Level C - Passage-Based Reading Exercises - PASSAGE-BASED READING QUESTIONS

SAT CRITICAL READING

PART 4

PASSAGE-BASED READING QUESTIONS

Passage-Based Reading Exercises

Level C

Most high school students have trouble following reading passages at this level of difficulty. Consider the excerpts that follow as a chance for you to acquaint yourself with the toughest prose that occurs on the SAT.

EXERCISE 1

Read each of the passages below, and then answer the questions that follow the passage. The correct response may be stated outright or merely suggested in the passage.

Questions 1–7 are based on the following passage.

The following passage is taken from Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell’s nineteenth-century novel set in a small English town.

In the first place, in Cranford all the holders
of houses, at least those above a certain
rent, are women. If a married couple come to

Line settle in the town, somehow the gentleman

(5) disappears; he is either fairly frightened to
death by being the only man in the Cranford
evening parties, or is accounted for by being
with his regiment, his ship, or closely engaged
in business all the week in the great neighboring

(10) commercial town of Drumble, distant only
twenty miles on a railroad. In short, whatever
does become of the gentlemen, they are not at
Cranford. What could they do if they were there?
The surgeon has his round of thirty

(15) miles, and sleeps at Cranford; but every man
cannot be a surgeon. For keeping the trim gardens
full of choice flowers without a weed to
speck them; for frightening away little boys
who look wistfully at the said flowers through

(20) the railings; for rushing out at the geese that
occasionally venture into the gardens if the
gates are left open; for deciding all questions
of literature and politics without troubling
themselves with unnecessary reasons or arguments;

(25) for obtaining clear and correct knowledge
of everybody’s affairs in the parish; for
keeping their neat maid-servants in admirable
order; for kindness (somewhat dictatorial) to
the poor, and real tender good offices to each

(30) other whenever they are in distress—the ladies
of Cranford are quite sufficient. “A man,” as
one of them observed to me once, “is so in the
way in the house!” Although the ladies of
Cranford know all each other’s proceedings,

(35) they are exceedingly indifferent to each
other’s opinions. Indeed, as each has her own
individuality, not to say eccentricity, pretty
strongly developed, nothing is so easy as verbal
retaliation; but, somehow, goodwill reigns

(40) among them to a considerable degree.

The Cranford ladies have only an occasional
little quarrel, spurted out in a few peppery
words and angry jerks of the heads; just
enough to prevent the even tenor of their lives

(45) from becoming too flat. Their dress is very
independent of fashion; as they observe,
“What does it signify how we dress here at
Cranford, where everybody knows us?” And if
they go from home, their reasoning is equally

(50) cogent, “What does it signify how we dress
here, where nobody knows us?” The materials
of their clothes are, in general, good and plain,
and most of them are nearly as scrupulous as
Miss Tyler, of cleanly memory; but I will

(55) answer for it, the last gigot, the last tight and
scanty petticoat in wear in England, was seen
in Cranford—and seen without a smile.

1. The passage can best be described as

(A) an argument in favor of the supremacy of women

(B) a laudatory depiction of a vanishing way of life

(D) an analysis of the reasons for the dearth of males

(E) a humorous portrait of the residents of a town

2. According to the passage, the men of Cranford are primarily distinguished by their

(A) docility

(B) awkwardness

(D) cowardice

(E) aloofness

3. In line 29, “offices” most likely means

(A) places of employment

(B) daily religious ceremonies

(D) acts done on behalf of others

(E) positions of authority

4. The narrator’s attitude toward the ladies of Cranford is primarily one of

(A) abiding suspicion

(B) wistful nostalgia

(D) gentle mockery

(E) fervent enthusiasm

5. The scrupulous Miss Tyler (lines 53 and 54) most likely was noted for her

(A) chaste behavior

(B) spotless attire

(D) precise memory

(E) humorless disposition

6. Lines 55 and 56 suggest that “the last gigot” is

(A) a type of covered carriage

(B) an outmoded article of apparel

(D) a subject too grave to evoke a smile

(E) a meticulous elderly woman

7. To the narrator, the ladies of Cranford seem to be all of the following EXCEPT

(A) idiosyncratic

(B) benevolent

(D) submissive

(E) inquisitive

Questions 8–15 are based on the following passage.

