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Word Pretest

For each italicized word or expression, choose the best meaning below.

1. There's been a slight change in the plans.
A. a small
B. a big
C. an important
2. Experts arrived to examine the wreckage of the cargo plane.
A. remains
B. marks
C. cargo
3. After three days the hijackers surrendered to the police.
A. gave in
B. gave over
C. gave away
4. The movie star left amid a swarm of photographers.
A. line
B. crowd
C. couple
5. The mother cried frantically when she heard her child was missing.
A. softly
B. wildly
C. sadly
6. There is a fundamental difference in attitude between the two politicians.
A. noticeable
B. trivial
C. basic
7. They tried to restore some sense and decency to the government.
A. responsibility
B. reputation
C. dignity
8. The teacher's prophecy that the boy would become famous was later fulfilled.
A. prediction
B. pray
C. plan

Text A

Edward R. Murrow Reports on Britain Under the Bombs

Night after night, in the hot summer and early fall of 1940, a deep, steady voice     came over the Atlantic Ocean from England to America, telling of England's battle     for survival under the waves of German bombers. This strong and steady voice, an    American voice with a slight accent of North Carolina, belonged to Edward R.  Murrow, head of the European staff of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
"This is London," said Murrow, while the bombs fell and flames spread on the    streets of the city. His voice had a tone of sorrow for the suffering of that ancient city,    and a tone of confidence, too -- a feeling of belief that London would be there, no    matter what it had to endure. It could not be destroyed.
Murrow had been in London for some years, and he knew the people of that    immense place. He had seen them go through the Munich crisis of 1938. He had seen them cheering Neville Chamberlain when he made a pact with Hitler and Mussolini for "peace in our time." He had seen them ready to fight when Hitler marched into Poland in 1939 and England plunged into the Second World War.
Now he saw the British people suffering and standing firm under the rain of bombs from the Nazis air force.
The heavy raids began in the middle of August, and Nazi bombs started to fall    along England's Channel Coast. The German bombers cast dark shadows over the    white cliffs 'of Dover, and England's Home Guard prepared to fight on the beaches, on the cliffs, and in the hills, until the last Englishman died or the invaders were driven off.
Air Marshal Goering's bomber pilots were sure of their eventual triumph over     England. Hitler and Goering believed that when London became a burned city like     Warsaw and Rotterdam, England would surrender.
But the English were more fortunate than the Poles in Warsaw and the Dutch in    Rotterdam. They had the English Channel as a barrier against the Nazi ground forces,   and they had the Royal Air Force to battle the Nazis in the Sky.
The ordeal of London really started in the first week of September, when Hitler    was at last convinced that the English did not intend to give in. On September 7, 1940, nearly four hundred German bombers roared over the city in broad daylight. Marshal Goering boasted, "This is the historic hour when our air force for the first time delivered its bombs right into the enemy's heart."
Fires flamed, houses fell, gas pipes burst, and dark smoke rose from the streets.  Men, women, and children felt the effect of the bombs. Sirens wailed, ambulances rushed from one place of agony to another, and fire fighters faced the flames hour after hour.
It seemed impossible for any city to take so much punishment and continue to    endure. It seemed impossible for people of the city to do their daily jobs, to work and eat and sleep and carry on the business of life, with the crash of bombs all around them and planes spitting fire in the skies above.
But the city endured. Trains brought commuters in from the suburbs. Buses    rumbled along the streets. The fires were brought under control. Bottles of milk    arrived on doorsteps, and women took them in, as though the war were a thousand    miles away. Newspapers appeared and people bought them, hurrying to work and reading reports of the battle raging over London.
And Edward R. Murrow went on the air, saying in his deep, steady voice, "This    is London" He spoke as though nothing could ever keep him from saying those words. He did not speak them with any attempt to sound heroic. He simply voiced the quiet truth of the city's existence.
Murrow knew that Britain's fate depended upon the determination of the people     in the shops and streets, the men in the pubs, the housewives, the firewatchers on the       roofs, the people who had a thousand difficult and painful things to do.
Much depended upon the handful of fliers who rose day after day and night after night to meet the swarms of Nazi bombers. The men in the RAF reached the limits of exhaustion and then went beyond those limits, still fighting.
But the people of London were also in the front lines, and they did not have the    satisfaction of being able to fight back. They couldn't reach up and smash the enemy    planes. They had to dig frantically in cellars to rescue their friends who had been    buried under wreckage. They had to put out endless fires. They had to stand firm and take whatever the enemy threw at them.
Murrow saw them standing firm, but no one could be certain of how long they would stand. He went out to talk to people while the German bombers roared overhead. And he found that a great change was going on -- a change in the fundamental attitudes of a people long accustomed to certain ways of doing things.
By sensing and describing this change -- which was as important in British history as the battle in the sky and the struggle to save London -- Murrow proved his ability as a reporter who looked beneath the surface of events.
In a broadcast on October 1, 1940, he declared:
Mark it down that these people are both brave and patient, that all are equal    under the bomb, that this is a war of speed and organization, and that the political    system which best provides for the defense and decency of the little man will win.
Murrow's prophecy of eventual victory for the ordinary people proved to be    accurate. The Axis powers were finally defeated by the Allied nations.
Total words: 955
Total reading time: __ minutes     seconds  
             
The text is based on Reporters Around the World by Frank K. Kelly. Little Brown Co., 1957.

