PSAT-Reading 試験問題を無料オンラインアクセス
| 試験コード: | PSAT-Reading |
| 試験名称: | Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test - Reading |
| 認定資格: | PSAT |
| 無料問題数: | 258 |
| 更新日: | 2026-07-24 |
But the Dust-Bin was going down then, and your father took but little, excepting from a liquid point of view.
Your mother's object in those visits was of a house-keeping character, and you was set on to whistle your
father out. Sometimes he came out, but generally not. Come or not come, however, all that part of his
existence which was unconnected with open Waitering was kept a close secret, and was acknowledged
by your mother to be a close secret, and you and your mother flitted about the court, close secrets both of
you, and would scarcely have confessed under torture that you know your father, or that your father had
any name than Dick (which wasn't his name, though he was never known by any other), or that he had
kith or kin or chick or child. Perhaps the attraction of this mystery, combined with your father's having a
damp compartment, to himself, behind a leaky cistern, at the Dust Bin, a sort of a cellar compartment, with
a sink in it, and a smell, and a plate-rack, and a bottle-rack, and three windows that didn't match each
other or anything else, and no daylight, caused your young mind to feel convinced that you must grow up
to be a Waiter too; but you did feel convinced of it, and so did all your brothers, down to your sister. Every
one of you felt convinced that you was born to the Waitering. At this stage of your career, what was your
feelings one day when your father came home to your mother in open broad daylight, of itself an act of
Madness on the part of a Waiter, and took to his bed (leastwise, your mother and family's bed), with the
statement that his eyes were devilled kidneys. Physicians being in vain, your father expired, after
repeating at intervals for a day and a night, when gleams of reason and old business fitfully illuminated his
being, "Two and two is five. And three is sixpence." Interred in the parochial department of the
neighbouring churchyard, and accompanied to the grave by as many Waiters of long standing as could
spare the morning time from their soiled glasses (namely, one), your bereaved form was attired in a white
neckankecher [sic], and you was took on from motives of benevolence at The George and Gridiron,
theatrical and supper. Here, supporting nature on what you found in the plates(which was as it happened,
and but too often thoughtlessly, immersed in mustard), and on what you found in the glasses (which rarely
went beyond driblets and lemon), by night you dropped asleep standing, till you was cuffed awake, and by
day was set to polishing every individual article in the coffee-room. Your couch being sawdust; your
counterpane being ashes of cigars. Here, frequently hiding a heavy heart under the smart tie of your white
neck ankecher (or correctly speaking lower down and more to the left), you picked up the rudiments of
knowledge from an extra, by the name of Bishops, and by calling plate-washer, and gradually elevating
your mind with chalk on the back of the corner-box partition, until such time as you used the inkstand
when it was out of hand, attained to manhood, and to be the Waiter that you find yourself.
I could wish here to offer a few respectful words on behalf of the calling so long the calling of myself and
family, and the public interest in which is but too often very limited. We are not generally understood. No,
we are not. Allowance enough is not made for us. For, say that we ever show a little drooping listlessness
of spirits, or what might be termed indifference or apathy. Put it to yourself what would your own state of
mind be, if you was one of an enormous family every member of which except you was always greedy,
and in a hurry. Put it to yourself that you was regularly replete with animal food at the slack hours of one in
the day and again at nine p.m., and that the repleter [sic] you was, the more voracious all your
fellow-creatures came in. Put it to yourself that it was your business, when your digestion was well on, to
take a personal interest and sympathy in a hundred gentlemen fresh and fresh (say, for the sake of
argument, only a hundred), whose imaginations was given up to grease and fat and gravy and melted
butter, and abandoned to questioning you about cuts of this, and dishes of that, each of 'em going on as if
him and you and the bill of fare was alone in the world.
The discussion of visits to father's compartment in 1st paragraph suggests that
The kangaroo species __________ in the new environment where there was an abundant supply of food and a(n) __________ of predators.
The Amazonian wilderness harbors the greatest number of species on this planet and is an irreplaceable
resource for present and future generations. Amazonia is crucial for maintaining global climate and
genetic resources, and its forest and rivers provide vital sources of food, building materials,
pharmaceuticals, and water needed by wildlife and humanity. The Los Amigos watershed in the state of
Madre de Dios, southeastern Peru, is representative of the pristine lowland moist forest once found
throughout most of upper Amazonian South America. Threats to tropical forests occur in the form of
fishing, hunting, gold mining, timber extraction, impending road construction, and slash-and-burn
agriculture. The Los Amigos watershed, consisting of 1.6 million hectares (3.95 million acres), still offers
the increasingly scarce opportunity to study rainforest as it was before the disruptive encroachment of
modern human civilization. Because of its relatively pristine condition and the immediate need to justify it
as a conservation zone, this area deserves intensive, long-term projects aimed at botanical training,
ecotourism, biological inventory, and information synthesis. On July 24, 2001, the government of Peru
and the Amazon Conservation Association signed a contractual agreement creating the first long-term
permanently renewable conservation concession. To our knowledge this is the first such agreement to be
implemented in the world. The conservation concession protects 340,000 acres of old-growth Amazonian
forest in the Los Amigos watershed, which is located in southeastern Peru. This watershed protects the
eastern flank of Manu National Park and is part of the lowland forest corridor that links it to
Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. The Los Amigos conservation concession will serve as a mechanism for
the development of a regional center of excellence in natural forest management and biodiversity science.
Several major projects are being implemented at the Los Amigos Conservation Area. Louise Emmons is
initiating studies of mammal diversity and ecology in the Los Amigos area. Other projects involve studies
of the diversity of arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. Robin Foster has conducted botanical
studies at Los Amigos, resulting in the labeling of hundreds of plant species along two kilometers of trail in
upland and lowland forest. Michael Goulding is leading a fisheries and aquatic ecology program, which
aims to document the diversity of fish, their ecologies, and their habitats in the Los Amigos area and the
Madre de Dios watershed in general. With support from the Amazon Conservation Association, and in
collaboration with U.S. and Peruvian colleagues, the Botany of the Los Amigos project has been initiated.
At Los Amigos, we are attempting to develop a system of preservation, sustainability, and scientific
research; a marriage between various disciplines, from human ecology to economic botany, product
marketing to forest management. The complexity of the ecosystem will best be understood through a
multidisciplinary approach, and improved understanding of the complexity will lead to better management.
The future of these forests will depend on sustainable management and development of alternative
practices and products that do not require irreversible destruction. The botanical project will provide a
foundation of information that is essential to other programs at Los Amigos. By combining botanical
studies with fisheries and mammology, we will better understand plant/animal interactions. By providing
names, the botanical program will facilitate accurate communication about plants and the animals that
use them. Included in this scenario are humans, as we will dedicate time to people-plant interactions in
order to learn what plants are used by people in the Los Amigos area, and what plants could potentially
be used by people. To be informed, we must develop knowledge. To develop knowledge, we must collect,
organize, and disseminate information. In this sense, botanical information has conservation value.
Before we can use plant-based products from the forest, we must know what species are useful and we
must know their names. We must be able to identify them, to know where they occur in the forest, how
many of them exist, how they are pollinated and when they produce fruit (or other useful products). Aside
from understanding the species as they occur locally at Los Amigos, we must have information about their
overall distribution in tropical America in order to better understand and manage the distribution, variation,
and viability of their genetic diversity. This involves a more complete understanding of the species through
studies in the field and herbarium. The author mentions areas outside the Los Amigos watershed
primarily in order to