Writing Test 7...

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Both plants and animals of many sorts show remarkable changes in form, structure, growth habits, and even mode of reproduction in becoming adapted to the different climatic environments, types of the food supply, or mode of living. This divergence in response to evolution is commonly expressed by altering the form and function of some part(s) of the organism, the original identification of which is clearly discernible. For example, the creeping foot of the snail is seen in related marine pteropods to be modified into a flapping organ useful for swimming and is changed into prehensile arms that bear suctorial disks in squids and other cephalopods. The limbs of various mammals are modified according to several different modes of life - for swift running (cursorial) as in the horse and antelope, for swinging in trees (arboreal) as in the monkeys, for digging (fossorial) as in the moles and gophers, for flying (volant) as in the bats, for swimming (aquatic) as in the seals, whales and dolphins, and for other adaptations. The structures or organs that show the main change in connection with this adaptive divergence is commonly identified readily as homologous in spite of great alterations. Thus, the finger and wrist bones of a bat and whale, for instance, have virtually nothing in common except that they are definitely equivalent elements of the mammalian limb.

[passage-header]Read the story given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]
Kendra does not appreciate the life she has until a fire destroys her home and causes her to stay at her uncle Tom's house. Things are very different at her uncle's house: everyone who lives there - her aunt Claire, her cousins Jimmy and Denise, and their grandmother Susie - appreciates all that they have and receive. When Kendra finally returns home, she has a new perspective and a more appreciative attitude.