SOAL BAHASA INGGRIS

SOAL BAHASA INGGRIS

 Text 1

     Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of insights. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of peoples, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes: medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "Knowledge” at all.

     Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild – and the accumulated knowledge' of tens of thousands of 

years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.

1.Which of the following assumptions about early humans is expressed in the passage?

A.They probably had extensive knowledge of plants.

B.They thought there was no need to cultivate crops.

C.They did not enjoy the study of botany.

D.They placed great importance on the ownership of property.

E.They had very little knowledge about plants.

2.What does the comment "This is logical" in paragraph 1 mean?

A.There is no clear way to determine the extent of our ancestor’s knowledge of plants.

B.It is not surprising that early humans had a detailed knowledge of plants.

C.It is reasonable to assume that our ancestors behaved very much like people in preindustrial societies.

D.Human knowledge of plants is well organized and very detailed.

E.It is understandable that our ancestors did not know anything about plants.

3.According to the passage, why has general knowledge of botany begun to fade?

A.People no longer value plants as a useful resource.

B.Botany is not recognized as a special branch of science.

C.Research is unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of plants.

D.Direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased.

E.People have very little interest on botany.

4.According to the passage, what was the first great step toward the practice of agriculture?

A.The invention of agricultural implements and machinery

B.The development of a system of names for plants

C.The discovery of grasses that could be harvested and replanted

D.The changing diets of early humans

E.The planting of many varieties of plants

5.The relationship between botany and agriculture is similar to the relationship between zoology (the study of animals) and

A.deer hunting

B.bird watching

C.sheep raising

D.horseback riding

E.dog training

Text 2

When we accept the evidence of our unaided eyes and describe the Sun as a yellow star, we have summed up the most important single fact about it-at this moment in time.

    It appears probable, however, that sunlight will be the color we know for only a negligibly small part of the Sun's history. Stars, like individuals, age and change. As we look out into space, we see around us stars at all stages of evolution. There are faint blood-red dwarfs so cool that their surface temperature is a mere 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, there are searing ghosts blazing at 100, 000 degrees Fahrenheit and almost too hot to be seen, for the great part of their radiation is in the invisible ultraviolet range. Obviously, the "daylight" produced by any star depends on its temperature; today(and for ages to come) our Sun is at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and this means that most of the Sun's light is concentrated in the yellow band of the spectrum, falling slowly in intensity toward both the longer and shorter light waves.

That yellow "hump" will shift as the Sun evolves, and the light of day will change accordingly. It is natural to assume that as the Sun grows older, and uses up its hydrogen fuel-which it is now doing at the spanking rate of half a billion tons a second- it will become steadily colder and redder.

6.What is the passage mainly about?

A.Faint dwarf stars

B.The evolutionary cycle of the Sun

C.The Sun's fuel problem

D.The dangers of invisible radiation

E.The radiation of the sun

7.What does the author say is especially important about the Sun at the present time?

A.It appears yellow

B.It always remains the same

C.It has a short history

D.It is too cold

E.It has a remarkable heat

8.Why are very hot stars referred to as "ghosts"?

A.They are short- lived.

B.They are mysterious.

C.They are frightening.

D.They are nearly invisible.

E.They have odd shapes.

9.According to the passage as the Sun continues to age, it is likely to become what color?

A.Yellow

B.Violet

C.Red

D.White

E.Black

10.In the last sentence, to which of the following does "it" refer?

A.yellow "hump"

B.day

C.Sun

D.hydrogen fuel

E.temperature

Text 3

     Grandma Moses is among the most celebrated twentieth - century painters of the United States, yet she had barely started painting before she was in her late seventies. As she once said of herself: "I would never sit back in a rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me.' No one could have had a more productive old age.

     She was born Anna Mary Robertson on a farm in New York State, one of five boys and five girls. ("we came in bunches, like radishes.") At twelve she left home and was in domestic service until at twenty-seven, she married Thomas Moses, the hired hand of one of her employers. They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia and then in New York State, at Eagle Bridge. She had ten children, of whom five survived: her husband died in 1927.

     Grandma Moses painted a little as a child and made embroidery pictures as a hobby, but only switched to oils in old age because her hands had become too stiff to sew and she wanted to keep busy and pass the time. Her pictures were first sold at the local drugstore and at a fair, and were soon spotted by a dealer who bought everything she painted. Three of the pictures were exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940 she had her first exhibition in New York. Between the 1930s and her death she produced some 2,000 pictures: detailed and lively portrayals of the rural life she had known for so long, with a marvelous sense of color and form. “I think real hard till think of something real pretty, and then I paint it,” she said.

11.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage.

A.Grandma Moses: A Biographical Sketch

B.The Children of Grandma Moses

C.Grandma Moses: Her Best Exhibition

D.Grandma Moses and Other Older Artists

E.Grandma Moses: The Most Celebrated Painter

12.According to the passage, Grandma Moses began to paint because she wanted to ______.

A.decorate her home

B.keep active

C.improve her salary

D.gain an international reputation

E.spend her time

13.From Grandma Moses' description of herself in the first paragraph, it can be inferred that she was _______.

A.independent

B.pretty

C.wealthy

D.timid

E.ambitious

14.Grandma Moses spent most of her life ______.

A.nursing

B.painting

C.embroidering

D.farming

E.sewing

15.In paragraph 3, the word "spotted" could best be replaced by ________.

A.speckled

B.featured

C.noticed

D.damaged

E.observed