Read the following passage.
A. Joseph-Armand Bombardier was born in 1907 in Valcourt, a farming village in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. As a boy he built mechanical toys, including a small locomotive driven by a clock mechanism. At 15, with his brother's help, he repaired an old Ford engine and used it to drive a sled with a propeller. His father, Alfred, worried about the dangerous propeller and ordered the machine taken apart. Alfred had also hoped his eldest son would become a priest, but Joseph-Armand left college at 17 to train as a mechanic. In 1926 Bombardier opened his own garage in Valcourt.
B. In rural Quebec, snow made country roads impossible for cars in winter. In the winter of 1934, Bombardier's two-year-old son Yvon died of peritonitis because the family could not get him to a hospital. After this loss, Bombardier worked even harder on a vehicle that could travel on snow. His key idea was a toothed wheel covered in rubber that pulled a track, while skis at the front steered the machine. He patented this system in 1937, and that same year he introduced the B7, which carried seven passengers in a closed body.
C. Demand grew. A larger model, the B12, seated 12 people and was used for school transport, ambulance work and carrying mail. From 1942 to 1946, more than 1,900 tracked military vehicles were built to his designs. Then, in the late 1940s, the Quebec government began plowing rural roads, and in one year the company's sales dropped by close to one million dollars. Bombardier responded by building tracked machines for forestry, farming and mining. One of them, the Muskeg tractor, could reach swampy ground.
D. In 1959 Bombardier took a small one-person prototype to Lansdowne House in northern Ontario, where Ojibwe drivers tested it, and he left it there as a gift. The product was meant to be called the Ski-Dog, but a printing error turned the name into Ski-Doo. Mass production began that autumn, and output rose from 225 machines in the first season to 8,352 in the fifth. The visit to Lansdowne House had changed his thinking: he now saw the snowmobile as a machine for recreation as well as for work. As the first snow machine built in large numbers, the Ski-Doo launched snowmobiling as a sport.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: D
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph D: the product was meant to be called the Ski-Dog, but a printing error turned the name into Ski-Doo. So the famous name came from a mistake.
Passage Reference: The product was meant to be called the Ski-Dog, but a printing error turned the name into Ski-Doo.
Tips: Several vehicles are named in the passage. Ask which name was changed by a mistake in printing.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph describes his toys and his first propeller sled. It explains no product name.
- B: The second paragraph names the B7, but it gives no story about a mistake in the name.
- C: In paragraph C, the B12 and the Muskeg tractor are named, but nothing is said about how any name was chosen.
- E: Paragraph D tells the story: the product was planned as the Ski-Dog, and a printing error made it the Ski-Doo.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: After this loss, Bombardier worked even harder on a vehicle that could travel on snow.
Why this is correct: In paragraph B, his two-year-old son Yvon died in 1934 because the family could not reach a hospital. After this loss, he worked even harder on a vehicle for snow.
Tips: Look for a sad family event, then read what he did right after it. Match 'pushed him' with a phrase about trying harder.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: His father and brother appear in paragraph A, but nobody in the family dies there.
- C: The third paragraph describes falling sales and new machines. It gives no personal reason for his work.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about the Ski-Doo, its name and its sales. Nobody in his family dies there.
- E: Right after the death of his son Yvon, paragraph B says he worked even harder on a vehicle for snow.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: His father, Alfred, worried about the dangerous propeller and ordered the machine taken apart.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph A: his father worried about the dangerous propeller on the sled and ordered the machine taken apart. 'Dismantled' means 'taken apart'.
Tips: Find his boyhood inventions. Check which one his father stopped, and the reason he gave.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: In paragraph B, the snow vehicle works, with its wheel and track. Nobody stops that machine.
- C: The third paragraph tells of problems with sales, not a machine that was taken apart.
- D: The prototype in paragraph D was given away as a gift, not dismantled.
- E: Paragraph A tells us his father ordered the propeller sled taken apart because it looked dangerous.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Then, in the late 1940s, the Quebec government began plowing rural roads, and in one year the company's sales dropped by close to one million dollars.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph C says the Quebec government began plowing rural roads in the late 1940s. Then, in one year, the company's sales dropped by close to one million dollars. So the government's new road policy hit his business hard.
