EXERSICE 25.

PASSAGE ONE (Questions 1-5)

The United States does not have a national university, but the idea has been around for
quite some time. George Washington first recommended the idea to Congress; he even selected
an actual site in Washington, D.C., and then left an endowment for the proposed national
university in his will. During the century following the Revolution, the idea of a national
university continued to receive the support of various U.S. presidents, and philanthropist Andrew
Carnegie pursued the cause at the beginning of the present century. Although the original idea
has not yet been acted upon, it continues to be proposed in bills before Congress.

PASSAGE TWO (Questions 6-11)

The La Brea tarpits, located in Hancock Park in the Los Angeles area, have proven to be an
extremely fertile source of Ice Age fossils. Apparently, during the period of the Ice Age, the
tarpits were covered by shallow pools of water; when animals came there to drink, they got caught
in the sticky tar and perished. The tar not only trapped the animals, leading to their death, but it
also served as a remarkably effective preservant, allowing near-perfect skeletons to remain hidden
until the present era.
In 1906, the remains of a huge prehistoric bear discovered in the tarpits alerted
archeologists to the potential treasure lying within the tar. Since then thousands and thousands of
well-preserved skeletons have been uncovered, including the skeletons of camels, horses, wolves,
tigers, sloths, and dinosaurs.

PASSAGE THREE (Questions 12-17)

When the president of the United States wants to get away from the hectic pace in
Washington, D.C., Camp David is the place to go. Camp David, in a wooded mountain area about
70 miles from Washington, D.C., is where the president goes to find solitude. It consists of living
space for the president, the first family, and the presidential staff as well as sporting and
recreational facilities.
Camp David was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1942. He found the
site particularly appealing in that its mountain air provided relief from the summer heat of
Washington and its remote location offered a more relaxing environment than could be achieved
in the capital city.
When Roosevelt first established the retreat, he called it Shangri-La, which evoked the
blissful mountain kingdom in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon. Later, President Dwight David
Eisenhower renamed the location Camp David after his grandson David Eisenhower.
Camp David has been used for a number of significant meetings. In 1943 during World War
II, President Roosevelt met there with Great Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In 1959
at the height of the Cold War, President Eisenhower met there with Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev; in 1978 President Jimmy Carter sponsored peace talks between Israel’s Prime
Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt’s President Anwar el-Sadat at the retreat at Camp David.