READING COMPREHENSION Time: 55 minutes (including the reading of the directions)
This section is designed to measure your ability to read and understand short passages similar in topic and style to those that students are likely to encounter in North American universities and colleges. This section contains reading passages and questions about the passages.
Directions: In this section you will read several passages. Each one is followed by a number of questions about it. You are to choose the one best answer, (A), (B), (C), or (D), to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen. Answer all questions about the information in a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.
Read the following passage:
l.1 John Quincy Adams, who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825
l.2 to 1829, is today recognized for his masterful statesmanship and diplomacy. He dedicated his
l.3 life to public service, both in the presidency and in the various other political offices that he
l.4 held. Throughout his political career he demonstrated his unswerving belief in freedom of
l.5 speech, the antislavery cause, and the right of Americans to be free from European and Asian
l.6 domination.
Example 1
To what did John Quincy Adams devote his life?
(A) Improving his personal life
(B) Serving the public
(C) Increasing his fortune
(D) Working on his private business
Sample Answer
(A)
(B) (C) (D)
According to the passage, John Quincy Adams "dedicated his life to public service." Therefore, you should choose answer (B).
Example 2
In line 4, the word "unswerving” is closest in meaning to
(A) moveable
(B) insignificant
(C) unchanging
(D) diplomatic
Sample Answer
(A) (B)
(C) (D)
The passage states that John Quincy Adams demonstrated his unswerving belief "throughout his career." This implies that the belief did not change. Therefore, you should choose answer (C).
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Questions 1-11 Close
L.1 Harvard University, today recognized as part of the top echelon of the world's universities, came
L.2 from very inauspicious and humble beginnings.
L.3 This oldest of American universities was founded in 1636, just sixteen years after the Pilgrims
L.4 landed at Plymouth. Included in the Puritan emigrants to the Massachusetts colony during this
L.5 period were more than 100 graduates of England's prestigious Oxford and Cambridge universities,
L.6 and these university graduates in the New World were determined that their sons would have the
L.7 same educational opportunities that they themselves had had. Because of this support in the colony
L.8 for an institution of higher learning, the General Court of Massachusetts appropriated 400 pounds for
L.9 a college in October of 1636 and early the following year decided on a parcel of land for the school; this
.10 land was in an area called Newetowne, which was later renamed Cambridge after its English cousin
.11 and is the site of the present-day university.
.12 When a young minister named John Harvard, who came from the neighboring town of
.13 Charlestowne, died from tuberculosis in 1638, he willed half of his estate of 1,700 pounds to the
.14 fledgling college. In spite of the fact that only half of the bequest was actually paid, the General Court
.15 named the college after the minister in appreciation for what he had done. The amount of the bequest
.16 may not have been large, particularly by today’s standards, but it was more than the General Court
.17 had found it necessary to appropriate in order to open the college.
.18 Henry Dunster was appointed the first president of Harvard in 1640, and it should be noted that
.19 in addition to serving as president, he was also the entire faculty, with an entering freshman class of
.20 four students. Although the staff did expand somewhat, for the first century of its existence the entire
.21 teaching staff consisted of the president and three or four tutors.
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Questions 12-21 Close
L.1 A binary star is actually a pair of stars that are held together by the force of gravity. Although
L.2 occasionally the individual stars that compose a binary star can be distinguished, they generally
L.3 appear as one star. The gravitational pull between the individual stars of a binary star causes one to
L.4 orbit around the other. From the orbital pattern of a binary, the mass of its stars can be determined:
L.5 the gravitational pull of a star is in direct proportion to its mass, and the strength of the gravitational
L.6 force of one star on another determines the orbital pattern of the binary.
L.7 Scientists have discovered stars that seem to orbit around an empty space. It has been suggested
L.8 that such a star and the empty space really composed a binary star. The empty space is known as a
L.9 "black hole," a star with such strong gravitational force that no light is able to get through. Although
.10 the existence of black holes has not been proven, the theory of their existence has been around for
.11 about two centuries, since the French mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace first proposed the
.12 concept at the end of the eighteenth century. Scientific interest in this theory has been intense in the
.13 last few decades. However, currently the theory is unproven. Black holes can only be potentially
.14 identified based on the interactions of objects around them, as happens when a potential black hole is
.15 part of a binary star; they, of course, cannot be seen because of the inability of any light to escape the
.16 star's powerful gravity.
