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READING EXERCISE 2:
Study each of the passages, and choose the best answers to the questions that follow.

PASSAGE ONE (Questions 1-4)

Animal Congregation
Many types of animals combine the advantages of family association with those conferred by
membership in still larger groups. Bees congregate in hives; some fish move in schools; ants
gather in mounds; wolves live in packs; deer associate in herds. The main advantage of
membership in a mass community is the safety that it provides. A large group of prey may be
easier for a predator to find at any given point than is a small one, and a predator may think
twice before taking on such a group; if a predator does decide to challenge a large group, it may
merely encounter a confusing mass of moving bodies and possibly may not succeed in its primary
goal.
1. The word “those” in the passage refers to
A. types
B. animals
C. advantages
D. groups

2. The word of “it” in line 4 refers to

A. advantage
B. membership
C. community
D. safety

3. The word “one” in the passage refers to

A. group
B. prey
C. predator
D. point

4. The word “it” in line 7 refers to

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A. predator
B. group
C. mass
D. goal

PASSAGE TWO (Questions 5-9)

Chromium Compounds
Most chromium compounds have brightly colored hues, and as a result they are widely used
as coloring agents, or pigments, in paints. In addition to having a pleasing color, a paint must
protect the surface to which it applied and be easy to apply in a thin, uniform coat.
All paints consist of two parts. One is a powder of solid particles that is the source of the
color and the opaqueness and is known as the pigment. The other, called the binder, is the liquid
into which the pigment is blended. The binder used in some paints is made from oily solvents
such as those derived from petroleum resources. When applied, these solvents evaporate, leaving
deposits of pigment on the surface.
5. The word “they” in paragraph 1 refers to
A. chromium compound
B. brightly colored hues
C. coloring agents
D. pigments

6. The word “it” in paragraph 1 refers to

A. a pleasing color
B. a paint
C. the surface
D. a thin, uniform coat

7. The word “that” in paragraph 2 refers to

A. a powder
B. solid particles
C. the source

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D. the color

8. The word “which” in paragraph 2 refers to

A. powder
B. paint
C. liquid
D. pigment

9. The word “those” in paragraph 2 refers to

A. some paints
B. oily solvents
C. petroleum resources
D. deposits of pigment

PASSAGE THREE ( Questions 10-13)

New World Epidemics
A huge loss of life resulted from the introduction of Old World diseases into the Americas in
the early sixteen century. The inhabitants of the Americans were separated from Asia, Africa,
and Europe by rising oceans following the Ice Ages, and, a result, they were isolated by means of
this watery barrier from numerous virulent epidemic diseases that had developed across the
ocean, such as measles, smallpox, pneumonia, and malaria. Pre-Columbian Americans had a
relatively disease-free environment but also lacked the antibodies needed to protect them from
bacteria and viruses brought to America by European explorers and colonists. A devastating
outbreak of disease that strikes for the first time against a completely unprotected population is
known as a virgin soil epidemic. Virgin soil epidemics contributed to an unbelievable decline in
the population of native inhabitants of the Americans, one that has been estimated at as much as
an 80 percent decrease of the native population in the centuries following the arrival of
Europeans in the Americas.

10. The word “they” in the passage refers to

A. the inhabitants
B. epidemic diseases

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C. rising oceans
D. the Ice Ages

11. The word “that” in the passage refers to

A. a disease-free environment
B. this watery barrier
C. virulent epidemic diseases
D. the ocean

12. The word “them” in the passage refers to

A. pre-Colombian Americans
B. the antibodies
C. bacteria and viruses
D. European explorers and colonists

13. The word “one” in the passage refers to

A. a virgin soil epidemic
B. an unbelievable decline
C. the population of native inhabitants
D. the arrival of Europeans

PASSAGE FOUR (Questions 14-18)

Horatio Alger, Jr.
Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899) was the author of more than 100 books for boys in the second
half of the nineteenth century that focused on the theme of success coming to those who work
hard to achieve it. The son of a minister, Alger came from a prominent Massachusetts family. He
graduated with honors from Harvard in 1852 and graduated from the Cambridge Divinity
School eight years later. He served as a minister for a short time before moving to New York City
in 1886 to devote his time to writing inspirational books for boys.
In many of his books, he wrote about the poor and homeless children of the slums of New
York City, seeing them as unfortunate pawns of society who, if only given the opportunity, could

