PASSAGE 1

TV Game Shows

One of the most fascinating things about television is the size of the audience. A novel can be on the "best seller" lists with a sale of fewer than 100,000 copies, but a popular TV show might have 70 million TV viewers. TV can make anything or anyone well-known overnight.

This is the principle behind "quiz" or "game" shows, which put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money. A quiz show can make anyone a star, and it can give away thousands of dollars in the U.S. and almost everyone watched them. Charles Van Doren, an English instructor, became rich and famous after winning money on several shows. He even had a career as a television personality. But one of the losers proved that Charles Van Doren was cheating. It turned out that the show's producers who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular contestants beforehand. Why? Because if the audience didn't like the person who won the game, they turned the show off. The result of this cheating was a huge scandal. Based on his story, a movie under the title "Quiz Show" is on 40 years later.

Charles Van Doren is no longer involved with TV. But game shows are still here, though they aren't taken as seriously. In fact, some of them try to be as ridiculous as possible. There are shows that send strangers on vacation trips together, or that try to cause newly-married couples to fight on TV, or that punish losers by humiliation them. The entertainment now is to see what people will do just to be on TV. People still win money, but the real prize is to be in front of an audience of millions.

1. TV can make a beggar world-famous overnight.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

2. The principle behind "quiz" and "game" shows is to put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

3. Prizes and money are usually provided by TV stars and large companies for winners.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

4. One of the TV personalities, Charles Van Doren was proved to be cheating by persuading the Show's producers to give him the answers beforehand.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

5. The huge scandal of cheating in TV game shows was not exposed until 40 years later in the movie "Quiz Show".

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

6. Nowadays game shows are not treated as seriously as they used to be.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

7. Winners of present-day TV game shows no longer get money from the shows.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

KEYS: ABCBBAB

PASSAGE 2

Dyslexia

As many as 20% of all children in the United Stated suffer from some form of the learning disorder called dyslexia.

Experts on dyslexia say that the problem is not a disease. They say that persons with dyslexia use information in a different way. One of the world's great thinkers and scientists Albert Einstein was dyslexic. Einstein said that he never thought in words the way that most people do. He said that he thought in pictures instead. The American inventor Thomas Edison was also dyslexic. Dyslexia first was recognized in Europe and the United States more than 80 years ago. Many years passed before doctors discovered that persons with the disorder were not mentally slow or disabled. The doctors found that the brains of persons with dyslexia are different. In most people, the left side of the brain-the part that controls language-is larger than the right side. In persons with dyslexia, the right side of the brain is bigger. Doctors are not sure what causes this difference. However, research has shown that dyslexia is more common in males than in females, and it is found more often in persons who are left-handed. No one knows the cause of dyslexia, but some scientists believe that it may result from chemical changes in a baby's body long before it is born. They are trying to find ways to teach persons with dyslexia. Dyslexic persons think differently and need special kinds of teaching help. After they have solved their problems with language, they often show themselves to be especially intelligent or creative.

1. One out of five American children suffers from dyslexia.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

2. Many great thinkers and scientists in the world are dyslexic.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

3. The first cases of dyslexia in Europe were discovered less than a century ago.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

4. The left side of the brain in a dyslexic person is bigger than the right side.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

5. Generally speaking, dyslexia is more common in left-handed males than in right-handed females.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

6. It is believed that dyslexia is related to the bad habits of a baby's mother.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

7. Dyslexic people often turn out to be intelligent or creative once they have learned to handle language properly.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

KEY: ACABACA

PASSAGE 3

Plants and Mankind

Botany, the study of pants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. We don't know what our stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of preindustrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapon, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon recognize hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them botany has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all.

Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct out knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose an apple or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.

1. It is logical that a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

2. People cannot survive without plants.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

3. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon teach botany to their children at school.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

4. Our direct contact with plants grows with the process of industrialization.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

5. Today people usually acquire a large amount of botanical knowledge from textbooks.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

6. People living in the Middle East first learned to grow plants for food about 10,000 years ago.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

7. Once mankind began farming, they no longer had to get food from many varieties that grew wild.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

Key: AABBBAB