UTBK/SNBT Bahasa Inggris: Pertanyaan, Jawaban, Latihan Soal & Pembahasan

    It was previously believed that dinosaurs were cold-blooded creatures, like reptiles. However, a recent discovery has led researchers to believe they may have been warm-blooded. The fossilized remains of a 66 million-year-old dinosaur's heart were discovered and examined by x-ray. The basis for the analysis that they were warm-blooded is the number of chambers in the heart as well as the existence of a single aorta.

    Most reptiles have three chambers in their hearts, although some do have four. But those that have four chambers, such as the crocodile, have two arteries to mix the oxygen-heavy blood with oxygen-lean blood. Reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning that they are dependent on the environment for body heat. Yet the fossilized heart had four chambers in the heart as well as a single aorta. The single aorta means that the oxygen-rich blood was completely separated from the oxygen-poor blood and sent through the aorta to all parts of the body.

    Mammals, on the other hand, are warm blooded, meaning that they generate their own body heat and are thus more tolerant of temperature extremes. Birds and mammals, because they are warm blooded, move more swiftly and have greater physical endurance than reptiles.

    Scientists believe that the evidence now points to the idea that all dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded. Ironically, the particular dinosaur in which the discovery was made was a Tescelosaurus, which translates to "marvelous lizard." A lizard, of course, is a reptile.

What is the tone of the passage?

    It was previously believed that dinosaurs were cold-blooded creatures, like reptiles. However, a recent discovery has led researchers to believe they may have been warm-blooded. The fossilized remains of a 66 million-year-old dinosaur's heart were discovered and examined by x-ray. The basis for the analysis that they were warm-blooded is the number of chambers in the heart as well as the existence of a single aorta.

    Most reptiles have three chambers in their hearts, although some do have four. But those that have four chambers, such as the crocodile, have two arteries to mix the oxygen-heavy blood with oxygen-lean blood. Reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning that they are dependent on the environment for body heat. Yet the fossilized heart had four chambers in the heart as well as a single aorta. The single aorta means that the oxygen-rich blood was completely separated from the oxygen-poor blood and sent through the aorta to all parts of the body.

    Mammals, on the other hand, are warm blooded, meaning that they generate their own body heat and are thus more tolerant of temperature extremes. Birds and mammals, because they are warm blooded, move more swiftly and have greater physical endurance than reptiles.

    Scientists believe that the evidence now points to the idea that all dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded. Ironically, the particular dinosaur in which the discovery was made was a Tescelosaurus, which translates to "marvelous lizard." A lizard, of course, is a reptile.

How does the author organize the ideas in the passage?

    It was previously believed that dinosaurs were cold-blooded creatures, like reptiles. However, a recent discovery has led researchers to believe they may have been warm-blooded. The fossilized remains of a 66 million-year-old dinosaur's heart were discovered and examined by x-ray. The basis for the analysis that they were warm-blooded is the number of chambers in the heart as well as the existence of a single aorta.

    Most reptiles have three chambers in their hearts, although some do have four. But those that have four chambers, such as the crocodile, have two arteries to mix the oxygen-heavy blood with oxygen-lean blood. Reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning that they are dependent on the environment for body heat. Yet the fossilized heart had four chambers in the heart as well as a single aorta. The single aorta means that the oxygen-rich blood was completely separated from the oxygen-poor blood and sent through the aorta to all parts of the body.

    Mammals, on the other hand, are warm blooded, meaning that they generate their own body heat and are thus more tolerant of temperature extremes. Birds and mammals, because they are warm blooded, move more swiftly and have greater physical endurance than reptiles.

    Scientists believe that the evidence now points to the idea that all dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded. Ironically, the particular dinosaur in which the discovery was made was a Tescelosaurus, which translates to "marvelous lizard." A lizard, of course, is a reptile.

Another way of saying the sentence: Ironically, the particular dinosaur in which the discovery was made was a Tescelosaurus, which translates to "marvelous lizard" is ...

