Why is “plankton” mentioned in the second paragraph?

According to paragraph 2, evidence from fossil suggests that ...............

American movies create myths about college life in the United States. These stories are entertaining, but they are not true. You have to look beyond Hollywood movies to understand what college is really like. Thanks to the movies, many people believe that college students party and socialize more than they study. Movies almost never show students working hard in class or in the library. Instead, movies show them eating, talking, hanging out, or dancing to loud music at wild parties. While it is true that American students have the freedom to participate in activities, they also have academic responsibilities. In order to succeed, they have to attend classes and study hard. Another movie myth is that athletics is the only important extracurricular activity. In fact, there is a wide variety of nonacademic activities on campus such as special clubs, service organizations, art, and theater programs. This variety allows students to choose what interests them. Even more important, after graduation, students' résumés look better to employers if they list a few extracurricular activities. Most students in the movies can easily afford higher education. If only this were true! While it is true that some American college students are wealthy, most are from families with moderate incomes. Up to 80% of them get some type of financial aid. Students from middle and lower-income families often work part-time throughout their college years. There is one thing that many college students have in common, but it is not something you will see in the movies. They have parents who think higher education is a priority, a necessary and important part of their children's lives. Movies about college life usually have characters that are extreme in some way: super athletic, super intelligent, super wealthy, super glamorous, etc. Movies use these stereotypes, along with other myths of romance and adventure because audiences like going to movies that include these elements. Of course, real college students are not like movie characters at all. So the next time you want a taste of the college experience, do not go to the movies. Look at some college websites or brochures instead. Take a walk around your local college campus. Visit a few classes. True, you may not be able to see the same people or exciting action you will see in the movies, but you can be sure that there are plenty of academic adventures going on all around you. 

The story about college life in Amerian movies are not ...............

How high is the wave of the tsunami when it reaches the shore?

Tsunami is a Japanese word which means harbor wave and is used as the scientific term for seismic sea wave generated by an undersea earthquake or possibly an undersea landslide or volcanic eruption. When the ocean floor is tilted or offset during an earthquake, a set of waves is created similar to the concentric waves generated by an object dropped into the wave. Most tsunamis originate along the Ring of Fire, a zone of volcanoes and seismic activity, 32.500 km long that encircles the Pacific Ocean. Since 1819, about 40 tsunami have struck the Hawaiian Islands. A tsunami can have wave lengths, or widths, of 100 to 200 km, and may travel hundreds of kilometres across the deep ocean, reaching speeds of about 725 to 800 kilometres an hour. Upon entering shallow coastal waters, the wave, which may have been only about half a metre high out at sea, suddenly grows rapidly. When the wave reaches the shore, it may be 15 metres high or more. Tsunamis have tremendous energy because of the great volume of water affected. They are capable of obliterating coastal settlements. Tsunami should not be confused with storm surges, which are domes of water that rise underneath hurricanes or cyclones and cause extensive coastal flooding when the storms reach land. Storm surges are particularly devastating if they occur at high tide. A cyclone and accompanying storm surge killed an estimated 500,000 people in Bangladesh in 1970. The tsunami which truck south and southeast Asia in late 2004 killed over 200 thousand people. 

What does the word concentric mean?

How are tsunami capable of obliterating coastal settlements?

It is estimated that over 99 percent of all species that ever existed have become extinct. What causes extinction? When a species is no longer adapted to a changed environment, it may perish. The exact causes of a species’ death vary from situation to situation. Rapid ecological change may render an environment hostile to a species. For example, temperatures may change and a species may not be able to adapt. Food resources may be affected by environmental changes, which will then cause problems for a species requiring these resources. Other species may become better adapted to an environment, resulting in competition and, ultimately, in the death of a species. The fossil record reveals that extinction has occurred throughout the history of Earth. Recent analyses have also revealed that on some occasions many species become extinct at the same time- a mass extinction. One of the best- known examples of mass extinction occurred 65 million years ago with the demise of dinosaurs and many other forms of life. Perhaps the largest mass extinction was the one that occurred 225 million years ago, when appropriately 95 percent of all species died. Mass extinction can be caused by a relatively rapid change in the environment and can be worsened by the close interrelationship of many species. If, for example, something were to happen to destroy much of the plankton in the oceans, then the oxygen content of Earth would drop, affection even organisms not living in the ocean. Such a change would probably lead to a mass extinction. One interesting, and controversial, finding is that extinctions during the past 250 million years have tended to be more intense every 26 million years. This periodic extinction might be due to intersection of the Earth’s orbit with a cloud of comets, but this theory is purely speculative. Some researchers have also speculated that extinction may often be random. That is, certain species may be eliminated and others may survive for no particular reason. A species’ survival may have nothing to do with its ability to adapt. If so, some of evolutionary history may reflect a sequence of essentially random events.

The underlined word “ultimately” is closest in meaning to .............

In compared with low-achieving students, successful students use ...........

What will happen when an object is dropped into the water?

What killed an estimated 500,000 people in Bangladesh?

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 1 as resulting from repid ecological change?

Today, compared with 1910 ..............

What is the zone of volcanoes and seismic activity in the world called?

The word “they” in the third paragraph refers to ..............

What is the greatest speed of tsunami traveling across the deep ocean?

The word “prior” is CLOSET meaning to ...............