Twentieth-century Japan faced the question of how to __ the best of modern civilization without losing the
benefits of Japan's __ way of life.

• A. assimilate . . traditional
• B. adopt . . outmoded
• C. reject . . ancient
• D. reshape . . historic
• E. incorporate . . contemporary

This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and
wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It
is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese
colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would
be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the
emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He
entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill
health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria.
When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were
attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees,
desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time,
Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the
militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group
of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting
black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he
mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It
was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in
Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which
imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the
Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in
Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he
published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director
Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international
stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be
more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away
from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to
furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his
continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier
commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual
of Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society.
The author refers to "the orbit" of Abe's work (2nd paragraph) to emphasize that

• A. the emperor is often compared to a sun.
• B. Abe's travels were the primary themes in his work.
• C. his work covers a wide range of themes.
• D. conventional themes can limit an author's individuality.
• E. Abe's work is so different from his contemporaries' that it is like another solar system.

He was a un-common small man, he really was. Certainly not so small as he was made out to be, but
where IS your Dwarf as is? He was a most uncommon small man, with a most uncommon large Ed; and
what he had inside that Ed, nobody ever knowed but himself: even supposin himself to have ever took
stock of it, which it would have been a stiff job for even him to do. The kindest little man as never growed!
Spirited, but not proud. When he travelled with the Spotted Baby though he knowed himself to be a nat'ral
Dwarf, and knowed the Baby's spots to be put upon him artificial, he nursed that Baby like a mother. You
never heerd him give a ill-name to a Giant. He DID allow himself to break out into strong language
respectin the Fat Lady from Norfolk; but that was an affair of the 'art; and when a man's 'art has been
trifled with by a lady, and the preference giv to a Indian, he ain't master of his actions.
He was always in love, of course; every human nat'ral phenomenon is. And he was always in love with a
large woman; I never knowed the Dwarf as could be got to love a small one. Which helps to keep 'em the
Curiosities they are.
One sing'ler idea he had in that Ed of his, which must have meant something, or it wouldn't have been
there. It was always his opinion that he was entitled to property. He never would put his name to anything.
He had been taught to write, by the young man without arms, who got his living with his toes (quite a
writing master HE was, and taught scores in the line), but Chops would have starved to death, afore he'd
have gained a bit of bread by putting his hand to a paper. This is the more curious to bear in mind,
because HE had no property, nor hope of property, except his house and a sarser. When I say his house,
I mean the box, painted and got up outside like a reg'lar six-roomer, that he used to creep into, with a
diamond ring (or quite as good to look at) on his forefinger, and ring a little bell out of what the Public
believed to be the Drawing-room winder. And when I say a sarser, I mean a Chaney sarser in which he
made a collection for himself at the end of every Entertainment. His cue for that, he took from me: "Ladies
and gentlemen, the little man will now walk three times round the Cairawan, and retire behind the curtain."
When he said anything important, in private life, he mostly wound it up with this form of words, and they
was generally the last thing he said to me at night afore he went to bed.
He had what I consider a fine mind--a poetic mind. His ideas respectin his property never come upon him
so strong as when he sat upon a barrel-organ and had the handle turned. Arter the wibration had run
through him a little time, he would screech out, "Toby, I feel my property coming--grind away! I'm counting
my guineas by thousands, Toby--grind away! Toby, I shall be a man of fortun! I feel the Mint a jingling in
me, Toby, and I'm swelling out into the Bank of England!" Such is the influence of music on a poetic mind.
Not that he was partial to any other music but a barrel-organ; on the contrary, hated it.
He had a kind of a everlasting grudge agin the Public: which is a thing you may notice in many
phenomenons that get their living out of it. What riled him most in the nater of his occupation was, that it
kep him out of Society. He was continiwally saying, "Toby, my ambition is, to go into Society. The curse of
my position towards the Public is, that it keeps me hout of Society. This don't signify to a low beast of a
Indian; he an't formed for Society. This don't signify to a Spotted Baby; HE an't formed for Society. I am."
Which selection best interprets "Chops would have starved to death, afore he'd have gained a bit of bread
by putting his hand to a paper" 4th paragraph

• A. He would starve before signing a performance contract as a phenomenon.
• B. He would starve before borrowing money to buy bread.
• C. He would starve before he would agree to anything.
• D. He would starve before wrapping paper around food showing distrust in the preparation of same.
• E. He would starve before he would accept charity from anyone.

Although often confused with each other, global warming and ozone depletion are two separate problems
threatening Earth's ecosystem today. Global warming is caused by the build-up of heat-trapping gases in
the atmosphere. It was dubbed the "greenhouse effect" because it is similar to a greenhouse in that the
sun's rays are allowed into the greenhouse but the heat from these rays in unable to escape. Ozone
depletion, however, is the destruction of the ozone layer. Chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons and
methyl bromide react with ozone, leaving a "hole" in the ozone layer that lets dangerous UV rays through.
Both are serious threats to life on Earth. While the greenhouse effect maintains the appropriate
temperature for life on Earth, problems are exacerbated when the quantity of greenhouse gases in the
Earth's atmosphere increases drastically. When this occurs, the amount of heat energy that is insulated
within the Earth's atmosphere increases correspondingly and results in a rise in global temperature.
An increase of a mere few degrees Celsius does not appear very threatening. However, numbers can be
deceiving. When you consider that the Ice Age resulted from temperatures only slightly cooler than those
today, it is obvious that even very subtle temperature changes can significantly impact global climate.
Global warming threatens to desecrate the natural habitats of organisms on Earth and disturb the stability
of our ecosystem. The climate changes that would result from global warming could trigger droughts, heat
waves, floods, and other extreme weather events.
Like most other environmental problems, humans are the cause of global warming. The burning of fossil
fuels is largely responsible for the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Every time someone drives a car or powers their home with energy derived from power plants that use
coal, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide
and methane have risen meteorically since preindustrial times, mainly due to the contributions of factories,
cars, and large-scale agriculture. Even if we immediately stopped emitting greenhouse gases, we would
continue to see the effects of global warming for decades because of the damage we have already
inflicted.
Despite the pessimistic outlook, there are things that can be done to reduce global warming. Although the
problem may seem overwhelming, individuals can make a positive difference in combating global
warming. Simple things like driving less, using public transportation, and conserving electricity generated
by combustion of fossil fuels can help reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. It is important to realize
that it is not too late to make a difference.
If everyone does what they can to reduce their contributions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, the
efforts of people around the world will act in concert to thwart the progression of global warming. If the
effort is not made immediately, the delicate global ecosystem could be thrown irreversibly out of balance,
and the future of life on Earth may be jeopardized.
The "greenhouse effect" is

• A. a type of gas
• B. ozone depletion
• C. a chemical that is harming Earth
• D. another term for the Ice Age
• E. global warming