I.

The Concept of Evolution

Charles Darwin did not invent the concept of evolution. When he was a student in
Edinburgh in the late 1820's, evolution was already the (1) ... ? of the town. But
evolution was rejected by the establishment. Those who (2) ... ? to evolutionary
thinking were called Lamarckists, after the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck,
who was the first to propose that species are not static, but change over time and
give (3) ... ? to new species. Lamarck had offered this (4) ... ? in a book published
in 1809. He did not, however, propose a correct mechanism for (5) ... ? species
change into each other. The mechanism was discovered first by Charles Darwin
and independently by Alfred Russel Wallace. From reading the economist Thomas
Malthus, Darwin was aware of the consequences of (6) ... ? growing populations.
Once resources become limiting only a (7) ... ? of individuals can survive. Darwin
was also an (8) ... ? observer of animal breeders. He analysed their methods and
studied their results. Slowly he understood that nature like a gigantic breeder.

1. A) talk B) story C) gossip D) tale

2. A) combined B) cohered C) adhered D) abode
3. A) occasion B) evidence C) raise D) rise
4. A) perspective B) perception C) prospect D) incentive
5. A) all B) how C) now D) once
6. A) expressly B) exponentially C) exquisitely D) exclusively
7. A) friction B) division C) section D) fraction
8. A) agile B) arduous C) ardent D) amorous

