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.
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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
The global financial crisis, brewing for a while, really started to show its effects in the middle of 2007 and into 2008. Around the world stock markets have fallen, large financial institutions have collapsed or been out, and governments in even the wealthiest nations have had to come up with rescue packages to bail out their financial systems. On the one hand many people are concerned that those responsible for the financial problems are the ones being bailed out, while on the other hand, a global financial meltdown will affect the livelihoods of almost everyone in an increasingly inter-connected world. The problem could have been avoided, if ideologues supporting the current economics models weren’t so influential and inconsiderate of others’ viewpoints and concerns.
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. Starting from 22 years old ().
A. one will obtain more basic rights
B. the older one becomes, the more basic rights he will have
C. one won’t get more basic rights than what he has
D. one will enjoy more rights granted by society
Passage 4Plant adaptation can be remarkably complex. Certain species of orchids, for instance, imitate female bees, other plants look and smell like animals, and still others have the appearance of stone. These strange adaptations to life represent just a few of the sophisticated means by which plants enhance their chances of survival.Mimicry in plants or animals is a three-part system. There is a model; the animal, plant, or substrate being imitated. There is a mimic; the organism that imitates the model. And there is a signal receiver or dupe; the animal that cannot effectively distinguish between the model and the mimic. Mimetic traits may include morphological structures, color patterns, behaviors, or other attributes of the mimic that promote its resemblance to a model. That model may be either an unrelated species or an inanimate objects such as the background against which an organism spends most of its time.Mimicry is not an active strategy on the part of an individual plant; flowers do no deliberately trick or deceive animals into visiting them. Mimicry arises as the result of evolution through natural selection and the occurrence of random generic mutations that lead over many generations to the appearance of favorable characteristics. If such traits help to camouflage a plant, for example, the plant is likely to have survival advantage over other plants that are less well camouflaged. The plant will leave more descendants, thereby passing the advantage to the next generation. For natural selection to favor the evolution of mimicry, the mimic must derive a reproductive advantage from modeling itself after another organism or object; its fitness, measured as the number of offspring produced that survive into the next generation must be increased as the result of deception. When a male bee took the orchid as a female bee, the male bee was called ()
A. amodel
B. amimic
C. a signal receiver
D. a substrate