Passage 1

When Jimmy was a boy, he always liked watches and clocks very much. When he was eighteen years old, he went unto the army, and after a year, he began to teach himself to mend watches. Many of his friends brought him broken watches, and he mended them for them. Then his captain heard about this, and one day he brought him a watch and said, “My watch has stopped. Can you mend it for me, please?”

Jimmy said, “Yes, sir, I can.” After a few days, he brought the watch back to the captain.

“How much do I owe you?” the officer asked.

“One pound, sir” Jimmy answered. Then he took a small box out of his pocket and gave it-to the captain, saying, “Here are the three wheels from your watch. I didn’t find a place for them when I put everything back.”

1. What did Jimmy do when he was nineteen?

2. It can be inferred from the last sentence of the passage that Jimmy………. .

3. The word “owe” in line 6 is closest in meaning to ……. .

4. The word “this” in line 3 refers to ………. .

5. What was Jimmy’s hobby when he was a boy?

Passage 2

Firefighters are often asked to speak to school and community groups about the importance of fire safety, particularly fire prevention and detection. Because smoke detectors reduce the risk of dying in a fire by half, firefighters often provide audiences with information on how to install these protective devices in their homes.

Specifically, they tell them these things: A smoke detector should be placed on each floor of a home. While sleeping, people are in particular danger of an emergent fire, and there must be a detector outside each sleeping area. A good site for a detector would be a hallway that runs between living spaces and bedrooms.

Because of the dead-air space that might be missed by turbulent hot air bouncing around above a fire, smoke detectors should be installed either on the ceiling at least four inches from the nearest wall, or high on a wall at least four, but no further than twelve, inches from the ceiling.Detectors should not be mounted near windows, exterior doors, or other places where drafts might direct the smoke away from the unit. Nor should they be placed in kitchens and garages, where cooking and gas fumes are likely to cause false alarms.

1. Which organizational scheme does this list of instructions follow?

2. What is the main focus of this passage?

3. The passage implies that dead-air space is most likely to be found

4. The passage states that, compared with people who do not have smoke detectors, persons who live in homes with smoke detectors have a

5. A smoke detector should NOT be installed near a window because a. outside fumes may trigger

6. The passage indicates that one responsibility of a firefighter is to

7. A smoke detector must always be placed

Passage 3

German artist HA Schult is an example of a contemporary artist who makes use of trash on a grand scale. “We are living in the time of garbage,” says Schult. “I created a thousand sculptures of garbage. They are a mirror of ourselves.” Here, Schult is referring to his 1,000 trash people, humanoids he has created from trash. He first exhibited them in 1996 in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The figures triggered such an overwhelmingly positive response that he decided to take them on tour. “It is a social sculpture,” he explains. “It is not only a sculpture for the eyes. It’s a sculpture to spread the idea that we live in a time of garbage.” So far, Schult’s social sculpture has been displayed n Paris, Moscow’s Red Square, On the Great Wall of China, and in the desert next to the Giza pyramids near Cairo.

HA Schult’s work is unforgettable. Somehow its impact stays engraved in your mind. Yet, despite the influence his work has had on the art world, Schult remains humble about his installations. “Artists have to learn every time; that is their profession. We are not important. All that is important is the time in which we are living.”

Trash art has been around for years, and it seems to make a comeback from time to time. But it seems that only the more eccentric or popular artists are viewed as true artists when working with items normally discarded in the trash pile. Why can’t average people be considered artists when they pull the same items out and mold them into some form of personal art of their own creating? Maybe it’s because we all have our own pre-set ideas of what art is and isn’t, or who artists are or should be.

Take metal cans, for instance, and imagine them in any number of uses, functional or purely as an art form. Can your eyes and mind see the potential metal case, bird feeder, or other object in the simple cast off items? What about boxes or clothing? What might be done with these? Boxes can usually serve as new storage containers, and almost, always serve as very imaginative forts for the kids, not to mention makeshift shelters for pets. And clothing? Imagine taking old clothes and turning them into vests, hats, hanging organizers, or rag rugs. Theo only limit to using these items in other ways is one’s individual creativity and daringness to try.

1) The first paragraph………….

2. According to the passage, HA Schult………..

3. With which of the following statements does the writer most probably agree?

4. What is the writer’s attitude toward trash art?

5. The paragraph preceding the passage most probably discusses …… .

Passage 4

In the 1860s American business started to change. Before that time most businesses were small; they made products by hand and sold them to local customers. Beginning in the 1860s, inventors created new machines that could produce clothing, canned foods, tools, and other items quickly and cheaply. By making large quantities of items in less time, companies could spend less money on production. (This) made it possible to charge lower prices. In addition, a new national railroad allowed businesses to sell their products to people all across the country. The combination of fast production, low production costs, inexpensive products, and a whole nation of consumers helped small businesses grow into big businesses. This time in history was called The Age of Big Business.

Big Business continued to grow because of three things: more products, more customers, and more money. The typewriter, the light bulb, and the telephone were important inventions that became very popular products. Thanks to the 25 million immigrants that came to the United States between 1870 and 1916, there were many new customers to buy these products. Businesses made huge profits from the sales of their products to large numbers of people. They used these profits to build more factories, which in turn, produced more items to sell.The owners of these businesses became very rich. In 1850 there were 20 millionaires in the United States; by 1900 there were more than 3,000. However, the workers who made the new products were very poor. They had little money for housing, food, clothing, and medical care. These workers usually worked at least 60 hours a week for an average pay of about 20 cents an hour. Not only were their wages low, but their workplaces were very dangerous. In the early 1900s reformers helped workers organize labor unions to improve working conditions and wages. Reformers also asked the government to protect both workers and consumers with safety regulations. They wanted every business to guarantee the safety of its workplace and its products. The reformers were successful—by the 1960s, there were hundreds of government regulations that businesses had to follow.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

2) Which of the following questions does the passage answer?

3) According to the passage, between 1870 and 1916……..

4. According to the passage, the importance of safety………..