Question
In the shadowy theater, Vic watched the group around him dwindling. It seemed to him that the shadows grew deeper each time another candidate was called into the office for the all-important interview. All of the candidates had clustered together in the empty theater, but their ranks were thinning. He had been ecstatic to receive the e-mail stating that he was one of 30 students chosen to interview for the summer program at the renowned Aswell Theater. Legendary actors had performed here for decades, and now he too had an opportunity to be a part of it all and learn from professionals.
At first, reading the e-mail had flooded him with confidence. After all, hadn't it said that more than 200 students had applied for the program? And wasn't he one of the 30 selected for an interview? He was certain he would be chosen as one of the 10 program participants; he could feel deep in his bones that acting was what he was meant to do. To be part of the theater—especially ,begin italics,this,end italics, theater—was what he wanted more than anything else in the world. But now, as he waited with two other candidates, each of them a solitary island in a sea of shadows and silence and empty seats, his confidence seemed to be oozing away as he waited for the interview that would determine his fate.
Finally he was left sitting alone in the darkness, the last candidate to be called. They're probably leaving me to the last because they've already decided, Vic thought, his spirits sinking even lower. Before he could indulge himself further, however, he heard from backstage the voices of actors as they prepared for rehearsal, and he watched in wonder and surprise as the footlights flickered and suddenly came to life. Then the murmur of voices faded, the curtain opened, and the play began, drawing Vic irresistibly into its familiar and magical world.
No longer alone, he became a part of the lighted world before him and the shadows receded. He smiled to himself. It did not matter whether he was chosen for the summer program or not—the theater was his future.
Question
Which sentence ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, describes how the setting helps to resolve the internal conflict in the passage?
Answer options with 4 options
1.
Vic must face his fear of failure by joining the actors on the stage.
2.
Vic must compete against other candidates for a place in the summer program.
3.
Waiting with the other candidates causes Vic to realize that others have talents, too.
4.
Being in the theater gives Vic the understanding that the interview will not determine his fate.
At first, reading the e-mail had flooded him with confidence. After all, hadn't it said that more than 200 students had applied for the program? And wasn't he one of the 30 selected for an interview? He was certain he would be chosen as one of the 10 program participants; he could feel deep in his bones that acting was what he was meant to do. To be part of the theater—especially ,begin italics,this,end italics, theater—was what he wanted more than anything else in the world. But now, as he waited with two other candidates, each of them a solitary island in a sea of shadows and silence and empty seats, his confidence seemed to be oozing away as he waited for the interview that would determine his fate.
Finally he was left sitting alone in the darkness, the last candidate to be called. They're probably leaving me to the last because they've already decided, Vic thought, his spirits sinking even lower. Before he could indulge himself further, however, he heard from backstage the voices of actors as they prepared for rehearsal, and he watched in wonder and surprise as the footlights flickered and suddenly came to life. Then the murmur of voices faded, the curtain opened, and the play began, drawing Vic irresistibly into its familiar and magical world.
No longer alone, he became a part of the lighted world before him and the shadows receded. He smiled to himself. It did not matter whether he was chosen for the summer program or not—the theater was his future.
Question
Which sentence ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, describes how the setting helps to resolve the internal conflict in the passage?
Answer options with 4 options
1.
Vic must face his fear of failure by joining the actors on the stage.
2.
Vic must compete against other candidates for a place in the summer program.
3.
Waiting with the other candidates causes Vic to realize that others have talents, too.
4.
Being in the theater gives Vic the understanding that the interview will not determine his fate.
Answers
Answer
As Marcus scanned the jewelry cases, his eyes came to rest on an intricately wound necklace. The chain was delicate silver strands, fine as hair, woven together in a subtle, beautiful pattern. Hanging from the chain shimmered a spiral, also made of exquisitely thin silver threads, and arranged in the center were several small lustrous onyx stones. He was stunned at the ,begin underline,meticulous,end underline, craftsmanship that must have been required to fashion such a painstaking work. The artisanship of its maker was clearly unequaled. He knew instinctively that his mother would love it.
Question
Tim read this paragraph. When he came across the word ,begin emphasis,meticulous,end emphasis,, he decided it must mean "amazing."
Is Tim's understanding of ,begin emphasis,meticulous,end emphasis, correct?
Answer options with 4 options
1.
No, because the passage indicates that "meticulous" is used to describe very tiny objects.
2.
No, because the context explains that the necklace was made with great attention to detail.
3.
Yes, because most of the passage is describing how fantastic Marcus thinks the necklace is.
4.
Yes, because most of the passage gives details about how Marcus admires objects of amazing quality.
Question
Tim read this paragraph. When he came across the word ,begin emphasis,meticulous,end emphasis,, he decided it must mean "amazing."
