Reading Comprehension Test 39

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Sailing is an Olympic sport today, but in Britain, in the past, seafaring was an important source of work and not just for sailors and fishermen. People all over Britain worked to make, equip and support the military, commercial, and fishing fleets. So, many people found work in construction and maintenance work related to the shipping industry. Ships needed to be supplied with sails, ropes, and other essentials; warships needed cannon and gunpowder; sailors and passengers needed food and these requirements kept people in employment throughout the year. This is not the case so much today, at least not so widely, but the coast of Britain is, to this day, dotted with hundreds of marinas - places where recreational boats are kept for people who enjoy sailing. Britain has many maritime museums but the most impressive is the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, which showcases the nation's rich nautical history. Further, British literature and art are full of evidence of the importance of seafaring in the country's history and culture; Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and the novels of C. S. Foster and Patrick O Brian effectively capture the people's relationship with sailing.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct option:[/passage-header]Hearing that a zookeeper has managed to train a lion to live in the same cage as a lamb, a man pays a visit to see if it's true. Amazingly, the man finds the animals lying next to each other. 'How did you do this?' he asks the keeper. 'Is this a trick?' 'No', replies the zookeepers, 'this has been going on for three months now. I don't mind telling you, though,' he confides, 'we've had to replace the lamb a few times'.

[passage-header]Read the text given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]You have spent the last 20 minutes talking to an automated call center. A passionless, computerized voice drones out assurances and urges you to press yet another key. Your temper soars. Finally, you give up, shouting rude remarks. Or your friend becomes immersed, with increasing agitation, in a computer game. As his temper worsens, his performance declines until he ends up trashing the console in a fit of adolescent rage. Computer angst - now a universal feature of modern life - is an increasing phenomenon today. Fortunately, the days of the unfeeling machine will soon be over. Thanks to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, psychology, electronics and other research fields, scientists are now creating computers and robots that can detect, and respond to, users' feelings. The discoveries are being channeled by Humanine, a 6 million programme that has just been launched by the European Union to give Europe a lead in emotional computing. As a result, computers will soon detect our growing irritation at their behavior and in turn generate more sympathetic, human-like messages or slow down the tempo of the games that they are running. Robots will be able to react in lifelike ways, though we may end up generating some unwelcome responses too. Computers that can detect and imitate human emotion may sound like science fiction, but they are already with us, said Dr. Dylan Evans, a key Humanine project collaborator.

Read the passage and answer the question that follow. 
"Counting"
Archaeologists believe that counting large quantities began about 10,000 years ago. Early farmers had to account for communally stored crops. Early counting systems involved the use of small tokens which represented farmers' stores. In the area which is now Southern Iraq, little figures shaped like discs, balls and pyramids were used from about 7500 BC, to represent various holdings. Later, marks which represented the figures were inscribed on clay tablets by use of a blunt reed to cut into the wet clay. Still, the symbols were always connected with specific merchandise. Around 3000 BC, people began using clay tablets and a now accounting system which they perfected over the next 4.000 years. A writing system called cuneiform, which consisted of wedge-shaped symbols, was also invented. At the same time, other cultures were independently developing numbering and writing systems. Soon philosophers began to discover that nature was subject to laws which could be expressed with numbers. 

[passage-header]Read the text given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]You have spent the last 20 minutes talking to an automated call center. A passionless, computerized voice drones out assurances and urges you to press yet another key. Your temper soars. Finally, you give up, shouting rude remarks. Or your friend becomes immersed, with increasing agitation, in a computer game. As his temper worsens, his performance declines until he ends up trashing the console in a fit of adolescent rage. Computer angst - now a universal feature of modern life - is an increasing phenomenon today. Fortunately, the days of the unfeeling machine will soon be over. Thanks to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, psychology, electronics and other research fields, scientists are now creating computers and robots that can detect, and respond to, users' feelings. The discoveries are being channeled by Humanine, a 6 million programme that has just been launched by the European Union to give Europe a lead in emotional computing. As a result, computers will soon detect our growing irritation at their behavior and in turn generate more sympathetic, human-like messages or slow down the tempo of the games that they are running. Robots will be able to react in lifelike ways, though we may end up generating some unwelcome responses too. Computers that can detect and imitate human emotion may sound like science fiction, but they are already with us, said Dr. Dylan Evans, a key Humanine project collaborator.

