Reading Comprehension Test 76

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]Milankovitch proposed in the early twentieth century that the ice ages were caused by variations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun. For some time this theory was considered untestable, largely because there was no sufficiently precise chronology of the ice ages with which the orbital variations could be matched.
To establish such a chronology, it is necessary to determine the relative amounts of land ice that existed at various times in the Earth's past. A recent discovery makes such a determination possible: relative land-ice volume for a given period can be deduced from the ratio of two oxygen isotopes, 16 and 18, found in ocean sediments.
Almost all the oxygen in water is oxygen 16, but a few molecules out of every thousand incorporate the heavier isotope 18. When an ice age begins, the continental ice sheets grow, steadily reducing the amount of water evaporated from the ocean that will eventually return to it. Because heavier isotopes tend to be left behind when water evaporates from the ocean surfaces, the remaining ocean water becomes progressively enriched in oxygen 18. The degree of enrichment can be determined by analyzing ocean sediments of the period, because these sediments are composed of calcium carbonate shells of marine organisms, shells that were constructed with oxygen atoms drawn from the surrounding ocean. The higher the ratio of oxygen 18 to oxygen 16 in a sedimentary specimen, the more land ice there was when the sediment was laid down. 
As an indicator of shifts in the Earth's climate, the isotope record has two advantages. First, it is a global record: there is remarkably little variation in isotope ratios in sedimentary specimens taken from different continental locations. Second, it is a more continuous record than that taken from rocks on land. Because of these advantages, sedimentary evidence can be dated with sufficient accuracy by radiometric methods to establish a precise chronology of the ice ages. The dated isotope record shows that the fluctuations in global ice volume over the past several hundred thousand  years have a pattern: an ice age occurs roughly once every 100,000 years. These data have established a strong connection between variations in the Earth's orbit and the periodicity of the ice ages. However, it is important to note that other factors, such as volcanic particulates or variations
 in the amount of sunlight received by the Earth, could potentially have affected the climate. The advantage of the Milankovitch theory is that it is testable; changes in the Earth's orbit can be calculated and dated by applying Newton's laws of gravity to progressively earlier configurations of the bodies in the solar system. Yet the lack of information about other possible factors affecting global climate does not make them unimportant.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows. [/passage-header]In 1955, Maurice Duverger published The Political Role of Women, the first behavioralist, multinational comparison of women's electoral participation ever to use election data and survey data together. His study analyzed women's patterns of voting, political candidacy, and political activism in four European countries during the first half of the twentieth century. Duverger's research findings were that women voted somewhat less frequently than men (the difference narrowing the longer women had the vote) and were slightly more conservative.
Duverger's works set an early standard for the sensitive analysis of women's electoral activities. Moreover, to Duverger's credit, he placed his findings in the context of many of the historical processes that had shaped these activities. However, since these contexts have changed over time, Duverger's approach has proved more durable than his actual findings. In addition, Duverger's discussion of his findings was hampered by his failure to consider certain specific factors important to women's electoral participation at the time he collected his data: the influence of political regimes, the effects of economic factors, and the ramifications of political and social relations between women and men. Given this failure, Duverger's study foreshadowed the enduring limitations of the behaviorist approach to the multinational study of women's political participation.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]   77941While they had been young, no event in the social world of Elsinore had been a success without the lovely De Coninck sisters. They were the heart and soul of all the gayety of the town. When they entered its ballrooms, the ceilings of sedate old merchants' houses seemed to lift a little, and the walls to spring out in luminous Ionian columns, bound with a vine. 84433When one of them opened the ball, light as a bird, bold as a thought, she consecrated the gathering to the gods of true joy of life, from whose presence care and envy are banished23578. They could sing duets like a pair of nightingales in a tree, and imitate without effort and without the slightest malice the voices of all the beau monde of Elsinore, so as to make the paunches of their father's friends, the matadors of the town, shake with laughter around their card tables. They could make up a charade or a game of forfeits in no time, and when they had been out for their music lessons, or to the Promenade, they came back brimful of tales of what had happened, or of tales out of their own imaginations, one whim stumbling over the other94702.
   And then, within their own rooms, they would walk up and down the floor and weep, or sit in the window and look out over the harbor and wring their hands in their laps, or lie in bed at night and cry bitterly, for no reason in the world. They would talk, then, of life with the black bitterness of two Timons of Athens, and give Madam back an 24931uncanny feeling, as in an atmosphere of corrodent rust. Their mother, who did not have the curse50091 in her blood, would have been badly frightened had she been present at these moments, and would have suspected some unhappy love affair. Their father would have understood them, and have grieved on their behalf, but he was occupied with his affairs and did not come into his daughters' rooms. Only this elderly female servant, whose temperament was as different as possible from theirs, would understand them in her way, and would keep it all within her heart, as they did themselves, with mingled despair and pride. Sometime she would try to comfort them. When they cried out, "Hanne, is it not terrible that there is so much lying, so much falsehood, in the world?" she said, "Well, what of it? It would be worse still if it were actually true, all that they tell."
