Practice
Passage 1:
Back to Mango Street
It has been ten years since Sandra
Question 1 asks about the
passage as a whole.
Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street was
first published. She began writing it in
1.
graduate school, the spring of 1977, in
Iowa City.
A. Cisneros is best known for
her memoir, House on Mango
Street.
B. Cisneros’s first novel was
clearly
unpopular with
readers.
C. Cisneros drew inspiration
from real life to create her
first work of fiction.
D. The heroine Esperanza was a
product of Cisneros’s
imagination.
She was twenty-two years old.
(2) She’s thirty-eight now and far from
that time and place, the questions from
readers remain:
Are these stories true?
Is she Esperanza?
2.
work on The House on Mango Street, she
By the
time she finished it, though, the memoir
was no longer a memoir, no longer
autobiographical.
A. NO CHANGE
B. She’s thirty-eight now and
far from that time and
place; and the questions
from readers
C. She’s thirty-eight now and
far from that time and
place, but the questions
from readers
D. She’s thirty-eight now,
and far from that time and
place, the questions from
readers
According to the author, when she began
thought she was writing a memoir.
Which of the following best
summarizes the main idea of this
passage?
(3) However, it had
3.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Moreover,
C. On the contrary,
D. As a result,
4.
A. NO CHANGE
B. has believed
C. believes
D. were believing
evolved into a collective story peopled
with several lives from her present and
past, placed in one fictional time and
neighborhood—Mango Street.
Passage 2:
The Moral Naturalists
Where does our sense of right and
wrong come from? Moral naturalists, as a
broad generalization, (4) believe that we
have moral sentiments that have emerged
from a long history of relationships. To
5.
A. NO CHANGE
B. revelation or metaphysics,
you observe people as they
live.
C. revelation or metaphysics;
you observe people as they
live.
D. revelation, metaphysics,
you observe people as they
live.
learn about morality, you don’t rely upon
(5) revelation, or metaphysics, you
observe people as they live.
By the time humans came around,
evolution had forged a pretty firm
foundation for a moral sense. Jonathan
Haidt of the University of Virginia
6.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Similarly,
C. On the other hand,
D. Afterwards,
7.
A. NO CHANGE
B. he has shown
C. they have showed
D. they showed
argues that this moral sense is like our
sense of taste. We have natural receptors
that help us pick up sweetness and
saltiness. (6) First, we have natural
receptors that help us recognize fairness
and cruelty. Just as a few universal
tastes can grow into many different
cuisines, a few moral senses can grow
into many different moral cultures.
Paul Bloom of Yale noted that this
moral sense can be observed early in
life. Bloom and his colleagues conducted
an experiment in which (7) he showed
babies a scene featuring one figure
struggling to (8) climb a hill; another
8.
A. NO CHANGE
B. climb a hill: another
figure trying to
help it and a third trying
to hinder
C. climb a hill; another
figure trying to
help it, and a third trying
to hinder
D. climb a hill, another
figure trying to
help it, and a third trying
to hinder
figure trying to help it; and a third
trying to hinder it (stop it).
At as early as six months, the
babies showed a preference for the helper
9.
A. NO CHANGE
B. their
C. they are
D. there
over the hinderer. In some plays, (9)
they’re is a second act. The hindering
figure is either punished or rewarded. In
this case, 8-month-olds preferred a
Question 10 asks about the
passage as a whole.
character who was punishing the hinderer
over ones being nice to it.
This illustrates, Bloom says, that
people have a rudimentary sense of
justice from a very early age. This
doesn’t make people naturally good. If
you give a 3-year-old two pieces of candy
and ask him if he wants to share one of
them, he will almost certainly say no.
It’s not until age 7 or 8 that even half
the children are willing to share. But it
does mean that social norms fall upon
prepared ground. We come equipped to
learn fairness and other virtues.
Passage 3:
Vast and primeval,
Okefenokee Swamp
unfathomable,
unconquerable, bastion of cottonmouth,
rattlesnake and leech,
mother of
10. Which of the following best
summarizes the main idea of this
passage?
A. Children do not learn to
share until they are at least
7 or 8 years old.
B. Moral naturalists believe
that we are born with an idea
of fairness.
C. All humans follow their
natural sense of right and
wrong.
D. Babies prefer helpful figures
to those that try to impede
someone else’s progress.