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improve their lot. A general plotline that he followed often was of a poor boy who managed to
achieve a respectable and successful life by working hard and taking advantage of opportunities
presented. Though his writing style was characterized by simplicity and repetition, it was well
received by his target audience; his books were enormously popular, selling millions of copies well
into the first few decades of the twentieth century.
14. The word “that” in paragraph 1 refers to
A. author
B. books
C. boys
D. half

15. The word “it” in paragraph 1 refers to

A. the second half
B. the nineteenth century
C. 100
D. success

16. The word “them” in paragraph 2 refers to

A. books
B. children
C. slums
D. pawns

17. The word “who” in paragraph 2 refers to

A. slums
B. society
C. pawn
D. opportunity

18. The word “it” in paragraph 2 refers to

A. style

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B. simplicity
C. repetition
D. audience

PASSAGE FIVE (Questions 19-20)

Water Quality Issues
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of access to clean water. Simply stated, water is the
source of life on our planet. In fact, 75 percent of the Earth is covered by water, but only 1
percent is available for drinking, and another 2 percent is frozen in ice. It makes up 50-90 percent
of the weight of living things. Our own bodies are 55 to 60 percent water. Further, the plants on
which we depend must have adequate water in order to grow and provide us with nourishment.
Humans themselves can survive only for a week without drinking it.
However, as the world’s population continues to grow, the need for more water increases.
Farming and industry, which are using more water than ever before, are responsible for
significant and harmful changes in the quality of water. Pollution from these and other sources is
rapidly decreasing the amount of drinkable water that is available.
19. The word "it" in paragraph 1 refers to
A. Ice
B. Water
C. The Earth
D. 1 percent

20. The word "these" in paragraph 2 refers to

A. The world’s population
B. Significant and harmful changes
C. Sources of drinking water
D. Farming and industry

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PASSAGE SIX (Questions 21-23)

Wayne Thiebaud’s Food Paintings
Wayne Thiebaud (pronounced “Tee-bow”), an American master of figurative painting, first
gained an international reputation in the 1960s with his still-life paintings of food. Like many
artists of the Pop Artists of the Pop Art Period , such as Andy Warhol, he chose unusual subjects
to portray. He is noted for his artistic power to take common, everyday objects and transform
them into dramatic representations of modern popular culture. For example, a single ice-cream
cone, removed from its ordinary surroundings and placed upon Thiebaud’s canvas with rich,
thick paint, suddenly takes on new importance and meaning.
In fact, Thiebaud’s depictions of food, composed of simple shapes and painted in bold,
brilliant colors, are among the most recognized of his paintings. Famous works such Pies, Pies,
Pies (1961) and Around The Cake (1962) easily appeal to viewers with their light humor, warmth,
and sense of fun. However, it should not be forgotten that Thiebaud is considered by art critics to
be a highly skilled painter in terms of his use of composition, brushstroke, color, and light and
shadow.
21. The word "his" in paragraph 1 refers to
A. a reputation
B. Andy Warhol
C. An American
D. Wayne Thiebaud

22. The word "them" in paragraph 1 refers to

A. Unusual subjects
B. Paintings of food
C. Common objects
D. Dramatic representations

23. The word "their" in paragraph 2 refers to

A. Famous works
B. Brilliant colors
C. Depictions of food
D. The viewers

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PASSAGE SEVEN (Questions 24-27)

The Silk Road
More than 2000 years ago, early traders from Western European faces many hardships as
they made their way along trade routes to the East. For these traders, most existing land routes
made travel extremely slow and problematic. However, a system of roads was opened from the
West to the East that made travel easier for many. This approximately 7000miles long network of
connecting roads came to be known as Silk Road, so named by Western peoples because the silk
carried on the route was what they most valued. Beginning near the Mediterranean coast and
stretching all the way to China, it was the first transcontinental highway in the ancient world to
link such a large number of different cultures. A variety of precious goods besides silk was also
carried on the long, dangerous journey over the road-everything from gold, glass, and iron to
exotic plants and animals.
This route, opened in the second century B.C., cut through boiling hot deserts and rugged
mountains. The Silk Road crossed through a number of independent lands, but the Parthian
territories were especially troubling. Once the traders arrived there, the local government made
them pay large amount of money to pass through. In addition, a single group could not make the
whole trip, so several merchants carried the goods for trading at different stages along the Silk
Road. A merchant might take goods from one trading station to another and return home, or
travel a longer distance to an established town. Each one, of course, charged a price, thus raising
the final cost of the goods. Although the Silk Road didn’t offer the easiest journey, it did manage
to prosper until more efficient sea-trading routes came into use in the seventeenth century.
24. The word "many" in paragraph 1 refers to
A. Hardships
B. Land routes
C. Traders
D. Trade routes


