ENGLISH REVIEWER 1 (SASE) READING COMPREHENSION

 And why shouldn’t the pork barrel be scrapped? By its very nature, it
bestows on lawmakers a most potent power that allows them to hold their
constituents in thrall. Witness the unmitigated gall marking the billboards that
announce the paving of a street or the building of a waiting shed as a project
of this or that congress person – as though the money used came from their
personal funds. It does not take a leap of the imagination to realize this is
what the “Countrywide Development Fund” had become – a bottomless well
from which many Honorables have drawn, primarily to enrich themselves
and their near and dear.

The selection is about ____________________.

c. pork barrel

The word “unmitigated” as used in the paragraph means

Unlegislated

What is the tone of the selection?

c. Angry

Scientists have recently shown they can lengthen the lives of some
terminally-ill breast cancer patients with a medicine that thwarts the
defective genes causing their disease. Attacking cancer at its genetic roots
has been a goal of science for two decades, but researchers said that this is
firm evidence that at last they can actually do this. Experts predict that the
new drug called Herceptin will come on the market within the year and could
quickly become a standard treatment for breast cancer patients whose
tumors are driven by multiple copies of a game called HER-2. It substantially
boosts the power of ordinary chemo therapy and carries none of the usual
cancer drug side effects, such as nausea and hair loss.

 Which of the following can be a good title for this selection?

The Future of Cancer Treatment

Patients will most probably like the new drug because _______________.
It has no side effects.

A dinoflagellate is a red single-celled microscopic marine plant. This

roundish, hairy organism does not look threatening. While swimming in
infested waters, anyone may ingest it with no effects on his body. Given the
right conditions, however, warm water temperatures, the inflow into the sea
of organic pollutants that get washed down with the rains – the cyst blooms
or proliferates, becoming highly poisonous. The proliferation of
dinoflagellates on the sea is called red tide. In large densities, the red tide is
often the cause of large fish kills. Mussels and other shellfish that have
absorbed dinoflagellates become the vectors that transfer the effect of the
“blooms” to humans. The species of dinoflagellates causing the red tide
produces a toxin causing the paralysis of nerves and the respiratory in
humans, leading to serious causes of poisoning to death.
Which of the following can be inferred from the selection?
d. Dinoflagellates produce a toxin that causes poisoning.

Which of the following factors favor the proliferation of dinoflagellates?

a. warm water temperatures
b. inflow into the sea of organic pollutants

Knowing to listen is crucial in relationship – especially those in today’s

competitive business environment. Without this skill, you can’t receive the
information you need to act. Successful professionals know careful listening
can reveal unseen problems, identify new trends and opportunities and lead
to creative solutions. “They know that listening well helps them build solid
working relationships,” says Stephen Bank, director of the Art of Listening
Program in Middletown, Connecticut. “And getting along with others is the
single most important determinant of success.”

What does the selection underscore?

d. The importance of careful listening

 To what does the pronoun “those” in the first sentence of the first paragraph
refer?
b. Professionals

 Dr. Leon Eisenberg, a Harvard Medical School professor, believes that

cloning humans would be a poor method of improving the human species.
He points out that cloning a human, even if possible, would restrict the
diversity of the human gene pool. This, he says, would endanger the ability
of the species to survive major environmental changes. Dr. Eisenberg also
argues that the perfect, cloned human who is well-suited to the world in
which he or she matured nay not have the attributes needed just a
generation later. “Cloning would condemn us always to plan the future on
the basis of the past,” he said. In addition, Eisenberg says that while the
basic plan of the central nervous system is laid out in the human set of
genes, or genome, and could potentially be cloned, the brain and mind
continue to develop after birth. “The elaboration of pathways and
interconnections is highly dependent on the quantity, quality, and timing of
intellectual and emotional stimulation,” he points out. Dr. Eisenberg also
observes that “The very structure of the brain, as well as the function of the
mind, merges from the interaction between maturation and experience.” For
example, he says that to produce another musical genius like Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, “we would need not only Wolfgang’s genome but his
mother’s uterus, his father’s music lessons, his parents’ friends, and his
own, the state of the music in 18th century Austria, Haydn’s patronage, and
on and on…”

What is the whole selection about?

c. The disadvantages of cloning

 
According to Dr. Eisenberg, why would cloning humans endanger the ability
of the species to survive major environmental changes?
a. It would restrict the diversity of the human gene pool.

According to Dr. Eisenberg, why is it difficult to clone a genius like Mozart?

b. It is difficult to duplicate Mozart’s experiences as he matured.

Once there was a circle that was missing a piece. A large triangular wedge
had been cut out of it. The circle wanted to be whole again, so it went
around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and,
therefore, could roll only slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It
chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces,
but none of them fit. So, it left them all by the side of the road and kept on
searching. Then one day, the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so
happy. Now it could be whole once more. It incorporated the missing piece
into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very
fast – too fast to notice the flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized
how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its
found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away. The lesson of the
story was that in some strange sense, we are more whole when we are
mussing something. The man who has everything is, in some ways, a poor
man. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him,
something he has always wanted and never had.

