Reading for Results - Online Practice
Vocabulary Practice

Copyright 2007 © Laraine Flemming.
Permission to copy this material is granted exclusively to instructors and students using textbooks written by Laraine Flemming. General distribution and redistribution are strictly prohibited.


Directions: Fill in the blank in each passage by first clicking a word in the list on the left and then clicking the blank in the passage where it belongs. Use the same steps to change the word in a passage. Be aware that each word has to be used exactly once. Hit the Submit button when you are done.

Note: Words marked with an asterisk (*) have appeared in previous chapters.


Words Passages

1. In what was called a "preventive measure," Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during World War II in camps on the West Coast. Unfortunately, proponents* of the policy didn’t consider it to the discussion that there was absolutely no evidence suggesting Japanese-Americans were spies.

2. Because of its naval advantage—the North at the time of the Civil War had over forty active warships; the South had none—Union forces expected to blockade* the South with ease, cutting off supplies to both soldiers and civilians. But the North had not the small, sleek blockade runners that slipped in and out of Southern ports with little fear of capture.

3. The eastern writer’s version of frontier life was a of popular fiction by the beginning of the twentieth century. Writers like Theodore Roosevelt, Frederic Remington, and Owen Wister all spent a significant amount of time in the West and then wrote about it for a public hungry to hear about the skill and daring of cowboys on horseback and their lightning-fast speed with a gun.

4. Early fiction about life on the western frontier did more than entertain. It also offered images of the damage being done by predatory* businessmen determined to profit from the West’s store of natural resources. One by-product of western fiction was increased public support for protecting the country’s frontier.

5. Housing developments continue to spring up all over the east and west coasts. Not surprisingly, as their are destroyed, bears, deer, even mountain lions are finding their way into suburbia.

6. In the Amazon rain forest, towering trees form a thick green that blots out the sky. That thick green layer of leaves is part of the reason why the area is so rich in rare plants, which researchers would like to extract* and study in the hopes of finding new medical cures.

7. David Livingstone (1813-1873) was a doctor, and explorer who opened up the continent of Africa to the influence of Christianity. In the beginning of his career, Livingstone wanted to impress the Africans he hoped to convert, and he decided that killing a lion would compel* their respect. Taking his gun, Livingstone marched into the bush, found a lion, took aim, and shot. Although the bullet found its home, the lion still had the strength to attack Livingstone before dying from its wounds. The lion’s teeth perforated* the skin and left Livingstone with eleven tooth marks that he bore for the rest of his life.

8. Scott Joplin, the composer of the "Maple Leaf Rag," dreamed of gaining national recognition as an opera composer. But in his lifetime, Joplin’s dreams would never be allowed to come true. It was simply assumed that of the opera world would never enjoy music written by a black man. It was decades before his opera Tremonisha was staged to the applause of the very opera-goers Joplin had dreamed of pleasing.

9. People with a personality generally display little or no sign of conscience. They tend to be reckless* risk-takers, who are surprised when their actions generate* unpleasant consequences for either themselves or others. Lacking a conscience or any kind of moral compass, they can behave in the most despicable* fashion without experiencing any guilt.

10. The Jehovah’s Witnesses sect was founded in 1884 by Charles Taze Russell. As the sect’s founder, Russell was the one who laid out its claiming that the Witnesses were the one true source of Christian faith and the Bible the final authority.


Last change made to this page: 02/13/07

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