English II EOC FInal Review [200091]
Student
Class
Date
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Night Hunters
The Night Hunters
by Rob Criswell
They’re an amazing bunch. One is known as the “Tiger of the Skies,” another can catch a mouse on
a barn floor in total darkness, and the call of a third is often imitated by turkey hunters trying to locate
an elusive gobbler. They’re Pennsylvania’s owls—night hunters par excellence.
Predators without peer, owls are splendidly adapted to life in the darkness. Fringes on the leading
and trailing edges of the outer flight feathers act as mufflers, and long, soft “hairs” on the upper wing
surfaces eliminate noises that would be caused by feathers rubbing against one another while the
wings are in use. The result is silent flight, ensuring that hapless victims will not detect the sky-borne
raider, and that the owl can better hear prey movements.
While some owls have “ear tufts” and others do not, all have incredible hearing ability. These tufts
are merely display feathers—the real ears are located behind the eyes on the sides of the head and
covered by feathers of the facial disk.
When an owl hears a noise, it is able to pinpoint its direction because the sound does not strike both
ears at precisely the same time. The owl turns its head until the sound registers in both ears
simultaneously; it then knows dinner is directly in front of it. An owl can detect left/right sound
differences as small as 30 millionths of a second.
Perhaps the most obvious features of owl anatomy are the eyes, which account for up to five percent
of the bird’s body weight depending on species. The forward-facing position of the eyes lends the
owl its “wise” appearance, but more importantly, it affords the bird binocular vision, which allows it to
judge distances as humans do.
Eyes of owls are so large they cannot move, and the bird must move its entire head to change its
field of view. However, the bird makes up for this deficiency with the ability to turn its head up to 270
degrees in either direction (but not, as some rumors insist, in a full circle). The large retina of an
owl’s eye makes it extremely efficient at sighting moving objects in dim light. In spite of this ability,
owls can also see well during daylight hours, and are not blinded by strong light as some believe.
There are approximately 215 species of owls worldwide. They are divided into two families— the
Tytonidae, which includes barn owls and their close relatives, and the Strigidae, which includes the
great horned owl and all other species.
Great Horned Owl
In 1890, ornithologist Ernest Thompson Seton expressed his opinion of the great horned owl: “their
untamed ferocity . . . ; their magnificent bearing; their objection to carrion, and strictly carnivorous
tastes—would make me rank these winged tigers among the most pronounced and savage of the
birds of prey.”
Its prowess as a predator has made this bird one of the most maligned and despised in our state’s
history. Long blamed for decimating game populations, it has survived bounties and habitat
destruction and remains an important part of our bird fauna today. Although game species appear in
its diet, the great horned prefers smaller mammals and is the only predator that regularly dines on
skunks. It is fearless, though, and will sometimes attack mink, woodchucks, domestic cats, and even
porcupines.
At 18–25 inches in height and up to three pounds, it is our largest owl. It is easily recognized by its
size and “horns”—two-inchlong ear tufts. It is a habitat generalist, occupying deep forest and open
areas alike. It generally lays its eggs from January to early March, utilizing the nests of raptors,
crows, herons, and on rare occasions even eagles.
The great horned is the classic “hoot owl.” Its call is a mellow “hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo, hoo.”
Screech Owl
At 7–10 inches, the screech owl is the smallest of Pennsylvania’s resident owls bearing ear tufts.
This bird comes in two phases—red and gray, and a nest may contain all young of either color, or
one or more of both. This phenomenon, known as “dichromatism,” is exhibited regardless of sex or
age.
Screech owls reside in many different habitat types, including woodlands, old orchards, parks, and
even tree-lined streets. It is a cavity nester, utilizing natural holes in trees, nests excavated by
woodpeckers, and even deeper crevices. They sometimes take advantage of artificial boxes erected
for woodpeckers, kestrels, and wood ducks.
This owl is a strictly nocturnal hunter. Its 22-inch wingspan allows it to hunt swiftly over fields and
other openings, catching large insects, small birds, mice, voles, and other small mammals. In some
areas, screech owls even feed on crayfish regularly.
Roger Tory Peterson described the screech owl’s call as “a mournful whinny, or wail.” Interestingly,
the bird practically never utters a sound that can be described as a “screech.” The most frequent call
is a tremulous series of notes that descend the musical scale.
Long-Eared Owl
The long-eared is our most mysterious owl. Its secretive habits, silence, and apparently low numbers
make it extremely difficult to study. During the seven-year Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas Project,
this bird was confirmed nesting at only six locations during the period 1983–89.
This owl is midway in size between the screech and great horned, and grows to 16 inches and 10–
11 ounces, with a 40-inch wingspan. Its “ears” appear to be more closely spaced than the other two
species and its wings longer, allowing it to glide and hover while hunting and to maneuver easily in
brushy habitat. Its diet consists mainly of small mammals, one report noting that “probably close to
80 or 90 percent consists of injurious rodents.”
Long-eared owls occur in mixed woodlands and pine plantations with fields nearby. They nest in
early spring, usurping vacant hawk and crow nests. During daylight hours, they remain “frozen” on a
branch close to a tree trunk, and in winter months colonial roosts are sometimes used.
On the rare occasions when it vocalizes, the long-eared emits a low, musical “hoo-hoo-hoo” that
may sound like the cooing of a mourning dove.
Barred Owl
The barred owl may be the turkey hunter’s best friend. Frequently its call, described as “Who cooks
for you; who cooks for you-all?” evokes a response from a nearby gobbler during the spring. Hunters
imitate the call, which is sometimes heard during daylight hours, while attempting to locate their
quarry at sunrise.
This bird is easily distinguished from our other owls by its large size—to 17–24 inches and two
pounds, with a 44-inch wingspan, rounded head, and brown eyes.
Barred owls prefer moist woods and bottomlands in larger forested tracts, and although this type of
habitat has been dramatically reduced over much of the state, these birds are still fairly common.
This owl is a cavity nester, and because of its size, at least some mature trees are a necessary
component of its territory.
Barn Owl
Where it occurs, the barn owl may be considered the “farmer’s best friend,” dining from a menu
consisting almost exclusively of voles, shrews, mice, and rats. One study concluded that, during
nighttime hours, adult barn owls with nestlings decimated rodents at the rate of one every four
minutes. With ears asymmetrically placed to provide hearing even more acute than many of its
relatives, locating and catching its prey in total darkness is “business as usual” for this nocturnal
raider.
Also known as “monkey-faced owl,” “white owl,” and “golden owl,” this bird is easily identified by its
light color and white, heart-shaped face. It grows 14–20 inches and weighs less than two pounds.
Barn owls nest in man-made structures— barns, silos, abandoned buildings, churches, and nest
boxes, and occasionally in hollow trees and caves. Their domain must include grasslands and
agricultural fields and provide plenty of rodents. In a classic example of prey controlling the predator,
barn owl nesting initiations and successes have been linked to increases in vole populations.
Barn Owl:
Luckily, Pennsylvania's birds of prey include these specialized predators. While the hawks hold sway
during the day, these night hunters are adapted to find and catch prey quickly and efficiently in the
dark. Although Pennsylvania's owl population has been in decline for several decades, conservation
efforts are slowly improving their numbers. Because of their rodent hunting prowess, this makes
many Pennsylvanians very happy!
1. In the selection, the word dichromatism is used to describe two
A. species of owls
B. colors of a species
C. ages between phases
D. types of ear tufts
2. Which phrases from the selection convey the author's attitude about his topic?
A. nocturnal hunters, game populations, birds of prey, locate their quarry
B. outer flight feathers, large retina, ear tufts, secretive habits
C. brushy habitat, larger forested tracts, hollow trees and caves, open areas
D. amazing bunch, par excellence, splendidly adapted, spectacular specialized predators
3. What is the author's purpose in the opening paragraph of the selection?
A. to caution readers about a predatory group of birds
B. to arouse readers' interest in a unique group of birds
C. to pose an issue to readers that the article will address
D. to encourage readers' efforts to preserve a threatened species
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from Three Men in a Boat: Chapter I
Excerpt from Three Men in a Boat: Chapter I
by Jerome K. Jerome
It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being
impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its
most virulent form. The diagnosis seems in every case to correspond exactly with all the
sensations that I have ever felt.
2
I remember going to the British Museum one day to read up the treatment for some slight
ailment of which I had a touch—hay fever, I fancy it was. I got down the book and read all I
came to read; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves* and began to
indolently study diseases, generally. I forget which was the first distemper I plunged into—
some fearful, devastating scourge, I know—and, before I had glanced half down the list of
“premonitory symptoms,” it was borne in upon me that I had fairly got it.
3
I sat for awhile, frozen with horror; and then, in the listlessness of despair, I again turned over
the pages. I came to typhoid fever—read the symptoms—discovered that I had typhoid fever,
must have had it for months without knowing it—wondered what else I had got; turned up
St. Vitus’s Dance—found, as I expected, that I had that too,—began to get interested in my case,
and determined to sift it to the bottom, and so started alphabetically—read up ague, and learnt
that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would commence in about another fortnight.
Bright’s disease, I was relieved to find, I had only in a modified form, and, so far as that was
concerned, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I
seemed to have been born with. I plodded conscientiously through the twenty-six letters, and the
only malady I could conclude I had not got was housemaid’s knee.
I felt rather hurt about this at first; it seemed somehow to be a sort of slight. Why hadn’t I got
housemaid’s knee? Why this invidious reservation? After a while, however, less grasping
feelings prevailed. I reflected that I had every other known malady in the pharmacology, and I
grew less selfish, and determined to do without housemaid’s knee. Gout, in its most malignant
stage, it would appear, had seized me without my being aware of it; and zymosis I had evidently
been suffering with from boyhood. There were no more diseases after zymosis, so I concluded
there was nothing else the matter with me.
I sat and pondered. I thought what an interesting case I must be from a medical point of view,
what an acquisition I should be to a class! Students would have no need to “walk the hospitals,”
if they had me. I was a hospital in myself. All they need do would be to walk round me, and,
after that, take their diploma.
Then I wondered how long I had to live. I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse. I could not at
first feel any pulse at all. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and
timed it. I made it a hundred and forty-seven to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not
feel my heart. It had stopped beating. I have since been induced to come to the opinion that it
must have been there all the time, and must have been beating, but I cannot account for it. I
patted myself all over my front, from what I call my waist up to my head, and I went a bit round
each side, and a little way up the back. But I could not feel or hear anything. I tried to look at my
tongue. I stuck it out as far as ever it would go, and I shut one eye, and tried to examine it with
the other. I could only see the tip, and the only thing that I could gain from that was to feel more
certain than before that I had scarlet fever.
I had walked into that reading room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.
I went to my medical man. He is an old chum of mine, and feels my pulse, and looks at my
tongue, and talks about the weather, all for nothing, when I fancy I’m ill; so I thought I would do
him a good turn by going to him now. “What a doctor wants,” I said, “is practice. He shall have
me. He will get more practice out of me than out of seventeen hundred of your ordinary,
commonplace patients, with only one or two diseases each.” So I went straight up and saw him,
and he said:
“Well, what’s the matter with you?”
I said:
“I will not take up your time, dear boy, with telling you what is the matter with me. Life is brief,
and you might pass away before I had finished. But I will tell you what is NOT the matter with
me. I have not got housemaid’s knee. Why I have not got housemaid’s knee, I cannot tell you;
but the fact remains that I have not got it. Everything else, however, I HAVE got.”
And I told him how I came to discover it all.
Then he opened me and looked down me, and clutched hold of my wrist, and then he hit me over
the chest when I wasn’t expecting it—a cowardly thing to do, I call it—and immediately
afterwards butted me with the side of his head. After that, he sat down and wrote out a
prescription and folded it up and gave it me and I put it in my pocket and went out.
I did not open it. I took it to the nearest chemist’s and handed it in. The man read it and then
handed it back.
He said he didn’t keep it.
I said:
“You are a chemist?”
He said:
“I am a chemist. If I was a cooperative store and family hotel combined, I might be able to oblige
you. Being only a chemist hampers me.”
I read the prescription. It ran:
“1 lb beefsteak, with
1 pt bitter beverage every 6 hours.
1 ten-mile walk every morning.
1 bed at 11 sharp every night.
And don’t stuff up your head with things you don’t understand.”
I followed the directions, with the happy result—speaking for myself—that my life was
preserved and is still going on.
*leaves: pages of a book
4. What is the meaning of the word indolently in paragraph 2?
A. in a frightened way
B. in a hurried manner
C. without much effort
D. with great enthusiasm
5. In the first sentence of the selection, what does the use of the word virulent imply about the
narrator?
A. The narrator is brilliant.
B. The narrator is a physician.
C. The narrator expects the worst.
D. The narrator expects compensation.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Solitude
by Alexei Fyodorovich Merzlyakov
Upon a hill, which rears itself midst plains extending wide,
Fair flourishes a lofty oak in beauty’s blooming pride;
This lofty oak in solitude its branches wide expands,
All lonesome on the cheerless height like sentinel1 it stands.
5 Whom can it lend its friendly shade, should Sol with fervor glow?
And who can shelter it from harm, should tempests rudely blow?
No bushes green, entwining close, here deck the neighboring ground,
No tufted pines beside it grow, no osiers2 thrive around.
Sad even to trees their cheerless fate in solitude if grown,
10 And bitter, bitter is the lot for youth to live alone!
Though gold and silver much is his, how vain the selfish pride!
Though crowned with glory’s laureled wreath, with whom that crown
divide?
When I with an acquaintance meet he scarce a bow affords,
And beauties, half saluting me, but grant some transient words.
15 On some I look myself with dread, whilst others from me fly,
But sadder still the uncherished soul when Fate’s dark hour draws nigh;
Oh! where my aching heart relieve when griefs assail me sore?
My friend, who sleeps in the cold earth, comes to my aid no more!
No relatives, alas! of mine in this strange clime appear,
20 No wife imparts love’s fond caress, sweet smile, or pitying tear;
No father feels joy’s thrilling throb, as he our transport sees;
No gay and sportive little ones come clambering on my knees;--
Take back all honors, wealth, and fame, the heart they cannot move,
And give instead the smiles of friends, the tender look of love!
1
sentinel: the guard or watchers
osiers: willow trees
2
6. Which word could replace neighboring in line 7?
A. welcoming
B. distant
C. adjacent
D. gracious
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Awakening
Excerpted from The Awakening
By Kate Chopin, 1899
1 It was eleven o’clock that night when Mr. Pontellier returned from Klein’s hotel. He was in an
excellent humor, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and
fast asleep when he came in. He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of
news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. From his trousers pockets he took a fistful of
crumpled bank notes and a good deal of silver coin, which he piled on the bureau indiscriminately
with keys, knife, handkerchief, and whatever else happened to be in his pockets. She was overcome
with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances.
2 He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced1 so
little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.
3 Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the bonbons and peanuts for the boys. Notwithstanding he loved them
very much, and went into the adjoining room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure
that they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He
turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket
full of crabs.
4 Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking
after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it. Mrs. Pontellier was quite
sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had ailed him all
day. Mr. Pontellier was too well acquainted with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the
child was consuming2 at that moment in the next room.
5 He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a
mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his
brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the
street, and staying at home to see that no harm befell them. He talked in a monotonous, insistent
way.
6 Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the
edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her
husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out he went to bed, and in half a
minute he was fast asleep.
7 Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on
the sleeve of her peignoir3. Blowing out the candle, which her husband had left burning, she slipped
her bare feet into a pair of satin mules at the foot of the bed and went out on the porch, where she
sat down in the wicker chair and began to rock gently to and fro.
8 It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. A single faint light gleamed out from the
hallway of the house. There was no sound abroad except the hooting of an old owl in the top of a
water-oak, and the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that soft hour. It broke like a
mournful lullaby upon the night.
9 The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier’s eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir no longer
served to dry them. She was holding the back of her chair with one hand; her loose sleeve had
slipped almost to the shoulder of her uplifted arm. Turning, she thrust her face, steaming and wet,
into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her
eyes, her arms. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing
were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against
the abundance of her husband’s kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit4 and
self-understood.
10 An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her
consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing
across her soul’s summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there
inwardly upbraiding5 her husband, lamenting at Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path
which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself. The mosquitoes made merry
over her, biting her firm, round arms and nipping at her bare insteps.
11 The little stinging, buzzing imps succeeded in dispelling a mood which might have held her there
in the darkness half a night longer.
12 The following morning Mr. Pontellier was up in good time to take the rockaway which was to
convey him to the steamer at the wharf. He was returning to the city to his business, and they would
not see him again at the Island till the coming Saturday. He had regained his composure, which
seemed to have been somewhat impaired the night before. He was eager to be gone, as he looked
forward to a lively week in Carondelet Street.
13 Mr. Pontellier gave his wife half of the money which he had brought away from Klein’s hotel the
evening before. She liked money as well as most women, and accepted it with no little satisfaction.
…
14 A few days later a box arrived for Mrs. Pontellier from New Orleans. It was from her husband. It
was filled with friandises6, with luscious and toothsome7 bits—the finest of fruits, pates, a rare bottle
or two, delicious syrups, and bonbons in abundance.
15 Mrs. Pontellier was always very generous with the contents of such a box; she was quite used to
receiving them when away from home. The pates and fruit were brought to the dining-room; the
bonbons were passed around. And the ladies, selecting with dainty and discriminating fingers and a
little greedily, all declared that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was
forced to admit that she knew of none better.
1
evinced — clearly showed
2
consuming — wasting away
3
peignoir — dressing gown
4
tacit — not actually stated
5
upbraiding — severely scolding
6
friandises — dainty cakes
7
toothsome — delicious
7. What word could replace consciousness is paragraph 10?
A. vigilance
B. awareness
C. preparedness
D. observant
8. In paragraph 1, what is the meaning of the phrase "in an excellent humor?"
A. in a very good mood
B. getting ready to tell a joke
C. in a confident manner
D. preparing to go to sleep
Read the following and answer the questions below:
To Helen
To Helen
I saw thee once—once only—years ago:
I must not say how many—but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
5 Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,
Upon the upturned faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
10 Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe—
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death—
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
15 That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.
Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
20 And on thine own, upturn'd—alas, in sorrow!
Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight—
Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
25 No footstep stirred: the hated world an slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven!—oh, God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused—I looked—
And in an instant all things disappeared.
30 (Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
35 Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All—all expired save thee—save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes—
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them—they were the world to me!
40 I saw but them—saw only them for hours,
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to he enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a woe, yet how sublime a hope!
45 How silently serene a sea of pride!
How daring an ambition; yet how deep—
How fathomless a capacity for love!
But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
50 And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained;
They would not go—they never yet have gone;
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since;
55 They follow me—they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers—yet I their slave.
Their office is to illumine and enkindle—
My duty, to be saved by their bright light,
And purified in their electric fire,
60 And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),
And are far up in Heaven—the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
65 I see them still—two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!
9. Read these lines from "To Helen."
And are far up in Heaven-the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still-two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!
What is the meaning of scintillant as it is used in the lines above?
A. arching
B. twinkling
C. revolving
D. pulsating
Read the following and answer the questions below:
On Womens Rights to Vote
On Women's Rights to Vote
By Susan B. Anthony
1 Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of
having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my
work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead,
simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the
National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.
2 The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:
3 "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."
4 It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the
whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to
secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people—
women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the
blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by
this democratic-republican government—the ballot.
5 For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one
entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a
violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from
women and their female posterity.
6 To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them
this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful
oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an
oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated
govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be
endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs
over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household—which ordains all men
sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the
nation.
7 Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled
to vote and hold office.
8 The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our
opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens;
and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their
privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws
of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.
10. Read this sentence from paragraph 1 of the passage.
Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime
of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote.
Which of the following words could best replace the word alleged while revealing the author’s
opinion?
A. actual
B. possible
C. asserted
D. supposed
11. Read this sentence from the last paragraph of the passage.
And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not.
Based on the context, which word is closest in meaning to hardihood?
A. caution
B. humility
C. boldness
D. disdainfulness
Read the following and answer the questions below:
A Pink Stocking
A Pink Stocking
by Anton Chekhov
1 A DULL, rainy day…Pavel Petrovitch Somov is pacing up and down his study, grumbling at the
weather. The tears of rain on the windows and the darkness of the room make him depressed.
