43 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Forty Three

43 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Forty Three

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

Questions 1  - 6 are based on the following passage .

The following passage is taken from Civilization , a book based on the scripts for the television series of the same name . In this excerpt author Kenneth Clark introduces the audience to the Europe of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries : the Gothic world .

         I am in the Gothic world of chivalry , courtesy , and romance ; a world in which serious things were done with a sense of play - where even war and theology could become a sort of game ; and when architecture reached a point of extravagance unequalled in history . After all the great unifying convictions that inspired the medieval world . High Gothic art can look fantastic and luxurious - what Marxists call conspicuous waste . And yet these centuries produced some of the greatest spirits in the history of man , amongst them St. Francis of Assisi and Dante . Behind all the fantasy of the Gothic imagination there remained ,on two different planes , a sharp sense of reality . Medieval man could see things very clearly , but he believed that these appearances should be considered as nothing more than symbols or tokens if an ideal order , which was the only true reality .

            The fantasy strikes us first , and last ; and one can see it in the room in the Cluny Museum in Paris hung with a series of tapestries known as The Lady with the Unicorn , one of the most seductive examples of the Gothic spirit . It is poetical , fanciful and profane . Its ostensible subject is the four senses . But its real subject is the power of love , which can enlist and subdue all the forces of nature , including those two emblems of lust and ferocity , the unicorn and the lion . They kneel before this embodiment of chastity , and hold up the corners of the cloak . These wild animals have become , in the heraldic sense , her supporters . And all round this allegorical scene is what the medieval philosophers used to call natura naturans - nature naturing - trees , flowers , leaves galore , birds , monkeys , and those rather obvious symbols of nature naturing , rabbits . There is even nature domesticated , a little dog , sitting on a cushion . It is an image of worldly happiness at its most refined , what the French call the douceur de vivre , which is often confused with civilization .     

            We have come a long way from the powerful conviction that induced medieval knights and ladies to draw carts of stone up the hill for the building of Chartres Cathedral . And yet the notion of ideal love , and the irresistible power of gentleness and beauty , which is emblematically conveyed by the homage of these two fierce beasts , can be traced back for the three centuries , two days long before these tapestries were conceived .

1 . The author distinguishes the medieval imagination from the Gothic on the basis of the latter’s    

(A) heraldic sense

(B) respect for tradition

(C) elaborateness of fancy

(D) philosophical unity

(E) firm belief

2 . The underlined word “point” in the first paragraph means

(A) tip (B) component (C) message (D) motive  (E) degree

3 . The author cites St. Francis and Dante in paragraph one primarily in order to

(A) identify the inspiration for the design of the Unicorn tapestries

(B) illustrate the source of the great convictions that animated the Medieval world

(C) demonstrate his acquaintance with the writings of great thinkers of the period

(D) refute the notion that the Gothic period produced nothing but extravagance

(E) support his contention that theology could become a sort of game

4 . The author thinks of the Unicorn tapestries as exemplifying the essence of the Gothic imagination because

(A) their allegorical nature derives from medieval sources

(B) their use as well hangings expresses the realistic practicality of the Gothic mind

(C) they demonstrate the wastefulness and extravagance of the period

(D) they combine worldly and spiritual elements in a celebration of love

(E) they confuse the notion of civilization with worldly happiness

5 . By “this embodiment of chastity” in paragraph two the author is referring to

(A) the unicorn

(B) the Gothic spirit

(C) St. Francis

(D) the lady

(E) the Cluny Museum

6 . According to the final paragraph , in the Middle Ages some members of the nobility demonstrated the depth of their faith by

(A) designing tapestries symbolic of courtly love

(B) paying homage to aristocratic ladies

(C) choosing to refine their notions of worldly happiness

(D) hauling stones used to construct Chartres Cathedral

(E) following the Franciscan ideal of living in harmony with nature

Questions 7 - 15 are based on the following passage .

African elephants now are an endangered species . The following passage , taken from an article written in 1989 , discusses the potential ecological disaster that might occur if the elephant were to become extinct .

            The African elephant - mythic symbol of a continent , keystone of its ecology and the largest land animal remaining on earth - has become the object of one of the biggest , broadest international efforts yet mounted to turn a threatened species off the road to extinction . But it is not only the elephant’s survival that is at stake , conservationists say . Unlike the endangered tiger , unlike even the great whales , the African elephant is in great measure the architect of its environment . As a voracious eater of vegetation , it largely shapes the forest-and-savanna surroundings in which it lives , thereby setting the terms of existence for millions of other storied animals - from zebras to gazelles to giraffes and wildebeests - that share its habitat . And as the elephant disappears , scientists and conservationists say , many other species will also disappear from vast stretches of forest and savanna , drastically altering and improvising whole ecosystems .

