Admission Test Section One : Verbal Sample Questions:

1. 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
1 950s, 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 happened immediately after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic?

A) He left college.
B) He attended the Army flight-training school.
C) He flew the mail between St. Louis and Chicago.
D) He married Anne Morrow.
E) He was given the Congressional Medal of Honor.

2. "Old woman," grumbled the burly white man who had just heard Sojourner Truth speak, "do you think your
talk about slavery does any good? I don't care any more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea." The
tall, imposing black woman turned her piercing eyes on him. "Perhaps not," she answered, "but I'll keep
you scratching." The little incident of the 1840s sums up all that Sojourner Truth was: utterly dedicated to
spreading her message, afraid of no one, forceful and witty in speech. Yet forty years earlier, who could
have suspected that a spindly slave girl growing up in a damp cellar in upstate New York would become
one of the most remarkable women in American history? Her name then was Isabella (many slaves had
no last names), and by the time she was fourteen she had seen both parents die of cold and hunger. She
herself had been sold several times. By 1827, when New York freed its slaves, she had married and
borne five children. The first hint of Isabella's fighting spirit came soon afterwards, when her youngest son
was illegally seized and sold. She marched to the courthouse and badgered officials until her son was
returned to her. In 1843, inspired by religion, she changed her name to Sojourner (meaning "one who
stays briefly") Truth, and, with only pennies in her purse, set out to preach against slavery. From New
England to Minnesota she trekked, gaining a reputation for her plain but powerful and moving words.
Incredibly, despite being black and female (only white males were expected to be public speakers), she
drew thousands to town halls, tents, and churches to hear her powerful, deep-voiced pleas on equality for
blacks-and for women. Often she had to face threatening hoodlums. Once she stood before armed bullies
and sang a hymn to them. Awed by her courage and her commanding presence, they sheepishly
retreated. During the Civil War she cared for homeless ex-slaves in Washington. President Lincoln invited
her to the White House to bestow praise on her. Later, she petitioned Congress to help former slaves get
land in the West. Even in her old age, she forced the city of Washington to integrate its trolley cars so that
black and white could ride together. Shortly before her death at eighty-six, she was asked what kept her
going. "I think of the great things," replied Sojourner.
She traveled from New England to-

A) Canada
B) California
C) Alaska
D) Virginia
E) Minnesota

3. What if someone told you about a kind of grass that grows as tall as the tallest trees? A grass that can be
made as strong as steel? A grass from which houses, furniture, boats, and hundreds of other useful things
can be made? A grass that you would even enjoy eating? Would you believe that person? You should, for
that grass is bamboo, the "wood" of 1,001 uses. Bamboo may look like wood, but it is part of the family of
plants that includes wheat, oats, and barley. It is a kind of grass. This grass is not just a material for
making useful products. Young bamboo is eaten, often mixed with other vegetables, in many Asian foods.
Bamboo grows in many parts of the world. In the United States it grows in an area from Virginia west to
Indiana and south to Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Most bamboo, however, is found in warm, wet
climates, especially in Asia and on the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. In most Asian countries,
bamboo is nearly as important as rice. Many Asians live in bamboo houses. They sit on bamboo chairs
and sleep on bamboo mats. They fence their land with bamboo and use the wood for cages for chickens
and pigs. Bamboo is used to build large buildings as well as homes. When it is glued in layers, it becomes
as strong as steel. On some islands in the South Pacific, bamboo is even used for water pipes. This
extraordinary material has many other uses. It is used to make musical instruments, such as flutes and
recorders. Paper made from bamboo has been highly prized by artists for thousands of years. Bamboo is
light and strong, and it bends without breaking. It is cheap, floats on water, almost never wears out, and is
easy to grow. Nothing else on earth grows quite so fast as bamboo. At times you can even see it grow!
Botanists have recorded growths of more than three feet in just twenty-four hours! Bamboo is hollow and
has a strong root system that almost never stops growing and spreading. In fact, only after it flowers, an
event that may happen only once every thirty years, will bamboo die. There are more than a thousand
kinds of bamboo. The smallest is only three inches tall and one-tenth of an inch across. The largest
reaches more than two hundred feet in height and seven inches in diameter. No wonder, then, that the
lives of nearly half the people on earth would change enormously if there were no longer any bamboo. No
wonder, too, that to many people bamboo is a symbol of happiness and good fortune.
What is the main idea of this passage?

A) Bamboo grows at an amazing rate and is found primarily in Asia.
B) Bamboo has at least 2,000 uses.
C) There are at least a 1,000 types of bamboo.
D) Bamboo could be considered a flower in some cases.
E) Bamboo is an amazing grass that can be used in multiple ways.

4. EVANESCENT : VANISH ::

A) vacuous : expedite
B) iridescent : shine
C) expressive : admonish
D) effervescent : corrode
E) fluorescent : disappear

5. PASSIVITY:

A) disrespect
B) lack of restraint
C) confidence
D) aggression
E) vitality

Solutions: