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PART V READING COMPREHENSION 35 MINSECTION A MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONSIn this section there are three passages followed by ten multiple choice questions. For each multiple choice question, there are four suggested answer marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.PASSAGE ONE(1) When I was twenty-seven years old, I was a mining-brokers clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the details of stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing to depend upon but my wits and a clean reputation; but these were setting my feet in the road to eventual fortune, and I was content with the prospect. My time was my own after the afternoon board, Saturdays, and I was accustomed to putting it in on a little sail-boat on the bay. One day I ventured too far, and was carried out to sea. Just at nightfall, when hope was about gone, I was picked up by a small ship which was bound for London. It was a long and stormy voyage, and they made me work my passage without pay, as a common sailor. When I stepped ashore in London my clothes were ragged and shabby, and I had only a dollar in my pocket. This money fed and sheltered me twenty-four hours. During the next twenty-four I went without food and shelter.(2) About ten oclock on the following morning, dirty and hungry, I was dragging myself along Portland Place, when a child that was passing, towed by a nurse-maid, tossed a big pear minus one bite into the gutter. I stopped, of course, and fastened my desiring eye on that muddy treasure. My mouth watered for it, my stomach craved it, my whole being begged for it. But every time I made a move to get it some passing eye detected my purpose, and of course I straightened up then, and looked indifferent and pretended that I hadnt been thinking about the pear at all. This same think kept happening and happening, and I couldnt get the pear.(3) I was just getting desperate enough to brave all the shame, and to seize it, when a window behind me was raised, and a gentleman spoke out of it, saying: “Step in here, please.”(4) I was admitted by a man servant, and shown into a sumptuous room where a couple of elderly gentlemen were sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down. They had just finished their breakfast, and the sight of the remains of it almost overpowered me. I could hardly keep my wits together in the presence of that food, but as I was not asked to sample it, I had to bear my trouble as best as I could.(5) Now, something had been happening there a little before, which I did not know anything about until a good many days afterwards, but I will tell you about it now. Those two old brothers had been having a pretty hot argument a couple of days before, and had ended by agreeing to decide it by a bet, which is the English way of settling everything.(6) You will remember that the Bank of England once issued two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special purpose connected with some public transaction with a foreign country. For some reason or other only one of these had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults of the Bank. Well, the brothers, chatting along, happened to get to wondering what might be the fate of a perfectly honest and intelligent stranger who should be turned adrift in London without a friend, and with no money but that million-pound bank-note, and no way to account for his being in possession of it. Brother A said he would starve to death; Brother B said he wouldnt. Brother A said he couldnt offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be arrested on the spot. So they went on disputing till Brother B said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man would live thirty days, anyway, on that million, and keep out of jail, too. Brother A took him up. Brother B went down to the Bank and bought that note. Then he dictated a letter, which one of his clerks wrote out in a beautiful round hand, and then the two brothers sat at the window a whole day watching for the right man to give it to.(7) I finally became the pick of them.41. In Para. 1, the phrase “set my feet” probably means _.A. put me asideB. prepare meC. let me walkD. start my journey42. It can be concluded from Para. 2 that _.A. the man wanted to maintain dignity though starvedB. the man could not get a proper chance to eat the pear.C. the man did not really want the pear since it was dirtyD. it was very difficult for the man to get the pear43. Compared with Brother A, Brother B was more _ towards the effect of the one-million-pound bank-note on a total stranger.A. neutralB. negativeC. reservedD. positivePASSAGE TWO(1) The concept of peace is a very important one in cultures all over the world. Think about how we greet people. In some languages, the phrases for greetings contain the word for peace. In some cultures we greet people by shaking hands or with another gesture to show that we are not carrying weapons that we come in peace. And there are certain symbols which people in very different cultures recognize as representing peace. Lets look at a few of them.The dove(2) The dove has been a symbol of peace and innocence for thousands of years in many different cultures. In ancient Greek mythology it was a symbol of love and the renewal of life. In ancient Japan a dove carrying a sword symbolized the end of war.(3) There was a tradition in Europe that if a dove flew around a house where someone was dying then their soul would be at peace. And there are legends which say that the devil can turn himself into any bird except for a dove. In Christian are, the dove was used to symbolize the Holy Ghost and was often painted above Christs head.(4) But it was Pablo Picasso who made the dove a modern symbol of peace when he used it on a poster for the World Peace Congress in 1949.The rainbow(5) The rainbow is another ancient and universal symbol, often representing the connection between human beings and their gods. In Greek mythology it was associated with Iris, the goddess who brought messages from the gods on Mount Olympus. In Scandinavian mythology the rainbow was a bridge between the gods and the earth. In the Bible a rainbow showed Noah that the Biblical flood was finally over, and that God had forgiven his people. In the Chinese tradition, the rainbow is a common symbol for marriage because the colours represent the union of yin and yang. Nowadays the rainbow is used by many popular movements for peace and the environment, representing the possibility of a better world in the future and promising sunshine after the rain.Mistletoe(6) This plant was sacred in many cultures, generally representing peace and love. Most people know of the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas time, which probably comes from Scandinavian mythology. The goddess Freyas son was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe, so, in honour of him, she declared that it would always be a symbol of peace. It was often hung in doorways as a sign of friendship.