TSI Assessment Practice (Reading) with Questions and Answers

TSI Assessment Practice (Reading) with Questions and Answers Plywood, while not the most pleasing wood to look at, has become an incredibly important building material in house construction. It is flexible, inexpensive, and strong. Its strength is due to layers of thin wood glued on top of each other with the grain of each layer making a right angle with the grain of the layer below it. This way of layering the sheets of wood makes plywood difficult to break. (According to the passage, the arrangement of the layers of thin wood explains plywood's...) A. strength B. cost C. attractiveness D. flexibility ANSWER Choice (A) is correct. The passage indicates that the arrangement of the layers of thin wood—"with the grain of each layer making a right angle with the grain of the layer below it"—is what "makes plywood difficult to break." In other words, the arrangement of the layers explains plywood's strength. Choices (B), (C), and (D) are incorrect: the author describes plywood as "inexpensive," "not the most pleasing wood to look at," and "flexible," but he or she does not connect any of these facts to the layering of sheets of wood. The 1922 German Expressionist film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau, is considered one of the most influential films in cinematic history—while also being a classic vampire movie. The film is closely based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula; however, the villain in the film is called "Count Orlok" rather than "Count Dracula." The reason is that the small studio that produced the film, Prana Film, was unable to secure the rights to Stoker's novel. In fact, shortly after finishing Nosferatu, its one and only film, Prana went bankrupt in order to dodge copyright lawsuits from Stoker's widow. (Why does the author say that the vampire in Nosferatu is named "Count Orlok" and not "Count Dracula"?...)