In this chapter, we’ll move on to fictional texts and how to crack questions about them.
These passages should keep your interest up if you’re not the type of person who prefers the real-world grounding of informational passages. The literary selections are more fanciful, imaginative, and for some people, easier to read. On the other hand, though, fictional passages leave a lot more scope for complexity—flashbacks, dream sequences, raving mad narrators, multiple layers of meaning—and can challenge your active reading and critical thinking skills more than informational passages drawn from the real world.
From the modern era or from an older time, with lots of dialogue or with paragraphs of lengthy descriptions—you could find it all in the literary selections. These passages don’t fall into clear categories as the informational passages do. What the literary selections have in common is good storytelling—a strong plot line and well-developed characters—and the use of literary elements such as imagery and rich language. Beyond that, though, it’s the Wild West and you could encounter just about any topic or type of literature.
These passages run between 450 and 900 words, like the informational passages, and make up roughly a quarter of the reading tasks. Like the informational passages, they may represent earlier eras when different styles of writing—such as the long, intricate sentences of Victorian novels—were common. Take a look at this one, for instance:
Excerpt from The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens, 1837
They had no sooner arrived at this point, than a most violent and startling knocking was heard at the door; it was not an ordinary double-knock, but a constant and uninterrupted succession of the loudest single raps, as if the knocker were endowed with the perpetual motion, or the person outside had forgotten to leave off.
Yes, that’s all one sentence and yes, essentially it just says “someone kept banging on the door.” Early Victorian writers were not known for getting straight to the point, though, and this lengthy description adds vivid images of sight and sound that a modern version would lack. So while literary passages can indeed be filled with complex layers, they can also (as in this example) be simple, written in a style that’s completely in keeping with the writer’s era. The active reading technique of summarizing in your own words will help you see the difference between real complexity and writing styles that may look complex but really aren’t.
Greater length can also lead to more complexity, though. Now there’s room for things like flashbacks, knocking events out of sequence, or for different levels of meaning. (For instance, when is a house a place to live and when does it symbolize a particular culture’s claim to a stretch of land?)
Consider this brief excerpt, drawn from a literary source that is classified at a level appropriate for grades 9 and 10:
Excerpt from Candide, Or The Optimist by Voltaire
1 The French captain soon saw that the captain of the victorious vessel was a Spaniard, and that the other was a Dutch pirate, and the very same one who had robbed Candide. The immense plunder which this villain had amassed, was buried with him in the sea, and out of the whole only one sheep was saved.
2 “You see,” said Candide to Martin, “that crime is sometimes punished. This rogue of a Dutch skipper has met with the fate he deserved.”
3 “Yes,” said Martin; “but why should the passengers be doomed also to destruction? God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.”
Excerpt from Candide, Or The Optimist, by F.A.M. de Voltaire. Translated by H. Morley. London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1888 (1759).
Even from this short exchange, you can guess that something more is going on than the simple sinking of a ship in battle. There are indications of much broader concepts of justice, retribution, and good and evil. You can expect layers of meaning like that in many of the literary passages.
You can’t just relax and soak up a story the way you can when you’re reading a novel for entertainment. You’re taking a test and need to seize control and shake the right answers out of the passage. That means active reading again. The questions to ask yourself as you go through the passage will be different than they were for informational texts, though.
Questions to Ask as You Read Literary Passages
What’s happening?
Who are the main characters?
Who is telling the story?
What is the setting?
What is the mood?
Who is the intended audience?
Let’s work through a couple of examples that will help you practice reading actively and approaching the different question tasks in literary passages.
Excerpt from The Moonstone by William “Wilkie” Collins
1 “I’m afraid Rosanna is sly. It looks as if she had determined to get to that place you and I have just come from, without leaving any marks on the sand to trace her by. Shall we say that she walked through the water from this point till she got to that ledge of rocks behind us, and came back the same way, and then took to the beach again where those two heel marks are still left? Yes, we’ll say that. It seems to fit in with my notion that she had something under her cloak, when she left the cottage. No! not something to destroy—for, in that case, where would have been the need of all these precautions to prevent my tracing the place at which her walk ended? Something to hide is, I think, the better guess of the two. Perhaps, if we go on to the cottage, we may find out what that something is?”
2 At this proposal, my detective-fever suddenly cooled. “You don’t want me,” I said. “What good can I do?”….
3 “If I go alone to the cottage, the people’s tongues will be tied at the first question I put to them. If I go with you, I go introduced by a justly respected neighbour, and a flow of conversation is the necessary result. It strikes me in that light; how does it strike you?”
4 Not having an answer of the needful smartness as ready as I could have wished, I tried to gain time by asking him what cottage he wanted to go to….
5 On the Sergeant describing the place, I recognised it as a cottage inhabited by a fisherman named Yolland, with his wife and two grown-up children, a son and a daughter…. Rosanna’s acquaintance with them had begun by means of the daughter, who was afflicted with a misshapen foot, and who was known in our parts by the name of Limping Lucy. The two deformed girls had, I suppose, a kind of fellow-feeling for each other…. The fact of Sergeant Cuff having traced the girl to THEIR cottage, set the matter of my helping his inquiries in quite a new light. Rosanna had merely gone where she was in the habit of going; and to show that she had been in company with the fisherman and his family was as good as to prove that she had been innocently occupied so far, at any rate. It would be doing the girl a service, therefore, instead of an injury, if I allowed myself to be convinced by Sergeant Cuff’s logic….
