The passages below are followed by questions based on their content; questions following a pair of related passages may also be based on the relationship between the paired passages. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passages and in any introductory material that may be provided. .
Questions 6-9 are based on the following passages.
Passage I
Farm families are able to achieve efficiency only through a brutal work schedule that few people could tolerate. “The farm family does physically demanding work and highly stressful work at least 1 4 hours a day 5 (often at least 1 8 hours a day during harvest season),7 days a week, 365 days a year, without a scheduled vacation or weekends off,” wrote Minnesota politician and farm alumnus Darrell McKigney. “The farmer must endure all of this without . . . any of the benefits that most 10 United States labor unions demand.”A dairy farmer, for instance, cannot just take off for a two-week vacation and not milk the cows. “Farmers lose perspective on the other things in life,” one psychologist has written. “The farm literally consumes them.”
Passage2
15 Americans have distanced themselves from the ethics and morals of food production, except where it serves them to think nostalgically about family farms as the source of our better values. Little wonder that a poll taken by The New York Times finds a majority 20 of Americans seeing farm life as superior to any other kind of life in this country. As consumers, Americans have enjoyed relatively inexpensive food. What will happen if family farms disappear? What will we do without family farmers to watch over the system for 25 us. to be our dupes, and to create that pleasant situation through their own great discomfort?
6. Unlike Passage 2, Passage I is primarily concerned with the
A ethical implications of food production
B harsh working conditions on many farms
C need for farmers to form a labor union
D plentiful and varied food available in the United States
E beliefs of many Americans regarding farm life
7. Both passages serve to discourage the
A reliance on polls for accurate information
B desire of many farmers to take annual vacations
C tendency of Americans to buy inexpensive foods
D romanticization of farm life by nonfarmers
E rise in price of home-grown produce
8. The author of Passage 1 would most likely assert which of the following about the “majority”(line 19, Passage 2)?
A They would be bored by the routine chores that are performed on a farm.
B They have little understanding of the realities of farm life.
C They admire the efficiency of the average family farm.
D They wish to improve the arduous life of many farmers.
E They are impressed by the current research on economical food production.
9. Unlike the author of Passage 2, the author of Passage 1 does which of the following?
A Explains a study.
B Offers a solution.
C Argues a position.
D Discusses a phenomenon.
E Quotes an authority.
Questions 10-15 are based on the following passage.
This excerpt from a novel by a Chinese American author is about a Chinese American woman named June. During a family dinner party attended by some of June ‘s Chinese American friends, Waverly, a tax attorney, discusses an advertisement that June wrote for her.
Waverly laughed in a lighthearted way. “I mean, really,
June.” And then she started in a deep television-announcer
voice: “Three benefits, three needs, three reasons to buy ... Satisfaction guaranteed . . . “
5 She said this in such a funny way that everybody
thought it was a good joke anti laughed.. And then. to
make matters worse, I heard my mother saying to Waverly:
”True, one can’t teach style. June is not sophisticated like
you. She must have been born this way.”
10 I was surprised at myself, how humiliated I felt. I had been outsmarted by Waverly once again, and now betrayed by my own mother.
.......................................................................................................
Five months ago, some time after the dinner, my mother gave me my “life¡’s importance,”a jade pendant on a gold 15 chain. The pendant was not a piece of jewelry I would have chosen for myself. It was almost the size of my little finger, a mottled green and white color, intricately carved. To me,the whole effect looked wrong: too large, too green, too garishly ornate. I stuffed the necklace in my lacquer box 20 and forgot about it. But these days, I think about my life’s importance. I wonder what it means, because my mother died three months ago, six days before my thirty-sixth birthday.And she’s the only person I could have asked to tell me 25 about life’s importance, to help me understand my grief.
