TOEFL Questions

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are a unique family of bird species. Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world, with some species being as small as 6 centimeters and weighing as little as 5 grams. Like most small animals, hummingbirds lead extremely active lives. During flight, their heart rate can reach up to 500beats per minute, and this means a hummingbird’s daytime life is a nearly constant search for flowers, and it will eat up to 15 times an hour, consuming its own body weight in nectar. Because hummingbirds mush visit hundreds of flowers during the course of the day, they are important pollinators, just as bees are for the same reasons.

The flight pattern of the hummingbird is more similar to that of an insect than it is to other birds. Most birds fly more or less in a forward, lateral motion. Hummingbirds, however, have the ability to fly sideways, backwards, and even to hover in mid-air. The hummingbird’s wing structure is different from other birds’ as some of the bones are shorter and fused together to provide a rigid wing structure that moves about on an extremely flexible shoulder joint. If a hummingbird’s wing was to be compared to an aircraft it would more closely resemble a helicopter rotor blade than the fixed wing on a propeller-driven airplane which is what other birds’ wings resemble. The hummingbird’s rotor-like wing function is needed since its wings will beat up to 4,680 times per minute as it hovers in position to draw the nectar out of flowers.

Hummingbirds also differ from other birds in their migration nesting patterns. While hummingbirds do migrate in the summer and the winter, they do not migrate 800 kilometers or so. Hummingbirds migrate shorter distances for several reasons. First, their high metabolism means that they must eat often, and they do not build up the fat reserves that other birds do prior to migration. This makes long distance migration impractical. Second, hummingbirds are able to survive in temperatures as low as -20, so migration is not so necessary. They do this by entering an inactive state very much like hibernation in mammals. Their body temperature drops dramatically and their heart rate slows, reducing the overall amount of energy they need.

Q1. The word fused in the passage is closest in meaning to

(A) moved

(B) welded

(C) grown

(D) beat

Q2. Directions: Select the appropriate phrases from the answer choices and match them to the type of bird to which they relate. TWO of the answer choices will not be used.

Hummingbirds

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Other Birds

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Answer Choices

(A) Unique heart structure

(B) Able to survive cold winters

(C) Migrate long distances

(D) Destructive to plants

(E) Extremely high food intake

(F) Limited to forward flight

(G) Solid wing structure

A1. (B)

A2. Hummingbird (B), (E), (G)

Other Birds (C), (F)