Reading Comprehension Test 31

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Question 1
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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]

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According to the poem, how does the author feel about her manuscript?

A
She is thrilled to see it in print.

B
She thinks it is too dark.

C
She is annoyed at its childishness.

D
She is horrified by it.

E
She is embarrassed by its quality.

Question 2
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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]

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Fill in the blank with a suitable option:
The lines "I stretched the joints to make thee even feet, Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet," (lines 58290- 53207) refer to the author's attempt to _____________.

A
make the book rhyme better

B
trim the book's extraneous parts

C
fix the book's meter

D
make sure the book has an even number of pages

E
make the book less offensive

Question 3
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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]

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Sylvia is described in the passage as __________.

A
surprised at her own morality

B
failing to honor a promise she had made to her grandmother

C
frustrating any hope she might have had of getting to know the young man better

D
persistently dismissive of other people's feelings

E
remaining faithful to her long-standing beliefs

Question 4
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]The following is adapted from E.M. Forster's A Room With a View, originally published in 1908.[/passage-header]
58972A few days after the engagement little garden-party in the neighbourhood, for naturally she wanted to show people that her daughter was marrying a presentable man.30946
97799Cecil was more than presentable; he looked distinguished, and it was very pleasant to see his slim figure keeping step with Lucy, and his long, fair face responding when Lucy spoke to him. 89585People congratulated Mrs. Honeychurch, which is, I believe, a social blunder, but it pleased her, and she introduced Cecil rather indiscriminately to some stuffy dowagers.45912
At tea a misfortune took place: a cup of coffee was upset over Lucy's figured silk, and though Lucy feigned indifference, her mother feigned nothing of the sort but dragged her indoors to have the frock treated by a sympathetic maid. 78510They were gone some time, and Cecil was left with the dowagers.15156 When they returned he was not as pleasant as he had been.
"Do you go to much of this sort of thing?" he asked when they were driving home.
"Oh, now and then," said Lucy, who had rather enjoyed herself.
"Is it typical of country society?"
"I suppose so. Mother, would it be?"
60238"Plenty of society," said Mrs. Honeychurch, who was trying to remember the hang of one of the dresses.40756
Seeing that her thoughts were elsewhere, Cecil bent towards Lucy and said:
"To me it seemed perfectly appalling, disastrous65016, portentous."
"I am so sorry that you were stranded."
"Not that, but the congratulations. It is so disgusting, the way an engagement is regarded as public property--a kind of waste place where every outsider may shoot his vulgar 43590sentiment. All those old women smirking!"
"One has to go through it, I suppose. They won't notice us so much next time."
"But my point is that their whole attitude is wrong.67899 An engagement--horrid word in the first place--is a private matter, and should be treated as such."47601
Yet the smirking old women, however wrong individually, were racially correct. The spirit of the generations had smiled through them, rejoicing in the engagement of Cecil and Lucy because it promised the continuance of life on earth. To Cecil and Lucy it promised something quite different--personal love. Hence Cecil's irritation and Lucy's belief that his irritation was just.
"How tiresome!" she said. "Couldn't you have escaped to tennis?"
"I don't play tennis--at least, not in public. 84924The neighbourhood is deprived of the romance of me being athletic.20976 Such romance as I have is that of the Inglese Italianato."
"Inglese Italianato?"
"E un diavolo incarnato! You know the proverb?"
She did not. Nor did it seem applicable to a young man who had spent a quiet winter in Rome with his mother. But Cecil, since his engagement, had taken to affect51078 a cosmopolitan naughtiness which he was far from possessing.
"Well," said he, "I cannot help it if they do disapprove of me. 30881There are certain irremovable barriers between myself and them, and I must accept them."67488
"We all have our limitations, I suppose," said wise Lucy.
"Sometimes they are forced on us, though," said Cecil, who saw from her remark that she did not quite understand his position.
"How?"
84803"It makes a difference doesn't it, whether we fully fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by the barriers of others?"73746
She thought a moment and agreed that it did make a difference.
"Difference?" cried Mrs. Honeychurch, suddenly alert. "I don't see anydifference. Fences are fences, especially when they are in the same place."
"We were speaking of motives," said Cecil, on whom the interruption jarred.
52521"My dear Cecil, look here." She spread out her knees and perched her card-case on her lap. "This is me. That's Windy Corner. The rest of the pattern is the other people. 19102Motives are all very well, but the fence comes here."98842
"We weren't talking of real fences," said Lucy, laughing.
"Oh, I see, dear--poetry."91572

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The comic effect of the final part of the passage (lines 52521- 91572) comes from _________.

