excerpt from “Lights in the Windows” - Liberty Union

Transcription

Student Name: ______________________
Teacher:
______________________
District:
Liberty Union-Thurston Local
Assessment:
9_12 Language Arts Integrated English Language Arts I Class Diagnostic 1
Description:
9th pretest
Form:
101
Date:
___________
Please use the following passage for this question.
excerpt from
“Lights in the Windows”
by Naomi Shihab Nye
1
Years ago a girl handed me a note as I was leaving her proud town of Albany, Texas, a tiny, lovely place far in the
west of my big state. “I’m glad to know there is another poemist in the world,” the note said. “I always knew we
would find one another someday and our lights would cross.”
2
Our lights would cross. That girl had not stood out to me, I realized, among the other upturned, interested faces
in the classroom. How many other lights had I missed? I carried her smudged note for thousands of miles.
3
I was fascinated with the earliest poems I read and heard that gave insight into all the secret territories of the
human spirit, our relationships with one another. Somehow those glimpses felt comforting, like looking through the
lit windows of other people’s homes at dusk, before they closed the curtains. How did other people live their lives?
Just a sense of so many other worlds out there, beginning with the next house on my own street, gave me a great
energy. How could anyone ever feel lonely? One of the first books I loved in my life was a thick, gray anthology
edited by Helen Ferris, called Favorite Poems Old and New. I still have my early edition, though it is coming a little
loose at the spine. Rich, intelligent voices spoke to me each time I opened its covers. I found Rabindranath Tagore,
Carl Sandburg, Emily Dickinson, living side-by-side. I imagined I was part of a much larger family.
4
To me the world of poetry is a house with thousands of glittering windows. Our words and images, land to land,
era to era, shed light on one another. Our words dissolve the shadows we imagine fall between. “One night I dreamt
of spring,” writes Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut, “and when I awoke/flowers covered my pillow.” Isn’t this
where empathy begins? Other countries stop seeming quite so “foreign,” or inanimate, or strange, when we listen to
the intimate voices of their citizens. I can never understand it when teachers claim they are “uncomfortable” with
poetry— as if poetry demands they be anything other than responsive, curious human beings. If poetry comes out
of the deepest places in the human soul and experience, shouldn’t it be as important to learn about one another’s
poetry, country to country, as one another’s weather or gross national products? It seems critical to me. It’s another
way to study geography!
5
For this reason I was always carrying poems I found from other countries into classrooms where I worked as a
visiting writer. If American students are provincial about the literary histories of other places, imagining themselves
to be the primary readers and writers on the planet, it is up to us to help enlighten them. When I first traveled to
India and Bangladesh as a visiting writer for the Arts America program of the U.S. Information Agency, friends
commented helpfully upon our departure, “Why do you suppose people over there will care about poetry? They
can barely get enough to eat!” Stereotyping ran rampant among even my educated community. In India, poems were
shared with us which were 7,000 years old. In Bangladesh, an impromptu poetry reading was called one evening and
2,000 enthusiastic listeners showed up. Could either of those things happen in the United States?
6
Anyone who feels poetry is an alien or ominous form should consider the style in which human beings think.
“How do you think?” I ask my students. “Do you think in complete, elaborate sentences? In fully developed
paragraphs with careful footnotes? Or in flashes and bursts of images, snatches of lines leaping one to the next,
descriptive fragments, sensory details?” We think in poetry. But some people pretend poetry is far away.
7
Probably some of us were taught so long and hard that poetry was a thing to analyze that we lost our ability to
find it delicious, to appreciate its taste, sometimes even when we couldn’t completely apprehend its meaning. I love
to offer students a poem now and then that I don’t really understand. It presents them with the immediate
opportunity of being smarter than I am. Believe me, they always take it. They always find an interesting way to
look through its window. It presents us all with a renewed appetite for interpretation, one of the most vibrant and
energetic parts of the poetry experience.
8
I’m reminded of a dear teacher I had in high school who refused to go on to the next poem in our antiquated
textbook until we had all agreed on the same interpretive vision of each poem, her vision . . . If we can offer each
other a cognizance* of mystery through the poems we share, isn’t that a greater gift? Won’t a sense of inevitable
mystery underpinning our intricate lives serve us better than the notion that we will each be given a neat set of
blanks to fill in—always?
9
Poems offer that mystery. Poems respect our ability to interpret and translate images and signs. Poems link
seemingly disparate** parts of experience—this seems particularly critical at the frenzied end of the 20th century. I
have yet to meet one person in all my travels who doesn’t say they are too busy, they wish they had a little more
time. If most of us have lost, as some poets suggest, our meaningful, deep relationships with the world of nature,
poems help us to see and feel that world again, beyond our cities and double-locked doors . . . .
*cognizance: awareness, recognition
**disparate: distinct, different
“Lights in the Windows” by Naomi Shihab Nye, originally from The ALAN Review, copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used by permission of the
author.
1. The author would most likely agree with which statement?
A. Enjoying poetry is natural to the human condition.
B.
Writing poetry is a process that involves several steps.
C.
Interpreting poetry is mostly a matter of understanding the poet.
D.
Teaching poetry is more challenging than teaching other fiction.
The Open Window
by Edward Rowland Sill
My tower was grimly builded,
With many a bolt and bar,
“And here,” I thought, “I will keep my life
From the bitter world afar.”
5
Dark and chill was the stony floor,
Where never a sunbeam lay,
And the mould crept up on the dreary wall,
With its ghost touch, day by day.
One morn, in my sullen musings,
10 A flutter and cry I heard;
And close at the rusty casement
There clung a frightened bird.
Then back I flung the shutter
That was never before undone,
15 And I kept till its wings were rested
The little weary one.
But in through the open window,
Which I had forgot to close,
There had burst a gush of sunshine
20 And a summer scent of rose.
For all the while I had burrowed
There in my dingy tower,
Lo! the birds had sung and the leaves had danced
From hour to sunny hour.
25 And such balm and warmth and beauty
Came drifting in since then,
That window still stands open
And shall never be shut again.
Public Domain
2. The details in Lines 9–16 of the poem suggest that the bird was
George Beto’s Mare
by Bruce Jackson
1
We don’t only tell stories that make sense of things past; we also imagine stories that help direct us through
current events. It’s not just Hollywood scriptwriters who make up stories and actors who act in them; we all do it,
only we get to be writer, actor, director and, later, when we’re looking back on it, editor or historian. That is, our
stories aren’t only our histories, our version of what happened; sometimes they’re our scripts, our map of what’s
going on now and what’s going to happen next.
2
I was visiting my friend George Beto at his ranch, Wit’s End, a few miles out of Huntsville, Texas. It was a place
George went to think. He walked a lot and tended his small herds of Black Angus cattle and Nubian goats.
3
That day, we were sitting on the porch talking when George became quiet and looked off into space. At first I
thought he was thinking about something serious, then I realized he was looking at something in the distance. I
followed his gaze and saw a slanted plume of dust moving our way along the road from town.
4
The road was unpaved, even the part that went through a stream a mile or two toward town that sometimes got
hubcap deep. Every few years the Huntsville city fathers offered to pave the road and even build it up over the
stream, but George always talked them out of it. He told me why: “If there’s a good road people will come out here,
and the reason I have this place is to get away from people.”
5
It wasn’t long before we made out a white Ford pickup at the head of the plume of dust. It stopped at the road
coming into George’s place, a few hundred yards from the house. The driver got out, opened the gate, drove up a few
yards, stopped, got out again, closed the gate, then got back into the cab and drove the rest of the way up to the
house.
6
He was a tall man, older than I and younger than George. He wore rancher’s work clothes, but it was a Saturday
and around there a lot of men wore rancher’s clothes on Saturday who wore business suits or doctor’s coats or
judge’s robes on weekdays. George stood up to greet him. The man said he was out this way and thought he’d stop
by to say hello. George said he’d have been insulted if he hadn’t. George introduced us, then invited the man to join
us. The man said that would be nice, because it was a hot day and the drive had been dusty. He sat in a chair next to
me and George took the chair on the other side of him and the three of us then looked out into the East Texas
afternoon.
7
We talked about the dust, the lack of recent rain, and the recent election. The man asked me what it was like this
time of year in Buffalo; I told him. I said this weather was very hot for me; he said as hot as it was today, it was very
hot for anybody. There was some talk about Austin politicians. The man complimented George on his Nubians,
several of which had just trotted into sight in the pasture. George loved those goats. Then the man got up, said it was
good to have had this chance to say hello to George, it was nice having met me. We shook hands. He stepped back
into the cab of his white pickup.
8
We watched him reverse his arrival: he drove to the gate, stopped a few yards our side of it, got out and opened
the gate, got back into the truck and drove out to the road, got out and walked back to close the gate, got into his
truck and drove toward town, followed by a moving slanted plume of dust. Soon we couldn’t see the truck anymore,
just the plume, and after a while we couldn’t even see that.
9
When the noise of the truck had attenuated to nothing and the dust had dissipated, George said, “He’s not going
to get that mare for what he thinks he’s going to get her for.”
10
“What mare?” I said. “I don’t remember him saying anything about a mare.”
11
“He didn’t,” George said. “He won’t get around to saying anything about her until next time, or more likely the
time after that. But he’s still not going to get her for what he thinks he’s going to get her for.” What I like about that
story is, it shows how people see themselves in a narrative. It’s a story happening. Both George and his friend are
looking forward and backward, weaving their narrative in their daily life. Both are looking back at scenes already
played and ahead to scenes as yet mapped out only in general terms, and heading toward a denouement both almost
know. The mare will be sold, but at what price neither is certain. There will be other encounters leading up to the
first mention of the sale and there will, after that, be discussions of the sale itself. When or where those will occur
neither man knows, nor does either man know exactly what will be said on those occasions. The human script will be
written on the fly, but in terms of a plot very much in place.
12
It’s not rigid. It’s not that kind of script. Someone else might come along and make an offer to George that cannot
be refused. The man I met might happen upon another mare he wants more. The story will play out as both men
expect it to only if it plays out the way they expect. This is real life, not Shakespeare. In real life, the last act of any
story isn’t written until after it’s been played.
13
I told a few people what I’ve just told you, and hearing myself tell it I began to wonder if maybe I wasn’t reading
more into how much those guys dramatized the ongoing story of their lives. Then I happened to meet that man in the
white Ford pickup once again. It was five years ago when I went down to Austin for George’s funeral. It was a big
formal affair with a herd of politicians and ranchers and state officials, and people from the university where George
taught the last fifteen years of his life. A man came up to me after the service and said hello. It was obvious that I
didn’t remember him. “I met you at Wit’s End twelve or thirteen years ago,” he said, “the day I went up there to buy
George’s mare.”
“George Beto’s Mare” from The Stories People Tell, by Bruce Jackson, first appeared in The Antioch Review, Vol. 55, #3, copyright © 1997 by The
Antioch Review, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the editors.
3. Which of these provides the best clue that this story has a contemporary setting?
A.
the name of the ranch
B.
the lack of rain
C.
the description of the road
D.
the visitor’s vehicle
The Rejected Stone
by Felicia Buttz Clark
1
It was a huge, misshapen slab of marble stained by long years of exposure to the elements. The well-known
sculptor Duccio, 40 years before, had curled his lip at it, pronouncing it worthless. Then along came a young man,
poor in worldly goods but rich in dreams.
2
“Hello, Michelangelo,” called a cheerful voice. “I thought I’d find you here, grubbing among the old stones. Never
did I see such a fellow, working, working all the time, never stopping for any pleasure. I expect that when the rest of
us are forgotten, you’ll be famous.”
3
“Oh, I forgot to give you this letter. Your landlord said it was marked important and came from Florence.”
Giorgio searched his pockets, drawing out a package wrapped in oilskin.
4
“It’s from my father.” Michelangelo’s hand trembled as he held the closely written sheets of parchmentlike
paper. “He wants me to come home.” He paused, then added dreamily, “Home to Florence.”
5
6
7
“It’s five years since you left home, isn’t it?” asked his friend.
“I was 19 when Lorenzo the Magnificent died, and my hopes were high. I planned a great future. And then, you
know what troubles came to Florence. I had to leave, being a friend of the hated Medici, and went first to Bologna,
coming back to Florence for a time, and then to Rome in June 1496. Five long years have I spent here. I made a few
pieces of sculpture, yes, and some friends. But I am as poor as when I arrived. Now that my father has lost his job,
there is nobody but me to support him. My brothers do not like to work, so he urges me to return to Florence.”
“And you’ll be glad to?”
8
“Glad to go! Who would not wish to dwell in the City of Flowers? Its colors, its flowers, Giotto’s Campanile
rising like a lily, the churches, the sunshine—”
9
“Yes, I see,” Giorgio said with a laugh. “But amico mio, how can you earn your daily bread and enough for your
father and brothers?”
10
“With my chisel or my brush, as I always have been able to do, Giorgio. There’s more in the letter. Listen: ‘The
other day the authorities of the Cathedral and the Woolen Guild sent word that when you came back, they want you
to make a statue out of that big block of marble that was rejected as useless by the sculptor Duccio. I told them that
you would see them as soon as you arrived in Florence.’ Now, isn’t that a job for me? I must do the work in two
years. Let me see. This is April. If I set off soon, I can make my designs and begin work by autumn.”
11
12
13
14
15
“Have you ever seen this block of marble, Michelangelo?”
“Many times. It was dug in the quarries of the Carrara, on the mountain near Pisa, facing the Mediterranean, and
is of fine quality. Of course, having lain in sunshine and rain for so long, it is discolored. Also, it has been clumsily
hacked until the shape is very, very curious. It will be a difficult task to bring an object of beauty out of such an ugly,
misformed piece.”
“I believe you can do just that,” said Giorgio quietly.
“Perhaps. Chi lo sa? Who knows? If you have finished, Giorgio, let us go. My mind is full of plans—the form,
the height. I have a feeling that, if I can work out from this old, deformed piece of marble a figure of fair design, it will
be an ornament to Florence.”
“And bring you fame.”
16
“Perhaps. That is not the first object. Fame does not count much, and usually comes after we are gone; but a
work of love, that is different—that lives.”
17
“I’ll go to Florence with you, my friend,” Giorgio said, laying his hand, heavy with jeweled rings, on the old
velvet tunic worn by the young sculptor. “I’m curious to see what you can do with a piece of rock everyone else
considers hopeless.”
18
Michelangelo whistled softly as he walked around the huge piece of marble, ivory-tinted, blackened, irregular in
shape, and altogether disheartening except to a youth who loved to work and had a brain full of ideas.
19
Having made his measurements and his design, Michelangelo, happily whistling, bent to his task, chipping a little
here, a little there, revealing beneath the discolored exterior of the rejected stone, marble of purest texture and
snowiest white. The work must be finished in two years, a gigantic task, but Michelangelo had no fears; he knew that
he could do it.
20
A high wooden wall was built around the marble block, enclosing it so that bothersome sight-seers could not
distract him. From the time when the sun peeped over the rim of the mountains until it set, Michelangelo labored.
21
A year rolled by. Out of the shapeless marble, David was being created; his slender body standing in graceful
posture, the form of his head that of a youth, the hand, and the sling. As yet, there were no features. It was as if a
body were acquiring life. But the soul did not yet illuminate the face.
22
On a glowing October day, Michelangelo took a holiday. Long since, his friend Giorgio had returned to Rome,
assuring the sculptor that when the statue sprang fully formed from the marble, he would come again to Florence.
“For then you will be famous, Michelangelo mio; the world will ring with your praise.”
23
“And the Medici will give me an order for statues of themselves to enhance their own glory,” responded the
artist, not cynically but with a touch of humor. “What is fame? It is a mist that flies away on the lightest breath of
adversity. It is worth nothing. I tell you, Giorgio, that I am not working for gold, nor that my name may be spoken
by men’s lips, but for love—love of art and love of Florence.”
24
“Nevertheless—mark my words—people shall come across the wide seas to gaze wonderingly at the David
which you have made a creature of life out of the rejected stone.”
25
Another year passed, and the David stood perfect in form, his face eager and alive, his figure tense. The marble,
the ugly stained marble, had fallen away. It was as if a shining, sparkling form that had been imprisoned had stepped
forth into pulsating life.
26
The pompous members of the city council came in scarlet mantles and feathered hats, gazed, and pronounced it
good.
27
Michelangelo smiled in his quiet way. Little cared he for the few pieces of gold they had promised him, nor for
their commendation. In his heart he knew that the work of his hands was good. He had found a brown, unlovely
block of marble; he had made it a thing of beauty to adorn the City of Flowers.
28
One day, early in 1504, Michelangelo wrote a letter to Giorgio, in Rome:
29
The David is finished, dear friend. It is to be placed well, on the left of the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio. If
you wish to see it, come. You will not find Michelangelo Buonarroti famous, but you will find him happy. He has
done the best he could.
30
For 369 years, the statue of David stood by the door of the Palazzo Vecchio. Autumnal rains fell upon it, the
fogs enveloped it; upon its head the hot summer sunshine fell. Generations came and went, but people still
remembered that Michelangelo had carved the splendid statue of David out of a rejected stone and brought beauty
from ugliness. In 1873 it was decided to remove the original statue to the Academy of Fine Arts.
31
Giorgio’s prophecy has really come true: “Nevertheless—mark my words—people shall come across the wide
seas to gaze wonderingly at the David which you have made a creature of life out of the rejected stone.”
Public Domain
4. What is the main purpose of the text in italics at the beginning of the passage?
Never Lost
1
When they were children, their parents had always directed them to meet at a particular spot if anybody got lost.
Dylan and Sara hadn’t even considered such a thing, and had planned no meeting spot in the event of a separation,
which—Dylan now realized, as he scanned the faces of people rushing past—had been a grave mistake. How could
he have had such a lack of foresight? He was the elder of the two, the responsible one. He could imagine what his
parents would say—and none of it was good.
2
There was no way he could possibly board the plane without his sister. He’d stay at this airport until he was
eighty if that’s what it took. He imagined himself sleeping on the floor, serenaded by the roaring engines of jets. He
had to find her; she couldn’t have gone too far. Dylan calmed himself with the reminder that the airport terminal was
a self-contained building. She must be somewhere, and she certainly would not have retraced her steps and taken the
underground train back to the main terminal. Yes, she was definitely somewhere in the building.
3
Dylan considered all that he had ever learned about what to do if he found himself abandoned in the wild. He
knew to hold onto a tree and stop walking when lost in a forest. The next step was to look for familiar landmarks.
But this wasn’t a forest, and he wasn’t lost; he knew precisely where he was. He tried to remember what the
directions were for rescue squads, but what sprang to mind wasn’t at all helpful. He could look for broken twigs
underfoot, or he might look for damaged brush, which could indicate a hiker’s departure from the trail. Dylan shook
his head. There were no trails here. There was no underbrush; there were what seemed like miles of white linoleum
floors and vast expanses of dull gray carpet, and endless rows of chrome-trimmed benches and walls of blinking
display screens.
4
Without moving, Dylan continued to scrutinize the crowd, concentrating his powers of observation and trying to
recall what his sister was wearing. A woman walked quickly past, her heels clicking on the hard floor, a red ribbon
tied to the handle of her suitcase. A red sweater, he thought, it was definitely a red sweater.
5
The sea of people continued to flow past Dylan as he stood fast, a lighthouse on the jetty, searching desperately
for a glimpse of red. He wished he were taller. Then he saw a flash of a red sweater through a break in the crowd.
This mobilized Dylan, and he launched himself in that direction.
6
Around the corner, Sara looked over her shoulder, and then stopped. Her brother had been walking right next to
her, but where had he gone? She stood still, heart thumping, and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 4:45. Their
plane boarded at 5:00. She had to find him quickly.
7
Buffeted by the passing hordes, Sara retraced her steps, searching for her brother. He was nowhere to be seen. He
couldn’t have gone too far, she thought. He was walking right next to me a moment ago.
8
Torn between wanting to stay put, and worried about missing their flight, Sara made a decision. She would look
for him for three more minutes, and then at 4:48 she would walk to their gate. They both knew where the plane was
leaving from, Sara reasoned. It made sense that they would find each other there.
9
Dylan followed the flash of red, but as he drew parallel to the woman, he saw she was older than Sara. He
glanced at his watch again. It was 4:48. Trying not to fear the worst, Dylan made a decision. Like a ship changing
course, Dylan turned sharply down the hall that led to Gate 34C, hoping that his sister had done, or was about to do,
the same. And if not, well, he’d worry about that when he came to it.
10
At the juncture of two hallways, Sara saw Dylan walk right past her toward Gate 34C. She fell into step beside
her brother. “Impeccable timing, I was worried we would be late,” she said, before he had noticed her presence.
11
“Where did you come from?” Dylan demanded.
12
Sara managed not to smile. She could tell Dylan was trying to hide his relief at seeing her.
13
“What do you mean?” said Sara “I’ve been right behind you this whole time.”
5. What will most likely happen if the two characters take another trip together?
A.
They will once again be separated.
B.
They will arrange to board different flights.
C.
They will make a plan in case they are separated.
D.
They will pay attention to what the other is wearing.
America the Beautiful
by Katharine Lee Bates
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
5
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
10 Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
15 Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
20 And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
25 O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster* cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
30 God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for halcyon** skies,
For amber waves of grain,
35 For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
40 And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
45 America! America!
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!
50 O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man’s avail
Men lavished precious life!
55 America! America!
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream
60 That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
65 Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
*alabaster: translucent white stone
**halcyon: calm and tranquil
Public Domain
6. According to the fourth stanza of “America the Beautiful,” what resulted from patriots’ vision of the future?
A.
Freedom has prevailed.
B.
Land has been misused.
C.
Beautiful cities emerged.
D.
Brotherhoods were created.
excerpt from
“Lights in the Windows”
by Naomi Shihab Nye
1
Years ago a girl handed me a note as I was leaving her proud town of Albany, Texas, a tiny, lovely place far in the
west of my big state. “I’m glad to know there is another poemist in the world,” the note said. “I always knew we
would find one another someday and our lights would cross.”
2
Our lights would cross. That girl had not stood out to me, I realized, among the other upturned, interested faces
in the classroom. How many other lights had I missed? I carried her smudged note for thousands of miles.
3
I was fascinated with the earliest poems I read and heard that gave insight into all the secret territories of the
human spirit, our relationships with one another. Somehow those glimpses felt comforting, like looking through the
lit windows of other people’s homes at dusk, before they closed the curtains. How did other people live their lives?
Just a sense of so many other worlds out there, beginning with the next house on my own street, gave me a great
energy. How could anyone ever feel lonely? One of the first books I loved in my life was a thick, gray anthology
edited by Helen Ferris, called Favorite Poems Old and New. I still have my early edition, though it is coming a little
loose at the spine. Rich, intelligent voices spoke to me each time I opened its covers. I found Rabindranath Tagore,
Carl Sandburg, Emily Dickinson, living side-by-side. I imagined I was part of a much larger family.
4
To me the world of poetry is a house with thousands of glittering windows. Our words and images, land to land,
era to era, shed light on one another. Our words dissolve the shadows we imagine fall between. “One night I dreamt
of spring,” writes Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut, “and when I awoke/flowers covered my pillow.” Isn’t this
where empathy begins? Other countries stop seeming quite so “foreign,” or inanimate, or strange, when we listen to
the intimate voices of their citizens. I can never understand it when teachers claim they are “uncomfortable” with
poetry— as if poetry demands they be anything other than responsive, curious human beings. If poetry comes out
of the deepest places in the human soul and experience, shouldn’t it be as important to learn about one another’s
poetry, country to country, as one another’s weather or gross national products? It seems critical to me. It’s another
way to study geography!
5
For this reason I was always carrying poems I found from other countries into classrooms where I worked as a
visiting writer. If American students are provincial about the literary histories of other places, imagining themselves
to be the primary readers and writers on the planet, it is up to us to help enlighten them. When I first traveled to
India and Bangladesh as a visiting writer for the Arts America program of the U.S. Information Agency, friends
commented helpfully upon our departure, “Why do you suppose people over there will care about poetry? They
can barely get enough to eat!” Stereotyping ran rampant among even my educated community. In India, poems were
shared with us which were 7,000 years old. In Bangladesh, an impromptu poetry reading was called one evening and
2,000 enthusiastic listeners showed up. Could either of those things happen in the United States?
6
Anyone who feels poetry is an alien or ominous form should consider the style in which human beings think.
