34 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Thirty Four

34 - ] Model SAT Tests

 Test Thirty Four

Read the passage below , and then answer the questions that follow the passage . The correct response may be stated outright or merely suggested in the passage .

            The following passage is taken from Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion . In this excerpt we meet Sir Walter Elliot , father of the heroine .

            Vanity was the beginning and end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character : vanity of person and of his youth , and at fifty-four was still a very fine man . Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did , nor could the valet of any new-made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society . He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy ; and the Sir Walter Elliot , who united these gifts , was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion .

            His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment , since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to anything deserved by his own Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman , sensible and amiable , whose judgment and conduct , if they might be pardoned the youthful infatuation which made her Lady Elliot , had never required indulgence afterwards . She had humored , or softened , or concealed his failings , and promoted his real respectability for seventeen years ; and though not the very happiest being in the world herself ,  had found enough in her duties , her friends , and her children , to attach her to life , and make it no matter of indifference to her when she was called on to quit them . Three girls , the two eldest sixteen and fourteen , was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath , an awful charge rather , to confide to the authority and guidance of a conceited , silly father . She had , however , one very intimate friend , a sensible , deserving woman , who had been brought , by strong attachment to herself , to settle close by her , in the village of Kellynch , and on her kindness and advice Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance of the good principles and instruction which she had been anxiously giving her daughters .

            This friend and Sir Walter did not marry , whatever might have been anticipated on that head by their acquaintance . Thirteen years had passed away since Lady Elliot’s death , and they were still near neighbors and intimate friends , and one remained a widower , the other a widow .

            That Lady Russell , of steady age and character , and extremely well provided for , should have no thought of a second marriage , needs no apology to the public , which is rather apt to be unreasonably discontented when a woman does marry again , than when she does not : but Sir Walter’s continuing in singleness requires explanation . Be it known , then ,that Sir Walter ,like a good father ( having met with one or two disappointments in very unreasonable applications ) , prided himself on remaining single for his dear daughters’ sake .

1 . According to the passage , Sir Walter Elliot’s vanity centered on his

I. physical attractiveness

II . possession of a title

III . superiority of character

(A) I only (B) II only  (C) I and II  (D) I and III (E) I ,II , and III

2 . The narrator speaks well of Lady Elliot for all of the following EXCEPT     

(A) her concealment of Sir Walter’s shortcomings

(B) her choice of an intimate friend

(C) her guidance of her three daughters

(D) her judgment in falling in love with Sir Walter

(E) her performance of her wifely duties

3 . It can be inferred that over the years Lady Elliot was less than happy because of     

(A) her lack of personal beauty

(B) her separation from her most intimate friend

C) the disparity between her character and that of her husband

(D) the inferiority of her place in society

(E) her inability to teach good principles to her wayward daughters

4 . Lady Elliot’s emotions regarding her approaching death were complicated by her     

(A) pious submissiveness to her fate

(B) anxieties over her daughters’ prospects

(C) resentment of her husband’s potential remarriage

(D) lack of feeling for her conceited husband

(E) reluctance to face the realities of her situation

5 . The phrase “make it no matter of indifference to her when she was called on to quit them” in paragraph two is an example of     

(A) ironic understatement

(B) effusive sentiment

(C) metaphorical expression

(D) personification

E)  parable

6. The underlined word “applications” made by Sir Walter were most likely     

(A) professional (B) insincere (C) marital (D) mournful (E) fatherly