PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 27: Woolly Mammoth

Questions 17-22 refer to the following information.

Woolly Mammoth

The woolly mammoth and the mastodon probably best 17 capture the public's current image of prehistoric Ice Age animals. Typically, these now-extinct, herbivorous precursors to the modern-day elephant 18 was about 10 feet tall at the shoulders and weighed nearly 6,000 pounds.

Although paleontologists have discovered remains of many woolly mammoths over the years, none has been found better preserved than the "Jarkov Mammoth" found on Siberia's Taimyr Peninsula in 1997. Soon after a 9-year-old boy out playing in the snowy hills first spotted the remains, scientists descended on the site. Then, after battling weeks of frigid weather and approximately 20,000 years' worth of dense frost coating the entire body of the mammoth, the assembled team finally 19 had completed a successful excavation. Important for numerous scientific reasons, the Jarkov Mammoth, in particular, has helped scientists settle a debate that has been raging for many years concerning the possible reasons behind the sudden extinction of these ancient giants.

Woolly mammoths roamed the cold northern plains of the globe for much of the last 2 million years, including most of the Ice Age that began roughly 70,000 years ago. Then, quite suddenly, 10,000 years ago, a time that corresponds with the end of the Ice Age, the mammoths disappeared. Scientific theories explaining this rapid extinction ranged from meteor showers pelting Earth to 20 suggestions of massive volcanic eruptions. Today, however, partially due to evidence taken from the Jarkov Mammoth, the scientific community generally 21 agree that these creatures died out from a combination of changing climate, hunting pressures from humans, and probably even disease. In fact, scientists consider it likely that the rising temperatures accompanying the end of the Ice Age 22 will work against the evolutionary adaptations of the mammoths, including their signature woolly coats of dense fur. Indeed, the demise of the Jarkov Mammoth seems to have involved a deep patch of mud, perhaps a sign that these behemoths were unaccustomed to treading on increasingly softer ground.