“How do you think?” I ask my students. “Do you think in complete, elaborate sentences? In fully developed
paragraphs with careful footnotes? Or in flashes and bursts of images, snatches of lines leaping one to the next,
descriptive fragments, sensory details?” We think in poetry. But some people pretend poetry is far away.
7
Probably some of us were taught so long and hard that poetry was a thing to analyze that we lost our ability to
find it delicious, to appreciate its taste, sometimes even when we couldn’t completely apprehend its meaning. I love
to offer students a poem now and then that I don’t really understand. It presents them with the immediate
opportunity of being smarter than I am. Believe me, they always take it. They always find an interesting way to
look through its window. It presents us all with a renewed appetite for interpretation, one of the most vibrant and
energetic parts of the poetry experience.
8
I’m reminded of a dear teacher I had in high school who refused to go on to the next poem in our antiquated
textbook until we had all agreed on the same interpretive vision of each poem, her vision . . . If we can offer each
other a cognizance* of mystery through the poems we share, isn’t that a greater gift? Won’t a sense of inevitable
mystery underpinning our intricate lives serve us better than the notion that we will each be given a neat set of
blanks to fill in—always?
9
Poems offer that mystery. Poems respect our ability to interpret and translate images and signs. Poems link
seemingly disparate** parts of experience—this seems particularly critical at the frenzied end of the 20th century. I
have yet to meet one person in all my travels who doesn’t say they are too busy, they wish they had a little more
time. If most of us have lost, as some poets suggest, our meaningful, deep relationships with the world of nature,
poems help us to see and feel that world again, beyond our cities and double-locked doors . . . .
*cognizance: awareness, recognition
**disparate: distinct, different
“Lights in the Windows” by Naomi Shihab Nye, originally from The ALAN Review, copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used by permission of the
author.
7. Which aspect of poetry does the author contrast in this passage?
A.
past and present poets
B.
different styles of poetry
C.
themes in American and international poetry
D.
American and international attitudes toward poetry
The Rejected Stone
by Felicia Buttz Clark
1
It was a huge, misshapen slab of marble stained by long years of exposure to the elements. The well-known
sculptor Duccio, 40 years before, had curled his lip at it, pronouncing it worthless. Then along came a young man,
poor in worldly goods but rich in dreams.
2
“Hello, Michelangelo,” called a cheerful voice. “I thought I’d find you here, grubbing among the old stones. Never
did I see such a fellow, working, working all the time, never stopping for any pleasure. I expect that when the rest of
us are forgotten, you’ll be famous.”
3
“Oh, I forgot to give you this letter. Your landlord said it was marked important and came from Florence.”
Giorgio searched his pockets, drawing out a package wrapped in oilskin.
4
“It’s from my father.” Michelangelo’s hand trembled as he held the closely written sheets of parchmentlike
paper. “He wants me to come home.” He paused, then added dreamily, “Home to Florence.”
5
6
7
8
“It’s five years since you left home, isn’t it?” asked his friend.
“I was 19 when Lorenzo the Magnificent died, and my hopes were high. I planned a great future. And then, you
know what troubles came to Florence. I had to leave, being a friend of the hated Medici, and went first to Bologna,
coming back to Florence for a time, and then to Rome in June 1496. Five long years have I spent here. I made a few
pieces of sculpture, yes, and some friends. But I am as poor as when I arrived. Now that my father has lost his job,
there is nobody but me to support him. My brothers do not like to work, so he urges me to return to Florence.”
“And you’ll be glad to?”
“Glad to go! Who would not wish to dwell in the City of Flowers? Its colors, its flowers, Giotto’s Campanile
rising like a lily, the churches, the sunshine—”
9
“Yes, I see,” Giorgio said with a laugh. “But amico mio, how can you earn your daily bread and enough for your
father and brothers?”
10
“With my chisel or my brush, as I always have been able to do, Giorgio. There’s more in the letter. Listen: ‘The
other day the authorities of the Cathedral and the Woolen Guild sent word that when you came back, they want you
to make a statue out of that big block of marble that was rejected as useless by the sculptor Duccio. I told them that
you would see them as soon as you arrived in Florence.’ Now, isn’t that a job for me? I must do the work in two
years. Let me see. This is April. If I set off soon, I can make my designs and begin work by autumn.”
11
12
13
14
15
“Have you ever seen this block of marble, Michelangelo?”
“Many times. It was dug in the quarries of the Carrara, on the mountain near Pisa, facing the Mediterranean, and
is of fine quality. Of course, having lain in sunshine and rain for so long, it is discolored. Also, it has been clumsily
hacked until the shape is very, very curious. It will be a difficult task to bring an object of beauty out of such an ugly,
misformed piece.”
“I believe you can do just that,” said Giorgio quietly.
“Perhaps. Chi lo sa? Who knows? If you have finished, Giorgio, let us go. My mind is full of plans—the form,
the height. I have a feeling that, if I can work out from this old, deformed piece of marble a figure of fair design, it will
be an ornament to Florence.”
“And bring you fame.”
16
“Perhaps. That is not the first object. Fame does not count much, and usually comes after we are gone; but a
work of love, that is different—that lives.”
17
“I’ll go to Florence with you, my friend,” Giorgio said, laying his hand, heavy with jeweled rings, on the old
velvet tunic worn by the young sculptor. “I’m curious to see what you can do with a piece of rock everyone else
considers hopeless.”
18
Michelangelo whistled softly as he walked around the huge piece of marble, ivory-tinted, blackened, irregular in
shape, and altogether disheartening except to a youth who loved to work and had a brain full of ideas.
19
Having made his measurements and his design, Michelangelo, happily whistling, bent to his task, chipping a little
here, a little there, revealing beneath the discolored exterior of the rejected stone, marble of purest texture and
snowiest white. The work must be finished in two years, a gigantic task, but Michelangelo had no fears; he knew that
he could do it.
20
A high wooden wall was built around the marble block, enclosing it so that bothersome sight-seers could not
distract him. From the time when the sun peeped over the rim of the mountains until it set, Michelangelo labored.
21
A year rolled by. Out of the shapeless marble, David was being created; his slender body standing in graceful
posture, the form of his head that of a youth, the hand, and the sling. As yet, there were no features. It was as if a
body were acquiring life. But the soul did not yet illuminate the face.
22
On a glowing October day, Michelangelo took a holiday. Long since, his friend Giorgio had returned to Rome,
assuring the sculptor that when the statue sprang fully formed from the marble, he would come again to Florence.
“For then you will be famous, Michelangelo mio; the world will ring with your praise.”
23
“And the Medici will give me an order for statues of themselves to enhance their own glory,” responded the
artist, not cynically but with a touch of humor. “What is fame? It is a mist that flies away on the lightest breath of
adversity. It is worth nothing. I tell you, Giorgio, that I am not working for gold, nor that my name may be spoken
by men’s lips, but for love—love of art and love of Florence.”
24
“Nevertheless—mark my words—people shall come across the wide seas to gaze wonderingly at the David
which you have made a creature of life out of the rejected stone.”
25
Another year passed, and the David stood perfect in form, his face eager and alive, his figure tense. The marble,
the ugly stained marble, had fallen away. It was as if a shining, sparkling form that had been imprisoned had stepped
forth into pulsating life.
26
The pompous members of the city council came in scarlet mantles and feathered hats, gazed, and pronounced it
good.
27
Michelangelo smiled in his quiet way. Little cared he for the few pieces of gold they had promised him, nor for
their commendation. In his heart he knew that the work of his hands was good. He had found a brown, unlovely
block of marble; he had made it a thing of beauty to adorn the City of Flowers.
28
One day, early in 1504, Michelangelo wrote a letter to Giorgio, in Rome:
29
The David is finished, dear friend. It is to be placed well, on the left of the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio. If
you wish to see it, come. You will not find Michelangelo Buonarroti famous, but you will find him happy. He has
done the best he could.
30
For 369 years, the statue of David stood by the door of the Palazzo Vecchio. Autumnal rains fell upon it, the
fogs enveloped it; upon its head the hot summer sunshine fell. Generations came and went, but people still
remembered that Michelangelo had carved the splendid statue of David out of a rejected stone and brought beauty
from ugliness. In 1873 it was decided to remove the original statue to the Academy of Fine Arts.
31
Giorgio’s prophecy has really come true: “Nevertheless—mark my words—people shall come across the wide
seas to gaze wonderingly at the David which you have made a creature of life out of the rejected stone.”
Public Domain
8. In Paragraph 4, what is shown about Michelangelo when his hand trembles?
A.
He is nervous about his landlord.
B.
He is eager to go back to Florence.
C.
He is tired from searching for marble.
D.
He is worried about his father’s health.
by Bruce Jackson
1
2
3
4
5
house.
6
afternoon.
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
George’s mare.”
9. Why doesn’t George want the Huntsville city fathers to pave the road leading to his ranch?
Purple and Fine Linen
by Anna Brownell Dunaway
1
There was a 15-minute wait at the little transfer station at Junction City. Pauline begrudged every second of it.
The wedding ceremony of her friend was set for 8:00. That would barely give her time to greet the family and slip
into her peach taffeta bridesmaid’s gown.
2
She moved restlessly about the dingy little waiting room, nibbling a chocolate bar. There would be no time to
snatch even a bite after she got there. The candy would have to sustain her until the wedding ceremony was over.
The dinky little local she was about to board did not have a diner. That was what one got for traveling to out-ofthe-way places like Weeping Water. Pauline smiled disdainfully as she repeated the name half aloud. What a teary
sound it had, suggestive of funeral wreaths and weeping willows rather than a wedding.
3
Pauline was an Easterner and city-bred to the core. She had never lived away from the rumble of streetcars and
the noise of traffic. She had a hazy idea that country folk and small-town dwellers spent their days milking cows and
gathering eggs. The stares of the loungers and the sights and sounds of a village depot grated upon her sensibilities.
She moved impatiently to the window and laid down her purse, ticket, and gloves for a moment, while she powdered
her nose before the lid of her pigskin case.
4
“Excuse me”—it was a low voice at her elbow—“but is this your glove? I picked it up under one of the seats.”
5
Pauline snatched it with an annoyed gesture. “Why, yes, I believe it is mine, thank you.” She was proverbially
careless, perhaps because things came to her so easily that they gave her no sense of responsibility. Now reminded of
her shortcomings, she took a hasty inventory of her belongings. Bag, silk umbrella, gloves, ticket, fitted traveling
case—all at hand. Would the train never come? It was already overdue. She tapped the floor impatiently with her
foot, clad in its immaculate mole oxford.
6
“I believe I hear the local whistling now.” It was the same friendly voice. Pauline turned and observed the girl to
whom it belonged. Then she looked away with an almost imperceptible lift of her eyebrows. These familiar people in
wayside stations, always trying to essay conversation! Evidently, a little native on her way to “weekend” with
somebody, as the local newspapers would put it. Her plain blue serge suit had a homemade look to Pauline’s
fastidious eye, and although it was the first day of September, the girl wore a straw hat.
7
If there was anything in which Pauline was not careless, it was the purple line of convention that marked the
times and seasons of wearing apparel. She was smugly conscious of the becoming lines of her twill suit of mole
brown, with its hat of velour to match. Pauline was an unconscious snob in the matter of dress. She was wont to
measure people by a certain rigid standard, which meant for her purple and fine linen.
8
She picked up her traveling case. People were hurrying out of the station. Pauline, anxious to get a seat in the
train where Pullman accommodations were not to be had for love or money, followed in their wake, counting over her
belongings as she went. Yes, she had them all: traveling case, gloves, handbag, umbrella—
9
“Where to, miss?”
10
“Weeping Water,” said Pauline haughtily. She made her way down the aisle and dropped into what she mentally
termed a “stuffy” red plush seat. Well, anyway, there was the consolation that it wouldn’t be long now. A few
hours’ ride and then her destination, and all the fascinating excitement of a wedding.
11
And Joan’s people were real gentlefolk. Her father had given up a career as a surgeon in a big city to stay on in
the little town and carry on the practice that his father had had before him. Pauline felt that she could safely approve
of Joan’s family. Not that Joan could dress as she did—not on a country doctor’s salary—but she felt she could
make much of nothing. She had an air that placed her in the purple-and-fine-linen class. Joan would look like a
duchess in her wedding gown. Her thoughts switched to her own peach taffeta—peach, green, and lavender. What
delicate shades—a regular rainbow wedding.
12
“Excuse me”—the deprecating voice again, with its friendly intonation—“is this your handkerchief? I found it in
the aisle.”
13
“Why, I believe it is. Thank you.” Pauline took it frigidly. The shabby little girl at the junction waiting room
again. She seemed to be a veritable Nemesis, popping up everywhere with lost articles. Pauline was annoyed that the
girl still hesitated in the aisle, swaying with the jerking motion of the train.
14
“Your ticket, madam.”
15
Pauline recalled her eyes from the window with a start. The girl had taken her seat. The conductor stood there
waiting. She had forgotten all about the ticket. Mechanically, she reached into her handbag. The ticket was not there.
16
The conductor cleared his throat impatiently. Pauline turned out the contents of her bag in a heterogeneous heap:
handkerchiefs, powder puff, cards, small change—but no tiny square of cardboard. She went through the various
pockets frantically, even though she knew, with the calmness of conviction, that her ticket reposed on the window
sill in the waiting room at Junction City. Now that she was miles away from it, she saw it as clearly as when she laid
it there. Slowly, she returned the things to her bag.
17
“I—haven’t my ticket,” she said composedly, opening her purse. “I remember now that I left it in the waiting
room at Junction City.”
18
The conductor eyed her coldly. “The fare,” he said, making a note in his book, “is three dollars and 87 cents. If
you haven’t your ticket or its equivalent, you will have to get off at the next stop.”
19
“But you don’t know who I am,” gasped Pauline. “My father is William J. Sherman, of the Sherman Trust
Company—“
20
“Can’t help it.” The conductor was moving down the aisle. He pulled the bell cord. “Next stop’s Pender. You get
off there.”
21
“Pender—Pender—Pender-r-r!”
22
The brakeman passed down the aisle, calling the name raucously. He stopped and lifted her traveling case. The
train came to a standstill. Glowering, the conductor waited on the platform. Pauline walked uncertainly down the
aisle, her eyes blurred with tears. She felt the eyes of the whole car upon her.
23
“Wait a minute.” It was the fresh, sweet voice of the girl of the waiting room. She stood on the top step holding a
blue silk parasol with ivory tips. “Isn’t this yours? I was deep in a book and only just saw you getting off. Is this
your station? I thought you were going to Weeping Water.”
24
25
26
“Conductor put’er off,” explained the brakeman laconically. “Lost her ticket—no money—”
“You lost your ticket?” cried the girl incredulously. “I remember seeing it in the window of the waiting room at
Junction City.”
“All aboard,” called the conductor. The brakeman doffed his cap.
27
“Wait!” cried a ringing voice. “Stop!” It held an authoritative note. “Put her back on. I have money. I will pay her
fare. Why, it’s an outrage, putting a girl off like this!” The girl reached down her hand to Pauline, who was keeping
pace with the barely creeping train. The brakeman, grinning, swept her up, suitcase and all. Pauline clung to the girl’s
hand as if to a lifesaver. Curiously enough, at this moment she had the sensation of being beyond her depth in a river,
and that someone was holding water wings to her.
28
The girl loosened her hand and tendered a crisp bill to the conductor. He handed her back the change with an
impervious smile.
29
“This way,” said the girl, leading Pauline through the rear of the car behind them. “Everybody will be craning
their necks in that other one. We’ll just sit here.”
30
“But you don’t know me,” cried Pauline, finding her voice, and regarding the other in amazement. “How can you
trust me like this—a perfect stranger? And I was so horrid!”
31
“I grew up on the prairies,” the girl said with a smile, “where everything is open and frank like the plains
themselves. No jungles, or swamps, or hidden ugly things. And I always know intuitively whom I can trust.” She
took out another crisp bill and laid it in Pauline’s hand. “You’ll need it before you get home,” she insisted.
32
“Your name then, and address,” said Pauline with the suspicion of a choke in her voice.
33
“Nellie Newton, Herington, Kansas.”
34
“Street and number?”
35
“Only that,” Nellie said with a laugh. “Oh, we don’t have to be labeled out West.”
36
Pauline scribbled rapidly. After all, she must have been mistaken in her vision of water wings. It must have been
an angel instead. She said earnestly, “I’ll make this up to you—oh, I will!”
37
“Of course,” murmured the girl simply. She turned to the window with an involuntary exclamation. “Oh, see!
The sun is setting over there in the west. Isn’t it beautiful?”
38
Pauline followed her gaze. Used as she was to city spires and skyscrapers, she was rather disappointed to see
only fleecy, airy clouds tinged with blue, green, and purple, like myriads of rainbows. But there was something about
its quiet beauty that held her.
39
“Few things,” spoke up Nellie suddenly, “can equal a prairie sunset.”
40
“Unless it be,” said Pauline with sincere homage, “a daughter of the prairies.”
41
The train thundered into the little station 35 minutes behind time. Pauline scrambled into a bus—she had written
Joan not to meet her, as she had been undecided about her time of leaving. The house was in a bustle of preparation,
and so she went straight to her room, stopping only for a hurried peek at the bride.
42
When she had slipped into the peach taffeta and had joined the wedding party at the head of the stairs, the
strains of Lohengrin’s Wedding March were floating up to them from below. Pauline fell into step beside the
bridesmaid in green. Then she gave such an undignified jump as to slow for a moment the stately procession. For
there, marching ahead of the bride, very erect and very sweet in her gown of lavender taffeta, was the maid of honor,
and she was no other than the little traveling companion who had paid her fare!
43
Their eyes met in recognition. The bridesmaid in green intercepted the look.
44
“Isn’t Joan’s cousin a dear?” she whispered. “And doesn’t she wear lavender well?”
45
Pauline nodded absently, for she was thinking of something she had wrested from the prairies that was the nicest
thing she had ever put in her memory box. It was that better far than outward apparel is the purple and fine linen of
the heart and mind.
Public Domain
10. Paragraph 2 is mainly about Pauline’s
A. aloofness toward strangers.
B.
impatience with small-town folk.
C.
worries about traveling in the country.
D.
sense of superiority.
On the Hurry of This Time
by Austin Dobson
With slower pen men used to write,
Of old, when “letters” were “polite”;
In Anna’s, or in George's days,
They could afford to turn a phrase,
5
Or trim a straggling theme aright.
They knew not steam; electric light
Not yet had dazed their calmer sight;—
They meted out both blame and praise
With slower pen.
10
Too swiftly now the hours take flight!
What’s read at morn is dead at night;
Scant space have we for Art’s delays,
Whose breathless thought so briefly stays,
We may not work—ah! would we might!—
15
With slower pen.
[Public Domain]
11. This passage could be considered ironic because
A. it asks for both modernization and tradition.
B.
it asks for help without offering help in return.
C.
it praises good writing, but it is poorly written.
D. it praises delay, which is not usually valued highly.
12. Read these sentences from the passage.
In the stripped trees, the disconsolate gardens, the frosty ground, there is only an apparent cessation of nature’s
activities. Winter is a pause in music, but during the pause, the musicians are privately tuning their strings to prepare
for the coming outburst.
The word cessation means
Memoir
by Edward Flynn
Measuring the Value of a Life
1
I don’t know when I last saw a pollywog. It must have been more than 60 years ago in the small New Jersey
town where I grew up. You know what pollywogs are, don’t you? Some people refer to them as tadpoles. Whatever
you call them, they change in front of your eyes from a wiggling fish-like creature to a bouncing frog.
2
When I was young, one of my school teachers had a fancy name for the process. She called it metamorphosis.
Back then, a spring never passed without my collecting a can full of the tiny creatures from a pond and then bringing
them home. I’d put them in a bowl, and day by day, I’d watch as the tails gradually disappeared and the legs
mysteriously emerged.
3
Eventually, when there was no doubt the metamorphosis was complete and the frogs were ready to start hopping
around on dry land, I’d turn them loose in the backyard. For some reason my mom would always sigh with relief. In
those days, I had no problem finding pollywogs. I lived near a thick woods of oaks and pines, now long gone, that
separated the town in which I grew up from the neighboring village. There, amid the skunk cabbage* and Jack-inthe-pulpits,** pollywogs and turtles abounded.
4
I recall one springtime in those woods in particular. My boyhood pal Mickey and I were following one of our
secret trails and we came upon what had been a large pond, only to discover that it was drying up because the
weather had been exceptionally dry. Just about all that was left of that pond was a shrinking puddle surrounded by a
morass*** of mud. In the middle — so numerous that you could hardly see the water — were thousands of
pollywogs squirming for their lives. Their world was coming to an end.
5
Mickey and I decided to do something about it. Now I don’t think we were moved by compassion. In fact, I
doubt that we really thought about it much at all. Saving those pollywogs was just something to do on a spring
afternoon in the woods. A challenge. Whatever our motive, we found a couple of old paint buckets and we made trip
after trip, wading out into that pond, mud oozing down into our shoes, as we scooped up the pollywogs and carried
them to a nearby brook where we turned them loose and watched the rippling current carry them away. I don’t know
how many, if any, of those pollywogs survived. But I’d like to think that some of them did because, you see, I too
have been going through something of a metamorphosis and I’ve come to realize that those little pollywogs and I
have something in common.
6
Some of my own metamorphosis, like the pollywogs’, is obvious. Just as the pollywog loses its tail, I’ve been
losing my hair. And my overall appearance has been changing in other ways as well. My skin is growing more coarse,
my neck has become wrinkled, and the lines on my face are becoming more deeply etched. I’ve changed from a young
boy to an old man.
7
It’s called aging, but I prefer my former teacher’s word. It sounds kinder. And it refers to other, more subtle,
changes that I have been going through — changes that no one can see just by looking at me. For one, I have come to
appreciate nature. As I think back on my childhood mission of mercy with Mickey, I hope that some of those
pollywogs did indeed survive, who knows? Maybe today on some rock in a backyard in my old hometown, some
distant relative of one of those pollywogs is basking peacefully in the sun. The thought makes me feel good,
especially since I’ve been reading lately that scientists are alarmed over a serious decline in frog populations around
the world. Maybe when the whole value of my life is finally measured, helping to save those pollywogs on a spring
day long ago will count as one of the most important things I ever did.
*skunk cabbage: an ill-smelling, eastern North American swamp plant
**Jack-in-the-pulpits: eastern North American tuberous plants (herbs)
***morass: an area of low-lying, soggy ground
Reprinted from the 1997 issue of National Wildlife® magazine, with the permission of the copyright owner, the National Wildlife Federation®.
13. In Paragraph 4 of “Memoir,” why does the author say that the world of the pollywogs was coming to an end?
My Mom, the Himalayan Mountain-Climber!
by Jennifer Choi
1
I am sitting at the computer, ready to interview my mom about her struggles coming to America. She is sitting on
the couch across the room. We are positioned in the manner of patient and therapist. Truthfully, I’m apprehensive
about interviewing her. I’m afraid that if I learn anything outside of her being a mom, then it will force me to be more
sympathetic and understanding towards her. I ready myself to put an invisible wall between my mom’s story and
me.
2
3
I feel guilty pretending to be stoic,* but I change my mind. Maybe that is what I need—a reality check that
forces me to understand that my mom is not an automaton** that tends to my every whim, but rather a human being
with emotions and thoughts. So I begin to question her.
“Mama, why did you come to America?”
4
Since I was little, I always sensed that weight of extra stress on her shoulders. I always wondered, “Why work
so hard here, why not move back to Korea?”
5
But Koreans said America was a place where dreams come true. My mom came to America because my dad
wanted to. As my dad explained how charming America was, my mom never considered the life of an immigrant.
6
She was on top of the world—young, employed as a respectable teacher, and in love. She had studied English and
even trained to become an American translator for the Olympics of 1988. Foreigners told her she spoke English very
well, so she believed it would be easy to adjust to a new life.
7
“But Mom, didn’t anybody stop you from going?” I asked next.
8
She remembers her grandfather telling her, “Your roots are established here. Don’t go!”
9
Her older brother, who had already moved to America also told her not to come. He said life was too difficult and
stressful.
10
She remembers thinking, “Why don’t people want me to go to America? America is such a great place!”
11
So, my mom ended up coming. She needed a job. However, her only job opportunities were to be a cashier,
grocery store helper, or a seamstress. She needed to start her own business.
12
Mom’s first “home” was a small apartment in Flushing, Queens. Four people shared the cramped and
uncomfortable one-bedroom apartment. She recalls asking herself, “Where is America? This is not America!”
13
“It was like living in a cardboard box,” she said, because she had no television or radio and she couldn’t
communicate with people.
14
And, English proved to be an obstacle. One day, she wanted to go sightseeing in Manhattan.
15
“Which train do you take to MahnHanTahn?” she asked five people with her heavy accent.
16
Each person had no idea what she was trying to say and she became frustrated. Finally, one person did
understand and said, “Oh, you mean ManHATtan,” and directed her.
17
She would never forget that experience. It made her realize that her spoken English was horrible, and that she
needed to improve.
18
I asked, “Why didn’t you go back to Korea?”
19
She said that she stayed because of my younger sister and me. In Korea, education is very strict and stressful.
America would be an easier place to conquer once we had an education, she felt.
20
My mom equates her life with that of a Himalayan mountain-climber. She started out as a skinny, frail, naive
bride, ready to conquer the world. On her way to the peak, she’s gotten lost and experienced snowstorms and
avalanches. But she has enjoyed the view, the fresh air, and the stars. Today, she says she’s climbing down that
mountain. She’s a new woman. A woman with strong legs, a wide perspective, a big heart, and lots of gray hair. She’s
ready now to conquer a whole new universe.
*stoic: unaffected by emotion
**automaton: a moving mechanical device resembling a human being
“My Mom, the Himalayan Mountain-Climber!” by Jennifer Choi from Skipping Stones, Sept/Oct 2004, Vol. 16, No. 4, copyright © 2004 by Jennifer Choi
and Skipping Stones. Used by permission of Skipping Stones.
14. In Paragraph 20, the mother compares her life to that of a Himalayan mountain-climber because
Never Lost
1
When they were children, their parents had always directed them to meet at a particular spot if anybody got lost.
Dylan and Sara hadn’t even considered such a thing, and had planned no meeting spot in the event of a separation,
which—Dylan now realized, as he scanned the faces of people rushing past—had been a grave mistake. How could
he have had such a lack of foresight? He was the elder of the two, the responsible one. He could imagine what his
parents would say—and none of it was good.
2
There was no way he could possibly board the plane without his sister. He’d stay at this airport until he was
eighty if that’s what it took. He imagined himself sleeping on the floor, serenaded by the roaring engines of jets. He
had to find her; she couldn’t have gone too far. Dylan calmed himself with the reminder that the airport terminal was
a self-contained building. She must be somewhere, and she certainly would not have retraced her steps and taken the
underground train back to the main terminal. Yes, she was definitely somewhere in the building.
3
Dylan considered all that he had ever learned about what to do if he found himself abandoned in the wild. He
knew to hold onto a tree and stop walking when lost in a forest. The next step was to look for familiar landmarks.
But this wasn’t a forest, and he wasn’t lost; he knew precisely where he was. He tried to remember what the
directions were for rescue squads, but what sprang to mind wasn’t at all helpful. He could look for broken twigs
underfoot, or he might look for damaged brush, which could indicate a hiker’s departure from the trail. Dylan shook
his head. There were no trails here. There was no underbrush; there were what seemed like miles of white linoleum
floors and vast expanses of dull gray carpet, and endless rows of chrome-trimmed benches and walls of blinking
display screens.
4
Without moving, Dylan continued to scrutinize the crowd, concentrating his powers of observation and trying to
recall what his sister was wearing. A woman walked quickly past, her heels clicking on the hard floor, a red ribbon
tied to the handle of her suitcase. A red sweater, he thought, it was definitely a red sweater.
5
The sea of people continued to flow past Dylan as he stood fast, a lighthouse on the jetty, searching desperately
for a glimpse of red. He wished he were taller. Then he saw a flash of a red sweater through a break in the crowd.
This mobilized Dylan, and he launched himself in that direction.
6
Around the corner, Sara looked over her shoulder, and then stopped. Her brother had been walking right next to
her, but where had he gone? She stood still, heart thumping, and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 4:45. Their
plane boarded at 5:00. She had to find him quickly.
7
Buffeted by the passing hordes, Sara retraced her steps, searching for her brother. He was nowhere to be seen. He
couldn’t have gone too far, she thought. He was walking right next to me a moment ago.
8
Torn between wanting to stay put, and worried about missing their flight, Sara made a decision. She would look
for him for three more minutes, and then at 4:48 she would walk to their gate. They both knew where the plane was
leaving from, Sara reasoned. It made sense that they would find each other there.
9
Dylan followed the flash of red, but as he drew parallel to the woman, he saw she was older than Sara. He
glanced at his watch again. It was 4:48. Trying not to fear the worst, Dylan made a decision. Like a ship changing
course, Dylan turned sharply down the hall that led to Gate 34C, hoping that his sister had done, or was about to do,
the same. And if not, well, he’d worry about that when he came to it.
10
At the juncture of two hallways, Sara saw Dylan walk right past her toward Gate 34C. She fell into step beside
her brother. “Impeccable timing, I was worried we would be late,” she said, before he had noticed her presence.
11
“Where did you come from?” Dylan demanded.
12
Sara managed not to smile. She could tell Dylan was trying to hide his relief at seeing her.
13
“What do you mean?” said Sara “I’ve been right behind you this whole time.”
15. Which sentence from the selection uses what happened in the distant past to explain what is happening in
the present?
A.
It was clear to Dylan the moment he looked up from tying his shoes that he had lost his sister in the crowd of the
bustling airport.
B.
Whey they were children, their parents had always directed them to meet at a particular spot if anybody got lost.
C.
A woman walked quickly past, her heels clicking on the hard floor, a red ribbon tied to the handle of her suitcase.
D.
Dylan followed the flash of red, but as he drew parallel to the woman, he saw she was older than Sara.
The Blues and American Music
1
The landscape of American music has undergone crucial changes over the past one hundred years. During this
period, many musical forms and genres have risen to prominence; some have faded into obscurity, while others have
endured. The musical form of the blues, which first became popular in the 1920s, proved to be one of the most
influential genres of music throughout the twentieth century and continues to maintain an important place in our
culture today.
2
The exact origin of the blues as a musical form is very difficult to pinpoint. It has roots in African and European
traditions, but many of its essential characteristics can be traced to African-American work songs and chants from
the 1800s. Many of these songs employed a call-and-response structure. One man or woman, often a leader of a
group of workers, would sing several lines, and then the rest of the group would answer with a refrain—a repeated
phrase or series of lines. These work songs served the important purpose of providing a distraction from difficult
and sometimes monotonous labor, as well as promoting a sense of community and companionship among workers.
Many of the songs also had a much more strategic purpose: they helped coordinate the tasks of laborers through a
shared sense of rhythm. For instance, railroad workers, performing the dangerous business of installing cross ties and
spikes, would move their ties, place their spikes, and swing their hammers in time with a song. In this case, the music
not only helped to keep the men's spirits up, it also kept them from being injured.
3
When the blues evolved as an art form in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it kept the spirit of the call-andresponse structure, while focusing more on individual artists. During this time, many African-American actors and
musicians came into contact with country and western singers while traveling in Vaudeville circuits throughout the
United States. These artists had quite a profound influence on African-American music, since they were often quite
polished musicians who could perform alone at different venues, accompanying their singing with only a guitar.
African-American artists were fascinated by the possibility of artistic and personal freedom that such independence
allowed. Many of them adapted the words and spirit of older work songs to fit the constraints of the country music
genre, with one artist playing guitar and singing, thus giving birth to the “country blues.”
4
Although many of the first genuine blues artists were men, female artists made country blues widely popular.
The 1920s saw the emergence of a movement called the “Classic Blues,” featuring such talented and charismatic
singers as Mamie Smith, Ida B. Cox, and Bessie Smith. These women charted a new course for the blues, making it a
more polished form of music and more urban than “country.” They tended to dress in lavish dresses and costumes,
and to perform with large bands in larger venues, while country bluesmen dressed more modestly and most often
performed alone outdoors or at small, rural venues. During the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a time of
unprecedented prosperity, in which people from all walks of life benefited, including musicians. During this time,
many artists moved to the cities, where there was more demand for music, which led to more opportunities to
perform and record. Since Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877, many Americans had begun to buy
musical recordings for the first time. Some of the most popular records of this era were of songs by Mamie Smith,
such as “Crazy Blues” and “St. Louis Blues.”
5
Because of the feeling that is evoked by expressions like “I feel blue” or “I have the blues,” many people believe
that all blues music has a sad or melancholy quality. Upon listening to recordings from classic blues artists, such as
Ida B. Cox and Bessie Smith, however, one quickly realizes that many blues songs are upbeat and even inspiring.
Just as the songs and chants of nineteenth century laborers had helped lift their hearts and distract them from the
difficulty of their work, blues music in the twentieth century helped artists and audiences to acknowledge and work
through difficult times. Thus, the purpose of this form of music is really to “lose the blues,” rather than “get the
blues.”
6
Though the blues declined in popularity after the 1920s, the 1960s saw a reawakening of interest in this
historically and musically rich genre. Unquestionably, blues music has had a monumental effect on popular musicians
from the 1960s onward. Today, blues artists continue to record and thrive as composers and performers, and they
often pay tribute to the great men and women of the country and classic blues eras by singing and recording their
amazing, timeless songs.
16. According to the passage, the main purpose of blues music is to
A.
help people embrace their sadness.
B.
provide an art form for solo musicians.
C.
help people feel better during hard times.
D.
provide financial success for artists and record companies.
FAMILY-TIME MOVIE THEATERS, INC.
Thank you for your interest in employment with Family-Time Movie Theaters, Inc. The management at Family-Time
recognizes that patrons have a choice when selecting a movie theater. In order to offer patrons the best possible
movie-going experience, the management has instated a policy that guarantees a clean, affordable, and friendly atmosphere.
Family-Time Movie Theaters, Inc., currently has the following positions available for hire: Ticket Booth
Operators, Concession Stand Personnel, and Ushers.
Job Descriptions/Responsibilities
Ticket Booth Operators
Ticket booth operators are responsible for selling movie tickets to patrons of the theater. Ticket booth operators are the
first Family-Time personnel the patrons meet when they visit the theater; it is therefore extremely important that the
operators are friendly at all times and greet patrons with bright smiles. First impressions are usually lasting impressions,
so ticket booth operators should be sure to thank patrons and say to them, “Enjoy the show.” Operators should
remember that courtesy is a priority and keep in mind the Family-Time motto: Be friendly—always.
Quite often, customers will ask the ticket booth operators questions regarding start times and release times of various
showings. It is necessary, therefore, that ticket booth operators familiarize themselves with the weekly showtime
schedules. Along with tickets and any change due, operators should provide the patron with a receipt for each purchase,
reminding him or her to keep the receipt handy for future visits. (After the purchase of five Family-Time movie tickets,
the patron will be eligible to receive one complimentary ticket to the movie of his or her choice.)
The head ticket booth operator will create the weekly work schedule and post it on the “Ticket Booth Board” in the break
room. Ticket booth employees should consult this schedule on a regular basis in order to learn the days and hours each
employee is expected to work.
Concession Stand Personnel
Concession stand personnel are expected to provide Family-Time patrons with the highest quality concession service at
all times. A large portion of theater revenue is generated from the sales at the concession stand. Concession stand
personnel, therefore, should be willing and able to assess the needs of the patrons and quickly move them through the line.
Customers may walk away if the concession line is not moving quickly enough. Concessionists should ask each patron,
“What may I help you with today?” At the end of each sale, concession personnel are expected to tell the customer,
“Thank you” and “Enjoy the show.” Remember that courtesy is a priority and keep in mind the Family-Time motto: Be
friendly—always.
At the end of each shift, concession stand personnel are responsible for cleaning and restocking the concession area.
Employees should not leave the premises until the concession area is fully stocked for the next shift. It is the
responsibility of the concession lead to place food and beverage orders on a weekly basis so that patrons may be able to
enjoy their favorite Family-Time refreshments.
The concession lead will create the weekly work schedule and post it on the “Concession Board” in the break room.
Concession stand personnel should consult this schedule on a regular basis in order to learn the days and hours each
employee is expected to work.
Ushers
In multiplex theaters like Family-Time, patrons may become confused as to which screen is showing the movie they wish
to see. It is the ushers’ responsibility to direct patrons to the proper screening areas. Ushers should remember that
courtesy is a priority and should keep in mind the Family-Time motto: Be friendly—always.
Cleanliness is important to patrons. Although all employees should take pride in keeping the areas in which they work
neat and orderly, it is the ushers who are primarily responsible for keeping the theaters clean. Five minutes before the end
of each showing, the ushers assigned to that theater should assemble in the small lobby behind the last row of seats.
Ushers must remain absolutely silent. Once the closing credits of the film have begun to roll, the ushers should direct
patrons toward the exit doors, help patrons to locate trash receptacles, and assist anyone who is having difficulty
descending the theater stairs. Once the majority of patrons have left the theater, the ushers should walk up and down the
outside aisles, checking each row to see if any trash has been left behind. They should place all trash bags in the storage
room in the back of the theater.
The head usher will create the weekly work schedule and post it on the “Usher Board” in the break room. Ushers should
consult this schedule on a regular basis in order to learn the days and hours each employee is expected to work, as well as
the theater numbers each usher is responsible for maintaining.
Benefits
After a probationary period, all full-time employees, if qualified, are eligible for medical coverage through Well-Fit Life
Insurance Company. Optional coverage includes dental and vision plans. Full-time employees are also eligible for two
weeks of paid vacation time.
Part-time employees* are not eligible for medical coverage or paid vacations at this time.
Benefits available to all employees include: two free employee movie passes per week, discount tickets for family
members (three dollars off our regularly priced tickets), and occasional sneak previews.
How to Apply With Family-Time Movie Theaters, Inc.
If you are interested in applying for any of the positions described above, please visit any of the four Family-Time
locations in person to fill out and submit an official job application. Applications are accepted on Mondays and
Wednesdays between the hours of 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., and on Saturdays between the hours of 12 noon and 3 p.m.
Interviews are conducted with qualified candidates during these hours as well.
*Part-time employees may work flexible hours but are expected to work a minimum of 15 hours per week.
17. The ticket booth operator position is unique because employees in this position
A.
take money for food and drinks.
B.
must be friendly and humorous.
C.
have the first contact with patrons.
D.
direct customers to the correct screening areas.
Mother of Women’s Basketball
1
The game of basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891. He was a physical education instructor from
Canada who taught at Springfield College in Massachusetts. The very next year, however, Senda Berenson reinvented
basketball for women. Berenson, a physical education coach at Smith College, adopted Naismith’s basic plan, but
divided the court into three sections instead of two, and restricted the players to specific sections. The result was a
game that required much more passing and teamwork, but far less dribbling than the NBA, National Basketball
Association’s version of the game. Berenson even created the rule that a player may only bounce the ball three times
before passing it. Visually, the game was more exciting, for the “passing game” predominated instead of the “running
game” often seen today. The basketball moves more quickly across and around the court when passed from one
player to another, rather than if one player runs the ball down the court to make the basket.
2
Berenson used the game she had adapted solely for her physical education classes. However, the game quickly
became popular in many colleges, and in 1893, Berenson organized the first official women’s basketball game. As
more and more colleges began organizing women’s basketball teams, Berenson continued to adapt Naismith’s game
by writing the first rulebook for women’s basketball. She continued to serve as editor of the rulebook for the next
fifteen years, recording many changes in the continued adaptation of the game. In the process, Berenson left an
indelible mark on the game even as it is played today in the WNBA, Women’s National Basketball Association. In
1901, she published a book that continues to inspire many fans and players alike: Line Basketball For Women. In the
book, she spells out just why the “adapted game of basketball” that she had pioneered is so significant for women in
sports. Not surprisingly, Senda Berenson is often referred to as the “Mother of Women’s Basketball.”
18. According to “Mother of Women’s Basketball,” why did women’s basketball teams need an official
rulebook?
A.
College teams would participate only if the games were regulated.
B.
Varying opinions on adaptations of the game needed to be recorded.
C.
Coaches were trying to make their games competitive with men’s games.
D.
Competitions between teams from many colleges needed to be standardized.
A Brief History of the Artist’s Palette
1
For thousands of years, human beings have responded to the world through painting. They have painted on cave
walls, buildings, wood, and canvas stretched across a frame, to name just a few types of expressions with paint. The
surfaces have been varied and numerous, but the basic composition of the paint has remained the same. Paint is made
by grinding up a pigment and mixing it with a liquid called a “binding agent,” which could be egg, oil, animal fat,
water, or synthetic substances. After the liquid has been applied and then dries, the ground pigment adheres to the
painting surface, whatever material it may be.
2
Pigments used to be powders that were made by grinding up minerals, plants, and animal parts. Vermilion, a red
pigment made from sulfur and mercury, and ultramarine, a blue pigment made from a stone called lapis lazuli, were
two highly desired but expensive pigments. Now more economical, pigments are made from chemicals, and they
come in brighter colors that resist fading.
3
Since the Stone Age, artists have sought colors that are resistant to fading. After using dye colors derived from
animal and vegetable sources, it is likely that they discovered the permanence of the color that came from iron oxide
deposits in the earth. Studies of areas with cave paintings have shown that people traveled up to 25 miles to obtain
iron oxide pigments. The palette, or range of colors, used by artists of this time was derived from mineral oxide or
carbon and consisted of three basic colors: red, black, and yellow. These iron oxide pigments also made up the basic
palette of ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese artists. In Crete, the Minoans mixed these pigments with water and
applied them to a surface of fresh plaster (a mixture of lime, sand, and water). The pigments bonded permanently to
the lime, and the first frescoes, or paintings on plaster walls or ceilings, came into existence.
4
For hundreds of years artists mixed their own pigments, but getting just the right color could be expensive and
time consuming. The young Michelangelo, most likely short of money to buy pigment, left a painting unfinished in
1501 for lack of the right color, in this case, blue. Not just any blue, but the prized blue pigment whose source was
the stone lapis lazuli. And not just any lapis lazuli either, but a fabled stone from a remote region of Afghanistan.
Once processed, this stone became the blue pigment known as ultramarine, after gold, the most expensive color in
Renaissance Italy. In 1828, a synthetic version was made available in France at less than one-tenth the cost of
genuine ultramarine.
5
By the mid-1600s an industry had developed to meet the demand for pigment. The whole time-consuming
process of preparing pigment was taken over by colormakers, people who earned a living grinding pigments and
mixing paint. Now artists could spend more time painting, but they knew little about the material with which they
were working. They had lost the knowledge that beginning artists in the Middle Ages would learn first: how to mix
and use pigments, which pigments had to be blocked from chemically reacting with each other—all the secrets of the
trade. The work of the colormakers had given artists more time to paint, but artists paid a high price. They lost the
technical knowledge of their materials and the result was disastrous: paintings ruined by fading colors and cracking
canvases.
6
In 1880, artist William Holman Hunt spoke before the Royal Society of Arts in London about the problem and
his ideas for a solution. Hunt believed that the time-saving colormakers were necessary to artists and that artists had
to become better craftspersons. They should learn the fundamentals of their trade so that they could work together
with the colormakers.
7
The late 1800s was a turning point in the history of the artist’s palette, because the collaboration of chemists and
colormakers led to many advances in the field. Completely synthetic pigments were produced for the first time; for
example, a permanent bright yellow was added to the painter’s palette and newly identified minerals opened up an
entirely new range of pigments. Ancient dye colors and known minerals that had been developed for artists’ use were
also improved. These developments were critically received by some artists. Designer William Morris hated the new
colors and used his influence to revive the manufacture of some of the old ones.
8
Some artists agree with Morris, arguing that, paradoxically, the imperfections of the natural pigments make them
superior. The synthetic French ultramarine powder invented in the 1800s is made up of crystals quite uniform in
size, thus causing the light to be reflected evenly. The effects of the real ultramarine, made from ground lapis lazuli,
are much more interesting. The artist’s palette has expanded, but at the same time, some of the old, jewel-like colors
are being brought to life again.
19. According to the passage, what is the advantage of using synthetic pigments over natural pigments?
How To Change a Flat Tire
1
While you and your family are driving along, all of the sudden you hear a loud bang and the telltale thumping
noise of a dead tire. The driver carefully pulls off to the shoulder of the road. Checking to make sure it is safe, you all
exit the vehicle and inspect the car. Sure enough, the car’s left front tire is completely flat. You are not going to be
able to keep driving, so you are going to have to remove it and install the car’s spare tire in its place.
Raise the Car
2
The first step is to find the car’s spare tire, jack, and tire iron. The spare tire is almost always located underneath
the floor mat in the trunk. Unless, of course, the car does not have a trunk. If it is an SUV, minivan, or pickup, the
spare tire is often mounted on the back of the tailgate or underneath the vehicle itself. Once you have found the spare
tire, remove it from the car.
3
The next step will involve removing the flat tire. Make sure that the car is in gear (or in “park” if the car is an
automatic) and the emergency brake is set. The car should be parked on a flat piece of pavement. Do not attempt to
change a flat if the car is on a slope or if it is sitting on dirt. It is also a good idea to block the tire opposite of the flat
tire. Therefore, if the left front tire is flat, it would be a good idea to place a brick or other large, heavy object behind
the right rear tire. Blocking the tire makes the car less likely to move when you are raising it.
4
Use the tire iron (the L-shaped bar that fits over the wheel lugs) to loosen each wheel lug. The wheel lugs are
almost certainly very tight. You will have to use brute force. You loosen them by turning them counterclockwise.
5
Now, at this point, you do not want to actually remove the lugs. You just want them loose. Once you have
accomplished this, move the jack underneath the car. If you do not know where the proper jacking points are, look
them up in the owner’s manual.
6
Maneuver the jack underneath the jack point and start to raise the jack. Most car jacks these days are a
screw-type scissor jack, which means you simply turn the knob at the end of the jack using the provided metal hand
crank. Raise the jack until it contacts the car’s frame and continue expanding the jack.
Remove the Flat and Install the Spare
7
Raise the car with the jack until the flat tire is completely raised off the ground. Once this is done, remove the
wheel lugs completely. Depending on how tight the lugs are you might be able to remove them by hand. Set the lugs
aside in a secure location where they cannot roll away.
8
Position the spare tire over the wheel studs. This is the most physically challenging part of the whole process.
You will have to hold up the tire and try to line up the holes in the wheel with the protruding wheel studs located on
the brake hub. One trick that might help is to balance the tire on your foot while you move it into position.
9
After you have the spare tire hanging on the wheel studs, screw each of the wheel lugs back on. You will want to
start them by hand. Make sure you do not cross-thread them. The lugs should screw on easily. Once each of them is
snug and you cannot tighten them any further by hand, use the tire iron to finish the job. At this point, you do not
need to get the lugs super tight. You just want them snug for now. Make sure that the wheel is fitting flush against
the brake hub.
10
Once the spare tire is on, carefully lower the jack. Pull the jack away from the vehicle. The final step is to tighten
down the lugs completely. The reason you tighten the lugs now is that the tire is on the ground and it will not rotate
around like it would if it was still hanging in the air.
11
Wheel lugs have a specific torque rating that they are supposed to be tightened down to, but there is no way you
can figure that out using a simple tire iron. The general rule here is to tighten down the lugs as much as possible.
12
That is it. Put the flat tire in the space where the spare tire was and put the jack and tire iron back in the car.
Most compact spare tires are smaller than regular tires, so it is possible that the flat tire will not fit in the spare tire
well. Also, compact spares have a limited top speed. The tire’s top speed will be written on its sidewall. If the
vehicle has a full-size spare, you will not encounter these problems. With the spare installed, you should be able to
reach your house or the nearest service station.
“How to Change a Flat Tire” by Brent Romans, from Edmunds.com, copyright © Edmunds.com Inc. Reprinted with permission.
20. What is the last step to perform in changing a flat tire?
by Bruce Jackson
1
2
3
4
5
house.
6
afternoon.
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
George’s mare.”
