47- ] Model SAT Tests - Tests Forty Seven

47 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Forty Seven

Select the best answer to each of the following questions ; then blacken the appropriate space on your answer sheet .

The sentences in this section may contain errors in grammar , usage , choice of words , or idioms . Either there is just one error in a sentence or the sentence is correct . Some words or phrases are underlined and lettered ; if the sentence is correct , select No error . Then blacken the appropriate space on your answer sheet .

Example

The region has a climate so severe that plants growing there rarely had been more

                                                 A                                 B                               C

than twelve inches high . No error

                                  D         E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

1 . This multimedia exhibition , part of a worldwide celebration of  the centenary of

                                                            A                                    B

Balanchine’s birth , includes photographs , designs , costumes , and set models ,

                                        C

complimented by  videotapes and excerpts from oral histories in the Library of Performing

           D

Arts . No error   

                 E                                   

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

2 . The Mozart Myths looks at how scholars have revised their predecessors’ findings ,

                                          A        B

 selecting material that might support their own pet theories , and depicting Mozart ,

 

 variously  , as a childish victim , a Romantic genius , and an Enlightenment rebel .

       C           D

No error

      E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

3 . Following the example of the Orpheus chamber orchestra , this recently formed

              A                                                                                                      B

 ensemble of young conservatory graduates performing without a conductor . No error

       C                                                        D                                          E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

4 . To most Americans , the notion that free markets and democracy are essential to  curing

              A                                                                                                                  B             

the world’s ills is an article of  faith . No error

                    C           D                   E  

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

5 . What better word than serendipity could define the collectors’ triumphs , in which

                                       A                               B

accidentally found objects discovered to have extraordinary value ? No error

                    C                  D                                                     E 

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

6 . Contrary to what moviegoers have for so long  regarded as absolute truth , the mutiny

                  A                                                   B

 of the Bounty’s seamen was not provoked from any unreasonable harshness on the part of

                                           C                    D

 Captain Bligh . No error

                                 E

7 . Since the sociologist Max Weber wrote about the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of

        A                                                                                                                                       B

 capitalism , social scientists have argued that culture , including religious habits , are part

                                                                                                                                             C

 of the complex mix that determines a country’s economic health . No error

                                       D                                                     E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

8 . J .D .Salinger had had many offers to be interviewed by reporters ,but the reclusive

                                   A                                         B                             C

 author invariably refuses to meet the press . No error

                  D                                                               E

 

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

9 . To find employment at a time when companies are laying off employees , one must be

           A                                                                                 B

 diligent in following up leads and ingenious in your pursuit of fresh contacts . No error

        C                                                                               D                                              E

 (A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

10 . The black bear presents such a danger to homeowners in some New Jersey areas that it

                                                    A

 has become imperative to discover methods to prevent their encroaching on human

         B                                            C                                      D

territory . No error

                   E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

11 . Although many literary critics have written about the Bronte family , never before has

                                                                      A                                                               B           C

the differences in style of the three novelist sisters been so clearly delineated . No error

                                                                                                     D                                   E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

12 . Our parents did their best to ignore the ongoing rivalry between my brother and I

                                       A                                      B                                                    C

because they believed we would only be encouraged if they attempted to intervene .

                                                         D

No error

      E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

13 . Because James had disobeyed computer lab regulations by downloading games , the

                                             A                                                        B

computer science teacher penalized him by taking away his computer privileges for an

                                                                                C

indecisive period . No error

       D                           E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

14 . If one is concerned  with improving conditions in the Third World , you should

                           A                      B                                                                            C

 consider volunteering for the Peace Corps . No error

                                         D                                      E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

15 . The steaks that Karl and Kathy ordered online to be delivered to their brother were

                                                                                                      A               B

a less tender and far more costly than Chelsea Meat Market . No error

                            C                                                  D                          E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

16 . Perspective  visitors to tropical countries should plan to start taking anti-malaria pills

               A                                         B

one to two weeks prior to their setting out on their trips . No error

                                 C                    D                                             E   

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

17 . All of the flood victims except Mrs. Vega and I have decided  to accept the settlement

                                                                                    A         B                  C

 proposed by the insurance company . No error

       D                                                             E                     

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

18 . Gold ,like other soft metals that bend easily , are  widely used in jewelry-making .