He is insufferably bored and has nothing to do…The newspapers have not been brought yet;
shooting is out of the question, and it is not nearly dinner-time….
2 Somov is not alone in his study. Madame Somov, a pretty little lady in a light blouse and pink
stockings, is sitting at his writing table. She is eagerly scribbling a letter. Every time he passes
her as he strides up and down, Ivan Petrovitch looks over her shoulder at what she is writing.
He sees big sprawling letters, thin and narrow, with all sorts of tails and flourishes. There are
numbers of blots, smears, and finger-marks. Madame Somov does not like ruled paper, and
every line runs downhill with horrid wriggles as it reaches the margin….
3 "Lidotchka, who is it you are writing such a lot to?" Somov inquires, seeing that his wife is just
beginning to scribble the sixth page.
4 "To sister Varya."
5 "Hm…it's a long letter! I'm so bored—let me read it!"
6 "Here, you may read it, but there's nothing interesting in it."
7 Somov takes the written pages and, still pacing up and down, begins reading. Lidotchka leans
her elbows on the back of her chair and watches the expression of his face…After the first page
his face lengthens and an expression of something almost like panic comes into it…At the third
page Somov frowns and scratches the back of his head. At the fourth he pauses, looks with a
scared face at his wife, and seems to ponder. After thinking a little, he takes up the letter again
with a sigh…. His face betrays perplexity and even alarm….
8 "Well, this is beyond anything!" he mutters, as he finishes reading the letter and flings the
sheets on the table, "It's positively incredible!"
9 "What's the matter?" asks Lidotchka, flustered.
10 "What's the matter! You've covered six pages, wasted a good two hours scribbling, and there's
nothing in it at all! If there were one tiny idea! One reads on and on, and one's brain is as
muddled as though one were deciphering the Chinese wriggles on tea chests! Ough!"
11 "Yes, that's true,…" says Lidotchka, reddening. "I wrote it carelessly…"
12 "[Odd] sort of carelessness! In a careless letter there is some meaning and style—there is
sense in it—while yours…excuse me, but I don't know what to call it! It's absolute twaddle!
There are words and sentences, but not the slightest sense in them. Your whole letter is exactly
like the conversation of two boys: 'We had pancakes to-day! And we had a soldier come to see
us!' You say the same thing over and over again! You drag it out, repeat yourself. . . . The
wretched ideas dance about like devils: there's no making out where anything begins, where
anything ends….How can you write like that?"
13 "If I had been writing carefully," Lidotchka says in self defence, "then there would not have been
mistakes…"
14 "Oh, I'm not talking about mistakes! The awful grammatical howlers! There's not a line that's not
a personal insult to grammar! No stops nor commas—and the spelling…brrr! 'Earth' has an a in
it!! And the writing! It's desperate! I'm not joking, Lido…I'm surprised and appalled at your
letter…You mustn't be angry, darling, but, really, I had no idea you were such a duffer at
grammar…And yet you belong to a cultivated, well-educated circle: you are the wife of a
University man, and the daughter of a general! Tell me, did you ever go to school?"
15 "What next! I finished at the Von Mebke's boarding school…"
16 Somov shrugs his shoulders and continues to pace up and down, sighing. Lidotchka, conscious
of her ignorance and ashamed of it, sighs too and casts down her eyes…Ten minutes pass in
silence.
17 "You know, Lidotchka, it really is awful!" says Somov, suddenly halting in front of her and
looking into her face with horror. "You are a mother…do you understand? A mother! How can
you teach your children if you know nothing yourself? You have a good brain, but what's the use
of it if you have never mastered the very rudiments of knowledge? There—never mind about
knowledge…the children will get that at school, but, you know, you are very shaky on the moral
side too! You sometimes use such language that it makes my ears tingle!"
18 Somov shrugs his shoulders again, wraps himself in the folds of his dressing-gown and
continues his pacing…Both feel oppressed and miserable…Absorbed in their woes, they do not
notice how time is passing and the dinner hour is approaching.
19 Sitting down to dinner, Somov, who is fond of good eating and of eating in peace, begins talking
about something else. Lidotchka listens and assents, but suddenly over the soup her eyes fill
with tears and she begins whimpering.
20 "It's all mother's fault!" she says, wiping away her tears with her dinner napkin. "Everyone
advised her to send me to the high school, and from the high school I should have been sure to
go on to the University!"
21 "University…high school," mutters Somov. "That's running to extremes, my girl! What's the good
of being a blue stocking1! A blue stocking is the very deuce! Neither man nor woman, but just
something midway: neither one thing nor another…I hate blue stockings! I would never have
married a learned woman…"
22 "There's no making you out…," says Lidotchka. "You are angry because I am not learned, and
at the same time you hate learned women; you are annoyed because I have no ideas in my
letter, and yet you yourself are opposed to my studying…"
23 "You do catch me up at a word, my dear," yawns Somov…
24 [After] a good dinner, Somov grows more good-humoured, lively, and soft…He watches his
pretty wife making the salad with an anxious face and a rush of affection for her, of indulgence
and forgiveness comes over him.
25 "It was stupid of me to depress her, poor girl…," he thought. "Why did I say such a lot of
dreadful things? She is silly, that's true, uncivilised and narrow; but…there are two sides to the
question, and audiatur et altera pars 2…Perhaps people are perfectly right when they say that
woman's shallowness rests on her very vocation. Granted that it is her vocation to love her
husband, to bear children, and to mix salad, what the devil does she want with learning? No,
indeed!"
26 At that point he remembers that learned women are usually tedious, that they are exacting,
strict, and unyielding; and, on the other hand, how easy it is to get on with silly Lidotchka, who
never pokes her nose into anything, does not understand so much, and never obtrudes her
criticism. There is peace and comfort with Lidotchka, and no risk of being interfered with.
27 "Confound them, those clever and learned women! It's better and easier to live with simple
ones," he thinks, as he takes a plate of chicken from Lidotchka.
28 He recollects that a civilised man sometimes feels a desire to talk and share his thoughts with a
clever and well-educated woman. "What of it?" thinks Somov. "If I want to talk of intellectual
subjects, I'll go to Natalya Andreyevna…or to Marya Frantsovna…It's very simple! But no, I
shan't go. One can discuss intellectual subjects with men," he finally decides.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 blue stocking: a woman with strong scholarly or literary interests
2 audiatur et altera pars: the opposite side needs to be heard
12. In the passage, the author describes Lidotchka as “a pretty little lady.” What nuance does the
phrase suggest that differs from the phrase “a beautiful woman”?
A. The phrase removes connotation by describing Lidotchka in a more neutral tone.
B. The phrase trivializes Lidotchka by describing her in somewhat childish terms.
C. The phrase establishes Lidotchka as unremarkable compared to her husband.
D. The phrase avoids hyperbole and conveys the idea that Lidotchka is genuinely attractive.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Heritage
The Heritage
By James Russell Lowell
The rich man's son inherits lands,
And piles of brick, and stone, and gold,
And he inherits soft white hands,
And tender flesh that fears the cold,
5 Nor dares to wear a garment old;
A heritage, it seems to me,
One scarce would wish to hold in fee.
The rich man's son inherits cares;
The bank may break, the factory burn,
10 A breath may burst his bubble shares,
And soft white hands could hardly earn
A living that would serve his turn;
A heritage, it seems to me,
One scarce would wish to hold in fee.
15 The rich man's son inherits wants,
His stomach craves for dainty fare;
With sated heart, he hears the pants
Of toiling hinds with brown arms bare,
And wearies in his easy-chair;
20 A heritage, it seems to me,
One scarce would wish to hold in fee.
What doth the poor man's son inherit?
Stout muscles and a sinewy heart,
A hardy frame, a hardier spirit;
25 King of two hands, he does his part
In every useful toil and art;
A heritage, it seems to me,
A king might wish to hold in fee.
What doth the poor man's son inherit?
30 Wishes o'erjoyed with humble things,
A rank, adjudged by toil-won merit,
Content that from employment springs,
A heart that in his labor sings;
A heritage, it seems to me,
35 A king might wish to hold in fee.
What doth the poor man's son inherit?
A patience learned of being poor,
Courage, if sorrow come, to bear it,
A fellow-feeling that is sure
40 To make the outcast bless his door;
A heritage, it seems to me,
A king might wish to hold in fee.
O rich man's son! there is a toil
That with all others level stands;
45 Large charity doth never soil,
But only whiten, soft white hands,—
This is the best crop from thy lands;
A heritage it seems to me,
Worth being rich to hold in fee.
50 O poor man's son! scorn not thy state;
There is worse weariness than thine,
In merely being rich and great;
Toil only gives the soul to shine
And makes rest fragrant and benign;
55 A heritage, it seems to me,
Worth being poor to hold in fee.
Both heirs to some six feet of sod,
Are equal in the earth at last;
Both, children of the same dear God,
60 Prove title to your heirship vast
By record of a well-filled past;
A heritage, it seems to me,
Well worth a life to hold in fee.
13. Which statement best describes how the speaker uses the word inherits to suggest more than
just physical gifts?
A. Sons are bound by inheritances, even though they may seem like blessings.
B. Sons pass down the things they inherit, no matter what those inheritances are.
C. Fathers pass down tangible things, but they also pass down the ability to be happy.
D. Fathers pass down tangible things, but they also pass down behaviors and qualities.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from Prime Minister Winston Churchills Address to Both Houses of the United States
Congress
Excerpt from Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s Address to Both Houses of the United
States Congress, December 26, 1941
Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 1940s and 1950s, gave this address a
few weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese attack led to the
United States declaring war, siding with Great Britain in World War II.
1 Members of the Senate and members of the House of Representatives, I turn for one moment
more from the turmoil and convulsions of the present to the broader basis of the future. Here we
are together facing a group of mighty foes who seek our ruin; here we are together defending all
that to free men is dear. Twice in a single generation the catastrophe of world war has fallen
upon us; twice in our lifetime has the long arm of fate reached across the ocean to bring the
United States into the forefront of the battle. If we had kept together after the last War, if we had
taken common measures for our safety, this renewal of the curse need never have fallen upon
us.
2 Do we not owe it to ourselves, to our children, to mankind tormented, to make sure that these
catastrophes shall not engulf us for the third time? It has been proved that pestilences may break
out in the Old World, which carry their destructive ravages into the New World, from which, once
they are afoot, the New World cannot by any means escape. Duty and prudence alike command
first that the germ-centres of hatred and revenge should be constantly and vigilantly surveyed
and treated in good time. . . .
3 Five or six years ago it would have been easy, without shedding a drop of blood, for the United
States and Great Britain to have insisted on fulfilment . . . of the treaties which Germany signed
after the Great War. . . . That chance has passed. It is gone. Prodigious hammer-strokes have
been needed to bring us together again. . . . It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of
the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British
and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side
in majesty, in justice and in peace.
14. Read the statement from the last paragraph of the passage.
Prodigious hammer-strokes have been needed to bring us together again . . . .
What is Churchill referencing in this statement?
A. the declaration of war by Congress
B. the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan
C. the rise of the Nazi regime in Europe
D. the attack on Great Britain by Germany
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Prometheus, the Friend of Man
Prometheus, the Friend of Man
1 Many, many centuries ago there lived two brothers, Prometheus or Forethought, and
Epimetheus or Afterthought. They were the sons of those Titans who had fought against Jupiter
and been sent in chains to the great prison-house of the lower world, but for some reason had
escaped punishment.
2 Prometheus, however, did not care for idle life among the gods on Mount Olympus. Instead he
preferred to spend his time on the Earth, helping men to find easier and better ways of living.
For the children of Earth were not happy as they had been in the golden days when Saturn
ruled. Indeed, they were very poor and wretched and cold, without fire, without food, and with no
shelter but miserable caves.
3 “With fire they could at least warm their bodies and cook their food,” Prometheus thought, “and
later they could make tools and build houses for themselves and enjoy some of the comforts of
the gods.”
4 So Prometheus went to Jupiter and asked that he might be permitted to carry fire to the Earth.
But Jupiter shook his head in wrath.
5 “Fire, indeed!” he exclaimed. “If men had fire they would soon be as strong and wise as we who
dwell on Olympus. Never will I give my consent.”
6 Prometheus made no reply, but he didn't give up his idea of helping men. “Some other way
must be found,” he thought.
7 Then, one day, as he was walking among some reeds he broke off one, and seeing that its
hollow stalk was filled with a dry, soft pith, exclaimed:
8 “At last! In this I can carry fire, and the children of men shall have the great gift in spite of
Jupiter.”
9 Immediately, taking a long stalk in his hands, he set out for the dwelling of the sun in the far
east. He reached there in the early morning, just as Apollo's chariot was about to begin its
journey across the sky. Lighting his reed, he hurried back, carefully guarding the precious spark
that was hidden in the hollow stalk.
10 Then he showed men how to build fires for themselves, and it was not long before they began to
do all the wonderful things of which Prometheus had dreamed. They learned to cook and to
domesticate animals and to till the fields and to mine precious metals and melt them into tools
and weapons. And they came out of their dark and gloomy caves and built for themselves
beautiful houses of wood and stone. And instead of being sad and unhappy they began to laugh
and sing. “Behold, the Age of Gold has come again,” they said.
11 But Jupiter was not so happy. He saw that men were gaining daily greater power, and their very
prosperity made him angry.
12 “That young Titan!” he cried out, when he heard what Prometheus had done.
13 Soon after this the god decided that it was time to punish Prometheus. He called Strength and
Force and bade them seize the Titan and carry him to the highest peak of the Caucasus
Mountains. Then he sent Vulcan to bind him with iron chains, making arms and feet fast to
the rocks. Vulcan was sorry for Prometheus, but dared not disobey.
14 So the friend of man lay, miserably bound, naked to the winds, while the storms beat about him
and an eagle tore at his liver with its cruel talons. But Prometheus did not utter a groan in spite
of all his sufferings. Year after year he lay in agony, and yet he would not complain, beg for
mercy or repent of what he had done. Men were sorry for him, but could do nothing.
15 Then one day a beautiful white cow passed over the mountain, and stopped to look at
Prometheus with sad eyes.
16 “I know you,” Prometheus said. “You are Io, once a fair and happy maiden dwelling in Argos,
doomed by Jupiter and his jealous queen to wander over the Earth in this guise. Go southward
and then west until you come to the great river Nile. There you shall again become a maiden,
fairer than ever before, and shall marry the king of that country. And from your race shall spring
the hero who will break my chains and set me free.”
17 Centuries passed and then a great hero, Hercules, came to the Caucasus Mountains. He
climbed the rugged peak, slew the fierce eagle, and with mighty blows broke the chains that
bound the friend of man.
15. Read this phrase from paragraph 13 of the passage.
. . . making arms and feet fast to the rocks.
What is the meaning of this phrase?
A. Prometheus was forced to move quickly across and between the rocks on the mountain.
B. Prometheus’s limbs were attached securely to the rocks on the mountain with iron chains.
C. Prometheus’s arms and legs were turned into rocks by Vulcan, who was following the
orders of Jupiter.
D. Prometheus fasted by refusing to eat any food during the entire time he was living on top of
the mountain by the rocks.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The First Labor of Hercules
The First Labor of Hercules
1 The first labor that Eurystheus assigned to Hercules was to bring him the skin of the Nemean
lion. This monster dwelt on the mountain of Peloponnesus, in the forest between Kleona and
Nemea, and could be wounded by no weapons made of man. Some said he was the son of the
giant Typhon and the snake Echidna; others that he had dropped down from the Moon to the
Earth.
2 Hercules set out on his journey and came to Kleona, where a poor laborer, Molorchus, received
him hospitably. He met the latter just as he was about to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter.
3 “Good man,” said Hercules, “let the animal live thirty days longer; then, if I return, offer it to
Jupiter, my deliverer, and if I do not return, offer it as a funeral sacrifice to me, the hero who has
attained immortality.”
4 So Hercules continued on his way, his quiver of arrows over his shoulder, his bow in one hand,
and in the other a club made from the trunk of a wild olive tree which he had passed on Mount
Helicon and pulled up by the roots. When he at last entered the Nemean wood, he looked
carefully in every direction in order that he might catch sight of the monster lion before the lion
should see him. It was mid-day, and nowhere could he discover any trace of the lion or any path
that seemed to lead to his lair. He met no man in the field or in the forest: fear held them all shut
up in their distant dwellings. The whole afternoon he wandered through the thick undergrowth,
determined to test his strength just as soon as he should encounter the lion.
5 At last, toward evening, the monster came through the forest, returning from his trap in a deep
fissure of the Earth.
6 He was saturated with blood: head, mane and breast were reeking, and his great tongue was
licking his jaws. The hero, who saw him coming long before he was near, took refuge in a
thicket and waited until the lion approached; then with his arrow he shot him in the side. But the
shot did not pierce his flesh; instead it flew back as if it had struck stone and fell on the mossy
earth.
7 Then the animal raised his bloody head; looked around in every direction, and in fierce anger
showed his ugly teeth. Raising his head, he exposed his heart, and immediately Hercules let fly
another arrow, hoping to pierce him through the lungs. Again the arrow did not enter the flesh
but fell at the feet of the monster.
8 Hercules took a third arrow, while the lion, casting his eyes to the side, watched him. His whole
neck swelled with anger; he roared, and his back was bent like a bow. He sprang toward his
enemy; but Hercules threw the arrow and cast off the lion skin in which he was clothed with the
left hand, while with the right he swung his club over the head of the beast and gave him such a
blow on the neck that, all ready to spring as the lion was, he fell back, and came to a stand on
trembling legs, with shaking head. Before he could take another breath, Hercules was upon him.
9 Throwing down his bow and quiver, that he might be entirely unencumbered, he approached the
animal from behind, threw his arm around his neck and strangled him. Then for a long time he
sought in vain to strip the fallen animal of his hide. It yielded to no weapon or no stone. At last
the idea occurred to him of tearing it with the animal's own claws, and this method immediately
succeeded.
10 Later he prepared for himself a coat of mail out of the lion's skin, and from the neck, a new
helmet; but for the present he was content to don his own costume and weapons, and with the
lion's skin over his arm took his way back to Tirynth.
16. The term imagery is often used in analyzing literature. What detail from this passage provides
the best example of imagery?
A. This monster dwelt on the mountain of Peloponnesus, in the forest between Kleona and
Nemea, and could be wounded by no weapons made of man.
B. So Hercules continued on his way, his quiver of arrows over his shoulder, his bow in one
hand, and in the other a club made from the trunk of a wild olive tree which he had passed
on Mount Helicon and pulled up by the roots.
C. At last, toward evening, the monster came through the forest, returning from his trap in a
deep fissure of the Earth.
D. He was saturated with blood: head, mane and breast were reeking, and his great tongue
was licking his jaws.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from My Reminiscences
Excerpt from My Reminiscences
by Rabindranath Tagore
I know not who paints the pictures on memory’s canvas; but
whoever he may be, what he is painting are pictures; by which I
mean that he is not there with his brush simply to make a faithful
copy of all that is happening. He takes in and leaves out according
to his taste. He makes many a big thing small and small thing big.
He has no compunction1 in putting into the background that which
was to the fore, or bringing to the front that which was behind. In
short he is painting pictures, and not writing history.
Thus, over Life’s outward aspect passes the series of events, and
within is being painted a set of pictures. The two correspond but are
not one.
We do not get the leisure to view thoroughly this studio within
us. Portions of it now and then catch our eye, but the greater part
remains out of sight in the darkness. Why the ever-busy painter is
painting; when he will have done; for what gallery his pictures are
destined—who can tell?
Some years ago, on being questioned as to the events of my past
life, I had occasion to pry into this picture-chamber. I had thought
to be content with selecting some few materials for my Life’s story.
I then discovered, as I opened the door, that Life’s memories are
not Life’s history, but the original work of an unseen Artist. The
variegated2 colors scattered about are not reflections of outside
lights, but belong to the painter himself, and come passion-tinged
from his heart; thereby unfitting the record on the canvas for use as
evidence in a court of law.
But though the attempt to gather precise history from memory’s
storehouse may be fruitless, there is a fascination in looking over
the pictures, a fascination which cast its spell on me.
The road over which we journey, the wayside shelter in which we
pause, are not pictures while yet we travel—they are too necessary,
too obvious. When, however, before turning into the evening
resthouse, we look back upon the cities, fields, rivers, and hills
which we have been through in Life’s morning, then, in the light of
the passing day, are they pictures indeed. Thus, when my
opportunity came, did I look back, and was engrossed.