The following passage from a 1984 Scientific American article reveals the ocean depths to be the home of strong, tumultuous currents. This theory challenges the once widely held view of the abyss as “a region as calm as it was dark.”

The notion of a tranquil abyss had been so
generally held that many investigators were
initially reluctant to accept the evidence for

Line strong currents and storms in the deep sea.

(5) The first argument for the existence of such
currents came from theory. Cold water is
denser than warm water, and models of ocean
circulation showed that the sinking of cold
water near the poles should generate strong,

(10) deep and steady currents flowing toward the
Equator. Subsequent observations not only
confirmed the presence of the deep currents
but also disclosed the existence of eddies on
the western side of ocean basins that can be

(15) some 300 times as energetic as the mean current.
Photographs of the sea floor underlying
the deep currents also revealed extensive
graded beds indicative of the active transport
of sediment. The final evidence for dynamic

(20) activity at great depths came from direct
measurements of currents and sediments
in the North Atlantic carried out in the
HEBBLE1 program.

Before we describe the HEBBLE findings

(25) in some detail let us briefly review the
sources and sinks of deep-sea sediments and
the forces that activate the global patterns of
ocean circulation. The sediments that end up
on the ocean floor are of two main types.

(30) One component is the detritus2 whose source
is the weathering of rocks on continents and
islands. This detritus, together with decaying
vegetable matter from land plants, is carried
by rivers to the edge of the continent and out

(35) onto the continental shelf, where it is picked
up by marine currents. Once the detritus
reaches the edge of the shelf it is carried to
the base of the continental rise by gravitational
processes. A significant amount of terrestrial

(40) material is also blown out to sea in
subtropical regions by strong desert winds.
Every year some 15 billion tons of continental
material reaches the outlets of streams
and rivers. Most of it is trapped there or on

(45) the continental shelves; only a few billion
tons escapes into the deep sea.

The second major component arriving at
the sea floor consists of the shells and skeletons
of dead microscopic organisms that

(50) flourish and die in the sunlit waters of the
top 100 meters of the world’s oceans. Such
biological material contributes to the total
inventory at the bottom about three billion
tons per year. Rates of accumulation are

(55) governed by rates of biological productivity,
which are controlled in part by surface currents.
Where surface currents meet they are
said to converge, and where they part they
are said to diverge. Zones of divergence of

(60) major water masses allow nutrient-rich deeper
water to “outcrop” at the sunlit zone
where photosynthesis and the resulting fixation
of organic carbon take place. Such belts
of high productivity and high rates of accumulation

(65) are normally around the major
oceanic fronts (such as the region around the
Antarctic) and along the edges of major
currents (such as the Gulf Stream off New
England and the Kuroshio currents off

(70) Japan). Nutrient-rich water also outcrops in a
zone along the Equator, where there is a
divergence of two major, wind-driven gyres.

__________

1Naval research program known as the High-Energy Benthic Boundary-Layer Experiment.

2Debris; fragmented rock particles.

8. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) contrast surface currents with marine currents

(B) question the methods of earlier investigators

(D) describe a replicable laboratory experiment

(E) summarize evidence supporting oceanic circulation

9. Which of the following best describes the attitude of many scientists when they first encountered the theory that strong currents are at work in the deeps?

(A) Somber resignation

(B) Measured approbation

(D) Academic detachment

(E) Active espousal

10. According to the passage, the earliest data supporting the idea that the sea depths are dynamic rather than placid came from theory based on

(A) underwater photographic surveys

(B) the activities of the HEBBLE program

(D) direct measurement of undersea currents

(E) models showing how hot and cold water interact

11. The phrase “the weathering of rocks” (line 31) refers to their

(A) moisture content

(B) ability to withstand meteorological phenomena

(D) gradual hardening into geological strata

(E) rugged foundation

12. As defined in the passage, the second type of deep-sea sediment consists of which of the following?

I. Minute particles of rock

II. Fragmentary shells

III. Wind-blown soil

(A) I only

(B) II only

(D) I and III only

(E) I, II, and III

13. This passage most likely would be of particular interest to

(A) navigators of sailing vessels

(B) students of global weather patterns

(D) designers of sea-floor structures

(E) researchers into photosynthesis

14. In the passage the authors do all of the following EXCEPT

(A) approximate an amount

(B) refer to a model

(D) propose a solution

(E) support a theory

15. The style of the passage can best be described as

(A) oratorical

(B) epigrammatic

(D) digressive

(E) metaphorical

Questions 16–27 are based on the following passage.

