READING COMPREHENSION 3

11.
Since the earliest times, humans have sought out ways to preserve their food whether harvested or hunted.
They understood that it was unsustainable to hunt or harvest all the time. Depending on the climate, these early
humans froze meat on ice or dried food in the hot sun in order to preserve it. Subsequently, they no longer had to keep
moving after a meal in search for the next hunt or new land to harvest. They could store some of their food supply for
later use and settle down as a group.
Throughout history, various methods of hot and cold preservations were employed by different civilizations.
When natural climate conditions were not conducive, other means such as fire were used to dry fruits and vegetables
as done in the "still houses" of the Middle Ages. For cooling, often lower than freezing temperatures were used to
prolong shelf life. Underground caves proved to be effective for that purpose. Ice boxes and finally refrigeration
followed.
In the 1800s, the canning method was developed by a French confectioner named Nicolas Appert in response
to an award. General Napoléon Bonaparte offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could devise a practical
method for preserving food for his armies on the battlefield. Appert's method involved tightly sealing cooked food in
glass jars with cork stoppers. Once sealed, the jars were immersed in boiling water to drive the air out. Appert's
method was a success, and he won Napoléon's award. Appert believed that it was the exclusion of air that prevented
food from spoiling. It was not until many years later that Louis Pasteur proved that high temperatures were actually
responsible for eliminating the bacteria that caused food spoilage. Pasteur devised a method to safely store food by
treating canned products at a much lower temperature than that of Appert and thereby retaining the food's taste and
nutritional content.
1. The word "prolong" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _____________.
A. extract B. exclude C. expire D. extend
2. Why are caves mentioned in paragraph 2?
A. to highlight another way to dry food
B. to explain a natural cooling process
C. to describe a type of dwelling in the Middle Ages
D. to illustrate where some food was preserved
3. What does the author suggest about Nicolas Appert?
A. His method was not always effective.
B. He didn't understand the science behind his method.
C. He was motivated by an interest in science.
D. His goal was to advance research in bacteria.
4. What advantage did Pasteur's preservation method have over Appert's?
A. It maintained the nutritive quality of the food.
B. It required no heating for preservation.
C. It was safer and bacteria free.
D. It was easier to store the food products.
5. What is the main purpose of this passage?
A. to compare different food preservation methods
B. to explain the science behind food preservation
C. to describe the origins of food preservation
D. to illustrate the importance of food preservation

12.
Long before they can actually speak, babies pay special attention to the speech they hear around them. Within
the first month of their lives, babies' responses to the sound of the human voice will be different from their responses
to other sorts of auditory stimuli. They will stop crying when they hear a person talking, but not if they hear a bell or
the sound of a rattle. At first, the sounds that an infant notices might be only those words that receive the heaviest
emphasis and that often occur at the end of utterances. By the time they are six or seven weeks old, babies can detect
the difference between syllables pronounced with rising and falling inflections. Very soon, these differences in
adult stress and intonation can influence babies' emotional states and behavior. Long before they develop actual
language comprehension, babies can sense when an adult is playful or angry, attempting to initiate or terminate new
behavior, and so on, merely on the basis of cues such as the rate, volume, and melody of adult speech.
 Adults make it as easy as they can for babies to pick up a language by exaggerating such cues. One researcher
observed babies and their mothers in six diverse cultures and found that, in all six languages, the mothers used
simplified syntax, short utterances and nonsense sounds, and transformed certain sounds into baby talk. Other
investigators have noted that when mothers talk to babies who are only a few months old, they exaggerate the pitch,
loudness, and intensity of their words. They also exaggerate their facial expressions, hold vowels longer, and
emphasize certain words.
More significant for language development than their response to general intonation is observation that tiny
babies can make relatively fine distinctions between speech sounds. In other words, babies enter the world with the
ability to make precisely those perceptual discriminations that are necessary if they are to acquire aural language.
Babies obviously derive pleasure from sound input, too: even as young as nine months they will listen to
songs or stories, although the words themselves are beyond their understanding. For babies, language is a sensory-
motor delight rather than the route to prosaic meaning that is often for adults.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. How babies differentiate between the sound of the human voice and other sounds
B. The differences between a baby's and an adult's ability to comprehend language
C. How babies perceive and respond to the human voice in the their earliest stages of language development
D. The response of babies to sounds other than the human voice
2. The author mentions "a bell" and "a rattle" in paragraph 1 in order to
A. contrast the reactions of babies to human and nonhuman sounds
B. give examples of sounds that will cause a baby to cry
C. explain how babies distinguish between different nonhuman
D. give examples of typical toys that babies do not like sounds
3. Why does the author mention "syllables pronounced with rising and falling inflections" in paragraph 1?
A. To demonstrate how difficult it is for babies to interpret emotions
B. To illustrate that a six-week-old baby can already distinguish some language differences
C. To provide an example of ways adults speak to babies
D. To give a reason for babies' difficulty in distinguishing one adult from another
4. The word "diverse" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ________
A. surrounding B. divided C. varied D. stimulating
5. The word "noted" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to
A. theorized B. requested C. disagreed D. observed
6. The word "they" in paragraph 2 refers to
A. mothers B. investigators C. babies D. words
7. The passage mentions all of the following as ways adults modify their speech when talking to babies, EXCEPT
______.
A. giving all words equal emphasis
B. speaking with shorter sentences
C. speaking more loudly than normal
D. using meaningless sounds
8. According to the author, why do babies listen to songs and stories, even though they cannot understand them?
A. They understand the rhythm.
B. They enjoy the sound.
C. They can remember them easily.
D. They focus on the meaning of their parents' words.
9. What point does the author make to illustrate that babies are born with the ability to acquire language?
A. Babies begin to understand words in songs.
B. Babies exaggerate their own sounds and expressions.
C. Babies are more sensitive to sounds than are adults.
D. Babies notice even minor differences between speech sounds.
10. Which of the following can be inferred about the findings described in paragraph 2?
A. Babies who are exposed to more than one language can speak earlier than babies exposed to a single
language.
B. Mothers from different cultures speak to their babies in similar ways.
C. Babies ignore facial expressions in comprehending aural language.
D. The mothers observed by the researchers were consciously teaching their babies to speak.
13.
Cambridge University is considering axing compulsory written exams, allowing students to use laptops or iPads
instead, after tutors complained that students' handwriting is becoming illegible. Academics say the move, which
would bring an end to over 800 years of tradition, has come about because students rely too heavily on laptops in
lectures, and are losing the ability to write by hand.

