Section 3: Reading Comprehension

Time: 55 minutes, including the reading of the directions

Now set your clock for 55 minutes.

Directions: In this section you will read several passages. Each one is followed by
several questions about it. For questions 1-50, you are to choose the one best answer,
(A), (B), (C) or (D), to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of
the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have
chosen.

Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in
the passage.

Read the following sample passage:

The railroad was not the first institution to impose regularity on society,
or to draw attention to the importance of precise timekeeping. For as long as
merchants have set out their wares at daybreak and communal festivities have
Line been celebrated, people have been in rough agreement with their neighbors as
5 to the time of day. The value of this tradition is today more apparent than ever.
Were it not for public acceptance of a single yardstick of time, social life would be
unbearably chaotic: the massive daily transfers of goods, services, and information
would proceed in fits and starts; the very fabric of modern society would begin to
unravel.

Example I Sample Answer

A B C D

What is the main idea of the passage?

(A) In modern society, we must take more time for our neighbors.
(B) The traditions of society are timeless.
(C) An accepted way of measuring time is essential for the smooth
functioning of society.
(D) Society judges people by the times at which they conduct certain
activities.
The main idea of the passage is that societies need to agree about how time is to be
measured in order to function smoothly. Therefore, you should choose (C).

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Example II Sample Answer
A B C D

In line 5, the phrase “this tradition” refers to

(A) the practice of starting the business day at dawn
(B) friendly relations between neighbors
(C) the railroad’s reliance on time schedules
(D) people’s agreement on the measurement of time
The phrase “this tradition” refers to the preceding clause, “people have been in rough
agreement with their neighbors as to the time of day.” Therefore, you should choose (D).

Now begin work on the questions.

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 Questions 1-9
Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States during the triumphant
reign of prosperity that made the twenties “golden,” and this prosperity had very
real roots. Although there had been a brief but sharp postwar depression in
Line 1920 and 1921, American industry made a quick recovery. Largely responsible
5 for the industrial boom that followed was the introduction of new products into
American life. For example, on the eve of the First World War, only half a million
automobiles were being produced annually, but during the twenties production
reached nearly five million units per year. Furthermore, the new auto industry
created demands on older industries for products such as rubber, copper, glass,
10 steel, and fabrics. It called for the building of paved roads across the nation
and brought about the tremendous expansion of the oil and gasoline refining
industries, along with the construction of thousands of gasoline stations, which
broke out like a rash of measles over the countryside. Basic industries expanded
as well – coal, steel, machine tools, clothing, and, most dramatically of all, the new
15 electric power industry.
For the first time, average citizens were buying cars, radios (another new and
booming industry), refrigerators, and a host of other new consumer products.
The poor seemed to be getting richer, and certainly the rich were getting richer.
For the well-to-do, the business civilization of the twenties seemed to promise all
20 that could be expected “this side of paradise,” as F. Scott Fitzgerald titled one of his
most popular novels. But paradise in the twenties had two sides. On the far side
of paradise during the golden decade lived the majority of American farmers.

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1. According to the passage, 6. The word “host” in line 17 is
when did the United States closest in meaning to
experience a brief depression? (A) entertainer
(A) In the late nineteenth (B) representative sample
century (C) business investment
(B) Before the First World War (D) large number
(C) During the First World War
(D) In the early 1920’s 7. It can be inferred from the
passage that the characters in
2. The word “boom” in line 5 is the novel This Side of Paradise
closest in meaning to are
(A) noise (A) wealthy people
(B) strike (B) industrious farmers
(C) expansion (C) creative writers
(D) market (D) average citizens

3. The phrase “called for” in line 10 8. What can be inferred from the
is closest in meaning to passage about farms in the
(A) named United States in the 1920’s?
(B) required (A) They experienced very
(C) described rapid economic growth.
(D) considered (B) They attracted workers
from urban industrial
4. According to the passage, centers.
the growth in automobile (C) They benefited from a
production caused an increase reduction in the price of
in the demand for gasoline.
(A) rubber (D) They were less prosperous
(B) mass produced clothing than other businesses.
(C) electric power
(D) radios 9. The paragraph following the
passage most likely discusses
5. According to the passage, all (A) the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald
of the following were relatively (B) the cost of consumer
new in the 1920’s EXCEPT goods
(A) steel (C) the economic condition of
(B) radios farms
(C) automobiles (D) popular novels of the
(D) refrigerators 1920’s