    Living on an island can have stranger effects. On Flores in Indonesia, extinct elephants weighed no more than a large hog, but rats grew as big as cats. These are examples of the island effect, which holds that when food and predators are scarce, big animals shrink and little ones grow. Still, no one is sure whether the same rule explains the most famous example of dwarfing on Flores: the odd extinct hominin called the hobbit, which (10) ____ 60,000 to 100, 000 years ago and stood about a meter tall.

    Now, genetic evidence from modern pygmies or unusually short people on Flares-who are unrelated to the hobbit-confirm that humans, too, are subject to so-called island dwarfing. Flores pygmies differ from their closest relatives on New Guinea and in East Asia in carrying more gene variants that promote short stature.

    To explore the pygmies' ancestry, a team of reserachers studied the Rampasasa pgymies of Flores, who were on an average just 145 centimeters tall. They gathered spit and blood from 32 people and (11) ____. The team found no trace of archaic DNA that could be from the hobbit. Instead, the pgymies were (12) ____. The DNA suggest that their ancestors came to Flores in several waves: in the past 50,000 years or so, when modern human first reached Melanesia; and in the past 5000 years, when settlers came from both East Asia and New Guinea.

    The DNA also reflects an environmental shift. It suggests the pgymies' ancestors underwent a big shift in diet after reaching Flores, perhaps eating pgymiy elephants or matine foods. They pgymies' DNA is also rich in alleles that (13) ____ to short stature. Other East Asia have the same alleles, but at much lower frequencies.

    The discovery fits with a recent study suggesting evolution was also in favor of short stature in people on the Andaman Islands. Such selection on island boosts the theory that the hobbit, too, was once a taller species, who dwindled in height over millennia on Flores.

The italic phrase in the last paragraph means ....

    The old myths about clever animals may have been closer to the truth than science has been for much of its history. Until fairly recently, animals were considered to be unthinking machines and humans the only truly intelligent species. However, aided by new cognition tests that allow elephants to show their intelligence, scientist have discovered human and elephant's intelligence have much in common.

    Most contemporary ethnologists view the elephant as one of the world's most intelligent animals. With a mass of just over 5 kg, an elephant's brain has more mass than that of any other land animal. In addition, elephants have a total of 300 billion neurons. Elephant brains are similar to humans' in terms of general connectivity and areas. The elephants' cortex has as many neurons as human brain.

    Moreover, elephants manifest a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with self-awareness, altruism, memory and communication. It has been proven scientifically that elephants' are self-aware. In one study an elephant called Happy would touch a white cross painted on her forehead, a test used to test self-awareness in children. She could only see it in a mirror and understood that she was looking at a reflection on herself.

    Elephants also practice altruism. There is a famous story of an Indian elephant called Chandrasekharan, who was working lifting poles off a truck as it moved along, and placing them in holes dug in the ground. When Chandrasekharan came to one holes he refused to put the log in. Eventually the Mahout checked and discovered a dog sleeping in it. Only when the dog was gone would Chandrasekharan put the pole in.

    Finally, elephants do have long memories. They eat an incredible variety of foods and need to cover large distances to get it. They need to know where to goat what time of year. They learn this and remember it. Also, they have complex communication and societies, and they need to remember all the different individuals' voices and smells in order to be socially adept.

What is the tone of the passage?

    Forget what world leaders say. If you want to understand what they are really up to, look at the painting that hang behind them at press conference and summit meetings, or when they pause with apparent spontaneity along a corridor to answer a reporter's question. The silent stare of a poised portrait gazing at you over the shoulder of David Cameron or Vladimir Putin is often more loaded and more deliberately orchestrated than you might think.

    For example, President Obama's recent trip to Cuba in March 2016 was considered his boldest step. His controversial agenda was to reset diplomatic relations between the two nations. However, it was a painting by a Cuban artist that (12) ____ the show. Among the more awkward events on Obama's Cuban itinerary was a meeting with a group of political dissidents, many of (13) ____ fear the thawing of relations between Washington and Havana will only embolden the repressive tendencies of Cuban presidents Raul Castro by legitimizing his resign. Enter Michel Mirabal, a contemporary Cuban artist whose sprawling painting My New Friend provided the striking backdrop to the meeting.

