I. Read the following passage and choose the item (a, b, c, or d) that best answers each of the questions about it.
According to the census of 1800, the United States of America contained 5,308,483 persons. In the same year the British Islands contained upwards of fifteen million; the French Republic, more than twenty-seven million. Nearly one-fifth of American people were black slaves; the true political population consisted of four and a half million free whites, or less than one million able-bodied males, on whose shoulders fell the burden of a continent. Even after two centuries of struggle the land still untamed; forests covered every portion, except here and there a strip of cultivated soil; the minerals lay undisturbed in their rocky beds, and more than two-thirds of the people clung to the seaboard within fifty miles of tidewater, where alone the wants of civilized life could be supplied.
26. In the United States of America in 1800 _____.
a. one out of every twenty-five Americans was a black slave
b. one out of every four Americans was a black slave
c. two out of every three Americans were black slaves
d. one out of every five Americans was a black slave
27. What is the true political population in America in 1800?
a. About four-fifths of the population. b. About one-fifth of the population.
c. 5,308,483. d. Less than one million
28. Which of the following is not true?
a. About one-fifth of American people were black slaves in 1800.
b. Two-thirds of the American people live on the seaboard.
c. In 1800, the land was still untamed.
d. In 1800, strips of cultivated land were everywhere.
29. In the context of the paragraph, the word “untamed” means _____.
a. calm b. dangerous c. uncultivable d. bad
30. How long had the struggle to tame the American continent been going on in 1800?
a. About two hundred years. b. A little more than a century.
c. About fifty years. d. Since 1750.
