SAT Test practice questions, page 37 of 38, with answer review and explanations.
Question 181
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of Beauty. Copyright 1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in 1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the House of Fuji, a noble family. Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was that it? Had he followed form `" had he asked his mother to speak to his father to approach a go-between `" would Chie have been more receptive? He came on a winter's eve. He pounded on the door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda, so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps, the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a calling card to the drawing room, for Chie. Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt spread over the sides of the table so their legs were tucked inside with the heat. `Who is it at this hour, in this weather?` Chie questioned as she picked the name card off the maid's lacquer tray. `Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,` she read. Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft intake of air. `I think you should go,` said Naomi. Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black military-style uniform of a student. As he bowed `" his hands hanging straight down, a black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the other `" Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening surface of the courtyard's rain- drenched paving stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double. `Madame,` said Akira, `forgive my disruption, but I come with a matter of urgency.` His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and stole a deferential peek at her face. In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity. Chie felt herself starting to like him. `Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely your business can wait for a moment or two.` `I don't want to trouble you. Normally I would approach you more properly but I've received word of a position. I've an opportunity to go to America, as dentist for Seattle's Japanese community.` `Congratulations,` Chie said with amusement. `That is an opportunity, I'm sure. But how am I involved?` Even noting Naomi's breathless reaction to the name card, Chie had no idea. Akira's message, delivered like a formal speech, filled her with maternal amusement. You know how children speak so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about things that have no importance in an adult's mind? That's how she viewed him, as a child. It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no effort to find her a husband Akira blushed. `Depending on your response, I may stay in Japan. I've come to ask for Naomi's hand. `Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night. `Does Naomi know anything of your...ambitions?` `We have an understanding. Please don't judge my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I ask directly because the use of a go-between takes much time. Either method comes down to the same thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your consent, I become Naomi's Yoshi*. We'll live in the House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to America, to secure a new home for my bride.` Eager to make his point, he'd been looking her full in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. `I see I've startled you. My humble apologies. I'll take no more of your evening. My address is on my card. If you don't wish to contact me, I'll reapproach you in two weeks' time. Until then, good night.` He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effort less grace, like a cat making off with a fish. `Mother?` Chie heard Naomi's low voice and turned from the door. `He has asked you?` The sight of Naomi's clear eyes, her dark brows gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were preposterous. `Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to America all in the snap of his fingers!` Chie waited for Naomi's ripe laughter. Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute looking straight into Chie's eyes. Finally, she spoke. `I met him at my literary meeting.` Naomi turned to go back into the house, then stopped. `Mother.` `Yes?` `I mean to have him.` * Yoshi: a man who marries a woman of higher status and takes her family's name As used in sentence 2 of paragraph 1, `form` most nearly means:
appearance.
custom.
structure.
nature.
Question 182
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of Beauty. Copyright 1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in 1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the House of Fuji, a noble family. Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was that it? Had he followed form `" had he asked his mother to speak to his father to approach a go-between `" would Chie have been more receptive? He came on a winter's eve. He pounded on the door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda, so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps, the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a calling card to the drawing room, for Chie. Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt spread over the sides of the table so their legs were tucked inside with the heat. `Who is it at this hour, in this weather?` Chie questioned as she picked the name card off the maid's lacquer tray. `Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,` she read. Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft intake of air. `I think you should go,` said Naomi. Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black military-style uniform of a student. As he bowed `" his hands hanging straight down, a black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the other `" Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening surface of the courtyard's rain- drenched paving stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double. `Madame,` said Akira, `forgive my disruption, but I come with a matter of urgency.` His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and stole a deferential peek at her face. In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity. Chie felt herself starting to like him. `Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely your business can wait for a moment or two.