Reading Compreh...

[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]"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 Own Soul"[/passage-header]Hold yet a while, Strong 17986Heart,
Not part a lifelong yoke
Though blighted looks the present, future gloom.
30494And age it seems since you I began our
March up hill or down. Sailing smooth o'er

84383Seas that are rare-
53215Thou nearer unto me, than oft-times I myself-
Proclaiming mental moves before they were!
46958Reflector true-Thy pulse so timed to mine,
33461Thou perfect note of thoughts, however fine-

Shall we now part, 62846Recorder, say?
In thee is friendship, 76723faith,
For thou didst warn when evil thoughts were
29960brewing-
And though, alas, thy warning thrown away,
Went on the same as ever-good and true.
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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows: [/passage-header]  In the mind of the mariner, there is a superstitious horror connected with the name of Pirate; and there are few subjects that interest and excite the curiosity of mankind generally, more than 10513the desperate exploits, foul doings, and diabolical career of these monsters in human form. A piratical crew is generally formed of 41406the desperadoes and runagates of every clime and nation. The pirate, from the perilous nature of his occupation, when not crushing on the ocean, 58038the great highway of nations selects the most lonely isles of the sea for his retreat, or 26085secretes himself near the shores of rivers, bays and lagoons of thickly wooded and uninhabited countries, so that if pursued he can escape to the woods and mountain glens of the interior. The islands of the Indian Ocean, and the east and west coasts of Africa, as well as the West Indies, have been 36478their haunts for centuries, and vessels navigating the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, are often captured by them, the passengers and crew murdered, the money and most valuable part of the cargo plundered, the vessel destroyed, thus obliterating all trace of their unhappy fate, and leaving friends and relatives to mourn their loss from the inclemencies of the elements, when they were butchered in cold blood by their fellow men, who by 56008practically adopting the maxim that "dead men tell no tales," enable themselves to pursue their a diabolical career with impunity...
   But 16958the apprehension and foreboding of the mind, when under the influence of remorse, are powerful, and every man, whether civilized or savage has interwoven in his constitution a moral sense, which secretly condemns him when he has committed an atrocious action, even when he is placed in situations which raise him above the fear of human punishment, for "Conscience, the torturer of the soul, unseen. Does fiercely brandish a sharp scourge within; Severe decrees may keep our tongues in awe, but to our minds what edicts can give law? Even you yourself to your own breast shall tell Your crimes, and your own conscience be your hell."
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[passage-header]"Brass Spittoons"[/passage-header]Clean the spittoons, boy.
80511Detroit,
Chicago,
Atlantic city,
Palm Beach27033.
Clean the spittoons.
The steam in hotel kitchens,
And the smoke in hotel lobbies,
And the slime in hotel spittoons:
Part of my life.

46241Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day.
67417Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
93286Two dollars
18824Buys shoes for the baby.
House rent to pay.
God on Sunday
My God!

Babies and church
and woman and Sunday
all mixed up with dimes and
dollars and clean spittoons
and house rent to pay
22882Hey, Boy!

91570A bright bowl of brass is beautiful to the Lord.
81704Bright polished brass like the cymbals
57107Of King David's dancers,
12404Like the wine cups of Solomon.
75938Hey, Boy!
61858A clean spittoon on the altar of the Lord.
25571A clean bright spittoon all newly polished,-
At least I can offer that.
49112Com'mere boy! [passage-footer]

* a spittoon is a receptacle for spit (usually in a public place)

"Brass Spittoons" was written by Langston Hughes, one of the most prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance.

