Reading Comprehension Test 77

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows. [/passage-header] Joe's funeral was the finest thing Orange County had ever seen with Negro eyes. The motor hearse, the Cadillac, and Buick carriages; Dr. Henderson there in his Lincoln; the hosts from far and wide. Then again the gold and red and purple, the 66653gloat and glamour of the 12959secret orders, each with its insinuations of power and glory undreamed of by the uninitiated. People on farm horses and mules; babies riding astride of brothers' and sisters backs. The Elks band ranked at the church door and playing "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" with such a dominant drum rhythm that it could be stepped off smartly by the long line as it filed inside. The Little Emperor of the crossroads were leaving Orange County as he had come - with the out-stretched hand of power.
  Janie 67723starched and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil. It was like 65535a wall of stone and steel. The funeral was going on outside. All things concerning death and burial were said and done. Finish. End. Nevermore. 87914Darkness. Deep hole. Dissolution. Eternity. 15272Weeping and wailing outside. Inside the expensive black folds were 98550resurrection and life. She did not reach outside for anything, nor did the things of death reach inside to disturb her calm. She sent her face to Joe's funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world. After a while, the 30288people finished their celebration and Janie went on home.
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[passage-header]Read the poem and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]"The Triumph of Time"

It will grow not again, this fruit of my heart,
Smitten with88540 sunbeams, ruined with rain.
11972The singing seasons divide and depart,
Winter and summer depart in twain.
It will grow not again, it is ruined at root,
The bloodlike blossom, the dull red fruit;
84191Though the heart yet sickens, the lips yet smart,
With sullen savour of poisonous pain.

I shall never be friends again with roses;
I shall loathe sweet tunes, where a note grown strong
39685Relents and recoils, and climbs and closes,
As a wave of the sea turned back by song.
There are sounds where the soul's delight takes fire,
Face to face with its own desire;
A delight that rebels, a desire that reposes;
I shall hate sweet music my whole life long.

The pulse of war and passion of wonder,
The heavens that murmur, the sounds that shine,
The stars that sing and the loves that thunder,
30422The music burning at heart like wine,
95973An armed archangel whose hands raise up
56218All senses mixed in the spirit's cup
87505Till flesh and spirit are molten in sunder-
10477These things are over, and no more mine.
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[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows. [/passage-header]    There comes to the house of Yen Chow a Chinese merchant of wealth and influence. His eyes dwell often upon Ah Leen. He whispers to her father. Yen Chow puffs his pipe and muses, assuredly a 50231great slight has been put upon his family. A divorce would show proper pride. It was not the Chinese way, but was not the old order passing away and the new order taking its place? Aye, even in China, the old country that had seemed as if it would ever remain old. He speaks to Ah Leen.
   "Nay, father, nay," she returns. "Thou hast the power to send my love away from me, but thou canst not compel me to hold out my arms to another."
   "But," protests her mother, "thy lover hath forgotten thee. Another hath borne him a child."
    A flame rushes over Ah Leen's face; then she 42349becomes white as a water lily. She plucks a leaf of scented geranium, crushes it between her fingers and casts it away. The 21728perfume clings to the hands, she lays on her mother's bosom.
   "Thus," says she, "the fragrance of my crushed love will ever cling to Ming Hoan."
    It is evening. The electric lights are shining through the vines. Out of the gloom beyond their radius comes a man. The American girl, seated in a quiet corner of the veranda, sees his face. It is eager and the eyes are full of love and fate. Then she sees Ah Leen. Tired of women's gossip, the girl has come to gaze upon the moon, hanging in the sky above her like a pale yellow pearl.
   There is a cry from the approaching man. It is echoed by the girl. In a moment she is leaning upon his breast.
   "Ah!" she cries, raising her head and looking into his eyes. "I knew that though another had bound you by human ties, to me you were linked by my love divine."
   "Another! Human ties!" exclaims the young man. He exclaims without explaining---for the sins of parents must not be uncovered---why there has been silence between them for so long. Then he lifts her face to his and gently reproaches her. "Ah Leen, you have dwelt only upon your love for me. Did I not bid thee, 'Forget not to remember that I love thee!'"
   The American girl steals away. The happy Ming Hoan is unaware that as she flits lightly by him and his bride she is repeating to herself his words, and hoping that it is not too late to send to someone a message of recall.
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[passage-header]"To my Honoured Kinsman John Driden, of
Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq."[/passage-header] 51162How blessed is he, who leads a country life,
Unvexed with anxious cares, and 83919void of strife!
Who, studying peace, and shunning civil rage,
Enjoyed his youth, and now enjoys his age:
All who deserve his love, he makes his own;

