Reading Comprehension

According to the passage, NGO’s play the following roles in combating aids except _________.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

During the twenty-year AIDS epidemic, almost twenty-two million people worldwide have died of the disease and an estimated 36 million are living with the HIV virus, which develops into AIDS. The first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s were followed, especially in the West, by rapid scientific advances in naming the disease, finding its cause, and learning about its modes of transmission. This burst of scientific discovery fostered the optimism that AIDS could be conquered. However, by the mid-1980s, the disease was recognized as an international epidemic. It spread explosively across the African continent and in many other parts of the world, including Asia and South America. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of AIDS infections occur in developing countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa where some of the world’s worst living conditions exist. According to current estimates, 70 percent of those infected with AIDS live in this region. Today, AIDS is called pandemic because it has spread to every inhabited continent in the world. 

Globally, AIDS is a disease, which has been, and continues to be, primarily a sexually transmitted disease (STD) spread through unprotected sex between heterosexual men and women. It is shortening the life expectancy of working-age adults, dramatically increasing the number of infant and child deaths, shrinking the workforce, creating millions of orphans, widening the gap between rich and poor countries, and reversing developmental gains. Currently, the areas most affected by AIDS are Africa, India, and China. Almost every country in Asia and the Pacific area has recently experienced an increase in HIV infections. 
In response to the magnitude of the AIDS crisis, countries throughout the world have developed National AIDS Programs (NAPs) adapted to the specific needs of their populations. The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, founded a global HIV/AIDS trust fund in 1987 to help fund the NAP programs. These programs focus on the prevention of the sexual transmission of HIV and the transmission of HIV through blood and blood products, including injection drug use. The NAP programs have also supported strong international efforts to de-stigmatize AIDS and to ensure the human rights of those with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the programs attempt to reduce mother-to-child transmissions, which are a much greater issue in less affluent countries. 
These national programs sometimes include working in partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs, at the national level, provide a broad range of services, from confidential counseling and testing to support and legal services for people with AIDS. Some NGOs focus on solidarity, bringing people with AIDS together to fight the disease. Organizations composed of people living with HIV/AIDS are extensive and do international advocacy work to deal with the AIDS epidemic. One such organization, the Global Network of People Living with AIDS (GNP+), encourages members to network and share personal experiences. The organization leads the movement working to establish AIDS self-help groups. NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power have pressed drug companies to reduce their prices to poor countries. These activists are working to get generic versions of AIDS drugs at drastically reduced prices to countries in need. 
Worldwide organizations have brought attention and resources to the global response to AIDS. The International AIDS Conference, which first convened in April 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, has been the primary venue for professionals to share scientific and medical advances in AIDS research, as well as a forum for important AIDS policy debates. In addition, the United Nations established the joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to work with national governments and others to alleviate the AIDS epidemic. For example, in 1997, the UN gave China a 1.8 million dollar grant to help fight AIDS over a four year period. China used the funds to train ministry workers and increase prevention education among high-risk populations. HIV education programs are common in urban areas of China, but they have not reached rural areas. Another organization, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, founded in 1993 in London, England, focuses its efforts in Africa, South America, and Asia, working to build up local AIDS organizations in these areas. 
One of the few success stories in the fight against AIDS is Thailand, where the use of condoms is mandatory in brothels, which are closed down if they do not comply with government regulations. Thailand is one of the two developing nations, along with Uganda, which has experienced a drop in HIV infection rates and is a prime example of how prevention practices can work. In eastern Africa, where the rates of new infections are also beginning to stabilize or even decline, Uganda was the first country to report its AIDS cases. In the 1980s this country had the world’s highest HIV infection rates, but the government responded quickly. After prevention through education and the promotion of safe-sex practices such as the use of condoms, Uganda has also experienced a decline in HIV rates.

Although some prevention efforts have succeeded, many analysts believe that the ultimate solution to the global AIDS crisis is the development of a vaccine that will prevent people from contracting AIDS in the first place. Many researchers believe that the development of a preventive vaccine is possible and absolutely necessary in order to eradicate AIDS. However, many pharmaceutical companies do not want to invest in AIDS vaccine research because of the large expense involved and the belief that profits could not be made on the vaccines. Funding for research to develop an AIDS vaccine comes from several sources, mainly the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), UNAIDS, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. government agencies, and a few multinational pharmaceutical companies. In 1997 U.S. President Bill Clinton called for the development of an HIV vaccine within a decade and announced a new center for vaccine research. Some researchers believe that a vaccine will be developed in the next five to seven years. 
In the meantime, AIDS continues to spread in the developing world. Although successes have occurred, many experts contend that much more needs to be done. They argue that the response to AIDS needs to be of greater duration, greater quality, and greater scope to reach the many areas of life which AIDS touches and affects. Working together with others in the international community utilizing multiple approaches will enhance the ability of developing nations to cope with the disease. The viewpoints in AIDS in Developing Countries: At Issue explore the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has become an ongoing challenge to human ingenuity and compassion.

From the passage, it can be inferred that if the flock of birds described in were navigating by compass sense alone, they would, after the storm, fly ________.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

It is ironic that many of us view tropical birds as strange, and perhaps even bizarre, when they vastly outnumber temperate-zone species. The paradox hits home when many aspects of birds we take for granted are, instead, products of a temperate-zone bias—due to the geographic distribution of people who study birds.

The capability of over-water migrants to travel on course is an occult phenomenon. Birds, bees and other species can keep trail of time without any sensory cues from the external world, and such “biological clocks” clearly contribute to their “compass sense.” To find north, for instance, they can use the position of the Sun or stars, along with the time of day, But compass sense alone cannot elucidate how birds navigate the ocean: after a flock traveling east is blown far south by a storm, it will presume the proper northeasterly course to recompense. Like any good pilot, the birds carry a compass. Recent research suggests that cells in the bird's head contain magnetite, an iron oxide crystal that aligns with magnetic north like a tiny compass needle. Scientists think these cells may serve as receptors that send directional information to the brain. Many other animals apparently also have such cells: Magnetite has been found in the heads of migratory fish, sea turtles and humpback whales. Of all the wildlife navigators, birds so far are the best studied. Perhaps, some scientists thought, migrants determine their geographic position on Earth by celestial navigation, almost as human navigators use stars and planets, but this would require of the animals a fantastic map sense.

Researchers now know that some species have a magnetic sense, which might allow migrants to determine their geographic location by detecting variations in the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field.

The researchers found that the birds' ability to select the correct feeder was significantly impaired if the birds had small magnets attached to their beaks. The scientists suggest this is because magnetite, an iron-rich crystal with magnetic properties, is found inside the birds' beaks.

The following could be the preventive measures to guide one against AIDS except __________.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

During the twenty-year AIDS epidemic, almost twenty-two million people worldwide have died of the disease and an estimated 36 million are living with the HIV virus, which develops into AIDS. The first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s were followed, especially in the West, by rapid scientific advances in naming the disease, finding its cause, and learning about its modes of transmission. This burst of scientific discovery fostered the optimism that AIDS could be conquered. However, by the mid-1980s, the disease was recognized as an international epidemic. It spread explosively across the African continent and in many other parts of the world, including Asia and South America. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of AIDS infections occur in developing countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa where some of the world’s worst living conditions exist. According to current estimates, 70 percent of those infected with AIDS live in this region. Today, AIDS is called pandemic because it has spread to every inhabited continent in the world. 

