Title VSTEP-Reading test 2.docx ✅

Code 2 - Page 1 of 15 READING PAPER 2 Time permitted: 60 minutes Number of questions: 40 ______________________________________________________________________ Directions:In this section you will read FOUR different passages. Each one is followed by 10 questions about it. For questions 1-40, you are to choose the best answer A, B, C or D, to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage. You have 60 minutes to answer all the questions, including the time to transfer your answers to the answer sheet. PASSAGE 1 – Questions 1-10 Buddhism comes from the word Buddha. Buddha was a person who lived more than two thousand five hundred years ago in India. His family was rich and he lived in a beautiful house with many servants. One day when he went out of his house, he looked at the people and asked himself these questions, “Why are people so unhappy? How can people be happy?” When he was twenty nine years old, he left his family and his beautiful home and went out into the world to find the answers to his questions. First, he studied with teachers but they did not answer his questions. After this, he lived by himself in the forest and he did not eat for many days. He tried to get away from his body and the world but this did not give him the answers to his questions. Then he sat down under a tree and he thought. He sat and thought for forty-nine days and after this time he learned something from himself. He became the Buddha. His questions were answered. People are unhappy because they want things. They are always looking for food, money and other things. When people do not want things, then they will be happy. When people do not want things, they are free. They stop thinking about themselves. They stop thinking about tomorrow and they are kind to others. These are the teachings of Buddha. Buddha’s

Code 2 - Page 3 of 15 B. he wanted to find out why people were not happy. C. he wanted to travel. D. he wanted to meet more unhappy people. 3. Why did Buddha decide not to eat for many days? A. He wanted to persuade other people not to eat. B. He did not want to spend money on food. C. He wanted his soul to escape from his body. D. He wanted to focus his thought on the world. 4. In which paragraph does the author present the answer to the happiness? A. Paragraph 1 B. Paragraph 2 C. Paragraph 3 D. Paragraph 4 5. Which sentence is not TRUE about Buddha? A. He died at the age of 80. B. He found the answers to his questions while being under a tree. C. He came from a rich family. D. All his teachings were written down right after his death. 6. Which sentence is not true about monks? A. They do not have to work to earn money. B. They spend most of the time spraying. C. When they are monks, they have to be monks for all their life. D. The most common time to be a monk is in the rainy season. 7. What is the main idea of paragraph 4? A. The reasons why monks do not need to work for money B. The reasons why monks have to spray for most of their time C. Characteristics of a monk’s life D. The reasons why life of a monk is not easy. 8. Look at paragraph 5, where the following sentence can be added? Their time spent being a monk is very important for Thai men. A. 8A B. 8B
Code 2 - Page 4 of 15 C. 8C D. 8D 9. What does “them” in paragraph 5 refer to? A. monks B. buddhists C. women D. nuns 10. What is the topic of the passage? A. The life story of Buddha B. The life story of monks C. The importance of Buddhism D. The origin of Buddhism PASSAGE 2 – Questions 11-20 If you can read a clock, you can know the time of day. But no one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing. For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe. One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated. A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. We know that time has passed when something changes. In the real world, the world with time, changes never stop. Some changes happen only once in a while, like an eclipse of the moon. Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun. Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves. When people began to count such events, they began to measure time. In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness.