9 - ] Model SAT Tests
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Test Nine
Read
each of the passages 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 a major historical text on life in the Middle
Ages .
To the world when it was half a
thousand years younger , the outlines of all things seemed more clearly marked
than to us . The contrast between suffering and joy , between adversity and
happiness , appeared more striking . All experience had yet to the minds of men
the directness and absoluteness of the pleasure and pain of child-life . Every
event , every action , was still embodied in expressive and solemn forms ,
which raised them to the dignity of a ritual . For it was not merely the great
facts of birth , marriage , and death which by their sacredness , were raised
to the rank of mysteries :incidents of less importance ,like a journey , a task
, a visit , were equally attended by a thousand formalities , benedictions ,
ceremonies , formulae .
Calamities and indigence were more
afflicting than at present ; it was more difficult to guard against them , and
to find solace . Illness and health presented a more striking contrast ; the
cold and darkness of winter were more real evils . Honors and riches were
relished with greater avidity and contrasted more vividly with surrounding
misery . We , at the present day , can hardly understand the keenness with
which a fur coat , a good fire on the hearth , a soft red , a glass of wine ,
were formerly enjoyed .
Then again , all things in life
were of a proud or cruel publicity . Lepers sounded their rattles and went
about in processions , beggars exhibited their deformity and their misery in
churches . Every order and estate , every rank and profession , was
distinguished by its costume . The great lords never moved about without a
glorious display of arms and liveries , exciting feat and envy . Executions and
other public acts of justice , hawking , marriages and funerals , were all announced
by cries and processions , songs and music . The lover wore the colors of his
lady ; companions the emblem of their confraternity : parties and servants the
badges of blazon of their lords . Between town and country , too , the contrast
was very marked . A medieval town did not lose itself in extensive suburbs of
factories and villas : girded by its walls , it stood forth as a compact whole
, bristling with innumerable turrets . However tall and threatening the houses
of noblemen or merchants might be ,in the aspect of the town the lofty mass of
the churches always remained dominant .
The contrast between silence and sound ,
darkness and light , like that between summer and winter , was more strongly
marked than it is in our lives . The modern town hardly knows silence or
darkness in their purity , nor the effect of a solitary light or a single
distant cry .
All things presenting
themselves to the mind in violent contrasts and impressive forms , lent a tone
of excitement and of passion to everyday life and tended to produce the
perpetual oscillation between despair and distracted joy , between cruelty and
pious tenderness which characterizes life in the Middle Ages .
1
. The author’s main purpose in the passage is best defined as an attempt to
show how
(A) extremes of feeling and experience marked the
Middle Ages
(B) the styles of the very poor and the very rich
complemented each other
(C) twentieth century standards of behavior cannot be
applied to the Middle Ages
(D) the Middle Ages developed out of the Dark Ages
(E) the medieval spirit languished five hundred years
ago
2 . According to lines 6 - 9 , surrounding an
activity with formalities makes it
(A) less important
(B) more stately
(C) less expensive
(D) more indirect
(E) less solemn
3 . The author’s use of the underlined term ‘
formulae” could best be interpreted to mean which of the following ?
(A) set forms of words or rituals
(B) mathematical rules of principles
(C) chemical symbols
(D) nourishment for infants
(E) prescriptions for drugs
4 . The underlined word “order” in paragraph three
means
(A) command (B) harmony (C) sequence (D) physical
condition (E) social class
5 . According to the passage , well above the typical
medieval town there towered
(A) houses of
worship
(B) manufacturing establishments
(C) the mansions of the aristocracy
(D) great mercantile houses
(E) walled suburbs
6 . To the author , the Middle Ages seem to be all
the following EXCEPT
(A) routine and boring
(B) festive and joyful
(C) dignified and ceremonious
(D) passionate and turbulent
(E) harsh and bleak
Questions
7 - 14 are based on the following passage .
The
following passage is excerpted from Hunger of Memory , the autobiography of
Mexican-American writer Richard Rodriguez who speaks of lessons he learned as
the child of working-class immigrant parents .
I remember to start with that day
in Sacramento - a California now nearly thirty years past - when I first
entered a classroom , able to understand some fifty stray English words .
The third of four children , I had
been preceded to a neighborhood Roman Catholic school by an older brother and
sister . Each afternoon they returned as they left in the morning , always
together , speaking in Spanish as they climbed the five steps of the porch .
And their mysterious books , wrapped in shopping-bag paper , remained on the
table next to the door , closed firmly behind them .
