Sample Practical Reading Passage: Reading Placement
Regular tune-ups of your heating system will cut heating costs and will most likely increase the lifetime and safety of the system. When a service technician performs a tune-up, he or she should test the efficiency of your heating system.
The technician should measure the efficiency of your system both before and after servicing it and provide you with a copy of the results. Combustion efficiency is determined indirectly, based on some of the following tests: 1) temperature of the flue (or chimney); 2) percent carbon dioxide or percent oxygen in the atmosphere; 3) presence of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere; and 4) draft. Incomplete combustion of fuel is the main contributor to low efficiency. If the technician cannot raise the combustion efficiency up to at least 75% after tuning your heating system, you should consider installing a new system or at least modifying your present system to increase its efficiency.
Adapted from Alex Wilson and John Morrill, Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings. ©1993 by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
| (Reasoning) | ||
| 1. | The passage suggests that the presence of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere: | |
| A. | can provide information regarding combustion efficiency. | |
| B. | is found in 75% of heating systems tested. | |
| C. | can be reduced by decreasing heating system draft. | |
| D. | is the main cause of low efficiency in heating systems. | |
| E. | is more reliable than flue temperature as an indicator of combustion efficiency. | |
(Referring) | ||
| 2. | According to the passage, when performing a tune-up of a heating system, the service technician should: | |
| A. | ensure that the combustion efficiency is at least 25%. | |
| B. | modify the heating system before initially measuring efficiency. | |
| C. | measure combustion efficiency both before and after servicing the system. | |
| D. | provide his or her supervisor with a written report of the system's efficiency. | |
| E. | ignore the age of the heating system. | |
Answers:
These items are not actual items from ACT Compass® but are similar in content and format. These items are presented for illustrative purposes and do not constitute a full representation of item content.