The following passage, written by a university professor, is from a scholarly book describing how international monetary policy contributes to the world’s problems.

What is money? That is not so simple a
question as might appear. In fact, money can
only be defined in terms of the functions it

Line performs—that is, by the need it fulfills. As

(5) Sir Ralph Hawtrey once noted, “Money is one
of those concepts which, like a teaspoon or an
umbrella, but unlike an earthquake or a buttercup,
are definable primarily by the use or purpose
which they serve.” Money is anything,

(10) regardless of its physical or legal characteristics,
that customarily and principally performs
certain functions.

Three such functions are usually specified,
corresponding to the three basic needs served

(15) by money—the need for a medium of
exchange, the need for a unit of account, and
the need for a store of value. Most familiar is
the first, the function of a medium of
exchange, whereby goods and services are

(20) paid for and contractual obligations discharged.
In performing this role the key
attribute of money is general acceptability in
the settlement of debt. The second function of
money, that of a unit of account, is to provide

(25) a medium of information—a common denominator
or numeraire in which goods and services
may be valued and debts expressed. In
performing this role, money is said to be a
“standard of value” or “measure of value” in

(30) valuing goods and services and a “standard of
deferred payment” in expressing debts. The
third function of money, that of a store of
value, is to provide a means of holding wealth.

The development of money was one of the

(35) most important steps in the evolution of
human society, comparable, in the words of
one writer, “with the domestication of animals,
the cultivation of the land, and the harnessing
of power.” Before money there was

(40) only barter, the archetypical economic transaction,
which required an inverse double coincidence
of wants in order for exchange to occur.
The two parties to any transaction each had to
desire what the other was prepared to offer.

(45) This was an obviously inefficient system of
exchange, since large amounts of time had to
be devoted to the necessary process of search
and bargaining. Under even the most elemental
circumstances, barter was unlikely to

(50) exhaust all opportunities for advantageous trade:

Bartering is costly in ways too numerous
to discuss. Among others, bartering
requires an expenditure of time and the

(55) use of specialized skills necessary for
judging the commodities that are being
exchanged. The more advanced the specialization
in production and the more
complex the economy, the costlier it will

(60) be to undertake all the transactions necessary
to make any given good reach its
ultimate user by using barter.

The introduction of generalized exchange
intermediaries cut the Gordian knot of barter

(65) by decomposing the single transaction of
barter into separate transactions of sale and
purchase, thereby obviating the need for a
double coincidence of wants. This served to
facilitate multilateral exchange; the costs of

(70) transactions reduced, exchange ratios could be
more efficiently equated with the demand and
supply of goods and services. Consequently,
specialization in production was promoted and
the advantages of economic division of labor

(75) became attainable—all because of the development
of money.

The usefulness of money is inversely proportional
to the number of currencies in circulation.
The greater the number of currencies,

(80) the less is any single money able to perform
efficiently as a lubricant to improve resource
allocation and reduce transactions costs.
Diseconomies remain because of the need for
multiple price quotations (diminishing the

(85) information savings derived from money’s
role as unit of account) and for frequent currency
conversions (diminishing the stability
and predictability of purchasing power derived
from money’s roles as medium of exchange

(90) and store of value). In all national societies,
there has been a clear historical tendency to
limit the number of currencies, and eventually
to standardize the domestic money on just a
single currency issued and managed by the

(95) national authorities. The result has been a
minimization of total transaction costs within nation-states.

