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Bergen Community College American Language Program American Language: Reading Practice Exit Exam B Directions: Read the following passage and answer the multiple-choice questions according to the information in the reading passage. Put all of your answers on the Scantron answer sheet. You must use a no. 2 pencil. It is important to fill in the circles completely. If you need to change an answer, be sure to erase completely. You are not allowed to have any papers except these test papers on your desk during the examination. The only book that you are allowed to consult during the test is a monolingual English dictionary. No electronic dictionaries are permitted. Put your name, your section, and your instructor’s name on the Scantron answer sheet. Also, be sure to write your Bergen Community College student ID number. After the exit exams, your grade will be posted according to your section and ID number, so be sure you know them. 1

LIFE WITHOUT FUEL Isaac Asimov is a noted scientist and science fiction writer. He has a remarkable gift for being able to explain complex scientific phenomena in ways that the ordinary person can easily understand. Asimov was recently asked to imagine and describe what would happen to everyday life in 2037 if fuel really began running out . 1 It's 2037, and it's raining, and you'll have to walk to work again. Any given subway train breaks down one morning out of five. The buses are gone, and on a day like today, bicycles slosh and slide. 2 You are lucky that you have a job in demolition. It's slow and dirty work, but steady. The fading structures of a decaying city are the great mineral mines and hardware shops of the nation. Break them down and reuse the parts. Coal is too difficult to dig up and transport to give us energy in the amounts we need. Nuclear fission is judged to be too dangerous. The hoped-for breakthrough toward nuclear fusion never took place, and solar batteries are too expensive to maintain in sufficient quantity. 3 Anyone older than ten can remember automobiles. At first, the price of gasoline climbed way up. Finally, only the well-to-do drove, and that was too clear an indication that they were filthy rich; so any automobile on a city street was overturned and burned. The cars vanished, becoming part of the metal resource. 4 There are advantages in 2037, if you want to look for them. The air is cleaner, and there seem to be fewer colds. The crime rate has dropped. With the police car too expensive, policemen are back on their beats. More important, the streets are full. Legs are king, and people walk everywhere far into the night. There is mutual protection in crowds. 5 If the weather isn't too cold, people sit out front. If it is hot, the open air is the only air conditioning they get. At least the street lights still burn. Indoors, few people can afford to keep lights burning after supper. 2

6 As for the winter - well, it is inconvenient to be cold, with most of what furnace fuel is allowed hoarded for the dawn. But sweaters are popular indoor wear . Showers are not an everyday luxury. Lukewarm sponge baths must do , and if the air is not always very fragrant in the human vicinity, the automobile fumes are gone. 7 It is worse in the suburbs, which were born with the auto, lived with the auto, and are dying with the auto. Suburbanites form associations that assign turns to the procurement and distribution of food. Pushcarts creak from house to house along the posh suburban roads, and every bad snowstorm is a disaster. It isn't easy to hoard enough food to last till the roads are open. There is not much refrigeration except for the snow banks, and then the dogs must be fought off. 8 What energy is left must be conserved for agriculture. The great car factories make trucks and farm machinery almost exclusively. The American population isn't going up much anymore, but the food supply must be kept high even though the prices and difficulty of distribution force each American to eat less. Food is needed for export to pay for some trickles of oil and for other resources. 9 The rest of the world is not as lucky as we are. They're starving out there because the Earth's population has continued to rise. The population on Earth is 8.5 billion-up by 3.5 billion since 1977 - and, outside the United States and Europe, not more than one in five has enough to eat at any given time. There is a high infant mortality rate. 10 It's more than just starvation, though. There are those who manage to survive on barely enough to keep the body working, and that proves to be not enough for the brain. It is estimated that nearly two billion people in the world are permanently brain-damaged by under nutrition, and the number is growing. 11 At least the big armies are gone. Only the United States and Russia can maintain a few tanks, planes, and ships - which they dare not move for fear of biting into limited fuel reserves. 12 Machines must be replaced by human muscle and beasts of burden. People are working longer hours, and with lighting restricted, television only three hours a night, new books few and printed in small editions - what is there to do with 3

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leisure? Work, sleep, and eating are the great trinity of 2037, and only the first two are guaranteed. 13 Where will it end? It must end in a return to the days before 1800, to the days before the fossil fuels powered a vast machine industry and technology. It must end in subsistence farming and in a world population reduced by starvation, disease, and violence to less than a billion. 14 And what can we do to prevent all this now? 15 Now? In 2037? Almost nothing. (Taken from Expanding Reading Skills Intermediate by Markstein & Hirasawa) Directions: On the Scantron answer sheet, indicate whether the following sentences are true or false according to the article you have just read. If the sentence is true , mark the (T) column or A. If the sentence is false , mark the (F) column or B. 1. Public transportation will be much better in 2037 than it is now. 2. There will be fewer cars in 2037 than now. 3. Air will be cleaner in 2037. 4. The crime rate will be higher. 5. All homes will have central heating and air conditioning. 6. People will dress warmly indoors to try to keep warm in winter. 7. Conditions will be worse in the suburbs than in the cities. 8. The big problem in the suburbs will be getting and distributing food. 9. The United States will be in better condition than most other countries around the world in 2037. 10. This is Isaac Asimov’s idea of life without fuel. 4

