READING COMPREHENSION
As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North America were building with adobe -- sun-baked brick plastered with mud. Their homes looked
remarkably like modem apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained quarters
for perhaps thousand people, along with storerooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them "pueblos", which is Spanish for town.
The people or the pueblos raised what are called "the three sisters" -- corn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate
ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain.
The way of life of less-settled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as rabbits and snakes.In the Far North the ancestors of today s Inuit hunted seals, walruses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the lordly caribou.
The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the
grasslands between the rocky mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these tribes, and its hide was used to make their clothing and the covering of their tents and tipis .
1.What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) The architecture of early American Indian buildings
(B) The movement of American Indians across North America
(C) Ceremonies and rituals of American Indians
(D) The way of life of American Indian tribes in early North America
2. According to the passage the Hopi and Zuni typically built their homes
(A) in valleys
(B) next to streams
(C) on open plains
(D) against cliffs
3. The word "They" in line 6 refers to
(A) goods
(B) buildings
(C) cliffs
(D) enemies
4.It can be inferred from the passage that the dwellings of the Hopi and Zuni were
(A) very small
(B) highly advanced
(C) difficult to defend
(D) quickly constructed
5.The author uses the phrase "the three sisters" in line8 refer to
(A) Hopi women
(B) family members
(C) important crops
(D) rain ceremonies
6. The word "scarce" in line10 is closest in meaning to
(A) limited
(B) hidden
(C) pure
(D) necessary
7.Which of the following is true of the Shoshone and Ute?
(A) They were not as settled as the Hopi and Zuni.
(B) They hunted caribou.
(C) They built their home with adobe.
(D) They did not have many religious .
8. According to the passage which of the following tribes lived in the grasslands?
(A) The Shoshone and Ute
(B) The Cheyenne and Sioux
(C) The Hopi and Zuni
(D) The Pawnee and Inuit
9. Which of the following animals was most important to the Plains Indians?
(A) The salmon
(B) The caribou
(C) The seal
(D) The buffalo
10. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the author as a dwelling place of early
North Americans?
(A) Log cabins
(B) Adobe houses
(C) Tipis
(D) Igloos
11 . The author gives an explanation for all of the following words EXCEPT
(A) adobe
(B) pueblos
(C) caribou
(D) bison
12. The author groups North American Indians according to their
(A) tribes and geographical regions
(B) arts and crafts
(C) rituals and ceremonies
(D) date of appearance on the continent
Marianne Moore (1887-1972) once said that her writing could be called poetry only
because there was no other name for it. Indeed her poems appear to be extremely compressed
essays that happen to be printed in jagged lines on the page. Her subjects were varied: animals, laborers, artists, and the craft of poetry. From her general reading came quotations that she found striking or insightful. She included these in her poems, scrupulously enclosed in quotation marks, and sometimes identified in footnotes. Of this practice, she wrote, " Why the many quotation marks? I am asked......When a thing has been said so well that it could not be said better, why paraphrase it? Hence my writing is, if not a cabinet of fossils, a kind of collection of flies in amber." Close observation and concentration on detail are the methods of her poetry.
Marianne Moore grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri, near St.Louis. After graduation from
Bryn Mawr College in 1909, she taught commercial subjects at the Indian School in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania. Later she became a librarian in New York City. During the 1920 s she was editor
of The Dial, an important literary magazine of the period. She lived quietly all her life, mostly in Brooklyn, New York. She spent a lot of time at the Bronx Zoo, fascinated by animals.
Her admiration of the Brooklyn Dodgers---before the team moved to Los Angeles ---was widely known.
Her first book of poems was published in London in 1921 by a group of friends associated
with the Imagist movement. From that time on her poetry has been read with interest by
succeeding generations of poets and readers. In 1952 she was award the Pulitzer Prize for her
Collected Poems. She wrote that she did not write poetry "for money or fame. To earn a living
is needful, but it can be done in routine ways. One writes because one has a burning desire to
objectify what it is indispensable to one s happiness to express......."
13. What is the passage mainly about?
(A) The influence of the Imagists on Marianne Moore.
(B) Essayists and poets of the 1920 s
(C) The use of quotations in poetry
(D) Marianne Moor s life and work
14. Which if the following can be interred about Moore s poems?
(A) They are better known in Europe than the United States.
(B) They do not use traditional verse forms.
