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It is said that George Washington was one of the first to realize how important the building of canals would be to the nation’s development. In fact, before he became President, he headed the first company in the United States to build a canal which was to connect the Ohio and Potomac rivers. It was never completed, but it showed the nation the feasibility of canals. As the country expanded westward, settlers in western New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio needed a means to ship goods. Canals linking natural waterways seemed to offer an effective solution. In 1791 engineers commissioned by the state of New York investigated the possibility of a canal between Albany on the Hudson River and Buffalo on Lake Erie, which would link the Great Lakes area with the Atlantic seacoast. It would avoid the mountains that served as a barrier to canals from the Delaware and Potomac rivers. The first attempt to dig the canal, to be called the Erie Canal, was made by private companies, but only a comparatively small portion was built before the project was halted for lack of funds. The cost of the project was an estimated five million dollars, an enormous amount for those days. There was some on-again-off-again Federal funding, but the War of 1812 put an end to this. In 1817 DeWitt Clinton was elected Governor of New York and persuaded the state to finance and build the canal. It was completed in 1825, costing two million dollars more than expected. The canal rapidly lived up to its sponsors’ faith, quickly paying for itself through tolls. It was far more economical than any other form of transportation at the time. It permitted trade between the Great Lake region and East Coast, robbing the Mississippi River of much of its traffic. It allowed New York to supplant Boston, Philadelphia, and other Eastern cities as the chief center of both domestic and foreign commerce. Cities sprang up along the canal. It also contributed in a number of ways to the North’s victory over the South in the Civil War. An expansion of the canal was planned in 1849. Increased traffic would undoubtedly have warranted its construction had it not been for the development of the railroads. Wiry does the author most likely mention George Washington in the first paragraph

A. He was President at the time the Erie Canal was built.
B. He was involved in pioneering efforts to build canals.
C. He successfully opened the first canal in the United States.
D. He commissioned engineers to study the possibility of building the Erie Canal.

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Many people like to decorate their houses at Christmas time. They decorate the inside of the house and the outside, too. Inside they usually decorate a Christmas tree and the fire-place, if there is one. Outside they place wreaths, ribbons, and colored lights on the door and windows. If there is a tree in front of their house, they place colored lights on it, too.In New York, there is a very tall, beautifully decorated Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center at Christmas time. In Washington, there is also a big decorated tree in front of the White House. People come from many cities to admire the trees and the gaily decorated shop windows on the principal avenues of large cities. What is the text about().

A. It’s about celebrating Christmas.
B. It’s about Christmas decoration.
C. It’s about Christmas trees.

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Thousands of teachers at the elementary, secondary, and college levels can testify that their students’ writing exhibits a tendency toward a superficiality that wasn’t seen, say 10 or 15 years ago. It shows up not only in their lack of analytical skills, but in poor command of grammar and rhetoric. I’ ye been asked by a graduate student what a semicolon is. The mechanics of the English language have been tortured to pieces by’ TV. Visual, moving images—which are the venue of television—can’t be held in the net of careful language. They want to break out. They really have nothing to do with language, grammar, and rhetoric, and they have become fractured. Recent surveys by dozens of organizations also suggest that up to 40% of the American public is functionally illiterate. That is, our citizens’ reading and writing abilities, if they have any, are impaired so seriously as to render them, in that handy jargon of our times, dysfunctional. The reading is taught - TV teaches people not to read. It renders them incapable of engaging in an activity that now is perceived as strenuous, because it is not a passive hypnotized state. Passive as it is, television has invaded our culture so completely that the medium’s effects are evident in every quarter, even the literary world. It shows up in supermarket paperbacks, from Stephen King (who has a certain clever skill) to pulp fiction. These really are forms of verbal TV-literature that is so superficial that those who read it can revel in the same sensations they experience when watching television. Even more importantly, the growing influence of television, Kernan says, has changed people’s habits and values and affected their assumptions about the world. The sort of reflective, critical, and value laden thinking encouraged by books has been rendered obsolete. In this context, we would do well to recall the Cyclops— the race of giants that, according to Greek myth, predated man. Quite literally, TV affects the way people think. In Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, Jerry Mander quotes from the Emery Report, prepared by the Center for Continuing Education at the Australian National University, Canberra, that, when we watch television, "our usual processes of thinking and discern ment are semi-functional at best." The study also argues that, "while television appears to have the potential to provide useful information to viewers—and is celebrated for its educational function—the technology of television and the inherent nature of the viewing experience actually inhibit learning as we usually think of it.\ TV affects people’s_____according to the passage.

