CHAPTER 2
Testing Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension on the GED® Test
The GED® test will measure your reading comprehension skills by asking questions that are tied to passages. Many of the questions will involve making inferences and drawing conclusions as well as providing evidence that support the conclusions. The GED® test will be based on the Common Core State Standards that focus largely on historic texts or foundational political documents of the United States. Other passages will come from the literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In this section you will learn how to interpret texts that may be somewhat more complicated than what you are used to reading. You will learn how to make inferences and how to recognize evidence that supports inferences. You will also learn about how to make connections between ideas found in texts.
Question Types
As you learned elsewhere in this book, because the GED® test is given on a computer, while most questions are of the traditional multiple-choice variety, there are other types of questions that are more interactive.
Multiple-Choice Questions
When taking the GED® on a computer, just click on the correct answer of a multiple-choice question. There will always be four answer choices.
“Drag-and-Drop” Questions
“Drag-and-drop” questions will ask you to choose the appropriate information and drag it into the answer space. On the real GED® test, you will click on the correct answer(s) and drag them to the space indicated.
For instance, after reading a text, a question may look like this one:
Indicate each word that describes Anthony and belongs in the character web.
To answer the question, you need to click, one at a time, on the three words that best describe the character and drag each word into the character web.
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
Another kind of question you may be asked on the GED® test is the fill-in-the-blank question. After reading a text, you might see this question:
Directions: Fill in the blank with the correct answer.
What city is the capital of the United States? _______________
In this case you would simply input the answer to the question by typing in the blank.
Basic Critical Reading Skills
The Common Core State Standards stress critical reading skills, and the questions on the GED® test reflect this focus. The questions also vary in degree of difficulty. A few questions test your basic reading skills. Most questions on the GED® test measure your critical reading skills.
Identifying the Main Idea in a Text
The main idea of a text is what it is mostly about. The details that may also be included are usually provided mainly in order to expand on or support the main idea.
In some texts, the main idea is stated directly. In other words, in these texts the main idea is explicit. The sentence in which the main idea is stated is called the topic sentence. When the main idea is stated in this way, you do not have to analyze the details of the text to figure out what the main idea is.
Directions: Read the passage and decide which sentence expresses the main idea.
1 A visit to the town of Williamsburg in Virginia is a trip into our colonial American past. This is because the people there live, dress, cook, and travel just as they did 300 years ago. There are no TV sets, cars, or tall apartment houses. Instead there are small wooden or stone houses heated with wood stoves, and horses and wagons for travel. Williamsburg is a “theme” park in which volunteers re-create life as it was lived in colonial times. In the governor’s palace, visitors can watch men and women in colonial dress prepare and serve a supper just as it was done in 1725.
Which sentence in the passage expresses the main idea?
A. “A visit to the town of Williamsburg in Virginia is a trip into our colonial American past.”
B. “There are no TV sets, cars, or tall apartment houses.”
C. “Instead there are small wooden or stone houses heated with wood stoves, and horses and wagons for travel.”
D. “In the governor’s palace, visitors can watch men and women in colonial dress prepare and serve a supper just as it was done in 1725.”
Choice A expresses the main idea. It is what the passage is mostly about. The other choices are details that support the main idea. They tell more about it.
Finding Details in a Text
A few questions on the GED® test may ask you about specific details included in the text. In this case, you need to scan the passage and find those details in order to answer the question.
Directions: Read the passage. Then answer the question.
1 Invisible ink has a very long history. During the Middle Ages, lovers would send notes in invisible ink. Spies throughout the ages have used invisible ink to send secret messages. The oldest known ink for these secret messages is lemon juice, although milk is also satisfactory. Notes written in either become visible when you heat the paper.
2 At one time, department stores sold diaries with pages made from specially coated paper. A special pen came with each diary. Anything written in the diary would fade from view after a few moments. Along with the specially coated paper and pens came a development fluid called Inspection Fluid. When this was sprayed on a page, all the writing became visible once more.