Tips: Roads come up more than once. Find the one where a choice by the 'authorities in Quebec' hurts his firm.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph mentions his garage in Valcourt but no government action or sales figures.
- B: Snowy roads come up in paragraph B too, but only as the reason his vehicles were needed. No drop in sales appears.
- D: In paragraph D, sales went up, from 225 to 8,352 machines. That is not a drop.
- E: The plowing of rural roads and the loss of close to one million dollars in sales both appear in paragraph C.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: From 1942 to 1946, more than 1,900 tracked military vehicles were built to his designs.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, more than 1,900 military vehicles were built to his designs from 1942 to 1946. It does not say who asked for them or who ordered them.
Tips: The passage gives how many military vehicles were built. Check whether it also names who asked for them.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph is about his boyhood, his father's wishes and his garage. No army or officials appear.
- B: The second paragraph describes the B7 for passengers and his patent, not any request from the government.
- C: Paragraph C is the closest: it gives the number of military vehicles. But it never says who requested them.
- D: In paragraph D, the Ski-Doo and the trip to Lansdowne House are the topics. Nothing is said about soldiers.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: His key idea was a toothed wheel covered in rubber that pulled a track, while skis at the front steered the machine.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph B: his key idea was a toothed wheel covered in rubber that pulled a track. A soft-coated part with teeth is that rubber-covered, toothed wheel.
Tips: Break 'a soft-coated part with teeth' into two parts: what it is made of and its shape. Look for both near the track.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: His first sled in paragraph A used a propeller, not a wheel and track.
- C: Paragraph C does list tracked machines for forestry and mining. Yet how the track moved is never explained there.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about the small one-person Ski-Doo and its sales, not the wheel design.
- E: Paragraph B explains his key idea: a toothed wheel covered in rubber pulled the track.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: In 1959 Bombardier took a small one-person prototype to Lansdowne House in northern Ontario, where Ojibwe drivers tested it, and he left it there as a gift.
Why this is correct: In paragraph D, he took a one-person prototype to Lansdowne House in northern Ontario in 1959. Ojibwe drivers tested it there. Mass production began that autumn. A prototype is an early model.
Tips: Find the story of the early machine being tried out in a remote place. Check who rode it there, and whether that was before sales began.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph describes the propeller sled he built with his brother's help in Valcourt. No one in Ontario tries a machine.
- B: Paragraph B tells about the B7 for seven passengers, not a small machine tried out by others.
- C: In paragraph C, the machines are for forestry, farming and mining, and no place in Ontario appears.
- E: Ojibwe drivers at Lansdowne House in northern Ontario tested the prototype, as paragraph D reports.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Alfred had also hoped his eldest son would become a priest, but Joseph-Armand left college at 17 to train as a mechanic.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph A: he left college at 17 to train as a mechanic and later opened a garage. It does not say where or how he trained. Montreal is never mentioned.
Tips: Paragraph A gives the training in general words. The statement adds a city and a kind of class.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A is the closest: he trained as a mechanic. But no city and no night classes are named.
- B: The second paragraph describes his work on the snow vehicle and his patent, not his education.
- C: The B12, the war years and the drop in sales make up paragraph C. Montreal is not mentioned.
- D: The fourth paragraph covers the Ski-Doo prototype, its name and its sales, not his training.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: Alfred had also hoped his eldest son would become a priest, but Joseph-Armand left college at 17 to train as a mechanic.
Why this is correct: In paragraph A, his father, Alfred, had hoped his eldest son would become a priest. A priest has a career in the Church.
Tips: Find where his family's plans for his future appear. Check what his father wished for, and what he chose instead.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: His own son, Yvon, appears in paragraph B, but there are no plans for anyone's career.
- C: The third paragraph is about his company's products and sales, not his family's wishes.
- D: In paragraph D, the Ski-Doo and the change in his thinking about snowmobiles are the topics, not his family's plans.
- E: Paragraph A names the career Alfred wanted for his eldest son: the priesthood.
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