6 Good Mrs. Yolland received us alone in her kitchen. When she heard that Sergeant Cuff was a celebrated character in London, she clapped a bottle of Dutch gin and a couple of clean pipes on the table, and stared as if she could never see enough of him.
7 I sat quiet in a corner, waiting to hear how the Sergeant would find his way to the subject of Rosanna Spearman. His usual roundabout manner of going to work proved, on this occasion, to be more roundabout than ever. How he managed it is more than I could tell at the time, and more than I can tell now. But this is certain, he began with the Royal Family, the Primitive Methodists, and the price of fish; and he got from that (in his dismal, underground way) to the loss of the Moonstone, the spitefulness of our first house-maid, and the hard behaviour of the women-servants generally towards Rosanna Spearman. Having reached his subject in this fashion, he described himself as making his inquiries about the lost Diamond, partly with a view to find it, and partly for the purpose of clearing Rosanna from the unjust suspicions of her enemies in the house. In about a quarter of an hour from the time when we entered the kitchen, good Mrs. Yolland was persuaded that she was talking to Rosanna’s best friend, and was pressing Sergeant Cuff to comfort his stomach and revive his spirits out of the Dutch bottle….
8 The great Cuff showed a wonderful patience; trying his luck drearily this way and that way, and firing shot after shot, as it were, at random, on the chance of hitting the mark. Everything to Rosanna’s credit, nothing to Rosanna’s prejudice—that was how it ended, try as he might; with Mrs. Yolland talking nineteen to the dozen, and placing the most entire confidence in him. His last effort was made, when we had looked at our watches, and had got on our legs previous to taking leave.
9 “I shall now wish you good-night, ma’am,” says the Sergeant. “And I shall only say, at parting, that Rosanna Spearman has a sincere well-wisher in myself, your obedient servant. But, oh dear me! she will never get on in her present place; and my advice to her is—leave it.”
10 “Bless your heart alive! she is GOING to leave it!” cries Mrs. Yolland….
11 Rosanna Spearman going to leave us! I pricked up my ears at that. It seemed strange, to say the least of it, that she should have given no warning, in the first place, to my lady or to me. A certain doubt came up in my mind whether Sergeant Cuff’s last random shot might not have hit the mark. I began to question whether my share in the proceedings was quite as harmless a one as I had thought it. It might be all in the way of the Sergeant’s business to mystify an honest woman by wrapping her round in a network of lies…Beginning to smell mischief in the air, I tried to take Sergeant Cuff out. He sat down again instantly, and asked for a little drop of comfort out of the Dutch bottle. Mrs. Yolland sat down opposite to him, and gave him his nip. I went on to the door, excessively uncomfortable, and said I thought I must bid them good-night—and yet I didn’t go.
This passage is complex in its character development, its layers of appearance and reality, and its unstated implications. Did you pick up those characteristics as you were reading through it? Let’s explore the active reading questions for literary passages to find some clues to what’s going on under the surface. To sharpen your active reading skills, note your answer on some scratch paper (or at least think of your answer) before you read the one below each question.
What’s happening? Imagine that you are reading a book, and your friend asks you what the book is about. You wouldn’t just start reading aloud to your friend; instead, you’d probably describe the action and characters. In other words, you’d give your friend a summary of the text. If you can summarize a GED® Reading passage in your own words—ideally as you’re reading it, not just after—then you’re in control.
How do you summarize? A good place to start is to answer as many as possible of the classic news reporter questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how? In this passage, a detective is tracking a girl. He talks the narrator into accompanying him to the fisherman’s cottage where he traced the girl. The detective talks to the fisherman’s wife and drinks some Dutch gin. He and the narrator start to leave and then return.
So there’s not a lot of action in the passage. However, the excerpt is rich in layers. One person’s view of what’s going on isn’t the same as another’s. What appears on the surface differs from the reality beneath, particularly when it comes to motivation. The detective is sure the girl has a stolen diamond, but he tells the narrator that a visit to the cottage could help him discover what the girl might have hidden under her cloak. The narrator sees through Cuff’s “roundabout manner” (paragraph 7) of trying to get information from Mrs. Yolland, but later wonders whether the sergeant has duped him, too, into doing Rosanna “an injury” instead of “a service” (paragraph 5) by introducing him. Cuff wants to find Rosanna and the diamond, the narrator wants to prove that Rosanna had been “innocently occupied” (paragraph 5), and Mrs. Yolland thinks she is “talking to Rosanna’s best friend” (paragraph 7). The answers to some of the classic news questions will differ markedly depending on which character is in focus.
Who are the main characters, and what do we know about them? There are four main characters in this passage, although only three are present.
Mrs. Yolland is a humble fisherman’s wife, completely incapable of seeing through Cuff’s subtle tactics. A simple and “honest woman” (paragraph 11), she is overwhelmed by the visit from a “celebrated character in London” (paragraph 6) and reassured by the presence of a “respected neighbour” (paragraph 3), so she speaks openly, “placing the most entire confidence” (paragraph 8) in the detective. She even reveals to the narrator that Rosanna was planning to leave his house.
