Passage 2Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, citizens of the United States maintained a bias against big cities. Most lived on farms and in small towns and believed cities to be centers of corruption, crime, poverty, and moral degradation. Their distrust was caused, in part, by a national ideology that proclaimed farming the greatest occupation and rural living superior to urban living. This attitude prevailed even as the number of urban dwellers increased and cities became an essential feature of the national landscape. Gradually, economic reality overcame ideology. Thousands abandoned the precarious life on the farm for more secure and better paying jobs in the city. But when these people migrated from the countryside, they carried their fears and suspicions with them. These new urbanites, already convinced that cities were overwhelmed with great problems, eagerly embraced the progressive reforms that promised to bring order out of the chaos of the city.One of many reforms came in the area of public utilities. Water and sewerage system were usually operated by municipal governments, but the gas and electric networks were privately owned. Reformers feared that the privately owned utility companies would change exorbitant rates for these essential services and deliver them only to people who could afford them. Some city and state governments responded by regulating the utility companies, but a number of cities began to supply these services themselves. Proponents of these reforms argued that public ownership and regulation would insure widespread access to these utilities and guarantee a fair price.While some reforms focused on government and public behavior, others looked at the cities as a whole. Civic leaders, convinced that physical environment influenced human behavior, argued that cities should develop master plans to guide their future growth and development. City planning was nothing new, but the rapid industrialization and urban growth of the late nineteenth century took place without any consideration for order. Urban renewal in the twentieth century followed several courses. Some cities introduced plans to completely rebuild the city core. Most other cities contented themselves with zoning plans for regulating future growth. Certain parts of town were restricted to residential use, while others were set aside for industrial or commercial development. In the early twentieth century, many rural dwellers migrated to the city in order to().
A. participate in the urban reform
B. seek financial security
C. comply with a government ordinance
D. avoid crime and corruption
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Passage 5Extraordinary creativity has been characterized as revolutionary, flying in the face of what is established and producing not what is acceptable but what will become accepted. According to this formulation highly creative activity transcends the limits of an existing form and establishes a new principle. However, the idea that extraordinary creativity transcends established limits is misleading when it is applied to the arts, even though it maybe valid for the sciences. For the sciences, a new theory is the goal and the end result of the creative act. Innovative science produces new propositions in terms of which diverse phenomena can be related to one another in more coherent ways. The goat of highly creative art is very different; the phenomenon itself becomes the direct product of the creative act. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is not a piece of writing about the indecisive princes or the uses of political power; not is Picasso’s painting Guernica primarily a prepositional statement about the Spanish Civil War or the evils of fascism. What highly creative artistic activity produces is not a new generalization that transcends established limits, but rather an aesthetic particular. Aesthetic particulars produced by the highly creative artist extend or exploit, in an innovative way, the limits of an existing form, rather than transcend that form.This is not to deny that a highly creative artist sometimes establishes a new principle in the history of an artistic field. But whether or not a work of art establishes a new principle in the history of art has little bearing on its aesthetic worth. Because they embody a new principle of organization, some musical works, such as the operas of the Florentine Camerata, are of signal historical importance, but few listeners or musicologists would include these among the great works of music. On the other hand, although it has been said of Beethoven that he toppled the rules and freed music from the stifling confines of convention, a close study of his compositions reveals that he overturned no fundamental rules. Rather, he was an incomparable strategist who exploited limits--the rules, forms and conventions that he inherited from Hayden and Mozart Handel and Bach -- in strikingly original ways. Which of the following best describes the organizational pattern of this passage().
A question followed by a list of possible answers to the question.
B. A generalization followed by specific instances as its illustration.
C. An argument followed by a refutation.
D. A formulation followed by evidence in support of it.
Passage 5Extraordinary creativity has been characterized as revolutionary, flying in the face of what is established and producing not what is acceptable but what will become accepted. According to this formulation highly creative activity transcends the limits of an existing form and establishes a new principle. However, the idea that extraordinary creativity transcends established limits is misleading when it is applied to the arts, even though it maybe valid for the sciences. For the sciences, a new theory is the goal and the end result of the creative act. Innovative science produces new propositions in terms of which diverse phenomena can be related to one another in more coherent ways. The goat of highly creative art is very different; the phenomenon itself becomes the direct product of the creative act. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is not a piece of writing about the indecisive princes or the uses of political power; not is Picasso’s painting Guernica primarily a prepositional statement about the Spanish Civil War or the evils of fascism. What highly creative artistic activity produces is not a new generalization that transcends established limits, but rather an aesthetic particular. Aesthetic particulars produced by the highly creative artist extend or exploit, in an innovative way, the limits of an existing form, rather than transcend that form.This is not to deny that a highly creative artist sometimes establishes a new principle in the history of an artistic field. But whether or not a work of art establishes a new principle in the history of art has little bearing on its aesthetic worth. Because they embody a new principle of organization, some musical works, such as the operas of the Florentine Camerata, are of signal historical importance, but few listeners or musicologists would include these among the great works of music. On the other hand, although it has been said of Beethoven that he toppled the rules and freed music from the stifling confines of convention, a close study of his compositions reveals that he overturned no fundamental rules. Rather, he was an incomparable strategist who exploited limits--the rules, forms and conventions that he inherited from Hayden and Mozart Handel and Bach -- in strikingly original ways. It is implied in the passage that().