    The work stretched evocatively behind Obama as he sat at a long table to discuss the concern of the Cuban government's detractors. It featured side-by-side representations of the Cuban and US flags constructed loosely of red, white, and blue handprints (14) ____. As a subliminal symbol capable of capturing, on the one hand the plight of those oppressed by the Cuban government's, and on the other hand, Obama's commitment to ending sanction against Cuba, the painting (15) ____ The hasty blizzard of anonymous handprint has the feel of street art or something illicitly constructed: a compression of innocence that recall the clay moulds made by children in kindergarten. At the same time, the two flags appear to be visual anagrams of each other. Each consists of the same handprint merely arranged in different combinations, as if subtly to imply that the two countries are essentially inseparable.

The sentence "Often these subtle messages are easy enough to decode" should be ....

    Forget what world leaders say. If you want to understand what they are really up to, look at the painting that hang behind them at press conference and summit meetings, or when they pause with apparent spontaneity along a corridor to answer a reporter's question. The silent stare of a poised portrait gazing at you over the shoulder of David Cameron or Vladimir Putin is often more loaded and more deliberately orchestrated than you might think.

    For example, President Obama's recent trip to Cuba in March 2016 was considered his boldest step. His controversial agenda was to reset diplomatic relations between the two nations. However, it was a painting by a Cuban artist that (12) ____ the show. Among the more awkward events on Obama's Cuban itinerary was a meeting with a group of political dissidents, many of (13) ____ fear the thawing of relations between Washington and Havana will only embolden the repressive tendencies of Cuban presidents Raul Castro by legitimizing his resign. Enter Michel Mirabal, a contemporary Cuban artist whose sprawling painting My New Friend provided the striking backdrop to the meeting.

    The work stretched evocatively behind Obama as he sat at a long table to discuss the concern of the Cuban government's detractors. It featured side-by-side representations of the Cuban and US flags constructed loosely of red, white, and blue handprints (14) ____. As a subliminal symbol capable of capturing, on the one hand the plight of those oppressed by the Cuban government's, and on the other hand, Obama's commitment to ending sanction against Cuba, the painting (15) ____ The hasty blizzard of anonymous handprint has the feel of street art or something illicitly constructed: a compression of innocence that recall the clay moulds made by children in kindergarten. At the same time, the two flags appear to be visual anagrams of each other. Each consists of the same handprint merely arranged in different combinations, as if subtly to imply that the two countries are essentially inseparable.

The italic phrase in the first paragraph means ....

Question number 43-46 based on the passage below.

    The latest round in an ongoing debate over global-warming trends claims that warming has indeed slowed down this century. An obvious slowing in the rise of global temperatures was recorded at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This was referred to as a "hiatus" or a "pause". The "pause" or "hiatus" is not just a talking point of think-tanks with radical political agendas. It also features in the scientific literature, including in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. Climate change skeptics have used this as evidence that global warming has stopped permanently. But in June last year, a study in science claimed that the hiatus was just an artifact which disappears when biases in temperature data are corrected. Now a prominent group of researchers is countering that claim. They argue in Nature Climate Change that even after correcting these biases the slowdown was real. "There is this mismatch between what the climate models are producing and what the observations are showing," says lead author John Fyfe. Fyfe is a climate modeler at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis in Victoria. "We can't ignore it." Fyfe uses the term "slowdown" rather than "hiatus". He also stresses that it does not in any way weaken global-warming theory. The debate turns in part around statistics on temperature trends. The study that questioned the existence of the slowdown corrected known biases in the surface temperature record maintained by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The finding showed differences in temperature readings from ships and buoys. This effectively increased the record about warming. The researchers also extended the record to include 2014. This set a new record high for average temperatures. Thomas Karl, director of National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, calculated the rate of global warming between 1950 and 1999 as being 0.113°C per decade. This was similar to the 0.116°C a decade calculated for 2000-14. This, Karl said, meant that an assessment done by the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change· in 2013 showing that warming had slowed was no longer valid. Therefore, it can be concluded that global warming is a fabricated issue.

The word "think-tanks" in the sentence "The "pause" or "hiatus" is not just a talking point of think-tanks with radical political agendas" has closest means to ____

Based on the passage, the word transformed in line 6 means ____.

54. Which of the following words is the LEAST similar in meaning to the word setback in 'Democracy is suffering a setback.'?