Dr. Sarah Pearsall, a senior lecturer at Cambridge University, said handwriting is becoming a "lost art" among the
current generation of students. She added, "It's increasingly hard for our examiners to read students' scripts. Those
with illegible writing are forced to come back to their college during the summer holidays to read their answers aloud
in the presence of two university administrators. It's extraordinarily commendable that the University is considering
reforms to its examination practices."

Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, said it is inevitable that universities will move
to computers as handwriting deteriorates in the coming years. "We have to accept the reality. Handwriting has now
become an optional, not a necessary, part of education. There simply isn't the same time in the curriculum for learning
elegant, beautiful handwriting. Life is so quick now. Everybody writes as if they were a doctor writing a prescription,"
he said. "Handwriting is not necessary for great thought, great English, or great intelligence. Some of our finest
wordsmiths today write using laptops, and we have to fight to preserve what is really important, such as the use of
great English or great sentence structures."

Others, however, were not very positive about the move. Tracey Trussell, a handwriting expert, urged Cambridge to
ensure that students continue to write by hand. She said, "It's vital that people continue to write by hand. Writing by
hand improves memory and equates to a higher rate of comprehension and information retention." There is also
concern that schools could follow Cambridge's example by moving away from handwriting. Dr. Jane Medwell,
Associate Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, is concerned that scrapping handwritten exams in
universities could prompt "downward curriculum pressure" on primary and secondary schools to follow suit.
(Adapted from http://www.telegraph.co.uk)
1. Which of the following best serves as the title for the passage?
A. Cambridge University in an Attempt to Improve Students' Handwriting
B. Cambridge University Pondering Changes to its Exam Practices
C. Cambridge University Attacked again for Abolishing Written Exams
D. Cambridge University to Replace Written with Oral Exams
2. According to paragraph 1, Cambridge University has a long-standing tradition of ______.
A. offering academic tutorials
B. organising handwritten exams
C. relying heavily on technology
D. training students in legible handwriting
3. The word "Those" in paragraph 2 refers to _______.
A. examiners B. students C. scripts D. administrators
4. The word "deteriorates" in paragraph 3 mostly means _______.
A. remains unchanged B. becomes more important
C. improves gradually D. gets worse and worse
5. It can be inferred from what Sir Anthony Seldon said in paragraph 3 that _______.
A. schools in the country used to have more time for handwriting practice
B. schools in the country have failed to preserve the beauty of English
C. people's handwriting generally reflects their intelligence and linguistic competence
D. the majority of doctors these days no longer write prescriptions by hand
6. The word "scrapping" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______.
A. reconsidering B. eliminating C. introducing D. discouraging
7. As mentioned in paragraph 4, writing by hand can ________.
A. enhance the ability to remember information
B. guarantee desirable academic performance
C. facilitate the process of information exchange
D. relieve students of unnecessary pressure
8. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Cambridge University's move away from handwriting has already set an unprecedented example for other
schools to follow.
B. Sarah Pearsall acknowledged handwriting as an art form to be preserved among the current generation of
students at Cambridge University.
C. Sir Anthony Seldon claimed that learning to use great English was more important than learning to write by
hand beautifully.
D. Most of the tutors at Cambridge are skeptical of the university's decision regarding handwritten exams