A. reading and writing; culture; outlook; reasoning
B. grammar and rhetoric; literature; habit; learning
C. language; fiction; values; thinking
D. analytical skills; teaching; culture; assumptions

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W: The company is going to recruit some people.M: Really Are there any vacant positionsW: Yes. The position of senior secretary had fallen vacant.M: What happened to Kitty She was an excellent senior secretary.W: She has just got married. And she wants to be a full-time housewife. So she left.Mi What a pity! Do you have any idea who will be the new senior secretaryW: Not yet. The company has advertised the position.M: What qualifications are neededW: A female graduate from the secretary college with a good knowledge of English.M: A graduate does not always make an qualified employee. What qualifications are needed for this job().

A female graduate from the secretary college.
B. A female with a good knowledge of English.
C. Both A and B.

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Web Du Bois was born a free man in his small village of Great Barington, Massachusetts, three years after the Civil War. For generations, the Du Bois family had been an accepted part of the community since before his great-grandfather had fought in the American Revolution. Early on, Du Bois was given an awareness of his African-heritage, through the ancient songs his grandmother taught him. This awareness set him apart from his New England community, with an ancestry shrouded in mystery, in sharp contrast to the precisely accounted history of the Western world. This difference would be the foundation for his desire to change the way African-Americans co-existed in America. Du Bois differs from Booker politically in that he ______. A. believed hard work and success were the only way to win respect B. rejected the idea of tentative tolerance of racial discrimination C. encouraged organized violence as part of the struggle for equality D. took it as his ’ultimate goal to build an independent nation of blacks

As a student, Du Bois was considered something of a prodigy who excelled beyond the capabilities of his white peers. He found work as a correspondent for New York newspapers, and slowly began to realize the inhibitions of social boundaries he was expected to observe every step of the way. When racism tried to take his pride and dignity, he became more determined to make sure society ’recognized his achievements.
B. Clearly, Du Bois showed great promise, and although he dreamt of attending Harvard, some influential members Of his community arranged for his education at Fisk University in Nashville. His experiences at Fisk changed his life, and he discovered his fate as a leader of the black struggle to free his people from oppression. At Fisk, Du Bois became acquainted with many sons and daughters of former slaves, who felt the pain of oppression and shared his sense of cultural and spiritual tradition. In the South, he saw his people being driven to a status of little difference from slavery, and saw them terrorized at the polls. He taught school during the summers in the eastern portion of Tennessee, and saw the suffering firsthand. He then resolved to dedicate his life to fighting the terrible racial oppression that held the black people down, both economically and politically.
C. Du Bois’s determination was rewarded with a scholarship to Harvard, where he began the first scientific sociological studies in the United States. He felt that through science, he could dispel the irrational prejudices and ignorance that prevented racial equality. He went on to create great advancements in the study of race relations, but oppression continued with segregation laws, lynching, and terror tactics on the rise. Du Bois then formed the Niagara Movement, and in 1909, was a vital part in establishing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was also the editor of the NAACP magazine The Crisis from 1910 to 1934. In this stage of his life, he encouraged direct assaults on the legal, political, and economic system, which he felt blossomed out of the exploitation of the poor and powerless black community.
D. He became the most important black protest leader of the first half of the 20th century. His views clashed with Booker T. Washington, who felt that the black people of America had to simply accept discrimination, and hope to eventually earn respect and equality through hard work and success. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, criticizing Booker, claiming that his ideas would lead to a perpetuation of oppression instead of freeing the black people from it. Du Bois’s criticism lead to a branching out of the black civil rights movement, Booker% conservative followers, and a radical following of his critics.
E. Du Bois had established the Black .Nationalism that was the inspiration for all black empowerment throughout the civil rights movement, but had begun during the progressive era. Although the movement that germinated from his ideas may have taken on a more violent form, Web Du Bois felt strongly that every human being could shape their own destinies with determination and hard work. He inspired hope by declaring that progress would come with the success of the small struggles for a better life.

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A. He was President at the time the Erie Canal was built. B. He was involved in pioneering efforts to build canals. C. He successfully opened the first canal in the United States. D. He commissioned engineers to study the possibility of building the Erie Canal.

A. He was President at the time the Erie Canal was built.
B. He was involved in pioneering efforts to build canals.
C. He successfully opened the first canal in the United States.
D. He commissioned engineers to study the possibility of building the Erie Canal.