Is Tim's understanding of ,begin emphasis,meticulous,end emphasis, correct?
Answer options with 4 options
1.
No, because the passage indicates that "meticulous" is used to describe very tiny objects.
2.
No, because the context explains that the necklace was made with great attention to detail.
3.
Yes, because most of the passage is describing how fantastic Marcus thinks the necklace is.
4.
Yes, because most of the passage gives details about how Marcus admires objects of amazing quality.
Answer
Built to Last
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
Question 1
This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
,begin emphasis,Part A,end emphasis,
Which statement would the author of the passage ,begin emphasis,most,end emphasis, likely agree with?
Question 1 Answer options with 4 options
1.
The Romans were resourceful in their use of materials from the area in that volcanic ash was readily available.
2.
The Romans greatly influenced modern construction techniques through their early discoveries and use of materials.
3.
The Romans greatly expanded the Roman Empire by making their unique building materials a significant part of their trade.
4.
The Romans were clever in their use of materials to build ports that enabled them to achieve larger goals for the Roman Empire.
Question 2
,begin emphasis,Part B,end emphasis,
How does the author ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, develop the point of view inthe correct answer from Part A?
Question 2 Answer options with 4 options
1.
by comparing the ingredients that were used in different types of concrete over time
2.
by describing the efficiency of the ships that brought in goods and departed with pozzolana
3.
by quoting researchers who explain both the concrete used and the results of having harbors
4.
by including details about geographical features and the devastation caused by Mount Vesuvius
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
Question 1
This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
,begin emphasis,Part A,end emphasis,
Which statement would the author of the passage ,begin emphasis,most,end emphasis, likely agree with?
Question 1 Answer options with 4 options
1.
The Romans were resourceful in their use of materials from the area in that volcanic ash was readily available.
2.
The Romans greatly influenced modern construction techniques through their early discoveries and use of materials.
3.
The Romans greatly expanded the Roman Empire by making their unique building materials a significant part of their trade.
4.
The Romans were clever in their use of materials to build ports that enabled them to achieve larger goals for the Roman Empire.
Question 2
,begin emphasis,Part B,end emphasis,
How does the author ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, develop the point of view inthe correct answer from Part A?
Question 2 Answer options with 4 options
1.
by comparing the ingredients that were used in different types of concrete over time
2.
by describing the efficiency of the ships that brought in goods and departed with pozzolana
3.
by quoting researchers who explain both the concrete used and the results of having harbors
4.
by including details about geographical features and the devastation caused by Mount Vesuvius
Answer
Built to Last
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
,begin emphasis,Part A,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, statements that ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, express central ideas of the passage.
Question 1 Answer options with 5 options
1.
Romans used locally available materials to produce concrete for constructing large buildings.
2.
Romans are often credited with inventing concrete when in fact it was already in use much earlier.
3.
Romans were able to capitalize on their use of concrete to build a port system that greatly benefitted their society.
4.
Scientists have been examining Roman concrete for many years but have focused on concrete found aboveground.
5.
Scientists have discovered that Romans created a type of concrete that ensured the survival of structures built in the sea.
Question 2
,begin emphasis,Part B,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, excerpts from the passage that together ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, support the correct central ideas from Part A.
Question 2 Answer options with 6 options
1.
"People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea" (Paragraph 3)
2.
"They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment." (Paragraph 4)
3.
"The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece." (Paragraph 5)
4.
"The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean" (Paragraph 7)
5.
"All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei" (Paragraph 8)
6.
"This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." (Paragraph 13)
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
,begin emphasis,Part A,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, statements that ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, express central ideas of the passage.
Question 1 Answer options with 5 options
1.
Romans used locally available materials to produce concrete for constructing large buildings.
2.
Romans are often credited with inventing concrete when in fact it was already in use much earlier.
3.
Romans were able to capitalize on their use of concrete to build a port system that greatly benefitted their society.
4.
Scientists have been examining Roman concrete for many years but have focused on concrete found aboveground.
5.
Scientists have discovered that Romans created a type of concrete that ensured the survival of structures built in the sea.
Question 2
,begin emphasis,Part B,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, excerpts from the passage that together ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, support the correct central ideas from Part A.
Question 2 Answer options with 6 options
1.
"People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea" (Paragraph 3)
2.
"They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment." (Paragraph 4)
3.
"The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece." (Paragraph 5)
4.
"The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean" (Paragraph 7)
5.
"All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei" (Paragraph 8)
6.
"This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." (Paragraph 13)
Answer
Built to Last
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
,begin emphasis,Part A,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, statements that ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, express central ideas of the passage.
Question 1 Answer options with 5 options
1.
