Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
No 1-2
Several agencies and organizations have intensified their efforts to
increase the productivity of land in these countries.They have introduced
new strains of seed, improved irrigation techniques, and introduced new
methods of fertilization and soil management. With ample sunlight for
photosynthesis and modern irrigation techniques, sustainable farming
techniques should allow farmers to boost aggregate production in order
to meet demand.Still, crop revitalization faces an unexpected adversary: institutional
incompetence.Where crop specialists have convinced individual farmers
to abandon old farming techniques in place of new, they can’t readily
obtain the governmental cooperation they need.The biggest hurdles are
political corruption, incompetence, and the absence of a marketing
infrastructure.
No 3-4
Nature challenges humans in many ways, through disease, weather, and
famine. For those living along the coast, one unusual phenomenon capable
of catastrophic destruction is the tsunami (pronounced “tsoo-NAH-mee”).
A tsunami is a series of waves generated in a body of water by an
impulsive disturbance. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions,
explosions, and even the impact of meteorites can generate tsunamis.
Starting at sea, a tsunami slowly approaches land, growing in height and
losing energy through bottom friction and turbulence. Still, just like any
other water waves, tsunamis unleash tremendous energy as they plunge
onto the shore. They have great erosion potential, stripping beaches of
sand, undermining trees, and flooding hundreds of meters inland. They
can easily crush cars, homes, vegetation, and anything they collide with.
To minimize the devastation of a tsunami, scientists are constantly trying
to anticipate them more accurately and more quickly. Because
many factors come together to produce a life-threatening
tsunami, foreseeing them is not easy. Despite this, researchers
in meteorology persevere in studying and predicting tsunami
behavior
No 5-6
The migration from Asia to North America across the Bering Strait
(perhaps by land bridge) was a monumental event in human history.The
process of overspreading the Americas took more than 1,000 years, or 30
generations.This might seem to confirm common sense—that slow travel
was inherent in any great migration without wheeled
vehicles across unknown terrain. Further thought shows
that this process was remarkably fast—about 10 northsouth miles per year, on average. The Americas were
populated at an astounding pace, when one considers
the physical limits of the human body and the physical
features of the American continents. Legs of humans can move only so
fast under the best of circumstances, and they work even slower over
mountain passes or deserts. Populations spread through the diverse
regions of the Americas (grasslands, eastern forests, coastal swamps) and
needed to adapt to their new environments.The migrants’ lifestyle had
evolved over the years to that of professional nomads ensuring that they
would find the resources needed to survive.