http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071119103540.htm

Here’s the first paragraph:

The earliest known use of cacao––the source of our modern day chocolate––has been pushed back more than 500 years, to somewhere between 1400 and 1100 B.C.E., thanks to new chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery excavated at an archaeological site at Puerto Escondido in Honduras. The new evidence also indicates that, long before the flavor of the cacao seed (or bean) became popular, it was the sweet pulp of the chocolate fruit, used in making a fermented (5% alcohol) beverage, which first drew attention to the plant in the Americas.

Yeah, it’s all about chocolate, but isn’t that just the kind of thing that would be on the GED? That’s right, I said it! Chocolate covered GED! So I thought I’d make up a practice question… like this one…

The “new evidence” mentioned in the second sentence is…

1) A recipe for chocolate liquor

2) Chemical analyses of stuff from old pots

3) Sweet pulp of chocolate fruit (mmm….chocolate fruit…)

4) None of the above

What do you think? I’ll clue you in next time…now, I gotta get me some CHOCOLATE!!!1!!1!!!!111!

The earliest known use of cacao—the source of our modern day chocolate—has been pushed back more than 500 years, to somewhere between 1400 and 1100 B.C.E., thanks to new chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery excavated at an archaeological site at Puerto Escondido in Honduras. The new evidence also indicates that, long before the flavor of the cacao seed (or bean) became popular, it was the sweet pulp of the chocolate fruit, used in making a fermented (5% alcohol) beverage, which first drew attention to the plant in the Americas.

The “new evidence” mentioned in the second sentence is…

1) A recipe for chocolate liquor

2) Chemical analyses of stuff from old pots

3) Sweet pulp of chocolate fruit (mmm….chocolate fruit…)

4) None of the above

See that “new evidence” phrase there? What’s it mean? That’s the real question… so I look at the sentence, and it says the evidence shows that people drank fermented chocolate fruit… mmmm… chocolate wine!! I bet everyone’d buy that…

Anyways, so I look at the answers. I gotta think all logically, like Curtis or someone. Which one of these things would show that people drank chocolate wine? D’oh! They all would… a recipe, or leftover stuff, or maybe they found some chocolate pulp? So, I gotta read again.

First, I think about the recipe. Nowhere does the paragraph say anything about finding a recipe! Whatever the answer is, it gotta be in the article!

Then, I think about the second thing… a chemical analysis, like with a mad scientist in his laboratory, no doubt. Talks about that in the first sentence… “thanks to new chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery.” Then, in the second sentence, it says the new evidence ALSO says… so it must be the evidence they talked about before. Who knew? There’s like scientists, who go around figuring out what the icky stuff on the bottom of old pots is. Man, they’d like to see my kitchen.

Yeah, the answer’s gotta be B. Did you get it?

What would happen if Dwayne (that’s me!) made a new kind of lava lamp with a light on the top as well as one on the bottom?

A) When the lamp was on, the lava stuff would move twice as fast.

B) When the lamp was on, the lava stuff wouldn’t move at all.

C) When the lamp was on, the lava stuff would go to the top and stop.

D) The lava stuff would keep moving even when the lamp was off.

E) The lamp would overheat.

The answer is… drumroll please…… C! The lava would go to the top of the lamp, then stop. How come?

Well, as we figured out, the lava rises up because the lamp at the bottom get hotter, kind of like how a hot-air balloon rises because the air is hotter, and hotter stuff is lighter.

So, if there was a lamp on both top and bottom, the stuff would still get hot, and it would rise to the top… but it wouldn’t ever cool down, because the lamp at the top would keep it hot. So it would go up to the top and stay there!

Make sense to you? Ask me if you don’t get it. And I promise, next time I’ll talk about something new! Even though lava lamps are really kewl…

So, last time, I told you how a lava lamp works. Basically, the light at the bottom makes the waxy stuff get hot. When it’s hotter, it’s less dense than the liquid, so it floats up. When it gets to the top, it cools down, gets more dense, and sinks down… makin’ kewl psychedelic lava lamps.

Here’s the extrapolation:

What would happen if Dwayne (that’s me!) made a new kind of lava lamp with a light on the top as well as one on the bottom?

A) When the lamp was on, the lava stuff would move twice as fast.

B) When the lamp was on, the lava stuff wouldn’t move at all.