Romans used locally available materials to produce concrete for constructing large buildings.
2.
Romans are often credited with inventing concrete when in fact it was already in use much earlier.
3.
Romans were able to capitalize on their use of concrete to build a port system that greatly benefitted their society.
4.
Scientists have been examining Roman concrete for many years but have focused on concrete found aboveground.
5.
Scientists have discovered that Romans created a type of concrete that ensured the survival of structures built in the sea.
Question 2
,begin emphasis,Part B,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, excerpts from the passage that together ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, support the correct central ideas from Part A.
Question 2 Answer options with 6 options
1.
"People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea" (Paragraph 3)
2.
"They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment." (Paragraph 4)
3.
"The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece." (Paragraph 5)
4.
"The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean" (Paragraph 7)
5.
"All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei" (Paragraph 8)
6.
"This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." (Paragraph 13)
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
,begin emphasis,Part A,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, statements that ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, express central ideas of the passage.
Question 1 Answer options with 5 options
1.
Romans used locally available materials to produce concrete for constructing large buildings.
2.
Romans are often credited with inventing concrete when in fact it was already in use much earlier.
3.
Romans were able to capitalize on their use of concrete to build a port system that greatly benefitted their society.
4.
Scientists have been examining Roman concrete for many years but have focused on concrete found aboveground.
5.
Scientists have discovered that Romans created a type of concrete that ensured the survival of structures built in the sea.
Question 2
,begin emphasis,Part B,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, excerpts from the passage that together ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, support the correct central ideas from Part A.
Question 2 Answer options with 6 options
1.
"People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea" (Paragraph 3)
2.
"They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment." (Paragraph 4)
3.
"The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece." (Paragraph 5)
4.
"The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean" (Paragraph 7)
5.
"All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei" (Paragraph 8)
6.
"This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." (Paragraph 13)
Answer
Built to Last
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
Part A,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, statements that ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, express central ideas of the passage.
Question 1 Answer options with 5 options
1.
Romans used locally available materials to produce concrete for constructing large buildings.
2.
Romans are often credited with inventing concrete when in fact it was already in use much earlier.
3.
Romans were able to capitalize on their use of concrete to build a port system that greatly benefitted their society.
4.
Scientists have been examining Roman concrete for many years but have focused on concrete found aboveground.
5.
Scientists have discovered that Romans created a type of concrete that ensured the survival of structures built in the sea.
How Roman harbors have stood the test of time
paragraph 1,The circular harbor at Caesarea, which sits on the coast of Israel, was constructed in less than 10 years, from roughly 23 to 15 B.C., on the order of King Herod, ruler of the Roman province of Judaea. The site chosen was an unobstructed length of coastline with no natural geographic features to break the waves rolling into shore or protect ships. The port's construction was nothing short of a Roman engineering marvel, comparable to the Colosseum or the aqueducts.
paragraph 2,Much of the vast structure, which includes two breakwaters,,superscript,1,baseline, three underwater piers that once held large statues, and a 60-foot-wide entrance for ships, stands today. The scholar Josephus' description, written nearly 2,000 years ago, still rings true: "Herod contended with the difficulties so well that the sea could not overcome the solidity of the construction."
paragraph 3,The trick to Caesarea's longevity was the concrete used to build the harbor. For more than a decade, John Oleson, a classical archaeologist at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, has pursued the secrets of Roman harbors and their impressive durability. "People have been studying Roman concrete for 500 or 600 years, but they haven't done much with the concrete in the sea because it's more difficult to access. Also, until recently, people thought it was not as important as what you find on land," says Oleson.
paragraph 4,As head of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (or ROMACONS), Oleson, along with University of Colorado Boulder maritime archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder and British architect Chris Brandon, examined samples from several ancient Roman ports. They found that there was, in fact, a key ingredient that made the material uniquely suited to hold up to the underwater environment.
paragraph 5,The Romans started building with concrete regularly beginning in the third century B.C., but the earliest uses go back roughly a thousand years further, to ancient Greece. Concrete is made of chunks of rubble held together by mortar. Today, mortar is typically made by mixing gravel, sand, and binders such as lime,superscript,2,baseline, and cement. According to Marie Jackson, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and ROMACONS collaborator, modern concrete begins to break apart underwater. The material used by the Romans for maritime construction, however, actually gets stronger over time.
paragraph 6,In the first century B.C., the architect and engineer Vitruvius wrote an expansive work on Roman building methods called ,begin italics,De Architectura,end italics,. In it, he describes a substance found near Baia, a resort town on the Bay of Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius, that "when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water."
