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America Online is one of the big names on the internet, and unlike many other digital companies, it actually makes a profit. But the
company which its rivals call the "Cyber-cockroach" was launched only in 1992. Before that it was a small firm called Control Video
Corporation, and it made video games. Then Steve Case, a former Pizza Hut marketing executive arrived and took the company on line.
Innovative, fast moving, and user-friendly, America Online appeals to people who want to surf the internet, but who do not have a lot of
experience. For the same reason "techies", people who think they are more expert with computers, look down on America Online and its
users. Recently America Online (or AOL, as it calls itself) joined with Time Warner - a multi-million dollar movie and magazine company -
to create a multimedia giant.

1. What is the passage about?

A. A computer company
B. A software company
C. An internet company
D. A video company

Two fundamental rights in the US constitution are found in the fourteenth amendment: due process and equal protection.
The due process provision protects persons from being "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" an d the
provision goes on to give the steps that must be followed to make sure the process is "fundamentally fair." A process is considered to be
fundamentally fair if there has been due notice, a hearing, an unbiased fact finder, the opportunity to present evidence and to cross
examine witnesses, and the right of appeal.
Under the equal protection provision, no person may be denied equal protection under the laws. "Equal protection does not pro hibit
all differences in the way people are treated, but it requires that these differences be reasonable. For cases involving the control of
various businesses, and for ordinary cases, equal protection is fairly loose. However, when classifications such as race, religion, or
national minorities are involved, then the equal protection is enforced much more strictly. This is also true when basic rights are involved:
basic rights are voting, marriage, privacy, access to a court if one is needed, and travel between the states. In these cases , the right of
the government to treat people differently under the law is extremely limited.
Due process and equal protection apply both to individuals and to businesses. Although businesses may seem to be different fr om
individuals, the law generally treats a registered business as a person.

2. What is the subject of this passage?

A. civil liberties
B. the due process
C. equal protection
D. American basic rights

Few people can embody the spirit of early America as much as Benjamin Franklin. He lived through almost the whole of the
eighteenth century, being born six years after it began, and dying ten years before it ended. In this time he saw the American colonies
grow from tiny settlements into a nation, and he also contributed much to the development of the new state.
At the age of 17 Franklin ran away to Philadelphia. He had already received some training as a printer’s apprentice, and this helped
him seven years later, with his first publication, the Pennsylvania Gazette. He also received a contract to do government printing work,
which helped him to rise from his poor background to become a successful entrepreneur. Some of his experience in business was shared
in his famous Poor Richard’s Almanak, which established his reputation throughout the American colonies. In another of his works, the
Autobiography, which was written toward the end of his life, he shows the same quiet common sense.
He was deeply interested in science and natural history, and his experiments with electricity and lightning led directly to the
invention of the lightning rod. He was also interested in improving the conditions of his fellow men. He was involved in a number of
projects in his native Philadelphia, including the setting up of a library, a university, a philosophical society, and - because he was a
pragmatic man - a fire prevention service. In 1753 he became Postmaster-General of the colonies. Through this experience he began to
develop the idea that the colonies of North America should be a single nation. Later, he went to London to try to persuade the British
government to change the conditions, especially the taxes, that later led the American colonists into rebellion.
Whatever Benjamin Franklin’s personal feelings about the rebellion of the American states, he worked hard to make it succeed. As
ambassador to France, he encouraged the French to help George Washington. After the war he attended the American constitution al
congress. This was his last contribution, for he died later that year. He is still fondly remembered by Americans as one of the creators of
the United States.

3. What is a good description for this text?

A. An autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
B. The life of Benjamin Franklin
C. The works of Benjamin Franklin.
D. Franklin and American Independence.

Sod houses are an almost vanished part of America's past. Yet in Nebraska and some other states a century ago they were very
common. Sod houses were built, as the name suggests, from sod - the top, grassy layer of the ground. The ground of the Nebraska
plains was particularly suitable for this, because it was held together by the thick wiry roots of the grass that grows there.
To make a house, the settlers used a sod-cutter, drawn by horses, that cut through the top layer of the grassland. This had the
additional benefit that the land cleared of grass in this way was suitable for planting corn. The builders would then cut the top layer they
had ploughed into sections of about 50kg each, clearing about two acres of grass in the process. These sections were stacked on top of
each other to make a thick-walled house that was cool in summer and warm in winter. Because many were built into the side of hills for
extra stability, they were even useful shelters from tornadoes.
Sod houses spread across Nebraska, Kansas and North and South Dakota. They were common there, because all these areas had
the same problem - there were no trees on the great plains, and so no wood to build with. Wood which was needed for the roofs was by
far the most expensive part of each house, as it had to be painfully transported by wagon. The problem of building materials was solved
by the arrival of the railways which could transport wood and other materials quickly and cheaply. Sod houses were abandoned for more

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modern buildings, and began to disappear. Now less than 100 remain, but they are carefully preserved as relics of pioneer life on the
prairie.

