1.5 INFERENCES Exercise 1.5.C Read the passages and choose the best answer to each question. Questions 1-4 ‘The human ear contains the organ for hearing and the organ for balance. Both organs involve fluid-filled channels containing hair cells that produce electrochemical impulses when the hairs are stimulated by moving fluid. ‘The car can be divided into three regions: outer, middle, and inner. The outer ear collects sound waves and directs them to the eardrum separating the outer ear from the middle ear. The middle ear conducts sound vibrations through three small bones to the inner ear. The inner ear is a network of channels containing fluid that moves in response to sound or movement. To perform the function of hearing, the ear converts the energy of pressure waves moving through the air into nerve impulses that the brain perceives as sound. Vibrating objects, such as the vocal cords of a speaking person, create waves in the surrounding ait. These waves cause the eardrum to vibrate with the same frequency. The three bones of the middle ear amplify and transmit the vibrations to the oval window, a membrane on the surface of the cochlea, the organ of hearing. Vibrations of the oval window produce pressure waves in the fluid inside the cochlea. Hair cells in the cochlea convert the energy of the vibrating fluid into impulses that travel along the auditory nerve to the brain. ‘The organ for balance is also located in the inner ear. Sensations related to body position are generated much like sensations of sound. Hair cells in the inner ear respond to changes in head position with respect to gravity and movement, Gravity is always pulling down on the hairs, sending a constant series of impulses to the brain, When the position ofthe head changes—as when the head bends forward—the force on the hair cells changes its output of nerve impulses. The brain then interprets these changes to determine the head's new position. oNiavay 1, What can be inferred about the organs for 3. It can be inferred from paragraphs 2 and 3 hearing and balance? that the cochlea is a part of @® Both organs evolved in humans at the @ the outer ear same time. Ce) the eardrum ® Both organs send nerve impulses to © the middle ear the brain, (®) the inner ear ® Both organs contain the same amount of fluid 4, What can be inferred from paragraph 4 about ® Both organs are located in the ear’s gravity? middle region. ® Gravity has an essential role in the sense 2. Hearing involves all of the following EXCEPT of balance. @® The ear converts gravity into sound waves ® motion of the vocal cords so that they in the ai vibrate © Gravity is a force that originates in the @® simulation of hair cells in fluid—filled human ear, channels ® The organ for hearing is not subject to © amplification of sound vibrations gravity. conversion of wave energy into nerve impulses Detta’s Key To THE Next GeneRATION TOEFL® Test 1011.5. INFERENCES Questions 5-10 The Pacific Northwest coast of North America is a temperate rain forest, where trees like the red cedar grow straight trunks more than two meters thick at the base and sixty meters high, Western red cedar is often called the canoe cedar because it supplied the native people of the region with the raw material for their seagoing dugout canoes, These extraordinary crafts, as much as twenty meters in length, were fashioned from a single tree trunk and carried as many as forty people on fishing and whaling expeditions into the open ocean. The Haida people from the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia were noted for their skill in canoe building. After felling a giant tree with controlled burning, the canoe makers split the log into lengthwise sections with stone wedges. They burned away some of the heartwood, leaving a rough but strong cedar shell. They then carved away ‘wood from the inside, keeping the sections below the waterline thickest and heaviest to help keep the canoe upright in stormy seas. To further enhance the canoe’s stability, they filled the hull with water and heated it to boiling by dropping in hot stones. This rendered the wood temporarily flexible, so the sides of the hull could be forced apart and held with sturdy wooden thwarts, which served as both cross braces and seats. The canoes were often painted with elaborate designs of cultural significance to the tribe. ‘The Haida raised canoe building to a high art, designing boats of such beauty and utility that neighboring tribes were willing to exchange quantities of hides, meats, and oils for a Haida canoe. These graceful vessels became the tribe's chief item of export. In their swift and staunch canoes, the first people of the Northwest were able to take full advantage of the riches provided by the sea. With harpoons of yew wood, baited hooks of red cedar, and lines of twisted and braided bark fibers, they fished for cod, sturgeon, and halibut, and hunted whales, seals, and sea otters. 5. The phrase These extraordinary crafts in 7. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph | refers to paragraph 2? G) straight trunks @® Carving changed the texture and strength CB) native people of the region of the wood. CS) seagoing dugout canoes It took the canoe makers several months Cb) fishing and whaling expeditions to build a canoe. © The wood was beaten with stone tools to 6. Why did the canoe makers keep the sections make it flexible. of the canoe below the waterline thickest and @® Canoes were important cultural artifacts heaviest? of the Haida. ® To prevent the canoe from overturning in 8. The word staunch in paragraph 3 is closest in rough water meaning to @ To shorten the work of carving wood from the inside @® silent © To avoid having to paint the bottom of G) strong the canoe Ce) scented @) To make the canoe strong enough to hold ®) severe forty people 102 Detta’s Key To THE Next GENERATION TOEFL® Test1.5 INFERENCES 9. It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that 10. Which of the following statements can be ql inferred from the passage? ® canoes were the Haida’s only known, art form ® The western red cedar thrives in a variety @ the Haida dominated trade among of climates. a local tribes ® The skill of the Haida canoe makers has uj © the people used up all of the natural never been copied, = resources © Haida canoes were of great value in the i} ©@ trees provided essential tools for obtaining regional economy. ra food @® People no longer use cedar canoes for oy fishing and whaling. ‘Answers to Exercises 1.5.A through 1.5. are on page 565. Qherension 1, Work in a group of three or four students. Read the passage below, and write a list of statements that can be inferred from the information in the passage. Work for ten minutes. Then, share your inferences with the whole class. Your classmates must determine which information in the passage supports each inference made by your group. A distinction between two kinds of intelligence—crystallized and fluid intelligence— has been widely studied by researchers studying adult learning. Crystallized intelligence is heavily dependent on education and experience. It consists of the set of skills and knowledge that we each learn as part of growing up in any culture. It includes such skills as vocabulary, the ability to reason clearly about real-life problems, and the technical skills we learn for our jobs. Crystallized abilities are “exercised” abilities. Fluid intelligence, in contrast, is thought to be a more “basic” set of abilities, not so dependent on specific education. These are the “unexercised” abilities. Most tests of Crystallized abilities generally continue to rise over our lifetime, while fluid abilities begin to decline much earlier, beginning pethaps at age 35 or 40. 2, With your teacher and classmates, discuss the difference between facts and inferences. When someone you know makes a statement, how can you tell if itis a fact or an inference? Are facts and inferences ever the same? 3. Select a passage from a newspaper, a magazine or a university textbook. In class, work in a group of three or four students. Read the passage, and write a list of facts in the passage. Then write a list of statements that can be inferred or concluded from the information in the passage. In your classroom, post the passage, your facts, and your inferences where your classmates can read them. Deuta’s Key To THe Next GENERATION TOEFL® Test 103