Reading #1

“The Different Eyes in Nature”

Have you ever asked yourself why you have two eyes instead of one, three, or even hundreds
as some insects have? Have you wondered why your eyes are set close together on the front of
your face rather than on the sides of your head, as on animals like rabbits, antelopes, and
horses? The reasons are simple—and important to the way you see the rest of your world.

Your eyes are like two small cameras. When you look at something, each eye takes in what it
sees and sends this image to the back of the eyeball. From each eye, an optic nerve then sends
the image to the brain. Because your eyes are set close together, they view the world from
about the same height but from slightly different angles. While your right eye sees an object a
little to the right, your left eye sees the same object slightly to the left.

Seeing with two eyes working together is called stereoscopic vision. This allows you to view
the world in three dimensions, or 3-D. These dimensions are height, width and depth.
Perceiving depth allows you to judge the distance between you and the objects you see. It also
helps you to adjust to the changing angle at which you see something as you move closer to or
farther away from it. As your body moves, your eyes give you a continual flow of information
about where things are in relation to where you are.

If images are coming from only one eye, however, only two of these dimensions—height and
width—can be perceived. A world seen with one eye is thus two-dimensional, as in a
photograph. Depth perception is lacking, making it more difficult to move around safely.

Now consider why your two eyes are located on the front of your face. Think of other animals
with this same arrangement. Some examples are wolves, cats and owls. What do these
creatures have in common? They are all animals that hunt. These animals have eyes facing
directly in front of them. This provides a field of vision that is about 180 degrees wide, like a
half-circle.

On the other hand, animals that are hunted have eyes on the sides of the head. This provides
nearly a 360-degree field of vision. Because these animals need to be on the alert in order to
stay alive, they need to see things coming from the sides and from behind. However, these
animals have a more difficult time determining how far away a threat is.

With vision that is stereoscopic, humans share with predators the ability to see clearly from
side to side and to accurately determine how far away objects are. If you think it would be
great to have another type of vision, perhaps with hundreds of tiny eyes like many insects do,
think again! Each tiny insect eye sees only a tiny part of what the creature is viewing. Besides,
what if you needed glasses? Be glad for the eyesight that you have.

3
1. Why do animals have different amounts of eyes with different arrangements?
a. It is all random and has no purpose
b. To suit their role as either prey or predator in nature
c. To help detect the type of prey that they hunt
d. None of the above

2. What is the main benefit of having stereoscopic vision?

a. You are able to view the world in 3D and perceive depth
b. You can get a very clear 2D image of everything
c. To have a continuous flow of visual information
d. You are able to see all 360 degrees around you

3. Which of the following animals would most likely have stereoscopic vision?
a. Rabbit
b. Mice
c. Fish
d. Lion

4. Why do prey have a near 360-degree field of vision?

a. So that they have a great view of nearby prey
b. So that they can judge the distance of a nearby predator
c. So that they have minimal blind spots to predators
d. So that they scare off predators from attacking

5. Which of the following statements is false?

a. Humans have stereoscopic vision
b. Humans would classify as predators
c. Many insects have hundreds of tiny eyes
d. Rabbits see the world in three dimensions

4
Reading #2
After Apple-Picking
By Robert Frost

My long ladder’s sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still.
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick from some branch.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples; I am drowsing off.
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and reappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of brown showing clear.
My feet not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder.
And I keep hearing from the cellar
That rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall,
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised, or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the beverage factory
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

5
1. How does the persona feel throughout the poem?
a. Invigorated by the harvest
b. Drowsy despite the activity
c. Slightly interested in what he is doing
d. Excited to take the apples to the market

2. What is the “long sleep” that the woodchuck is referring to?

a. Death
b. Night-time
c. Hibernation
d. Passive existence

3. Which part of the persona’s body hurts after long hours of apple picking?
a. Feet
b. Hands
c. Eyes
d. Arms

4. What happened to all of the fruit that fell to the ground?

a. They were unharmed
b. They were sold as fresh apples at the market
c. They were left where they had fallen
d. They were sent to a beverage factory

5. What will the persona most likely do upon waking up from the sleep?
a. Continue to pick apples
b. Stop picking apples and move to the city
c. Retire from his job as a farmer
d. He will not wake up from his sleep

6
Reading #3
For Questions 1-6, choose from the sentences (A – G) the one which best fits each gap. There is one
extra sentence which you do not need to use.