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 Questions 10-19
The piano has always had a special place in music in the United States.
Because one can play on it several notes at once, it can be used in substitution
for a band. This quality has attracted composers; there has been far more music
Line written for piano, or the keyboards in general, than for any other instrument. And
5 because a piano can, in effect, accompany itself, for a century it has been the
basic instrument for the playing of popular music.
This was especially so during the decades around the turn of the century.
In the years before the First World War (1914-1918), most families in the United
States felt it important to own a piano, no matter how poor they were. People
10 who could play the piano were welcome visitors and were generally cajoled into
playing the latest popular tunes.
But it was not just in the home that the piano flourished. It was the basic
entertainment tool in cabarets, clubs, and restaurants, just as it is today. The piano,
thus, was central to the social lives of people in the United States, and in the
15 period between the Civil War (1861-1865) and the First World War, there grew up
a considerable industry devoted to it: the popular music business, a huge trade in
instructional schools and mail order lessons, and, of course, the selling of pianos
themselves.
Inevitably a large corps of virtuoso professional piano players developed.
20 These “professors” or “ivory ticklers” were not necessarily trained in the classical
European tradition. Most, although not all, either were self-taught or studied with
older ticklers who themselves had little experience with the classical tradition.
Despite the lack of European-style training, many of these players possessed
astonishing techniques that, if not well-suited to classical piano compositions,
25 were exactly right for producing the showy effects with which these professors
impressed audiences and competing pianists. Fast arpeggios, octave runs, and
other great splashes up and down the keyboard were practiced endlessly.
These ticklers were the people who developed and popularized ragtime; it is
no accident that the most popular music of the period was a piano form. And of
30 course, when jazz came into fashion, they were caught up in this new music.

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10. What does the passage mainly 14. Which of the following can
discuss? be inferred from the passage
(A) The parts of a piano about the piano industry
(B) Kinds of pianos between 1861 and 1914?
(C) Composers of piano music (A) Fewer pianos were built.
(D) The popularity of the piano (B) Many people wanted
to learn how to play the
11. The word “place” in line 1 is piano.
closest in meaning to (C) Other forms of keyboard
(A) performance instruments were
(B) region invented.
(C) position (D) Large bands began to
(D) arrangement replace pianos in clubs
and restaurants.
12. The word “it” in line 2 refers to
(A) piano 15. The word “virtuoso” in line 19 is
(B) place closest in meaning to
(C) music (A) youthful
(D) band (B) dedicated
(C) skilled
13. The word “central” in line 14 is
(D) noble
closest in meaning to
(A) accessible 16. The word “themselves” in
(B) important line 22 refers to
(C) convenient (A) pianos
(D) related (B) compositions
(C) older ticklers
(D) techniques

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17. According to the passage, 19. The paragraph following
why were audiences amazed the passage most probably
by the piano-playing of the discusses
ticklers mentioned in the third (A) classical piano music
paragraph? (B) piano competitions
(A) They played without (C) piano instruction
looking at music. (D) jazz piano music
(B) Their performances were
very exciting.
(C) They were younger than
most pianists.
(D) They were accompanied
by a variety of other
instruments.

18. Which of the following is NOT

true of the professional piano
players mentioned in the
fourth paragraph?
(A) They were trained in
Europe.
(B) Their piano performances
appealed to audiences.
(C) They usually received little
formal training.
(D) They were more skilled
at playing popular music
than classical music.

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Section 3 continues. Turn the page and read the next passage.

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 Questions 20-29
Virtually every epoch of human civilization includes references to flight. From
ancient winged deities to a score of myths, themes of flight occur repeatedly.
There were undoubtedly sporadic attempts to achieve human flight, probably in
Line imitation of birds. The first credible mention of such efforts appeared in a book
5 written in 1250, which referred to an ornithopter, a winged machine strapped
to a person’s arms. Based on the flapping motion of a bird’s wings, an ornithopter
would require a good deal of muscular energy from the arms of its human
operator. Since this was not a practical source of mechanical power, it could not fly.
With the age-old problem of suitable power sources impeding early
10 experiments, the first person to leave the surface of the Earth did so in the
eighteenth century in a balloon. The first balloons were buoyed into and kept up
in the air with air itself – hot air. The Montgolfier brothers had observed that warm
air rose, and reasoned that if they could capture it in a lightweight bag, the bag
would rise along with anything attached to it. They experimented with several
15 small linen bags lined with paper to help retain the hot air. The first free flight in a
balloon was made in 1783, a 25-minute journey totaling 8 kilometers.
Practical heavier-than-air flight evolved from fixed-wing aircraft in the form of
gliders, which are motorless aircraft that are launched from high places. Gliding
itself dated from the year 1000, when a Benedictine monk reportedly launched
20 himself from a tower and flew more than 400 meters. However, structural
and stability problems seemed to frustrate gliding enthusiasts until the early
nineteenth century. With the addition of propellers and engines in the early
twentieth century, airplanes at last became a reality.

