Fifty years ago, when I was a child, photographs were not of general interest. Photographs were taken of people on special occasions, at weddings and on birthdays, for instance. These pictures were usually kept in a box and brought out at intervals to show the family. Nowadays photography is regarded as an art. Many photographic exhibitions are held and there are many magazines dealing with the art of photography.
  
  1. During recent years _____ .
  A) photography has become a popular form of art.
  B) a lot of people have taken photographs of good paintings.
  C) photography has stopped being an art.
  D) photographic exhibitions are often advertised in magazines.
  E) more and more people take photographs at weddings.
  2. The passage compares _____ .
  A) public interest in painting today and fifty years ago.
  B) photographic exhibitions and painting exhibitions.
  C) wedding photographs and birthday photographs.
  D) photography today and photography fifty years ago.
  E) family photographs of today and fifty years ago.
  3. When the writer was young _____ .
  A) he was very interested in photography.
  B) people didn't think of photography as an art.
  C) he always took photographs on his birthday.
  D) people used to go to photographic exhibitions.
  E) he took a lot of family photographs.

  Heat-waves, if the temperature is high enough, above 40 °C for instance, lead to wilting, and even death in plant, because of structural damage to essential proteins. The problem is that plants react by closing their pores when, due to a serious heat-wave, they are subjected to water stress, so shutting down on transpiration and conserving water. Just as the body would overheat dangerously if it shut its pores to prevent sweating, so, in a plant, the shutting of the pores will cause permanent damage, if not death. Temperatures above 50 °C can damage most plants if lasting for half an hour or more. High soil temperatures will also damage roots and prevent nutrient uptake.
  
  1. As we learn from the passage, a heat-wave can cause serious damage to plant life _____ .
  A) even if the essential proteins remain unharmed
  B) even when the temperature remains below 40°C
  C) unless the soil temperature remains stable
  D) through harming the plant's essential proteins
  E) especially if the soil is fertile
  2. It is pointed out in the passage that the death of a plant in a heat-wave is due to _____ .
  A) a sudden loss of proteins which can occur within half an hour
  B) excessive transpiration in an effort to keep its temperature down
  C) overheating in the plant following the closing of the little holes in its surface
  D) a structural deformation which cannot be detected easily
  E) the plant's inability to conserve water in its cells
  3. It is understood from the passage that, in extremely high temperatures, the roots of a plant _____ .
  A) fail to supply the plant with adequate nutrients
  B) dry out well before the leaves begin to wilt
  C) store an adequate amount of nutrients to prolong plant life
  D) increase their nutrient intake in order to protect the plant
  E) maintain their vitality so that they can function normally

  Romanticism is a term for a movement in the arts, that is, in music, painting, sculpture or literature, which seeks to give expression to the artist's feelings about his subject rather than to be concerned with form and reality. The romantic view is that art is nature seen through a temperament; the realist view, on the other hand, is that art is a slice of life. In painting Delacroix (1789-1863) is the romantic artist par excellence with his uncontrolled expression of the passions and love of the exotic. In literature the Romantic movement reached its finest form in the works of Goethe, Schiller and Heine; in the poetry of Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Shelly and Blake; and in the writings of Victor Hugo. Since Romanticism is partly a matter of temperament in the artist just as Classicism is, it may be found at all times and places, although whether or not it becomes predominant depends on contemporary taste.
  
  1. The writer explains that the most distinctive characteristic of Romanticism is _____ .
  A) an accurate description of the natural world
  B) its dedicated concern with the issues of actual life
  C) the expression of individual's emotions
  D) the importance it attaches to form rather than to content
  E) its avoidance of the pictorial and the exotic
  2. It is suggested in the passage that as an approach to life, the Romantic view _____ .
  A) is constantly recurrent in the human temperament
  B) has often been subordinate to Classicism
  C) is out of favor in the contemporary world
  D) is best expressed in music, not in other forms of art
  E) came into being as a reaction against Realism
  3. The passage quite simply describes _____ .
  A) the influence of Romanticism in art upon Romanticism in literature
  B) the romantic quality of Delacroix's painting and its counterpart in literature
  C) the similarities and differences between Romanticism and other literary movements
  D) the revival of Romanticism as an artistic temperament in the contemporary world
  E) what Romanticism is and who its major exponents have been

  Insects and Agriculture
  Same species, most of them insects, benefit increasingly from man 's activities. Modern, large-scale agriculture offers them a paradise. Crops are grown year after year in the same or nearby fields, helping insects populations to build up. Many of the worst pests are insect invaders from foreign countries that have left their natural enemies behind and so are as free as man himself from the check of nature's balance. Agricultural scientists try hard to find ways to check insect pests by tricks of cultivation. They import the ancient enemies of invading foreign insects and foster the resident enemies of invading foreign insects.
  
  1. Some species that benefit from man's activities _____.
   A) have large populations because of modern agriculture
   B) are killed by modern techniques
   C) are generally killing all the living organisms
   D) have been used as a check of nature
   E) cause a lot of damage in the harvest of in summer
  
  
  2. According to the passage, the ancient enemies of invading foreign insects _____.
   A) were used as an alternative way to help farmer
   B) will lead to a lot of damage in large fields
   C) will cause wars between countries
   D) are used to stop them
   E) are not living today due to same agricultural improvements
  
  3. We can assume that in nature _____.
   A) same species like reptiles don't interest farmers
   B) agriculture offers a paradise to farmers
   C) cultivation is done with the help of same scientists
   D) same countries have natural enemies that are grown by same farmers
   E) animal populations are balanced by their enemies