Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.

American humor and American popular heroes were born together. The first popular heroes of the new nation were comic heroes, and the first popular humor of the new nation was the antics of its hero-clowns.

The heroic and the comic were combined in novel American proportions in popular literature. The heroic themes are obvious enough and not much different from those in the legends of other times and places: Achilles, Beowulf, Siegfried, Roland, and King Arthur. The American Davy Crockett legends repeat the familiar pattern of the old world heroic story: the pre-eminence of a mighty hero whose fame in myth has a tenuous basis in fact; the remarkable birth and precocious strength of the hero; single combats in which he distinguished himself against antagonists, both man and beast; vows and boasts; pride of the hero in his weapons, his dog, and his woman.

Davy Crockett conquered man and beast with a swaggering nonchalance. He overcame animals by force of body and will. He killed four wolves at the age of six. He hugged a bear to death; he killed a rattlesnake with his teeth. He mastered the forces of nature. Crockett’s most famous natural exploit was saving the earth on the coldest day in history. First, he climbed a mountain to determine the trouble. Then he rescued all creation by squeezing bear-grease on the earth’s frozen axis and over the sun’s icy face. He whistled, “Push along, keep moving!” The earth gave a grunt and began moving.

Neither the fearlessness nor the bold huntsman’s prowess was peculiarly American. Far more distinctive was the comic quality, all heroes are heroic; few are also clowns. What made the American popular hero heroic also made him comic. “May be”, said Crockett, “you’ll laugh at me and not at my book”. The ambiguity of American life and the vagueness which laid the continent open to adventure, which made the land a rich storehouse of the unexpected, which kept vocabulary ungoverned and the language fluid----this same ambiguity suffused both the Crockett legends were never quite certain whether to laugh or to applaud, or whether what they saw and heard was wonderful, awful or ridiculous.

The word “antagonists” could be best replaced by_________.

A. wild animals    

B. heroes                        

C. forces                        

D. opponents

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions. 

          For many American university students, the weeklong spring break holiday means an endless party on a sunny beach in Florida or Mexico. In Panama City Beach, Florida, a city with a permanent population of around 36,000, more than half a million university students arrive during the month of March to play and party, making it the number one spring break destination in the United States.

          A weeklong drinking binge is not for anyone, however, and a growing number of American university students have found a way to make spring break matter. For them, joining or leading a group of volunteers to travel locally or internationally and work to alleviate problems such as poverty, homelessness, or environmental damage makes spring break a unique learning experience that university students can feel good about.

          During one spring break week, students at James Madison University in Virginia participated in 15 “alternative spring break” trips to nearby states, three others to more distant parts of the United States, and five international trips. One group of JMU students traveled to Bogalusa, Louisiana, to help rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Another group traveled to Mississippi to organize creative activities for children living in a homless shelter. One group of students did go to Florida, but not to lie on the sand.  They performed exhausting physical labor such as maintaining hiking trails and destroying invasive plant species that threaten the native Florida ecosystem.

          Students who participate in alternative spring break projects find them very rewarding. While most university students have to get their degrees before they can start helping people, student volunteers are able to help people now. On the other hand, the accommodations are far from glamorous. Students often sleep on the floor of a school or spend the week camping in tents. But students only pay around $250 for meals and transportation, which is much less than some of their peers spend to travel to more traditional spring break hotspots.

          Alternative spring break trips appear to be growing in popularity at universities across the United States. Students cite a number of reason for participating. Some appreciate the opportunity to socialize and meet new friends. Others want to exercise their beliefs about people’s obligation to serve humanity and make the world a better place whatever their reason, these students have discovered something that gives them rich rewards along with a break from school work.

Question:Which of the following is mentioned as a reason for participating in alternative spring break trips?

A. The hope of earning money.

B.  A personal opinion that people must help other people.

C.  A desire to travel to glamorous places.

D.  A wish to get away from family and friends.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Stars have been significant features in the design of many United States coins and their number has varied from one to forty-eight stars. Most of the coins issued from about 1799 to the early years of the twentieth century bore thirteen stars representing the thirteen original colonies. Curiously enough, the first American silver coins, issued in 1794, had fifteen stars because by that time Vermont and Kentucky has joined the Union. At that time it was apparently the intention of mint officials to add a star for each new state. Following the admission of Tennessee

in 1796, for example, some varieties of half dimes, dimes, and half-dollars were produced with sixteen starts. As more states were admitted to the Union, however, it quickly became apparent that this scheme would not prove practical and the coins from A798 on were issued with only thirteen stars-one for each ofthe original colonies. Due to an error at the mint, one variety of the A828 half cent was issued with only twelve stars. There is also a variety of the large cent with only A2 stars, but this is the result of a die breakand is not a true error.

The word “bore” in line 3 is closest in meaning to ________ 

A. carried

B. drilled

C. symbolized

D. cost