Directions: You are expected to study this section in class. Don’t preview.

Word Pretest

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

1. His whole attitude has undergone a subtle change.
A. big B. slight C. obvious D. strange
2. So far he has not been able to formulate his new plan.
A. approve B. work out C. start D. discuss
3. Almost three-quarters of those who were polled said they opposed the government’s policy.
A. questioned B. voted C. received D. taxed
4. The Government will introduce legislation to restrict the sale of firearms.
A. direction B. command C. procedure D. law
5. The latest survey shows a majority in support of government policy.
A. study B. survival C. guess D. speech
6. She commutes from Cambridge to London.
A. travels by train B. travels by bus
C. travels now and then D. travels regularly
7. He went on to champion the rights of women to have equal pay.
A. win B. support C. prize D. compete
8. The sky looks as if a storm may be setting in.
A. settling B. starting C. ending D. disappearing
9. We feel it desirable to divert funds from armaments to health and education.
A. use up B. use properly
C. use D. use differently
10. This is testimony to the computer’s creative powers.
A. statement B. argument C. proof D. example
11. Numerous parallels exist between Hemingway’s life and the lives of his characters.
A. studies B. problems C. similarities D. biases

Key: 1. B 2. B 3. B 4. D 5. A 6. D 7. B 8. B 9. D 10. C 11. C

Text A

1. Background Information
2. Text:

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Frank Turner
　　 Frank Turner shaped the creation of the largest public-works project in the history of the world, the network of interstate highways that changed America subtly as much as the transcontinental railroad did overtly. He was secretary to the Clay Committee, which formulated the interstate system plan, and later her rose to head the Federal Highway Administration.
　　Turner grew up in the era of the farm-to-market road, when highway builders thought in terms of routes to link the country to the city, and the interstates were born as the farm-to-market road developed, though two-thirds of interstate money was ultimately spent in the cities. When he was young, in Texas, part of the state poll tax cloud still be a day’s work on the roads, and he labored alongside his father on those roads. At Texas A & M (Agricultural and Mechanical) he studied soil science. He worked on key military highways in Alaska during World War II, surveying land from a light airplane, and was sent to rebuild the highway system of the Philippines after the war.
　　In 1954, when President Eisenhower appointed General Lucius Clay, architect of the Berlin Airlift, head of a commission charged with formulating an interstate-highway plan, Turner was made its executive secretary, the key staff position. He carefully helped draft the legislation, then spent days explaining it to members of Congress. Turner prided himself on his role in the surveys that broke the country into units in which citizens were scientifically polled on their transportation patterns and their desires. He and his staff drew what they called “desire lines” on the national map. Those lines were paved into the interstates.
　　But Turner’s maps were deceptive. Although most of the interstates’ length was in the heartland, most of the dollars and the most difficult and expensive miles of the system enable up in the cities and in beltways around them. The highways helped shift the balance of economic power to the Sun Belt (the southern states of the U.S.A.), where the roads could be built without the interference of old water-and-rail-based transportation patterns. Designed in part to empty cities quickly in the event of nuclear attack, they helped empty old row-house neighborhoods of residents heading for the suburb. Thanks to the interstates, you could see a lot more of the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet and commute farther to work. Detroit’s automakers prospered, and new sectors of the economy grew up around interchanges and along beltways.
　　Turner shared the vision of the man he worked for. Dwight Eisenhower, too, championed the system in the context of farm-to-city routes. When he once found his limousine stopped by interstate construction outside Washington, he was frustrated; he thought the interstates were supposed to stay away from the cities. Eisenhower’s vision had been shaped by the muddy roads of his boyhood and a famous cross-country Army truck convoy to which he was assigned after World War I. It took the vehicles weeks to make it from coast to coast over dirt roads.
　　Turner became head of the Federal Highway Administration in 1969 ---- just as a backlash set in. that year a Boston downtown highway was killed in a battle that set a national pattern. Under fire from people who saw urban highways destroying old neighborhoods, the interstates found themselves effectively brought to a halt. Having conquered mountain ranges, rivers, and swamps, they were being stopped by human forces. Soon no mayor could support a downtown interstate.
　　Maintenance funding became hard to get from Congress. The system fell for a while into decline, and funds were diverted to mass transit. The era of the building of the interstate system came to an end.
　　Turner, who had outlived that era, was both bitter and bewildered. He thought vital opportunities were being lost. To use the Highway Trust Fund for mass transit offended him morally. He took the word trust literally. He had turned down under-the-table offers form developers for advance work on the location of highways that could have made him rich. And among the people whose homes were razed to make way for the new highways were a couple near I-45 in Texas, his own parents.
　　Today, although his monument is often widely criticized as dull to drive and as a homogenizing factor in American life, the interstates’ benefits are so taken for granted as to be beneath the level of consciousness. And there is testimony to their power in the contemporary metaphor for the latest infrastructure dream: information superhighway.
　　If a national system of wires could provide such benefits as its advocates say, doesn’t that point to the benefits of the national system of roads? Doesn’t all the talk of the wonders of the Internet point implicitly to the wonders of the interstates? There is a neat parallel between Al Gore’s advocacy of the information superhighway and his father’s role in shaping the interstate legislation, questioning and listening to Frank Turner and others. The Vice President recalls as a child being “in the committee room when the sign was made green” on the system.
　　Turner belongs to those people you have likely never heard of but who in one way or another, directly or indirectly, by intention or accident, changed the way you lead your daily life.