14.
It takes a long time to raise a family of owlets, so the great horned owl begins early in the year. In January and
February, or as late as March in the North, the male calls to the female with a resonant hoot. The female is larger
than the male. She sometimes reaches a body length of twenty-two to twenty-four inches, with a wingspread up to
fifty inches. To impress her, the male does a strange courtship dance. He bobs. He bows. He ruffles his feathers and
hops around with an important air. He flutters from limb to limb and makes flying sorties into the air. Sometimes he
returns with an offering of food. They share the repast, after which she joins the dance, hopping and bobbing about as
though keeping time to the beat of an inner drum.
Owls are poor home builders. They prefer to nest in a large hollow in a tree or even to occupy the deserted
nest of a hawk or crow. These structures are large and rough, built of sticks and bark and lined with leaves and
feathers. Sometimes owls nest on a rocky ledge, or even on the bare ground. The mother lays two or three round, dull
white eggs. Then she stoically settles herself on the nest and spreads her feather skirts about her to protect her
precious charges from snow and cold.
It is five weeks before the first downy white owlet pecks its way out of the shell. As the young birds feather
out, they look like wise old men with their wide eyes and quizzical expressions. They clamor for food and keep the
parents busy supplying mice, squirrels, rabbits, crayfish, and beetles. Later in the season baby crows are taken.
Migrating songsters, waterfowl, and game birds all fall prey to the hungry family. It is nearly ten weeks before
fledglings leave the nest to search for their own food. The parent birds weary of family life by November and drive
the young owls away to establish hunting ranges of their own.
1. What is the topic of this passage?
A. Mating rituals of great homed owls
B. Raising a family of great horned owls
C. Habits of young great horned owls
D. Nest building of great horned owls
2. The phrase "a resonant hoot" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.
A. a sound B. an offering of food
C. an instrument D. a movement
3. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that the courtship of great horned owls ________.
A. happens in the fall B. takes place on the ground
C. involves the male alone D. is an active process
4. According to the passage, great horned owls ________.
A. may inhabit a previously used nest B. are discriminate nest builders
C. need big nests for their numerous eggs D. build nests on tree limbs
5. According to the passage, which of the following is the mother owl's job?
A. To build the nest B. To initiate the courtship ritual
C. To sit on the nest D. To feed the young
6. The phrase "precious charges" in the second paragraph refers to _________.
A. the hawks and crows B. other nesting owls
C. the nest D. the eggs
7. According to the passage, young owlets eat everything EXCEPT ________.
A. insects B. other small birds
C. small mammals D. nuts and seeds
8. The word "they" in the last paragraph refers to ________.
A. the adult birds B. the wise old men
C. the prey D. the young birds
9. What can be inferred from the passage about the adult parents of the young great horned owls?
 A. They are lazy and careless about feeding the small owlets.
B. They probably don't see their young after November.
C. They don't eat while they are feeding their young.
D. They are sorry to see their young leave home.
10. The phrase "weary of" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.
A. become sad about B. support C. are attracted to D. tire of