Globally, AIDS is a disease, which has been, and continues to be, primarily a sexually transmitted disease (STD) spread through unprotected sex between heterosexual men and women. It is shortening the life expectancy of working-age adults, dramatically increasing the number of infant and child deaths, shrinking the workforce, creating millions of orphans, widening the gap between rich and poor countries, and reversing developmental gains. Currently, the areas most affected by AIDS are Africa, India, and China. Almost every country in Asia and the Pacific area has recently experienced an increase in HIV infections. 
In response to the magnitude of the AIDS crisis, countries throughout the world have developed National AIDS Programs (NAPs) adapted to the specific needs of their populations. The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, founded a global HIV/AIDS trust fund in 1987 to help fund the NAP programs. These programs focus on the prevention of the sexual transmission of HIV and the transmission of HIV through blood and blood products, including injection drug use. The NAP programs have also supported strong international efforts to de-stigmatize AIDS and to ensure the human rights of those with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the programs attempt to reduce mother-to-child transmissions, which are a much greater issue in less affluent countries. 
These national programs sometimes include working in partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs, at the national level, provide a broad range of services, from confidential counseling and testing to support and legal services for people with AIDS. Some NGOs focus on solidarity, bringing people with AIDS together to fight the disease. Organizations composed of people living with HIV/AIDS are extensive and do international advocacy work to deal with the AIDS epidemic. One such organization, the Global Network of People Living with AIDS (GNP+), encourages members to network and share personal experiences. The organization leads the movement working to establish AIDS self-help groups. NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power have pressed drug companies to reduce their prices to poor countries. These activists are working to get generic versions of AIDS drugs at drastically reduced prices to countries in need. 
Worldwide organizations have brought attention and resources to the global response to AIDS. The International AIDS Conference, which first convened in April 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, has been the primary venue for professionals to share scientific and medical advances in AIDS research, as well as a forum for important AIDS policy debates. In addition, the United Nations established the joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to work with national governments and others to alleviate the AIDS epidemic. For example, in 1997, the UN gave China a 1.8 million dollar grant to help fight AIDS over a four year period. China used the funds to train ministry workers and increase prevention education among high-risk populations. HIV education programs are common in urban areas of China, but they have not reached rural areas. Another organization, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, founded in 1993 in London, England, focuses its efforts in Africa, South America, and Asia, working to build up local AIDS organizations in these areas. 
One of the few success stories in the fight against AIDS is Thailand, where the use of condoms is mandatory in brothels, which are closed down if they do not comply with government regulations. Thailand is one of the two developing nations, along with Uganda, which has experienced a drop in HIV infection rates and is a prime example of how prevention practices can work. In eastern Africa, where the rates of new infections are also beginning to stabilize or even decline, Uganda was the first country to report its AIDS cases. In the 1980s this country had the world’s highest HIV infection rates, but the government responded quickly. After prevention through education and the promotion of safe-sex practices such as the use of condoms, Uganda has also experienced a decline in HIV rates.

Although some prevention efforts have succeeded, many analysts believe that the ultimate solution to the global AIDS crisis is the development of a vaccine that will prevent people from contracting AIDS in the first place. Many researchers believe that the development of a preventive vaccine is possible and absolutely necessary in order to eradicate AIDS. However, many pharmaceutical companies do not want to invest in AIDS vaccine research because of the large expense involved and the belief that profits could not be made on the vaccines. Funding for research to develop an AIDS vaccine comes from several sources, mainly the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), UNAIDS, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. government agencies, and a few multinational pharmaceutical companies. In 1997 U.S. President Bill Clinton called for the development of an HIV vaccine within a decade and announced a new center for vaccine research. Some researchers believe that a vaccine will be developed in the next five to seven years. 
In the meantime, AIDS continues to spread in the developing world. Although successes have occurred, many experts contend that much more needs to be done. They argue that the response to AIDS needs to be of greater duration, greater quality, and greater scope to reach the many areas of life which AIDS touches and affects. Working together with others in the international community utilizing multiple approaches will enhance the ability of developing nations to cope with the disease. The viewpoints in AIDS in Developing Countries: At Issue explore the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has become an ongoing challenge to human ingenuity and compassion.

What is the primary purpose of the passage?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

During the twentieth century, the style of war fighting has changed many times. The first half of the century witnessed two world wars, multinational efforts that claimed millions of lives in the name of ending imperialism. These world wars were fought between grand alliances that committed conventional forces to the battlefield in hopes of wearing the other side down through attrition. The advent of the atom bomb and the coming of the nuclear age at the end of World War II made wars of attrition unnecessary. Nuclear weapons did not make conventional warfare obsolete, but they did ensure that conventional tactics could always be trumped by nuclear strike capabilities.

The two superpowers that possessed the greatest nuclear strike capacity—the United States and the Soviet Union— squared off against each other in a Cold War, during which neither was eager to confront the other on the battlefield. During this period, conventional wars continued to be fought in other nations. Some of these wars, such as the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s, involved cross-border fighting. Others, such as the Korean War or the Vietnam War, were political struggles within a country’s own borders. Unlike the world wars, these wars were not about global conquest and they did not jeopardize the safety of the world. A global war was not unthinkable, but its occurrence would likely include nuclear devastation, a possibility few nations were willing to court.

The world community—in the form of the United Nations (founded in 1945)—worked hard to resolve conflicts during the Cold War era. The United Nations was eager to play the role of arbiter to prevent isolated wars from spilling over their boundaries and draw in more countries, thus inviting superpower intervention. Unfortunately the effectiveness of the United Nations was often determined by the level of commitment of the United States, whose economic sanctions and military force are the backbone of the UN’s bargaining power. The United States could be slow to act, especially when its interests were not at stake. The tribal war in Rwanda in the mid-1990s is a case in point. After images of large-scale massacres of Rwandan civilians appeared on television, the United States reluctantly agreed to support the UN’s efforts to prevent the slaughter from continuing. But by the time U.S. forces were committed to the small UN contingent, the major fighting was over and 500,000 to one million Rwandans had perished.

The media has played a large part in bringing warfare to public attention. News coverage of the Vietnam War is thought to have had a great influence on the decision of the United States to withdraw from the conflict. On the other hand, media portrayals often prompt the world community to intervene in foreign wars. Columnist Jonathan Power even speculates that nations like the United States would get involved in more foreign conflicts if only the television broadcasters could find a way to make each war sensational and distinct. “American television itself can only manage one and a half foreign wars at a time,” Power wryly asserts. “Public opinion is not engaged in Tadjikistan, Liberia or Rwanda, etc., because ever more heart-rending, anger-making pictures, night after night, are not there to wind it up.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, new forms of warfare garnered media attention. In former Soviet states and Soviet-controlled satellites, crumbling communist governments opened the door to conflicts between different ethnic groups that had lived side by side for decades. With the fear of Soviet military reprisal lifted, ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia fought to establish independent nations that were derived by ethnic and not national identity. In the Soviet Union itself the ethnic enclave of Chechnya tried to secede from Russia in the1990s. Ethnic warfare was not new to the world, but the number of nations wracked by ethnic strife did multiply in the post-Cold War period. “Ethnic cleansing” remains a media buzzword in the closing years of the twentieth century. 
Faced with the rising number of ethnic conflicts the United Nations has had to adjust its role from peacemaker to peacekeeper. Caught between recognizing the validity of an ethnic group’s fight for independence and the sovereign right of a country to resist the secession of its ethnic provinces, the UN has most often chosen to separate the warring factions with peacekeeping troops until some diplomatic resolution can be achieved. Unfortunately, these civil wars have placed UN soldiers in harm’s way, making them targets for attack by the ethnic groups who are concerned only with separation, not arbitration. Media coverage of UN casualties can also lead to the weakening of a united peacekeeping effort. For example, footage of dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, by an ethnic faction prompted the withdrawal of United States’ troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in that nation during the early 1990s.