The narrator seems more perceptive than Mrs. Yolland, but even he is no match for Cuff. He doesn’t want to go to the cottage because his “detective-fever suddenly cooled” (paragraph 2). Then, however, he allows himself to be persuaded when he learns it’s Yolland’s cottage, where Rosanna was “in the habit of going,” proving that she “had been innocently occupied” (paragraph 5). He recognizes the detective’s “roundabout manner” in questioning Mrs. Yolland, but admits that “how he managed it is more than I could tell” (paragraph 7). In addition, the narrator had no idea that Rosanna was planning to leave his house, even though she worked there and he presumably saw her every day. He suspects that Cuff might have deceived him: “I began to question whether my share in the proceedings was quite as harmless a one as I had thought it” (paragraph 11). He senses “mischief in the air” (paragraph 11) and tries to get Cuff to leave, but ends up staying with the sergeant and Mrs. Yolland. The narrator seems unaware and not in control when manipulative tactics and subterfuge are directed at him.
Sergeant Cuff is a master at reading the other characters and manipulating them to achieve his own ends. He wins Mrs. Yolland’s confidence and convinces her that his aim is “clearing Rosanna from the unjust suspicions of her enemies in the house” (paragraph 7). He enlists the narrator’s help by giving him an opportunity to prove that Rosanna “had been innocently occupied” (paragraph 5). He is also a skilled reader of evidence, figuring out how Rosanna had moved on the beach to conceal her path.
We only learn about Rosanna through the statements and actions of other characters, yet she is the force that sets the entire passage in motion. She is described as “deformed” (paragraph 5), a servant in the narrator’s house, and persecuted by other women servants. Except for the Yolland family, she is alone. She is also devious, planning to leave without telling her employers. Beyond that, Rosanna is an enigma. Would she be capable of stealing a diamond and outwitting Sergeant Cuff? She may be “sly” (paragraph 1), but couldn’t fool him with her attempts to avoid being traced on the beach. Why was she preparing to leave in secret? Where would she be able to go? We can’t answer those questions from the information in the passage.
Three other characters are simply mentioned: Yolland, the fisherman, his adult son and adult daughter, Limping Lucy, who seems to be Rosanna’s only friend.
Who is telling the story? A story can be told by either a first-person narrator (an “I” narrator who is a character in the story) or a third-person narrator (a narrator who is not a character in the story, using “he/she/they,” but not “I”). They could be as objective as an unbiased third-person narrator, or they could be highly biased or just plain crazy, too. You need to pay close attention to what they reveal about themselves in order to judge whether you can take the story they’re telling at face value.
In this case, the narrator can see through Cuff’s “usual roundabout manner” (paragraph 7) of questioning someone. However, as we saw in the analysis of his character, he’s not particularly reliable or perceptive concerning tactics that are directed at him.
What is the setting? Sometimes the setting (place and time) can add a lot to your grasp of the passage, and sometimes it doesn’t reveal much. In this passage, the places—the deserted beach, the fisherman’s cottage—reinforce the distance between the celebrated London detective and the other characters. Cuff is in an alien environment, but is still functioning very effectively, revealing his skill. The narrator and Mrs. Yolland are on home ground, but Cuff still manages to get what he wants from both of them.
What is the mood? There is a murky, mysterious mood to this passage that complements the plot line of a clever detective trying to penetrate appearances and discover the truth. Cuff’s method of “[mystifying] an honest woman by wrapping her round in a network of lies” (paragraph 11), and the narrator’s suspicion that Cuff has outsmarted him, add a negative tone. Does the detective’s goal justify his rather devious methods?
In other passages, the mood could be lighthearted or neutral; it could add a lot to your understanding of the passage or it might not be very helpful. It all depends on the passage.
Who is the intended audience? You might not be able to guess from the passage; it’s not as easy with literary texts as it is with informational pieces. If you can get a picture of the intended audience, though, you’ll have another layer of insight into the passage. Perhaps it’s intended for young readers. That would explain fairly black-and-white characters and straightforward action. Or perhaps it’s intended for readers of detective and mystery fiction, as this example is. That’s your clue that the undertones you may have sensed in this passage are, in fact, real; these readers would expect and be looking for them.
Now that active reading has given you a firmer grip on the passage, let’s tackle a few questions. Try to choose the answer yourself, using the insight gained from the active reading questions, before you read the explanation below the choices.
1. What main function does Limping Lucy serve in the passage?
A. She increases the reader’s sympathy for Mrs. Yolland.
B. She helps create a picture of a “balanced” family.
C. She makes the reader feel more negatively toward Sergeant Cuff.
D. She reinforces the impression that Rosanna is alone and vulnerable.
Here’s How to Crack It
Here’s a structure question as it applies to a literary passage. Limping Lucy isn’t present in the excerpt; she’s mentioned only briefly. Why? What main purpose does that brief mention serve?
The narrator explains that Rosanna knew the Yolland family through Limping Lucy. That’s not one of the answer choices for Lucy’s function, though. The fact that Mrs. Yolland has a daughter with a “misshapen foot” (paragraph 5) might add to the sympathy readers feel because of the way Cuff is manipulating her (A). However, the question asks for the main purpose. Is there a stronger choice?
