READING TEST #4
Directions: In this section of the test, you will read FOUR different passages, each followed by 10 questions about it. For questions 1-40, you are to choose the best answer A, B, C or D, to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.
You have 60 minutes to answer all the questions, including the time to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.
PASSAGE 1
Questions 1-10
Humanitarian Dorothea Dix was born in the tiny village of Hampden, Maine, in 1802. An avid reader and fast learner, she was taken in by her grandmother, who lived in Boston, and was educated there. When only nineteen years old, she established the Dix Mansion School for girls in Boston. There was no lack of students, and the school provided a good source of income for her and her two brothers, whom she had brought to Boston to live with her. She also wrote and published the first of many books for children in 1824. In 1836, however, her health failed. She suffered most of her life from “lung trouble” (probably tuberculosis) and depression. She was forced to stop teaching and had to close her school.
Later that same year, having partially recovered, Dix set off for Italy to rest and recover her health in the warm Italian sunshine. She never made it to Italy, however. By the time her ship arrived in England, she was too ill to continue. She was taken care of by a kind British friend, William Rathbone. During her time in England, she became friends with Samuel Tuke, who directed the York Retreat for the Mentally Disordered. From Tuke, she learned new, more humane methods for taking care of the mentally ill.
Returning to the United States, Dix volunteered to teach classes at a prison for women in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the objections of the jailer, she went to the lower level of the jail where the mentally ill were housed. She was shocked to see that they were treated far worse even than ordinary criminals and were forced to live in filthy, miserable, brutal conditions. She vowed to spend the rest of her life improving conditions for the mentally ill.
For the next eighteen months, Dix toured Massachusetts prisons, poor-houses, and local jails where other mental patients were confined. She reported on the terrible conditions that she found to the Massachusetts legislature, which soon passed laws to improve conditions. After that, she turned her attention to neighboring New England states and then to the West and South. She traveled thousands of miles by train, coach, carriage, and riverboat, systematically gathering facts in order to convince those in power.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Dix was nearly sixty years old. However, she volunteered to form the Army Nursing Corps. At first, military authorities, who were not accustomed to female nurses, were skeptical, but she convinced them that women could perform this work acceptably. She recruited over 3,000 women and raised money for medical supplies for the troops. Under her leadership, army nursing care greatly improved.
After the war, Dix returned to her life’s work and resumed her travels. She saw special hospitals for the mental ill built in fifteen states. She asked the federal government to use the income from public lands to help poor mental patients, and although both houses of Congress approved this bill, President Pierce vetoed it. Even though this plan failed, Dix was able to arouse concern for the problem of mental illness all over the United States as well as in Canada and Europe. Dix’s success was due to her independent and thorough research, her gentle but persistent manner, and her ability to convince powerful and wealthy patrons to help her.
Câu 1: Why was the Dix Mansion school closed?
- A. because Dix was in poor health
- B. because Dix could not attract enough students
- C. because Dix decided to travel to Europe
- D. because Dix had to take care of her brothers
- A. Her grandmother
- B. William Rathbone
- C. Samuel Tuke
- D. A jailer at a prison in Cambridge
- A. She was sent there by the Massachusetts legislature.
- B. She wanted to do research on prison conditions.
- C. She was hired to be the jailer.
- D. She was teaching a class there.
- A. England
- B. Massachusetts
- C. The southern part of the U.S.
- D. Maine
- A. jailers
- B. ordinary criminals
- C. mentally ill prisoners
- D. classes
- A. They were not used to women nurses.
- B. They asked Dix to become superintendent.
- C. They improved army nursing care during the war.
- D. They did not allow Dix to recruit nurses herself.
- A. military authorities
- B. nurses
- C. women
- D. the troops
- A. publish books for children
- B. arouse concern for the mentally ill
- C. obtain income from public lands
- D. become superintendent of nurses
- A. Her research was independent and methodical.
- B. She attracted rich, influential sponsors to her cause.
- C. Although she had a gentle manner, she didn’t give up.
- D. Her personal wealth allowed her to finance projects herself.
