Book clubs are a great way to meet new friends or keep in touch with old ones, while keeping up on your reading and participating in lively and intellectually stimulating discussions. If you’re interested in starting a book club, you should consider the following options and recommendations.
The first thing you’ll need are members. Before recruiting, think carefully about how many people you want to participate and also what the club’s focus will be. For example, some book clubs focus exclusively on fiction, others read nonfiction. Some are even more specific, focusing only on a particular genre such as mysteries, science fiction, or romance. Others have a more flexible and open focus. All of these possibilities can make for a great club, but it is important to decide on a focus at the outset so the guidelines will be clear to the group and prospective member.
After setting the basic parameters, recruit- ment can begin. Notify friends and family, advertise in the local newspaper, and hang flyers on bulletin boards in local stores, colleges, libraries, and bookstores. When enough people express interest, schedule a kick-off meeting during which decisions will be made about specific guidelines that will ensure the club runs smoothly. This meeting will need to establish where the group will meet (rotating homes or a public venue such as a library or coffee shop); how often the group will meet, and on what day of the week and at what time; how long the meetings will be; how books will be chosen and by whom; who will lead the group (if anyone); and whether refreshments will be served and if so, who will supply them. By the end of this meeting, these guidelines should be set and a book selection and date for the first official meeting should be finalized.
Planning and running a book club is not without challenges, but when a book club is run effectively, the experience can be extremely rewarding for everyone involved.
Which of the following inferences can be drawn from the passage?
a. Smaller groups are better for a variety of reasons.
b. The social aspect of book clubs is more important than the intellectual.
c. Starting your own book club is better than joining an existing one.
d. When starting and running a book club, a casual approach is risky.
Mental and physical health professionals may consider referring clients and patients to a music therapist for a number of reasons. It seems a particularly good choice for the social worker who is coordinating a client’s case. Music therapists use music to establish a relationship with the patient and to improve the patient’s health, using highly structured musical interactions. Patients and therapists may sing, play instruments, dance, compose, or simply listen to music.
The course of training for music therapists is comprehensive. In addition to formal musical and therapy training, music therapists are taught to discern what kinds of interventions will be most beneficial for each individual patient. Because each patient is different and has different goals, the music therapist must be able to understand the patient’s situation and choose the music and activities that will do the most toward helping the patient achieve his or her goals. The referring social worker can help this process by clearly communicating each client’s history.
Although patients may develop their musical skills, that is not the main goal of music therapy. Any client who needs particular work on communication or on academic, emotional, and social skills, and who is not responding to traditional therapy, is an excellent candidate for music therapy.
Which of the following inferences can be drawn from the passage?
a. Music therapy can succeed where traditional therapies have failed.
b. Music therapy is a relatively new field.
c. Music therapy is particularly beneficial for young children.
d. Music therapy is only appropriate in a limited number of circumstances.
In the summer, the Northern Hemisphere is slanted toward the sun, making the days longer and warmer than in winter. The first day of summer, June 21, is called summer solstice and is also the longest day of the year. However, June 21 marks the beginning of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, when that hemisphere is tilted away from the sun.
It can be inferred from the passage that, in the Southern Hemisphere, June 21 is the
a. autumnal equinox.
b. winter solstice.
c. vernal equinox.
d. summer solstice.
Jessie Street is sometimes called the Australian Eleanor Roosevelt. Like Roosevelt, Street lived a life of privilege, but she devoted her efforts to working for the rights of the disenfranchised, including workers, women, refugees, and Aborigines. In addition, she gained international fame when she was the only woman on the Australian delegation to the conference that founded the United Nations, just as Eleanor Roosevelt was for the United States.
Which of the following inferences may be drawn from the information presented in the passage?
a. Eleanor Roosevelt and Jessie Street worked together to include women in the United Nations Charter.
b. Usually, people who live lives of privilege do not spend much time participating in political activities.
c. Discrimination in Australia is much worse than it ever was in the United States.
d. At the time of the formation of the United Nations, few women were involved in international affairs.