Why was the circle with a missing piece able to talk with worms and enjoy
the sunshine?
a. Because being incomplete, it could roll only very slowly.

Why did the circle leave the missing piece by the side of the road after
finding it and incorporating it into itself?
C. The piece made it roll so quickly that the world seemed not right.

What is the lesson of the story of the circle with a missing piece?
c. You can live a whole life if you lack something.

At 3:00 AM of December 8, 1941, the news about the bombing of Pearl

Harbor reached Manila. The few who heard it were stunned. Before the
news circulated among most Filipinos, Japanese planes had bombed Davao
and Baguio. The war had begun. Classes were suspended; Japanese
civilians were rounded up and incarcerated; and from Baguio, where
President Manuel L. Quezon was, came the President’s message: “The zero
hour is here. Every man or woman must be at his or her post to do the duty
assigned to him or her…. Let us place our confidence in God who has never
forsaken his people.” On that same day, Japanese bombers raided Clark
and Iba Fields, decimating the United States Far Eastern Air Force. From
then on, air superiority was in the hands of the Japanese. Advance
Japanese forces landed on Batan Island in the Batanes group. That night,
Manileños did not sleep soundly. Nichols field was raided by the Japanese
at about three in the morning.
What is the subject of the selection?
The Day World War II began in the Philippines

 What is the reaction of those who first heard the news about the bombing of
Pearl Harbor?
shock and disbelief

What inference can be drawn from the selection?

The Japanese were able to establish air superiority on the first day of the war.

A female cadet who was raised by her mother after the early death of her
father became the first woman ever to top a graduating class of the
Philippine Military Academy (PMA). Cadet Arlene dela Cruz of Marikina City,
bested 216 other graduating cadets, 204 of them males, barely six years
after the PMA grudgingly allowed the supposed “weaker” sex into its ranks.
She will receive the Presidential Saber for topping PMA Class ‘99. Dela Cruz
will be presented with the Flag-Officer-in-Command, Philippine Navy Saber
for being the most senior cadet to join the Navy; the Navy Courses Plaque
for placing first in the Navy Service Core Courses; the Humanities plaque;
the Social Science plaque; and Award for Excellence for graduating cum
laude.

What could be the best title for the selection?

Dela Cruz, First Woman to Top PMA

What award will Arlene dela Cruz receive for topping her graduating class?
Presidential Saber

 In what year were women first accepted in the PMA as cadets?
1993

Cleopatra might have benefited from the science of previous Egyptian

dynasties when she seduced Mark Anthony. The legendary Queen of the
Nile, who lived from 69 to 30 BC, could have enhanced her beauty with
cosmetics. Ancient Egyptians had produced surprisingly sophisticated
cosmetics more than 1,000 years before she was born. French researchers
said a chemical analysis of powders found in the tombs of pharaohs in the
period 2000 to 1200 BC showed some compounds were artificially
synthesized and produced in a complicated process for specific purposes.
The powders are preserved at the Louvre Museum in Paris particularly
laurionite and phosgenite, two chlorine – containing oxidized lead
compounds very rare in nature. They think they were artificially synthesized
and added to crushed natural ores such as galena and cerussite to make
black pigment for eye make-up.

 What is the main idea of the selection?

Ancient Egyptians had produced sophisticated cosmetics more than 1,000 years
before Cleopatra was born.
What is the best proof that ancient Egyptians already knew how to produce
cosmetics?
The powders found in the tombs of the pharaohs were artificially synthesized.

Which of the following could be inferred from the selection?

Ancient Egyptians knew how to form complex compounds from two or more
simple compounds.

A diet low in saturated far and cholesterol and high in fruit, vegetables and
low-fat dairy products quickly lowers blood pressure, regardless of sodium
intake or weight loss. The diet is particularly effective in African-Americans
and individuals with hypertension, according to a study reported in the
Archives of Internal Medicine. The report confirms and extends findings of a
1997 study that found that the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension
(DASH) combination diet was effective in lowering pressure. In the current
study, 459 adults with normal or elevated blood pressure were randomly
assigned to go on the DASH. After 11 weeks, the diet reduced systolic blood
pressure, and 6.8 points in African-Americans, 3 points in whites, 11.4 points
in those with high blood pressure, and 3.4 points in those with normal
pressure. Systolic pressure is the first number in a blood pressure reading
and reflects the pressure when the heart is contracting. According to Dr.
Laura P. Svetkey of Duke University. “The DASH diet lowered blood
pressure to such an extent that it could be considered a possible alternative
to medication.”

 Assuming the current study is valid, what may happen after 11 weeks if a
person with high blood pressure goes on the DASH combination diet?
His systolic blood pressure will be reduced by about 11 points.

What is the basic characteristics of the DASH combination diet?

low in saturated fat and cholesterol, and high in fruit, vegetables and low-fat
dairy products

To what does systolic pressure refer?

pressure of the heart when contracting