SOAL SIMAK UI BAHASA INGGRIS TAHUN 2013 KODE SOAL 436


SOAL SIMAK UI BAHASA INGGRIS

Alligators, which often engage in violent fights over territories and mates, have made scientists puzzled why their wounds rarely get infected. Now researchers think the secret lies in the reptiles’ blood. Chemists in Louisiana found that blood from the American alligator can successfully destroy 23 strains of bacteria, including strains known to be resistant to antibiotics. In addition, the blood was able to deplete and destroy a significant amount of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Study co-author Lancis Darville at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge believes that peptides – fragments of proteins – within alligator blood help the animals stop fatal infections. Such peptides are also found in the skin of frogs and toads, as well as komodo, dragons and crocodiles. The scientists think that these peptides could one day lead to medicines that would provide humans with the same antibiotic protection. ’We are in the process of separating and identifying the specific peptides in alligator blood,’ said Darville. ’Once we sequence these peptides, we can obtain their chemical structure to potentially create new drugs.’
Study co-author Mark Merchant, a biochemist at Mc Neese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was among the first to notice alligators’ unusual resistance. He was intrigued that, despite living in swampy environments where bacteria thrive, alligators that suffered frequent scratches and bruises rarely developed fatal infections. Merchant therefore created human and alligator serum-protein-rich blood plasma that has been able to remove clotting agents, and exposed each of them to 23 strains of bacteria. Human serum destroyed only eight of the bacterial strains while the alligator serum killed all 23. When the alligator was exposed to HIV, the researchers found that a good amount of the virus was destroyed.
The study team thinks that pills and creams containing alligator peptides could be available at level pharmacies within seven to ten years. Such products would be a solution to patients that need extra help preventing infections, such as diabetes patients with foot ulcers, burn victims and people suffering from auto-immune diseases. However, there may be potential problems before alligator-based medicines can reach drugstore shelves. For example, initial tests have revealed that higher concentrations of the alligator serum tend to be toxic to human cells.

Gunakan Petunjuk A dalam menjawab soal nomor 41 sampai nomor 45.

41. The paragraph that precedes the passage is likely about ...
(A) preliminary study on alligators in Lousiana swamps.
(B) alligator serum as infection-combat agent.
(C) the habitat and behavior of alligators.
(D) a strain of bacteria found in alligators.
(E) other studies on animal-based medicines.

42. The word ’deplete’ in line 4 is closest in meaning to ...
(A) diminish.
(B) drain.
(C) devastate.
(D) damage.
(E) demolish.

43. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE about peptides within alligators’ blood?
(A) They are fragments of proteins.
(B) They may stop fatal infections.
(C) They are injected in the human body.
(D) They are within the blood of reptiles.
(E) They have the same function as antibiotics.

44. The followings are what Merchant, the biochemist,experienced EXCEPT that he ...
(A) developed two kinds of serum, each can destroy23 strains of bacteria.
(B) learned why alligators can survive in bacterialenvironments.
(C) became interested in alligators’ resistance toinfections.
(D) created a serum which can remove things thatcause clotting.
(E) found out that crocodiles can decrease infectioncaused by HIV.

45. The writer concludes his essay by saying that ...
(A) scientists are now searching for a medicine against HIV.
(B) alligators have contributed a lot to stop human life.
(C) reptiles have peptides which can be used as serum.
(D) peptides in the blood are only found in American alligators.
(E) alligator serum has the possibility to harm human beings.

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change (46)_____ policies. Civil wars since the end of World War II have lasted on (47)_____ just over four years, a dramatic rise from the one-and-a-half year average of the 1900-1944 period. (48)_____ the rate of emergence of new civil wars has been relatively steady since the mid-19th century, the increasing length of those wars resulted in increasing numbers of wars ongoing at any one time. For example, there were no more than five civil wars underway (49)_____ in the first half of the 20th century, while over 20 concurrent civil wars were occurring at the end of the Cold War, before a significant decrease as conflicts strongly associated with the superpower rivalry came to an end. Since 1945, civil wars have resulted in the deaths of over 25 million people, as well as the forced displacement of millions more. Civil wars have further resulted in economic collapse; Burma (Myanmar), Uganda and Angola are examples of nations that were (50)_____ to have promising futures before being engulfed in civil wars.

Gunakan Petunjuk A dalam menjawab soal nomor 46 sampai nomor 50.

