Nonfiction Suspense Quiz Practice

Read the excerpt from "The Rosetta Stone.”

Egyptian scripts were replaced with Coptic, which included six demotic characters. In the ninth century, Arab scholar Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn-Wahshiyah was able to partly decipher the hieroglyphs by comparing them to Coptic. But in the eleventh century, it too was replaced, by Arabic. The link was once again severed. For centuries, Western scholars tried to decipher the hieroglyphs, with little success. They were working under a false hypothesis, that the hieroglyphs were pictograms, with each symbol representing an object or an idea.

Which is the best summary of this paragraph?

• After Coptic became the prominent script, it was replaced by Arabic, which resulted in breaking society’s connection to ancient times.

• For many centuries, people who spoke a variety of different languages tried to figure out the meaning of hieroglyphs.

• Hieroglyphs are letters, not symbols representing a whole idea, which many scholars throughout history were not aware of.

• For a long time, scholars from different places tried to figure out the meaning of hieroglyphs, but they mistakenly believed each hieroglyph was a symbol.

Read the excerpt from "The Enigma Machine.”

At Bletchley Park, the main site in Britain where Enigma codes were deciphered, six thousand messages were decoded every day by a staff of ten thousand men and women. Many of the messages were inconsequential, but more than a few were critical to the outcome of the war.

Which is the best summary of this paragraph?

• At Bletchley Park, thousands of people worked hard to help the British and Allied troops during the war.

• At Bletchley Park, the ten thousand people on the staff figured out over six thousand codes, some of which were very important to the war effort.

• Ten thousand people worked at Bletchley Park, but some of the codes they solved were inconsequential to the war effort.

• Six thousand codes were figured out at Bletchley Park, including some that had importance in regard to the war.

Read the excerpt from "Lise Marie de Baissac."

In Normandy, Baissac pretended to be a refugee from Paris living in the house of a schoolmaster. There, she helped to set up more resistance groups and organize sabotage actions. Again traveling by bicycle, she maintained secret communications between groups and transported supplies. This was extremely dangerous work. Often covering forty miles in a single day, she carried arms and explosives as well as information about targets. Her actions, along with those of her colleagues, often delayed the arrival of German reinforcements to the front lines of battle.

Which best describes the central idea of this paragraph?

• When she lived in Normandy, Baissac assumed a different identity in order to complete important work while she lived there.

• Baissac’s goal was to get in the way of German troop movement, and she was often successful when she worked with resistance groups.

• Baissac did significant work as a spy when she lived in Normandy, sometimes traveling by bicycle to complete her tasks.

• As a spy in Normandy, Baissac performed a variety of important and sometimes dangerous tasks in order to get in the way of German troops.

Which quote from "Code Talkers” best illustrates that the Navajo code talkers were quick-thinking and precise?

• The code was comprised of two components. First, Navajo words were chosen to represent specific, frequently used military terms for which there was no direct equivalent in the Navajo language.

• During the famous battle of Iwo Jima, six Navajo code talkers operated continuously, transmitting each message without a single mistake.

• The code talkers’ work has also been recognized in popular culture. The movie Windtalkers and the novel Code Talker both offer fictional accounts of the code talkers’ experiences.

• Although American Indian soldiers had effectively used their languages to create and transmit secret messages during World War I, military leaders were reluctant to use the code a second time, fearing that it would no longer be effective.

Read the excerpt from "The Rosetta Stone.”

Then chance stepped in. In 1798, Napoleon went to Egypt to protect its trade interests. In addition to an army, he brought along Egyptian scholars who were charged with copying the inscriptions and studying the architecture.

The following year, the French bolstered their defenses by rebuilding a fort in the town of Rosetta. In the midst of the fortification, the Rosetta Stone was discovered. Ironically, this large stone tablet was found not by one of the scholars but by a soldier. Luckily, he recognized that the inscriptions must have value. Militarily, Napoleon's Egyptian campaign was a disaster—the British decimated the French navy—but historically, it was of long-lasting importance.

Which best describes the primary structure of this excerpt?

• problem and solution

• chronological order

• list form

• comparison and contrast

Which excerpt from "The Enigma Machine” supports the idea that Allied forces expected the Germans to complicate their coding system?

• The Enigma machine was invented at the end of World War I by German engineer Arthur Scherbius. He used rotors and an electrical pathway in his design.

  The telegram was intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence, and it caused such outrage in the US that it helped generate public support for the United States’ entry into the war.

• After 1938, when the Germans introduced additional rotors and plugs to increase the number of possible combinations, Polish and British cryptologists had already developed alternative methods of recovering the daily keys.

• The two main weaknesses of the Enigma machine were careless operators and the distribution of the daily key.

• The daily key was printed on paper, and it had the potential of being captured en route to the field.

Read the excerpt from The Dark Game.

Montgomery quickly fetched Admiral Hall. The head of Room 40, nicknamed "Blinker" for the uncontrollable twitching in his eyes, hurried into the room and stood in front of de Grey's desk. Without saying a word, de Grey stood and handed the message to the small, ruddy-faced man, Hall's eyes took in what Montgomery and de Grey had discovered. His eye twitches became more pronounced as he tried to assess the impact of what he was reading.

Based on information in the excerpt, the reader can infer that the information in the wireless message was

• of little significance.

• impossible to decipher.

• extraordinarily important.

• already known.

Read the passage from "Annabel Lee.”

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we—

Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

When the author provides the details about the angels and demons, he is

• introducing the central idea that this love is special and enduring.

• developing the central idea that this love is special and enduring.

• providing a contrast to the central idea that this love is special and enduring.

• providing a comparison to the central idea that this love is special and enduring.

Enzo read this passage from "The Smithville Gazette: Neighborhood Thief Strikes Again.”

Another episode in the recent spate of neighborhood thefts occurred on Saturday at Ferguson’s department store. Several pieces of jewelry were taken at approximately 12:30 in the afternoon. Mrs. Jane Dickson, the employee working the jewelry counter reported that she did not initially see the theft, but realized shortly before 1 p.m. that several necklaces were missing from inside the jewelry case, which she had accidentally left unlocked while moving away to help another customer.

Instead of taking notes on the central idea, Enzo copied the passage down exactly.

What is the best way to revise the passage into notes that reveal the central idea?

• On Saturday at Ferguson’s, there was a robbery and some jewelry was stolen.

• Mrs. Jane Dickson says there was a jewelry robbery.

• robbery @ Ferguson’s jewelry on Sat.—necklaces stolen

• Saturday @ 12:30 p.m., Ferguson’s, Mrs. Jane Dickson, jewelry, necklaces

What central idea do "The Quinceanera" and "The Smithville Gazette: Neighborhood Thief Strikes Again" share?

• A robbery occurred at the jewelry counter in the department store.

• A young man with a bad attitude was at the jewelry counter.

• A young man planned a clever getaway from the department store.

• A robbery at the jewelry counter angered the salesperson.