21. Which words best describe George Beto?
A.
proud and rude
B.
joyful and outgoing
C.
private and observant
D. compassionate and practical
“We Rise, We Fall, We Rise”
by Gabrielle Tayac
I was born and raised in New York City, but I come from a people with a traditional territory encompassing
Washington, D.C.—the swath* of land in Maryland between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. We are called
the Piscataway. Our very name translates as “where the waters blend” and refers to the location of our main village at the
confluence of Piscataway Creek and the Potomac River. More specifically, Washington was the home of the Anacostan,
who lived under the influence of the Piscataway central chief, the tayac, although it is probable that they maintained a high
level of autonomy. Their name has been translated as “trading town.”
What I see here in Washington are lands that reach into deep time—and have been cultured for millennia. Like
groundwaters that continually seek new flows, the indigenous** peoples of this place—as well as those across the
Western Hemisphere—have sought different means to endure.
Although many peoples were lost, the people are on their way back. The year 2000 Census reported that 2.5 million
American Indians lived in the United States—an extraordinary population recovery. An additional 1.6 million reported
being American Indian and at least one other race, for a total of 4.1 million. In fact, the Census Bureau predicts that the
American Indian population will double by the year 2050. South of the border with Mexico, there are as many as 44
million indigenous people today. As Native poet and activist John Trudell teaches, “We rise, we fall, we rise.”
When Capt. John Smith led expeditions in 1608 throughout the Chesapeake—the name has been translated as “great
shellfish bay” or “mother of waters”—seeking resources for his settlement at Jamestown, he recorded dozens of distinct
peoples.
My grandfather, Chief Turkey Tayac, who was born in 1895, spent his life lobbying for the preservation and rebirth
of Algonquian peoples, including his own Piscataway community. I was raised in an intensely liberating environment,
where the unusual mix of my Jewish mother and my Piscataway father was not seen as odd: Greenwich Village in the
1970s. My father, Joseph, had left Washington, D.C., in 1944 at the age of 16 and joined the merchant marines. He ended
up in Normandy on D-Day, and went on to navigate 100 sea voyages over the span of his 40-year career.
As an adolescent I became conscious that no one else could keep our heritage alive but ourselves. So I eventually
returned to this Piscataway homeland and to Indian Country, which is also a state of mind and envelopes every inch of
this beloved land.
In 1999 Native peoples and allies came together in the shadow of the Capitol to launch a process of truth and
reconciliation. On a September morning, we lovingly opened the skin of the earth and broke ground for the National
Museum of the American Indian.
We convened not far from the old lands of the Anacostans, to recognize the aboriginality of the land and also to bring
the different Native people’s experiences to light. Beginning with the drum group, we affirmed a promise to tell the truth:
the truth about what happened to us, about who we are now, and about who we want to be.
It felt, in that moment, that centuries of history had completed the turn of a great wheel: a wheel that in its 500-year
revolution had wrought shattering cultural cataclysms; but one that had left enough of us standing to begin a healing
process for both Native people and those who had come to our shores. We still have a long journey, but this is one that
many recognize we must take together.
*swath: a narrow strip
**indigenous: originating, living, or occurring naturally in an area or environment
“We Rise, We Fall, We Rise” by Gabrielle Tayac, from Native Universe: Voices of Indian America by Gerald McMaster and Clifford Tratzer, copyright ©
2004 Smithsonian Institute. Reprinted by permission of the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institute.
22. What is a conflict the author faces in the article?
A. She believes that her heritage is at risk.
B.
She needs the support of a Native activist poet.
C.
She feels that the Native people need a place to meet.
D. She is concerned about the accuracy of a census report.
All You Need is Ganas: The Story of Jaime Escalante
1
“Ganas—That’s All You Need!” read the sign that hung over the chalkboard in Jaime Escalante’s classroom. It
was a powerful message, one Jaime tried to instill in all his students. Jaime learned about ganas, or desire, from his
mother when she asked him to help her carry oranges to her classroom. Jaime complained the oranges were heavy
and he was too little. His mother, upset by Jaime’s excuses, told him, “You are going to have ganas because I am
going to give it to you right now.”
2
Jaime was born on December 31, 1930, in La Paz, Bolivia. As the son of two schoolteachers, Jaime learned to
read, spell, count, and solve riddles before he was old enough to attend school. Jaime was imaginative and
industrious. Early in life, he learned profitable skills such as repairing shoes, cutting hair, and sewing clothes to help
bring in money for the family. Jaime frequently went around collecting the neighborhood discards to use for his
inventions. He fashioned his own toys, tools, balls, and even a bicycle.
3
Enrolled in school at age nine, the strict discipline of the classroom came as quite a shock: sitting still, raising his
hand, being prompt, and following rules. But the greatest surprise was that his curious mind was not challenged.
However, an elementary schoolteacher discovered Jaime had an aptitude for mathematics and used this to focus
Jaime on his schoolwork. In Bolivia children were not required to attend school past eighth grade but Jaime loved to
learn. His mother sacrificed to ensure Jaime attended high school where he discovered the wonders of chemistry and
physics.
4
In college Escalante tried business and engineering classes but when neither program challenged him he dropped
out. A friend talked him into enrolling at a teacher’s college, Normal Superior, in 1951, arguing that a teaching degree
only took four years to complete. The following year, a local school lost its physics instructor and sought a
replacement. With a year of college and no formal instruction in teaching, Jaime accepted the substitute assignment.
The next year, at age 21, Jaime accepted his first teaching assignment at a new boy’s high school. Over the next 14
years, Jaime taught physics and mathematics at his former high school while simultaneously completing his own
college degree.
5
In 1963 Jaime immigrated to the United States. He knew starting over would be difficult—he did not speak
English and had no teaching credentials in America. But despite these obstacles, Jaime enrolled in community college
and found employment in a coffee shop. Working as a janitor was disheartening for the once prominent physics
teacher; however, he had an intense desire to succeed—ganas. Never one to sit idly, Jaime helped improve the
business and impressed the owner, which earned him several promotions.
6
In 1966, he accepted a position at a computer corporation where he again earned numerous promotions. He
continued his college education by attending night school. In 1973, he received a BA in Math from California State
University, Los Angeles. The following year, Jaime earned a scholarship from the National Science Foundation that
allowed him to participate in an intensive one-year program to earn his California teaching credentials.
7
Jaime’s first teaching position was at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles in 1974. He started with teaching
basic math skills to undisciplined students—but he wanted to inspire these students to achieve more than the
fundamentals. Jaime was renowned for his antics in the classroom. He made students sign work contracts and punch
a time clock; he taught them difficult concepts by associating them with sports. He promised A’s but eventually
pushed his students to work hard and hooked them on math. Throughout his time at Garfield, he designed an
impressive math program that included Advanced Placement (A.P.) Calculus, which earned the student college
credits. His program began with 9 students and grew to 570 students.
8
Jaime reached legendary status in 1982. All 18 of his students passed the difficult A.P. calculus exam. The
students’ high scores were questioned; consequently twelve of the students retook the test, passed again, and proved
their innocence, skyrocketing Jaime to national fame almost overnight. After the documentary Stand and Deliver was
released, which described the events of that legendary year, enormous tension surfaced at Garfield. Jaime received
threats and hate mail. Amidst the controversy, Jaime left Garfield in 1991 and immediately began teaching at Hiram
Johnson High School in Sacramento. Garfield’s calculus program never recovered from the loss.
9
In 1998 Jaime retired and, three years later, returned to Bolivia to teach part-time at a local university. Although
he received countless awards and recognition, including the Presidential Medal for Excellence in Education and
induction into the Teacher’s Hall of Fame, he is best known for his unconventional teaching methods which
motivated students to learn. He taught his students more than math skills. He gave them ganas—and Jaime Escalante
was an expert on ganas!
23. According to the author, what causes students to become interested in learning?
24. The use of graphics in the article helps the reader to
A. identify each of the main collections.
B.
learn how to find newspaper archives.
C.
understand the various pages of the database.
D. gather information about other historical databases.
How to Use the Electronic Card Catalog
25. Which question is answered by the process map?
A. What happens if the author’s name is incorrectly entered?
B.
What might cause more than one book to appear for a search?
C.
What is the purpose of a “pop-up screen”?
D. What is done to obtain a list of books?
Mundo Maya Timeline
Time
Event
400 B.C.
Stone-carved solar calendars in use among Mayans
100 B.C.
Teotihuacán city is founded, becomes cultural and trading center
500 A.D.
Tikal becomes great Maya city
751 A.D.
Maya alliances begin to break down
900 A.D.
Classic period of Maya history ends, southern lowlands collapse
1224 A.D.
Chichén Itzá city abandoned
1283 A.D.
Mayapán becomes capital of Yucatán
1461 A.D.
Mayapán abandoned
1518 A.D.
Spanish arrive
1524 A.D.
Hernán Cortés meets the Itzá people, last to remain unconquered by Spanish
1695 A.D.
Ruins of Tikal discovered
1712 A.D.
Maya of Chiapas, Mexico, revolt
1821 A.D.
Mexico becomes independent of Spain
1910 A.D.
Mexican Revolution begins
1962 A.D.
Maya hieroglyphic signs found
26. According to the timeline, which event happened last?
Information on Park Ranger Positions
adapted from the National Park Service Web site
1
Park rangers perform a wide variety of duties in managing parks, historical sites, and recreational areas. Many
wear a prescribed uniform.
Duties
2
Park rangers supervise, manage, and perform work in the conservation and use of resources in national parks and
other federally-managed areas. Park rangers carry out various tasks associated with forest or structural fire control;
protection of property; gathering natural, historical, or scientific information; development of material for the natural,
historical, or cultural features of an era; demonstration of folk art and crafts; enforcement of laws and regulations;
investigation of violations, complaints, trespasses, and accidents; search and rescue; and management of historical,
cultural, and natural resources, such as wildlife, forests, lakeshores, seashores, historic buildings, battlefields,
archaeological properties, and recreation areas. They also operate campgrounds, including such tasks as assigning
sites, replenishing firewood, performing safety inspections, providing information to visitors, and leading guided
tours. Differences in the exact nature of duties depend on the ranger’s level/position and the site’s size and specific
needs.
Location
3
Park rangers work in urban, suburban, and rural areas. More than half of all park rangers work in areas east of the
Mississippi River. Much of their work is performed outdoors, but often rangers must work in offices, especially as
they advance and assume more managerial responsibilities. During their careers, most rangers can expect to be
assigned to several different parts of the country. While we try taking into account each employee’s preference, we
do not guarantee that a ranger will remain stationed in only one area.
Training
4
The orientation and training a ranger receives on the job is sometimes supplemented with formal training courses.
Training for duties which are unique to the Park Service is available at the Horace M. Albright Training Center at
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, and the Stephen T. Mather Training Center at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
In addition, the Park Service makes use of the Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia. Performance is evaluated on a
continuing basis, and only those who prove completely satisfactory in every respect are retained in the park
management career field.
Career Potential
5
Depending upon qualifications, park rangers begin their service at various grades. Rangers may move through the
ranks to become district rangers, park managers, and staff specialists in interpretation, resource management, park
planning, and related areas. At upper levels, rangers’ responsibilities and independence increase as their influence
covers more staff and area. Upper-level managers in the Park Service are recruited primarily for their managerial
capabilities. Competition exists for park ranger positions in all grade levels.
Education
6
Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study—natural resource management, natural or earth sciences,
history, archaeology, anthropology, park and recreation management, law enforcement/police science, social or
behavioral sciences, museum sciences, business or public administration, sociology, or other closely related subjects
pertinent to the management and protection of natural and cultural resources, and deemed applicable to job
performance.
Experience
7
General Experience: administrative, professional, technical, investigative, or other responsible work which
provides a familiarity with natural or cultural history; fish or wildlife habitat characteristics; techniques of resource
protection and use; recreational use of public lands and facilities; enforcement of laws, rules, or regulations; fire
prevention and suppression; or the practice of interpersonal relations skills in dealing with the general public.
Nonspecialized tasks and those of a routine nature, such as typing, filing, and maintaining records are not qualifying.
8
Specialized Experience: work which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform
successfully the duties of the position to be filled. Experience may have been in technical, administrative, or scientific
work; fish and wildlife management; recreation management; law enforcement; or other park-related work.
How to Apply
9
All positions are filled in accordance with Office of Personnel Management (Civil Service) regulations. Although
you will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, age, gender, national origin, political affiliation, or other
nonmerit factors, you must be a United States citizen. For certain jobs there may be age and physical qualifications.
Generally, one must be 18 years old to work for the National Park Service, although some positions require age 21.
10
Park staffs range from seven employees in the smallest areas to 630 in Yellowstone Park at peak season.
Competition for jobs is keen. One must be very well qualified to be seriously considered, especially for permanent
full-time positions.
11
Applicants should contact the appropriate office having jurisdiction over the area of interest to inquire about
vacant positions. An avenue of entry is provided through Administrative Careers With America, a program which
provides applicants with the opportunity to compete through an examination. Park ranger positions come under
Group VI, Law Enforcement and Investigation, in this program.
Public Domain
27. Which paragraph best supports the author’s claim that applicants must be “very well qualified to be
seriously considered” for park ranger jobs?
28. Read this excerpt from Paragraph 4.
Time of day, distance or personal acquaintance does not limit access to information through a phone. In fact, I think
we can assume just about any information can be reached with a phone.
Which best describes why this reasoning is unsound?
A.
The author exaggerates the capacities of cell phones.
B.
The author ignores the fact that some people do not have cell phones.
C.
The author does not explain how to use cell phones to locate information.
D.
The author fails to prove that information found on cell phones is reliable.
Observers of Yucatán
excerpted from Sky Watchers of Ages Past
by Malcolm E. Weiss
1
Throughout their empire, the Mayas plotted the motions of the sun. They did much more, however. They
mapped the motions of the moon. They learned to predict eclipses of the sun and moon. They plotted the
movements of the planet Venus with almost as much accuracy as do modern astronomers.
2
To do all this took careful observations over a period of several lifetimes. The Mayas had a written language that
helped them pass along knowledge from one generation to the next. Most of that language is still a mystery to us. We
have only decoded the signs for numbers and dates. These were the signs they used in making their calendars and
astronomical tables. The signs included brilliantly colored pictures of gods, strange drawings of humans and animals,
and bars and dots.
3
These records were set down in “books” made of paper from the bark of the wild fig tree. A strip of paper
making up a book was about eight inches high and several yards long.
4
Both sides were written on. The “pages” were separated from each other by painted lines. When the book was
complete, the entire strip was folded up accordion-like along the lines that marked the pages.
5
These ancient picture books are now called codices. Codices is a Latin word, the plural of codex, meaning a book
in manuscript form. Thousands of these codices were drawn and painted by the Mayas.
6
"Picture book" does not really do justice to the codices. Even the simplest-appearing pictures in the codices are
more than pictures. They are words, and often whole phrases or ideas, in picture form. Simple symbols merge into
not-so-simple ones, sometimes in a striking way. A wagging tongue, for example, means "talking." A wagging tongue
surrounded by flowers means "singing."
7
Of the thousands of codices that once existed, only seventeen are left. The others were burned by the Spanish,
who conquered the Mayan lands between 1519 and 1521. The high civilization of the Mayas had collapsed centuries
before the Spanish arrived. However, the descendants of the Mayas still lived according to the old traditions, and the
ancient language was still spoken.
“Observers of Yucatán” excerpt from Sky Watchers of Ages Past, by Malcolm E. Weiss, copyright © 1982 by Malcolm E. Weiss. Reprinted by permission
of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
29. Which statement from “Observers of Yucatán” is an opinion?
A.
They learned to predict eclipses of the sun and moon.
B.
To do all this took careful observations over a period of several lifetimes.
C.
Thousands of these codices were drawn and painted by the Mayas.
D. Simple symbols merge into not-so-simple ones, sometimes in a striking way.
The Blues and American Music
1
The landscape of American music has undergone crucial changes over the past one hundred years. During this
period, many musical forms and genres have risen to prominence; some have faded into obscurity, while others have
endured. The musical form of the blues, which first became popular in the 1920s, proved to be one of the most
influential genres of music throughout the twentieth century and continues to maintain an important place in our
culture today.
2
The exact origin of the blues as a musical form is very difficult to pinpoint. It has roots in African and European
traditions, but many of its essential characteristics can be traced to African-American work songs and chants from
the 1800s. Many of these songs employed a call-and-response structure. One man or woman, often a leader of a
group of workers, would sing several lines, and then the rest of the group would answer with a refrain—a repeated
phrase or series of lines. These work songs served the important purpose of providing a distraction from difficult
and sometimes monotonous labor, as well as promoting a sense of community and companionship among workers.
Many of the songs also had a much more strategic purpose: they helped coordinate the tasks of laborers through a
shared sense of rhythm. For instance, railroad workers, performing the dangerous business of installing cross ties and
spikes, would move their ties, place their spikes, and swing their hammers in time with a song. In this case, the music
not only helped to keep the men's spirits up, it also kept them from being injured.
3
When the blues evolved as an art form in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it kept the spirit of the call-andresponse structure, while focusing more on individual artists. During this time, many African-American actors and
musicians came into contact with country and western singers while traveling in Vaudeville circuits throughout the
United States. These artists had quite a profound influence on African-American music, since they were often quite
polished musicians who could perform alone at different venues, accompanying their singing with only a guitar.
African-American artists were fascinated by the possibility of artistic and personal freedom that such independence
allowed. Many of them adapted the words and spirit of older work songs to fit the constraints of the country music
genre, with one artist playing guitar and singing, thus giving birth to the “country blues.”
4
Although many of the first genuine blues artists were men, female artists made country blues widely popular.
The 1920s saw the emergence of a movement called the “Classic Blues,” featuring such talented and charismatic
singers as Mamie Smith, Ida B. Cox, and Bessie Smith. These women charted a new course for the blues, making it a
more polished form of music and more urban than “country.” They tended to dress in lavish dresses and costumes,
and to perform with large bands in larger venues, while country bluesmen dressed more modestly and most often
performed alone outdoors or at small, rural venues. During the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a time of
unprecedented prosperity, in which people from all walks of life benefited, including musicians. During this time,
many artists moved to the cities, where there was more demand for music, which led to more opportunities to
perform and record. Since Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877, many Americans had begun to buy
musical recordings for the first time. Some of the most popular records of this era were of songs by Mamie Smith,
such as “Crazy Blues” and “St. Louis Blues.”
5
Because of the feeling that is evoked by expressions like “I feel blue” or “I have the blues,” many people believe
that all blues music has a sad or melancholy quality. Upon listening to recordings from classic blues artists, such as
Ida B. Cox and Bessie Smith, however, one quickly realizes that many blues songs are upbeat and even inspiring.
Just as the songs and chants of nineteenth century laborers had helped lift their hearts and distract them from the
difficulty of their work, blues music in the twentieth century helped artists and audiences to acknowledge and work
through difficult times. Thus, the purpose of this form of music is really to “lose the blues,” rather than “get the
blues.”
6
Though the blues declined in popularity after the 1920s, the 1960s saw a reawakening of interest in this
historically and musically rich genre. Unquestionably, blues music has had a monumental effect on popular musicians
from the 1960s onward. Today, blues artists continue to record and thrive as composers and performers, and they
often pay tribute to the great men and women of the country and classic blues eras by singing and recording their
amazing, timeless songs.
30. The information about blues music in the passage appears reliable because the author
A. mentions the names of several blues artists.
B.
admits that it is difficult to determine the origin of blues music.
C.
explains why popular expressions have arisen to describe the tone of the blues.
D. gives precise descriptions of various forms of blues music that have evolved over time.
Pet Privileges
1
Millions of people all over the world are animal lovers, and many of them care for pets in their homes. Pet
owners strive to keep their dogs, cats, and other animals warm, safe, and comfortable. Their goal is to supply them
with the best nourishment possible, and to ensure that their pets stay active and healthy. In Reggio Emilia, a town of
approximately 120,000 people in North Central Italy, however, citizens are taking animal rights seriously.
2
A local council in Reggio Emilia recently passed a bylaw that regulates the standard of living for pets. The law
now mandates that dog owners provide roomy, shady shelters, such as doghouses, for their pups. Birdcages must
now have non-slip surfaces and be a minimum of five times the width of the bird’s wingspan to create a more
spacious environment. Citizens who own parrots, canaries, or other “sociable” birds must own at least one other bird
so that the animals will not feel lonely. Pet owners must always maintain that each pet, if sharing meals with another,
gets equal portions of food. Even fish benefit from the law: Goldfish may no longer be kept in small round bowls,
nor may they be given as prizes to visitors of amusement parks.
3
The legislation was made official in April 2004 when twenty-two town councilors voted for the bylaw, with only
one councilor voting against it. Although Reggio Emilia is somewhat well-known for its animal-loving tendencies
(many of its hotels allow guests to bring pets), there are quite a few citizens who believe that the new laws are not
necessary and, in some cases, almost silly. Ivan Gualerzi, an Italian ornithologist,* says that the “law is trying to
impose standards for animals and that the law fails to take into account their individuality.” For example, Gualerzi
says that “The size of a cage depends on the type of bird, and on the individual bird itself.” He states that if some
birds, such as parrots, are kept in a space that is too large, they can begin to feel sad and lonely.
4
Gualerzi’s comment about birds experiencing sadness brings up an interesting point. Do animals experience
so-called “feelings” the way that humans do? This question has been debated for centuries amongst animal rights
activists, pet owners, veterinarians, and scholarly thinkers alike. The French philosopher Descartes (1596–1650)
believed that although animals have physical feelings—for example, they can feel hot/cold, pain, fatigue—they do not
experience conscious feelings, such as happiness, loneliness, and love. Some pet owners, however, believe that
animals, like people, have specific likes, dislikes, and opinions. These beliefs are often difficult to investigate and
defend, since animals cannot speak human language to communicate with people.
5
Janet Hoff, a veterinary technician and zoologist on staff at the University of Michigan, takes a more moderate
stance on the issue of animals’ feelings. She says that although animals may be capable of expressing certain feelings,
they are not necessarily “capable of understanding human feelings.” Hoff believes that when a pet does something
that makes the owner angry, such as chew up a pair of shoes, and the pet lowers his head or tail, these actions do not
mean that the pet understands what he has done wrong. Instead, the pet merely knows that his owner is angry with
him and, therefore, the pet may demonstrate a feeling of fear. In response, however, to the question of whether or not
dogs can specifically feel lonesome or anxious, Hoff says, “There is a syndrome in dogs known as separation anxiety.
When a dog is left alone in a house, he will typically destroy things and possibly try escaping by chewing through a
door.” In this case, the animal may be experiencing feelings, even though he does not actually recognize or understand
them the way people do.
6
All in all, are extreme animal rights laws truly beneficial to animals? According to Tiziano Bassoli, a songbird
breeder in Reggio Emilia, “The spirit of the law is good, but in practical terms, it’s exaggerated and a bit of a mess.”
No matter what position one takes regarding whether or not animals are capable of experiencing true feelings, one
thing is for certain: The citizens of Reggio Emilia, Italy, intend to treat their pets with the utmost respect.
*ornithologist: one who studies birds
31. Which source is the least credible for locating information about animal behavior and needs?
A.
Gualerzi, Italian ornithologist
B.
Descartes, French philosopher
C.
Janet Hoff, American zoologist
D.
Bassoli, Italian songbird breeder
32. Which feature of the passage most helps the author seem trustworthy?
A. its references to specific authorities and examples
B.
its clear and descriptive explanations of technology
C.
its focus on the positive consequences of prediction
D. its enthusiastic tone toward inventors and researchers
In Praise of Winter
by Alexander Smith
1
To town and country Winter comes alike, but to each he comes in different fashion. To the villager, he stretches a
bold frosty hand; to the townsman, a clammy one. To the villager, he comes wrapped in cold clear air; to the
townsman, in fogs through which the lamps blear at noon. To the villager, he brings snow on the bare trees, frosty
spangles on the roadways, exquisite silver chasings and adornments to the ivies on the walls. To the townsman, he
brings secret slides on unlighted pavements, showers of snowballs from irreverent urchins, damp feet, and universal
slush.
2
Winter is noble in forests and solitudes, but deteriorates in cities and civilization. In the city the falling snow
soon loses all purity and is dingy as a city sparrow. The townsman does not care for Winter. It is regarded as a
nuisance; shopkeepers scrape it from their doors. In a couple of days thaw sets in, and from roof and windowsill
there is a universal weeping.
