501 Critical Reading Questions

Critical Reading Questions
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shore the lower portion of the wave strikes land first and is stopped. If
the sea bottom is rising, the water will therefore be not as deep,
in other words—it will be shallower.
417.
b. The answer is explained in lines 9–17, and spelled out in lines
16–17: It is the bottom of a wave striking against the top of the land
that is the cause of all surfs.
418.
a. As it is used in the passage, impetus most nearly means a moving
force. In this case, a wave is a moving force through the water. If
you did not know the correct definition, the best way to answer
this question would be to replace impetus in the sentence with
each of the given answer choices to see which one makes the
most sense in context.
419.
a. The best approach to this question is to reread lines 18–21 for
each answer choice to see which choice is directly supported by
the given text. For this question you would not have to go far to
find the answer: choice a quickly summarizes the text of those
lines. All the other answer choices are unsupported or contra-
dicted by the given text.
420.
c. Context clues are your best aid in answering this question, and
an important context clue is given in lines 1 and 2. The author
goes on to state that the water that composes the body of a wave is
stationary, and gives the example of the thrown stone causing rip-
ples in the water. The rock that is thrown is the cause of the agi-
tation of the water. The ripples (or the waves) that surge away
from that agitation are the communication of that agitation mov-
ing through the water. Therefore, choice c is the correct 
answer.
421.
c. In line 33, the author compares surfing to slid[ing] down a hill.
But unlike a six-foot hill, a surfer can slide down a six-foot wave
for more than a quarter of a mile without ever reaching the bot-
tom. The author explains that this is possible because the water
that composes the wave is, like a hill, standing still and new water
is rising into the wave as fast as the wave travels, preventing the
surfer from reaching the bottom (lines 41–43). So while it looks
like a surfer is sliding along moving water, he or she is actually
stationary on a wave as it moves through the water. That’s the
secret.
422.