Reading Comprehension

Directions: Read the text below. Then, read the questions that follow it and choose the
best answer to each question correspondingly among A, B or C, marking the answer on
your answer sheet.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how the reader views things, all living
animals have a limited life expectancy and unavoidably grow old. Or do they? Recent
research seems to suggest that some animals, like lobsters and tortoises, don’t actually grow
old and are, in fact, immune to the ageing process. The writer imagines a few eyelids are
being raised at the moment so it may be appropriate here to present some evidence. In 2006, a
recently deceased giant tortoise’s shell was tested and found to be over 250 years old,
meaning the animal had been born sometime around 1750. The animal had been brought to
India from the islands of the Seychelles in the mid-18th century as a gift to the British
colonial ruler Robert Clive and no one knew its exact age. It’s common knowledge that giant
tortoises live for a long time, but what astonished experts was the fact that the cause of death
wasn’t old age or disease but a wound it received when its shell was cracked. It seems, then,
that the gradual damage to cells that ends up killing most animals doesn’t apply to tortoises
and some other animals such as whales, rock fish and lobsters. So what is it that keeps a
tortoise ticking over? Firstly, it’s not exactly what you’d call a small animal that’s likely to be
eaten, and it also has an obvious advantage in the protective armour of its shell. But it also has
a couple of other features that help guarantee it a long life. Giant tortoises are native to islands
where they have no natural predators, for example. A number of factors like these interact
over the course of an animal’s evolutionary history and we can’t simply conclude that a
tortoise lives a long life because it has a shell or because it’s big. Other types of animals also
have long life expectancy. What we can say, though, is that the more social an animal, the
longer it lives, which could mean that the more people interact with each other, the more they
extend their stay on this planet.

16. The writer has carried out much research on tortoises.

A. True
B. False
C. No information in the text

17. The tortoise was already very old when Robert Clive received it.
A. True
B. False
C. No information in the text

18. The giant tortoise died of an injury.

A. True
B. False
C. No information in the text

19. Giant tortoises never attack each other.

A. True
B. False
C. No information in the text

20. Animals that live apart from other animals tend to have shorter lives.
A. True
B. False
C. No information in the text

Directions: Read the text below. Then, read the questions that follow it and choose the
best answer to each question correspondingly among A, B, C or D marking the answer
on your answer sheet.
A Dog’s Life

Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Miller’s place, it
was called. It stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses
could be caught of the wide cool veranda at the front of the house. At the rear there were great
stables, rows of servants’ cottages, green pastures, orchards and berry patches. Then there was
the big cement tank where Judge Miller’s boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the
hot afternoon.
And over this great domain Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the
four years of his life. It was true, there were other dogs, there had to be other dogs on so vast a
place, but they did not count. They came and went, or lived obscurely deep in the house in the
fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless – strange creatures that
rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox
terriers, twenty of them at least, who would bark at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the
windows at them, protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.
But Buck was not like any of them. He plunged into the swimming tank or went
hunting with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on long
twilight or early morning strolls; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring
library fire; he carried the Judge’s grandsons on his back, or rolled with them in the grass, and
guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and
even beyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches. He walked among the terriers
like their emperor, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king – king over all
creeping, crawling and flying things of Judge Miller's place, humans included.
His father had been the Judge’s constant companion and Buck had lived the life of an
aristocrat; he had a pride in himself, and was even a little egotistical, as country gentlemen
sometimes become because of their isolated situation. But he had saved himself from
becoming a soft house dog. Hunting and other outdoor delights had kept down the fat and
hardened his muscles.

Adapted from The Call of the Wild

www.bibliomania.com

21. Behind Judge Miller’s house were ……

A. more houses.
B. sculptures.
C. wine-growing areas.
D. a place to sunbathe.

22. According to the author, a difference between Buck and Toots and Ysabel was ……
A. Buck was more attractive.
B. Buck was more active.
C. Toots and Ysabel were quieter.
D. Toots and Ysabel had lived elsewhere.
23. The Judge ……
A. had two very young sons.
B. had at least four children.
C. took Buck for walks.
D. played with Buck.

24. Buck saw himself as a……

A. working dog.
B. child minder.
C. leader.
D. protector.

25. The author suggests Buck was sometimes ……

A. selfish.
B. unfit.
C. greedy.
D. lonely.

Directions: Read the text below. Then, read the questions that follow it and choose the
best answer to each question correspondingly among A, B, C or D, marking the answer
on your answer sheet.

Fastest Woman on Two Wheels

Victoria Pendleton is someone who reached the very top of her sport – despite having,
by her own admission, a physique that’s nowhere near as impressive as most track cyclists’
and a habit of allowing her emotions to overwhelm her.
Victoria, who was born in Bedfordshire, England, in 1980, says she began to cycle at
about the same time she learned to walk. That may be an exaggeration, but it’s certainly the
case that her father encouraged her from a young age to share his passion for cycling. He had
been a British grass track cycling champion, and wanted to see if she had inherited his talent.
At just six, Victoria was taking part in day rides on family holidays, during which her
father would leave her behind if she didn’t go fast enough. Victoria says trying to keep up
with her father gave her a strong fear of failure. While cycling with him could be tough on her
mentally and physically, it no doubt helped to develop her competitive spirit.
Soon Victoria’s twin brother took the place of her father as her rival on two wheels.
They would spend school holidays racing each other. It was clear that Victoria had enough
determination to go far – but her desire to please her father was as big a motivating force as
her will to win. She once told an interviewer that giving up cycling would have been
“massively disappointing” to her father.
When Victoria reached adulthood, her skills came to the attention of Britain’s assistant
national track cycling coach. He offered her a place on the British team while she was at
university, but she didn’t accept it as she wanted to focus on her course in sport and exercise
science. Victoria did, however, allow herself to compete on a national level before she
graduated, winning three silver medals and a bronze at the British National Track
Championships in 2001.
Over the next few years, Victoria competed in every major international track cycling
event, including the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. She achieved her first big win in
the World Cup in Manchester in 2004, and the following year she became the first British
woman to win gold at the Track Cycling World Championships since the 1960s.
The 2008 Olympics were eventful for Victoria in more ways than one. She was
victorious in the individual sprint event, but found herself in a difficult position in her
personal life. She realised she had fallen in love with the British team’s sports scientist, Scott
Gardner (who became her husband after she retired). Scott eventually had to leave his job
because of their relationship, which caused a lot of bad feeling among the other team
members.
Despite losing the support of Scott on a professional level, Victoria continued to
achieve wins, although not so many as before. By 2012, attitudes towards the pair’s
relationship had softened, and the British Olympic team decided to use Scott’s services for the
London Games that year. Victoria again rode her way to a gold medal, but decided to retire
afterwards, saying that her fear of failure made every race psychologically exhausting for her.

26. In early life, Victoria Pendleton ……

A. was told she had no future in sport.
B. attended cycling events as a spectator.
C. felt very proud of her father.
D. tried hard to meet expectations.

27. Victoria’s brother ……

A. became a faster cyclist than their father.
B. was the same age as Victoria.
C. also wanted to become a cyclist.
D. didn’t get on with their father.

28. While doing her degree, Victoria ……

A. decided against representing her country.
B. got married.
C. helped other people to win events.
D. stopped cycling competitively.

29. In 2008, Victoria ……

A. was a member of a gold medal-winning team.
B. did something no British woman had done for decades.
C. got engaged and then married.
D. upset other cyclists through her private life.

30. Victoria’s career came to an end because ……

A. she was finding competing stressful.
B. she had achieved all her ambitions.
C. she was coming first less regularly.
D. she chose her relationship over cycling.