Inglés VIII

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Little is now about the elusive section of the earth´s atmosphere known as the mesosphere. Located between the stratosphere (the maximum altitude that airplanes can achieve) and the thermosphere (the minimum altitude of spacecraft), the mesosphere is poorly understood and little explored. The most significant feature of the mesosphere is the various tides and waves that propagate up from the troposphere and stratosphere. The dissipation of these waves is largely responsible for propelling the mesosphere around the globe. These wave patterns are further affected when gas particles in the mesosphere collide with meteoroids, producing spectacular explosions, which usually generate enough heat to consume the meteor before it can fall to earth. The conflagration leaves behind traces of iron and other metals and fuels the atmospheric tides radiating outward from the mesosphere.

Question 1. The author primarily describes the mesosphere as:

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Television programming is big business, with sales of interstitial advertising reaching billions of dollars annually. Advertising rates are determined by the viewership of the program in question, which has traditionally been determined by ACNielsen, part of The Nielsen Company. Nielsen wields an immoderate amount of industry clout considering its questionable methods of statistics gathering.

The Nielsen Company relies on selected households to catalog their television watching habits in “diaries.” The ratings are then reported as a percentage that indicates the number of viewers watching a television program at a given time. The company has come under criticism for choosing residences that underreport daytime and late-night television viewing and for over representing minorities in sample populations.
Critics also point to the nonviable practice of measuring how many individuals are watching a given television set and of gauging how attentive the audience is to a program or its advertising.

Question 3.

It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers the Nielsen Company´s techniques:

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Although multi-organ transplants have become more common, scientists and surgeons continue to face the ineluctable obstacle of time. Current donor organ preservation times hover around five to six hours. Because of the complicated tissue-matching process, oftentimes organs are unable to reach their beneficiaries, wasting valuable, viable organs. However, scientists are hopeful that a certain substance, called the Hibernation Induction Trigger (HIT), will extend the life of a potential transplant organ.

HIT is an opiate-like substance found in the blood of hibernating animals. Previous experiments have shown that opioids act as an auto perfusion block, preventing blood from flowing through the lymphatic system to organs, a phenomenon known as ischemia. In a preliminary experiment, an infusion of plasma with the Delta opioid delayed hemorrhaging in certain laboratory animals. When this arresting of activity was applied to the transplantation of organs, physicians reported preservation times up to 15 hours, a more than two-fold increase over standard conservation.

Scientists have extrapolated from these findings, further identifying the opioid DADLE as integral to triggering the hibernation process. Infusing HIT-molecule-containing plasma from hibernating woodchucks into canine lungs increased preservation timer more than three-fold from previous findings. This experiment suggests that, should a potential donor organ be infused with these trigger molecules before the organ is harvested, the organ would remain transplantable for up to 45 hours, greatly increasing the chance for doctors to find a suitable recipient.

Though these results are exciting, they do nothing to increase survival rates from an organ transplant operation, which currently hover at 60 percent over four years, because patients are still susceptible to infection and rejection.
Scientists are a long way from declaring HIT-molecules a safe and consistent method of organ preservation. Still, other areas of science have taken an interest in this research. NASA, for example, is considering the implications of human hibernation for deep space travel.

Question 5.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

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Although multi-organ transplants have become more common, scientists and surgeons continue to face the ineluctable obstacle of time. Current donor organ preservation times hover around five to six hours. Because of the complicated tissue-matching process, oftentimes organs are unable to reach their beneficiaries, wasting valuable, viable organs. However, scientists are hopeful that a certain substance, called the Hibernation Induction Trigger (HIT), will extend the life of a potential transplant organ.

HIT is an opiate-like substance found in the blood of hibernating animals. Previous experiments have shown that opioids act as an auto perfusion block, preventing blood from flowing through the lymphatic system to organs, a phenomenon known as ischemia. In a preliminary experiment, an infusion of plasma with the Delta opioid delayed hemorrhaging in certain laboratory animals. When this arresting of activity was applied to the transplantation of organs, physicians reported preservation times up to 15 hours, a more than two-fold increase over standard conservation.

Scientists have extrapolated from these findings, further identifying the opioid DADLE as integral to triggering the hibernation process. Infusing HIT-molecule-containing plasma from hibernating woodchucks into canine lungs increased preservation timer more than three-fold from previous findings. This experiment suggests that, should a potential donor organ be infused with these trigger molecules before the organ is harvested, the organ would remain transplantable for up to 45 hours, greatly increasing the chance for doctors to find a suitable recipient.

Though these results are exciting, they do nothing to increase survival rates from an organ transplant operation, which currently hover at 60 percent over four years, because patients are still susceptible to infection and rejection.
Scientists are a long way from declaring HIT-molecules a safe and consistent method of organ preservation. Still, other areas of science have taken an interest in this research. NASA, for example, is considering the implications of human hibernation for deep space travel.

Question 6.

Given the information in the passage about blocking autoperfusion, which of the following could also be true?

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Although multi-organ transplants have become more common, scientists and surgeons continue to face the ineluctable obstacle of time. Current donor organ preservation times hover around five to six hours. Because of the complicated tissue-matching process, oftentimes organs are unable to reach their beneficiaries, wasting valuable, viable organs. However, scientists are hopeful that a certain substance, called the Hibernation Induction Trigger (HIT), will extend the life of a potential transplant organ.

HIT is an opiate-like substance found in the blood of hibernating animals. Previous experiments have shown that opioids act as an auto perfusion block, preventing blood from flowing through the lymphatic system to organs, a phenomenon known as ischemia. In a preliminary experiment, an infusion of plasma with the Delta opioid delayed hemorrhaging in certain laboratory animals. When this arresting of activity was applied to the transplantation of organs, physicians reported preservation times up to 15 hours, a more than two-fold increase over standard conservation.

