English reading passages (for dtm test takers)

129. According to the passage, the writer had to ask a translator to help him because
the students ....
A) didn’t understand English
B) couldn’t speak Japanese
C) didn’t like the writer at all
D) didn’t want him to give a lecture
130. According to the passage, what surprised the writer after he had told his story?
A) The translator laughed loudly for a few seconds.
B) The translator gave a very short translation of it.
C) The translator told the students the full story.
D) The translator looked up words in his dictionary.
131. According to the passage, why did the students laugh during the lecture?
A) The lecturer told funny story.
B) They didn’t like the story.
C) The writer’s story was bad.
D) The translator asked them.
132. All of the following statements are TRUE, EXCEPT ....
A) The students didn’t understand spoken English
B) The writer told a very long story to the students
C) The writer asked the students to laugh at his story
D) The translator explained that the story was funny.


Read the text and answer the questions according to it.

Thomas Edison had more inventions than any other Americans. When he died in 1931,

Americans thought how they could show their respect for him. One suggestion was that the whole country should turn off all lights for a minute or two. All electric power would be shut off in schools, streets and factories. Perhaps this suggested plan made Americans understand fully what Edison and his inventions meant to them. Electric power was too important to the country. Shutting off electricity even for a short time would have led to a complete confusion. That idea was impossible. So people decided to lower their lights. In this way they respected the man who had done more than anyone else to put the great force of electricity in his countrymen’s hands.