VSTEP TEST 3 Reading

PRACTICE TEST 3

READING (60 minutes)

Directions: In this section of the test, you will read FOUR different passages, each followed by 10 questions about it. For questions 1-40, you are to choose the best answer A, B, C or D, to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.

 

PART ONE

SAVING LANGUAGES

Five hundred years ago, Europeans arrived on a new continent. They brought new cultures and languages to this place which they called America. However, there were already people living there who had their own cultures and languages. And so a terrible part of history began.

As more Europeans arrived, there was a fight for the land with the native American Indians. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Indian tribes were moved to reservations. A lot of their children were taken away to boarding schools and these children were taught to speak English. By the end of the twentieth century more than half of the Native Americans in the US were living in cities. They gave up speaking their old tribal language and only used English. As a result, many Native American languages disappeared and with them their culture.

Some American Indian languages are still used today but they are usually spoken by the older members of the tribes who still live on the reservations. In North America there are 150–170 languages that have at least one speaker and many of these languages have under a hundred speakers.

One ancient language which is spoken by the Northern Paiute tribe has more than two hundred speakers. This means when the elders of the tribe get together, they still speak it. But for most of the younger members of the tribe, the everyday language is English.

But the good news is that some of these people are keeping their culture and language alive. They are also receiving help from the National Geographic Society’s Enduring Voices Project. [A] The aim of the project is to help languages around the world which are dying out. Linguists and experts meet these ‘last speakers’. [B] The team interview them and they are recorded with video, pictures and audio. They also tell old stories which are written down in English so people can learn more about the culture.

[C] The next stage is to pass on the language to the next generation. Some children pick up some of the language from their parents or grandparents but many tribes also offer courses in the language. [D] The Salish tribe is an excellent example of how schools can help. The tribe lives in the Flathead Reservation in Montana. Their language is currently spoken by about 50 people who are aged over 75 years. No one under 50 speaks the language. So now, the local people have set up a school. It has 30 students aged two to twelve during the day and there are also courses for adults in the evening. It is schools and projects like these which – hopefully – might save languages for the future.
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1. What is true about the new continent?

2. What happened to the native Americans before the 20^th century?

3. What is NOT true about the native Americans in the 20^th century?

4. The word ‘They’ in paragraph 2 refers to

5. What do the numbers 150-170 refer to?

6. What is most likely the population of the Northern Paiute tribe?

7. What is the National Geographic Society’s Enduring Voices Project doing to help preserve the native culture?A.

8. In which of the indicated spaces does the sentence “Recording the language and culture is only part of the project” most fit?

9. Which of the following statements is NOT true about the Salish tribe?

10. How many Salish speakers are there in the world now?

PART TWO

Before the mid-nineteenth century, people in the United States ate most foods only in season. Drying, smoking, and salting could preserve meat for a short time, but the  availability of fresh meat, like that of fresh milk, was very limited; there was no way to prevent spoilage. But in 1810 a French inventor named Nicolas Appert developed the cooking-and-sealing process of canning. And in the 1850's an American named Gail  Borden developed a means of condensing and preserving milk. Canned goods and  condensed milk became more common during the 1860's, but supplies remained low because cans had to be made by hand. By 1880, however, inventors had fashioned stamping and soldering machines that mass-produced cans from tinplate. Suddenly all kinds of food could be preserved and bought at all times of the year.

Other trends and inventions had also helped make it possible for Americans to vary their daily diets. Growing urban populations created demand that encouraged fruit and vegetable farmers to raise more produce. Railroad refrigerator cars enabled growers and meat packers to ship perishables great distances and to preserve them for longer periods. Thus, by the 1890's, northern city dwellers could enjoy southern and western strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes, previously available for a month at most, for up to six months of the year. In addition, increased use of iceboxes enabled families to store perishables. An easy means of producing ice commercially had been invented in the 1870's, and by 1900 the nation had more than two thousand commercial ice plants, most of which made home deliveries. The icebox became a fixture in most homes and remained so until the mechanized refrigerator replaced it in the 1920's and 1930's.

Almost everyone now had a more diversified diet. Some people continued to eat mainly foods that were heavy in starches or carbohydrates, and not everyone could afford meat. Nevertheless, many families could take advantage of previously unavailable fruits, vegetables, and dairy products to achieve more varied fare.
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11. What does the passage mainly discuss?

