RLA Mixed Practice Test 4

Harbor City Food Bank — Volunteer Orientation

(1) Thank you for signing up to volunteer with Harbor City Food Bank! Every week, our volunteers sort, pack, and deliver food to more than 3,000 families across the county. Before your first shift, you will attend a short orientation session at our warehouse on Pier Road.

(2) Orientation lasts about an hour, it covers safety rules, the sorting process, and the location of emergency exits. Sessions are held every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. and every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. You do not need to register for a specific session. Simply arrive about ten minutes early and check in at the volunteer desk.

(3) Please dress for physical work. Wear closed-toe shoes and comfortable clothing that you do not mind getting dusty. From November through March, bring a warm jacket. Because the warehouse is unheated in winter. Gloves, hairnets, and safety vests will be provided. Please leave valuables at home, since lockers are not available.

(4) After completing orientation, a shift schedule will be emailed to you. You may choose morning, afternoon, or evening shifts, and you can change your schedule at any time through our online volunteer portal. Most shifts last three hours, and groups of up to ten people can volunteer together.

(5) Volunteers must be at least 14 years old. Volunteers who are 14 to 17 must have a permission form signed by a parent or guardian, and they must work alongside an adult volunteer. Court-ordered community service hours are welcome; please bring your paperwork to orientation so that our staff can sign it.

(6) We look forward to meeting you. Your time and energy make a real difference for neighbors who need help putting food on the table. If you have questions before your orientation, call our volunteer office at 555-0148 or send an email to the address on our website.

MEMORANDUM

To: All Shipping Department Employees From: Karen Osei, Operations Manager Date: September 8 Subject: New break schedule

(1) Beginning Monday, September 22, the shipping department will move to a staggered break schedule. Under the current system, all forty employees take their lunch break at noon, the break room becomes overcrowded within minutes. Many of you have told us that you spend half of your break waiting in line.

(2) The new schedule divides the department into three groups. Group A will take lunch from 11:30 to 12:00, Group B from 12:00 to 12:30, and Group C from 12:30 to 1:00. Your group assignment is posted next to the time clock. Hoping to reduce crowding and shorten the line at the microwaves.

(3) The cafeteria will also begin selling sandwiches to employees wrapped in plastic. These sandwiches can be purchased at the front counter until 1:00 p.m., so even Group C will have fresh food available.

(4) Many employees asked for longer breaks in last spring's survey. The new schedule gives everyone a full thirty minutes, so some employees will still prefer the old fifteen-minute breaks. Supervisors will consider individual requests to switch groups or to split a break into two shorter ones.

(5) We tested this schedule in the receiving department over the summer. Workers there reported shorter lines and quieter lunches. Therefore, a few workers missed eating with friends from other groups. We will try to place employees who carpool or work closely together in the same group.

(6) We will review the new schedule after the first two months. At that time, we will ask every employee to complete a short survey about wait times, noise, and seating in the break room. If you have questions about your group assignment, please speak with your supervisor or email me directly. Thank you for helping us make the break room a more comfortable place for everyone.

To the Editor:

(1) Last spring, my neighbor's sixteen-year-old son was riding his bike to his job at the grocery store when a driver opening a parked car's door knocked him into traffic. He spent two nights in the hospital with a broken collarbone. He was lucky. Others have not been. According to the city's own traffic report, three cyclists were seriously hurt on Elm Avenue last year alone.

(2) That is why I urge the City Council to approve the protected bike lane proposed for Elm Avenue when it votes on November 12. The plan would place a lane for bikes between the sidewalk and a row of parked cars, separated from traffic by a low curb. Cities that have built similar lanes report fewer injuries for cyclists, walkers, and drivers alike, because traffic moves more predictably.

(3) A safer street is not the only benefit. Many people in our neighborhood cannot afford a car, or would rather not spend hundreds of dollars a month on gas, insurance, and parking. For them, a bike is the cheapest way to get to work. Right now, many are afraid to ride on Elm. A protected lane would give them a real choice.