58882And, to be loved himself, needs only to be known.
26757Just good and wise, contending neighbours come,
From your award to wait 35083their final doom;
84568And, foes before, return in friendship home
Without their cost, you terminate the cause,

72006And save the expense of long litigious laws;
58159Where suits are traversed, and so little won,
28845That he who conquers is but last undone;
Such are not your decrees; but so designed,
The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind;

Like your own soul, serene, a pattern of your mind.
Promoting concord, and composing strife,
Lord of yourself, encumbered with a wife;
Where, for a year, a month, perhaps a night,
88266Long penitence succeeds a short delight;
30941Minds are so badly matched, that even the first,
35359Though paired by heaven, in Paradise were cursed.
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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]   Eugene Coristine and Farquhar Wilkinson were youngish bachelors and fellow members of the Victoria and Albert Literary Society. 77465Thither, on Wednesday evenings, when respectable church members are 40212wending their way to weekly service, they hastened regularly, to meet with a band of like-minded young men, and spend a literary hour or two74574. In various degrees of fluency, they debated the questions of the day; they read essays with a wide range of style and topic; they gave readings from popular authors, and contributed airy creations in prose and in verse to the Society's manuscript magazine. Wilkinson, the older and more sedate of the two, who wore a tightly-buttoned blue frock coat and an eyeglass, was a schoolmaster, pretty 48366well up in the Toronto Public Schools. Coristine was a lawyer in full practice, but his name did not appear on the card of the firm which profited by his services. He was taller than his friend, more jauntily dressed, and was of a more 73151mercurial temperament than the schoolmaster, for whom, however, he entertained a profound respect. Different as they were, they were linked together by an ardent love of literature, especially poetry, by scientific pursuits, Coristine as a botanist, and Wilkinson as a dabbler in geology, and by a firm determination to resist, or rather to shun, the allurements of female society. Many lady teachers wielded the pointer in rooms not far removed from those in which Mr. Wilkinson held sway, but he did not condescend to be on terms even of bowing acquaintance with any one of them. There were several young lady typewriters of respectable city connections in the offices of Messrs. Tyler. Woodruff and White, but the young Irish lawyer passed them by without a glance. These bachelors were of the opinion that women were bringing the dignity of law and education to the dogs.
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[passage-header]"The City Heiress"[/passage-header]How 11270vain have prov'd the Labours of the Stage,
In striving to reclaim a vitious Age!
97211Poets may write the Mischief to impeach,
You care as little what the Poets teach,
As you regard at Church what Parsons preach.

But where such Follies, and such Vices reign,
29103What honest Pen has Patience to refrain?
At Church, in Pews, ye most 59522devoutly snore;
And here, got dully drunk ye come to roar;
Ye go to Church to glout*, and ogle there,
and come to meet more leud convenient here

With equal Zeal, ye honour either Place,
39563And run so very evenly 84766your Race,
60403Y' improve in Wit just as you do in Grace
92355It must be so, some Daemon** has possest
Our Land and we have never since been blest.
[passage-footer]*to pout or look sullen
**demon
(1682)[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]"To my Honoured Kinsman John Driden, of
Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq."[/passage-header] 51162How blessed is he, who leads a country life,
Unvexed with anxious cares, and 83919void of strife!
Who, studying peace, and shunning civil rage,
Enjoyed his youth, and now enjoys his age:
All who deserve his love, he makes his own;

