Reading exercise with key

Read the following passage carefully, and then answer the question below
Exercise 1
English is the language of the people of England in the south of the island of Great Britain. In the north of this island lies Scotland. To the west of England is Wales. The island of Ireland lies to the west of Great Britain. More than a thousand years ago the people who lived in these four countries were different, and they spoke different languages.
Great Britain is not a large country. It is much smaller than France or Norway and smaller than Finland. England is the largest part of Britain and it has always been the strongest. Today the official name of Great Britain is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. English is the official language in all parts of the country.
In the United States of America English is called the national language, the language of the American nation. Four hundred years ago some English people sailed to North America to live there, and they brought the English language to this new country. After that same people from all the countries of Europe came and they learned English, but they made it a little different from British English. In the USA now people speak American English. Many words are the same in American and in British English, but the American people do not speak the English language in the same way as people do in England.
1. Which part of Great Britain is the largest?
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2. What is the official language in Great Britain?
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3. What is the national language in the United States of America?
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4. Who brought the English language to America?
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Exercise 2
Some Of The World`s Smallest Countries
One of the smallest countries in the world is San Marino, a republic high in the mountains of Italy. It is also the oldest, because it was founded some 1,500 years ago. San Marino covers 61 square kilometers and has over 17 thousand people. San Marino coins and stamp are eagerly bought by collectors.
One of the popular small countries in the stamp album is Andora, the mountain state of 11 thousand people which is high in the Pyrenees, between France and Spain. Anyone who collects the stamps of Andora soon notices a strange thing about them. Some stamps are printed in Spain and have values in Francs of Centimes and their inscriptions is in French.
The reason for this lies in Andora`s history. For nearly 700 years the little state has been under the joint protection of France and Spain, and these two countries have separate postal services in Andora. In the chief village of Andora the Spanish and the French post-offices stand near each other but sell different stamps.
1. Where is San Marino situated?
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2. And where is Andora situated?
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3. What is a strange thing about stamps in Andora?
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4. Why are there postal services of both Spain and France in Andora?
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What are some of the things that are similar in San Marino and in Andora?
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Exercise 3
Computers: Good Or Bad
For good or bad, computers are now part of our daily life. With the price of a small home computer now as low as $50, experts predict that before long all schools and businesses and most families in the richer parts of the world will own a computer of some kind. Among general public, computers arouse strong feelings. People either love them or hate them.
The computer-lovers talk about how useful computers can be in business, in education and in the home. Apart from all games, you can do on them, your accounts on them, learn languages from them, write letters on them, and in some places even do your shopping with them. Computers, they say will also bring more leisure, as more and more unpleasant jobs are taken over by computerized robots.
The latter, on the other hand, argue that computers bring not leisure but unemployment. They worry, too that people who spend all the time talking to computers will forget how to talk to each other. Their biggest fear is that computers may eventually take over from human being altogether.
1. What do experts predict?
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2. What feeling do computers arouse among people?
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3. Give one argument against computers.
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4. What is the biggest fear of the computer haters?
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5. Would you like to have a computer? Why (not)?
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Exercise 4
The Importance of Plants
Man has always depended on plants for food and many other useful products. For this reason, farming is one of the world`s most important industries. At first, early man did not know how to plant seeds and raise crops. He gathered wild fruits and vegetables where he found them. Then man discovered how to grow his own food. He planted seeds and waited for the crop to grow. For the first time, he could be reasonably sure of his food supply. He could settle down and build shelters in