The Galapagos Islands are in the Pacific Ocean, off the western coast of South America.
They are a rocky, lonely spot, but they are also one of the most unusual places in the world. One reason is
that they are the home of some of the last giant tortoises left on earth. Weighing hundreds of pounds,
these tortoises, or land turtles, wander slowly around the rocks and sand of the islands. Strangely, each of
these islands has its own particular kinds of tortoises. There are seven different kinds of tortoises on the
eight islands, each kind being slightly different from the other. Hundreds of years ago, thousands of
tortoises wandered around these islands. However, all that changed when people started landing there.
When people first arrived in 1535, their ships had no refrigerators. This meant that fresh food was always
a problem for the sailors on board.
The giant tortoises provided a solution to this problem. Ships would anchor off the islands, and crews
would row ashore and seize as many tortoises as they could. Once the animals were aboard the ship, the
sailors would roll the tortoises onto their backs. The tortoises were completely helpless once on their
backs, so they could only lie there until used for soups and stews. Almost 100,000 tortoises were carried
off in this way. The tortoises faced other problems, too. Soon after the first ships, settlers arrived bringing
pigs, goats, donkeys, dogs and cats. All of these animals ruined life for the tortoises.
Donkey and goats ate all the plants that the tortoises usually fed on, while the pigs. Dogs and cats
consumed thousands of baby tortoises each year. Within a few years, it was hard to find any tortoise
eggs-or even any baby tortoises. By the early 1900s, people began to worry that the last of the tortoises
would soon die out. No one, however, seemed to care enough to do anything about the problem. More
and more tortoises disappeared, even though sailors no longer needed them for food. For another fifty
years, this situation continued. Finally, in the 1950s, scientist decided that something must be done. The
first part of their plan was to get rid of as many cats, dogs and other animals as they could.
Next, they tried to make sure that more baby tortoises would be born. To do this, they started looking for
wild tortoise eggs. They gathered the eggs and put them in safe containers. When the eggs hatched, the
scientists raised the tortoises in special pens. Both the eggs and tortoises were numbered so that the
scientists knew exactly which kinds of tortoises they had-and which island they came from. Once the
tortoises were old enough and big enough to take care of themselves, the scientists took them back to
their islands and set them loose. This slow, hard work continues today, and, thanks to it, the number of
tortoises is now increasing every year.
What happened soon after people brought animals to the islands?

• A. Scientists took away as many animals as they could.
• B. Tortoise eggs were kept in safe containers.
• C. The tortoises fought with the other animals.
• D. The animals ate the tortoises' food and eggs.
• E. The tortoises continued to wander freely.

The author's overall concern is with describing the process researchers are following to identify the genes
responsible for preventing cell death and with the direction (and goals) of current research based on their
findings. Of the five choices, choice B. best expresses the gist of the discussion. enterprise was prepared
for privatization and which form was most suitable for it. Slow privatization, some claim, is the only way to
establish true private ownership, because only those who must pay for enterprise-ownership rights will be
engaged in its management. But this method would only prolong the core problems of inefficiency and
misallocation of labor and capital, and hence either of two approaches to rapid privatization is preferable.
Under one such approach, shares of an enterprise would be distributed among its employees, who would
become its owners. This socialist reform method is deeply flawed; it discriminates in favor of workers who
happen to be employed by modern, efficient enterprises, and it jeopardizes workers' property by requiring
them to invest in the same enterprise in which they are employed, rather than diversifying their
investments. The better approach involves distribution of enterprise shares, free of charge, among all the
people by means of vouchers-a kind of investment money. Some critics charge that voucher holders
would not be interested in how their enterprises are managed-as may be true of small corporate
shareholders in capitalist countries who pay little attention to their investments until the corporation's
profits wane, at which time they rush to sell their securities. But while the resulting fall in stock prices can
be perilous for the corporation, this very pressure is what drives private firms toward efficiency and
profitability. Other detractors predict that most people will sell their vouchers to foreign capitalists.
However, these skeptics ignore the capacity of individuals to compare the future flow of income secured
by a voucher to the benefits of immediate consumption. Moreover, even if an individual should decide to
sell, the aim of voucher privatization is to secure equality not of property but of opportunity.
The passage mentions all of the following as possible adverse consequences of rapid privatization
EXCEPT

• A. loss of ownership in domestic private enterprises to foreign concerns
• B. undue prolongation of inefficiency and misallocation
• C. instability in stock prices
• D. inequitable distribution of wealth among employees of various enterprises
• E. financial devastation for employees of private enterprises

SWEAR : OATH ::

• A. obey : rule
• B. follow : leader
• C. solve : problem
• D. sign : contract
• E. issue : warning

EVANESCENT : VANISH ::

• A. effervescent : corrode
• B. iridescent : shine
• C. fluorescent : disappear
• D. vacuous : expedite
• E. expressive : admonish

Considering today's high divorce rate and growing number of single-parent households, it is _______ that
the most Americans still adhere to the _______ belief in the importance of an intact nuclear family.

• A. astonishing . . traditional
• B. surprising . . superficial
• C. illuminating . . controversial
• D. encouraging . . obsolete
• E. interesting . . popular