Direction: In the following questions, you have a brief passage with 5 questions following the passage. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
The desert floras shame us with their cheerful adaptations to the seasonal limitations. Their whole duty is to flower and fruit, and they do it hardly, or with tropical luxuriance, as the rain admits. It is recorded in the report of the Death Valley expedition that after a year of abundant rains, on the Colorado desert was found a specimen of Amaranthus ten feet high. A year later the same species in the same place matured in the drought at four inches. Seldom does the desert herb attain the full stature of the type. Extreme aridity and extreme altitude have the same dwarfing effect, so that we find in the high Sierras and in Death Valley related species in miniature that reach a comely growth in mean temperatures. Very fertile are the desert plants in expedients to prevent evaporation, turning their foliage edgewise toward the sun, growing silky hairs, exuding thick gum. The wind, which has a long sweep, harries and helps them. It rolls up dunes about the stocky stems, encompassing and protective, and above the dunes, which may be, as with the mesquite, three times as high as a man, the blossoming twigs flourish and bear fruit.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
drought (N.) : a shortage of rainfall
stature (N.) : the distance from head to foot (in a standing position)
aridity (N.) : a deficieny of moisture
comely (Adj.) : suitable ; proper
expedients (N.) : necessary for a particular purpose
foliage (N.) : leaves and branches together
exuding (V.) : release a liquid in small quantities
dunes (N.) : a ridge of sand created by the wind (found in deserts or near lakes and oceans)
encompassing (Adj.) : closely according
mesquite (N.) : a floral plant found in a desert