3
In my quiet village, however, Winter is as pleasant as summer in her prime. Even the signs of Winter’s approach
are pleasant. The rime of a morning on the walls outside tells me he is coming. One can feel the impalpable presence
in the crisp air, in the bright yet sobered sunlight, in the quickened current of the blood as one walks. I please myself
with noting how many objects become visible at this season which summer had kept secret; ragged nests high up in
trees, houses and farm buildings standing among woods, the devious courses of streams. These things are lost and
buried in the leafiness of summer, and are only to be recognized now, as truths are discerned in age which youth
never guesses of.
4
Winter in the country, without snow, is like a summer without the rose. Snow is Winter’s specialty, its last
exquisite grace. In each Winter the falling of the first snowflake is an event; it lays hold of the imagination. A child
does not ordinarily notice the coming of leaves and flowers, but he will sit at a window for an hour watching the
descent of the dazzling apparition, dreaming odd thoughts and fancies. The most prosaic of mortals, when he comes
downstairs of a morning, and finds a new, soft, white world, is conscious of some obscure feeling of pleasure, the
springs of which he might find difficult to explain.
5
Winter beards the eaves with icicles; he makes the lake a floor on which skaters may disport themselves. And
somehow the season seems to infuse a spirit of jollity into everything. The men I meet look ruddier and healthier;
they talk in louder and cheerier tones. They are more charitable, I know. Winter binds “earth-born companions and
fellow mortals” together, and domestic life indoors takes a new charm from the strange pallor outside. Sofa and
slippers become luxuries. The tea urn purrs like a cat. In those long, warm-lighted evenings, books communicate more
of their inmost souls than they do in summer; and a moment’s glance at the village church roof, sparkling to the
frosty moon, adds warmth to fleecy blankets and a depth to repose.*
6
We are accustomed to consider Winter the grave of the year, but it is not so in reality. In the stripped trees, the
disconsolate** gardens, the frosty ground, there is only an apparent cessation of nature’s activities. Winter is a pause
in music, but during the pause, the musicians are privately tuning their strings to prepare for the coming outburst.
Spring is even now underground, and the first snows will hardly have melted before it will peep out timorously***
in snowdrops; then, bolder grown, will burst in crocuses, holding up their colored lamps; then, by fine gradations, the
floral year will reach its noon, the rose; and then, by further fine gradations, it will die in a sunset of hollyhocks and
tiger lilies; and so we come again to falling snows.
*repose: leisure, relaxation
**disconsolate: cheerless, bleak
***timorously: shyly, timidly
Public Domain
33. Which piece of information does the author use to persuade the reader that winter is appreciated?
A. explanations of how to prepare for winter
B.
details of how townspeople perceive winter
C.
descriptions of the positive aspects of winter
D.
statements about general experiences during winter
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Antoinette Rousseau
English
Mr. Radcliffe
January 26, 2003
Katherine Anne Porter
1
Katherine Anne Porter, a twentieth-century author, drew on her regional experiences but refused to be called a
regionalist writer. She was born Callie Russell Porter on March 15, 1890. She was born in an L-shaped log cabin in
Indian Creek, Texas. She grew up in a small family with four siblings, who lived with their paternal grandmother after
the death of their mother in 1892. While growing up, little formal education was received by Porter. When her
grandmother died in 1901, her father sent her to Thomas School for Girls in San Antonio, Texas, where she studied
dance and music for a short time. As a young adult, Porter tried acting and teaching, but she soon discovered that her
greatest talent lay in the art of storytelling, a gift she inherited from her grandmother.
2
Porter claims that she descended from a long line of storytellers. Her grandmother often told her stories about
growing up and about living in Texas. Porter’s favorite family stories, though, were about her aunts and uncles and
their experiences. These stories sparked Porter’s childhood and lifelong interest in family history, and later influenced
her practice of telling realistic tales (Werner 42).
3
Porter often emphasized the importance of memory in her work. Through her stories, she recreated her childhood
from her memories by portraying people and places as she saw them in her imagination and fabricating characters and
settings as she wished them to appear (Steager 176). For the most part, many of Porter’s characters however, were
based upon real people and real places from her childhood.
4
In her short story, “Old Mortality,” for example, Porter modeled the character Cousin Isabel on her cousin
Laredo who rode horses, wrote poetry, and was very beautiful. In the same story, Miranda Gray is based on Porter’s
aunt Ione, whom she greatly admired for her worldliness and ability to entertain with intriguing stories about her life.
Porter observed people intently and also drew on the experiences of her friends and acquaintances, many of whom
were included in the bulk of her work. She became known for her ability to create stories that stirred the emotions of
her readers and left them wanting more (Steager 312-15).
5
Although Katherine Anne Porter was not a prolific writer, she was a proficent and accomplished one, writing
well into her seventies. By the time of her death in 1980, she had been awarded the distinguished Guggenheim
Fellowship, completed her first and only novel, Ship of Fools, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Collected
Short Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, and had completed her memoir, “The Never Ending Wrong,” which
documented her fab experiences. In 2002, First Lady Laura Bush honored Porter by dedicating Porter’s childhood
home in Kyle, Texas, a historical landmark, and heralded Porter as the most famous and cherished writer of Texas
(Carreon 2).
Works Cited
Carreon, Melanie. “Katherine Anne Porter.” Women Writers. 12 January 2002. 24 January 2003
http://www.kporter/45623/writersAm/index.html
Steager, Brian. Katherine Anne Porter: Collected Criticisms of Her Work. New York: Steiner, 1988.
Werner, Amy. “Themes in the Stories of Katherine Anne Porter.” Women’s Literary Journal 23 (2001): 35-50.
34. Which excerpt from Paragraph 1 best serves as the thesis statement of the report?
Jackie Schwartz
History
Mr. McCarver
March 12, 2003
Alexander Graham Bell
1
Alexander Graham Bell established his place in history by inventing the telephone. Bell had always been
interested in the science and beauty of sound. He found he could give sounds to his deaf mother by placing his
forehead against hers when he spoke. From the time he was young, he was a gifted pianist. While in his teen years,
Bell noticed that the notes he played on his piano echoed on the strings of a piano in a nearby room, proving that
sound could go through air from one device to another. His father, an educator, encouraged young Alexander’s
curiosity and experimentation with sound.
2
Bell had been working to invent a telegraph that could send multiple messages at once when he came upon the
idea of producing sound waves in a continuous current. Once he realized that the continuous current could be
produced through a magnetic field, the telephone was born. Cell phones are a vast improvement over the original
telephone, which was big and bulky. In March 1876, Bell’s efforts resulted in success as he stated the first words
ever transmitted by phone. He was speaking to Thomas Watson, his assistant. When Watson heard Bell’s voice from
several rooms away, a new era in communications had begun.
3
Months later, just days after his 29th birthday, Bell demonstrated his “electrical speech machine” at Centennial
Hall in Philadelphia, where the public had gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the declaration
of Independence. The judges as well as the crowds gathered and watched in awe as Bell once again spoke to Watson
through the amazing machine. Bell even at that early point; recognized the value of his invention. He wrote his father
that one day telephone lines would connect houses just like water and gas lines.
4
In addition to a fascination with sound, Bell also held a keen interest in the field of aerodynamics, the interaction
of air and moving objects. To test some of his theories, Bell created large kites to record data about wind speed. Bell
conceived of another kite sufficiently large and strong enough to accommodate a person as a passenger. Bell’s
experiments with kites led him to help develop another great contribution used to this day the aileron the device on
airplane wings that allows the aircraft to remain stable without rocking back and forth during flight.
5
While people today remember Bell primarily as the inventor of the telephone, his list of accomplishments is long
and varied. Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor of great skill, persistence, and imagination. He should be
remembered for all of his ingenious scientific contributions, not only his most famous, the telephone.
6
Alexander Graham Bell thought that science could add solutions to many human needs and problems. In his later
years, Bell worked to solve some of these problems. A variety of lesser-known projects caught his interest and led to
important inventions: like the photoelectric cell and desalination equipment for removing salt from water to make it
drinkable. Bell even fashioned one of the first hydrofoils, boats that glide over the water on a cushion of air.
35. What is the thesis statement of the report?
Read the following paragraph.
It is a cost-effective way to reuse containers and aluminum, and it will also help to make our planet a cleaner place.
Some businesses offer to purchase aluminum cans for recycling; therefore, it can be a profitable hobby for adults and
youths.
36. Which sentence would be the best opening sentence for the paragraph?
A.
Plastic bags are the best place to keep aluminum cans that are going to be recycled.
B.
The city provides a service that will pick up aluminum cans for recycling.
C.
Recycling aluminum cans is a useful and meaningful activity in our community.
D.
Aluminum cans be used for a variety of purposes if they are recycled.
37. A student is writing a report on how to make a kite. Which step is not relevant to the process?
A.
determine the type of kite desired
B.
collect the necessary materials
C.
devise the appropriate instructions
D. check the daily weather conditions
Please use the following passage for questions 38 through 39:
The following is a rough draft of a student’s letter to the editor. It contains errors.
Modern Youth
Dear Sir:
(1) This letter is in response to the May 16th editorial titled “What’s Right with the Youth of Today?” (2) I
thoroughly enjoyed reading an article in which the author praised the accomplishments of teenagers today. (3) Teenagers
will one day run our country. (4) Mr. James the author of the editorial stated that “the youth of today are determined,
helpful, and focused.” (5) I agree with him.
(6) Thanks to the media, many images of young people are positive. (7) Nowadays, it is not uncommon to find
newspaper articles, stories on television news programs, and feature articles in magazines showing the good things that
kids do. (8) As president of the student council at Redville High, one of the largest schools in the state, I can certainly
confirm that these positive images are true. (9) There are some teens who do not actively participate in their communities.
(10) The majority of students at my school, however, are concerned citizens.
(11) Teens are tackling important issues in our community. (12) The number of community service programs has
steadily increased over the past ten years. (13) The students at my school are involved in community clean-up programs,
in charity fundraising, and are involved in food pantries. (14) Students are also responsible for balancing academic
activities, extracurricular activities, and are responsible for family activities. (15) I am proud to be a part of this young
generation.
(16) Students today are continuously learning and sharing knowledge in the constantly-changing world of technology.
(17) Many of us teach our parents and other adults how to use current computer programs consequently they can keep
up with technology-based communication.
(18) I appreciate the positive comments from Mr. James. (19) I would like to invite him to visit our school for a day
to check out firsthand how involved modern youth really are. (20) Mr. James will like what is there. (21) I am confident
he will find that my generation is growing in the knowledge, work ethic, and social consceince needed to lead the world.
(22) He may even consider using my school as an example in a future editorial to demonstrate how helpful and resourceful
students are.
Sincerely,
Jason Dalkon
38. Which, if added, would provide the best supporting evidence for the main idea of the letter?
A. a sign-up list for volunteer workers
B.
a schedule of classes for computer lessons
C.
a list of intramural sporting events
D. a copy of the editorial mentioned in the letter
39. Which sentence is most relevant to the idea that students have accomplished measurable goals by working
together?
A.
Thanks to the media, many images of young people are positive.
B.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon to find newpaper articles, stories on television news programs, and feature articles
in magazines showing the good things that kids do.
C.
As president of the student council at Redville High, one of the largest schools in the state, I can certainly confirm
that these positive images are true.
D.
The number of community service programs has steadily increased over the past ten years.
The following is a rough draft of a student’s letter. It contains errors.
Dear Principal Jones:
(1) I have just learned that due to a lack of funding, after school enrichment classes at our school may
be discontinued. (2) This news is upsetting to our school community and both students and parents
benefit from their programming.
(3) For students, enrichment classes offer positive group experiences and educational opportunities after school. (4)
Taking afterschool classes in subjects like algebra, chemistry, and Latin makes it possible
for tenth-graders to get ahead in their course work by earning class credits early on. (5) By completeing
some of these enrichment courses, a tenth grader can become eligible to take upper-level elective
classes like art and advanced computer programming.
(6) Enrichment classes can offer students exposure to some valuable, less common activities as well. (7) The foreign
language enrichment program offers languages such as German, Russian, Chinese, and American Sign Language, none of
which are offered as part of the Regular Curriculum at Collier High School. (8) Students can take part in sports activities,
like mountain biking, gymnasics, and line dancing, and unexpected arts and crafts activities, like puppet-making and
plastercraft.
(9) For parents, the enrichment program provides peace of mind. (10) There is an undeniable comfort in knowing that
their children will be participating in stemulating, supervised activities between the end of the school day and the time the
parents return home from work. (11) Without enrichment classes, parents would have to arrange for a safe place where
their kids could spend a few hours every afternoon.
(12) Those in favor of ending the enrichment program claim it costs too much. (13) Instead of offering these classes for
free—why not charge a small amount of money for those who wish to join? (14) Many students might be willing to pay
one dollar per day to try hands-on science experiments, to become skilled at indoor rock climbing, or learn how to paint a
wall mural. (15) Perhaps local businesses would be willing to offer enrichment scholarships to students who apply
themselves and do good in the program. (16) Featuring the names of contributing businesses in the program’s brochure
would be good advertising for these businesses, and the scholarships would help keep the program going.
(17) People at Collier High School are really crazy about the afterschool enrichment program, (18) The program offers
a wide range of educational choices and the opportunity to earn class credits, and it also provides enjoyable recreational
activities. (19) It would be a mistake to drop such a valuable program without searching for new ways to obtain the funds
necessary to maintain it.
Sincerely,
Treena Jarrett
Collier High School Student
40. Read the sentence from the letter.
(2) This news is upsetting to our school community and both students and parents benefit from their programming.
Which word best replaces the word in the sentence to create the most logical transition?
A.
since
B.
but
C.
yet
D.
that
Jackie Schwartz
History
Mr. McCarver
March 12, 2003
Alexander Graham Bell
1
Alexander Graham Bell established his place in history by inventing the telephone. Bell had always been
interested in the science and beauty of sound. He found he could give sounds to his deaf mother by placing his
forehead against hers when he spoke. From the time he was young, he was a gifted pianist. While in his teen years,
Bell noticed that the notes he played on his piano echoed on the strings of a piano in a nearby room, proving that
sound could go through air from one device to another. His father, an educator, encouraged young Alexander’s
curiosity and experimentation with sound.
2
Bell had been working to invent a telegraph that could send multiple messages at once when he came upon the
idea of producing sound waves in a continuous current. Once he realized that the continuous current could be
produced through a magnetic field, the telephone was born. Cell phones are a vast improvement over the original
telephone, which was big and bulky. In March 1876, Bell’s efforts resulted in success as he stated the first words
ever transmitted by phone. He was speaking to Thomas Watson, his assistant. When Watson heard Bell’s voice from
several rooms away, a new era in communications had begun.
3
Months later, just days after his 29th birthday, Bell demonstrated his “electrical speech machine” at Centennial
Hall in Philadelphia, where the public had gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the declaration
of Independence. The judges as well as the crowds gathered and watched in awe as Bell once again spoke to Watson
through the amazing machine. Bell even at that early point; recognized the value of his invention. He wrote his father
that one day telephone lines would connect houses just like water and gas lines.
4
In addition to a fascination with sound, Bell also held a keen interest in the field of aerodynamics, the interaction
of air and moving objects. To test some of his theories, Bell created large kites to record data about wind speed. Bell
conceived of another kite sufficiently large and strong enough to accommodate a person as a passenger. Bell’s
experiments with kites led him to help develop another great contribution used to this day the aileron the device on
airplane wings that allows the aircraft to remain stable without rocking back and forth during flight.
5
While people today remember Bell primarily as the inventor of the telephone, his list of accomplishments is long
and varied. Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor of great skill, persistence, and imagination. He should be
remembered for all of his ingenious scientific contributions, not only his most famous, the telephone.
6
Alexander Graham Bell thought that science could add solutions to many human needs and problems. In his later
years, Bell worked to solve some of these problems. A variety of lesser-known projects caught his interest and led to
important inventions: like the photoelectric cell and desalination equipment for removing salt from water to make it
drinkable. Bell even fashioned one of the first hydrofoils, boats that glide over the water on a cushion of air.
41. Which transitional sentence could be added to improve the coherence between Paragraphs 3 and 4?
A.
Bell is one of America’s most famous inventors.
B.
Bell was successful in other scientific areas as well.
C.
Working late into the night, Bell investigated solutions for deafness.
D.
To many, Bell is a figure of encouragement because he had dedication.
Candace Brenner
Art History
Mr. Stiles
January 7, 2003
Eugene Boudin
1
Although French artist Claude Monet is often called the “father of impressionism,” it was actually Eugene
Boudin, Monet’s mentor, who first painted in the impressionist style during the early 1900s in France (Benjamin
14). Monet, in fact, once said that Boudin was the true father of impressionism when he admitted that he owed his
painting career and his joyous triumph as an artist to Boudin.
2
Boudin known for his paintings of sky and seascapes is often referred to as the “painter of beaches” (Mortimer
2). He was born into a family of seafarers. His interest in painting begins at an early age. Countless scenes of the
French coastline where he was born was painted by Boudin. He also became notorious for being the first French
landscape painter to work outdoors rather than in a stifling studio. The practice of working outside is what Boudin
introduced to his magnificent young protégé, Claude Monet (Green 67). Popular French resorts, large brilliant skies,
and his interpretation of the change of seasons were prominent in his paintings. In his paintings of seaside resorts, he
painted children being active on the beach and women strolling along in their crinolines, skirts made of coarse, stiff
fabric.
3
Boudin and Monet were considered radicals of their time because they chose to depict nature in a fresh, original
way rather than adhear to traditional forms of painting (Green 75). To give their work a sense of spontaneity, they
used short brush strokes they rarely mixed their colors. Their paintings were generally rough.
4
In his work, Boudin was primarily concerned with the use of light and color. He was intrigued by the way in
which the play of light could create changes in the landscape, and he continually seeked to reproduce what he
referred to as “the poetry of the sky and water” (Green 52). Boudin was also known for his sloppy style of painting
and for his delicate brushwork. In his paintings, he successfully caught the peacefulness of his surroundings and
portrayed the everyday routines of people.
5
Boudin’s artwork first appeared publicly on April 15 1874 at the Impressionist Art Exhibition in Paris, France.
Art critics greatly criticized his work (Benjamin 14). Boudin and his contemporaries forgot about their remarks,
however, and eventually went on to dominate the modern art movement in Europe. Today, Boudin’s paintings along
with the paintings of Claude Monet hang in some of the most notable museums and galleries in the world. The
National Gallery in London, England, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Montreal Museum of Art in
Canada all display works by this great artist.
Works Cited
Mortimer, Thomas. The Eugene Boudin Home Page, 16 September 2002.
http://www.boudin/1/indexboudin/homepage/1265789/
Benjamin, Joseph. “Eugene Boudin and Claude Monet.” Impressionism 14 Feb. 2002: 28.
Green, Karen. Impressionist Painting. New York: Quinlen, 1998.
42. Read the sentence from Paragraph 3 of the report.
Their paintings were generally rough.
How could the sentence best be rewritten to provide sensory detail?
A.
Their paintings generally have a coarse look and textured surface.
B.
Their paintings were generally very rough.
C.
Their paintings were mostly rough drafts.
D.
Their paintings were mostly coarse.
1
Flavorful sauces, spicy seasonings, and pickled side dishes have been popular for hundreds of years. Today, busy
cooks can buy prepared catsup, mustard, pickle relish, horseradish, and other condiments at the grocery store. The
industrialist H. J. Heinz introduced ready-made condiments, which most Americans now take for granted.
2
Henry John Heinz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1844. His father and mother had come from
Germany. Henry’s father owned and managed a brick oven his mother grew vegetables in the garden. As a child,
Henry helped to earn money for the family by selling his mother’s vegetables from door to door. He studied
bookkeeping and, at the age of 15, he went to work keeping financial records for his father’s brick-making business.
He also went on selling vegetables.
3
Before his customers could use the horseradish they bought from him, they had to grate it. The task was
unpleasant. He found many would pay him extra to grate the horseradish before he delivered it. Customers wanted
assurance that he had not mixed the horseradish with cheaper ingredients like turnips. Heinz had a reputation for
honesty and lobbied for laws requiring sanitary food processing conditions. He decided to bottle the grated
horseradish in clear glass so customers could see it was pure.
4
Heinz began selling bottled, grated horseradish to Pittsburgh grocery stores. He expanded the business beyond
Pennsylvania. He developed other processed foods. Some of the foods he developed are pickles, tomato catsup,
soups, baked beans, sauerkraut, and pepper sauce. In 1875 he and a partner promised to buy a large cucumber crop.
When the price of the cucumbers proved too high in the midst of a recession the business went bankrupt. Over the
next few years, Heinz worked down his list of “moral obligations” until all his debts from the bankruptcy was paid.
5
Of the H. J. Heinz Company’s many food processing plants, the most awesome one was in Pennsylvania near
his Pittsburgh home. It had many features for the factory workers roof gardens, lunch rooms, a gym, a library, an
auditorium, and even a swimming pool. Visitors received free pickle samples and tours of the plant.
6
He introduced many marketing ideas to advertise the Heinz brand name. At the 1893 Columbian Exposition in
Chicago, Illinois, the Heinz pavilion gave away pins in the shape of a pickle. The Heinz Ocean Pier was sponsored
by the company in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Enormous electric signs carried the message “57 Varieties,” the
company slogan.
7
Today, factory tours, employee facilities, and advertising gimmicks are nearly as familiar as condiments in clear
glass bottles. Many American corporations owe much to the creative innovations of H. J. Heinz, he started by
selling fresh vegetables from his mother’s garden.
Bibliography
Andersen, Lars. “All About Horseradish.” Kitchen and Garden, Feb. 1999: 58.
“Heinz Company History.” http:www.corporatehistories.com/Heinz.html.
King, Morrina. “The Boyhood of H. J. Heinz.” Rags to Riches, Sept. 2001:16-25.
Petropolis, Ari. The Changing Face of Labor-Management Relations in America.
New York: Water Tower Press, 1998.
43. Read the sentence from Paragraph 5 of the report.
Of the H. J. Heinz Company’s many food processing plants, the most awesome one was in Pennsylvania near his
Pittsburgh home.
What is the best way to rewrite the underlined part of this sentence to maintain a consistent tone within the
report?
A.
one that I think was great
B.
one taking top honors
C.
largest and most impressive
D. coolest and biggest
The following is a rough draft of a letter to a magazine editor. It contains errors.
Dear Editor:
(1) Many of your readers are avid gardeners and are, no doubt, regular readers of “The Gardening Shed” column in
your paper. (2) Some of them, however, may be new to gardening. (3) They may even be new to the area and have little
knowledge of how to garden in the western United States. (4) I would like to recommend to these readers a workshop
offered by the Rosedale Gardening Club.
(5) The workshop, entitled “Gardening in the Desert,” will be an important one for our friends who have never
gardened or who are new to the area. (6) To garden successfully in this area, one must be willing to cooperate with the
kind of environment we have. (7) One must know what kinds of plant life the land can or cannot support. (8) The
workshop will feature presentations on neat stuff for gardening. (9) The art of gardening can serve as a means of stress
relief for many people. (10) Session leaders will discuss the three most important aspects of gardening. (11) Proper plant
selection, water conservation, and tricks for lowering soil temperature by mulching. (12) Free brochures discussing these
topics will also be provided.
(13) Those who attend this workshop will learn from local master gardeners, including Pearl Myers, author of the
popular weekly column “The Gardening Shed.” (14) These leaders will not lecture instead, they will lead small groups in
hands-on demonstrations. (15) A walking tour of the library landscaping will be conducted by Roger Donally of the
County Extension Service. (16) He is definitely a really cool guy with lots of neat ideas about landscaping and other
gardening topics. (17) Mr. Donally will explain how landscaping can be designed for maximum visual impact and minimum
water usage. (18) The workshop will end with an appearance by Ms. Ella Cromett, also known as “The Fertilizer Queen,”
who will be showing us how to keep our gardens vibrant and healthy.
(19) The workshop will take place next Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the public library conference room.
(20) A light lunch is provided. (21) The cost for the workshop will be ten dollars per adult, while senior citizens and
students will pay a reduced fee of just five dollars.
(22) Gardening in our part of the country can be challenging. (23) The rewards can be great as well. (24) This helpful
workshop will be a worthwhile experience for both new gardeners and experienced gardeners which are new to the area.
Sincerely,
Samantha Crandall
44. Read the sentence from the letter.
(8) The workshop will feature presentations on neat stuff for gardening.
Which of the following best replaces the underlined words to create a more appropriate tone?
