29 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Twenty Nine

29 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Twenty Nine

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 . Although many people are unfamiliar with the Web site , it is well known to shoppers

            A                                                B                                        C

 desirous for comparing prices before they make purchases online . No error

          D                                                                                                             E

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

2 . A hard-hitting and highly focused competitor , John is known as one of those players

                                                        A                                               B

 which  always give total commitment to a team . No error

     C                                                          D                     E

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

3 . What may be the world’s largest rodent is the capybara , a water-loving mammal found

         A        B                                                                                            C

throughout much of South America . No error

                           D                                       E

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

4 . While rain has long been used as a water source in areas where well water is unavailable

         A                                                                                               B

 or tainted , the amounts collected are usually small and rarely suitable to consumption

  C                                                                                                              D               

without treatment . No error

                                        E

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

5 . Though barely mentioned in popular histories of World War II , black soldiers fought

                       A              B                                     

beside  whites in the war’s final year for the first time since the American Revolution .

     C                                                                        D

No error

      E

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

6 . Joan of Arc had a hunger to save France , a knack for performing miracles , and was

                                           A                                          B                                                       C  

willing  to endure great suffering rather than to deny her faith . No error

                                                                      D                                          E                          

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

7 . Despite the thorough investigation after the assassination , surprising little is known of

         A                                                                                                      B                            C

the motivations of the killer who struck down the prime minister . No error

                                                         D                                                            E

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

 

8 . Cream , like other dairy products that spoil easily , need to be kept under refrigeration .

                              A                                                   B         C                         D

No error

      E

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

9 . In many respects , California’s Tevis Cup race and Australia’s Quilty are very similar

                A                                 

equestrian events , but the Tevis Cup poses the greatest  challenge to both horses and

                                   B                             C                 D

riders. No error

                  E

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

10 . During the 1920s , members of the white literary establishment began to show much

                                                                                                                        A                     B

interest in the movement of black writers who came to be known as the Harlem

                                                                          C                            D

Renaissance . No error

                              E

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

11 . Since there is clean sheets , a pillow , and a blanket on each bunk bed , campers do not

                     A                                                                                B                                         C   

have to bring their own  bedding . No error

                             D                                 E

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

12 . Clearly , Whitman’s verses , unlike Kipling , are wholly unconventional in their

            A                                                   B                                                C                  D

absence of rhyme . No error

                                       E           

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

13 . Her interest in fine food led her to visit ethnic food-markets throughout the region as

                                                   A   B

well as an apprenticeship at the nearby Culinary Institute . no error

   C                     D                                                                              E

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

14 . The perspective advantages this proposed merger can bring to our firm greatly

                        A                                                                                 B                       C                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

outweigh any of the potential disadvantages predicted by opponents of the consolidation .

                                                                                       D  

No error

      E

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

15 . Initially , the candidate made heavy use of the Internet to raise funds for his campaign ,

            A                                               B

latter he went on to more conventional fund-raising methods . No error

    C                              D                                                                          E

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

16 . A sudden downpour that drenched the poolside area where the sunbathers had been

                A                                       B                                                                                 C

laying  caused everyone  to scatter . No error

                               D                                  E

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

17 . It is likely that the Coen brothers’ latest movie , originally scheduled to be released in

                                                                                                 A                                   B

time for Thanksgiving , would be postponed until summer because of unforeseen

                                                C                                                                            D  

postproduction difficulties . No error

                                                       E

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

18 . During his lifetime , Degas exhibited only one piece of sculpture , Little Dancer , Aged

            A                                                         B

Fourteen , which  was shown in 1991 in the sixth exhibition of Impressionist art in Paris .

                       C            D

No error

      E

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

19 . The differences between Locke’s world view and that of Hobbes  arise less from a

                                                                                                       A               B

dispute about the function of government but from a dispute about the   nature of

                                                                               C                                                D

mankind. No error

                        E

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)  

28 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Twenty Eight

28 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Twenty Nine

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

Questions 1 - 13 are based on the following passages .