The major concern of the United Nations in dealing with these ethnic wars seems to be how to keep them from generating widespread conflict outside of their regional boundaries. The coming of another world war is still thought by many to be a real threat. Behind all the talk of world war still lies the fear of nuclear devastation. With more nations gaining nuclear capabilities and a growing concern that Russian warheads may end up in the hands of foreign governments, the world retains part of its Cold War tension.

The most probable reason for the hesitation of the pharmaceutical companies on the whole in making the AIDS vaccine can be _______.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

During the twenty-year AIDS epidemic, almost twenty-two million people worldwide have died of the disease and an estimated 36 million are living with the HIV virus, which develops into AIDS. The first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s were followed, especially in the West, by rapid scientific advances in naming the disease, finding its cause, and learning about its modes of transmission. This burst of scientific discovery fostered the optimism that AIDS could be conquered. However, by the mid-1980s, the disease was recognized as an international epidemic. It spread explosively across the African continent and in many other parts of the world, including Asia and South America. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of AIDS infections occur in developing countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa where some of the world’s worst living conditions exist. According to current estimates, 70 percent of those infected with AIDS live in this region. Today, AIDS is called pandemic because it has spread to every inhabited continent in the world. 

Globally, AIDS is a disease, which has been, and continues to be, primarily a sexually transmitted disease (STD) spread through unprotected sex between heterosexual men and women. It is shortening the life expectancy of working-age adults, dramatically increasing the number of infant and child deaths, shrinking the workforce, creating millions of orphans, widening the gap between rich and poor countries, and reversing developmental gains. Currently, the areas most affected by AIDS are Africa, India, and China. Almost every country in Asia and the Pacific area has recently experienced an increase in HIV infections. 
In response to the magnitude of the AIDS crisis, countries throughout the world have developed National AIDS Programs (NAPs) adapted to the specific needs of their populations. The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, founded a global HIV/AIDS trust fund in 1987 to help fund the NAP programs. These programs focus on the prevention of the sexual transmission of HIV and the transmission of HIV through blood and blood products, including injection drug use. The NAP programs have also supported strong international efforts to de-stigmatize AIDS and to ensure the human rights of those with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the programs attempt to reduce mother-to-child transmissions, which are a much greater issue in less affluent countries. 
These national programs sometimes include working in partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs, at the national level, provide a broad range of services, from confidential counseling and testing to support and legal services for people with AIDS. Some NGOs focus on solidarity, bringing people with AIDS together to fight the disease. Organizations composed of people living with HIV/AIDS are extensive and do international advocacy work to deal with the AIDS epidemic. One such organization, the Global Network of People Living with AIDS (GNP+), encourages members to network and share personal experiences. The organization leads the movement working to establish AIDS self-help groups. NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power have pressed drug companies to reduce their prices to poor countries. These activists are working to get generic versions of AIDS drugs at drastically reduced prices to countries in need. 
Worldwide organizations have brought attention and resources to the global response to AIDS. The International AIDS Conference, which first convened in April 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, has been the primary venue for professionals to share scientific and medical advances in AIDS research, as well as a forum for important AIDS policy debates. In addition, the United Nations established the joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to work with national governments and others to alleviate the AIDS epidemic. For example, in 1997, the UN gave China a 1.8 million dollar grant to help fight AIDS over a four year period. China used the funds to train ministry workers and increase prevention education among high-risk populations. HIV education programs are common in urban areas of China, but they have not reached rural areas. Another organization, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, founded in 1993 in London, England, focuses its efforts in Africa, South America, and Asia, working to build up local AIDS organizations in these areas. 
One of the few success stories in the fight against AIDS is Thailand, where the use of condoms is mandatory in brothels, which are closed down if they do not comply with government regulations. Thailand is one of the two developing nations, along with Uganda, which has experienced a drop in HIV infection rates and is a prime example of how prevention practices can work. In eastern Africa, where the rates of new infections are also beginning to stabilize or even decline, Uganda was the first country to report its AIDS cases. In the 1980s this country had the world’s highest HIV infection rates, but the government responded quickly. After prevention through education and the promotion of safe-sex practices such as the use of condoms, Uganda has also experienced a decline in HIV rates.

Although some prevention efforts have succeeded, many analysts believe that the ultimate solution to the global AIDS crisis is the development of a vaccine that will prevent people from contracting AIDS in the first place. Many researchers believe that the development of a preventive vaccine is possible and absolutely necessary in order to eradicate AIDS. However, many pharmaceutical companies do not want to invest in AIDS vaccine research because of the large expense involved and the belief that profits could not be made on the vaccines. Funding for research to develop an AIDS vaccine comes from several sources, mainly the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), UNAIDS, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. government agencies, and a few multinational pharmaceutical companies. In 1997 U.S. President Bill Clinton called for the development of an HIV vaccine within a decade and announced a new center for vaccine research. Some researchers believe that a vaccine will be developed in the next five to seven years. 
In the meantime, AIDS continues to spread in the developing world. Although successes have occurred, many experts contend that much more needs to be done. They argue that the response to AIDS needs to be of greater duration, greater quality, and greater scope to reach the many areas of life which AIDS touches and affects. Working together with others in the international community utilizing multiple approaches will enhance the ability of developing nations to cope with the disease. The viewpoints in AIDS in Developing Countries: At Issue explore the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has become an ongoing challenge to human ingenuity and compassion.

Of the following descriptions of migrating animals, which most strongly suggests that the animals are depending on magnetic cues to orient themselves?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

It is ironic that many of us view tropical birds as strange, and perhaps even bizarre, when they vastly outnumber temperate-zone species. The paradox hits home when many aspects of birds we take for granted are, instead, products of a temperate-zone bias—due to the geographic distribution of people who study birds.

The capability of over-water migrants to travel on course is an occult phenomenon. Birds, bees and other species can keep trail of time without any sensory cues from the external world, and such “biological clocks” clearly contribute to their “compass sense.” To find north, for instance, they can use the position of the Sun or stars, along with the time of day, But compass sense alone cannot elucidate how birds navigate the ocean: after a flock traveling east is blown far south by a storm, it will presume the proper northeasterly course to recompense. Like any good pilot, the birds carry a compass. Recent research suggests that cells in the bird's head contain magnetite, an iron oxide crystal that aligns with magnetic north like a tiny compass needle. Scientists think these cells may serve as receptors that send directional information to the brain. Many other animals apparently also have such cells: Magnetite has been found in the heads of migratory fish, sea turtles and humpback whales. Of all the wildlife navigators, birds so far are the best studied. Perhaps, some scientists thought, migrants determine their geographic position on Earth by celestial navigation, almost as human navigators use stars and planets, but this would require of the animals a fantastic map sense.

Researchers now know that some species have a magnetic sense, which might allow migrants to determine their geographic location by detecting variations in the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field.

The researchers found that the birds' ability to select the correct feeder was significantly impaired if the birds had small magnets attached to their beaks. The scientists suggest this is because magnetite, an iron-rich crystal with magnetic properties, is found inside the birds' beaks.