   Then again the girls would get up, dry their tears, try on their new bonnets before the glass, plan their theatricals and sleighing parties, shock and gladden the hearts of their friends, and have the whole thing over again. They seemed as unable to keep from one extremity as from the other. In short, they were born melancholiac, such as make others happy and are themselves helplessly unhappy, creatures of playfulness, charm, and salt tears, of fine fun and everlasting loneliness.                [passage-footer]
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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]The principal object of this Work is to remove the erroneous and discreditable notions current in England concerning this City, in common with everything else connected with the Colony. We shall endeavor to represent Sydney as it really is- to exhibit its spacious Gas-lit Streets, crowned by an active and thriving population- its Public Edifices, and its sumptuous shops, which boldly claim a comparison with those of London itself: and to shew that 62994 the Colonists have not been inattentive to matters of higher import, we shall display to our Readers the beautiful and commodious buildings raised by piety and industry for the use of Religion. 64643 It is true, all are not yet in a state of completion; but, be it remembered, that what was done gradually in England, in the course of many centuries, has been here affected in the comparatively short period of sixty years 65329. Our object, in setting forth this work, is one of no 26593 mean moment; and we trust that every Australian, whether this is his native or adopted country, will heartily bid us "God speed!"
   It became necessary, after the rebellion of those Colonies now known as the United States, for Britain to send her convicts elsewhere; and the wide, distant, and almost totally unknown regions of Australia were adjudged most suitable for the purpose. Accordingly, eleven ships, since known in Colonial History as the "First Fleet," sailed for New Holland on the 15th of May, 1787, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, and arrived in Botany Bay on the 20th day of January in the following year. Finding the spot in many respects unfit for an infant settlement, and but scantily supplied with water, Captain Phillip determined to explore the coast; and proceeded northward, with a few officers and marines, in three open boats. After passing along a rocky and barren line of the shore for several miles, they entered Port Jackson, which they supposed to be of no great dimensions, it having been marked in the chart of Captain Cook as a boat harbor. Their astonishment may be easily imagined when they found its waters gradually expand, and the full proportions of that magnificent harbor (capable of containing the whole navy of Britain) burst upon their view. The site of the intended settlement was no longer a matter of doubt; and, after first landing at Manly Beach, they eventually selected a spot on the banks of a small stream of fresh water, falling into a Cove on the southern side of the estuary.
  Sydney, the capital, is situated on the southern shore of Port Jackson, at the distance of seven miles from the Pacific Ocean. It is built at the head of the far-famed "Cove"; and, with Darling Harbor as its general boundary to the west, extends, in an unbroken succession of houses, for more than two miles in a southerly direction. As a maritime city, its site is unrivaled, possessing at least three miles of water frontage, at any part of which vessels of the heaviest burden can safely approach the wharves. The stratum on which it stands is chiefly sandstone; and, as it enjoys a considerable elevation, it is remarkably healthy and dry. The principal thoroughfares run north and south, parallel to Darling Harbor, and are crossed at right angles by shorter streets. This, at first, gives the place an air of unpleasing sameness and formality, to those accustomed to the winding and romantic streets of an ancient English town; but the eye soon becomes reconciled to the change, and you cease to regret the absence of what is in so many respects undesirable.
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Most attempts by physicists to send particles faster than the speed of light involve a remarkable phenomenon called quantum tunneling, in which particles travel through solid barriers that appear to be impenetrable. If you throw a ball at a wall, you expect it to bounce back, not to pass straight through it. Yet subatomic particles perform the equivalent feat. Quantum theory says that there is a distinct, albeit small, probability that such a particle will tunnel its way through a barrier; the probability declines exponentially as the thickness of the barrier increases. Though the extreme rapidity of quantum tunneling was noted as early as 1932, not until 1955 was it hypothesized-by Wigner and Eisenbud-that tunneling particles sometimes travel faster than light. Their grounds were calculations that suggested that the time it takes a particle to tunnel through a barrier increases with the thickness of the barrier until tunneling time reaches a maximum; beyond that maximum, tunneling time stays the same regardless of barrier thickness. This would imply that once maximum tunneling time is reached, tunneling speed will increase without limit as barrier thickness increases. Several recent experiments have supported this hypothesis that tunneling particles sometimes reach superluminal speed. According to measurements performed by Raymond Chiao and colleagues, for example, photons can pass through an optical filter at 1.7 times the speed of light

