Reading Comprehension Test 30

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Question 1
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header] The guest waked from a dream and remembering his 11733day's pleasure hurried to dress himself that it might sooner begin. He was sure from the way the shy little girl looked once or twice yesterday that she had at least seen the white heron, and now she must really be persuaded to tell. Here she comes now, paler than ever, and her worn old frock is 91241torn and tattered and smeared with pine pitch. The grandmother and sportsman stand in the door together and question her, and the 61168splendid moment has come to speak of the dead hemlock-tree by the green marsh.
But Sylvia does not speak after all, though the old grandmother fretfully rebukes her, and the young man's kind appealing eyes are looking straight on her own. He can make them rich with money; he has promised it, and they are poor now. He is so well worth making happy, and he waits to hear the story she can tell.
No, she must keep silence! What is it that suddenly forbids her and makes her dumb? Has she been 47900nine years growing, and now, when 43068the great world for the first time puts out a hand to her, must she thrust it aside for a bird's sake? 94899The murmur of the pine's green branches in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through 97477the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its lie away.
[passage-footer]
[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

It can be inferred that the guest's anticipated "day's pleasure" (line 11733) centered around _________.

A
his furthering his acquaintance with Sylvia

B
his hearing the end of a tale that Sylvia has promised to finish for him

C
his opportunity to make a carving from a petrified hemlock tree

D
his opportunity to photograph a white heron in its natural habitat

E
his opportunity to shoot a white heron

Question 2
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]This passage is adapted from a speech delivered by Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas on July 25, 1974, as a member of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives. In the passage, Jordan discusses how and when a United States president may be impeached, or charged with serious offenses, while in office. Jordans speech was delivered in the context of impeachment hearings against then president Richard M. Nixon.[/passage-header]Today, I am an inquisitor. A hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the 56427diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.

"Who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?" "The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men." And that's what we're talking about. In other words, [the jurisdiction comes] from the abuse or violation of some public trust.

93611It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Constitution for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the President should be removed from office.62947 The Constitution doesn't say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of the body of the legislature against and upon the encroachments of the executive. 30174The division between the two branches of the legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other, the right to judge--the framers of this Constitution were very astute.36111 They did not make the accusers and the judges...the same person.

We know the nature of impeachment. We've been talking about it a while now. It is chiefly designed for the President and his high ministers to somehow be called into account. It is designed to "bridle" the executive if he engages in excesses. "It is designed as a method of national inquest into the conduct of public men."* The framers confided in the Congress the power, if need be, to remove the President in order to strike a delicate balance between a President swollen with power and grown tyrannical, and preservation of the independence of the executive.

The nature of impeachment: a narrowly 10982channeled exception to the separation of powers maxim. The Federal Convention of 1787 said that. It limited impeachment to high crimes and misdemeanours, and discounted and opposed the term "maladministration." "It is to be used only for great misdemeanours," so it was said in the North Carolina ratification convention. And in the Virginia ratification convention:
"We do not trust our liberty to a particular branch. We need one branch to check the other."
...The North Carolina ratification convention: "No one need be afraid that officers who commit oppression will pass with immunity." "66494Prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community," said Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, number 65. "We divide into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused."* I do not mean political parties in that sense72199. 96909The drawing of political lines goes to the motivation behind impeachment, but impeachment must proceed within the confines of the constitutional term "high crime[s] and misdemeanours."49727 Of the impeachment process, it was Woodrow Wilson who said that "Nothing short of the grossest offences against the plain law of the land will suffice to give them speed and effectiveness. Indignation so great as to overgrow party interest may secure a conviction, but nothing else can."
Common sense would be revolted if we engaged upon this process for petty reasons. 39140Congress has a lot to do: appropriations, tax reform, health insurance, campaign finance reform, housing, environmental protection, energy sufficiency, mass transportation.45392 Pettiness cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such overwhelming problems. So today were not being petty. We're trying to be big, because the task we have before us is a big one.
[passage-footer]*Jordan quotes from Federalist No. 65, an essay by Alexander Hamilton, published in 1788, on the powers of the United States Senate, including the power to decide cases of impeachment against a president of the United States.[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

The stance Jordan takes in the passage is best described as that of _______.