(C) They were all published in The Dial.
(D) They tend to be abstract.
15. According to the passage Moore wrote about all of the following EXCEPT
(A) artists
(B) animals
(C) fossils
(D) workers
16. What does Moore refer to as "flies in amber" (line 9)?
(A) A common image in her poetry
(B) Poetry in the twentieth century
(C) Concentration on detail
(D) Quotations within her poetry
17. The author mentions all of the following as jobs held by Moore EXCEPT
(A) commercial artist
(B) teacher
(C) magazine editor
(D) librarian
18. The word "period" in line 13 is closest in meaning to
(A) movement
(B) school
(C) region
(D) time
19.Where did Moore spend most of her adult life?
(A) In Kirkwood
(B) In Brooklyn
(C) In Los Angeles
(D) In Carlisle
20.The word "succeeding" in line 19 is closest in meaning to
(A) inheriting
(B) prospering
(C) diverse
(D) later
21 . The word "it" in line 21 refers to
(A) writing poetry
(B) becoming famous
(C) earning n living
(D) attracting readers
22.It can be inferred from the passage that Moore wrote because she
(A) wanted to win awards
(B) was dissatisfied with what others wrote
(C) felt a need to express herself
(D) wanted to raise money for the Bronx Zoo
What makes it rain? Rain falls from clouds for the same reason anything falls to Earth.
The Earth s gravity pulls it.But every cloud is made of water droplets or ice crystals. Why
doesn t rain or snow fall constantly from all clouds? The droplets or ice crystals in clouds are exceedingly small.The effect or gravity on them is minute. Air currents move and lift droplets so that the net downward displacement is zero, even though the droplets are in constant motion.
Droplets and ice crystals behave somewhat like dust in the air made visible in a shaft of sunlight. To the casual observer, dust seems to act in a totally random fashion, moving about
chaotically without fixed direction. But in fact dust particles are much larger than water droplets and they finally fall. The average size of a cloud droplet is only 0.0004 inch in diameter. It is so small that it would take sixteen hours to fall half a mile in perfectly still air,and it does not fall out of moving air at all. Only when the droplet grows to diameter of 0.008 inch or larger can it fall from the cloud. The average raindrop contains a million times as much water as a tiny cloud droplet. The growth of a cloud droplet to a size large enough to fall out is the cause of rain and other forms of precipitation. This important growth process is called "coalescence.
23. What is the main topic of the passage?
(A) The mechanics of rain
(B) The weather patterns of North America
(C) How Earth s gravity affects agriculture
(D) Types of clouds
24.The word "minute in line 4 is closest in meaning to which of the following?
(A) second
(B) tiny
(C) slow
(D) steady
25 .Thc word "motion in line 5 is closest in meaning to
(A) wind
(B) change
(C) movement
(D) humidity
26.Ice crystals do NOT immediately fall to Earth because
(A) they are kept aloft by air currents.
(B) they combine with other chemicals in the atmosphere
(C) most of them evaporate
(D) their electrical charges draw them away from the earth
27. The word "random" in line 7 is closest in meaning to
(A) unpredictable
(B) perplexing
(C) independentI
(D) abnormal
28.What can be inferred about drops of water larger than 0.008 inch in diameter?
(A) They never occur.
(B) They are not affected by the force of gravity.
(C) In still air they would fall to earth.
(D) In moving air they fall at a speed of thirty -two miles per hour.
29 How much bigger is a rain drop than a cloud droplet ?
(A) 200 times bigger
(B) 1,000 times bigger
(C) 100,000 times bigger
(D) l,000,000 times bigger
30. In this passage, what does the term "coalescence" refer to
(A) The gathering of small clouds to form larger clouds
(B) The growth of droplets
(C) The effect of gravity on precipitation
(D) The movement of dust particles in the sunlight
People appear to be born to compute. The numerical skill of children develop so early
and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding
their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive
accuracy---one plate, one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs. Soon they are
capable of noting that they have placed five knives, spoons, and forks on the table and, a hit
later, that this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they
move on to subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a
desert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she could enter a second-grade
mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment.
Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has
illuminated the subtle froms of daily learning on which interllectual progress depends. Children
were observed as they slowly grasped---or ,as the case might be,bumped into---concepts that
adults take for granted, as they refuseed, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as
water pours from a short stout glass into a tall thin one. Psychologists have since demonstrated
that young children, asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or
red pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies have suggested that the
rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort. They have also suggested
that the very concept of abstract numbers--- the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threeness that
applies to any class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically
demanding than setting a table--- is itself far from innate.