Scientists have extrapolated from these findings, further identifying the opioid DADLE as integral to triggering the hibernation process. Infusing HIT-molecule-containing plasma from hibernating woodchucks into canine lungs increased preservation timer more than three-fold from previous findings. This experiment suggests that, should a potential donor organ be infused with these trigger molecules before the organ is harvested, the organ would remain transplantable for up to 45 hours, greatly increasing the chance for doctors to find a suitable recipient.

Though these results are exciting, they do nothing to increase survival rates from an organ transplant operation, which currently hover at 60 percent over four years, because patients are still susceptible to infection and rejection.
Scientists are a long way from declaring HIT-molecules a safe and consistent method of organ preservation. Still, other areas of science have taken an interest in this research. NASA, for example, is considering the implications of human hibernation for deep space travel.

Question 7

The author refers to the experiment with the woodchuck in order to:

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It might seem illogical that the development of modern currency rests on a scientific discovery, but the invention of the “touchstone” allowed ancient societies to create a standard by which valuable metals could be judged. In its most basic form, a touchstone is any dark, finely grained stone upon which soft metals leave traces. When rubbed, a process known as “probing,” precious metal alloy cleaves to the stone, leaving a stripe. The color of the stripe (which reveals the percentage of its content that is base metal) can then be compared to a stripe of a known grade of standard alloy. Despite its primitiveness, this probing process allowed merchants to examine alloys quickly and with reasonable certainty. Though civilizations were using gold and silver currencies as early as 500 B.C., coins were easily forged or diluted with less valuable metals, such as tin or lead. The invention and popularization of the touchstone ensured that pure gold and silver could become a standard expression of value.

Question 8

The primary purpose of the passage is to:

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It might seem illogical that the development of modern currency rests on a scientific discovery, but the invention of the “touchstone” allowed ancient societies to create a standard by which valuable metals could be judged. In its most basic form, a touchstone is any dark, finely grained stone upon which soft metals leave traces. When rubbed, a process known as “probing,” precious metal alloy cleaves to the stone, leaving a stripe. The color of the stripe (which reveals the percentage of its content that is base metal) can then be compared to a stripe of a known grade of standard alloy. Despite its primitiveness, this probing process allowed merchants to examine alloys quickly and with reasonable certainty. Though civilizations were using gold and silver currencies as early as 500 B.C., coins were easily forged or diluted with less valuable metals, such as tin or lead. The invention and popularization of the touchstone ensured that pure gold and silver could become a standard expression of value.

Question 9

The author´s description of how coins were adulterated is included in the passage in order to:

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Women played a substantial role in the furthering of the Polish art song in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. One notable woman from this time period was Maria Szymanowska, who was both a concert pianist and a composer.

Szymanowska was a member of the Warsaw Music Society tho contributed pieces to a cycle entitled Historical Songs. Her songs are by far the most creative and individualistic of the cycle.
In addition, Szymanowska composed more than one hundred other pieces, mostly for the piano, including six romances.

Her songs most resemble French romances, and she also employs Polonaise rhythms in two of her songs. In all her works, the melodic line is technically superior. She employs idiomatic keyboard writing, wide chor-spacing, broad cantilenas, and interesting modulations. She also uses the most compelling registers of the instrument and pianistic keys. Her romances are on par with those of Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart. In fact, Szymanowska was praised by her contemporaries, such as Schumann, who lauded her etudes. Her piano playing was frequently equated to that of Hummel, though Szymanowska´s was said to be more ethereal. Thus, she is a progenitor of Chopin in both piano technique and composition.

Female contributors to the development of Polish music have been chiefly ignored. From the meager records which have been preserved, it is incontrovertible that Polish women were, in fact, playing, instructing, and writing music as early as the fifteenth century. However, patriarchal societal structures have precluded adequate documentation about, and preservation of, their work. Unless changes take place, human society will be made poorer for its inability to recognize the expertise and inventiveness of these women.

Question 11

The author´s tone in the final sentence (“Unless changes … these women”) is best described as:

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Women played a substantial role in the furthering of the Polish art song in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. One notable woman from this time period was Maria Szymanowska, who was both a concert pianist and a composer.

Szymanowska was a member of the Warsaw Music Society tho contributed pieces to a cycle entitled Historical Songs. Her songs are by far the most creative and individualistic of the cycle.
In addition, Szymanowska composed more than one hundred other pieces, mostly for the piano, including six romances.

Her songs most resemble French romances, and she also employs Polonaise rhythms in two of her songs. In all her works, the melodic line is technically superior. She employs idiomatic keyboard writing, wide chor-spacing, broad cantilenas, and interesting modulations. She also uses the most compelling registers of the instrument and pianistic keys. Her romances are on par with those of Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart. In fact, Szymanowska was praised by her contemporaries, such as Schumann, who lauded her etudes. Her piano playing was frequently equated to that of Hummel, though Szymanowska´s was said to be more ethereal. Thus, she is a progenitor of Chopin in both piano technique and composition.

Female contributors to the development of Polish music have been chiefly ignored. From the meager records which have been preserved, it is incontrovertible that Polish women were, in fact, playing, instructing, and writing music as early as the fifteenth century. However, patriarchal societal structures have precluded adequate documentation about, and preservation of, their work. Unless changes take place, human society will be made poorer for its inability to recognize the expertise and inventiveness of these women.

Question 12

According to the passage, the musical contributions of Polish women have been neglected due to: