SSAT Middle Level Reading Practice Test 48

Petroleum (that is, oil and gas) is so ordinary that it takes an effort to see what an unlikely and marvelous substance it is: raw liquid oil and high-quality flammable gas, pumped in enormous quantities right out of the ground. Only a few generations ago, oil for all uses—fuel, lubrication, nutrition, medicine—was pressed from plant crops or made from animal fat. Gas was manufactured from coal. And petroleum was almost totally hidden.

Natural leaks of crude oil are not especially rare. But the oil leaking from the ground is usually a highly degraded substance, close to tar. It was first used locally as a substitute for pitch or as a crude medicine. When drillers learned to tap petroleum at depth starting in 1859, its benefits began to be discovered, and over the next century oil transformed civilization. Natural gas came into widespread use at the same time.

Geologists have learned a lot about petroleum, but we still don't know in complete detail how it forms. Clearly it comes from the remains of living things, just as coal is. But before dead organic matter becomes petroleum or coal it exists as a material called kerogen. With time in the ground, kerogen matures into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules of all sizes and weights. The lighter (smaller) hydrocarbon molecules become natural gas, and the heavier (larger) ones make up an oily liquid.

-Andrew Alden

1. According to the passage, all of the following words can be used to describe petroleum EXCEPT

• A. normal
• B. gaseous
• C. hidden
• D. natural
• E. oily

2. It can be inferred from the passage that kerogen

• A. is more practical than oil or gas.
• B. confuses geologists more than oil.
• C. eventually transforms into petroleum.
• D. lives inside dead matter.
• E. is more unstable than petroleum or coal.

3. Which of the following is NOT true regarding petroleum?

• A. Scientists do not know exactly how it forms.
• B. It can be obtained from living plants and animals.
• C. It exists as oil and as a gas.
• D. It is pumped out of the ground for human use.
• E. Humans have used it for over a hundred years.

4. According to the passage, the turning point in the history of petroleum use occurred when

• A. coal no longer fit the needs of a growing population.
• B. hydrocarbon molecules were first discovered.
• C. natural gas became famous in the 1900s.
• D. tar started to substitute for pitch and medicine.
• E. humans learned to draw on underground petroleum.

5. The speaker would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

• A. Oil is not as widely used as natural gas.
• B. Geologists know everything about petroleum.
• C. Coal was manufactured from tar from the start.
• D. Petroleum has had a great effect on the world.
• E. Most people do not appreciate petroleum.