4. This article is mainly about ...

A. developments in social history
B. patterns of architecture
C. American urban housing solutions
D. the history of a type of house

The body that impacted Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period was a meteorite with a mass of more than a trillion tons and a
diameter of at least 10 kilometers. Scientists first identified this impact in 1980 from the worldwide layer of sediment deposited from the
dust cloud that enveloped the planet after the impact. This sediment layer is enriched in the rare metal iridium and other elements that
are relatively abundant in a meteorite but very rare in the crust of Earth. Even diluted by the terrestrial material excavated from the crater,
this component of meteorites is easily identified. By 1990 geologists had located the impact site itself in the Yucatán region of Mexico.
The crater, now deeply buried in sediment, was originally about 200 kilometers in diameter.

5. Which of the following can be inferred from the paragraph about the location of the meteorite impact in Mexico?
A. The location of the impact site in Mexico was kept secret by geologists from 1980 to 1990.
B. It was a well-known fact that the impact had occurred in the Yucatán region.
C. Geologists knew that there had been an impact before they knew where it had occurred.
D. The Yucatán region was chosen by geologists as the most probable impact site because of its climate.

Economic contact between Native Americans and Europeans can be traced back to the English and French fishermen off the coast
of Canada in the 1500s. They traded guns and other weapons for beaver fur. The first explorers to trade with the Native Americans were
Giovanni da Verrazano and Jacques Cartier in the 1520s and 1530s. In Verrazano's book he notes, "If we wanted to trade with them for
some of their things, they would come to the seashore on some rocks where the breakers were most violent while we rema ined on the
little boat, and they sent us what they wanted to give on a rope, continually shouting to us not to approach the land."

6. The word 'They' in paragraph 3 refers to?

A. English and French fishermen
B. Beavers
C. Europeans
D. Traits and characteristics

Horse owners who plan to breed one or more mares should have a working knowledge of heredity and know how to care for
breeding animals and foals. The number of mares bred that actually conceive varies from about 40 to 85 percent, with the average
running less than 50 percent. Some mares that do conceive fail to produce living foals. This means that, on average, two mares are kept
a whole year to produce one foal, and even then, some foals are disappointments from the standpoint of quality.
By careful selection, breeders throughout history have developed various kinds of horses with a wide variety of characteristics to suit
many different needs. The Great Horse of the Middle Ages, for example, was bred for size and strength to carry a heavily armored knight.
The massive horses of such breeds are often called "cold blooded." The Arabs bred lithe desert horses that were small and swift. These
animals are often referred to as "hot blooded." Cross-breeding of hot-blooded and cold-blooded horses for certain characteristics
produced breeds ranging from riding horses to draft horses.
The Thoroughbred is considered by many to be the highpoint of elegance and fine selective breeding. Many persons mistakenly
apply the name Thoroughbred to any purebred horse. But a Thoroughbred is a distinct breed of running horses that traces its ancestry
through the male line directly back to three Eastern stallions: the Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Barb.
For convenience the breeds of horses are often divided into three major groups: ponies, heavy, or draft horses, and light horses.

7. It can be inferred from the passage that cold-blooded and hot-blooded horses were cross-bred for what reason?
A. Such cross-breeding was a safer means of reproduction.
B. Cross-bred horses were preferred by Arabs.
C. By cross-breeding, horses with desirable mixed characteristics could be produced.
D. Cross-breeding produced Thoroughbred horses.

Juan Ponce de Leon was the first Spaniard to touch the shores of the present United States. As Columbus had not remotely realized
the extent of his momentous discovery, so de Leon never dreamed that his "island" of Florida was a peninsular extension of the vast
North American continent. After coming to the New World with Columbus in 1493, he had led the occupation of Puerto Rico in 1508 and
governed it from 1509 to 1512. In 1509, de Leon started a colony at Caparra, later abandoned in favor of San Juan. He was one of the
first adelantados—men who "advanced" the Spanish Empire by conquest, subjugation of the Indians, and establishment of a semi-
military government.
In Puerto Rico he heard a legend about an island called Bimini, where there was said to be a spring that restored youth to all who
bathed in it. It is said he was seeking this spring when he discovered Florida.
He sailed from Puerto Rico in March 1513. On Easter Sunday he sighted the coast. A few days later he landed on Florida's east
coast, near what is now St. Augustine. He named the place La Florida after the Spanish term for Easter Sunday—Pascua florida, or
"flowery feast." He then sailed around the peninsula and up the west coast. He returned to Florida in 1521.

8. Which of the following is implied by the passage?

A. Ponce de Leon was the true discoverer of the North American continent.
B. Ponce de Leon rejected the philosophy of the adelantados.
C. Ponce de Leon may have discovered Florida "by accident."
D. Ponce de Leon's greatest contribution was his discovery of the Fountain of Youth.