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[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]Their adobe house was the same as two decades before, four large rooms under a thatched roof and three square windows facing south with their frames painted sky blue. Lin stood in the yard facing the front wall while flipping over a dozen mildewed books he had left to be sunned on a stack of firewood. 64644Sure thing, he thought, Shuyu doesn't know how to take care of books. Maybe I should give them to my nephews. These books are of no use to me anymore.30311
   Beside him, 55737chickens were strutting and geese waddling. A few little chicks were passing back and forth through the narrow gaps in the paling that fenced a small vegetable garden. In the garden pole beans and 26122long cucumbers hung on trellises, 43939eggplants curved like ox horns, and lettuce heads were so robust that they covered up the furrows. In addition to the poultry, his wife kept two pigs and a goat for milk. 31915Their sow was oinking from the pigpen, which was adjacent to the western end of the vegetable garden. Against the wall of the pigpen, a pile of manure waited to be carted to their family plot, where it would go through high-temperature composting in a pit for two months before being put into the field.
   26735The air reeked of distillers' grains mixed in the pig feed. Lin disliked the 29422sour smell, which was the only uncomfortable thing to him here. 90914From the kitchen, where Shuyu was cooking, came the coughing of the bellows28098. In the south, elm and birch crowns shaded their neighbors' straw and tiled roofs. Now and then a dog barked from one of these homes.
   Having turned over all the books, Lin went  out of the front wall, which was three feet high and topped with thorny jujube branches. In one hand he held a dog-eared Russian dictionary he had used in high school. Having nothing to do, he sat on their grinding stone, thumbing through the old dictionary. He still remembered some Russian vocabulary and even tried to form a few short sentences in his mind with some words. But he couldn't recall the grammatical rules for the case changes exactly, so he gave up and let the books lie on his lap. Its pages fluttered a little as a breeze blew across. He raised his eyes to watch the villagers hoeing potatoes in a  distant field, which was so vast that a red flag was planted in the middle of it as a marker so that they could take a break when they reached the flag. Lin was fascinated by the sight, but he knew little about farm work.  
[passage-footer](1999)
The excerpt above is from Ha Jin's Waiting.[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]Their adobe house was the same as two decades before, four large rooms under a thatched roof and three square windows facing south with their frames painted sky blue. Lin stood in the yard facing the front wall while flipping over a dozen mildewed books he had left to be sunned on a stack of firewood. 64644Sure thing, he thought, Shuyu doesn't know how to take care of books. Maybe I should give them to my nephews. These books are of no use to me anymore.30311
   Beside him, 55737chickens were strutting and geese waddling. A few little chicks were passing back and forth through the narrow gaps in the paling that fenced a small vegetable garden. In the garden pole beans and 26122long cucumbers hung on trellises, 43939eggplants curved like ox horns, and lettuce heads were so robust that they covered up the furrows. In addition to the poultry, his wife kept two pigs and a goat for milk. 31915Their sow was oinking from the pigpen, which was adjacent to the western end of the vegetable garden. Against the wall of the pigpen, a pile of manure waited to be carted to their family plot, where it would go through high-temperature composting in a pit for two months before being put into the field.
   26735The air reeked of distillers' grains mixed in the pig feed. Lin disliked the 29422sour smell, which was the only uncomfortable thing to him here. 90914From the kitchen, where Shuyu was cooking, came the coughing of the bellows28098. In the south, elm and birch crowns shaded their neighbors' straw and tiled roofs. Now and then a dog barked from one of these homes.
   Having turned over all the books, Lin went  out of the front wall, which was three feet high and topped with thorny jujube branches. In one hand he held a dog-eared Russian dictionary he had used in high school. Having nothing to do, he sat on their grinding stone, thumbing through the old dictionary. He still remembered some Russian vocabulary and even tried to form a few short sentences in his mind with some words. But he couldn't recall the grammatical rules for the case changes exactly, so he gave up and let the books lie on his lap. Its pages fluttered a little as a breeze blew across. He raised his eyes to watch the villagers hoeing potatoes in a  distant field, which was so vast that a red flag was planted in the middle of it as a marker so that they could take a break when they reached the flag. Lin was fascinated by the sight, but he knew little about farm work.  
[passage-footer](1999)
The excerpt above is from Ha Jin's Waiting.[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
[/passage-header]Their adobe house was the same as two decades before, four large rooms under a thatched roof and three square windows facing south with their frames painted sky blue. Lin stood in the yard facing the front wall while flipping over a dozen mildewed books he had left to be sunned on a stack of firewood. 64644Sure thing, he thought, Shuyu doesn't know how to take care of books. Maybe I should give them to my nephews. These books are of no use to me anymore.30311
   Beside him, 55737chickens were strutting and geese waddling. A few little chicks were passing back and forth through the narrow gaps in the paling that fenced a small vegetable garden. In the garden pole beans and 26122long cucumbers hung on trellises, 43939eggplants curved like ox horns, and lettuce heads were so robust that they covered up the furrows. In addition to the poultry, his wife kept two pigs and a goat for milk. 31915Their sow was oinking from the pigpen, which was adjacent to the western end of the vegetable garden. Against the wall of the pigpen, a pile of manure waited to be carted to their family plot, where it would go through high-temperature composting in a pit for two months before being put into the field.
   26735The air reeked of distillers' grains mixed in the pig feed. Lin disliked the 29422sour smell, which was the only uncomfortable thing to him here. 90914From the kitchen, where Shuyu was cooking, came the coughing of the bellows28098. In the south, elm and birch crowns shaded their neighbors' straw and tiled roofs. Now and then a dog barked from one of these homes.
   Having turned over all the books, Lin went  out of the front wall, which was three feet high and topped with thorny jujube branches. In one hand he held a dog-eared Russian dictionary he had used in high school. Having nothing to do, he sat on their grinding stone, thumbing through the old dictionary. He still remembered some Russian vocabulary and even tried to form a few short sentences in his mind with some words. But he couldn't recall the grammatical rules for the case changes exactly, so he gave up and let the books lie on his lap. Its pages fluttered a little as a breeze blew across. He raised his eyes to watch the villagers hoeing potatoes in a  distant field, which was so vast that a red flag was planted in the middle of it as a marker so that they could take a break when they reached the flag. Lin was fascinated by the sight, but he knew little about farm work.  
[passage-footer](1999)
The excerpt above is from Ha Jin's Waiting.[/passage-footer]

