MCAT English (Reading Comprehension) for Medical College Aptitude Test Preparation (Part III)
Medical College Entry Test (MCAT) Online Preparation from Topic "Reading Comprehension" (03 Passages and 10 Questions)
Passage #1
An important new industry, oil refining, grew after the Civil War. Crude oil, or petroleum - a dark, thick ooze from the earth – had been known for hundreds of years. But little use had ever been made of it. In the 1850’s Samuel M. Kier, a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania, began collecting the oil from local seepages and refining it into kerosene. Refining, like smelting, is a process of removing impurities from a raw material. Kerosene was used to light lamps. It was a cheap substitute for whale oil, which was becoming harder to get. Soon there was a large demand for kerosene. People began to search for new supplies of petroleum.
Passage #2
Air plants attach themselves to crannies in the branches of trees and lianas. Usually they put forth a fine meshwork of roots. These collect bust and plant debris, and in time create a soil of their own. Often the roots also harbor ants which help build up the soil by their wastes and dead bodies.
Water is scarce for air plants. So they adapt, like desert plants, to last through dry periods when they do, not get water. They absorb water very quickly and conserve it carefully. Some send dangling roots down through the canopy until they can take nourishment from the earth itself. Them they may grow into large and burdensome trees on top of the trees on which they started life. A few strangle their supporting tree by building their own trunks around it while others develop rosettes of overlapping leaves, which catch and hold water incidentally. These also serve as breeding places for mosquitoes, frogs, and swarms of tiny invertebrates.
Passage #3
The science of meteorology is concerned with the study of the structure, state, and behavior of the atmosphere. The subject may be approached from several directions, but the scene cannot be fully appreciated from anyone-vantage point. Different views must be integrated to give perspective to the whole picture.
One may consider the condition of the atmosphere at a given moment and attempt to predict changes from that condition over a period of a few hours to a few days ahead. This approach is covered by a branch of science called synoptic meteorology.
Synoptic meteorology is the scientific basis of the technique of weather forecasting by means of the preparation and analysis of weather maps and aero logical diagrams. The practical importance of the numerous application of weather forecasting cannot be overestimated in serving the needs of shipping, aviation, agriculture, industry and many other interests and fields of human activity with accurate weather warnings and professional forecast advice. Great benefits are reaped in the form of saving human life and property and in the form of economic advantages of various kinds. One important purpose of the science of meteorology is constantly to strive, through advanced study and research, to increase our knowledge of the atmosphere with the aim of improving the accuracy of weather forecasts.
The tools needed to advance our knowledge in this way are the disciplines of mathematics and physics applied to solve meteorological problems. The use of these tools forms a branch of science called dynamic meteorology
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