An accident of geography sent me to
a school where all my classmates were white , many the children of doctors and
lawyers and business executives . All my classmates certainly must have been
uneasy on that first day of school - as most children are uneasy - to find
themselves apart from their families in the first institution of their lives .
But I was astonished .
The men said , in a friendly but
oddly impersonal voice , “Boy and girls , this is Richard Rodriguez ,” ( I
heard her sound out : Richard Rodriguez .) It was the first time I had
heard anyone name me in English . “Richard,” the nun repeated more slowly ,
writing my name down in her black leather book . Quickly I turned to see my
mother’s face dissolve in a watery blur behind the pebbled glass door .
Many years later there is something
called bilingual education - a scheme proposed in the late 1960s by
Hispanic-American social activists ,later endorsed by a congressional vote . It
is a program that seeks to permit non-English-speaking children , many from
lower class homes , to use their family language as the languages of school .
(Such is the goal its supporters announce .) I hear them and am forced to say
no : It is not possible for a child - any child - ever to use his family’s
language in school . Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses
of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life - a family’s
“language .”
Memory teaches me what I know of
these matters : the boy reminds the adult . I was a bilingual child , a certain
kind - socially disadvantaged - the son of working-class parents , both Mexican
immigrants .
In the early years of my parents
coped very well in America . My father had steady work . My mother managed at
home . They were nobody’s victims .
Optimism and ambition led them to a house ( our home ) many blocks from the
Mexican south side of town . We lived among gringos and only a block from the
biggest , whitest houses . It never occurred to my parents that they couldn’t
live wherever they chose . Nor was the Sacramento of the fifties bent on
teaching them a contrary lesson . My mother and father were more annoyed than
intimidated by those two or here neighbors who tired initially to make us
unwelcome . ( “Keep your brats away from my sidewalk!” ) But despite all they
achieved , any deep feeling of ease , the confidence of “belonging” in public
was with held from them both . They regarded the people at work , the faces in
crowds , as very distant from us . They were the others , los gringos .
That term was interchangeable in their speech with another , even more telling
, los americanos .
7
. The family members in the passage are discussed primarily in terms of
(A)
the different personalities of each
(B)
the common heritage they shared
(C)
the ambitions they possessed
(D)
their interaction with the English-speaking world
(E)
their struggle against racial discrimination
8
. The author’s description of his older brothers and sister’s return from
school lines 4 - 7 suggests that they
(A)
enjoyed exploring the mysteries of American culture
(B)
were afraid to speak English at home
(C)
wished to imitate their English-speaking classmates
(D)
readily ignored the need to practice using English
(E)
regretted their inability to make friends
9
. What initially confused the author on his first day of school ?
(A)
His mother’s departure took him by surprise.
(B)
Hearing his name in English dis oriented him .
(C)
His older brother and sister had told him lies about the school
(D)
He had never before seen a nun .
(E)
He had never previously encountered white children .
10
. The author rejects bilingual education on the grounds that
(A)
allowing students to use their family’s language in school presents only
trivial difficulties to teachers
(B)
its champions fail to see that public education must meet public needs , not
necessarily personal ones
(C)
most students prefer using standard English both at homer and in the classroom
(D)
the proposal was made only by social activists and does not reflect the wishes
of the Hispanic-American community
(E)
it is an unnecessary program that puts a heavy financial burden upon the
taxpayer
11
. In paragraph six , the author most likely outlines his specific background in
order to
(A)
emphasize how far he has come in achieving his current academic success
(B)
explain the sort of obstacles faced by the children of immigrants
(C)
indicate what qualifies him to speak authoritatively on the issue
(D)
dispel any misunderstandings about how much he remembers of his childhood
(E)
evoke the reader’s sympathy for socially disadvantaged children
12
. The author’s attitude toward his parents in paragraph seven can best be
described as
(A)
admiring (B) contemptuous (C) indifferent (D) envious (E) diffident
13
. Which of the following statements regarding Mexican-Americans in Sacramento
would be most true of the author’s experiences ?
(A)
They were unable to find employment
(B)
They felt estranged from the community as a whole
(C)
They found a ready welcome in white neighborhoods
(D)
They took an active part in public affairs .
(E)
They were un aware of academic institutions .
14
. The word underlined “telling” as used in paragraph seven means
(A)
outspoken (B) interchangeable (C) unutterable (D) embarrassing (E) revealing
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