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Sadlier-Oxford VOCABULARY WORKSHOP SAT Practice Worksheet
PASSAGE-BASED READING
Name
Questions 1-4 are based on the following
passage.
Read the passage and the questions below.
Then choose the letter of the best answer for
each question.
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One of the most endangered mammals in North
America is the plains-dwelling black-footed ferret
(Mustela nigripes). A small carnivore in the weasel
family, the black-footed ferret measures about two
feet long (including the tail) and weighs
approximately 3 ½ pounds. Its most distinctive
features are a black mask across the face and
brownish-black markings on the feet and the tip of
the tail. The diet of this species is extremely
specialized: ferrets feed almost exclusively on
black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). And
that’s where they have run into trouble.
In fact, during the last thirty years, black-footed
ferrets have suffered a type of double jeopardy.
Many farmers and ranchers of the Great Plains
despised the squirrel-like prairie dog as a pest, and
an extensive campaign had virtually extirpated
them by 1960. Deprived of prey, the ferret
population plummeted, and by the end of the
1970s the species was thought to be extinct.
But then a remarkable thing happened. A ranch
dog in Wyoming brought home a black-footed
ferret it had killed. When investigators discovered
18 ferrets living near the ranch, they trapped them
and removed them to a captive breeding center.
The ferrets’ numbers soon grew to 300.
In 1991, the first batch of 18 ferrets was
released into the wild in southeastern Wyoming.
There are now probably about 850 ferrets living
throughout the plains states, with an especially
important group of 250 or so in the Conata Basin
near Badlands National Park in southwestern
South Dakota.
It is at Conata Basin that the second act of the
dramatic story will unfold. This time, the conflict
pits a strain of plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis)
against both the prairie dogs and the ferrets. The
plague bacteria—the same one that caused the
Black Death in fourteenth-century Europe—came
to the West Coast of the United States around
1900 and has been slowly traveling eastward ever
since. By 2005, it had crossed the South Dakota
border and wiped out thousands of prairie dogs
about 40 miles south of Conata Basin. Since blackfooted ferrets are highly sensitive to plague,
biologists stand ready to remove them if the
disease shows up in dead prairie dogs nearby. But
Level E Unit 6
Date
a wrenching question still remains: what good will
removal do if, once again, the ferrets’ only food
50 supply is wiped out? The species has already
proved itself to be extremely resilient; it is to be
hoped that it can bounce back from the brink once
again.
1. The passage is primarily about
(A) the efforts of captive breeding centers
to reintroduce animal species into the
wild
(B) the struggles of black-footed ferrets to
survive as a species
(C) the physiology of prairie dogs
(D) the development of a national park to
protect black-footed ferrets
(E) whether or not ferrets make suitable
pets
2. Black-footed ferrets belong to which of the
following groups?
(A) rodents
(B) amphibians
(C) invertebrates
(D) carnivores
(E) primates
3. The word extirpated in paragraph 2 most nearly
means
(A) radicalized
(B) implanted
(C) eradicated
(D) fostered
(E) attenuated
4. The most recent threat facing black-footed
ferrets is which of the following?
(A) drought
(B) hunting
(C) habitat loss
(D) plague
(E) mange
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