Flashcards: Solving a problem with a passage

Adapted from "Save the Redwoods" by John Muir in Sierra Club Bulletin Volume XI Number 1 (January 1920)

We are often told that the world is going from bad to worse, but this righteous uprising in defense of God's trees is telling a different story. The wrongs done to trees are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when light comes the heart of the people is always right. Forty-seven years ago one of these Calaveras King Sequoias was laboriously cut down, that the stump might be had for a dancing-floor. Another, one of the finest in the grove, was skinned alive to a height of one hundred and sixteen feet and the bark sent to London to show how fine and big that Calaveras tree was—as sensible a scheme as skinning our great men would be to prove their greatness. Now some millmen want to cut all the Calaveras trees into lumber and money. No doubt these trees would make good lumber after passing through a sawmill, as George Washington after passing through the hands of a French cook would have made good food. But both for Washington and the tree that bears his name higher uses have been found.

In noble groves and forests south of the Calaveras Grove the axe and saw have long been busy, and thousands of the finest Sequoias have been felled, while fires have spread still wider and more lamentable ruin. In the course of my explorations twenty-five years ago, I found five sawmills on or near the lower margin of the Sequoia belt. One of the smallest of these in the 1874 season sawed two million feet of Sequoia lumber. Since that time, other mills have been built among the Sequoias. The destruction of these grand trees is still going on. 

On the other hand, the Calaveras Grove for forty years has been faithfully protected by Mr. Sperry, and with the exception of the two trees mentioned above is still in primeval beauty. Many groves have of late been partially protected by the Federal Government, while the well-known Mariposa Grove has long been guarded by the State.

For the thousands of acres of Sequoia forest outside of reservations and national parks, and in the hands of lumbermen, no help is in sight. Probably more than three times as many Sequoias as are contained in the whole Calaveras Grove have been cut into lumber every year for the last twenty-six years without let or hindrance, and with scarce a word of protest on the part of the public, while at the first whisper of bonding the Calaveras Grove to lumbermen most everybody rose in alarm. Californians’ righteous and lively indignation after their long period of deathlike apathy, in which they have witnessed the destruction of other groves unmoved, seems strange until the rapid growth that right public opinion has made during the last few years is considered and the peculiar interest that attaches to the Calaveras giants. They were the first discovered and are best known. Thousands of travelers from every country come to see them, their reputation is world-wide, and the names of great men have long been associated with them—Washington, Humboldt, Torrey and Gray, Sir Joseph Hooker, and others. These kings of the forest rightly belong to the world, but as they are in California, we cannot escape responsibility as their guardians. Fortunately the American people are equal to this trust, or any other that may arise, as soon as they see it and understand it.

Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot defend themselves or run away. And few destroyers of trees ever plant any, nor can planting avail much toward restoring our grand aboriginal giants. It took more than three thousand years to make some of the oldest of the Sequoias, trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty. Through all the eventful centuries since Christ's time, and long before that, God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand storms; but he cannot save them from sawmills and fools; this is left to the American people.The news from Washington is encouraging. The House has passed a bill providing for the Government acquisition of the Calaveras giants. The danger these Sequoias have been in will do good far beyond the boundaries of the Calaveras Grove, in saving other groves and forests and quickening interest in forest affairs in general. While the iron of public sentiment is hot let us strike hard. In particular, a reservation or national park of the only other species of Sequoia, the sempervirens, or redwood, hardly less wonderful than the gigantea, should be quickly secured. It will have to be acquired by gift or purchase, for the Government has sold every section of the redwood belt from the Oregon boundary to below Santa Cruz.

Say you wanted to preserve a particular mountainside that was threatened with strip-mining. Based on the passage, what do you think the author would say would be the best way to achieve this preservation?

Taking legal action against the logging companies

Raising the fame and renown of the mountaintop, driving tourists to it, and associating its name with great men

Writing articles and engaging with the public about the general importance of preserving mountains unsullied by mining

Convincing the state or federal government to act to make the mountaintop a National Park

Identifying key people in government positions who could act to preserve the mountaintop

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For many students, the MCAT, or Medical College Admissions Test, represents the most challenging part of the medical school application process. If you are preparing to take the MCAT after taking time away from undergraduate work, reacquainting yourself with the types of questions asked and complexity of language presented in the Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT can be challenging. As with the Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences sections, continued practice with understanding complex prose passages provides a way to succeed on the Verbal Reasoning section. Whether you need MCAT tutoring in AtlantaMCAT tutoring in Houston, or MCAT tutoring in San Francisco, working one-on-one with an expert may be just the boost your studies need.

The Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT contains 40 passage-based questions that test cognitive thinking, inference, and attention to detail. Given the section length of 60 minutes, each question is allotted roughly one minute and thirty seconds each. In contrast to the Physical and Biological Sciences sections, this section does not test a student’s background knowledge about specific scientific topics. In fact, bringing in outside knowledge often serves as a hindrance to selecting the correct response and is best avoided by using only the information presented in the passage. Varsity Tutors offers resources like free MCAT Verbal Reasoning Practice Tests to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider an MCAT Verbal Reasoning tutor.

There are four types of question on the test:

1.) Comprehension: These questions require you to identify the main purpose of the passage, understand the evidence used to support a claim, use context clues to determine the meaning of a quote or vocabulary word, and identify assumptions necessary to understand the passage.

2.) Evaluation: Evaluation questions ask you to determine the validity of an argument by an author. The credibility of quotes, progression of conclusions, strength of evidence, and relevance of information may all be evaluated.

3.) Application: These questions go beyond just the passage by asking you to predict results of an unrelated situation based on the information contained in the passage. Alternatively, you could be required to determine what events may have occurred prior to the events of the current passage, in order to make the passage appropriate or valid.

4.) New Information Incorporation: When a question provides additional information not contained in the passage, the question often asks you to weigh the strength of new evidence, determine if the conclusions in the passage may have changed based on the new information, or recognize potential solutions to resolving the differences between claims.

Preparation for the Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT takes continued practice with passages. A variety of skill sets, such as passage mapping to identify the main thesis and purpose of the passage, are helpful in succeeding on the MCAT Verbal Reasoning section; however, these skill sets must be practiced extensively to be of use. Some students have trouble acclimating to the complexity of language used in the passages. If this is the case for you, you should try reading publications designed for college graduate reading levels, which often allow readers to expand their vocabularies and understand complex sentence structure. Also, you can use Varsity Tutors’ free MCAT Verbal Flaschards to determine your strengths and weaknesses regarding MCAT Verbal material. Use them to hone your reading comprehension skills and practice understanding the difficult language and answering the variety of question types that can be featured on the MCAT Verbal Section. Overall, continued exposure to complex language is the best way to prepare for the MCAT Verbal Reasoning section, and Varsity Tutors’ free MCAT resources can help you do just that. In addition to the MCAT Verbal Reasoning flashcards and MCAT Verbal Reasoning tutoring, you may also want to consider using some of our MCAT Verbal Reasoning Diagnostic Tests.

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