Grade 12 Reading Exercise

It hosts Grade 12 reading materials and exercises covering main question types, provides answers for all questions; students can get reading materials and exercises by topics or types and practices online.

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 All Exercises
Penguins' Anti-ice Trick
Words: 734    Suggest to finish in 10 minutes.
Britain TV Industry
Words: 876    Suggest to finish in 15 minutes.
Australian Aborigines
Words: 969    Suggest to finish in 15 minutes.
Truth About ART
Words: 971    Suggest to finish in 15 minutes.
Life Without Death
Words: 971    Suggest to finish in 15 minutes.
Mysterious Dark Matter
Words: 1012    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Crime-Fighting Technology
Words: 1038    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Risks Of Artificial Intelligence
Words: 1113    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Reveal How To Think
Words: 1120    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Gender Price Gap
Words: 1135    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
In Praise of Amateurs
Words: 1156    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Toddlers Bond With Robot
Words: 1196    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Cognitive Dissonance
Words: 1213    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
What A Waste
Words: 1291    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Romantic Kiss
Words: 1309    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Start-Ups Stay Private
Words: 1602    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
Gene Editing
Words: 1832    Suggest to finish in 20 minutes.
 Today's Question
Questions 1-8: The Reading Passage has eight paragraphs, A–H. Choose the most suitable headings for these paragraphs from the list of ten headings below. Write the appropriate number in boxes. There are more paragraph headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.
1Leon Festinger: On being stood up by the aliens
2Dishonest politicians? Never!
3Mind manipulation: the true reason of strange behavior
4You can't handle the truth!
5The catastrophe of 21st December
6Grow up - make cognitive dissonance work for you
7How many dollars would you take to tell a lie?
8Revealing mysteries: Darwin was right.
9Cognitive dissonance: who are you kidding?
10The high cost of commitment exposes us to cognitive dissonance
1. Passage A

2. Passage B

3. Passage C

4. Passage D

5. Passage E

6. Passage F

7. Passage G

8. Passage H
Questions 9-15: Choose the correct letter, A, B, or C.
9. After the spaceship didn’t show up on the fateful day, the members of the flying saucer doomsday cult
A)didn’t want to admit the uncomfortable truth and still believed that the world would self-destruct.
B)were embarrassed and humiliated because of their failure.
C)wanted media attention to say that they saved the planet.
Answer 9:

10. The main reason why people fight cognitive dissonance is
A)a desire to reduce the inner tension.
B)people’s unwillingness to accept their mistakes.
C)wish to avoid the awkward feeling of lying for not a good reason.
Answer 10:

11. During the experiment, people who were telling lies were more likely to claim that they believed in the lie if
A)they were paid less.
B)they were paid more.
C)they felt uncomfortable because of lying
Answer 11:

12. Commitment to the choices someone has made, and the ongoing need to justify that commitment, despite the conflicting evidence can be explained by the fact that
A)it causes uncomfortable emotional tension.
B)commitments require heavy emotional investment.
C)our brain always justifies our choices.
Answer 12:

13. The big part of genuine maturity is the ability of
A)sensible reasoning.
B)disregarding cognitive dissonance.
C)being honest with yourself.
Answer 13:

14. According to the text, which of the situations below is NOT an example of cognitive dissonance?
A)A man learns that his favored politician is dishonest, but continues to vote for him.
B)A woman doesn’t want to do vacuuming but convinces herself that otherwise, her carpet will remain filthy and finally does it.
C)A woman has been dating her boyfriend for five years. Everyone tells her that it’s an abusive relationship because he often beats and humiliates her, but she doesn’t want to leave her romantic partner.
Answer 14:

15. Charles Darwin quote from the beginning of the text implies that
A)cognitive dissonance helps us to change and therefore makes us a more enduring species
B)people often accept almost any form of relief, rather than admitting being at fault, to survive.
C)fighting the discomfort caused by cognitive dissonance is a survival mechanism developed during evolution.
Answer 15: