Questions 23-32

Nineteenth-century writers in the United States,
whether they wrote novels, short stories, poems, or plays,
were powerfully drawn to the railroad in its golden year. In
fact, writes responded to the railroads as soon as the first
were built in the 1830's. By the 1850's, the railroad was a
major presence in the life of the nation. Writers such as Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau saw the railroad
both as a boon to democracy and as an object of suspicion. The
railroad could be and was a despoiler of nature; furthermore,
in its manifestation of speed and noise, it might be a despoiler
of human nature as well. By the 1850's and 1860's, there
was a great distrust among writer and intellectuals of the rapid
industrialization of which the railroad was a leading force.
Deeply philosophical historians such as Henry Adams lamented
the role that the new frenzy for business was playing in eroding
traditional values. A distrust of industry and business continued
among writers throughout the rest of the nineteenth century
and into the twentieth.

For the most part, the literature in which the railroad
plays an important role belong to popular culture rather than to
the realm of serious art. One thinks of melodramas, boys'
books, thrillers, romances, and the like rather than novels of
the first rank. In the railroads' prime years, between 1890
and 1920, there were a few individuals in the United States,
most of them with solid railroading experience behind them,
who made a profession of writing about railroading-works
offering the ambience of stations, yards, and locomotive cabs.
These writers, who can genuinely be said to have created a
genre, the "railroad novel." are now mostly forgotten, their
names having faded from memory. But anyone who takes the
time to consult their fertile writings will still find a treasure
trove of information about the place of the railroad in the lift
of the United States.

23.With which of the following topics is the passage mainly concerned?

(A) The role of the railroad in the economy of the United States.
(B) Major nineteenth-century writers.
(C) The conflict between expanding industry and preserving nature.
(D) The railroad as a subject for literature.

24.The word "it" in line 10 refers to

(A) railroad
(B) manifestation
(C) speed
(D) nature

25.In the first paragraph, the author implies that writers' reactions to the development of railroads were

(A) highly enthusiastic
(B) both positive and negative
(C) unchanging
(D) disinterested

26.The word "lamented" in line 14 is closest in meaning to

(A) complained about
(B) analyzed
(C) explained
(D) reflected on

27.According to the passage, the railroad played a significant role in literature in all of the following kinds of books EXCEPT

(A) thrillers
(B) boys' books
(C) important novels
(D) romances

28.The phrase "first rank" in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) largest category
(B) highest quality
(C) earliest writers
(D) most difficult language

29.The word "them" in line 25 refers to

(A) novels
(B) years
(C) individuals
(D) works

30.The author mentions all of the following as being true about the literature of railroad EXCEPT that

(A) many of its writers had experience working on railroads.
(B) many of the books were set in railroad stations and yards
(C) the books were well known during the railroads' prime years.
(D) quite a few of the books are still popular today.

31.The words "faded form" in line 30 are closest in meaning to

(A) grew in
(B) disappeared from
(C) remained in
(D) developed from

32.What is the author's attitude toward the "railroad novels" and other books about railroads written between 1890 and 1920?

(A) They have as much literary importance as the books written by Emerson, Thoreau, and Adams.
(B) They are good examples of the effects industry and business had on the literature of the United States.
(C) They contributed to the weakening of traditional values.
(D) They are worth reading as sources of knowledge about the impact of railroad on life in the United States.


Questions 33-44

By the 1820's in the United States, when steamboats
were common on western waters, these boats were mostly
powered by engines built in the West (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati,
or Louisville), and of a distinctive western design specially
suited to western needs. The first steam engines in practical
use in England and the United States were of low pressure
design. This was the type first developed by James Watt, then
manufactured by the firm of Boulton and Watt, and long the
standard industrial engine. Steam was accumulated in a large,
double-acting vertical cylinder, but the steam reached only a
few pounds of pressure per square inch. It was low-pressure
engines of this type that were first introduced into the United
States by Robert Fulton. He imported such a Boulton and
Watt engine from England to run the Clermont. But this type
of engine was expensive and complicated, requiring many
precision-fitted moving parts.

The engine that became standard on western steamboats
was of a different and novel design. It was the work primarily
of an unsung hero of American industrial progress, Oliver
Evans(1755-1819). The self-educated son of a Delaware
farmer. Evans early became obsessed by the possibilities of
mechanized production and steam power. As early as 1802 he
was using a stationary steam engine of high-pressure design in
his mill. Engines of this type were not unknown, but before
Evans they were generally considered impractical and
dangerous.
Within a decade the high-pressure engine, the new type,
had become standard on western waters. Critics ignorant of
western conditions often attacked it as wasteful and dangerous.
But people who really knew the Ohio, the Missouri, and
the Mississippi insisted, with good reasons, that it was the only
engine for them. In shallow western rivers the weight of
vessel and engine was important; a heavy engine added to the
problem of navigation. The high-pressure engine was far
lighter in proportion to horsepower, and, with less than half
as many moving parts, was much easier and cheaper to repair.
The main advantages of low-pressure engines were safe operation
and economy of fuel consumption, neither of which meant
much in the West.

33.What is the passage mainly about?

(A) Streamboat engines in the western United States
(B) River travel in the western United States
(C) A famous United States inventor
(D) The world's first practical streamboat

34.What was the Clermont (line14)?

(A) A river
(B) A factory
(C) A boat
(D) an engine

35.Who developed the kind of stream engine used on western streamboats?

(A) Watt
(B) Boulton
(C) Fulton
(D) Evans

36.The word "novel" in line 18 is closest in meaning to

(A) fictional
(B) intricate
(C) innovative
(D) powerful

37.What option of Evans is suggested by the use of the term "unsung hero" in line 18?

(A) More people should recognize the importance of his work.
(B) More of his inventions should be used today.
(C) He should be credited with inventing the stream engine.
(D) More should be learned about his early life.

38.What does the author imply about Evans?
(A) He went to England to learn about stream power.
(B) He worked for Fulton.
(C) He traveled extensively in the West.
(D) He taught himself about stream engines.

39.The word "stationary" in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) single
(B) fixed
(C) locomotoiv
(D) modified

40.The word "they" in line 25 refers to

(A) engines
(B) mechanized production and steam power
(C) possibilities
(D) steamboats

41.What does the author imply about the western rivers?

(A) It was difficult to find fuel near them.
(B) They flooded frequently.
(C) They were difficult to navigate.
(D) They were rarely used for transportation.

42.The word "it" in line 31 refers to

(A) decade
(B) high-pressure engine
(C) weight
(D) problem

43.The word "vessel" in line 33 is closest in meaning to

(A) fuel
(B) crew
(C) cargo
(D) craft

44.Which of the following points was made by the critics of high-pressure engines?

(A) They are expensive to import.
(B) They are not powerful enough for western waters.
(C) They are dangerous.
(D) They weigh too much.