Reading Compreh...

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]SIR EDWARD TRENCHARD: Good morning, Coyle, good morning (with affected ease). There is a chair, Coyle. (They sit.) So you see those infernal tradespeople are pretty troublesome.
COYLE: My agent's letter this morning announces that Walter and Brass have got 69978judgement and execution on their amount for repairing your townhouse last season. Boquet and Barker announce their intention of taking this same course with the wine account. Handmarth is preparing for a settlement of his heavy demand for the stables. Then there is Temper for pictures and other things and Miss Florence Trenchard's account with Madame Pompon, and-
SIR EDWARD: 85932Confound it, why harass me with details, these 42791infernal particulars? Have you made out the total?
COYLE: Four thousand, eight hundred and thirty pounds, nine shilling and sixpence.
SIR EDWARD: Well, of course, we must find means of settling this 72231extortion.
COYLE: Yes, Sir Edward, if possible.

SIR EDWARD: If possible?
COYLE: I, as your agent, must stoop to detail, you must allow me to repeat, if possible.

SIR EDWARD: Why, you don't say there will be any difficulty in raising the money?
COYLE: What means would you suggest, Sir Edward?

SIR EDWARD: That, sir, is tour business.
COYLE: A foretaste on the interest on the Fanhille & Ellenthrope mortgages, you are aware both are in the arrears. The mortgagees, in fact, write here to announce their intentions to foreclose. (Shows papers.)

SIR EDWARD: Curse your 59501impudence, pay them off.
COYLE: How, Sir Edward?

SIR EDWARD: Confound it, sir, which of us is the agent? Am I to find you brains for your own business?
COYLE: No, Sir Edward, I can furnish the brains, but what I ask of you is to furnish the money.

SIR EDWARD: There must be money somewhere, I came into possession of one of the finest properties in Hampshire only twenty-six years ago, and now you mean to tell me I can't raise 4,000 pounds?
COYLE: The fact is distressing, Sir Edward, but so it is.
SIR EDWARD: There's the Ravensdale property 82233unencumbered.

COYLE: There, Sir Edward, you are under a mistake. The Ravensdale property is deeply encumbered, to nearly its full value.
SIR EDWARD(Springing up.): Good heavens.
COYLE: I have found among my father's papers a mortgage of that very property to him.

SIR EDWARD: To your father! My father's agent? Sir, do you know that if this be true I am something like a beggar, and your father something like a thief.
COYLE: I see the first plainly, Sir Edward, but do not the second.
SIR EDWARD: Do you forget, sir, that your father was a charity boy, fed, clothed by my father?

SIR EDWARD: And do you mean to tell me, sir, that your father repaid that kindness by robbing his benefactor?
COYLE: Certainly not, but by advancing money to that benefactor when he wanted it, and by taking the 17056security of one of his benefactor's estates as any prudent man would under the circumstances. 

SIR EDWARD: Why, then, sir, the benefactor's property is yours.
COYLE: I see one means, at least, of keeping the Ravensdale estate in the family.

SIR EDWARD: What is it?
COYLE: By marrying your daughter to the mortgagee.

SIR EDWARD: To you?
COYLE: I am prepared to settle the estate of Miss Trenchard the day she becomes Mrs. Richard Coyle.

SIR EDWARD (Springing up.): You insolent scoundrel, how dare you insult me in my own house, sir. Leave it, sir, or I will have you kicked out by my servants.
COYLE: I never take an angry man at his word, Sir Edward. Give a few moments reflection to my offer. You can have me kicked out afterwards.