Total Words: 900 words
Total Reading Time _______
_______
The text is based on “Agents of Change,” American Heritage December 1994.

Detailed Study of Text A

◆ Reading Skill ─ Inference
Circle the letter of the best answer.　

1. In paragraph 1 the author suggests that _______.
A. it is not easy to notice the network of interstate highways was changing the country
B. the network of interstate highways didn’t change the country as much as the transcontinental railroad did
C. the changes caused by interstate highways are insignificant
2. We may assume that Frank Turner’s father worked _______.
A. On farm-to-market roads
B. On interstate highways
C. On military highways
3. It may be inferred that the era of building interstate highways came in _______.
A. the 30s B. the 40s C. the 50s
4. The sentence “Detroit’s automakers prospered” in paragraph 4 suggest that _______.
A. interchange and beltways were built around Detroit
B. new sectors of the American economy grew up in Detroit
C. more people bought cars as the interstate highways developed
5. Based on the information given by the author, we may conclude that _______.
A. President Eisenhower didn’t support the interstate highway system.
B. President Eisenhower didn’t realize interstate highways were expensive
C. President Eisenhower didn’t expect part of the interstate highways was to be built in the cities.
6. People didn’t stop building interstate highway until _______.
A. they met with high mountains
B. they met with human resistance
C. they met with great rivers
7. The word “monument” in paragraph 9 refers to _______.
A. memorial building
B. interstate highway system
C. historic building
8. We can assume that _______.
A. Al Gore’s father was a member of the Clay Committee.
B. Al Gore’s father approved Frank Turner’s interstate highway plan
C. Al Gore’s father was Vice President of the USA
9. What is the author’s attitude toward interstate highways?
A. Critical B. positive C. Negative
10. According to the text, decide which of the following statements in NOT true.
A. Interstate highways could provide a special service in the war time.
B. In deciding the location of interstate highways, people’s transportation patterns and their desires were ignored.
C. The era of building of the interstate highway system came to an end when Frank Turner was alive.
D. Frank Turner couldn’t understand why people did not support the interstate highways
E. Many people enjoy the benefits of the interstate highway system without consciously realizing the fact

Key : 1. A 2. A 3. C 4. C 5. C 6. B 7. B 8. B 9. B 10. B

Vocabulary Building

I. Give the other parts of speech of each given word．

Key:

Fill in the blanks with the words listed in the chart. Change the form if necessary.
1. They can help develop our powers of critical _______.
2. Americans pay both _______ and state taxes.
3. We wish you health, happiness, and _______.
4. The house is not _______.
5. These policies did have some _______ on rural poverty.
6. They _______ abroad.
7. It was _______ presented as a scientific study.
8. The government is taking _______ measures to safeguard law and order.

Key : 1. evaluation 2. federal 3. prosperity 4. livable 5. vision 6. resided 7. deceptive 8. effective

II. Fill in the blanks with words that are often confused.

1. metaphor, simile
a. “As brave as a lion” is a ________.
b. “She has a heart of stone” is a ________.
2. ultimate, unanimous
a. Management must take ________ responsibility for the strike.
b. The villagers are ________ in their opposition to the building of a bypass.
c. Nuclear weapons are the ________ deterrent.
d. The proposal was accepted with ________ approval.

Key: 1. a. simile b. metaphor
　　2. a. ultimate b. unanimous c. ultimate d. unanimous

Ⅲ. Glossary 　

accelerator 　　　automatic transmission 　　　brake　　　 dashboard
four-cylinder engine 　　headlight　　　　　　 honk 　　　　ignition
inflation　　　　　 instrumental pane　　　　　 liter 　　　　mileage
manual transmission 　posted speed limit 　　rental-car 　　　seat-belt
sedan 　　　　　　steering wheel 　　　　　taillight 　　　　ticket
wiper　　　　　　 trunk　　　　　　　　　 turn signals　　　 wagon

4. Cloze
Fill in each blank with one suitable word.

　　In a very big city, in which millions of people live and work, fast, frequent means of _______ are of the greatest importance. In London, where most people live long _______ from their work, all offices, factories and schools would have to close if the buses, the trains and the Underground stopped work.
　　Originally the London Underground had steam trains which were not very different from other English trains, except that they went along in big holes under the _______ in order to keep away from the crowed city above their heads. _______ trains used coal, which filled the underground stations with terrible smoke. As a result, the old _______ were taken away, and electric ones put in their place. Now the London Underground is very clean, and he _______ trains make faster runs possible.
　　At every Underground _______ there are maps of all the Underground lines in London, so that it is easy to see how to get to wherever one wants to go. Each station has its _______ written up clearly and in large letters several times, so that one can see when one comes to where one must get out. At some stations one can change to a different underground _______, and in some places, such as Piccadilly, there are actually three lines crossing each other. The trains on the _______ lines are not on the same level, so that there should not be accidents. To change _______, one has to go up or down some stairs to a new level. It would be tiring to have to walk up these _______, so the stairs are made to move themselves, and all that the _______ have to do is to stand and be carried up or down to where they wish. In fact, everything is done to make the Underground fast and efficient.

Key : 1. transportations 2. away 3. ground 4. Old 5. trains 6. new 7. railway 8. name
　　9. line 10. underground 11. lines 12. stairs 13. passengers