Name________________________________

 

Ten Steps Supporting Details Test

 

Answer the questions that follow each passage.

 

Passage One:  Sea-land cargo containers were introduced in America in the early 1960s.  Uniform in size, these large metal boxes fit neatly into steamships and could be lifted by cranes from ships directly only flatbed trucks. They enabled importers to keep their merchandise together and protect it from damage and theft.  These were positive changes, but the containers outdated New York and other older crowded waterfronts, which lacked the space needed for parking the containers.  The containers also destroyed the once-powerful longshoremen’s unions, since one giant container crane could easily put a hundred men out of work. In good ways and a few not-so-good ways, sea-land cargo containers changed the course of international trade forever.

 

  1. The main idea of the passage is stated in

 

A.     sentence 1

B.     sentence 4

C.     sentence 6

 

  1. The major details of this passage are

 

A.     fitting neatly into steamships and keeping merchandise together.

B.     Positive and negative consequences of sea-land cargo containers.

C.     New York’s waterfront and other older waterfronts.

 

  1. One advantage of the containers is that they

 

A.     are uniform in size

B.     are metal

C.     require a lot of parking space

 

  1. According to the author, two disadvantages of sea-land cargo containers are that they outdated older crowded waterfronts and destroyed the once powerful longshoremen’s unions.  Is this…

 

    1. The main idea
    2. a major detail
    3. a minor detail

 

Passage Two:  In past ages human destruction of the environment may have been so severe that great civilizations were destroyed.  The fall of the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, located in the lush river basin of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, has usually been attributed to outside invaders.  More recent information, however, indicates that these civilizations in the Fertile Crescent may have fallen victim to increasing environmental stress that eventually reduced their food supplies and weakened their economies.  They prospered because they had developed extensive irrigation systems that provided a dependable and plentiful food supply.  Their irrigation systems had no drainage, however.  Water would evaporate during irrigation, leaving the remaining water with a higher salt content.  Over the centuries, then, the land eventually became too salty to grow good crops.  With their agricultural base weakened, the Mesopotamian civilizations collapsed.

 

  1. The main idea of the passage is expressed in

 

    1. The first sentence
    2. The second sentence
    3. The last sentence

 

  1. This passage has just one major detail, an example that illustrates the main idea.  One way to state that major detail is:

 

    1. Some have felt that the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations were destroyed by invaders.
    2. The Mesopotamian civilizations were destroyed because of the stress they put on their environments, which resulted in less food and weakened economies.
    3. When water evaporates, the salt is left behind; as a result, the remaining water is left with a higher salt content.

 

  1. At first, the irrigation systems of the Mesopotamian civilizations

 

    1. led to a plentiful food supply
    2. left the land too salty
    3. were harmful to invaders

 

  1. If there were a second major detail in this passage, it would surely

 

    1. illustrate how another great civilization was destroyed by weakening of the food supply.
    2. Explain why irrigation systems required good drainage systems.
    3. Illustrate how human damage to the environment destroyed another great civilization.