11.
A. NO CHANGE
B. They had given
C. It gives
D. It was giving
12. Which of the descriptions of
the swamp further emphasizes the
central idea of the paragraph and
essay?
A: NO CHANGE
B: It is a place that many
tourists visit.
C: Anything here festers, rots,
decomposes, and deliquesces.
D: Despite all of this, there is
natural beauty.
vegetation, father of mosquito, soul of
silt, the Okefenokee is the swamp
archetypal, the swamp of legend. (11) They
give birth to two rivers, the St.
Mary’s
13. At this point, the writer is
considering adding the following
true statement:
On the other hand, one will also
bugs of a different sort, such as
butterflies, fireflies, and
ladybugs.
and the Suwannee, fanning out over 430,000
leaf-choked acres, every last one as sodden
as a sponge.
Four hundred and thirty
thousand acres of stinging, biting and
boring insects, of maiden cane and gum and
cypress, of palmetto, slash pine and peat,
of muck, mud, slime, and ooze.
(12) It is,
to put it mildly, an unpleasant place.
The swamp is home to two hundred and
twenty-five species of birds,
forty-three
of mammals, fifty-eight of reptiles, thirtytwo of amphibians and
thirty-four of fish—
all variously equipped with beaks, talons,
claws, teeth,
stingers and fangs—not to
mention the seething galaxies of gnats13
and
deerflies
and no-see-ums, the ticks, mites,
hookworms and paramecia that exist to deepen
the misery of life.
There are alligators here,
Should the writer make this
addition here?
A: Yes, because it highlights the
fact that the swamp is home to
insects that are both pleasant and
unpleasant.
B: Yes, because it further
catalogs the incredible diversity
of life found in the swamp.
C: No, because there is no
evidence that such bugs would
inhabit this swamp.
D: No, because this sentence
seems to undermine the overall
tone that the author is trying to
strike.
14. Given that all of the choices
are true, which one best develops
the paragraph’s focus on the idea
that the swamp is a dangerous,
messy place?
A: NO CHANGE
B: until the hand of man finally
comes to harvest its natural
resources
C: until the place reverberates
and echoes like some hellish zoo.
D: until the land is finally
converted to productive farmland
15.
A. NO CHANGE
B. they’re
C. their
D. its
bears, puma, bobcats and bowfin, there are
cooters and snappers, opossum, coon and gar.
They feed on
one another, in the sludge and
muck and on the floating mats of peat they
bury
eggs, they scratch and stink and sniff
at themselves, caterwauling and
screeching
16.
The author wishes to add a
sentence here that illustrates the
preceding statement. Which of the
following would be best?
A: NO CHANGE
B: Its soft, brown feathers
ruffle in the breeze.
C: Its cold, yellow eyes seem to
pierce my skin like daggers.
D: It has feathers on its head
through every minute of every day and night
that seem like miniature horns.
(14) until the light of the full moon
finally brings peace.
17.
A: NO CHANGE
Passage 4: from Mary Oliver’s “Owls”
When the great horned owl is in the
trees, (15) it’s
razor-tipped toes rasp the limb, causing
flakes
B: The great horned however, I
can’t imagine in any such
proximity
C: The great horned, however I
can’t imagine, in any such
proximity
D: The great horned, however,
I can’t imagine in any such
proximity
of bark to fall through the air and land
on my
shoulders while I look up at it and
listen to the
heavy, crisps, breathy snapping of its
hooked
beak.
pure,
These magnificent birds embody
malevolent power.
16
I can
The screech owl
imagine on my wrist, also the delicate
sawwhet owl that flies like a big, soft
moth.
I can imagine sitting before that
luminous
wanderer, the snowy old, and learning,
from
the white glean of its feathers,
something about
the Arctic. (17) The great horned
however I can’t
imagine in any such proximity—if one of
those
touched me, it would be to the center of
18.
A: NO CHANGE
B:
C:
D:
backs’ of rabbits
back’s of rabbits
backs of rabbits’
19.
A:
B:
C:
D:
NO CHANGE
to obscure too understand
two obscure to understand
too obscure to understand
20. At this point, the writer
wishes to suggest that the owl is
a voracious, relentless hunter.
Which choice is the most relevant
to the information provided in
this paragraph?