You can guess that there probably is from the fact that the author concentrates his description of Limping Lucy on Rosanna, not on Mrs. Yolland. Both girls are “deformed” and have “a kind of fellow-feeling for each other” (paragraph 5). Contrast this with “the hard behaviour of the women-servants generally towards Rosanna” (paragraph 7). Lucy is the only one to whom Rosanna feels a connection. Her colleagues reject and persecute her. That leads to (D), reinforcing the impression of Rosanna as alone (except for Lucy) and vulnerable.
Choice (C) is incorrect because it refers to essentially the same thing as (A). If readers feel sympathy for Mrs. Yolland because of Cuff’s behavior toward her, then they would also feel negative sentiments toward Cuff. Again, (D) is a stronger choice. Choice (B) is also incorrect. It’s too vague. What does a “balanced” family (presumably a son and a daughter) add to the passage?
2. Does the narrator’s account of Sergeant Cuff’s questioning of Mrs. Yolland support Cuff’s contention that he is “making his inquiries about the lost Diamond…partly for the purpose of clearing Rosanna” (paragraph 7)?
A. Yes. While he is talking to Mrs. Yolland, Cuff refers to “the hard behaviour of the women-servants generally towards Rosanna” and to the “unjust suspicions of her [Rosanna’s] enemies in the house” (paragraph 7), suggesting he wants to help Rosanna.
B. No. The narrator says that Cuff is “wrapping her [Mrs. Yolland] round in a network of lies” (paragraph 11), implying that Cuff’s stated purpose can’t be believed.
C. Yes. The narrator agrees to accompany Cuff to the Yollands’ cottage because that allows Cuff to be “introduced by a justly respected neighbour, and a flow of conversation is the necessary result” (paragraph 3). Cuff wants Mrs. Yolland to feel comfortable talking to him.
D. No. The narrator says Cuff was “firing shot after shot, as it were, at random, on the chance of hitting the mark” (paragraph 8), suggesting that Cuff’s questions had a hostile, destructive quality.
Here’s How to Crack It
This is an evaluation question as it applies to a literary passage. Here you’re evaluating whether the narrator’s account of the questioning is consistent with the motive Cuff explains to Mrs. Yolland.
Too much in the narrator’s description contradicts the two “yes” choices, so those can be eliminated. The detective’s references to Rosanna’s enemies (A) are part of his tactic of convincing Mrs. Yolland that “she was talking to Rosanna’s best friend” (paragraph 7). And Cuff could just as easily want Mrs. Yolland to open up to him (C) out of a desire to accuse Rosanna as out of a desire to clear her.
That leaves the two “no” choices. Which one provides a more direct answer to the question? Choice (D) has merit. The narrator’s descriptions of “firing shot after shot” and “hitting the mark” do suggest hostility rather than goodwill. However, (B) is a more direct answer, and is therefore the correct choice. The narrator’s account describes Cuff’s questioning as a “network of lies,” and therefore does not support Cuff’s stated motive, which would also be a lie.
3. When the narrator says Mrs. Yolland was “talking nineteen to the dozen” (paragraph 8), he is referring to her
A. refusal to let Cuff get a word in.
B. attempts to evade Sergeant Cuff’s questions.
C. unrealistically positive comments about Rosanna.
D. meaningless chatter about irrelevant topics.
Here’s How to Crack It
The passages on the GED® test are often in the public domain, which means they have an older style of writing (such as very long sentences) and terms that aren’t familiar to modern readers. (The Moonstone was written in 1868.) That’s true of both the informational and the literary selections. Language use questions such as this one will help you develop skills in using context to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word or term. These questions force you to delve deeper into the passage and understand it more thoroughly (instead of simply skipping over the part you can’t figure out). In some cases, they’ll help you expand your vocabulary, too.
Since this is a literary passage, first ask yourself what’s going on when that term is used. Sergeant Cuff is getting nowhere in his attempts to wring some information about Rosanna and the diamond from Mrs. Yolland. He needs—and is exercising—“wonderful patience,” firing random questions at her “on the chance of hitting the mark,” but all he’s hearing is “everything to Rosanna’s credit, nothing to Rosanna’s prejudice” (paragraph 8). Moreover, Mrs. Yolland is “talking nineteen to the dozen” (paragraph 8).
Process of Elimination (looking for clearly wrong answers and eliminating those first) is an efficient approach when you’re really not sure. Mrs. Yolland is talking about a relevant topic (Rosanna), which eliminates (D). The narrator says she’s an “honest woman,” in contrast to Cuff’s “network of lies” (paragraph 11), which gets rid of (C). She places her “entire confidence” (paragraph 8) in the detective, and has been persuaded that he is “Rosanna’s best friend” (paragraph 7), so she wouldn’t be trying to evade his questions, eliminating (B). Now only (A) is left. Does it make sense? Yes. Mrs. Yolland feels safe talking to Cuff, and is excited about the visit from this celebrated man. As the greater weight of nineteen compared to a dozen suggests, she’s talking practically nonstop, outweighing his conversation and making it difficult for him to launch even his random-shot questions.
