READING COMPREHENSION (Chuyên)
READING COMPREHENSION (Chuyên)
READING COMPREHENSION (Chuyên)
I. Read the following passage and choose the best answers to the questions that follow.
Television’s contribution to family life in the United States has been an equivocal one. For while it has,
indeed, kept the members of the family from dispersing, it has not served to bring them together. By dominating
the time families spend together, it destroys the special quality that distinguishes one family from another, a quality
that depends to a great extent on what a family does, what special rituals, games, recurrent jokes, familiar songs,
and shared activities it accumulates.
“Like the sorcerer of old,” writes Urie Bronfenbrenner, “the television set casts its magic spell, freezing
speech and action, turning the living into silent statues so long as the enchantment lasts. The primary danger of the
television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces — although there is danger there — as in the
behavior it prevents : the talks, games, the family festivities, and arguments through which much of the child’s
learning takes place and through which character is formed. Turning on the television set can turn off the process
that transforms children into people.”
Of course, families today still do special things together at times: go camping in the summer, go to the zoo on
a nice Sunday, take various trips and expeditions. But the ordinary daily life together is diminished — that sitting
around at the dinner table, that spontaneous taking up of an activity, those little games invented by children on the
spur of the moment when there is nothing else to do, the scribbling, the chatting, the quarreling, all the things that
form the fabric of a family, that define a childhood.
Instead, the children have their regular schedule of television programs and bedtime, and the parents have their
peaceful dinner together. But surely the needs of adults are being better met than the needs of children, who are
effectively shunted away and rendered untroublesome.
If the family does not accumulate its backlog of shared experiences, shared everyday experiences that occur and
recur and change and develop, then it is not likely to survive as anything other than a caretaking institution.
1. Which of the following best represents the author’s argument in the passage?
A. Television has negative effects on family life.
B. Television has advantages and disadvantages for children.
C. Television should be more educational.
D. Television teaches children to be violent.
2. The word it in the passage refers to.......
A. dominating B. time C. television D. quality
3. Why is Urie Bronfenbrenner quoted in paragraph 2?
A. To present a different point of view from that of the author
B. To provide an example of a television program that is harmful
C. To expand the author’s argument
D. To discuss the positive aspects of television
4. The word freezing in the passage is closest in meaning to........
A. controlling B. halting C. dramatizing D. encouraging
5. Urie Bronfenbrenner compares the television set to ........
A. a statue B. an educator C. a family member D. a magician
6. Which of the following would be an example of what the author means by a special thing that families do?
A. Going on vacation in the summertime B. Playing cards together in the evening
C. Reading to the children at bedtime D. Talking to each other
7. The thing that “form the fabric of a family” in paragraph 3 are........
A. special things B. ordinary things
C. television programs D. children
8. The word it in the passage refers to ........
A. the television B. the family
C. its backlog D. an institution
9. According to the author, what distinguishes one family from another?
A. Doing ordinary things together B. Watching television together
C. Celebrating holidays together D. Living together
10. It can be inferred from the passage that a caretaking institution is one in which care is given ........
A. charitably B. lovingly
C. constantly D. impersonally
II. Read the text and choose the best answers to each question that follows.
As Philadelphia grew from a small town into a city in the first half of the eighteenth century, it became an
increasingly important marketing center for a vast and growing agricultural hinterland. Market days saw the
crowded city even more crowded, as farmers from within a radius of 24 or more kilometers brought their sheep,
cows, pigs, vegetables, cider, and other products for direct sale to the townspeople.
The High Street Market was continuously enlarged throughout the period until 1736, when it reached from
Front Street to Third. By 1745 New Market was opened on Second Street between Pine and Cedar. The next year
the Callowhill Market began operation.
Along with market days, the institution of twice-yearly fairs persisted in Philadelphia even after similar
trading days had been discontinued in other colonial cities. The fairs provided a means of bringing handmade
goods from outlying places to would-be buyers in the city. Linens and stockings from Germantown, for example,
were popular items.
Auctions were another popular form of occasional trade. Because of the competition, retail merchants opposed
these as well as the fairs. Although governmental attempts to eradicate fairs and auctions were less than successful,
the ordinary course of economic development was on the merchants' side, as increasing business specialization
became the order of the day. Export merchants became differentiated from their importing counterparts, and
specialty shops began to appear in addition to general stores selling a variety of goods.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. Philadelphia's agriculture importance.
B. Philadelphia's development as a marketing center.
C. The sale of imported goods in Philadelphia.
D. The administration of the city of Philadelphia.
2. The word "hinterland” in line 2 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. tradition B. association C. production D. region
3. According to the passage, fairs in Philadelphia were held _______.
A. on the same day as market says B. as often as possible
C. a couple of times a year D. whenever the government allowed it
4. The word "eradicate" in line 14 is closest in meaning to_______.
A. eliminate B. exploit C. organize D. operate
5. What does the author mean by stating in line 15 that "economic development was on the merchants' side"?
A. Merchants had a strong impact on economic expansion.
B. Economic forces allowed merchants to prosper.
C. Merchants had to work together to achieve economic independence.
D. Specialty shops near large markets were more likely to be economically successful.