Was this interest aroused within me solely by a natural affection for
my own past? Some personal feeling, of course, there must have
been, but the pictures had also an independent artistic value of their
own. There is no event in my reminiscences3 worthy of being
preserved for all time. But the quality of the subject is not the only
justification for a record. What one has truly felt, if only it can be
made sensible to others, is always of importance to one’s fellow
men. If pictures which have taken shape in memory can be brought
out in words, they are worth a place in literature.
It is as literary material that I offer my memory pictures. To take
them as an attempt at autobiography would be a mistake. In such a
view these reminiscences would appear useless as well as
incomplete.
compunction: moral issue
variegated: having a variety
3
reminiscences: memories
1
2
Project Gutenberg, 2007.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22217/22217-h/22217-h.htm
(04/03/12).
17. How does the author’s use of compunction in the first paragraph
impact the representation of the artist?
A. It represents the lack of conscience the artist uses when
creating life’s paintings.
B. It demonstrates the attention to detail the artist uses in
rendering his paintings.
C. It acknowledges the importance of precision used by the
artist in his paintings.
D. It shows the lack of compassion the artist uses in painting
memories.
18. How does the representation of the artist as declining to make “a
faithful copy” impact the reader?
A. It shows the artist’s depictions are flawed.
B. It shows the artist’s intentions are ethical.
C. It explains how the artist is internally embattled.
D. It explains how the artist is accurate in his paintings.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt 1 from Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address
Excerpt from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First
Inaugural Address
March 4, 1933
I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction
into the Presidency I will address them with a candor1 and a decision
which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is
preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly
and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in
our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured,
will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm
belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless,
unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to
convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life
a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding
and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I
am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in
these critical days.
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common
difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values
have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to
pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious
curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the
currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on
every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings
of many years in thousands of families are gone.
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim
problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little
return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the
moment.
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are
stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our
forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid,
we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty
and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but
a generous use of it languishes2 in the very sight of the supply.
Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s
goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own
incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices
of the unscrupulous3 money changers stand indicted in the court of
public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern
of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have
proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of
profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership,
they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored
confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of selfseekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the
people perish.
The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple
of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient
truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we
apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the
joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral
stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of
evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if
they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but
to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of
success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief
that public office and high political position are to be valued only by
the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must
be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often
has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish
wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives
only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on
faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot
live.
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This
Nation asks for action, and action now.
candor: honesty and openness
languishes: weakens
3
unscrupulous: without morals; unethical
1
2
Project Gutenberg, 2009.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4938/4938-h/4938h.htm#2H_4_0037 (07/29/12).
19. How does Roosevelt’s use of the terms truth, frankly, and
honestly in the first paragraph affect the tone?
A. It promotes reassurance by proposing a solution for the
nation.
B. It promotes a positive tone by persuading listeners to be
honest.
C. It promotes a positive tone by convincing listeners to stop
worrying.
D. It promotes reassurance by establishing Roosevelt as a
trustworthy person.
20. What is the impact of Roosevelt’s comment “only a foolish
optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment” on the
meaning of his message?
A. It emphasizes that American businesses no longer exist.
B. It underscores his point about the difficulties the nation is
facing.
C. It shows readers more clearly the problems that farmers are
enduring.
D. It makes more plain the contrast between progress and
problems in America.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa: “The Plague of Locusts”
Excerpt from An Account of Timbuctoo and
Housa:
“The Plague of Locusts”
by El Hage Abd Salam Shabeeny
In the autumn of 1792, locusts began to appear in West Barbary.
The corn was in ear, and therefore safe, as this devouring insect
attacks no hard substance. In the period of heavy rains comprised
between the forty longest nights, old style, they disappeared; so
that one or two only were seen occasionally: but so soon as the
liahli had passed, the small young green locust began to appear, no
bigger than a fly. As vegetation increased, these insects increased
in size and quantity. But the country did not yet seem to suffer from
them. About the end of March, they increased rapidly.
I was at the emperor’s garden, which belongs to the Europeans,
and which was given to the merchants of Mogodor by the emperor
Seedi Muhamed ben Abdallah, in the kabyl of Idaugourd, in the
province of Haha, and the garden flourished with every green herb,
and the fruit-trees were all coming forward in the productive beauty
of spring. I went there the following day, and not a green leaf was
to be seen: an army of locusts had attacked it during the night, and
had devoured every shrub, every vegetable, and every green leaf;
so that the garden had been converted into an unproductive
wilderness. And, notwithstanding the incredible devastation that
was thus produced, not one locust was to be seen.
The gardener reported that the king of the locusts had taken his
departure eastward early in the morning; the myriads of locusts
followed, so that in a quarter of an hour not one was to be seen.
The depredations1 of these devouring insects was too soon felt, and
a direful scarcity ensued. The poor would go out a locusting, as they
termed it: the bushes were covered; they took their garment, and
threw it over them, and then collected them in a sack. In half an
hour they would collect a bushel. These they would take home, and
boil a quarter of an hour; they would then put them into a fryingpan, with pepper, salt, and vinegar, and eat them, without bread or
any other food, making a meal of them. They threw away the head,
wings, and legs, and ate them as we do prawns. They considered
them wholesome food, and preferred them to pigeons. Afterwards,
whenever there was any public entertainment given, locusts was a
standing dish; and it is remarkable that the dish was always
emptied, so generally were they esteemed as palatable2 food.
A few years after the locusts appeared, I performed a journey from
Mogodor to Tangier. The face of the country appeared like a newly
ploughed field of a brown soil; for it was completely covered with
these insects, insomuch that they had devoured even the bark of
the trees. They rose up about a yard, as the horses went on, and
settled again; in some places they were one upon another, three or
four inches deep on the ground; a few were flying in the air, and
they flew against the face, as if they were blind, to the no small
annoyance of the traveler. It is very remarkable, that on reaching
the banks of the river Elkos, which we crossed, there was not, on
the north side of that river, to my great astonishment, one locust
any where to be seen; but the country was flourishing in all the
luxuriance of verdure,3 although the river was not wider than the
Thames at Windsor. This extraordinary circumstance was accounted
for by the Arabs, who said that not a locust would cross the river,
till (sultan jeraad) the king of the locusts should precede and direct
the way.
depredations: destruction
2
palatable: delicious
3
verdure: greenery
1
Project Gutenberg, 2007.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22631/22631-h/22631-h.htm
(02/25/2013).
21. What does the speaker mean by the term
“incredible devastation” as used at the end of paragraph 2?
A. The corn crop was ruined.
B. All of the locusts had been killed.
C. All of the plants had been destroyed.
D. The garden’s structures were destroyed.
22. Which explains the effect of the locusts’ destruction to the land?
A. “I went there the following day, and not a green leaf was to
be seen.”
B. “And, not withstanding, the incredible devastation that was
thus produced, not one locust was to be seen.”
C. “The depredations of these devouring insects was too soon
felt, and a direful scarcity ensued.”
D. “The face of the country appeared like a newly ploughed field
of a brown soil.”
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Jefferson's Indian Addresses to the Brothers of the Choctaw Nation
Jefferson’s Indian Addresses
To the Brothers of the Choctaw Nation
We have long heard of your nation as a numerous, peaceable, and
friendly people; but this is the first visit we have had from its great
men at the seat of our government. I welcome you here; am glad to
take you by the hand, and to assure you, for your nation, that we
are their friends. Born in the same land, we ought to live as
brothers, doing to each other all the good we can, and not listening
to wicked men, who may endeavor to make us enemies. By living in
peace, we can help and prosper one another; by waging war, we
can kill and destroy many on both sides; but those who survive will
not be the happier for that.
Then, brothers, let it forever be peace and good neighborhood
between us. Our seventeen States compose a great and growing
nation. Their children are as the leaves of the trees, which the winds
are spreading over the forest. But we are just also. We take from no
nation what belongs to it. Our growing numbers make us always
willing to buy lands from our red brethren, when they are willing to
sell. But be assured we never mean to disturb them in their
possessions. On the contrary, the lines established between us by
mutual consent, shall be sacredly preserved, and will protect your
lands from all encroachments1 by our own people or any others. We
will give you a copy of the law, made by our great Council, for
punishing our people, who may encroach on your lands, or injure
you otherwise. Carry it with you to your homes, and preserve it, as
the shield which we spread over you, to protect your land, your
property, and persons.
It is at the request which you sent me in September, signed by
Puckshanublee and other chiefs, and which you now repeat, that I
listen to your proposition to sell us lands. You say you owe a great
debt to your merchants, that you have nothing to pay it with but
lands, and you pray us to take lands, and pay your debt. The sum
you have occasion for, brothers, is a very great one. We have never
yet paid as much to any of our red brethren for the purchase of
lands. You propose to us some on the Tombigbee, and some on the
Mississippi. Those on the Mississippi suit us well. We wish to have
establishments on that river, as resting places for our boats, to
furnish them provisions, and to receive our people who fall sick on
the way to or from New Orleans, which is now ours. In that quarter,
therefore, we are willing to purchase as much as you will spare. But
as to the manner in which the line shall be run, we are not judges of
it here, nor qualified to make any bargain. But we will appoint
persons hereafter to treat with you on the spot, who, knowing the
country and quality of the lands, will be better able to agree with
you on a line which will give us a just equivalent for the sum of
money you want paid.
You have spoken, brothers, of the lands which your fathers
formerly sold and marked off to the English, and which they ceded
to us with the rest of the country they held here; and you say that,
though you do not know whether your fathers were paid for them,
you have marked the line over again for us, and do not ask
repayment. It has always been the custom, brothers, when lands
were bought of the red men, to pay for them immediately, and none
of us have ever seen an example of such a debt remaining unpaid.
It is to satisfy their immediate wants that the red men have usually
sold lands; and in such a case, they would not let the debt be
unpaid. The presumption2 from custom then is strong; so it is also
from the great length of time since your fathers sold these lands.
But we have, moreover, been informed by persons now living, and
who assisted the English in making the purchase, that the price was
paid at the time. Were it otherwise, as it was their contract, it would
be their debt, not ours.
I rejoice, brothers, to hear you propose to become cultivators of
the earth for the maintenance of your families. Be assured you will
support them better and with less labor, by raising stock and bread,
and by spinning and weaving clothes, than by hunting. A little land
cultivated, and a little labor, will procure more provisions than the
most successful hunt; and a woman will clothe more by spinning
and weaving, than a man by hunting. Compared with you, we are
but as of yesterday in this land. Yet see how much more we have
multiplied by industry, and the exercise of that reason which you
possess in common with us. Follow then our example, brethren, and
we will aid you with great pleasure.
The clothes and other necessaries which we sent you the last year,
were, as you supposed, a present from us. We never meant to ask
land or any other payment for them; and the store which we sent
on, was at your request also; and to accommodate you with
necessaries at a reasonable price, you wished of course to have it
on your land; but the land would continue yours, not ours.
As to the removal of the store, the interpreter, and the agent,
and any other matters you may wish to speak about, the Secretary
at War will enter into explanations with you, and whatever he says,
you may consider as said by myself, and what he promises you will
be faithfully performed.
I am glad, brothers, you are willing to go and visit some other parts
of our country. Carriages shall be ready to convey you, and you
shall be taken care of on your journey; and when you shall have
returned here and rested yourselves to your own mind, you shall be
sent home by land. We had provided for your coming by land, and
were sorry for the mistake which carried you to Savannah instead of
Augusta, and exposed you to the risks of a voyage by sea. Had any
accident happened to you, though we could not help it, it would
have been a cause of great mourning to us. But we thank the Great
Spirit who took care of you on the ocean, and brought you safe and
in good health to the seat of our great Council; and we hope His
care will accompany and protect you, on your journey and return
home; and that He will preserve and prosper your nation in all its
just pursuits.
encroachments: invasions
presumptions: beliefs based on evidence
1
2
From The Avalon Project, Yale Law School.
23. How does the author use paragraph 5 in this selection to urge
the Chocotaw people not to hunt?
A. He claims that few people hunt anymore anyway.
B. He claims that without farmers, society will die away.
C. He claims that raising stock and bread is less harmful to the
earth.
D. He claims that farming and raising livestock are more
advantageous.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
In Focus: Janet Daley
In Focus: Janet Daley
by Maggie Riechers
“Besides family, books are my greatest treasure,” says Janet Daley,
executive director of The North Dakota Humanities Council. Her love
of literature and her devotion to her native state have fueled Daley’s
mission to bring the humanities1 to North Dakota’s far-flung small
towns, rural communities, and Indian reservations. As one who has
lived in North Dakota all her life, she has a special understanding of
the state. “There are only 650,000 people in North Dakota, and it’s
a very educated populace. The entire state is like a small town.”
While the state may have a hometown feeling, most of its real
small towns are miles apart. Bringing them together is a favorite
project of Daley’s: North Dakota Reads. The book discussion
program, which uses NEH2 matching funds, is now in nine
communities. “It’s the first time we’ve done anything like this in
North Dakota,” says Daley. “We’ve been able to lower the costs for
speakers to make them more affordable to the communities. With
my own background in literature, North Dakota Reads is so exciting
to me.”
Under the program, the Humanities Council works with local and
school libraries to supply books, a gathering place, and a guest
speaker for discussion meetings on assigned books. The program
focuses on authors such as Louise Erdrich, Larry Watson, and Larry
Woiwode who have childhood ties to the state.
As a Phi Beta Kappa3 graduate of the University of North Dakota
in Grand Forks, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English, and
experience in teaching, writing and editing, and publishing, Daley is
well-equipped to take on the job of increasing humanities
awareness throughout the state. She grew up in Nash, a town of
about fifty people, and from childhood loved reading and books.
Daley began her career teaching English in secondary schools. After
she moved to Bismarck, she became the publications editor at the
State Historical Society of North Dakota, editing the state scholarly
journal, North Dakota History, as well as editing and publishing
more than a dozen books. Later she became a freelance editor
working on book projects for, among others, the North Dakota
Institute of Regional Studies, the State Historical Society of North
Dakota, and Syracuse University Press, where she was content
editor and a contributor to the Encyclopedia of New York State.
“My education and professional experience have come together in
serendipitous fashion to prepare for this job,” says Daley. “But
growing up in North Dakota, where education matters and people
care about their neighbors, is probably the best grounding I could
have to help provide humanities — ways of connecting people to
ideas and an understanding of what makes us all humans—for my
fellow North Dakotans.” Besides literature, the history of North
Dakota and the culture of the Plains are important topics to Daley.
One of the Humanities Council programs provides resources for the
state’s middle schoolers who are required to take North Dakota
history in eighth grade. Because there is no state history textbook,
the council developed materials for schools, including its newspaper,
The North Star Dakotan, which reports the news during different
eras of the state’s history. “This newspaper speaks directly to a
need for classrooms and all North Dakotans,” says Daley. Issue
Five, for example, covers 1915 to 1940 and includes articles such as
“European War Worries North Dakotans Most Against Intervention,”
from December 15, 1915, and “Farmers Told ‘Go Home and Slop
the Hog,’ State-Owned Elevator Bill is Dead,” dated February 4,
1915.
The Council has not neglected its Indian population, which
comprises five percent of the state. In the spring of 2005, the
Council sponsored a tour of reservations of the film Water Buster,
which portrayed the damage to the Indian population when the
building of the Garrison Dam flooded many small towns on
reservations. “We’re working with Indians across the state,” says
Daley. “We want to bridge cultural divides where they exist through
appreciation of history, culture, and arts.”
“Our small towns need the humanities,” says Daley. “We want to
make sure our programs reach to Main Street, to the people and
where they live.”
humanities: branches of knowledge that investigate human
beings, their culture, and their self-expression
2
NEH: a grant-making agency dedicated to supporting research,
education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities
3
Phi Beta Kappa: academic honor society with the mission of
fostering and recognizing excellence in undergraduate liberal arts
and sciences
1
HUMANITIES, May/June 2006, Vol. 27, No. 3
24. How does the author explain what Daley believes contributed to
her preparation for her current position?
A. “Her love of literature and her devotion to her native state
have fueled Daley’s mission to bring the humanities to North
Dakota.”
B. “As one who has lived in North Dakota all her life, she has a
special understanding of the state.”
C. “ ‘But growing up in North Dakota, where education matters
and people care about their neighbors, is probably the best
grounding I could have to help provide humanities.’ ”
D. “ ‘We want to bridge cultural divides where they exist through
appreciation of history, culture, and arts.’ ”
25. How does the author use paragraph 3 to enhance her ideas
about Janet Daley’s contribution to North Dakota?
A. She offers a firsthand example of how enthusiastic Janet
Daley is about her work in North Dakota.
B. She provides a detailed description of one of The North
Dakota Humanities Council’s programs.
C. She supports the claim that though small, North Dakota
contains a very educated populace.
D. She describes a specific need of many of the isolated small
towns in rural North Dakota.
26. How does paragraph 5 develop the idea that “the history of
North Dakota and the culture of the Plains are important topics
to Daley”?
A. by describing Daley’s background in publishing and editing
B. by discussing Daley’s interest in connecting people to ideas
C. by describing Daley’s role in providing resource materials to
schools
D. by discussing how Daley provides humanities resources to
state residents
27. Which paragraph develops the idea that Daley is well-suited for
her position?
A. Paragraph 1
B. Paragraph 2
C. Paragraph 4
D. Paragraph 5
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Surfing the Internet Gets Deep
Surfing the Internet Gets Deep
by Stacy W. Kish
WorldWideScience provides a one-stop search engine to mine global scientific
databases in the deep web
The Internet has revolutionized society by changing the way people
communicate, find information, and enjoy entertainment. But a
standard Internet search misses at least 90 percent of the
information available.
The Internet is separated into two unequal pools of information.
The surface web contains pages of information that are utilized by
popular search engines. The second pool of information is locked
away in the deep web, which consists of countless databases world
wide.
According to Walt Warnick, Director of the DOE Office of Scientific
and Technical Information (OSTI), “The deep web is huge.”
Common browsers like Google and Yahoo crawl across the
thousands of Internet pages on the surface web, but are unable to
dig into the databases to retrieve information from the deep web.
“Asking a scientist, engineer, or educator to find information in
their field using common web browsers is like asking a doctor to
diagnose disease without X-rays, MRI, or any other piece of
diagnostic equipment” said Warnick.
Information in the deep web can only be mined for data using
search engines designed for that particular database. Many of the
search engines that are available to mine databases often do not
use relevance ranking, making filtering through the information a
crap shoot1.
“Under the current system, finding information in the deep web is
a series of practical impossibilities, placing internet users, especially
scientists and science educators, at a severe disadvantage,” said
Warnick.
To address the global science need, OSTI has launched
WorldWideScience.org, a science gateway that accelerates the
search for data in national and international scientific databases and
portals2 on the Internet. The data spans physical and life sciences as
well as medical studies.
Warnick called the development of this technology “a series of
sequential miracles” that makes the deep web accessible to a wider
audience where billions of dollars worth of government-sponsored
scientific research results reside.
WorldWideScience provides a one-stop search engine for global
scientific databases. When a query is entered into the search
engine, it is transmitted to the gateway server at OSTI in Oak
Ridge, Tennessee. Going beyond the capabilities of the common
web crawler, which searches the Internet horizontally; this new
search engine adds the enhanced capability of simultaneously
searching a select group of databases vertically.
Since the debut of the search engine prototype in 2007,
WorldWideScience has expanded from 10 to 56 participating
countries. China is the most recent country to contribute to the
search engine, opening a wealth of scientific information to the
world. The search engine now scours more than 375 million pages
of scientific information contained in deep web databases.
Despite these advances, there is more work to do. Currently,
WorldWideScience is limited to searching databases with English
titles and abstracts. This constraint confines the number of
databases accessible by the search engine. The Alliance is now
exploring translation technologies to expand the network of
databases accessible to the worldwide community and is making
progress toward deploying3 this capability.
crap shoot: difficult; going in many directions
portals: openings; places to look
3
deploying: spreading out; utilizing
1
2
U.S. Department of Energy. http://science.energy.gov/news/infocus/2009/08-04-09-s/ (07/27/12).
28. How does paragraph 6 contribute to the development of the
overall topic?