(4) I understand the concerns of some Elm Avenue business owners. The plan would remove about forty parking spaces, and owners worry that customers who drive will go elsewhere. Their livelihoods are at stake, and their worry is reasonable. But the city's own survey of shoppers on Elm found that most of them arrived on foot, by bus, or by bike. In addition, the plan adds twenty-five new spaces on Birch Street, one block away. Customers who drive will still be able to park; they may simply walk an extra minute.

(5) Some people also say that "nobody bikes here anyway." That is like deciding not to build a bridge because nobody swims across the river. People do not ride on streets that feel dangerous. Give them a safe route, and they will use it.

(6) I have lived on Elm Avenue for nineteen years. I want it to be a street where a teenager can ride to work and come home in one piece. I hope the Council agrees, and I hope my neighbors will attend the November 12 meeting to say so.

Teresa Lindqvist, Elm Avenue resident

To the Editor:

(1) Last spring, my neighbor's sixteen-year-old son was riding his bike to his job at the grocery store when a driver opening a parked car's door knocked him into traffic. He spent two nights in the hospital with a broken collarbone. He was lucky. Others have not been. According to the city's own traffic report, three cyclists were seriously hurt on Elm Avenue last year alone.

(2) That is why I urge the City Council to approve the protected bike lane proposed for Elm Avenue when it votes on November 12. The plan would place a lane for bikes between the sidewalk and a row of parked cars, separated from traffic by a low curb. Cities that have built similar lanes report fewer injuries for cyclists, walkers, and drivers alike, because traffic moves more predictably.

(3) A safer street is not the only benefit. Many people in our neighborhood cannot afford a car, or would rather not spend hundreds of dollars a month on gas, insurance, and parking. For them, a bike is the cheapest way to get to work. Right now, many are afraid to ride on Elm. A protected lane would give them a real choice.

(4) I understand the concerns of some Elm Avenue business owners. The plan would remove about forty parking spaces, and owners worry that customers who drive will go elsewhere. Their livelihoods are at stake, and their worry is reasonable. But the city's own survey of shoppers on Elm found that most of them arrived on foot, by bus, or by bike. In addition, the plan adds twenty-five new spaces on Birch Street, one block away. Customers who drive will still be able to park; they may simply walk an extra minute.

(5) Some people also say that "nobody bikes here anyway." That is like deciding not to build a bridge because nobody swims across the river. People do not ride on streets that feel dangerous. Give them a safe route, and they will use it.

(6) I have lived on Elm Avenue for nineteen years. I want it to be a street where a teenager can ride to work and come home in one piece. I hope the Council agrees, and I hope my neighbors will attend the November 12 meeting to say so.

Teresa Lindqvist, Elm Avenue resident

(1) For eleven years, the Westside Community Pantry has handed out groceries from the basement of St. Luke's Church every Tuesday and Thursday. This spring, those two days stopped being enough.

(2) In early March, the Carlton Plastics plant on Industrial Road eliminated its night shift, laying off about 300 workers. Within weeks, the pantry's line stretched up the basement stairs and onto the sidewalk. The table below shows how the pantry's numbers changed during the first half of the year.

Westside Community Pantry, January to June

(3) Pantry director Gwen Alvarez noticed that many of the new families arrived late on Thursday evenings, often still wearing work uniforms from other jobs. "A lot of people who lost their night-shift jobs found new work, but it pays less, and it's during the day," she said. In April, the pantry began opening on Saturday mornings from 9 to noon.

(4) Meeting the demand has been hard for another reason. Most of the pantry's weekday volunteers are retirees, and several have stopped volunteering because of health problems or moves. The pantry has not been able to replace them, even as the number of families has grown. Volunteers now often stay an extra hour to finish packing boxes.

(5) Alvarez is hopeful about two changes. Students from Westside High School have begun volunteering on Saturdays to earn community service hours, and a local grocery store has started donating fresh produce twice a week. "We're doing more with fewer hands," Alvarez said. "But we can't keep stretching forever."