I now wear that pendant every day. I think the carvings mean something, because shapes and details, which 1 never seem to notice until after they’re pointed out to me, always mean something to Chinese people. I know I could ask 30 Auntie Lindo, Auntie An-rnei, or other Chinese friends, but I also know they would tell me a meaning that is different from what my mother intended. What if they tell me this curving line branching into three oval shapes is a pomegranate and that my mother was wishing me fertility 35 and posterity? What if my mother really meant the canings were a branch of pears to give me purity and honesty?And because I think about this all the time, I always notice other people wearing these same jade pendants not the flat rectangular medallions or the round white40 ones with holes in the middle but ones like mine, a two-inch oblong of bright apple gr¨¦n. It¡¯s as though we were all sworn to the same secret covenant, so secret we don’ t even know what we belong to. Last weekend, for example,I saw a bartender wearing one. As I fingered mine, I asked 45 him, “Where’d you get yours?”
“My mother gave it to me,”he said.
I asked him why, which is a nosy question that only one Chinese person can ask another; in a crowd of Caucasians,two Chinese people are already like family.50 ”She gave it to me after I got divorced. I guess my mother’s telling me I’m still worth something.”And I knew by the wonder in his voice that he had no idea what the pendant really meant.
10. In lines 1-4, Waverly characterizes June’s advertisement as being
(A) unsophisticated and heavy-handed
(B) somber and convoluted
(C) clear and concise
(D) humorous and:effective
(E) clever and lively
11 In the context of the passage, the statement “I was surprised at myself”(line 10) suggests that June
(A) had been unaware of the extent of her emotional
vulnerability
(B) was exasperated that she allowed Waverly to embarrass her in public
(C) was amazed that she could dislike anyone so much
(D) had not realized that her mother admired her friend Waverly
(E) felt guilty about how much she resented her own mother.
12. June’s observation in lines 10-11 (“I had . . . Again”) suggests that
(A) June had expected Waverly to insult her
(B) June had hoped to embarrass Waverly this time
(C) Waverly had a private understanding with June¡¯s mother
(D) Waverly had made June feel inadequate on previous occasions
(E) Waverly was a more talented writer than June was
13. For June, a significant aspect of what happened at the dinner party is that
(A) her mother had taken great pains to make Waverly feel welcome
(B) her mother had criticized her for arguing with Waverly
(C) her mother had sided against her in front of family and friends
(D) Waverly had angered June’s mother
(E) Waverly had lied to June’s mother
14. The description of June’s encounter with the bartender primarily serves to suggest that
(A) the relationship of mother and son is different from that of mother and daughter
(B) June is not the only one who ponders the meaning of a jade pendant
(C) a jade pendant symbolizes the mystery of life and death
(D) June finally understands the true meaning of her jade pendant
(E) strangers are easier to talk to than family members and friends
15. The passage indicates that the act of giving a pendant can best be described as
(A) a widely observed tradition
(B) a mother’s plea for forgiveness
(C) an example of a mother’s extravagance
(D) an unprecedented act of generosity
(E) an unremarkable event in June’s life
Questions 16-24 are based on the following passage.This passage is from a book of nature writing published in 1991.
In North America, bats fall into mainly predictable categories: they are nocturnal, eat insects, and are rather small. But winging through their lush, green-black world,tropical bats are more numerous and have more exotic 5 habits than do temperate species. Some of them feed onnectar that bat-pollinated trees have evolved to profit from their visits. Carnivorous bats like nothing better than a local frog, lizard, fish, or bird, which they pluck from the foliage or a moonlit pond. Of course, some bats are vampires and 10 dine on blood. In the movies, vampires are rather showy, theatrical types, but vampire bats rely on stealth and small, pinprick incisions made by razory, triangular front teeth. Sleeping livestock are their usual victims, and they take care not to wake them. First, they make the classic incisions 15 shaped like quotation marks; then, with saliva full of anti- coagulants so that the victim’ s blood will flow nicely, they quietly lap their fill. Because this anticoagulant is not toxic to humans, vampire bats may one day play an important role in the treatment of heart patients - - that is, if we can 20 just get over our phobia about them. Having studied them intimately, I now know that bats are sweet-tempered, useful, and fascinating creatures. The long-standing fear that many people have about bats tells us less about bats than about human fear.25 Things that live by night live outside the realm of “normal”time. Chauvinistic about our human need to wake by day and sleep by night, we come to associate night dwellers with people up to no good, people who have the jump on the rest of us and are defying nature, defying their 30 circadian rhythms.