Passage 1

The potato like other root crops has an uneamed reputation in some countries as an inferior food or a poor person’s staple. While roots are the main ingredient of the diet of half a million people, the potato’s nutritive content of protein, fiber, minerals and vitamin BI, B2 and C hardky makes it inferior . medical researchers report that potatoes are even better than milk for malnourished children , who often cannot digest milk . potatoes provide a high quality protein similar to that in dairy products. Unfortunately the potato is still out of reach of a poor person’s budget in many developing countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

26. according to this passage, why might potatoes be better than milk for children who are improperly nourished?

a. potatoes contain quite a bit of calcium

b. potatoes have more b vitamins than milk.

c. these children often cannot assimile milk.

d. these children often cannot find a supply

27. the potato …..

a. does not deserve its bad reputation

b. is the main food for half a million people

c. is not available in many developing countries

d. can hardly be called nutritious

Passage 2

anting is a noun that is entering the language because of ornithologists or bird watchers. Anting refers to an activity in which birds rub themselves with defence fluids or ometimes other bodily fluids of ants. In the past scientists thought anting had no function and that it was a vice like smooking or drinking. However most ornithologists now think that birds use ant fluids to kill parasites. Among those ants that birds favour are the azteca ants, which produce formic acid, a repellent so effective that it will drive off army ants. Birds often crash dive into azteca nests and allow the insect to crawl all over their bodies or they grasp then in their beaks and rub them through their feathers. The birds get such relief from their treatment that some appear to swoon and even lose their balance.

28. anting …..

a. is an activity unique to bird watchers

b. refers to the killing of Azteca ants by parasites

c. is relatively new word in the English language

d. refers to the way ants defend themselves

29. Birds sometimes dive into Azteca ant nests because

a. they lose their balance as they enter

b. they are trying to kill the ants

c. they are seeking relief from parasites

d. they are repelled by the Azteca ants

Passage 3

Tall children score slightly higher on intelligence test and perform somewhat better academically than their shorter classmates, perhaps because more is expected of them, researchers for a National Health Examination survey have found. The magnitude of the difference is not large, however, and certainly not worth giving children growth hormones to make them taller, said Dr. Darrell Wilson of Stanford University. He and his colleagues concluded there was a definite link between height and scores on tests of both intelligence and archievement. The association remained even after controlling for other factors, including socioeconomic status, birth order, family size and rate of physical maturity. Dr. Wilson said the difference was small but significant.

The researchers based their findings on data from a study involving nearly 14,000 children from six to 17 years old.

30. One cause the researchers suggested for the connection between height and test scores was the tall children’s ......

a. greater rate of physical maturity

b. increased growth hormone production

c. response to greater expectations

d. general health and better nutrition

31. The researchers found that the difference between the test scores of tall and short children ......

a. can be linked to socioeconomic status

b. is meaningful although it is small

c. appears to be inexplicable

d. is worthless for measuring intelligence

Passage 4

Worker involvement in the protection of health at work is gaining ground in the European Economic Community (EEC), where most States have overhauled their national laws on job safety during the past decade. Today, worker representatives should be informed and consulted on health and safety matters and they are entitled in one way or another to inspect workplaces and investigate accidents. The watchdog role is assigned to statutory work councils, safety delegates and voluntary bodies. But, what rights do EEC workers actually enjoy, and how much real use have they made of them? A study of these questions recently published by the ILO reveals a chequered picture of greatly varying approaches and degrees of success.

32. In this passage the author suggests that ......

a. statutory work councils have done a great deal to protect worker health and safety

b. most states in the EEC have taken a similar approach to worker safety

c. the results of worker involvement in health protection have been uneven

d. worker groups do not have enough power t enforce safety laws

Passage 5

The pronunciation Researh Unit, which is made up of three linguisth and a clerk, is charged with upholding the standard of spoken language at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Today, the unit concerns it self mostly with proper nouns, leaving ordinary vocabulary and grammar to the discretion of the announcers, who deliver the 2,000 hours of BBC broadcasting each week. Though many still speak the Queen’s English, or the plummy, southern English known as Received Pronunciation, there is a good deal of room for variation now.

33. The author suggests that ......

a. the BBC broadcasters have learned to be very discreet

b. the pronunciation of people from the south of England is changing

c. nouns are the least problematic in terms of pronunciation

d. accents other than Received Pronunciation are now acceptable

Passage 6

A long time back a reviewer ridiculed William Carlos Williams for sayig one reason a poet wrote was to become a better person. I was fresh out of graduate school and I easily sided with the reviewer. But now I see Williams was right. I do not think Williams was advocating writing as therapy, nor the naive idea that after writing a poem one is less depraved. I believe Williams discovered that a lifetime of writing was a slow, accumulative way of accepting one’s life as valid. We sweat through poem after poem to realize what dumb animals know by instinct and reveal in their behavior: my life is all I have got. We are off to know ourselves, even if our method of learning is painfully convoluted. When you write you are momentarily telling the world and yourself that neither of you need any reason to be but the one you had all along.

34. The author of this passage has come to realize the value of writing as ......

a. a means of coming to terms with your existence

b. an efficient way of understanding your true feelings

c. an aid to help you better understand your world

d. a potential therapy for your instinctive behaviour

passage 7

There is a special kind of person who is more likely than most to take the first step to help and to stay with the effort to the end: the altruist. According to Dr. Staub, “There is a pattern of child-rearing that seems to encourage altourism in later years. A warm and nurturing relationship between parent and child is essential, but not enough in it self. The parents who transmit altruism most effectively exert a firm control over their children. Although they are nurturing, they are not permissive. They use a combination of firmness, warmth and reasoning. They point out to children the consequences to others of misbehaviour – and good behaviour. And they actively guide the child to do good, to share, to be helpful.”

35. This passage suggest that some adults have become altruists because their parents ......

a. taught them to feel sorry for the less fortunate

b. encouraged them in later years

c. were not only encouraging but also strict

d. taught them that misbehavior deserves punishment