A. It specifies how information in the deep web is stored.
B. It exposes some of the drawbacks of the new search engine.
C. It describes the importance of having better access to
research.
D. It explains why information in the deep web can be difficult to
access.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography
Excerpt from Up From Slavery: An
Autobiography
by Booker T. Washington
From the very beginning, at Tuskegee, I was determined to have
the students do not only the agricultural and domestic work, but to
have them erect their own buildings. My plan was to have them,
while performing this service, taught the latest and best methods of
labor, so that the school would not only get the benefit of their
efforts, but the students themselves would be taught to see not only
utility in labor, but beauty and dignity; would be taught, in fact,
how to lift labor up from mere drudgery1 and toil, and would learn to
love work for its own sake. My plan was not to teach them to work
in the old way, but to show them how to make the forces of
nature—air, water, steam, electricity, horsepower—assist them in
their labor.
At first many advised against the experiment of having the
buildings erected by the labor of the students, but I was determined
to stick to it. I told those who doubted the wisdom of the plan that I
knew that our first buildings would not be so comfortable or so
complete in their finish as buildings erected by the experienced
hands of outside workmen, but that in the teaching of civilization,
self-help, and self-reliance, the erection of buildings by the students
themselves would more than compensate for any lack of comfort or
fine finish.
I further told those who doubted the wisdom of this plan, that the
majority of our students came to us in poverty, from the cabins of
the cotton, sugar, and rice plantations of the South, and that while I
knew it would please the students very much to place them at once
in finely constructed buildings, I felt that it would be following out a
more natural process of development to teach them how to
construct their own buildings. Mistakes I knew would be made, but
these mistakes would teach us valuable lessons for the future.
During the now nineteen years’ existence of the Tuskegee school,
the plan of having the buildings erected by student labor has been
adhered2 to. In this time forty buildings, counting small and large,
have been built, and all except four are almost wholly the product of
student labor. As an additional result, hundreds of men are now
scattered throughout the South who received their knowledge of
mechanics while being taught how to erect these buildings. Skill and
knowledge are now handed down from one set of students to
another in this way, until at the present time a building of any
description or size can be constructed wholly by our instructors and
students, from the drawing of the plans to the putting in of the
electric fixtures, without going off the grounds for a single
workman.
Not a few times, when a new student has been led into the
temptation of marring the looks of some building by lead pencil
marks or by the cuts of a jack-knife, I have heard an old student
remind him: “Don’t do that. That is our building. I helped put it up.”
drudgery: tiring work
adhered: stuck to; followed
1
2
Project Gutenberg, 2008.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2376/2376-h/2376-h.htm
(02/22/2013).
29. Which describes the author’s views on the relationship between
students and work?
A. Students should view work as essential.
B. Students often view work as a diversion.
C. Students should view work as honorable.
D. Students often view work as an adult activity.
30. How does the final paragraph contribute to the author’s point of
view?
A. It shows the significance of teaching skills to young people.
B. It explains the effectiveness of Washington’s plan.
C. It affirms the students’ respect for their buildings.
D. It confirms that students can learn construction.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Problem With Paper
The Problem with Paper
Some members of the pulp and paper industry are leaving an
unacceptably large ecological footprint on the planet. Irresponsible
pulpwood harvesting and expanding pulpwood plantations threaten
fragile ecosystems and create social problems.
In some places, such as in Indonesia, deforestation caused by
unsustainable pulpwood harvesting contributes to climate change.
The pulp and paper manufacturing industry is among the world’s
largest users of energy and emitters of greenhouse gases, and a
significant source of water pollution and landfill waste.
Paper production is causing a large ecological footprint on forests,
as around 40% of the world’s commercially cut timber is processed
for paper.
While some of this timber is grown in well-managed forests, too
much of it is the result of illegal logging and the irresponsible
destruction of old-growth and high conservation value forests.
Some proposed new pulpwood plantations and mills threaten
natural habitats in many places with high conservation values.
For example, the remaining natural forests in Sumatra, Borneo,
New Guinea, Russian Far East, Southern Chile and the Atlantic
forest region in Brazil are endangered because of growing demand
for pulpwood, among other threats. This has a knock on effect on
several rare species including tigers, Asian elephants, Asian rhinos,
and orangutans.
What is Causing Forest Conversion?
Rising demand for soy, palm oil, cocoa and coffee is translating into
expanding plantations for these crops worldwide. Versatile products
like soy and palm oil are found in anything from animal feed to
bread, and from lipstick to burgers—hence their popularity. This
human ‘footprint’ on the Earth shows how our behavior in one part
of the world can have negative impact on tropical forests and the
people living in other part of world.
Cheap land, labor, and government subsidies are creating more and
more supplies of agricultural goods to meet needs for increased
production.
Poorly implemented environmental regulations are added incentives
for some landowners and producers to convert forests for
plantations inside protected areas, intimidate local people so that
they are driven off their land, and set fires to clear land with little
fear for interference by authorities.
World Wildlife Federation. at http://wwf.panda.org (03/30/12).
31. Which line in the selection shows that the author cares about
wildlife?
A. “Irresponsible pulpwood harvesting and expanding pulpwood
plantations threaten fragile ecosystems and create social
problems.”
B. “Some proposed new pulpwood plantations and mills threaten
natural habitats in many places with high conservation
values.”
C. “This has a knock on effect on several rare species including
tigers, Asian elephants, Asian rhinos, and orangutans.”
D. “Versatile products like soy and palm oil are found in
anything from animal feed to bread.”
Read the following and answer the questions below:
How Dependent Are we on Foreign Oil?
How Dependent Are We on Foreign Oil?
The United States imported about 49% of the petroleum, which
includes crude oil and refined petroleum products, that we
consumed during 2010. About half of these imports came from the
Western Hemisphere. Our dependence on foreign petroleum has
declined since peaking in 2005.
The United States consumed 19.1 million barrels per day (MMbd) of
petroleum products during 2010, making us the world’s largest
petroleum consumer. The United States was third in crude oil
production at 5.5 MMbd. But crude oil alone does not constitute all
U.S. petroleum supplies. Significant gains occur, because crude oil
expands in the refining process, liquid fuel is captured in the
processing of natural gas, and we have other sources of liquid fuel,
including biofuels. These additional supplies totaled 4.2 MMbd in
2010.
In 2010 the United States imported 11.8 million barrels per day
(MMbd) of crude oil and refined petroleum products. We also
exported 2.3 MMbd of crude oil and petroleum products during
2010, so our net imports (imports minus exports) equaled 9.4
MMbd.
Petroleum products imported by the United States during 2010
included gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, jet fuel, chemical
feedstocks, asphalt, and other products. Still, most petroleum
products consumed in the United States were refined here. Net
imports of petroleum other than crude oil were 2% of the petroleum
consumed in the United States during 2010.
About Half of U.S. Petroleum Imports Come from the Western Hemisphere
Some may be surprised to learn that 49% of U.S. crude oil and
petroleum products imports came from the Western Hemisphere
(North, South, and Central America, and the Caribbean including
U.S. territories) during 2010. About 18% of our imports of crude oil
and petroleum products come from the Persian Gulf countries of
Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab
Emirates. Our largest sources of net crude oil and petroleum
product imports were Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Top Sources of Net Crude Oil and Petroleum Product Imports:





Canada (25%)
Saudi Arabia (12%)
Nigeria (11%)
Venezuela (10%)
Mexico (9%)
It is usually impossible to tell whether the petroleum products you
use came from domestic or imported sources of oil once they are
refined.
Reliance on Petroleum Imports has Declined
U.S. dependence on imported oil has dramatically declined since
peaking in 2005. This trend is the result of a variety of factors
including a decline in consumption and shifts in supply patterns. The
economic downturn after the financial crisis of 2008, improvements
in efficiency, changes in consumer behavior and patterns of
economic growth, all contributed to the decline in petroleum
consumption. At the same time, increased use of domestic biofuels
(ethanol and biodiesel), and strong gains in domestic production of
crude oil and natural gas plant liquids expanded domestic supplies
and reduced the need for imports.
U.S. Energy Information Administration.
http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/energy_in_brief/foreign_oil_dependence
.cfm (06/24/2011).
32 What effect does the use of factual data throughout the article
. have on its overall purpose?
A. The author’s opinion is well-supported.
B. Multiple perspectives are fairly represented.
C. Multiple opinions can be formed by readers.
D. The author’s initial question is thoroughly answered.
33. What is the primary way the author achieves his purpose in the
text?
A. by persuasively stating an opinion
B. by providing factual details to explain the topic
C. by using examples to create an emotional impact
D. by employing expert testimony to make opinions appear as
fact
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from Childhood: “Mamma”
From Russia
Excerpt from Childhood: “Mamma”
by Leo Tolstoy
Mamma was sitting in the drawing-room and making tea. In one
hand she was holding the tea-pot, while with the other one she was
drawing water from the urn and letting it drip into the tray. Yet
though she appeared to be noticing what she doing, in reality she
noted neither this fact nor our entry.
However vivid be one’s recollection of the past, any attempt to
recall the features of a beloved being shows them to one’s vision as
through a mist of tears—dim and blurred. Those tears are the tears
of the imagination. When I try to recall Mamma as she was then, I
see, true, her brown eyes, expressive always of love and kindness,
the small mole on her neck below where the small hairs grow, her
white embroidered collar, and the delicate, fresh hand which so
often caressed me, and which I so often kissed; but her general
appearance escapes me altogether.
To the left of the sofa stood an English piano, at which my darkhaired sister Lubotshka was sitting and playing with manifest1 effort
(for her hands were rosy from a recent washing in cold water)
Clementi’s “Etudes.” Then eleven years old, she was dressed in a
short cotton frock and white lace-frilled trousers, and could take her
octaves only in arpeggio.2 Beside her was sitting Maria Ivanovna, in
a cap adorned with pink ribbons and a blue shawl, Her face was red
and cross, and it assumed an expression even more severe when
Karl Ivanitch entered the room. Looking angrily at him without
answering his bow, she went on beating time with her foot and
counting, “One, two, three—one, two, three,” more loudly and
commandingly than ever.
Karl Ivanitch paid no attention to this rudeness, but went, as usual,
with German politeness to kiss Mamma’s hand. She drew herself up,
shook her head as though by the movement to chase away sad
thoughts from her, and gave Karl her hand, kissing him on his
wrinkled temple as he bent his head in salutation.
“I thank you, dear Karl Ivanitch,” she said in German, and then, still
using the same language asked him how we (the children) had
slept. Karl Ivanitch was deaf in one ear, and the added noise of the
piano now prevented him from hearing anything at all. He moved
nearer to the sofa, and, leaning one hand upon the table and lifting
his cap above his head, said with, a smile which in those days
always seemed to me the perfection of politeness, “You, will excuse
me, will you not, Natalia Nicolaevna?”
The reason for this was that, to avoid catching cold, Karl never took
off his red cap, but invariably asked permission, on entering the
drawing-room, to retain it on his head.
“Yes, pray replace it, Karl Ivanitch,” said Mamma, bending towards
him and raising her voice. “But I asked you whether the children
had slept well?”
Still he did not hear, but, covering his bald head again with the red
cap, went on smiling more than ever.
“Stop a moment, Mimi,” said Mamma (now smiling also) to Maria
Ivanovna. “It is impossible to hear anything.”
How beautiful Mamma’s face was when she smiled! It made her so
infinitely more charming, and everything around her seemed to
grow brighter! If in the more painful moments of my life I could
have seen that smile before my eyes, I should never have known
what grief is. In my opinion, it is in the smile of a face that the
essence of what we call beauty lies. If the smile heightens the
charm of the face, then the face is a beautiful one. If the smile does
not alter the face, then the face is an ordinary one. But if the smile
spoils the face, then the face is an ugly one indeed.
Mamma took my head between her hands, bent it gently
backwards, looked at me gravely and said, “You have been crying
this morning?”
I did not answer. She kissed my eyes, and said again in German,
“Why did you cry?”
When talking to us with particular intimacy she always used this
language, which she knew to perfection.
“I cried about a dream, Mamma,” I replied, remembering the
invented vision, and trembling involuntarily at the recollection.
Karl Ivanitch confirmed my words, but said nothing as to the
subject of the dream. Then, after a little conversation on the
weather, in which Mimi also took part, Mamma laid some lumps of
sugar on the tray for one or two of the more privileged servants,
and crossed over to her embroidery frame, which stood near one of
the windows.
“Go to Papa now, children,” she said, “and ask him to come to me
before he goes to the home farm.”
Then the music, the counting, and the wrathful looks from Mimi
began again, and we went off to see Papa. Passing through the
room which had been known ever since Grandpapa’s time as “the
pantry,” we entered the study.
manifest: obvious
2
could take her octaves only in arpeggio: her hands were too
small to reach the two notes (eight keys apart) at the same time, so
had to hit first one note and then the other.
1
Project Gutenberg, 2006.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2142/2142-h/2142h.htm#2H_4_0002 (02/25/2013).
34. How is the narrator’s point of view affected by the passage of
time?
A. His details about the piano lessons are more vivid.
B. His details about his mother’s appearance have become
clearer.
C. His details reveal he is emotionally overwhelmed by the
memories.
D. His details reveal he struggles to remember his mother’s
general appearance.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery on a plantation in
Maryland. At age 8, he was sent to work for a while as a house
servant for a family in Baltimore. Years later he escaped to the
North where he became a successful orator and abolitionist, and
eventually purchased his freedom.
Excerpt from the Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglas
by Frederick Douglass
I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years. During this time,
I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I
was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular
teacher. My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me,
had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not
only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being
instructed by any one else. It is due, however, to my mistress to
say of her, that she did not adopt this course of treatment
immediately. She at first lacked the depravity1 indispensable to
shutting me up in mental darkness. It was at least necessary for her
to have some training in the exercise of irresponsible power, to
make her equal to the task of treating me as though I were a brute.
My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tenderhearted
woman; and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I
first went to live with her, to treat me as she supposed one human
being ought to treat another. In entering upon the duties of a
slaveholder, she did not seem to perceive that I sustained to her the
relation of a mere chattel2, and that for her to treat me as a human
being was not only wrong, but dangerously so. Slavery proved as
injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious,
warm, and tenderhearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering
for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes
for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her
reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these
heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became
stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like
fierceness. The first step in her downward course was in her ceasing
to instruct me. She now commenced to practice her husband’s
precepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition
than her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing
as well as he had commanded; she seemed anxious to do better.
Nothing seemed to make her angrier than to see me with a
newspaper. She seemed to think that here lay the danger. I have
had her rush at me with a face made all up of fury, and snatch from
me a newspaper, in a manner that fully revealed her apprehension.
She was an apt woman; and a little experience soon demonstrated,
to her satisfaction, that education and slavery were incompatible
with each other.
From this time I was most narrowly watched. If I was in a separate
room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of
having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself.
All this, however, was too late. The first step had been taken.
Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and
no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.3
The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most
successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys
whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted
into teachers. With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and
in different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read. When I
was sent of errands, I always took my book with me, and by going
one part of my errand quickly, I found time to get a lesson before
my return. I used also to carry bread with me, enough of which was
always in the house, and to which I was always welcome; for I was
much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children
in our neighborhood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry
little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable
bread of knowledge.
depravity: moral corruption
2
mere chattel: only a servant
3
taking the ell: the expression “Give him an inch, and he’ll take the
ell” means “Give him an inch, and he will take four.”
1
Project Gutenberg, 2006. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23h/23-h.htm (02/22/2013).
35. Based on paragraph 2, what can the reader infer?
A. Slavery is an evil that can only be cured by education.
B. Slavery is an evil that is passed down through generations.
C. Slavery has the power to turn good people into cruel ones.
D. Slavery has the power to inspire slaves to earn an education.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
New VOA IPhone App Empowers Citizen Journalists
New VOA IPhone App Empowers Citizen
Journalists
Voice of America’s Russian Service has rolled out a new iPhone app
that does more than just deliver the latest news and information—it
lets citizen journalists use their mobile devices to upload and share
short reports, photos or video about key events in their target
region.
The app1, which is available for free in the iTunes store, is a true
multimedia tool, providing access to VOA Russian service text,
video, and audio content, including podcasts2 and the popular
Russian blog3. The app also lets users bookmark VOA articles or
create video and audio playlists, as well as connections to Twitter
and Facebook for easy content sharing across social media sites.
Russian Service Managing Editor Irina Van Dusen says “the
feature on the new app we are most excited about is called ‘You—
the Reporter,’ which allows members of our audience to become
citizen journalists who can share with our audience what they have
witnessed or observed.”
With the new app, iPhone users can type a short report and attach
photos or videos, then send that user-generated content directly to
the VOA Russian Service, where journalists will evaluate the
material for possible use on the website.
For other smartphone users, VOA Russian provides a state-of-theart mobile website that adjusts to the specific features of the user’s
phone.
VOA’s Russian Service Golos Ameriki employs an all-digital
strategy to deliver news and information to Russia and other former
Soviet Republics. With reporters in the United States and in the
region, the service provides interactive and timely text, audio and
video, and offers insights into U.S. policy and American life.
In the past year the service has experienced significant audience
growth, with nearly 4 million visits to the site since January 1.
Earlier this month, the service teamed up with award-winning
investigative journalist Fatima Tlisova, on a multi-media project
aimed at telling the difficult stories that reporters are often
punished for pursuing. More than a blog, the Russian language
project, titled Journalism in the Crosshairs (Pressa pod Pressom),
provides a digital media platform for reporters from the former
Soviet Union and Central Asia, who are often beaten or killed as a
result of their work.
app: a program from the internet that can be accessed by cell
phones
2podcasts: programs of music or talk
3
blog: an internet website containing a writer’s personal thoughts
and comments
1
Broadcasting Board of Governors, VOA Press Release. (06/27/2011)
36. What can the reader infer from the statement “which allows
members of our audience to become citizen journalists” in
paragraph 3?
A. The reader can infer that there is a need for ordinary people
to verify official news stories.
B. The reader can infer that the app will make it easier for VOA
to send information to the users.
C. The reader can infer that writers and reporters will find the
app useful when contributing their stories.
D. The reader can infer that VOA wants to hire reporters who
can investigate and share stories with their audience.
37. What can the reader infer from the last paragraph?
A. The reader can infer that VOA recruits people to investigate
dangerous news stories.
B. The reader can infer that some governments try to control
the publication of news stories.
C. The reader can infer that many people are unwilling to
investigate news stories that may be perilous.
D. The reader can infer that difficult news stories are often not
worth the punishment reporters receive for pursuing them.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
What a History!
What a History!
The ancestors of the French are the Gauls, who established
themselves in the 6th century B.C. After the defeat of their leader,
Vercingetorix, they were conquered by the Romans, who came from
the Italian peninsula, and were later invaded by different peoples
from the east of the continent until the 6th century A.D.
After the reign of the Franks, who gave their name to France, and
the Emperor Charlemagne (742–814), a large part of the country
was governed by hereditary royal families who handed down power
among themselves after the 10th century. The monarchy reached
its highest point with Louis XIV (1643–1715). Although he was
called the Sun King and built the Château de Versailles, the country
suffered from war and poverty during his reign.
On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, an old
fort and royal prison, and rose in rebellion. The French Revolution
ended the monarchy and set up the Republic. In 1791, the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen proclaimed the
principles of liberty and equality for all.
But the French Republic had to fight wars against European
monarchies. The victorious French general, Bonaparte, set up an
imperial government and became emperor, taking the name
Napoleon I (1804–1815). He erected the Arc de Triomphe in tribute
to the French armies. Before he was defeated, he reorganized the
administration, the justice system, and finances, and created a
centralized state, which was to turn France into a modern country.
Embassy of France in the United States. http://www.info-franceusa.org/kids/histgeo/base.asp?history (11/20/2006).
38. Which sentence shows a fundamental shift in France’s history?
A. “The monarchy reached its highest point with Louis XIV
(1643–1715).”
B. “Although he was called the Sun King and built the Château
de Versailles, the country suffered from war and poverty
during his reign.”
C. “On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille,
an old fort and royal prison, and rose in rebellion.”
D. “But the French Republic had to fight wars against European
monarchies.”
39. Which sentence from the selection represents what the author
considers the best period of France’s history?
A. “After the reign of the Franks, who gave their name to
France, and the Emperor Charlemagne (742–814), a large
part of the country was governed by hereditary royal families
who handed down power among themselves after the 10th
century.”