3 The most sophisticated invisible ink was developed by the U.S. Navy. The writer used a special chemical to write with. The only way to read the message was by inserting it in a machine that focused powerful beams of lights on the writing. Only a person who owned one of these machines could read the message.
Which of the following is the earliest form of invisible ink?
A. blood
B. lemon juice
C. milk
D. water
To answer this question, you need to scan through the passage and find the information you need. You could look for the answer choice words, blood, lemon juice, milk, and water and see what the text says about each one. In this way, you could figure out that the correct answer is choice B.
Analyzing Implicit Main Ideas
Most texts on the GED® test will not contain explicit main ideas. The main idea will be implicit, meaning that you will have to figure it out based on the overall text and the details that are included. You will have to use your critical reading skills to answer this kind of question.
Directions: Read the passage and decide on its main idea.
1 In the seventeenth century, a woman was obliged to obey her husband, and all legal and public affairs were under his control. A woman’s domain was the home, although, when necessary, widows operated businesses. Women were barred from the professions and from public life. They could not serve in government or hold religious office, and they were invisible so far as art or literature was concerned.
2 Colonial America provided two famous exceptions to this rule: Anne Hutchinson and Anne Bradstreet. Anne Hutchinson of Rhode Island became an active and controversial Protestant preacher in the 1630s and continued to preach publicly until her death in 1643. Anne Bradstreet of Massachusetts had a book of her poems published in London in 1650. She is generally considered to be the first important American poet.
What is the main idea of this passage?
A. During colonial times in America women were barred from public life.
B. During the colonial times in America women had to obey their husbands.
C. Two women obtained public recognition in male-dominated colonial America.
D. All legal and public affairs were under the control of men in colonial America.
The text talks about what colonial America was like for women. It gives details about what women were allowed and not allowed to do. It also tells about two women who were able to bypass these rules and do something notable. Choices A, B, and D are details in the passage that support the main idea. The overall passage is about these two women and what they accomplished, so choice C is the main idea.
The GED® test may also ask you to identify a detail that supports a main idea. It is important to learn to distinguish between details that support the main idea and those that do not.
Directions: Read the following text, which is adapted from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie:
1 When the children flew away, Mr. Darling felt in his bones that all the blame was his for having chained Nana [the dog] up, and that from first to last she had been wiser than he. Of course, as we have seen, he was quite a simple man; indeed he might have passed for a boy again if he had been able to take his baldness off; but he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion’s courage to do what seemed right to him; and having thought the matter out with anxious care after the flight of the children, he went down on all fours and crawled into the kennel. To all Mrs. Darling’s dear invitations to him to come out, he replied sadly but firmly, “No, my own one, this is the place for me.”
2 In the bitterness of his remorse he swore that he would never leave the kennel until his children came back. Of course this was a pity, but whatever Mr. Darling did he had to do in excess, otherwise he soon gave up doing it. And there never was a more humble man than the once proud George Darling, as he sat in the kennel of an evening talking with his wife of their children and all their pretty ways.
The main idea is that Mr. Darling felt he was to blame for his children flying off. Which detail from the passage supports the main idea? Mr. Darling
A. was a simple man.
B. did things to excess.
C. would not come out of the kennel.
D. looked young except for his baldness.
In order to answer this question, you need to look at each answer choice and see which detail clearly relates to the main idea. Choices A, B, and D are details that tell about Mr. Darling, but they do not relate to his feelings, which are the main idea. Only choice C supports the main idea.
Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions
One of the most important skills to develop for the GED® test is learning how to make inferences and draw conclusions. A large proportion of the questions on the GED® test will involve making inferences.
When you make an inference or draw a conclusion, you use evidence that is available to you in the text and make a calculated guess that is supported by that evidence.
For instance, if you read a story about people swimming in the ocean and relaxing in the water, you might infer that the water temperature is probably fairly warm and the waves are probably fairly calm. That might not be true, but it is the best guess that you can make based on the evidence.
Directions: Read the passage and answer the question.