What is the main purpose of the passage?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

During the twenty-year AIDS epidemic, almost twenty-two million people worldwide have died of the disease and an estimated 36 million are living with the HIV virus, which develops into AIDS. The first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s were followed, especially in the West, by rapid scientific advances in naming the disease, finding its cause, and learning about its modes of transmission. This burst of scientific discovery fostered the optimism that AIDS could be conquered. However, by the mid-1980s, the disease was recognized as an international epidemic. It spread explosively across the African continent and in many other parts of the world, including Asia and South America. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of AIDS infections occur in developing countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa where some of the world’s worst living conditions exist. According to current estimates, 70 percent of those infected with AIDS live in this region. Today, AIDS is called pandemic because it has spread to every inhabited continent in the world. 

Globally, AIDS is a disease, which has been, and continues to be, primarily a sexually transmitted disease (STD) spread through unprotected sex between heterosexual men and women. It is shortening the life expectancy of working-age adults, dramatically increasing the number of infant and child deaths, shrinking the workforce, creating millions of orphans, widening the gap between rich and poor countries, and reversing developmental gains. Currently, the areas most affected by AIDS are Africa, India, and China. Almost every country in Asia and the Pacific area has recently experienced an increase in HIV infections. 
In response to the magnitude of the AIDS crisis, countries throughout the world have developed National AIDS Programs (NAPs) adapted to the specific needs of their populations. The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, founded a global HIV/AIDS trust fund in 1987 to help fund the NAP programs. These programs focus on the prevention of the sexual transmission of HIV and the transmission of HIV through blood and blood products, including injection drug use. The NAP programs have also supported strong international efforts to de-stigmatize AIDS and to ensure the human rights of those with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the programs attempt to reduce mother-to-child transmissions, which are a much greater issue in less affluent countries. 
These national programs sometimes include working in partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs, at the national level, provide a broad range of services, from confidential counseling and testing to support and legal services for people with AIDS. Some NGOs focus on solidarity, bringing people with AIDS together to fight the disease. Organizations composed of people living with HIV/AIDS are extensive and do international advocacy work to deal with the AIDS epidemic. One such organization, the Global Network of People Living with AIDS (GNP+), encourages members to network and share personal experiences. The organization leads the movement working to establish AIDS self-help groups. NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power have pressed drug companies to reduce their prices to poor countries. These activists are working to get generic versions of AIDS drugs at drastically reduced prices to countries in need. 
Worldwide organizations have brought attention and resources to the global response to AIDS. The International AIDS Conference, which first convened in April 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, has been the primary venue for professionals to share scientific and medical advances in AIDS research, as well as a forum for important AIDS policy debates. In addition, the United Nations established the joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to work with national governments and others to alleviate the AIDS epidemic. For example, in 1997, the UN gave China a 1.8 million dollar grant to help fight AIDS over a four year period. China used the funds to train ministry workers and increase prevention education among high-risk populations. HIV education programs are common in urban areas of China, but they have not reached rural areas. Another organization, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, founded in 1993 in London, England, focuses its efforts in Africa, South America, and Asia, working to build up local AIDS organizations in these areas. 
One of the few success stories in the fight against AIDS is Thailand, where the use of condoms is mandatory in brothels, which are closed down if they do not comply with government regulations. Thailand is one of the two developing nations, along with Uganda, which has experienced a drop in HIV infection rates and is a prime example of how prevention practices can work. In eastern Africa, where the rates of new infections are also beginning to stabilize or even decline, Uganda was the first country to report its AIDS cases. In the 1980s this country had the world’s highest HIV infection rates, but the government responded quickly. After prevention through education and the promotion of safe-sex practices such as the use of condoms, Uganda has also experienced a decline in HIV rates.

Although some prevention efforts have succeeded, many analysts believe that the ultimate solution to the global AIDS crisis is the development of a vaccine that will prevent people from contracting AIDS in the first place. Many researchers believe that the development of a preventive vaccine is possible and absolutely necessary in order to eradicate AIDS. However, many pharmaceutical companies do not want to invest in AIDS vaccine research because of the large expense involved and the belief that profits could not be made on the vaccines. Funding for research to develop an AIDS vaccine comes from several sources, mainly the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), UNAIDS, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. government agencies, and a few multinational pharmaceutical companies. In 1997 U.S. President Bill Clinton called for the development of an HIV vaccine within a decade and announced a new center for vaccine research. Some researchers believe that a vaccine will be developed in the next five to seven years. 
In the meantime, AIDS continues to spread in the developing world. Although successes have occurred, many experts contend that much more needs to be done. They argue that the response to AIDS needs to be of greater duration, greater quality, and greater scope to reach the many areas of life which AIDS touches and affects. Working together with others in the international community utilizing multiple approaches will enhance the ability of developing nations to cope with the disease. The viewpoints in AIDS in Developing Countries: At Issue explore the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has become an ongoing challenge to human ingenuity and compassion.

According to the passage, Patricia Jones-Jackson believes which of the following reveals an African influence on Gullah religious services?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Gullah and Geechee culture began on the West Coast of Africa and was brought to America and transformed during the enslavement of African people in America. It is directly related to the African traditional cultures of the Rice and Windward Coast and more specifically, the people of Angola and Sierra Leone, West Africa. Due to isolation on islands off the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, the African people there did not have too much contact with people of other races except Native Americans. Thus, they were able to maintain their culture, language, and traditions unlike African people that were living on the "mainland." This culture is now struggling to survive. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition works with all efforts to make people aware of this dire situation and to celebrate this rich aspect of African culture in America.

The Gullah communities on the Sea Islands off the southeast coast of the U.S. retained a unique identity of their own before the recent encroachments of tourism and commercialization. The Islands’ history reflected that the area was reserved for freed slaves after the Civil War, which contributed partially in developing the unique identity, associated with the culture of Gullah community. As an almost exclusively black community, the Gullah preserved African traditions concerning family structure and religious practices. At the same time, as a community of ex-slaves, the residents retained several facets of the Southern life they had left behind. This mixture provided a heritage which until recently was strong enough to sustain a vital culture.

The Gullah way of life is exemplified through their art. Gullahs do not create art - for arts sake. Rather, they blend the skill, craftsmanship, and traditional methodologies preserved from past generations of artists. The famous 'sweet grass baskets' vary in style because individual basket makers have their unique hand sewing methods passed down from generation to generation. Basket making has a spiritual sense to it, like most of the elements of Gullah culture. The sewing method is the same method used by their African ancestors, only the tools of the craft have changed with time.

As Patricia Jones-Jackson has pointed out, the basic unit of social life on the Sea Islands, as in West Africa, is the extended family. Since many islands are sectioned off into family communities, kinship ties are important to one's acceptance into the social structure. Membership in the extended family also affects property rights. In the traditional Gullah system, family members do not normally buy land from one another, but acquire it by an unwritten contract known as "heir's land." Rules pertaining to marriage seem to be at least as broad in scope. Common-law marriages are considered as legitimate as marriages recorded by contract under law. Indeed, the infrequent occurrence of divorce and separation within the Sea Island communities demonstrates the strong cohesion of Gullah marital and familial institutions.

Today, the descendants of West Africans brought in bondage to the coastal islands of South Carolina and Georgia, are striving to preserve a way of life. Gullah is more than simply the language and name of a people. It encompasses the essence of struggle, spirituality, perseverance and tradition. The Native Island Gullah people adhere to the customs of their ancestors through the sewing of sweet grass baskets, the weaving of casting nets and the preparation of traditional Gullah foods.