Moscow has a history of chaotic periods of war that ended with the destruction of a once largely wooden city and the building of a new city on top of the rubble of the old. The result is a layered city, with each tier holding information about a part of Russia’s past. In some areas of the city, archaeologists have reached the layer from 1147, the year of Moscow’s founding. Among the findings from the various periods of Moscow’s history are carved bones, metal tools, pottery, glass, jewelry, and crosses.
From the passage, the reader can infer that
a. the people of Moscow are more interested in modernization than in preservation.
b. the Soviet government destroyed many of the historic buildings in Russia.
c. Moscow is the oldest large city in Russia, founded in 1147.
d. Moscow has a history of invasions, with each new conqueror razing past structures.
During those barren winter months, with windows overlooking long-dead gardens, leafless trees, and lawns that seem to have an ashy look about them, nothing soothes the jangled nerves more than the vibrant green of plants surrounding the living spaces of one’s home. People browse through garden stores just to get a whiff of chlorophyll and to choose a plant or two to bring spring back into their winter-gray lives.
Now there is even more of a need for “the green,” in light of recent articles warning us of the hazards of chemicals that we, ourselves, introduce into our homes. Each time we bring clothes home from the cleaners, we release those chemicals into the closed-in air of our dwellings. Every cleanser releases its own assortment of fumes. Some of the chemicals are formaldehyde, chlorine, benzene, styrene, etc. Read the labels on many home products, the ingredients aren’t even listed! During the winter, when those same windows are shut tight, we breathe in these chemicals—causing symptoms much like allergies. In fact, most people probably dismiss the effects of these chemicals simply as a flare up of some allergy or other. The truth is that we are experiencing a syndrome that is called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Now, what has this got to do with green plants? Everything healthy! Research has been conducted with two types of plants that have actually removed much of these harmful chemicals from the air.
The two plants that seem to be the best bet for ridding one’s home of such chemicals are ferns and palms. These plants release moisture as part of photosynthesis and, as they do, pull chemicals from the air into their leaves. Even NASA has conducted some greenhouse experiments for long-term space exploration. Within hours, their plants [palms] had removed almost all traces of formaldehyde in the room. Both species of plants are ancient, dating back more than a hundred million years. Another trait they share is that they both live long lives, 100 years or more. This we expect from trees, but ferns and palms are plants; plants that can grow to 65 feet in the proper setting! Even their individual leaves live for one to two years [ferns] and one to nine years [palms]. Perhaps it is their primal qualities that have contributed to their ability to purify their environment.
The passage infers a relationship between the antiquity of ferns and palms and their ability to
a. live long.
b. purify the air.
c. grow leaves that live long.
d. react successfully in research experiments.
(Source: 501 Reading Comprehension Questions 3rd edition, 2006)
Exercise 2
Read the selection, and then answer the questions that follow.
ANCIENT ANIMALS
Dinosaurs are everywhere. You see them in movies, books, museums, and TV documentaries. They show up as stuffed toys or on T-shirts. These pre-historic beasts may be extinct—no longer living—but they’re definitely not forgotten!
It’s been a long time since dinosaurs roamed and ruled Earth. Scientists say the last ones died about 65 million years ago. We know the dinosaurs are gone, but no one knows exactly why. After all, no one was here to witness what happened! Most scientists believe dinosaurs died out after a gigantic meteorite hit Earth’s surface and drastically changed the planet’s climate. Birds and mammals that were protected by feathers and fur, were better able to adapt to the weather changes than cold-blooded dinosaurs.
Other scientists say dinosaurs aren’t extinct, they just look different! These experts believe the prehistoric beasts changed and developed into birds! Still other scientists say that Earth’s warmer weather caused more male than female dinosaurs to develop. So, they say, dinosaurs died out because there were no more females to increase the population!