(6) The pantry's board will meet in August to discuss its options. These include asking other churches in the area to share the work or opening a second location on the east side of town.

(1) Every winter for more than a century, volunteers across North America have spent a day counting birds. They record every species they see and how many. At first, the counts were simply a holiday tradition. Today, the long record they have built is one of scientists' best tools for seeing how bird populations change over time.

(2) When researchers compared recent counts with those from the 1960s, they noticed a pattern. Many species were being seen farther north in winter than before. The purple finch, for example, now spends the winter much farther north than it did a few decades ago. Not every species moved, and some moved only a little, but the overall direction was clear.

(3) Over the same period, average winter temperatures across much of the continent have risen. Lakes freeze later in the fall and thaw earlier in the spring. Many scientists think the shift in bird ranges is linked to these changes. Birds that once had to fly far south to find unfrozen water or food can now survive the winter in places that used to be too cold.

(4) Some kinds of birds seem to handle change better than others. Birds that eat many different foods, such as seeds, berries, insects, and the offerings at backyard feeders, can often move into a new area and find something to eat. Birds that depend on a single kind of food or habitat have a harder time. A bird that nests only in one type of evergreen forest, for example, cannot move north faster than that forest can grow there, and forests spread very slowly.

(5) Timing is another problem. Many songbirds migrate thousands of miles each spring to raise their young where insects are plentiful. Their migration is triggered mostly by the changing length of the day, which a warming climate does not affect. But in many places, spring warmth now arrives earlier, and insects hatch earlier too. A bird that arrives on its usual date may find that the peak of the insect supply has already passed, leaving less food for its chicks.

(6) Scientists are now using the volunteers' counts, along with newer tools such as tiny tracking devices, to predict which species are most at risk. Some cities and states are also protecting "stepping-stone" habitats, such as patches of forest, wetland, and grassland, so that birds have places to stop and find food as their ranges change.

(7) The birds at your feeder this winter may look the same as always. But the map of where they live is quietly being redrawn.

Text 1 — Let Teens Sleep

By Carla Mendez, a fictional school nurse at Lakeview High School

(1) Every morning, I see the same thing in my office: students with headaches, students who can barely keep their eyes open, students who skipped breakfast to catch a 6:40 a.m. bus. Lakeview High School starts at 7:15 a.m. That is simply too early.

(2) Teenagers are not lazy. During the teen years, the body's internal clock shifts, so most teens do not feel sleepy until about 11 p.m. A teen who falls asleep at 11 and wakes at 6 gets only seven hours of sleep, less than the eight to ten hours that doctors recommend for this age group.

(3) Nearby Cedar Falls moved its high school start time from 7:30 to 8:30 two years ago. Since then, the district reports that first-period tardiness has dropped by a third and attendance has risen. Our students deserve the same chance.

(4) The school board should move Lakeview's start time one hour later, to 8:15 a.m., beginning next fall.

Text 2 — The Hidden Costs of a Later Bell

By Tom Kessler, a fictional transportation director for Lakeview Schools

(1) No one disputes that teenagers need more sleep. But moving the high school start time is not as simple as changing a number on a schedule.

(2) Lakeview uses the same 42 buses for its high school, middle school, and elementary schools. The high school route runs first. If the high school starts an hour later, either the elementary schools must start earlier, putting young children at bus stops in the dark, or the district must buy and staff more buses. Our estimate for 14 additional buses and drivers is about $1.2 million a year.

(3) A later start also means a later end. Students would leave at 3:45 instead of 2:45, cutting into after-school jobs that many families rely on and pushing sports practices past sunset in winter.

(4) Cedar Falls is often held up as a model, but it is a district of 1,800 students with a separate bus fleet for each school. What worked there may not work here. Before the board votes, it should study how a change would affect every family in the district, not just high school students.

A student wrote this first draft in response to the two texts about protected bike lanes on Riverton's Main Street. The draft needs revision.