A
Lucy's enjoyment of the spirited exchange between Cecil and Mrs. Honeychurch.

B
Cecil's growing irritation with Mrs. Honeychurch and Lucy's opinions.

C
Lucy's teasing Cecil by pretending not to understand his point.

D
Mrs. Honeychurch's obliviousness and inattention to the conversation.

Question 5
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]The following is adapted from E.M. Forster's A Room With a View, originally published in 1908.[/passage-header]
58972A few days after the engagement little garden-party in the neighbourhood, for naturally she wanted to show people that her daughter was marrying a presentable man.30946
97799Cecil was more than presentable; he looked distinguished, and it was very pleasant to see his slim figure keeping step with Lucy, and his long, fair face responding when Lucy spoke to him. 89585People congratulated Mrs. Honeychurch, which is, I believe, a social blunder, but it pleased her, and she introduced Cecil rather indiscriminately to some stuffy dowagers.45912
At tea a misfortune took place: a cup of coffee was upset over Lucy's figured silk, and though Lucy feigned indifference, her mother feigned nothing of the sort but dragged her indoors to have the frock treated by a sympathetic maid. 78510They were gone some time, and Cecil was left with the dowagers.15156 When they returned he was not as pleasant as he had been.
"Do you go to much of this sort of thing?" he asked when they were driving home.
"Oh, now and then," said Lucy, who had rather enjoyed herself.
"Is it typical of country society?"
"I suppose so. Mother, would it be?"
60238"Plenty of society," said Mrs. Honeychurch, who was trying to remember the hang of one of the dresses.40756
Seeing that her thoughts were elsewhere, Cecil bent towards Lucy and said:
"To me it seemed perfectly appalling, disastrous65016, portentous."
"I am so sorry that you were stranded."
"Not that, but the congratulations. It is so disgusting, the way an engagement is regarded as public property--a kind of waste place where every outsider may shoot his vulgar 43590sentiment. All those old women smirking!"
"One has to go through it, I suppose. They won't notice us so much next time."
"But my point is that their whole attitude is wrong.67899 An engagement--horrid word in the first place--is a private matter, and should be treated as such."47601
Yet the smirking old women, however wrong individually, were racially correct. The spirit of the generations had smiled through them, rejoicing in the engagement of Cecil and Lucy because it promised the continuance of life on earth. To Cecil and Lucy it promised something quite different--personal love. Hence Cecil's irritation and Lucy's belief that his irritation was just.
"How tiresome!" she said. "Couldn't you have escaped to tennis?"
"I don't play tennis--at least, not in public. 84924The neighbourhood is deprived of the romance of me being athletic.20976 Such romance as I have is that of the Inglese Italianato."
"Inglese Italianato?"
"E un diavolo incarnato! You know the proverb?"
She did not. Nor did it seem applicable to a young man who had spent a quiet winter in Rome with his mother. But Cecil, since his engagement, had taken to affect51078 a cosmopolitan naughtiness which he was far from possessing.
"Well," said he, "I cannot help it if they do disapprove of me. 30881There are certain irremovable barriers between myself and them, and I must accept them."67488
"We all have our limitations, I suppose," said wise Lucy.
"Sometimes they are forced on us, though," said Cecil, who saw from her remark that she did not quite understand his position.
"How?"
84803"It makes a difference doesn't it, whether we fully fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by the barriers of others?"73746
She thought a moment and agreed that it did make a difference.
"Difference?" cried Mrs. Honeychurch, suddenly alert. "I don't see anydifference. Fences are fences, especially when they are in the same place."
"We were speaking of motives," said Cecil, on whom the interruption jarred.
52521"My dear Cecil, look here." She spread out her knees and perched her card-case on her lap. "This is me. That's Windy Corner. The rest of the pattern is the other people. 19102Motives are all very well, but the fence comes here."98842
"We weren't talking of real fences," said Lucy, laughing.
"Oh, I see, dear--poetry."91572

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Cecil brings up fences (lines 84803- 73746) in order to ____________.