B. “The monarchy reached its highest point with Louis XIV
(1643–1715).”
C. “On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille,
an old fort and royal prison, and rose in rebellion.”
D. “Before he was defeated, he reorganized the administration,
the justice system, and finances and created a centralized
state, which was to turn France into a modern country.”
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custers Michigan Cavalry Brigade
in the Ci
Excerpt from Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custer’s Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the
Civil War
by J.H. Kidd
1. It is true that in the first stages of the war the fighting qualities of American soldiers did not
appear in altogether a favorable light. But at that time the fact is that the volunteer armies on
both sides were not much better than mere armed mobs, and without discipline or cohesion. But
those conditions didn't last long,—and there was never but one Bull Run.
2. Enoch Wallace was home on recruiting service some weeks in the fall of 1862, and when he
rejoined the regiment he told me something my father said in a conversation that occurred
between the two. They were talking about the war, battles, and topics of that sort, and in the
course of their talk Enoch told me that my father said that while he hoped his boy would come
through the war all right, yet he would rather "Leander should be killed dead, while standing up
and fighting like a man, than that he should run, and disgrace the family." I have no thought from
the nature of the conversation as told to me by Enoch that my father made this remark with any
intention of its being repeated to me. It was sudden and spontaneous, and just the way the old
backwoodsman felt. But I never forgot it, and it helped me several times. For, to be perfectly
frank about it, and tell the plain truth, I will set it down here that, so far as I was concerned, away
down in the bottom of my heart I just secretly dreaded a battle. But we were soldiers, and it was
our business to fight when the time came, so the only thing to then do was to summon up our
pride and resolution, and face the ordeal with all the fortitude we could command. And while I
admit the existence of this feeling of dread before the fight, yet it is also true that when it was on,
and one was in the thick of it, with the smell of gun-powder permeating his whole system, then a
signal change comes over a man. He is seized with a furious desire to kill. There are his foes,
right in plain view, give it to 'em—and for the time being he becomes almost oblivious to the
sense of danger.
3. And while it was only human nature to dread a battle,—and I think it would be mere affectation to
deny it, yet I also know that we common soldiers strongly felt that when fighting did break loose
close at hand, or within the general scope of our operations, then we ought to be in it, with the
others, and doing our part. That was what we were there for, and somehow a soldier didn't feel
just right for fighting to be going on all round him, or in his vicinity, and he doing nothing but lying
back somewhere, eating government rations.
4. But, all things considered, the best definition of true courage I have ever read is that given by
Gen. Sherman in his Memoirs, as follows:
5. "I would define true courage," (he says,) "to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger,
and a mental willingness to endure it." But, I will further say, in this connection, that, in my
opinion, much depends, sometimes, especially at a critical moment, on the commander of the
men who is right on the ground, or close at hand. This is shown by the result attained by Gen.
Milroy in the incident I have previously mentioned. And, on a larger scale, the inspiring conduct
of Gen. Sheridan at the battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, is probably the most striking example in
modern history of what a brave and resolute leader of men can accomplish under circumstances
when apparently all is lost. And, on the other hand, I think there is no doubt that the battle of
Wilson's Creek, Missouri, on August 10, 1861, was a Union victory up to the time of the death of
Gen. Lyon, and would have remained such if the officer who succeeded Lyon had possessed
the nerve of his fallen chief. But he didn't, and so he marched our troops off the field, retreated
from a beaten enemy, and hence Wilson's Creek figures in history as a Confederate victory. I
have read somewhere this saying of Bonaparte's: "An army of deer commanded by a lion is
better than an army of lions commanded by a deer." While that statement is only figurative in its
nature, it is, however, a strong epigrammatic expression of the fact that the commander of
soldiers in battle should be, above all other things, a forcible, determined, and brave man.
40. How does the cavalryman introduce himself to the audience?
A. through a story about his father
B. by explaining his role in the army
C. through a description of his first battle
D. by demonstrating his knowledge of historical battles
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Grove Park Inn
The Grove Park Inn
The Grove Park Inn, built by Edwin Wiley Grove, is an earnest
attempt to erect an honest building with no substitution of
contemporary popular design for classic construction forms, all the
more remarkable because an amateur architect designed it during
an era of architectural pretension.1 Grove, owner of a
pharmaceutical company manufacturing Bromo-Quinine,2 arrived in
Asheville in 1900 and found the mild climate so much to his liking
that he purchased a large tract of land on Sunset Mountain. Grove
had the idea for a magnificent lodge, grand enough to mirror the
majesty of the mountains that would provide its foundation. Grove’s
concept called for a building with the natural rough stone of the
mountains surrounding the lodge. After finding that no local
architects could grasp his concept, Grove entrusted his son-in-law,
Fred L. Seely, to design the building. Seely had no formal training in
architecture but undertook the project as both designer and
contractor. The Grove Park Inn was completed in 11 months and 27
days and opened on July 1, 1913. The unusual and striking intimacy
between the building and its natural environment is one of the
factors of the continued success of the Grove Park Inn and perhaps
the chief factor in its architectural significance.
The Inn was built in five sections that join end-to-end and step
terrace-like along the mountain ridge. Native uncut granite boulders
quarried from Sunset Mountain form the wall surfaces and chimneys
of the Inn. Grove himself ordered that “not a piece of stone was to
be visible to the eye except it show the time-etched face given it by
thousands of years of sun and rain that had beaten on it.” The
Grove Park Inn has enjoyed a long and colorful history with many
distinguished guests, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry Ford, John
D. Rockefeller, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and President Woodrow Wilson.
Federal agencies controlled the property from 1942 to 1946, during
which time the State Department used the Inn as an internment
center for Axis diplomats. Philippine government officials were in
exile at this time and were also located in one of the guest cottages.
The United States Navy has also used the Inn as a rest and
rehabilitation center. Substantial renovations occurred in 1955, and
additional wings were added to the Inn in 1958 and 1963. A major
expansion, completed in February of 2001, added a spa to the
grounds.
pretention: artificiality; snobbishness
2
Bromo-Quinine: a cold medicine
1
National Park Service.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/asheville/gro.htm (03/27/2013).
41. Which detail shows how the Grove Park Inn’s design would
“mirror the majesty of the mountains”?
A. “The Grove Park Inn . . . is an earnest attempt to erect an
honest building with no substitution of contemporary popular
design for classic construction forms.”
B. “Grove’s concept called for a building with the natural rough
stone of the mountains surrounding the lodge.”
C. “The Inn was built in five sections that join end-to-end and
step terrace-like along the mountain ridge.”
D. “Grove . . . ordered that ‘not a piece of stone was to be
visible to the eye except it show the time-etched face given it
by thousands of years of sun and rain that had beaten on it.’
”
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Edgar Allan Poe - A Mystery
Edgar Allan Poe—A Mystery
by William H. Elson and Christine Keck
So irregular was the life of Edgar Allan Poe, and so strong were the
prejudices of his critics that not only his character and habits of life,
but even the simplest facts of his biography, are surrounded with
mystery and are subjects of doubt and dispute.
By everything, but the accident of birth, Poe belongs to the South.
His father was from Baltimore, and his mother was of English birth.
They were both members of a theatrical company playing in Boston
at the time of Poe’s birth, January 19, 1809. At the age of three, he
was left an orphan by the death of his mother. A wealthy
Scotchman of Virginia, Mr. John Allan, adopted him and brought him
up in luxury—a much spoiled child, everywhere adored for his
beauty and precocity1.
He was sent to school in a suburb of London and upon his return to
America entered the University of Virginia, a proud, reserved, and
self-willed youth. Here he led an irregular life, so that Mr. Allan was
forced to withdraw him from school and gave him work in his office.
The routine of office work was very distasteful to Poe, and he ran
away to Boston, where he published his first volume of poems. Here
he enlisted in the army, but when Mr. Allan heard of his
whereabouts, he secured his discharge and obtained an
appointment for him, as a cadet, at West Point. The severe
discipline of that school proved irksome to his restless nature, and
after a few months, he brought upon himself his dismissal. At the
age of twenty-two, he found himself adrift with nothing further to
expect from Mr. Allan.
Literature presented itself as his most natural vocation. He had
written poetry from the pure love of it, but now actual poverty
drove him to the more remunerative prose writing. He engaged in
journalistic work in Baltimore, living with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, and
her daughter, Virginia. Two years later, he married Virginia Clemm,
a mere child; but Poe, whose reverence for women was his noblest
trait, loved her and cared for her through poverty and ill-health,
until her death eleven years later, a short time before his own. His
life was a melancholy one, a fierce struggle and final defeat. In
1849, on his way to New York from Richmond, chance brought him
and election day together in the city of Baltimore. He was found in
an election booth, delirious, and died a few days later.
2
Poe was a keen critic of the literary men of his day, but he applied
the same standards to himself. He was constantly rewriting and
polishing what he had written. Poe’s greatness lay in his imaginative
work—his tales and his poems. The tales may be said to constitute a
distinct addition to the world’s literature. From times past, there
have been tales in prose and in verse, tales legendary, romantic,
and humorous, but never any quite like Poe’s.
The appeal of his poetry is to the sentiment of beauty—the one
appeal, which according to his theory is the final justification of any
poem. Language is made to yield its utmost of melody. “The Raven”
was first published in January, 1845, and immediately became and
remains one of the most widely known of English poems. It can be
mentioned anywhere, without apology or explanation, and there is
scarcely a lover of melodious verse who cannot repeat many of its
lines and stanzas.
Every reader of Poe’s prose will be impressed with the charm of the
language itself, the fascination of the vivid scenes and the magic
touch like the Necromancer’s2 wand, which removes these scenes
into the uncharted realm of the supernatural and invests them with
a kind of sacred awe.
precocity: intelligence achieved far ahead of normal
developmental schedules
remunerative: money-making
3
Necromancer: one who practices magic or sorcery
1
2
From Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/
(8/7/2012).
42. How do the authors organize the ideas and events in the
selection?
A. using chronological sequencing
B. using cause and effect strategies
C. using order of importance sequencing
D. using comparison and contrast strategies
43. How does the author develop the idea that Poe led an “irregular”
life?
A. by describing his diverse readers
B. by relating his earliest attempts at writing
C. by highlighting the wide variety of his writing
D. by detailing his defiance to Mr. Allan’s plans
44. Which connection do the authors make between Poe’s criticisms
of the work of others and his own writing?
A. Poe applied the same standards to others as he did to his
own writing.
B. Poe’s investigations of other literary works inspired his own
writing.
C. Poe’s research encouraged him to create his own genre of
writing.
D. Poe’s study of others led him to change his own style of
writing.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
India Releases Tiger Numbers as Experts Convene
India Releases Tiger Numbers as Experts
Convene
The Indian Government today released new tiger population
numbers for the first time since 2007, indicating that numbers have
increased in the country that has half of the world’s remaining wild
tigers. The government estimated current tiger numbers in India at
1,706, up from 1,411 during the last count in 2007. However, the
1,706 figure includes an additional tiger reserve in the count, the
Sundarbans, that contained 70 tigers. This area was not counted in
2007. Therefore, when comparing the previous survey with the
current one, the official estimate stands at 1,636 when leaving out
the Sundarbans, or an increase of 225.
Figures were broken down by site with some populations showing
increases, and others falling. “As seen from the results, recovery
requires strong protection of core tiger areas and areas that link
them, as well as effective management in the surrounding areas,”
said Mike Baltzer, Head of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative. “With these
two vital conservation ingredients, we can not only halt their
decline, but ensure tigers make a strong and lasting comeback.”
The figures marked the opening of the International Tiger
Conservation Conference, a three day meeting following on the
heels of the groundbreaking Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP),
a worldwide plan to bring the species back from the brink of
extinction which was forged in November 2010 at an international
tiger conservation meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia organized by
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The count was conducted by India’s National Tiger Conservation
Authority with key partners, including WWF, in the largest tiger
population survey ever undertaken.
“These numbers give us hope for the future of tigers in the wild,
and that India continues to play an integral role in the tiger’s
recovery,” said WWF International Director General Jim Leape, who
is chairing a conference session on the role of international and
national partners in the GTRP’s implementation.
In its detail, this tiger estimation exercise shows the importance
India attaches to this prime conservation issue,” said WWF India
CEO Ravi Singh. “The results indicate the need to intensify field
based management and intervention to go beyond the present
benchmark, bringing more people and partners into the process.”
Several areas in India, including those that are not Tiger Reserves
and outside national parks, were intensively surveyed for the first
time. The Moyar Valley and Sigur Plateau in Southwest India’s
Western Ghats Complex, that has been a focus of recent WWF
conservation efforts, was found to contain more than 50 tigers.
Similarly, the Ramnagar Forest Reserve outside Corbett National
Park showed a good number of tigers.
In addition to high-level officials from the 13 countries that still
have tigers, the conference is expected to hear from key NGOs and
global partners in the GTRP, including the World Bank’s Global Tiger
Initiative, the Global Tiger Forum, WWF (World Wide Fund for
Nature), WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), the Smithsonian
Institute, the wildlife trade network TRAFFIC, CITES (Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species) and the International
Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Numbering more than 100,000 at the turn of the last century, tigers
have lost more than 97 percent of their population and 94 percent
of their home range in just 100 years. They live in increasingly
isolated pockets of land in Asia and the Russian Far East in
Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, China and Russia. The Global
Tiger Recovery Programme marks the first formalized international
initiative to save the species from extinction.
WWF International.
http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?199803/India-releases-tigernumbers-as-experts-convene (03/27/2013).
45. How does the information in the final paragraph support the rest
of the selection?
A. It shows how tiger populations have increased.
B. It explains the conservation strategy of the GTRP.
C. It describes the range of habitats in which tigers live.
D. It demonstrates the need for tiger conservation efforts.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Joshua Abraham Norton
1. On September 17, 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself the emperor of the United
States. Now everyone knows that the United States has always been a democracy, but this
didn't keep Norton from his self-proclaimed status of emperor. Was Norton crazy? Probably. But
his insanity didn't keep him from making a profound mark on U.S. history.
2. Joshua Norton was once an incredibly prosperous man. He owned his own company, several
buildings which he rented out, and was a successful trader in San Francisco, California.
However, after making a terrible investment in the rice trade, he lost thousands of dollars. At the
same time, the gold rush in California was quickly coming to an end, and the real estate market
collapsed, leaving Norton with worthless property and little cash. By 1858, Norton had lost
everything. This appears to have been his breaking point, causing the once-successful
businessman to lose grip with reality.
3. Norton spoke out against America's government, believing it to be inefficient and corrupt, and in
1859 declared himself emperor. He began wearing a blue military uniform that he adorned with
gold buttons and cloth that a soldier gave to him. Shortly after, he began making proclamations
that were published in the San Francisco Bulletin.
4. Although clearly insane to those around him, people were somehow drawn to him. He was
shown great respect by San Francisco shop and restaurant owners who gave him merchandise
and food for free. Norton didn't just dress like an emperor, he carried himself like an emperor,
and in his many speeches and proclamations printed in the Bulletin, he spoke out against
slavery and called for the abolishment of Congress.
5. Like many madmen, Norton also showed signs of genius. In 1872, he issued a proclamation
ordering that a suspension bridge be built between Oakland and San Francisco, allowing travel
and commerce between the two without having to cross the Bay of San Francisco by boat. At
the time, his idea was ignored, but sixty-four years later, the Bay Bridge was built in almost the
exact location that Norton had specified.
6. On January 8, 1880, Joshua Norton, Emperor of the United States, was walking to a regularly
scheduled debate at the Academy of Natural Sciences, when he simply slumped over and died.
He was the first and last of the emperors in this nation.
46. How does the author mostly organize the passage?
A. through cause and effect
B. through chronological order
C. by explaining a problem and providing a solution
D. by stating a fact and providing supporting details
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from The Story of an African Farm: “Times and Seasons”
Excerpt from The Story of an African Farm:
“Times and Seasons”
by Olive Schreiner
The year of infancy, where from the shadowy background of
forgetfulness start out pictures of startling clearness, disconnected,
but brightly colored, and indelibly1 printed in the mind. Much that
follows fades, but the colors of those baby-pictures are permanent.
There rises, perhaps, a warm summer’s evening; we are seated on
the doorstep; we have yet the taste of the bread and milk in our
mouth, and the red sunset is reflected in our basin.
Then there is a dark night, where, waking with a fear that there
is some great being in the room, we run from our own bed to
another, creep close to some large figure, and are comforted.
Then there is remembrance of the pride when, on someone’s
shoulder, with our arms around their head, we ride to see the little
pigs, the new little pigs with their curled tails and tiny snouts—
where do they come from?
Remembrance of delight in the feel and smell of the first orange
we ever see; of sorrow which makes us put up our lip, and cry hard,
when one morning we run out to try and catch the dewdrops, and
they melt and wet our little fingers; of almighty and despairing
sorrow when we are lost behind the kraals2, and cannot see the
house anywhere.
And then one picture starts out more vividly than any.
There has been a thunderstorm; the ground, as far as the eye can
reach, is covered with white hail; the clouds are gone, and overhead
a deep blue sky is showing; far off a great rainbow rests on the
white earth. We, standing in a window to look, feel the cool,
unspeakably sweet wind blowing in on us, and a feeling of longing
comes over us—unutterable3 longing, we cannot tell for what. We
are so small, our head only reaches as high as the first three panes.
We look at the white earth, and the rainbow, and the blue sky; and
oh, we want it, we want—we do not know what. We cry as though
our heart was broken. When one lifts our little body from the
window we cannot tell what ails us. We run away to play.
So looks the first year.
indelibly: in a manner that is impossible to remove
kraals: an enclosure for cattle and other animals in southern Africa
3
unutterable: cannot be spoken
1
2
From Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/338/ (6/25/12).
47. How does the author’s use of words such as indelibly and
permanent affect the reader’s understanding of the selection?
A. It makes these memories seem unimportant.
B. It conveys the idea that memories fade over time.
C. It emphasizes the significance of these memories.
D. It causes doubt about the sincerity of the speaker’s
memories.
48. How does the language of the last paragraph affect the tone?
A. by creating a feeling of loss
B. by conveying a sense of peace
C. by conveying a sense of curiosity
D. by creating a feeling of inspiration
49. What is the connotation of the word great in paragraph 3?
A. wonderful and exciting
B. familiar and comforting
C. enormous and beautiful
D. powerful and intimidating
50. How does the author’s use of colors help to develop the theme?
A. by using colors that are associated with specific feeling
B. by showing that colors in nature impact memories
C. by showing that colors in nature often contrast
D. by using colors to describe negative memories
Read the following and answer the questions below:
With My Fancy I Grasped
From Russia
With My Fancy I Grasped
by Konstantin Balmont
With my fancy I grasped at the vague shadows straying,
At the vague shadows straying where the daylight had fled;
I ascended a tower, and the stairway was swaying,
And the stairway was swaying underneath my light tread.
And the higher I climbed, ever clearer were rounded,
Ever clearer were rounded dreaming hilltops aglow;
And from Heaven to Earth twilight voices resounded,
Twilight voices resounded from above and below.
And the higher I rose, strange horizons defining,
Strange horizons defining, did the summits appear;
And my eyes as I looked were caressed1 by their shining,
Were caressed by their shining, their farewell, sad and clear.
Now the night had appeared; Earth in darkness lay dreaming,
Earth in darkness lay dreaming, like a slumbering star,
While the smoldering sun, his dim embers still gleaming,
His dim embers still gleaming, shone for me from afar.
I had learned to ensnare the vague shadows far straying,
The vague shadows far straying, where the daylight had fled;
Ever higher I rose, and the stairway was swaying,
5
10
15
2
And the stairway was swaying underneath my light tread.
20
caressed: touched; stroked
smoldering: burning without flames
1
2
Internet Archive, 2007.
http://www.archive.org/stream/modernrussianpoe00deutuoft/mode
rnrussianpoe00deutuoft_djvu.txt (02/25/2013).
5 What is ironic about the speaker’s reference to the sun shining in
1. lines 15–16?
A. He is supposed to be asleep.
B. The poem is filled with imagery of night.
C. He is too far away to be able to see the sun.
D. He has broken his pattern of talking about the staircase.
52. What effect does the poet achieve by sharing phrases in the first
and last stanzas?