The following passages deal with the exotic world of subatomic physics . Passage 1 , written by a popularizer of contemporary physics , was published in 1985 . Passage 2 was written nearly 15 years later .

Passage 1

            The classical idea of matter was something with solidity and mass , like wet stone dust pressed in a fist. If matter was composed of atoms , then the atoms too must have solidity and mass . At the beginning of the twentieth century the atom was imagined as a tiny billiard ball or a granite pebble writ . Then , in the physics of Niels Bohr , the miniature billiard ball because something akin to a musical instrument , a finely tuned Stradivarius 10 billion times smaller than the real thing . With the advent of quantum mechanics , the musical instrument gave a way to pure music . On the atomic scale , the solidity and mass of matter dissolved into something light and airy . Suddenly physicists were describing atoms in the vocabulary of the composer - “resonance, ” “frequency” “scale.” Atomic electrons sang in choirs like seraphim , cherubim , thrones , and dominions. Classical distinctions between matter and light became muddles . In the new physics , light bounced about like particles and matter undulated in waves like light .    

            In recent decades , physicists have uncovered elegant subatomic structures in the music of matter . They use a strange new language to describe the subatomic world : quark ,  squark , gluon , gauge , Technicolor , flavor , strangeness, charm . There are up quarks and down quarks top quarks and bottom quarks . There are particles with truth and antitruth , and there are particles with  naked beauty . The simplest of the constituents of ordinary matter - the proton , for instance - has taken on the character of a Bach fugue , a four-part counterpoint of matter , energy , space , and time . At matter’s heart there are arpeggios , chromatics , syncopation . On the lowest rung of the chain of being . Creation dances .

            Already , the astronomers and the particle physicists are engaged in a vigorous dialogue . The astronomers are prepared to recognize that the large-scale structure of the universe may have been determined by subtle interactions of particles in the first moments of the Big Bang . And the particle physicists are hoping to find confirmation of their theories of subatomic structure in the astronomers’ observations of deep space and time . The snake has bitten its tail and won’t let go .

Passage 2

            Consider a dew drop , poised at the tip of a grass blade . Only one millimeter in diameter , this tiny dew drop is composed of a billion trillion molecules of water , each consisting of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (Ң 2 O ) . At the onset of the twentieth century , this was the accepted view of the nature of matter . Atoms were seen as matter’s basic building blocks , elementary or fundamental particles that could not be divided into anything smaller .

            This relatively simple picture , however , changed drastically as physicists came to explore the secrets of the subatomic world . The once-indivisible atom , split , was revealed to consist of a nucleus made up f protons and neutrons around which electrons orbited . Protons and neutrons , in turn , were composed of even smaller subatomic particles whimsically dubbed quarks . At first , theorists claimed that all matter was made of three fundamental particles : electrons and paired up and down quarks . Later , however , experiments with powerful accelerators and colliding particle beams suggested the existence of other pairs of quarks , three generations in all , whose mass increased with each generation . Lightest of all were the first generation quarks , up and down , which combined to create the basic protons and neutrons ; somewhat heavier were the second generation quarks , strange and charm , the building blocks of the more esoteric particles produced in the physicists’ labs . Then in 1977 a team headed by Fermilab physicist Leon Lederman uncovered the possibility of a third generation of quarks . Using new accelerators with higher energies , they produced a short-lived heavy particle , the upsilon , whose properties suggested it could not be made of the four quarks then known . They concluded it must be made of a fifth quark , which they named bottom , whereupon scientists throughout the world set off in hot pursuit of bottom’s hypothetical partner , top .