A
highlight his feeling that he is different from others in the community.

B
express his frustration at being excluded from polite society.

C
demand greater respect for his desire for privacy and seclusion.

D
reveal an epiphany about the separations among human beings.

Question 6
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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

Which of the following is NOT a hope expressed by the author?

A
The book will not fall into the hands of critics.

B
Someone else will claim authorship.

C
The book will fall into obscurity.

D
She can fix the book's problems through editing.

E
She might make some profit.

Question 7
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]
Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows.
This passage is adapted from Iain King, "Can Economics Be Ethical?" 2013 by Prospect Publishing.[/passage-header] Recent debates about the economy have rediscovered the question, "is that right?", where "right" means more than just profits or efficiency.
98157Some argue that because the free markets allow for personal choice, they are already ethical.99395 Others have accepted the ethical critique and 38892embraced corporate social responsibility. 63148But before we can label any market outcome as "immoral," or sneer at economists who try to put a price on being ethical, we need to be clear on what we are talking about.43569
11372There are different views on where ethics should apply when someone makes an economic decision.27817 Consider Adam Smith, widely regarded as the founder of modern economics. He was a moral philosopher who believed sympathy for others was the basis for ethics (we would call it empathy nowadays). But one of his key insights in The Wealth of Nations was that acting on this empathy could be counter-productive - he observed people becoming better off when they put their own empathy aside and interacted in a self-interested way. 74197Smith justifies selfish behavior by the outcome.59184 Whenever planners use cost-benefit analysis to justify a new railway line, or someone retrains to boost his or her earning power, or a shopper buys one to get one free, they are using the same approach: empathizing with someone, and seeking an outcome that makes that person as well off as possible - although the person they are empathizing with maybe themselves in the future.
Instead of judging consequences, Aristotle said ethics was about having the right character - displaying virtues like courage and honesty. It is a view put into practice whenever business leaders are chosen for their good character. But it is a hard philosophy to teach - just how much loyalty should you show to a manufacturer that keeps losing money? Show too little and you're a "greed is good" corporate raider; too much and you're wasting money on unproductive capital. Aristotle thought there was a golden mean between the two extremes, and finding it was a matter of fine judgment. But if ethics is about character, it's not clear what those characteristics should be.
41485There is yet another approach: instead of rooting ethics in character or the consequences of actions, we can focus on our actions themselves. 99701From this perspective some things are right, some wrong - we should buy fair trade goods, we shouldn't tell lies in advertisements34442. Ethics becomes a list of commandments, a catalog of "dos" and "don'ts." 90153When a finance official refuses to devalue a currency because they have promised not to, they are defining ethics this way.88236 According to this approach devaluation can still be bad, even if it would make everybody better off.27072
Many moral dilemmas arise when these three versions pull in different directions but 89074clashes are not inevitable. 74400Take fair trade coffee (coffee that is sold with a certification that indicates the farmers and workers who produced it was paid a fair wage), for example: buying it might have good consequences, be virtuous, and also be the right way to act in a flawed market32693. Common ground like this suggests that, even without agreement on where ethics applies, ethical economics is still possible.
Whenever we feel queasy about "perfect" competitive markets, the problem is often rooted in a phony conception of people. The model of man on which classical economics is based - on entirely rational and selfish being - is a parody, as John Stuart Mill, the philosopher who pioneered the model, accepted. Most people - even economists - now accept that this "economic man" is a fiction. 38387We behave like a herd; we fear losses more than we hope for gains; rarely can our brains process all the relevant facts41108.
These human quirks mean we can never make purely "rational" decisions. A new wave of behavioral economists, aided by neuroscientists, is trying to understand our psychology, both alone and in groups, so they can anticipate our decisions in the marketplace more accurately. But psychology can also help us understand why we react in disgust at economic injustice or accept a moral law as universal. Which means that the relatively new science of human behavior might also define ethics for us. Ethical economics would then emerge from one of the least likely places: economists themselves.