Unlike the laws and customs relating to family structure, the religious practices of the Sea Islanders, on the surface at least, bespeak a U. S. heritage. Depending on the village, a Baptist or Methodist church acts as an essential social institution. Yet, in contrast to the dualistic body-soul approach to the individual found in Christian teaching, the Gullah believe that a person has an earthly body, a soul that returns upon death to the Divine Kingdom, and a separate spiritual entity that can remain on Earth and influence the lives of those still living. This belief in a "body spirit" is prevalent among West African peoples, according to Jones-Jackson. She also notes the African influences on the interaction between the minister and the congregation: The prayers and sermons "embody a classical, Ciceronian rhetorical style and employ sophistic ornaments capable of divinely inspiring and passionately persuading a congregation to respond with raucous and joyous replies."

The connection between the Gullah and the people of Sierra Leone is a very special one. Sierra Leone has always had a small population, and Sierra Leonean slaves were always greatly outnumbered on the plantations by slaves from more populous parts of Africa - except in South Carolina and Georgia. The rice plantation zone of coastal South Carolina and Georgia was the only place in the Americas where Sierra Leonean slaves came together in large enough numbers and over a long enough period of time to leave a significant linguistic and cultural impact. While Nigerians may point to Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti as places where Nigerian culture is still evident, Sierra Leoneans can look to the Gullah* of South Carolina and Georgia as a kindred people sharing many common elements of speech, custom, culture, and cuisine.

It is a people, a language, and a culture that have survived through years of slavery, oppression and development. Even today, Sierra Leoneans can look to the Gullah of South Carolina and Georgia as a kindred people sharing many common elements of speech, custom, culture and cuisine.

The author's attitude towards the Gullah can best be described as _________.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Gullah and Geechee culture began on the West Coast of Africa and was brought to America and transformed during the enslavement of African people in America. It is directly related to the African traditional cultures of the Rice and Windward Coast and more specifically, the people of Angola and Sierra Leone, West Africa. Due to isolation on islands off the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, the African people there did not have too much contact with people of other races except Native Americans. Thus, they were able to maintain their culture, language, and traditions unlike African people that were living on the "mainland." This culture is now struggling to survive. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition works with all efforts to make people aware of this dire situation and to celebrate this rich aspect of African culture in America.

The Gullah communities on the Sea Islands off the southeast coast of the U.S. retained a unique identity of their own before the recent encroachments of tourism and commercialization. The Islands’ history reflected that the area was reserved for freed slaves after the Civil War, which contributed partially in developing the unique identity, associated with the culture of Gullah community. As an almost exclusively black community, the Gullah preserved African traditions concerning family structure and religious practices. At the same time, as a community of ex-slaves, the residents retained several facets of the Southern life they had left behind. This mixture provided a heritage which until recently was strong enough to sustain a vital culture.

The Gullah way of life is exemplified through their art. Gullahs do not create art - for arts sake. Rather, they blend the skill, craftsmanship, and traditional methodologies preserved from past generations of artists. The famous 'sweet grass baskets' vary in style because individual basket makers have their unique hand sewing methods passed down from generation to generation. Basket making has a spiritual sense to it, like most of the elements of Gullah culture. The sewing method is the same method used by their African ancestors, only the tools of the craft have changed with time.

As Patricia Jones-Jackson has pointed out, the basic unit of social life on the Sea Islands, as in West Africa, is the extended family. Since many islands are sectioned off into family communities, kinship ties are important to one's acceptance into the social structure. Membership in the extended family also affects property rights. In the traditional Gullah system, family members do not normally buy land from one another, but acquire it by an unwritten contract known as "heir's land." Rules pertaining to marriage seem to be at least as broad in scope. Common-law marriages are considered as legitimate as marriages recorded by contract under law. Indeed, the infrequent occurrence of divorce and separation within the Sea Island communities demonstrates the strong cohesion of Gullah marital and familial institutions.

Today, the descendants of West Africans brought in bondage to the coastal islands of South Carolina and Georgia, are striving to preserve a way of life. Gullah is more than simply the language and name of a people. It encompasses the essence of struggle, spirituality, perseverance and tradition. The Native Island Gullah people adhere to the customs of their ancestors through the sewing of sweet grass baskets, the weaving of casting nets and the preparation of traditional Gullah foods.

Unlike the laws and customs relating to family structure, the religious practices of the Sea Islanders, on the surface at least, bespeak a U. S. heritage. Depending on the village, a Baptist or Methodist church acts as an essential social institution. Yet, in contrast to the dualistic body-soul approach to the individual found in Christian teaching, the Gullah believe that a person has an earthly body, a soul that returns upon death to the Divine Kingdom, and a separate spiritual entity that can remain on Earth and influence the lives of those still living. This belief in a "body spirit" is prevalent among West African peoples, according to Jones-Jackson. She also notes the African influences on the interaction between the minister and the congregation: The prayers and sermons "embody a classical, Ciceronian rhetorical style and employ sophistic ornaments capable of divinely inspiring and passionately persuading a congregation to respond with raucous and joyous replies."

The connection between the Gullah and the people of Sierra Leone is a very special one. Sierra Leone has always had a small population, and Sierra Leonean slaves were always greatly outnumbered on the plantations by slaves from more populous parts of Africa - except in South Carolina and Georgia. The rice plantation zone of coastal South Carolina and Georgia was the only place in the Americas where Sierra Leonean slaves came together in large enough numbers and over a long enough period of time to leave a significant linguistic and cultural impact. While Nigerians may point to Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti as places where Nigerian culture is still evident, Sierra Leoneans can look to the Gullah* of South Carolina and Georgia as a kindred people sharing many common elements of speech, custom, culture, and cuisine.

It is a people, a language, and a culture that have survived through years of slavery, oppression and development. Even today, Sierra Leoneans can look to the Gullah of South Carolina and Georgia as a kindred people sharing many common elements of speech, custom, culture and cuisine.

The UN plays the following roles where war is concerned except __________.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

During the twentieth century, the style of war fighting has changed many times. The first half of the century witnessed two world wars, multinational efforts that claimed millions of lives in the name of ending imperialism. These world wars were fought between grand alliances that committed conventional forces to the battlefield in hopes of wearing the other side down through attrition. The advent of the atom bomb and the coming of the nuclear age at the end of World War II made wars of attrition unnecessary. Nuclear weapons did not make conventional warfare obsolete, but they did ensure that conventional tactics could always be trumped by nuclear strike capabilities.

The two superpowers that possessed the greatest nuclear strike capacity—the United States and the Soviet Union— squared off against each other in a Cold War, during which neither was eager to confront the other on the battlefield. During this period, conventional wars continued to be fought in other nations. Some of these wars, such as the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s, involved cross-border fighting. Others, such as the Korean War or the Vietnam War, were political struggles within a country’s own borders. Unlike the world wars, these wars were not about global conquest and they did not jeopardize the safety of the world. A global war was not unthinkable, but its occurrence would likely include nuclear devastation, a possibility few nations were willing to court.

The world community—in the form of the United Nations (founded in 1945)—worked hard to resolve conflicts during the Cold War era. The United Nations was eager to play the role of arbiter to prevent isolated wars from spilling over their boundaries and draw in more countries, thus inviting superpower intervention. Unfortunately the effectiveness of the United Nations was often determined by the level of commitment of the United States, whose economic sanctions and military force are the backbone of the UN’s bargaining power. The United States could be slow to act, especially when its interests were not at stake. The tribal war in Rwanda in the mid-1990s is a case in point. After images of large-scale massacres of Rwandan civilians appeared on television, the United States reluctantly agreed to support the UN’s efforts to prevent the slaughter from continuing. But by the time U.S. forces were committed to the small UN contingent, the major fighting was over and 500,000 to one million Rwandans had perished.

