Выберите среди предложенных ответов единственный и отметьте соответствующую ему цифру в бланке ответов на пересечении номера вопроса и номера ответа.

Тест состоит из 50 заданий и рассчитан на 60 минут.

I. Прочтите текст, выберите единственный правильный ответ на вопросы, следующие за текстом. (задания 1 - 5)

Housewives in the Old West For many people, the image of the woman in movies about the old West is a gentle one of a mother quietly tending to her kitchen, shopping at the general store, and raising her children. In fact, the days of a housewife in the 19th century America were spent in harsh physical labor. Preparing even a simple meal was a time and energy consuming chore. Prior to the twentieth century, cooking was performed on a coal or wood burning stove. Unlike an electric or a gas range, which can be turned off with a flick of a single switch, iron and steel stoves were especially difficult to use. Housewives would first have to clean out the ashes left from previous fires. Then, she had to make a fire and make sure it had enough wood or coal for it to keep burning. All day long, the stove had to be fed with new supplies of coal or wood – an average of fifty pounds or more. At least twice a day, the ash box under the fire had to be emptied. All together, a housewife spent four hours every day rubbing the stove with thick black wax to keep it from rusting, lighting the fire, sifting ashes, and wood or coal.

It was not enough just to be skilled at operating a stove. She also had to know how to prepare unprocessed foods for consumption. Prior to the 1890s, there were few factory-prepared foods. Shoppers bought poultry that was still alive, which had to be killed. Fish had to have scales removed. Green coffee had to be roasted and ground. Cleaning was an even more difficult task than cooking. The smoke from stoves darkened walls and carpets, gas and kerosene lamps left smelly deposits of black soot on furniture and curtains. So, the floors had to be constantly scrubbed, rugs beaten, and windows washed. Moreover, the job of bringing water into the house was itself a challenge, since indoor plumbing was available only to the wealthy. Women had to carry water into the house from a well or a spring on average ten times a day. Washing, boiling, and rinsing a single load of laundry used about forty liters of water. Homes without running water also lacked the simplest way to dispose of dirty water: sinks with drains. That meant that women had to remove dirty dishwater by hand. That said, the destiny of a woman in the Old West was a constant fight for decent household conditions for her family and was sometimes even harder than the job of a man fulfilling his duties at an official job.

1. The author’s purpose in this passage is to

1) teach how to operate a wood or a coal stove.

2) illustrate the destiny of a housewife in the old times.

3) show a process of preparing food.

4) make men respect women.

2. Which statement below would most likely be the main idea of the entire passage?

1) Each household chore was a challenge.

2) It was hard to make a fire and keep it burning.

3) All women were slaves throughout the whole 19th century.

4) Men were equal with women.