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In the passage, the author anticipates which of the following objections to criticizing the ethics of free markets?

A
Smith's association of free markets with ethical behavior still applies today.

B
Free markets are the best way to generate high profits, so ethics are a secondary consideration.

C
Free markets are ethical because they are made possible by devalued currency.

D
Free markets are ethical because they enable individuals to make choices.

Question 8
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]
Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header] No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man, worthy of the name, will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, "I am baffled!" and submits to be floated passively back to land. From the first week of my residence in X - I felt my occupation irksome. The thing itself - the work of copying and translating business-letters - was a dry and tedious task enough, but had that been all, I should long have borne with the nuisance; I am not of an impatient nature, and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others the resolution I had taken to become a tradesman, 99180I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties; I should not have whispered, even inwardly, that I longed for liberty; I should have pent in every sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness, smoke, monotony, and joyless tumult of Bigben Close, and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes;45994 72168I should have set up the image of Duty, the fetish of Perseverance, in my small bedroom at Mrs. Kings lodgings,14199 and they two should have been my household gods, from which my darling, my cherished-in-secret, Imagination, the tender and the mighty, should never, either by softness or strength, have severed me. But this was not all; 76432the antipathy which had sprung up between myself and my employer striking deeper root and spreading denser shade daily excluded me from every glimpse of the sunshine of life31659; and I began to feel like a plant growing in humid darkness out of the slimy walls of a well.
Antipathy is the only word which can express the feeling Edward Crimsworth had for me - a feeling, in a great measure, involuntary, and which was liable to be excited by every, the most trifling movement, look, or word of mine. 81788My southern accent annoyed him; the degree of education evinced in my language irritated him;29003 my punctuality, industry, and accuracy, fixed his dislike, and gave it the high flavour and poignant relish of envy; he feared that I too should one day make a successful tradesman. Had I been in anything inferior to him, he would not have hated me so thoroughly, but I knew all that he knew, and, what was worse, he suspected that I kept the padlock of silence on mental wealth in which he was no sharer. If he could have once placed me in a ridiculous or mortifying position, he would have forgiven me much, but I was guarded by three faculties - Caution, Tact, Observation; and prowling and prying as was Edwards malignity, it could never baffle the lynx-eyes of these, my natural sentinels. 73758Day by day did his malice watch my tact, hoping it would sleep, and prepared to steal snake-like on its slumber;86109 but tact, if it be genuine, never sleeps.
80925I had received my first quarter's wages, and was returning to my lodgings, possessed heart and soul with the pleasant feeling that the master who had paid me grudged every penny of that hard-earned pittance (I had long ceased to regard Mr. Crimsworth as my brother66942 - he was a hard, grinding master; he wished to be an inexorable tyrant: that was all). 37481Thoughts, not varied but strong, occupied my mind; two voices spoke within me; again and again, they uttered the same monotonous phrases.18988 One said: "William, your life is intolerable." The other: "What can you do to alter it?" 17276I walked fast, for it was a cold, frosty night in January; as I approached my lodgings, I turned from a general view of my affairs to the particular speculation as to whether my fire would be out; looking towards the window of my sitting-room, I saw no cheering red gleam.51378
[passage-footer](This passage is from Charlotte Bronte, The Professor, originally published in 1857.)[/passage-footer]

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The passage indicates that, after a long day of work, the narrator sometimes found his living quarters to be __________

A
Treacherous.

B
Dreary.

C
Predictable.

D
Intolerable.