            The hunt for the top quark consumed the world’s particle physicists for nearly twenty years . It was their Grail , and they were as determined as any knight of King Arthur’s court to succeed in their holy quest . To Harvard theorist Sheldon Glashow in 1994 , it was “not just another quark . It’s the last blessed one , and the sooner we find it , the better everyone will feel ,” Indeed , they had to find it , for the Standard Model of particle physics , the theoretical synthesis that reduced the once maddening hordes of particles ( the s0-called “particle zoo” ) to just a few primary components , hinged upon existence . Physicists likened the missing quark to the keystone of an arch : the Standard Model , like an arch , was supported by all its constituents , but it was the keystone , the last piece to go in , that ensured the structure’s stability .

            In 1995 the physicists found the keystone to their arch , and with it , new questions to answer . surprisingly the top quark was far heavier than theorists had predicated , nearly twice as heavy in fact . Fermilab physicist Alvin Tollestrup originally had estimated top to weight at least as much as a silver atom . At the hunt’s end , top was determined to have a mass similar to that of an atom of gold . (With an atomic weight of 197 , a gold atom is made up of hundreds of up and down quarks . ) The question thus remains , why is top so massive ? Why does any fundamental particle have mass ? With its astonishing heft , the top quark should help clarify the hidden mechanisms that make some particles massive while others have no mass at all .

1 . Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for Passage 1 ?

(A) Linguistic Implications of Particle Physics

(B) The Influence of Music on Particle Interactions

(C) Matter’s Transformation : The Music of Subatomic Physics

(D) Trends in Physics Research : Eliminating the Quark

(E) The Impossible Dream : Obstacles to Proving the Existence of Matter

2 . The author of Passage 1 refers to quarks , squarks , and charms ( paragraph 2 ) primarily in order to

(A) demonstrate the similarity between these particles and earlier images of the atom

(B) make a distinction between appropriate and inappropriate terms

(C) object to suggestions of similar frivolous names

(D) provide examples of idiosyncratic nomenclature in contemporary physics

(E) cite preliminary experimental evidence supporting the existence of subatomic matter

3. The author’s tone in the second paragraph of Passage 1 can best be described as one of

(A) scientific detachment

(B) moderate indignation

(C) marked derision

(D) admiring wonder

(E) qualified skepticism

4 .The underlined  “Matter’s heart” mentioned in paragraph 2 is

(A) outer space

(B) the subatomic world

(C) the language of particle physics

(D) harmonic theory

(E) flesh and blood

5 . At the end of Passage 1, the image of the snake biting its tail is used to emphasize

(A) the dangers of circular reasoning

(B) the vigor inherent in modern scientific dialogue

(C) the eventual triumph of the classical idea of matter

(D) the unity underlying the astronomers’ and particle physicists’ theories

(E) the ability of contemporary scientific doctrine to swallow earlier theories

6 . The underlined word “ properties” at the end of paragraph 2 , Passage 2 most nearly means

(A) lands (B) titles (C) investments (D) civilities (E) characteristics

7  . Glashow’s comment in paragraph 3 , Passage 2 reflects his

(A) apprehension (B)  impatience (C) imagination (D) jubilation (E) spirituality

8 . The references to the “keystone” of the arch at the end of paragraph 3 , Passage 2 serve to

(A) diminish the top quark’s status to that of a commodity

(B) provide an accurate physical description of the elusive particle

(C) highlight the contrast between appearance and reality

(D) give an approximation of the top quark’s actual mass

(E) illustrate the importance of the top quark to subatomic theory

9 . The underlined word “hinged” in paragraph 3 , Passage 2 most nearly means

(A) folded (B) vanished (C) remarked (D) depended (E) weighed

10author of Passage 2 does all of the following EXCEPT

(A) cite an authority

(B) use a simile

(C) define a term

(D) pose a question

(E) deny a possibility

11 . The author of Passage 2 mentions the gold atom at the end of paragraph 4 , Passage 2 primarily to 

