Question
31 – 40
In the last third of the nineteenth
century a new housing form was quietly being
developed. In 1869 the Stuyvesant, considered New York’ s first
apartment house was built on East
Eighteenth Street. The building was financed by the developer Rutherfurd Line Stuyvesant and designed by Richard
Morris Hunt, the first American architect to graduate
(5)
from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Each man had lived in Paris, and
each understood the economics and social potential of this
Parisian housing form. But the Stuyvesant
was at best a limited success. In spite of
Hunt’ s inviting façade, the living space was awkwardly arranged. Those
who could afford them were quite content to remain in the more sumptuous,
single-family homes, leaving the Stuyvesant to young married couples
(10)
and bachelors.
The fundamental problem with the Stuyvesant and the other early
apartment buildings that quickly followed, in the 1870’ s and
early 1880’ s was that they were confined to the typical New York building lot. That
lot was a rectangular area 25 feet wide by 100
feet deep – a shape perfectly suited for a
row house. The lot could also accommodate a
(15) rectangular tenement, though it could not yield the square,
well-lighted, and logically arranged rooms that great apartment
buildings require. But even with the awkward
interior configurations of the early
apartment buildings, the idea caught on. It met the needs of a large and growing population
that wanted something better than tenements
but could not afford or did not want row
houses.
(20) So while the city’ s newly emerging social
leadership commissioned their mansions, apartment
houses and hotels began to sprout in multiple lots, thus breaking the
initial space
constraints. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, large apartment houses began dotting the developed
portions of New York City, and by the opening decades
of the twentieth century, spacious buildings, such as the Dakota and the
Ansonia
(25)
finally transcended the tight confinement of row house building lots. From
there it was only a small step to
building luxury apartment houses on the newly created Park Avenue,
right
next to the fashionable Fifth Avenue shopping area.
31. The new housing form
discussed in 33. Why was the
Stuyvesant a limited the passage refers to success?
(A)
single-family homes (A) The arrangement of the rooms (B) apartment buildings was not convenient. (C) row houses (B) Most people could not afford to
(D) hotels live there. (C) There were no shopping areas nearby.
32. The word “ inviting” in line 7 is
closest (D) It was in a crowded
neighborhood. in meaning to
(A) open
(B) encouraging
(C) attractive
(D) asking
35. The
word “ sumptuous” in line 9 is 38.
The word “ yield” in line 15 is closest in closest in meaning to meaning to
(A)
luxurious (A)
harvest (B) unique (B) surrender
(C) modern
(C) amount
(D) distant
(D) provide
36. It
can be inferred that the majority of 39. Why did the idea of living in an
people who lived in New York’ s first apartment become popular in the late apartments
were 1800’ s?
(A)
highly educated (A) Large families needed
housing (B) unemployed with
sufficient space.
(C) wealthy
(B) Apartments were preferable to
(D) young
tenements and cheaper than row
houses
(C)
The city officials of New York
37. It
can be inferred that the typical New wanted
housing that was centrally York building lot of the 1870’ s and located.
1880’
s looked MOST like which of the (D)
The shape of early apartments
following? could accommodate a variety of
interior designs.
40. The author mentions the Dakota and
the Ansonia in line 24 because
(A) they
are examples of large, welldesigned apartment buildings
(B) their
design is similar to that of
row
houses
(C) they
were built on a single building
38. It
can be inferred that a New York lot
apartment building in the 1870’ s and (D)
they are famous hotels
1880’ s had all of the following characteristics EXCEPT:
(A) Its room arrangement was not logical.
(B) It was rectangular. (C) It was spacious inside.
(D)
It had limited light.
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