Reading Test 14

TOEFL Readings 14

 

            The modern comic strip started out as ammunition in a newspaper war between

            giants of the American press in the late nineteenth century. The first full-color comic

            strip appeared January 1894 in the New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer. The

 Line     first regular weekly full-color comic supplement, similar to today's Sunday funnies,

  (5)      appeared two years later, in William Randolph Hearst's rival New York paper, the

            Morning Journal.

                Both were immensely popular, and publishers realized that supplementing the news

            with comic relief boosted the sale of papers. The Morning Journal started another

            feature in 1896, the "Yellow Kid," the first continuous comic character in the United

 (10)      States, whose creator, Richard Outcault, had been lured away from the World by the

            ambitious Hearst. The "Yellow Kid" was in many ways a pioneer. Its comic dialogue

            was the strictly urban farce that came to characterize later strips, and it introduced the

            speech ballon inside the strip, usually placed above the characters' heads.

                The first strip to incorporate all the elements of later comics was Rudolph Dirks's

 (15)      "Katzenjammer Kids," based on Wilhelm Busch's Max and Moritz, a European satire

            of the nineteenth century. The "Kids" strip, first published in 1897, served as the

            prototype for future American strips. It contained not only speech balloons, but a

            continuous cast of characters, and was divided into small regular panels that did away

            with the larger panoramic scenes of most earlier comics.

 (20)          Newspaper syndication played a major role in spreading the popularity of comic

            strips throughout the country. Though weekly colored comics came first, daily black-

            and-white strips were not far behind. The first appeared in the Chicago American in

            1904. It was followed by many imitators, and by 1915 black-and-white comic strips

            had become a staple of daily newspapers around the country.

 

 

 Questions

 

 

 

            31. What does the passage mainly discuss?

              (A) A comparison of two popular comic strips

              (B) The differences between early and modern comic strips

              (C) The effects of newspapers on comic strip stories

              (D) Features of early comic strips in the United States

 

            32. Why does the author mention Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Heart?

              (A) They established New York's first newspaper.

              (B) They published comic strips about the newspaper war.

              (C) Their comic strips are still published today.

              (D) They owned major competitive newspapers.

 

            33. The passage suggests that comic strips were popular for which of the

              following reasons?

              (A) They provided a break from serious news stories.

              (B) Readers enjoyed the unusual drawings.

              (C) Readers could identify with the characters

              (D) They were about real-life situations.

 

              34. To say that Richard Outcault had been“lured away from”the World by

              Heart (line10) means which of the following?

              (A) Hearst convinced Outcault to leave the World.

              (B) Hearst fired Outcault from the World.

              (C) Hearst warned Outcault not to leave the World.

              (D) Hearst wanted Outcault to work for the World.

 

            35. The word “it”in line 12 refers to

              (A) The“Yellow Kid”

              (B) dialogue

              (C) farce

              (D) balloon

 

            36. According to the passage, the “Yellow Kid” was the first comic strip

              to do all of the following EXCEPT

              (A) feature the same character in each episode

              (B) include dialogue inside a balloon

              (C) appear in a Chicago newspaper

              (D) characterize city life in a humorous way

 

            37. The word “incorporate”in line 14 is closest in meaning to

              (A) affect

              (B) create

              (C) combine

              (D) mention

 

            38. The word “prototype”in line 17 is closest in meaning to

              (A) story

              (B) humor

              (C) drawing

              (D) model

 

            39. The word “staple”in line 24 is closest in meaning to

              (A) regular feature

              (B) popular edition

              (C) new version

              (D) huge success

 

            40. In what order does the author discuss various comic strips in the passage?

              (A) In alphabetical order by title

              (B) In the order in which they were created

              (C) According to the newspaper in which they appeared

              (D) From most popular to least popular

 

 

Please tally your answer with the below provided answers and then comment here how much you got!

 

 

Answers

 

31. D    32. D     33. A    34. A    35. A    36. C      37. C    38. D    39. A    40. B