Reading Comprehension Exercises

1. In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler. Watching in amazement as the wizards recited incantations, Polo first saw a row of golden cups levitate over the table as Khan drank from each one without spilling a drop. Polo also recounted that Khan had astonishing powers over wild animals. Unrestrained and ostensibly obedient, lions would appear to lie down in humility in front of the emperor.However, Khan was venerated for much more than these acts of mere wizardry. Polo’s account tells us that the ruler presided over an extremely modern state. Paper currency, integrated with seals of authenticity to prevent counterfeiting, existed during Khan’s rule. In addition, his establishment of a vast postal system meant that he would receive news in a fraction of the time that was normally required.

Under the rule of Kahn, the roads of the empire were also well-maintained, and travelers could reach their destinations relatively quickly and efficiently. Although some academics have disputed the veracity of Polo’s written account of the Khan Empire, common sense tells us that there would have been little motive for the explorer to have exaggerated his version of events since he was being held captive at the time with no hope of release.In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler.

It can be inferred from the passage that the primary reason why the court wizards performed magical illusions was to:

2. In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler. Watching in amazement as the wizards recited incantations, Polo first saw a row of golden cups levitate over the table as Khan drank from each one without spilling a drop. Polo also recounted that Khan had astonishing powers over wild animals. Unrestrained and ostensibly obedient, lions would appear to lie down in humility in front of the emperor. However, Khan was venerated for much more than these acts of mere wizardry. Polo’s account tells us that the ruler presided over an extremely modern state. Paper currency, integrated with seals of authenticity to prevent counterfeiting, existed during Khan’s rule. In addition, his establishment of a vast postal system meant that he would receive news in a fraction of the time that was normally required.

Under the rule of Kahn, the roads of the empire were also well-maintained, and travelers could reach their destinations relatively quickly and efficiently. Although some academics have disputed the veracity of Polo’s written account of the Khan Empire, common sense tells us that there would have been little motive for the explorer to have exaggerated his version of events since he was being held captive at the time with no hope of release.In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler.

The author most probably uses the word “levitate” in paragraph 1 to mean:

3. In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler. Watching in amazement as the wizards recited incantations, Polo first saw a row of golden cups levitate over the table as Khan drank from each one without spilling a drop. Polo also recounted that Khan had astonishing powers over wild animals. Unrestrained and ostensibly obedient, lions would appear to lie down in humility in front of the emperor. However, Khan was venerated for much more than these acts of mere wizardry. Polo’s account tells us that the ruler presided over an extremely modern state. Paper currency, integrated with seals of authenticity to prevent counterfeiting, existed during Khan’s rule. In addition, his establishment of a vast postal system meant that he would receive news in a fraction of the time that was normally required.

Under the rule of Kahn, the roads of the empire were also well-maintained, and travelers could reach their destinations relatively quickly and efficiently. Although some academics have disputed the veracity of Polo’s written account of the Khan Empire, common sense tells us that there would have been little motive for the explorer to have exaggerated his version of events since he was being held captive at the time with no hope of release.In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler.

Some academics find fault with Il Milione for its failure to answer which of the following questions?

4. In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler. Watching in amazement as the wizards recited incantations, Polo first saw a row of golden cups levitate over the table as Khan drank from each one without spilling a drop. Polo also recounted that Khan had astonishing powers over wild animals. Unrestrained and ostensibly obedient, lions would appear to lie down in humility in front of the emperor. However, Khan was venerated for much more than these acts of mere wizardry. Polo’s account tells us that the ruler presided over an extremely modern state. Paper currency, integrated with seals of authenticity to prevent counterfeiting, existed during Khan’s rule. In addition, his establishment of a vast postal system meant that he would receive news in a fraction of the time that was normally required.

Under the rule of Kahn, the roads of the empire were also well-maintained, and travelers could reach their destinations relatively quickly and efficiently. Although some academics have disputed the veracity of Polo’s written account of the Khan Empire, common sense tells us that there would have been little motive for the explorer to have exaggerated his version of events since he was being held captive at the time with no hope of release.In his book Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, the intrepid explorer describes the marvels he encountered as he journeyed to China. Upon his visit to the emperor Kublai Khan in Cathay, Polo witnessed the magical illusions performed by the court wizards of the supreme ruler.

Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

5. Dance notation is to choreography what written scores are to music and what written scripts are to drama. The representation of movement in these notation systems varies, although most are based on drawings, stick figures, abbreviations, musical notes, or abstract symbols. Recording the movements of dance through a shortened series of characters or symbols, more than one hundred systems of dance notation have been created over the past few centuries.

In the seventeenth century, Pierre Beauchamp devised a notation system for Baroque dance. Known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, his system was used to record dances until the end of the eighteenth century. Later, Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, a Russian, was responsible for notating choreographic scores for the famous Sergevev Ballet Collection, including works such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

Thanks to Stepanov’s system, dance companies were enabled to stage these works outside of Russia. Hanya Holm was the first choreographer to copyright the notations of her dance scores, securing the rights for Kiss Me Kate in 1948. Two other notation systems, Labanotation and Benesh notation, also known as choreology, are in wide-spread use today.

Apple created the first computerized system to display an animated figure on the screen that illustrated dance moves. Since then, many other software systems have been developed to facilitate computerized dance notation.

The passage is primarily concerned with:

6. Dance notation is to choreography what written scores are to music and what written scripts are to drama. The representation of movement in these notation systems varies, although most are based on drawings, stick figures, abbreviations, musical notes, or abstract symbols. Recording the movements of dance through a shortened series of characters or symbols, more than one hundred systems of dance notation have been created over the past few centuries.

In the seventeenth century, Pierre Beauchamp devised a notation system for Baroque dance. Known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, his system was used to record dances until the end of the eighteenth century. Later, Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, a Russian, was responsible for notating choreographic scores for the famous Sergevev Ballet Collection, including works such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

Thanks to Stepanov’s system, dance companies were enabled to stage these works outside of Russia. Hanya Holm was the first choreographer to copyright the notations of her dance scores, securing the rights for Kiss Me Kate in 1948. Two other notation systems, Labanotation and Benesh notation, also known as choreology, are in wide-spread use today.

Apple created the first computerized system to display an animated figure on the screen that illustrated dance moves. Since then, many other software systems have been developed to facilitate computerized dance notation.

The function of the first sentence of the passage (Dance notation is . . . drama.) is to:

7. Dance notation is to choreography what written scores are to music and what written scripts are to drama. The representation of movement in these notation systems varies, although most are based on drawings, stick figures, abbreviations, musical notes, or abstract symbols. Recording the movements of dance through a shortened series of characters or symbols, more than one hundred systems of dance notation have been created over the past few centuries.

In the seventeenth century, Pierre Beauchamp devised a notation system for Baroque dance. Known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, his system was used to record dances until the end of the eighteenth century. Later, Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, a Russian, was responsible for notating choreographic scores for the famous Sergevev Ballet Collection, including works such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

Thanks to Stepanov’s system, dance companies were enabled to stage these works outside of Russia. Hanya Holm was the first choreographer to copyright the notations of her dance scores, securing the rights for Kiss Me Kate in 1948. Two other notation systems, Labanotation and Benesh notation, also known as choreology, are in wide-spread use today.

Apple created the first computerized system to display an animated figure on the screen that illustrated dance moves. Since then, many other software systems have been developed to facilitate computerized dance notation.

The passage indicates which of the following about Hanya Holm?

8. Dance notation is to choreography what written scores are to music and what written scripts are to drama. The representation of movement in these notation systems varies, although most are based on drawings, stick figures, abbreviations, musical notes, or abstract symbols. Recording the movements of dance through a shortened series of characters or symbols, more than one hundred systems of dance notation have been created over the past few centuries.

In the seventeenth century, Pierre Beauchamp devised a notation system for Baroque dance. Known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, his system was used to record dances until the end of the eighteenth century. Later, Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, a Russian, was responsible for notating choreographic scores for the famous Sergevev Ballet Collection, including works such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

Thanks to Stepanov’s system, dance companies were enabled to stage these works outside of Russia. Hanya Holm was the first choreographer to copyright the notations of her dance scores, securing the rights for Kiss Me Kate in 1948. Two other notation systems, Labanotation and Benesh notation, also known as choreology, are in wide-spread use today.