A. Beethoven conformed to some musical tradition
B. all people agree in their interpretation of Beethoven
C. Beethoven had been taught by Mozart Hayden Handel and Bach
D. it is hard to make a comparison between Beethoven and his predecessors
Passage 2Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, citizens of the United States maintained a bias against big cities. Most lived on farms and in small towns and believed cities to be centers of corruption, crime, poverty, and moral degradation. Their distrust was caused, in part, by a national ideology that proclaimed farming the greatest occupation and rural living superior to urban living. This attitude prevailed even as the number of urban dwellers increased and cities became an essential feature of the national landscape. Gradually, economic reality overcame ideology. Thousands abandoned the precarious life on the farm for more secure and better paying jobs in the city. But when these people migrated from the countryside, they carried their fears and suspicions with them. These new urbanites, already convinced that cities were overwhelmed with great problems, eagerly embraced the progressive reforms that promised to bring order out of the chaos of the city.One of many reforms came in the area of public utilities. Water and sewerage system were usually operated by municipal governments, but the gas and electric networks were privately owned. Reformers feared that the privately owned utility companies would change exorbitant rates for these essential services and deliver them only to people who could afford them. Some city and state governments responded by regulating the utility companies, but a number of cities began to supply these services themselves. Proponents of these reforms argued that public ownership and regulation would insure widespread access to these utilities and guarantee a fair price.While some reforms focused on government and public behavior, others looked at the cities as a whole. Civic leaders, convinced that physical environment influenced human behavior, argued that cities should develop master plans to guide their future growth and development. City planning was nothing new, but the rapid industrialization and urban growth of the late nineteenth century took place without any consideration for order. Urban renewal in the twentieth century followed several courses. Some cities introduced plans to completely rebuild the city core. Most other cities contented themselves with zoning plans for regulating future growth. Certain parts of town were restricted to residential use, while others were set aside for industrial or commercial development. Why does the author mention "industrialization" in line 4, para. 3().
A. To explain how fast urban growth led to poorly designed cities.
B. To emphasize the economic importance of urban areas.
C. To suggest that labor disputes had become an urban problem.
D. To illustrate the need for construction of new factories.
Passage 3The period of adolescence, i.e, the period between childhood and adulthood, maybe long or short, depending on social expectations and on society’s definition as to what constitutes maturity and adulthood. In primitive societies adolescence is frequently a relatively short period of time, while in industrial societies with pattems of prolonged education coupled with laws against child labor, the period of adolescence is much longer and may include most of the second decade of one’s life. Furthermore, the length of the adolescent period and the definition of adulthood status may change in a given society as social and economic conditions change. Examples of this type of change are the disappearance of the frontier in the latter part of the nineteenth century in the United States, and more universally, the industrialization of an agricultural society.In modern society, ceremonies of adolescence have lost their formal recognition and symbolic significance and there no longer is agreement as to what constitutes initiation ceremonies. Social ones have been replaced by a sequence of steps that lead to increased recognition and social status. For example, grade school graduation, high school graduation and college graduation constitute such a sequence, and while each step implies certain behavioral changes and social recognition. The significance of each depends on the social-economic status and the educational ambition of the individual. Ceremonies for adolescence have also been replaced by legal definitions of status roles, rights, privileges and responsibilities. It is during the nine years from the twelfth birthday to the twenty-first that the protective and restrictive aspects of childhood and minor status are removed and adult privileges and responsibilities are granted. The twelve-year-old is no longer considered a child and has to pay full fare for train, airplane, theater and movie tickets. Basically, the individual at this age loses childhood privileges without gaining significant adult rights. At the age of sixteen the adolescent is granted certain adult rights which increase his social status by providing him with more freedom and choices. He now can obtain a driver’s license; he can leave public schools; and he can work without the restrictions of child labor laws. At the age of eighteen the law provides adult responsibilities as well as rights. The young man can now be a soldier, he also can marry without parental permission. At the age of twenty-one the individual obtains his full legal rights as an adult. He now can vote, he can buy liquor, he can enter into financial contracts, and he is entitled to run for public office. No additional basic rights are acquired as a function of age after majority status has been attained. None of these legal provisions determine at what point adulthood has been reached but they do point to the prolonged period of adolescence. Former social ceremonies that used to mark adolescence have given place to()
A. social recognition
B. certain behavioral changes
C. social-economic status
D. graduations from schools and colleges