CBEST Section 2 Reading practice questions, page 4 of 4, with answer review and explanations.
Question 16
The fictional world of Toni Morrison’s novel Sula—the African-American section of Medallion, Ohio, a community called "the Bottom"—is a place where people, and even natural things, are apt to go awry, to break from their prescribed boundaries, a place where bizarre and unnatural happenings and strange reversals of the ordinary are commonplace. The very naming of the setting of Sula is a turningupside- down of the expected; the Bottom is located high up in the hills. The novel is furthermore filled with images of mutilation, both psychological and physical. A great part of the lives of the characters, therefore, is taken up with making sense of the world, setting boundaries and devising methods to control what is essentially uncontrollable. One of the major devices used by the people of the Bottom is the seemingly universal one of creating a ____________in this case, the title character Sulaupon which to project both the evil they perceive outside themselves and the evil in their own hearts. On the basis of above passage please answer the following question. Based on the description of the setting of the novel Sula, which of the following adjectives would most likely describe the behavior of many of its residents?
cowardly
artistic
unkempt
arrogant
eccentric
Question 17
The fictional world of Toni Morrison’s novel Sula—the African-American section of Medallion, Ohio, a community called "the Bottom"—is a place where people, and even natural things, are apt to go awry, to break from their prescribed boundaries, a place where bizarre and unnatural happenings and strange reversals of the ordinary are commonplace. The very naming of the setting of Sula is a turningupside- down of the expected; the Bottom is located high up in the hills. The novel is furthermore filled with images of mutilation, both psychological and physical. A great part of the lives of the characters, therefore, is taken up with making sense of the world, setting boundaries and devising methods to control what is essentially uncontrollable. One of the major devices used by the people of the Bottom is the seemingly universal one of creating a ____________in this case, the title character Sulaupon which to project both the evil they perceive outside themselves and the evil in their own hearts. On the basis of above passage please answer the following question. Which of the following words would BEST fit into the blank in the final sentence of the passage?
victim
hero
leader
scapegoat
outcast
Question 18
Ever since human beings began their conscious sojourn on this planet, they have puzzled over the riddle of evil and debated its source. Two concepts have predominated in the debate. The first of these holds that evil is an active force, a force of darkness as substantial and powerful as that of light. In terms of the individual human being, this force might be seen as the "Shadow" side of the personality, the feared side that the individual may deny but that is still a real and integral part of her or him. The second of the two concepts holds that evil is essentially ___________, the absence of good, that darkness is not a thing in itself but rather the absence of light. In terms of the individual human being, this doctrine says that evil arises from a lack, a deprivation, from what John A. Sanford calls "a mutilation of the soul." On the basis of above passage please answer the following question. Which of the following phrases would best fit into the blank in the third sentence of the passage?
perplexing
passive
capricious
ephemeral
artificial
Question 19
Ever since human beings began their conscious sojourn on this planet, they have puzzled over the riddle of evil and debated its source. Two concepts have predominated in the debate. The first of these holds that evil is an active force, a force of darkness as substantial and powerful as that of light. In terms of the individual human being, this force might be seen as the "Shadow" side of the personality, the feared side that the individual may deny but that is still a real and integral part of her or him. The second of the two concepts holds that evil is essentially ___________, the absence of good, that darkness is not a thing in itself but rather the absence of light. In terms of the individual human being, this doctrine says that evil arises from a lack, a deprivation, from what John A. Sanford calls "a mutilation of the soul." On the basis of above passage please answer the following question. Which of the following phrases would best fit into the blank in the third sentence of the passage?