A
An idealist setting forth principles

B
An advocate seeking a compromise position

C
An observer striving for neutrality

D
A scholar researching a historical controversy

Question 3
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]Read the conversation given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]ROSE: Times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Times have changed a lot since then.
TROY: How in hell they done changed?

ROSE: They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and football.
BONO: You right about that, Rose. Times have changed, Troy. You just come along too early.

TROY: 58881There ought not never have been no time called too early! Now you take that fellow...what's that fellow they had playing right field for the Yankees back then? You know who I'm talking about, Bono. Used to play right field for the Yankees.
ROSE: Selkirk?

TROY: Selkirk! That's it! Man batting. 269, understand? 269. What kind of sense that make? I was hitting 432 with thirty-seven home runs! Man batting 269 and playing right field for the Yankees! I saw Josh Gibson's* daughter yesterday. She walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet. Now I bet you Selkirk daughter ain't walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet! I bet you that!
ROSE: They got a lot of colored baseball players now. Jackie Robinson was the first. Folks had to wait for Jackie Robinson.

TROY : I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make! Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody. I am talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don't care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play... then they ought to have let you play.

(Troy takes a long drink from the bottle.)

ROSE : You gonna drink yourself to death. You don't need to be drinking like that.
TROY: Death ain't nothing. I done seen him. Done wrastled with him. You can't tell me nothing about death. Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner. And you know what I'll do to that! Lookee here, Bono... am I lying? You get one of them fastballs, about waist height, over the outside corner of the plate where you can get the meat of the bat on it...and good god! You can kiss it goodbye. Now, am I lying?

BONO: Naw, you telling the truth there. I see you do it.
TROY: If I'm lying...that 450 feet worth of lying! (Pause.) That's all death is to me. A fastball on the outside corner.

ROSE: I don't know why you want to get on talking about death.
TROY : Ain't nothing wrong with talking about death. That's part of life. Everybody gonna die. You gonna die, I'm gonna die. Bono's gonna die. Hell, we all gonna die.
[passage-footer](1986)
*Josh Gibson was a notable baseball player in the Negro Leagues.[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

Troy's attitude toward death is primarily one of ________.

A
contemptuous denial

B
naive self-delusion

C
boastful nonchalance

D
awed anticipation

E
thinly veiled cowardice

Question 4
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]This passage is adapted from a speech delivered by Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas on July 25, 1974, as a member of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives. In the passage, Jordan discusses how and when a United States president may be impeached, or charged with serious offenses, while in office. Jordans speech was delivered in the context of impeachment hearings against then president Richard M. Nixon.[/passage-header]Today, I am an inquisitor. A hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the 56427diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.

"Who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?" "The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men." And that's what we're talking about. In other words, [the jurisdiction comes] from the abuse or violation of some public trust.

93611It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Constitution for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the President should be removed from office.62947 The Constitution doesn't say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of the body of the legislature against and upon the encroachments of the executive. 30174The division between the two branches of the legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other, the right to judge--the framers of this Constitution were very astute.36111 They did not make the accusers and the judges...the same person.

We know the nature of impeachment. We've been talking about it a while now. It is chiefly designed for the President and his high ministers to somehow be called into account. It is designed to "bridle" the executive if he engages in excesses. "It is designed as a method of national inquest into the conduct of public men."* The framers confided in the Congress the power, if need be, to remove the President in order to strike a delicate balance between a President swollen with power and grown tyrannical, and preservation of the independence of the executive.