A. a change in the poet’s perspective on how to reach his goal
B. a movement from the start of a climb to its near completion
C. a reversal of the poem’s rhythm and word patterns
D. a reinforcement of the poem’s hopeful tone
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Song at the Beginning
From Mexico
Song at the Beginning
Translated by Daniel G. Brinton
I am wondering where I may gather some pretty, sweet flowers.
Whom
shall I ask? Suppose that I ask the brilliant humming-bird, the
emerald trembler; suppose that I ask the yellow butterfly; they will
tell me, they know, where bloom the pretty, sweet flowers, whether
I
may gather them here in the laurel woods where dwell the
tzinitzcan
birds, or whether I may gather them in the flowery forests where
the
tlauquechol lives. There they may be plucked sparkling with dew,
there they come forth in perfection. Perhaps there I shall see them
if they have appeared; I shall place them in the folds of my
garment,
and with them I shall greet the children, I shall make glad the
nobles.
Truly as I walk along I hear the rocks as it were replying to the
sweet songs of the flowers; truly the glittering, chattering water
answers, the bird-green fountain, there it sings, it dashes forth, it
5
10
15
sings again; the mockingbird answers; perhaps the coyol bird
answers,
and many sweet singing birds scatter their songs around like music.
They bless the earth pouring out their sweet voices.
***
They led me within a valley to a fertile spot, a flowery spot,
where the dew spread out in glittering splendor, where I saw
various
lovely fragrant flowers, lovely odorous flowers, clothed with the
dew, scattered around in rainbow glory, there they said to me,
“Pluck
the flowers, whichever thou wishest, mayest thou the singer be
glad,
and give them to thy friends, to the nobles, that they may rejoice
on
the earth.”
20
25
So I gathered in the folds of my garment the various fragrant
flowers, delicate scented, delicious, and I said, may some of our
people enter here, may very many of us be here; and I thought I
should go forth to announce to our friends that here all of us should
rejoice in the different lovely, odorous flowers, and that we should
30
cull the various sweet songs with which we might rejoice our friends
here on earth, and the nobles in their grandeur and dignity.
Project Gutenberg, 2004.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12219/12219-h/12219-h.htm#I
(03/27/2013).
53. Which reason best explains the effect of using wishest, mayest,
thou, and thy in the third stanza?
A. The formal words make the reader imagine a different
historical era.
B. The dialect makes the reader focus on what the flowers
consider important.
C. The language shows the reader that people and flowers use
different languages.
D. The distinct words show the reader how inanimate objects
such as flowers might communicate.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Peach-Blossom Fountain
The Peach-Blossom Fountain
By T’ao Yuan-Ming
Towards the close of the fourth century A.D., a certain fisherman of
Wu-ling, who had followed up one of the river branches without
taking note whither he was going, came suddenly upon a grove of
peach trees in full bloom, extending some distance on each bank,
with not a tree of any other kind in sight. The beauty of the scene
and the exquisite perfume of the flowers filled the heart of the
fisherman with surprise, as he proceeded onwards, anxious to reach
the limit of this lovely grove. He found that the peach trees ended
where the water began, at the foot of a hill; and there he espied
what seemed to be a cave with light issuing from it. So he made
fast his boat, and crept in through a narrow entrance, which shortly
ushered him into a new world of level country, of fine houses, of
rich fields, of fine pools, and of luxuriance of mulberry and bamboo.
Highways of traffic ran north and south; sounds of crowing cocks
and barking dogs were heard around; the dress of the people who
passed along or were at work in the fields was of a strange cut;
while young and old alike appeared to be contented and happy.
One of the inhabitants, catching sight of the fisherman, was
greatly astonished; but, after learning whence he came, insisted on
carrying him home, and killed a chicken and placed some wine
before him. Before long, all the people of the place had turned out
to see the visitor, and they informed him that their ancestors had
sought refuge here, with their wives and families, from the troubled
times of the House of Ch’in, adding that they had thus become
finally cut off from the rest of the human race. They then inquired
about the politics of the day, ignorant of the establishment of the
Han dynasty,1 and of course of the later dynasties which had
succeeded it. And when the fisherman told them the story, they
grieved over the vicissitudes2 of human affairs.
Each in turn invited the fisherman to his home and entertained
him hospitably, until at length the latter prepared to take his leave.
“It will not be worthwhile to talk about what you have seen to the
outside world,” said the people of the place to the fisherman, as he
bade them farewell and returned to his boat, making mental notes
of his route as he proceeded on his homeward voyage.
When he reached home, he at once went and reported what he had
seen to the Governor of the district, and the Governor sent off men
with him to seek, by the aid of the fisherman’s notes, to discover
this unknown region. But he was never able to find it again.
Subsequently, another desperate attempt was made by a famous
adventurer to pierce the mystery; but he also failed, and died soon
afterwards of chagrin,3 from which time forth no further attempts
were made.
Han dynasty: period of Chinese history from 206 BC-220 BC
vicissitudes: changes; fluctuations
3
chagrin: frustration; embarrassment
1
2
54. What is the effect of the word chagrin as it is used in the final
paragraph?
A. It leads the reader to believe many more adventurers will
look for the mysterious place.
B. It increases the seriousness of the tone due to the negative
attitude of the adventurer.
C. It adds humor because of the inability of anyone to find the
location.
D. It causes the reader to doubt the truth of the fisherman’s
story.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from Chapter I, Anne of Avonlea: An Irate Neighbor
Excerpt from Anne of Avonlea: “An Irate
Neighbor”
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
A tall, slim girl, “half-past sixteen,” with serious gray eyes and hair
which her friends called auburn, had sat down on the broad red
sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse one ripe
afternoon in August, firmly resolved to construe so many lines of
Virgil1.
But an August afternoon, with blue hazes scarfing the harvest
slopes, little winds whispering elfishly in the poplars, and a dancing
splendor of red poppies outflaming against the dark coppice2 of
young firs in a corner of the cherry orchard, was fitter for dreams
than dead languages. The Virgil soon slipped unheeded to the
ground, and Anne, her chin propped on her clasped hands, and her
eyes on the splendid mass of fluffy clouds that were heaping up just
over Mr. J. A. Harrison’s house like a great white mountain, was far
away in a delicious world where a certain schoolteacher was doing
wonderful work, shaping the destinies of future statesmen, and
inspiring youthful minds and hearts with high and lofty ambitions.
To be sure, if you came down to harsh facts which, it must be
confessed, Anne seldom did until she had to, it did not seem likely
that there was much promising material for celebrities in Avonlea
school; but you could never tell what might happen if a teacher
used her influence for good. Anne had certain rose-tinted ideals of
what a teacher might accomplish if she only went the right way
about it; and she was in the midst of a delightful scene, forty years
hence, with a famous personage—just exactly what he was to be
famous for was left in convenient haziness, but Anne thought it
would be rather nice to have him a college president or a Canadian
premier, bowing low over her wrinkled hand and assuring her that it
was she who had first kindled his ambition, and that all his success
in life was due to the lessons she had instilled so long ago in
Avonlea school. This pleasant vision was shattered by a most
unpleasant interruption.
A demure little Jersey cow came scuttling down the lane and five
seconds later Mr. Harrison arrived—if “arrived” be not too mild a
term to describe the manner of his irruption3 into the yard.
He bounced over the fence without waiting to open the gate, and
angrily confronted astonished Anne, who had risen to her feet and
stood looking at him in some bewilderment. Mr. Harrison was their
new righthand neighbor and she had never met him before,
although she had seen him once or twice.
In early April, before Anne had come home from Queen’s, Mr.
Robert Bell, whose farm adjoined the Cuthbert place on the west,
had sold out and moved to Charlottetown. His farm had been
bought by a certain Mr. J. A. Harrison, whose name, and the fact
that he was a New Brunswick man, were all that was known about
him. But before he had been a month in Avonlea he had won the
reputation of being an odd person—“a crank,” Mrs. Rachel Lynde
said. Mrs. Rachel was an outspoken lady, as those of you who may
have already made her acquaintance will remember. Mr. Harrison
was certainly different from other people, and that is the essential
characteristic of a crank, as everybody knows.
Virgil: Roman poet who lived in the first century BCE
coppice: trees that have been cut very short
3
irruption: bursting in; a violent invasion
1
2
Project Gutenberg, 2006. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47/47h/47-h.htm (02/25/2013).
55. What is meant by “rose-tinted ideals” in paragraph 3?
A. Anne’s unrealistic expectations
B. Harrison’s emotional display of anger
C. the lack of promising talent in Avonlea school
D. the magnificent landscape of Prince Edward Island
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Soldier of Liberty
The Soldier of Liberty
Excerpt from “The Soldier of Liberty”
by Fernando Calderon
On a spirited steed
A young warrior rides,
Covered with solid steel
And filled with bellicose ardor.1
He carries his sword in the belt,
And at his side the spear:
On his face shines the light of hope
And in his eyes the flash of valor.
From his right hand he draws the glove
And caresses the stout neck,
And the mane that waves in the wind,
Of his faithful companion.
The noble charger proudly lifts
His head with a neigh
On feeling the caressing hand
Of the fearless rider.
His black breast and limbs
With white foam are covered;
His hoofs clatter
Upon the hard flint;
And at the measure of his steps
And the sharp sound of the steel,
The warrior raises his voice
With these immortal words:
“Fly, fly, my intrepid
Charger;
The hostile squadrons will
Not beat thy noble spirit
2
5
10
15
20
25
That has always proudly despised
The cannon’s blast,
And a thousand times
Thou hast heard
Its terrifying
Report,
Like a song
Of victory;
A precursor
Of thy glory.
In irons, with opprobrium,3
Others enjoy peace;
Not I who seek in war
Liberty or death.
“I left my delightful
Paternal abode;
I left my tranquil existence
To gird on the sword,
And with courage tore myself
From the bosom of my beloved.
On our parting
I saw her anguish—
What a moment
Of sorrow!
I saw her tears
And merciless grief—
It was greater
Than mine.
In irons, with opprobrium,
Others enjoy peace;
Not I who seek in war
Liberty or death.
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
“The cunning courtier4
May seek
For greatness in flattering the tyrant
And bending his knee.
My horse and humble saddle
I would not give for all his wealth.
And well may
His halls
Resound
With songs;
But the proud
Neighing
Of my charger
I prefer.
In irons, with opprobrium,
Others enjoy peace;
Not I who seek in war
Liberty or death.
65
70
75
bellicose ardor: intense desire to fight
intrepid:courageous
3
opprobrium: disgrace or shame
4
courtier: one who seeks favor from royalty or attends to royalty
1
2
From Google Books at
http://books.google.com/books?id=YjtDAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontco
ver&dq=mexican+and+south+american+poems&source=bl&ots=Q
p02Dc_rA8&sig=NX87ogoy9BQRtD8ry5R8OWqfAVU&hl=en&sa=X&e
i=xbRtUNOGB4Wy8QTtnYHQBQ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA
“The Soldier of Liberty” by Fernando Calderon from Mexican and
South American Poems (10/04/2012).
5 How does the switch from third-person narration to first-person
6 dialogue affect the poem?
.
A. The tone becomes less intense.
B. The dialogue interferes with the plot.
C. The reader suspends belief as a result.
D. The events become more personal and real.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Hussar Song
From HungaryHussar Song
Hussar Song
by Gabriel Döbrentei
Mother! dost weep that thy boy’s right hand
Hath taken a sword for his father-land?
Mother! where should the brave one be
But in the ranks of bravery?
Mother! and was it not sad to leave
Mine own sweet maiden alone to grieve?
Julia! where should the brave one be
But in the ranks of bravery?
Mother! if thou in death were laid,
Julia! if thou were a treacherous maid;
O then it were well that the brave should be
In the front ranks of bravery.
5
10
Mother! the thought brings heavy tears,
And I look round on my youth’s compeers1;
They have their griefs and loves like me,
Touching the brave in their bravery.
Mother! my guardian! O be still;
Maiden! let hope thy bosom fill;
Kiral2 and country! how sweet to be
Battling for both in bravery!
Bravery—aye—and victory’s hand
Shall wreath my Saki3 with golden band
And in the camp the shout shall be,
O! how he fought for liberty!
compeers: comrades, close friends
Kiral: King
3
Saki: French military cap
1
2
From Google Books at http://books.google.com/ (03/29/12)
57. What is the effect of beginning the final stanza with the word
bravery?
A. It shows the speaker is fearless.
B. It shows the speaker needs reassurance.
C. It shows the speaker’s focus has changed.
D. It shows the speaker’s ability to inspire others.
15
20
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from Anna Karenina: Chapter 3
Excerpt from Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy
When Oblonsky asked Levin what had brought him to town, Levin
blushed, and was furious with himself for blushing, because he
could not answer, “I have come to make your sister-in-law an
offer,“ though that was precisely what he had come for.
The families of the Levins and the Shtcherbatskys were old, noble
Moscow families, and had always been on intimate and friendly
terms. This intimacy had grown still closer during Levin’s student
days. He had both prepared for the university with the young Prince
Shtcherbatsky, the brother of Kitty and Dolly, and had entered at
the same time with him. In those days Levin used often to be in the
Shtcherbatskys’ house, and he was in love with the Shtcherbatsky
household. Strange as it may appear, it was with the household, the
family, that Konstantin Levin was in love, especially with the
feminine half of the household. Levin did not remember his own
mother, and his only sister was older than he was, so that it was in
the Shtcherbatskys’ house that he saw for the first time that inner
life of an old, noble, cultivated, and honorable family of which he
had been deprived by the death of his father and mother.
All the members of that family, especially the feminine half, were
pictured by him, as it were, wrapped about with a mysterious
poetical veil, and he not only perceived no defects whatever in
them, but under the poetical veil that shrouded them he assumed
the existence of the loftiest sentiments and every possible
perfection. Why it was the three young ladies had one day to speak
French, and the next English; why it was that at certain hours they
played by turns on the piano, the sounds of which were audible in
their brother’s room above, where the students used to work; why
they were visited by those professors of French literature, of music,
of drawing, of dancing; why at certain hours all the three young
ladies, with Mademoiselle Linon, drove in the coach to the Tversky
Boulevard, dressed in their satin cloaks, Dolly in a long one, Natalia
in a half-long one, and Kitty in one so short that her shapely legs in
tightly-drawn red stockings were visible to all beholders; why it was
they had to walk about the Tversky Boulevard escorted by a
footman with a gold cockade in his hat—all this and much more that
was done in their mysterious world he did not understand, but he
was sure that everything that was done there was very good, and
he was in love precisely with the mystery of the proceedings.
In his student days he had all but been in love with the eldest,
Dolly, but she was soon married to Oblonsky. Then he began being
in love with the second. He felt, as it were, that he had to be in love
with one of the sisters, only he could not quite make out which. But
Natalia, too, had hardly made her appearance in the world when
she married the diplomat Lvov. Kitty was still a child when Levin left
the university. Young Shtcherbatsky went into the navy, was
drowned in the Baltic, and Levin’s relations with the Shtcherbatskys,
in spite of his friendship with Oblonsky, became less intimate. But
when early in the winter of this year Levin came to Moscow, after a
year in the country, and saw the Shtcherbatskys, he realized which
of the three sisters he was indeed destined to love.
One would have thought that nothing could be simpler than for him,
a man of good family, rather rich than poor, and thirty-two years
old, to make the young Princess Shtcherbatskaya an offer of
marriage; in all likelihood he would at once have been looked upon
as a good match. But Levin was in love, and so it seemed to him
that Kitty was so perfect in every respect that she was a creature
far above everything earthly; and that he was a creature so low and
so earthly that it could not even be conceived that other people and
she herself could regard him as worthy of her.
After spending two months in Moscow in a state of enchantment,
seeing Kitty almost every day in society, into which he went so as to
meet her, he abruptly decided that it could not be, and went back to
the country.
Levin’s conviction that it could not be was founded on the idea
that in the eyes of her family he was a disadvantageous and
worthless match for the charming Kitty, and that Kitty herself could
not love him. In her family’s eyes he had no ordinary, definite
career and position in society, while his contemporaries by this
time, when he was thirty-two, were already, one a colonel, and
another a professor, another director of a bank and railways, or
president of a board like Oblonsky. But he (he knew very well how
he must appear to others) was a country gentleman, occupied in
breeding cattle, shooting game, and building barns; in other words,
a fellow of no ability, who had not turned out well, and who was
doing just what, according to the ideas of the world, is done by
people fit for nothing else.
The mysterious, enchanting Kitty herself could not love such an ugly
person as he conceived himself to be, and, above all, such an
ordinary, in no way striking person. Moreover, his attitude to Kitty
in the past—the attitude of a grown-up person to a child, arising
from his friendship with her brother—seemed to him yet another
obstacle to love. An ugly, good-natured man, as he considered
himself, might, he supposed, be liked as a friend; but to be loved
with such a love as that with which he loved Kitty, one would need
to be a handsome and, still more, a distinguished man.
He had heard that women often did care for ugly and ordinary men,
but he did not believe it, for he judged by himself, and he could not
himself have loved any but beautiful, mysterious, and exceptional
women.
But after spending two months alone in the country, he was
convinced that this was not one of those passions of which he had
had experience in his early youth; that this feeling gave him not an
instant’s rest; that he could not live without deciding the question,
would she or would she not be his wife, and that his despair had
arisen only from his own imaginings, that he had no sort of proof
that he would be rejected. And he had now come to Moscow with a
firm determination to make an offer, and get married if he were
accepted. Or…he could not conceive what would become of him if he
were rejected.
Project Gutenberg, 2005 at
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1399/pg1399.html
(10/12/2012).
58. Which effect does paragraph 7 have on the overall selection?
A. It builds sympathy for Levin due to his self-degradation.
B. It lessens Kitty’s appeal by showing her distaste for Levin.
C. It increases admiration of Levin by showing his positive traits.
D. It creates suspense by showing that Levin has no chance with
Kitty.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Solitude
Solitude
by Alexei Fyodorovich Merzlyakov
Upon a hill, which rears itself midst plains extending wide,
Fair flourishes a lofty oak in beauty’s blooming pride;
This lofty oak in solitude its branches wide expands,
All lonesome on the cheerless height like sentinel1 it stands.
5
Whom can it lend its friendly shade, should Sol with fervor glow?
And who can shelter it from harm, should tempests rudely blow?
No bushes green, entwining close, here deck the neighboring
ground,
No tufted pines beside it grow, no osiers2 thrive around.
Sad even to trees their cheerless fate in solitude if grown,
10
And bitter, bitter is the lot for youth to live alone!
Though gold and silver much is his, how vain the selfish pride!
Though crowned with glory’s laureled wreath, with whom that crown
divide?
When I with an acquaintance meet he scarce a bow affords,
And beauties, half saluting me, but grant some transient words.
15
On some I look myself with dread, whilst others from me fly,
But sadder still the uncherished soul when Fate’s dark hour draws
nigh;
Oh! where my aching heart relieve when griefs assail me sore?
My friend, who sleeps in the cold earth, comes to my aid no more!
No relatives, alas! of mine in this strange clime appear,
No wife imparts love’s fond caress, sweet smile, or pitying tear;
No father feels joy’s thrilling throb, as he our transport sees;
No gay and sportive little ones come clambering on my knees;-Take back all honors, wealth, and fame, the heart they cannot
move,
And give instead the smiles of friends, the tender look of love!
1sentinel: the guard or watchers
2
osiers: willow trees
Project Gutenberg, 2005.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8192/old/bakch10h.htm
(02/25/2013).
59. How does the speaker create sympathy in lines 18–22?
20
A. by explaining the death of his close friend
B. by listing the various causes of his solitude
C. by referencing his unfulfilled desire to start a family
D. by describing how his relatives have abandoned him
60. Which statement summarizes the poem?
A. The speaker is willing to sacrifice everything to avoid being
alone.
B. The speaker is reveling in the beauty he observes in nature.
C. The speaker is lamenting his lack of a romantic partner.
D. The speaker is feeling elated by his wealth and power.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Stray Birds
Excerpt from “Stray Birds”
by Rabindranath Tagore
1
Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall
there with a sigh.
2
O troupe of little vagrants of the world, leave your footprints in my
words.
3
The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover. It becomes
small as one song, as one kiss of the eternal.
4
It is the tears of the earth that keep her smiles in bloom.
5
The mighty desert is burning for the love of a blade of grass who
shakes her head and laughs and flies away.
6
If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.