◆Reading Comprehension   
Circle the letter of the best answer.

1. Edward R. Murrow was a(n)          reporter.
A. British
B. European
C. American
2. When he was in London, Murrow had seen the people of London going through the following events except                .
A. the Munich crisis of 1938
B. Hitler's march into Poland in 1939
C. the fall of London
3. Hitler's air raids on London began in                   .
A. the early September of 1939
B. the middle of August of 1940
C. the first week of September of 1940
4. Under the bombing, the people of London          .
A. did their daily jobs as usual
B. found the situation was out of control
C. had listened to the radio because they couldn't obtain newspapers
5. When broadcasting, Murrow spoke with a         tone.
A. calm
B. heroic
C. miserable
6. According to Murrow, the political system which best worked for the            could win the war.
A. common people
B. powerful people
C. great people

◆Vocabulary Building
Word Search
Find a word in the texts which means:

1. a sudden surprise attack (A: 17)
2. difficult or painful experience (A: 28)
3. make a long high-pitched sound (A: 34)
4. a person who travels regularly a long distance between home and work (A: 41)
5. break into pieces violently and noisily (A: 57)
6. being a country which is not fighting or helping either side in a war (B: 6)
7. destroy completely so that nothing useful or valuable remains (B: 16)
8. an agreement made during a war to stop fighting (B: 19)
9. reduce the size and strength of armed forces (B: 35)
10. a feeling that something that has been done is unfair (B: 56)
11. a person or group that is controlled and directed by the will of someone else (B: 85)
12. the policy of giving in to demands in the hope of maintaining peace (B: 154)

②Semantic Variations
For each italicized word, decide which semantic variation best expresses the meaning of the author. Circle the letter of the best answer.
1. staff(A: 5)
A. a walking stick
B. a group of people employed by a company or an organization
C. a pole
2. channel(A: 18)
A. a narrow sea passage connecting two seas
B. a particular TV station
C. a course into which something can be directed or moved
3. cast(A: 18)
A. the actors in a play or film collectively
B. to throw
C. to direct
4. siren (A: 34)
A. a device for making a loud long warning sound
B. a sea nymph in Greek mythology
C. a dangerous seductive woman
5. power (A: 74)
A. electricity
B. ability or capacity to do something
C. a nation that has influence or control
6. order (B: 34)
A. sequence
B. command
C. the condition in which laws and rules are obeyed

③Stems
Study the following stems and their meanings. List some more examples in the space provide.

spec(t)/spic   1.           2.           3.           4:                        
spir         1.           2.           3.           4:                        

Read each of the following sentences, and write down the meaning of the italicized word in the space provided.

1. The spectators enjoyed the football match very much.
spectator:

2. Would you please ask the mechanic to inspect the engine?
inspect:

3. The young painter had the example of Picasso to inspire and guide him.
inspire:

4. The schools for boys and girls respectively are to be built in two places.
respectively:

5. If you find anything suspicious, telephone the police immediately.
suspicious:

6. Our contract has expired; we must agree to new conditions of work.
expire:

7. This experience opened a new prospect to his mind.
prospect:

8. They can look at things in their right perspective.
perspective:

9. The sunrise seen from that mountain is a fine spectacle.
spectacle:

10. Investigating before acting, he tried always to be circumspect.
circumspect:

④Synonyms
On each line in Column H there is one word which is a synonym of the word in Column I. Circle the synonyms.
I                    H
1. immense        huge         narrow           important
2. eventual        original      ultimate          first
3. vanquish        surrender     conquer          yield
4. fatal           harmless      nutritious         deadly
5. upheaval        disturbance   tranquility        peace

◆Cloze
Fill in each blank with a word given below. Change the form of the word if necessary.
base         take         declare       sink         lose
fleet         bomb        troop        heart         undetected

On the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, while most of the personnel of the American naval         at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, slept, a Japanese naval task force approached         through the darkness. From the decks of its aircraft carders a wave of fighters and bombers, 189 in all,         off, then split into two attack groups. One group         the air bases of Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, and Ford Island where the American planes, still unalerted, remained on the ground. The other attacked the American         . A second wave of Japanese planes was sent against the islands, and a third.
In less than 2 hours the Japanese had destroyed the         of the American Pacific fleet. Five of its eight great battleships were         or crippled. In all, 19 warships were hit and 2,086 naval officers and men killed. The Army         237 men, the use of its air bases, and a large part of its air force.