Test A: English (Listening) Part 1: Listen and answer questions 1-6

 

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Read the text and answer questions 51-55 
 
A Tasty Accident 
Antonio López de Santa Anna, a former president of Mexico, was living in New York in the late 
1860s. While he was there, he met with Thomas Adams, an inventor. Santa Anna shared with Adams 
his idea for an invention—a new process, really, for making rubber products such as tires. Rubber is a 
natural product, but it’s expensive. Santa Anna thought it would be possible to blend the rubber with 
chicle (CHIK-ul), the milky juice of a tropical tree. That would make rubber products much cheaper to 
produce. Adams told Santa Anna that he was willing to try. Later, Santa Anna arranged for one ton of 
chicle to be shipped to Adams from Mexico. 
Adams experimented for about a year, trying different blends of rubber and chicle. None of
them were successful. The inventor still had plenty of chicle left over and wondered what to do with it. 
Then he remembered Santa Anna’s stories of people chewing chicle in Mexico. So Adams made a 
small batch of chewing gum, packaged it, and sold it in local stores. The soft and springy gum was 
much tastier than other American gum, which was made from wax or tree sap. Although Adams’s 
original idea was a failure, chewing gum was a success. In 1871, he invented a machine to manufacture 
gum so he wouldn’t have to make it by hand. Adams enjoyed success for the rest of his life, and people 
have enjoyed all kinds of tasty gum for years. 
51. Where did Santa Anna meet with inventor? 
A) Mexico
B) New York 
C) California
D) Caracas 
52. What was the idea of Santa Anna? 
A) to make rubber product like tire 
B) to make rubber band 
C) to make aluminum can 
D) to make plastic bottle 
53. What does the word in bold mean? 
A) after 
B) current 
C) prior 
D) future 
54. What did Adams make from left over? 
A) tire
B) cup
C) knife 
D) chewing gum 
55. What were ingredients of Adams’ invention consist of? 
A) wax or tree sap
B) tree and sap 
C) sap and water 
D) lemon and wax