Recycling household waste is very important. Space for landfills where garbage is dumped is becoming scarce. Putting waste in the oceans causes pollution. Recycling is a way for cities to make money by selling recyclable items. And recycling items helps to saves natural resources.

The author’s purpose in this passage is to

The space shuttle is coming in for a landing. Over a loudspeaker, the waiting spectators hear “STS 42 is now over Brandenburg, making its turn for the coast.” They quickly stand, look up, turn their eyes skyward. They hear the sonic boom and stare at the sky even more closely. There it is! First it is only a speck. Then the crowd applauds and cheers as they see it approaching earth.

The spectators who watch the shuttle land feel

Water is needed to sustain us as human beings. In fact, two-thirds of the human body is comprised of water. Since our bodies are so water dependent, we must drink water every day.

In this context, the word comprised means

Panther refers to two different types of animals—the leopard and the concolour. Concolours are called by many other names: cougar, puma, mountain lion, and panther are just a few. In fact, the panther has more dictionary names than any other known predator.

Which of the following is not mentioned as another name for the concolour?

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. led a protest march in Birmingham, Alabama. Because he did not have a permit to hold the march, he was arrested. Then eight clergymen wrote a letter that was published in the local newspaper. The letter opposed protest marches as a way to end racial problems. While King was in jail, he wrote a reply to that letter. It has been reprinted many times since then under the title “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

King wrote the letter

The Urnero (Leptodactylus latinasus) is a species of frog in the Leptodactylidae family. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, pastureland, rural gardens, and ponds.

What can you conclude about the Urnero?

In the 19th century, San Francisco dry goods merchant Levi Strauss produced “waist overalls”—the early name for jeans. They became a hit with gold miners eager to strike it rich in California. In 1886, Strauss added a brown leather patch on the back of his waist overalls. The label, which showed a pair of jeans being pulled between two horses, was still affixed to Levi’s jeans. In the 20th century, American men, eager to imitate movie stars from the 1930 Hollywood Westerns, proudly wore the pants. By the 1990s, jeans were everywhere—on babies, parents, teachers, and executives.

What is the main idea of the aforementioned paragraph?

Ohio started the month of July with its pedal to the metal. The Buckeye State became the 34th state to adopt the 70 miles-an-hour speed limit. Drivers can now do up to 70 on more than 570 of Ohio's 1,332 miles of interstate highway. Congress repealed the 55 mph national limit in 1995. Despite predictions of calamity and carnage on the highways, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in October 1998 that 'the traffic death rate dropped to a record low level in 1997'. That pattern has continued since then.

You can infer from this paragraph that the author __________ higher speed limits.

I work with museums, performing arts companies, and cultural events in San Francisco to find out what fun activities are happening, and then I promote those events to visitors. Knowledge of how the tourism and hospitality business works helps. It’s also good to be able to manage multiple projects at the same time. We also create advertisements for billboards, Web sites, and magazines in other cities.

From this passage, you can infer the job title for this person is most likely:

A lamb’s thick winter coat keeps it warm during the cold winter months. When the summer brings sunny days, the sheep doesn’t need its thick coat and the sheep’s wool is sheared. That wool is made into yarn, further processed, and then transformed into sweaters, socks, pants, skirts, and blankets.

The verb “transformed” referred to in the passage suggests that the wool changes by

Torrential rains accompany hurricanes and, like the wind, can persist long after the storm has moved inland. Some of the most destructive storms have delivered flash flooding. In the United States, inland flooding has been responsible for more than 70 percent of the lives lost from hurricanes and tropical storms. For example, Tropical Storm Claudette in 1979 brought 45 inches of rain to Alvin, Texas.

What is the main idea of this passage?

On Monday, after a long quarter-century, West Virginians said goodbye to their state's 6 percent food tax. Now to see what, if any, business we've been missing.

In 1989, retailers warned that sales in West Virginia would go down if legislators imposed a 6 percent tax on food. "Whatever they put on would be passed on to the consumer," Charles Forth, who owned supermarkets in both West Virginia and Ohio, told the newspaper in February 1989. "Six percent is $6 on $100. That will make a difference when people are already hurting and trying to make ends meet."

It's a lot easier to drive customers away than to win them back, a fact legislators should bear in mind when it comes to taxation.

The author is _______________ that eliminating the 6 percent food tax will bring customers back to West Virginia stores.

During the months of June and July, Iceland has days with a full 24 hours of precious, beautiful sunlight. While you might think of a variety of things you could do with 24 hours of light in a day, a lot of people in Iceland look at it as a splendid time to catch up on their golf. And while golfers may not see much in the way of trees on a typical Icelandic golf course, they may have to deal with unique challenges—such as lava beds and the fury of angry birds that have had their nests disturbed.

From this passage, you can infer:

The flag of 1777 was used until 1795. In that year, the Congress passed an act ordering that a new flag have 15 stripes, alternate red and white, and 15 stars on a blue field. In 1818, the Congress directed that the flag have 13 stripes and that a new star be added for each new state of the Union.

Based on the passage, what does “alternate” mean?

When many people want to buy a product, the price will probably go up. In the summer, Americans travel more than they do at other times of year. They may take planes or trains, and many families drive to their vacation spots.

From the information in the paragraph, you can conclude that

A rule change was enacted before the 1974 National Football League (NFL) season to add one sudden death overtime period (15 minutes) to all preseason and regular season games. If no team scored in this period, the game would result in a tie. This rule was enacted to decrease the number of tie games.

The first ever regular season overtime, a September 22 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos, ended in a 35-35 draw. It was not until November 10, when the New York Jets defeated the New York Giants, 26-20, that an overtime game would produce a winner.

Based on this information, which of the following statements is accurate:

Named for the “bobbed haircut” that was popular in the 20s and 30s, the bobby pin soon became a mainstay in almost every woman’s beauty arsenal. For whatever reason, however, it appears that the majority of women are drawn toward placing bobby pins with the wavy edge facing out. It just makes sense that the flat edge would be against your skin. Unfortunately, this is actually wrong.

In this passage, what does the word “arsenal” most closely mean?

Conan of Aquilonia is a collection of four linked fantasy short stories written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian.

The stories were originally published in Fantastic for August 1972, July 1973, July 1974, and February, 1975. The collected stories were intended for book publication by Lancer Books, but this edition never appeared due to Lancer's bankruptcy.

The first book edition was issued in paperback by Ace Books in May 1977 and the first British edition was published by Sphere Books in October 1978.

Which publication did NOT publish content from this series of short stories?

Obesity in the Western world has reached epidemic levels. While exercise is important to maintaining a healthy weight, healthy eating is even more important. Even the most active people cannot burn off hundreds of excess calories if they are consumed on a daily basis.

It can be concluded that:

Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and gas). Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms (reducing or increasing the number of electrons in them), thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions.

What does the word 'state' most closely mean in the context of this paragraph?