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20. What does the passage mainly 24. The word “buoyed” in line 11 is
discuss? closest in meaning to
(A) Early drawings of flying (A) collapsed
machines (B) designed
(B) The history of flight (C) attempted
(C) The various problems with (D) raised
ornithopters
(D) References to flight in 25. The word “it” in line 13 refers to
ancient myths (A) balloon
(B) warm air
21. The word “sporadic” in line 3 is (C) lightweight bag
closest in meaning to (D) paper
(A) scientific
(B) successful 26. What can be inferred about
(C) occasional gliders that were made before
(D) courageous the nineteenth century?
(A) They could not be easily
22. According to the passage, transported.
what was the problem with (B) They relied on hot air to lift
the ornithopter? them off of the ground.
(A) It was poorly constructed. (C) They were not well
(B) It could only hold one designed.
person. (D) They remained airborne for
(C) It had to be launched from long periods of time.
a high place.
(D) It required more strength 27. Which of the following
than a human could statements is supported by the
provide. passage?
(A) Humans have always had a
23. The word “it” in line 8 refers to fascination with flying.
(A) source (B) The success of human
(B) motion flight depended on
(C) ornithopter imitating the flight of
(D) power birds.
(C) The evolution of flight has
been a steady, consistent
process.
(D) Flying enthusiasts still
prefer gliders to balloons.

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28. Where in the passage does the 29. The passage probably
author mention an historical continues with a discussion of
account of early attempts at (A) the dangers of ballooning
flight? (B) the development of
(A) Lines 4-6 airplanes
(B) Lines 9-11 (C) similarities between early
(C) Lines 17-18 and modern gliders
(D) Lines 22-23 (D) attempts to improve the
ornithopter

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Section 3 continues. Turn the page and read the next passage.

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 Questions 30-39
The Comstock Lode in Nevada was the scene of one of the biggest silver
mining booms in the history of the opening up of the North American West. It was
discovered in 1859, but productivity did not reach its peak until the 1870’s when
Line many large silver deposits were discovered. A large number of mines are scattered
5 along the five-kilometer length of the lode, which is basically a mineralized fault
zone, separating geologically young andesite and dacite lavas from older rocks.
The lode forms a flattish sheet, inclined at about 40 degrees to the horizontal,
and reaches a maximum thickness of 120 meters and a depth of 1,000 meters,
although most of the richest ore was found well above this level.
10 As in so many of the world’s mines, the mining operations on the Comstock
Lode were severely hampered by water flooding into the workings. At Comstock,
though, the problems were particularly acute, since the water was extremely
hot, reaching 64 degrees Celsius in some places. Geologically, the presence of
such large volumes of hot water was immensely significant, since it implied that
15 beneath the Comstock Lode there was still a large mass of hot igneous rock that
might be producing more mineralization. For a long while this near-scalding water
made it impossible to mine much below the 1,000-meter level, and many miners
were killed by it, either directly by falling into the water or indirectly through the
effects of overexertion in the very high temperatures of the mine galleries.
20 No fewer than 53 miners died in one period of 22 months ending in May 1877.
To combat this it was decided to dig a six-kilometer-long tunnel to drain and
ventilate the upper parts of the mine workings. This tunnel, which became known
as the Sutro Tunnel, took many years of extremely hard work to complete, and
the succession of physical obstacles and financial crises that were successfully
25 overcome in its construction have become legendary, comparable in some ways
with the heroic engineering involved in the laying of the first transcontinental
railway across the United States.

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30. The word “It” in line 2 refers to 34. The word “hampered” in line 11
(A) Comstock Lode is closest in meaning to
(B) history (A) overwhelmed
(C) productivity (B) deepened
(D) peak (C) prolonged
(D) disrupted
31. The word “scattered” in line 4 is
closest in meaning to 35. The word “acute” in line 12 is
(A) combined closest in meaning to
(B) spread out (A) fiery
(C) easily identified (B) unsolvable
(D) preserved (C) serious
(D) sensitive
32. Where in the passage does the
author describe a lode? 36. According to the passage,
(A) Lines 4-6 what can be signaled by the
(B) Lines 10-11 presence of hot igneous rock?
(C) Lines 13-16 (A) Flooding
(D) Lines 21-22 (B) Uneven deposits of ore
(C) Low water levels
33. What is the main idea of the (D) Continuing mineralization
second paragraph?
(A) The Comstock Lode mines 37. What was the purpose of the
were the most successful Sutro Tunnel?
in North American history. (A) To relieve flooding and
(B) The Comstock Lode mines bring air into the mine
had severe problems (B) To get miners to the
affecting their operation. Comstock Lode quickly
(C) The transcontinental (C) To pump the hot water out
railroad made mines of the mine and bring
profitable. cold water in to cool it
(D) Thousands of workers were (D) To transport ore to the
employed in the surface
Comstock Lode mines.

