Passage D

Practice Tests
Practice for the Florida College Basic Skills Exit Test
Passage D

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

31. Which sentence best states the central idea of this passage?

A. The human population has nearly quadrupled in the past 100 years.

B. Human population has grown so large because of our ability to increase significantly the production of food.

C. Farmland is undergoing rapid alteration.

D. The rapid increase in human population has influenced nearly all of man's modifications to the environment.

32. According to the passage, farm land

A. has become very costly.

B. is responsible for destroying cities and suburbs.

C. should be completely regulated by the government.

D. is producing more food than ever before, using less land.

33. The author's primary purpose is to

A. explain the advances in agriculture.

B. describe some of the problems associated with our increasing population.

C. persuade the reader that the use of land should be better managed.

D. emphasize the complexity of the farming system.

34. What is the relationship between the parts of the following sentence?

"Understanding human population growth is central to environmental science, because human population growth can potentially intensify nearly every environmental problem."

A. summary

B. cause/effect

C. contrast

D. classification

35. As used in line 18, the word conversion most nearly means

A. improvement.

B. expansion.

C. growth.

D. change.

36. As used inline 28, the word degradation most nearly means

A. filth.

B. harmful effects.

C. poverty.

D. humiliation.

37. "Farmland today is itself undergoing rapid alteration, as erosion, climate change, and poorly managed irrigation destroys 12.5–17.5 million acres of productive cropland each year."

One conclusion that can be drawn from this sentence in paragraph two is

A. Soon there will no longer be any available land for farming.

B. Climate change is probably the most difficult problem to manage.

C. The destruction of farmland can be halted if the growth in population rate slows down.

D. World food shortages can be expected if this rate of destruction continues to grow.

38. The tone of this passage is

A. subjective.

B. sympathetic.

C. informal.

D. instructional.

39. Overall, the author uses an organizational pattern that

A. gives examples of advancing technology.

B. provides a comparison of farming techniques before and after the agricultural revolution.

C. offers solutions for ways to control the rapid growth of human population.

D. explains the cause-effect relationship between human population growth and environmental problems.

40. This passage is based upon

A. fact.

B. opinion.