                            A                                            B        C          D

No error

      E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

19 . Given the long-standing bias against  Victorian art , it is unsurprising that British

                                                         A                                                         B

artists of the later nineteenth century are poorly  represented in the museum’s collections .

                                                                           C               D

No error

      E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)  

46 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Forty Six

46- ] Model SAT Tests

Test Forty Six   

The questions that follow the next two passages relate to the content of both , and to their relationship . The correct response may be stated outright in the passage or merely suggested .

Questions 1 - 13 are based on the following passages .

The following gpassages deal with the importance of money to Americans . The first is taken from a commencement address made by American philosopher George Santayana in 1904 . The second is taken from an essay written by British poet W . H . Auden in 1963 .

Passage 1

            American life , everyone has heard , has extraordinary intensity ; it goes at a great rate . This is not due , I should say , to any particular urgency in the object pursued . Other nations have more pressing motives to bestir themselves than America has : and it is observable that not all the new nations , in either hemisphere , are energetic . This energy can hardly spring either from unusually intolerable conditions which people wish to overcome , nor from unusually important objects which they wish to attain . In springs , I should venture tto say , from the harmony which subsists between the task and the spirit , between the mind’s vitality and the forms which , in America , political and industrial tradition has taken on . It is sometimes said that the ruling passion in America is the love of money . This seems to me a complete mistake . The ruling passion is the love of business , which is something quite different . The lover of money would be jealous of it ;he would spend it carefully ; he would study to get out of it the most he could . But the lover of business , when he is successful , does not think out what further advantages he can get out of his success . His joy is in that business itself and in its further operation , in making it greater and better organized and a mightier engine in the general life . The adventitious personal profit in it is the last thing he thinks of , the last thing he is skillful in bringing about ; and the same zeal and intensity is applied in managing a college ,or a public office , or a naval establishment , as is lavished on private business , for it is nt a motive of personal gain that stimulates to such exertions . It is the absorbing , satisfying character of the activities themselves ; it is the art , the happiness , the greatness of them . So that in beginning life in such a society ,which has developed a native and vital tradition out of its practice , you have good reason to feel that your spirit will be freed , that you will begin to realize a part of what you are living for .

Passage 2  

            Political and technological developments are rapidly obliterating all cultural differences and it is possible that , in a not remote future , it will be impossible to distinguish human beings living on one area of the earth’s surface from those living on any other , but our different pasts have not yet been completely erased and cultural differences are still perceptible . The most striking difference between an American and a European is the difference in their attitudes towards money . Every European knows , as a matter of historical fact , that , in Europe , wealth could only be acquired at the expense of other human beings , either by conquering them or by exploiting their labor in factories . Further , even after the Industrial Revolution began , the number of persons who could rise from poverty to wealth was small ; the vast majority took it for granted that they would not be much richer nor poorer than their fathers . In consequence , no European associates wealth with personal merit or poverty with personal failure .

            To a European , money means power , the freedom to do as he likes , which also means that , consciously or unconsciously , he says : “I want to have as much money as possible myself and others to have as little money as possible .”

            In the United States , wealth was also acquired by stealing , but the real exploited victim was not a human being but poor Mother Earth and her creatures who were ruthlessly plundered . It is true that the Indians were expropriated or exterminated , but this was not , as it had always been in Europe , a matter of the conqueror seizing the wealth of the conquered  , for the Indian had never realized the potential riches of his country . It is also true that ,in the Southern states , men lived on the labor of slaves , but slave labor did not make them fortunes ;what made slavery in the South all the ,ore inexcusable was that , in addition to being morally wicked , it didn’t even pay off handsomely .

            Thanks to the natural resources of the country , every American , until quite recently , could reasonably look forward to making more money than his father , so that , if he made less , the fault must be his ;he was either lazy or inefficient . What can American values , therefore ,is not the possession of money as such , but his power to make it as a proof of his manhood ; once he has proved himself by making it , it has served its function and can be lost or given away . In no society in history have rich men given away so large a part of their fortunes . A poor American feels guilty at being poor , but less guilt than an American rentier* ( * A rentier lives on a fixed income from rents and investments . ) who has inherited wealth but is doing nothing to increase it ; what can the latter do but take to drink and psychoanalysis ?    