15.
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Discourse analysis is a subfield of linguistics that attempts to analyze language above the sentence level. It
attempts to go beyond the simple analysis of grammar to examine how context affects the meaning of what is said or
written. In this sense, it begins to bleed into psychology and sociology as well because factors such as the social
context and the speaker's state of mind must be taken into account in discourse analysis. Two of the primary
approaches to discourse analysis are pragmatics and sociolinguistics.
Pragmatics is the attempt to bridge the gap between the literal, grammatical meaning of a sentence and the
speaker's true meaning. Anyone who has ever had a misunderstanding with a friend or a relative knows that these two
things are not always the same. A common example would be when a person says, "Why don't we go to the movies?"
Here, the true meaning of the speaker is not to ask a question, but rather to make a suggestion.
To clear up the ambiguities of such language, pragmatics classifies pieces of speech according to speech acts,
the role they play in a conversation. Sometimes, the speech act is obvious. When a police officer yells. "Stop or I'll
shoot," the officer is both giving an order (stop) and making a threat (I'll shoot). Often, however, a speech act can only
be determined by its context. Look at the following example. A mother asks her son. "Can you take out the garbage?"
to which the son replies, "I did it yesterday." The mother then responds, "I don't care. Just do it." In this context the
son's speech act is not to inform his mother of the fact that he took out the garbage yesterday, as the grammar of the
sentence would seem to indicate. Instead, the son's speech act is a refusal of the mother's request. This, however, only
becomes clear when the boy's words are analyzed within the larger context of the conversation as a whole. Such
analysis is the nature of pragmatics.
Sociolinguistics employs discourse analysis for an entirely different purpose. The primary goal of a
sociolinguistic approach to discourse analysis is to study how social factors, such as socioeconomic status, influence
the way in which language is used. Among speakers of the same language, people in different social groups will use
language differently. Their tones, grammar, and word choice may all be drastically different from each other.
Sometimes this can be attributed simply to differences in educational level. Obviously a college graduate will have a
wider vocabulary and more sophisticated style of speech than most middle school students. But differences in
education do not entirely explain the differences in the way that language is used. Social settings greatly affect the
way that people use language. For example, a business meeting requires a more formal use of language than a
conversation with one's friends at a party. These shifts in the way we use language are called code switching. Nearly
everyone is capable of some level of code switching, and those who are not adept at it often have considerable trouble
making their way in society.
Other social factors are not so flexible. For example, one's status in society affects the way one speaks, and
these changes are not so given to code switching: they are generally far more rigid. A famous example is the
differences between the way that men and women speak. An analysis of male discourse generally shows it to be
highly pragmatic and goal oriented. Women's language. however, often is centered on building consensus and a sense
of community. An examination of the way that men and women respond when they are told of a personal problem
illustrates this point quite well. In this situation, men generally express their sympathy by offering advice and
suggesting solutions. Women, on the other hand, express their sympathy by relating their own experiences with
similar problems or through the use of expressions like "I know how you feel." Here the emphasis is less on finding a
solution to the problem than on building a sense of togetherness. The analysis of such social influences on language is
the goal of a sociolinguistic approach to discourse analysis.
(Adapted from Ebook Hooked on TOEFL iBT Reading)
1. According to paragraph 1,all of the following are true of discourse analysis EXCEPT
A. It places a heavy focus on analysis of grammar structures.
B. It utilizes elements from other fields of study.
C. It is concerned with how the situation influences meaning.
D. It can be applied through several different methods.
2. According to paragraph 2, what is the goal of pragmatics?
 A. To make a speaker's true meaning more like the grammatical meaning of a sentence
B. To understand how context can lead to differences between the true meaning and grammatical meaning of a
sentence
C. To eliminate the misunderstandings that result from deceptive uses of language
D. To bridge gaps in meaning through the proper use of grammar and sentence structure
3. Based on the information in paragraphs 2 and 3, what can be inferred about speech acts?
A. They are not always properly interpreted by the listener.
B. They are always inherentlsy unclear in meaning.
C. They are common in confrontational situations.
D. Their true meaning is impossible to establish.
4. The word ambiguities in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ________.
A. difficulties B. misunderstandings
C. uncertainties D. shortcoming
5. In paragraph 3, the author uses the example of a conversation between a mother and a son to explain _________.
A. the limitations of a pragmatic approach to discourse analysis
B. the uses of pragmatics and the analysis of speech acts in conflict resolution
C. the need to consider context when determining the nature of a speech act
D. the influence of speech acts on human relationships
6. The phrase Such analysis in paragraph 3 refers to the analysis of ________.
A. Various modes of conversation
B. Speech acts in context
C. Speech acts in requests and refusals
D. The deviations from literal meaning in a conversation
7. According to paragraph 4, sociolinguistic discourse analysis aims to _________.
A. explain instances of code switching in a social context
B. explain how the use of language can affect social settings
C. explain the differences between various societies and how they use language
D. explain the effects of one's social environment on the use of language
8. The word attributed in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______.
A. analyzed B. reduced C. credited D. exemplified
9. Based on the information in paragraph 4, which of the following would be an example of code vitching?
A. The differences between the language of the rich and the poor
B. Regional differences in the way people speak
C. Differences in the way language is used in different social situations
D. Differences in the way language is used by different generations
10. Why does the speaker mention a personal problem in the last paragraph?
A. To illustrate the social consequences of not utilizing code switching
B. To illustrate the differences between the way men and women use language
C. To discuss how code switching may be used to express sympathy in various ways
D. To discuss the difficulties created by the differences in the ways men and women use language