THE EYE: READING PRACTICE TEST

PLEASE START BY WRITING YOUR NAME ON THE SEPARATE ANSWER SHEET.

PART 1
You will read a text about Native Americans. For questions 1-10, choose the one
best answer, (A), (B), (C), or (D) to each question. On your answer sheet, find the
number of the question and write the letter of the answer you have chosen into the
box next to it. Answer all the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in
the text.

In past centuries, Native Americans Iiving in the arid areas of what is now the
southwestem United States relied on a variety of strategies to ensure the success of their
agriculture. First and foremost, water was the critical factor. The soil was rich because
there was Iittle rain to leach out the minerals, but the low precipitation caused its own
problems. Long periods of drought could have made agriculture impossible; on the other
hand, a sudden flood could just as easily have destroyed a crop.

Several techniques were developed to solve the water problem. The simplest was
to plant crops in the floodplains and wait for the annual floods to water the young crops. A
less dangerous technique was to build dikes or dams to control the flooding. These dikes
both protected the plants against excessive flooding and prevented the water from
escaping too quickly once it had arrived. The Hopi people designed their fields in a
checkerboard pattem, with many small dikes, each enclosing only one or two stalks of
maize (corn), while other groups built a series of dams to control the floods. A third
technique was to dig irrigation ditches to bring water from the rivers. Water was
sometimes carried to the fields in jars, particularly if the season was dry. Some crops were
planted where they could be watered directly by the runoff from cliff walls.

Another strategy Native Americans used to ensure a continuous food supply was to
plant their crops in more than one place, hoping that if one crop failed, another would
survive. However, since the soil was rich and not easily exhausted, the same patch of
ground could be cultivated year after year, whereas in the woodlands of the eastem
United States it was necessary to abandon a plot of ground after a few years of farming.
In the Southwest, often two successive crops were planted each year.

It was a common southwestem practice to grow enough food so that some could be
dried and stored for emergencies. If emergency supplies ran low, the people tumed to the
local wild plants. If these failed, they moved up into the mountains to gather the wild
plants that might have survived in the cooler atmosphere.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) Agricultural methods of Native Americans
(B) Irrigation techniques used by the Hopi
(C) Soil quality in the American Southwest
(D) Native American methods of storing emergency food supplies

2. The word "solve" in Iine 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) advance toward
(B) protect from
(C) keep in
(D) deal with

3. Planting in the floodplains was not ideal because

 THE EYE: READING PRACTICE TEST

(A) the amount of water could not be controlled

(B) the crops could be eaten by wild animals
(C) the floodplains were too remote to be cultivated frequently
(D) corn grows better at high elevations
4. The word "enclosing" in line 12 is closest in meaning to
(A) defending
(B) measuring
(C) surrounding
(D) extending
5. The word "they" in line 15 refers to
(A) fields
(B) jars
(C) crops
(D) walls
6. Why did farrners in the Southwest plant crops in several places at the same time?
(A) They moved frequently from one place to another.
(B) They feared that one of the crops might fail.
(C) The size of each field was quite limited.
(D) They wanted to avoid overusing the soil.

7. The word "patch" in line 18 is closest in meaning to

(A) type
(B) level
(C) group
(D) piece

8. Why did farmers in the eastem woodlands periodically abandon their fields?
(A) Seasonal flooding made agriculture impossible.
(B) They experienced water shortages.
(C) They wanted a longer growing season.
(D) The minerals in the soil were exhausted.
9. What did farmers in the Southwest do when a crop failed?
(A) They planted in the eastem woodlands.
(B) They gathered food from wild plants.
(C) They moved away from the mountains.
(D) They redesigned their fields for the next season.
10. Farmers in the Southwest would have benefited most from which of the following?
(A) Steeper cliff walls
(B) More sunshine
(C) Regular precipitation
(D) Smaller dikes
 THE EYE: READING PRACTICE TEST

PART 2

Some sentences have been removed from the passage below. Read the passage
and decide which gap 11-18 the sentences A-I fit in. There is ONE extra sentence
that does not fit in any of the gaps.

The day the Earth turns green

Tomorrow the world will turn green. Millions of people, some with only tentative third and
fourth-generation links to the Emerald Isle, will down pints of Guinness by the gallon,
dance jigs and march behind pipe and accordion bands. 11………..
In London and other British cities with large Irish communities there will be parades and
ceilidhs in honour of Ireland's national saint.
12………. The pubs around the traditional centres for the Irish in Britain such as
Cricklewood in north London will be stuffed with Irish migrants, many in their 50s and 60s,
supping beer and listening to traditional folk music, feeling sentimental and longing for
'home'.
But the image of the Irish immigrant in Britain - the casual labourer waiting for the work
van on Cricklewood green - is now a worn-out cliché. 13……… For St Patrick's Day will
be toasted in the wine bars of Kensington and Richmond tomorrow as much as the pubs
of the Irish centre in Camden.
Jim McCool emigrated to England at the start of the Northern Ireland Troubles in 1969.
14………. McCool runs a website listing all major welfare, charity, social and sporting
organisations for the Irish in Britain. Based in London, he says the Irish 'high flyers' are
'very disconnected' from the rest of the Irish diaspora.
‘15………. The earlier migrants were manual workers, picking up the jobs (construction,
mining, nursing) available during the UK labour shortage from the late 1940s to the early
1970s; the more recent migrants are often well educated and highly motivated.'
He worries about the older Irish migrant in Britain, particularly unmarried males either at
or close to the pension age. 16………

'Unlike the new migrant who is confident and integrated within British society, the older
people are alienated from Britain. What's worse is if they return home to Ireland after 40
or even 50 years they will find a society radically different from the one they left behind,'
he says.
The Aisling Project, which has the support of Irish comedians, helps Irish immigrants
relocate or visit back home. 17………

Others in the new Irish community are less concerned about their changing identity in
Britain. Gerry McGovern worked in the City of London before emigrating to Australia. He
says the new Celtic Tiger cubs making money in Britain should be feted as a sign of
national success.
'I think the Irish world has changed dramatically. My parents went to England and worked
in the factories. Some of my cousins went there with top degrees and got the best jobs. To
an extent I understand both generations. 18……… The newer generation is full of
possibility and energy.
 THE EYE: READING PRACTICE TEST

(A) His family straddles the divide between the older Irish immigrant generation and the
new Irish in Britain.

(B) The main differences are in education and poverty.

(C) The older generation struggled through hardship and loneliness.

(D) It targets those Irish who are either homeless, isolated or living alone.

(E) Livingstone, London's mayor, has ensured that there is now a St Patrick's Day march
through the capital.

(F) McCool works with older Irish people at the Aisling charity based in the Camden Irish
Centre.

(G) St Patrick's Day 2003 has become a global celebration of all things Irish.

(H) The British presence in Northern Ireland created a mistrust of Britishness.

(I) There is a new Irish immigrant who is successful, entrepreneurial and unsentimental
about Ireland.