The media has played a large part in bringing warfare to public attention. News coverage of the Vietnam War is thought to have had a great influence on the decision of the United States to withdraw from the conflict. On the other hand, media portrayals often prompt the world community to intervene in foreign wars. Columnist Jonathan Power even speculates that nations like the United States would get involved in more foreign conflicts if only the television broadcasters could find a way to make each war sensational and distinct. “American television itself can only manage one and a half foreign wars at a time,” Power wryly asserts. “Public opinion is not engaged in Tadjikistan, Liberia or Rwanda, etc., because ever more heart-rending, anger-making pictures, night after night, are not there to wind it up.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, new forms of warfare garnered media attention. In former Soviet states and Soviet-controlled satellites, crumbling communist governments opened the door to conflicts between different ethnic groups that had lived side by side for decades. With the fear of Soviet military reprisal lifted, ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia fought to establish independent nations that were derived by ethnic and not national identity. In the Soviet Union itself the ethnic enclave of Chechnya tried to secede from Russia in the1990s. Ethnic warfare was not new to the world, but the number of nations wracked by ethnic strife did multiply in the post-Cold War period. “Ethnic cleansing” remains a media buzzword in the closing years of the twentieth century. 
Faced with the rising number of ethnic conflicts the United Nations has had to adjust its role from peacemaker to peacekeeper. Caught between recognizing the validity of an ethnic group’s fight for independence and the sovereign right of a country to resist the secession of its ethnic provinces, the UN has most often chosen to separate the warring factions with peacekeeping troops until some diplomatic resolution can be achieved. Unfortunately, these civil wars have placed UN soldiers in harm’s way, making them targets for attack by the ethnic groups who are concerned only with separation, not arbitration. Media coverage of UN casualties can also lead to the weakening of a united peacekeeping effort. For example, footage of dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, by an ethnic faction prompted the withdrawal of United States’ troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in that nation during the early 1990s.

The major concern of the United Nations in dealing with these ethnic wars seems to be how to keep them from generating widespread conflict outside of their regional boundaries. The coming of another world war is still thought by many to be a real threat. Behind all the talk of world war still lies the fear of nuclear devastation. With more nations gaining nuclear capabilities and a growing concern that Russian warheads may end up in the hands of foreign governments, the world retains part of its Cold War tension.

On what level does the passage stress the addressing of the problem of AIDS?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

During the twenty-year AIDS epidemic, almost twenty-two million people worldwide have died of the disease and an estimated 36 million are living with the HIV virus, which develops into AIDS. The first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s were followed, especially in the West, by rapid scientific advances in naming the disease, finding its cause, and learning about its modes of transmission. This burst of scientific discovery fostered the optimism that AIDS could be conquered. However, by the mid-1980s, the disease was recognized as an international epidemic. It spread explosively across the African continent and in many other parts of the world, including Asia and South America. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of AIDS infections occur in developing countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa where some of the world’s worst living conditions exist. According to current estimates, 70 percent of those infected with AIDS live in this region. Today, AIDS is called pandemic because it has spread to every inhabited continent in the world. 

Globally, AIDS is a disease, which has been, and continues to be, primarily a sexually transmitted disease (STD) spread through unprotected sex between heterosexual men and women. It is shortening the life expectancy of working-age adults, dramatically increasing the number of infant and child deaths, shrinking the workforce, creating millions of orphans, widening the gap between rich and poor countries, and reversing developmental gains. Currently, the areas most affected by AIDS are Africa, India, and China. Almost every country in Asia and the Pacific area has recently experienced an increase in HIV infections. 
In response to the magnitude of the AIDS crisis, countries throughout the world have developed National AIDS Programs (NAPs) adapted to the specific needs of their populations. The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, founded a global HIV/AIDS trust fund in 1987 to help fund the NAP programs. These programs focus on the prevention of the sexual transmission of HIV and the transmission of HIV through blood and blood products, including injection drug use. The NAP programs have also supported strong international efforts to de-stigmatize AIDS and to ensure the human rights of those with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the programs attempt to reduce mother-to-child transmissions, which are a much greater issue in less affluent countries. 
These national programs sometimes include working in partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs, at the national level, provide a broad range of services, from confidential counseling and testing to support and legal services for people with AIDS. Some NGOs focus on solidarity, bringing people with AIDS together to fight the disease. Organizations composed of people living with HIV/AIDS are extensive and do international advocacy work to deal with the AIDS epidemic. One such organization, the Global Network of People Living with AIDS (GNP+), encourages members to network and share personal experiences. The organization leads the movement working to establish AIDS self-help groups. NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power have pressed drug companies to reduce their prices to poor countries. These activists are working to get generic versions of AIDS drugs at drastically reduced prices to countries in need. 
Worldwide organizations have brought attention and resources to the global response to AIDS. The International AIDS Conference, which first convened in April 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, has been the primary venue for professionals to share scientific and medical advances in AIDS research, as well as a forum for important AIDS policy debates. In addition, the United Nations established the joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to work with national governments and others to alleviate the AIDS epidemic. For example, in 1997, the UN gave China a 1.8 million dollar grant to help fight AIDS over a four year period. China used the funds to train ministry workers and increase prevention education among high-risk populations. HIV education programs are common in urban areas of China, but they have not reached rural areas. Another organization, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, founded in 1993 in London, England, focuses its efforts in Africa, South America, and Asia, working to build up local AIDS organizations in these areas. 
One of the few success stories in the fight against AIDS is Thailand, where the use of condoms is mandatory in brothels, which are closed down if they do not comply with government regulations. Thailand is one of the two developing nations, along with Uganda, which has experienced a drop in HIV infection rates and is a prime example of how prevention practices can work. In eastern Africa, where the rates of new infections are also beginning to stabilize or even decline, Uganda was the first country to report its AIDS cases. In the 1980s this country had the world’s highest HIV infection rates, but the government responded quickly. After prevention through education and the promotion of safe-sex practices such as the use of condoms, Uganda has also experienced a decline in HIV rates.

Although some prevention efforts have succeeded, many analysts believe that the ultimate solution to the global AIDS crisis is the development of a vaccine that will prevent people from contracting AIDS in the first place. Many researchers believe that the development of a preventive vaccine is possible and absolutely necessary in order to eradicate AIDS. However, many pharmaceutical companies do not want to invest in AIDS vaccine research because of the large expense involved and the belief that profits could not be made on the vaccines. Funding for research to develop an AIDS vaccine comes from several sources, mainly the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), UNAIDS, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. government agencies, and a few multinational pharmaceutical companies. In 1997 U.S. President Bill Clinton called for the development of an HIV vaccine within a decade and announced a new center for vaccine research. Some researchers believe that a vaccine will be developed in the next five to seven years. 
In the meantime, AIDS continues to spread in the developing world. Although successes have occurred, many experts contend that much more needs to be done. They argue that the response to AIDS needs to be of greater duration, greater quality, and greater scope to reach the many areas of life which AIDS touches and affects. Working together with others in the international community utilizing multiple approaches will enhance the ability of developing nations to cope with the disease. The viewpoints in AIDS in Developing Countries: At Issue explore the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has become an ongoing challenge to human ingenuity and compassion.