4. Why does the passage begin with Sergeant Cuff’s efforts to trace Rosanna’s movements on the beach?
A. Cuff needs to find out where Rosanna went before he can find the diamond.
B. The tracking episode shows how clever Rosanna is.
C. It helps Cuff determine whether Rosanna was carrying something to destroy or something to hide.
D. Cuff’s reasoning while tracking Rosanna illustrates his ability to understand people.
Here’s How to Crack It
You could encounter two types of development questions with a literary passage: plot development and character development. Often the two types overlap, such as when the development of a character also advances the plot, or when a development in the plot also reveals more about a character.
The event described in the question falls into that last category. In terms of the plot, Cuff is able to figure out where Rosanna went and decide to go there, too. That development in the plot also reveals something new about his character. He shows that he can read people well enough to understand what Rosanna did to try to hide her tracks, and why. That same character trait is put to use again later on in the passage, when he convinces the narrator to accompany him to the cottage and when he gets Mrs. Yolland to reveal that Rosanna is planning to leave.
Now you need to decide which answer choice provides the closest match. Choice (A) is incorrect because it deals only with plot development. It ignores the aspect of Cuff’s character that is revealed by his reasoning as he follows Rosanna’s movements. If Rosanna were that clever, Cuff wouldn’t have been able to track her, so (B) is incorrect. Choice (C) is too narrow. Cuff wants to figure out where Rosanna went, too, not simply what she was carrying. That leaves (D) as the correct answer. The part of the plot that occurs on the beach also provides a way to develop Cuff’s character as someone with a keen ability to understand people and get what he wants from them.
Now that we’ve seen how the active reading questions can help you get a better grip on a literary passage, let’s go through an example in which we can focus on the seven question tasks in action.
Excerpt from Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, 1876
1 Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home barely in season to help Jim saw next-day’s wood and split the kindlings before supper—at least he was there in time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the work. Tom’s younger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already through with his part of the work (picking up chips), for he was a quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
2 While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity offered, Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile, and very deep—for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low cunning. Said she:
3 “Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn’t it?”
4 “Yes’m.”
5 “Powerful warm, warn’t it?”
6 “Yes’m.”
7 “Didn’t you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?”
8 A bit of a scare shot through Tom—a touch of uncomfortable suspicion. He searched Aunt Polly’s face, but it told him nothing. So he said:
9 “No’m—well, not very much.”
10 The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom’s shirt, and said:
11 “But you ain’t too warm now, though.” And it flattered her to reflect that she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing that that was what she had in her mind. But in spite of her, Tom knew where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the next move:
12 “Some of us pumped on our heads—mine’s damp yet. See?”
13 Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of circumstantial evidence, and missed a trick. Then she had a new inspiration:
14 “Tom, you didn’t have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to pump on your head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!”
15 The trouble vanished out of Tom’s face. He opened his jacket. His shirt collar was securely sewed.
16 “Bother! Well, go ‘long with you. I’d made sure you’d played hookey and been a-swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. I reckon you’re a kind of a singed cat, as the saying is—better’n you look. This time.”
17 She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom had stumbled into obedient conduct for once.
18 But Sidney said:
19 “Well, now, if I didn’t think you sewed his collar with white thread, but it’s black.”
20 “Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!”
21 But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said:
22 “Siddy, I’ll lick you for that.”
23 In a safe place Tom examined two large needles which were thrust into the lapels of his jacket, and had thread bound about them—one needle carried white thread and the other black. He said: “She’d never noticed if it hadn’t been for Sid. Confound it! sometimes she sews it with white, and sometimes she sews it with black. I wish to geeminy she’d stick to one or t’other—I can’t keep the run of ’em. But I bet you I’ll lam Sid for that. I’ll learn him!”
1. The main theme of this passage is
A. the contrast between Tom’s personality and Sid’s.
B. the conflict between chores (work) and school on the one hand, and avoiding those duties on the other.
C. the contrast between the choices Tom can make and the choices Jim has.
D. the struggle between Tom and Aunt Polly to outwit each other.
Here’s How to Crack It
Several subjects run through this passage, but we’re looking for the overall big-picture theme to answer this question. Choices (A) and (B) are certainly present, but they’re not central to the entire passage. Tom does seem to have more options than Jim—Tom can go to school or go swimming, but Jim has to prepare wood and do most of the work as he listens to Tom talk about his day. Jim isn’t at supper with Aunt Polly and the other two boys, either. Again, though, (C) doesn’t filter through the entire passage.
After eliminating those sub-themes, (D) emerges as the main theme. It’s evident right from the beginning (Tom playing “hookey” [paragraph 1] in defiance of Aunt Polly) to the end (Tom feeling outfoxed by Aunt Polly’s habit of switching thread colors).
2. What was Aunt Polly’s aim in questioning Tom?
A. She hoped to start an argument between Tom and Sid.
B. She wanted to practice using the diplomatic skills she believed she possessed.
C. She wanted to get Tom to admit that he’d gone swimming instead of going to school.
D. She was trying to exert her authority over him.
Here’s How to Crack It
This question examines the development of the plot. Let’s use Process of Elimination to get rid of the incorrect answers first. Aunt Polly made no attempt to draw Sid into the conversation, so (A) is gone. Her supposed diplomatic skills were a means to an end; simply practicing them was not her objective, so (B) is out, too. Now we’re left with (C) and (D): Was Aunt Polly trying to achieve a specific victory (C) or establish her authority in general (D)?