The nature of impeachment: a narrowly 10982channeled exception to the separation of powers maxim. The Federal Convention of 1787 said that. It limited impeachment to high crimes and misdemeanours, and discounted and opposed the term "maladministration." "It is to be used only for great misdemeanours," so it was said in the North Carolina ratification convention. And in the Virginia ratification convention:
"We do not trust our liberty to a particular branch. We need one branch to check the other."
...The North Carolina ratification convention: "No one need be afraid that officers who commit oppression will pass with immunity." "66494Prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community," said Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, number 65. "We divide into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused."* I do not mean political parties in that sense72199. 96909The drawing of political lines goes to the motivation behind impeachment, but impeachment must proceed within the confines of the constitutional term "high crime[s] and misdemeanours."49727 Of the impeachment process, it was Woodrow Wilson who said that "Nothing short of the grossest offences against the plain law of the land will suffice to give them speed and effectiveness. Indignation so great as to overgrow party interest may secure a conviction, but nothing else can."
Common sense would be revolted if we engaged upon this process for petty reasons. 39140Congress has a lot to do: appropriations, tax reform, health insurance, campaign finance reform, housing, environmental protection, energy sufficiency, mass transportation.45392 Pettiness cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such overwhelming problems. So today were not being petty. We're trying to be big, because the task we have before us is a big one.
[passage-footer]*Jordan quotes from Federalist No. 65, an essay by Alexander Hamilton, published in 1788, on the powers of the United States Senate, including the power to decide cases of impeachment against a president of the United States.[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

In lines 66494 - 72199 ("Prosecutions...sense"), what is the most likely reason Jordan draws a distinction between two types of "parties"?

A
To counter the suggestion that impeachment is or should be about partisan politics

B
To disagree with Hamilton's claim that impeachment proceedings excite passions

C
To contend that Hamilton was too timid in his support for the concept of impeachment

D
To argue that impeachment cases are decided more on the basis of politics than on justice

Question 5
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]Read the conversation given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]ROSE: Times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Times have changed a lot since then.
TROY: How in hell they done changed?

ROSE: They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and football.
BONO: You right about that, Rose. Times have changed, Troy. You just come along too early.

TROY: 58881There ought not never have been no time called too early! Now you take that fellow...what's that fellow they had playing right field for the Yankees back then? You know who I'm talking about, Bono. Used to play right field for the Yankees.
ROSE: Selkirk?

TROY: Selkirk! That's it! Man batting. 269, understand? 269. What kind of sense that make? I was hitting 432 with thirty-seven home runs! Man batting 269 and playing right field for the Yankees! I saw Josh Gibson's* daughter yesterday. She walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet. Now I bet you Selkirk daughter ain't walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet! I bet you that!
ROSE: They got a lot of colored baseball players now. Jackie Robinson was the first. Folks had to wait for Jackie Robinson.

TROY : I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make! Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody. I am talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don't care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play... then they ought to have let you play.

(Troy takes a long drink from the bottle.)

ROSE : You gonna drink yourself to death. You don't need to be drinking like that.
TROY: Death ain't nothing. I done seen him. Done wrastled with him. You can't tell me nothing about death. Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner. And you know what I'll do to that! Lookee here, Bono... am I lying? You get one of them fastballs, about waist height, over the outside corner of the plate where you can get the meat of the bat on it...and good god! You can kiss it goodbye. Now, am I lying?

BONO: Naw, you telling the truth there. I see you do it.
TROY: If I'm lying...that 450 feet worth of lying! (Pause.) That's all death is to me. A fastball on the outside corner.

ROSE: I don't know why you want to get on talking about death.
TROY : Ain't nothing wrong with talking about death. That's part of life. Everybody gonna die. You gonna die, I'm gonna die. Bono's gonna die. Hell, we all gonna die.
[passage-footer](1986)
*Josh Gibson was a notable baseball player in the Negro Leagues.[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

Which of the following would most logically precede the discussion excerpted in this passage?