Apple created the first computerized system to display an animated figure on the screen that illustrated dance moves. Since then, many other software systems have been developed to facilitate computerized dance notation.

The author most likely mentions Apple and other computerized dance notation systems in the last sentence of the passage in order to:

9. How is civil order maintained within any given population? The civil order control function suggests that public order is best maintained through agencies other than the police force or militia. Martial law, the establishment of military rule over a civilian population, is only imposed when other methods of civil control have proven ineffective. In the past, this state of affairs most commonly occurred to quell uprisings during periods of colonial occupation or quash sectarian groups.

So, how is the declaration of martial law currently regulated? The constitutions of many countries now make provisions for the introduction of martial law, allowing it only in cases of national emergency or in the case of threats to national security from foreign countries. In democratic nations, severe restrictions are imposed on the implementation of martial law, meaning that a formal declaration of military rule over a nation should be rendered virtually impractical.

Which of the following statements best explains the differences between how martial law was instituted in the past and how it is instituted at present?

10. The pyramids at Giza in Egypt are still among the world’s largest structures, even today. The monuments were constructed well before the wheel was invented, and it is notable that the Egyptians had only the most primitive, handmade tools to complete the massive project. Copper saws were used to cut softer stones, as well as the large wooden posts that levered the stone blocks into their final places. Wooden mallets were used to drive flint wedges into rocks in order to split them. The Egyptians also utilized drills that were fashioned from wood and twine. In order to ensure that the stones were level, wooden rods were joined by strips of twine to check that the surfaces of the stone blocks were flat. Finally, the stone blocks were put onto wooden rockers so that they could more easily be placed into their correct positions on the pyramid.

What is the writer’s main purpose?

11. The Earth’s only natural satellite, the moon lacks its own atmosphere and is only about one-fourth the size of the planet it orbits. The equality of its orbital rate to that of the Earth is the result of gravitational locking, also known as synchronous rotation. Thus, the same hemisphere of the Moon always faces the earth. The brightest lunar surface areas are formed from meteoric material, while its dark surface regions, called mare basalts or basaltic plains, are the result of volcanic flooding related to impacts from asteroids. Scientific dating of samples from the Moon’s crust reveals that the materials range in age from three to four billion years old.

Lunar evolution models suggest that the development of the Moon occurred in five principle stages. Because of the geological and mineral composition of the surface of the Moon, one popular theory hypothesizes that the Moon grew out of debris that was dislodged from the Earth’s crust following the impact of a large object with the planet.

For which of the following situations does the concept of synchronous rotation, as it is defined in the passage, provide the most likely explanation?

12. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.

The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulfur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

These nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!

Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able—to dress and entertain, and other things. It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.

I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wall-paper! At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.

“You know the place is doing you good,” he said, “and really, dear, I don’t care to renovate the house just for a three months’ rental.”

I wish I could get well faster. But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had! (Excerpt from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman )

When the narrator uses the word “it” in paragraph 1, she is referring to:

13. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.

The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulfur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

These nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!

Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able—to dress and entertain, and other things. It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.

I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wall-paper! At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.

“You know the place is doing you good,” he said, “and really, dear, I don’t care to renovate the house just for a three months’ rental.”

I wish I could get well faster. But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had! (Excerpt from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman )

The use of capitalization in paragraph 3 is intended to reinforce which of the following thoughts from the point of view of the narrator?

14. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.

The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulfur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

These nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!

Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able—to dress and entertain, and other things. It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.

I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wall-paper! At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.

“You know the place is doing you good,” he said, “and really, dear, I don’t care to renovate the house just for a three months’ rental.”

I wish I could get well faster. But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had! (Excerpt from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman )

The tone of the passage implies that the relationship between the narrator and her husband is:

15. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.

The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulfur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

These nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!

Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able—to dress and entertain, and other things. It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.

I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wall-paper! At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.

“You know the place is doing you good,” he said, “and really, dear, I don’t care to renovate the house just for a three months’ rental.”

I wish I could get well faster. But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had! (Excerpt from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman )

From this passage, we can infer that the narrator: