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PASSAGE 19

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

Since water is the basis of life, composing the greater part of the tissues of all living things, the crucial

problem of desert animals is to survive in a world where sources of flowing water are rare. And since

man’s inexorable necessity is to absorb large quantities of water at frequent intervals, he can scarcely

comprehend that many creatures of the desert pass their entire lives without a single drop.

Uncompromising as it is, the desert has not eliminated life but only those forms unable to withstand

its desiccating effects. No moist- skinned, water-loving animals can exist there. Few large animals are

found. The giants of the North American desert are the deer, the coyote, and the bobcat. Since desert

country is open, it holds more swift-footed running and leaping creatures than the tangled forest. Its

population is largely nocturnal, silent, filled with reticence, and ruled by stealth. Yet they are not

emaciated. Having adapted to their austere environment, they are as healthy as animals anywhere else in

the word. The secret of their adjustment lies in the combination of behavior and physiology. None could

survive if, like mad dogs and Englishmen, they went out in the midday sun; many would die in a matter

of minutes. So most of them pass the burning hours asleep in cool, humid burrows underneath the

ground, emerging to hunt only by night. The surface of the sun-baked desert averages around 150

degrees, but 18 inches down the temperature is only 60 degrees.

Question 1. The author mentions all the following as examples of the behavior of desert animals

EXCEPT

.

A. they are watchful and quiet.

B. they sleep during the day.

C. they dig home underground.

D. they are noisy anad aggressive.

Question 2. We can infer from the passage that

.

A. healthy animals live longer lives.

B. living things adjust to their environment.

C. desert life is colorful and diverse.

D. water is the basis of desert life.

Question 3. According to the passage, creatures in the desert

.

A. are smaller and fleeter than forest animals.

B. are more active during the day than those in the tangled forest.

C. live in an accommodating environment.

D. are not as healthy as those anywhere else in the world.

Question 4. The phrase “those forms” in the passage refers to all of the following EXCEPT

.

A. moist-skinned animals.

B. many large animals.

C. water-loving animals.

D. the coyote and the bobcat.

Question 5. The word “them” means

.

A. animals

B. minutes

C. people

D. water

Question 6. The word “emaciated” in the passage mostly means

.

A. wild

B. unmanageable

C. cunning

D. unhealthy

Question 7. Man can hardly understand why many animals live their whole life in the desert, as

.

A. water is an essential part of his existence.

B. very few large animals are found in the desert.