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Dulcimers are musical instruments that basically consist of wooden boxes with strings stretched over them. In one form or another, they have been around since ancient times, probably originating with the Persian santir. Today there are two varieties: the hammered dulcimer and the Appalachian, or mountain dulcimer. The former is shaped like a trapezoid, has two or more strings, and is played with wooden mallets. It is the same instrument played in a number of Old World countries. The Appalachian dulcimer is classified by musicologists as a box zither. It is a descendant of the Pennsylvania Dutch scheitholt and the French epinette. Appalachian dulcimers are painstakingly fashioned by artisans in the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. These instruments have three or four strings and are plucked with quills or the fingers. They are shaped like teardrops or hourglasses. Heart-shaped holes in the sounding board are traditional. Most performers play the instruments while seated with the instruments in their laps, but others wear them around their necks like guitars or place them on tables in front of them. Originally used to play dance music, Appalachian dulcimers were popularized by performers such as John Jacob Niles and Jean Ritchie during the folk music revival of the 1960's.

Question 1 According to the passage, which of the following is NOT an ancestor of the Appalachian dulcimer?

• The box zither

• The santir

• The scheitholt

• The epinette

Dulcimers are musical instruments that basically consist of wooden boxes with strings stretched over them. In one form or another, they have been around since ancient times, probably originating with the Persian santir. Today there are two varieties: the hammered dulcimer and the Appalachian, or mountain dulcimer. The former is shaped like a trapezoid, has two or more strings, and is played with wooden mallets. It is the same instrument played in a number of Old World countries. The Appalachian dulcimer is classified by musicologists as a box zither. It is a descendant of the Pennsylvania Dutch scheitholt and the French epinette. Appalachian dulcimers are painstakingly fashioned by artisans in the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. These instruments have three or four strings and are plucked with quills or the fingers. They are shaped like teardrops or hourglasses. Heart-shaped holes in the sounding board are traditional. Most performers play the instruments while seated with the instruments in their laps, but others wear them around their necks like guitars or place them on tables in front of them. Originally used to play dance music, Appalachian dulcimers were popularized by performers such as John Jacob Niles and Jean Ritchie during the folk music revival of the 1960's.

Question 2 All of the following are true, EXCEPT …

• A hammered dulcimer is made in the shape of trapezoid.

• Appalachian dulcimer has three or four strings.

• Most performers played the Appalachian dulcimer while sitting down.

• John Jacob Niles and Jean Ritchie began the folk music revival of the 1960’s.

Humanitarian Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden, Maine, in 1802. At the age of 19, she established a school for girls, the Dix Mansion School, in Boston, but had to close it in 1835 due to her poor health. She wrote and published the first of many books for children in 1824. In 1841, Dix accepted an invitation to teach classes at a prison in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was deeply disturbed by the sight of mentally ill persons thrown in the jail and treated like criminals. For the next 18 months, she toured Massachusetts institutions where other mental patients were confined, and reported the shocking conditions she found to the state legislature. When improvements followed in Massachusetts, she turned her attention to the neighboring states and then to the West and South. Dix's work was interrupted by the Civil War; she served as superintendent of women hospital nurses for the federal government. Dix saw special hospitals for the mentally ill built in some 15 states. Although her plan to obtain public land for her cause failed, she aroused concern for the problem of mental illness all over the United States as well as in Canada and Europe. Dix's success was due to her independent and thorough research, her gentle but persistent manner, and her ability to secure the help of powerful and wealthy supporters.

Question 3 Dorothea Dix was NOT successful in her attempt to ...

• become superintendent of nurses

• publish books for children

• arouse concern for the mentally ill

• obtain public lands

Humanitarian Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden, Maine, in 1802. At the age of 19, she established a school for girls, the Dix Mansion School, in Boston, but had to close it in 1835 due to her poor health. She wrote and published the first of many books for children in 1824. In 1841, Dix accepted an invitation to teach classes at a prison in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was deeply disturbed by the sight of mentally ill persons thrown in the jail and treated like criminals. For the next 18 months, she toured Massachusetts institutions where other mental patients were confined, and reported the shocking conditions she found to the state legislature. When improvements followed in Massachusetts, she turned her attention to the neighboring states and then to the West and South. Dix's work was interrupted by the Civil War; she served as superintendent of women hospital nurses for the federal government. Dix saw special hospitals for the mentally ill built in some 15 states. Although her plan to obtain public land for her cause failed, she aroused concern for the problem of mental illness all over the United States as well as in Canada and Europe. Dix's success was due to her independent and thorough research, her gentle but persistent manner, and her ability to secure the help of powerful and wealthy supporters

Question 4 All of the following are true about Dorothea Dix, EXCEPT …

• She founded Dix Mansion School, but it was closed in 1835.