(7) The ancient Druids believed that hanging mistletoe in your doorway protected you from evil spirits. Tribes would stop fighting for a period of time if they found a tree with mistletoe. But you will never see mistletoe in a Christian church it is banned because of its associations with pagan religion and superstition.The olive branch(8) The olive tree has always been a valuable source of food and oil. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena gave the olive tree to the people of Athens, who showed their gratitude by naming the city after her. But no one knows for sure when or why it began to symbolize peace. There is probably a connection with ancient Greece. Wars between states were suspended during the Olympic Games, and the winners were given crowns of olive branches. The symbolism may come from the fact that the olive tree takes a long time to produce fruit, so olives could only be cultivated successfully in long periods of peace. Whatever the history, the olive branch is a part of many modern flags symbolizing peace and unity. One well-known example is the United Nations symbol.The ankh(9) The ankh is an ancient symbol which was adopted by the hippie movement in the 1960s to represent peace and love. It was found in many Asian cultures, but is generally associated with ancient Egypt. It represented life and immortality. Egyptians were buried with an ankh, so that they could continue to live in the “afterworld”. The symbol was also found along the sides of the Nile, which gave life to the people. They believed that the ankh could control the flow of the river and make sure that there was always enough water.44. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?A. Concept of Peace.B. Popular Peace Symbols.C. Origin of Peace Symbols.D. Cultural Difference of Peace.45. The rainbow represents the connection between human beings and their gods in all the following countries EXCEPT _.A. SwedenB. GreeceC. FinlandD. China46. In North Europe mistletoe was often hung in doorways to indicate_.A. friendshipB. loveC. kinshipD. honour47. The origin of the ankh can date back to_.A. the NileB. the “afterworld”C. the hippie movementD. ancient EgyptPASSAGE THREE(1)Two sides almost never change: That you can manipulate people into self-sufficiency and that you can punish them good citizenship.(2)The first manifests itself in our tireless search for the magical level at which welfare grants are big enough to meet basic needs but small enough to make low-paid work attractive. The second has us looking to the criminal justice system to cure behavior that is as much as anything the result of despair.(3)The welfare example is well known. We dont want poor people to live in squalor or their children to be malnourished. But we also dont want to subsidize the indolence of people who are too lazy to work. The first impulse leads us to provide housing, food stamps, medical care and a cash stipend for families in need. The second gets us to think about “workforce”.(4)Weve been thinking about it for two reasons: the “nanny” problems of two high-ranking government officials (who hired undocumented foreigners as household helpers, presumably because they couldnt find Americans to do the work) and President Clintons proposal to put a two-year limit on welfare.(5) Maybe something useful will come of Clintons idea, but Im not all that hopeful. It looks to me like one more example of trying to manipulate people into taking care of themselves.(6) On the criminal justice side, we hope to make punishment tough enough to discourage crime bud not so tough as to clog our prisons with relatively minor offenders. Too short a sentence, we fear, will create contempt for the law. Too long a sentence will take up costly space better used for the violent and unremorseful.(7) Not only can we never find the “perfect” punishment, our search for optimum penalties is complicated by our desire for fairness: to let the punishment fit the crime. The problem is that almost any punishment-even the disgrace of being charged with a crime - is sufficient to deter the middle class, while for members of the underclass, probation may be translated as “I beat it.”(8) So how can you use the system - welfare or criminal justice- to produce the behavior we want? The answer. I suspect is: You cant.(9) We keep trying to use welfare and prison to change people - to make them think and behave the way we do - when the truth is the incentives work only for those who already think the way we do: who view todays action with an eye on the future.(10) We will take lowly work (if that is all thats available) because we believe we can make bad jobs work for us. We avoid crime not because we are better people but because we see getting caught as a future-wrecking disaster. We are guided by a belief that good things will happen for us in the future if we lake proper care of the present. Even under the worst of circumstances we believe we are in control of our lives.(11) And we have trouble understanding that not everybody believes as we believe. The welfare rolls, the prisons and the mean streets of our cities are full of people who have given up on their future. Without hope for the future, hard work at a low-paid job makes no sense. Working hard in school, or pleasing a boss, or avoiding pregnancy makes no sense. The deadly disease is hopelessness. The lawlessness and poverty arc only the obvious symptoms.(12) Im not advocating that we stop looking for incentives to move poor people toward self-sufficiency or that we stop punishing people for criminal behavior. There will always be some people who need help and some who deserve to be in jail.(13) All Im saying is that the long-term answer both to welfare and the crime that plagues our communities is not to fine tune the welfare and criminal justice systems but to prevent our children from getting the disease of despair.(14) If we encourage our young people to believe in the future, and give them solid evidence for believing, well find both crime and poverty shrinking to manageable proportions.48. What is the authors attitude towards Clintons proposal to welfare?A. Pessimistic.B. Optimistic.C. Suspicious.D. Sarcastic.49. It can be inferred from Para. 7 that optimum penalties are _to the underclass.A. hopelessB. uselessC. frighteningD. humiliating50. Which of the following is the most appropriate title for the passage?A. Lawlessness and Poverty.B. Criminal Justice System.C. Welfare Grants.D. Disease of Despair.SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONSIn this section there are five short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. Answer the questions with NO more than TEN words in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO. PASSAGE ONE51. In Para. 4, what does the man mean by saying “I had to bear my trouble”?52. What can be inferred from the last sentence of the passage?PASSAGE TWO53. Why does the UN use the olive branch in its symbol?PASSAGE THREE54. According to the author, what balance should we keep in welfare?55. What does the author mean by saying “Even under the worst of circumstances, we believe we are in control of our lives” (Para. 10)?
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