II. The Solar System

The Solar System may be defined as consisting of all those objects that are
governed by the Sun's gravitational field. Other effects arising (1) ...... the
proximity of the Sun could equally (2) ....... be used as criteria, such as radiation
pressure or interaction with the solar wind. (3) ....... any of these definitions the
Solar System extends (4) ....... to a distance of about two light-years; the closest
star, Proxima Centauri, (5) ....... lying at a distance of slightly more than four light-
years.
Our knowledge of this region of space certainly does not reach as far as
this, (6) ....... , because the most distant Solar-System objects that we know about,
the comets, seem to originate at a distance of no more than 50,000 astronomical
units, or less than a third of the total distance. (7) ....... for the other Solar-System
bodies known to us, they lie at distances of less than a few hundred AU. Our study
is therefore confined (8) ........ what is primarily the central region of the Solar
System.
III.
A Ghost
By Guy De Maupassant
We were speaking of sequestration, alluding to a recent lawsuit. It was at the close
of a friendly evening in a very old mansion in the Rue de Grenelle, and each of the
guests had a story to tell, which he assured us was true. Then the old Marquis de la
Tour-Samuel, eighty-two years of age, rose and came forward to lean on the
mantelpiece. He told the following story in his slightly quavering voice:
I, also, have witnessed a strange thing, so strange that it has been the nightmare of
my life. It happened fifty-six years ago, and yet there is not a month when I do not
see it again in my dreams. From that day I have borne a mark, a stamp of fear, do
you understand?
Yes, for ten minutes I was a prey to terror, in such a way that ever since a constant
dread has remained in my soul. Unexpected sounds chill me to the heart; objects
which I can ill distinguish in the evening shadows make me long to flee. I am
afraid at night.
No! I would not have owned up to such a thing before reaching my present age.
But now I may tell everything. One may fear imaginary dangers at eighty-two
years old. But before actual danger I have never turned back, mesdames.
That affair so upset my mind, filled me with such a deep, mysterious unrest that I
never could tell it. I kept it in that inmost part, that corner where we conceal our
sad, our shameful secrets, all the weaknesses of our life which cannot be
confessed.
I will tell you that strange happening just as it took place, with no attempt to
explain it. Unless I went mad for one short hour it must be explainable, though.
Yet I was not mad, and I will prove it to you. Imagine what you will. Here are the
simple facts:
It was in 1827, in July. I was quartered with my regiment in Rouen. One day, as I
was strolling on the quay, I came across a man I believed I recognized, though I
could not place him with certainty. I instinctively went more slowly, ready to
pause. The stranger saw my impulse, looked at me, and fell into my arms.
It was a friend of my younger days, of whom I had been very fond. He seemed to
have become half a century older in the five years since I had seen him. His hair
was white, and he stooped in his walk, as if he were exhausted. He understood my
amazement and told me the story of his life. A terrible event had broken him down.
He had fallen madly in love with a young girl and married her in a kind of
dreamlike ecstasy. After a year of unalloyed bliss and unexhausted passion, she
had died suddenly of heart disease, no doubt killed by love itself.
He had left the country on the very day of her funeral, and had come to live in his
hotel at Rouen. He remained there, solitary and desperate, grief slowly mining him,
so wretched that he constantly thought of suicide. 'As I thus came across you
again,' he said, 'I shall ask a great favor of you. I want you to go to my chteau and
get some papers I urgently need. They are in the writing-desk of my room, of our
room. I cannot send a servant or a lawyer, as the errand must be kept private. I
want absolute silence.
'I shall give you the key of the room, which I locked carefully myself before
leaving, and the key to the writing-desk. I shall also give you a note for the
gardener, who will let you in. 'Come to breakfast with me to-morrow, and we'll
talk the matter over.'
I promised to render him that slight service. It would mean but a pleasant excursion
for me, his home not being more than twenty-five miles from Rouen. I could go
there in an hour on horseback. At ten o'clock the next day I was with him. We
breakfasted alone together, yet he did not utter more than twenty words. He asked
me to excuse him. The thought that I was going to visit the room where his
happiness lay shattered, upset him, he said. Indeed, he seemed perturbed, worried,
as if some mysterious struggle were taking place in his soul.
At last he explained exactly what I was to do. It was very simple. I was to take two
packages of letters and some papers, locked in the first drawer on the right of the
desk of which I had the key. He added: 'I need not ask you not to glance at them.'
I was almost hurt by his words, and told him so, rather sharply. He stammered:
'Forgive me. I suffer so much!' And tears came to his eyes.
I left about one o'clock to accomplish my errand. The day was radiant, and I rushed
through the meadows, listening to the song of the larks, and the rhythmical beat of
my sword on my riding-boots. Then I entered the forest, and I set my horse to
walking. Branches of the trees softly caressed my face, and now and then I would
catch a leaf between my teeth and bite it with avidity, full of the joy of life, such as
fills you without reason, with a tumultuous happiness almost indefinable, a kind of
magical strength.
As I neared the house I took out the letter for the gardener, and noted with surprise
that it was sealed. I was so amazed and so annoyed that I almost turned back
without fulfilling my mission. Then I thought that I should thus display over-
sensitiveness and bad taste. My friend might have sealed it unconsciously, worried
as he was.
The manor looked as though it had been deserted the last twenty years. The gate,
wide-open and rotten, held, one wondered how. Grass filled the paths; you could
not tell the flower-beds from the lawn.
1. How does the Marquis look back on what happened to him?
a) it changed his life
b) it gives him nightmares
c) it is still with him
d) he has mostly forgotten it

2. Why hasn't the Marquis ever told the story before now?
a) he feels ashamed
b) his memory is poor
c) he think he was insane
d) he was too young

3. Why did the narrator's friend look so much older?

a) he had been abroad
b) his hair had turned white
c) he felt suicidal
d) he had suffered greatly

4. Why did the narrator's friend ask him to go to his chateau?

a) because there was some urgent business
b) because he couldn't ask anyone else
c) because the lawyer had insisted
d) because they knew each other so well

5. Why was the narrator offended during his breakfast with his friend?
a) because he felt as though he wasn't trusted
b) because he felt as though he couldn't be relied on to keep a secret
c) because the friend was not very talkative
d) because he wasn't happy about going a long distance to the chateau

6. Which word is closest in meaning to "avidity" in the third to last paragraph?

a) knowledge
b) eagerness
c) power
d) consideration
7. Why did the narrator feel angry about the letter being sealed?
a) his instructions were in the sealed letter
b) it made his errand more mysterious
c) he felt he wasn't trusted
d) he wanted to read what was inside