Charles A. Lindbergh is remembered as the first person to make a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic,
in 1927. This feat, when Lindbergh was only twenty-five years old, assured him a lifetime of fame and
public attention. Charles Augustus Lindbergh was more interested in flying airplanes than he was in
studying. He dropped out of the University of Wisconsin after two years to earn a living performing
daredevil airplane stunts at country fairs. Two years later, he joined the United States Army so that he
could go to the Army Air Service flight-training school. After completing his training, he was hired to fly
mail between St. Louis and Chicago. Then came the historic flight across the Atlantic. In 1919, a New
York City hotel owner offered a prize of $25,000 to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris.
Nine St. Louis business leaders helped pay for the plane Lindbergh designed especially for the flight.
Lindbergh tested the plane by flying it from San Diego to New York, with an overnight stop in St. Louis.
The flight took only 20 hours and 21 minutes, a transcontinental record. Nine days later, on May 20,1927,
Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, at 7:52 A. M. He landed at Paris on May 21 at 10:21 P. M.
He had flown more than 3,600 miles in less than thirty four hours. His flight made news around the world.
He was given awards and parades everywhere he went. He was presented with the U. S. Congressional
Medal of Honor and the first Distinguished Flying Cross. For a long time, Lindbergh toured the world as a
U. S. goodwill ambassador. He met his future wife, Anne Morrow, in Mexico, where her father was the
United States ambassador. During the 1930s, Charles and Anne Lindbergh worked for various airline
companies, charting new commercial air routes. In 1931, for a major airline, they charted a new route from
the east coast of the United States to the Orient. The shortest, most efficient route was a great curve
across Canada, over Alaska, and down to China and Japan. Most pilots familiar with the Arctic did not
believe that such a route was possible. The Lindberghs took on the task of proving that it was. They
arranged for fuel and supplies to be set out along the route. On July 29, they took off from Long Island in a
specially equipped small seaplane. They flew by day and each night landed on a lake or a river and
camped. Near Nome, Alaska, they had their first serious emergency. Out of daylight and nearly out of fuel,
they were forced down in a small ocean inlet. In the next morning's light, they discovered they had landed
on barely three feet of water. On September 19, after two more emergency landings and numerous close
calls, they landed in China with the maps for a safe airline passenger route. Even while actively engaged
as a pioneering flier, Lindbergh was also working as an engineer. In 1935, he and Dr. Alexis Carrel were
given a patent for an artificial heart. During World War I in the 1940s, Lindbergh served as a civilian
technical advisor in aviation. Although he was a civilian, he flew over fifty combat missions in the Pacific.
In the 1950s, Lindbergh helped design the famous 747 jet airliner. In the late 1960s, he spoke widely on
conservation issues. He died August 1974, having lived through aviation history from the time of the first
powered flight to the first steps on the moon and having influenced a big part of that history himself.
What event happened last?

• A. The Lindberghs mapped a route to the Orient.
• B. Lindbergh helped design the 747 airline.
• C. Charles finally was given an honorary degree from college.
• D. Lindbergh flew fifty combat missions.
• E. Lindbergh patented an artificial heart.

LAUGHTER : AMUSEMENT ::

• A. squalor : filth
• B. stealth : openness
• C. leisure : recreation
• D. pride : humility
• E. pallor : illness

Quantitative data such as blood pressure, cholesterol level, and body weight are useful objective
indicators of physical health. Yet, quantitative measurement and logic (i)_______ when it comes to
determining the extent of a person's physical well-being. Levels of physical discomfort and pain, the most
reliable indicators of physical well-being, cannot be quantified; (ii)_______, our emotional state and
psychological well-being, which can have a profound impact on our physical health, defy objective
measurement altogether.

• A. perhaps equally significant
• B. are of little use
• C. can prove misleading
• D. hardly suffice
• E. on the other hand
• F. not surprisingly

SNORKEL : DIVE ::

• A. taps : dance
• B. blade : skate
• C. club : golf
• D. baton : run
• E. ball : kick

The Andean cordillera is made up of many interwoven mountain ranges, which include high intermontane
plateaus, basins, and valleys. The Northern Andes contain several broad ecosystems falling into four
altitudinal belts. Its northern subregion is distinguished by higher humidity and by greater climatic
symmetry between eastern and western flanks. The Central Andes are characterized by a succession of
agricultural zones with varied climatic conditions along the mountains' flanks and by large, highaltitude
plateaus, variously called puna or altiplano, which do not occur in the Northern Andes. The soil fertility of
the northern altiplano is generally good. The western Central Andean ranges are relatively arid with
desert-like soils, whereas the eastern ranges are more humid and have more diverse soils. The eastern
slopes of the Central Andes in many ways are similar to the wet forests of the Northern Andes. Unlike the
Northern Andes, however, these slopes have a dry season. In regions of gentle topography, such as the
Amazon basin, regional climatic variation can be determined from a few widely spaced measurements.
Regional projections in the Andean cordillera are quite difficult by comparison. For example, while air
temperature generally decreases with increasing altitude, variability of mountain topography can produce
much lower than expected air temperatures. Nevertheless, some general climatic patterns are discernible.
For example, with increasing distance south of the equator the seasonality of precipitation increases,
whereas the total annual amount generally decreases. Humidity commonly increases with increasing
altitude, but only to some intermediate altitude, above which it declines. The variability of mountain terrain
also affects precipitation, such that conditions of extreme wetness and aridity may exist in close proximity.
Related to this temperature gradient is a pattern of ater rainfall at the valley heads, and less rain at lower
altitudes, resulting in part from mountain rainshadow effect. The weather patterns of the Andean cordillera
and Amazon basin in general reflect movements of highand low-pressure cells associated with the
Intertropical Convergence Zone, a low-pressure trough that moves further north and south on a seasonal
basis. Precipitation is high throughout the year in the highlands and on the coast in the Northern Andes.
Coastal aridity increases south of central Ecuador, culminating in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. In
the Central Andes, highland precipitation is seasonal, and amounts are approximately half those
measured in the Northern Andes. The aridity of the Central Andean coastal zone is the result of the drying
effect of the cold Pacific Humboldt current and the southern Pacific high-pressure cell. Much of the
southern portion of the Central Andes in Bolivia is also arid. The dry season causes soil moisture deficits
and diminished stream flow part of each year.
According to the passage, the northern part of the high-altitude plateaus is characterized by which of the
following?

• A. Fertile soil
• B. Extremes in air temperature
• C. High relative humidity
• D. A succession of agricultural zones
• E. An arid climate