Tuesday, May 28, 2013

11 AMAZING Practice Scrambled Paragraphs

Answers are below the exercises:

Some studies suggest that at least some bird species have evolved mental skills similar to those found in humans and apes. 

______ (Q) When such mirror-induced behavior in the magpie, a songbird species from the crow family, was examined some individuals behaved in front of the mirror similarly to apes.

______ (R) It is, however, not yet clear whether these skills are accompanied by an understanding of the self.

______ (S) This is indicated by feats such as tool use, episodic-like memory, and the ability to use one's own experience in predicting the behavior of members of one’s own species.

______ (T) For example, when they noticed a color mark on their bodies, magpies tried to remove the mark.
______ (U) In apes, behavior in response to a mirror, in which the ape clearly recognizes himself, has been taken as evidence of self-recognition.







The lotus (Sanskrit and Tibetan padma), because of it’s conditions and growth, is one of the most poignant representations of Buddhist teaching.

______ (Q) This pattern of growth symbolizes the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment.

______ (R) According to another scholar, "In esoteric Buddhism the heart of a being is like an unopened lotus: when the virtues of the Buddha develop therein, the lotus blossoms; that is why the Buddha sits on a lotus bloom."
______ (S) Though there are other water plants that also bloom above the water, it is only the lotus which, owing to the strength of its stem, regularly rises eight to twelve inches above the surface. 

______ (T) Realizing the unique circumstances of the flower and its differences from others,  Lalitavistara states, "The spirit of the best of people is spotless, like the lotus in the muddy water which has not become muddy." 

______ (U) The roots of a lotus are, after all, in the mud, the stem growing through the water, the heavily scented flower lying pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight.


On April 21, 1918 Baron von Richthofen followed the Sopwith Camel of Wilfred May far into British territory.

______ (Q) Manfred von Richthofen crashed into a field alongside the road from Corbie to Bray, his body was recovered by British forces, and he was buried with full military honors.

______ (R) He did this even though the thrill of the hunt was all but gone for Richthofen, as most of his peers had already been killed and his own wounds agonized him.

______ (S) The shot is commonly believed to have come from Australian gunners on the ground, but might have also come from the guns of Canadian flier Arthur "Roy" Brown who was coming to May's aid.

______ (T) Though he had written that it was undignified to chase an enemy who had fled, he chased his British quarry far deep into enemy territory and far lower to the ground than was prudent.

______ (U) May later said that it was only his erratic, untrained piloting which saved him and as Richthofen followed the erratic path of the novice pilot, a single bullet, shot from behind him, passed diagonally through his chest.


In an analysis almost 147 years after his death, doctors believe that writer Edgar Allan Poe died as a result of rabies, not from complications of alcoholism.

______ (Q) Poe's medical case was reviewed by R. Michael Benitez, M.D., a cardiologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

______ (R) At first he had tremors and hallucinations, then slipped into a coma, emerged from the coma, was calm and lucid, but then lapsed again into a delirious state, became combative, and required restraint, finally dying on his fourth day in the hospital.

______ (S) "No one can say conclusively that Poe died of rabies, since there was no autopsy after his death," says Dr. Benitez, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

______ (T) "But the historical accounts of Poe's condition in the hospital a few days before his death point to a strong possibility that he had rabies.”

______ (U) Poe was discovered lying unconscious on September 28  outside a saloon on Lombard St. in Baltimore, before being taken to Washington College Hospital.



Elephants are profoundly social creatures.

______ (Q) This sense of cohesion is further enforced by the elaborate communication system that elephants use.

______ (R) Afterwards young females are socialized into the matriarchal network while young males go off for a time into an all-male social group before coming back into the fold as mature adults.

______ (S) When communicating over long distances — in order to pass along news about threats, a change of plans or, of the utmost importance to elephants, the death of a community member — they use patterns of subsonic vibrations that are felt as far as several miles away by sensors in the padding of their feet.

______ (T) For example, young elephants stay within 15 feet of their mothers for nearly all of their first eight years of life. 

______ (U) They employ a range of vocalizations, from low-frequency rumbles to higher-pitched screams and trumpets, along with a variety of visual signals, from the waving of their trunks to subtle anglings of the head, body, feet and tail.






In the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31, and this holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year. 

______ (Q) So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable.

______ (R) Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed.

______ (S) One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year.

______ (T) It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife.

______ (U) They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.


Michael Peter Fay, an American teenager visiting Singapore in 1991, plead guilty to vandalism charges, and was sentenced to four months in jail, a $2,200 fine - and four strokes of the cane.

