Direction: In the following questions, read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
A small band of biologists share a dream – to find species of sea or land animals hitherto completely unknown or to discover living examples of animals thought to have died out ages ago. Finds made in this century encourage these dreamers, whose field is aptly named cryptozoology–literally, the science of hidden animals. Size and habitat are often responsible for an animal’s having been overlooked. Not surprisingly, a bumblebee size bat that lives in caves in Thailand eluded detection until 1973. But larger animals in less remote sites have also remained hidden. Herds of a species of peccary supposedly extinct since the last ice age, for instance, were found in Paraguay in 1975. Native people sometimes offer scientists useful clues. An unusual feather in a local’s hat sparked the discovery of a showy African peacock in 1936, and accounts of giant lizards on the Indonesian island of Komodo proved not to be mere myth when naturalist P.A.Ouwens identified four of the creatures captured in 1912. As cryptozoologists follow such leads into little-explored areas, they remain optimistic that it is not too late to uncover sensational surprises.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
(1) hitherto (Adv.) : until now
(2) aptly (Adv.) : in a way that is suitable/appropriate in the circumstances
(3) eluded (V.) : to manage to escape
(4) detection (N.) : the fact of being discovered
(5) peccary (N.) : an animal like a pig (Southern US, Mexico, Central and S. America)
(6) myth (N.) : a story from ancient times ; legend
(7) optimistic (Adj.) : expecting good things to happen