Between nation-states, however, costs of
transactions remain relatively high, because

(100) the number of currencies remains high. Does
this suggest that global efficiency would be
maximized if the number of currencies in the
world were minimized? Is this the optimal
organizational principle for international monetary

(105) relations? Not necessarily. It is true that
total transactions costs, other things being
equal, could be minimized by standardizing on
just a single global money. “On the basis of
the criterion of maximizing the usefulness of

(110) money, we should have a single world currency.”
But there are other criteria of judgment as
well; economic efficiency, as I have indicated,
is a multi-variate concept. And we shall soon
see that the costs of a single world currency or

(115) its equivalent, taking full account of both the
microeconomic and macroeconomic dimensions
of efficiency, could easily outweigh the
single microeconomic benefit of lower transaction
costs. As Charles Kindleberger has

(120) written: “The case for international money is
the general case for money. [But] it may well
be that the costs of an international money are
so great that the world cannot afford it.”

16. The author of the passage asks the reader, “What is money?” in order to

(A) challenge the reader by asking an unanswerable question

(B) make the reader feel uncomfortable

(D) introduce an unfamiliar definition of the word

(E) feign ignorance

17. The explanation of the three functions of money (lines 13–33)

(A) is a section of a controversial economic theory

(B) is common knowledge among informed people

(D) is a comprehensive analysis of monetary policy

(E) is valid for only some kinds of money

18. According to the passage, money meets three needs:

I. medium of exchange

II. unit of account

III. store of value The sticker price of a new car in the dealer’s showroom is an example of

(A) II only

(B) III only

(D) II and III

(E) I and II

19. By calling barter “the archetypical economic transaction,” the author is saying that barter

(A) is obsolete

(B) is both a theory and a real-life activity

(D) is a primitive form of exchange

(E) usually satisfies all the parties involved in a deal

20. According to the passage, the chief shortcoming of barter is that

(A) making deals is too time-consuming

(B) three- or four-way deals are virtually impossible

(D) neither party to a bartering agreement is ever fully satisfied

(E) no one could ever make a profit

21. The reference to the “Gordian knot” (line 64) suggests that the author thinks that

(A) barter was inherently too slow

(B) it was difficult to change the barter system to a monetary system

(D) most people lack the skill to accurately determine the value of commodities

(E) barter restricts the free exchange of goods and services

22. Based on the passage, a monetary system has all of the following advantages over barter EXCEPT

(A) a double coincidence of wants is eliminated

(B) the cost of doing business is lower

(D) a greater division of labor is possible

(E) opportunities of profitable trade are reduced

23. The author believes that having a large number of currencies in circulation

(A) leads to an unstable money supply

(B) reduces the efficiency of the international economy

(D) requires the creation of a central monetary authority

(E) widens the gap between rich nations and poor nations

24. According to the passage, standardizing the currency of a nation is likely to result in

(A) a reduction in the cost of monetary transactions

(B) a short period of inflation

(D) greater confidence in the banking system

(E) increased international stature

25. By responding “Not necessarily” to the questions posed in lines 100–105, the author is suggesting that

(A) a solution to the problem is still years away

(B) advocates of minimizing the number of currencies have no grounds for their viewpoint

(D) the most obvious solution may not be the best solution

(E) the simplest solution is the one that will work

26. To improve the efficiency of the international monetary system, the author supports

(A) increasing the world’s gold supply

(B) setting limits on the amount of money being exchanged

(D) creating a single worldwide currency

(E) reducing transaction costs

27. The author of the passage draws which of the following conclusions about the creation of a worldwide currency?

(A) It may cause more problems than it will solve.

(B) Discussing it further is pointless.

(D) Proposals for such a currency must provide for a reduction of transaction costs.

(E) It is an ideal never to be attained.

Questions 28–40 are based on the following pair of passages.

The following passages discuss This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s autobiographical first novel, written when the author was in his early twenties. Both passages are excerpts from essays by literary critics.

