1. The confusion and congestion of individual citizens looking for their letters was itself enough to discourage use of the mail. It is no wonder that, during the years of these cumbersome arrangements, private letter-carrying and express businesses developed.

　　The word "cumbersome" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) burdensome

　　(B) handsome

　　(C) loathsome

　　(D) quarrelsome

　　2. But this delivery service was at first confined to cities, and free home delivery became a mark of urbanism. As late as 1887, a town had to have 10,000 people to be eligible for free home delivery.

　　The word "Confined" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) granted

　　(B) scheduled

　　(C) limited

　　(D) recommended

　　3. They were, by training, social scientists, not historians, and their work tended to reflect this bias. The questions they framed and the techniques they used were designed to help them understand, as scientists, how people behaved.

　　The word "framed" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(B) read

　　(C) avoided

　　(D) posed

　　4. In Kingston, New York, for example, evidence has been uncovered that indicates that English goods were being smuggled into that city at a time when the Dutch supposedly controlled trading in the area.

　　The word "supposedly" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) ruthlessly

　　(B) tightly

　　(C) barely

　　(D) seemingly

　　5. And in Sacramento an excavation at the site of a fashionable nineteenth-century hotel revealed that garbage had been stashed in the building's basement despite sanitation laws to the contrary.

　　The word "sanitation" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) city

　　(B) housing

　　(C) health

　　(D) trade

　　6. When Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1864, there were many conflicting theories about the nature of the Earth's interior. Some geologists thought that it contained a highly compressed ball of incandescent gas, while others suspected that it consisted of separate shells, each made of a different material.

　　The word "conflicting" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) controlling

　　(B) outdated

　　(C) opposing

　　(D) important

　　7. Beyond a depth of around 2,900 kilometers, a great change takes place and the mantle gives way to the core.< Some seismic waves cannot pass through the core and others are bent by it. From this and other evidence, geologists conclude that the outer core is probably liquid, with a solid center. It is almost certainly made of iron, mixed with smaller amount of other elements such as nickel.

　　The phrase "gives way to" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) runs along

　　(B) rubs against

　　(C) turns into

　　(D) floats on

　　8. Although scientists can speculate about its nature, neither humans nor machines will ever be able to visit it.

　　The word "speculate" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) report

　　(B) learn

　　(C) worry

　　(D) hypothesize

　　9. Farmers could get better prices for their crops if the alternative existed of sending them directly eastward to market, and merchants could sell larger quantities of their manufactured goods if these could be transported more directly and more economically to the west.

　　The word "alternative" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) option

　　(B) transition

　　(C) intention

　　(D) authorization

　　10. The distance was more than 350 miles, and there were ridges to cross and a wilderness of woods and swamps to penetrate.

　　The word "penetrate" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) cut down

　　(B) go through

　　(C) fill up

　　(D) take over