A. cool ideas
B.
super hints
C.
useful things
D. creative advice
Cowgirl Hall of Fame
(1) What do Sacagawea, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Annie Oakley have in common? (2) All are members of the Cowgirl
Hall of Fame. (3) One thinks of Sacagawea primarily as the Native American guide who led Lewis and Clark to the Pacific
Ocean, of Laura Ingalls Wilder as the author of the Little House on the Prairie series of books, and of Annie Oakley as the
little lady who took the country by storm riding her horse in “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.”
(4) The Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, recognizes the underlying connection among the three women,
noting their bond with the land and their importance to western history and heritage. (5) The Cowgirl Hall of Fame inducts
women who represent the strength, character, and courage of the American cowgirl. (6) Since the museum’s inaugural year
in 1975, the Cowgirl Hall of Fame has inducted more than one hundred noteworthy American women. (7) The purpose of
the Hall of Fame is to preserve the history and impact of Western women living from the mid-1800s to the present.
(8) Some visitors to the museum register surprise when they discover who are among the women inducted into the
Cowgirl Hall of Fame. (9) One inductee, for example, was Maria Martínez. (10) She was born in 1887 on the San
Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico and became famous for her use of traditional, time-honored techniques for making
pottery. (11) Her contribution to western heritage is uniquely important; not only did she help to preserve traditional
methods of making pottery, she helped to develop it into an art form that is still practiced today. (12) One of her most
celebrated works is “Jar with Feathers,” which features the famous “black on black” glaze she pioneered by using flat
black on the background and glossy black for design. (13) Her work is noteworthy because Martínez fired all of her pots
from clay found at the pueblo where she lived and worked. (14) Maria Martínez glorified the western landscape history
not only by depicting it on her pottery, but also by literally using the land to formulate her pottery.
(15) Still, other inductees do not even have a western background; the great singer Patsy Cline provides a prime
example. (16) While Cline may seem an unlikely “cowgirl,” many of her songs glorify the western landscape and lifestyle.
(17) She was influenced by certain icons of western music such as Bob Wills, one of the founders of western swing; in
fact, Cline recorded many songs that Wills had written, such as the
ever-popular “Faded Love.” (18) In addition, with her stage presence Cline fashioned a look that immediately identified
her as a cowgirl, a shirt with beadwork and fringe, red boots, and her trademark bandanna tied around her neck. (19) Given
these facts, it is easy to forget that Patsy Cline was born in Virginia and made her home in Tennessee!
(20) Other Cowgirl Hall of Fame honorees may not have been born in the West, but they did make it their home. (21)
Artist Georgia O’Keeffe, for example, was born in Wisconsin but became identified with the stark western landscapes and
the bright close-ups of native wildflowers she painted. (22) Because O’Keeffe grew up on a dairy farm, when she moved
to Amarillo, Texas, she was accustomed to the ranching lifestyle. (23) As an art teacher in Texas, O’Keeffe was captured
by the western landscape, and she began delving into the canyons and deserts that became the subject of many of her most
famous paintings. (24) In 1949, O’Keeffe moved to a ranch in New Mexico and, for the next four decades, created works
of art which are now acknowledged as world masterpieces. (25) One such work, titled simply “Cottonwood III,” exhibits
a grove of cottonwood trees nearly dwarfed by desert in the foreground and gray mountains in the background. (26) The
light in her paintings has often been commented on, and in this canvas, pale yellow sunshine touches the tops of the
cottonwood trees creating a scene familiar to those who have grown up in the West.
(27) Of course, many of the women honored in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame did grow up in the West and from the very
beginning were familiar with the western lifestyle of hats, horses, and cattle. (28) One of these cowgirls was Wantha
Davis, who lived on a ranch near the old Abilene Trail, as a result, she knew how to rope cattle and ride the range with the
best of them. (29) Still, Wantha Davis did not become famous as a rancher; she achieved lasting renown by becoming the
first woman jockey to race horses on major race tracks in the United States and Mexico. (30) The most illustrius event of
her career was the 1949 Aqua Caliente race in Mexico, a race few thought she could win. (31) Davis is also remembered for
pioneering the development of “hand riding,” a method of coaxing a horse to go faster by gently patting it and whispering
into its ears, a technique now widely used in racing. (32) True to her cowgirl roots, once Davis retired from her successful
career as a jockey she returned to the ranch.
(33) The Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas tells the story of the contribution of women to the heritage and
development of the West. (34) “Contribution” does not really suffice—perhaps one should say “stories” of the West, for
the women whose lives are remembered at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame are as different as they can be. (35) Their diverse
stories help bring history to life in all its variety. (36) Still, one element unites these great women: their love for the
western heritage they helped to create.
Bibliography
Caldwell, Hattie. “And Now Let Us Praise Famous Women: The National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.” Trailways
4 2002: 7–9.
Fletcher, Rolla. “Fort Worth’s Great Cowgirl Roundup.” Museum Studies 24 2001: 17–25.
Klein, Sean. “The Unwritten Story of Women in the West.” Westerner 95 1999: 43–56.
Richardson, Stormy. Chronicle of the Cowgirl: A History. Cheyenne: University Publications, 2003.
45. Which sentence would best conclude the report?
A.
Knowledge of horses is not required for induction.
B.
Each year, the museum receives many visitors.
C.
Each woman was a cowgirl in her own unique way.
D.
Other museums depict famous cowboys.
46. Which sentence would best conclude Paragraph 5?
A.
Although not a westerner, her paintings show her love for the landscape.
B.
Few, if any, understood the light of the western landscape like O’Keeffe.
C.
Her love for the West shines through in her paintings.
D.
The western landscape provided many outlets for O’Keeffe.
47. Read the sentence.
“I get confused when computer experts start talking in their jargon,” said Daniel.
In the sentence, the word jargon refers to speech that is
A.
overly simple.
B.
too technical.
C.
very educational.
D. extremely vague.
48. Read these sentences.
Rebecca is a versatile performer who not only acts, but also sings and dances. She won the starring role in the school
musical her junior year because of her multiple talents.
At first Joel thought the word versatile meant adaptable. Which part of the second sentence would help Joel
understand the meaning of the word?
I read an article in the newspaper about a person who built a career masquerading as a doctor when in fact he was a
quack who was only interested in an easy dollar.
To describe someone as a quack means that you think the person is
American Orators
by William H. Rideing
Published in July 1875, the following excerpt describes two of America’s most famous speakers.
1
We are a nation of speakers and have a speech ready for every occasion, whether it be a public dinner, a political
mass-meeting, or a Fourth of July celebration. Our English cousins are astonished at the general fluency and
confidence we exhibit; for while they possess some of the wittiest and most learned masters of debate living, the gift
of public talking is not common among them.
2
Of course, talking is no more like real oratory than a pot of paint is like art; and a good many Americans have
never found out the difference.
3
The high-flown words of the patriot who declaims to his fellow-countrymen on the Fourth of July are often
nonsensical and meaningless. Who, to his mortification, has not heard much rubbish spoken from “the stump” in
rural villages? But we have produced some of the greatest orators the world has known—real orators, mind you, who
had a wonderful power of filling multitudes of intelligent men and women with fear, hope, courage, dismay, and
horror in turn; orators who could, with passionate words alone, drive a populace to war and restore it to a love of
peace in a few brief moments.
4
Some notable representatives of our orators are Patrick Henry and Daniel Webster.
5
Patrick Henry was born on a Virginia farm in 1736 and was as fine a specimen of the ne’er-do-well as could be
found in his county. His manners were awkward, and his dress was sloppy. When the hour for study came he was
usually absent and was to be found in the woods or by the river with his fishing-rod. But at the age of fifteen he was
installed behind the counter of a merchant, and a year afterward began business for himself in partnership with his
brother William. The firm failed in a short time, and Patrick then tried farming, in which he also failed. Opening
another store, he again became bankrupt, and at last sought relief for his disappointment in reading classical books.
6
With only a smattering of law, he obtained a license to practice in the courts; and one day a case was entrusted to
him which was so hopeless that no other lawyer would accept it. As he arose to make the opening address, the
spectators laughed at him, and his father, who presided on the bench, was overcome with confusion.
7
But before he had spoken many words, those who had laughed were struck with amazement at the eloquence he
displayed and listened to him in death-like silence. They were fascinated by the spell of his eyes, the majesty of his
attitudes, the commanding expression of his face, and as he concluded, tears of joy rolled down his father’s face. The
case was won, and the name of Patrick Henry became known far and wide as that of a great orator.
8
But he was no more inclined to study after his success than before, and instead of improving his manners and
dress he took great delight in their plainness, and would often come into court attired in a coarse hunting jacket,
greasy leather breeches, and with a pair of saddle-bags under his arm.
9
While he remained in his seat he was a shuffling, independent-looking farmer, but when he arose and spoke he
was transformed.
10
Daniel Webster was born in 1782. In appearance he was tall and ugly. His head was large, and his face set with
great black eyes. The words he spoke came up from his broad chest with such emphasis that it has been said that
each of them seemed to weigh at least twelve pounds.
11
He could entrance an audience and hold them spell-bound by his eloquence. “When his speech was over,” one
writer says, “the tones of the orator still lingered in the ear, and the people, unconscious of its close, retained their
positions. The agitated face, the heaving chest, the suffused eye attested its influence. There was not a movement or
a whisper for several minutes, when a sharp rap of the chairman’s hammer broke the charm that Mr. Webster had
wound about them.”
Public Domain
50. What does eloquence mean in Paragraph 7?
When the afternoon grew hot, Spencer quickly dispensed with his coat and hat.
Read this dictionary entry.
dispense v 1. to distribute 2. to exempt 3. to do without 4. to stop something
Which definition best describes the meaning of dispense as used in the sentence?
A.
Definition 1
B.
Definition 2
C.
Definition 3
D.
Definition 4
Heat
by Archibald Lampman
From plains that reel to southward, dim,
The road runs by me white and bare;
Up the steep hill it seems to swim
Beyond, and melt into the glare.
5
Upward half-way, or it may be
Nearer the summit, slowly steals
A hay-cart, moving dustily
With idly clacking wheels.
By his cart’s side the wagoner
10 Is slouching slowly at his ease,
Half-hidden in the windless blur
Of white dust puffing to his knees.
This wagon on the height above,
From sky to sky on either hand,
15 Is the sole thing that seems to move
In all the heat-held land.
Beyond me in the fields the sun
Soaks in the grass and hath his will;
I count the marguerites one by one;
20 Even the buttercups are still.
On the brook yonder not a breath
Disturbs the spider on the midge.
The water-bugs draw close beneath
The cool gloom of the bridge.
25 Where the far elm-tree shadows flood
Dark patches in the burning grass,
The cows, each with her peaceful cud,
Lie waiting for the heat to pass.
From somewhere on the slope near by
30 Into the pale depth of the noon
A wandering thrush slides leisurely
His thin revolving tune.
In intervals of dreams I hear
The cricket from the droughty ground;
35 The grasshoppers spin into mine ear
A small innumerable sound.
I lift mine eyes sometimes to gaze:
The burning sky-line blinds my sight:
The woods far off are blue with haze:
40 The hills are drenched in light.
And yet to me not this or that
Is always sharp or always sweet;
In the sloped shadow of my hat
I lean at rest, and drain the heat;
45 Nay more, I think some blessed power
Hath brought me wandering idly here:
In the full furnace of this hour
My thoughts grow keen and clear.
Public Domain
52. Read the statement about the poem.
The landscape is so hostile and barren, yet the speaker depicts it as peaceful and insipiring.
Which literary technique is the critic commenting on?
A. ambiguity
B.
metaphor
C.
irony
D.
symbolism
53. Read the lines from a poem.
Lift the dark blanket.
Light pouring down from the sky.
Day’s yellow blossom.
Which underlined word supports the conclusion that this is about a person waking up?
A.
blanket
B.
Light
C.
sky
D.
yellow
From a distance, the painting looked like a handful of crayons that had melted into a puddle on a summer sidewalk.
In this sentence, the author uses
A.
personification to give the painting human characteristics.
B.
metaphor to suggest that the painting was an important work of art.
C.
simile to show the similarity between the painting and ruined crayons.
D. irony to suggest that the work of art was easy to understand.
55. Which of these words for run would most likely suggest that the person who is running is in trouble?
A.
flee
B.
rush
C.
dash
D.
dart
Waysiders
by Seumas O’Kelly
1
That day the building was begun. Martin Cosgrave tackled the donkey and drew a few loads of limestone from
the nearby quarry. Some of the neighbors who came his way found him a changed man, a silent man with his eager
face set, a man in whose eyes a new light shone, a quiet man of the fields into whose mind a set purpose had come.
He struggled up the road with his donkey-cart, his hand gripping the shaft to hasten the steps of the slow brute, his
limbs bent to the hill, his head down at the work. By the end of the week a pile of grey-blue stones was heaped up
on the crest of the hill. The walls of the fields had been broken down to make a carway. Late into the night when the
donkey had been fed and tethered the neighbors would see Martin Cosgrave moving about the pile of grey-blue
stones, sorting and picking, arranging in little groups to have ready to his hands. “A house he is going to put up on
the hill,” they would say, lost in wonder.
2
3
The spring came, and with it all the strenuous work on the land. But Martin Cosgrave went on with the building.
The neighbors shook their heads at the sight of neglect that was gathering about his holding; they said it was flying in
the face of Providence when Martin Cosgrave weaned all the lambs from the ewes one day, long before their time,
and sold them at the fair to the first bidder that came his way. Martin Cosgrave did so because he wanted money and
was in a hurry to get back to his building.
“What call has a man to be destroying himself like that?” the neighbors asked each other.
4
Martin Cosgrave knew what the neighbors were saying about him. But what did he care? What thought had any
of them for the heart of a builder? What did any of them know beyond putting a spade in the clay and waiting for the
seasons to send up growing things from the seed they scattered by their hands? What did they know about the feel
of the rough stone in the hand and the shaping of it to fit into the building, the building that day after day you saw
rising up from the ground by the skill of your hand and the art of your mind? What could they in Kilbeg know of the
ship that would plough the ocean in the harvest bearing Rose Dempsey home to him? For all their ploughing and
their sowing, what sort of a place had any of them led a woman into? They might talk away. The joy of the builder
was his. The beech trees that made music all day beside the building he was putting up to the sight of all the world
had more understanding of him than all the people of the parish.
5
Martin Cosgrave had no help. He kept to his work from such an early hour in the morning until such a late hour
of the night that the people marvelled at his endurance. But as the work went on the people would talk about Martin
Cosgrave’s building in the fields and tell strangers of it at the markets. They said that the like of it had never been
seen in the countryside. It was to be “full of little turrets and the finest of fancy porches and a regular sight of
bulging windows.” One day that Martin Cosgrave heard a neighbor speaking about the “bulging windows” he laughed
a half-bitter, half-mocking laugh.
6
“Tell them,” he said, “that they are cut-stone tracery windows to fit in with the carved doors.” These cut-stone
windows and carved doors cost Martin Cosgrave such a length of time that they provoked the patience of the
people. Out of big slabs of stone he had worked them, and sometimes he would ask the neighbors to give him a hand
in the shifting of these slabs. But he was quick to resent any interference. One day a stone-cutter from the quarry
went up on the scaffold, and when Martin Cosgrave saw him he went white to the lips . . .
7
When the shell of the building had been finished Martin Cosgrave hired a carpenter to do all the woodwork. The
woodwork cost money. Martin Cosgrave did not hesitate. He sold some of his sheep, sold them hurriedly, and as all
men who sell their sheep hurriedly, he sold them badly. When the carpentry had been finished, the roofing cost more
money. One day the neighbors discovered that all the sheep had been sold. “He’s beggared now,” they said.
8
The farmer who turned the sod a few fields away labored in the damp atmosphere of growing things, his mind
filled with thoughts of bursting seeds and teeming barns. He shook his head at the sight of Martin Cosgrave above on
the hill bent all day over hard stones; whenever he looked up he only caught the glint of a trowel, or heard the harsh
grind of a chisel. But Martin Cosgrave took no stock of the men reddening the soil beneath him. Whenever his eyes
travelled down the hillside he only saw the flock of crows that hung over the head of the digger. The study of the
veins of limestone that he turned in his hands, the slow molding of the crude shapes to their place in the building, the
rhythm and swing of the mallet in his arm, the zest with which he felt the impact of the chisel on the stone, the ring
of forging steel, the consciousness of mastery over the work that lay to his hands—these were the things that seemed
to him to give life a purpose and man a destiny. He would whistle a tune as he mixed the mortar with the broad
shovel, for it gave him a feeling of the knitting of the building with the ages. He pitied the farmer who looked
helplessly upon his corn as it was beaten to the ground by the first storm that blew from the sea; he was upon a
work that would withstand the storms of centuries. The scent of lime and mortar greeted his nostrils. When he
moved the splinters crunched under his feet. Everything around him was hard and stubborn, but he was the master of
it all. In his dreams in the night he would reach out his hands for the feel of the hard stone, a burning desire in his
breast to put it into shape, to give it nobility in the scheme of a building.
9
It was while Martin Cosgrave walked through the building that Ellen Miscal came to him with the second letter
from America. The carpenter was hammering at something below. The letter said that Rose Dempsey and her sister,
Sheela, would be home in the late harvest. “With all I saw since I left Kilbeg,” Rose Dempsey wrote, “I never saw
one that I thought as much of as Martin Cosgrave.”
10
When Ellen Miscal left him, Martin Cosgrave stood very quietly looking through the cut-stone tracery window.
The beech trees were swaying slowly outside. Their music was in his ears.
Public Domain
56. Why does Martin Cosgrave feel that building is superior to farming?
A.
Building is a solitary activity.
B.
A building is not affected by nature.
C.
Building is less laborious than farming.
D.
A building is a permanent work of art.
The Green Satin Gown
by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
1
Who ever wore such a strange-looking thing? I wore it myself, dear, once upon a time; yes, I did! Perhaps you
would like to hear about it, while you mend that tear in your muslin. Sit down, then, and let us be cozy.
2
I was making a visit in Hillton once, when I was seventeen years old, just your age; staying with dear old Miss
Persis Elderby, who is now dead. I have told you about her, and it is strange that I have never told you the story of
the green satin gown; but, indeed, it is years since I looked at it. We were great friends, Miss Persis and I; and we
never thought much about the difference in our ages, for she was young for her years, and I was old for mine. In our
daily walk through the pretty, sleepy Hillton street—we always went for the mail, together, for though Miss Persis
seldom received letters, she always liked to see mine, and it was quite the event of the day—my good friend seldom
failed to point out to me a stately mansion that stood by itself on a little height, and to say in a tone of pride, “The
Le Baron place, my dear; the finest place in the county. Madam Le Baron, who lives there alone now, is as great a
lady as any in Europe, though she wears no coronet to her name.”
3
I never knew exactly what Miss Persis meant by this last remark, but it sounded magnificent, and I always gazed
respectfully at the gray stone house which sheltered so grand a personage. Madam Le Baron, it appeared, never left
the house in winter, and this was January. Her friends called on her at stated intervals, and, to judge from Miss
Persis, never failed to come away in a state of reverential enthusiasm.
4
I could not help picturing to myself the great lady as about six feet tall, clad in purple velvet, and waving a
peacock-feather fan; but I never confided my imaginings even to the sympathetic Miss Persis.
5
One day my friend returned from a visit to the stone house, quite breathless, her pretty old face pink with
excitement. She sat down on the chair nearest the door, and gazed at me with speechless emotion.
6
“Dear Miss Persis!” I cried. “What has happened? Have you had bad news?”
7
Miss Persis shook her head. “Bad news? I should think not, indeed! Child, Madam Le Baron wishes to see you.
More I cannot say at present. Not a word! Put on your best hat, and come with me. Madam Le Baron waits for us!”
8
It was as if she had said, “The Sultan is on the front door-step.” I flew upstairs, and made myself as smart as I
could in such a hurry. My cheeks were as pink as Miss Persis’s own, and though I had not the faintest idea what
was the matter, I felt that it must be something of vital import. On the way, I begged my companion to explain
matters to me, but she only shook her head and trotted on the faster. “No time!” she panted. “Speech delays me, my
dear! All will be explained; only make haste.”
9
We made such haste, that by the time we rang at the door of the stone house neither of us could speak, and Miss
Persis could only make a mute gesture to the dignified maid who opened the door, and who looked amazed, as well
she might, at our burning cheeks and disordered appearance. Fortunately, she knew Miss Persis well, and lost no
time in ushering us into a cool, dimly lighted parlor, hung with family portraits. Here we sat, and fanned ourselves
with our pocket-handkerchiefs, while I tried to find breath for a question; but there was not time! A door opened at
the further end of the room; there was a soft rustle, a smell of sandalwood in the air. The next moment Madam Le
Baron stood before us. A slender figure, about my own height, in a quaint, old-fashioned dress; snowy hair, arranged
in puff on puff, with exquisite nicety; the darkest, softest eyes I ever saw, and a general air of having left her crown
in the next room; this was the great lady.
10
We rose, and I made my best curtsy,—we curtsied then, my dear, instead of bowing like pump handles,*—and
she spoke to us in a soft old voice, that rustled like the silk she wore, though it had a clear sound, too. “So this is the
child!” she said. “I trust you are very well, my dear! And has Miss Elderby told you of the small particular in which
you can oblige me?”
11
Miss Persis hastened to say that she wasted no time on explanations, but had brought me as quickly as might be,
thinking that the main thing. Madam Le Baron nodded, and smiled a little; then she turned to me; a few quiet words,
and I knew all about it. She had received that morning a note from her grandniece, “a young and giddy person,” who
lived in B——, some twenty miles away, announcing that she and a party of friends were about to drive over to
Hillton to see the old house. She felt sure that her dear aunt would be enchanted to see them, as it must be “quite too
forlorn for her, all alone in that great barn;” so she might expect them the next evening (that is, the evening of this
very day), in time for supper . . . There would be about a dozen of them, probably, but she knew there was plenty of
room at Birchwood, and it would be a good thing to fill up the empty rooms for once in a way; so, looking forward
to a pleasant meeting, the writer remained her dearest aunt’s “affectionate niece, Effie Gay.”
12
Turning to me, she said: “I am alone, save for my two maids, who are of middle age, and not accustomed to
youthful visitors. Learning from my good friend, Miss Elderby, that a young gentlewoman was staying at her house,
I conceived the idea of asking you to spend the night with me, and such portion of the next day as my guests may
remain. If you are willing to do me this service, my dear, you may put off your bonnet, and I will send for your
evening dress and your necessaries.”
13
I had been listening in a dream, hearing what was said, but thinking it all like a fairy story, chiefly impressed by
the fact that the speaker was the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life. The last sentence, however,
brought me to my senses with a vengeance. With scarlet cheeks I explained that I had brought no evening dress with
me; that I lived a very quiet life at home, and had expected nothing different here; that, to be quite frank, I had not
such a thing as an evening dress in the world. Miss Persis turned pale with distress and mortification; but Madam Le
Baron looked at me quietly, with her lovely smile.
14
“I will provide you with a suitable dress, my child,” she said. “I have something that will do very well for you. If
you like to go to your room now, my maid will attend you, and bring what is necessary. We expect our guests in time
for supper, at eight o’clock.”
15
Decidedly, I had walked into a fairy tale, or else I was dreaming! Here I sat in a room hung with flowered damask,
in a wonderful chair, by a wonderful fire; and a fairy, little and withered and brown, dressed in what I knew must be
black bombazine,** though I knew it only from descriptions, was bringing me tea, and plum cake, on a silver tray.
She looked at me with kind, twinkling eyes, and said she would bring the dress at once; then left me to my own
wondering fancies. I hardly knew what to be thinking of, so much was happening: more, it seemed, in these few
hours, than in all my life before. I tried to fix my mind on the party that would soon fill the silent house with life and
tumult; I tried to fancy how Miss Effie Gay would look, and what she would say to me; but my mind kept coming
back to the dress, the evening dress, that I was to be privileged to wear. What would it be like? Would silk or muslin
be prettier? If only it were not pink! A red-haired girl in pink was a sad sight!
16
Looking up, I saw a portrait on the wall, of a beautiful girl, in a curious, old-time costume. The soft dark eyes and
regal turn of the head told me that it was my hostess in her youth; and even as I looked, I heard the rustle again, and
smelt the faint odor of sandalwood; and Madam Le Baron came softly in, followed by the fairy maid, bearing a long
parcel.
