Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Past explorers have made vast contributions to our knowledge of the world today. They braved the oceans to discover the world and to bring their goods to other countries to trade.
Many explorers had to overcome their fear of the unknown to travel around the world on their sailing ships. Submitting themselves to unpredictable weather conditions, each explorer either traveled further than his predecessor or tried to find a different route to already discovered countries. For example, Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, established a sea route from Europe to India. He had extended the sea route that Bartolomeu Dias had already done when he latter sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa.
More importantly, explorers first closed the gap between the east and the west by trading their local goods with foreign ones. India was known for its spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon while China was known for its silk. A part of the east was brought to the west when western gourmets developed a taste for eastern spices in their food. People in the east dressed in clothes that were previously only worn in the west. Without the explorers, many of us would still be living in our own enclave with little knowledge of the vast world and what other foreign countries have to offer us.
1. Past explorers contributed to our knowledge of the world by_________
A. making new good
B. selling their goods at high prices
C. traveling to other countries
D. spending time reading about foreign countries
2. Past explorers were probably fearful of________.
A. swimming in the ocean
B. the dangers that lurked in unexplored places
C. being in their sailing ships for a long time
D. trying to predict the weather conditions
3. Explorers who traveled to countries that others had already been to would make sure that they________
A. sold new goods to those countries
B. bought new goods from those countries
C. explored new areas in the countries
D. found another way of going to those countries
4. The act of selling their local goods to a foreign country allowed the explorers to____.
A. earn more money
B. think about visiting other countries as well
C. grow different types of spices
D. find out more about that country
5. Based on the third paragraph, the________of people changed when they came into contact with foreigners.
A. clothing and lifestyle
B. speech and lifestyle
C. clothing and jobs
D. family structure and clothing