Question 9
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]
Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header] No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man, worthy of the name, will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, "I am baffled!" and submits to be floated passively back to land. From the first week of my residence in X - I felt my occupation irksome. The thing itself - the work of copying and translating business-letters - was a dry and tedious task enough, but had that been all, I should long have borne with the nuisance; I am not of an impatient nature, and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others the resolution I had taken to become a tradesman, 99180I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties; I should not have whispered, even inwardly, that I longed for liberty; I should have pent in every sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness, smoke, monotony, and joyless tumult of Bigben Close, and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes;45994 72168I should have set up the image of Duty, the fetish of Perseverance, in my small bedroom at Mrs. Kings lodgings,14199 and they two should have been my household gods, from which my darling, my cherished-in-secret, Imagination, the tender and the mighty, should never, either by softness or strength, have severed me. But this was not all; 76432the antipathy which had sprung up between myself and my employer striking deeper root and spreading denser shade daily excluded me from every glimpse of the sunshine of life31659; and I began to feel like a plant growing in humid darkness out of the slimy walls of a well.
Antipathy is the only word which can express the feeling Edward Crimsworth had for me - a feeling, in a great measure, involuntary, and which was liable to be excited by every, the most trifling movement, look, or word of mine. 81788My southern accent annoyed him; the degree of education evinced in my language irritated him;29003 my punctuality, industry, and accuracy, fixed his dislike, and gave it the high flavour and poignant relish of envy; he feared that I too should one day make a successful tradesman. Had I been in anything inferior to him, he would not have hated me so thoroughly, but I knew all that he knew, and, what was worse, he suspected that I kept the padlock of silence on mental wealth in which he was no sharer. If he could have once placed me in a ridiculous or mortifying position, he would have forgiven me much, but I was guarded by three faculties - Caution, Tact, Observation; and prowling and prying as was Edwards malignity, it could never baffle the lynx-eyes of these, my natural sentinels. 73758Day by day did his malice watch my tact, hoping it would sleep, and prepared to steal snake-like on its slumber;86109 but tact, if it be genuine, never sleeps.
80925I had received my first quarter's wages, and was returning to my lodgings, possessed heart and soul with the pleasant feeling that the master who had paid me grudged every penny of that hard-earned pittance (I had long ceased to regard Mr. Crimsworth as my brother66942 - he was a hard, grinding master; he wished to be an inexorable tyrant: that was all). 37481Thoughts, not varied but strong, occupied my mind; two voices spoke within me; again and again, they uttered the same monotonous phrases.18988 One said: "William, your life is intolerable." The other: "What can you do to alter it?" 17276I walked fast, for it was a cold, frosty night in January; as I approached my lodgings, I turned from a general view of my affairs to the particular speculation as to whether my fire would be out; looking towards the window of my sitting-room, I saw no cheering red gleam.51378
[passage-footer](This passage is from Charlotte Bronte, The Professor, originally published in 1857.)[/passage-footer]

...view full instructions

The references to "shade" and "darkness" at the end of the first paragraph mainly have which effect?

A
They evoke the narrator's sense of dismay

B
They reflect the narrator's sinister thoughts.

C
They capture the narrator's fear of confinement.

D
They reveal the narrator's longing for rest.

Question 10
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Directions For Questions