In maintaining migrating animals would need a fantastic map sense to determine geographic position by celestial navigation, the author intends to express _____________.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

It is ironic that many of us view tropical birds as strange, and perhaps even bizarre, when they vastly outnumber temperate-zone species. The paradox hits home when many aspects of birds we take for granted are, instead, products of a temperate-zone bias—due to the geographic distribution of people who study birds.

The capability of over-water migrants to travel on course is an occult phenomenon. Birds, bees and other species can keep trail of time without any sensory cues from the external world, and such “biological clocks” clearly contribute to their “compass sense.” To find north, for instance, they can use the position of the Sun or stars, along with the time of day, But compass sense alone cannot elucidate how birds navigate the ocean: after a flock traveling east is blown far south by a storm, it will presume the proper northeasterly course to recompense. Like any good pilot, the birds carry a compass. Recent research suggests that cells in the bird's head contain magnetite, an iron oxide crystal that aligns with magnetic north like a tiny compass needle. Scientists think these cells may serve as receptors that send directional information to the brain. Many other animals apparently also have such cells: Magnetite has been found in the heads of migratory fish, sea turtles and humpback whales. Of all the wildlife navigators, birds so far are the best studied. Perhaps, some scientists thought, migrants determine their geographic position on Earth by celestial navigation, almost as human navigators use stars and planets, but this would require of the animals a fantastic map sense.

Researchers now know that some species have a magnetic sense, which might allow migrants to determine their geographic location by detecting variations in the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field.

The researchers found that the birds' ability to select the correct feeder was significantly impaired if the birds had small magnets attached to their beaks. The scientists suggest this is because magnetite, an iron-rich crystal with magnetic properties, is found inside the birds' beaks.

What part does the fourth paragraph play in the passage?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Modern life can be stressful -- in the family as anywhere else in our fast-paced society. And yet, with all the challenges and concerns about relationships, marriage and raising children, people in the United States today have higher expectations of parenting and marriage. In comparing the present with the past -- the so-called "good old days" -- we need to realize that many of our worries reflect how much better we want to be, not how much better we used to be.

Let's consider pieces of evidence: Fathers in intact families are spending more time with their children than at any point in the past 100 years. Although the number of hours the average woman spends at home with her children has declined since the early 1900s, as more and more women enter the workforce, there has been a decrease in the number of children per family and an increase in individual attention to each child. As a result, mothers today in the United States -- including those who work part- or full-time -- spend almost twice as much time with each child as mothers did in the 1920s. People who raised children in the 1940s and 1950s typically report that their own adult children and grandchildren communicate far better with their kids and spend more time helping with homework than they did.

If we look back over the last millennium, we can see that families have always been diverse and in flux. In each period, families have solved one set of problems only to face a new array of challenges. What works for a family in one economic and cultural setting doesn't work for a family in another. What's helpful at one stage of a family's life may be destructive at the next stage. If there is one lesson to be drawn from the last millennium of family history, it's that families always have to play "catch-up" with a changing world.

Take the issue of working mothers. Families in which mothers spend as much time earning a living as they do raising children are nothing new. They were the norm throughout most of the last two millennia. In the 19th century, married women in the United States began a withdrawal from the workforce, but for most families this was made possible only by sending their children out to work instead. When child labor was abolished, married women began re-entering the workforce in ever-larger numbers. For a few decades, the decline in child labor was greater than the growth of women's employment. And so the male-breadwinner family surfaced. In the 1920s, for the first time, a bare majority of U.S. children grew up in families in which the husband provided all the income, the wife stayed home full-time, and they and their siblings went to school instead of to work. This pattern continued for decades. During the 1950s, almost two-thirds of the nation's children grew up in such families, an all-time high. Yet that same decade saw an acceleration of workforce participation by wives and mothers that soon made the dual-earner family the norm -- a trend not likely to be reversed in this new century.

What's new is not that women make half their families' living, but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to determine the shape of their own lives. Also new is the declining proportion of their lives that people devote to raising children, both because they have fewer kids and because they are living longer. The growing length of time partners spend with only each other for company, in some instances, has made individuals less willing to put up with an unhappy marriage, while women's economic independence makes it less essential for them to do so. Thus, on the one hand, there has been a steady rise in the U.S. divorce rate since 1900. But on the other, expanded life expectancies mean that more couples are reaching their 40th and 50th anniversaries than ever before. Women's new options are good not just for themselves but for their children as well. Studies have shown that kids do better in their own right when their mothers are happy with their lives, whether that satisfaction comes from being a full-time homemaker or from full-time employment. And largely because of women's new roles at work, men are assuming more of a role at home.

Although most men still do less housework than their wives, that gap has been halved since the 1960s. Today, 49 percent of couples say they share childcare equally, compared with 25 percent in 1985. Men's greater involvement at home is good for their relationships with their spouses, and also good for their children. Hands-on fathers make better parents than men who let their wives do all the nurturing and childcare. They raise sons who are more expressive and daughters who are more likely to do well in school -- especially in math and science.

Even some of the choices that worry people the most are turning out to be manageable. Divorce rates are likely to remain high, and in many cases marital breakdown causes serious problems for both adults and kids. Yet when parents minimize conflict, family bonds can be maintained. And many families are doing this. More non-custodial parents are staying in touch with their children. Child-support receipts are rising. A lower proportion of children from divorced families are exhibiting problems than in earlier decades. And stepfamilies are learning to maximize children's access to supportive adults rather than cutting them off from one side of the family.

As we begin to understand the range of sizes, shapes and colors that distinguish families in the United States today, we find that the differences within family types are more important than the differences between them. No particular family form guarantees success, and no particular form is doomed to fail. How a family functions on the inside is more important than how it looks from the outside.

The biggest problem facing most families in the United States at the outset of the new century is not that our families have changed too much but that our institutions have changed too little. Work policies reflect an earlier era, when most mothers weren't in the workforce and most fathers weren't involved in the joys of childcare. School schedules often seem designed for decades ago, when children needed to be home to help with chores or to be employed themselves.

Still, while social institutions still have work to do, America's families, for the most part, are entering the new millennium with far more resources, hopes and equal regard for all family members than ever before.

What is the tone of the passage?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Modern life can be stressful -- in the family as anywhere else in our fast-paced society. And yet, with all the challenges and concerns about relationships, marriage and raising children, people in the United States today have higher expectations of parenting and marriage. In comparing the present with the past -- the so-called "good old days" -- we need to realize that many of our worries reflect how much better we want to be, not how much better we used to be.

Let's consider pieces of evidence: Fathers in intact families are spending more time with their children than at any point in the past 100 years. Although the number of hours the average woman spends at home with her children has declined since the early 1900s, as more and more women enter the workforce, there has been a decrease in the number of children per family and an increase in individual attention to each child. As a result, mothers today in the United States -- including those who work part- or full-time -- spend almost twice as much time with each child as mothers did in the 1920s. People who raised children in the 1940s and 1950s typically report that their own adult children and grandchildren communicate far better with their kids and spend more time helping with homework than they did.

If we look back over the last millennium, we can see that families have always been diverse and in flux. In each period, families have solved one set of problems only to face a new array of challenges. What works for a family in one economic and cultural setting doesn't work for a family in another. What's helpful at one stage of a family's life may be destructive at the next stage. If there is one lesson to be drawn from the last millennium of family history, it's that families always have to play "catch-up" with a changing world.

