TEXT D To get a chocolate out of a box requires a considerable amount of unpacking; the box has to be taken out of the paper bag in which it arrived; the cellophane wrapper has to be torn off, the lid opened and the paper removed; the chocolate itself then has to be unwrapped from its own piece of paper. But this insane amount of wrapping is not confined to luxuries. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything that is not done up in cellophane, polythene, or paper. The package itself is of no interest to the shopper, who usually throws it away immediately, unless wrapping accounts for much of the refuse put out by the average London household each week. So why is it done? Some of it, like the cellophane on meat, is necessary, but most of the rest is simply competitive selling. This is abused. Packaging is using up scarce energy and resources and messing up the environment. Little reach is being carried out on the costs of alternative types of packaging. Just how possible is it, for instance, for local authorities to salvage paper, pulp it, and recycle it as egg-boxes? Would it be cheaper to plant another forest? Paper is the material most used for packaging —— 20 million paper bags are apparently used in Great Britain each day —— but very little is salvaged. A machine has been developed that pulps paper then processes it into packaging, e.g. egg-boxes and cartons. This could be easily adapted for local authorities use. It would mean that people would have to separate their refuse into paper and non-paper, with a different dustbin for each. Paper is, in fact, probably the material that can be most easily recycled; and now, with massive increases in paper prices, the time has come at which collection by local authorities could be profitable. Recycling of this kind is already happening with milk bottles, which are returned to the dairies, washed out, and refilled. But both glass and paper are being threatened by the growing use of plastic. More and more dairies are experimenting with plastic bottles, and British dairies would be producing the equivalent of enough plastic tubing to encircle the earth every five or six days! The trouble with plastic is that it does not rot. Some environmentalists argue that only solution to the problem of ever growing mounds of plastic containers is to do away with plastic altogether in the shops, a suggestion unacceptable to many manufacturers who say there is no alternative to their handy plastic packs. It is evident that more research is needed into the recovery and re-use of various material and into the cost of collecting and recycling containers as opposed to producing new ones. Unnecessary packaging, intended to be used just once, and making things look better so more people will guy them, is clearly becoming increasingly absurd. But it is not so much a question of doing away with packaging as using it sensibly. What is needed now is a more unimportant function.
45. The "local authorities" are ________.
A) the Town council
B) the police
C) the paper manufacturer
D) the most influential citizens
46. If paper is to be recycled ________.
A) more forests will have to be planted
B) the use of paper bags will have to be restricted
C) people will have to use different dustbins for their rubbish
D) the local authorities will have to reduce the price of paper
47. The environmentalists think that ________.
A) more plastic packaging should be used
B) plastic is the most convenient form of packaging
C) too much plastic is wasted
D) shops should stop using plastic containers
TEXT E For me, scientific knowledge is divided into mathematical sciences, natural sciences or sciences dealing with the natural world (physical and biological sciences), and sciences dealing with mankind (psychology, sociology, all the sciences of cultural achievements, every kind of historical knowledge). Apart from these sciences is philosophy, about which we will talk later. In the first place, all this is pure or theoretical knowledge, sought only for the purpose of understanding, in order to fulfill the need to understand that is intrinsic and consubstantial to man. What distinguishes man from animal is that he knows and needs to know. If man did not know that the world existed, and that the world was of a certain kind, that he was in the world and that he himself was of a certain kind, he wouldnt be a man. The technical aspects or applications of knowledge are equally necessary for man and of the greatest importance, because they also contributing to defining him as man and permit him to pursue a life increasingly more truly human. But even while enjoying the results of technical progress, he must defend the primacy and autonomy of pure knowledge. Knowledge sought directly for its practical applications will have immediate and foreseeable success, but not the kind of important result whose revolutionary scope is in large part unforeseen, except by the imagination of the Utopians. Let me recall a well-known example. If the Greek mathematicians had not applied themselves to the investigation of conic sections zealously and without the least suspicion that it might someday be useful, it would not have been possible centuries later to navigate far from shore. The first men to study the nature of electricity could not imagine that their experiments, carried on because of mere intellectual curiosity, would eventually lead to modern electrical technology without which we can scarcely conceive of contemporary life. Pure knowledge is valuable for its own sake, because the human spirit cannot resign itself to ignorance. But , in addition, it is the foundation for practical results that would not have been reached if this knowledge had not been sought disinterestedly.
48. The most important advance made by mankind come from ________.
A) technical applications
B) apparently useless information
C) the natural sciences
D) philosophy
49. In the paragraph that follows this passage, we may except the author to discuss ________.
A) the value of technical research
B) the value of pure research
C) philosophy
D) unforeseen discoveries
50. The title below that best expressed the ideas of this passage is ________.
A) Technical Progress
B) A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing
C) Man's Distinguishing Characteristics
D) Learning for its Own Sake
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING
Directions: In this section there are seven passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your answer sheet.
