Số câu hỏi: 40 Directions: In this section of the test, you will read FOUR different passages, each followed by 10 questions about it. For questions 1-40, you are to choose the best answer A, B, C, or D for 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 that passage.
You have 60 minutes to answer all the questions, including the time to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.
PASSAGE 1 – Questions 1-10
This rapid transcontinental settlement and these new urban industrial circumstances of the last half of the 19th century were accompanied by the development of a national literature of great abundance and variety. New themes, new forms, new subjects, new authors, new audiences all emerged in the literature of this half century. As a result, at the onset of World War I, the spirit and substance of American literature had evolved remarkably, just as its center of production had shifted from Boston to New York in the late 1880s and the sources of its energy to Chicago and the Midwest. No longer was it produced, at least in its popular forms, in the main by solemn, typically moralistic men from New England and the Old South; no longer were polite, well-dressed, grammatically correct, middle-class young people the only central characters in its narratives; no longer were these narratives to be set in exotic places and remote times; no longer, indeed, were fiction, poetry, drama, and formal history the chief acceptable forms of literary expression; no longer, finally, was literature read primarily by young, middle class women. In sum, American literature in these years fulfilled in considerable measure the condition Walt Whitman called for in 1867 in describing Leaves of Grass: it treats, he said of his own major work, each state and region "and expands from them, and includes the world connecting an American citizen with the citizens of all nations". At the same time, these years saw the emergence of what has been designated "the literature of argument," powerful works in sociology, philosophy, psychology, many of them impelled by the spirit of exposure and reform. Just as America learned to play a role in this half century as an autonomous international political, economic, and military power, so did its literature establish itself as a producer of major works.
The main idea of this passage is _____________.
- A. that the new American literature was less provincial than the old
- B. that World War I caused a dramatic change in America
- C. that centers of culture shifted from East to West
- D. that most people were wary of the new literature
- A. the importance of tradition to writers
- B. new developments in industrialization and population shifts
- C. the fashions and values of 19th century America
- D. the limitations of American literature to this time
- A. became famous
- B. turned back
- C. diminished
- D. changed
- A. the population
- B. the energy
- C. American literature
- D. the manufacturing
- A. urban
- B. unusual
- C. well-known
- D. old-fashioned
- A. To emphasize the contrast he is making
- B. For variety in a lengthy paragraph
- C. To wind down his argument
- D. To show a favorable attitude to these forms of literature
- A. 1850-1900
- B. the 1900s
- C. the early 1800s
- D. the present
- A. disliked urban life
- B. was disapproving of the new literature
- C. wrote Leaves of Grass
- D. was an international diplomat
- A. It was not highly regarded internationally.
- B. It introduced new American themes, characters, and settings.
- C. It broke with many literary traditions of the past.
- D. It spoke to the issue of reform and change.
- A. European history
- B. American literature
- C. Current events
- D. International affairs
PASSAGE 2 – Questions 11-20
When Daniel Boone died peacefully in bed in his son Nathan's elegant stone Missouri farmhouse on September 26,1820, the surge of emigrants along the Oregon Trail was still a generation away. But Boone already exemplified the pioneer at his best. He was neither the physical giant (five feet nine) nor the innocent child of nature that legend has made of him. He was an intelligent, soft spoken family man who cherished the same wife for 57 years. He befriended Indians, preferred company to solitude, and when he settled down some 70 miles away, he was always because a newcomer had settled some 70 miles away, he was an experienced woodsman.
Pennsylvania- born, Boone was one of 11 children in a family of Quakers who migrated to North Carolina. There Boone was recruited at age 40 to undertake a scheme designed to open up Kentucky to settlers and establish it as a 14th colony. He arranged a deal by which the Cherokees sold 20 million acres for $20,000 worth of goods to Boone's employers, the Transylvania Company. It was all fair and square the Indians had an attorney, an interpreter, and the sound advice of their squaws. The deal completed, Boone led a party from Tennessee through the Cumberland Gap, hacked out the Wilderness Road, and set up a town- Boonesboro and a government.
Elected a legislator, he introduced on the first day's session a bill to protect game against wanton slaughter and a second bill to "improve the breed of horses." He got 2,000 acres for his work, but after the Revolution in which Boone was a militia commander, the Transylvania Company was declared illegal and Boone lost his land. Undaunted, he staked out more claims and lost them because he impatiently neglected to register his deeds. Ever hopeful, he accepted an invitation from Spanish-held Missouri to come and settle there. The Spanish gave him 8,500 acres and made him a judge. But the Louisiana Purchase, which embraced Missouri, again left him but not his children landless. Old and broke, Boone cheerfully continued hunting and trapping long after his hands shook. Shortly before he died, he was talking knowledgeably with his sons about the joys to be experienced in California.
What is the author's purpose in writing this passage?
- A. To chronicle the life of a model pioneer
- B. To romanticize the legend of Daniel Boone
- C. To show Boone's many successes on the frontier
- D. To trace Boone's explorations in Kentucky, Missouri, and Louisiana
- A. politics
- B. hunting and trapping
- C. business
- D. the military
- A. honest
- B. simple
- C. efficient
- D. lucrative
- A. a rich man
- B. an eternal optimist
- C. in California
- D. a lonely trapper
- A. In North Carolina
- B. In Transylvania
- C. In Kentucky
- D. In Missouri
- A. settle Kentucky
- B. ensure animal rights
- C. be fair to the Indians
- D. claim Missouri
- A. unscrupulous
- B. fearless
- C. undiscouraged
- D. uninformed
- A. legitimized Boone's land claim in Missouri
- B. revoked the earlier Spanish bequest to Boone
- C. drove the Spanish from the East
- D. excluded Missouri from its jurisdiction
- A. They were better off financially than Boone.
- B. They supported Boone's desire to settle new areas.
- C. They lived in Kentucky.
- D. They had no land due to Boone's bad investments.
- A. admiring
- B. critical
- C. admonishing
- D. indifferent