______ (Q) A prison official, a medical officer and the caner were the only ones present, as the caner wound up and, using his full body weight, struck with the 13mm-thick rattan rod, which had been soaked overnight to prevent it from splitting.

______ (R) This sentence raised concerns about corporal punishment around the civilized world, especially in light of how the punishment was administrated.

______ (S) News of this ritual angered many in the USA, who, although not opposed to punishment, are opposed to what they feel is harsh, physical punishment.

______ (T) After the fourth and final stroke, say Singapore officials, Fay shook hands with his caner and insisted on walking back to his cell unaided because he “...wanted to act like a man.”

______ (U) In the caning room Fay was stripped naked, bent over and his arms and legs were fastened to an H-shaped trestle by straps while a protective covering was placed over his kidneys.

http://www.corpun.com/awfay9405.htm




Finger-like divisions found in the fins of an ancient fish that lived around 385 million years ago have been hailed by Swedish scientists as the possible origin of human hands and fingers.

______ (Q) But this study has revealed that they were already developing when our ancestors were fish.

______ (R) “Our study proves that fingers are not new to tetrapods but that they evolved from distal radials, structures present in fish ancestors.”

______ (S) “It’s an important piece of evidence for the evolution of fish to tetrapods and how ‘we’ also transformed from fish to land animals.”

______ (T) It had been concluded that digits only developed after our ancestors made the jump from sea to land 380 million years ago.

______ (U) “For a long time, we thought that fingers were a novelty for tetrapods; in the past two years, some evidence has come forward to make us doubt this,” said Catherine Boisvert, lead scientist.



How great was Ferenc Puskas? Such things, necessarily, are subjective - and, particularly when you're going on video footage, almost impossible to judge - but for me he stands alongside Johan Cruyff as one of the two greatest European soccer players of all time.

______ (Q) "If a good player has the ball, he should have the vision to spot three team mates or options," the full-back Jeno Buzanszky said; "Puskas always saw at least five."

______ (R) It is not even the fact that he had key parts in two of the most celebrated games ever played on British soil - Hungary's 6-3 victory over England at Wembley in 1953 and Real Madrid's 7-3 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960.

______ (S) That is why his nickname, the 'Galloping Major', was so appropriate - even if he hardly galloped and, at the time it was bestowed, was only a lieutenant - because he was so good at marshalling his side towards a common goal.

______ (T) It is the fact that that ability was allied to a brain that understood how best to use his ability for the team.

______ (U) It was not just his technical ability because other players have had that.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/nov/17/sport.comment2




The first successful dirigible (a balloon that has engines to control its horizontal movement) was built in France in 1852.

______ (Q) Although other countries built these types of airships, the Germans quickly became the most advanced in this form of lighter-than-air technology.

______ (R) The type of airships Zeppelin built were spindle-shaped with a rigid internal steel structure (unlike the flexible bodied blimps common today).

______ (S) Beneath the craft was a gondola which carried the crew and passengers.

______ (T) Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German businessman, built a fleet of experimental dirigibles.

______ (U) Inside the craft were large bags filled with gas that gave the ship its lift as well as catwalks to allow the crew to move back and forth inside the hull to service the airship.

http://www.unmuseum.org/hindenburg.htm




One day in 1942, copies of a leaflet entitled "The White Rose" suddenly appeared at the University of Munich.  

______ (Q) The leaflet caused a tremendous stir among the student body because it was the first time that internal dissent against the Nazi regime had surfaced in Germany.  

______ (R) At the bottom of the essay, the following request appeared: "Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them."

______ (S) The essay had been secretly written and distributed by Hans Scholl and his friends and another leaflet appeared soon afterward, and then another, and another.

______ (T) The leaflet contained an anonymous essay that said that the Nazi system had slowly imprisoned the German people and was now destroying them.

______ (U) The Nazi regime had turned evil and it was time, the essay said, for Germans to rise up and resist the tyranny of their own government.

http://www.fff.org/freedom/0196a.asp



The young people of the White Rose Organization were remarkable. Please read more about them. In fact, here's a full-length movie about Sophie Scholl of the White Rose Organization.





Answers:

magpies: 43152

lotus: 25341

red baron: 51423

poe: 15234

elephants: 32514

samhain: 43125

fay: 31542

fingers: 24513

pushkas: 52431

zeppelin: 13524

white rose: 43512