Science roundup highlights T. rex footprints, solar “superflares,” and reading’s reported brain benefits

Study the questions and tasks

Work through the material below, or start the interactive practice above to complete an attempt. Try the exercises before opening any answer or transcript sections, then use them to review your work.

Practice level

C2. Try this level if you can follow the instructions and understand most of the language; choose an earlier level if you need more support.

Question formats

Single choice

How to approach this practice

Read the passage for its main idea, then return to the relevant sentence or paragraph for each question. Base answers on the passage.

1. Question 1 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What is the article’s principal organizational strategy?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. It compares competing explanations for one discovery.
   2. It narrates one investigation from evidence to conclusion.
   3. It surveys unrelated topics to demonstrate scientific breadth.
   4. It traces the historical development of solar research.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   It surveys unrelated topics to demonstrate scientific breadth.

   The article moves sequentially through three distinct scientific topics.

   Taken together, the three items illustrate the range of a weekly science-news program.

2. Question 2 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What can be inferred from the discussion of fossilized footprints?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Footprints are more reliable than dinosaur bones.
   2. Indirect evidence can retain explanatory value over time.
   3. T. rex disappeared more recently than scientists believed.
   4. Paleontologists have abandoned anatomical evidence.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Indirect evidence can retain explanatory value over time.

   Physical remnants can illuminate behavior despite the organism’s disappearance.

   The finding offers a glimpse of how evidence from the distant past continues to shape scientific reporting, even when the creature itself has long disappeared.

3. Question 3 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does “Their inclusion” refer to in the solar paragraph?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. The dinosaur footprints
   2. The animal’s bones
   3. The solar “superflares”
   4. The reading benefits
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The solar “superflares”

   The pronoun points back to the solar superflares just introduced.

   Their inclusion broadens the report’s scope from the history of life on Earth to the behavior of a star that remains central to the planet’s environment.

4. Question 4 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Why does the article mention the source package’s omissions?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. To criticize NPR’s choice of subjects
   2. To identify limitations in the available evidence
   3. To explain how fossils become preserved
   4. To establish the frequency of superflares
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   To identify limitations in the available evidence

   The omissions limit how confidently readers should interpret the claims.

   Those distinctions matter, particularly when scientific results are translated into advice about ordinary habits.

5. Question 5 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What contrast structures the article’s final synthesis?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Established facts versus fictional speculation
   2. Individual researchers versus institutions
   3. Past evidence, stellar behavior, and human activity
   4. Local discoveries versus international discoveries
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Past evidence, stellar behavior, and human activity

   The conclusion contrasts temporal direction, subject matter, and human relevance.

   One story looks backward through traces preserved in the fossil record; another considers extreme solar phenomena; and the third addresses a common human activity and its reported connection to brain function.

6. Question 6 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What limitation applies to the roundup as a whole?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. It excludes all discussion of human behavior.
   2. It provides no location, researcher, or numerical result.
   3. It focuses exclusively on prehistoric evidence.
   4. It reports only findings from one institution.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   It provides no location, researcher, or numerical result.

   The package supplies neither identifiable people nor quantitative findings.

   The package does not identify a single location, named researcher, or numerical result for the coverage.

7. Question 7 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Why is the reading item described as more directly connected to everyday life?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. It concerns an activity many people routinely undertake.
   2. It has produced the roundup’s only numerical result.
   3. It explains the behavior of the Sun.
   4. It relies exclusively on fossil evidence.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   It concerns an activity many people routinely undertake.

   Reading is presented as a familiar activity rather than a remote phenomenon.

   The third subject is more familiar and more directly connected to everyday life: the relationship between reading and the brain.

8. Question 8 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does the opening sentence primarily accomplish?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. It announces one breakthrough in paleontology.
   2. It establishes the subjects’ disciplinary diversity.
   3. It evaluates the credibility of NPR’s reporting.
   4. It defines solar superflares technically.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   It establishes the subjects’ disciplinary diversity.

   It frames the roundup as an unusual juxtaposition of disparate subjects.

   A new NPR science roundup brings together three subjects that would ordinarily occupy very different corners of scientific discussion: the enormous footprints of a Tyrannosaurus rex, powerful eruptions on the Sun, and the possible benefits of reading for the brain.

What to review next

Find the words that support each answer. For a mistake, compare the question with the evidence and identify the detail or inference you missed.

A focused practice result shows how you did on these tasks. Use several activities across skills to decide what to study next; one practice score does not certify an overall CEFR level.

Before you practise: a worked example

Look for evidence in the text. Separate what the writer says from what you already know about the topic.

The library normally closes at six, but on Fridays it stays open until eight. When does it close on Friday?

The answer is eight. But introduces an exception to the normal closing time, so the first time mentioned is not the answer.

This teaching example is separate from the scored questions. After your test, compare any mistakes with the explanation and revisit the topic before trying again.