31.What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) Trends in teaching mathematics to children
(B) The use of mathematics in child psychology
(C) The development of mathematical ability in children
(D) The fundamental concepts of mathematics that children must learn
32.It can be inferred from the passage that children normally learn simple counting
(A) soon after they learn to talk
(B) by looking at the clock
(C) when they begin to be mathematically mature
(D) after they reach second grade in school
33.The word "illuminated in line 11 is closest in meaning to
(A) iliustrated
(B) accepted
(C) clarified
(D) lighted
34 . The author implies that most small children believe that the quantity of water changes when it is transferred to a container of a different
(A) color
(B) quality
(C) weight
(D) shape
35 .According to the passage, when small children were asked to count a pile of red and blue pencils they
(A) counted the number of pencils of each color
(B) guessed at the total number of pencils
(C) counted only the pencils of their favorite color
(D) subtracted the number of red pencils from the number of blue pencils
36. The word "They" in line 17 refers to
(A) mathematicians
(B) children
(C) pencils
(D) studies
37. The word "prerequisite" in line 19 is closest in meaning to
(A) reason
(B) theory
(C) requirement
(D) technique
38. The word "itself" in line 20 refers to
(A) the total
(B) the concept of abstract numbers
(C) any class of objects
(D) setting a table
39. With which of the following statements would the author be LEAST likely to agree?
(A) Children naturally and easily learn mathematics .
(B) Children learn to add before they learn to subtract.
(C) Most people follow the same pattern of mathematical development
(D) Mathematical development is subtle and gradual.
40. Where in the passage does the author give an example of a hypothetical experiment ?
(A) Lines 3-6
(B) Lines 7-9
(C) Lines 11-14
(D) Lines 17-20
Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge.
For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had
anything more than the vaguest of insights. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone
Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of preindustrial societies that
still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food, oyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all .
Unfortunalely, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct
contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes
unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge,and few people will fail to
recognize a rose, an apple,or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle
East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds
planted for richer yields the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture :
cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled
production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild--- and the accumulated knoweldge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.
41 . Which of the following assumptions about early humans is expressed in the passage?
(A) They probably had extensive knowledge of plants.
(B) They divided knowledge into well-defined fields .
(C) They did not enjoy the study of botany. .
(D) They placed great importance on ownership of property.
42. The word "peculiar" in line 1 is closest in meaning to
(A) clear
(B) large
(C) unusual
(D) important
43. What does the comment "This is logical" in lines 5-6 mean ?
(A) There is no clear way to determine the extent of our ancetors knowledge of plants.
(B) It is not surprising that early humans had a detailed knowledge of plants .
(C) It is reasonable to assume that our ancestors behaved very much like people
in preindustrial societies .
(D) Human knowledge of plants is well organized and very detailed.
44. The phrase "properties of each" in line 10 refers to each
(A) tribe
(B) hundred
(C) plant
(D) purpose
45.According to the passage, why has general knowledge of botany declined?
(A) People no longer value plants as a useful resource .
(B) Botany is not recognized as a special branch of science.
(C) Research is unable to keep up with the increasing number of plants.
(D) Direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased.
46. In line 15, what is the author s purpose in mentioning" a rose, an opple, or an orchid"?
(A) To make the passage more poetic
(B) To cite examples of plants that are attractive
(C) To give botanical examples that most readers will recognize
(D) To illustrate the diversity of botanical life
47. According to the passage, what was the first great step toward the practice of agriculture ?
(A) The invention of agricuitural implements and machinery
(B) The development of a system of names for plants
(C) The discovery of grasses that could be harvested and replanted
(D) The changing diets of early humans
48. The word "controlled" in line 19 is closest in meaning to
(A) abundant
(B) managed
(C) required
(D) advanced
49. The relationship between botany and agriculture is similar to the relationship between zoology (the study of animals) and
(A) deer hunting
(B) bird watching
(C) sheep raising
(D) horseback riding
50. Where in the passage does the author describe the benefits people derive from plants?
(A) Line 1
(B) Lines 6-8
(C) Lines 10-11
(D) Lines 13-15
