Test 1

Passage One

    The promise of a smooth career, which my first calm introduction to Thornfield Hall seemed to pledge, was not belief on a longer acquaintance with the place and its inmates.  Mrs. Fairfax turned out to be what she appeared, a placid-tempered, kind-natured woman, of competent education and average intelligence.  My pupil was a lively child, who had been spoilt and indulged, and therefore was sometimes wayward; but as she was committed entirely to my care, and no injudicious interference from any quarter ever thwarted my plans for her improvement, she soon forgot her little freaks, and became obedient and teachable.  She had no great talents, no marked traits of character, no peculiar development of feeling or taste which raised her one inch above the ordinary level of childhood; but neither had she any deficiency or vice which sunk her below it.  She made reasonable progress, entertained for me a vivacious, though perhaps not very profound affection; and by her simplicity, gay prattle and efforts to please, inspired me, in return, with a degree of attachment sufficient to make us both content in each other's society.

Passage Two

    The special senses of taste and smell are called chemoreceptive senses.  Chemoreception simply means the receiving of chemical stimuli.  Many of the lower animals have chemical receptors that are used to locate food or move away from some noxious substances.  Such behavior in response to chemical stimuli is called chemotaxis.  Some insects have extremely sensitive chemoreceptors on their antennae and mouth parts.  A species of hawk moths, for example, is some 200 times more sensitive than humans in detecting the taste of sucrose(table sugar).  Taste receptors of fish and amphibians may be widely distributed in the skin.  Many fish, by tasting the water, can detect food or the presence of an enemy fish in the area.
    In humans, the receptors for taste are located in the taste buds found mostly on the tongue.  There are four basic tastes that we can detect:  sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.  Sweet and salty are tasted mostly on the tip of the tongue, sour along the sides, and bitter at the back of the tongue.  The various substances that we taste must be in solution.  This is one of the functions of saliva in the mouth.  Taste impulses are transmitted from the taste buds along several cranial nerves to the brain.  As we grow older, the taste buds tend to degenerate and we become less sensitive to various tastes and flavors.
    The sense of smell varies considerably among animals.  Most mammals have a highly developed sense of smell, whereas this sense is very poor in most birds.  Some whales are believed to have no sense of smell at all.  Various forms of animal behavior are influenced by smell.  Smell may be used by fish such as salmon to return to their spawning grounds.  The mother seal smells her newborn infant and thus is able to recognize her pup from the others.
    Our sense organs of smell are found in the epithelial tissue lining the upper portion of the nasal cavaties.  Neurons called olfactory cells lie within the epithelium and are the actual sensory receptors of odors.  Nerve impulses from the olfactory cells are transmitted along the olfactory nerve(one of the cranial nerves) to the cerebral cortex, where they are interpreted as odor.  We have millions of these olfactory cells which are capable in many instances of detecting thousands of different odors.  It is interesting that we remember odors quite well and recognize them if we smell them at a later time.  This applies with equal emphasis to body odors or Chanel No. 5.

Passage Three

    It was a dreary night--fall to a landsman's eye; though they who better understood the signs of the heavens, as they are exhibited on the ocean, saw little more than the promise of obscurity, and the usual hazards of darkness in a much-frequented area.
    "This will be a dreary night," observed John Effingham, "and we may have occasion to bring in some of the flaunting vanity of the ship, ere another morning returns."
    "The vessel appears to be in good handset," returned Mr. Effingham:  "I have watched them narrowly: for, I know not why, I have felt more anxiety on the occasion of this passage than on any of the nine I have already made."
    As he spoke, the tender father unconsciously bent his eyes on Eve, who leaned affectionately on his arm, steadying her light form against the pitching of the vessel.  She understood his feelings better than he did himself, possibly, since, accustomed to his fondest care from childhood, she well knew that he seldom thought of others, or even of himself, while her own wants or safety appealed to his unwearying love.
    "Father," she said, smiling in his wistful face, "we have seen more troubled waters than these, and in a much frailer vessel.  Do you not remember the Wallenstadt and its miserable skiff?  Where I have heard you say there was really danger, though we escaped from it all with a little fright."
    "Perfectly well do I recollect, love, nor have I forgotten our brave companion, and his good service, at that critical moment.  But for his stout arm and timely succor, we might not, as you say, have been quit for the fright."
    Although Mr. Effingham looked only at his daughter while speaking, Mr. Sharp, who listened with interest, saw the quick, retreating glance of Eve at Paul Blunt, and felt something like a chill in his blood as he perceived that her own cheeks seemed to reflect the glow which appeared on that of the young man.

Passage Four

    There is certainly a good case for adopting an international language, whether it be English or Malaysian or Thraco-Phrygian.  Translating is an enormously costly and time-consuming business.  An internal survey by the European Community in 1987 found that it was costing $15 a word, $500 a page, to translate its documents.  One in every three employees of the European Community is engaged in translating papers and speeches. . . . Every time a member is added to EC, as most recently with Greece, Spain, and Portugal, the translation problems multiply exponentially.  Under the Treaty of Rome each member country's language must be treated equally, and it is not easy even in multilingual Brussels to find linguists who can translate from Dutch into Portuguese or from Danish into Greek.
    A more compelling reason for an international language is the frequency and gravity of misunderstandings owing to difficulties of translation.  The 1905 draft of a treaty between Russia and Japan, written in both French and English, treated the English control and French controler as synonyms when in fact the English form means "to dominate or hold power" while the French means simply "to inspect."  The treaty nearly fell apart as a result.  The Japanese involvement in World War II may have been inadvertently prolonged when the Domei news agency, the official government information service, rendered the word mokusatsu as "ignore" when the sense intended was that of "reserving a reply until we have had time to consider the matter more carefully."

Passage Five

    Eleven years after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, major-league baseball was born with the formation of the National League.  In little more than a decade, independent minor leagues were flourishing.  Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas, and Montana all had their own.  Others were scattered from New England to the Pacific Northwest.  For most towns, particularly those in the still isolated West, having a team was tantamount to being part of the nation's growth and progressive spirit.
    "Salt Lake City has for a number of years fostered the game of baseball," said the Salt Lake Daily Tribune in 1887.  "In fact, our city would not be up to modern ideas did she not do so.  In these times baseball clubs are almost an imperative necessity."
    For a long time the minor leagues were sovereign entities, competing for fans with the National and American leagues.  Some players spent their entire career of 20 years or more in the minors.  Then, in 1919, Branch Rickey became manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, a team so poor they wore shoddy mended uniforms for spring training and held it that year in St. Louis instead of Florida.  Rickey decided that since the Cardinals couldn't afford to buy players, they would have to raise their own.  Over the next 20 years he got control of 32 minor-league teams, and the minors became what they are today--a farm system, subsidized by major-league teams needing a pool of young talent to compete in an industry that has room at the top for only 650 men.

Excerpts from Arthur, Linda L., et al.  Strategic Reading for Regents' Reading Exams, 3rd edition.  Dubuque, IA:  Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2000.