(1) Riverton is arguing about bike lanes. Elena Vasquez, a city transportation planner, supports adding protected lanes to Main Street. Hal Dempsey, who owns a hardware store, opposes the plan because it would remove parking. Bike lanes are a topic many people have opinions about.

(2) Vasquez begins with local facts. She cites police crash reports showing 47 crashes involving cyclists or pedestrians on the downtown stretch, including two deaths. She then points to Lakeside, where a state study found that injury crashes fell by 35 percent after protected lanes were added. I rode my bike in Lakeside once, and the lanes were painted green. A state study covering three years is far more reliable than a guess, so her safety claim is strongly supported.

(3) Vasquez notes that the plan removes 40 parking spaces. The city garage one block away is only 55 percent full on average. A survey of 300 shoppers found that 31 percent would bike downtown more often if they felt safe.

(4) Dempsey relies on feelings and secondhand stories. He says one shop owner told him she "would close her shop," but he gives no numbers. As a result, he never explains why a half-empty garage one block away would not work for his customers. He also claims that most people "always will" drive, a prediction with no evidence behind it.

(5) Dempsey does raise one fair point. Customers who buy heavy items need somewhere to load them. Similarly, this problem could be solved with a few loading zones; it is not a reason to reject a plan that would prevent crashes.

(6) In conclusion, bike lanes have good and bad sides. Riverton should think about it.

A student wrote this first draft in response to the two texts about a teen curfew in Easton. The draft has errors in style, grammar and sentence structure.

(1) Easton's police chief wants a curfew for teens under 17, but the director of the town's youth center thinks a curfew would target the wrong hours. Both writers want young people to be safe, yet they disagree about how to protect them. Reyes's argument is way more convincing than Donnelly's.

(2) Donnelly's main statistic is a 30 percent rise in juvenile arrests. Which sounds serious. However, the actual numbers were only 20 and 26. Reyes points out that six extra arrests in a town of 18,000 people could just be a normal change, this weakens Donnelly's whole case.

(3) The data on timing are even more important. According to police records, 57 percent of juvenile incidents happens between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on school days. Only 9 percent happened during curfew hours. When Reyes compared these numbers with Donnelly's plan, she showed that it would miss most of the problem. In other words, the curfew would cover the hours when the fewest problems occur.

(4) Donnelly also leans on stuff like a mayor's comment that the streets "felt calmer". Feelings are not evidence. Reyes, in contrast, relies on research. Looking at a dozen studies, no consistent drop in juvenile crime was found.

(5) Each of the parents at Donnelly's meeting have a real concern, and I get it. But a curfew isn't the answer. Reyes reports that a spring pilot program at her center drew an average of 65 teens each afternoon. Keeping the youth center open later are a more practical solution.

A student wrote this first draft in response to the two texts about a teen curfew in Easton. The draft has errors in style, grammar and sentence structure.

(1) Easton's police chief wants a curfew for teens under 17, but the director of the town's youth center thinks a curfew would target the wrong hours. Both writers want young people to be safe, yet they disagree about how to protect them. Reyes's argument is way more convincing than Donnelly's.

(2) Donnelly's main statistic is a 30 percent rise in juvenile arrests. Which sounds serious. However, the actual numbers were only 20 and 26. Reyes points out that six extra arrests in a town of 18,000 people could just be a normal change, this weakens Donnelly's whole case.

(3) The data on timing are even more important. According to police records, 57 percent of juvenile incidents happens between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on school days. Only 9 percent happened during curfew hours. When Reyes compared these numbers with Donnelly's plan, she showed that it would miss most of the problem. In other words, the curfew would cover the hours when the fewest problems occur.

(4) Donnelly also leans on stuff like a mayor's comment that the streets "felt calmer". Feelings are not evidence. Reyes, in contrast, relies on research. Looking at a dozen studies, no consistent drop in juvenile crime was found.

(5) Each of the parents at Donnelly's meeting have a real concern, and I get it. But a curfew isn't the answer. Reyes reports that a spring pilot program at her center drew an average of 65 teens each afternoon. Keeping the youth center open later are a more practical solution.