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Questions 22-30 Close
L.1 Clara Barton is well known for her endeavors as a nurse on the battlefield during the Civil War
L.2 and for her role in founding the American Red Cross. She is perhaps not as well known, however, for
L.3 her role in establishing a bureau for tracing missing soldiers following the Civil War.
L.4 At the close of the Civil War, the United States did not have in place any agency responsible for
L.5 accounting for what had happened to the innumerable men who had served in the military during the
L.6 war, and many families had no idea as to the fate of their loved ones. Families were forced to agonize
L.7 endlessly over where their loved ones were, what kind of shape they were in, whether or not they
L.8 would return, and what had happened to them.
L.9 Clara Barton developed a system for using print media to publish the names of soldiers known
.10 to have been wounded or killed during various battles of the Civil War. She was prepared to publish
.11 names that she herself had gathered on the battlefield as well as information gathered from others.
.12 She made numerous unsuccessful attempts to interest various government officials in her plan.
.13 However, it was not until Henry Wilson, a senator from the state of Massachusetts, took up her cause
.14 and presented her plan to President Lincoln that her plan was implemented.
.15 With Lincoln's assistance, Clara Barton was set up in a small government office with funding for
.16 a few clerks and the authority to examine military records. She and her clerks gathered and compiled
.17 information from military records and battlefield witnesses and published it in newspapers and
.18 magazines. Clara Barton operated this missing persons bureau for four years, from the end of the war
.19 in 1865 until 1869. During this period, she and her staff put out more than 100,000 printed lists,
.20 answered more than 60,000 letters, and accounted for more than 20,000 missing soldiers.
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Questions 31-40 Close
L.1 Mutualism is a type of symbiosis that occurs when two unlike organisms live together in a state
L.2 that is mutually beneficial. It can exist between two animals, between two plants, or between a plant
L.3 and an animal. Mutualism is unlike the symbiotic state of commensalism in that commensalism is a
L.4 one-sided state in which a host gives and a guest takes, while in mutualism both partners live on a
L.5 give-and-take basis.
L.6 In the African wilds, the zebra and the ostrich enjoy a symbiotic relationship that enhances the
L.7 ability of each of these large land animals to survive. Both serve as prey for the lion, and neither has
L.8 the capability alone to withstand an attack from this fierce hunter. However, when the zebra and the
L.9 ostrich collaborate in their defense by alerting each other to possible danger from an approaching
.10 predator, the lion is rarely able to capture more than the oldest or feeblest of the herd.
.11 The complementary physical strengths and weaknesses of the ostrich and the zebra allow them
.12 to work in coordination to avoid succumbing to the lion. The ostrich, the largest flightless bird in the
.13 world, possesses great speed and keen eyesight, which enable it to spot large predatory animals long
.14 before they are able to position themselves to attack. The zebra, with a running speed equal to that of
.15 the ostrich, has excellent hearing and a good sense of smell but lacks the sharp eyesight of the ostrich.
.16 When ostriches and zebras intermix for grazing, each animal benefits from the ability of the other to
.17 detect approaching danger. If either animal senses danger, both animals are alerted and take off.
.18 With the running speed that both of these animals possess, they are able to outrun any predator
.19 except the cheetah.
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Questions 41-50 Close
L.1 Esperanto is what is called a planned, or artificial, language. It was created more than a century
L.2 ago by Polish eye doctor Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof. Zamenhof believed that a common language would
L.3 help to alleviate some of the misunderstandings among cultures.
L.4 In Zamenhof's first attempt at a universal language, he tried to create a language that was as
L.5 uncomplicated as possible. This first language included words such as ab, ac, ba, eb, be, and ce . This
L.6 did not result in a workable language in that these monosyllabic words, though short, were not easy
L.7 to understand or to retain.
