SSAT Middle Level Reading : Finding Context-Dependent Meanings of Phrases in Narrative Science Passages
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SSAT Middle Level Reading
All SSAT Middle Level Reading Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Analyzing The Text In Science Passages
Adapted from "Wasps" by Thomas G. Belt in A Book of Natural History (1902, ed. David Starr Jordan)
One day I saw a small black and yellow banded wasp hunting for spiders; it approached a web where a spider was stationed in the center, made a dart towards it—apparently a feint to frighten the spider clear of its web; at any rate it had that effect, for it fell to the ground, and was immediately seized by the wasp, who stung it, then ran quickly backwards, dragging the spider after it, up a branch reaching to the ground until it got high enough, when it flew heavily off with it. It was so small, and the spider so cumbersome, that it probably could not have raised it from the ground by flight.
All over the world there are wasps that store their nests with the bodies of spiders for their young to feed on. In Australia, I often witnessed a wasp engaging with a large flat spider that is found on the bark of trees. It would fall to the ground, and lie on its back, so as to be able to grapple with its opponent; but the wasp was always the victor in the encounters I saw, although it was not always allowed to carry off its prey in peace. One day, sitting on the sandbanks on the coast of Hobson’s Bay, I saw one dragging along a large spider. Three or four inches above it hovered two minute flies, keeping a little behind, and advancing with it. The wasp seemed much disturbed by the presence of the tiny flies, and twice left its prey to fly up towards them, but they darted away with it. As soon as the wasp returned to the spider, there they were hovering over and following it again. At last, unable to drive away its small provocateurs, the wasp reached its burrow and took down the spider, and the two flies stationed themselves one on each side of the entrance, and would, doubtless, when the wasp went away to seek another victim, descend and lay their own eggs in the nest.
In the underlined phrase, the author is most nearly saying __________.
“the spider was occupied with its own business and did not notice the wasp’s attack until it was too late.”
“the wasp forcefully knocked the spider out of it’s web so that it could attack it more powerfully on the ground.”
“the spider was completely unprepared for the wasp's attack and was therefore unable to adequately defend itself.”
“the wasp approached the spider slowly and with guile and was able to startle the spider out of its web.”
“the wasp pretended to directly attack the spider in order to scare the spider into conceding the upper hand.”
“the wasp pretended to directly attack the spider in order to scare the spider into conceding the upper hand.”
Answering this question is easiest if you understand that “dart” means rapidly move towards and “feint” means a fake attack designed to deceive the enemy. From this, you can tell that the author is saying that the wasp pretended to attack (“feint”) the spider in order to frighten it into conceding the upper hand. The wasp does not actually knock the spider out of its web, nor does the wasp attack slowly against an unprepared spider.
Example Question #3 : Language In Science Passages
Adapted from Cassell’s Natural History by Francis Martin Duncan (1913)
The penguins are a group of birds inhabiting the southern ocean, for the most part passing their lives in the icy waters of the Antarctic seas. Like the ratitae, penguins have lost the power of flight, but the wings are modified into swimming organs and the birds lead an aquatic existence and are scarcely seen on land except in the breeding season. They are curious-looking creatures that appear to have no legs, as the limbs are encased in the skin of the body and the large flat feet are set so far back that the birds waddle along on land in an upright position in a very ridiculous manner, carrying their long narrow flippers held out as if they were arms. When swimming, penguins use their wings as paddles while the feet are used for steering.
Penguins are usually gregarious—in the sea, they swim together in schools, and on land, assemble in great numbers in their rookeries. They are very methodical in their ways, and on leaving the water, the birds always follow well-defined tracks leading to the rookeries, marching with much solemnity one behind the other in soldierly order.
The largest species of penguins are the king penguin and the emperor penguin, the former being found in Kerguelen Land, the Falklands, and other southern islands, and the latter in Victoria Land and on the pack ice of the Antarctic seas. As they are unaccustomed from the isolation of their haunts to being hunted and persecuted by man, emperor penguins are remarkably fearless, and Antarctic explorers invading their territory have found themselves objects of curiosity rather than fear to the strange birds who followed them about as if they were much astonished at their appearance.
The emperor penguin lays but a single egg and breeds during the intense cold and darkness of the Antarctic winter. To prevent contact with the frozen snow, the bird places its egg upon its flat webbed feet and crouches down upon it so that it is well covered with the feathers. In spite of this precaution, many eggs do not hatch and the mortality amongst the young chicks is very great.
What does the text mean by the underlined clause “the mortality amongst the young chicks is very great”?
Many of the young chicks do not survive to adulthood.
Polar bears eat many of the young chicks.
Most of the young chicks survive to have chicks of their own.
Some of the young chicks have a hard time learning to hunt.
The young chicks don’t play with one another, and instead spend most of their time with their parents.
Many of the young chicks do not survive to adulthood.
“Mortality” means death rate, but if you did not know this, you could still figure out the correct answer by considering the sentence’s context. The underlined part of the sentence is preceded by “Despite this precaution, many eggs do not hatch,” the first part of which refers to the way in which an Emperor penguin will balance its egg on its feet and cover it with its feathers. These things would seem to help the egg survive, so the meaning of the underlined part of the sentence happens along with eggs not surviving despite the penguins’ precautions, it makes sense that it would be something bad happening to the chick. This reasoning supports the answer choice “Many of the young chicks do not survive to adulthood.”
As for the other answer choices, polar bears are not mentioned in the passage at all, so the answer choice “Polar bears eat many of the young chicks” is too specific to be the correct answer choice. Nothing in the passage supports the answer choices “The young chicks don’t play with one another, and instead spend most of their time with their parents” and “Some of the young chicks have a hard time learning to hunt,” and we have figured out that the underlined part of the sentence has to mean something bad for the chicks, so “Most of the young chicks survive to have chicks of their own” cannot be correct either.
Certified Tutor
All SSAT Middle Level Reading Resources