A
A discussion about whether Troy's son can expect to be discriminated against in his sports career because he is black

B
A debate over whether Troy should compete for a spot at the Yankees' spring training camp

C
A debate over the merits of racially integrated neighborhoods

D
A discussion of the great moments in Troy's baseball career

E
A discussion of persistent racial unrest in American society

Question 6
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]Read the conversation given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]ROSE: Times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Times have changed a lot since then.
TROY: How in hell they done changed?

ROSE: They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and football.
BONO: You right about that, Rose. Times have changed, Troy. You just come along too early.

TROY: 58881There ought not never have been no time called too early! Now you take that fellow...what's that fellow they had playing right field for the Yankees back then? You know who I'm talking about, Bono. Used to play right field for the Yankees.
ROSE: Selkirk?

TROY: Selkirk! That's it! Man batting. 269, understand? 269. What kind of sense that make? I was hitting 432 with thirty-seven home runs! Man batting 269 and playing right field for the Yankees! I saw Josh Gibson's* daughter yesterday. She walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet. Now I bet you Selkirk daughter ain't walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet! I bet you that!
ROSE: They got a lot of colored baseball players now. Jackie Robinson was the first. Folks had to wait for Jackie Robinson.

TROY : I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make! Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody. I am talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don't care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play... then they ought to have let you play.

(Troy takes a long drink from the bottle.)

ROSE : You gonna drink yourself to death. You don't need to be drinking like that.
TROY: Death ain't nothing. I done seen him. Done wrastled with him. You can't tell me nothing about death. Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner. And you know what I'll do to that! Lookee here, Bono... am I lying? You get one of them fastballs, about waist height, over the outside corner of the plate where you can get the meat of the bat on it...and good god! You can kiss it goodbye. Now, am I lying?

BONO: Naw, you telling the truth there. I see you do it.
TROY: If I'm lying...that 450 feet worth of lying! (Pause.) That's all death is to me. A fastball on the outside corner.

ROSE: I don't know why you want to get on talking about death.
TROY : Ain't nothing wrong with talking about death. That's part of life. Everybody gonna die. You gonna die, I'm gonna die. Bono's gonna die. Hell, we all gonna die.
[passage-footer](1986)
*Josh Gibson was a notable baseball player in the Negro Leagues.[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

Rose's role in the passage can best be described as ____________.

A
inquisitive

B
condemning

C
justifying

D
instigating

E
attentive

Question 7
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header] The guest waked from a dream and remembering his 11733day's pleasure hurried to dress himself that it might sooner begin. He was sure from the way the shy little girl looked once or twice yesterday that she had at least seen the white heron, and now she must really be persuaded to tell. Here she comes now, paler than ever, and her worn old frock is 91241torn and tattered and smeared with pine pitch. The grandmother and sportsman stand in the door together and question her, and the 61168splendid moment has come to speak of the dead hemlock-tree by the green marsh.
But Sylvia does not speak after all, though the old grandmother fretfully rebukes her, and the young man's kind appealing eyes are looking straight on her own. He can make them rich with money; he has promised it, and they are poor now. He is so well worth making happy, and he waits to hear the story she can tell.
No, she must keep silence! What is it that suddenly forbids her and makes her dumb? Has she been 47900nine years growing, and now, when 43068the great world for the first time puts out a hand to her, must she thrust it aside for a bird's sake? 94899The murmur of the pine's green branches in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through 97477the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its lie away.
[passage-footer]
[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

Which of the following phrases from the passage is most nearly the antithesis of what the white heron represents to Sylvia?

A
torn and tattered (line 91241)

B
splendid moment (line 61168)

C
nine years growing (line 47900)

D
the great world (line 43068)

E
the golden air (line 97477)

Question 8
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of Beauty. 1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in 1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the House of Fuji, a noble family.[/passage-header]
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was that it? Had he followed form--had he asked his mother to speak to his father to approach a go-between-would Chie have been more receptive?

He came on a winter's eve. He pounded on the door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda, so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps, the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.

Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she was feeling too cosy. She and Naomi were reading at a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt spread over the sides of the table so their legs were tucked inside with the heat.

"Who is it at this hour, in this weather?" Chie questioned as she picked the name card off the maid's lacquer tray.

"Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College," she read.

Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft intake of air.

"I think you should go," said Naomi.

Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black military-style uniform of a student. As he bowed--his hands hanging straight down, a black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the other--Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening surface of the courtyard's rain-drenched paving stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.

"Madame," said Akira, "forgive my disruption, but I come with a matter of urgency."

97534His voice was soft, refined.33988 He straightened and stole a deferential peek at her face.

In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity. Chie felt herself starting to like him.

"Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely your business can wait for a moment or two."

"I don't want to trouble you. Normally I would approach you more properly but I've received word of a position. I have an opportunity to go to America, as a dentist for Seattle's Japanese community."

"Congratulations," Chie said with amusement. "That is an opportunity, I'm sure. But how am I involved?"

Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the name card, Chie had no idea. Akira's message, delivered like a formal speech, filled her with maternal amusement. 49448You know how children speak so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about things that have no importance in an adult's mind?59124 That's how she viewed him, as a child.

It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no effort to find her a husband.

Akira blushed.

"Depending on your response, I may stay in Japan. I've come to ask for Naomi’s hand."

Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.

"Does Naomi know anything of your... ambitions?"

"We have an understanding. 54152Please don't judge my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal98655. I ask 67510directly because the use of a go-between takes much time. Either method comes down to the same thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your consent, I become Naomi's Yoshi. We'll live in the House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to America, to secure a new home for my bride."

60706Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full in the face. 23268Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. "I see I've startled you. My humble apologies. I'll take no more of your evening. My address is on my card. If you don't wish to contact me, I'll reapproach you in two weeks' time. Until then, good night."

He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless grace, like a cat making off with a fish.

"Mother?" Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and turned from the door. "He has asked you?"

The sight of Naomi's clear eyes, her dark brows gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were preposterous.

"Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to America all in the snap of his fingers!"

Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.

Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.

"I met him at my literary meeting."

Naomi turned to go back into the house, then stopped.

"Mother."

"Yes?"

"I mean to have him."
[passage-footer]Yoshi: a man who marries a woman of higher status and takes her family’s name.[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

In the passage, Akira addresses Chie with ______.

A
Affection but not genuine love

B
Objectivity but not complete impartiality

C
Amusement but not mocking disparagement

D
Respect but not utter deference

Question 9
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]
Read the poem and answer the question that follows:
"The Author to Her Book"[/passage-header]Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, 11304less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,

Where errors were not lessened (all may judged).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;

Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
58290I stretched the joints to make thee even feet,

53207Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to 95382trim thee was my mind,
But nought same homespun cloth i' th' 27694house I find.
In this array 'mongst vulgars may'st thou roam.
In critic hands beware thou dost not come,

And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.
[passage-footer]
[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

According to the poem, how did the author's manuscript come to be published?

A
The press demanded it.

B
Her friends took it from her on the sly.

C
It was stolen by a publisher.

D
She showed it to someone who recommended it for publication.

E
The poem does not state its publication history.

Question 10
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of Beauty. 1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in 1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the House of Fuji, a noble family.[/passage-header]
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was that it? Had he followed form--had he asked his mother to speak to his father to approach a go-between-would Chie have been more receptive?

He came on a winter's eve. He pounded on the door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda, so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps, the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.

Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she was feeling too cosy. She and Naomi were reading at a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt spread over the sides of the table so their legs were tucked inside with the heat.

"Who is it at this hour, in this weather?" Chie questioned as she picked the name card off the maid's lacquer tray.

"Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College," she read.

Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft intake of air.

"I think you should go," said Naomi.

Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black military-style uniform of a student. As he bowed--his hands hanging straight down, a black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the other--Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening surface of the courtyard's rain-drenched paving stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.

"Madame," said Akira, "forgive my disruption, but I come with a matter of urgency."