17
“Your gown, my dear,” she said, “I thought you would like to be preparing for the evening. Undo it, Jessop!”
18
Jessop lifted fold on fold of tissue paper. I looked, expecting I know not what fairy thing of lace and muslin: I
saw—the green satin gown!
19
We were wearing large sleeves then, something like yours at the present day, and high collars; the fashion was at
its height. This gown had long, tight, wrinkled sleeves, coming down over the hand, and finished with a ruffle of
yellow lace; the neck, rounded and half-low, had a similar ruffle almost deep enough to be called a ruff; the waist, if it
could be called a waist, was up under the arms: briefly, a costume of my grandmother’s time. Little green satin
slippers lay beside it, and a huge feather fan hung by a green ribbon. Was this a jest? was it—I looked up, with
burning cheeks and eyes suffused; I met a glance so kind, so beaming with good will, that my eyes fell, and I could
only hope that my anguish had not been visible.
20
“Shall Jessop help you, my dear?” said Madam Le Baron. “You can do it by yourself? Well, I like to see the
young independent. I think the gown will become you; it has been considered handsome.” She glanced fondly at the
shining fabric, and left the room; the maid, after one sharp glance at me, in which I thought I read an amused
compassion, followed; and I was left alone with the green satin gown.
21
Cry? No, I did not cry: I had been brought up not to cry; but I suffered, my dear, as one does suffer at seventeen.
I thought of going to bed, and saying I was ill. It was true, I said to myself, with feverish violence: I was ill, sick with
shame and mortification and disappointment. Appear before this party, dressed like my own great-grandmother? A
person might easily faint of such distress as this—and so on, and so on!
22
Suddenly, like a cool touch on my brow, came a thought, a word of my Uncle John’s, that had helped me many a
time before.
23
“Endeavor, my dear, to maintain a sense of proportion!”
24
The words fell with weight on my distracted mind. I sat up straight in the armchair into which I had flung myself,
face downward. Was there any proportion in this horror? I shook myself, then put the two sides together, and
looked at them. On one side, two lovely old ladies, one of whom I could perhaps help a little, both of whom I could
gratify; on the other, my own—dear me! Was it vanity? I thought of the two sweet old faces, shining with kindness;
I fancied the distress, the disappointment, that might come into them, if I—
25
“Yes, dear uncle,” I said aloud, “I have found the proportion!” I shook myself again, and began to dress. And
now a happy thought struck me. Glancing at the portrait on the wall, I saw that the fair girl was dressed in green.
Was it? Yes, it must be—it was—the very same dress! Quickly, and as neatly as I could, I arranged my hair in two
great puffs, with a butterfly knot on the top of my head, in the style of the picture; if only I had the high comb! I
slipped on the gown, which fitted me well enough. I put on the slippers, and tied the green ribbons round and round
my ankles; then I lighted all the candles, and looked at myself. Perfect? Well, perhaps—and yet—
26
At this moment Jessop entered, bringing a pair of yellow gloves; she looked me over critically, saying nothing;
glanced at the portrait, withdrew, and presently reappeared, with the high tortoise-shell comb in her hand. She placed
it carefully in my hair, surveyed me again, and again looked at the picture. Yes, it was true, the necklace was wanting;
but of course—
27
Really, Jessop was behaving like a jack-in-the-box! She had disappeared again, and now here she was for the third
time; but this time Madam Le Baron was with her. The old lady looked at me silently, at my hair, then up at the
picture. The sight of the pleasure in her lovely face trampled under foot, put out of existence, the last remnant of my
foolish pride.
28
She turned to Jessop and nodded. “Yes, by all means!” she said. The maid put into her hand a long morocco box;
Madam kissed me, and with soft, trembling fingers clasped the necklace round my neck. “It is a graceful compliment
you pay me, my child,” she said, glancing at the picture again, with eyes a little dimmed. “Oblige me by wearing this,
to complete the vision of my past youth.”
29
Ten stars of chrysoprase,*** the purest and tenderest green in the world, set in delicately wrought gold. I need
not describe the necklace to you. You think it the most beautiful jewel in the world, and so do I and I have promised
that you shall wear it . . .
30
Madam Le Baron saw nothing singular in my appearance. She never changed the fashion of her dress, being of the
opinion, as she told me afterward, that a gentlewoman’s dress is her own affair, not her dressmaker’s; and her gray
and silver brocade went very well with the green satin. We stood side by side for a moment, gazing into the long, dim
mirror; then she patted my shoulder and gave a little sigh.
31
“Your auburn hair looks well with the green,” she said. “My hair was dark, but otherwise—Shall we go down,
my dear?”
32
I will not say much about the evening. It was painful, of course. No doubt I made a quaint figure enough among
the six or eight girls, all dressed in the latest fashion; but the first moment was the worst, and the first giggle put a fire
in my veins that kept me warm all the evening. An occasional glance at Madam Le Baron’s placid face enabled me to
preserve my sense of proportion, and I remembered that two wise men, Solomon and my Uncle John, had compared
the laughter of fools to the crackling of thorns under a pot. And—and there were some who did not laugh.
33
Pin it up, my dear! Your father has come, and will be wanting his tea.
34
I can tell you the rest of the story in a few words.
35
A year from that time Madam Le Baron died; and a few weeks after her death, a parcel came for me from Hillton.
36
Opening it in great wonder, what did I find but the gown, the green satin gown, with the slippers and fan, and the
tortoise-shell comb in a leather case! Lifting it reverently from the box, the dress felt singularly heavy on my arm,
and a moment’s search revealed a strange matter. The pocket was full of gold pieces, shining half-eagles, which fell
about me in a golden shower, and made me cry out with amazement; but this was not all! The tears sprang to my
eyes as I opened the morocco box and took out the chrysoprase necklace: tears partly of gratitude and pleasure,
partly of sheer kindness and love and sorrow for the sweet, stately lady who had thought of me in her closing days,
and had found (they told me afterward) one of her last pleasures in planning this surprise for me.
37
There is something more that I might say, my dear. Your dear father was one of that sleighing party; and he often
speaks of the first time he saw me—when I was coming down the stairs in the green satin gown.
*pump handles: levers, worked by hand, which enable liquid to be pumped into a bucket
**bombazine: a fine twilled fabric of silk or cotton
***chrysoprase: an apple-green quartz used as a gemstone
Public Domain
57. Read the sentence from Paragraph 2 of the story.
“Madame Le Baron, who lives there alone now, is as great a lady as any in Europe, though she wears no coronet to
her name.”
What does Miss Persis mean by this statement?
A.
Madame Le Baron is a member of a prominent royal family in Europe.
B.
Madame Le Baron likes to entertain members of royalty in her home.
C.
Madame Le Baron is a dignified lady with a regal presence but is not a member of royalty.
D.
Madame Le Baron is not acquainted with members of any royal families in Europe.
excerpt from Where I Lived, and What I Lived for
by Henry David Thoreau
1
At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house . . .
Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a
seat?—better if a country seat. I discovered many a site for a house not likely to be soon improved, which some
might have thought too far from the village, but to my eyes the village was too far from it. Well, there I might live, I
said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer, and a winter life; saw how I could let the years run off, buffet the
winter through, and see the spring come in. The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their
houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard,
wood-lot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each
blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow, perchance, for a man is rich in proportion
to the number of things which he can afford to let alone . . .
2
The real attractions of the Hollowell farm, to me, were: its complete retirement, being about two miles from the
village, half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and separated from the highway by a broad field; its bounding on the
river, which the owner said protected it by its fogs from the frosts in the spring, though that was nothing to me; the
gray color and ruinous state of the house and barn, and the dilapidated fences, which put such an interval between me
and the last occupant; the hollow and lichen-covered apple trees, gnawed by rabbits, showing what kinds of
neighbors I should have; but above all, the recollection I had of it from my earliest voyages up the river, when the
house was concealed behind a dense grove of red maples, through which I heard the house-dog bark. I was in haste to
buy it, before the proprietor finished getting out some rocks, cutting down the hollow apple trees, and grubbing up
some young birches which had sprung up in the pasture, or, in short, had made any more of his improvements . . .
3
When first I took up my abode in the woods, that is, began to spend my nights as well as days there, which, by
accident, was on Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, 1845, my house was not finished for winter, but was
merely a defence against the rain, without plastering or chimney, the walls being of rough, weather-stained boards,
with wide chinks, which made it cool at night. The upright white hewn studs and freshly planed door and window
casings gave it a clean and airy look, especially in the morning, when its timbers were saturated with dew, so that I
fancied that by noon some sweet gum would exude from them. To my imagination it retained throughout the day
more or less of this auroral* character, reminding me of a certain house on a mountain which I had visited a year
before. This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a traveling god, and where a goddess might trail her
garments. The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the
broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is
uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.
4
The only house I had been the owner of before, if I except a boat, was a tent, which I used occasionally when
making excursions in the summer, and this is still rolled up in my garret;** but the boat, after passing from hand to
hand, has gone down the stream of time. With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress
toward settling in the world. This frame, so slightly clad, was a sort of crystallization around me, and reacted on the
builder. It was suggestive somewhat as a picture in outlines. I did not need to go outdoors to take in the air, for the
atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness. It was not so much within doors as behind a door where I sat, even
in the rainiest weather . . .
5
Though the view from my door was still more contracted, I did not feel crowded or confined in the least. There
was pasture enough for my imagination. The low shrub oak plateau to which the opposite shore arose stretched
away toward the prairies of the West, affording ample room for all the roving families of men . . .
6
Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history
which had most attracted me. Where I lived was as far off as many a region viewed nightly by astronomers. We are
wont to imagine rare and delectable places in some remote and more celestial corner of the system, behind the
constellation of Cassiopeia’s Chair, far from noise and disturbance. I discovered that my house actually had its site in
such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe. If it were worth the while to settle in those
parts near to Pleiades or the Hyades, to Aldebaran or Altair, then I was really there, or at an equal remoteness from
the life which I had left behind, dwindled and twinkling with as fine a ray to my nearest neighbor, and to be seen only
in moonless nights by him . . .
7
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I
could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live
what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to
live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout*** all that was not
life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it
proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or
if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion . . .
*auroral: shining, bright
**garret: loft, attic
***rout: to root out or get rid of
Public Domain
58. Which excerpt from the essay best explains Thoreau’s decision to live at Walden?
A.
. . . I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, . . .
B.
. . . a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone . . .
C.
With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress toward settling in the world.
D.
At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house . . .
In a Station of the Metro
by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Public Domain
59. What is most likely a theme of the poem?
A.
Human life is both beautiful and fragile, like a flower.
B.
If you look at faces quickly, they resemble flower petals.
C.
Modern urban life is sad, gloomy, and impersonal.
D.
Human beings and nature are constantly changing.
Read the excerpt from an employee handbook and answer the questions that follow.
PERSONNEL RECORDS
It is Webber’s policy to maintain records of current and past employees and job applicants. These records assist the
company with policy-making decisions and are required to comply with government regulations. While we value the
information in personnel records, we also respect each individual’s right to privacy. Therefore, we maintain only personal
information that is essential to the conducting of business or which is required by federal, state, or local law. Each
employee file contains basic identification information including a Social Security number and contact information, an
employment application, and other hiring documents. Notices of pay changes, benefit coverage information, performance
evaluations and information related to promotions, training, and disciplinary actions are also included.
Inspection of Records
Employees may review their own personnel records. They may copy but not remove documents, including but not limited
to resumes, reference letters, evaluations, notes of appreciation, letters of recommendation, and benefits information. To
view your personnel folder, you should submit a written request to the Human Resources Department. They will
schedule a time at their earliest convenience to arrange for you to view your records. All reviews must be conducted in the
presence of a member of Human Resources staff.
PERSONAL CONDUCT
As an employee of Webber Manufacturing, it is essential that you understand rules of personal conduct and penalties for
noncompliance.
Safety -- Health and safety regulations include restricting smoking to designated smoking areas, wearing appropriate work
clothes and protective gear, reporting accidents and injuries, and submitting to an annual medical exam, as required by the
company.
Courtesy -- Polite behavior when interacting with fellow employees and customers is required. No employee shall be
disrespectful or impolite. No employee shall use profanity, make disparaging remarks to or about others, or reveal to
others information that could damage the image or reputation of the company.
Conflict of Interest -- Employees are prohibited from working for or providing company information to any business
that is in direct competition with Webber Manufacturing.
Misuse of Resources -- Equipment, vehicles, and other property belonging to customers, vendors, other employees or
the company may not be used without authorization.
Software -- Software is copyrighted and may not be copied either for personal or company use. Additionally, installation
of personal software on company computers is strictly prohibited.
60. According to the passage, why does Webber Manufacturing maintain records of employees and job
applicants?
61. Which event follows the tour of Ford’s Theatre?
RCL Interlibrary Loan Policy
SPECIAL NOTICE
In keeping with other RCL policies, only those patrons living within the Roverville city limits
are eligible to use the interlibrary loan service.
• A book not owned by the Roverville City Library may be borrowed through interlibrary loan, provided another
participating library owns that particular title. There is a $1.00 charge for any book borrowed through interlibrary loan.
Library patrons are limited to no more than two (2) title requests at one time through interlibrary loan.
• Articles from periodicals not owned by the Roverville City Library may be requested through other participating
libraries. Roverville patrons will be required to pay any photocopy charges for these materials. All existing copyright laws
regarding these materials must be observed.
• No audiovisual materials may be borrowed via interlibrary loan, and no audiovisual materials will be loaned to other
libraries via interlibrary loan by the Roverville City Library.
62. What information must a patron provide the Roverville City Library to check out a title owned by a different
library?
The Day Language Came into My Life
by Helen Keller
1
The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan,
came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrast between the two lives which it
connects. It was the third of March 1887, three months before I was seven years old.
2
On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my
mother’s signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went
to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch
and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which
had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for
me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this
passionate struggle.
3
Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great
ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with
beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass
or sounding-line and had no way of knowing how near the harbor was. “Light! Give me light!” was the wordless cry
of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
4
I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Someone took it, and I was
caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to
love me.
5
The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind children at the
Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward. When I
had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word “d-o-l-l.” I was at once
interested in this finger play and tried to imitate it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I was
flushed with childhood pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters
for doll. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in
monkeylike imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this uncomprehending way a great many words,
among them pin, hat, cup, and a few verbs like sit, stand, and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks
before I understood that everything has a name.
6
One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll into my lap also, spelled
“d-o-l-l,” and tried to make me understand that “d-o-l-l” applied to both. Earlier in the day we had had a tussle over
the words “m-u-g” and “w-a-t-e-r.” Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that “m-u-g” is mug and that
“w-a-t-e-r” is water, but I persisted in confounding the two. In despair she had dropped the subject for the time,
only to renew it at the first opportunity. I became impatient at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I
dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither
sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in which I lived
there was no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth, and I
had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat, and I knew I was
going out into the warm sunshine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought, made me hop and
skip with pleasure.
7
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was
covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed
over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention
fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of
returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the
wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope,
joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.
8
I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we
returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything
with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my
way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I
realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.
9
I learned a great many new words that day. I do not remember what they all were; but I do know that mother,
father, sister, teacher were among them—words that were to make the world blossom for me, “like Aaron’s rod, with
flowers.” It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that
eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come.
Public Domain
63. Who is the “light of love” in Paragraph 3?
The following is a rough draft of a student essay. It contains errors.
The Pencil or the PC?
1
As technology advances, our daily lives change as well. We are faced with new possibilities for completing old
tasks. For example, personal computers, or PCs, have changed the way we write and to communicate, in some ways
for the better. The pencil, however, is still superior to the PC in some very clear and substantive ways.
2
Consider the issue of obsolescence.* One might invest a great deal of money in a personal computer and thereby
obtain a state-of-the-art device that will, in the space of a few years, become obsolete. In large companies, computers
more than three years old are considered antiquated, even computer software requires constant “updates.” In order to
stay current and safe from computer viruses, every year or so a new “version” of the software is released. In
contrast, there has been very few updates to the pencil, and it has remained virtually unchanged since time
immemorial. When a pencil has been sharpened down to nothing, it is a simple matter to sharpen a new one.
Updating a pencil requires only a small investment. Those who criticize the pencil as old fashioned inadvertently
identify its main value. Old fashioned means technologically simple. A pencil is just that.
3
Portability is another factor. Personal desktop computers generally are not portable. Even laptops and small
computers are portable in only the narrowest of ways. Portability, rightly considered, means more than just moving
something from one place to another; portability also implies easy adaptability to a variety of environments.
Moisture, whether in the form of rain or excessive humidity spells disaster for a computer, but a pencil can be
completely immersed in water and still survive to write another day. I have seen reporters in the press booths at
baseball games tapping away at their laptops, while people like me are outside in the stands, experiencing the real
game. How much better their reporting would be if they lost the laptops, came out from the press box, and actually
watched the game the way the rest of us do.
4
Finally, when deciding between the pencil and the PC, one ought to consider the effect on others. Attending a
meeting, which makes a better impression: a person watching the presenter and taking notes with a pencil and paper,
or a person tap-tap-tapping away, face hidden behind the screen of a laptop? The time-honored tradition of taking
notes with pencil and paper may seem antiquated, but it works. Writing notes with a pencil allows for eye contact
with the speaker while using a PC does not.
5
There is certainly a place for computers. Computers are useful in the office. They especially produce multiple
clean copies of documents. This suggests that the computer, when used to best advantage, is little more than a
glorified typewriter and photocopier combined. It does not need to accompany us everywhere, nor need we even use
it for every task in the office. When one considers all the disadvantages of the computer and all the advantages of the
pencil, one will reach for the old reliable, the genuine article, the same-as-it-ever-was pencil, version 2.0.
*obsolescence: the state of being obsolete
Bibliography
Bindle, Chuck. “The New E-Tyranny.” PC Times 3 (2002): 78 - 80.
Rollins, Jennifer. “What’s all the Fuss About Upgrades?” Vision 5 (2004): 12 - 14.
Sherman, Leslie. The Computer Revolution. New York: Citadel Press, 2003.
64. How is Paragraph 3 organized?
A. in chronological order
B.
by comparison and contrast
C.
in order of importance
D.
by cause and effect
65. Which sentence in Paragraph 4 can be deleted without changing the focus of the essay?
Gardening and the Natural World
1
According to all the gardening magazines, there are two types of gardening: artificial, using chemical sprays and
fertilizers, and organic, using only natural means of growing fruits and vegetables. Contemporary wisdom says that
organic gardening is more “natural.” Now, I do garden organically, but I am honest enough to admit that there is
nothing natural about any kind of gardening. Gardening is inherently unnatural, it seeks to stimulate nature to
produce what nature is really disinterested in providing. In the wild, the purpose of a plant is to grow and produce
enough seeds to keep the species alive. No one feeds, waters, cares for, or tends to the plant in any way; it receives
rain when it rains, sunlight when the sun shines. Plants in the wild just grow, well, naturally, but gardeners have an
ulterior motive in growing plants. We want to eat them. Everything a gardener does in a garden comes down to that.
We want to grow food in order to eat it.
2
Fundamentally, then, gardening possesses a purpose far different from what transpires in nature. The disparity
increases when one realizes that an implication of gardening is not just “growing plants” but “killing plants.” Of
course, as gardeners, we eat what we grow, but I’m not even talking about that. Consider how one grows corn, for
example, in a garden. Corn is a variety of grass that grows taller than most species and produces something that
people like to eat. The sweet corn we pick from the tall stalks comes at a price to the garden, however, for corn
requires high levels of nitrogen in order to grow. What else uses a lot of nitrogen in the garden? Weeds. The gardener
who hopes to raise corn does not just “grow corn” but must also pull weeds. In this sense, gardening is distinctly at
odds with the natural world, in which competition among species of plants is rife and the plants must work it out on
their own. Nature doesn’t play favorites. In the garden, we allow nothing to compete with the plants we favor, and
we dig out any interlopers, root and branch.
3
We spoil our plants in the garden, too. We keep them not only from competition they would face in the wild, but
also from what is even more dangerous to them: pests, meaning any creature other than ourselves who would like to
eat them. In a woodland meadow, rabbits freely crop the suculant stalks of wild carrot or sorrel greens. Let them
show up in the garden and start nibbling Cabbages, however, and Mr. McGregor will chase Peter Rabbit out of the
garden in short order. Many gardens feature scarecrows to ward off the birds that steal grain and peck at young
plants. When those fail to produce the desired result, we hang tin pans from our fruit trees to frighten off the cedar
waxwings from the cherries and apricots.
4
Nor will you find the intensive level of feeding and watering in nature that takes place in the garden. We put
composted leaves and grass clippings around our tomatoes, feed the hungry vines, nurture them, encouraging them so
they will produce red, luscious tomatoes for the salsa and juice that will grace our tables. We water our watermelon
vines, letting the hose trickle on them for hours on end during the hot summers, knowing that the plants will drink it
in and repay us with juicy, refreshing melons. In nature, the plants are often small, the fruits barely edible, and they
naturally produce just enough fruits to grow new plants the following season. In the garden, we watch our plants for
signs of hunger or thirst, hoping to create super sized fruits and vegetables in superabundant quantities.
5
Gardening is not, then, a natural act; it is, however, a way for people to involve themselves with nature. A garden
producing fruits and vegetables for consumption is analogous to a city park. A city park, with its manicured lawns,
carefully selected trees and shrubs, and bright playground equipment in the primary colors, is clearly not a natural
environment. Yet how many people play in the park in order to “get out into nature!” The real natural world is one
almost entirely alien to us today; it is a place of titanic forces, ancient habitats, and rules we don’t understand, a
place of massive trees and plants that, unlike our gardens and parks, refuse to serve us. Those wild places would
never submit to a weeding. And anyway, where would we start?
66. Which statement would most support the writer’s thesis?
A.
Gardening is a great way to get in touch with nature.
B.
Few people understand how unnatural gardening is.
C.
Natural methods of gardening are superior to artificial methods.
D. Working in a garden requires a great deal of effort.
The following is a rough draft of a student’s letter to Senator Jones in response to recent cuts in state funding of
private art projects. It contains errors.
Dear Senator Jones:
(1) Each year Americans pay taxes to the government, which, in turn, uses that money for projects that it deems
essential to the nation. (2) More and more, however, taxpayers are concerned that they no longer have control over how
their money is spent, particularly when it comes to deciding which projects or organizations will receive public funding
and which will not. (3) The question many taxpayers are asking is “Which projects are essential and which are not?” (4)
For many people, supporting the arts are not a priority. (5) Opponents of art funding argue that artists often create
inappropriate, contentious, or aestetically displeasing works. (6) They further question whether or not it is appropriate
for the government to fund culture. (7) These questions just do not make sense to me at all, and I do not understand how
anyone could be against supporting the arts.
(8) The vast majority of public arts monies do not go toward funding controversial art projects. (9) It goes instead
toward school and community projects, local symphonies, art centers, and other projects that bring communities together
for cultural events. (10) Funding an artist which strays from the beaten path and creates controversial art is the exception,
not the rule. (11) More often, grants are awarded to people or organizations with a specific objective in mind, and the
recipients must conform to the requirements of a committee to receive funding.
(12) Opponents should also realize that, historically, governments have always funded the arts. (13) Great artists, for
example, flourished for ages under commission of the various thrones throughout Europe. (14) The Medici’s, a ruling
family in Italy during the Renaissance, in fact, funded Michelangelo. (15) Should United States citizens be denied the
works of great artists simply because a few people believe art should not be publicly funded?
(16) What many people seem to forget is that art is essential to life. (17) Communities are built around artistic
endeavors. (18) Art records history and allows us to understand people, places, and events that even the written word
cannot illustrate. (19) It develops creativity, helps us shatter assumptions and form new sets of thought patterns, and it
leads us to a deeper understanding of the workings of our universe. (20) It comforts us, it disturbs us, it challenges us and,
it is a manifestation of our unique place in the universe. (21) We are the only beings on Earth that create and appreciate
art. (22) It is only logical that this uniqueness should be nurtured and supported to the fullest.
Sincerely,
Marty Javinski
President, Student Art Society
67. Which sentence from the letter best represents a call for action?
A.
(6) They further question whether or not it is appropriate for the government to fund culture.
B.
(8) The vast majority of public arts monies do not go toward funding controversial art projects.
C.
