UTBK - Literasi Bahasa Inggris

Reading Comprehension Drill

Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension 2
Doc Name:001817 Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension Version:202212120926
2

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This text is for question number 1 to 5.

Thor, Odin, Freyja, and the other Norse gods are well-known names even today, but figuring out what the Vikings
actually believed about them is a tricky business. Prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries and travelers starting around
A.D. 800, the people of Scandinavia didn't write much of anything down. The sagas, poems and ballads that record the
tales of the Norse pantheon were all written down relatively late, between the 12th and 14th centuries. When the tales
were written down, Christians or people who'd come in contact with Christians were the ones doing the writing — meaning
it's hard to say whether Christian values had colored the tales.

          (1) Still, the sagas and poems do reveal some information about pre-Christian Scandinavian belief, particularly when
combined with archaeological evidence. (2) There is an ongoing anthropological debate over whether supernatural beliefs
form the scaffolding of complex societies. (3) Some evidence from history and psychology studies suggests that a god or
gods can keep people in line with the threat of punishment, thus increasing cooperation, even among strangers. (4) But if
this is true, it's not entirely clear whether a "big" god like the all-knowing god of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faiths is
necessary. (5) There also exists an argument that any sort of monitoring by otherworldly beings will do the trick. 

          The Vikings were an intriguing case study for the question of whether a god or gods can help facilitate the
development of a complex society, because they went through major changes between around A.D. 750 and A.D. 1050. At
the beginning of this period, Scandinavia was peopled by small tribes. By the end, it was a hierarchical society of
kingdoms, politics and laws that was capable of launching seafaring expeditions all the way to North America. Researchers
wanted to know if moralizing high gods, or "big" gods like the God of the Bible, were necessary for this transformation.

Adapted from livescience.com (with modifications)

No. 1
What is the main purpose of paragraph 1?

A. To illustrate the impact of the Christian missionaries and travelers on Scandinavian society.
B. To assert the importance of the Norse gods’ existence in early Scandinavian society.
C. To discuss how it's difficult to decipher what the Scandinavians believed about their gods.
D. To describe what the sagas, poems, and ballads actually tell about the Norse pantheons.
E. To explain why the sagas, poems, and ballads can’t help in understanding the Norse belief.

No. 2
“There is an ongoing anthropological debate over whether supernatural beliefs form the scaffolding of complex societies.”
The word ‘scaffolding’ in paragraph 2 has the closest meaning to ….

A. beginning
B. continuity
C. demise
D. destruction
E. support

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 UTBK - Literasi Bahasa Inggris
Reading Comprehension Drill
Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension 2
Doc Name:001817 Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension Version:202212120926
2

No. 3
Which of the sentences in paragraph 2 is the least relevant?

A. (1)
B. (2)
C. (3)
D. (4)
E. (5)

No. 4
“At the beginning of this period, Scandinavia was peopled by small tribes. By the end, it was a hierarchical society of
kingdoms, politics, and laws that was capable of launching seafaring expeditions all the way to North America.”
Which of the following best paraphrases the statement above?

A. Scandinavians who started as small tribes were able to advance to a complex society with kingdoms, politics, and
laws that was able to do expeditions overseas as far as the American continent.
B. Scandinavians were able to launch seafaring expeditions because they started off as small tribes that eventually
grew into a hierarchical society with kingdoms, politics, and laws.
C. Even though at the beginning of the period Scandinavians only lived as small tribes, they strived to be better and
became a complex society that were able to do seafaring expeditions that reached North America.
D. Scandinavians who were small tribes wouldn’t have been able to launch seafaring expeditions to North America
had they not been a hierarchical society of kingdoms, politics, and laws.
E. Scandinavians were launching seafaring expeditions to North America in order to transform their society from
small tribes into a hierarchical one with kingdoms, politics, and laws.

No. 5
“Researchers wanted to know if moralizing high gods, or "big" gods like the God of the Bible, were necessary for this
transformation.”
The statement above uses the word “if” most similarly to ….

A. If the world didn’t revolve around me, then why do many people want my affection?
B. Mark will go and join the debate extracurricular club if you also come with him.
C. Would she have practiced all these songs if you hadn’t come and supervised her?
D. If your opinion were really true, I’m sure nobody would have berated you for saying it.
E. My best friend always asks if I am interested in dating any of her boy friends.

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 UTBK - Literasi Bahasa Inggris
Reading Comprehension Drill
Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension 2
Doc Name:001817 Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension Version:202212120926
2

This text is for question number 6 to 10.

A mysterious dynasty of foreigners may not have invaded and taken control of ancient Egypt as was long thought.
Rather, the ethnic group known as the Hyksos seems to have seized power from within Egypt. Although the Hyksos ruled
Egypt from 1638 B.C. to 1530 B.C, a new study, which involved chemical analyses of teeth collected from Hyksos
cemeteries, suggests that this ethnic group had thrived in Egypt for generations. 

Though the Hyksos were the first foreigners to rule ancient Egypt, written records of their reign are scant. For
hundreds of years, the only known mention of the Hyksos was in the Greek tome "Aegyptiaca," or "History of Egypt,"
written by a Ptolemaic priest named Manetho who lived in the early third century B.C. and who chronicled the rule of the
pharaohs. 