L.8 Next, Zamenhof tried a different way of constructing a simplified language. He made the words
L.9 in his language sound like words that people already knew, but he simplified the grammar
.10 tremendously. One example of how he simplified the language can be seen in the suffixes: all nouns in
.11 this language end in o , as in the noun amiko , which means "friend," and all adjectives end in -a , as in
.12 the adjective bela , which means "pretty.” Another example of the simplified language can be seen in
.13 the prefix mal- , which makes a word opposite in meaning; the word malamiko therefore means
.14 "enemy," and the word malbela therefore means "ugly” in Zamenhof's language.
.15 In 1887, Zamenhof wrote a description of this language and published it. He used a pen name,
.16 Dr. Esperanto, when signing the book. He selected the name Esperanto because this word means "a
.17 person who hopes" in his language. Esperanto clubs began popping up throughout Europe, and by
.18 1905, Esperanto had spread from Europe to America and Asia.
.19 In 1905, the First World Congress of Esperanto took place in France, with approximately 700
.20 attendees from 20 different countries. Congresses were held annually for nine years, and 4,000
.21 attendees were registered for the Tenth World Esperanto Congress scheduled for 1914, when World
.22 War I erupted and forced its cancellation.
.23 Esperanto has had its ups and downs in the period since World War I. Today, years after it was
.24 introduced, it is estimated that perhaps a quarter of a million people are fluent in it. This may seem
.25 like a large number, but it is really quite small when compared with the billion English speakers and.
.26 billion Mandarin Chinese speakers in today's world. Current advocates would like to see its use grow
.27 considerably and are taking steps to try to make this happen.
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1. The main idea of this passage is that
2. The passage indicates that Harvard is
3. It can be inferred from the passage that the Puritans who traveled to the Massachusetts colony were
4. The pronoun "they" in line 7 refers to
5. The "pounds" in line 8 are probably
6. The "English cousin" in line 10 refers to a
7. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about John Harvard?
8. The word "fledgling" in line 14 could best be replaced by which of the following?
9. The passage implies that
10. The word "somewhat" in line 20 could best be replaced by
11. Where in the passage does it indicate how much money Minister Harvard was really responsible for giving to the university?
12. A binary star could best be described as
13. The word "distinguished" in line 2 is closest in meaning to
14. According to the passage, what happens as a result of the gravitational force between the stars?
15. The word "proportion" in line 5 is closest in meaning to which of the following?
16. A "black hole" in line 9 is
17. Which of the following statements about black holes is NOT supported by the passage?
18. The word "get" in line 9 could best be replaced by
19. Which of the following is implied in the passage about the theory of black holes?
20. The word "intense" in line 12 is closest in meaning to
21. This passage would probably be assigned reading in a course on
22. The purpose of this passage is
23. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as one of Clara Bartons accomplishments?
24. The word "close" in line 4 could best be replaced by
25. What is stated in the passage about the issue of missing persons following the Civi War?
26. It can be inferred from the passage that the budget for Barton’s missing persons agency was
27. The pronoun "it" in line 17 refers to
28. Which of the following did Clara Barton and her staff accomplish, according to the passage?
29. Where in the passage does the author indicate the duration of the existence of Clara Barton’s missing persons agency?
30. Which paragraph describes Clara Barton’s efforts to establish a missing persons bureau?
31. How is the information in the passage organized?
32. The word "unlike" in line 1 is closest in meaning to
33. The word "beneficial" in line 2 is closest in meaning to
34. What is "commensalism" in line 3?
35. What is implied in the passage about the zebra and the ostrich?
36. What is stated in the passage about the lion?
37. The word "collaborate" in line 9 is closest in meaning to
38. The pronoun "it" in line 13 refers to
39. Which of the following is NOT stated in the passage?
40. Where in the passage does the author mention the one animal that is faster than both the ostrich and the zebra?
41. The topic of this passage is
42. According to the passage, Zamenhof wanted to create a universal language
43. It can be inferred from the passage that the Esperanto word malespera means
44. The expression "popping up" in line 17 could best be replaced by
45. It can be inferred from the passage that the Third World Congress of Esperanto took place
46. According to the passage, what happened to the Tenth World Esperanto Congress?
47. The expression "ups and downs" in line 23 is closest in meaning to
48. Which paragraph describes the predecessor to Esperanto?
49. This passage would most likely be assigned reading in a course on
50. The paragraph following the passage most likely discusses