1 - ] SAT - The Critical Reading Question
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The Critical Reading Question
SAT
critical reading questions test your ability to understand what you read - both
content and technique . One passage on the test will be narrative : a passage
from a novel , a short story , an autobiography ,or a personal essay . One will
deal with the sciences ( including medicine , botany , zoology , chemistry ,
physics , geology , astronomy ) ; another with the humanities ( including art ,
literature , music , philosophy , folklore ) ; a third , with the social
sciences ( including history , economics , sociology , government .) Some
passages may be what the College Board calls argumentative ; these passages
present a definite point of view on a subject . One passage will most likely be
ethnic in content : whether it is a history passage , a personal narrative ,or
a passage on music , art , or literature , it will deal with concerns of a
particular minority group .
Your
SAT test will contain three verbal sections ( not counting any experimental
verbal part ) . They will most likely follow these three basic patterns .
1
. 25-Question Critical Reading Section
Questions
1 - 10 sentence completion questions
Questions
11 - 25 reading comprehension
questions
2
. 25-Question Critical Reading Section
Questions
1 - 9 sentence completion
questions
Questions
10 - 25 reading comprehension
questions
3
. 16-Question Critical Reading Section
Questions
1 - 3 reading completion questions
Questions
4 - 16 reading comprehension questions on paired
passages
Do
not worry if the test you take doesn’t exactly match the above model . The SAT
makes occasionally seem to be playing games , but they are just fine-tuning
their new format .
Unlike
the sentence completion , the questions that come after each reading passage
are not arranged in order of difficulty . They are arranged to suit the way the
passage’s content is organized . (A question based on information found at the
beginning of the passage will generally come before a question based on
information at the passage’s end . ) If you are stumped by a tough reading
question , do not skip the other questions on that passage . A tough question
may be just one question away from an easy one .
Exercise A
Each
passage below is followed by questions based on its content . Answer all
questions following a passage on the basis of what is [stated] or [implied] in
that passage .
The
following passage is taken from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens . In it ,
the hero , Pip , recollects a dismal period in his youth during which he for a
time lost hope of ever bettering his fortunes .
It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home . There may
be black ingratitude in the thing , and the punishment may be retributive and well deserved ; but , that
it is a miserable thing , I can testify . Home had never been a very pleasant
place to me , because of my sister’s temper . But Joe had sacrificed it and I
believed in it . I had believed in the best parlor as a most elegant salon ; I
had believed in the front door as a mysterious portal of the Temple of State
whose solemn opening was attended with a sacrifice of roast fowls ; I had
believed in the kitchen as a chaste though not magnificent apartment ; I had
believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood . Now , it was all coarse
and common , and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any
account .
Once , it had
seemed to me that when I should at last roll up my shirt sleeves and go into
the forge , Joe’s ’prentice , I should be distinguished and happy . Now the
reality was in my hold , I only felt that I was dusty with the dust of small
coal , and that I had a weight upon my daily remembrance to which the anvil was
a feather . There have been occasions in my later life ( I suppose as in most
lives ) when I have felt for a time as if a thick curtain had fallen on all its
interest and romance , to shut me out from any thing save dull endurance any
more . Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank , as when any way in
life lay stretched out straight before me through the newly entered road of
apprenticeship to Joe .
I remember that
at a later period of my “time,” I used to stand about the churchyard on Sunday
evenings , when night was falling , comparing my own perspective with the windy
marsh view , and making out some likeness between them by thinking how flat and
low both were , and how on both there came an unknown way and a dark mist and
then the sea . I was quite as dejected on the first working-day of my
apprenticeship as in that after time ; but I am glad to know that I never
breathed a murmur to Joe while my indentures lasted . It is about the only
thing I am glad to know of myself in the connection .
For , though it
includes what I proceed to add , all the merit of what I proceed to add was
Joe’s . It was not because I was faithful , but because Joe was faithful , that
I never ran away and went for a soldier or a sailor . It was not because I had
a strong sense of the virtue of industry m but because Joe had a strong sense
of the virtue of industry , that I worked with tolerable zeal against the grain
. It is not possible to know how far the influence of any amiable
honest-hearted duty=going man flies out into the world ; but it is very
possible to know how it has touched one’s self in going by , and I know right
well that any good that intermixed itself with my apprenticeship came of plain
contented Joe , and not of restless aspiring discontented me .
1 . The passage as a whole is best described as
(A)
an analysis of the reasons behind a change in attitude
(B)
an account of a young man’s reflections on his emotional state
(C)
a description of a young man’s awakening to the harsh conditions of working
class life
(D)
a defense of a young man’s longings for romance and glamour
(E)
a criticism of young people’s ingratitude to their elders
2
. It may be inferred from the passage that the young man has been apprenticed
to a
(A)
cook (B) forger (C) coal miner (D) blacksmith (E) grave digger
3
. In the passage , Joe is portrayed most specifically as
(A)
distinguished (B) virtuous (C) independent (D) homely (E) coarse
4
. The passage that the narrator’s increasing discontent with his home during
his apprenticeship was caused by
(A)
a new awareness on his part of how his home would appear to others
(B)
the increasing heaviness of the labor involved
(C)
the unwillingness of Joe to curb his sister’s temper
(D)
the narrator’s lack of an industrious character
(E)
a combination of simple ingratitude and sinfulness
5
. According to the passage , the narrator gives himself a measure of credit for
(A)
working diligently despite his unhappiness
(B)
abandoning his hope of a military career
(C)
keeping his mental position secret from Miss Havisham
(D)
concealing his despondency from Joe
(E)
surrendering his childish beliefs
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The
following passage is excerpted from the short story “Clay” in Dubliners by
James Joyce . In this passage , tiny unmarried Maria oversees the washerwomen ,
all the while thinking of the treat in store for her : a night off .
The matron had given her leave to
go out as soon as the women’s tea was over and Maria looked forward to her
evening out . The kitchen was spick and span : the cook said you could see
yourself in the big copper boilers . The fire was nice and bright and on one of
the side-tables were four very big barmbracks . These barmbracks seemed uncut ;
but if you went closer you would see that they had been cut into long thick
even slices and were ready to be handed round at tea . Maria had cut them
herself .
Maria was a very , very small
person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin . She talked a
little through her nose , always soothingly : “Yes , my dear ,” and “No
, my dear.” She was always sent for when the woman quarreled over their
tubs and always succeeded in making peace .One day the matron had said to her :
‘Maria , you are a veritable
peace-maker !”
And the sub-matron and two of the
Board ladies had heard the compliment . And Ginger Mooney was always saying
what she wouldn’t do to the dummy who had charge of the irons if it wasn’t for
Maria . Everyone was so fond of Maria .
When the cook told her everything
was ready , she went into the women’s room and began to pull the big bell . In
a few minutes the women began to come in by twos and threes , wiping their
steaming hands in their petticoats and pulling down the sleeves of their
blouses over their red steaming arms . They settled down before their huge mugs
which the cook and the dummy filled up with hot tea , already mixed with milk
and sugar in huge tin cans . Maria superintended the distribution of the
barmbrack and saw that every woman got her four slices . There was a great deal
of laughing and joking during the meal . Lizzie Fleming a\said Maria was sure
to get the ring and , though Fleming had said that for so many Hallow Eves ,
Maria had to laugh and say she didn’t want any ring or man either , and when
she laughed her grey-green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip
of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin . Then Ginger Mooney lifted her mug
of tea and proposed Maria’s health while all the other women clattered with
their mugs on the table , and said she was sorry she hadn’t a sup of porter to
drink it in . And Maria laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the
tip of her chin and till her minute body nearly shook itself asunder because
she knew that Mooney meant well though , of course , she had the notions of a
common woman .
6
. The author’s primary purpose in the second paragraph is to
(A)
introduce the character of a spinster
(B)
describe working conditions in a public institution
(C)
compare two women of different social classes
(D)
illustrate the value of peace-makers in society
(E)
create suspense about Maria’s fate
7
. The language of the passage most resembles the language of
(A)
a mystery novel
(B)
an epic
(C)
a fairy tale
(D)
institutional board reports
(E)
a sermon
8.
It can be inferred from the passage that Maria would most likely view the
matron as which of the following ?
(A)
A political figurehead
(B)
An inept administrator
(C)
A demanding taskmaster
(D)
An intimate friend
(E)
A benevolent superior
9
. We may infer from the care with which Maria has cut the barmbracks ( in
paragraph one lines 4 - 6 ) that
(A)
she fears the matron
(B)
she is in a hurry to leave
(C)
she expects the Board members for tea
(D)
it is a dangerous task
(E)
she takes pride in her work
10
. It can be inferred from the passage that all the following are characteristic
of Maria EXCEPT
(A)
a deferential nature
(B)
eagerness for compliments
(C)
respect for authority
(D)
dreams of matrimony
(E)
reluctance to compromise
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The
following passage is taken from Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park . This
excerpt presents Sir Thomas Bertram , owner of Mansfield Park , who has just
joined the members of his family .