1 The pitcher plant eats flies and other insects. It produces a sweet nectar that flies love. The nectar contains a drug that makes the fly drunk and less able to escape. The plant also has slippery spines that prevent the fly from crawling out. In addition, it has a little pool of liquid in the bottom of its pitcher-shaped leaves, and any fly that slips and lands in this water will drown.
Based on the information in the passage, what inference can you make?
A. Flies loathe the taste of sweet liquids.
B. Flies rarely escape from the pitcher plant.
C. Flies’ population is increasing thanks to the pitcher plant.
D. Flies love to slide down the slippery spines of the pitcher plant.
First you need to analyze each possible answer choice and to figure out which is most likely true based on what the text tells you. The text describes the various features of pitcher plants that enable them to trap flies.
Choice A cannot be correct because the text says that the flies love the sweet liquid in the pitcher plant. Choice C is not supported by anything in the text. Choice D contradicts the text because it says that the slippery spines of the pitcher plant prevent the fly from crawling out. Choice B is a conclusion that is supported by the evidence in the text. Because pitcher plants are so good at trapping flies, few flies ever escape from a pitcher plant.
Identifying Textual Evidence
Some questions on the GED® test will ask you to identify evidence that supports an inference. The following example presents a text and an inference based on that text. See if you can identify the evidence that supports that inference.
Directions: Read the passage, and then answer the question.
1 Our modern diet consists of many kinds of meat and a variety of fruits and vegetables. We obtain protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals from these foods. However, we do not really need such a wide variety of foods. We could eat a more restricted diet and still stay healthy. Some people, for example, eat only vegetables. Others eat fish or chicken along with their vegetables, but no other meat.
2 Some restrictive diets can provide all the nutrients we need, but one diet seems much too narrow to provide what we need to stay healthy. This was the diet of the Inuit people of the Far North. A hundred years ago, the Inuit diet consisted only of meat and fish. Even the old name for the Inuit, “Eskimo,” means “eaters of raw meat.” Most nutritionists assume that such a diet is harmful to health. Yet the Inuit thrived on it until recently. Their diet was one of the most limited diets the world has ever known. Very few plants grow in the cold Arctic lands where the Inuit live. They had to survive on meat and fish or starve.
3 Nutritionists have been puzzled by Inuit resistance to disease—their diet lacked the carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals we obtain from plants. Why did they have so little sickness? There have been many different theories. Perhaps some of the whales they ate had plants in their stomachs that provided the Inuit with vital minerals, but few people believe this.
4 Today, few Inuit follow the old ways of life. They eat store-bought foods rather than freshly caught seal meat and whale meat, and they suffer the same kinds of health problems as people in other modern societies. Perhaps we will never know why the old Inuit diet was so successful.
Based on the text, you might infer that nutritionists do not fully comprehend what makes a diet healthy. Which quotation is evidence for this inference?
A. “We obtain protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals from these foods.”
B. “Most nutritionists assume that such a diet is harmful to health.”
C. “Nutritionists have been puzzled by Inuit resistance to disease—their diet lacked the carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals we obtain from plants.”
D. “They eat store-bought foods rather than freshly caught seal meat and whale meat, and they suffer the same kinds of health problems as people in other modern societies.”
The first step in figuring out the answer is to analyze each sentence and see if it relates to the inference that has been made. Choice A makes a statement about what people obtain from food. This has nothing to do with the inference about nutritionists, so it can be eliminated. Choice B does mention nutritionists, but it does not present any evidence that nutritionists don’t fully understand why a diet is healthy. Choice C also mentions nutritionists. It says that nutritionists have been puzzled by the Inuit resistance to disease even though the Inuit diet lacked the usual variety of carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals from plants. This relates directly to the inference.
Before making a final choice, you need to look at all of the options. Choice D tells what the Inuit people eat today. That does not relate to the inference, so you can conclude that choice C is the correct answer. It provides evidence to support the inference that nutritionists do not fully comprehend what makes a diet healthy.
Inferences can be made regarding both nonfiction and fiction texts.
