Reading Comprehension Test 37

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange. In the dark, the fear of an unexpected touch can lead to panic. Even clothes give insufficient security: it is easy to tear them and pierce through to the naked, smooth, defenseless flesh of the victim. All the distances which men create round themselves are dictated by this fear. They shut themselves in houses which no one may enter, and only there they feel some measure of security. The fear of burglars is not only the fear of being robbed, but also the fear of something touching you in the darkness.

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  One of the most magnificent touristic sights in the Black Sea region of Turkey is the Sumela Monastery. The white walls of the monastery stand out sharply from the one thousand-foot cliff which it was carved out of. It is a seven-storey complex which was carved into the walls of the cliff. Monks had lived in the caves of this cliff for hundreds of years before it reached its final form. It was abandoned in 1923 and left to waste for decades.

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  The Falklands are a group of small islands in the South Atlantic close to Argentina, with a population of 1,200 British citizens. They have been British territory since 1892. Disputes about who owns the islands go back to the eighteenth century. Argentina has long claimed that these islands, which they call the Malvinas, belong to them. They occupied the islands in April 1982 and the Falklands War lasted until July 1982 when British forces won them back. The Falklands War had an enormous impact on Britain and is still controversial. Some people see it as a restoration of Britain's old imperial power.

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  It is to be expected-that, by the year 2050, people's eating habits will have changed beyond recognition. With a world-wide growth in population very many new mechanical and scientific methods will come into being, to step up food production. There may well be an end to food as we know it today. In fact, meals, as we know them, may become a thing of the past. Food constituents and vitamins may be taken in the form of capsules, tablets and pills. The thought of these highly artificial food constituents replacing present day foods may not be very relishing, but they may be the answer to food shortage and world famine.

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  The first confirmation of the existence of an ice continent at the South Pole was made by the Bellinghausen expedition of 1820. This expedition was made by Imperial Russia. In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed by 17 nations. This treaty protects the continent from territorial claims by any other country and maintains it as a continent set aside for scientific studies. This natural laboratory has many research bases on it, set up by various countries of the world. Most of these, work together to obtain information, for scientific study.

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  The child followed his grandmother into the garden. As they walked slowly towards the little building in the back the child heard strange noises and suddenly stopped. The grandmother turned and laughed warmly at her grandson's frightful expression. He had never been this close to animals before and was too young to recognize the sounds he heard. She handed him the bowl she had been carrying in her hand and picked him up. In the safety of her arms he relaxed and together, they entered the coop to feed the chickens. 

[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]WHAT'S THE LIFE OF A MAN 
As I was walking one morning with ease 
Viewing the leaves that had fallen from the trees, 
All in full motion appearing to be 
Those that had withered, they fell from the tree. 

If you had seen the leaves just a few days ago 
How beautiful and bright they did all seem to grow, 
A frost came upon them and withered them all 
A storm came upon them and down they did fall. 

What's the life of a man any more than a leaf 
A man has his seasons so why should he grieve. 
For although through this life we appear fine and grey 
Like a leaf we must wither and soon fade away.

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  There can be few more depressing stories in the entire history of man's exploitation of nature than the wide-spread destruction of whales. Whales have not only suffered untold cruelty but now face total extermination. Already entire populations have been wiped out, and the only reason why no species has yet been finished off is due to the vastness and inaccessibility of the oceans. Hence, a few have always managed to escape, but how much longer can this go on?

[passage-header]Answer the following question according to the text.[/passage-header]  There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange. In the dark, the fear of an unexpected touch can lead to panic. Even clothes give insufficient security: it is easy to tear them and pierce through to the naked, smooth, defenseless flesh of the victim. All the distances which men create round themselves are dictated by this fear. They shut themselves in houses which no one may enter, and only there they feel some measure of security. The fear of burglars is not only the fear of being robbed, but also the fear of something touching you in the darkness.

[passage-header]Read the passage carefully and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]Great and marvelous indeed are the achievements of Science. It has broken down the barriers of time and distance. Traveling has become short, safe and comfortable. It has made contact and communication with the world easier and quicker by inventing telephones, telegraphs and the wireless. Agriculture is no longer at the mercy of nature. Yields have been multiplied with the help of mechanized farming and chemical fertilizers. Science has brought a revolution in the sphere of trade, commerce, industry and entertainment. It has relieved human suffering by discovering the secrets of health and disease. 
We, thus, see that Science is a blessing, but it is not an unmixed blessing. No doubt, it has turned impossibility into possibility, imagination into reality. But the question is whether it has taught us how to walk on mother earth. It has brought forth the evils of industrialization. Machines have become the masters of man. Can we forget dirty slums, unequal distribution of wealth and large scale unemployment in the wake of industrialization? Tars have become more hideous than ever before, thanks to the invention of terrible engines of destruction by Science.