            It is the elephant’s metabolism and appetite that make it a disturber of the environment and therefore an important creator of habitat . In a constant search for the 300 pounds of vegetation it must have every day , it kills small trees and underbrush and pulls branches off big trees as high as its trunk will reach . This creates innumerable open spaces in both deep tropical forests and in the woodlands that cover part of the African savannas . The resulting patchwork , a mosaic of vegetation in various stages of regeneration ,in turn creates a greater variety of forage that attracts a greater variety of other vegetation-eaters than would otherwise be the case .

            In studies over the last twenty years in southern Kenya near Mount Kilimanjaro , Dr. David Western has found that when elephants are allowed to roam the savannas naturally and normally , they spread out at “intermediate densities .” Their foraging creates a mixture of savanna woodlands ( what the Africans call bush ) and grassland . The result is a highly diverse array of other plant-eating species : those like the zebra , wildebeest and gazelle , that graze ; those like the giraffe , bushbuck and lesser kudu , that browse on tender shoots , buds , twigs and leaves ; and plant-eating primates like the baboon and vervet monkey . These herbivores attract carnivores like the lion and cheetah .

            When the elephant population thins out , Dr. Western said , the woodlands become denser and the grazers are squeezed out . When pressure from poachers forces elephants to crowd more densely onto reservations , the woodlands there are knocked out and the browsers and primates disappear .

            Sometimes similar appears to happen in dense tropical rain forests . In their natural state , because the overhead forest canopy shuts out sunlight and prevents growth on the forest floor , rain forests provide slim pickings for large , hoofed plant-eaters . By pulling down trees and eating new growth , elephants enlarge natural openings in the canopy , allowing plants to regenerate on the forest floor and bringing down vegetation from the canopy so that smaller species can get at it .

            In such situations , the rain forest becomes hospitable to large plant-eating mammals such as bongos , bush pigs , duikers , forest hogs , swamp antelopes , forest buffaloes , okapis , sometimes gorillas and always a host of smaller animals that thrive on secondary growth . When elephants disappear and the forest reverts , the larger animals give way to smaller , nimbler animals like monkeys , squirrels and rodents .  

7 . The passage is primarily concerned with  

(A) explaining why elephants are facing the threat of extinction

(B) explaining difficulties in providing sufficient forage for plant-eaters

(C) explaining how the elephant’s impact on its surroundings affects other species

(D) distinguishing between savannas and rain forests as habitats for elephants

(E) contrasting elephants with members of other endangered species

8 . The underlined word “mounted” in paragraph one means

(A) ascended (B) increased (C) launched (D) attached (E) exhibited

9 . In the opening paragraph , the author mentions tigers and whales in order to emphasize which point about the elephant ?

(A) Like them , it faces the threat of extinction .

(B) It is herbivorous rather than carnivorous.

(C) It moves more ponderously than either the tiger or the whale .

(D) Unlike them , it physically alters its environment .

(E) It is the largest extant land mammal .

10 . A necessary component of the elephant’s ability to transform the landscape is its

(A) massive intelligence

(B) threatened extinction

(C) ravenous hunger

(D) lack of grace

(E) ability to regenerate

11 . The author’s style can best be described as 

(A) hyperbolic (B) naturalistic (C) reportorial (D) esoteric(E) sentimental

12 . It can be inferred from the passage that

(A) the lion and the cheetah commonly prey upon elephants

(B) the elephant is dependant upon the existence of smaller plant-eating mammals for its survive

(C) elephants have an indirect effect on the hunting patterns of certain carnivores

(D) the floor of the tropical rain forest is too overgrown to accommodate larger plant-eating species

(E) the natural tendency of elephants is to crowd together in packs

13 . The passage contains information that would answer which of the following questions ?

I . How does the elephant’s foraging affect its surroundings ?

II . How do the feeding patterns of gazelles and giraffes differ ?

III . What occurs in the rain forest when the elephant population dwindles ?

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

14 . The underlined word “host” in the last paragraph means

(A) food source for parasites

(B) very large number

(C) provider of hospitality

(D) military force

(E) angelic company

15 . Which of the following statements best expresses the author’s attitude toward the damage to vegetation caused by foraging elephants ?

(A) It is an unfortunate by-product of the feeding process .

(B) It is a necessary but undesirable aspect of elephant population growth .

(C) It fortuitously results in creating environments suited to diverse species .

(D) It has the unexpected advantage that it allows scientists access to the rain forest.

(E) It reinforces the impression that elephants are a disruptive force .