* Also,night is when we dream, and sowe picture the bats moving through a dreamtime, in which reality is warped. After all, we do not see very well at night; we do not need to. But that makes us nearly defense- less after dark. Although we are accustomed to mastering 35 our world by day, in the night we become vulnerable as prey. Thinking of bats as masters of the night threatens the safety we daily take for granted. Though we are at the top of our food chain, if we had to live alone in the rain forest, say, and protect ourselves against roaming predators, we 40 would live partly in terror, as our ancestors did. Our sense of safety depends on predictability, so anything living outside the usual rules we suspect to be an outlaw, a ghoul.Bats have always figured as frightening or supernatural creatures in the mythology, religion, and superstition of45 peoples everywhere. Finnish peasants once believed that their souls rose from their bodies while they slept and flew around the countryside as bats, then returned to them by morning. Ancient Egyptians prized bat parts as medicine for a variety of diseases. Perhaps the most mystical, ghoul-50 ish, and intimate relationship between bats and humans occurred among the Maya about two thousand years ago.Zotzilaha Chamalc¨¢n, theirbat god, had a human body but the stylized head and wings of a bat. His image appears often on their altars, pottery, gold ornaments, and stone55 pillars. One especially frightening engraving shows the bat god with outstretched wings and a question-mark nose, its tongue wagging with hunger, as it holds a human corpse in one hand and the human’ s heart in the other. A number of other Central American cultures raised the bat to the ulti-60 mate height: as god of death and the underworld. But itwas Bram Stoker’s riveting novel Dracula that turned small, furry mammals into huge, bloodsucking monsters in the minds of English-speaking people. If vampires were semihuman, then they could fascinate with their conniving 65 cruelty, and thus a spill of horror books began to appear about the human passions of vampires.
* Circadian rhythms are patterns of daily change within one¡¯s body that are determined by the time of day or night.
16. The author’s main point in the passage is that
A there are only a few kinds of bats
B humans are especially vulnerable to nocturnal predators
C bat saliva may have medicinal
D only myth and and literature have depicted the true nature of the bat
E our perception of bats has its basis in human psychology
17. As used in line 14, “classic”most nearly means
A literary
B enduring
C elegant
D well-known
E significant
18. The discussion of vampire bats in the first paragraph (lines 1-24) primarily suggests that
A vampire bats are potentially useful creatures
B movies about vampires are based only on North American bats
C most tropical bats are not carnivorous
D the saliva of vampire bats is more toxic than commonly supposed
E scientists know very little about the behavior of most bats
19. In line 26, the quotation marks around the word “normal” serve to
A emphasize the individuality of the author’s writing
B criticize the human obsession with time
C emphasize the limitations of a point of view
D demonstrate the author’s agreement with the common use of the word
E indicate that this word would be stressed if it were spoken out loud
20. Which of the following assertions detracts LEAST from the author’s argument in the second paragraph (lines 2542)?
A Many people work at night and sleep during the day.
B Owls, which hunt at night, do not arouse our fear.
C Most dangerous predators hunt during the day. Some cultures D associate bats with positive qualities.
E Some dream imagery has its source in the dreamer’s personal life.
21. The examples cited in the third paragraph (lines 43-66) are primarily drawn from
A anthropology
B autobiography
C fiction
D psychiatry
E biology
22. The author develops the third paragraph (lines 43-66) by presenting
different sides of a single issue
details that culminate in¡¯ truth
a thesis followed by specific illustrations
a common argument followed by a refutation of it
a common opinion and the reasons it is held
23. The practices of which group mentioned in the last paragraph best substantiate the claim that bats are “useful” (line 21)?
A Finnish peasants
B Ancient Egyptians
C Ancient Maya
D A number of Central American cultures
E English-speaking people
24. The reference to Stoker’s work in lines 60-66 extends the author’ s idea that
A bats are sweet-tempered creatures
B our fear of bats reveals more about us than about bats
C humans have always been curious about nocturnal creatures
D bats can see better than humans at night
E bats appear as supernatural creatures even in the folklore of distant nations