READING COMPREHENSION (30 min )ª¤ 

In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of fifteen m ultiple-choice questions. Read the passages carefully and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.ª¤ 

TEXT A 

Ricci¡¯s ¡°Operation Columbus¡±ª¥ 

Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plan s to market an English language edition of his elegant monthly art magazine, FMR , in the United States. Once again the skeptice are murmuring that the successfu l Ricci has headed for a big fall. And once again Ricci intends to prove them wr ong.ª¥ 

Ricci is so confident that he has christened his quest ¡°Operation Columbu s ¡± and has set his sights on discovering an American readership of 300,000. That goal may not be too far-fetched. The Italian edition of FMR ¡ª the initials, of course, stand for Franco Maria Ricci-is only 18 months old. But it is already the second largest art magazine in the world, with a circulation of 65,000 and a profit margin of US $ 500,000. The American edition will be patterned after th e Italian version, with each 160-page issue carrying only 40 pages of ads and no more than five articles. But the contents will often differ. The English-langua ge edition will include more American works, Ricci says, to help Americans get o ver ¡°an inferiority complex about their art.¡± He also hopes that the magazine will become a vehicle for a two -way cultural exchange ¡ª what he likes to think of as a marriage of brains, culture and taste from both sides of the Atlantic.  

ª¥ To realize this vision, Ricci is mounting one of the most lavish, enterpris ing ¡ª and expensive-promotional campaigns in magazine ¡ª publishing history. Between November and January, eight jumbo jets will fly 8 million copies of a sample 16-page edition of FMR across the Atlantic. From a warehouse in Michigan, 6.5 million copies will be mailed to American subscribers of various cultura