paragraph 7,The ROMACONS team set out to confirm what Vitruvius had written by studying the concrete used to build harbors dotting the Mediterranean, including Caesarea, Portus (one of Rome's great harbors), Pompeiopolis in modern-day Turkey, and Hersonissos in northern Crete. The researchers took cores, measuring four inches in diameter and up to 20 feet long, from various parts of each harbor, many of which are now submerged.
paragraph 8,Jackson was then enlisted to investigate the concrete's physical characteristics and material makeup. She found that its compressive strength, meaning the weight it can bear, was much lower than that of modern concrete, so it wasn't suitable for tall aboveground architecture. When she compared the trace elemental composition of the mortars in the cores, however, she confirmed Vitruvius' assertion. All the samples contained volcanic ash that came either from Mount Vesuvius or Campi Flegrei, volcanoes located east and west of Naples, respectively. The same ash was also found in a sample sent to the team from Quarteira on the coast of southern Portugal.
paragraph 9,The specific type of ash is known as pozzolana after Pozzuoli, the town near Campi Flegrei where it was originally used, but Oleson says you can find it throughout the Bay of Naples. "If you're rowing a boat along the coast near Baia, parts of the coastline are made up of this pozzolana," he explains.
paragraph 10,Jackson credits the Romans with noticing that, over time, the ash consolidated into a volcanic rock called tuff. With that insight they formulated their unique mortar recipe: pozzolana, lime, and seawater. That mixture, which she says must have been arrived at by careful experimentation, results in the growth of a durable binding substance throughout the concrete mixture. "Pliny the Elder says that they needed something that lasts a long time and gets stronger with age." Jackson explains, quoting the ancient Roman scholar and natural historian (who himself died from the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in A.D. 79). Because seawater is part of the reaction, placing this mortar in the Mediterranean promotes greater adhesion rather than causing the concrete to crack.
paragraph 11,According to Oleson, the Romans relied on the pozzolana for maritime construction for two centuries, beginning about 40 B.C. He suggests that its presence in ports as far east as Caesarea and Alexandria shows that the ash was exported throughout the empire from the Bay of Naples.
paragraph 12,"ROMACONS has managed to document the evolution of this [maritime concrete] industry and the type of materials used, and to document the trade across the Mediterranean, a trade that previously was not known," Oleson explains. He posits that, for example, a grain ship arriving in Rome's Portus from Alexandria might have been sent back with pozzolana stored in sacks for ballast,,superscript,3,baseline, which would then be used in port construction back east.
paragraph 13,The reactivity of Bay of Naples pozzolana was well known in antiquity, says Lynne Lancaster, a classics professor at Ohio University. She has documented shorter-range trade within the Roman Empire in her research, including the export of light-weight volcanic rocks from Sardinia for use in building vaults in Carthage. What the ROMACONS project has identified, Lancaster says, "is a Mediterranean-wide trade that is being used to build the ports, which in turn is used to increase the trade. This contributes more to the economics and infrastructure of the Roman Empire." And in building those harbors that were so critical to the empire's success, it is clear that the Romans were extremely careful to choose a material that would ensure longevity—of both port and empire.
"Built to Last" by Nikhil Swaminathan. Reprinted with permission of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, Mar/Apr 2014. Vol 67, NO 2. www.archaeology.org (Copyright, The Archaeological Institute of America, 2014)
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,breakwaters,end bold, offshore walls that protect a harbor from waves
,begin bold,,superscript,2,baseline,lime,end bold, powdered mineral containing calcium
,begin bold,,superscript,3,baseline,ballast,end bold, heavy cargo carried by a ship to help keep it stable
Part A,end emphasis,
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, statements that ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, express central ideas of the passage.
Question 1 Answer options with 5 options
1.
Romans used locally available materials to produce concrete for constructing large buildings.
2.
Romans are often credited with inventing concrete when in fact it was already in use much earlier.
3.
Romans were able to capitalize on their use of concrete to build a port system that greatly benefitted their society.
4.
Scientists have been examining Roman concrete for many years but have focused on concrete found aboveground.
5.
Scientists have discovered that Romans created a type of concrete that ensured the survival of structures built in the sea.
Answered by
GPT 3.5
4. Being in the theater gives Vic the understanding that the interview will not determine his fate.
Answered by
GPT 3.5
2. No, because the context explains that the necklace was made with great attention to detail.
Answered by
GPT 3.5
Question 1 Answer:
4. The Romans were clever in their use of materials to build ports that enabled them to achieve larger goals for the Roman Empire.
Question 2 Answer:
3. by quoting researchers who explain both the concrete used and the results of having harbors
4. The Romans were clever in their use of materials to build ports that enabled them to achieve larger goals for the Roman Empire.
Question 2 Answer:
3. by quoting researchers who explain both the concrete used and the results of having harbors
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