(18) Art records history and allows us to understand people, places, and events that even the written word cannot
illustrate.
D.
(22) It is only logical that this uniqueness should be nurtured and supported to the fullest.
68. In a letter to the school board, Melinda wants to persuade the board to reopen the school gym on Wednesday
evenings for informal basketball games. She has asked you to help her edit the letter before she sends it.
Why can’t you see that reopening the gym will help keep kids out of trouble?
What, if any, changes should be made in the sentence to make her letter more effective?
A.
It is so obvious that if you just keep the gym open it will help to keep kids out of trouble.
B.
If you don’t want a bunch of students running around, keep the gym open.
C.
Providing more entertainment options for students may help reduce afterschool problems.
D. Leave as is.
69. Read this excerpt from an editorial written by a college professor.
After having taught young college students for over twenty-five years, I can state with both authority and honesty
that students today are ill prepared for the challenges of college. Their grasp of the basics is tenuous, at best. Their
maturity level is low. They require at least one year of remediation before they are able to adjust to the level of
instruction they encounter.
Which statement best concludes the excerpt above?
A.
College is a big step toward students’ futures, and high schools should play a larger role in preparing students for
it.
B.
Students entering college must be taught to take this important step into their future seriously.
C.
The best solution to this problem is to add a fifth year to students’ high school educations.
D. Students must study harder to reach the necessary level of knowledge needed for success in college.
70. Read the excerpt from an essay comparing famous golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.
Nicklaus, who is ten years younger than Palmer, has had the advantage of better technological improvements in the
game of golf with regard to better golf clubs and golf balls. There is also the belief that Nicklaus had tougher
competitors. Palmer was already the established leader in golf when Nicklaus came on the scene. Nicklaus had to take
on not only the other golfers who were challenging Palmer, but also Palmer himself.
Fans today hold different opinions about which player was the greater golfer at the time. Nicklaus fans maintain his
superiority. Still, there are diehard Palmer fans who will never concede the superiority of Jack Nicklaus. But statistics
don’t lie: Nicklaus proved himself better in his number of tournament wins; there’s no comparison since Nicklaus
won eighteen major championship titles and Palmer won only seven.
Which statement best concludes the excerpt above?
A.
Technology played only one part in the extraordinary record of Jack Nicklaus.
B.
This fact alone declares Jack Nicklaus to be the uncontested king of golf.
C.
Fans provide only one side of the complex equation that decides the ultimate answer to this question.
D.
The number of years spent on the golf circuit also provides a clue to who is the best player.
The Henry Ford of Cosmetics
1
Henry Ford is remembered as a pioneer of automotive manufacturing and marketing. His famous “Model T” was
manufactured according to the assembly line technique that he perfected; Ford then marketed the cars to everyday
people who wanted to own an automobile through a network of dealerships across the country. While the famous car
dealers of the day specialized in expensive automobiles for the country’s wealthiest citizens, Ford targeted farmers
and factory workers, correctly reasoning that he would make more money in the long run by selling more cars at
lower prices. He was right.
2
The “Ford System” that integrated manufacturing and marketing was paralleled in the world of cosmetics by a
similarly visionary enterpriser, Madame C. J. Walker. Walker created the “Walker System” of manufacturing and
marketing that made her company one of the most successful cosmetics firms of all time, in the process making her
the first African-American woman to become a millionaire.
3
At the heart of the “Walker System” was the product line Madame C. J. Walker created in her kitchen. She was
dissatisfied with hair care products available. In the 1900s, Walker created her own line of seventeen products. Some
of these were “Wonderful Hair Grower,” “Glossine,” and “Vegetable Shampoo.” Walker was very particular about
her hair. She tried many ingredients for each product, improving them until she felt they were as good as they could
be. She experimented with each creation on herself, judging that if she could make a product that would please her, it
would please others, too. Only when the shampoos and treatments created the look she wanted personally were
they used. When she finally perfected the products, she began thinking of ways to market her creations. She came up
with the goods; she needed customers.
4
Walker felt that simply placing a product on a store shelf was a terribly ineffective way to sell anything. She
walked door to door, making house calls to acquaint people with her products. In fact, Walker herself demonstrated
her products in homes, actually washing, brushing, and treating her customers’ hair. Not only would she convince
them of the superiority of her products by accommodating their individual needs, she would also teach them how to
style their hair most attractively. The result was what every enterpriser hopes for—repeat sales!
5
So effective was the “Walker System” that Madame C. J. Walker began training and hiring “Walker Agents” to
sell her products to an increasingly broader market. Definite that each agent would know as much about hair care as
she did, Walker established the “Walker College of Hair Culture” to train her agents both in salesmanship and proper
hygiene for hair care. Although unusual at the time, such company “colleges” are common today, from computer
companies to restaurant chains. The rules for hygienic hair care Walker instilled in her students at the college actually
predated most state laws governing hair care. In 1919, Walker’s company employed more than 20,000 Walker Agents
around the country. Their eminent white blouses; black skirts; and kits filled with combs, curlers, and Walker
products became familiar sights.
6
The final aspect of the Walker System was the manufacturing and distribution of the products themselves.
Walker began producing her products in Denver Colorado; however she moved the corporate headquarters to
Indianapolis Indiana, in 1910 for very practical reasons. Indiana, known as the “crossroads of the nation,” provided
major highway and railway intersections that allowed Walker to ship products quickly to her agents all over the
country. Walker’s company could receive a telephone order from an agent and ship out packages of “Glossine,” for
example, on the same day. Such a system allowed Walker to stay ahead of the competition. An employee of Madame
Walker’s empire, Majorie Joyner, invented a machine that “permed” or curled women’s hair for relatively long
periods of time. Walker thus kept her customers satisfied with the product and with the service. Those two factors
are still key to the success of any business today.
7
With this final aspect of her business plan in place, Madame C. J. Walker succeeded in creating the “Walker
System,” a venture that integrated all aspects of product design, marketing, and manufacturing into one single thing.
The result was a very successful business that makes Walker unique in the annals of American enterprise. Like
Henry Ford, who perfected the use of the assembly line in order to manufacture inexpensive automobiles and
dealerships to market them, Madame C. J. Walker perfected the “Walker System” that is still being seen in the
operations of large corporations today. The Walker College that she created was the first in a long line of company
“colleges” that train employees to be agents and managers for their operations around the country. The distribution
“hub” Walker established in Indianapolis still serves as the model for many companies who seek to locate their
distribution centers in central locations throughout America and, indeed, the world. Walker created a line of useful
products, but just as important was the system she created for their marketing and distribution. For this reason, she
can rightly be called the “Henry Ford of Cosmetics.”
Bibliography
Fellini, Joseph. Madame C. J. Walker and the Rise of American Consumer Culture. Athens: University Press,
2000.
Hollingsworth, Brenda. “Mass Marketing’s Pioneers.” Entrepreneur’s Digest 33 (2002): 15-43.
Lehman, Sandra. “Hairstylists Who Made House Calls: Madame C. J. Walker’s Vision for America.” Popular
History Review 7 (2001): 11-27.
Quaas, Norman. America’s First Millionaires: An Illustrated History. Boston: Business Books, 1997.
71. Read the thesis statement from the passage.
Walker created the “Walker System” of manufacturing and marketing that made her company one of the most
successful cosmetics firms of all time, in the process making her the first African-American woman to become a
millionaire.
Which is the best revision of this thesis?
A. Walker’s “Walker System” of manufacturing and marketing made her company a successful cosmetics firm.
B.
Walker created the “Walker System” of manufacturing and marketing to make her company into one of the most
successful cosmetics firms of all time, making her the first African-American woman to become a millionaire.
C.
The “Walker System” of manufacturing and marketing made her company one of the most successful cosmetic
firms of all time and made her the first African-American woman millionaire.
D. Walker created the “Walker System” that made her into a millionaire.
72. Read this excerpt from President George H. W. Bush’s Inaugural Address.
The old solution, the old way, was to think that public money alone could end these problems. But we have learned
that that is not so. And in any case, our funds are low. We have a deficit to bring down. We have more will than
wallet, but will is what we need. We will make the hard choices, looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it
differently, making our decisions based on honest need and prudent safety. And then we will do the wisest thing of
all. We will turn to the only resource we have that in times of need always grows: the goodness and the courage of the
American people.
Which thesis is most supported by this excerpt?
A.
The government has a responsibility to its citizens to provide more public resources.
B.
The obligation to increase awareness of the national deficit lies with the citizens.
C.
The government has an obligation to its citizens to become more financially responsible.
D.
The responsibility for providing resources for the country resides with its citizens.
Roughing It With Mark Twain
1
In 1861, Samuel Langhorne Clemens traveled west with his brother Orion Clemens, who had been appointed as a
secretary to Governor Nye of the Nevada Territory. When he arrived in New York City six years later, he was no
longer Sam Clemens. But most significantly for American literary history, he became a writer and adopted the pen
name “Mark Twain.” During his years in the West, Clemens had worked as an assistant to his brother, tried his hand
at silver mining, and was a millionaire for a day. In 1872, he published a chronicle of his experiences in the book
Roughing It.
2
Roughing It is not exactly an autobiography, though. In the preface of the book, Twain writes that Roughing It is
the history of “variegated* vagabondizing,” which seems to sum up the somewhat chaotic organizational structure of
the work. Twain begins by adopting a chronological approach, telling about taking the stagecoach from Missouri to
Nevada. Such a structure is what most people expect when beginning to read an autobiographical work, and the first
chapters of Roughing It detail the day-to-day course of Twain’s trip west in such an order. However, from his
description of the stagecoach as looking like a giant cradle on wheels, it is clear from the outset that the book gives
the author’s subjective impressions of his experiences. Twain lavishes a great deal of attention on describing his
fellow passengers, but of the descriptions early in the book, none are so compelling as his depictions of the coyote.
Twain argues that the coyote only appears to be foolish and slow. In fact, after a city dog begins to chase the coyote,
everyone in the stagecoach witnesses how clever -- and how fast -- the coyote really is. The coyote suddenly runs
faster than the dog and is gone.
3
Somewhat abruptly, Twain drifts into using anecdotes and begins to tell stories remembered from his time in the
West. Other chapters in the book discuss more technical aspects of silver mining, describing, for example, how the
ore is separated from the rock. Twain actually worked for a brief time in one of the “stamping mills” that crush the
rock that contains the ore. He also tells about having found a rich “claim,” containing enough silver ore to make
Twain and his partner wealthy, unfortunately, both he and his friend who were mining the ore neglected to record
their claim. Throughout Roughing It, Twain describes miners engaged in prospecting, and panning for silver, and gold
and trying to sell mines they have already established. Twain cites the examples of some few people who “struck it
rich” while the vast majority of miners never found a rich vein of silver. Unlike some memoires written by former
miners, Roughing It is not the story of a person who struck it rich, but the story of a person who almost did.
4
Reading Roughing It is hard. A true hodge-podge, lacking any real unifying story, readers of Roughing It still find
the book appealing because of its descriptions of the land they love. In fact, one could say that Twain’s work is
really the story about a place, the American West. Reading the work, one explores the “Old West” when it was still
new, “roughing it” along with the author.
*variegated: describes something marked by variety
Bibliography
Canby, Harold. “Mark Twain’s Roughing It: The Dilemma of Design.” American Stories 23 (2002): 45-67.
Furman, Cindy. Mark Twain and the American Odyssey. New York: Sherwood Press, 2000.
Klingman, Gerald. “Mark Twain and the ‘World Beyond.’ ” Literary Journey 67 (1999): 34-57.
73. Read the thesis statement for the essay.
Roughing It chronicles the sometimes scattered memories of Mark Twain’s adventures as a silver miner.
Which sentence from this essay best supports the thesis?
A. When he arrived in New York City six years later, he was no longer Sam Clemens.
B.
Twain argues that the coyote only appears to be foolish and slow.
C.
Unlike some memoirs written by former miners, Roughing It is not the story of a person who struck it rich, but
the story of a person who almost did.
D.
Reading Roughing It is hard.
74. Read the paragraph.
Horseback riding is fun and exciting, yet it involves a high level of commitment. Learning to take horses through the
course obstacles and jumps is only part of the experience. The sport also involves developing a relationship with the
horse. This is accomplished not only through riding but also through caring for the horse, its living quarters, and the
riding tack.
Which detail supports the main idea of this paragraph?
A.
The most difficult challenge is teaching the horse to jump safely, but that is also exciting.
B.
The horse must be attended to in many ways both before and after riding.
C.
The horse appears to do most of the work, but the rider gets exercise too.
D.
The term used for horseback riding equipment such as saddles and bridles is tack.
Ancient Ways: The Traditional Mexican Market
1
In different parts of the world, ancient agricultural societies devised an economic strategy for exchanging goods.
Historically, the development of the traditional market followed when a wandering society became sedentary and
production led to a surplus food supply. The sedentary life gave people a choice of activities, and as might be
expected, some were drawn to growing food and others to handcrafting items like baskets or tools. It was then
perfectly logical that the food growers would begin to trade their supplies for handcrafted items, and the handcrafters
would trade their wares for food. Gathering in an open area or in village streets to buy and sell was simply the most
convenient way for people to exchange goods. Nonetheless, the traditional market system in Mexico began.
2
The traditional market has occupied an important place in the Mexican economy since ancient times.
Archaeological remains dating from 1000–500 BCE provide evidence that chiefdoms in the south-central and
southern parts of Mexico designated sites for commercial activity. Among the artifacts found at these sites are
fragments of jade, marine shells, obsidian, and pottery. In the past, and today, market offerings from different regions
teach a lesson in Mexican geography. Papaya from the lowlands; for example, cactus tuna (fruit of the prickly pear
cactus) from the highlands. As villages became towns and cities, markets grew along with them, mirroring their
complexity. The population was growing. More and more people were involved in activities other than farming, and
because they had to either buy food or trade other products for food, the market system became more and more
valuable to society.
3
Around the early 1500s, two indigenous empires dominated the central and south-central region of what is now
Mexico: the Aztec, around modern-day Mexico City; and the Tarascan, around today’s state of Michoacán. Called
tianquiztli in the Nahuatl language, original Aztec markets were stationary, usually located in the heart of the town,
and existed long before the first Europeans arrived in Mexico. In that era, defeated chieftains had to pay tribute to the
victors, and the goods paid as tribute would subsequently fill the stalls of the victors’ markets. Paid in tribute were
items like gold, copper, cinnabar, honey, wax, cacao (used to make chocolate), resins, salt, cotton, and painted gourds.
Historical documents from 1502 mention a large canoe filled with clothing, copper tools, and a huge load of cacao,
traveling along the southeastern coastline. These products, from different parts of Mexico, were probably destined to
be traded for other goods in the coastal villages of Central America.
4
More than five hundred years later, people still bring their goods to market from miles away, by truck, by horse,
and even by foot. Offered abundantly in the markets of today, the same kinds of goods offered in the markets of the
1500s bestow on people a tremendous sense of continuity. Ever present are corn, papaya, chili peppers, flowers,
avocado, pineapple, guava, and sweet potato, to name only a few. They are displayed in wooden stalls, on carts, and
even stacked in miniature pyramids on tarps spread out on the edge of walkways. Markets sell manufactured goods
from as far away as China.
5
The traveling market, or tianguis, evolved from the remarkably stable institution of the stationary market. It
brought the market to people who lived on the outskirts of growing cities. Low demand for goods prohibited the
establishment or growth of stationary businesses there. The deep roots of the Mexican tianguis account for part of
its appeal, but even foreign buyers who may be unaware of its long history respond to its bold challenge to the
senses. Tent-like roofs made of brightly colored fabrics are erected rapidly and quite early in the morning. Some
people can be seen assembling the temporary wooden stalls, the others savoring a breakfast of steaming tamales, a
dish often made of chopped meat wrapped in corn husks, and fresh carrot or orange juice. Mountains of limes make
for bright swatches of green and wafts of a bittersweet aroma. Bouquets of fresh and dried herbs—parsley, cilantro,
basil, rosemary—fill the air with their pungent fragrances. Celebrating the bounty of the earth, the produce section of
the tianguis is a sight to behold. Other sections display types of manufactured goods and handicrafts in labyrinths of
stalls connected to the main area of the market.
6
At first glance, a newcomer might suppose that this profusion of goods and people is assembled spontaneously
and informally, but beneath the colorful and varied surface, traveling market systems are actually commercial
associations that facilitate the difficult task of setting up a business in a different location every single day. A market
leader acts as liaison between the vendors and the local government: he assigns each vendor a place in the market after
collecting a fee for the right to participate in the market group. In addition, they obtain permission to set up the
market in the public thoroughfare and supervise trash control. When market day is over, the local government sends a
garbage truck to collect trash. The cooperation between the market associations and the local communities extends
their benefits to many members of the society, but especially to small farmers, agricultural workers, artisans, traders,
and small business people.
7
Traveling from town to town, the tianguis opens for business one day a week on the streets directly in front of
homes and stationary businesses, or in an open area like a vacant lot. In some regions, towns schedule a weekly
tianguis in cooperation with other towns. For instance, in southern Mexico, the state of Oaxaca has three different
cycles of coordinated weekly markets that feature goods from cottage industries of villages in their territories. Not
only are traditional markets places where people buy and sell a cornucopia of products, they also play an integral
part in the social life of the family and of the greater community. Groups of buyers and sellers will likely include
parents, children, and grandparents. The oldest family-owned market in Oaxaca goes back over ten generations.
Market day is a time for vendors to sell their wares, to enjoy conversations about the week’s events, and even to
entertain out-of-town visitors.
8
Today, communities around the world in search of a more personal and immediate form of commerce, continue
the tradition of markets and street fairs to sell handicrafts, agricultural produce, and other items. Today in Mexico, in
the smallest villages and in the largest metropolitan areas, traditional markets exist alongside modern supermarkets.
The ancient Mexican market system continues to play a vital role in the economy and cultural life in Mexico and
throughout the world.
Bibliography
Carmichael, Merilee. “The Great Markets of Mexico.” Essays on Ancient Economies. Ed. Isabel Dieterle.
San Francisco: West Coast University Press, 1998. 129–162.
Chavez Nava, Emilio. The Endurance of the Mexican Market. Austin: Latin American Press, 2000.
Morris, Thompson. “Cooperative Trading Associations in Latin America.” The Journal Of History &
Economy 6.3 (2003): 83–120.
Torres, Remedios. The History of the Mexican Tianguis. New York & Mexico, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura &
Economía, 2004.
75. Read the sentence from the passage.
Today in Mexico, in the smallest villages and in the largest metropolitan areas, traditional markets exist alongside
modern supermarkets.
In the sentence, how does the author illustrate the current status of marketing systems in Mexico?
A.
He explains his own interpretation of the situation.
B.
He provides specific examples of the competing groups.
C.
He compares the old markets with the newer markets.
D.
He uses words that imply compatibility between groups.
The Henry Ford of Cosmetics
1
Henry Ford is remembered as a pioneer of automotive manufacturing and marketing. His famous “Model T” was
manufactured according to the assembly line technique that he perfected; Ford then marketed the cars to everyday
people who wanted to own an automobile through a network of dealerships across the country. While the famous car
dealers of the day specialized in expensive automobiles for the country’s wealthiest citizens, Ford targeted farmers
and factory workers, correctly reasoning that he would make more money in the long run by selling more cars at
lower prices. He was right.
2
The “Ford System” that integrated manufacturing and marketing was paralleled in the world of cosmetics by a
similarly visionary enterpriser, Madame C. J. Walker. Walker created the “Walker System” of manufacturing and
marketing that made her company one of the most successful cosmetics firms of all time, in the process making her
the first African-American woman to become a millionaire.
3
At the heart of the “Walker System” was the product line Madame C. J. Walker created in her kitchen. She was
dissatisfied with hair care products available. In the 1900s, Walker created her own line of seventeen products. Some
of these were “Wonderful Hair Grower,” “Glossine,” and “Vegetable Shampoo.” Walker was very particular about
her hair. She tried many ingredients for each product, improving them until she felt they were as good as they could
be. She experimented with each creation on herself, judging that if she could make a product that would please her, it
would please others, too. Only when the shampoos and treatments created the look she wanted personally were
they used. When she finally perfected the products, she began thinking of ways to market her creations. She came up
with the goods; she needed customers.
4
Walker felt that simply placing a product on a store shelf was a terribly ineffective way to sell anything. She
walked door to door, making house calls to acquaint people with her products. In fact, Walker herself demonstrated
her products in homes, actually washing, brushing, and treating her customers’ hair. Not only would she convince
them of the superiority of her products by accommodating their individual needs, she would also teach them how to
style their hair most attractively. The result was what every enterpriser hopes for—repeat sales!
5
So effective was the “Walker System” that Madame C. J. Walker began training and hiring “Walker Agents” to
sell her products to an increasingly broader market. Definite that each agent would know as much about hair care as
she did, Walker established the “Walker College of Hair Culture” to train her agents both in salesmanship and proper
hygiene for hair care. Although unusual at the time, such company “colleges” are common today, from computer
companies to restaurant chains. The rules for hygienic hair care Walker instilled in her students at the college actually
predated most state laws governing hair care. In 1919, Walker’s company employed more than 20,000 Walker Agents
around the country. Their eminent white blouses; black skirts; and kits filled with combs, curlers, and Walker
products became familiar sights.
6
The final aspect of the Walker System was the manufacturing and distribution of the products themselves.
Walker began producing her products in Denver Colorado; however she moved the corporate headquarters to
Indianapolis Indiana, in 1910 for very practical reasons. Indiana, known as the “crossroads of the nation,” provided
major highway and railway intersections that allowed Walker to ship products quickly to her agents all over the
country. Walker’s company could receive a telephone order from an agent and ship out packages of “Glossine,” for
example, on the same day. Such a system allowed Walker to stay ahead of the competition. An employee of Madame
Walker’s empire, Majorie Joyner, invented a machine that “permed” or curled women’s hair for relatively long
periods of time. Walker thus kept her customers satisfied with the product and with the service. Those two factors
are still key to the success of any business today.
7
With this final aspect of her business plan in place, Madame C. J. Walker succeeded in creating the “Walker
System,” a venture that integrated all aspects of product design, marketing, and manufacturing into one single thing.
The result was a very successful business that makes Walker unique in the annals of American enterprise. Like
Henry Ford, who perfected the use of the assembly line in order to manufacture inexpensive automobiles and
dealerships to market them, Madame C. J. Walker perfected the “Walker System” that is still being seen in the
operations of large corporations today. The Walker College that she created was the first in a long line of company
“colleges” that train employees to be agents and managers for their operations around the country. The distribution
“hub” Walker established in Indianapolis still serves as the model for many companies who seek to locate their
distribution centers in central locations throughout America and, indeed, the world. Walker created a line of useful
products, but just as important was the system she created for their marketing and distribution. For this reason, she
can rightly be called the “Henry Ford of Cosmetics.”
Bibliography
Fellini, Joseph. Madame C. J. Walker and the Rise of American Consumer Culture. Athens: University Press,
2000.
Hollingsworth, Brenda. “Mass Marketing’s Pioneers.” Entrepreneur’s Digest 33 (2002): 15-43.
Lehman, Sandra. “Hairstylists Who Made House Calls: Madame C. J. Walker’s Vision for America.” Popular
History Review 7 (2001): 11-27.
Quaas, Norman. America’s First Millionaires: An Illustrated History. Boston: Business Books, 1997.
76. What creative writing strategy does the student use to introduce the passage in Paragraph 1?
A. analogy
B.
personification
C.
personal anecdote
D.
quote by an authority figure
77. Read the sentence from Paragraph 5.
Their eminent white blouses; black skirts; and kits filled with combs, curlers, and Walker products became familiar
sights.
What is the best replacement for the underlined word in the passage?
A.
trademark
B.
notorious
C.
integral
D.
dubious
Roughing It With Mark Twain
1
In 1861, Samuel Langhorne Clemens traveled west with his brother Orion Clemens, who had been appointed as a
secretary to Governor Nye of the Nevada Territory. When he arrived in New York City six years later, he was no
longer Sam Clemens. But most significantly for American literary history, he became a writer and adopted the pen
name “Mark Twain.” During his years in the West, Clemens had worked as an assistant to his brother, tried his hand
at silver mining, and was a millionaire for a day. In 1872, he published a chronicle of his experiences in the book

excerpt from “Lights in the Windows” - Liberty Union

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