My Placement Test

Read the article. Choose the letter of the correct answer for items 1–5.

TIPS ON DRIVING ABROAD It can be difficult to drive in another country. First, driving rules and laws differ from country to country. So do road signs. And, people in different countries drive on opposite sides of the road!

Here are some tips on driving abroad. First, obtain an International Driving Permit (IDP). Most countries accept this permit. It’s easy to get an IDP.

Just enter “International Driving Permit” in any Internet search engine and you will get the information you need.

Once you have the IDP, carry your own driver’s license with you any time you drive outside your own country.

If possible, get a copy of the foreign country’s rules before you begin driving in that country. An excellent source of information is a car rental company in the foreign country.

Be aware:

• Some countries have a minimum and maximum driving age.

• Some countries have penalties for drivers and/or passengers who don’t wear a seat belt. Always “buckle up.”

• Many countries require you to honk your horn before going around a sharp corner or to flash your lights before passing.

• If the drivers in the country you are visiting drive on the opposite side of the road from your own country, it may be a good idea to practice driving in a quiet area before attempting to drive in heavy traffic.

And a word about road signs: In general, the color red on an international road sign signals negative information, such as a warning or prohibition, whereas blue is positive. Simply put, blue says do, red says don’t.

1. According to the article, driving in another country might be ________.

• very easy

• very dangerous

• a lot of fun

• very confusing

2.The article suggests you get an IDP in order to ________ in another country.

• learn the driving rules

• drive a car

• rent a car

• search the internet

3. According to the article, the color on a road sign ________.

• usually means "do"

• usually means "don't"

• often helps with understanding a sign

• rarely helps with understanding a sign

4. According to the article, if you make a turn in some countries you should ________.

• flash your lights

• honk your horn

• buckle up

• drive on the opposite side

5. The article advises that visitors to other countries should ________.

• ignore the local driving rules

• find out about the local driving rules

• avoid driving

• study the local road signs

Read the article. Choose the letter of the correct answer for items 6–10.

THE PRINTING PRESS

If you asked a large number of people what the most important invention has been, many would say the printing press. Others might say the wheel. But even though it’s debatable whether the appearance of the printing press affected the course of history more than the wheel, the printing press ranks within the top two or three inventions in history.

Long before the telephone, the television, the radio, and the computer, the written word was the only way to communicate ideas to people too far away to talk with. Until the sixth or seventh century, all books had to be written by hand. Creating a book was difficult, and in comparison with today, very few books existed.

Therefore, very few people read books. In the sixth and seventh centuries, the Japanese and Chinese invented a way to print pages by carving characters and pictures on wooden, ivory, or clay blocks. They would put ink on the blocks and then press paper onto the ink, printing a page from the block. This process is called letterpress printing.

The invention of letterpress printing was a great advance in communication because each block could be inked many times and many copies of each page could be made. Many books could now be made. Therefore, many people could read the same book. Later, in the 11th century, another great advance occurred.

The Chinese invented “movable” type. Each character was made as a separate block which could be used many times in many texts. This meant that pages could be created by putting together individual characters rather than having to have whole pages carved. Movable type was much more efficient than the earlier Japanese and Chinese print blocks because books could be created much more quickly by people with less skill. In Europe, movable type was used for the first time in the 15th century.

And there, Johannes Gutenberg invented typecasting, a way to make movable type much more quickly, by melting metal and pouring it into the forms of the letters. This greatly increased the speed of printing, and eventually made books available to many more people.

6. Before the printing press, the process of printing books was ________.

• easy

• by machine

• debatable

• slow

7. According to the article, the contribution of letterpress was an increase in ________.

• the number of copies that got printed

• the number of people making books

• the importance of the printing press

• interest in books in Japanese and Chinese

8. According to the article, the contribution of movable type was that ________.

• book were cheaper

• type could be reused

• books could be in other languages

• books could be written by hand

9. A direct effect of Johannes Gutenberg’s invention was that ________.

• more people were able to read books

• it took more time to make movable type

• more people worked in the printing industry

• the Chinese invented movable type

10. According to the article, the invention of the ________.

• wheel was more important than the printing press

• printing press was more important than the wheel

• printing press was one of the most important in history

• telephone, television, radio, and computer were more important than the printing press