(A) clarify the monetary value of the top quark

(B) explain what is meant by atomic weight

(C) illustrate how hefty a top quark is compared to other particles

(D) suggest the sorts of elements studied in high-energy accelerators

(E) demonstrate the malleability of gold as an element

12 . As Passage 2 suggests , since the time Passage 1 was written , the Standard Model has

(A) determined even more whimsical names for the subatomic particles under discussion

(B) taken into account the confusion of the particle physicists

(C) found theoretical validation through recent experiments

(D) refuted significant aspects of the Big Bang theory of the formation of the universe

(E) collapsed for lack of proof of the existence of top quarks

13 . The author of Passage 2 would most likely react to the characterization of the constituents of matter in Passage 1 “The simplest……Creation dances” by pointing out that   

(A) this characterization has been refuted by prominent physicists

(B) the characterization is too fanciful to be worthwhile

(C) the most recent data on subatomic particles support this characterization

(D) this characterization supersedes the so-called Standard Model

(E) the current theoretical synthesis is founded on this characterization 

 

27 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Twenty Seven

27 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Twenty Seven

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 adaptation of an excerpt from a short story set in Civil War times , a man is about to be hanged . The first two paragraphs set the scene ; the remainder of the passage presents a flashback to an earlier ,critical encounter .

            A man stood upon a railroad bridge in Northern Alabama ,looking down into the swift waters twenty feet below . The man’s hands were behind his back , the wrists bound with a cord . A rope loosely encircled his neck . It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head , and the slack fell to the level of his knees . Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners - two private soldiers of the Federal army , directed by a sergeant , who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff . At a short remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank , armed . He was a captain . A sentinel at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as ‘support’ - a formal and unnatural position , enforcing an erect carriage of the body . It did not appear to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring at the center  of the bridge ; they merely blockaded the two ends of the foot plank which traversed it .

            The man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about thirty-five years of age . He was a civilian ,if one might judge from his dress , which was that of a planter . His features were good - a straight nose , firm mouth , broad forehead , from which his long , dark hair was combed straight back ., falling behind his ears to the collar of his well-fitting frock coat . He wore a moustache and pointed beard , but no whiskers ; his eyes were large and dark grey and had a kindly expression that one would hardly have expected in one whose neck was in the hemp . Evidently this was no vulgar assassin . The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of people , and gentlemen are not excluded .

            Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter , of an old and highly respected Alabama family . Being a slave-owner , and , like other slave-owners , a politician , he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause . circumstances had prevented him from taking service with the gallant army that had fought the disastrous campaigns ending with the fall of Corinth , and he chafed under the inglorious restraint , longing for the release of his energies , the larger life of the soldier , the opportunity for distinction . That opportunity for distinction . That opportunity , he felt , would come , as it comes to all in war time . Meanwhile , he did what he could . No service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the South , no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier , and who in good faith and without too much qualification assented to at least a part of the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in love and war .

            One evening while Farquhar and his wife were sitting near the entrance to his grounds , a grey-clad soldier rode up to the gate and asked for a drink of water . Mrs. Farquhar was only too happy to serve him with her own white hands . While she was gone to fetch the water , her husband approached the dusty horseman and inquired eagerly for news from the front .

            “The Yankees are repairing the railroads ,” said the man , “and getting ready for another advance . They have reached the Owl Creek bridge ,put it in order , and built a stockade on the other bank . The commandant has issued an order , which is posted everywhere , declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad ,its bridges , tunnels ,or trains , will be summarily hanged . I saw the order .”

            “How far is it to the Owl Creek bridge ?” Farquhar asked .

            “About thirty miles .”

            “Is there no force on this side of the creek ?”

            “Only a picket post half a mile out , on the railroad , and a single sentinel at this end of the bridge .”

            “Support a man - a civilian and a student of hanging - should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of the sentinel .” said Farquhar , smiling , “what could he accomplish ?”

            The soldier reflected . “I was there a month ago .” he replied . “I observed that the floor of last winter had lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier at the end of the bridge . It is now dry and would burn like tow.”