• She first taught classes in a prison located in Massachusetts.

• She helped many mental institutions across United States, Canada, and Europe.

• She was able to bring about reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill in Massachusetts.

A quilt is a bed cover made of squares of material pieced together. Each square consists of two layers filled with a layer of wool or cotton cloth, feathers, or down. Often, the squares are decorated with fancy stitches and designs. According to legend, the earliest pieced quilt was stitched in 1704 by Sarah Sedgewick Everett, wife of the governor of the Massachusetts colony. By 1774 George Washington was buying quilts in Belvoir, Virginia, to take back to Martha in Mount Vernon. As the frontier moved westward, quilting went along. In addition to sleeping under them, homesteaders kept out drafts by hanging quilts over doors and windows. And if the money ran out, quilts were used to pay debts. For isolated pioneer women, quilts were a source of comfort. Mary Wilman, whose family moved to Texas from Missouri in 1890, recalled the first time she and her mother had to spend a week alone and a dust storm came up. "The wind blew for three days and the dust was so thick that you couldn't see the barn. My mother quilted all day, and she taught me how to quilt. If it hadn't been for quilting, I think we would have gone crazy." Quilting provided an important social function for the women of the frontier as well. At quilting bees, women met to work on quilts and to share the latest news. Today, however, the homely quilt has become a costly cultural phenomenon. The International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, the "world's fair of quilting;' attracted only 2,500 people and displayed only 200 quilts when it began a dozen years ago. This year there were over 20,000 visitors and 5,000 quilts, some of which sold for as much as $50,000.

Question 5 Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as one of the benefits of quilts for pioneers?

• They could be used to pay debts.

• They could be used to help insulate houses.

• They could provide psychological comfort.

• They could be worn as warm clothing.

A quilt is a bed cover made of squares of material pieced together. Each square consists of two layers filled with a layer of wool or cotton cloth, feathers, or down. Often, the squares are decorated with fancy stitches and designs. According to legend, the earliest pieced quilt was stitched in 1704 by Sarah Sedgewick Everett, wife of the governor of the Massachusetts colony. By 1774 George Washington was buying quilts in Belvoir, Virginia, to take back to Martha in Mount Vernon. As the frontier moved westward, quilting went along. In addition to sleeping under them, homesteaders kept out drafts by hanging quilts over doors and windows. And if the money ran out, quilts were used to pay debts. For isolated pioneer women, quilts were a source of comfort. Mary Wilman, whose family moved to Texas from Missouri in 1890, recalled the first time she and her mother had to spend a week alone and a dust storm came up. "The wind blew for three days and the dust was so thick that you couldn't see the barn. My mother quilted all day, and she taught me how to quilt. If it hadn't been for quilting, I think we would have gone crazy." Quilting provided an important social function for the women of the frontier as well. At quilting bees, women met to work on quilts and to share the latest news. Today, however, the homely quilt has become a costly cultural phenomenon. The International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, the "world's fair of quilting;' attracted only 2,500 people and displayed only 200 quilts when it began a dozen years ago. This year there were over 20,000 visitors and 5,000 quilts, some of which sold for as much as $50,000.

Question 6 All of the following are true, EXCEPT …

• The first American quilt was made by Sarah Sedgewick Everett.

• A quilting bee is a gathering where women socialized and made quilt.

• Mary Wilman had to quilt for three days when a dust storm came up in 1890.

• The International Quilt Festival is held in Texas.