[passage-header]"A Pilgrim's Solace"[/passage-header]Stay, O sweet, and do not rise!
The light that shines comes from thine eyes;
The day breaks not: it is my heart,
Because that you and I must part.
11901Stay! Or else my joys will die
And perish in their infancy.

[passage-header]Read the passage and answer the question that follows: [/passage-header]  In the mind of the mariner, there is a superstitious horror connected with the name of Pirate; and there are few subjects that interest and excite the curiosity of mankind generally, more than 10513the desperate exploits, foul doings, and diabolical career of these monsters in human form. A piratical crew is generally formed of 41406the desperadoes and runagates of every clime and nation. The pirate, from the perilous nature of his occupation, when not crushing on the ocean, 58038the great highway of nations selects the most lonely isles of the sea for his retreat, or 26085secretes himself near the shores of rivers, bays and lagoons of thickly wooded and uninhabited countries, so that if pursued he can escape to the woods and mountain glens of the interior. The islands of the Indian Ocean, and the east and west coasts of Africa, as well as the West Indies, have been 36478their haunts for centuries, and vessels navigating the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, are often captured by them, the passengers and crew murdered, the money and most valuable part of the cargo plundered, the vessel destroyed, thus obliterating all trace of their unhappy fate, and leaving friends and relatives to mourn their loss from the inclemencies of the elements, when they were butchered in cold blood by their fellow men, who by 56008practically adopting the maxim that "dead men tell no tales," enable themselves to pursue their a diabolical career with impunity...
   But 16958the apprehension and foreboding of the mind, when under the influence of remorse, are powerful, and every man, whether civilized or savage has interwoven in his constitution a moral sense, which secretly condemns him when he has committed an atrocious action, even when he is placed in situations which raise him above the fear of human punishment, for "Conscience, the torturer of the soul, unseen. Does fiercely brandish a sharp scourge within; Severe decrees may keep our tongues in awe, but to our minds what edicts can give law? Even you yourself to your own breast shall tell Your crimes, and your own conscience be your hell."
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