“Warming cities may see more rain — and frequent flooding”

Atlanta, Ga., was rainy in September 2009. Very, very rainy. Water poured from the sky for
days. 1. ____

2. ____ Those gutters lead to storm drains. And storm drains should channel the water through
pipes to local rivers and streams. But in 2009, the drains weren’t big enough.

Roads became rivers. Homes flooded. Roller coasters at the local Six Flags amusement park
became submerged. 3. ____ Tragically, 10 people died.

Most of the rain was due to incoming storm fronts. Rain clouds gathered over hundreds of
kilometres, due to winds blowing from hundreds or thousands of kilometres away. Marshall
Shepherd initially had bet 2009’s excessive flooding was due to these “large-scale weather
processes.” It was just the weather, right?

Wrong.

Shepherd is an atmospheric scientist at the University of Georgia in Athens. He and his

colleague Neil Debbage studied the 2009 flood. They ran a series of models — computer
simulations of real events. 4. ____ But more rain fell on the city than natural weather patterns
could explain — 10 cm more.

It was an example of the urban rain effect — the role that cities play in where and when rain
falls. “5. ____” Shepherd explains. “But they can also increase pre-existing rain systems that are
caused by something else.”

Cities, he says, can make it rain.

As Atlanta and other already warm cities get even hotter, their heat can fuel rainstorms. That
excess water can now fall on areas that are increasingly likely to flood. 6. ____ Once they find
out, they can work to prevent it.

7
A. During that time, in one 24-hour downpour, more than 53 centimetres of rain fell.

B. Scientists are working to find out what causes this urban rain.

C. Instead, that water runs off of streets and into sewers and storm drains.

D. Normally, rain washes off city pavement into gutters.

E. Urban regions can not only initiate or modify rainfall in storms.

F. The flood unfortunately harmed lots of life.

G. Atlanta always would have flooded that week, they found.

8
Reading #4
For Questions 1-6, choose from the sentences (A – G) the one which best fits each gap. There is one
extra sentence which you do not need to use.

“Spiders can take down and feast on surprisingly big snakes”

A typical dinner menu for spiders might include insects, worms or even small lizards and frogs.
1. ____ A surprising new study finds that spiders can immobilise and then eat snakes up to 30
times their size.

Take the Australian redback. Not including legs, a female of this species of spider is only about
the size of an M&M candy. 2. ____ It’s one of the most venomous snakes in the world. The
spider’s web is a messy tangle of silk whose long, sticky threads dangle to the ground. A snake
that mistakenly slides into this trap may get stuck. The redback quickly throws more sticky silk
to subdue her struggling victim. Then, chomp! Her bite delivers a powerful toxin that
eventually kills the snake.

“3. ____” says Martin Nyffeler. “It’s very fascinating and a little frightening!” Nyffeler is a
zoologist who specialises in spider biology. He works at the University of Basel in Switzerland.

4. ____

Nyffeler teamed up with Whit Gibbons at the University of Georgia in Athens to study other
snake-eating spiders. The two searched for reports of this in all sorts of places, from research
journals and magazine articles to social media and YouTube videos. 5. ____ Most came from
Australia and the United States. But these spiders live on every continent except Antarctica,
which surprised them.

6. ____ The best spider family are tangle-web spiders. They’re named for messy webs built close
to the ground. This group includes North American widow spiders and redbacks. Relatively
small, these spiders can catch snakes 10 to 30 times larger their size, says Nyffeler.

9
A. At least 11 different families of spiders feed on snakes, they found.

B. In all, they analysed 319 accounts.

C. I find it cool that tiny Australian redback spiders can kill brown snakes.

D. But redbacks are far from the only spiders with an appetite for snake.

E. But some arachnids have more adventurous tastes.

F. Tidier orb-weaver spiders make organised, wheel-shaped webs.

G. But she can take down big prey — such as the eastern brown snake.

10
11. Find the perimeter of the figure below.

8.5 m
5.3 m

7.1 m

12.4 m

12. John’s bedroom is 4.5 metres long, 3.5 metres wide and has a ceiling height of 3.2 metres.
His room has a door, which is 2 metres high and 0.8 metres wide. John needs to put
wallpaper on the walls of the room only. The wallpaper costs $10 per square metre. How
much money does he need to spend on wallpaper?

