PreACT Practice Test 10

The Machine That Smooths the Ice

[Paragraph 1] In the 1920s, Frank Zamboni and his brother Lawrence built a plant in what is now Paramount, California, where [1] they made block ice that farmers used to keep produce cold. As electric refrigerators became common, demand for block ice changed [2], so the brothers looked for a new use for their freezing equipment. In 1940, together with a cousin, they opened a large skating rink called Iceland.

[Paragraph 2] Determined to find a faster method, Zamboni spent most of the 1940s experimenting. Each of his early designs were [3] abandoned or rebuilt. Instead, [4] in 1949, he completed the Model A, an odd-looking vehicle that shaved the ice, collected the shavings, and the surface was then washed [5] in a single pass. One driver could now do a job that had taken a whole crew more than an hour.

[Paragraph 3] Running a rink, however, brought a problem. Skate blades carve grooves into ice, so the surface must be smoothed often. At Iceland, the job took three or four workers more than an hour, one [6] pulled a scraper behind a tractor, others swept away the shavings, and the rest sprayed water and waited for the water to freeze into solid, frozen ice [7].

[Paragraph 4] The new machine soon found a famous customer. Sonja Henie, a Norwegian figure skater who had won three Olympic gold medals, was practicing at Iceland when she saw the machine at work. [8] She ordered machines for her touring ice show, and audiences across the country saw them at work between acts. Orders from other rinks followed, and in 1953 Zamboni received a patent for his invention. By 1960, the machine was being used in more places [9].

[Paragraph 5] Today, the company Frank Zamboni founded still builds ice resurfacers, and his name has become so familiar that many people use it for any machine of this kind. At hockey games, fans often cheer as the machine circles the rink between periods, leaving behind a fresh sheet of ice.