[passage-header]Read the following passage carefully and answer the question given below:[/passage-header]People are seldom aware that their comfortable living depends upon the work of several thousands of persons. The first thing, for instance, almost everyone looks forward to in the morning is a hot cup of tea. This cup of tea involves the work of thousands of people. This can be easily shown. Consider the number of things we require to prepare a cup of tea, such as clean drinking water, tea, sugar, milk, gas, burner, pot, crockery, strainer, spoon and so on.

Tea is grown in distant plantations and made available to the consumers through a vast network employing hundreds of workers. Consider further the machinery required for sugar mills. The production of this machinery involves a long chain of processes and operations - mining of coal and iron ore, manufacture of steel and machine tools, in which thousands of workers are employed. The same argument holds good with regard to the supply of milk. The production of other items such as gas, burner, crockery, spoons, etc., requires the service of hundreds of workers. And recall how agitated we are if the milk van is late in the morning, maybe because its tire has burst on the way. This may be due to its poor maintenance or the poor condition of the roads.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]In May 1998, just two years after breaking his back in a parachuting accident whilst in the army, Bear Grylls became the youngest Briton to __(1)__ the summit of Mount Everest and return __(2)__. He was just 23 years old.
As his back recovered and he regained his __(3)__, Bear decided to leave the army in order to pursue his lifelong ambition to conquer the highest __(4)__ in the world. A friend of his was organizing an expedition to Everest and Bear was asked to __(5)__. After a year spent preparing for the climb and ___ (6)___ sponsorship money, he and his companions moved out to the Himalayas to __(7)__ up the challenge. 
In __(8)__ Bear spent 10 weeks on the mountain's southeast face. This __(9)__ a whole week at camp two simply waiting for the right condition to make his attempt on the summit. When he finally made it to the top, he sat for 20 minutes, just gazing in wonder at the __(10)__ before him. The hardest part was yet to come, though. Every year the number of climbers killed on Everest increases, with most deaths occurring on the descent. 
It was __(11)__ surprising then, that Bear felt a __(12)__ sense of relief when he eventually got back to base camp.

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[passage-header]Read the following passage carefully and answer the question given below:[/passage-header]People are seldom aware that their comfortable living depends upon the work of several thousands of persons. The first thing, for instance, almost everyone looks forward to in the morning is a hot cup of tea. This cup of tea involves the work of thousands of people. This can be easily shown. Consider the number of things we require to prepare a cup of tea, such as clean drinking water, tea, sugar, milk, gas, burner, pot, crockery, strainer, spoon and so on.

Tea is grown in distant plantations and made available to the consumers through a vast network employing hundreds of workers. Consider further the machinery required for sugar mills. The production of this machinery involves a long chain of processes and operations - mining of coal and iron ore, manufacture of steel and machine tools, in which thousands of workers are employed. The same argument holds good with regard to the supply of milk. The production of other items such as gas, burner, crockery, spoons, etc., requires the service of hundreds of workers. And recall how agitated we are if the milk van is late in the morning, maybe because its tire has burst on the way. This may be due to its poor maintenance or the poor condition of the roads.

[passage-header]Read the following passage carefully and answer the question given below:[/passage-header]People are seldom aware that their comfortable living depends upon the work of several thousands of persons. The first thing, for instance, almost everyone looks forward to in the morning is a hot cup of tea. This cup of tea involves the work of thousands of people. This can be easily shown. Consider the number of things we require to prepare a cup of tea, such as clean drinking water, tea, sugar, milk, gas, burner, pot, crockery, strainer, spoon and so on.

Tea is grown in distant plantations and made available to the consumers through a vast network employing hundreds of workers. Consider further the machinery required for sugar mills. The production of this machinery involves a long chain of processes and operations - mining of coal and iron ore, manufacture of steel and machine tools, in which thousands of workers are employed. The same argument holds good with regard to the supply of milk. The production of other items such as gas, burner, crockery, spoons, etc., requires the service of hundreds of workers. And recall how agitated we are if the milk van is late in the morning, maybe because its tire has burst on the way. This may be due to its poor maintenance or the poor condition of the roads.