20
13. A basement, with a floor measuring 4m by 6m, has a ceiling height of 3.2m. The walls need
to be painted with two coats, which costs $23 per litre of paint. It is known that one litre of
this paint can cover 16 m2 (one coat thick). Find the total cost of the paint needed to
completely paint the walls.

14. Find the perimeter of the figure below.

2m

15.3 m
11 m

19.8 m

21
15. The composite figure below is made of a rectangle and a square. The height of both the
rectangle and square is 12.3 cm. The length of the rectangle is 21.5 cm. If point D bisects
side EF, find the perimeter of the figure.

A B

E F
C D

G H

22
Mathematical Reasoning Revision Test
Please circle questions that you are unable to do or have not learnt and re-attempt it in 1 term’s
time.

1. For a two digit number, the product of its two digits is 6. The sum of its two digits is 5.
There are 2 numbers that fit these rules. What is the sum of these 2 numbers?

2. To make concrete, a builder mixes sand and cement in the ratio of 5:3. If a mix of concrete
contains 12 kg of cement, find the amount of sand in the mix.

3. Find the angle X in the following shape.

136o Xo

23
4. What 3D solid does this net form?

5. A construction worker who lays tiles uses 5 red tiles for every 3 while tiles. How many
white tiles are used if 100 red tiles are used?

6. The price of a computer desk you would like to purchase is $150. However, you only have
$115 with you. If the shop owner offers you a discount of 20%, how much extra money do
you need to buy the desk?

24
7. A boat can travel 10 kilometres on still water in 2 hours. If the boat is now travelling down
a river at a speed of 7km/hr, what is the speed of the river current which is aiding it?

8. Jimmy and Lara were both asked to think of a different whole number that is between 28
and 95, exclusive.

Jimmy’s number was an odd multiple of 15.

Lara’s number was an even multiple of 14.

What is the product of the largest possible value of Jimmy’s number and the smallest
possible value of Lara’s number?

!
9. The length of a rectangular prism shaped container is 3 times its breadth. Its breadth is " of
its height. If its breadth is 6 cm, find its volume.

25
Thinking Skills TOTW [Proving Statements]

Theory

Proving Statements questions require you to consider multiple statements to identify which
of them are needed to prove something. Solutions usually have 1, 2 or even 3 statements
which need to be considered together for the proof.

Tips to solve these questions:

• These questions often contain misleading or irrelevant statements that should be
ignored.
• If the answer is not obvious, then the combination of statements in the answer
options may be considered and the method of elimination may be used.

1. Jaemin’s mother is Korean and his father is French.

1. Jaemin’s cousins only know their own native language.

2. Jaemin lived in his father’s hometown for 5 years when he was young.
3. Jaemin regularly speaks to his cousins from his father’s side.
4. Jaemin learned all of the languages he can currently speak in his 3rd year of
primary school or earlier.
5. Other than Chinese, Jaemin learned one other language in his 3rd year of primary
school.

Which statement(s) above proves that Jaemin learned to speak French before he started
high school?
a. Statements 2 and 5
b. Statements 3 and 5
c. Statements 2 and 4
d. Statements 1, 3 and 4

32
2. Tom’s sister has just asked him to help fix her broken computer.

1. Tom graduated from Harthill Technology High School last year.

2. Anyone who has passed the Computers III subject knows how to fix a computer.
3. Tom’s father is an expert and is always willing to help his children with any
computer-related problems.
4. Anyone who graduated from Harthill Technology High School must have passed
the compulsory Computers III subject.
5. Tom has gone to his father’s workplace and seen him work before.

Which statement(s) above proves that Tom knows how to fix a computer?
a. Statement 1 only
b. Statements 1, 2 and 4
c. Statements 1, 3 and 5
d. Statements 3 and 5

3. Jackie is an aspiring chef who was a contestant in the 2020 Chez Culinary Contest.

1. The Chez Culinary Contest takes place in a different country in Asia every year.
2. Jackie made it to the final round of the Chez Culinary Contest, but unfortunately
lost.
3. All non-eliminated contestants on the 3rd round of the Chez Culinary Contest
presented a tasty Japanese curry dish.
4. Any contestant in the 7th round of the Chez Culinary Contest presented a
Japanese hotpot dish.
5. Anyone who can make Japanese curry is good at cooking Japanese cuisine.

