Our family was going to go fishing on Saturday. A few years ago we went fishing down the hill from a mushroom farm called Happy Pond. Since that time, there has been a lot of rain and we noticed Happy Pond had a green coating across the top of it. We also thought about going to a new pond in center of the park called Ridge Pond. We are hoping to catch a lot of fish to serve at our family reunion.  Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question:   Which pond has less algae growing on it, Ridge Pond or Happy Pond  Hint: Rain dissolves fertilizer in the soil. Runoff carries it away. The fertilizer ends up in bodies of water, from ponds to oceans. The nitrogen is a fertilizer in the water bodies. Since there is a lot of nitrogen it causes algae to grow out of control. Figure below shows a pond covered with algae. Algae may use up so much oxygen in the water that nothing else can grow. Soon, even the algae die out. Decomposers break down the dead tissue and use up all the oxygen in the water. This creates a dead zone. A dead zone is an area in a body of water where nothing grows because there is too little oxygen. There is a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. You can see it Figure below .
Ans: Ridge Pond

Two groups of people were part of a science study. Group A ate lots of fats(lipids), while Group B  had a more balanced diet with few fats. Group A gained a lot of weight over the course of the 6 month study.  Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question:   Which group had ingested less cholesterol?  Hint: Although some lipids in the diet are essential, excess dietary lipids can be harmful. Because lipids are very high in energy, eating too many may lead to unhealthy weight gain. A high-fat diet may also increase lipid levels in the blood. This, in turn, can increase the risk for health problems such as cardiovascular disease. The dietary lipids of most concern are saturated fatty acids, trans fats, and cholesterol. For example, cholesterol is the lipid mainly responsible for narrowing arteries and causing the disease atherosclerosis.
Ans: Group B

Two coffee farms used different methods to grow coffee. Hill farm grown coffee conventionally, while Valley farm is into shade-grown coffee production.  Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question:   Which farm had lower weeding costs?  Hint: With shade applications, crops are purposely raised under tree canopies within the shady environment. The understory crops are shade tolerant or the overstory trees have fairly open canopies. A conspicuous example is shade-grown coffee. This practice reduces weeding costs and improves coffee quality and taste. The shade does not necessarily translate into lost or reduced yields. This is because the rate of photosynthesis hardly increases once the light intensity is over about one tenth that of direct overhead sunlight and declines with increasing light intensity. This means that shaded plants can grow well. Planting more than one level of vegetation can increase total photosynthesis and overall yields.
Ans: Valley

Two colleagues studied human evolution, Dan studied early humans, from around 200,000 years ago, while Bob studied human settlements from 10,000 years ago.  Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question:   Which student learned less about high death rates?  Hint: The earliest members of the human species evolved around 200,000 years ago in Africa. Early humans lived in small populations of nomadic hunters and gatherers. Human beings remained in Africa until about 40,000 years ago. After that, they spread throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia. By 10,000 years ago, the first human beings colonized the Americas. During this long period of time, the total number of human beings increased very slowly. Birth rates were fairly high but so were death rates, producing low rates of population growth.
