Inferences Test

Read the following passage and answer the question. Pretend you are at the grocery store. As you are walking down the cookie aisle, you notice a little girl crying and pulling on her mom's coat as she pushes the cart towards the front of the store. The closer she gets to the front of the store, the louder the little girl screams. Lots of things could be wrong with the little girl, BUT we can probably conclude that-

Read the following passage and answer the question. One of the rarest animals in the world is the okapi. They live in the rain forest in Central Africa. Few people have seen one alive. Every few years someone claims to see one, but they never have proof. A few years ago, some scientists who were studying plants found a skeleton, teeth and some skin in a remote area of the rain forest. They were excited, as they believed they had found the remains of a rare okapi. They drew a picture of what they thought the animal might have looked like when it was alive. The scientists then sent the picture along with the skeleton, teeth and skin to a scientific institution in Dallas, Texas. What did the scientists probably do with the skeleton, teeth and bones?

The U.S. Government Trains Bees to Detect Explosives The next time there's a bomb scare, a swarm of bees might come to the rescue. Military scientists at the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project based in Los Alamos, New Mexico, have trained honeybees to alert authorities about explosives. The scientists hope bomb-sniffing bees will protect U.S. troops abroad and also be useful for homeland security. "Bees are smelling machines," Tim Haarmann, a scientist with the project, told WR News. In nature, bees use their sense of smell to communicate with one another and to find nectar, the sweet liquid from flowers. Now trained bees are using that skill to detect the odor of dynamite and other explosives. The scientists let the bees smell sugar water and explosives at the same time. A bee naturally reacts to the smell of sugar water by sticking out its proboscis (pruh-BAH-sis), or the tube it uses to feed on nectar. Then the scientists take away the sugar water, and the bees have the same reaction when they smell just the explosives. The trained bees are put in tiny harnesses and placed in a box. Officials carry that box near the object they want to test. If the bees stick out their proboscises, officials know that a bomb is nearby. The bees can detect a car bomb 10 feet away! Haarmann says it takes one morning to train a hive of bees. The bees are set free, unharmed, after two days of bomb sniffing. Why do the bees stick out their tubes to smell explosives even if there is no sugar water?

A Tricky Move If you think moving a piano is tricky, try moving the 2,080-pound Liberty Bell. The bell, one of America’s most enduring symbols of freedom, had to be moved from its second home at Liberty Hall Pavilion in Philadelphia to a new building down the street. Why the change of address? The National Park Service built a new center for the Liberty Bell. Movers wanted to make sure that no additional harm was done to the bell’s famous crack. During the move, scientists attached tiny sensors to the mostly copper bell. The sensors would sound an alarm if the bell’s famous crack got bigger. "The bell is fragile because of the way it was [made]," said one scientist. This wasn’t the first time the Liberty Bell was moved. From 1885 to 1915, the Liberty Bell traveled across the country, visiting more than 400 cities and towns, including Chicago, New Orleans, and St. Louis. Workers also moved the Liberty Bell in 1976, when it was taken from Independence Hall to the Liberty Hall Pavilion. We can assume that if the sensors had sounded an alarm during the moving of the Liberty Bell,

The Great Lakes? Not for Long The Great Lakes help quench the thirst of 40 million people in the United States and Canada. But this pool of resources may not be around for long. The Great Lakes are in trouble. A team of scientists recently released a report about the Great Lakes’ dire state. The lakes are threatened by toxic substances, over fishing, invasive species, air pollution, and loss of habitat for wildlife. "The Great Lakes are under tremendous stress," Alfred Beeton of the University of Michigan told reporters. The report says that concentrating on one or two of the issues won’t wave good-bye to the problems. Instead, the scientists wrote, the government needs to look at the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. An ecosystem is a community of living things and its environment. Scientists asked Congress for $20 billion to help protect the lakes. Experts say the money would be used to clean polluted harbors. Scientists also want to restore wetlands, such as marshes and swamps. Because wetlands hold moisture and prevent erosion, they could help the lakes heal themselves. Something must be done fast, warns Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation. If not, "the damage is likely to be irreversible," he says. Why does the author include quotes from Andy Buchsbaum?