46. ....
(A) government
(B) governed
(C) governing
(D) governmental
(E) govern

47. ....
(A) approximation
(B) standard
(C) median
(D) estimate
(E) average

48. ....
(A) Because
(B) Unless
(C) Before
(D) While
(E) As if

49. ....
(A) consecutively
(B) simultaneously
(C) spontaneously
(D) separately
(E) repeatedly

50. ....
(A) consider
(B) considering
(C) considered
(D) considerate
(E) consideration

Mangroves live life on the edge. With one foot on land and one in the sea, these botanical amphibians occupy a zone of desiccating heat, choking mud, and salt levels that would kill an ordinary plant within hours. Yet the forests mangroves form are among (52)_____. Birds roost in the canopy, shellfish attach themselves to the roots, and snakes and crocodiles come to hunt. Mangroves provide nursery grounds for fish; a food source for monkeys, deer, tree-climbing crabs, even kangaroos; and a nectar source for bats and honeybees.
As a group, mangroves cannot (53)_____ too closely. There are some 70 species from two dozen families—among them palm, hibiscus, holly, plumbago, acanthus, legumes, and myrtle. They range from prostrate shrubs to 200-foot-high (60 meters) timber trees. Though most prolific in Southeast Asia, where they are thought to have originated, mangroves circle the globe. Most live within 30 degrees of the Equator, but a few hardy types (54)_____ to temperate climates, and one lives as far from the tropical sun as New Zealand. Wherever they live, they share one thing in common: They’re brilliant adapters. Each mangrove has an ultrafiltration system to keep much of the salt out and a complex root system that allows it to survive in the intertidal zone. Some have (56)_____ that stick out of the mud to help them take in air; others use prop roots or buttresses to keep their trunks upright in the soft sediments at tide’s edge.
These plants are also landbuilders par excellence. Some Aborigines in northern Australia believe one mangrove species resembles their primal ancestor, Giyapara, who walked across the mudflats and brought the tree into existence. The plants’ interlocking roots stop riverborne sediments from (57)_____ out to sea, and their trunks and branches serve as a palisade that diminishes the erosive power of waves.
They are sacrificed for salt pans, aquaculture ponds, housing developments, roads, port facilities, hotels, golf courses, and farms. And they die from a thousand indirect cuts: oil spills, chemical pollution, sediment overload, and disruption of their sensitive water and salinity balance. Calls for mangrove conservation gained a brief but significant hearing following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Where mangrove forests were intact, they not only served as natural breakwaters, (58)_____ by mitigating property damage, perhaps saving lives. The logic of allowing a country’s mangrove "bioshields" to be bulldozed looked flawed.

Gunakan Petunjuk A dalam menjawab soal nomor 51 sampai nomor 58.

51. The sentence ’Despite their strategic importance, mangroves are under threat worldwide.’ should be put as ...
(A) the last sentence of paragraph 1.
(B) the first sentence of paragraph 2.
(C) the last sentence of paragraph 2.
(D) the first sentence of paragraph 3.
(E) the first sentence of paragraph 4.

52. ....
(A) the most productive and complex biologically ecosystem on Earth
(B) the most productive and biologically complex ecosystem on Earth
(C) Earth most productive and biologically complex ecosystems
(D) biologically and most productive complex ecosystems on Earth
(E) the most complex ecosystems and biologically productive on Earth

53. ....
(A) define
(B) defined
(C) be defined
(D) defining
(E) be defining

54. ....
(A) adapt
(B) adapted
(C) are adapting
(D) have adapted
(E) had adapted

55. The expression ’they share one thing in common’ in the second paragraph means that they ...
(A) have to share one common thing.
(B) are sharing their similar things.
(C) have one similar characteristic.
(D) are common in most things.
(E) commonly share their things.

56. ....
(A) pneumatophores-like roots called snorkel
(B) snorkel which are like roots called pneumatophores
(C) pneumatophores-like snorkel roots
(D) roots which are like pneumatophores snorkel
(E) snorkel-like roots called pneumatophores

57. ....
(A) course
(B) courses
(C) coursed
(D) coursing
(E) the course

58. ....
(A) and broke up the energy of the waves
(B) but also breaking up the energy of the waves
(C) as well as breaking up the energy of the waves
(D) but also broke up the energy of the waves
(E) but breaking up the energy of the waves too

Journalism in the modern sense is one of the younger professions. The first prototype of the modern newspaper was the series of public announcements, known during the Roman Empire as the Acta Diurna and later in Venice as the Gazzetta. Similar official reports were made in China, where the earliest newspaper, the Tching-pao, or News of the Palace, began its daily appearance in Peking in the middle of the 8th century A.D. Until the invention of printing, however, the dissemination of news was largely dependent upon private correspondence or word of mouth. The invention of printing from movable type by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz about 1450 revolutionized the spreading of news. According to one tradition, the first printed newssheet appeared at Nuremberg in 1457. The letter of Christopher Columbus announcing in 1493 the results of his first expedition to the New World was distributed as a news broadside, as was the announcement of the British triumph over the Spanish Armada in July 1588. Some 800 of these occasional newssheets, all printed before 1610, are extant in libraries. This kind of publishing became a profitable business, and as a result the reporting of news spread rapidly throughout Europe.

Gunakan Petunjuk A dalam menjawab soal nomor 59 sampai nomor 60.

59. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
(A) Printed Media and Journalism
(B) The Prototype of Newspapers
(C) Journalism and Its Revolution
(D) The Early History of Journalism
(E) The Development of Modern News

60. The following paragraph most likely discusses ...
(A) fast development of journalism in Europe.
(B) some European news report controversies.
(C) benefits of journalism in many countries.
(D) the growing number of reporters in the world.
(E) standard professional development for journalists.
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