[passage-header]
Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header] No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man, worthy of the name, will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, "I am baffled!" and submits to be floated passively back to land. From the first week of my residence in X - I felt my occupation irksome. The thing itself - the work of copying and translating business-letters - was a dry and tedious task enough, but had that been all, I should long have borne with the nuisance; I am not of an impatient nature, and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others the resolution I had taken to become a tradesman, 99180I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties; I should not have whispered, even inwardly, that I longed for liberty; I should have pent in every sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness, smoke, monotony, and joyless tumult of Bigben Close, and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes;45994 72168I should have set up the image of Duty, the fetish of Perseverance, in my small bedroom at Mrs. Kings lodgings,14199 and they two should have been my household gods, from which my darling, my cherished-in-secret, Imagination, the tender and the mighty, should never, either by softness or strength, have severed me. But this was not all; 76432the antipathy which had sprung up between myself and my employer striking deeper root and spreading denser shade daily excluded me from every glimpse of the sunshine of life31659; and I began to feel like a plant growing in humid darkness out of the slimy walls of a well.
Antipathy is the only word which can express the feeling Edward Crimsworth had for me - a feeling, in a great measure, involuntary, and which was liable to be excited by every, the most trifling movement, look, or word of mine. 81788My southern accent annoyed him; the degree of education evinced in my language irritated him;29003 my punctuality, industry, and accuracy, fixed his dislike, and gave it the high flavour and poignant relish of envy; he feared that I too should one day make a successful tradesman. Had I been in anything inferior to him, he would not have hated me so thoroughly, but I knew all that he knew, and, what was worse, he suspected that I kept the padlock of silence on mental wealth in which he was no sharer. If he could have once placed me in a ridiculous or mortifying position, he would have forgiven me much, but I was guarded by three faculties - Caution, Tact, Observation; and prowling and prying as was Edwards malignity, it could never baffle the lynx-eyes of these, my natural sentinels. 73758Day by day did his malice watch my tact, hoping it would sleep, and prepared to steal snake-like on its slumber;86109 but tact, if it be genuine, never sleeps.
80925I had received my first quarter's wages, and was returning to my lodgings, possessed heart and soul with the pleasant feeling that the master who had paid me grudged every penny of that hard-earned pittance (I had long ceased to regard Mr. Crimsworth as my brother66942 - he was a hard, grinding master; he wished to be an inexorable tyrant: that was all). 37481Thoughts, not varied but strong, occupied my mind; two voices spoke within me; again and again, they uttered the same monotonous phrases.18988 One said: "William, your life is intolerable." The other: "What can you do to alter it?" 17276I walked fast, for it was a cold, frosty night in January; as I approached my lodgings, I turned from a general view of my affairs to the particular speculation as to whether my fire would be out; looking towards the window of my sitting-room, I saw no cheering red gleam.51378
[passage-footer](This passage is from Charlotte Bronte, The Professor, originally published in 1857.)[/passage-footer]

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The main purpose of the opening sentence of the passage is to _________.

A
Establish the narrator's perspective on a controversy.

B
Provide context useful in understanding the narrator's emotional state.

C
Offer a symbolic representation of Edward Crimsworth's plight.

D
Contrast the narrators good intentions with his malicious conduct.

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Question Analysis

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Unanswered - 10

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Reading Compreh...

Question 1

She is thrilled to see it in print.

She thinks it is too dark.

She is annoyed at its childishness.

She is horrified by it.

She is embarrassed by its quality.

Question 2

make the book rhyme better

trim the book's extraneous parts

fix the book's meter

make sure the book has an even number of pages

make the book less offensive

Question 3

surprised at her own morality

failing to honor a promise she had made to her grandmother

frustrating any hope she might have had of getting to know the young man better

persistently dismissive of other people's feelings

remaining faithful to her long-standing beliefs

Question 4

Lucy's enjoyment of the spirited exchange between Cecil and Mrs. Honeychurch.

Cecil's growing irritation with Mrs. Honeychurch and Lucy's opinions.

Lucy's teasing Cecil by pretending not to understand his point.

Mrs. Honeychurch's obliviousness and inattention to the conversation.

Question 5

highlight his feeling that he is different from others in the community.

express his frustration at being excluded from polite society.

demand greater respect for his desire for privacy and seclusion.

reveal an epiphany about the separations among human beings.

Question 6

The book will not fall into the hands of critics.

Someone else will claim authorship.

The book will fall into obscurity.

She can fix the book's problems through editing.

She might make some profit.

Question 7

Smith's association of free markets with ethical behavior still applies today.

Free markets are the best way to generate high profits, so ethics are a secondary consideration.

Free markets are ethical because they are made possible by devalued currency.

Free markets are ethical because they enable individuals to make choices.

Question 8

Treacherous.

Dreary.

Predictable.

Intolerable.

Question 9

They evoke the narrator's sense of dismay

They reflect the narrator's sinister thoughts.

They capture the narrator's fear of confinement.

They reveal the narrator's longing for rest.

Question 10

Establish the narrator's perspective on a controversy.

Provide context useful in understanding the narrator's emotional state.

Offer a symbolic representation of Edward Crimsworth's plight.

Contrast the narrators good intentions with his malicious conduct.

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Question Analysis

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