HESI A2 Reading Passages REVISED HESI A2 Reading Passages Graded A

Contents

Changing Time/Daylight Savings............................................................................................ 2

The Bicycle............................................................................................................................... 4

Tesla ......................................................................................................................................... 6

Exams ....................................................................................................................................... 7

The White Elephant.................................................................................................................. 9

Healing.....................................................................................................................................10

Food.........................................................................................................................................12

Eating.......................................................................................................................................13

The Game of Bridge................................................................................................................14

The Golden Gate Bridge .........................................................................................................15

Voice ........................................................................................................................................16

The Electoral College..............................................................................................................17

Homonyms ..............................................................................................................................18

Getting A Goodnight Sleep ....................................................................................................19

Florence Nightingale...............................................................................................................20

Facts About the One Dollar Bill..............................................................................................21

Phobias....................................................................................................................................22

Factory.....................................................................................................................................23

Safe Driving.............................................................................................................................24

The Water Cycle ......................................................................................................................25

Amazon Rainforest .................................................................................................................26

All the Jazz ..............................................................................................................................28

Moon........................................................................................................................................30

North American.......................................................................................................................32

Frank Lloyd Wright .................................................................................................................34

Glass........................................................................................................................................36

Nile River.................................................................................................................................38

Violence...................................................................................................................................40

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HESI A2 READING PASSAGES

Changing Time/Daylight Savings

It is a well-known fact that it takes the Earth approximately 365 days to move around the sun. At the same

time. the Earth revolves or spins around itself over the course of 24 hours, which explains why there is

day and night. One half of the Earth is always facing the Sun and the other half is facing away from it. As

a result, there are different time zones dividing the globe, moving suddenly from one time zone into the

other, as when flying for example from Asia to North America, causes jet lag. People feel tired, they wake

up suddenly during the night and cannot go back to sleep. It takes time to get used to a new time zone.

Another thing to consider is the slight tilting of the Earth towards the sun. The Earth does not stand

straight but leans a little to one side. Therefore, when it revolves around the Sun, the middle part of the

Earth is always closer to the Sun and gets more heat. This part is called the equator, and above it lathes

tropics. Countries at the tropics get the same amount of daylight all the time. The sun always rises at 6 am

and sets at 6 pm. In contrast, the tips of the Earth or the Poles get hardly any light at all because they are

so far away from the sun. There are two main seasons at the Poles. There are 6 months of summer, when

the sun is always shining, even at night, and there are 6 months of winter, when there is constant

darkness. In between the tropics and the Poles lies the temperate Zone. where there are 4 seasons, the sun

rises and sets at different times throughout the year. In the spring and summer, it gets light earlier; in the

fall and winter it gets dark earlier. People who live in temperate zones take advantage of that fact to get

more daylight. At the beginning of spring, countries in Europe and North America Read just their clocks.

They change the time on their clocks and watches by moving them an hour ahead. As a result, the sun

does not set around 7 or 8 am as usual, but an hour later. This measure is called Daylight Savings Time

(DST) and lasts until the beginning of fall, when people move their clocks back one hour to Standard or

regular Time. It is thought that Benjamin Franklin first suggested the introduction of Daylight Savings

Time in the fifth century. But, the first serious proposal came in 1907 from William Willett. Yet his idea

was shelved by the British government, who refused it because they thought it was unnecessary. Daylight

Savings Time was first put into practice by the German government in l 9 l 6 in order to save energy

during the First World War. Shortly after, the United Kingdom followed suit, with the United States

doing the same in 1918. The law was very unpopular since people had to wake up earlier and many

experienced a feeling like jet lag. But the 19705-energy crisis forced the US to make Daylight Savings

Time the law. Studies have shown that the introduction of Daylight Savings Time in the spring saved the

US 10,000 barrels of oil per day between 1974-1975. It also prevented 2,000 traffic injuries and 50 trafficrelated deaths, saving the country $28 million. Currently, Americans switch to Daylight Savings Time on

the first Sunday in April and move back to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October. But as of 2007,

the time readjustment will happen even earlier, in March and November.

1. What is the main idea of this passage?

(A)Time is a complicated thing to calculate.

(B)People in different countries measure time in different ways.

(C)Daylight Savings Time is the result of the Earth moving around the Sun.

(D)Daylight Savings Time is not a very popular law in the USA.

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2. What does the sentence “It takes time to get used to a new

time Zone." mean in paragraph I?

(A)A flight between Asia and North America takes a long time.

(B)Changing time zones makes people feel tired.

(C)People need time to feel comfortable with a new time zone.

(D)lt may take weeks to get used to jetlag.

3. Which part of the Earth is the closest to the Sun?

(A)The Equator

(B)The tropics

(C)The temperate zone

(D)The Poles

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The Bicycle

Today, bicycles are so common that it’s hard to believe they haven’t always been around. But two

hundred years ago, bicycles didn’t exist, and the first bicycle, invented in Germany in 1818, was nothing

like our bicycles today. It was made of wood and didn't even have pedals. Since then, however, numerous

innovations and improvements in design have made the bicycle one of the most popular means of

recreation and transportation around the world. In 1839, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Scottish Blacksmith,

dramatically improved upon the original bicycle design. Macmillan’s machine had tires with iron rims to

keep them from getting worn down. He Also used foot-operated cranks similar to pedals so his bicycle

could be ridden at a quick pace. It didn't look much like a modern bicycle, though, because its back wheel

was substantially larger than its front wheel. In 1861, the French Michaux brothers took the evolution of

the bicycle a step further by inventing an improved crank mechanism. Ten years later, James Starley, an

English inventor, revolutionized bicycle design. He made the front wheel many times larger than the back

wheel, put gear on the pedals to make the bicycle more efficient, and lightened the wheels by using wire

spokes. Although this bicycle was much lighter and less tiring to ride, it was still clumsy, extremely topheavy, and ridden mostly for entertainment. It wasn’t until 1874 that the first truly modern bicycle

appeared on the scene. Invented by another Englishman, H.J. Lawson, the “safety bicycle “would look

familiar to today’s cyclists. This bicycle had equal-sized wheels, which made it less prone to toppling

over. Lawson also attached a chain to the pedals to drive the rear wheel. With these improvements, the

bicycle became extremely popular and useful for transportation. Today, they are built, used, and enjoyed

all over the world

1. The main idea of this passage is best expressed in which sentence?

a. Sentence (1): Today, bicycles are so common that it’s hard to believe they haven’t always been around.

b. Sentence (13): It was ’t until 1874 that the first truly modern bicycle appeared on the scene.

c. Sentence (4): Since then, however, numerous innovations and improvements in design have made the

bicycle one of the most popular means of recreation and transportation around the world.

d. Sentence (18): Today they are built, used, and enjoyed all over the world.

2.Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

a. Bicycles Are Better

b. A Ride through the History of Bicycles

c. Cycle Your Way to Fitness

d. The Popularity of Bicycles

3. Which sentence best expresses the main idea of paragraph 3?

a. Macmillan was a great inventor.

b. Macmillan’s bike didn’t look much like our modern bikes.

c. Macmillan’s bike could be ridden quickly.

d. Macmillan made important changes in bicycle design.

4. An innovation, as it is used in Sentence (4), is

a. a new way of doing something.

b. a design.

c. an improvement.

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