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38. The word “obstacles” in line 24 39. The author compares
is closest in meaning to the construction of the
(A) injuries Sutro Tunnel to the first
(B) objects transcontinental railroad in
(C) qualifications North America because both
(D) difficulties projects
(A) were accomplished quickly
(B) employed young workers
(C) were challenging to
complete
(D) lost money

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Section 3 continues. Turn the page and read the next passage.

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 Questions 40-50
Woodpeckers also use their powerful beaks to excavate nest holes in tree
trunks, drilling first of all a neat horizontal hole, then chiseling downward for a
foot or so and there cutting out a chamber. They frequently choose dead trees, no
Line doubt because the rotting wood is softer to work than that of living trees. Such
5 trees also are usually infected by bark beetles, which provide a rich food supply
conveniently near at hand.
The drumming noise made by the rapid blows of a woodpecker’s beak on a
tree trunk is one of the most characteristic sounds of the forest. The birds do not
produce it solely when they are feeding or excavating a nest. They beat tattoos on
10 echoing timber for the same reason that other birds sing, to declare possession of
a territory and to attract a mate. Each species has its own length of drumroll with
its own characteristic interval between one burst and the next.
Different species of the woodpecker family specialize in different foods.
The green woodpecker, as well as taking bark-boring beetles, often descends
15 to the ground to forage for ants. The wryneck is even more dependent upon
ants. It is not primarily a climber at all and lacks the stiff propping tail of other
woodpeckers, but it does have the usual long sticky tongue, which it flicks into
a nest of ants to bring out 150 of them at a time. The acorn woodpecker exploits
its wood-boring skills by drilling neat holes in tree trunks, the diameter of which
20 exactly accommodates acorns. It will cover a favored tree with several hundred
such holes and store several acorns in each of them, so accumulating a massive
larder for the winter. An even more specialized group within the family, the
sapsuckers, bore holes in tree trunks for a quite different purpose. They choose
living trees of species that produce liberal flows of sap and drill numerous small,
25 squarish holes in them. The liquid that trickles out attracts insects that the
sapsucker collects and then mixes with the sap to produce a little sweetmeat.

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40. What does the passage mainly 44. The word “interval” in line 12 is
discuss? closest in meaning to
(A) The sounds made by (A) note
different species of birds (B) pause
(B) The characteristics of one (C) call
kind of bird (D) tapping
(C) The importance of insects
as a food source for birds 45. The words “as well as” in line 14
(D) The damage done to trees are closest in meaning to
by one species of birds (A) besides
(B) easily
41. The word “excavate” in line 1 is (C) after
closest in meaning to (D) instead of
(A) dig
(B) protect 46. According to the passage, the
(C) clean wryneck differs from other
(D) investigate woodpeckers in that it does
NOT
42. The word “that” in line 4 refers (A) have a long tongue
to (B) make any noise
(A) hole (C) build its own nest
(B) chamber (D) have a rigid tail
(C) wood
(D) supply 47. The word “which” in line 19
refers to
43. It can be inferred from the (A) acorns
passage that the different (B) holes
species of woodpeckers can (C) tree trunks
be identified by the (D) skills
(A) melody of their song
(B) design of their nest 48. The word “massive” in line 21 is
(C) pattern of the drumming closest in meaning to
noise they make (A) secret
(D) size of their beak (B) potential
(C) huge
(D) fresh

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 49. Which of the following is NOT 50. The sapsucker’s behavior is
mentioned as a species of different from the behavior of
woodpecker that eats insects? other species in which of the
(A) The sapsucker following ways?
(B) The green woodpecker (A) It searches for insects
(C) The wryneck on the ground instead
(D) The acorn woodpecker of in trees.
(B) It does not drill holes
in trees.
(C) It is the only species that
stores food for the winter
months.
(D) It chooses trees that
produce large quantities
of sap.

This is the end of Section 3.

If you finish in less than 55 minutes, check your work on Section 3 only. Do NOT
read or work on any other section of the test.
When you are ready to check your answers, use the answer key on page 95 of this booklet
to determine which questions you answered correctly and incorrectly.

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