Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions

Fish that live on the sea bottom benefit by being flat and hugging the contours. There are two very different types of flatfish and they have evolved in very separate ways. The skates and rays, relatives of the sharks have become flat in what might be called the obvious way. Their bodies have grown out sideways to form great “wings” They look as though they have been flattened but have remained symmetrical and “the right way up”. Conversely fish such as plaice, sole, and halibut have become flat in a different way. There are bony fish which have a marked tendency to be flattened in a vertical direction; they are much “taller” than they are wide. They use their whole vertically flattened bodies as swimming surfaces, which undulate through the water as they move. Therefore when their ancestors migrated to the seabed, they lay on one side than on their bellies. However, this raises the problem that one eye was always looking down into the sand and was effectively useless - In evolution this problem was solved by the lower eye “moving” around the other side. We see this process of moving around enacted in the development of every young bony flatfish. It starts life swimming near the surface, and is symmetrical and vertically flattened, but then the skull starts to grow in a strange asymmetrical twisted fashion, so that one eye for instance the left, moves over the top of the head upwards, an old Picasso - like vision. Incidentally, some species of 20 flatfish settle on the right side, others on the left, and others on either side.

The passage is mainly concerned with:

We can infer from the passage that

The example “You cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear” is used to...

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Pollution is a threat to many species on Earth, but sometimes it can cause species to thrive. Such is the case with Pfiesteria piscicida. A one-celled creature called a dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria inhabits warm coastal areas and river mouths, especially along the eastern United States. Although scientists have found evidence of Pfiesteria in 3,000-year-old sea floor sediments and dinoflagellates are thought to be one of the oldest life forms on earth, few people took notice of Pfiesteria.

Lately, however, blooms – or huge, dense populations – of Pfiesteria are appearing in coastal waters, and in such large concentrations the dinoflagellates become ruthless killers. The blooms emit powerful toxins that weaken and entrap fish that swim into the area. The toxins eventually cause the fish to develop large bleeding sores through which the tiny creatures attack, feasting on blood and flesh. Often the damage is astounding. During a 1991 fish kill, which was blamed on Pfiesteria on North Carolina’s Neuse River, nearly one billion fish died and bulldozers had to be brought in to clear the remains from the river. Of course, such events can have a devastating effect on commercially important fish, but that is just one way that Pfiesteria causes problems. The toxins it emits affect human skin in much the same way as they affect fish skin. Additionally, fisherman and others who have spent time near Pfiesteria blooms report that the toxins seem to get into the air, where once inhaled they affect the nervous system, causing severe headaches, blurred vision, nausea, breathing difficulty, short-term memory loss and even cognitive impairment.

For a while, it seemed that deadly Pfiesteria blooms were a threat only to North Carolina waters, but the problem seems to be spreading. More and more, conditions along the east coast seem to be favorable for Pfiesteria. Researchers suspect that pollutants such as animal waste from livestock operations, fertilizers            washed from farmlands and waste water from mining operations have probably all combined to promote the growth of Pfiesteria in coastal waters.

What is true of Pfiesteria?

The word “converting” is closest in meaning to…

The word “emaciated” in the passage mostly means

 Which of the following statements does paragraph 1 support?

Based on the passage, what is probably true about tsunamis?

The "idea" mentioned in line 13 refers to

The title for this passage could be

Compared to preindustrial times, the number of hours in the workweek in the nineteenth century

The word “astounding” in the passage is closest in meaning to _______.

The word "immutable" in line 18 is closest in meaning to

The word “this” refers to_____

The word “rather” is closest in meaning to….

The word "inevitably" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to____.