            The lady had now brought the water , which the soldier drank . He thanked her ceremoniously , bowed to her husband , and rode away . An hour later , after nightfall , he repassed the plantation , going northward in the direction from which je had come . He was a Yankee scout .

1 . The underlined word “civil” in paragraph one means  

(A) polite (B) individual (C) legal (D) collective  (E) nonmilitary

2 . In cinematic terms , the first two paragraphs most nearly resemble

(A) a wide-angle shot followed by a close-up

(B) a sequence of cameo appearances

(C) a trailer advertising a feature film

(D) two episodes of an ongoing serial

(E) an animated cartoon

3 . The underlined lines in paragraph two , by commenting on the planter’s amiable physical appearance , the author suggests that

(A) he was innocent of any criminal intent

(B) he seemed an unlikely candidate for execution

(C) the sentinels had no need to fear an attempted escape

(D) the planter tried to assume a harmless demeanor

(E) the eyes are the windows of the soul

4 . The author’s tone in discussing “the liberal military code” at the end of paragraph two can best be described as 

(A) approving  (B) ironic (C) irked (D) regretful (E) reverent

5 . Peyton Farquhar would most likely consider which of the following a good example of how a citizen should behave in wartime ?

(A) He should use even underhanded methods to support his cause .

(B) He should enlist in the army without delay.

(C) He should turn to politics as a means of  enforcing his will .

(D) He should avoid involving himself in disastrous campaigns .

(E) He should concentrate on his duties as a planter .

6 . The underlined word “consistent” in paragraph three means

(A) unfailing (B) agreeable (C) dependable (D) constant (E) compatible

7 . The underlined word “qualification”  in paragraph three most nearly means

(A) competence (B) eligibility (C) restriction (D) reason (E) liability

8 . It can be inferred from the last lines in paragraph four that Mrs. Farquhar is

(A) sympathetic to the Confederate cause

(B) uninterested in news of the war

(C) too proud to perform mental tasks

(D) reluctant to ask her slaves to fetch water

(E) inhospitable by nature

9. Farquhar’s inquiry about what a man could accomplish “Suppose a man….accomplish.” illustrates which aspect of his character ?

(A) Morbid longing for death

(B) Weighty sense of personal responsibility

(C) Apprehension about his family’s future

(D) Keenly inquisitive intellect

(E) Romantic vision of himself as a hero

10 . From Farquhar’s exchange with the soldier lines “How far ……like tow” , we can infer that Farquhar most likely is going to

(A) sneak across the bridge to join the Confederate forces

(B) attempt to burn down the bridge to halt the Yankee advance

(C) remove the driftwood blocking the Confederates’ access to the bridge

(D) attack the stockade that overlooks the Owl Creek bridge

(E) undermine the pillars that support the railroad bridge

11 . As used in the next-to-last paragraph , “tow” is

(A) an act of hauling something

(B) a tugboat

(C) a railroad bridge

(D) a highly combustible substance

(E) a picket post

12 . We may infer from lines “ An hour …..Yankee scout” that

(A) the soldier has deserted from the Southern army

(B) the soldier has lost his sense of direction

(C) the scout has been tempting Farquhar into an unwise action

(D) Farquhar knew the soldier was a Yankee scout

(E) the soldier returned to the plantation unwillingly

Test Twenty Eight

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 law is the busy fireman that puts out society’s brush fires ; that gives people a nonphysical method to discharge hostile feelings and settle violent differences ; that substitutes orderly ritual for the rule of teeth and claw . The very slowness of the law ,its massive impersonality , its insistence upon proceeding according to settled and ancient rules - these all tend to cool and bank the fires of passion and violence and replace them with order and reason .

