37.The word "cumbersome" in line 17 is closest in meaning to
(A) burdensome
(B) handsome
(C) loathsome
(D) quarrelsome
38.The word "they" in line 20 refers to
(A) Boston and Philadephia
(B) businesses
(C) arrangements
(D) letters
39.The private postal services of the nineteenth century claimed that they could do which of the following better than the government?
(A) Deliver a higher volume of mail.
(B) Deliver mail more cheaply.
(C) Deliver mail faster.
(D) Deliver mail to rural areas.
40.In 1863 the United States government began providing which of the following to mail carriers?
(A) A salary
(B) Housing
(C) Transportation
(D) Free postage stamps
41.The word "confined" in line 29 is closest in meaning to
(A) granted
(B) scheduled
(C) limited
(D) recommended
Questions 42-50
Archaeology has long been an accepted tool for studying
prehistoric cultures. Relatively recently the same techniques
have been systematically applied to studies of the more
immediate past. This has been called "historical archaeology," a
term that is used in the United States to refer to any
archaeological investigation into North American sites that postdate
the arrival of Europeans.
Back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, when building restoration
was popular, historical archaeology was primarily a tool of
architectural reconstruction. The role of archaeologists was to
find the foundations of historic buildings and then take a back
seat to architects.
The mania for reconstruction had largely subsided by the
1950’s and 1960’s. Most people entering historical archaeology
during this period came out of university anthropology de-
partments., where they had studied prehistoric cultures. They
were, by training, social scientists, not historians, and their
work tended to reflect this bias. The questions they framed
and the techniques they used were designed to help them
understand, as scientists, how people behaved. But because they
were treading on historical ground for which there was often
extensive written documentation and because their own knowledge
of these periods was usually limited, their contributions
to American history remained circumscribed. Their reports,
highly technical and sometimes poorly written, went unread.
More recently, professional archaeologists have taken
over. These researchers have sought to demonstrate that their
work can be a valuable tool not only of science but also of
history, providing fresh insights into the daily lives of ordinary
people whose existences might not otherwise be so well
documented. This newer emphasis on archaeology as social history
has shown great promise, and indeed work done in this area
has lead to a reinterpretation of the United States past.