Take the issue of working mothers. Families in which mothers spend as much time earning a living as they do raising children are nothing new. They were the norm throughout most of the last two millennia. In the 19th century, married women in the United States began a withdrawal from the workforce, but for most families this was made possible only by sending their children out to work instead. When child labor was abolished, married women began re-entering the workforce in ever-larger numbers. For a few decades, the decline in child labor was greater than the growth of women's employment. And so the male-breadwinner family surfaced. In the 1920s, for the first time, a bare majority of U.S. children grew up in families in which the husband provided all the income, the wife stayed home full-time, and they and their siblings went to school instead of to work. This pattern continued for decades. During the 1950s, almost two-thirds of the nation's children grew up in such families, an all-time high. Yet that same decade saw an acceleration of workforce participation by wives and mothers that soon made the dual-earner family the norm -- a trend not likely to be reversed in this new century.

What's new is not that women make half their families' living, but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to determine the shape of their own lives. Also new is the declining proportion of their lives that people devote to raising children, both because they have fewer kids and because they are living longer. The growing length of time partners spend with only each other for company, in some instances, has made individuals less willing to put up with an unhappy marriage, while women's economic independence makes it less essential for them to do so. Thus, on the one hand, there has been a steady rise in the U.S. divorce rate since 1900. But on the other, expanded life expectancies mean that more couples are reaching their 40th and 50th anniversaries than ever before. Women's new options are good not just for themselves but for their children as well. Studies have shown that kids do better in their own right when their mothers are happy with their lives, whether that satisfaction comes from being a full-time homemaker or from full-time employment. And largely because of women's new roles at work, men are assuming more of a role at home.

Although most men still do less housework than their wives, that gap has been halved since the 1960s. Today, 49 percent of couples say they share childcare equally, compared with 25 percent in 1985. Men's greater involvement at home is good for their relationships with their spouses, and also good for their children. Hands-on fathers make better parents than men who let their wives do all the nurturing and childcare. They raise sons who are more expressive and daughters who are more likely to do well in school -- especially in math and science.

Even some of the choices that worry people the most are turning out to be manageable. Divorce rates are likely to remain high, and in many cases marital breakdown causes serious problems for both adults and kids. Yet when parents minimize conflict, family bonds can be maintained. And many families are doing this. More non-custodial parents are staying in touch with their children. Child-support receipts are rising. A lower proportion of children from divorced families are exhibiting problems than in earlier decades. And stepfamilies are learning to maximize children's access to supportive adults rather than cutting them off from one side of the family.

As we begin to understand the range of sizes, shapes and colors that distinguish families in the United States today, we find that the differences within family types are more important than the differences between them. No particular family form guarantees success, and no particular form is doomed to fail. How a family functions on the inside is more important than how it looks from the outside.

The biggest problem facing most families in the United States at the outset of the new century is not that our families have changed too much but that our institutions have changed too little. Work policies reflect an earlier era, when most mothers weren't in the workforce and most fathers weren't involved in the joys of childcare. School schedules often seem designed for decades ago, when children needed to be home to help with chores or to be employed themselves.

Still, while social institutions still have work to do, America's families, for the most part, are entering the new millennium with far more resources, hopes and equal regard for all family members than ever before.

Which is not a direct consequence of women entering the work field?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Modern life can be stressful -- in the family as anywhere else in our fast-paced society. And yet, with all the challenges and concerns about relationships, marriage and raising children, people in the United States today have higher expectations of parenting and marriage. In comparing the present with the past -- the so-called "good old days" -- we need to realize that many of our worries reflect how much better we want to be, not how much better we used to be.

Let's consider pieces of evidence: Fathers in intact families are spending more time with their children than at any point in the past 100 years. Although the number of hours the average woman spends at home with her children has declined since the early 1900s, as more and more women enter the workforce, there has been a decrease in the number of children per family and an increase in individual attention to each child. As a result, mothers today in the United States -- including those who work part- or full-time -- spend almost twice as much time with each child as mothers did in the 1920s. People who raised children in the 1940s and 1950s typically report that their own adult children and grandchildren communicate far better with their kids and spend more time helping with homework than they did.

If we look back over the last millennium, we can see that families have always been diverse and in flux. In each period, families have solved one set of problems only to face a new array of challenges. What works for a family in one economic and cultural setting doesn't work for a family in another. What's helpful at one stage of a family's life may be destructive at the next stage. If there is one lesson to be drawn from the last millennium of family history, it's that families always have to play "catch-up" with a changing world.

Take the issue of working mothers. Families in which mothers spend as much time earning a living as they do raising children are nothing new. They were the norm throughout most of the last two millennia. In the 19th century, married women in the United States began a withdrawal from the workforce, but for most families this was made possible only by sending their children out to work instead. When child labor was abolished, married women began re-entering the workforce in ever-larger numbers. For a few decades, the decline in child labor was greater than the growth of women's employment. And so the male-breadwinner family surfaced. In the 1920s, for the first time, a bare majority of U.S. children grew up in families in which the husband provided all the income, the wife stayed home full-time, and they and their siblings went to school instead of to work. This pattern continued for decades. During the 1950s, almost two-thirds of the nation's children grew up in such families, an all-time high. Yet that same decade saw an acceleration of workforce participation by wives and mothers that soon made the dual-earner family the norm -- a trend not likely to be reversed in this new century.

What's new is not that women make half their families' living, but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to determine the shape of their own lives. Also new is the declining proportion of their lives that people devote to raising children, both because they have fewer kids and because they are living longer. The growing length of time partners spend with only each other for company, in some instances, has made individuals less willing to put up with an unhappy marriage, while women's economic independence makes it less essential for them to do so. Thus, on the one hand, there has been a steady rise in the U.S. divorce rate since 1900. But on the other, expanded life expectancies mean that more couples are reaching their 40th and 50th anniversaries than ever before. Women's new options are good not just for themselves but for their children as well. Studies have shown that kids do better in their own right when their mothers are happy with their lives, whether that satisfaction comes from being a full-time homemaker or from full-time employment. And largely because of women's new roles at work, men are assuming more of a role at home.

Although most men still do less housework than their wives, that gap has been halved since the 1960s. Today, 49 percent of couples say they share childcare equally, compared with 25 percent in 1985. Men's greater involvement at home is good for their relationships with their spouses, and also good for their children. Hands-on fathers make better parents than men who let their wives do all the nurturing and childcare. They raise sons who are more expressive and daughters who are more likely to do well in school -- especially in math and science.

Even some of the choices that worry people the most are turning out to be manageable. Divorce rates are likely to remain high, and in many cases marital breakdown causes serious problems for both adults and kids. Yet when parents minimize conflict, family bonds can be maintained. And many families are doing this. More non-custodial parents are staying in touch with their children. Child-support receipts are rising. A lower proportion of children from divorced families are exhibiting problems than in earlier decades. And stepfamilies are learning to maximize children's access to supportive adults rather than cutting them off from one side of the family.

As we begin to understand the range of sizes, shapes and colors that distinguish families in the United States today, we find that the differences within family types are more important than the differences between them. No particular family form guarantees success, and no particular form is doomed to fail. How a family functions on the inside is more important than how it looks from the outside.

The biggest problem facing most families in the United States at the outset of the new century is not that our families have changed too much but that our institutions have changed too little. Work policies reflect an earlier era, when most mothers weren't in the workforce and most fathers weren't involved in the joys of childcare. School schedules often seem designed for decades ago, when children needed to be home to help with chores or to be employed themselves.

Still, while social institutions still have work to do, America's families, for the most part, are entering the new millennium with far more resources, hopes and equal regard for all family members than ever before.