Hotels were among the earliest facilities that bound the United States together. They

            were both creatures and creators of communities, as well as symptoms of the frenetic

            quest for community. Even in the first part of the nineteenth century, Americans were

 Line     already forming the habit of gathering from all corners of the nation for both public and

 (5)       private, business and pleasure purposes. Conventions were the new occasions, and

            hotels were distinctively American facilities making conventions possible. The first

            national convention of a major party to choose a candidate for President (that of the

            National Republican party, which met on December 12, 1831, and nominated Henry

            Clay for President) was held in Baltimore, at a hotel that was then reputed to be the 

 (10)      best in the country. The presence in Baltimore of Barnum's City Hotel, a six-story

            building with two hundred apartments, helps explain why many other early national

            political conventions were held there.

                In the longer run, too, American hotels made other national conventions not only

            possible but pleasant and convivial. The growing custom of regularly assembling from

            afar the representatives of all kinds of groups ― not only for political conventions, but

 (15)      also for commercial, professional, learned, and avocational ones ― in turn supported

            the multiplying hotels. By mid-twentieth century, conventions accounted for over a

            third of the yearly room occupancy of all hotels in the nation; about eighteen thousand

            different conventions were held annually with a total attendance of about ten million

 (20)      persons.

                Nineteenth-century American hotelkeepers, who were no longer the genial,

            deferential “hosts” of the eighteenth-century European inn, became leading citizens.

            Holding a large stake in the community, they exercised power to make it prosper. As

            owners or managers of the local “palace of the public,” they were makers and shapers

            of a principal community attraction. Travelers from abroad were mildly shocked by

            this high social position.

            1. What is the main topic of the passage?

               (A) The size of early American hotels

               (B) The importance of hotels in American culture

               (C) How American hotels differed from European hotels

               (D) Why conventions are held at hotels

            2. The word “bound” in line 1 is closest in meaning to

               (A) led

               (B) protected

               (C) tied

               (D) strengthened

            3. The National Republican party is mentioned in line 8 as an example of a group

               (A) from Baltimore

               (B) of learned people

               (C) owning a hotel

               (D) holding a convention

            4. The word “assembling ”in line 14 is closest in meaning to

               (A) announcing

               (B) motivating

               (C) gathering

               (D) contracting

            5. The word “ones” in line 16 refers to

               (A) hotels

               (B) conventions

               (C) kinds

               (D) representatives

            6. The word “it” in line 23 refers to

               (A) European inn

               (B) host

               (C) community

               (D) public

            7. It can be inferred form the passage that early hotelkeepers in the

               United States were

               (A) active politicians

               (B) European immigrants        

               (C) professional builders

               (D) influential citizen

            8. Which of the following statements about early American hotels is NOT

               mentioned in the passage?

              (A) Travelers from abroad did not enjoy staying in them.

              (B) Conventions were held in them.

              (C) People used them for both business and pleasure.

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