Direction: You have brief passages with 5 questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
The victory of the small Greek democracy of Athens over the mighty Persian Empire in 490 B.C. is one of the most famous events in history. Darius, King of the Persian Empire, was furious because Athens had interceded for the other Greek city-states in revolt against Persian domination. In anger the King sent an enormous army to defeat Athens. He thought it would take drastic steps to pacify the rebellious part of the Empire. Persia was ruled by one man. In Athens, however, all citizens helped to rule. Ennobled by this participation, Athenians were prepared to die for their city-state. Perhaps this was the secret of the remarkable victory at Marathon, which freed them from Persian rule. On their way to Marathon, the Persians tried to fool some Greek city-states by claiming to have come in peace. The frightened citizens of Delos refused to believe this. Not wanting to abet the conquest of Greece, they fled from their city and did not return until the Persians had left. They were wise, for the Persians next conquered the city of Etria and captured its people. Tiny Athens stood alone against Persia. The Athenian people went to their sanctuaries. There they prayed for deliverance. They asked their Gods to expedite their victory. The Athenians refurbished their weapons and moved to the plain of Marathon, where their little band would meet the Persians. At the last moment, soldiers from Plataea reinforced the Athenian troops. The Athenian army attacked, and Greek citizens fought bravely. The power of the mighty Persians was offset by the love that the Athenians had for their city. Athenians defeated the Persians in archery and hand combat. Greek soldiers seized Persian ships and burned them, and the Persians fled in terror. Herodotus, a famous historian, reports that 6400 Persians died, compared with only 192 Athenians.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
interceded : to speak to somebody in order to persuade him to have pity on somebody else or to help settle an argument.
ennobled : made somebody a member of the nobility.
abet : to help or encourage somebody to do something wrong.
deliverance : the state of being rescued from danger, pain, etc.
expedite : to make a process happen more quickly.
refurbished : cleaned and decorated a room, building, etc.
in order to make it more attractive, more useful, etc.
reinforced : made a feeling, an idea, etc. stronger.
combat : fighting or a fight, especially during a time of war.

Direction: You have brief passages with 5-10 questions following each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper are interrelated. If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here - time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. This is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary, “To be” is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
perception : the way you notice things, especially with the senses.