According to Manetho, the Hyksos made their move after the end of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, which crumbled
around 1650 B.C. During a time when Egypt was in turmoil, Hyksos leaders purportedly led an invading army "sweeping in
from the northeast and conquering the northeastern Nile Delta," researchers wrote in a new study, published online today
(July 15) in the journal PLOS One.

Deciphered hieroglyphics later provided historians with a little more detail about the alleged Hyksos coup, but
accounts of this dynasty remained biased and incomplete. Egyptian rulers frequently destroyed records or spread
propaganda about their predecessors, and the Hyksos people were linked to "disorder and chaos" by the dynasties that
succeeded them, according to the study.

Adapted from livescience.com (with modifications)

No. 6
According to the text, which of the following is incorrect about the Hyksos?

A. They were an ethnic group that had lived in Egypt for generations by the time they took the reins.
B. Records about their reign are few and colored with possibly false information by their successors.
C. Manetho was the only person living in the Hyksos’ time whose records of them are still well preserved.
D. Hieroglyphics help historians unravel how the Hyksos overthrew Egypt’s then reigning dynasty.
E. Instead of invading from outside, they might have taken over ancient Egypt from inside of the kingdom.

No. 7
There are barely any written records that immortalized the history of The Hyksos' reign in Egypt because ….

A. possibly only Manetho, a Ptolemaic priest, had enough evidence to write about the Hyksos’ reign
B. a coup took Egypt at one fell swoop and destroyed all existing records of the Hyksos and their influence
C. as a representation of ‘disorder’, writing down their history was not on top of the Hyksos’ priorities
D. the Hyksos’ reign didn’t last long enough for their written records to be as extensive as their predecessors’
E. the Hyksos’ successors possibly tried to blur their history and influence by vandalizing their record

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 UTBK - Literasi Bahasa Inggris
Reading Comprehension Drill
Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension 2
Doc Name:001817 Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension Version:202212120926
2

No. 8
What is the most likely reason the author mentions Manetho and his writing in paragraph 2?

A. to show some solid evidence that the Hyskos indeed existed in the history of Egypt
B. to emphasize how rare the written records about the Hyksos’ reign in ancient Egypt are
C. to convince readers that the Hyksos as an ethnic group had thrived in Egypt for generations
D. to provide support to the study that the Hyksos ruled Egypt from 1638 B.C. to 1530 B.C.
E. to further elaborate chemical analysis done on the teeth collected from the Hyksos’ cemeteries

No. 9
How does the author organize paragraph 4?

A. The author presents a statement, and then its contrasting argument.

B. The author presents a problem, and then its possible cause.
C. The author mentions an event, and then describes its details.
D. The author presents a problem, and then its possible effects.
E. The author shows an argument, and then the evidence that it’s true.

No. 10
The word ‘though’ in the second paragraph can be replaced with ….

A. despite
B. however
C. yet
D. although
E. regardless of

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 UTBK - Literasi Bahasa Inggris
Reading Comprehension Drill
Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension 2
Doc Name:001817 Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension Version:202212120926
2

This text is for number 11 to 14.

[1] Hundreds of years ago, Indigenous people in coastal Peru may have collected the scattered remains of their
dead from desecrated graves and threaded reed posts through the spinal bones. Scientists recently counted nearly 200 of
these bone-threaded posts in stone tombs in Peru's Chincha Valley, and they suspect that the practice arose as a means of
reassembling remains after the Spanish had looted and desecrated Indigenous graves.

[2] Archaeologists investigated 664 graves in a 15-square-mile (40 square kilometers) zone that contained 44
mortuary sites. They documented 192 examples of posts threaded with vertebrae.

[3] The researchers then measured the amount of radioactive carbon in the bones and reed posts. Radioactive
carbon accumulates when an organism is alive but decays to nitrogen at a constant rate once the organism is dead. So
based on the amount of this carbon, the scientists could estimate when the posts were assembled.

[4] Their analysis placed the vertebrae and posts between A.D. 1450 and 1650−  a time when the Inca Empire was
crumbling and European colonizers were consolidating power, the researchers wrote in a new study. This was a period of
upheaval and crisis in which Indigenous tombs were frequently desecrated by the Spanish, and Chincha people may have
revisited looted tombs and threaded spinal bones on reeds in order to reconstruct disturbed burials, said lead study author
Jacob Bongers, a senior research associate of archaeology with the Sainsbury Research Unit at the University of East
Anglia in the United Kingdom.

No. 11
The bolded word 'may' in paragraph 4 states a ....

A. ability
B. wish
C. obligation
D. permission
E. possibility

No. 12
Which paragraph informs about the procedure used to discover the remains' ages?

A. Paragraph 1
B. Paragraph 2
C. Paragraph 3
D. Paragraph 4
E. None of the above

No. 13
The main topic of the text is ....

A. the ages of vertebrae posts

B. the vertebrae post's past purpose
C. indigenous people's past habits
D. the discovery of vertebrae posts
E. the discovery of archaeologists and scientists

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Reading Comprehension Drill
Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension 2
Doc Name:001817 Tes Evaluasi Reading Comprehension Version:202212120926
2

No. 14
Based on the text, we can conclude that ....

A. Vertebrae posts were found in the graves ruined by the Spanish

B. The vertebrae posts were a cursed symbol for the dead.
C. Carbon amounts in remains are irrelevant in determining the vertebrae posts' age.
D. Half of the graves investigated by archeologists contained vertebrae posts.
E. The vertebrae posts were not correlated to a part of history.

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