Sir Thomas was indeed the life of
the party , who at his suggestion now seated themselves round the fire . He had
the best right to be the talker ; and the delight of his sensations in being
again in his own house , to the center of his family , after such a separation
, made him communicative and chatty in a very unusual degree ; and he was ready
to answer every question of his two sons almost before it was put . All the
little particulars of his proceedings and events , his arrivals and departures
, were most promptly delivered , as he sat by Lady Bertram and looked with
heartfelt satisfaction at the faces around him - interrupting himself more than
once , however , to remark on his good fortune in finding them all at home -
coming unexpectedly as he did - all collected together exactly as he could have
wished , but dared not depend on .
By not one of the circle was he
listened to with such unbroken unalloyed enjoyment as by his wife , whose
feelings were so warmed by his sudden arrival , as to place her nearer
agitation than she had been for the last twenty years . She had been almost
fluttered for a few minutes , and still remained so sensibly animated as to put
away her work , move Pug from her side , and give all her attention and all the
rest of her sofa to her husband . She had no anxieties for anybody to cloud her
pleasure ; her own time had been irreproachably spent during his absence ;
she had done a great deal of carpet work and made many yards of fringe ; and
she would have answered as freely for the good conduct and useful pursuits of
all the young people as for her own . It was so agreeable to her to see him
again , and hear him talk ,to have her ear amused and her whole comprehension
filled by his narratives , that she began particularly to feel how dreadfully she
must have missed him , and how impossible it would have been for her to bear a
lengthened absence .
Mrs. Norris was by no means to be
compared in happiness to her sister . Not that she was incommoded by
many fears of Sir Thomas’s disapprobation when the present state of his house
should be known , for her judgment had been so blinded , that she could hardly
be said to show any sign of alarm ; but she was vexed by the manner of
his return . It had left her nothing to do . Instead of being sent for out of
the room , and seeing him first , and having to spread the happy news through
the house . Sir Thomas , with a very reasonable dependence perhaps on the
nerves of his wife and children , had sought no confidant but the butler , and
had been following him almost instantaneously into the drawing room . Mrs.
Norris felt herself defrauded of an office on which she had always depended ,
whether his arrival or his death were to be the thing unfolded ;and was now
trying to be in a bustle without having any thing to bustle about . Would Sir
Thomas have consented to eat , she might have gone to the house-keeper with
troublesome directions ; but Sir Thomas resolutely declined all dinner ; he
would take nothing , nothing till tea came - he would rather wait for tea .
Still Mrs. Norris was at intervals urging something different ; and in the most
interesting moment of his passage to England , when the alarm of a French privateer was at the height , she burst
through his recital with the proposal of soup . “Sure my dear Sir Thomas , a
basin of soup would be a much better thing for you than tea . Do have a basin
of soup.”
Sir Thomas could not be provoked .
“Still the same anxiety for everybody’s comfort , my dear Mrs. Norris .” was
his answer . “But indeed I would rather have nothing but
tea
.”
11
. We can infer from the opening paragraph that Sir Thomas is customarily
(A)
unwelcome at home
(B)
tardy in business affairs
(C)
dissatisfied with life
(D)
more restrained in speech
(E)
lacking in family feeling
12
. The passage suggests that Sir Thomas’s sudden arrival
(A)
was motivated by concern for his wife
(B)
came as no surprise to Lady Bertram
(C)
was timed by him to coincide with a family reunion
(D)
was expected by the servants
(E)
was received with mixed emotions
13
. Which of the following titles best describes the passage ?
(A)
An Unexpected Return
(B)
The Conversation of the Upper Class
(C)
Mrs. Norris’s Grievance
(D)
A Romantic Reunion
(E)
An Account of a Voyage Abroad
14
. The author’s tone in her description of Lady Bertram’s sensations ( the first
five lines of paragraph two ) is
(A)
markedly scornful
(B)
mildly bitter
(C)
gently ironic
(D)
manifestly indifferent
(E)
warmly sympathetic
15
. By stressing that Lady Bertram “had no anxieties for anybody to cloud her
pleasure” the author primarily intends to imply that
(A)
Lady Bertram was hardhearted in ignoring the sufferings of others
(B)
it was unusual for Lady Bertram to be so unconcerned
(C)
others in the company had reason to be anxious
(D)
Sir Thomas expected his wife to be pleased to see him
(E)
Lady Bertram lived only for pleasure
16
. Sir Thomas’s attitude toward Mrs. Norris can best be described as one of
(A)
sharp irritation
(B)
patient forbearance
(C)
solemn disapproval
(D)
unreasoned alarm
(E)
unmixed delight
17
. The office of which Mrs. Norris feels herself defrauded is most likely that
of
(A)
butler (B) housekeeper (C) wife (D) world traveler (E) message-bearer
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The
following passage is taken from Edith Wharton’s Novel , The Age of Innocence .