The narrator says that “Aunt Polly asked him [Tom] questions that were full of guile, and very deep—for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments” (paragraph 2). That pretty well takes us to (C) as the correct answer, but just to make sure, we need to figure out what on earth “revealments” means.
The passage was written almost a century and a half ago, and Aunt Polly is from a particular geographic region and economic class (as indicated by the references to the heat and to family members doing their own sewing and wood-chopping), so her use of language seems unusual to modern readers throughout the dialogue. The narrator’s choice of an odd word such as “revealments” isn’t too surprising in the context of the way Aunt Polly speaks. Combined with “trap” and “damaging,” the word points to its root, “reveal,” indicating she is questioning Tom in order to get him to disclose something he wants to hide. We learn later what that is, when she says, “I’d made sure you’d played hookey and been a-swimming.” So, (C) is correct.
3. What does Aunt Polly regret when she feels “her sagacity had miscarried” (paragraph 17)?
A. that she had wrongly accused Tom
B. that she hadn’t taken him to school herself, to make sure he went
C. that Tom apparently hadn’t played hookey after all
D. that her cunning had failed her
Here’s How to Crack It
Here’s a challenging language use question in the context of a passage that displays unusual language throughout. First, look at the context. The next part of that sentence eliminates (C): Aunt Polly says she is “half glad” (paragraph 17) that Tom apparently had gone to school, so that’s not what she regrets. If he went to school after all, there would be no need for her to take him there herself, so (B) is out, too.
Now we’re left with (A) and (D), which are different in a subtle way. Is Aunt Polly sorry about making this specific false accusation (A), or is she sorry that her cunning (which led her try to make Tom admit the accusation was true) had failed (D)? The description of Aunt Polly in paragraph 2 points to (D). She believes she has a “talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy” (paragraph 2) and sees her attempts to display it as “marvels of low cunning” (paragraph 2). She tried using those powers to get Tom to admit he’d played hookey, and when it seemed he’d really been at school, she’s troubled by the failure of her talents. That’s (D). Her cunning (sagacity) had failed to achieve her intended purpose (it had miscarried).
4. What main function does the character of Sid serve in the passage?
A. He acts as a counterweight to Tom.
B. He is an example of the type of boy Aunt Polly prefers to Tom.
C. He introduces another source of tension in Tom’s life, in addition to Aunt Polly.
D. His status in the family suggests that Tom isn’t a full member.
Here’s How to Crack It
This is a structure question as it applies to a literary passage: Why is Sid there? He doesn’t appear very much in the passage, but when he does (with the observation about the thread color), his impact is significant.
The passage doesn’t give us enough information to know whether (D) is correct. Sid is Tom’s half-brother, and their caregiver is Tom’s aunt, but we don’t know whether Aunt Polly is Sid’s mother. There are suggestions that (B) might not be true. Sid is quiet, with “no adventurous, troublesome ways” (paragraph 1). Aunt Polly seems to enjoy Tom’s adventurous spirit in a way, though—it gives her an opportunity to try to outwit him—and Sid’s comment about the black thread ends her ability to be “half glad that Tom had stumbled into obedient conduct for once” (paragraph 17). So let’s eliminate (B).
Sid does fulfill the functions described in both (A) and (C): He is the opposite of Tom (A) and seems determined to get Tom into trouble (C). Which is the main function, though? Choice (A) is too general: Sid could be acting as an opposite balancing force to any aspect(s) of Tom’s character. Choice (C) is the correct answer because it reflects the tension between Tom and Aunt Polly. That tension runs throughout the dialogue, and Sid reignites it from left field when he pops up with the thread comment.
5. For what purpose did the author use a dialogue between Aunt Polly and Tom instead of simply describing the conflict over going to school?
A. so readers could get to know the characters more directly
B. to convey the type of language used in that time period and geographic area
C. because he does a better job of writing dialogue than he does of writing narrative descriptions
D. because the literary style in the author’s time favored dialogue
Here’s How to Crack It
Here’s a purpose question as it applies to a literary passage. In this case, we’re trying to discover the author’s purpose in choosing to tell the story the way he did.
Again, let’s use Process of Elimination to get rid of the wrong answers. Choice (B) is too general. If that were the author’s purpose, he could have done the same thing elsewhere besides the dialogue. Indeed, he uses the same type of language in narrative sections. Choice (C) isn’t as silly as it might sound. If there were an obvious difference in skill between the narrative and the dialogue sections, it could be true. However, there isn’t in this passage. Choice (D) would take you beyond the passage if it were true, and you need to stay within the boundaries of the passage to find the right answer.
So we’re left with (A). Instead of having the narrator describe the conflict, which would be one step removed from the characters involved, the author lets the characters speak for themselves, putting readers more directly in touch with them.
6. Does the author’s account of the exchange between Aunt Polly and Tom support the idea that they seem about equally matched?
A. No. The author describes the talents and cunning Aunt Polly believes she can put to use in dealing with Tom, but Tom is just a disobedient boy with no special abilities.
B. Yes. Tom senses immediately what Aunt Polly is trying to find out, and “forestalled what might be the next move” (paragraph 11) by explaining his wet hair without being asked.
C. Yes. Tom gets Jim to do most of the wood splitting, so he would be a match for Aunt Polly’s attempts to get him to admit to playing hookey.