7
The sands in your way beg for your song and your movement,
dancing water. Will you carry the burden of their lameness?
8
Her wistful face haunts my dreams like the rain at night.
9
Once we dreamt that we were strangers. We wake up to find that
we were dear to each other.
10
Sorrow is hushed into peace in my heart like the evening among the
silent trees.
11
Some unseen fingers, like idle breeze, are playing upon my heart
the music of the ripples.
12
“What language is thine, O sea?”
“The language of eternal question.”
“What language is thy answer, O sky?
“The language of eternal silence.”
13
Listen, my heart, to the whispers of the world with which it makes
love to you.
14
The mystery of creation is like the darkness of night--it is great.
Delusions* of knowledge are like the fog of the morning.
15
Do not seat your love upon a precipice because it is high.
16
I sit at my window this morning where the world like a passer-by
stops for a moment, nods to me and goes.
17
These little thoughts are the rustle of leaves; they have their
whisper of joy in my mind.
delusions:
*
Project Gutenberg, 2004 at
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6524/6524-h/6524-h.htm
(09/11/2012).
61. Which is the effect of the author’s inclusion of sections 6 and 15
in the selection?
A. They add a serious tone by giving the reader advice.
B. They create surprise by asking the reader questions.
C. They create tension by motivating the reader to think of past
memories.
D. They build mystery by making the reader wonder about how
to find love.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Love's Festival
Love’s Festival
by Alojs Szentmiklossy
There are dark clouds upgathered in the heavens,
And the full moon can hardly look them through;
All nature sleeps, wrapp’d round in misty dew,
And the stars shine not, while in slumber’s arms
All find repose; lire’s heavy load forgot.
All? No! I in the green shade slumber not;
For a transporting hope holds all my soul,
Bound me the fragrant clouds of Jasmines roll.
’Twas here—’twas here she spoke at eventide;
Here said, Farewell! And will she come again
When fair Chitona fills her lamp?—In vain
I wait—that lamp is filled. Where tarries1 she?
Impatience, weary of her lingering, stands,
And doubt comes on the mind overwhelmingly.
She comes! she comes!—I hear the rustling leaves;
Nay, ’twas the trembling which my sighs awaken,
As gliding thro’ the branches idly shaken;
They rouse delusive thought, which only grieves.
What, what forbids her to these arms to flee!
Why would she make of love a mockery?
Why will she trifle with my misery? Why?
O ye warm-breathings of my bosom—plaints
Of deepest-drawn emotion—hasten—fly—
Break on her proud repose2—arouse and melt
Her frozen sympathies—awake, inspire
The sleeping passion, the concealed desire,
And make her feel what I so long have felt.
What! do I feel those round and beauteous arms,
5
10
15
20
25
White as the snows, enfolding me? ’Tis thou!
O thou art pouring streams of transport now,
And my heart beats ’gainst thine—O how it beats!
The raptures of thy spirit mine repeats—
And misery flies from mine exalted brow.
From thy sweet looks what peace and calmness flow!
The clouds are all departing,
And from thine eyes a flame of beauty darting,
Kindles the stars. The heaven’s bright blue
Smiles like a Lotus flower, and nightingales
Float their rich harmonies,
While odorous flow’r-sweets hang amidst the trees,
And silver-voices, in tuned madrigals,
Hang on the wings of love, breathing delight;
All joy and blessings all—while this sweet place
Anadiomen’s3 temple is—to lull
Our spirits to a rest so beautiful,
That here we may build up that temple bright
Where love’s best incense shall the altar grace.
30
35
40
45
tarries: delays; waits too long
2
repose: calmness; serenity
3
Anadiomen’s: belonging to the Greek goddess Aphrodite
1
From Google Books at http://books.google.com/ (accessed 3/29/12)
62. Which reflects the speaker’s opinion about the woman he loves
as described in stanza 3?
A. He truly believes she has the capacity to love him.
B. He believes she does not have the capacity to love.
C. He truly believes she is too proud to return his love.
D. He believes she does not know how much he loves her.
63. Which reflects the speaker’s belief about love in lines 43–44?
A. Love is a worshipful place of beauty and rest.
B. Love is a place to worship Greek goddesses.
C. Love is a place to build a temple of worship.
D. Love is a place that brings great tidings.
64. Which line from the poem does the speaker use to support his
belief about the power of love?
A. “All nature sleeps, wrapp’d round in misty dew,”
B. “She comes! She comes!—I hear the rustling leaves;”
C. “And make her feel what I so long have felt.”
D. “From thy sweet looks what peace and calmness flow!”
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from More Translations From the Chinese: “A Mad Poem Addressed to My Nephews
and Nieces”
Excerpt from More Translations from the
Chinese: “A Mad Poem Addressed to My
Nephews and Nieces”
by Po Chü-I
The World cheats those who cannot read;
I, happily, have mastered script and pen.
The World cheats those who hold no office;
I am blessed with high official rank.
The old are often ill;
I, at this day have not an ache or pain.
They are often burdened with ties;
But I have finished with marriage and giving in marriage.
No changes happen to disturb the quiet of my mind;
No business comes to impair the vigor of my limbs.
Hence it is that now for ten years
Body and soul have rested in hermit peace.
And all the more, in the last lingering years
What I shall need are very few things.
A single rug to warm me through the winter;
One meal to last me the whole day.
5
10
15
It does not matter that my house is rather small;
One cannot sleep in more than one room!
It does not matter that I have not many horses;
One cannot ride in two coaches at once!
As fortunate as me among the people of the world
Possibly one would find seven out of ten.
As contented as me among a hundred men
Look as you may, you will not find one.
In the affairs of others even fools are wise;
In their own business even sages* err.
To no one else would I dare to speak my heart,
So my wild words are addressed to my nephews and nieces.
20
25
sages: wise men
*
Project Gutenberg, 2005.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16500/16500-h.htm (08/08/2011).
65. How does the poem reflect the view that having limited
possessions can be satisfying?
A. The speaker describes how peaceful it is being a hermit.
B. The speaker states that he no longer needs marriage in his
life.
C. The speaker mentions the interruptions that business can
cause.
D. The speaker lists which things he no longer needs in his
remaining years.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from "Boys"
Excerpt from Boys
by Anton Chekhov
Volodya’s three sisters, Katya, Sonya, and Masha (the eldest was
eleven), sat at the table and never took their eyes off the
newcomer.
Lentilov was of the same height and age as Volodya, but not as
round-faced and fair-skinned. He was thin, dark, and freckled; his
hair stood up like a brush, his eyes were small, and his lips were
thick. He was, in fact, distinctly ugly, and if he had not been
wearing the school uniform, he might have been taken for the son
of a cook. He seemed morose,1 did not speak, and never once
smiled. The little girls, staring at him, immediately came to the
conclusion that he must be a very clever and learned person. He
seemed to be thinking about something all the time, and was so
absorbed in his own thoughts, that, whenever he was spoken to, he
started, threw his head back, and asked to have the question
repeated.
The little girls noticed that Volodya, who had always been so merry
and talkative, also said very little, did not smile at all, and hardly
seemed to be glad to be home. All the time they were at tea he only
once addressed his sisters, and then he said something so strange.
He pointed to the samovar2 and said: “In California they don't drink
tea, but gin.”
He, too, seemed absorbed in his own thoughts, and, to judge by the
looks that passed between him and his friend Lentilov, their
thoughts were the same.
After tea, they all went into the nursery. The girls and their father
took up the work that had been interrupted by the arrival of the
boys. They were making flowers and frills for the Christmas tree out
of paper of different colors. It was an attractive and noisy
occupation. Every fresh flower was greeted by the little girls with
shrieks of delight, even of awe, as though the flower had dropped
straight from heaven; their father was in ecstasies too, and every
now and then he threw the scissors on the floor, in vexation at their
bluntness. Their mother kept running into the nursery with an
anxious face, asking: “Who has taken my scissors? Ivan Nikolaitch,
have you taken my scissors again?”
“Mercy on us! I'm not even allowed a pair of scissors!” their father
would respond in a lachrymose3 voice, and, flinging himself back in
his chair, he would pretend to be a deeply injured man; but a
minute later, he would be in ecstasies again.
On his former holidays Volodya, too, had taken part in the
preparations for the Christmas tree, or had been running in the yard
to look at the snow mountain that the watchman and the shepherd
were building. But this time Volodya and Lentilov took no notice
whatever of the colored paper, and did not once go into the stable.
They sat in the window and began whispering to one another; then
they opened an atlas and looked carefully at a map.
“First to Perm . . .” Lentilov said, in an undertone, “from there to
Tiumen, then Tomsk . . . then . . . then . . . Kamchatka. There the
Samoyedes take one over Behring's Straits in boats . . . . And then
we are in America. . . . There are lots of furry animals there. . . .”
“And California?” asked Volodya.
“California is lower down. . . . We've only to get to America and
California is not far off. . . . And one can get a living by hunting and
plunder.”
morose: gloomy
samovar: large jar or container
3
lachrymose: depressed or sad
1
2
Classic Reader. http://www.classicreader.com/book/3127/1/
(02/20/2013).
66. How does the reader know that Lentilov’s point-of-view about
America is skewed?
A. He believes all Californians live difficult lives.
B. He believes all Californians live by hunting and plunder.
C. He has all condemning comments to make about America.
D. He has all complimentary comments to make about America.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt from A House of Gentlefolk
Excerpt from A House of Gentlefolk
by Ivan S. Turgenev
Varvara Pavlovna’s father, Pavel Petrovitch Korobyin, a retired
general-major, had spent his whole time on duty in Petersburg. He
had had the reputation in his youth of a good dancer and driller.
Through poverty, he had served as adjutant1 to two or three
generals of no distinction, and had married the daughter of one of
them with a dowry2 of twenty-five thousand roubles. He mastered
all the science of military discipline and maneuvers to the minutest
niceties, he went on in harness, till at last, after twenty-five years’
service, he received the rank of a general and the command of a
regiment. Then he might have relaxed his efforts and have quietly
secured his pecuniary3 position. Indeed this was what he reckoned
upon doing, but he managed things a little incautiously.
He devised a new method of speculating with public funds—the
method seemed an excellent one in itself—but he neglected to bribe
in the right place, and was consequently informed against, and a
more than unpleasant, a disgraceful scandal followed. The general
got out of the affair somehow, but his career was ruined; he was
advised to retire from active duty.
For two years he lingered on in Petersburg, hoping to drop into
some snug berth in the civil service, but no such snug berth came in
his way. His daughter had left school, his expenses were increasing
every day. Resigning himself to his fate, he decided to move to
Moscow for the sake of the greater cheapness of living, and took a
tiny low-pitched house in the Old Stables Road, with a coat of arms
seven feet long on the roof, and there began the life of a retired
general in Moscow on an income of 2750 rubles a year.
Moscow is a hospitable city, ready to welcome all stray comers,
generals by preference. Pavel Petrovitch’s heavy figure, which was
not quite devoid of martial dignity, however, soon began to be seen
in the best drawing-rooms in Moscow. His bald head with its tufts of
dyed hair, and the soiled ribbon of the Order of St. Anne which he
wore over a cravat of the color of a raven’s wing, began to be
familiar to all the pale and listless young men who hang morosely
about the card-tables while dancing is going on. Pavel Petrovitch
knew how to gain a footing in society; he spoke little, but from old
habit, condescendingly4—though, of course, not when he was talking
to persons of a higher rank than his own.
He played cards carefully; ate moderately at home, but consumed
enough for six at parties. Of his wife there is scarcely anything to be
said. Her name was Kalliopa Karlovna. There was always a tear in
her left eye, on the strength of which Kalliopa Karlovna (she was,
one must add, of German extraction) considered herself a woman of
great sensibility. She was always in a state of nervous agitation,
seemed as though she were ill-nourished, and wore a tight velvet
dress, a cap, and tarnished hollow bracelets. The only daughter of
Pavel Petrovitch and Kalliopa Karlovna, Varvara Pavlovna, was only
just seventeen when she left the boarding-school, in which she had
been reckoned, if not the prettiest, at least the cleverest pupil and
the best musician, and where she had taken a decoration. She was
not yet nineteen, when Lavretsky saw her for the first time.
adjutant: assistant
dowry:a gift of money or goods a woman brings to her husband in
marriage
3
pecuniary: financial
4
condescendingly: in a manner that shows a superior attitude
1
2
Classic Reader at http://www.classicreader.com/book/1787/14/
(03/27/2013).
67. Which sentence reflects Pavel Petrovitch Korobyin’s feelings of
self-importance?
A. “He mastered all the science of military discipline and
maneuvers to the minutest niceties.”
B. “The general got out of the affair somehow, but his career
was ruined; he was advised to retire from active duty.”
C. “There [he] began the life of a retired general in Moscow on
an income of 2750 rubles a year.”
D. “He spoke little, but from old habit, condescendingly—though,
of course, not when he was talking to persons of a higher
rank than his own.”
Read the following and answer the questions below:
My Lost Youth
My Lost Youth
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Often I think of the beautiful town
That is seated by the sea;
Often in thought go up and down
The pleasant streets of that dear old town,
5 And my youth comes back to me.
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
10 I can see the shadowy lines of its trees,
And catch, in sudden gleams,
The sheen of the far-surrounding seas,
And islands that were the Hesperides
Of all my boyish dreams.
15 And the burden of that old song,
It murmurs and whispers still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I remember the black wharves and the ships,
20 And the sea-tides tossing free;
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips,
And the beauty and mystery of the ships,
And the magic of the sea.
And the voice of that wayward song
25 Is singing and saying still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I remember the bulwarks by the shore,
And the fort upon the hill;
30 The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar,
The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er,
And the bugle wild and shrill.
And the music of that old song
Throbs in my memory still:
35 "A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I remember the sea-fight far away,
How it thundered o'er the tide!
And the dead captains, as they lay
40 In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay
Where they in battle died.
And the sound of that mournful song
Goes through me with a thrill:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
45 And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I can see the breezy dome of groves,
The shadows of Deering's Woods;
And the friendships old and the early loves
Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves
50 In quiet neighborhoods.
And the verse of that sweet old song,
It flutters and murmurs still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
55 I remember the gleams and glooms that dart
Across the school-boy's brain;
The song and the silence in the heart,
That in part are prophecies, and in part
Are longings wild and vain.
60 And the voice of that fitful song
Sings on, and is never still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
There are things of which I may not speak;
65 There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.
And the words of that fatal song
70 Come over me like a chill:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
Strange to me now are the forms I meet
When I visit the dear old town;
75 But the native air is pure and sweet,
And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street,
As they balance up and down,
Are singing the beautiful song,
Are sighing and whispering still:
80 "A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair,
And with joy that is almost pain
My heart goes back to wander there,
85 And among the dreams of the days that were,
I find my lost youth again.
And the strange and beautiful song,
The groves are repeating it still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
90 And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
68. Read the following lines from the poem.
A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.
How do these lines contribute to the poem’s overall meaning?
A. They show that the speaker recognizes how foolish he was as a child.
B. They show that the speaker spends much of his time thinking about his childhood.
C. They create a contrast between the speaker’s memories about his boyhood home as a
child and as an adult.
D. They create a contrast between how the speaker experienced the world as a child and how
he experiences it as an adult.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Coliseum
The Coliseum
Type of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary
Of lofty contemplation left to Time
By buried centuries of pomp and power!
At length—at length—after so many days
5 Of weary pilgrimage and burning thirst,
(Thirst for the springs of lore that in thee lie,)
I kneel, an altered and an humble man,
Amid thy shadows, and so drink within
My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory!
10 Vastness! and Age! and Memories of Eld!
Silence! and Desolation! and dim Night!
I feel ye now—I feel ye in your strength—
O spells more sure than e'er Judæan king
Taught in the gardens of Gethsemane!
15 O charms more potent than the rapt Chaldee
Ever drew down from out the quiet stars!
Here, where a hero fell, a column falls!
Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold,
A midnight vigil holds the swarthy bat!
20 Here, where the dames of Rome their gilded hair
Waved to the wind, now wave the reed and thistle!
Here, where on golden throne the monarch lolled,
Glides, spectre-like, unto his marble home,
Lit by the wan light of the horned moon,
25 The swift and silent lizard of the stones!
But stay! these walls—these ivy-clad arcades—
These mouldering plinths—these sad and blackened shafts—
These vague entablatures—this crumbling frieze—
These shattered cornices—this wreck—this ruin—
30 These stones—alas! these gray stones—are they all—
All of the famed, and the colossal left
By the corrosive Hours to Fate and me?
"Not all"—the Echoes answer me—"not all!
Prophetic sounds and loud, arise forever
35 From us, and from all Ruin, unto the wise,
As melody from Memnon to the Sun.
We rule the hearts of mightiest men—we rule
With a despotic sway all giant minds.
We are not impotent—we pallid stones.
40 Not all our power is gone—not all our fame—
Not all the magic of our high renown—
Not all the wonder that encircles us—
Not all the mysteries that in us lie—
Not all the memories that hang upon
45 And cling around about us as a garment,
Clothing us in a robe of more than glory."
69. What is the central focus of “The Coliseum” as it relates to the theme?
A. the destruction of the Coliseum
B. the beauty of Roman architecture
C. the entertainment at the Coliseum
D. the magnificence of the Roman past
Read the following and answer the questions below:
The Lake Shore Road
From Canada
The Lake Shore Road
by Jean Blewett
‘Tis noon, the meadow stretches in the sun,
And every little spear of grass uplifts its slimness to the glow
To let the heavy-laden bees pass out.
A stream comes at a snail’s pace through the gloom
Of shrub and fern and brake,
Leaps o’er a wall, goes singing on to find
The coolness of the lake.
A wild rose spreads her greenness on a hedge,
And flings her tinted blossoms in the air;
5
1
The sweetbriar neighbors with that porcupine
Of shrubs, the gooseberry; with parasol2
Of white the elderberry shades her head
And dreams of purple fruit and wine-press chill.
From off her four warm eggs of mottled3 shade,
A bird flies with a call of love and joy
That wins an answer straight
From that brown thing of gladness on a bough,
Too slight to hold him and his weight of song,
The proud and watchful mate.
The wind comes heavy freighted from the wood,
10
15
20
With jasmine, honeysuckle, iris, phlox,
And lilies red and white;
The blue lake murmurs, and the world seems all
A garden of delight.
brake: a place overgrown with bushes
parasol: a small umbrella
3mottled: mixed colors
1
2
Project Gutenberg, 2011.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35779/35779-h/35779h.htm#Page_207 (03/26/2013).
70. How does the use of personification contribute to the central idea
of the poem?
A. It lends a feeling of enchantment to the forest.
B. It helps to share the story of the family of birds.
C. It contributes to the depiction of the forest as being alive.
D. It highlights the many animals and plants in the active
forest.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt 2 from Stories By Foreign Authors: “Mumu”
Excerpt from Stories By Foreign Authors:
“Mumu”
by Ivan Turgenev
Tatiana, one of the laundresses . . . (as a trained and skillful
laundress she was in charge of the fine linen only), was a woman of
twenty-eight, thin, fair-haired, with moles on her left cheek. Moles
on the left cheek are regarded as an evil omen in Russia—a token of
unhappy life . . . Tatiana could not boast of her good luck. From her
earliest youth she had been badly treated; she had done the work
of two, and had never known affection; she had been poorly clothed
and had received the smallest wages. Relations she had practically
none; an uncle she had once had, a butler, left behind in the
country as useless, and other uncles of hers were peasants—that
was all. At one time she had passed for a beauty, but her good
looks were very soon over. In disposition, she was very meek, or,
rather, scared; towards herself, she felt perfect indifference; of
others, she stood in mortal dread; she thought of nothing but how
to get her work done in good time, never talked to anyone, and
trembled at the very name of her mistress, though the latter
scarcely knew her by sight.
When Gerasim, [the mute], was brought from the country, she was
ready to die with fear on seeing his huge figure, tried all she could
to avoid meeting him, even dropped her eyelids when sometimes
she chanced to run past him, hurrying from the house to the
laundry. Gerasim at first paid no special attention to her, then he
used to smile when she came his way, then he began even to stare
admiringly at her, and at last he never took his eyes off her. She
took his fancy, whether by the mild expression of her face or the
timidity of her movements, who can tell?
One day she was stealing across the yard1 with a starched dressingjacket of her mistress’s carefully poised on her outspread fingers . .