Directions: Read the following text, which is excerpted from Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. Then answer the questions.
1 Early next morning we were awake, and went to our various jobs. My wife milked the goats and cow, while we gave the animals their food, after which we went down to the beach, to collect more wood for building our tree house.
2 To the larger beams we harnessed the cow and donkey so they could pull them. We ourselves dragged up the rest. Fritz and I then climbed the tree, and finished the preparations I had begun the night before. All useless branches we cut off, leaving a few about six feet from the floor, from which we would sling our hammocks, and others still higher, to support a temporary roof of sailcloth to keep us dry when it rained.
3 My wife tied the planks to a rope that passed through the block I had fixed to the branch above us, and by this means Fritz and I hauled them up. These we put side by side on the foundation of branches, so as to form a smooth, solid floor. Around this platform we built a wall of planks, and then throwing the sailcloth over the higher branches, we drew it down and firmly nailed it. Our house was enclosed on three sides. On the back side the great trunk protected us, while the front was left open to allow the fresh sea breeze which blew directly in.
4 We then hauled up our hammocks and bedding and slung them from the branches we had left for that purpose. A few hours of daylight still remaining, we cleared the floor of leaves and chips, and then climbed down to build a table and a few benches from the remainder of the wood. After working so hard all day, Fritz and I flung ourselves on the grass, while my wife arranged supper on the table we had made.
What is true of the narrator?
A. He is shortsighted about his goals.
B. He does not delegate work to others.
C. He is self-absorbed about his project.
D. He is able to do a great deal with a little.
To answer this question, you will need to look back in the text to see what the author of the story indicates about the narrator. The story tells about a family who have been shipwrecked on a deserted island, and their efforts to create a new home. It is clear that the narrator does not have a lot of tools to work with. He harnesses the cow and the donkey to pull up the beams for a treehouse.
Next, look through the answer choices and see which best describes the narrator. There is no evidence that choice A is true; the narrator does not seem shortsighted about anything. Choice B is not what the text portrays; the narrator has his son working with him. Certainly choice C cannot be correct; rather than being self-absorbed, the narrator is occupied with seeing to the needs of his family. Choice D is an inference that is based on the evidence in the text. The narrator is able to do a great deal with very little.
Which quotation from the text best supports the inference that the entire family worked well together?
A. “My wife milked the goats and cow, while we gave the animals their food, after which we went down to the beach, to collect more wood for building our tree house.”
B. “Fritz and I then climbed the tree, and finished the preparations I had begun the night before.”
C. “Our house was enclosed on three sides.”
D. “On the back side the great trunk protected us, while the front was left open to allow the fresh sea breeze which blew directly in.”
Two of the sentences talk about working together; the other two, choices C and D, do not. Therefore, they could not be evidence about the family working well together. Choice B tells how the narrator and his son worked together, but it does not include the wife. Choice A tells about all three members of the family and how they worked together. That is the evidence you need to support the inference.
Drawing conclusions and making inferences are vital skills for solving questions about both fiction and nonfiction texts. Learning to find supporting evidence is essential whether you are analyzing a main idea, the motivation of a character, the viewpoint of the author, or the underlying premise of a text.
Making Connections Between Ideas
Within a text, different ideas typically connect to each other and affect the development of the text’s main idea, theme, or argument. The main idea of one paragraph may be influenced, revised, or even contradicted by the main idea of a following paragraph. Identifying the main idea of each paragraph in a text can help you make generalizations and inferences about the entire text as well.
Learning to make connections between ideas in a text is an important skill. Your ability to connect ideas will be measured on the GED® test.
Directions: Read the following text and identify the main ideas in each paragraph. Then answer the questions.
1 What were the people like who came to our country hundreds of years ago and settled in what would become the thirteen colonies? Why did they come here? What did they care about?