- A. accepted
- B. refused
- C. voted for
- D. agreed
PASSAGE 2
Questions 11-20
For centuries, the power of Chinese emperors rose and fell with their control of the Grand Canal. Today, this important waterway is shorter than it once was, but it is still the longest man-made river in the world, and continues to play an important cultural and economic role in modern China. [A]
Construction Begins
The original canal system began around the year 605, when Emperor Yang realized that – in order to feed his army – he needed a way to move food quickly from China’s southern rice-growing region to the country’s north. An estimated one million people, mostly farmers, worked to build the first section of the Grand Canal, which connected existing canals, lakes, and rivers. Construction took six years and was completed in 611.
Over the next 500 years, the canal’s importance grew throughout China, but by 1127, parts were deteriorating. In 1279, Kublai Khan began to repair and build new parts of the canal. This renovation created a more direct north-south route to and from Beijing. Future rulers then continued to expand and improve the canal.
Nation’s Lifeline
In addition to moving rice around China, the Grand Canal was also an important cultural conduit. Soldiers, merchants, and artists transported ideas, regional foods, and cultural practices from one part of China to another along the country’s watery highway. According to legend, this is how Beijing acquired two of its best-known trademarks: Peking duck, a dish from Shandong Province in the south, and Peking opera, from Anhui and Hubei, also in the south. [B]
The Modern Canal
For more than a thousand years, goods have been transported along the Grand Canal. Even today, the country’s watery highway plays an important economic role in China. Boats continue to carry tons of coal, food, and other goods to points between Hangzhou and Jining. In addition, local governments – eager to increase tourism and real estate development – are working to beautify areas along the canal. [C]
This development comes at a price, though. In Yangzhou, the city has torn down almost all of the older canal-side buildings. Farther south in the cities of Zhenjiang, Wuxi, and Hangzhou, the situation is similar. In Hangzhou, for example, almost all of the ancient buildings have been demolished. “Traditionally we talk about 18 main cities on the Grand Canal, and each had something unique and special about it.” Explains Zhou Xinhua, the former vice director of the Grand Canal museum in Hangzhou. “But now many of these cities are all the same: a thousand people with one face.”
In 2005, a group of citizens proposed that the historic Grand Canal be made a UNESCO World Heritage site, to protect both the waterway and the architecture around it. “Every generation wants the next generation to understand it, to look at its monuments.” said Zhu Bingren, an artist who cowrote this proposal. The hope is that the Grand Canal, a site of cultural and economic importance – and one of the world’s great engineering accomplishments – will continue to link north and south China for centuries to come. [D]
Câu 11: Why was the Grand Canal originally built?
- A. to allow the army to move quickly from the north to the south
- B. to transport food from the southern regions of China to the northern regions
- C. to enable more people to visit remote parts of China
- D. to promote the cultural and traditional diversity of the south of China
- A. It originally took six years to complete its construction.
- B. Even today, it is the longest man-made river in the world.
- C. Around a million people worked on the first section of the canal.
- D. It allowed Peking duck and Peking opera to spread to southern China.
- A. the origin of the Grand Canal
- B. the history of the Grand Canal
- C. the modernization of the Grand Canal
- D. the cultural importance of the Grand Canal
- A. Renewed Importance
- B. Cultural Connections
- C. The Army’s Highway
- D. The Origins of Peking Opera
- A. traditions
- B. repetitions
- C. instructions
- D. improvements
- A. to give an example of a famous food in Beijing.
- B. to show that it is a favourite dish of people from Shandon Province.
- C. to demonstrate a trademark in Beijing.
- D. to give an example of the cultural importance of the Grand Canal.
- A. But developing the canal involves spending a lot of money.
- B. But even after spending money, people might not like the development.
- C. But developing it is a lot more expensive than one can imagine.
- D. But there are some negative consequences to having this development.
- A. destroyed
- B. built
- C. renovated
- D. restored
- A. the canal and the area around it are declared a heritage site
- B. the canal is further expanded in an east-west direction
- C. more changes are made to modernize the canal
- D. a monument is created to honor China’s economic and cultural importance
- A. [A]
- B. [B]
- C. [C]
- D. [D]