A: NO CHANGE
B: If it could, it would eat the
whole world.
C: That is why I try to remember
to keep my dogs indoors.
D: I cherish seeing it in the
woods beyond my yard.
my
life, and I must fall.
pure, wild
hunters of our world.
They are the
They are swift and
merciless upon the (18) backs of rabbits,
mice,
voles, snakes, even skunks, even cats
sitting in
dusky yards thinking peaceful thoughts.
I have
found the headless bodies of rabbits and
bluejays, and known it was the great
horned old
that did them in, taking the head only,
for
20
reasons (19) to obscure to understand.
I have
walked with prudent caution down paths at
twilight when the dogs were puppies.
know
this bird.
Passage 5:
I
It has haunted my dreams.
Igor Stravinsky’s “On Conducting”
21 Conducting, like politics, rarely
attracts original
minds, so conducting is more about trying to
become
famous instead of developing (22) ones
talents for more
sincere reasons.
less
A conductor may actually be
well-equipped for his work than his players,
21.
The writer wishes to insert
a sentence here that best
introduces the paragraph. Which
one of the following would best do
this?
A: Many people are qualified to
become conductors.
B: Why does a conductor bow after
the orchestra stops playing?
C: The best conductors are not
creative thinkers.
D:
Being a conductor is one of
society’s most respected
positions, and deservedly so.
22.
A:
B:
C:
D:
NO CHANGE
one’s talents
one’s talents’
ones talent’s
23. The writer wishes to add a
sentence here to transition into
the next paragraph. Which one of
the following best does this?
A: The successful conductor can
be an incomplete musician, but he
must be a complete showman.
B: It is a shame that people fail
to adequately respect a
conductor’s gifts.
C: This importance helps
conductors overcome a certain
self-doubt.
D: Only those who truly believe
in themselves can achieve
greatness as conductors.
24.
A: NO CHANGE
B: encouraged to create, a purely
egotistical, false and ridiculous
authority
C: encouraged to create a purely
egotistical, false, and ridiculous
authority
D: encouraged to create a purely,
egotistical, false, and ridiculous
authority
25.
A:
B:
C:
D:
NO CHANGE
were
is
are
but no
one except the players need know it, and the
people
who come to see the performance won’t even
know
23
that the conductor is a fraud.
In conductors, this egotistical, selfcentered
feeling is naturally high to begin with, and
the
disease grows like a tropical weed under the
sun of
an adoring public.
conductor
The results are that the
is (24) encouraged to create a purely
egotistical false, and
ridiculous authority, and that he gets to
hold a
position far beyond his real value in the
musical
community.
conductor,
NO CHANGE
tends
tending
had been tending
27.
A: NO CHANGE
B: conductors ridiculous
gesturing
C: conductor’s ridiculous’
gesturing
D: conductor’s ridiculous
gesturing
28.
A:
B:
C:
D:
NO CHANGE
Nonetheless,
In fact,
Despite that,
29.
A:
B:
C:
D:
NO CHANGE
the conductor
the music
listening skills
30. The writer wishes to add a
sentence to conclude this essay.
Which one of the following would
best do this?
He soon becomes a "great"
in fact, and as such is the worst obstacle
to genuine music-making.
like
"Great" conductors,
"great" actors, (25) was unable to play
anything but
themselves; being unable to adapt themselves
to the
work, they change the work to themselves, to
fit their
"style.” The cult of the "great"
conductor also (26) have tended to replace
looking for
listening.
up
26.
A:
B:
C:
D:
In other words, conductors end
distracting the audience; the audience
A: His actions will truly reveal
the value of the music anyway.
B: After all, no one is better
prepared to understand the music
than the conductor.
C: If all else fails, you can
always stand to clap mindlessly
after other audience-members do.
D: The musicians, in the end, owe
their performance to the
conductor’s leadership.
members
forgets to listen to the music because they
focus on
watching the (27) conductors’ ridiculous
gesturing and
dancing.
If you are incapable of listening, the
conductor will
show you what to feel.
important
(28) Thus, the self-
conductor will act out "his" version of some
famous
piece of classical music, wear an expression
of noble
suffering and ultimate triumph in the last
movement,
and otherwise insist on being the center of
attention.
If you are unable to understand or appreciate
(29) it, I suppose you can watch the 30
conductor’s antics.
.