Mickey Mantle had turned away from his old life and warned young people not to follow his example, the destructive process could not be stopped. Despite a liver transplant operation that had all those who loved and admired him hoping for a recovery, Mickey Mantle died of cancer at the age of 63. 

What is the main idea of the passage?

What causes dodder to grow in a particular direction?

"It” in the passage refers to_______. 

The word “elite” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to___________.

Why does the author mention “artistic, political, or pedagogic communication” in the passage?

The word “benign” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ________.

Music can bring us to tears or to our feet, drive us into battle or lull us to sleep. Music is indeed remarkable in its power over all humankind, and perhaps for that very reason, no human culture on earth has ever lived without it. From discoveries made in France and Slovenia, even Neanderthal man, as long as 53,000 years ago, had developed surprisingly sophisticated, sweet- sounding flutes carved from animal bones. It is perhaps then, no accident that music should strike such a chord with the limbic system – an ancient part of our brain, evolutionarily speaking, and one that we share with much of the animal kingdom. Some researchers even propose that music came into this world long before the human race ever did. For example, the fact that whale and human music have so much in common even though our evolutionary paths have not intersected for nearly 60 million years suggests that music may predate humans. They assert that rather than being the inventors of music, we are latecomers to the musical scene. Humpback whale composers employ many of the same tricks that human songwriters do. In addition to using similar rhythms, humpbacks keep musical phrases to a few seconds, creating themes out of several phrases before singing the next one. Whale songs in general are no longer than symphony movements, perhaps because they have a similar attention span. Even though they can sing over a range of seven octaves, the whales typically sing in key, spreading adjacent notes no farther apart than a scale. They mix percussive and pure tones in pretty much the same ratios as human composers – and follow their ABA form, in which a theme is presented, elaborated on and then revisited in a slightly modified form. Perhaps most amazing, humpback whale songs include repeating refrains that rhyme. It has been suggested that whales might use rhymes for exactly the same reasons that we do: as devices to help them remember. Whale songs can also be rather catchy. When a few humpbacks from the Indian Ocean strayed into the Pacific, some of the whales they met there quickly changed their tunes – singing the new whales’ songs within three short years. Some scientists are even tempted to speculate that a universal music awaits discovery. 

Why did the author write the passage?