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It further discusses how mass extinctions can create evolutionary opportunities and evaluates asteroid impacts as a major driver of species loss and survival through catastrophe.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/","Exam",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/toefl-ibt-reading-practice-meteorite-impact-and-dinosaur-extinction/494257/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/toefl-ibt-reading-practice-meteorite-impact-and-dinosaur-extinction/494257.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"pop out","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-05","2026-10-01",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",12,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What does the TOEFL iBT Reading section measure?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It measures the ability to understand academic passages written in English, then answer questions about them.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why are meteorite impacts connected to the end of the dinosaur age in the passage?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The passage describes how a large impact could cause global ecological catastrophe and links the timing to the end of the dinosaurs.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What change in evolution does the passage describe after mass extinctions?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Following each mass extinction, new species develop to fill ecological niches opened by the event, creating an evolutionary burst.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},494257,1791234792,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,95,100,105,110,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":33,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":145,"read_time":146,"preview_page_count":4},962090760408,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","TOEFL iBT® Test Questions  \nReading Section  \nDirections: The Reading section measures your ability to understand academic passages written in English. You will read one passage and answer questions about it. In the actual TOEFL iBT® test, you would have 20 minutes to read the passage and answer the questions. Test takers with disabilities can request a time extension.  \nMeteorite Impact and Dinosaur Extinction  \nThere is increasing evidence that the impacts of meteorites have had important effects on Earth, particularly in the field of biological evolution. Such impacts continue to pose a natural hazard to life on Earth. Twice in the twentieth century, large meteorite objects are known to have collided with Earth.  \n5  \nIf an impact is large enough, it can disturb the environment of the entire Earth and cause an ecological catastrophe. The best-documented such impact took place 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period of geological history. This break in Earth’s history is marked by amass extinction, when as many as half the species on the planet  \n10 became extinct. While there are a dozen or more mass extinctions in the geological record, the Cretaceous mass extinction has always intrigued paleontologists because it marks the end of the age of the dinosaurs. For tens of millions ofyears, those great creatures had flourished.  \nThen, suddenly, they disappeared.  \n15 The body that impacted Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period was a meteorite with a mass of more than a trillion tons and a diameter of at least 10 kilometers. Scientists first identified this impact in 1980 from the worldwide layer of sediment deposited from the dust cloud that enveloped the planet after the impact. This sediment layer is enriched in the rare metal iridium and other elements that are relatively abundant in a meteorite but  \n20 very rare in the crust of Earth. Even diluted by the terrestrial material excavated from the crater, this component of meteorites is easily identified. By 1990 geologists had located the impact site itself in the Yucatán region of Mexico. The crater, now deeply buried in sediment, was originally about 200 kilometers in diameter.  \n25 This impact released an enormous amount of energy, excavating a crater about twice as large as the lunar crater Tycho. The explosion lifted about 100 trillion tons of dust into the atmosphere, as can be determined by measuring the thickness of the sediment layer formed  \nCopyright © 2015 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. ETS, the ETS logo and TOEFL IBT are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service (ETS) . 31569  \nwhen this dust settled to the surface. Such a quantity of material would have blocked the sunlight completely from reaching the surface, plunging Earth into a period  \n30 of cold and darkness that lasted at least several months. The explosion is also calculated to have produced vast quantities of nitric acid and melted rock that sprayed out over much of Earth, starting widespread fires that must have consumed most terrestrial forests and grassland. Presumably, those environmental disasters could have been responsible for the mass extinction, including the death of the dinosaurs.  \n35 Several other mass extinctions in the geological record have been tentatively identified with large impacts, but none is so dramatic as the Cretaceous event. But even without such specific documentation, it is clear that impacts ofthis size do occur and that their results can be catastrophic. What is a catastrophe for one group of living things, however,  \n40 may create opportunities for another group. Following each mass extinction, there is a sudden evolutionary burst as new species develop to fill the ecological niches opened by the event.  \nImpacts by meteorites represent one mechanism that could cause global catastrophes and  \n45 seriously influence the evolution of life all over the planet. According to some estimates, the majority of all extinctions","cbCaioDmGPkduCEQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioDmGPkduCEQ","pdf",240908,32,"English","# Reading Section Directions\n# Meteorite Impact and Dinosaur Extinction\n## Key evidence and timeline\n## Ecological catastrophe and evolutionary effects\n## NASA study and hazard assessment\n## Sample questions","[{\"question\":\"What does the TOEFL iBT Reading section measure?\",\"answer\":\"It measures the ability to understand academic passages written in English, then answer questions about them.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are meteorite impacts connected to the end of the dinosaur age in the passage?\",\"answer\":\"The passage describes how a large impact could cause global ecological catastrophe and links the timing to the end of the dinosaurs.\"},{\"question\":\"What change in evolution does the passage describe after mass extinctions?\",\"answer\":\"Following each mass extinction, new species develop to fill ecological niches opened by the event, creating an evolutionary burst.\"}]","TOEFL iBT Reading Practice - Meteorite Impact and Dinosaur Extinction | PDF",1790890752,81]