Selection Test from The Invention of Everything Else

According to the excerpt from The Invention of Everything Else, how has Nikola Tesla’s life changed over the years?

• He used to work as a waiter in a fancy restaurant, but now he is unemployed.

• He used to talk to storms, but since he has grown up he realizes that storms cannot talk.

• He used to experiment with dust, but now he raises pigeons in his New York City apartment.

• He used to be well-to-do and had many famous visitors, but now he is poor and no one visits him.

According to the excerpt from The Invention of Everything Else, how does Tesla spend his days now? Choose two options.

• He eats rich food from fine restaurants with old friends.

• He travels back and forth to his childhood home in Serbia.

• He invents ways to use insects to create inexpensive power.

• He takes in injured and old pigeons and nurses them back to health.

• He thinks about his feelings toward Marconi and Marconi’s reputation.

According to the excerpt from The Invention of Everything Else, why is Nikola Tesla standing on the ledge outside his apartment?

• He is taking a break from working in the laboratory he built in his room.

• He is trying to get the best possible view of the beautiful sunset.

• He is looking at the birds and trying to find one specific pigeon.

• He is trying to detect radio waves in the environment.

According to the excerpt from The Invention of Everything Else, what did Marconi accomplish?

• Marconi sent a message across the sea, without using wires.

• Marconi trained pigeons, so they would deliver messages across vast distances.

• Marconi created insect energy that would provide the world with cheap power.

• Marconi provided power to New York City through lines hidden underground.

What is the most likely meaning of deficiencies in the following sentence? The electrical stations’ deficiencies resulted in power outages all summer long.

• failings

• locations

• dimensions

• achievements

If Marconi revolutionized the wireless transmission of messages, which of the following must be true? Base your answer on the meaning of revolutionized.

• He sparked a political uprising.

• He linked people across the ocean.

• He preserved the way people spoke.

• He greatly improved communication.

Which of the following situations could best be used to illustrate the meaning of triumph?

• Tesla thought about how his childhood home in Yugoslavia had been destroyed and how everyone he knew was gone.

• Tesla lived alone in New York City, obsessed with anger at the loss of his patents, inventions, and recognition.

• Marconi won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the development of wireless telegraphy.

• Marconi had a childhood interest in science and conducted experiments with radio waves.

According to the excerpt from The Invention of Everything Else, whom or what is Tesla seeking?

• Marconi

• a specific pigeon

• his beautiful girlfriend

• a way to return to Yugoslavia

Which statement from The Invention of Everything Else best supports the answer to Part A?

• She is pale gray with white-tipped wings, and into her ear I have whispered all my doubts.

• I tell the birds who are perched beside me on the ledge. “I don’t have magnetite in my head.”

• When I was a child I had a tiny laboratory that I’d constructed in an alcove of trees.

• Marconi surrounded himself with fame, strutting as if he owned the invisible waves circling the globe.

According to the excerpt from The Invention of Everything Else, why did Vuk destroy the device that Tesla invented at the age of seven?

• Vuk didn’t understand what Tesla was doing, and the device frightened him.

• Vuk was an ignorant, nasty boy who was jealous of Tesla’s brilliance.

• Vuk thought it was very amusing to play such a silly joke on Tesla.

• Vuk was getting back at Tesla for Tesla’s previous cruelty to him.