A. AROUND B. TO C. AT D. OFFII. READ THE PASSAGE BELOW AND CHOOSE...

45. A. around B. to C. at D. offII. Read the passage below and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each question. Education was of primary importance to the English colonists and was conducted at home as well as in establishedschools. Regardless of geographic location or finances, most Americans learned to read and computer numbers. For many, theBible and other religious tracts were their only books; however, the excellent language contained in such works usually madethem good primers. Mam families owned one or more of Shakespeare's works, a copy of John Banyan's classic 'A Pilgrim'sProgress’, and sometimes collections of English literary essays, poems, or historical speeches. In 1647 the Massachusetts School Law required every town of at least 50 households to maintain a grammar school.The law was the first to mandate public education in America, in the middle colonies at the time, schools were^ oftendependent on religious societies, such as the Quakers and other private organizations. In the South, families employed privatetutors or relied on the clergy to conduct education. At the outset, most elementary schools were for boys, but schools for girlswere established in the eighteenth century in most j cities and large towns. In spite of the informal atmosphere of mostAmerican schools, the literary rate in the colonies of mid-eighteenth-century America was equal to or higher than in mostEuropean countries. Before the American Revolution, nine colleges had been founded, including Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, the College ofNew Jersey (now Princeton), Brown, Rutgers, Dartmouth, and Kings College (later Columbia University). By1720 the naturalsciences and modern languages were being taught, as well: as courses in practical subjects such as mechanics and agriculture.At the end of the eighteenth century, medical schools were established at the College of Philadelphia and at King's College.