1 . The underlined word “discharge” most nearly means

(A) perform  (B) fire (C) exonerate (D) execute (E) release

2 . The underlined phrase “bank the fires” echoes the language of the opening sentence by 

(A) reiterating the metaphor of fire

(B) emphasizing the fireman’s diverse tasks

(C) demonstrating that violence always flares up

(D) denying the need for judicial intervention

(E) criticizing the legal system

3 . According to the passage , the legal system’s way of resolving differences can be described as all of the following EXCEPT   

(A) objective (B) nonviolent  (C) formal  (D) hasty  (E) methodical

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 .

            If the reader thinks he is done now , and that this book has no moral to it , he is in error . The moral of it is this :If you are of any account , stay at home and make your way by faithful diligence ; but if you are “no account ,” go away from home , and then you will have to work , whether you want to or not . Thus you become a blessing to your friends by ceasing to be a nuisance to them - if the people you go among suffer by the operation .

1 . The passage suggests that the book mentioned in line one is most likely  

(A) a career guide

(B) a mystery novel

(C) a humorous tale

(D) a collection of fables

(E) a religious tract

2 . The author’s moral can best be described as   

(A) cautionary (B) didactic (C) ironic  (D) allegorical (E) hypocritical

3 . The underlined word “operation” as used in the last line most nearly means

 (A) action (B) planning (C) campaign (D) surgery (E) correlation  

26 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Twenty Six

26 - Model SAT Tests

Test Twenty Six .

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

Questions 1 and 2 are based on the following passage .

            Today , more than ever , Hollywood depends on adaptations rather than original screenplays for its story material . This is a far cry from years ago when studio writers created most of a producer’s scripts . To filmmakers , a best-selling novel has a peculiar advantage over an original script : already popular with the public , the story must be a potential box-office success . Furthermore , it is usually easier and less time-consuming for a script writer to adapt a major work than to write one . The rub for producers is that they pay such extravagant prices for these properties that the excess load on the budget often puts the movie into the red .

1 . The underlined word “peculiar” most nearly means  

(A) quaint  (B) bizarre (C)  unfortunate (D) particular (E) artistic

2 . The primary drawback to basing a screenplay on a best-selling novel is  

(A) the amount of time required to create a script based on a novel

(B) the public’s resentment of changes the script writer makes to the novel’s story

(C) the degree of difficulty involved in faithfully adapting a novel for the screen .

(D) the desire of studio writers to create their own original scripts

(E) the financial impact of purchasing rights to adapt the novel

Questions 3 and 4 are based on the following passage .

This excerpt from Jack London’s Call of the Wild describes the sled dog Buck’s attempt to rescue his master from the rapids .

            When Buck felt Thornton grasp his tail , he headed for the bank , swimming with all his splendid strength . From below came the fatal roaring where the wild current went wilder and was rent in shreds and spray by the rocks that thrust through like the teeth of an enormous comb . The suck of the water as it took the beginning f the last steep pitch was frightful , and Thornton knew that the shore was impossible . He scraped furiously over a rock , bruised across as second , and struck a third with crushing force . He clutched its slippery top with both hands , releasing Buck , and above the roar of the churning water shouted : “Go , Buck! Go !”  

3 . The underlined word “pitch” most nearly means

(A) high tone (B) viscous substance(C) recommendation(D) intensity (E) slope

4 . The tone of the passage is best described as

(A) lyrical (B) informative (C) urgent (D) ironic (E) resigned 

 

25 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Twenty Five

25 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Twenty Five

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

Questions 1 - 6 are based on the following passage .

Are Americans today overworked ? The following passage is excerpted from a book published in 1991 on the unexpected decline of leisure in American life .

            Faith in progress is deep within our culture . We have been taught to believe that our lives are better than the lives of those who came before us . The ideology of modern economics suggests that material progress has yielded enhanced satisfaction and well-being. But much of our confidence about our own well being comes from the assumption that our lives are easier than those of earlier generations . I have already disputed the notion that we work less than medieval European peasants , however poor they may have been . The field research of anthropologists gives another view of the conventional wisdom .