[passage-header]Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:[/passage-header]    Once Nanapush began talking, nothing stopped the spill of his words. The day receded and darkness broadened. At dusk, the wind picked up and cold poked mercilessly through the chinking of the cabin. The two wrapped themselves in quilts and continued to talk. The talk broadened, deepened. Went back and forth in time and then stopped time. The talk grew huge, of death and radiance, then shrunk and narrowed to the making of soup. The talk was of madness, the stars, sin, and death. The two spoke of all there was to know. And although it was in English, during the talk itself Nanapush taught language to Father Damien, who took out a small bound notebook and recorded words and sentences. In common, they now had the love of music, though their definition of what composed music was dissimilar.
   "When you hear Chopin," Father Damien asserted, "you find yourself travelling into your childhood, then past that, into a time before you were born when you were nothing when the only truths you knew were sounds."
   "Ayiih!11085 Tell me, does this Chopin know love songs? I have a few I don't sing unless I mean for sure to capture my woman."
   "This Chopin makes songs so beautiful your knees shake. Dogs cry. The trees moan. Your thoughts fly up nowhere. You can't think. You become flooded26506 in the heart."
   "Powerful. Powerful. This Chopin," asked Nanapush, "does he have a drum?"
   "No," said Damien, "he uses a piano."
   "That great box in your church," said Nanapush.
   "How is this thing made?"
   Father Damien opened his mouth to say it was constructed of wood, precious woods, but in his mind there formed the image of Agnes's Caramacchione settled in the bed of the river, unmoved by the rush of water over its keys, and instead he said, "Time." As soon as he said it, he knew that it was true.
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[passage-header]"To my Honoured Kinsman John Driden, of
Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq."[/passage-header] 51162How blessed is he, who leads a country life,
Unvexed with anxious cares, and 83919void of strife!
Who, studying peace, and shunning civil rage,
Enjoyed his youth, and now enjoys his age:
All who deserve his love, he makes his own;

58882And, to be loved himself, needs only to be known.
26757Just good and wise, contending neighbours come,
From your award to wait 35083their final doom;
84568And, foes before, return in friendship home
Without their cost, you terminate the cause,

72006And save the expense of long litigious laws;
58159Where suits are traversed, and so little won,
28845That he who conquers is but last undone;
Such are not your decrees; but so designed,
The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind;

Like your own soul, serene, a pattern of your mind.
Promoting concord, and composing strife,
Lord of yourself, encumbered with a wife;
Where, for a year, a month, perhaps a night,
88266Long penitence succeeds a short delight;
30941Minds are so badly matched, that even the first,
35359Though paired by heaven, in Paradise were cursed.
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[passage-header]Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]   They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders. The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, and thin bony nose. Behind him  Walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws, His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.
[passage-footer]This passage is from John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men.[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]"On you go now! Run, son, like the devil
And tell your mother to try
To find me a bubble for the spirit level
And a new knot for this tie."

But 76245still he was glad, I know, when I stood my ground,
18228Putting it up to him
With a smile that 26092trumped his smile and his fool's errand,
Waiting for the next move in the game." 
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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]As the tortoise tucks its feet and head inside the shell and will not come out even though you may break the shell into pieces, even so, the character of the man who has control over his motives and organs, is unchangeably established. He controls his own inner forces, and nothing can draw them out against his will. By this continuous reflex of good thoughts and good impressions moving over the surface of the mind, the tendency to do good becomes strong, and in consequence, we are able to control the Indriyas or sense organs.