How do scientists know what dinosaurs looked like? There were no cameras millions of years ago, so dinosaurs are the only ones who know . . . and they’re not talking! Scientists get clues from dinosaur fossils, and infer the rest.
Bones, footprints, and other remains are evidence of how big dinosaurs were and how they moved. To figure out how they looked with their skin on, scientists look at animals that live today. Because dinosaurs were lizard-like, scientists can infer that dinosaurs looked a lot like modern-day lizards. And since modern lizards are brown, gray, or green, then dinosaurs probably were, too! That’s why dinosaur pictures and museum models have the same colors as today’s lizard populations.
Scientists are always discovering new things about dinosaurs. In recent years, fossils were found in Antarctica, proving that dinosaurs lived on every continent. Experts also figured out that Stegosaurus had only one spread-out row of plates down its back, not two individual rows. And fossils of the smallest and the largest dinosaurs have been found. What will scientists discover next?
From the first paragraph, you can infer that
a. you can see dinosaurs only in museums.
b. all dinosaurs were very tall.
c. the author doesn’t like dinosaurs.
d. people of all ages are interested in dinosaurs.
Scientists found a rare blue lizard in Colombia, so you can infer that
a. the scientists were looking for missing people.
b. some dinosaurs might have been blue.
c. no dinosaurs had ever lived in Colombia.
d. the lizards built nests near the top of a volcano.
Since scientists are always discovering new things about dinosaurs, you can infer that
a. they still might not have found the smallest or biggest dinosaurs.
b. science is no longer interested in looking for fossils.
c. prehistoric people left written records with descriptions of dinosaurs.
d. when scientists make inferences, they are always right.
What can you infer from the fact that Stegosaurus has just one row of plates?
a. Stegosaurus wasn’t as old as scientists thought.
b. Old pictures and museum models of Stegosaurus had to be changed.
c. Someone stole the other row of plates from a museum.
d. Stegosaurus means “roof lizard.”
What can you infer about lizard eggs?
a. Cooler temperatures should produce more female lizards.
b. Hot weather should produce female lizards.
c. Cold temperatures will produce more male lizards.
d. Hot weather will produce more orange lizards.
What can you infer about scientists?
a They never watch TV.
b. All scientists study about dinosaurs.
c. They don’t always agree.
d. They never make mistakes.
EXERCISE 3
Read the selection, and then answer the questions that follow.
TOADSTOOL OR MUSHROOM?
All toadstools are mushrooms, but not all mushrooms are toadstools! That’s because toadstools are mushrooms that are either poisonous or have a bad taste. There are more than 2,000 mushroom species, and there’s no simple test to tell the poisonous ones from those safe to eat! You just have to learn to recognize which is which.
Most toadstools aren’t deadly if eaten, but they’re likely to make you very sick. For example, the Jack-o’-Lantern toadstool, whose bright orange cap glows in the dark, might give you an upset stomach or diarrhea. But some toadstools have deadly poison, and no amount of cooking can get rid of it. They damage the liver and kidneys, and unless the eater gets immediate treatment, he or she will die. That’s why experts warn, never eat a mushroom you find growing anywhere unless you know it’s the safe kind.
Some of the loveliest toadstools are deadly. For example, the fly agaric has a bright yellow, orange, or red cap with white bumps on top. Some people cut up this deadly beauty, sprinkle it with sugar, and tempt pesky flies to drop in for a meal. If they do, they get the specialty of the house: instant death!
Which can you infer about mushrooms?
a. They are all poisonous.
b. They grow on soil.
c. They are all yellow.
d. They are all toadstools.
After reading the article, what can you infer about blue mushrooms?
a. They are extremely poisonous.
b. They are always safe to eat.
c. They will upset your stomach.
d. I don’t have enough information to infer anything.
Which can you infer about mushrooms?
a. They are very expensive.
b. They are all flat.
c. People cook them.
d. They only grow under the ocean.
(Source: Junior Skill Builder Reading in 15 minutes a day, 2008)