TEXT F First read the following question. 51. The painting discussed in the passage can be found in ________. A. Paris, France B. Washington C. New York D. Moscow, Russia Now, go though TEXT E quickly in order to answer question 31. Russian-born Max Weber grew up in New York, studied art there, and then went back to Europe to familiarize himself with contemporary artistic developments. On returning to the United States, Weber worked in the new styles he had discovered in Paris and soon become recognized as a pioneer of American abstract painting. An example of his work at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. is a 1915 painting entitled "Rush Hour, New York." Using abstract, geometrical forms, Weber has expressed the movement, noise, and vibrancy of the great metropolis. The picture blends elements of two European styles: cubism, which shows objects from a number of different angles of vision at the same time, and futurism, which portrays speed and objects in motion. Forceful lines and spiky forms throughout the composition convey the energy and vitality to the city. Weber expresses the citys diversity by juxtaposing forms with rounded and angular shapes to suggest specific elements of the urban landscape: skyscrapers, flashing lights, and hurrying people.
51. The painting discussed in the passage can be found in ________.
A) Paris, France
B) Washington
C) New York
D) Moscow, Russia
TEXT G First read the following questions. 52. According to the first advertisement, anyone who ________ would receive ten shillings. A. found the umbrella B. gave a message C. left the umbrella at No. 10 Broad Street D. left the umbrella in the City Church 53. This is a story about ________. A. a useless advertisement B. how to make an effective advertisement C. how the man lost and found his umbrella owner D. what the merchant did for the umbrella owner Now read the text quickly and answer questions 33 and 34. A man once said how useless it was to put advertisements in the newspapers. "Last week," said he, "my umbrella was stolen from a London church. As it was a present ,I spent twice its worth in advertising, but I didnt get it back." "How did you write your advertisement?" asked one of the listeners, a merchant. "Here it is," said the man, taking out of his pocket a slip cut from a newspaper. The other man took it and read, "Lost from the City Church last Sunday evening, a black silk umbrella. The gentleman who finds it will receive ten shillings on leaving it at No. 10 Broad Street." "Now," said the merchant, "I often advertise, and find that it pays me well. But the way in which an advertisement is expressed is of extreme importance. Let us try for your umbrella again, and if it fails, Ill buy you a new one." The merchant then took a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote:" If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the City Church last Sunday evening doesnt wish to get into trouble, he will return the umbrella to No. 10 Broad Street. He is well known." This appeared in the paper, and on the following morning, the man was astonished when he opened the front door. In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colors that had been thrown in, and his own was among the number. Many of them had notes fastened to them saying that they had been taken by mistake, and begging the loser mot to say anything about the matter.
52. According to the first advertisement, anyone who ________ would receive ten shillings.
A) found the umbrella
B) gave a message
C) left the umbrella at No. 10 Broad Street
D) left the umbrella in the City Church
53. This is a story about ________.
A) a useless advertisement
B) how to make an effective advertisement
C) how the man lost and found his umbrella owner
D) what the merchant did for the umbrella owner
TEXT H First read the following questions. 54. What is the wingspan of the Gossamer Albatross? A. 33 kilograms B. 100 meters. C. 30 meters. D. Half of the wingspan of a DC-9. 55. How much power did the Gossamer Albatross need to keep it flying? A. As much as a DC-9. B. Less than one horsepower. C. Thee horsepower. D. Thirty horsepower. Now go through TEXT H quickly in order to answer 33 and 34 In June 1979, Bryan Allen, a biologist from California who is also a hang-gliding enthusiast and an amateur racing cyclist, made history by pedaling across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross, a super-light, propeller-driven aircraft invented by Dr. Paul McCready. The Gossamer Albatross, a 33-kilogram (72-pound) aircraft with a polythene-covered fuselage and a wingspan of 30 meter (100 feet ), the same as that of a DC-9 jet airliner, was driven mostly by conventional bicycle components. Allen sat on a bicycle saddle inside the transparent fuselage and pedaled a bicycle crank and chain-wheel that turned a special urethane chain geared through two more chain-wheels to a propeller mounted aft of the wing. Shortly after dawn that June day, the Albatross rolled down a harbored runway in Folkstone, England. Pedaling hard, Allen got the aircraft aloft and churned his way toward France. After almost three hours of pedaling to produce a constant output of about 0.3 horsepower , he landed on a beach near Calais, the first person to fly a human-powered craft across the Channel. Allen and an American team led by Dr. McCready were awarded the 100,000 prize by Henry Kremer, a British industrialist, for the first successful nonstop human-powered flight across the English Channel. Allen and McCready were no strangers to human-power flight. They and the American team had previously won the 25,000 Kremer prize for the first such sustained flight when they had successfully flown a one-mile figure-eight course in McCreadys Gossamer Condor.
54. What is the wingspan of the Gossamer Albatross?
A) 33 kilograms
B) 100 meters.
C) 30 meters.
D) Half of the wingspan of a DC-9.
55. How much power did the Gossamer Albatross need to keep it flying?
A) As much as a DC-9.
B) Less than one horsepower.
C) Thee horsepower.
D) Thirty horsepower.
