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EADING COMPREHENSION
Questions 71 to 75 are based on the following passage:
British Columbia is the third largest Canadian province, both in areaand population. It is nearly 1.5 times as large as Texas, and extends 800miles (1,280 km) north from the United States border. It includes Canada'sentire west coast and the islands just off the coast.
Most of British Columbia is mountainous, with long, rugged ranges runningnorth and south. Even the coastal islands are the remains of a mountain rangethat existed thousands of years ago. During the last Ice Age, this range wasscoured by glaciers until most of it was beneath the sea. Its peaks now showas islands scattered along the coast.
The southwestern coastal region has a humid mild marine climate. Seawinds that blow inland from the west are warmed by a current of warm waterthat flows through the Pacific Ocean. As a result, winter temperaturesaverage above freezing and summers are mild. These warm western winds alsocarry moisture from the ocean.
Inland from the coast, the winds from the Pacific meet the mountainbarriers of the coastal ranges and the Rocky Mountains. As they rise tocross the mountains, the winds are cooled, and their moisture begins tofall as rain. On some of the western slopes almost 200 inches (500 cm)of rain fall each year.
More than half of British Columbia is heavily forested. On mountainslopes that receive plentiful rainfall, huge Douglas firs rise in toweringcolumns. These forest giants often grow to be as much as 300 feet (90 m)tall, with diameters up to 10 feet (3 m). More lumber is produced fromthese trees than from any other kind of tree in North America. Hemlock,red cedar, and balsam fir are among the other trees found in BritishColumbia.
71. With which aspect of British Columbia is the passage primarily concerned?
A) Its climate. B) Its culture.
C) Its geography. D) Its history.
72. In which part of British Columbia can a mild climate be found?
A) In the southwest. B) Inland from the coast.
C) In the north. D) On the entire west coast.
73. In Paragraph 5, the word"heavily"could best be replaced by which of the
following?
A) widely. B) densely.
C) chiefly. D) largely.
74. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a tree found in British
Columbia?
A) Hemlock. B) Cedar. C) Fir. D) Pine.
75. What effect do the mountains have on winds?
A) Make them dry. B) Make them wet.
C) Make them cool. D) Make them weak.
Questions 76 to 80 are based on the following passage:
When they advise your kids to"get an education"if you want to raise yourincome, they tell you only half the truth. What they really mean is to getjust enough education to provide manpower for your society, but not too muchthat you prove an embarrassment to your society. Get a high school diploma,at least. Without that, you are occupationally dead, unless your name happensto be George Bernard Shaw or Thomas Alva Edison and you can successfully drop
out in grade school.
Get a college degree, if possible. With a B.A., you are on the launchingpad. But now you have to start to put on the brakes. If you go for amaster's degree, make sure it is an M. B. A., and only from a first-rateuniversity. Beyond this, the famous law of diminishing returns begins to take effect.
Do you know, for instance, that long-haul truck drivers earn more a yearthan full professors? Yes, the average 1977 salary for those truckers was24,000, while the full professors managed to average just 23,930.
A Ph.D. is the highest degree you can get, but except in a few specializedfields such as physics or chemistry, where the degree can quickly be turned toindustrial or commercial purposes, you are facing a dim future. There are morePh.D.s unemployed or underemployed in this country than in any other partof the world by far.
If you become a doctor of philosophy in English or history or anthropologyor political science or languages or - worst of all - in philosophy, you runthe risk of becoming overeducated for our national demands. Not for our needs,mind you, but for our demands.
Thousands of Ph.D.s are selling shoes, driving cabs, waiting on tables andfilling out fruitless applications month after month. And then maybe taking ajob in some high school or backwater college that pays much less than thejanitor earns.
You can equate the level of income with the level of education only sofar. Far enough, that is, to make you useful to the gross national product,but not so far that nobody can turn much of a profit on you.
76. According to the writer, what the society expects of education is to turn
out people who _______.
A) will not be a shame to the society
B) will become skilled workers
C) can take care of themselves
D) can meet the demands as a source of manpower
77. If you are as gifted as Bernard Shaw or Edison, _______.
A) you can get a high school diploma without difficulty
B) you will be successful in a grade school
C) you can be professionally successful without a diploma
D) the least you should do is to get a diploma
78. Ph.D.s are most likely to _______.
A) have difficulties getting properly employed
B) be employed in the fields of commerce or industry
C) have to fill out application forms month after month for others
D) work in schools or colleges with low pay
79. Which of the following is NOT true?
A) Bernard Shaw didn't finish high school, nor did Edison.
B) There are far more Ph.D.s than the society demands.
C) The higher your education level, the more money you'll earn.
D) If you are too well-educated, you'll make things difficult for the
society.
80. The writer is critical of _______.
A) the educational system B) the Ph.D.s
C) the society D) the employers
Questions 81 to 85 are based on the following passage:
Automobile drivers and passengers now face a new, unseen danger on theroad: the users of cellular mobile telephones. Looking at the phone whiledialing or speaking can prevent drivers from keeping their hands on thewheel and their eyes on the road; industry experts agree that drivers aremore likely to have an accident while using their phones. That fact hasexcited concern among highway safety organizations in the United States,and some want to ban cellular phones altogether. While manufacturers havenot yet come up with a cellular mobile phone that is completely "hands free",several companies have recently developed components that could make mobilephones less distracting -- and their users less accident prone.
Voice Control Systems, Inc., based in Dallas, Tex., has developed amicroprocessor unit that allows standard cellular telephones to "dial"numbers at the sound of a human voice. The Voice Dialer unit is attachedto the phone's transmitter and receiver in the car's trunk. Programmedwith a limited vocabulary, it can respond only to digits and specificcontrol commands spoken by the users, who must pause a quarter of a secondbetween each digit or command. (Frequently dialed numbers can be preprog-rammed into simple, single command codes.) The driver picks up the handset,and begins calls by saying "Dial," followed by the number or command code;a synthesized voice will repeat the number sequence and place the calltold to "Send." A unique aspect of the Voice Dialer is that it is speakerindependent; the unit will respond to any voice regardless of gender,accent or tone.
81. Cellular mobile telephones are telephone sets _________.
A) used in cars
B) capable of being moved in offices or at home
C) shaped like cells
D) controlled by human voices
82. Drivers using cellular mobile telephones are prone to accidents because
_____________.
A) telephone conversation distracts users from driving
B) drivers are often not skillful enough to use them
C) they are not reliable
D) they are not "hands free"
83. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A) The Voice Dialer unit is a device which dials numbers by human
voice, rather than by hand.
B) The Voice Dialer allows drivers to pay more attention on driving
while dialing.
C) The Voice Dialer unit can make cellular mobile phones completely
"hands free."
D) The Voice Dialer was developed by Voice Control Systems, Inc.
84. The Voice Dialer unit is programmed to respond to ____________.
A) what the user wants to say
B) a special vocabulary used by the driver
C) various commands spoken by the user
D) only the telephone numbers and specific control commands
85. This passage centres on ___________.
A) a new hazard on the road
B) different kinds of telephones
C) a safer car telephone
D) Voice Control Systems, Inc