SIR EDWARD: (Pacing Stage): 43305A beggar, Sir Edward Trenchard a beggar, see my children reduced to labor for their bread, to misery perhaps; but the alternative, Florence detests him, still the match would save her, at least, from ruin. He might take the family name, I might retrench, retire, to the continent for a few years. Florence's health might serve as a pretense. Repugnant as the alternative is, yet it deserves consideration54806.
COYLE: (who has watched.): Now, Sir Edward, shall I ring for the servants to kick me out?
[passage-footer]The extract is from Our American Cousin, by Tom Taylor.[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]   44492Keenly alive to the prejudice of hers, Mr. Keeble stopped after making her announcements and 55490had to rattle the keys in his pocket in order to acquire the necessary courage to continue.
   He 16278was not looking at his wife, but knew, just how forbidding her expressions must be. This task of his was no easy, congenial task for a pleasant summer morning.
   "She says in her letter," proceeded Mr. Keeble, 27022his eyes on the carpet and his cheeks a deeper pink, "that young Jackson has got the chance of buying a big farm ... 64291in Lincolnshire, I think she said ... if he can raise three thousand pounds."
   He paused and stole a glance at his wife. It was as he had feared. 20865She had congealed. 44505Like some spell, the name had apparently 16607turned her to marble. It was like 72432the Pygmalion and Galatea business working the wrong way around. She was 19364presumably breathing, but there was 27294no sign of it.
   "So, I was just thinking," said Mr. Keeble 92768producing another obbligato on the keys, "it just crossed my mind ... it isn't as if the thing were speculation ... 43810the place is apparently coining money ... present owner only selling because he wants to go abroad ... it occurred to me ... and they would pay good 89676interest on the loan ..."
   "What loan?" 61871enquired the statute icily, 70025coming to life.
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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]   44492Keenly alive to the prejudice of hers, Mr. Keeble stopped after making her announcements and 55490had to rattle the keys in his pocket in order to acquire the necessary courage to continue.
   He 16278was not looking at his wife, but knew, just how forbidding her expressions must be. This task of his was no easy, congenial task for a pleasant summer morning.
   "She says in her letter," proceeded Mr. Keeble, 27022his eyes on the carpet and his cheeks a deeper pink, "that young Jackson has got the chance of buying a big farm ... 64291in Lincolnshire, I think she said ... if he can raise three thousand pounds."
   He paused and stole a glance at his wife. It was as he had feared. 20865She had congealed. 44505Like some spell, the name had apparently 16607turned her to marble. It was like 72432the Pygmalion and Galatea business working the wrong way around. She was 19364presumably breathing, but there was 27294no sign of it.
   "So, I was just thinking," said Mr. Keeble 92768producing another obbligato on the keys, "it just crossed my mind ... it isn't as if the thing were speculation ... 43810the place is apparently coining money ... present owner only selling because he wants to go abroad ... it occurred to me ... and they would pay good 89676interest on the loan ..."
   "What loan?" 61871enquired the statute icily, 70025coming to life.
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[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]"On you go now! Run, son, like the devil
And tell your mother to try
To find me a bubble for the spirit level
And a new knot for this tie."

But 76245still he was glad, I know, when I stood my ground,
18228Putting it up to him
With a smile that 26092trumped his smile and his fool's errand,
Waiting for the next move in the game." 
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[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]13443Better to see your cheek grown hollow,
42254Better to see your temple worn,
Than to forget to follow, follow,
After the sound of a silver 78540horn.

Better to bind your brow with willow
And follow, follow until you die,
Than to sleep with your head on a golden pillow,
Nor lift it up when the 70065hunt goes by.

Better to see your cheek grown sallow
And your hair grown gray, so soon, so soon.
Than to forget to 69833hallo, hallo,
After the milk-white hounds of the moon.
[passage-footer]''Madman's Song'' was written by William Rose Benet in 1921.[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]   Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of business. For 81128expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels and the plots and marshaling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is an affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural 81477abilities are like natural 69817plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth direction too much at large, except they are bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men 76215admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
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[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]13443Better to see your cheek grown hollow,
42254Better to see your temple worn,
Than to forget to follow, follow,
After the sound of a silver 78540horn.

Better to bind your brow with willow
And follow, follow until you die,
Than to sleep with your head on a golden pillow,
Nor lift it up when the 70065hunt goes by.

Better to see your cheek grown sallow
And your hair grown gray, so soon, so soon.
Than to forget to 69833hallo, hallo,
After the milk-white hounds of the moon.
[passage-footer]''Madman's Song'' was written by William Rose Benet in 1921.[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]"On you go now! Run, son, like the devil
And tell your mother to try
To find me a bubble for the spirit level
And a new knot for this tie."

But 76245still he was glad, I know, when I stood my ground,
18228Putting it up to him
With a smile that 26092trumped his smile and his fool's errand,
Waiting for the next move in the game." 
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[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Promise me no promises,
So I will not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine what can you know?

74109You, so warm, may once have been
Warmer towards another one:
I, so cold, may once have seen
77539Sunlight, once have felt the sun:89888
Who shall show us if it was
Thus indeed in time of old?
Fades the image from the glass,
And the fortune is not told.

If you promised, you might grieve
For lost liberty again:
If I promised, I believe
I should 92637fret to break the chain.
Let us be the friends we were,
Nothing more but nothing less:
Many thrive on frugal fare
Who would perish of excess?
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[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Promise me no promises,
So I will not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine what can you know?

74109You, so warm, may once have been
Warmer towards another one:
I, so cold, may once have seen
77539Sunlight, once have felt the sun:89888
Who shall show us if it was
Thus indeed in time of old?
Fades the image from the glass,
And the fortune is not told.

If you promised, you might grieve
For lost liberty again:
If I promised, I believe
I should 92637fret to break the chain.
Let us be the friends we were,
Nothing more but nothing less:
Many thrive on frugal fare
Who would perish of excess?
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