Reading comrehension. Mail.

Questions 40-50

Sometimes mail arrives at the post office, and it is impossible to deliver the mail. Perhaps there is an inadequate or illegible address and no return address. The post office cannot just throw this mail away, so this becomes "dead mall." This dead mail is sent to one of the U.S. Postal Service's Live dead-mail offices in Atlanta. New York, Philadelphia, St. Paul, or San Francisco. Seventy-five

( Line 5) million pieces of mail can end up in the dead-mail office in one year

The stuff of the dead-mail offices have a variety of ways to deal with all of these pieces of dead mail.

First of all, they look for clues that can help them deliver the mail: they open packages in the hope that something inside will show where the package came from or is going to. Dead mail will also be listed on a computer so that people can call in and check to see if a missing item is there.

Line (10)

However, all of this mail cannot simply be stored forever, there is just too much of it. When a lot of dead mail has piled up, the dead-mail offices hold public auctions. Every three months, the public is invited in and bins containing items found in dead-mail packages are sold to the highest bidder.

40. The best title for the passage is

(A) The U.S. Postal Service

(B) Staff Responsibilities at the U.S.

Postal Service

(C) Why Mail Is Undeliverable

(D) Dead-Mail Offices

41. Dead mail is mail that

(A) has no use

(B) has been read and thrown away

(C) is unwanted

(D) is undeliverable

42. The word "illegible" in line 2 is closest in meaning to which of the following?

(A) Incomplete

(B) Missing

(C) Unreadable

(D) Incorrect

43. According to the passage, how many dead-mail offices does the U.S. Postal Service have?

(A) 3

(B) 5

(C) 15 (D) 75

44. The word "staff" in line 6 is closest in meaning to

(A) workers

(B) machines

(C) rules

(D) pieces of furniture

45. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a way that post office staff members deal with dead mail?

(A) They search for clues.

(B) They throw dead mail away.

(C) They open dead mail.

(D) They list dead mail on a computer.

46. It is implied in the passage that the dead-mail staff would be happy if they opened a package and found

(A) money

(B) jewelry

(C) a computer

(D) an address

47. In line 9, the expression "call in" could best be replaced by

(A) visit

(B) phone (C) shout

(D) talk

48. The word "auctions" in line 11 is closest in meaning to

(A) sales

(B) deliveries

(C) meetings

(D) demonstrations

49. The passage indicates that dead-mail auctions are held

(A) once a year

(B) twice a year

(C) three times a year

(D) four times a year

50. Where in the passage does the author explain why the post office cannot store dead mail forever?

(A) Lines 2-3

(B) Lines 4-5

(C) Lines 7-8

(D) Line 10