52- ] Model SAT Tests - Test Fifty Two

52- ] Model SAT Tests

The questions below are based on the following passages

Author 1 describes herself in relation to her friends in high school . In Passage 2 , a different narrator describes the behavior of her college roommate Jessie .

Passage 1

            It was puzzling to me that my one real advantage was the agent of my “uncoolness” , and yet at the time I was cowed into believing that it was perfectly just . I adored my friends ; they were smart , funny , beautiful , counterculture , and -- as a rule - utterly depressed . As the “happy” one , I was the butt of most of the jokes . They had devised a ranking system among themselves that meant that the more emotionally fragile one was , the higher one rose on the totem pole . I asserted my independence from them by valuing mental stability and laughing cheerfully , yet I secretly , desperately wanted something to be wrong with me so that they would see me with new eyes . I would be deep . I would be twisted . I would turn out to have been the most wounded one of all , but so stoic abut it that no one would know until years later .

            Unfortunately for my social aspirations , I had had a happy childhood , surrounded by the comforts of the upper-middle class and two loving parents , the only set of parents among my friends who were not divorced or separated . I had grown up a sensible child ; my parents were fairly permissive , and I repaid their trust y taking few risks . I would drift into other parts of the store while my friends shoplifted , or turn the other way while they gave themselves tiny homemade tattoos with ink and a sewing needle , but never did I condemn them or tattle ; I accepted what they did , and in turn , they accepted my presence among them .

            I wasn’t until years after high school , traveling with another friend who had had a good bit of horror in her life already , that I was impressed by the folly of my thinking . I expressed to her , after hearing her litany of misfortune and truly awful circumstance , my strange desire to have had something terrible happen to me so that I could be more complicated . She flew into a rage . How could I treat her misfortune so lightly as to express even a hint of longing for it ? I finally realized that the only way to show true respect for the terrible things that happen to other people was to be deeply grateful for , not dismissive of , my own good fortune .

Passage 2

            Jessie could never get very far into a conversation with somebody new before she would blurt out some reference to the lithium pills she was taking for the manic phase she had just been through . Her battle with bipolar disorder was simultaneously the thing she was most proud of and the thing she was most ashamed of ; she would tell people about it , I think , partly to show off and partly to get the worst over with . She could never bring herself to say something as straightforward as “Just so you know  I’m manic depressive” ,                                                                                                                             but it was always something like “Oops ! I forgot to take my pills today- better take care of that , followed immediately by a calculatedly embarrassed sideways glance that both invited inquiry and made one feel inexpressibly awkward .

            And yet I couldn’t help but like her . She feigned being a wide-eyed blank slate , she would go up to our professors after class and ask “dumb” question after “dumb” question , each one betraying a sharp insight into the topic and a weirdly sophisticated analysis of what was going on . She was always the first to ask the chemistry professor a question he couldn’t answer . She played her intellect the same way she played her disorder ; she would pretend to be trying to hide it , all the while proudly displaying it , framed in carefully constructed “accidental” scenarios . I forgave her each time ; her transparent manipulation was so clearly a product of a true discomfort with who she really was that I could not feel inferior around her .

            In this way , Jessie surrounded herself with a coterie of exceptional misfits . We were all going about the process of learning how to be adults in radically different ways from those of or peers ; that was the thing that held our odd group together , and Jessie was at the center of it , flattering us with her insecurity .

1 . The first sentence of Passage 1 implies that

(A) the narrator has difficulty understanding personal motivations

(B) the narrator failed to recognize the crucial difference between herself and her friends

(C) the narrator is intolerant of her friends’ depression

(D) the narrator’s perspective on the implications of her emotional nature changed over time

(E) the narrator’s friends were unaware of their effect on others

2 . The underlined word “agent” most nearly means

(A) spy (B) active ingredient (C) destroyer (D) secret (E) cause

3 . In line 8 , the underlined phrase “I would be deep” indicates that the narrator

(A) was not deep during the time described in the passage , but later became so

(B) is hiding the terrible things that happened to her in the past

(C) thinks that being happy is more profound than being depressed

(D) believes that developing spiritually is the most important way to grow

(E) thinks her friends would respect her more if she had something to be depressed about

4 . The underlined words “impressed by” paragraph 3 most nearly means

(A) admiring of (B) forced into (C) made aware of (D) shown the good side of

(E) surprised by

5 . In the last four lines of Passage 1 , the narrator’s perspective changes from

(A) admiration of her friends to disapproval of them

(B) isolation to a sense of closeness

(C) optimism to pessimism

(D) dissatisfaction to gratitude

(E) self-satisfied to solicitous

6 . In the context of Passage 2 the underlined word “played” suggests that

(A) Jessie made a conscious effort to portray her illness in a particular way

(B) Jessie did not take her disorder seriously

(C) the narrator was fooled into thinking that Jessie was different from her

(D) Jessie has lost the ability to distinguish between deception and reality

(E) the narrator believes Jessie’s behavior is entertaining

7 . The statement at the end of Passage 2 , paragraph 2 [ “her transparent ----------around her” ] suggests that the narrator  

(A) is uncomfortable with who she really is

(B) is an “exceptional misfit”

(C) looks up to Jessie

(D) pretends that she knows more about Jessie than she really does

(E) might not forgive Jessie f Jessie made her feel inferior

8 . Passage 2 indicates that the narrator feels as she does about Jessie because

(A) she feels confident around Jessie’s apparent insecurity

(B) she admires Jessie’s skill at manipulation

(C) Jessie makes her uncomfortable

(D) Jessie looks up to the narrator

(E) Jessie helps her with Chemistry homework

9 . Author 1 and Jessie in Passage 2 are similar in that both

(A) feel a strong desire to advance socially

(B) feel insecure about their state of emotional health

(C) are successful in deceiving others

(D) are determined to remain genuine despite social disapproval  

(E) have been deeply affected by the attitudes of their friends

10 . Jessie differs most from Author 1 in her

(A) degree of social influence

(B) ability to be successful in academies

(C) willingness to devote her time to cultivating friendships

(D) refusal to accept the labels and judgments of others

(E) desire to befriend people of all different intellectual and emotional types

11 . The two passages differ in that , unlike Jessie , Author 1 has

(A) reluctantly decided to stay in school

(B) rediscovered a love of family gatherings

(C) found that emotional change is frequently impossible to obtain

(D) overcome a negative attitude about her own emotional state

(E) recently stopped lying about her childhood

12 . Which best characterizes how the subject of self-assurance is treated in these two passages ?

(A) Passage 1 suggests that acceptance of self is an act of maturity , while Passage 2 implies that insecurity makes others feel better .

(B) Passage 1 emphasizes the importance of genetics to emotional health , while Passage 2 focuses mainly on external circumstances .

(C) Both passages portray characters who are usually comfortable with themselves .

(D) Passage I argues that emotional states can be consciously controlled , while Passage 2 claims that they are out of the individual’s control

(E) Neither Passage 1 nor Passage 2 considers the psychological effect of pretending to be something other than one is

13 . Which generalization about emotional disorders is most strongly supported by both passages ?

(A) Economic status has more to do with social position than emotional states .

(B) Students are the primary group afflicted by emotional disorders .

(C) It is only after going to college that young people come to understand the intricacies of emotion .

(D) People have emotional disorders primarily because of a desire to be interesting .

(E) Emotional disorders play a large role in the social interactions of those afflicted by them and the people they associate with .

Answer Key

1 . D 2 . E 3 . E 4 . C 5 . D 6 . A 7 . E 8 . A 9 . B 10 . A 11 . D 12 . A 13 . E