Select the best answer among the choices given.

Living on land, however, are the land turtles, properly caled tortoises, of which there are approximately forty different kinds. Of these, Gopberus, including the three gopher tortoises, is found in the southern United States as far west as New Mexico. Gopher tortoises are so called because they dig long burrows, which may be nearly 50 feet long and provide a home for many other animals, such as frogs, snakes, and burrowing owls. They are primarily vegetarians, feeding on grass and leaves. Berlandier’s tortoise, a slow-moving inhabitant of the arid lands of southern Texas and Mexico, is especially fond of prickly-pear cactus.

The true tortoises come to water only to drink or bathe, and they are adapted to walking on land by their club-shaped feet. their limbs are covered with hard scales that often have a bony core. The shell is high-domed in all but a very few forms. The openings at the front and rear of the shell are usually neatly closed by the retracted limbs, on which the enlarged scales may be defensively augmented with still larger spines. The head can be entirely withdrawn, the elbows meeting in the middle in front of it and the claws of the forelimbs overlapping the lower edge of the opening at the front. The hard-scaled soles of the hind feet cover the openings at the rear.

Tortoises have become symbols of leisurely movement, of longevity, and of persistence, as in Aesop’s fable of the hare nad the tortoise. All tortoises share the ability to live to a great age, but the longest life of anytortoise of which there is an authentic record is of a great tortoise of the Seychelles Islands whose age was known to be not less that 180 years.

1. What is the main topic of the passage&

A. The characteristics of land turtles

B. The life spans of tortoises

C. The difference between the forty different kinds of land turtles

D. The symbolism associated with tortoises.

2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a characteristic of tortoises?

A. They have retracting limbs.

B. They are well adapted to water.

C. Their heads can be entirely withdtrawn into the shell.

D. They have long lives.

3. The word their in line 10 refers to

A. feet

B. limbs

C.scales

D. tortoises

4. Gopher tortoises primarily eat

A. frogs

B. snakes

C. grass and leaves

D. prickly-pear cactus

5. The word augmented in line 13 could be best replaced by

A. added

B. contained

C. restricted

D. enhanced

6. The passage precedeing this one is probably about

A. snails

B. water turltes

C. burrowing aniomals

D. owls

7. The word authentic in line 20 is closest in meaning to

A. written

B. historic

C.Genuine

D. legendary

8. It can be inferred from the passage that tortoises

A. are very aggressive

B. have a strong defence

C.are very vulnerable

D. may soon be extinct.

9. According to the passage, how did the gopher tortoise get its name?

A. From its diet consisting mainly of gophers

B. From one of Aesop’s fables

C. From being a vegetarian

D. From digging long burrows.