SAT SAT-Critical-Reading Value Pack (Frequently Bought Together)

The Amazonian wilderness harbors the greatest number of species on this planet and is an irreplaceable
resource for present and future generations. Amazonia is crucial for maintaining global climate and
genetic resources, and its forest and rivers provide vital sources of food, building materials,
pharmaceuticals, and water needed by wildlife and humanity. The Los Amigos watershed in the state of
Madre de Dios, southeastern Peru, is representative of the pristine lowland moist forest once found
throughout most of upper Amazonian South America. Threats to tropical forests occur in the form of
fishing, hunting, gold mining, timber extraction, impending road construction, and slash-and-burn
agriculture.
The Los Amigos watershed, consisting of 1.6 million hectares (3.95 million acres), still offers the
increasingly scarce opportunity to study rainforest as it was before the disruptive encroachment of
modern human civilization. Because of its relatively pristine condition and the immediate need to justify it
as a conservation zone, this area deserves intensive, long-term projects aimed at botanical training,
ecotourism, biological inventory, and information synthesis. On July 24, 2001, the government of Peru
and the Amazon Conservation Association signed a contractual agreement creating the first long-term
permanently renewable conservation concession. To our knowledge this is the first such agreement to be
implemented in the world. The conservation concession protects 340,000 acres of old-growth Amazonian
forest in the Los Amigos watershed, which is located in southeastern Peru. This watershed protects the
eastern flank of Manu National Park and is part of the lowland forest corridor that links it to
Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. The Los Amigos conservation concession will serve as a mechanism for
the development of a regional center of excellence in natural forest management and biodiversity science.
Several major projects are being implemented at the Los Amigos Conservation Area. Louise Emmons is
initiating studies of mammal diversity and ecology in the Los Amigos area. Other projects involve studies
of the diversity of arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. Robin Foster has conducted botanical
studies at Los Amigos, resulting in the labeling of hundreds of plant species along two kilometers of trail in
upland and lowland forest. Michael Goulding is leading a fisheries and aquatic ecology program, which
aims to document the diversity of fish, their ecologies, and their habitats in the Los Amigos area and the
Madre de Dios watershed in general.
With support from the Amazon Conservation Association, and in collaboration with U.S. and Peruvian
colleagues, the Botany of the Los Amigos project has been initiated.
At Los Amigos, we are attempting to develop a system of preservation, sustainability, and scientific
research; a marriage between various disciplines, from human ecology to economic botany, product
marketing to forest management. The complexity of the ecosystem will best be understood through a
multidisciplinary approach, and improved understanding of the complexity will lead to better management.
The future of these forests will depend on sustainable management and development of alternative
practices and products that do not require irreversible destruction. The botanical project will provide a
foundation of information that is essential to other programs at Los Amigos. By combining botanical
studies with fisheries and mammology, we will better understand plant/animal interactions. By providing
names, the botanical program will facilitate accurate communication about plants and the animals that
use them. Included in this scenario are humans, as we will dedicate time to people-plant interactions in
order to learn what plants are used by people in the Los Amigos area, and what plants could potentially
be used by people. To be informed, we must develop knowledge. To develop knowledge, we must collect,
organize, and disseminate information. In this sense, botanical information has conservation value.
Before we can use plant-based products from the forest, we must know what species are useful and we
must know their names. We must be able to identify them, to know where they occur in the forest, how
many of them exist, how they are pollinated and when they produce fruit (or other useful products). Aside
from understanding the species as they occur locally at Los Amigos, we must have information about their
overall distribution in tropical America in order to better understand and manage the distribution, variation,
and viability of their genetic diversity. This involves a more complete understanding of the species through
studies in the field and herbarium.
The author's main purpose in the passage is to

• A. position the Los Amigos watershed agreement as a success towards the achievement of the vital goal
  of conserving the Amazonian rainforests.
• B. argue that the study of pristine rain forests is essential for documenting and studying the myriad new
  species that the forests contain
• C. uphold the Peruvian government's progressive policies on management of the Los Amigos watershed
  as an example of government policy working toward conservation.
• D. demonstrate that conservation efforts have been historically successful and so should be continued.
• E. garner support for opposition to destructive activities in the Los Amigos watershed.

