Reading£ Comprehension

Time: 55 minutes (including the reading of the directions). Now set your clock for 55 minutes.

Question 1-12

£ £ £  Orchids are unique in having the most highly developed of all blossoms, in which the usual male and female reproductive organs are fused in a single structure called the column. The column is designed so that a single pollination will fertilize hundreds of thousands, and in some
cases millions, of seeds, so microscopic and light they are easily carried by the breeze. Surrounding the column are three sepals and three petals, sometimes easily recognizable as such, often distorted into gorgeous, weird, but always functional shapes. The most noticeable of the
petals is called the labellum, or lip. It is often dramatically marked as an unmistakable landing
strip to attract the specific insect the orchid has chosen as its pollinator.

£ £ £ To lure their pollinators from afar, orchids use appropriately intriguing shapes, colors, and scents. At least 50 different aromatic compounds have been analyzed in the orchid family, each blended to attract one, or at most a few, species of insects or birds. Some orchids even change their scents to interest different insects at different times.

£ £ £ Once the right insect has been attracted, some orchids present all sorts of one-way obstacle
courses to make sure it does not leave until pollen has been accurately placed or removed. By such ingenious adaptations to specific pollinators, orchids have avoided the hazards of rampant
crossbreeding in the wild, assuring the survival of species as discrete identities. At the same time
they have made themselves irresistible to collectors.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) Birds
(B) Insects
(C) Flowers
(D) Perfume

2 The orchid is unique because of
(A) the habitat in which it lives
(B) the structure of its blossom
(C) the variety of products that can be made from it
(D) the length of its life

3 The word "fused" in line 2 is closest in meaning to
(A) combined
(B) hidden
(C) fertilized
(D) produced

4 How many orchid seeds are typically pollinated at one time?
(A) 200
(B) 2,000
(C) 20,000
(D) 200,000

5 Which of the following is a kind of petal?
(A) The column
(B) The sepal
(C) The stem
(D) The labellum

6 The labellum(line7) is most comparable to
(A) a microscope
(B) an obstacle course
(C) an airport runway
(D) a racetrack

7 The word "lure" in line 10 is closest in meaning to
(A) attract
(B) recognize
(C) follow
(D) help

8 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a means by which an orchid attracts insects?
(A) Size
(B) Shape
(C) Color
(D) Perfume

9 The word "their" in line 13 refers to
(A) orchids
(B) birds
(C) insects
(D) species

10 Which of the following statements about orchids scents does the passage support?
(A) They are effective only when an insect is near the blossom.
(B) Harmful insects are repelled by them.
(C) They are difficult to tell apart.
(D) They may change at different times.

11 The word "placed" in line 15 is closest in meaning to
(A) estimated
(B) measured
(C) deposited
(D) identified

12 The word "discrete" in line 18 is closest in meaning to
(A) complicated
(B) separate
(C) inoffensive
(D) functional

Question 13-22

£ £ £ One of the most important social developments that helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education was the effect of the baby boom of the 1950 s and
1960 s on the schools. In the 1920 s, but especially in the Depression conditions of the 1930 s,
the United States experienced a declining birth rate -every thousand women aged fifteen to
forty-four gave birth to about 118 live children in 1920, 89.2 in 1930,75.8 in 1936,and 80 in
1940. With the growing prosperity brought on by the Second World War and the economic
boom that followed it, young people married and established households earlier and began to
raise larger families than had their predecessors during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102
per thousand in 1946, 106.2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955. Although economics was probably the
most important determinant, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed on the idea of the family also helps to explain this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers
began streaming into the first grade by the mid-1940 s and became a flood by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself overtaxed. While the number of schoolchildren rose because
of wartime and postwar conditions, these same conditions made the schools even less prepared
to cope with the flood. The wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between
1940 and 1945. Moreover, during the war and in the boom times that followed, large numbers of teachers left their profession for better-paying jobs elsewhere in the economy.

£ £ £ Therefore, in the 1950 s and 1960 s, The baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the "custodial rhetoric" of the 1930 s and early 1940 s no longer made
sense; that is, keeping youths aged sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in
school could no longer be a high priority for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach
younger children aged five to sixteen. With the baby boom, the focus of educators and of laymen
interested in education inevitably turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic
skills and discipline. The system no longer had much interest in offering nontraditional, new, and
extra services to older youths.

13 What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) The teaching profe ssion during the baby boom
(B) Birth rates in the United States in the 1930 s and 1940
(C) The impact of the baby boom on public education
(D) The role of the family in the 1950 s and 1960 s

14 The word "it" in line 11 refers to
(A) 19550
(B) economics
(C) the baby boom
(D) value

15 The word "overtaxed" in line 14 is closest in meaning to
(A) well prepared
(B) plentifully supplied
(C) heavily burdened
(D) charged too much

16 The public school of the 1950 s and 1960 s faced all of the following problems EXCEPT
(A) a declining number of students
(B) old-fashioned facilities
(C) a shortage of teachers
(D) an inadequate number of school buildings

17 According to the passage, why did teachers leave the teaching profession after the outbreak of the war?
(A) The needed to be retrained
(B) They were dissatisfied with the curriculum.
(C) Other jobs provided higher salaries.
(D) Teaching positions were scarce.

18 The word "inadequate" in line 20 is closest in meaning to
(A) deficient
(B) expanded
(C) innovative
(D) specialized

19 The "custodial rhetoric" mentioned in line 21 refers to
(A) raising a family
(B) keeping older individuals in school
(C) running an orderly house hold
(D) maintaining discipline in the classroom

20 The word "inevitably" in line 25 is closest in meaning to
(A) unwillingly
(B) impartially
(C) irrationally
(D) unavoidably

21 Where in the passage does the author refer to the attitude of Americans toward raising a family in the 1950 s and 1960 s?
(A) Lines 1-3
(B) Lines 11-12
(C) Lines 20-21
(D) Lines 24-26

22 Which of the following best characterizes the organization of the passage?
(A) The second paragraph presents the effect of circumstances described in the first paragraph.
(B) The second paragraph provides a fictional account to illus trate a problem presented in the first paragraph.
(C) The second paragraph argues against a point made in the first paragraph.
(D) The second paragraph introduces a problem not mentioned in the first paragraph.

Questions 23-32

£ £ £ Nineteenth-century writers in the United States, whether they wrote novels, short stories,
poems, or plays, were powerfully drawn to the railroad in its golden year. In fact, writes responded to the railroads as soon as the first were built in the 1830 s. By the 1850 s, the
railroad was a major presence in the life of the nation. Writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson
and Henry David Thoreau saw the railroad both as a boon to democracy and as an object of
suspicion. The railroad could be and was a despoiler of nature; furthermore, in its manifestation
of speed and noise, it might be a despoiler of human nature as well. By the 1850 s and 1860 s, there was a great distrust among writer and intellectuals of the rapid industrialization of which the
railroad was a leading force. Deeply philosophical historians such as Henry Adams lamented the role that the new frenzy for business was playing in eroding traditional values. A distrust of
industry and business continued among writers throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and
into the twentieth.

£ £ For the most part, the literature in which the railroad plays an important role belong to popular culture rather than to the realm of serious art. One thinks of melodramas, boys books,
thrillers, romances, and the like rather than novels of the first rank. In the railroads prime years,
between 1890 and 1920, there were a few individuals in the United States , most of them with

[1] [2] [3] ÏÂÒ»Ò³