            The lives of so-called primitive people are commonly thought to be harsh - their existence dominated by the “incessant quest for food .” In fact ,primitives do little work . By contemporary standards , we’d have to judge them very lazy .If the Kapauku of Papua work one day , they do no labor on the next . ! Kung Bushmen put in only two and a half days per week and six hours per day . In the Sandwich Islands of Hawaii , men work only four hours per day . And Australian aborigines have similar schedules . The key to understanding why these “stone-age people “ fail to act like us - increasing their work effort to get more things - is that they have limited desired . In the race between wanting and having , they have kept their wanting low - and , in this way , ensure their own kind of satisfaction . They are materially poor by contemporary standards , but in at least one dimension - time - we have to count them richer .

          I do not raise these issues to imply that we would be better off as Polynesian natives or medieval peasants . Nor am I arguing that “progress” has made us worse off > I am , instead , making a much simpler point . We have paid a price for prosperity . Capitalism has brought a dramatically increased standard of living , but at the cost of a much more demanding work-life . We are eating more , but we are burning up those calories at work . We have color televisions and compact disc players , but we need them to unwind after a stressful day at the office . We take vacations , but we work so hard throughout  the year that they became indispensable to our sanity . The conventional wisdom that economic progress has given us more things  as well as more leisure is difficult to sustain .

1 . According to the author , we base our belief that American people today are well off on the assumption that

(A) America has always been the land of opportunity

(B) Americans particularly deserve to be prosperous

(C) people elsewhere have an inferior standard of living

(D) people elsewhere envy the American way of life

(E) our faith in progress will protect us as a nation

2 . The author regards “ the conventional wisdom” at the end of paragraph one with

(A) resentment (B) skepticism (C) complacency (D) apprehension (E) bewilderment

3 .  In paragraph two , the Kapauku tribesmen and the Kung Bushmen are presented as examples of

(A) malingerers who turn down opportunities to work

(B) noble savages with little sense of time

(C) people who implicitly believe in progress

(D) people unmotivated by a desire for consumer goods

(E) people obsessed by their constant search for food

4 . The underlined word “raise” in paragraph three means  

(A) elevate (B) increase (C) nurture (D) bring up (E) set upright

5 . The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) dispute an assumption

(B) highlight a problem

(C) ridicule a theory

(D) answer a criticism

(E) counter propaganda

6 . The last of the passage at the end of paragraph three provide

(A) a recapitulation of a previously made argument

(B) an example of the argument that has been proposed earlier

(C) a series of assertions and qualifications with a conclusion

(D) a reconciliation of two opposing viewpoints

(E) a reversal of the author’s original position

Questions  7 - 15 are based on the following passage .

 The following passage , written in the twentieth century , is taken from a discussion of John Webster’s seventeenth-century drama “ The Duchess of Malfi .”

            The curtain rises ; the Cardinal and Daniel de Bosola enter from the right . In appearance , the Cardinal is something between an El Greco cardinal and a Van Dyke noble  lord . He has the tall ,  spare form - the elongated hands , and features of the former ; the trim pointed beard , the imperial repose , the commanding authority of the latter . But the El Greco features are not really those of asceticism or inner mystic spirituality . They are the index to a cold , refined nut ruthless cruelty in a highly civilized controlled form . Neither is the imperial repose an aloof mood of proud detachment . It is a refined expression of satanic pride of place and talent .