25. The phrase "this" route in paragraph 2 refers to

A. The journey
B. Mediterranean coast
C. The ancient world
D. The Silk Road

26. The word "there" in paragraph 2 refers to

A. Hot deserts

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B. Parthian territories
C. Rugged mountains
D. China

27. The phase "each one" in paragraph 2 refers to

A. A merchant
B. A group
C. A trading station
D. A town

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Combined Exercises

PASSAGE ONE (QUESTION 1-4)

Road building and The Automobile
Car registrations in the United States rose from one million in 1913 to ten million in 1923. By
1927, Americans were driving some twenty-six million automobiles, one car for every five people
in the country. Automobile sales in the state of Michigan outnumbered those in Great Britain
and Ireland combined. For the first time in history, more people lived in cities than on farms, and
they were migrating to the city by automobile.
The automobile was very American’s idea of freedom, and the construction of hard surface
roads was one of the largest items of government expenditure, often at great cost to everything
else. The growth of roads and the automobile industry made cars the lifeblood of the petroleum
industry and a major consumer of steel. The automobile caused expansions in outdoor
recreation, tourism, and related industries-service stations, roadside restaurants, and motels. After
1945, the automobile industry reached new heights, and new roads led out of the city to the
suburbs, where two-car families transported children to new schools and shopping malls.
In 1956 Congress passed the Interstate Highway Act, the peak of a half-century of frenzied
road building at government expense and the largest public works program in history. The result
was a network of federally subsidized highways connecting major urban centers. The interstate
highways stretched American mobility to new distances, and two-hour commutes, traffic jams,
polluted cities, and Disneyland became standard features of life. Like almost everything else in
the 1950s, the construction of interstate highways was justified as a national defense measure.
The federal government guaranteed the predominance of private transportation. Between
1945 and 1980, 75 percent of federal funds for transportation were spent on highways, while a
scant one percent went to buses, trains, or subways. Even before the interstate highway system
was built, the American bias was clear, which is why the United State has the world’s best road
system and nearly its worst public transit system.
1. The word "those" in paragraph 1 refers to
A. Car registrations
B. Automobiles
C. People
D. Automobile sales

2. The phrase "the lifeblood" in paragraph 2 is closet in meaning to

A. A supervisor
B. An important part

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C. An opponent
D. A serious threat

3. The word "frenzied" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to

A. Intense
B. Scientific
C. Disorganized
D. Wasteful

4. The word "scant" in paragraph 4 is closet in meaning to

A. More important
B. Barely sufficient
C. Very dangerous
D. Privately funded

PASSAGE TWO (QUESTION 5-8)

Bird Song
One instance in the animal king with parallels to human music is bird song. Much has
recently been discovered about the development of song in birds. Some species are restricted to a
single song learned by all individuals, while other species have a range of songs and dialects,
depending on environmental simulation. The most important auditory stimuli for birds are the
sounds of other birds, including family or flock members and territorial rivals. For all bird
species, there is a prescribed path to development of the final species song or songs. This process
is similar to the steps through which young children pass as they first babble and the mimic
species of the songs they hear around them, although he ultimate output of human singers is
much vaster and more varied than even the most impressive bird repertoire.
Underlying all avian vocal activity in the syrinx, an organ unique to birds that is located at
the first major branching of the windpipe is linked to the brain. There are general parallels
between the syrinx in birds and the larynx in humans. Both produce sound when air is forced
through the windpipe, causing thin membranes to vibrate. However, compared to the human
larynx, which uses only about two percent of exhaled air, the syrinx is a far more efficient sound-
producing mechanism that can create sound from nearly all the air passing through it.