C) When the lamp was on, the lava stuff would go to the top and stop.

D) The lava stuff would keep moving even when the lamp was off.

E) The lamp would overheat.

Hehehehe… I’m turning lava lamps into GED preparation! Good luck on this one! Let me know what you think…

Friction is the force resisting the relative lateral (tangential) motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, or material elements in contact. It is usually subdivided into several varieties.

Already I’m like, WHOAH, what does THAT mean? I have no idea! That’s why sometimes I feel stupid, ’cause I read stuff on the internet when I just wanna find out a simple answer to a simple question like, “Why is ice slippery” and I get this sentence about relatives and ladders and tangerines. I don’t get it! But I really wanted to know, ’cause I been tryin’ to look things up like Mr. W says, so I tried the next link down at fearofphysics.com and that definition made WAY more sense:

Friction is the “evil” of all motion. No matter which direction something moves in, friction pulls it the other way. Move something left, friction pulls right. Move something up, friction pulls down.

Already I can tell a little more about Friction! It’s some kinda force that keeps you from moving one way ’cause it’s pushing the other way. That’s not so hard to understand. And when I read the rest of the definition, I could already kind of guess what the answer to my question was! Look, I made a practice question out of it:

Friction is the “evil” of all motion. No matter which direction something moves in, friction pulls it the other way. Move something left, friction pulls right. Move something up, friction pulls down. It appears as if nature has given us friction to stop us from moving anything. Friction is actually a force that appears whenever two things rub against each other. Although two objects might look smooth, microscopically, they’re very rough and jagged… As they slide against each other, their contact is anything BUT smooth. They both kind of grind and drag against each other. This is where friction comes from. — fearofphysics.com

Why can you slide on ice more easily than on concrete?

1. Concrete is evil.

2. Ice has more friction than concrete.

3. Concrete has more friction than ice.

4. Ice has no friction at all.

5. It’s impossible to know from this passage.

Since this is my practice question, I’ll let you guys figure it out! But I wanted to also say that, well, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! I mean, when I first tried to look up friction, I just didn’t get it. I think that if I was lookin’ this stuff up before I started studying for the GED, I woulda given up after the first try. I woulda thought I was an idiot! But I’m not! Even if I have to go to a site that’s meant for kids in middle school or something, I’d rather understand something that was explained really simplistically than not get it at all!

So everyone out there, keep trying and searching for answers to your questions! Eventually, you’ll find something that makes sense to you!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Check out this practice question I found about the GRAVITRON!

A man stands on a ride at an amusement park that spins around. As the ride spins faster, the man is pushed back against the outer wall and finds it very difficult to pull himself away from it.

Which statement best explains this event?

1. There is glue on the wall holding him on.

2. The ride is creating a magnetic force that pulls the man toward the metal in the walls.

3. The ride is creating a new center of gravity inside the walls.

4. The spinning of the ride creates a centrifugal force that pushes the man outward from the center.

5. The ride creates an optical illusion the makes the man think he is falling backward into the wall.

Haha, well unless he’s a metal man, I don’t think 2 is right! Magnetics only work on metal, and only some kinds of metal. Maybe if he had a lot of metal in his pockets? But the question doesn’t say he does, so I’m gonna guess not. Especially ’cause I don’t think spinning around creates magnetic forces, that has something to do with the north and south pole I think?

Anyway, 1 is always wrong, there’s no glue in theme park rides unless some kind puts it there. That leaves me with 3, which says it’s gravity; 4, which says it’s centrifugal force; and 5, which says it’s all an optical illusion. Well, I guess there are some optical illusions that make you think you might be moving when you’re not. They got this other ride at Universal Studios that has a long tunnel that spins, and when you get out of the tunnel, you realize that everyone on the ride is leaning to their left ’cause of the spinning! I don’t know how that works, but I don’t think it’s true here. When you spin something around, like if you had a cup filled with water and spun it really fast, the water would stick to the sides too! So that’s not it.

I don’t think it’s 3 either, ’cause gravity is something that big things do. The sun, the Earth, the moon, they all have gravity, but they’re big masses… I mean HUGE masses of rock and stuff, and they only create a little bit of gravity. I mean, we can still jump and fly in planes. But when you’re on the Gravitron, you couldn’t jump. It says that in the question too. “The man finds it very difficult to pull himself away.” So if the Earth creates a little bit of gravity, I really doubt the Gravitron could creation even MORE gravity (as much as its name wants it to).

