34 - ] Model SAT Tests
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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
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