97534His voice was soft, refined.33988 He straightened and stole a deferential peek at her face.

In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity. Chie felt herself starting to like him.

"Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely your business can wait for a moment or two."

"I don't want to trouble you. Normally I would approach you more properly but I've received word of a position. I have an opportunity to go to America, as a dentist for Seattle's Japanese community."

"Congratulations," Chie said with amusement. "That is an opportunity, I'm sure. But how am I involved?"

Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the name card, Chie had no idea. Akira's message, delivered like a formal speech, filled her with maternal amusement. 49448You know how children speak so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about things that have no importance in an adult's mind?59124 That's how she viewed him, as a child.

It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no effort to find her a husband.

Akira blushed.

"Depending on your response, I may stay in Japan. I've come to ask for Naomi’s hand."

Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.

"Does Naomi know anything of your... ambitions?"

"We have an understanding. 54152Please don't judge my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal98655. I ask 67510directly because the use of a go-between takes much time. Either method comes down to the same thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your consent, I become Naomi's Yoshi. We'll live in the House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to America, to secure a new home for my bride."

60706Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full in the face. 23268Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. "I see I've startled you. My humble apologies. I'll take no more of your evening. My address is on my card. If you don't wish to contact me, I'll reapproach you in two weeks' time. Until then, good night."

He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless grace, like a cat making off with a fish.

"Mother?" Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and turned from the door. "He has asked you?"

The sight of Naomi's clear eyes, her dark brows gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were preposterous.

"Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to America all in the snap of his fingers!"

Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.

Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.

"I met him at my literary meeting."

Naomi turned to go back into the house, then stopped.

"Mother."

"Yes?"

"I mean to have him."
[passage-footer]Yoshi: a man who marries a woman of higher status and takes her family’s name.[/passage-footer]

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Which reaction does Akira most fear from Chie?

A
She will consider his proposal inappropriate

B
She will mistake his earnestness for immaturity

C
She will consider his unscheduled visit an imposition

D
She will underestimate the sincerity of his emotions

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Question Analysis

Answered - 0
Unanswered - 10

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Reading Compreh...

Question 1

his furthering his acquaintance with Sylvia

his hearing the end of a tale that Sylvia has promised to finish for him

his opportunity to make a carving from a petrified hemlock tree

his opportunity to photograph a white heron in its natural habitat

his opportunity to shoot a white heron

Question 2

An idealist setting forth principles

An advocate seeking a compromise position

An observer striving for neutrality

A scholar researching a historical controversy

Question 3

contemptuous denial

naive self-delusion

boastful nonchalance

awed anticipation

thinly veiled cowardice

Question 4

To counter the suggestion that impeachment is or should be about partisan politics

To disagree with Hamilton's claim that impeachment proceedings excite passions

To contend that Hamilton was too timid in his support for the concept of impeachment

To argue that impeachment cases are decided more on the basis of politics than on justice

Question 5

A discussion about whether Troy's son can expect to be discriminated against in his sports career because he is black

A debate over whether Troy should compete for a spot at the Yankees' spring training camp

A debate over the merits of racially integrated neighborhoods

A discussion of the great moments in Troy's baseball career

A discussion of persistent racial unrest in American society

Question 6

inquisitive

condemning

justifying

instigating

attentive

Question 7

torn and tattered (line 91241)

splendid moment (line 61168)

nine years growing (line 47900)

the great world (line 43068)

the golden air (line 97477)

Question 8

Affection but not genuine love

Objectivity but not complete impartiality

Amusement but not mocking disparagement

Respect but not utter deference

Question 9

The press demanded it.

Her friends took it from her on the sly.

It was stolen by a publisher.

She showed it to someone who recommended it for publication.

The poem does not state its publication history.

Question 10

She will consider his proposal inappropriate

She will mistake his earnestness for immaturity

She will consider his unscheduled visit an imposition

She will underestimate the sincerity of his emotions

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Question Analysis

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