Although often confused with each other, global warming and ozone depletion are two separate problems
threatening Earth's ecosystem today. Global warming is caused by the build-up of heat- trapping gases in
the atmosphere. It was dubbed the "greenhouse effect" because it is similar to a greenhouse in that the
sun's rays are allowed into the greenhouse but the heat from these rays in unable to escape. Ozone
depletion, however, is the destruction of the ozone layer. Chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons and
methyl bromide react with ozone, leaving a "hole" in the ozone layer that lets dangerous UV rays through.
Both are serious threats to life on Earth. While the greenhouse effect maintains the appropriate
temperature for life on Earth, problems are exacerbated when the quantity of greenhouse gases in the
Earth's atmosphere increases drastically. When this occurs, the amount of heat energy that is insulated
within the Earth's atmosphere increases correspondingly and results in a rise in global temperature.
An increase of a mere few degrees Celsius does not appear very threatening. However, numbers can be
deceiving. When you consider that the Ice Age resulted from temperatures only slightly cooler than those
today, it is obvious that even very subtle temperature changes can significantly impact global climate.
Global warming threatens to desecrate the natural habitats of organisms on Earth and disturb the stability
of our ecosystem. The climate changes that would result from global warming could trigger droughts, heat
waves, floods, and other extreme weather events.
Like most other environmental problems, humans are the cause of global warming. The burning of fossil
fuels is largely responsible for the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Every time someone drives a car or powers their home with energy derived from power plants that use
coal, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide
and methane have risen meteorically since preindustrial times, mainly due to the contributions of factories,
cars, and large-scale agriculture. Even if we immediately stopped emitting greenhouse gases, we would
continue to see the effects of global warming for decades because of the damage we have already
inflicted.
Despite the pessimistic outlook, there are things that can be done to reduce global warming. Although the
problem may seem overwhelming, individuals can make a positive difference in combating global
warming. Simple things like driving less, using public transportation, and conserving electricity generated
by combustion of fossil fuels can help reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. It is important to realize
that it is not too late to make a difference.
If everyone does what they can to reduce their contributions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, the
efforts of people around the world will act in concert to thwart the progression of global warming. If the
effort is not made immediately, the delicate global ecosystem could be thrown irreversibly out of balance,
and the future of life on Earth may be jeopardized.
The greenhouse effect is so serious because

• A. it has been going on for a very long time
• B. it interferes with the ecosystem and changes weather patterns
• C. it cannot be reversed
• D. no one really understands it
• E. it leads to the destruction of the world's woodlands

(1) On my nineteenth birthday, I began my trip to Mali, West Africa.
(2) Some 24 hours later I arrived in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
(3) The sun had set and the night was starless.
(4) One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me.
(5) After the melee in the baggage claim, we proceeded to his car.
(6) Actually, it was a truck.
(7) I was soon to learn that most people in Mali that had automobiles actually had trucks or SUVs.
(8) Apparently, there not just a convenience but a necessity when you live on the edge of the Sahara.
(9) I threw my bags into the bed of the truck, and hopped in to the back of the cab.
(10) Riding to my welcome dinner, I stared out the windows of the truck and took in the city.
(11) It was truly a foreign land to me, and I knew that I was an alien there.
(12) "What am I doing here?" I thought.
(13) It is hard to believe but seven months later I returned to the same airport along the same road that I
had traveled on that first night in Bamako, and my perspective on the things that I saw had completely
changed.
(14) The landscape that had once seemed so desolate and lifeless now was the homeland of people that I
had come to love.
(15) When I looked back at the capital, Bamako, fast receding on the horizon, I did not see a city
foreboding and wild in its foreignness.
(16) I saw the city which held so many dear friends.
(17) I saw tea drinking sessions going late into the night.
(18) I saw the hospitality and open- heartedness of the people of Mali.
(19) The second time, everything looked completely different, and I knew that it was I who had changed
and not it.
Which of the following must be done to sentence 8 (reproduced below) to make it conform to the rules of
written English? Apparently, there not just a convenience but a necessity when you live on the edge of the
Sahara.

• A. Change "there" to "they are"
• B. Eliminate the comma after "Apparently"
• C. Add commas after "convenience" and "necessity"
• D. Change "you live" to "one lives"
• E. Add "Desert" after "Sahara"

George Washington served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and was then elected
President of the United States in 1789. This is from his first address to Congress. Such being the
impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it
would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to the Almighty Being,
who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can
supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the
people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may
enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to
his charge. In tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself
that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than
either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs
of men, more than the people of the United States.
Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been
distinguished by some token of providential agency. And, in the important revolution just accomplished in
the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct
communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most
governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude along with a humble
anticipation of the future blessings which the past seems to presage. These reflections, arising out of the
present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I
trust, in thinking that there are none, under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free
government can more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive department, it is made the duty of the President "to recommend
to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances,
under which I now meet you, will acquit me from entering into that subject farther than to refer you to the
great constitutional charter under which we are assembled; and which, in defining your powers,
designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those
circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a
recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the
patriotism, which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable
qualifications I behold the surest pledges, that as, on one side, no local prejudices or attachments, no
separate views or party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye, which ought to
watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests; so, on another, that the foundations of
our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the
preeminence of a free government be exemplified by all the attributes, which can win the affections of its
citizens, and command the respect of the world.
According to Washington, "the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men"

• A. should be respected and adored by all peoples
• B. is the constitution
• C. should be, but isn't, that of Congress
• D. is that of the President
• E. should be revered, especially by Americans

Were I indeed ______, I likely would not still be teaching, for I would have long ago played the winning
lottery numbers and be traveling the world sending postcards to the classroom.

• A. perspicacious
• B. prescient
• C. philanthropic
• D. fortuitous
• E. clairvoyant