Which statement(s) above proves that Jackie is good at cooking Japanese cuisine?
a. Statements 1 and 2
b. Statements 2, 3 and 4
c. Statements 2, 3 and 5
d. Statements 2, 3, 4 and 5

33
8. The Skinner Payment Method is a famous way used to pay employees. It is done by
splitting the sum of the store’s two highest daily earnings among the four employees in
the ratio of 4:3:2:1. The bakery’s owner uses this method and decides that Sean will
receive the lowest pay, since he worked on every day this week. How much did Sean
earn this week?
a. $180
b. $160
c. $165
d. $155

9. Some students were gathered in the school hall to receive badges of excellence. Devon
was not invited to receive a badge, but he stood outside watching from the windows.
From the hall’s side window, he saw 10 lines of students. He went around to the back of
the hall, where there was another window. He then concluded that there were at most
40 students inside the hall. How many columns of students must he have seen from the
back window?
a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 5

10. “Owen may buy things if he needs it for the next day, or if he does not already have them
at home. If Owen buys an item and finds out that he already has one at home, he will
return the one he bought as soon as possible.”

Kimmy: Owen is in charge of bringing the marshmallows for the campfire tomorrow. I
don’t think that Owen keeps any marshmallows at home, so that means that Owen will
buy marshmallows. However, if I see Owen returning the marshmallows, that means he
must have found some in his house.

If the quoted passage above is true, which of the following is not a flaw in Kimmy’s
reasoning?
a. Owen may return the marshmallows even if he does not find any in his house.
b. Owen is not guaranteed to buy an item if he needs it the next day or doesn’t have
it at home.
c. Owen may find marshmallows in his house and still decide not to return the
extra marshmallows that he buys.
d. All of the above are flaws

44
11. Unpopular items usually have a higher quality than popular items that are bought by
most people. This is because popular items are only bought because everyone else
seems to have it, tricking you into thinking you need that item too.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the above argument?

a. Less stores belonging to big brands have shut down in the last year compared to
small stores with no brand.
b. Unpopular brands have the same proportion of high reviews as popular brands.
c. Unpopular brands can make items more easily as they do not feel pressure to
release amazing items.
d. Popular brands spend more money on increasing the quality of their items.

12. Marcus buys a $3 train ticket from Monday through to Thursday to get to work. One
day, he sees a train card for sale offering a discounted price on train tickets. This may
only be used for one week after buying it. He calculates that he will pay exactly the same
amount if he buys the train card and discounted tickets as he would if he continues
buying individual train tickets. Which of the following could have been the price of the
train card and the discount offered?
a. $6 for the card and 50% discount on train tickets
b. $2.10 for the card and 10% discount on train tickets
c. $5 for the card and 20% discount on train tickets
d. $6.50 for the card and 50% discount on train tickets

13. “John walks a dog for every day in a week. The dog is always either his own dog, his
neighbour’s dog or his sister’s dog. John never goes on more than one walk in a day. His
neighbour often asks John to walk his dog. John only walks his sister’s dog if he does not
need to walk his neighbour’s dog that day.”

Jodia, John’s sister says: John didn’t walk my dog today, so his neighbour must have
asked him to walk their dog today.

Nadia, John’s neighbour says: I didn’t ask John to walk my dog yesterday, so he could
have either walked his own dog or his sister’s dog.

If the quoted passage above is true, whose reasoning is correct?

a. Jodia only.
b. Nadia only.
c. Both Jodia and Nadia.
d. Neither Jodia nor Nadia.

45
14. Going for a daily run, even for ten minutes can benefit your body in several ways,
especially in the long term. After a week or so of running, you may find that your
stamina increases, which is great for people who play sport.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the above argument?

a. In most countries, most people prefer running over swimming.
b. Running decreases your cholesterol levels in the long term and hence decreases
your risk of heart disease.
c. Running everyday increases your risk of injury and can lead to fractures.
d. The average professional athlete in Australia only runs three times a week at
most.

15. At the optometrist, Jane sits in a chair and looks at a mirror in front of her which shows
a picture that is hung on the wall behind her. She sees the following in the mirror:

What does the picture look like when viewed from the front?
a. b.

c. d.

46