58882And, to be loved himself, needs only to be known.
26757Just good and wise, contending neighbours come,
From your award to wait 35083their final doom;
84568And, foes before, return in friendship home
Without their cost, you terminate the cause,

72006And save the expense of long litigious laws;
58159Where suits are traversed, and so little won,
28845That he who conquers is but last undone;
Such are not your decrees; but so designed,
The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind;

Like your own soul, serene, a pattern of your mind.
Promoting concord, and composing strife,
Lord of yourself, encumbered with a wife;
Where, for a year, a month, perhaps a night,
88266Long penitence succeeds a short delight;
30941Minds are so badly matched, that even the first,
35359Though paired by heaven, in Paradise were cursed.
[passage-footer]
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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]   Eugene Coristine and Farquhar Wilkinson were youngish bachelors and fellow members of the Victoria and Albert Literary Society. 77465Thither, on Wednesday evenings, when respectable church members are 40212wending their way to weekly service, they hastened regularly, to meet with a band of like-minded young men, and spend a literary hour or two74574. In various degrees of fluency, they debated the questions of the day; they read essays with a wide range of style and topic; they gave readings from popular authors, and contributed airy creations in prose and in verse to the Society's manuscript magazine. Wilkinson, the older and more sedate of the two, who wore a tightly-buttoned blue frock coat and an eyeglass, was a schoolmaster, pretty 48366well up in the Toronto Public Schools. Coristine was a lawyer in full practice, but his name did not appear on the card of the firm which profited by his services. He was taller than his friend, more jauntily dressed, and was of a more 73151mercurial temperament than the schoolmaster, for whom, however, he entertained a profound respect. Different as they were, they were linked together by an ardent love of literature, especially poetry, by scientific pursuits, Coristine as a botanist, and Wilkinson as a dabbler in geology, and by a firm determination to resist, or rather to shun, the allurements of female society. Many lady teachers wielded the pointer in rooms not far removed from those in which Mr. Wilkinson held sway, but he did not condescend to be on terms even of bowing acquaintance with any one of them. There were several young lady typewriters of respectable city connections in the offices of Messrs. Tyler. Woodruff and White, but the young Irish lawyer passed them by without a glance. These bachelors were of the opinion that women were bringing the dignity of law and education to the dogs.
[passage-footer]
[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]"The City Heiress"[/passage-header]How 11270vain have prov'd the Labours of the Stage,
In striving to reclaim a vitious Age!
97211Poets may write the Mischief to impeach,
You care as little what the Poets teach,
As you regard at Church what Parsons preach.

But where such Follies, and such Vices reign,
29103What honest Pen has Patience to refrain?
At Church, in Pews, ye most 59522devoutly snore;
And here, got dully drunk ye come to roar;
Ye go to Church to glout*, and ogle there,
and come to meet more leud convenient here

With equal Zeal, ye honour either Place,
39563And run so very evenly 84766your Race,
60403Y' improve in Wit just as you do in Grace
92355It must be so, some Daemon** has possest
Our Land and we have never since been blest.
[passage-footer]*to pout or look sullen
**demon
(1682)[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]"To my Honoured Kinsman John Driden, of
Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq."[/passage-header] 51162How blessed is he, who leads a country life,
Unvexed with anxious cares, and 83919void of strife!
Who, studying peace, and shunning civil rage,
Enjoyed his youth, and now enjoys his age:
All who deserve his love, he makes his own;

58882And, to be loved himself, needs only to be known.
26757Just good and wise, contending neighbours come,
From your award to wait 35083their final doom;
84568And, foes before, return in friendship home
Without their cost, you terminate the cause,

72006And save the expense of long litigious laws;
58159Where suits are traversed, and so little won,
28845That he who conquers is but last undone;
Such are not your decrees; but so designed,
The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind;

Like your own soul, serene, a pattern of your mind.
Promoting concord, and composing strife,
Lord of yourself, encumbered with a wife;
Where, for a year, a month, perhaps a night,
88266Long penitence succeeds a short delight;
30941Minds are so badly matched, that even the first,
35359Though paired by heaven, in Paradise were cursed.
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