Reading passages

297 -We can assume from the passage that before 
the experimental flight in 1926, ---- .
A) many others had tried to do a similar thing 
B) the director of the Smithsonian Institution was 
not hopeful of any success 
C) other scientists had attempted to do it 
D) no one believed that it would be successful 
E) Goddard had made other trials but had failed 
In 1920, after some thirty -nine years of problems 
with disease, high costs and politics, the Panama 
Canal was officially opened. This linked the Atlantic 
and Pacific Oceans by allowing ships to pass through 
the fifty -mile canal zone instead of travelling some 
seven thousand miles around Cape Horn. It takes a 
ship approximately eight hours to complete the trip 
through the canal, and costs a tenth of what it would 
cost the average ship to round the Horn. More than 
fifteen thousand ships use the canal annually. 
298-The passage gives us the information that ----- 
.
A) the Panama Canal was built in order to combat 
certain diseases 
B) there were more political problems than problems 
with disease during the construction of the canal 
C) the Panama Canal is built at the narrowest point 
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans D) it took a 
little less than four decades to build the Panama 
Canal 
E) the Panama Canal has been used by about fifteen 
thousand ships since its construction 
299 -The Panama Canal ----- .
A) provides a cheaper and shorter alternative route 
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 
B) reduces the distance between the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans by 90 per cent 
C) is seven thousand miles from Cape Horn 
D) makes it possible to cover fifteen thousand miles 
in eight hours 
E) was begun in 1920, despite opposition from the 
natives