D. No. Until Sid intervenes with his observation about the thread color, Tom is the clear winner.
Here’s How to Crack It
This is an evaluation question as it applies to literary passages. The author obviously wants to portray Tom and Aunt Polly as pretty well equally matched in their ongoing contests. (Aunt Polly’s concession of defeat “this time” [paragraph 16] suggests a series of exchanges like this, where she doesn’t always win.) Has the author done a credible job of it, though?
Tom seems to have a natural ability to anticipate Aunt Polly’s moves and head them off (when he sewed his shirt collar again after swimming, for instance). That eliminates (A). Tom won only “this time” (paragraph 16), not every time, which eliminates (D).
That leaves us with two choices that say yes, the author has done a credible job of presenting Aunt Polly and Tom as about equally matched, but for different reasons. The only one that pits Tom directly against Aunt Polly in a contest of wills is (B), which is the correct answer. Just because Tom can outwit Jim, as (C) claims, doesn’t make him a match for Aunt Polly.
7. In this passage, both Aunt Polly and Sid are Tom’s adversaries. But when it comes to the contest of wills with Tom, their approaches differ. Drag the descriptions of their approaches to the correct column, depending on whether Aunt Polly or Sid displays that attitude.
Here’s How to Crack It
This comparison question asks you to dig deeper into the relationships among the characters, based on what the passage tells you. If you find the descriptions and statements surrounding Aunt Polly’s attempt to get Tom to admit to playing hookey (or better yet, if you jotted a word or two down as you were actively reading the passage), you’ll see that the second, third, and fifth descriptions apply to her approach to the contest with Tom. She treats it as a bit of a game and as a test of her powers of “dark and mysterious diplomacy” (paragraph 2) against Tom’s deceptive ways. It’s also a source of conflicting emotions for her, though, since she’s half upset that her powers failed and half glad that Tom wasn’t deceiving her for once.
There are no “left over” descriptions in this question, so the other three must apply to Sid. Indeed, his deliberate attempt to get Tom into trouble by mentioning the thread color is both mystifying and a risk, since he likely knows from past experience that Tom will make good on his threat to “lick you for that” (paragraph 22). There’s a serious quality to his confrontation with Tom, too: He doesn’t take part in the game-like contest of wills between Tom and Aunt Polly, but just calmly reignites the dispute when it seems as if Tom has won.
Now it’s your turn. Ask yourself the active reading questions as you go through this passage, and use your critical thinking skills. Then try the questions, using your knowledge of the seven question tasks. (All seven are represented in the questions below, to give you a chance to try each task on your own. However, the order of the tasks is mixed up.) You can check your answers in Part VIII: Answer Key to Drills.
Excerpt from The Leopard Man’s Story, by Jack London, 1903
1 He was the Leopard Man, but he did not look it. His business in life, whereby he lived, was to appear in a cage of performing leopards before vast audiences, and to thrill those audiences by certain exhibitions of nerve for which his employers rewarded him on a scale commensurate with the thrills he produced.
2 As I say, he did not look it. He was narrow-hipped, narrow-shouldered, and anaemic, while he seemed not so much oppressed by gloom as by a sweet and gentle sadness, the weight of which was as sweetly and gently borne. For an hour I had been trying to get a story out of him, but he appeared to lack imagination. To him there was no romance in his gorgeous career, no deeds of daring, no thrills—nothing but a gray sameness and infinite boredom.
3 Lions? Oh, yes! he had fought with them. It was nothing. All you had to do was to stay sober. Anybody could whip a lion to a standstill with an ordinary stick. He had fought one for half an hour once. Just hit him on the nose every time he rushed, and when he got artful and rushed with his head down, why, the thing to do was to stick out your leg. When he grabbed at the leg you drew it back and hit him on the nose again. That was all.
4 With the far-away look in his eyes and his soft flow of words he showed me his scars. There were many of them, and one recent one where a tigress had reached for his shoulder and gone down to the bone. I could see the neatly mended rents in the coat he had on. His right arm, from the elbow down, looked as though it had gone through a threshing machine, what of the ravage wrought by claws and fangs. But it was nothing, he said, only the old wounds bothered him somewhat when rainy weather came on.
5 Suddenly his face brightened with a recollection, for he was really as anxious to give me a story as I was to get it.
6 “He was a little, thin, sawed-off, sword-swallowing and juggling Frenchman. De Ville, he called himself, and he had a nice wife. She did trapeze work and used to dive from under the roof into a net, turning over once on the way as nice as you please.
7 “De Ville had a quick temper, as quick as his hand, and his hand was as quick as the paw of a tiger. The word went around to watch out for De Ville, and no one dared be more than barely civil to his wife. And she was a sly bit of baggage, too, only all the performers were afraid of De Ville.
8 “But there was one man, Wallace, who was afraid of nothing. He was the lion-tamer, and he had the trick of putting his head into the lion’s mouth. He’d put it into the mouths of any of them, though he preferred Augustus, a big, good-natured beast who could always be depended upon.
9 “As I was saying, Wallace—‘King’ Wallace we called him—was afraid of nothing alive or dead. He was a king and no mistake.
10 “Madame de Ville looked at King Wallace and King Wallace looked at her, while De Ville looked at them darkly. We warned Wallace, but it was no use. He laughed at us, as he laughed at De Ville.
