BIN-08 Reading Skills II

UNIVERSIDAD LATINA DE COSTA RICA                           Total Points:        20 points

English Department                                                         Points Obtained: _____

BIN-08 Reading Skills II

Reading Report 1                                                             Grade: __________

INSTRUCTOR:   Jonathan Acuña                                      Time:  60 minutes

Name:   Sonia Arguedas Montero                                   Date:    Wednesday,  May 23th, 2012

 Part 1

Read the following article and choose the best response that answers the questions below Answer all questions following the passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. (9 points)

    While the written word has done much to preserve history, pictures are necessary to supplement the printed page. No other section of the American frontier has been so richly endowed with a pictorical record of its past as has the area encompassed by the headwaters of the Missouri River and its tributary, the   5 Yellowstone. For almost a century, beginning in the 1830s, artists with pencil and brush added to the record. Although paintings and drawings often provide a very valuable record, when pictures are considered from the standpoint of exactness, the work of the photographer must come first.

    In the spring of 1886, a 30-year-old sodbuster who had worked briefly as a10 photographer back East hit upon the idea of producing an album of his fellow settlers. For the next 15 years, as the pioneer era drew to a close, Solomon D. Butcher crisscrossed Custer County, Nebraska, in a wagon that served as his studio. He announced his forays with notices in the local newspaper: “Farmers, have your farm photos taken for Butcher’s Pioneer History.”The fact that Butcher

15      was himself a farmer provided rapport with his subjects. But his genius as a photographer lay in allowing them to pose as they wished, against scenes of their own choosing. The portraits that resulted convey the dignity of pioneers in challenging circumstances, and they remain a classic record of a resolute breed.        Another pictorical account of the American frontier was left by L. A. Huffman, a

20      young man of pioneer stock who arrived in the Montana Territory in 1876 to work as a post photographer. When he died in 1931, Huffman left a priceless collection of pictures of Indians in the last days of buffalo-skin tepees, the buffalo hunters in the days of the open range, the lonely life of the sheepherder, the growth of the range towns, the coming of the railroads, and the final infiltration of the “plow

25      man.”

01.     The topic of this passage is

a.                  enterprising young frontiersmen

b.                  photographic accounts                       x

c.                   pioneer history

d.                  art in America

 02. According to the passage, which of the following media gives the most precise record of a subject or scene?

 a.        painting

 b.       drawing

 c.        journalism

 d.       photography                                    x

03. The word “sodbuster” in line 9 is closest in meaning to

 a.        someone who fights a lot

 b.       a homeless person

 c.        an agricultural worker

 d.       a journalist                                        x

04. According to the article, what was Butcher most noted for?

 a.        His advertising techniques.

 b.       His compatibility with his clients.         

 c.        The poses and settings of his portraits.               x

 d.       The technical ability he demonstrated in photography.

 05. The word “rapport” in line 15 is closest in meaning to

a.         spontaneous entertainment

b.        mutual understanding

c.         slight acquaintance                                       x

d.        artist skill

 06. The author implies in the passage that Butcher’s photography was

a.         realistic

c.         colorful

b.        expensive

d.        pretentious

 07. The word “they” in line 18 refers to

 a.        the scenes

 b.       the circumstances

 c.        the portraits                                     x

 d.       the pioneers

 08. The word “priceless” in line 21 is closest in meaning to

 a.        expensive

b.        limited

 c.        rustic

 d.       valuable                                             x

3. 09. We can infer from lines 21-24 that life on the western frontier during Huffman’s lifetime

a.            had changed greatly                     x

b.            was very romantic

c.            was industrially based

d.            had attracted national attention

Part 2

Re-read the article and provide a definition for the following terms. You may use a dictionary, but phrase you definition by using your own words. (11 points)

01.     frontier:                          the  line that divides  two countries

02.     richly endowed               to have or own a wide  property or quality

03.     tributary                         a river  that discharges  in a larger one

04.      record                            information that is kept in a file or in the computer

05.      fellow settlers              people who shared their arrival to a place and develop their life there

06.     crisscrossed                  to go over and come back in a place in different directions

07.      forays                           to go a place in order to know it exhaustively

08.      convey                          to transmit or communicate  something to other people  

09.      resolute breed              people who believe  and fight  strongly in an objective

10.      tepees                          tents used by American natives usually in a conical shape

11.      sheepherder                 group of animals whose skin is covered by wool

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