READING COMPREHENSION

Question 1-10
Line
Questions 1–10
(5)
In past centuries, Native Americans living in the arid areas of what is now the
southwestern United States relied on a variety of strategies to ensure the success of
their agriculture. First and foremost, water was the critical factor. The soil was rich
because there was little rain to leach out the minerals, but the low precipitation caused
(10) its own problems. Long periods of drought could have made agriculture impossible; on
the other hand, a sudden flood could just as easily have destroyed a crop.
Several techniques were developed to solve the water problem. The simplest was to
plant crops in the floodplains and wait for the annual floods to water the young crops.
A less dangerous technique was to build dikes or dams to control the flooding. These
(15) dikes both protected the plants against excessive flooding and prevented the water from
escaping too quickly once it had arrived. The Hopi people designed their fields in a
checkerboard pattern, with many small dikes, each enclosing only one or two stalks of
maize (corn ), while other group s built a series of dam s to contro l the floo ds. A third
technique was to dig irrigation ditches to bring water from the rivers. Water was
(20) sometimes carried to the fields in jars, particularly if the season was dry. Some crops
were planted where they could be watered directly by the runoff from cliff walls.
Another strategy Native Americans used to ensure a continuous food supply was to
plant their crops in more than one place, hoping that if one crop failed, another would
survive. However, since the soil was rich and not easily exhausted, the same patch of
(25) ground could be cultivated year after year, whereas in the woodlands of the eastern
United States it was necessary to abandon a plot of ground after a few years of farming.
In the Southwest, often two successive crops were planted each year.
It was a common southwestern practice to grow enough food so that some could be
dried and stored for emergencies. If emergency supplies ran low, the people turned to
the local wild plants. If these failed, they moved up into the mountains to gather the
wild plants that might have survived in the cooler atmosphere.
1. What does the passage mainly 6. Why did farmers in the Southwest plant
discuss? crops in several places at the same time?
(A) Agricultural methods of Native (A) They moved frequently from one
Americans place to another.
(B) Irrigation techniques used by the (B) They feared that one of the crops
Hopi might fail.
(C) Soil quality in the American (C) The size of each field was quite
Southwest limited.
(D) Native American methods of (D) They wanted to avoid overusing
storing emergency food supplies the soil.
2. The word “solve” in line 7 is closest 7. The word “patch” in line 19 is closest in
in meaning to meaning to
(A) advance toward (A) type
(B) protect from (B) level
(C) keep in (C) group
(D) deal with (D) piece
3. Planting in the floodplains was not 8. Why did farmers in the eastern woodlands
ideal because periodically abandon their fields?
(A) the amount of water could not be (A) Seasonal flooding made agriculture
controlled impossible.
(B) the crops could be eaten by wild (B) They experienced water shortages.
animals (C) They wanted a longer growing
(C) the floodplains were too remote season.
to be cultivated frequently (D) The minerals in the soil were
(D) corn grows better at high exhausted.
elevations 9. What did farmers in the Southwest do
4. The word “enclosing” in line 12 is when a crop failed?
closest in meaning to (A) They planted in the eastern
(A) defending woodlands.
(B) measuring (B) They gathered food from wild plants.
(C) surrounding (C) They moved away from the
(D) extending mountains.
5. The word “they” in line 16 refers to (D) They redesigned their fields for the
next season.
(A) fields
(B) jars 10. Farmers in the Southwest would have
(C) crops benefited most from which of the
(D) walls following?
(A) Steeper cliff walls
(B) More sunshine
(C) Regular rain
(D) Smaller dikes
 Questions 11–20

Marianne Moore (1887–1972) once said that her writing could be called poetry only
Line because there was no other name for it. Indeed her poems appear to be extremely compressed
(5) essays that happen to be printed in jagged lines on the page. Her subjects were varied: animals,
laborers, artists, and the craft of poetry. From her general reading came quotations that she
found striking or insightful. She included these in her poems, scrupulously enclosed in quotation
marks, and sometimes identified in footnotes. Of this practice, she wrote, “‘Why the many
quotation marks?’ l am asked . . .When a thing has been said so well that it could not be said
(10) better, why paraphrase it? Hence my writing is, if not a cabinet of fossils, a kind of collection
of flies in amber.” Close observation and concentration on detail are the methods of her poetry.
Marianne Moore grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri, near St. Louis. After graduation from Bryn
Mawr College in 1909, she taught commercial subjects at the Indian School in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania. Later she became a librarian in New York City. During the 1920s she was editor
(15) of The Dial, an important literary magazine of the period. She lived quietly all her life, mostly
in Brooklyn, New York. She spent a lot of time at the Bronx Zoo, fascinated by animals.
Her admiration of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team—before the team moved to Los Angeles—
was widely known.
Her first book of poems was published in London in 1921 by a group of friends associated
(20) with the Imagist movement. From that time on her poetry has been read with interest by
succeeding generations of poets and readers. In 1952 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her
Collected Poems. She wrote that she did not write poetry “for money or fame. To earn a living
is needful, but it can be done in routine ways. One writes because one has a burning desire to
objectify what it is indispensable to one’s happiness to express.”

11. What is the passage mainly about? 15. The author mentions all of the following as
(A) The influence of the Imagists on jobs held by Moore EXCEPT
Marianne Moore (A) commercial artist
(B) Essayists and poets of the 1920s (B) teacher
(C) The use of quotations in poetry (C) magazine editor
(D) Marianne Moore’s life and work (D) librarian
12. Which of the following can be inferred 16. The word “period” in line 13 is closest in
about Moore’s poems? meaning to
(A) They are better known in Europe (A) movement
than the United States. (B) school
(B) They do not use traditional verse (C) region
forms. (D) time
(C) They were all published in The 17. Where did Moore spend most of her adult
Dial. life?
(D) They tend to be abstract. (A) In Kirkwood
13. According to the passage, Moore wrote (B) In Brooklyn
about all of the following EXCEPT (C) In Los Angeles
(A) artists (D) In Carlisle
(B) animals 18. The word “succeeding” in line 19 is closest
(C) fossils in meaning to
(D) workers (A) inheriting
14. What does Moore refer to as “flies in (B) prospering
amber” (line 9) ? (C) diverse
(A) A common image in her poetry (D) later
(B) Poetry in the twentieth century 19. The word “it” in line 21 refers to
(C) Concentration on detail (A) writing poetry
(D) Quotations within her poetry (B) becoming famous
 (C) earning a living (D) wanted to raise money for the
(D) attracting readers Bronx Zoo
20. It can be inferred from the passage that
Moore wrote because she
(A) wanted to win awards
(B) was dissatisfied with what others
(C) felt a need to express herself
 Questions 21–30

Different fish species swim in different ways. Beginning in the 1920s, careful
efforts have been made to classify and measure these various means of locomotion.
Line Although the nomenclature and mathematics used to describe fish locomotion have
(5) become quite complex, the basic classification system is still largely the same as it was
first outlined.
The simplest type of swim is “eel-form” (technically, “anguilliform,” after the
common eel Anguilla). As the name suggests, this swimming motion involves
undulations, or wavelike motions, of the whole length of the fish’s body, the amplitude
(10) of the undulation increasing toward the tail. These undulating motions generate a
backward thrust of the body against the water, thereby driving it forward. Eel-form
swimming is effective but not particularly efficient because the undulations increase
the drag, or resistance in the water. It is employed, therefore, mostly by bottom
dwellers that do not move quickly or efficiently. Not only eels but also blennies swim
(15)
this way, as do flounders, which undulate vertically, top to bottom, rather than
horizontally, and certain slow-moving sharks, such as the nurse and wobbegong shark.
Most roaming predators display “jack-form” swimming (technically, “carangiform,”
after the Carangidae family, which includes jacks, scads, and pompanos). Although
there is some variation, in general they have certain features in common: a head like
the nose of an aircraft, often sloping down on the top, and a tapered posterior that ends
(20)
in a forked tail. That portion of the body that connects with the forked tail is narrowed.
A jack, like other carangiform swimmers, is adapted for acceleration. It thrusts its
rather stiff body from side to side, creating propulsion without much waving of the
body, encountering less resistance than eel-form undulations produce. The forked
(25)
pattern of the tail reduces drag; the narrowed portion of the body connected to the tail
minimizes recoil, and thus helps keep the body still. Jack-form fish are efficient
swimmers, as they must be to catch their prey.
The least efficient swimmers are those that move trunkfish style (technically,
“ostraciform,” after the family Ostraciidae, which includes trunkfishes and cowfishes).
(30) Like the jacks, they use their tails for propulsion, but in so inept and clumsy a manner
as to make it clear that speed is not their objective. Puffer fish and porcupine fish swim in
trunkfish style. Lacking speed, they must depend on body armor or the secretion of
toxic substances for protection.
 (B) Their swimming style lets them catch prey
effectively.
21. The word “suggests” in line 7 is closest in
meaning to (C) They have tails similar to those of eels.
(A) implies
(D) Their highly flexible skeletal structure
(B) demands allows them to swim efficiently.
(C) describes
(D) compares 28. The word “objective” in line 30 is closest in
22. The word “it” in line 10 refers to meaning to
(A) tail
(A) ability
(B) thrust
(C) body (B) preference
(D) water
(C) purpose
23. Which of the following does the author mention as
the cause of the eel’s inefficient swimming style? (D) method
(A) The increased drag produced by the
movement of the body 29. Which of the following fish would most likely emit
(B) The eel’s habit of usually swimming near a poisonous substance?
the bottom of the water (A) A nurse shark
(C) The simple structure of the eel’s body
(D) The weakness of the backward thrust of (B) A jack
the eel’s tail (C) A pompano
24. The word “employed” in line 12 is closest in
meaning to (D) A puffer fish
(A) used
30. Which of the following statements does the passage
(B) occupied
support?
(C) developed
(D) provided (A) A scientist today would use a system of
25. It can be inferred from the passage that blennies classification for fish locomotion similar
(line 13) are to that used in the 1920s.
(A) bottom dwellers
(B) sharks (B) Scientists today still do not understand the
(C) predators mechanics of fish locomotion.
(D) a type of eel
26. The word “minimizes” in line 25 is closest in (C) Mathematical analysis of fish locomotion
meaning to has remained largely unaltered since the
1920s.
(A) prevents
(B) reduces (D) The classification of fish locomotion has
(C) determines been simplified since it was devised in the
(D) repeats 1920s
27. What does the author mention about fish that are
“jack-form” swimmers?
(A) They usually prey on bottom- dwelling
fish.