I think the answer’s number 4. I’m not even entirely sure what centrifugal force is, but it sounds about right. Like isn’t a centrifuge something the put blood in and spin REALLY fast? Even if you don’t know about that, all the other answers just don’t make as much sense. Like 3 says it’s making gravity IN the walls, which doesn’t work, but 4 says that it’s creating a force that just pushes the man out from the center. That makes more sense.

Hope everyone has a good new year! 2010!! Keep studying for the GED! Make a resolution to pass! You can totally do it!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

However, if it weren’t for the greenhouse effect, we’d all be ice statues! Check it out!!

Much of the Sun’s energy is absorbed by the Earth’s surface. When the ground heats up, it sends energy back into the atmosphere. The atmosphere absorbs the energy as well and some of it escapes up into space while some falls back down to Earth. This is called the greenhouse effect. This system of rising and falling energy is what keeps Earth warm enough for human life to exist.

Which of the following gives the best reason for calling this system “the greenhouse effect?”

1. Greenhouses have an atmosphere that is similar to Earth.

2. Both greenhouses and Earth have many plants.

3. There are tiny particles of glass in Earth’s atmosphere that trap the warm air.

4. There is no relation to the greenhouse effect and actual greenhouses.

5. The glass in greenhouses behave similarly to that of the Earth’s atmosphere.

The greenhouse effect is pretty kewl! I wish I lived in a greenhouse. Then I could lay out and get a sweet tan in January.

So, number one is totally bogus. Greenhouses are tiny little houses made out of glass. They don’t have an atmosphere!

Number two is totally true because Earth DOES have a lot of plants. And so do greenhouses. I mean, that’s what greenhouses exist for, right? But since the passage doesn’t say anything about plants, then that’s probably not the best answer. And it doesn’t say anything about there being glass in the atmosphere either. It just says that the atmosphere lets some of the sun’s energy escape, and bounces the rest back. Maybe it acts like glass, but there isn’t any actual glass in the air! Otherwise we’d all have some serious breathing problems!

Number four is bogus too. Come on, it’s called the GREENHOUSE effect. I mean, it COULD be just a coincidence that the two have the same name, but it’s unlikely. And check it out, number four doesn’t even ANSWER the question! “What is the reason they call it the greenhouse effect?” “There’s no relation between greenhouses and the greenhouse effect.” That doesn’t make sense! So, there’s no way that’s right.

Five is the best answer. Even if I’d never seen or been to a greenhouse before, everyone knows what it’s like to get in a car on a really hot day. The air inside is like 100 degrees hotter, dude! All because of the windows, right? That sounds a lot like how the atmosphere bounces back warm energy, so the glass in a greenhouse has got to do the same thing!

Stay warm while you’re studying, everyone. Maybe you should try to find a greenhouse to study in! Sweet!!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

So, today’s GED Science problem has to do with creepy clones! Ok, so maybe not clones, but families that look alike.

Which of the following would provide the best evidence of a blood relation?

1.) The two people look alike.

2.) Matching fingerprints

3.) Similar interests

4.) Legal documentation stating a blood relation

5.) DNA analysis

If we were thinkin’ about that clone family, then I think all of these would match! They all liked pizza and dressed the same! But wait, wait, we’ve got to figure out the best answer here. You always gotta look out for that word “best” or “most” so you don’t find an answer that kinda fits, then forget to read the rest. So, let’s check ‘em all out!

Number one looks like it might fool you. At first, I thought it was right, I mean, families look alike, right? Then I thought of this dude, Randy, I grew up with who totally coulda been my long lost twin brother! Hm… I wonder if he was? So that’s no good for an answer. Matching fingerprints sounds right too, right? But think about it. Fingerprints is used to detect criminals… and to get into secret secure government buildings… where they do alien autopsies! If families had the same fingerprints, that wouldn’t work. So number two’s out. Number three… similar interests… no way dude!!! Like, my dad’s interests is nothin’ like mine. It’s my friends that are into all the same stuff I am. Legal documents and DNA are both good answers, but sometimes documents can be wrong! Like if a dudette lied and said that Joe Somebody was Betty Somebody’s father, when her dad was actually Bob Anybody! Get it? DNA tests are solid! I’d go with answer 5. The “best evidence” is somethin’ pretty good to know, and something the GED wants you to think about… so you can tell for sure what’s going on. You know, make good decisions about what’s true. Legal documents might be pretty good evidence, but DNA evidence is totally proof. Can’t fake your DNA, right? Unless you’re part of a secret government lab faking alien DNA… but that’s another story…