` `I don't want to trouble you. Normally I would approach you more properly but I've received word of a position. I've an opportunity to go to America, as dentist for Seattle's Japanese community.` `Congratulations,` Chie said with amusement. `That is an opportunity, I'm sure. But how am I involved?` Even noting Naomi's breathless reaction to the name card, Chie had no idea. Akira's message, delivered like a formal speech, filled her with maternal amusement. You know how children speak so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about things that have no importance in an adult's mind? That's how she viewed him, as a child. It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no effort to find her a husband Akira blushed. `Depending on your response, I may stay in Japan. I've come to ask for Naomi's hand. `Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night. `Does Naomi know anything of your...ambitions?` `We have an understanding. Please don't judge my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I ask directly because the use of a go-between takes much time. Either method comes down to the same thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your consent, I become Naomi's Yoshi*. We'll live in the House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to America, to secure a new home for my bride.` Eager to make his point, he'd been looking her full in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. `I see I've startled you. My humble apologies. I'll take no more of your evening. My address is on my card. If you don't wish to contact me, I'll reapproach you in two weeks' time. Until then, good night.` He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effort less grace, like a cat making off with a fish. `Mother?` Chie heard Naomi's low voice and turned from the door. `He has asked you?` The sight of Naomi's clear eyes, her dark brows gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were preposterous. `Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to America all in the snap of his fingers!` Chie waited for Naomi's ripe laughter. Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute looking straight into Chie's eyes. Finally, she spoke. `I met him at my literary meeting.` Naomi turned to go back into the house, then stopped. `Mother.` `Yes?` `I mean to have him.` * Yoshi: a man who marries a woman of higher status and takes her family's name Why does Akira say his meeting with Chie is `a matter of urgency` (paragraph 9)?
He fears that his own parents will disapprove of Naomi.
He worries that Naomi will reject him and marry someone else.
He has been offered an attractive job in another country.
He knows that Chie is unaware of his feelings for Naomi.
Question 183
This passage is adapted from Saki, `The Schartz-Metterklume Method.` Originally published in 1911. Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of the small wayside station and took a turn or two up and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then, in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being `none of her business.` Only once had she put the doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for nearly three hours in a small and extremely uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was engaged on, and refused to interfere between the boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore the desertion with philosophical indifference; her friends and relations were thoroughly well used to the fact of her luggage arriving without her. She wired a vague non-committal message to her destination to say that she was coming on `by another train.` Before she had time to think what her next move might be she was confronted by an imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks. `You must be Miss Hope, the governess I've come to meet,` said the apparition, in a tone that admitted of very little argument. `Very well, if I must I must,` said Lady Carlotta to herself with dangerous meekness. `I am Mrs. Quabarl,` continued the lady; `and where, pray, is your luggage?` `It's gone astray,` said the alleged governess, falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact, behaved with perfect correctitude. `I've just telegraphed about it,` she added, with a nearer approach to truth. `How provoking,` said Mrs. Quabarl; `these railway companies are so careless. However, my maid can lend you things for the night,` and she led the way to her car. During the drive to the Quabarl mansion Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her; she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate, sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic temperament highly developed, and that Viola was something or other else of a mould equally commonplace among children of that class and type in the twentieth century. `I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,` said Mrs. Quabarl, `but INTERESTED in what they learn. In their history lessons, for instance, you must try to make them feel that they are being introduced to the life-stories of men and women who really lived, not merely committing a mass of names and dates to memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk at meal-times several days in the week.` `I shall talk French four days of the week and Russian in the remaining three.` `Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the house speaks or understands Russian.` `That will not embarrass me in the least,` said Lady Carlotta coldly. Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was knocked off her perch. She was one of those imperfectly self-assured individuals who are magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected resistance goes a long way towards rendering them cowed and apologetic. When the new governess failed to express wondering admiration of the large newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly alluded to the superior advantages of one or two makes which had just been put on the market, the discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject. Her feelings were those which might have animated a general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the field by slingers and javelin throwers. Which choice best summarizes the passage?
A woman weighs the positive and negative aspects of accepting a new job.
A woman does not correct a stranger who mistakes her for someone else.
A woman impersonates someone else to seek revenge on an acquaintance.
A woman takes an immediate dislike to her new employer.