11 “But I saw a glitter in De Ville’s eyes which I had seen often in the eyes of wild beasts, and I went out of my way to give Wallace a final warning. He laughed, but he did not look so much in Madame de Ville’s direction after that.
12 “Several months passed by. Nothing had happened and I was beginning to think it all a scare over nothing. We were West by that time, showing in ‘Frisco. It was during the afternoon performance, and the big tent was filled with women and children.
13 “Passing by one of the dressing tents I glanced in through a hole in the canvas: in front of me was King Wallace, in tights, waiting for his turn to go on with his cage of performing lions. I noticed De Ville staring at Wallace with undisguised hatred. Wallace and the rest were all too busy to notice this or what followed.
14 “But I saw it through the hole in the canvas. De Ville drew his handkerchief from his pocket, made as though to mop the sweat from his face with it (it was a hot day), and at the same time walked past Wallace’s back. The look troubled me at the time, for not only did I see hatred in it, but I saw triumph as well.
15 “ ‘De Ville will bear watching,’ I said to myself, and I really breathed easier when I saw him go out the entrance to the circus grounds. A few minutes later I was in the big tent. King Wallace was doing his turn and holding the audience spellbound. He was in a particularly vicious mood, and he kept the lions stirred up till they were all snarling, that is, all of them except old Augustus, and he was just too fat and lazy and old to get stirred up over anything.
16 “Finally Wallace cracked the old lion’s knees with his whip and got him into position. Old Augustus, blinking good-naturedly, opened his mouth and in popped Wallace’s head. Then the jaws came together, crunch, just like that.”
17 The Leopard Man smiled in a sweetly wistful fashion, and the far-away look came into his eyes.
18 “And that was the end of King Wallace,” he went on in his sad, low voice. “After the excitement cooled down I watched my chance and bent over and smelled Wallace’s head. Then I sneezed.”
19 “It…it was…?” I queried with halting eagerness.
20 “Snuff—that De Ville dropped on his hair in the dressing tent. Old Augustus never meant to do it. He only sneezed.”
1. The overall structure of this passage most closely resembles which of the following shapes?
A. an inverted pyramid
B. a maze
C. a frame within a frame
D. a spiral
2. Why does the author give such a lengthy description of the Leopard Man’s attitude toward the work he does?
A. to show that any profession can get boring after a while
B. to reveal how aging can affect someone’s enthusiasm for life
C. to highlight the contrast between the Leopard Man and Wallace
D. to reflect one of the main ideas in the story that the Leopard Man tells
3. When the narrator speaks of “the ravage wrought by claws and fangs” (paragraph 4), he is referring to
A. the result of performing with leopards throughout the Leopard Man’s career.
B. the Leopard Man’s advancing age.
C. the damage caused by the big cats the Leopard Man fights.
D. the Leopard Man’s lack of excitement about his career.
4. Compare the Leopard Man’s attitude toward De Ville with Wallace’s. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Both the Leopard Man and Wallace let their guard down.
B. The Leopard Man believed warnings were needed; Wallace completely ignored warnings.
C. Wallace underestimated De Ville; the Leopard Man did not.
D. Wallace thought his physical strength made him invincible; the Leopard Man knew that De Ville’s cleverness was more dangerous than physical strength.
5. Drag and drop the events into the chart in the order in which they occur in the passage. Not all of the events below actually take place, so you will have some left over.
Order of Events
6. Which event in the passage has the weakest support from the other descriptions and events in the passage?
A. the Leopard Man repeatedly warning Wallace about De Ville
B. De Ville waiting so long for revenge when the cause of his anger had stopped
C. Wallace not being afraid of De Ville
D. Augustus biting off Wallace’s head
7. The moral of this passage is
A. brains are better than brawn.
B. don’t try to fight nature.
C. never underestimate your opponent.
D. the grass is never greener.
There are five main features of the Reading assessment:
There are six to eight passages of up to 900 words each.
The majority (75 percent) of the passages deal with informational (nonfiction) topics drawn from real-world contexts. The rest are literary (fictional) texts.
The questions test critical thinking and analytical skills, not simply comprehension. You will need to practice active reading techniques, summarizing and asking questions as you read.
Each question has four answer choices.
Most questions will be in the familiar multiple-choice format. The computer-based test also presents you with drag-and-drop questions, where you “drag” alternatives to a chart full of empty boxes and “drop” them into the correct positions on the chart.
The reading passages might be mixed in with the language passages. You will have 95 minutes to answer all of the reading and language questions.
There are 48 reading questions spread across the six to eight passages. For both informational and fictional passages, the questions cover seven main tasks:
Main Idea or Theme
Development (of Ideas, Events, or Characters)
Language Use
Structure
Purpose (or Point of View)
Evaluation (of the Author’s Argument or Reasoning)
Comparison (of Different Passages that Deal with Similar Topics)
Informational passages are drawn from the workplace and academia. Workplace texts could include ads, policy statements, executive speeches, or community announcements. Academic topics cover science (energy, human health, and living systems) and social studies (the Great American Conversation, ranging from the country’s founding to modern American culture). They will all have a “voice”—an author with a specific point of view and purpose.
Literary passages don’t fall into any topic categories. They all feature good storytelling, a strong plot line, and well-developed characters.