Read the excerpt from "Ship's Chronometer from HMS Beagle.” As a maritime nation, the British were concerned with one problem in particular: they could make clocks that kept very good time as long as they stayed perfectly still but not when they were shaken about, and particularly not on board a rolling ship. If you wanted to sail, it was impossible to keep a precise record of time. Based on the context clues, what is the meaning of the word maritime in the passage?
Read the excerpt from "Ship's Chronometer from HMS Beagle” and consider the accompanying image. If you wanted to sail, it was impossible to keep a precise record of time. And at sea, if you can’t tell the time, you don’t know how far east or west you are. It is relatively easy to calculate latitude – your distance north or south of the equator – by measuring the height of the Sun above the horizon at noon; but this won’t let you calculate longitude – your position east or west. Expand Image Which statement best describes how the image reinforces the text?
Read the excerpt from "Ship's Chronometer from HMS Beagle.” Just as people adopted a common standard time, so numerous aspects of working and daily life were becoming rigidly fixed by the clock, from clocking on at work to school hours and tea-time – which is the subject of our next chapter. What context clue best helps readers determine the meaning of the word standard ?
Read the excerpt from "Ship's Chronometer from HMS Beagle.” Our object is one of those lower-cost chronometers, made in 1800 by Thomas Earnshaw. It is made of brass and is around the size of a large pocket watch, with a normal clock dial showing roman numerals and a smaller dial at the bottom for the second hand. The clock is suspended inside a swivelling brass ring fitted to the inside of a wooden box – this is the key to keeping the chronometer level even in an unsteady ship. Which details from the excerpt help readers visualize the chronometer? Choose three correct answers.
Read the excerpt from "Ship's Chronometer from HMS Beagle” and consider the accompanying photo. It was not until around 1800 that two London clockmakers managed to simplify the chronometer mechanisms so that virtually any ship – and certainly the larger ships of the Royal Navy – could carry them as routine equipment. Expand Image Which statement best describes how the image reinforces the text?
Read the excerpt from "Ship's Chronometer from HMS Beagle." These were enormous and belief-shattering ideas for many people in the nineteenth century, but time was also changing in a much more day-to-day, or rather hour-to-hour, way. Thanks to clockmakers like Earnshaw, precise and reliable clocks and watches became ever more affordable. Before long the whole of Britain was running by the clock, and the measurement of time had been severed from the natural cycle of days and seasons. The clock ruled every aspect of life – shops and schools, pleasure and work. As Charles Dickens wrote, ‘There was even railway time observed in clocks, as if the sun itself had given in.’ Which central idea is best supported by the details in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "Benin Plaque: The Oba with Europeans.” Whatever the real facts, the British, in ostensible revenge for the killing, organized a punitive expedition which raided Benin City, exiled the Oba and created the protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Based on the context clues, what is the meaning of the word punitive in the passage?
Read the excerpt from "Benin Plaque: The Oba with Europeans.” The Portuguese galleons, cutting out all the middlemen and able to carry much bigger cargoes, offered a totally new kind of trading opportunity. They and their Dutch and English competitors, who followed later in the sixteenth century, carried gold and ivory to Europe and in return brought commodities from all over the world that were greatly valued by the Oba’s court, including coral from the Mediterranean, cowry shells from the Indian Ocean to serve as money, cloth from the Far East and, from Europe itself, larger quantities of brass than had ever before reached West Africa. This was the raw material from which the Benin plaques were made. Which central idea is best supported by the details in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "Benin Plaque: The Oba with Europeans.” Whatever the real facts, the British, in ostensible revenge for the killing, organized a punitive expedition which raided Benin City, exiled the Oba and created the protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Based on the context clues, what is the meaning of the word punitive in the passage?
Read the excerpt from "Benin Plaque: The Oba with Europeans.” Many wild theories were put forward. It was thought that the plaques must have come from ancient Egypt, or perhaps that the people of Benin were one of the lost tribes of Israel. Or the sculptures must have derived from European influence (after all, these were the contemporaries of Michelangelo, Donatello and Cellini). But research quickly established that the Benin plaques were entirely West African creations, made without European influence. The Europeans had to revisit, and to overhaul, their assumptions of easy cultural superiority. Which central idea is best supported by the details in the excerpt?
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