1 . In Passage 1 , the underlined word “spring” means

(A) leap (B) arise (C) extend (D) break (E) blossom

2 . The lover of business in the lines beginning ‘But the lover of business, /to ….the greatness of them’ can be described as all of the following EXCEPT

(A) enthusiastic (B) engrossed (C) enterprising (D) industrious (E) mercenary

3 . The author of Passage 1 maintains that Americans find the prospect of improvising business organizations

(A) pleasurable (B) problematic (C) implausible (D) wearing (E) unanticipated

4 . The underlined word “engine” most nearly means

(A) artifice (B) locomotive (C) mechanical contrivance (D) financial windfall (E) driving force

5 . The author of Passage I contends that those who grow up in American society will be influenced by its native traditions to  

(A) fight the intolerable conditions afflicting their country

(B) achieve spiritual harmony through meditation

(C) find self-fulfillment through their business activities

(D) acknowledge the importance of financial accountability

(E) conserve the country’s natural resources .

6 . In Passage 2 , in the first sentence at the beginning of paragraph one the author asserts that technological advances

(A) are likely to promote greater divisions between the rich and the poor

(B) many eventually lead to worldwide cultural uniformity

(C) can enable us to tolerate any cultural differences between us

(D) may make the distinctions between people increasingly easy to discern

(E) destroy the cultural differences they are intended to foster

7 . The underlined word “striking” in Passage 2 means

(A) attractive (B) marked (C) shocking (D) protesting (E) commanding

8 . In taking it for granted that they will not be much richer or poorer than their fathers , Europeans do which of the following ?

(A) They express a preference .

(B) They refute an argument .

(C) They qualify an assertion .

(D) They correct a misapprehension

(E)  They make an assumption .

9. Until quite recently , according to the first sentence at the beginning of paragraph two Passage 2 , to Americans the failure to surpass one’s father in income indicated

(A) a dislike of inherited wealth

(B) a lack of proper application on one’s part

(C) a fear of the burdens inherent in success

(D) the height of fiscal irresponsibility

(E) the effects of a guilty conscience

10 . The author’s description of the likely fate of the American rentier living on inherited wealth is

(A) astonished (B) indulgent (C) sorrowful (D) sympathetic (E) ironic

11 . In Passage 2 the author does all of the following EXCEPT

(A) make a categorical statement

(B) correct a misapprehension

(C) draw a contrast

(D) pose a question

(E) cite an authority

12 . The authors of both passages most likely would agree that Americans engage in business

(A) on wholly altruistic grounds

(B) as a test of their earning capacity

(C) only out of economic necessity

(D) regardless of the example set by their parents

(E) for psychological rather than financial reasons

13 . Compared to the attitude toward Americans expressed in Passage 1 , the attitude toward them expressed in Passage 2 is

(A) more admiring

(B) less disapproving

(C) more cynical

(D) less patronizing

(E) more chauvinistic

45 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Forty Five

45- ] Model SAT Tests

Test Forty Five

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 .

In this excerpt from his autobiographical Narrative of the Life of an American Slave , the abolitionist Frederick Douglas tells how he , as a young child , learned the value of learning to read and write .

            Mr. and Mrs. Auld were both at home , and met me at the door with their little son Thomas , to take care of whom I had been given . And here I saw what I had never seen before ; it was a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions ; it was the face of my new mistress , Sophia Auld . I wish I could describe the rapture that flashed through my soul as I beheld it . It was a new and strange sight to me , brightening up my pathway with happiness . Little Thomas was told , there was his Freddy , and I was told to take care of little Thomas ; and thus I entered upon the duties of my new home with the most cheering prospect ahead .

            My new mistress proved to be all she appeared when I first met her at the door - a woman of the kindest heart and feelings . She had never had a slave under her control previously to myself , and prior to her marriage she had been dependent upon her own industry for a living . She was by trade a weaver ; and by constant application to her business , she had been in a good degree preserved from the blighting and dehumanizing effects of slavery . I was utterly astonished at her goodness . My early instruction was all out of place . The crouching servility , usually so acceptable a quality in a slave , did not answer when manifested toward her . Her favor was not gained by it ; she seemed to be disturbed by it . She did not deem it important or unmannerly for a slave to look her in the face . The meanest slave was put fully at ease in her presence , and none left without feeling better for having seen her . But alas ! this kind heart had but a short time to remain such . The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands , and soon commenced its infernal work .

            Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld , she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B , C . After  I had learned this , she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters . Just at this point of my progress , Mr. Auld found out what was going on  , and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further , telling her that it was unlawful , as well as unsafe , to teach a slave to read . Further , he said , “If you give a slave an inch , he will take an ell . A slave should know nothing but to obey his master - to do as he is told to do . Learning would spoil the best slave in the world . Now,: said he , “if you teach that boy ) speaking of myself ) how to read , there would be no keeping him . It would forever unfit him to be a slave . He would at once become unmanageable , and of no value to his master . A to him , it could do him no good , but a great deal of harm . It would make him discontented and unhappy .” These words sank deep into my heart , stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering and called into existence an entirely new train of thought . I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty - to wit , the white man’ a power to enslave the black man . From that moment I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom . Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher , I set out with high hope , and a fixed purpose , at whatever cost of trouble , to learn how to read . The very decided manner with which my master spoke , and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction , served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering . It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which , he said , would flow from teaching me to read . What he most dreaded , that I most desired . What he most loved , that I most hated . That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned , was to me a great good , to be diligently sought ; and the argument which he so warmly urged , against  my learning to read , only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn . In learning to read , I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master , as to the kindly aid of my mistress . I acknowledge the benefit of both .

1 . According to the opening paragraph , the author’s initial reaction toward joining the Aulds’ household was primarily one of      

(A) absolute astonishment

(B) marked pleasure

(C) carefree nonchalance

(D) quiet resignation

(E) subdued nostalgia

2 . To some degree , the author attributes Mrs. Auld’s freedom from the common attitudes of slave owners to her

(A) abolitionist upbringing

(B) personal wealth

(C) indifference to her husband

(D) experience as a mother

(E) concentration on her trade

3 . Which of the following best explains why the author felt his “early instruction was all out of place” in paragraph two ?

(A) It failed to include instruction in reading and writing

(B) It did not prepare him to take adequate care of the Aulds’ son Thomas .

(C) It did not train him to assist Mrs. Auld with her weaving .

(D) It had been displaced by the new instructions he received from the Aulds .

(E) It insisted on am obsequiousness that distressed his new mistress .

4 , The underlined word “answer” in paragraph two most nearly means

(A) acknowledge (B) retort (C) reply  (D) serve  (E) atone

5 . By “this kind heart had but a short time to remain such” at the end of paragraph two , the author primarily intends to convey that Mrs. Auld

(A) had only a brief time in which to do her work

(B) was fated to die in the near future

(C) was unable to keep her temper for extended periods of time

(D) had too much strength of will to give in to the softer emotions

(E) was destined to undergo a change of character shortly

6 . It can be inferred from the passage that all of the following were characteristic of Mrs. Auld at the time the author first met her EXCEPT

(A) diligence in labor

(B) dislike of fawning

(C) gentleness of spirit

(D) disdain for convention

(E) benevolent nature

7 . For which of the following reasons does Mr. Auld forbid his wife to educate her slave ?

I . Providing slaves with an education violates the law .

II . He believes slaves lack the capacity for education .

III . He fears education would leave the slave less submissive .

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

8 . We can assume on the basis of Mr. Auld’s comment in paragraph three “Further …. an ell” that

(A) It failed to include inst ruction in reading and writing.

(B) It did not prepare him to take adequate care of the Aulds’ son Thomas .

(C) It did not train him to assist Mrs. Auld with her weaving .

(D) It had been displaced by the new instructions he received from the Aulds .

(E) It insisted on an obsequiousness that distressed his new mistress .

9 . The underlined word “sensible” in paragraph three means

(A) logical (B) prudent (C) intelligent (D) conscious (E) sensory

10 . The tone of the author in acknowledging his debt to his master at the end of paragraph three can best be described as

(A) sentimental and nostalgic

(B) cutting and ironic

(C) petulant and self-righteous

(D) resigned but wistful

(E) angry and impatient

11 . Which of the following definitions of “education” is closest to the author’s view of education as presented in the passage ?

(A) Education makes people easy to govern , but impossible to enslave .

(B) Education is the best provision for old age .

(C) Education has for its object the formation of character

(D) Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading .

(E) Education begins and ends with the knowledge of human nature