12. The phrase “in season” in paragraph 1 refers to

13. The word “prevent” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to

14. During the 1860's, canned food products were

15. It can be inferred that railroad refrigerator cars came into use

16. The word “them” in paragraph 2 refers to

17. The word “fixture” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to

18. The author implies that in the 1920's and 1930's home deliveries of ice

19. Which of the following types of food preservation was NOT mentioned in the passage?

20. Which of the following statements is supported by the passage?

PART THREE

 

In the United States in the early 1800's, individual state governments had more effect on the economy than did the federal government. States chartered manufacturing, banking, mining, and transportation firms and participated in the construction of various internal improvements such as canals, turnpikes, and railroads. The states encouraged internal improvements in two distinct ways; first, by actually establishing state companies to build such improvement; second, by providing part of the capital for mixed public-private companies setting out to make a profit.

In the early nineteenth century, state governments also engaged in a surprisingly large amount of direct regulatory activity, including extensive licensing and inspection programs. Licensing targets reflected both similarities in and differences between the economy of the nineteenth century and that of today: in the nineteenth century, state regulation through licensing fell especially on peddlers, innkeepers, and retail merchants of various kinds. The perishable commodities of trade generally came under state inspection, and such important frontier staples as lumber and gunpowder were also subject to state control. Finally, state governments experimented with direct labor and business regulation designed to help the individual laborer or consumer, including setting maximum limits on hours of work and restrictions on price-fixing by businesses.

Although the states dominated economic activity during this period, the federal government was not inactive. Its goals were the facilitation of western settlement and the development of native industries. Toward these ends the federal government pursued several courses of action. It established a national bank to stabilize banking activities in the country and, in part, to provide a supply of relatively easy money to the frontier, where it was greatly needed for settlement. It permitted access to public western lands on increasingly easy terms, culminating in the Homestead Act of 1862, by which title to land could be claimed on the basis of residence alone. Finally, it set up a system of tariffs that was basically protectionist in effect, although maneuvering for position by various regional interests produced frequent changes in tariff rates throughout the nineteenth century.
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21. What does the passage mainly discuss?

22. The word “effect” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to

23. All of the following are mentioned in the passage as areas that involved state governments in the nineteenth century EXCEPT

24. The word “distinct” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to

25. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that in the nineteenth century canals and railroads were

26. The regulatory activities of state governments included all of the following EXCEPT

27. The word “setting” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to

28. The word “ends” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to

29. According to the passage, which of the following is true of the Homestead Act of 1862?

30. Which of the following activities was the responsibility of the federal government in the nineteenth century?

PART FOUR

Galaxies are the major building blocks of the universe. A galaxy is a giant family of many millions of stars, and it is held together by its own gravitational field. Most of the material universe is organized into galaxies of stars, together with gas and dust.

There are three main types of galaxy: spiral, elliptical, and irregular. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy: a flattish disc of stars with two spiral arms emerging from its central nucleus. About one-quarter of all galaxies have this shape. Spiral galaxies are well supplied with the interstellar gas in which new stars form; as the rotating spiral pattern sweeps around the galaxy it compresses gas and dust, triggering the formation of bright young stars in its arms. The elliptical galaxies have a symmetrical elliptical or spheroidal shape with no obvious structure. Most of their member stars are very old and since ellipticals are devoid of interstellar gas, no new stars are forming in them. The biggest and brightest galaxies in the universe are ellipticals with masses of about 1013 times that of the Sun; these giants may frequently be sources of strong radio emission, in which case they are called radio galaxies. About two-thirds of all galaxies are elliptical. Irregular galaxies comprise about one-tenth of all galaxies and they come in many subclasses.

Measurement in space is quite different from measurement on Earth. Some terrestrial distances can be expressed as intervals of time: the time to fly from one continent to another or the time it takes to drive to work, for example. By comparison with these familiar yardsticks, the distances to the galaxies are incomprehensibly large, but they too are made more manageable by using a time calibration, in this case the distance that light travels in one year. On such a scale the nearest giant spiral galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, is two million light years away. The most distant luminous objects seen by telescopes are probably ten thousand million light years away. Their light was already halfway here before the Earth even formed. The light from the nearby Virgo galaxy set out when reptiles still dominated the animal world.
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31. The world "major" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to

32. What does the second paragraph mainly discuss?

33. The word "which" in paragraph 2 refers to

34. According to the passage, new stars are formed in spiral galaxies due to

35. The word "symmetrical" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to

36. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true of elliptical galaxies?

37. Which of the following characteristics of radio galaxies is mentioned in the passage?

38. What percentage of galaxies are irregular?

39. The word "they" in paragraph 3 refers to

40. Why does the author mention the Virgo galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy in the third paragraph?