Questions 1-3 are about the following passage.

The Hudson River is one of the most significant rivers in America, though it is not the largest. It was named after Henry Hudson, an English explorer who charted the river for the Dutch East India Company. The Hudson goes for 315 miles, starting in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. It enters the ocean around New York City. 

Washington Irving, an American writer, was one of the first to write about the Hudson River. He lived in the Hudson River Valley and wrote about the unique characteristics of this area. He developed the first kind of American folklore and told a story of a man named Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle fell asleep one day while climbing the mountains around the · Hudson River. He did not wake up for twenty years. When he finally woke up, America had  become a free country.

The river has not only been written about by famous writers, but has had practical purposes as well. It was an important means of transportation as America developed. The Erie Canal was built to connect the river to Lake Erie, one of the nation's great lakes. This canal allowed the many cities on the Great Lakes to get goods from Europe. The Hudson River Valley area was also good for building railroads. All in all, the Hudson River is an important river in America.