Last Updated on March 1, 2025
Prepare for the Classic Learning Test CLT Verbal Reasoning Practice Test 2 on Science with timed questions, detailed answer explanations, and strategies to boost critical thinking and reading comprehension. Ace your exam.
CLT Verbal Reasoning Practice Test 2
Science
This passage is adapted from Léa Surugue’s “Why is it so hard to stop people dying from snakebite?”, first published in 2019 in Mosaic (https://mosaicscience.com/story/snakebite-antivenom-crisis-Africa-Togo/). Licensed under CC-BY.
Each year an estimated 2.7 million people around the world are bitten by venomous snakes and about 100,000 die. Most victims live in poor, rural, and politically marginalized communities. Data from Africa is fragmented, but the latest figures suggest that snakebites kill up to 20,000 people each year in subSaharan Africa alone.
In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) finally recognized the problem by classifying venomous snakebite as a neglected tropical disease. This led to renewed discussions about the only specific treatment currently available—antivenom.
When adequately manufactured, distributed, and administered, antivenom saves lives. But right now, the world produces less than half of what it needs. Antivenom is made using a technique that’s over a century old, and there aren’t any common standards to measure its safety or effectiveness, leading to a high risk of adverse reactions. And for over 40 percent of the world’s snake species, there’s no antivenom whatsoever.
Milking a snake is the first step in creating antivenom. The process is over 120 years old, and has changed very little in that time. You inject small, non-toxic doses of venom into an animal—usually a horse or a sheep—to stimulate an immune response. The animal then starts producing antibodies against the venom’s toxins, and you draw some of its blood. Finally, you isolate and purify these antibodies, and make them into a stable solution that can be given to patients as an injection.
This may sound simple, but it isn’t. Because antivenom is made up of animal antibodies and foreign proteins, it can cause adverse reactions in the human body—especially if you don’t purify it well enough. Side-effects range from rashes, nausea, and headaches to anaphylactic shock in rare cases.
Venoms are also complicated substances to treat. They’re made up of hundreds of different toxins whose properties and interactions are still not entirely understood. The combinations of toxins and their effects vary widely from species to species. And even if the right antivenom is available, matching it to a particular snakebite is difficult.
The priorities over the coming years will be to improve the treatments we already have—including how they’re made—and to make it easier for people to get products that already have a proven track record.
To help, the WHO is currently testing antivenom quality worldwide as part of a ‘prequalification’ scheme. It’s long used this system to assess and maintain the quality of other drugs.
The WHO’s envenoming strategy, published in May 2019, promotes safe, effective, and affordable treatments, but underlines that treatments will only have their best effect if health systems are improved and communities engage with them. Only when patients seek care straightaway, with the right knowledge and treatments then being applied, can snakebite be most successfully treated.
CC BY license can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. This passage has been excerpted and adapted from the original, including minor punctuation changes, spelling changes, and other modifications that have not substantially changed content or intent.
CLI 2021. Data derived from: https://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/venomous_snake_faqs.shtml
11. The passage primarily focuses on which of the following?
A) The dangers of snakebites and their effects on the people poisoned with venom
B) The treatment of snakebites with antivenom and some of antivenom’s challenges
C) The process of creating antivenom and how the WHO plans to manufacture more
D) The importance of treating snakebites promptly and the best ways to do so
12. Which of the following best describes how the author feels about antivenom?
A) She feels that the world does not have enough of it.
B) She feels that doctors should prioritize other treatments due to the unproven efficacy of antivenom.
C) She feels that it is dangerous and should be avoided.
D) She feels that it is a cheap but ineffective treatment due to its complicated production process.
13. Which lines in the passage best support the answer to the previous question?
A) Paragraph 1, Sentence 1 (“Each year . . . die”)
B) Paragraph 2, Sentence 2 (“This led . . . antivenom”)
C) Paragraph 3, Sentence 2 (“But right . . . needs”)
D) Paragraph 3, Sentence 3 (“Antivenom is . . . reactions”)
14. According to the passage, antivenom is the
A) poison injected by snakebites.
B) only specific treatment available for snakebites.
C) blood of animals resistant to snakebites.
D) only way to survive any snakebite.
15. Based on the passage, “milking a snake” most likely means
A) capturing a snake and studying its venom.
B) injecting the snake with small doses of venom.
C) drawing milk from a snake that has recently reproduced.
D) extracting the snake’s venom.
16. In Paragraph 4, Sentence 3, the word “stimulate” most closely means
A) energize.
B) articulate.
C) generate.
D) restore.
17. The final two paragraphs of the passage focus on which of the following?
A) Different paths patients can take to secure treatment for snakebite
B) New initiatives from the WHO to categorize different types of snakes
C) The mechanisms behind how antivenom works
D) Efforts by the WHO to improve treatment of snakebite
18. Which of the following can be concluded from Chart 1?
A) In 2020, 52 people worldwide died as a result of a lightning strike.
B) There are about eight times as many wasps and bees in the U.S. as there are spiders.
C) In the United States, about five people die from a snake bite each year.
D) The percentage of deaths in the U.S. attributable to bee or wasp stings in 2020 was much less than 1%.
19. venomous snakebite : neglected tropical disease ::
A) venom : snake
B) horse : animal
C) toxin : protein
D) rashes : nausea
20. venom : illness ::
A) disease : treatment
B) disease : global treatment
C) antivenom : treatment
D) antivenom : restored health