3.04 practice OLS quiz

Read this excerpt from "Are Dogs Dumb?" by Karen Hopkin.

And how come we thinks dogs are so smart? Sure a dog might be clever enough to fetch his leash when he wants to go out. But the same mutt might also bark at a vacuum cleaner and spend a whole hour chasing his own tail. Is Rover really any brighter than a hamster, a chicken, or a kid who's always eating Play-Doh? How can you measure an animal's brain power?

What is the author's purpose in this paragraph?

• to explain what dogs can and cannot do

• to entertain readers with a joke about humans eating Play-Doh

• to give readers information about animal intelligence

• to persuade readers that smaller animals aren't necessarily dumb

Read this excerpt from "Are Dogs Dumb?" by Karen Hopkin.

[Researchers] at the University of Toronto at Scarborough use treats to give dogs a Canine IQ test. The dog is presented with a tray with a blue block on it; underneath the block is a treat. The animal moves the block and gets the treat...then, the test gets tricky. The dog is presented with the same tray, but this time it has both a blue block and a yellow coffee can lid on it; the treat is now under the yellow lid. The test: how long does it take for the dog to learn that the treat is always under the new item on the tray? The smarter the dog, the quicker she'll find the treat.

Which detail best supports the inference that dogs are smart?

• "The dog is presented with a tray with a blue block on it; underneath the block is a treat."

• "...how long does it take for the dog to learn that the treat is always under the new item on the tray?"

• "[Researchers] at the University of Toronto at Scarborough use treats to give dogs a Canine IQ test."

• "The dog is presented with the same tray, but this time it has both a blue block and a yellow coffee can lid..."

Which organizational pattern would be most useful in writing a manual?

• compare and contrast

• chronological

• most important to least important

• cause and effect

Which organizational pattern would be most useful in writing a recipe?

• compare and contrast

• chronological

• most important to least important

• cause and effect

Which transition word or phrase would be most common in the chronological organizational pattern?

• For instance,

• For this reason,

• Similarly,

• Next,

Which transition word or phrase would be most common in the cause-and-effect organizational pattern?

• Above all,

• For this reason,

• Similarly,

• Next,

Read the passage from "Are Dogs Dumb" by Karen Hopkin:

Chimps can use sign language to talk to their trainers. Monkeys can learn to count. A crow can figure out how to use a stick to get to all that hard-to-reach grub. Chickens can learn to play checkers. Even worms can be taught to run mazes. So which animal is the smartest? You’re probably thinking that chimps are smarter than chickens, that crows are smarter than worms, and that you’re smarter than all of them.

What is the author’s purpose in this paragraph?

• To give information about animal intelligence

• To explain that humans are the smartest animals of all

• To describe how intelligent chimps are

• To argue that bigger animals are smarter than smaller animals

What is the author's purpose of the article "Are Dogs Dumb?" by Karen Hopkins?

• to entertain the reader

• to inform the reader

• to persuade the reader

• to entertain and inform the reader