Do you think any of these answers could help me figure out if that crazy family really was a quad of clones? Good luck with your GED studyin’!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Here’s how it works… the kids ate a little bit of peanuts every day, and their bodies sort of got used to dealing with them. They built up a tolerance for peanuts. Man, I wish I’d done that when I was little! But be careful, this article says that it’s just a study for now… and no one should do it without a doctor. You don’t want to set off your peanut allergies. No kidding! The article’s called “Children Can Complete Treatment For Peanut Allergies And Achieve Long-term Tolerance, Studies Suggest”

Here’s a GED Practice question from the article… First, read this paragraph from the article:

Duke and Arkansas Children’s Hospital began enrolling patients in studies five years ago to determine if incremental doses of peanut protein could change how the body’s immune system responds to its presence. The doses start as small as 1/1000 of a peanut. Eight to 10 months later, the children are ingesting the equivalent of up to 15 peanuts per day. The children stay on that daily therapy for several years and are monitored closely.

So, based on this study, what might a scientist hypothesize would be an effective treatment for an allergy to milk?

1) a regular daily dose of 1/1000 oz. of milk

2) a daily dose of milk, beginning at a very small quantity and slowly increasing

3) a daily dose of milk, beginning at the maximum tolerable quantity and slowly decreasing

4) a daily dose of 10 oz. of milk for 8 to 10 months

5) a small dose of milk administered at random intervals

So, what’d'ya think? Read more to find the answer…

The answer’s #2. Why? Cuz you’re applying what the scientists did for the peanut allergy to a milk allergy, that’s why! Dudes! Think about it. The peanut scientist guys started out givin’ kids really tiny amounts of peanut, like 1/1000 of a peanut… that’s, like, so small, you couldn’t even see it… like itty, bitty, tiny peanut crumbs on the head of a pin… Then, by 8 or 10 months later, they’re eattin’ like, 15 peanuts a day. The amount starts out tiny, and it gets bigger! That’s what answer 2 is sayin’, except about milk: a daily dose, startin’ small and gettin’ big. There ya’ go!

Good luck with that GED studyin’!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

It’s like this… they put something on your head, like a sweet sci-fi swimming cap, with thingies all over it in different colors. Only it reads your thoughts. It’s connected to a computer… and when you think of what you want the computer to do, it does it! Totally sweet, man, like they say if you hooked somethin’ like that up to a TV, you could use it instead of a remote control. And jus’ sit on your couch and not even press a button… jus’ think about what you want your TV to do. Oh, yeah, an’ it helps people with disabilities and stuff do things, cuz you can control stuff with your THOUGHTS, like Magneto!

Kay… here’s an excerpt from the article, and a GED practice question, to help you rock your GED science…

Light switches, TV remote controls and even house keys could become a thing of the past thanks to brain-computer interface (BCI) technology being developed in Europe that lets users perform everyday tasks with thoughts alone. …

“The BCI lets people turn on lights, change channels on the TV or open doors just by thinking about it,” explains Christoph Guger, the CEO of Austrian medical engineering company g.tec that developed the application.

Read more…

Which of these computer devices does a brain-computer interface perform a similar function to?

1) printer

2) scanner

3) mouse

4) monitor

5) headphones

So…. what’s your answer? Seriously, doodz, think through it… the question is what’s called APPLICATION… you got to apply what you know about this brain-computer interface (kewl!) to something else. It’s askin’ you what the function of the BCI is. What’s the function? That means, what’s it DO? Like, it turns on lights, changes channels… so, it’s like a light switch or remote control, all in one. It tells the machines what to do. So, which of the five choices tells the machine what you want it to do?

When you look at it that way, it’s not so hard, right? It’s the mouse that tells the computer what you want it to do… and it works just fine, until the computers start thinkin’ for themselves……. but that’s another story. Good GED studyin’ guys!!! Go read about more science!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.