Question

read the passage. there are several questions about this passage.
power. cars are built around engines, and engines (or internal combustion engines, to give them their full name) burn petrol with oxygen in the air to release the energy locked inside it. we think of burning as a way of making fire, but it’s essentially a chemical reaction between oxygen and fuel that just happens to produce heat and fire as a by - product. the simple science of cars is so utterly mundane that we scarcely give it a thought: pump the petrol in your tank, turn the key and off you go. think about it more closely, however, and you’ll see how astonishing it really is.
4
suppose a typical modern family car does about 40 miles to the gallon or, in metric terms, 100 km for every 7 litres of fuel. that means if you have a teaspoon of petrol (about 0.004 litres), it contains enough energy to roll your car about 60 m (200 ft), or roughly 15 times the car’s own length. consider how hard it is to push a car, even once you’ve got it going from a standstill, and i’m sure you’ll agree that’s quite remarkable. the simple fact is that petrol is absolutely chock full of energy: short of uranium (nuclear fuel), it’s just about the most energy - rich material there is. that, more than any other reason—including the freedom, independence and social status that cars give us—accounts for their popularity.
what’s so bad about cars?
5
driving a car is the next best thing to being a human cannonball. it can shoot you over the ground at a blistering speed for an amazing distance on a single tank of fuel. if your tank holds 70 litres (about 15 gallons), and your engine can manage 100 km (62 miles) on 7 litres (1½ gallons) of fuel, a single fill - up at the petrol station will power you a rather surprising 1,000 km (600 miles). so, stopping to refuel four times, you could just about drive across the united states from new york city to los angeles.
6
that might sound impressive, but it’s nowhere near as good as it might be (or should be). if you want to get across the states, a car is probably a much better bet than the bicycles we considered in the last chapter—at least if you
part a
these sentences are from the passage.
“cars are chemistry labs on wheels. and though that might not sound so interesting, it accounts absolutely for their ubiquity.” (paragraph 3)
what does the word ubiquity mean in this sentence?
○ 1. demonstrated power
○ 2. widespread presence
○ 3. general attractiveness
○ 4. recognized inefficiencies
part b
which paragraph in the passage best explains the meaning of ubiquity?
○ 1. paragraph 1
○ 2. paragraph 3
○ 3. paragraph 5
○ 4. paragraph 7

Explanation:

Part A

To determine the meaning of "ubiquity", we analyze the context. The sentence says cars being "chemistry labs on wheels" accounts for their ubiquity. "Ubiquity" relates to how common or widespread something is. Option 1 is about power, option 3 about attractiveness, option 4 about inefficiencies—none fit. Option 2, "widespread presence", matches the idea of cars being common (ubiquitous) due to their chemical - based operation.

We need to find the paragraph that explains "ubiquity" (widespread presence of cars). Paragraph 5 talks about a car's ability to travel long distances (1,000 km on a fill - up, driving across the US), which shows how common cars are in use (supporting their widespread presence). Paragraph 1 (not visible enough to support), paragraph 3 (about chemistry of cars, not ubiquity), paragraph 7 (not visible) don't fit as well as paragraph 5.

Answer:

1. widespread presence

Part B