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Possibly the most interesting aspects of bird song from the perspective of human intelligence
is its foundation in the central nervous system. Like humans, birds have large brains relative to
their body size. Song is a complex activity that young birds must learn, and learning implies that
higher-brain activity must be complex in the control of song. This control is associated with two
song-control centers in the avian brain. If the links between these centers and the syrinx are
interrupted, a bird is unable to produce normal song. Moreover, bird song is one of the new
instances in the animal kingdom of a skill that is lateralized; the song-control centers are located
in the left side of the avian brain. A lesion there will destroy bird song, while a similar lesion in
the right half of the brain will result in much less damage.
5. The word "range" in paragraph 1 is closet in meaning to
A. Region.
B. Memory
C. Variety
D. System

6. The word "mimic" in paragraph 1 is closet in meaning to

A. Imitate
B. Enjoy
C. Compose
D. Memorize

7. The word "lateralized" in paragraph 3 is closet in meaning to

A. Linked to a specific area of the brain
B. Highly evolved
C. Shared by all species
D. Easily damaged or destroyed

8. The word "there" in paragraph 3 refers to

A. The central nervous system
B. syrinx
C. The animal kingdom
D. The left side of the brain

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PASSAGE THREE (QUESTION 9-13)

Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian statesman and political philosopher of the early sixteenth
century, is considered the founder of modern political thinking. Machiavelli was a product of
Renaissance Florence, a city-state that was struggling for expansion and survival among a
competing group of similar states. As a public servant and diplomat, Machiavelli came to
understand power politics by observing the spectacle around him without any illusions. In 1512,
he was briefly imprisoned and then forced to leave public life. He retired to his country estate,
where he recorded his reflections on politics. Two of his books would become classics in political
theory: Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, a set of essays on ancient and modern politics,
and the Prince, a potent little book that would shock readers for centuries.
Machiavelli saw politics as an affair separate from religion and ethics, an activity to be
practiced and studies for its own sake. Politics was simply the battle of men in search of power,
and since all men were brutal, selfish, and cowardly, politics must follow certain rules. In his most
famous work, The Prince (1532), Machiavelli described the means by which a leader may gain
and maintain power. The ideal prince was the man who had studied his fellow men, both by
reading history and by observing the present, and was willing to exploit their weakness.
Machiavelli thought that his own time was too corrupt to permit any alternative to the
Renaissance despots that he saw all around him.
Machiavelli’s philosophy arose more from a deeply pessimistic view of human nature than
from a lack of moral sense, which many readers criticized in him. He was, and still is,
misunderstood to have promoted atheism over religion and criminality over other means of
governing. Despite the ruthless connotation of the term “Machiavellian”, many of his works,
such as the History of Florence (1532), express republican principles. Machiavellian’s supporters
saw him not as a cynic who gloried in evil but as a scientist of politics who saw the world more
clearly than others and reported what he saw with lucidity and honesty.
The cultural impact of Machiavelli’s philosophy was far-reaching, and negative
interpretations have persisted. The dramatic literature of the late sixteenth century, notably the
plays of Shakespeare, often featured a villainous but humorous character type known as the
Machiavel. The Machiavel character loved evil for its own sake, and this delight in evil made all
other motivation unnecessary. The Machiavel had a habit of using humorous monologues to
comment on his own wickedness and contempt for goodness. Shakespeare’s PRINCIPAL
Machiavel characters are the treacherous lago in Othello, the ruthlessly ambitious Edmund in
King Lear, and the murderous title character in Richard III.
9. The word "illusions" in paragraph 1 is closet in meaning to
A. Conclusions

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B. False beliefs
C. Limits
D. Good intentions

10. The word "their" in paragraph 2 refers to

A. Religion and ethics
B. Certain rules
C. Fellow men
D. Renaissance despots

11. The word "pessimistic" in paragraph 3 is closet in meaning to

A. Negative
B. Cautious
C. Religious
D. Emotional

12. The word "lucidity" in paragraph 3 is closet in meaning to

A. Distaste
B. Clarity
C. Respect
D. Concern

13. The word "monologues" in paragraph 4 is closet in meaning to

A. Speeches
B. Actions
C. Noises
D. Costumes

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