Passage 1

The defects of This Side of Paradise should
not blind the reader to its importance in
Fitzgerald’s career. It marked his movement,

Line clumsy and pasted together as the novel often

(5) is, from a clever short-story writer and
would-be poet to an ambitious novelist. All his
life he was to think of himself primarily as a
novelist, to save his best work for his novels, to
plunder his published short stories for usable

(10) material for them. If he achieved nothing else in
this first novel, he had at least taken his scattered
literary effusions and his undescribed experiences,
sifted them, shaped and reshaped them,
often looked at them ironically, and fashioned

(15) them into a sustained narrative. Compared with
the material he took directly from his Nassau
Lit stories, the writing had improved greatly. In
many rewritten passages, This Side of Paradise
shows Fitzgerald moving to that freshness of

(20) language which became his identifying mark.

The novel took the bold step that Fitzgerald
needed: it confirmed his ideas about the importance
of his feelings and about his ability to put
them down. It helped Fitzgerald thrash out

(25) those “ideas still in riot” that he attributes to
Amory [the novel’s main character] at the close
of the book: his ideas about love and women,
about the Church, about his past, about the
importance of being as contrasted with doing.

(30) Though it borrowed heavily from the many
writers to whom he was attracted, the book still
has Fitzgerald’s own stamp: the naiveté and
honesty that is part of “the stamp that goes into
[each of] my books so that people can read it

(35) blind like Braille.” If Amory is not as honest
with himself as Fitzgerald’s later characters can
be, it is chiefly from a lack of perception rather
than from a deliberate desire to deceive.

Finally, though Fitzgerald placed his twin

(40) hopes of money and the girl in the book’s great
success, the book is not merely contrived to
achieve these aims. The badness in it is not that
of the professional who shrewdly calculates his
effects; it is that of the ambitious amateur writer

(45) who produces what seems to him to be witty,
fresh, and powerful prose. It is a much better
book than The Romantic Egotist, the version he
finished before he left Princeton. For Fitzgerald
at twenty-three, it was the book he wanted to

(50) write, the book he could write, and the book
that did get written. Before it even reached its
audience, Fitzgerald had found his craft.

Passage 2

It has been said by a celebrated person that
to meet F. Scott Fitzgerald is to think of a stupid

(55) old woman with whom someone has left a
diamond; she is extremely proud of the diamond
and shows it to everyone who comes by,
and everyone is surprised that such an ignorant
old woman should possess so valuable a jewel;

(60) for in nothing does she appear so inept as in
the remarks she makes about the diamond.

The person who invented this simile did
not know Fitzgerald very well and can only
have seen him, I think, in his more diffident or

(65) uninspired moods. The reader must not suppose
that there is any literal truth in the image.
Scott Fitzgerald is, in fact, no old woman, but
a very good-looking young man, nor is he in
the least stupid, but, on the contrary, exhilaratingly

(70) clever. Yet there is a symbolic truth in
the description quoted above; it is true that
Fitzgerald has been left with a jewel which he
doesn’t know quite what to do with. For he
has been given imagination without intellectual

(75) control of it; he has been given the desire
for beauty without an aesthetic ideal; and he
has been given a gift for expression without
very many ideas to express.

Consider, for example, the novel—This

(80) Side of Paradise—with which he founded his
reputation. It has almost every fault and deficiency
that a novel can possibly have. It is not
only highly imitative but it imitates an inferior
model. Fitzgerald, when he wrote the book,

(85) was drunk with Compton Mackenzie, and it
sounds like an American attempt to rewrite
Sinister Street. Now, Mackenzie, in spite of his
gift for picturesque and comic invention and
the capacity for pretty writing that he says he

(90) learned from Keats, lacks both the intellectual
force and the emotional imagination to give
body and outline to the material which he
secretes in such enormous abundance. With the
seeds he took from Keats’s garden, one of the

(95) best-arranged gardens in England, he enfloreated
[generated flowers] so profusely that he
blotted out the path of his own. Michael Fane,
the hero of Sinister Street, was swamped in the
forest of descriptions; he was smothered by

(100) creepers and columbines. From the time he
went up to Oxford, his personality began to
grow dimmer, and, when he last turned up (in
Belgrade) he seemed quite to have lost his
identity. As a consequence, Amory Blaine, the

(105) hero of This Side of Paradise, had a very poor
chance of coherence: Fitzgerald did endow
him, to be sure, with a certain emotional life
which the phantom Michael Fane lacks; but he
was quite as much a wavering quantity in a

