Test Bank For College Reading: The Science and Strategies of Expert Readers
Chapter 1 Pretest
Chapter 1
Pretest
Part 1. Objective Questions
Match the word, term, or phrase in the column on the left with the definition or explanation
on the right.
___1. concentration a. applying strategies to stay engaged with text
___2. internal distracters b. using your fingertips to read, or a bookmark placed
horizontally under the line you are reading
___3. metacognition c. thinking about how you think
___4. active reading d. brain cells
___5. neurons e. making mistakes, correcting mistakes, and learning
from those mistakes
___6. dendrites f. reading only some of the words on a page
___7. practice g. things that come from within you, like feelings or
thoughts, that prevent you from being able to focus on
your reading
___8. skimming h. things in your environment that prevent you from
being able to focus on your reading
___9. pacing i. i. short branched extensions of a nerve cell, along
which impulses are received from other cells
___10. external distracters j. focusing on what you are reading
Indicate whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
___11. Looking at the questions at the end of a textbook chapter before reading the chapter is
“cheating.”
___12. There is no single area in the brain devoted to reading.
___13. Newly formed dendrites, synapses, and neural networks can begin to disappear if you
don’t use them.
___14. Making mistakes has a negative effect on the learning process.
1
,Test Bank For College Reading: The Science and Strategies of Expert Readers
Chapter 1 Pretest
___15. Memorization is a key component of critical reading.
___16. There is a natural human sequence of stages in learning.
___17. The physical structure of the brain changes during learning.
___18. Subvocalization, or reading aloud when studying, is a bad habit.
___19. You are more likely to complete a task if you have a written plan.
___20. Copying over passages from your assigned textbook reading is an effective reading
strategy.
Part 2. Reading Passage
Read the passage and answer the questions.
21. Based on the title and the first and last sentences, what do you think this reading passage will
be about?
22. What do you already know about this subject?
23. Create a question to ask yourself about the subject of this passage.
Family Dinners and Child Development
The family is the primary agency of socialization. It is the environment
into which children are born and in which their earliest experiences with other
people occur—experiences that have a lasting influence on the personality.
Family environments vary greatly, not only in terms of such key variables as
parents’ income and education but also in terms of living arrangements, urban
versus rural residence, number of children, relations with kin, and so on. Much
contemporary research centers on the effects of different family environments on
the child’s development (De Visscher & Bouverne-De Bie, 2008; Eshleman,
2003). Recent research confirms what many parents know intuitively: Enormous
benefits are enjoyed by children raised in families whose members get together
regularly around the dinner table. For example, a study by the National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA; 2005) at Columbia University found that
children who reported that they had family dinners were less likely to develop
drug abuse problems as teenagers and young adults and more likely to do well in
school. The strength of this finding seems to diminish somewhat with family size
because, with more children, there is less parental attention to go around, but the
findings are striking nonetheless. In another study of 4,746 middle and high
school students, social scientists at the University of Minnesota found that girls
whose families rarely ate together were 75 percent more likely to use extreme
dieting techniques and develop eating disorders than were girls from families
who often had dinner together. In a pioneering quantitative study of interactions
2
,Test Bank For College Reading: The Science and Strategies of Expert Readers
Chapter 1 Pretest
around the dinner table, Michael Lewis and Candice Feiring studied mealtime in
117 American families. Their study, “Some American Families at Dinner” (1982),
shows that a typical three-year-old child interacts regularly with a network of kin,
friends, and other adults who may play a significant role in the child’s early
socialization.
From KORNBLUM. Sociology in a Changing World 9e (p. 113). Copyright © 2012
Cengage Learning.
24. Did you lose concentration while reading this passage? If yes, what did you do to get back on
track?
25. What is the purpose of this paragraph?
a. to explain the benefits of families eating together
b. to illustrate the impact of families as socializing agents
26. What are some of the benefits enjoyed by children whose families eat together at dinner?
27. In your own experiences, what are some other aspects of family life that can affect the
socialization of children?
3
, Test Bank For College Reading: The Science and Strategies of Expert Readers
Chapter 1 Pretest
Chapter 1
Terminology
Match the word, term, or phrase in the column on the left with the definition or explanation
on the right.
___1. critical reading a. brain cells that connect with one another and create neural
networks
___2. metacognition b. wanting to learn something
___3. plasticity c. reading aloud
___4. neurons d. the trunk of a brain cell; a nerve fiber that generally
conducts impulses away from the body of the nerve cell
___5. terminals e. a metacognitive strategy that helps you think on paper about
what you have read, and identify what you do (and do not)
understand
___6. regression f. backward movement of the eyes over previously read
information
___7. motivation g. applying strategies to stay engaged with text and to keep
thinking about the information
___8. internal distracters h. ability of the brain to change as a result of experience
___9. axon i. short branched extension of a nerve cell, along which
impulses received from other cells at synapses are transmitted
to the cell body
___10. external distracters j. directing the brain’s attention to a specific task
___11. neural network k. things in your environment that prevent you from being able
to focus on your reading
___12. journal l. a system that helps readers to keep track of the number of
times they lose concentration as they read
___13. pacing m. using your fingertips or a bookmark placed horizontally
under the line you are reading
___14. active reading n. a process using specific steps: wanting to learn, practicing,
practicing again, gaining skill, and then gaining mastery
___15. synapses o. a network of neurons
___16. natural human learning p. a complex thinking process that involves discovering and
4
