Section Three: Reading Comprehension

Questions 1-9


Glass fibers have a long history. The Egyptians made coarse fibers by 1600 B.C., and


fibers survive as decorations on Egyptian pottery dating back to 1375 B c. During the


Renaissance (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries A.D.), glassmakers from Venice used glass


Line fibers to decorate the surfaces of plain glass vessels. However, glassmakers guarded their


(5) secrets so carefully that no one wrote about glass fiber production until the early


seventeenth century.


The eighteenth century brought the invention of "spun glass" fibers. Rene-Antoine de


Reaumur, a French scientist, tried to make artificial feathers from glass. He made fibers


by rotating a wheel through a pool of molten glass, pulling threads of glass where the hot


(10) thick liquid stuck to the wheel. His fibers were short and fragile, but he predicted that


spun glass fibers as thin as spider silk would be flexible and could be woven into fabric.


By the start of the nineteenth century, glassmakers learned how to make longer, stronger


fibers by pulling them from molten glass with a hot glass tube. Inventors wound the


cooling end of the thread around a yarn reel, then turned the reel rapidly to pull more fiber


(15) from the molten glass. Wandering tradespeople began to spin glass fibers at fairs, making


decorations and ornaments as novelties for collectors, but this material was of little


practical use; the fibers were brittle, ragged, and no longer than ten feet, the circumference


of the largest reels. By the mid-1870's, however, the best glass fibers were finer than silk


and could be woven into fabrics or assembled into imitation ostrich feathers to decorate


(20) hats. Cloth of white spun glass resembled silver; fibers drawn from yellow-orange glass


looked golden.


Glass fibers were little more than a novelty until the 1930's, when their thermal and


electrical insulating properties were appreciated and methods for producing continuous


filaments were developed. In the modern manufacturing process, liquid glass is fed


(25) directly from a glass-melting furnace into a bushing, a receptacle pierced with hundreds


of fine nozzles, from which the liquid issues in fine streams. As they solidify, the streams


of glass are gathered into a single strand and wound onto a reel.


1. Which of the following aspects of glass fiber does the passage mainly discuss?


(A) The major developments in its production


(B) Its relationship with pottery making


(C) Important inventors in its long history


(D) The variety of its uses in modern industry

2. The word "coarse" in line 1 is closest in meaning to


(A) decorative


(B) natural


(C) crude


(D) weak

3. Why was there nothing written about the making of Renaissance glass fibers until the seventeenth century?


(A) Glassmakers were unhappy with the quality of the fibers they could make.


(B) Glassmakers did not want to reveal the methods they used.


(C) Few people were interested in the Renaissance style of glass fibers.


(D) Production methods had been well known for a long time.


4. According to the passage, using a hot glass tube rather than a wheel to pull fibers from molten glass made the fibers


(A) quicker to cool


(B) harder to bend


(C) shorter and more easily broken


(D) longer and more durable


5. The phrase "this material" in line 16 refers to


(A) glass fibers


(B) decorations


(C) ornaments


(D) novelties for collectors

6. The word "brittle" in line 17 is closest in meaning to


(A) easily broken


(B) roughly made


(C) hairy


(D) shiny


7. The production of glass fibers was improved in the nineteenth century by which of the following


(A) Adding silver to the molten glass


(B) Increasing the circumference of the glass tubes


(C) Putting silk thread in the center of the fibers


(D) Using yam reels


8. The word "appreciated" in line 23 is closest in meaning to


(A) experienced


(B) recognized


(C) explored


(D) increased


9. Which of the following terms is defined in the passage?


(A) invention (line 7)


(B) circumference (line 17)


(C) manufacturing process (line 24)


(D) bushing (line25)