. someone suddenly grasped her vigorously by the elbow; she
turned round and fairly screamed; behind her stood Gerasim. With a
foolish smile, making inarticulate caressing grunts, he held out to
her a gingerbread rooster with gold tinsel on his tail and wings. She
was about to refuse it, but he thrust it forcibly into her hand, shook
his head, walked away, and turning round, once more grunted
something very affectionately to her.
From that day forward he gave her no peace; wherever she went,
he was on the spot at once, coming to meet her, smiling, grunting,
waving his hands; all at once he would pull a ribbon out of the
bosom of his smock and put it in her hand, or would sweep the dust
out of her way. The poor girl simply did not know how to behave or
what to do. Soon the whole household knew of the mute porter’s
wiles; jeers, jokes, sly hints, were showered upon Tatiana. At
Gerasim, however, it was not everyone who would dare to scoff; he
did not like jokes; indeed, in his presence, she, too, was left in
peace. Whether she liked it or not, the girl found herself to be under
his protection. Like all deaf-mutes, he . . . very readily perceived
when they were laughing at him or at her.
One day, at dinner, the wardrobe-keeper, Tatiana’s superior, fell to
nagging, as it is called, at her, and brought the poor thing to such a
state that she did not know where to look, and was almost crying
with vexation.2 Gerasim got up all of a sudden, stretched out his
gigantic hand, laid it on the wardrobe-maid's head, and looked into
her face with such grim ferocity that her head positively flopped
upon the table. Everyone was still. Gerasim took up his spoon again
and went on with his cabbage-soup . . . Another time, noticing that
Kapiton . . . was gossiping somewhat too attentively with Tatiana,
Gerasim beckoned him to him, led him into the cartshed, and taking
up a shaft that was standing in a corner by one end, lightly, but
most significantly, menaced3 him with it. Since then no one
addressed a word to Tatiana. And all this cost him nothing.
stealing across the yard: carefully moving or walking
vexation: frustration
3
menaced: threatened
1
2
Stories by Foreign Authors: “Mumu” by Ivan Turgenev. Project
Gutenberg, 2004.
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5741/pg5741.html
(11/06/12).
71. How does Gerasim’s character contribute to the the theme of the
selection?
A. He provides Tatiana with positive attention missing from her
life.
B. He provides Tatiana relief from the worries of her work.
C. He causes Tatiana to fear his persistent attention.
D. He causes Tatiana to lose trust in his intentions.
72. Which shows the development of Tatiana’s character in the
selection?
A. She first fears Gerasim but later realizes he wants to protect
her.
B. She continues to keep to herself due to her extreme fear of
Gerasim.
C. She continues to have the ability to respond appropriately in
social situations.
D. She first appreciates the protection from Gerasim because
she fears for her safety.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt 2 from The Trial: "The Arrest"
Excerpt from The Trial: “The Arrest”
by Franz Kafka
It was already gone half past eleven when someone could be heard
in the stairway. K., who had been lost in his thoughts in the
hallway, walking up and down loudly as if it were his own room, fled
behind his door. Miss Bürstner had arrived. Shivering, she pulled a
silk shawl over her slender shoulders as she locked the door. The
next moment she would certainly go into her room, where K. ought
not to intrude in the middle of the night; that meant he would have
to speak to her now, but, unfortunately, he had not put the electric
light on in his room so that when he stepped out of the dark it
would give the impression of being an attack and would certainly, at
the very least, have been quite alarming.
There was no time to lose, and in his helplessness he whispered
through the crack of the door, “Miss Bürstner.” It sounded like he
was pleading with her, not calling to her.
“Is there someone there?” asked Miss Bürstner, looking round with
her eyes wide open.
“It’s me,” said K. and came out.
“Oh, Mr. K.!” said Miss Bürstner with a smile. “Good Evening,” and
offered him her hand.
“I wanted to have a word with you, if you would allow me?”
“Now?” asked Miss Bürstner, “does it have to be now? It is a little
odd, isn’t it?”
“I’ve been waiting for you since nine o’clock.”
“Well, I was at the theatre, I didn’t know anything about you
waiting for me.”
“The reason I need to speak to you only came up today.”
“I see, well I don’t see why not, I suppose, apart from being so tired
I could drop. Come into my room for a few minutes then. We
certainly can’t talk out here, we’d wake everyone up and I think
that would be more unpleasant for us than for them. Wait here till
I’ve put the light on in my room, and then turn the light down out
here.”
K. did as he was told, and then even waited until Miss Bürstner
came out of her room and quietly invited him, once more, to come
in. “Sit down,” she said, indicating the ottoman, while she herself
remained standing by the bedpost despite the tiredness she had
spoken of; she did not even take off her hat, which was small but
decorated with an abundance of flowers. “What is it you wanted,
then? I’m really quite curious.” She gently crossed her legs.
“I expect you’ll say,” K. began, “that the matter really isn’t all that
urgent and we don’t need to talk about it right now, but . . .”
“I never listen to introductions,” said Miss Bürstner.
“That makes my job so much easier,” said K. “This morning, to
some extent through my fault, your room was made a little untidy,
this happened because of people I did not know and against my will
but, as I said, because of my fault; I wanted to apologize for it.”
“My room?” asked Miss Bürstner, and instead of looking round the
room scrutinized K.
“It is true,” said K., and now, for the first time, they looked each
other in the eyes, “there’s no point in saying exactly how this came
about.”
“But that’s the interesting thing about it,” said Miss Bürstner.
“No,” said K.
“Well then,” said Miss Bürstner, “I don’t want to force my way into
any secrets, if you insist that it’s of no interest I won’t insist. I’m
quite happy to forgive you for it, as you ask, especially as I can’t
see anything at all that’s been left untidy.”
With her hand laid flat on her lower hip, she made a tour around the
room. At the mat where the photographs were she stopped. “Look
at this!” she cried. “My photographs really have been put in the
wrong places. Oh, that’s horrible. Someone really has been in my
room without permission.” K. nodded, and quietly cursed Kaminer
who worked at his bank and who was always active doing things
that had neither use nor purpose.
“It is odd,” said Miss Bürstner, “that I’m forced to forbid you to do
something that you ought to have forbidden yourself to do, namely
to come into my room when I’m not here.”
“But I did explain to you,” said K., and went over to join her by
the photographs, “that it wasn’t me who interfered with your
photographs; but as you don’t believe me I’ll have to admit that the
investigating committee brought along three bank employees with
them, one of them must have touched your photographs and as
soon as I get the chance I’ll ask to have him dismissed from the
bank. Yes, there was an investigating committee here,” added K.,
as the young lady was looking at him enquiringly.
“Because of you?” she asked.
“Yes,” answered K.
“No!” the lady cried with a laugh.
“Yes, they were,” said K., “you believe that I’m innocent then, do
you?”
“Well now, innocent . . .” said the lady, “I don’t want to start
making any pronouncements that might have serious consequences,
I don’t really know you after all, it means they’re dealing with a
serious criminal if they send an investigating committee straight out
to get him. But you’re not in custody now—at least I take it you’ve
not escaped from prison considering that you seem quite calm—so
you can’t have committed any crime of that sort.”
“Yes,” said K., “but it might be that the investigating committee
could see that I’m innocent, or not so guilty as had been supposed.”
“Yes, that’s certainly a possibility,” said Miss Bürstner, who seemed
very interested.
“Listen,” said K., “you don’t have much experience in legal matters.”
“No, that’s true, I don’t,” said Miss Bürstner, “and I’ve often
regretted it, as I’d like to know everything and I’m very interested
in legal matters. There’s something peculiarly attractive about the
law, isn’t there? But I’ll certainly be perfecting my knowledge in this
area, as next month I start work in a legal office.”
“That’s very good,” said K., “that means you’ll be able to give me
some help with my trial.”
“That could well be,” said Miss Bürstner. “Why not? I like to make
use of what I know.”
“I mean it quite seriously,” said K., “or at least, half seriously, as
you do. This affair is too petty to call in a lawyer, but I could make
good use of someone who could give me advice.”
“Yes, but if I’m to give you advice I’ll have to know what it’s all
about,” said Miss Bürstner.
“That’s exactly the problem,” said K., “I don’t know that myself.”
“So you have been making fun of me, then,” said Miss Bürstner
exceedingly disappointed, “you really ought not to try something
like that on at this time of night.”
And she stepped away from the photographs where they had stood
so long together.
“Miss Bürstner, no,” said K., “I’m not making fun of you. Please
believe me! I’ve already told you everything I know. More than I
know, in fact, as it actually wasn’t even an investigating committee,
that’s just what I called them because I don’t know what else to call
them. There was no cross questioning at all, I was merely arrested,
but by a committee.”
Miss Bürstner sat on the ottoman and laughed again. “What was it
like then?” she asked.
“It was terrible” said K., although his mind was no longer on the
subject, he had become totally absorbed by Miss Bürstner’s gaze
who was supporting her chin on one hand—the elbow rested on the
cushion of the ottoman—and slowly stroking her hip with the other.
“That’s too vague,” said Miss Bürstner.
“What’s too vague?” asked K. Then he remembered himself and
asked, “Would you like me to show you what it was like?” He
wanted to move in some way but did not want to leave.
“I’m already tired,” said Miss Bürstner.
“You arrived back so late,” said K. “Now you’ve started telling me
off. Well I suppose I deserve it as I shouldn’t have let you in here in
the first place, and it turns out there wasn’t even any point.”
“Oh, there was a point, you’ll see now how important a point it
was,” said K. “May I move this table away from your bedside and
put it here?”
“What do you think you’re doing?” said Miss Bürstner. “Of course
you can’t!”
“In that case I can’t show you,” said K., quite upset, as if Miss
Bürstner had committed some incomprehensible offense against
him.
“Alright then, if you need it to show what you mean, just take the
bedside table then,” said Miss Bürstner, and after a short pause
added in a weak voice,
“I’m so tired I’m allowing more than I ought to.” K. put the little
table in the middle of the room and sat down behind it.
“You have to get a proper idea of where the people were situated, it
is very interesting. I’m the supervisor, sitting over there on the
chest are two policemen, standing next to the photographs there
are three young people. Hanging on the handle of the window is a
white blouse—I just mention that by the way. And now it begins. Ah
yes, I’m forgetting myself, the most important person of all, so I’m
standing here in front of the table. The supervisor is sitting
extremely comfortably with his legs crossed and his arm hanging
over the backrest here like some layabout. And now it really does
begin. The supervisor calls out as if he had to wake me up, in fact
he shouts at me, I’m afraid, if I’m to make it clear to you, I’ll have
to shout as well, and it’s nothing more than my name that he
shouts out.”
Miss Bürstner, laughing as she listened to him, laid her forefinger on
her mouth so that K. would not shout, but it was too late. K. was
too engrossed in his role and slowly called out, “Josef K.!”. It was
not as loud as he had threatened, but nonetheless, once he had
suddenly called it out, the cry seemed gradually to spread itself all
round the room.
Project Gutenberg, 2005 at
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7849/pg7849.html
(8/6/2012).
This is a COPYRIGHTED Translation from Project Gutenberg eBook
from The Trial: Chapter One. Copyright (C) 2003 by David Wyllie.
73. What does paragraph 42 reveal about K.’s attitude toward Miss
Bürstner?
A. K. finds her attractive.
B. K. is curious about her.
C. K. is intimidated by her.
D. K. sees her as an adversary.
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Excerpt 1 from “The Outrage - A True Story”
From Russia
Excerpt from “The Outrage—A True Story”
by Aleksandr I. Kuprin
The gentleman in the sandy suit bowed just his head, neatly and
easily, and said with a half-question in his voice: “Mr. Chairman?”
“Yes. I am the chairman. What is your business?”
“We—all whom you see before you,” the gentleman began in a quiet
voice and turned round to indicate his companions, “we come as
delegates from the United Rostov-Kharkov-and-Odessa-Nikolayev
Association of Thieves.”
The barristers1 began to shift in their seats.
The chairman flung himself back and opened his eyes wide.
“Association of what?” he said, perplexed.
“The Association of Thieves,” the gentleman in the sandy suit coolly
repeated. “As for myself, my comrades did me the signal honor of
electing me as the spokesman of the deputation.”
“Very . . . pleased,” the chairman said uncertainly.
“Thank you. All seven of us are ordinary thieves—naturally of
different departments. The Association has authorized us to put
before your esteemed Committee”—the gentleman again made an
elegant bow—“our respectful demand for assistance.”
“I don’t quite understand . . . quite frankly . . . what is the
connection . . .” The chairman waved his hands helplessly.
“However, please go on.”
“The matter about which we have the courage and the honor to
apply to you, gentlemen, is very clear, very simple, and very brief.
It will take only six or seven minutes. I consider it my duty to warn
you of this beforehand, in view of the late hour and the 115 degrees
that Fahrenheit marks in the shade.” The orator expectorated2
slightly and glanced at his superb gold watch. “You see, in the
reports that have lately appeared in the local papers of the
melancholy and terrible days of the last pogrom, there have very
often been indications that among the instigators of the pogrom
who were paid and organized by the police—the dregs of society,
consisting of drunkards, tramps, souteneurs, and hooligans from the
slums—thieves were also to be found. At first we were silent, but
finally we considered ourselves under the necessity of protesting
against such an unjust and serious accusation, before the face of
the whole of intellectual society. I know well that in the eye of the
law we are offenders and enemies of society. But imagine only for a
moment, gentlemen, the situation of this enemy of society when he
is accused wholesale of an offense which he not only never
committed, but which he is ready to resist with the whole strength
of his soul. It goes without saying that he will feel the outrage of
such an injustice more keenly than a normal, average, fortunate
citizen. Now, we declare that the accusation brought against us is
utterly devoid of4 all basis, not merely of fact but even of logic. I
intend to prove this in a few words if the honorable committee will
kindly listen.”
3
“Proceed,” said the chairman.
“Please do . . . Please . . .” was heard from the barristers, now
animated.
“I offer you my sincere thanks in the name of all my comrades.
Believe me, you will never repent your attention to the
representatives of our . . . well, let us say, slippery, but
nevertheless difficult, profession. ‘So we begin,’ as Giraldoni sings in
the prologue to Pagliacci.”
barristers: lawyers who may argue in the higher courts
2
expectorated: cleared his throat
3
pogrom: an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group
4
devoid of: completely lacking
1
Project Gutenberg, 2004.
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13437/pg13437.html
(02/25/2013).
74. According to the speaker, what is the biggest difference between
The Association of Thieves and what he calls “the dregs of
society”?
A. their levels of economic success
B. their inclusion in an intellectual society
C. the seriousness of the crimes they commit
D. a moral objection to being part of the pogroms
Read the following and answer the questions below:
Pride Goeth Before a Fall
Pride Goeth Before a Fall
a tale from Southern India retold by Joseph Jacobs
1. In a certain village there lived ten cloth merchants, who always went about together. Once upon
a time they had travelled far afield, and were returning home with a great deal of money which
they had obtained by selling their wares. Now there happened to be a dense forest near their
village, and this they reached early one morning. In it there lived three notorious robbers, of
whose existence the traders had never heard, and while they were still in the middle of it the
robbers stood before them, with swords and cudgels in their hands, and ordered them to lay
down all they had. The traders had no weapons with them, and so, though they were many more
in number, they had to submit themselves to the robbers, who took away everything from them,
even the very clothes they wore, and gave to each only a small loin-cloth a span in breadth and
a cubit in length.
2. The idea that they had conquered ten men and plundered all their property, now took
possession of the robbers' minds. They seated themselves like three monarchs before the men
they had plundered, and ordered them to dance to them before returning home. The merchants
now mourned their fate. They had lost all they had, except their loin-cloth, and still the robbers
were not satisfied, but ordered them to dance.
3. There was, among the ten merchants, one who was very clever. He pondered over the calamity
that had come upon him and his friends, the dance they would have to perform, and the
magnificent manner in which the three robbers had seated themselves on the grass. At the
same time he observed that these last had placed their weapons on the ground, in the
assurance of having thoroughly cowed the traders, who were now commencing to dance. So he
took the lead in the dance, and, as a song is always sung by the leader on such occasions, to
which the rest keep time with hands and feet, he thus began to sing:
4. "We are enty men, They are erith men: If each erith man, Surround eno men Eno man remains.
Tâ, tai, tôm, tadingana."
5. The robbers were all uneducated, and thought that the leader was merely singing a song as
usual. So it was in one sense; for the leader commenced from a distance, and had sung the
song over twice before he and his companions commenced to approach the robbers. They had
understood his meaning, because they had been trained in trade.
6. When two traders discuss the price of an article in the presence of a purchaser, they use a
riddling sort of language.
7. "What is the price of this cloth?" one trader will ask another.
8. "Enty rupees," another will reply, meaning "ten rupees."
9. Thus, there is no possibility of the purchaser knowing what is meant unless he be acquainted
with trade language. By the rules of this secret language erith means "three," enty means "ten,"
and eno means "one." So the leader by his song meant to hint to his fellow-traders that they
were ten men, the robbers only three, that if three pounced upon each of the robbers, nine of
them could hold them down, while the remaining one bound the robbers' hands and feet.
10. The three thieves, glorying in their victory, and little understanding the meaning of the song and
the intentions of the dancers, were proudly seated chewing betel and tobacco. Meanwhile the
song was sung a third time. Tâ tai tôm had left the lips of the singer; and, before tadingana was
out of them, the traders separated into parties of three, and each party pounced upon a thief.
The remaining one—the leader himself—tore up into long narrow strips a large piece of cloth, six
cubits long, and tied the hands and feet of the robbers. These were entirely humbled now, and
rolled on the ground like three bags of rice!
11. The ten traders now took back all their property, and armed themselves with the swords and
cudgels of their enemies; and when they reached their village, they often amused their friends
and relatives by relating their adventure.
75. What detail about the robbers' personalities is necessary to advance the plot of the story?
A. In it there lived three notorious robbers, . . . . (paragraph 1)
B. . . . who took away everything from them, even the very clothes they wore, . . . . (paragraph
1)
C. The idea that they had conquered ten men . . . now took possession of the robbers' minds.
(paragraph 2)
D. . . . the three robbers seated themselves on the grass. (paragraph 3)
76. Read the sentence.
Our trip to Virginia has three purposes: to visit relatives, to tour Civil War
sites, and do genealogy research.
What is the correct way to write the sentence so the construction is parallel?
A. Our trip to Virginia has three purposes: visit relatives, to tour Civil War sites, and research
genealogy.
B. Our trip to Virginia has three purposes: to visit relatives, to tour Civil War sites, and to
research genealogy.
C. Our trip to Virginia has three purposes: we will visit relatives, Civil War sites, and we will
research genealogy.
D. Our trip to Virginia has three purposes: that of visiting relatives, touring Civil War sites, and
we will be researching genealogy.
77. Read this sentence.
When writing a paper, students should prepare an introduction, develop the topic in the body
of the essay, and there should be a conclusion at the end.
What is the correct way to write the sentence so the construction is parallel?
A. When writing a paper, students should prepare an introduction, a topic in the body of the
essay, and a strong conclusion at the end.
B. When writing a paper, students should prepare an introduction, develop the topic in the
body of the essay, and end with a strong conclusion.
C. When writing a paper, an introduction is first, the body of the essay is developed next, and
students should end the essay with a strong conclusion.
D. When writing a paper, there should be an introduction, the topic should be developed in the
body of an essay, and students should conclude strongly at the end.
78. Which sentence includes an example of parallel structure?
A. A good friend should be very patient and a good listener.
B. I walked by a giraffe on my way to school and by a zebra on my way home.
C. The teacher discussed using adverbs, combining sentences, and adjectives.
D. My uncle is a daredevil; he knows how to skydive and goes spelunking.
79. Read the sentence.
To successfully complete the audition, they had to sing a vocal selection, they had to
perform a dance number, and could recite a few lines from a drama.
What is the correct way to write the sentence so the construction is parallel?
A. To successfully complete the audition, they had to sing a vocal selection, perform a dance
number, and they had to recite a few lines from a drama.
B. To successfully complete the audition, they had to sing a vocal selection, perform a dance
number, and had to recite a few lines from a drama.
C. To successfully complete the audition, they had to sing a vocal selection, they had to
perform a dance number, and recite a few lines from a drama.
D. To successfully complete the audition, they had to sing a vocal selection, perform a dance
number, and recite a few lines from a drama.