College and career words
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Sentence
Rather than relying on the old claim that the river froze every winter, the class gathered empirical data, measuring the ice at three spots each morning for two months.
Jun reads a sentence from a college environmental-science report. What does empirical mean here?
- about the river ice at three spots
- based on observation and measurement
- drawn from people's stories about past winters
- based on reasoning and theory alone
Line
Students who audit a course attend the lectures and may join discussions, but they take no exams and receive no credit on their transcripts.
Bo reads a line from a college catalog. What does audit mean here?
- join the discussions in a lecture course
- take a course for full credit and a grade each term
- check a company's financial records
- attend a course without working for credit
Sentence
The support for the new study method is anecdotal: three students said it helped them, but no one compared their grades with those of students who studied the usual way.
Milo reads a sentence from a peer review in a psychology course. What does anecdotal mean here?
- about a new method for studying
- based on careful measurement of what can be observed
- based on a controlled comparison of two groups
- based on a few personal reports, not careful study
Glossary entry
Conservation (noun) 1. Ecology: the protection and careful management of natural resources. 2. Physics: the principle that a quantity, such as energy, stays the same in total during a change. Sentence (physics textbook): If friction is ignored, conservation of energy lets you find the ball's speed at the bottom of the ramp from the height it started at.
Zee reads the glossary entry and the textbook sentence above. Which meaning of conservation fits the sentence?
- the protection of forests, rivers and wildlife
- the height at which the ball starts on the ramp
- a total amount that stays the same during a change
- using less of something to save it for later
Line
Applicants whose families meet the income guidelines may ask the college to waive the $50 application fee; the form still goes to the same office, but no payment is attached.
Kira reads a line on a college application page. What does waive mean here?
- put the fee off until a later date
- choose not to require the fee at all
- send the form to the admissions office
- require the fee before the form is read
Sentence
The longitudinal study followed the same 400 adults from age 30 to age 60, testing their hearing every five years to see how it changed over time.
Ren reads a sentence in a research-methods textbook. What does longitudinal mean here?
- studying the same group again and again over many years
- comparing a treated group with an untreated group
- studying many different groups at one single moment
- about how people's hearing changes
Glossary entry
Capital (noun) 1. Civics: the city where a state's or country's government meets. 2. Economics: wealth, such as money, tools and buildings, used to produce more wealth. Sentence (economics course): A bakery that buys a second oven is investing capital so it can bake and sell more bread each day.
Esme reads the glossary entry and the course sentence above. Which meaning of capital fits the sentence?
- the city where a government meets
- a large letter at the start of a sentence
- the bread that the bakery sells each day
- wealth used to produce more goods and income
Line
Admitted students who win a year-long service fellowship may defer enrollment, keeping their place in the class that starts the following fall.
Noah reads a line in a college admissions letter. What does defer mean here?
- win a year-long service fellowship
- begin right away, ahead of the usual date
- give way to someone else's judgment
- put off until a later time
Sentence
Before the journal would publish the finding, a second lab tried to replicate the experiment, following the same steps with new samples to see whether the result held.
Ari reads a sentence in a college biology lecture summary. What does replicate mean here?
- repeat an experiment to check that its result holds
- review a paper's writing before a journal prints it
- decide whether a journal should publish a finding
- reject an experiment's result without testing it again
Line
Credits transfer only from accredited colleges; a school that has not passed the agency's review cannot send credits that count here.
Tala reads a line in a college transfer guide. What does accredited mean here?
- not yet reviewed by any agency
- sending credits to a student's next college each year
- officially approved as meeting set standards
- given credit for an idea or a discovery