Passage 1

Chinese New Year celebrations also known as the Spring Festival, in China start on the 23rd day of the l2th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. The festival lasts for about 23 days, ending on the 15th day of the first lunar month in the following year in the Chinese calendar.

Many people clean their homes to welcome the Spring Festival. They put up the red posters with poetic verses on it to their doors, Chinese New Year pictures on their walls, and decorate their homes with red lanterns. It is also a time to reunite with relatives.

In the evening of the Spring Festival Eve, many people set off fireworks and firecrackers, hoping to cast away any bad luck and bring forth good luck. Children often receive “luck” money. Many people wear new clothes and send Chinese New Year greetings to each other. Various activities such as beating drums and striking gongs, as well as dragon and lion dances, are all part of the Spring Festival festivities.

According to historical documents, on the day when Shun, who was one of ancient China’s mythological emperors, came to the throne more than 4000 years ago, he led his ministers to worship heaven and earth. From then on, that day was regarded as the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. This is the basic origin of Chinese New Year. China adopted the Gregorian calendar in I9I 1, so Chinese New Year was renamed the Spring Festival.

The red posters with poetic verses on it were initially a type of amulet, but now it simply means good fortune and joy. Various Chinese New Year symbols express different meanings. For example, an image of a fish symbolizes “having more than one needs every year.” A firecracker symbolizes “good luck in the coming year.” The festival lanterns symbolize “pursuing the bright and the beautiful.”

1. Chinese New Year is based on ……………………………………… .

2. Chinese New Year starts on …………………. of the Chinese calendar.

3. How long does the festival take?

4. In the New Year Chinese people ……………….. .

5. Which of the following is NOT a part of the festivities?

6. People give money to children to ………………….. .

7. Most of the Chinese festivities and the symbols they use during the New Year are based on the belief that …………………………. .

8. Chinese New Year was named Spring Festival ……………….. .

9. It can be inferred from the text that the reason Chinese use red posters and red lanterns in their festivities is that they believe red color………………….. .

Passage 2

Popcorn, also known as popping corn, is a special variety of corn. Each kernel contains a tiny drop of water. When it is heated, the water expands causing the kernel I to explode and flip inside out. Most U.S. popcorn is grown in Nebraska and Indiana, and increasingly in Texas.

Native Americans first discovered popcorn thousands of years ago in Guatemala or Mexico. It was popped in China during the Song Dynasty (960-279) as well as in Sumatra and India before Columbus reached America.

In 1519 when he invaded Mexico, Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortes first saw popcorn when he met the Aztecs. Popcorn was important to the Aztecs as food, as decoration for ceremonial headdresses and necklaces, and as ornaments on statues.

Around 1612, French explorers around the Great Lakes met Iroquois who used heated sand in a pottery vessel to make popcorn. There is an unproven theory that an Indian named Quadequina brought a deerskin bag of popped corn for the first Thanksgiving feast on October 15, 1621. In 1948 and 1950 people discovered ears of popcorn in the Bat Cave of west central New Mexico. The ears measured from smaller than a penny to about two inches. They were determined to be about 5600 years old.

Colonial housewives served popcorn with sugar and cream for breakfast. Some colonists used cylinder of thin sheet—iron that revolved on an axle in front of the fireplace to make popped corn.

In 1885, Charles Cretors of Chicago, Illinois, invented the first popcorn machine. Street vendors were soon pushing steam or gas-powered poppers through fairs, parks, and expositions. In 1914, in Sioux city, Iowa, Cloid Smith created America’s first branded popcorn (Jolly Time), and for the first time popcorn was available in grocery stores.

Americans eat more than 17 billion quarts of popcorn a year, an average of 60 quarts per person per year. As the result of an elementary school project, popcorn became the official state snack food of Illinois. January 19 is National Popcorn Day, and October is National popcorn month.

1. What is the topic of the first paragraph?

2. Which of the following happened first?

3. Which of the following could be the title for the second paragraph?

4. Popcorn is the official snack of ……………… .

5. Popcorn is …………………………. .

5. Each kernel of popcorn contains …………………….. .

6. The Aztec Indians did NOT use popcorn as ……………………. .

2. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

8. Which of the following is NOT true?

9. According to the passage ……………………………… .

10. The first popcorn machine was invented in …………………………. .

Passage 3

The   oldest  known  person  on  record  is  a  French  woman,  Jeanne  Calment.  She seemed to disprove the idea that healthy living was the key to her long life. Despite smoking  for  I  00  years, she  lived  to  the  age  of  122.  She believed her long life was due to her diet. The  average  life  expectancy for  all  people  in  the  world  today   is  63  years. This Figure varies widely from country to country.  Japan   has   the world’s highest life expectancy; 85 for women and 78 for men. More than 20,000 of its population have celebrated their 1 OOth birthday. Researchers believe part of the reason for this lies in the healthy Japanese diet and their good health care system.

People who  live  in  developed  countries  generally live  longer  than those  who  live in  poorer parts  of the  world. Factors  like  war, disease,  quality  of diet, and  access to health  care  all  affect  life  expectancy.  When   a country’s health care   and education improve, life expectancy goes up.

Another important factor is gender.  Women, on average, live longer than   men. Over 80 percent of people who live beyond the age of I 00 are women. The reasons for this are not fully understood.

Some scientists believe that women are born with genes that help them live longer than   men.  Others argue   that men often   lead more risky   lifestyles that put them at Greater chance of dying than women.  They have more dangerous jobs.  Also, men generally drive more, and also smoke more than women.  Men are even killed more often than women.

Another area that researchers have looked at is marital status. They have not found a clear difference in life expectancy   between married women and single women. However,   one  British  study  found  that  married  men  appeared   to  live  longer,  on average,  than single men. This may be because married men tend to have a healthier lifestyle than single men. They eat more healthily, and, on average, take fewer risks.

1- What is the best title for this passage?

2- The writer’s purpose in the first paragraph is to                     .

3- According to the passage, men                     .

4- It can be understood from the passage that                     .

5- The fact that men are killed more often than women is stated to show                     .

Passage 4

One winter Pauline discovered she was pregnant.  When she told Tom, he surprised her by being pleased. They eased back into  a relationship  more like  the early  days of their marriage, when he asked if she were tired or wanted him to bring her something  from the store. In this state of ease, Pauline stopped doing day work and returned to her own housekeeping. However, the loneliness in those two rooms had not gone away. When the winter sun hit the peeling green paint of the kitchen chairs, when the smoked fish were boiling in the pot, when all she could hear was the truck delivering furniture downstairs, she thought about back home, about how she had been all alone most of the time then too, but this lonesomeness was different.

Then she stopped watching the green chairs, at the delivery truck. She went to the movies instead. There in the dark, her memory was refreshed, and she remembered her earlier dreams. Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another-physical beauty.

1- Pauline and Tom lived                    .

2- Lines 1-5 suggest that just before Pauline’s pregnancy, Tom had                    .

3-  Pauline’s  loneliness  is  different  from   the  loneliness  she  felt  back   home  (lines  8-9) Because                  .

4- The passage suggests that going to the movies would                    .