TOEFL Test Preparation

Reading Test 1

Passage 1 - The Air Port

Read the given passage and answer the questions given below.

At half past six on a Friday evening in January, Lincoln International Airport, Illinois, was functioning, though with difficulty. The airport was reeling – as was the entire Midwestern United States – from the meanest, roughest winter storm in half a dozen years. The storm had lasted three days. (Para 1)

A United Air Lines food truck, loaded with two hundred dinners, was lost and presumably snowbound somewhere on the airport perimeter. A search for the truck – in driving snow and darkness – had so far failed to locate either the missing vehicle or its driver. Similar delays, for varying reasons were affecting at least a hundred flights of twenty other airlines using Lincoln International. (Para 2)

Out on the airfield, one runway was out of use, blocked by an Aereo-Mexican jet – a Boeing 707 – its wheels deeply mired in waterlogged ground beneath snow, near the runway’s edge. Two hours of intensive effort had failed to get the big jet moved. (3)

Air Traffic Control, hampered by the loss of the runway had instituted flow control procedures, limiting the volume of incoming traffic from adjoining air route centers. Despite this twenty incoming flights were stacked up overhead, and orbiting, some nearing low fuel limits. On the ground, twice that number were readying for take off. But until the backlog of flights in the air could be reduced, ATC had ordered further delays of outbound traffic. Meanwhile terminal gates, taxiways, and ground holding areas were increasingly crammed with waiting aircraft, many with engines running. (Para 4)

Airfreight warehouses – of all airlines – were stacked to their palletized limits with shipments, their usual high speed transit impeded by the storm. Freight supervisors were nervously watching perishables – flowers from Wyoming for New England; a ton of Pennsylvania cheese for Alaska; frozen peas for Iceland; live lobsters – transshipped from the east for Europe. The lobsters were for tomorrow’s menus in Edinburgh and Paris where they would be billed as ‘fresh local seafood’, and American tourists would order them unknowingly. Storm or not, contracts decreed that air freight perishables must arrive at destination fresh, and swiftly. (Para 5)

In the main passenger terminal, chaos predominated. Terminal waiting areas were jammed with thousands of passengers from delayed or cancelled flights. Baggage, in piles was everywhere. The vast main concourse had the combined appearance of a football scrimmage and Christmas Eve and Macy’s. (Para 6)

Article courtesy – ‘Air Port’ by Arthur Halley

TOEFL Reading Exercise 1

1. The food truck mentioned in the passage was to serve which of the following flights?

a) United Airlines Flight I
b) United Flight III
c) An Aereo Mexican jet
d) A Boeing 707

2. Flowers for New England are transshipped from

a) Alaska
b) Wyoming
c) Pennsylvania
d) Boston

3. Look at the word their in Para 5. What word does ‘their’ refer to?

Airfreight warehouses – of all airlines – were stacked to their palletized limits with shipments, their usual high speed transit impeded by the storm. Freight supervisors were nervously watching perishables – flowers from Wyoming for New England; a ton of Pennsylvania cheese for Alaska; frozen peas for Iceland; live lobsters – transshipped from the east for Europe. The lobsters were for tomorrow’s menus in Edinburgh and Paris where they would be billed as ‘fresh local seafood’, and American tourists would order them unknowingly. Storm or not, contracts decreed that air freight perishables must arrive at destination fresh, and swiftly.

4. Look at the word delays in paragraph 2. What word is closest in meaning to delays in paragraph 2?

A United Air Lines food truck, loaded with two hundred dinners, was lost and presumably snowbound somewhere on the airport perimeter. A search for the truck – in driving snow and darkness – had so far failed to locate either the missing vehicle or its driver. United Flight III which the food truck was to serve was already several hours behind schedule. Similar delays, for varying reasons were affecting at least a hundred flights of twenty other airlines using Lincoln International.

5. Look at the word overhead in paragraph 4. What word/phrase is closest in meaning to overhead in paragraph 4?

Air Traffic Control, hampered by the loss of the runway had instituted flow control procedures, limiting the volume of incoming traffic from adjoining air route centers. Despite this twenty incoming flights were stacked up overhead, and orbiting, some nearing low fuel limits. On the ground, twice that number were readying for take off. But until the backlog of flights in the air could be reduced, ATC had ordered further delays of outbound traffic. Meanwhile terminal gates, taxiways, and ground holding areas were increasingly crammed with waiting aircraft, many with engines running.

6. The lobsters transshipped from the east are for menus in

a) Boston and Washington
b) Edinburgh and Paris
c) Alaska and New England
d) Wyoming and Pennsylvania

7. The following sentence can be inserted into paragraph 2. State where it can be inserted?

United Flight III which the food truck was to serve was already several hours behind schedule.

1. A United Air Lines food truck, loaded with two hundred dinners, was lost and presumably snowbound somewhere on the airport perimeter. 2. A search for the truck – in driving snow and darkness – had so far failed to locate either the missing vehicle or its driver. 3. Similar delays, for varying reasons were affecting at least a hundred flights of twenty other airlines using Lincoln International. (Para 2)

Answers

1. United Flight III
2. Wyoming
3. Airfreight warehouses
4. behind schedule
5. in the air
6. Edinburgh and Paris
7. at 3

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