Name:

___________________________
ID Number: ________________

READING (EL118) [Section ________]

In-class TMA (Second Semester 2021)

Notes on plagiarism:

A. According to the Arab Open University By-laws, “the following acts represent cases of
cheating and plagiarism:
▪ proper academic acknowledgement and documentation.
▪ Verbatim copying of material from the Internet, including tables and graphics.
▪ Copying other students’ notes or reports.
▪ Using paid or unpaid material prepared for the student by individuals or firms.

B. Penalties for plagiarism ranges from failure in the TMA to expulsion from the university.

Declaration: I hereby declare that the submitted TMA is my own work and I have not
copied any other person’s work or plagiarized in any other form as specified above.
Student Signature:
Read all the texts and answer all the questions
The ability of falling cats to right themselves in midair and land on their feet has
been a source of wonder for ages. Biologists long regarded it as an example of
adaptation by natural selection, but for physicists it bordered on the miraculous.
Newton's laws of motion assume that the total amount of spin of a body cannot
change unless an external torque speeds it up or slows it down. If a cat has no spin
when it is released and experiences no external torque, it ought not to be able to
twist around as it falls.
In the speed of its execution, the righting of a tumbling cat resembles a magician's
trick. The gyrations of the cat in midair are too fast for the human eye to follow, so
the process is obscured. Either the eye must be speeded up, or the cat's fall slowed
down for the phenomenon to be observed. A century ago the former was
accomplished by means of high-speed photography using equipment now available
in any pharmacy. But in the nineteenth century the capture on film of a falling cat
constituted a scientific experiment.
The experiment was described in a paper presented to the Paris Academy in 1894.
Two sequences of twenty photographs each, one from the side and one from
behind, show a white cat in the act of righting itself. Grainy and quaint though they
are, the photos show that the cat was dropped upside down, with no initial spin,
and still landed on its feet. Careful analysis of the photos reveals the secret ; As the
cat rotates the front of its body clockwise, the rear and tail twist counterclockwise,
so that the total spin remains zero, in perfect accord with Newton's laws. Halfway
down, the cat pulls in its legs before reversing its twist and then extends them
again, with the desired end result. The explanation was that while nobody can
acquire spin without torque, a flexible one can readily change its orientation, or
phase. Cats know this instinctively, but scientists could not be sure how it
happened until they increased the speed of their perceptions a thousand fold.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) The explanation of an interesting phenomenon
(B) Miracles in modern science
(C) Procedures in scientific investigation
(D) The differences between biology and physics

2. The word (process) in line 10 refers to

(A) the righting of a tumbling cat
(B) the cat's fall slowed down
(C) high-speed photography
(D) a scientific experiment

3. Why are the photographs mentioned in line 16 referred to as an

(experiment)?
(A) The photographs were not very clear.
(B) The purpose of the photographs was to explain the process.
(C) The photographer used inferior equipment.
(D) The photographer thought the cat might be injured.
4. Which of the following can be inferred about high-speed photography in
the late 1800's ?
(A) It was a relatively new technology.
(B) The necessary equipment was easy to obtain.
(C) The resulting photographs are difficult to interpret.
(D) It was not fast enough to provide new information.
5. Find a word that means (turn around) in paragraph three.
Rotates

6. According to the passage, a cat is able to right itself in midair because it is

(A) frightened
(B) small
(C) intelligent
(D) flexible
7. Find a word that means (easily) in paragraph three.
Readily

8. How did scientists increase the speed of their perceptions a thousand fold?
(2 points)
Scientists can increase the speed of their perception a thousandfold through
analyzing the photographs.

In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related.

A theory often involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an
observed event could be produced. A good example of this is found in the kinetic
molecular theory, in which gases are pictured as being made up of many small
particles that are in constant motion.
A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observation, helps to predict events
that have not as yet been observed. After a theory has been publicized, scientists
design experiments to test the theory. If observations confirm the scientists'
predictions, the theory is supported. If observations do not confirm the
predictions, the scientists must search further. There may be a fault in the
experiment, or the theory may have to be revised or rejected.
Science involves imagination and creative thinking as will as collecting
information and performing experiments. Facts by themselves are not science. As
the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said: "Science is built with facts just as a
house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannot be called science any
more than a pile of bricks can be called a house."
Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have
learned about a particular problem. After known facts have been gathered, the
scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires considerable
imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are formulated. These possible
solutions are called hypotheses.
In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends the scientist's
thinking beyond the known facts. The scientist plans experiments, performs
calculations, and makes observations to test hypotheses. For without hypotheses,
further investigation lacks purpose and direction. When hypotheses are confirmed,
they are incorporated into theories,
9. Which of the following is the main subject of the passage?
(A) The importance of models in scientific theories
(B) The place of theory and hypothesis in scientific investigation
(C) The sorts of facts that scientists find most interesting
(D) The ways that scientists perform different types of experiments

10. Find a word in paragraph one that means (connected).

Related

11. The word "this" in line 3 refers to

(A) a good example
(B) an imaginary model
(C) the kinetic molecular theory
(D) an observed event
12 . According to the above text, a useful theory is one that helps scientists to
(A) find errors in past experiments
(B) make predictions
(C) observe events
(D) publicize new findings
13. The word "supported" in line 9 is closest in meaning to
(A) finished
(B) adjusted
(C) investigated
(D) upheld

14. Bricks are mentioned in lines 14-16 to indicate how

(A) mathematicians approach science
(B) building a house is like performing experiments
(C) science is more than a collection of facts
(D) scientific experiments have led to improved technology

15. In the fourth paragraph, the author implies that imagination is most
important to scientists when they
(A) evaluate previous work on a problem
(B) formulate possible solutions to a problem
(C) gather know facts
(D) close an investigation

16. In line 21, the author refers to a hypothesis as "a leap into the unknown in
order to show that hypotheses
(A) are sometimes ill-conceived
(B) can lead to dangerous results
(C) go beyond available facts
(D) require effort to formulate
17. In the last paragraph, what does the author imply is a major function of
hypotheses?
(A) Sifting through known facts
(B) Communicating a scientist's thoughts to others
(C) Providing direction for scientific research
(D) Linking together different theories

18. Which of the following statements is supported by the passage? (2 points)

(A) Theories are simply imaginary models of past events.
(B) It is better to revise a hypothesis than to reject it.
(C) A scientist's most difficult task is testing hypotheses.
(D) A good scientist needs to be creative