SAT Reading Practice Test Questions-Literature based-Set 1

Questions 7-19 are based on the following passages.

The narrator of Passage 1 describes the behavior of his friend Jerry, with whom he is rooming in an unspecified African country. In Passage 2, a different narrator describes himself while visiting an English couple in London. Both fictional works were published in the early 1980’s. 

Passage 1
Jerry was deceitful, but at the time I did not think he was imaginative enough to do any damage. And yet his was not the conventional double life that most White people led in Africa. Jerry had certain ambitions: ambition makes Line 5 more liars than egotism does. But Jerry was so careful, his lies such modest calculations, that he was always believed. He said he was from Boston. “Belmont actually,” he told me, when I said I was from Medford. His passport said Watertown. He felt he had to conceal it. That explained Line 10 a lot: the insecurity of living on the lower slopes of the long hill, between the smoldering steeples of Boston and the clean, high-priced air of Belmont. We are probably no more class-conscious than the British, but when we make class an issue, it seems more than snobbery. It becomes Line 15 a bizarre spectacle, a kind of attention-seeking, and I cannot hear an American speaking of his or her social position without thinking of a human fly, one of those tiny people in grubby capes whom one sometimes sees clinging to the brickwork of a tall building. Line 20 What had begun as fantasy had, after six months of his repeating it in our insignificant place, made it seem like fact. I had the impression that it was one of the reasons Jerry wanted to stay in Africa. If you tell enough lies about yourself, they take hold. It becomes impossible ever to go back, Line 25 since that means facing the truth. In Africa, no one could dispute what Jerry said he was: a wealthy Bostonian, from a family of some distinction, adventuring in philanthropy before inheriting his father’s business.

Passage 2
Anna and Chris made me at ease the first day in their Line 30 polished living room-though I was not sure why these people would bother putting themselves out for me at all. And when they kept inviting me back for dinner parties and extending their hospitality, I wondered if maybe they were bored, or if their ignorance of American types was Line 35 such that they failed to see that I was not at all of their social class: I kept expecting some crude regional expression to betray me; and, once I thought of it in those terms, I knew I would have to make sure they saw that side of me-to do less would be like trying to “pass.” Yet whatever I said Line 40 seemed to make no difference in their acceptance. I then suspected that my rough-edgedness itself was entertaining to them as a source of vitality, their diversion-of-the-month. This would have made more sense if the Hodgkinsons were bored, dried-up people who needed to feast on any new Line 45 stranger, but they were not; they were in the world and leading stimulating lives and I finally had to come to the anxious conclusion that they simply liked me. The truth was I had changed, though I was perhaps the last to see it. While still feeling myself a child from Line 50 the slums, I had gotten a university education, acquired a taste for esoteric culture; and now, when I thought back to my students in East Harlem, where I felt I should really belong, it seemed that I was a stranger there as well. Yet I did not fit in with people born to middle-class comfort either. Line 55 It seemed there was no group at all in which I could feel at home. Perhaps anyone with the tiniest sensitivity comes to that banal conclusion. But what I was seeing now with horror, in the accepting eyes of those a class above me, was that I had already partly metamorphosed-into them. My only Line 60 hope of growing seemed to point in an upward social direction; but that direction aroused in me a characteristic disapproval and distaste. I was by no means attracted by everything I saw in well-off people’s lives, and the momentary need to accept their hospitality and keep secret my criticism of them Line 65 made me feel like a hypocrite.

7. Jerry in Passage I and the narrator of Passage 2 are similar in that both

1. feel a strong desire to advance socially
2. feel insecurity about their backgrounds
3. are unsuccessful in deceiving others
4. are determined to remain genuine in the face of pressure to conform
5. have been unduly influenced by the lifestyles of their friends

8. Jerry differs most from the narrator of Passage 2 in his

1. apparent satisfaction with his present circumstances
2. ability to differentiate fantasy from reality
3. willingness to devote his time to philanthropic concerns
4. refusal to accept the labels and judgments of others
5. eagerness to befriend people of all social and economic classes

9. The first sentence of Passage 1 implies that

1. the truth can sometimes be more damaging than a lie
2. the narrator failed to recognize Jerry’s deceptive nature
3. the narrator is intolerant of Jerry’s background
4. the narrator’s view of Jerry changed over time
5. Jerry was unaware of his effect on others

10. In line 6, “modest” most nearly means

1. shy
2. self-conscious
3. secretive
4. decent
5. moderate

11. In the context of Passage l, “insignificant” (line 21) suggests that

1. Jerry’s lying is unlikely to have major consequences in Africa
2. Jerry does not realize how commonplace his behavior is in Africa
3. Jerry has lost the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy
4. the narrator’s own reputation has been harmed by association with Jerry
5. the narrator believes Jerry’s behavior is silly

12. Passage 1 indicates that Jerry feels as he does about his life in Africa because

1. the inhabitants cannot easily verify his American social status
2. the inhabitants will not give him the social acceptance that he craves
3. he was treated with the same respect as when he was in America
4. he is free from the constraints of family and social obligations
5. he is free to befriend people of varied social backgrounds

13. The two passages differ in that, unlike Jerry, the narrator of Passage 2 has

1. reluctantly decided to return to the United States
2. found that social advancement is frequently impossible to obtain
3. belatedly rediscovered his love for his childhood home
4. undergone a change in attitude about social class
5. recently stopped lying about his background

14. In lines 36-39 of Passage 2, the narrator’s perspective changes from

1. suspicion of his hosts to outright mistrust of them
2. estrangement to a sense of camaraderie
3. insecurity to feelings of despondency
4. apprehensiveness to a desire to reveal himself
5. rejection of his social status to an acceptance of it

15. The statement in lines 44-45 (“to feast … stranger”) suggests that some hosts

1. resent being relied on for the latest gossip
2. are anxious about making a good impression on strangers
3. get immense satisfaction from making their guests feel inferior
4. pretend to lead more interesting lives than they actually do
5. live vicariously through their guests

16. In line 45, the phrase “in the world” indicates that the Hodgkinsons are

1. preoccupied with the mundane aspects of life
2. familiar with upper-class social conventions
3. suspicious of spirituality
4. stylish and urbane, but ruthless
5. in contact with interesting people and ideas

17. In line 47, “anxious” most nearly means

1. meticulous
2. impatient
3. uneasy
4. frightened
5. eager

18. Which best characterizes how the subject of identity is treated in these two passages?

1. Passage 1 suggests that identity can be self-created, while Passage 2 contends that it is determined by external and internal factors.
2. Passage 1 de-emphasizes the importance of ancestral background to one’s identity, while Passage 2 emphasizes its importance.
3. Passage 1 argues that the individual chooses his or her identity, while Passage 2 affirms that identity is imposed by others.
4. Both passages downplay the impact of one’s physical surroundings on one’s identity.
5. Neither Passage 1 nor Passage 2 considers the psychological effect of denying parts of one’s identity.

19. Which generalization about class attitudes is most strongly supported by both passages?

1. Charm and personality are more important than one’s social position.
2. Only the very wealthy are concerned with social position.
3. It is only after having lived abroad that Americans come to believe in the possibility of a society without class distinctions.
4. Americans choose to live abroad primarily to escape the confinement of social class.
5. Even when living abroad, Americans consider their status in American society crucial to individual identity.