(110) phantasmagoria of incident that had no dominating
intention to endow it with unity and
force. In short, one of the chief weaknesses of
This Side of Paradise is that it is really not
about anything: its intellectual and moral content

(115) amounts to little more than a gesture—a
gesture of indefinite revolt. The story itself,
furthermore, is very immaturely imagined: it is
always just verging on the ludicrous. And
finally, This Side of Paradise is one of the most

(120) illiterate books of any merit ever published (a
fault which the publisher’s proofreader seems
to have made no effort to remedy). Not only is
it ornamented with bogus ideas and faked literary
references, but it is full of literary words

(125) tossed about with the most reckless inaccuracy.

28. The author of Passage 1 thinks that This Side of Paradise demonstrates Fitzgerald’s ability to

(A) compose both long stories and short novels

(B) write short stories

(D) create an extended tale

(E) manipulate the reader’s emotions

29. The author of Passage 1 believes that Fitzgerald’s reputation as a writer rests on

(A) his original use of words

(B) his compelling narratives

(D) his use of irony

(E) using bits and pieces to create coherent stories

30. Passage 1 suggests that Amory, the main character of This Side of Paradise,

(A) is a serious and responsible person

(B) is a thinly disguised version of Fitzgerald

(D) symbolizes what Fitzgerald wanted to be

(E) is a composite of people that Fitzgerald knew

31. By hoping that people could read his books “blind like Braille” (lines 34 and 35), Fitzgerald meant that his writing was

(A) vivid and sensual

(B) deep and full of meaning

(D) impressive and forceful

(E) truthful and innocent

32. Throughout Passage 1, the writing of Fitzgerald is characterized as

(A) egotistical

(B) immature

(D) optimistic

(E) deceptively easy to read

33. The author of Passage 2 relates the anecdote of the old woman and the diamond in order to

(A) disturb Fitzgerald’s readers

(B) belittle Fitzgerald as a writer

(D) suggest that Fitzgerald is preoccupied with wealth

(E) explain an aspect of Fitzgerald’s personality

34. The author’s assertion that “Fitzgerald has been left with a jewel which he doesn’t know quite what to do with” (lines 72 and 73) most nearly means that

(A) Fitzgerald’s exceptional talent as a writer needs polishing

(B) Fitzgerald should take more writing courses

(D) Fitzgerald will probably become a best-selling author

(E) Fitzgerald is destined to become one of the great American writers

35. According to the author of Passage 2, Sinister Street can best be described as

(A) highly inferior to This Side of Paradise

(B) more engrossing than This Side of Paradise

(D) an unfortunate model for This Side of Paradise

(E) more realistic than This Side of Paradise

36. The author of Passage 2 bases much of his criticism of Sinister Street on the grounds that

(A) the book’s hero is sadly overemotional

(B) its flowery prose overshadows its hero’s story

(D) the book lacks a sense of the picturesque

(E) the novel will fail to interest most readers

37. This Side of Paradise is called “illiterate” (line 120) because it

(A) is incoherent

(B) uses slang

(D) contains many errors

(E) is trite

38. The authors of Passage 1 and Passage 2 agree that This Side of Paradise

(A) suggests that Fitzgerald is a talented writer

(B) is the worst of Fitzgerald’s novels

(D) should have been rewritten

(E) will have a wide audience despite its flaws

39. According to both Passage 1 and Passage 2, a major flaw of This Side of Paradise is its

(A) one-dimensional characters

(B) long-winded descriptions

(D) excessive wordiness

(E) lack of artistic focus

40. Based on evidence found in Passage 1 and Passage 2, when were the two passages apparently written?

(A) Both passages were written at about the same time, immediately after the publication of This Side of Paradise.

(B) Both passages were written long after the publication of This Side of Paradise.

(C) Both passages were written sometime between the publication of This Side of Paradise and the publication of Fitzgerald’s next novel.

(D) Passage 1 was written long after the publication of This Side of Paradise; Passage 2 was written shortly afterward.

(E) Passage 1 was written shortly after the publication of This Side of Paradise; Passage 2 was written long afterward.