            To a degree , the Cardinal’s coldness is artificially cultivated . He has defined himself against his younger brother Duke Ferdinand and is the opposite to the overwrought emotionality of the latter . But the Cardinal’s aloof mood is not one of bland detachment .It is the deliberate detachment of a methodical man who collects his thoughts and emotions into the most compact and formidable shape - that when he strikes , he may strike with the more efficient and devastating force . His easy movements are those of the slowly circling eagle just before the swift descent with the exposed talons . Above all else , he is a man who never for a moment doubts his destined authority as a governor . He derisively and sharply rebukes his brother the Duke as easily and readily as he mocks his mistress Julia . If he has betrayed his hireling Bosola , he uses his brother as the tool to win back his “familiar.” His court dress is a long brilliant scarlet cardinal’s gown with white cuffs and a white collar turned back over the red , both collar and cuffs being elaborately scalloped and embroidered .He wears a small cape , reaching only to the elbows . His cassock is buttoned to the ground , giving a heightened effect to his already tall presence . Richelieu would have adored his neatly trimmed beard . A richly jeweled and ornamented cross lies on his breast , suspended from his neck by a gold chain .

            Bosola , for his part  , is the Renaissance “familiar” dressed conventionally in somber black with a white collar . He wears a chain about his neck , a suspended ornament , and a sword . Although a “bravo.” he must not be thought of as a leather jacketed , heavy booted tough , squat and swarthy . Still less is he a sneering , leering , melodramatic villain of the Victorian gaslight tradition . Like his black-and-white clothes , he is a colorful contradiction , a scholar-assassin , a humanist-hangman introverted and introspective , yet ruthless in action , moody and reluctant , yet violent . He is a man of scholarly taste and subtle intellectual discrimination doing the work of a hired ruffian . In general effect , his impersonator must achieve suppleness and subtlety of nature , a highly complex compressed , yet well restrained intensity of temperament . Like Duke Ferdinand , he is inwardly tormented ,but not by undiluted passion . His dominant emotion is an intellectualized one : that of disgust at a world filled with knavery and folly , but in which he must play a part and that a lowly despicable one .He is the kind of rarity that Browning loved to depict in his Renaissance monologues .

7 . The primary purpose of the passage appears to be to                   

(A) provide historical background on the Renaissance church

(B) describe ecclesiastical costuming and pageantry

(C) analyze the appearance and moral natures of two dramatic figures

(D)  explain why modern audiences enjoy The Duchess of Malfi

(E) compare two interpretations of a challenging role .

8 . The underlined word “spare’ in paragraph one means

(A) excessive (B)  superfluous (C) pardonable (D) lean (E) inadequate  

9 . In paragraph two , the author most likely compares the movements of the Cardinal to those of a circling eagle in order to emphasize his

(A) flightiness (B) love of freedom (C) eminence (D) spirituality (E)  mercilessness

10 . The Cardinal’s “satanic pride of place” at the end of paragraph one refers to his glorying in his  

(A) faith (B) rank (C) residence (D) immobility (E) wickedness

10 . As used in the third paragraph , the underlined word “bravo” most nearly means  

(A) a courageous man

(B) a national hero

(C) a clergyman

(D) a humanist

(E) a mercenary killer

11. In describing Bosola in the third paragraph ,the author chiefly uses which of the following literary techniques ?

(A) Rhetorical questions

(B) Unqualified assertions

(C) Comparison and contrast

(D) Dramatic irony

(E) Literary allusion

12 . The underlined word in the third paragraph “discrimination” means

(A) prejudice (B) villainy (C) discretion (D) favoritism (E) discernment

13 . According to the third paragraph ‘Like Duke….. one”, why does Bosola suffer torments?

(A) His master , the Cardinal , berates him for performing his duties inadequately .

(B) He feels intense compassion for the pains endured by the Cardinal’s victims .

(C) He is frustrated by his inability to attain a higher rank in the church .

(D) He feels superior to the villainy around him , yet must act the villain himself .

(E) He lacks the intellectual powers for scholarly success , but cannot endure common fools.

14 . The author of the passage assumes that the reader is

(A) familiar with the paintings of El Greco and Van Dyke

(B) disgusted with a world filled with cruelty and folly

(C) ignorant of the history of the Roman Catholic Church

(D) uninterested in psychological distinctions

(E) unacquainted with the writing of Browning