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Passage One

    The Civil War lasted four years. It ended in 1865. President Lincoln signed the order that made the slaves in the South free. Soon there would be no more slavery in America.

    All the states were united again. The Union was saved. But the damages of war had to be mended. The country must be led back to peace.

    President Lincoln looked old. His face was lined with worry.

    One evening Mrs. Lincoln wanted to cheer up the President. She asked him to take her to the theater. The President and Mrs. Lincoln sat in a box. Halfway through the play a shot was fired. President Lincoln was killed. An actor named John Wilkes Booth had shot the President. Booth was a queer, half crazy person, who had been upset by the war.

    People all over the country, North and South, were shocked by the terrible news. The whole country had lost its great leader.

    The train that carried President Lincoln back home to Springfield was draped in black. Crowds of people stood by the railroad tracks in every city and town. Some waited all night on lonesome country roads to see the train go by. Many of the people wept.

    The train moved slowly. Its mournful whistle blew across the prairie where young Abe Lincoln had lived. Abraham Lincoln was buried in Springfield, Illinois, where he lived the happiest years with his family.

    In Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial helps Americans remember their great President. There is a beautiful statue to Lincoln. His face looks down on the thousands of people who come there. It makes each one feel the deep kindness and understanding that Abraham Lincoln showed to all people while he lived.

    (285 words)

1. President Lincoln was worried because ________.( B )

(a) he was determined to set the slaves free

(b) he must lead his countrymen to rebuild the country

(c) all the states were to be reunited

(d) he was getting old

2. The President was killed ________.( A )

(a) in a theater

(b) on the way to a theater

(c) in a car

(d) at home

3. Which of the following is not true?  ( A )

(a) Booth was unhappy with the slavery system.

(b) Booth was upset by the civil war.

(c) Many people were very sad at Lincoln's death.

(d) The whole country was shocked by the terrible news.

4. We can infer from the passage that President Lincoln ________.( C )

(a) was buried in Washington, D.C.

(b) held his office in Springfield

(c) was very kind and understanding

(d) had the happiest time in Washington, D.C.

5. The most suitable title for the passage is ________.( D )

(a) The Civil War

(b) Abraham Lincoln

(c) Back to Peace

(d) The Death of Abraham Lincoln                                     TOP 

Passage Two

    Although American civilization took over and replaced the frontier almost a century ago, the heritage of the frontier is still very much alive in the United States today. The idea of the frontier still stirs the emotions and imaginations of the American people. Americans continue to be fascinated by the frontier because it has been a particularly important force in shaping their national values.

    The frontier experience began when the first colonists settled on the east coast of the continent in the 1600s. It ended about 1890 when the last western lands were settled.

    The American frontier consisted of the relatively unsettled regions of the country. Here, both land and life were more rugged and primitive than in the more settled eastern part. As one frontier area was settled, people began moving farther west into the next unsettled area. By settling one frontier area after another, Americans moved across an entire continent, 2 700 miles wide.

    (155 words)

   6. The frontier continues to attract Americans because ________.( A )

   (a)  the movement helped to shape American values

(b) American people are bored with the clamorous city life

(c)  American people are emotional and full of imagination

(d) the movement took place a century ago

   7. The frontier experience began ________.( B )

(a) in the sixteenth century

(b) in the seventeenth century

(c) in the eighteenth century

(d) in the nineteenth century

8. Compared with the eastern part of the country, the unsettled frontier land and life were ________.( D )

(a) more civilized and interesting

(b) dull and primitive

(c) rugged and unbearable

(d) rough and primitive

9. Which of the following is not true?  ( A )

(a) The influence of the frontier has died out in modern America.

(b) American civilization substituted the frontier long ago.

(c) Americans are still fascinated by the frontier experience.

(d) The frontier experience lasted about three centuries.            TOP

Passage Three

    Americans have tended to see the frontier, its life, and its people as the purest examples of their basic values. This has been the impact of the frontier on the American mind. For example, the frontier provided many inspiring examples of hard work as forests were turned into towns, and towns into large cities. The race for competitive success was rarely more colorful or adventurous than on the western frontier. The rush for gold in California, for silver in Montana, and for fertile land in all the western territories provided endless stories of high adventure. When it was announced that almost two million acres of good land in Oklahoma would be opened for settlement in April 1889, thousands of settlers gathered on the border waiting for the exact time to be announced. When it was, they literally raced into the territory in wagons and on horseback to claim the best land they could find for themselves.

    Although daily life on the frontier was usually less dramatic than the frontier adventure stories would lead one to believe, even the ordinary daily life of the frontiersman exemplified national values in a form which seemed purer to many Americans than the life of those living in the more settled, more cultivated eastern United States.

    Individualism, self-reliance, and equality of opportunity have perhaps been the values most closely associated with the frontier heritage of America. Throughout their history, Americans have tended to view the frontiersman as the model of the free individual. This is probable because there was less control over the individual on the frontier than anywhere else in the United States. There were few laws and few established social or political institutions to confine people living on the frontiers. In the United States, where freedom from outside social controls is so highly valued, the frontier has been idealized, and it still serves as a basis for a nostalgic view of the purity of the early United States, which was lost when the country became urbanized and more complex.

    (227 words)

    10. Thousands of people raced into Oklahoma because ________.( D )

    (a) land in Oklahoma was highly civilized 

    (b) the land was rich in gold and valuable stones

    (c) they were allowed to settle there

  (d) they were allowed to claim the best land they could find for themselves

    11. The Americans tend to regard the daily life of the frontiersman as ________.( D )

(a) less dramatic

(b) hard and dull

(c) full of social restrictions

(d) exemplifying national values 

12. The frontier heritage of America includes all the following except ________.( B )

(a) individualism

(b) political institutions

(c) self-reliance

(d) equality of opportunity

13. Compared with the frontier, other places in the United States were ________.( B )

(a) corrupt and less free

(b) urbanized and less innocent

(c) more powerful but less happy

(d) modernized yet unsafe

14. According to the author, which of the following is true?  ( C )

(a) There was no control over the individual on the frontier.

(b) Life on the frontier was always exciting and dramatic.

(c) Life on the frontier has been idealized by American people who value freedom highly.

(d) It is not practical to regard the frontier as an example of the American values.

15. A good title for the passage is ________.( A )

(a) The Frontier Heritage of America 

(b) The Idealized Frontier

(c) The Lost Innocence

(d) Truths about the Frontier                                        TOP