Question 184
This passage is adapted from Saki, `The Schartz-Metterklume Method.` Originally published in 1911. Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of the small wayside station and took a turn or two up and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then, in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being `none of her business.` Only once had she put the doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for nearly three hours in a small and extremely uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was engaged on, and refused to interfere between the boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore the desertion with philosophical indifference; her friends and relations were thoroughly well used to the fact of her luggage arriving without her. She wired a vague non-committal message to her destination to say that she was coming on `by another train.` Before she had time to think what her next move might be she was confronted by an imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks. `You must be Miss Hope, the governess I've come to meet,` said the apparition, in a tone that admitted of very little argument. `Very well, if I must I must,` said Lady Carlotta to herself with dangerous meekness. `I am Mrs. Quabarl,` continued the lady; `and where, pray, is your luggage?` `It's gone astray,` said the alleged governess, falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact, behaved with perfect correctitude. `I've just telegraphed about it,` she added, with a nearer approach to truth. `How provoking,` said Mrs. Quabarl; `these railway companies are so careless. However, my maid can lend you things for the night,` and she led the way to her car. During the drive to the Quabarl mansion Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her; she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate, sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic temperament highly developed, and that Viola was something or other else of a mould equally commonplace among children of that class and type in the twentieth century. `I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,` said Mrs. Quabarl, `but INTERESTED in what they learn. In their history lessons, for instance, you must try to make them feel that they are being introduced to the life-stories of men and women who really lived, not merely committing a mass of names and dates to memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk at meal-times several days in the week.` `I shall talk French four days of the week and Russian in the remaining three.` `Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the house speaks or understands Russian.` `That will not embarrass me in the least,` said Lady Carlotta coldly. Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was knocked off her perch. She was one of those imperfectly self-assured individuals who are magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected resistance goes a long way towards rendering them cowed and apologetic. When the new governess failed to express wondering admiration of the large newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly alluded to the superior advantages of one or two makes which had just been put on the market, the discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject. Her feelings were those which might have animated a general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the field by slingers and javelin throwers. In sentence 1 of paragraph 1, `turn` most nearly means:
slight movement.
change in rotation.
short walk.
course correction.
Question 185
This passage is adapted from Saki, `The Schartz-Metterklume Method.` Originally published in 1911. Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of the small wayside station and took a turn or two up and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then, in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being `none of her business.` Only once had she put the doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for nearly three hours in a small and extremely uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was engaged on, and refused to interfere between the boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore the desertion with philosophical indifference; her friends and relations were thoroughly well used to the fact of her luggage arriving without her. She wired a vague non-committal message to her destination to say that she was coming on `by another train.` Before she had time to think what her next move might be she was confronted by an imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks. `You must be Miss Hope, the governess I've come to meet,` said the apparition, in a tone that admitted of very little argument. `Very well, if I must I must,` said Lady Carlotta to herself with dangerous meekness. `I am Mrs. Quabarl,` continued the lady; `and where, pray, is your luggage?` `It's gone astray,` said the alleged governess, falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact, behaved with perfect correctitude. `I've just telegraphed about it,` she added, with a nearer approach to truth. `How provoking,` said Mrs. Quabarl; `these railway companies are so careless. However, my maid can lend you things for the night,` and she led the way to her car. During the drive to the Quabarl mansion Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her; she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate, sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic temperament highly developed, and that Viola was something or other else of a mould equally commonplace among children of that class and type in the twentieth century. `I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,` said Mrs. Quabarl, `but INTERESTED in what they learn. In their history lessons, for instance, you must try to make them feel that they are being introduced to the life-stories of men and women who really lived, not merely committing a mass of names and dates to memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk at meal-times several days in the week.` `I shall talk French four days of the week and Russian in the remaining three.` `Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the house speaks or understands Russian.` `That will not embarrass me in the least,` said Lady Carlotta coldly. Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was knocked off her perch. She was one of those imperfectly self-assured individuals who are magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected resistance goes a long way towards rendering them cowed and apologetic. When the new governess failed to express wondering admiration of the large newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly alluded to the superior advantages of one or two makes which had just been put on the market, the discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject. Her feelings were those which might have animated a general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the field by slingers and javelin throwers. The passage most clearly implies that other people regarded Lady Carlotta as: