Reading passages

294 -It is obvious from the passage that ---- .
A) Benjamin Franklin's father had plenty of free time to spend with his son
B) Benjamin Franklin grew into a man of many talents
C) lacking a formal education, Benjamin Franklin didn't achieve much in writing
D) Benjamin Franklin's relationship with his father was distant
E) Benjamin's father was illiterate

The world's first liquid -fuelled rocket took off on a cold afternoon in March 1926, from a farm in New England. The result of years of trial and error by a physics professor named Robert Goddard, it rose about 14 metres. Goddard was certain that this modest flight was the first step towards future space flight, but few others shared hisenthusiasm. The director of the Smithsonian - Institution, from which he had been receiving a small amount of financial assistance, was disappointed. The newspapers made fun of him. Yet today, space scientists consider the 1926 experiment an event as important as man's first successful flight.

295 -The passage makes it clear that ---- .
A) hardly anyone took Goddard and his rocket seriously at the time
B) Goddard found financial support after the experiment
C) Goddard was not in the habit of exaggerating things
D) space flight was considered a real possibility
by many people after 1926
E) it is best to experiment with rockets when the weather is cold
296 -We learn from the passage that ---- .
A) it is always cold in New England in March B) the Smithsonian Institution met the entire expense for Goddard's rocket
C) Goddard's experiment was important in the development of future rockets
D) Goddard was put on trial for his errors as a physics professor
E) Robert Goddard owned a farm in New England
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.