Soal TOEFL dan Kunci Jawaban -Reading: Pacific Ocean

Soal TOEFL dan Kunci Jawaban -Reading: Pacific Ocean

Soal TOEFL dan Kunci Jawaban -Reading

Next to its sheer size, the profound isolation of its many small islands is the most distinctive feature of the Pacific Ocean. Over 25,000 islands are scattered across the surface of the Pacific, more than in all the other oceans combined, but their land area adds up to little more than 125,000 square kilometers, about the size of New York State, and their inhabitants total less than two million people, about a quarter of the number that live in New York City. The oceanic islands of the Pacific are some of the most isolated places on Earth. Many are uninhabitable, by virtue of their small size and particular characteristics, but even the most favored are very isolated fragments of land, strictly circumscribed by the ocean, strictly limited in terms of the numbers of people they can support. This basic fact of environmental circumstance has been the most pervasive influence in determining the social arrangements, and cultural practices of the people that settled in the Pacific Islands.

The peopling of the Pacific Islands has been described as the greatest feat of maritime colonization in human history. Contrary to the conclusions of Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki expedition of 1946, the evidence of plant dispersal, archaeology, linguistics, and genetics now shows quite conclusively that the Pacific Islands were not populated from tile east by South Americans who drifted on balsa-wood rafts and the prevailing wind and current, but from the west, by groups from mainland Asia who gradually spread from island to island out into the Pacific. The process began over 40,000 years ago and reached Easter Island the most isolated place on Earth-about 1.500 years ago. It ended about 1,000 years ago, when people first settled in Hawaii and New Zealand.

Simply surviving those ocean crossings of indeterminate length, in open canoes, to arrive on the shores of uninhabited and hitherto unknown islands, was a formidable achievement. But having found an oasis of land in a watery wilderness, crossed its reef, and landed, on its shores, the survivors then faced a series of pressing problems for which solutions had to be found quickly if the small group was to become a vigorous, self- sustaining island population.

32. The word "scattered" in line 2 is closest in meaning toD
(A) widely known
(B) usually estimated
(C) rarely inhabited
(D) irregularly distributed

33. Why does the author mention New population of the Pacific York City in line 5?
(A) To emphasize how small the Islands is
(B) To emphasize the extreme distances between the Pacific Islands and other regions
(C) To note the economic ties of the Pacific Islands to other regions
(D) To note the lack of urban environments on the Pacific Islands

34.The phrase "by virtue of" in line 6 is closest in meaning to
(A) regarding
(B) because of
(C) taking advantage of
(D) in place of

35. The word "circumscribed" in line 7 is closest in meaning to
(A) located
(B) flooded
(C) restricted
(D) pushed

36. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as evidence used to determine the origins of Pacific Islands people?
(A) Oral histories
(B) Plant dispersal
(C) Linguistics
(D) Archaeology

37. According to the-passage, where did the original inhabitants of the Pacific Islands come from?
(A) South America
(B) Hawaii
(C) New Zealand
(D) Asia

38.The word "It” in line 16 refers to
(A) Pacific
(B) process
(C) isolated place
(D) Earth

39. The word "indeterminate" in line 18 is closest in meaning to
(A) undecided
(B) uncertain
(C) unacceptable
(D) increasing

40. The passage is most likely followed by a discussion of
(A) how settlers adapted to newly discovered Pacific Ocean Islands
(B) the design and construction of canoes used in the Pacific Islands
(C) the characteristics sties of reefs in the Pacific Islands
(D) how early explorers of the Pacific Ocean found their way from island to island

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