MCAS 10

What is the author's most likely purpose for including paragraphs 7 and 8 in Plastic: A Toxic Love Story?

• to describe what led to plastic trash collecting in the vortex

• to provide a detailed description of how plastic trash in the vortex affects ocean animals

• to contrast what has been reported about plastic trash with what is really happening in the vortex

• to highlight the dangers caused by plastic trash in the vortex and provide a solution for removing the trash

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.3

CCSS.RI.9-10.6

Read the following sentences from Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and High Tech Trash:

• Whether they're working a beach in Chile, France, or China, volunteers inevitably come across much the same stuff: plastic bottles, cutlery, plates, and cups; straws and stirrers, fast-food wrappers, and packaging.
• (paragraph 1 of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story)

• Domestic e-waste ... is accumulating rapidly virtually everywhere in the world that PCs and cell phones are used, especially in populous countries with active high-tech industries like China ... and India.
• (paragraph 2 of High Tech Trash)

What do the sentences mainly suggest?

• The majority of waste is found near water.

• The issue of waste impacts most of the world.

• Some types of waste are discussed more in the media than others.

• Some regions have larger concerns about electronic waste than others.

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.1

CCSS.RI.9-10.2

Which sentence best describes the difference between the sources of evidence used in Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and High Tech Trash?

• Plastic: A Toxic Love Story relies more on technical research, while High Tech Trash relies more on testimonials.

• Plastic: A Toxic Love Story relies more on personal accounts, while High Tech Trash relies more on facts and data.

• Plastic: A Toxic Love Story relies more on historical reports, while High Tech Trash relies more on websites.

• Plastic: A Toxic Love Story relies more on experiments in a laboratory, while High Tech Trash relies more on examples from newspapers and magazines.

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.1

Based on Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and High Tech Trash, with which statement would both authors most likely agree?

• The use of electronics is the main cause of waste in the ocean.

• The use of plastic products needs to be phased out from society.

• The human need to connect with others is causing new types of waste to enter the environment.

• The human desire for items that make life easier is creating significant damage to the environment.

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.1

CCSS.RI.9-10.2

CCSS.RI.9-10.3

CCSS.RI.9-10.6

CCSS.RI.9-10.8

Read the following phrases from Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and High Tech Trash:

• ...like water circling the drain in a bathtub.
• (paragraph 4 of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story)

• ...a virtual alphabet soup of different plastics...
• (paragraph 5 of High Tech Trash)

What is the main purpose of the phrases?

• to provide a link to current events

• to provide a historical context for terms

• to provide familiar images for comparison

• to provide a humorous viewpoint on a serious situation

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.6

Read the following sentences from paragraph 5 of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story:

• ...Ebbesmeyer was the one who bestowed the more colorful name -- and the one that has stuck -- the Pacific garbage patch. (There's also another debris-dense convergence zone at the other end of the gyre, in the western Pacific near Japan.)

What is the purpose of the parantheses?

• to highlight a belief

• to present a contrast

• to transition to a new idea

• to provide additional information

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

Part A

Which sentence from High Tech Trash suggests that people may be unaware of the destructive effects their trash is having on the environment?

• "Americans own over 200 million computers, well over 200 million televisions, and over 150 million cell phones."

  (paragraph 1)

• "The Wall Street Journal, not known for making rash statements about environmental protection, has called e-waste 'the world's fastest growing and potentially most dangerous waste problem.'"

  (paragraph 3)

• "Yet for the most part we have been so bedazzled by high tech ... that until recently we haven't given this waste -- or the environmental impacts of manufacturing such products -- much thought."

  (paragraph 3)

• "Numerous lawsuits have already been brought by high tech workers who believe their health or their children's has been harmed by chemicals they were exposed to in high-tech fabrication plants."

  (paragraph 6)

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.1

CCSS.RI.9-10.2

CCSS.RI.9-10.3

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

Part B

Which sentence from Plastic: A Toxic Love Story supports the same conclusion as in Part A?

• "Afterward, the group publishes a detailed inventory of every item on debris that's been collected."

  (paragraph 1)

• "'As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic,' he later wrote."

  (paragraph 4)

• "His alarming dispatches from repeated trips back to the gyre helped bring public attention to the problem."

  (paragraph 6)

• "He's used to seeing them all over the Hong Kong harbor, but he saw none in the vortex; it's so far from land they would have long since been sunk or smashed to smithereens by the ocean's currents."

  (paragraph 8)

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.1

CCSS.RI.9-10.3

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

CCSS.W.9-10.9

Which additional piece of evidence would best support the author's argument in Plastic: A Toxic Love Story?

• a map of the currents in the Pacific Ocean

• a chart showing the change in the quantity of electronic waste by country over the past 10 years

• a presentation on the various methods of producing plastic

• a graph that shows the amount of time the average person in various countries spends using computers

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.2

CCSS.RI.9-10.6

CCSS.RI.9-10.8

Which additional piece of evidence would best support the author's argument in High Tech Trash?

• a map of the currents in the Pacific Ocean

• a chart showing the change in the quantity of electronic waste by country over the past 10 years

• a presentation on the various methods of producing plastic

• a graph that shows the amount of time the average person in various countries spends using computers

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.6

CCSS.RI.9-10.8