501 Critical Reading Questions

Critical Reading Questions

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another to suggest a similarity between the two, this figure of
speech is called a metaphor (choice e). If the boy had instead said,
Nigel’s smile was “like a graveyard of yellow sincerity,” it would
have been a simile, choice b.
459.
a. Both passages are basically concerned with a similar situation—
life aboard a cutter. The author of Passage 1 sets a pleasurable
tone in the first paragraph by describing the idyllic scene at Ply-
mouth and the anchored yacht. He later describes the yacht as
elegant, tasteful, and luxurious (line 18), and the smell of the food
delightful (lines 23–24). In stark contrast, the boy narrator in
Passage 2 begins the passage by describing the menacing façade
of his uncle and the immediate reality check the boy receives
when he steps aboard (lines 6–9). His description of the heat
and smell below deck (lines 20–22), and the horrible food (lines
33–35), effectively sets the dark and oppressive tone of the pas-
sage. Together, these two very different descriptions prove that
the reality of two seemingly similar situations can often be extremely
different, choice a.
460.
b. The word berth, when used as a noun, often refers to the sleep-
ing quarters aboard a boat or a train. In lines 39–43 the boy
describes his berth as the place where he could stow [his] clothes,
and at night string up [his] hammock.
2 4 4
501
Critical Reading Questions

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Questions 461–464 are based on the following passage.
The following passage examines the possibility that early humans used
toothpicks.
Could good dental hygiene be man’s earliest custom? The findings of
paleontologist Leslea Hlusko suggest that 1.8 million years ago early
hominids used grass stalks to clean their teeth. Many ancient hominid
teeth unearthed in archaeological digs have curved grooves near the
gumline. Hlusko posited that these grooves were evidence of teeth
cleaning by early man. However, critics pointed out that even though
the use of toothpicks is still a common practice among modern man
similar grooves are not found on modern teeth.
Hlusko, convinced that she was on the right track, experimented
with grass stalks to see if they might have been the cause of the
grooves. Unlike the wood used for modern toothpicks, grass contains
hard silica particles that are more abrasive than the soft fibers found
in wood. A stalk of grass is also about the same width as the marks
found on the ancient teeth. To prove her theory Dr. Hlusko took a
baboon tooth and patiently rubbed a grass stalk against it for eight
hours. As she suspected, the result was grooves similar to those found
on the ancient hominid teeth. She repeated the experiment with a
human tooth and found the same result.
9
Social Studies
2 4 5
(1)
(5)
(10)
(15)

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It seems that our early human ancestors may have used grass, which
was easily found and ready to use, to floss between their teeth. As
Hlusko suggests in the journal Current Anthropology, “Toothpicking
with grass stalks probably represents the most persistent habit docu-
mented in human evolution.”
461.
In line 5 the word posited most nearly means