In this excerpt , the American hero has an unexpected encounter during the
course of a visit to the Louvre Museum in Paris .
Newman promised himself to pay
Mademoiselle Noemie another visit at the Louvre. He was curious about the
progress of his copies , but it must be added that he was still more curious
about the progress of the young lady herself . He went one afternoon to the
great museum. and wandered through several of the rooms in fruitless quest of
her . H was bending his steps tp the long hall of the Italian masters , when
suddenly he found himself face to face with Valentin de Bellegarde . The young
Frenchman greeted him with ardor , and assured him that he was a godsend . He
himself was in the worst of humors and he wanted someone to contradict .
“In a bad humor among all these
beautiful thing ?” said Newman “I thought you were so fond of pictures ,
especially the old black ones . There are two or three here that ought to keep
you in spirits .”
“Oh ,today ,” answered Valentin ,
“I am not in a mood for pictures , and the more beautiful they are the less I
like them . Their great staring eyes and fixed positions irritate me . I feel
as if I were at some big , dull party , in a room full of people I shouldn’t
wish to speak to . What should I care for their beauty ? It’s a bore , and ,
worse still , it’s a reproach. I have a great many ennuis ; I feel
vicious .”
“If the Louvre has so little
comfort for you , why in the world did you come here ?” Newman asked .
“That is one of my ennuis .
I came to meet my cousin - a dreadful English cousin , a member of my mother’s
family - who is in Paris for a week with her husband , and who wishes me to
point out the ‘principal beauties.’ Imagine a woman who wears a green crepe
bonnet in December and has straps sticking out of the ankles of her
interminable boots ! My mother begged I would do something to oblige them . I
have undertaken to play valet de place this afternoon . They were to
have met me here at two o’clock , and I have been waiting for them twenty
minutes . Why doesn’t she arrive ? She has at least a pair of feet to carry
her . I don’t know whether to be furious at their playing me false ,or
delighted to have escaped them .”
“I think in your place I would be
furious ,” said Newman , “because they may arrive yet , and then your fury will
still be of no use to you . Whereas if you were delighted and they were
afterwards to turn up , you might not know what to do with your delight .”
“You give me excellent advice , and
I already feel better . I will be furious ; I will let them go to the deuce and
I myself will go with you -- unless by chance you too have a rendezvous .”
18
. The passage indicates that Newman has gone to the Louvre in order to
(A)
meet Valentin
(B)
look at the paintings
(C)
explore Paris
(D)
keep an appointment
(E)
see Mademoiselle Noemie
19
. According to the passage , Valentin is unhappy about being at the Louvre
because he
(A)
hates the paintings of the Italian masters
(B)
has accidentally met Newman in the long hall
(C)
wishes to be at a party
(D)
feels that beauty should be that of nature
(E)
is supposed to guide his cousin through it
20
. It can be inferred from the passage that Valentin is expressing his annoyance
in the underlined lines by
(A)
walking out of the Louvre in a fit of temper
(B)
making insulting remarks about a woman
(C)
not accepting Newman’s advice
(D)
criticizing the paintings
(E)
refusing to do as his mother wishes
21
. With which of the following statements would Valentin most likely agree ?
I
. Clothes make the man .
II
. Blood is thicker than water .
III
. Better late than never .
(A)
I only (B) II only (C) III only (D) I and II only (E) I , II , and III
22
. Newman’s role in the conversation is that of
(A)
a heckler (B) a gossiper (C) a confidant (D) an enemy (E) a doubter
Answer
Key
1 . B 2 . D 3 . B 4 . A 5 . D 6 . A 7 . C 8 . E 9 . R 10 . E 11 . D 12 . E 13 . A 14 . C 15 . C 16 . B 17 . E 18 . E 19 . E 20 . B 21. D 22 . C
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