Summarizing Central Ideas and Purpose: The Hot Zone

Question 1

Which questions would most help a reader identify the author’s purpose for writing? Select three options. What type of text is this?What type of reviews did the book receive?How many copies of the book have been sold?What is the central idea?How does this text make one feel?

Revolt · Accepted Answer

What type of text is this?,What is the central idea?,How does this text make one feel?

Question 2

Read the excerpt from The Hot Zone.There she met Lieutenant Colonel Trotter, a stocky, dark-haired man whom Nancy had worked with for many years. They put on their inner gloves and taped their cuffs. Nancy put a pair of hearing protectors over her ears. She had started wearing them a while back, when people had begun to suspect that the roar of air in your suit might be loud enough to damage your hearing. They hauled on their space suits and sealed the Ziploc zippers. They edged around each other as they fiddled with their suits. People wearing biohazard space suits tend to step around one another like two wrestlers at the beginning of a match, watching the other person's every move, especially watching the hands to make sure they don't hold a sharp object. This cringing becomes instinctive.

Revolt · Accepted Answer

B: Extreme precautions must be taken when dealing with potentially hazardous materials.

Question 3

Which changes should be made to improve this summary of the paragraph’s central idea? Select two options.

Revolt · Accepted Answer

Remove the phrase “It is petrifying” because it expresses a personal feeling.,Add the phrase “and spread throughout the human species” to the end of the statement to more fully express the central idea.

Question 4

Read the paragraph from The Hot Zone.Jerry Jaax was going to be the first man in, the point man. He had decided to take with him one of his officers, Captain Mark Haines, a former Green Beret. He was a short, intense man with a whipcord body who had been through the Green Berets' scuba-diving school. He had jumped out of airplanes at night into the open sea, wearing scuba gear. ("I'll tell you one thing," Haines once said to me. "I don't do scuba diving for fun as a civilian. The majority of my diving has been in the Middle East.") Captain Haines was not a man who would get claustrophobia and go into a panic in a space suit. Furthermore, Captain Haines was a veterinarian. He understood monkeys.

Revolt · Accepted Answer

B: explain why Jerry Jaax chose Captain Mark Haines to accompany him inside.

Question 5

informpersuadeentertaininspire

Revolt · Accepted Answer

A: inform

Question 6

Read the paragraph from The Hot Zone.Just then, he noticed a blur of motion on his left, and he turned and saw two Hazleton workers walking toward him. They weren't supposed to be in here! The area was supposed to be sealed off, but they had come in by another route that led through a storeroom. They wore respirators, but nothing covered their eyes. When they saw the two men in space suits, they froze, speechless. Jerry could not see their mouths, but he could see their eyes, wide with astonishment. It was as if they had suddenly discovered that they were standing on the moon.

Revolt · Accepted Answer

C: to entertain readers by illustrating how dramatic the situation is

Question 7

Read the sentence from a summary about The Hot Zone.The text brilliantly illustrates the risks involved in dealing with a Level 4 agent and describes in fascinating detail the painstaking process of preparing to enter “the hot zone.”

Revolt · Accepted Answer

C: It is subjective because it reflects feelings and opinions.

Question 8

Read the sentence from a summary about The Hot Zone.Richard Preston’s book The Hot Zone details the steps soldiers and scientists took to identify the deadly Ebola virus found in monkeys near Washington, D.C.

Revolt · Accepted Answer

A: It is objective because it is based on facts and does not present feelings or opinions.

Question 9

Which strategies are most effective to help a reader determine the meaning of an unknown word? Select three options.Check for nearby synonyms that may provide a clue to the word’s meaning.Determine if the author could have used a more appropriate word instead.Check surrounding words to see what events are leading up to this word.Ask people nearby if they happen to know the meaning of the unknown word.Substitute the unfamiliar word with a familiar word to see if it makes sense.

Revolt · Accepted Answer

A,C,E

Question 10

Read the excerpt from The Hot Zone and the summary that follows it.Half of this biocontainment operation was going to be news containment. C. J. Peters's comments to The Washington Post were designed to create an impression that the situation was under control, safe, and not all that interesting. C. J. was understating the gravity of the situation. But he could be very smooth when he wanted, and he used his friendliest voice with the reporters, assuring them over the telephone that there really was no problem, just kind of a routine technical situation. Somehow the reporters concluded that the sick monkeys had been "destroyed as a precaution" when in fact the nightmare, and the reason for troops, was that the animals hadn't been destroyed.Summary of central idea: It was very important to keep the truth about this operation from the news.

Revolt · Accepted Answer

B: It is a strong summary because it is objective and accurately expresses the paragraph’s central idea.

Summarizing Central Ideas and Purpose: The Hot Zone Answers

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