Reading Comprehension Test 23

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Much of what goes by the name of pleasure is simply an effort to destroy consciousness. If one started by asking, what is man? What are his needs? How can he best express himself? One would discover that merely having the power to avoid work and live one's life from birth to death in electric light and to the tune of tinned music is not a reason for doing so. Man needs warmth, society, leisure, comfort and security: he also needs solitude, creative work and the sense of wonder. If he recognized this he could use the products of science and industrialism eclectically, applying always the same test: does this make me more human or less human? He would then learn that the highest happiness does not lie in relaxing, resting, playing poker, drinking and making love simultaneously.
[passage-footer]Adapted from an essay by George Orwell.[/passage-footer]

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(1) No one owns Antarctica. (2) The nations of the world agreed some of them reluctantly that all countries would share the continent for the purposes of scientific research. (3) Governed by the Antarctic Treaty, written in 1959 and adopted in 1961, which has been signed by 27 countries. (4) Another 17 countries have agreed to abide by the treaty in order to participate in research being done in Antarctica.
(5) In Antarctica, relations among the researchers and their countries are both simpler and more complicated than in the rest of the world. (6) Relations are simpler because each country has only a few scientists on this isolated continent. (7) Treaty clauses assure that the research there is nonmilitary. (8) On the other hand, when conflicts do arise, there is no clear process for dealing with them. (9) Decisions that can make or break the preservation of Antarcticas unique environment and its scientific opportunities depend on a political system designed to have nobody in command.
Clear decision making has become a more urgent challenge as more tourists are attracted to Antarctica. (11) Scientists living on Antarctica were not always as careful to preserve the pristine environment as they are now. (12) Tour operators are working with treaty members to devise regulations, and there are plans to assess the environmental impacts of tours. (13) But regulations and assessment plans may prove difficult to settle on and enforce in a place where jurisdiction is unclear.

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Harold a professional man who had worked in an office for many years had a fearful dream. In it, he found himself in a land where small slug-like animals with slimy tentacles lived on people's bodies. The people tolerated the loathsome creatures because after many years they grew into elephants which then became the nation's system of transport, carrying everyone wherever he wanted to go. Harold suddenly realised that he himself was covered with these things, and he woke up screaming. In a vivid sequence of pictures this dream dramatised for Harold what he had never been able to put in to words; he saw himself as letting society feed on his body in his early years so that it would carry him when he retired. He later threw off the "security bug" and took up freelance work.

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I felt the wall of the tunnel shiver. The master alarm squealed through my earphones. Almost simultaneously, Jack yelled down to me that there was a warning light on. Fleeting but spectacular sights snapped into ans out of view, the snow, the shower of debris, the moon, looming close and big, the dazzling sunshine for once unfiltered by layers of air. The last twelve hours before re-entry were particular bone-chilling. During this period, I had to go up in to command module. Even after the fiery re-entry splashing down in $${81}^{o}$$ water in south pacific, we could still see our frosty breath inside the command module.

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Read the paragraph carefully and determine the main point the author is trying to make. What conclusion can be drawn from the argument? Each paragraph is followed by five statements. One statement supports the author's argument better than the others do.

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Laws of nature are not commands but statements of acts. The use of the word "law" in this context is rather unfortunate. It would be better to speak of uniformities in nature. This would do away with the elementary fallacy that a law implies a law giver. If a piece of matter does not obey a law of nature it is punished. On the contrary, we say that the law has been incorrectly started.

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