Directions: Choose the letter of the best answer and mark it on your Scantron answer sheet. 11. According to paragraph 1, how often do subway trains break down? a. one morning. b. five mornings. c. 10% of the mornings. d. 20% of the mornings. 12. According to paragraph 2, a good kind of job to have is in: a. demolition. b. nuclear fission. c. construction. d. mining coal. 13. In paragraph 2, line 3, them refers to: a. structures b. mines c. shops d. parts 14. According to paragraph 3, anyone older than ten can remember automobiles because: a. solar batteries are too expensive. b. automobiles are more than ten years old. c. automobiles were common more than ten years ago. d. only the wealthy drove automobiles. 15. Paragraph 4 discusses: a. the advantages of life in 2037. b. the disadvantages of life in 2037. c. the advantages of life today. d. the disadvantages of life today. 16. Why are policemen back on their beats? a. Legs are king. b. The streets are full. c. Police cars cost too much money. d. The crime rate has dropped. 17. Paragraph 5 shows that, in 2037, people will: a. use less electricity than they do today. b. use more electricity than they do today. c. not use any electricity. d. use the same amount of electricity as they do today. 5

18. According to paragraph 7, in 2037, life in the suburbs will be: a. much easier than life in the cities. b. more difficult than life in the cities. c. about the same as life in the cities. d. more interesting than life in the cities. 19. America will need to export food in 2037 because: a. Americans will have too much food for their own use. b. the American population isn’t going up. c. it will need money to buy oil. d. it will need to feed people in other countries. 20. How would you compare the rest of the world to America in 2037? a. America will be more fortunate than the rest of the world. b. The rest of the world will be more fortunate than America. c. Everyone will be well off. d. Everyone will be starving. 21. In paragraph 9, line 4, one in five refers to: a. people. b. food. c. infants. d. countries. 22. In paragraph 11, line 2, they refers to: a. the big armies b. the United States and Russia c. tanks, planes, and ships d. limited fuel reserves 23. The problems Isaac Asimov describes in this article are caused by: a. a lack of fuel. b. the wrong kind of fuel. c. too much fuel. d. just enough fuel. 24. "Life without Fuel" is: a. a scientific study of life in 2037. b. an imaginary account of life in 2037. c. a history of life in 2037. d. a psychological study of life in 2037. 25. Which statement is NOT true according to this article? a. Energy will be expensive and in short supply. b. There will be more cars than ever in 2037. c. The air will be cleaner in 2037. d. There will be more people than before. 6

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26. In the introduction, line 1, noted is: a. a verb and means “to write down.” b. a verb and means “to notice.” c. a noun and means “an explanation at the bottom of a page.” d. an adjective and means “well-known.” 27. In the introduction, line 5, running out means: a. continuing b. becoming used up c. leaving d. meeting somebody by chance 28. In paragraph 3, line 3, so means: a. and b. but c. therefore d. however 29. In paragraph 4, line 4, Legs are king, and people walk everywhere far into the night means: a. There is a king now, and he makes people walk everywhere. b. Walking is the most important form of transportation, and people walk everywhere. c. It is a disadvantage that people walk everywhere. d. The name of the king is Legs. 30. In paragraph 6, line 3, wear is: a. a verb and means “to have on the person.” b. a verb and means “to deteriorate.” c. a noun and means “damage.” d. a noun and means “a piece of clothing.” 31. In paragraph 6, line 3, do means: a. take a bath b. take a shower c. be sufficient d. be frequent 32. In paragraph 7, line 3, turns is: a. a verb and means “to change direction.” b. a verb and means “to rotate.” c. a noun and means “a chance to do something.” d. a noun and means “a curve in a road.” 33. In paragraph 8, lines 1 and 2, The great car factories make trucks and farm machinery almost exclusively means: a. The factories make mostly cars. b. The factories make mostly trucks and farm machinery. c. The factories no longer make trucks, and farm machinery. d. The factories make almost equal numbers of cars, trucks, and farm machinery. 7

34. In paragraph 13, line 1, Where will it end? means: a. What will the final result be? b. What is the destination? c. How far is it to the end? d. How long must we travel? 8