Nonfiction Reading Test
Redwoods and Arms Races
Directions: Read the following passage and answ
to check your anners when appropriate
Redwoods are the talles trees in the world
They grow to be as high as 380 fot Compre
that to an Ameran football field, which is
300 feet long Adwood would impress you
if you stood near But why do they grow
so all?
trees that get
It's hard to see from the ground, but the
redwoods are competing. They are fighting
the most sunlight. The
light grow taller
Twees that get stuck under other trees do not
get as much light. They lose the opportunity to
grow taller So redwoods must grow taller to
compete or they will get trapped on the
bottom
Growing so tall is risky. The wind is more
threatening to a tall tree. It is also hard to grow
so much Redwoods use all their energy to
pow tall. The trees might be better off if they
didn't have to grow
tall to survive. Their
lives would be saler and easier. But there is no
way for them to coordinate. They cannot agree
to stop growing as all as possible. So they
compete their whole lives
People face similar challenges. For example,
nations spend a lot of money to protect
themselves from other nations. The US spends
more than half its budget on defense Most
other nations spend 10-30% of theirs one as
and armies. That's a lot of money
questions that follow Refer to the text
Alt
feeding
We could spend that money on schools, roads
and parks. We could spend i
hungry people or helping the env
could spend it an advancing art, philosophy, or
science. So why don't we?
We
The problem is that if a nation has no military,
then they face the risk of mvasion A nation
with a mighty amay may take their resources
and destroy them on a wh
Like the redwoods, which grow taller to their
own detriment, we are locked in a harmful
race. Most people agree that world peace in
better than an rice In a peaceful world,
we could use all our resources so make our
That sounds nice, but what if c nation broke
the agreement? What if they built an army in
secret? What if they used their secret army to
destroy us? Can we afford to take that risk?
Most nations decide that they cannot Rather,
they choose to spend a lot of money on
defense programs