Ambient divers, unlike divers who go underwater in submersible vehicles or pressure-resistant suits, are exposed to the pressure and temperature of the surrounding (ambient) water. Of all types of diving, the oldest and simplest is free diving. Free divers may use no equipment at all, but most use a face mask, foot fins, and a snorkel. Under the surface, free divers must hold their breath. Most free divers can descend only 30 to 40 feet, but some skilled divers can go as deep as 100 feet. Scuba diving provides greater range than free diving. The word scuba stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Scuba divers wear metal tanks with compressed air or other breathing gases. When using open-circuit equipment, a scuba diver simply breathes air from the tank through a hose and releases the exhaled air into the water. A closed-circuit breathing device, also called a rebreather, filters out carbon dioxide and other harmful gases and automatically adds oxygen. This enables the diver to breathe the same air over and over. In surface-supplied diving, divers wear helmets and waterproof canvas suits. Today, sophisticated plastic helmets have replaced the heavy copper helmets used in the past. These divers get their air from a hose connected to compressors on a boat. Surface-supplied divers can go deeper than any other type of ambient diver.

Question 7 According to the passage, a free diver may use any of the following EXCEPT …

• a rebreather

• a snorkel

• foot fins

• a mask

Ambient divers, unlike divers who go underwater in submersible vehicles or pressure-resistant suits, are exposed to the pressure and temperature of the surrounding (ambient) water. Of all types of diving, the oldest and simplest is free diving. Free divers may use no equipment at all, but most use a face mask, foot fins, and a snorkel. Under the surface, free divers must hold their breath. Most free divers can descend only 30 to 40 feet, but some skilled divers can go as deep as 100 feet. Scuba diving provides greater range than free diving. The word scuba stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Scuba divers wear metal tanks with compressed air or other breathing gases. When using open-circuit equipment, a scuba diver simply breathes air from the tank through a hose and releases the exhaled air into the water. A closed-circuit breathing device, also called a rebreather, filters out carbon dioxide and other harmful gases and automatically adds oxygen. This enables the diver to breathe the same air over and over. In surface-supplied diving, divers wear helmets and waterproof canvas suits. Today, sophisticated plastic helmets have replaced the heavy copper helmets used in the past. These divers get their air from a hose connected to compressors on a boat. Surface-supplied divers can go deeper than any other type of ambient diver.

Question 8 All of the following are true, EXCEPT …

• When using closed-circuit devices, divers breathe the same air over and over.

• Ambient divers are ones who can descend to extreme depths.

• Surface-supplied divers today use helmets made from plastic.

• The maximum depth for free divers is around 100 feet.

The periodic table is a system for arranging the chemical elements. The chemical elements are the basic materials that make up all matter. These elements are unique. Each of them has a specific feature called its atomic number. The periodic table arranges the elements in rows and columns. In the rows, the elements are placed in order of their atomic number. The columns form groups of elements that have similar chemical properties. For example, certain gasses are in one column and metals are in another. The periodic table helps chemists think about the elements and their properties. In fact, it took quite a long time until scientists could develop this system.

In the 1800s, scientists had found many new elements. However, there was no system to organize them. They were trying to look for similarities in their properties. They did that so they could arrange them in a meaningful way. Early experiments to organize the elements were done by John Newlands. He noticed that if the elements were ordered by atomic weights, every eighth element had similar properties. Another one was done by Julius Meyer. He arranged elements by atomic weight and by the number of atoms the element usually combined with.

The phrase “this system” mentioned by the author in paragraph 1 sentence 9 refers to ___

• chemical element

• periodic table

• specific feature

• atomic number

The periodic table is a system for arranging the chemical elements. The chemical elements are the basic materials that make up all matter. These elements are unique. Each of them has a specific feature called its atomic number. The periodic table arranges the elements in rows and columns. In the rows, the elements are placed in order of their atomic number. The columns form groups of elements that have similar chemical properties. For example, certain gasses are in one column and metals are in another. The periodic table helps chemists think about the elements and their properties. In fact, it took quite a long time until scientists could develop this system.

In the 1800s, scientists had found many new elements. However, there was no system to organize them. They were trying to look for similarities in their properties. They did that so they could arrange them in a meaningful way. Early experiments to organize the elements were done by John Newlands. He noticed that if the elements were ordered by atomic weights, every eighth element had similar properties. Another one was done by Julius Meyer. He arranged elements by atomic weight and by the number of atoms the element usually combined with.

The pronoun “them” in paragraph 2 refers to ___

• scientists

• properties

• organizations

• elements