2 Some early American settlers came here because they wanted the freedom to practice their own religion. They were willing to leave their native lands and suffer great hardship to worship in their own way. Others came because they were merchants and wanted to earn money as traders. Many people who worked on the farms of rich English landlords dreamed of owning their own farms. They felt sure that the combination of hard work and fertile American soil would assure any farmer success. The people who came here in search of religious freedom, farmland, or opportunities to trade were often poor. They were still better off, however, than the many people who came to America with virtually nothing.
3 The very poorest folk were, of course, the slaves. These African men and women were captured, often as the result of tribal warfare, and sold to slave boat captains. Those who survived the horrendous journey across the Atlantic worked mainly in the South as field hands. Some history books do not sufficiently emphasize the number of slaves in early America. There were more slaves than merchants, more slaves than farm owners, more slaves than craftsmen, more slaves than people seeking freedom from religious oppression. One out of every five people who lived here in 1750 was a slave. In Virginia, almost half the population consisted of slaves, and in South Carolina, more than half.
4 In addition to slaves, America had many indentured servants. An indentured servant agreed to work for a master for four years, usually in return for the passage to America. Indentured servants differed from slaves because they were freed after four years, but during that time, some of them were treated almost as badly as slaves. Indentured servants could even be sold at auctions just like slaves, and, like slaves, they had no control over who bought them.
5 In addition, there is one other group of Americans that is rarely discussed in our history books—the men and women who were shipped to the colonies, particularly Georgia, as punishment for their crimes. Once they obtained their freedom, many of them became hard-working, skilled, and honest people.
6 America was settled by a diverse collection of people. It is time we honored everyone who came from overseas to help build this country.
How does the main idea of paragraph 3 influence the development of the text?
A. It develops the main idea that people coming to the colonies were seeking religious freedom.
B. It adds to the main idea by showing that many different kinds of people came to the colonies.
C. It expands the main idea by stating that some people coming to the colonies came against their will.
D. It increases the importance of the main idea by showing that people came to the colonies from many different places.
Paragraph 3 talks about how African Americans came to the colonies as slaves. This is additional information about the early settler population. Unlike the people discussed earlier in the text who came of their own free will, the slaves were forced to come to the colonies.
Choice A is not correct. The idea that some settlers came in search of religious freedom is found in paragraph 2. Choice B is not correct. Although paragraph 3 shows that many different kinds of people came to the colonies, this idea is not what the paragraph contributes to the main idea. Choice D is true, but this is not the main point of paragraph 3. Choice C is the correct answer. The idea that some people came to the colonies against their will is what paragraph 3 adds to the main idea of the overall text.
What does the text suggest about America today?
A. It offers great economic opportunities.
B. It is a melting pot of different kinds of people.
C. Its role in history is still unknown.
D. Its history is similar to that of other countries.
The text talks about the various kinds of people who came to the colonies. If you generalize this information and apply it to the country today, it is likely you would come up with choice B as the answer. This is a generalization you can make based on the information in the text. Choice A has nothing to do with the information in the text. Choices C and D do not make much sense either.
PRACTICE
Testing Reading Comprehension
Directions: Read the following text, which is excerpted from an essay by the naturalist John Burroughs. Then answer the questions that follow.
1 We often hear it said of a man that he was born too early, or too late, but is it ever true? If he is behind his times, would he not have been behind at whatever period he had been born? If he is ahead of his times, is not the same thing true? In the vegetable world the early flowers and fruit blossoms are often cut off by the frost, but not so in the world of man. Babies are in order at any time. Is a poet, or a philosopher, ever born too late? or too early? If Emerson had been born a century earlier, his heterodoxy would have stood in his way; but in that case he would not have been a heretic. Whitman would have had to wait for a hearing at whatever period he was born. He said he was willing to wait for the growth of the taste for himself, and it finally came. Emerson’s first thin volume called “Nature” did not sell the first edition of five hundred copies in ten years, but would it have been different at any other time? A piece of true literature is not superseded. The fame of man may rise and fall, but it lasts. Was Watt too early with his steam-engine, or Morse too early with his telegraph? Or Bell too early with his telephone? Or Edison with his phonograph or his incandescent light? Or the Wright brothers with their flying-machine? Or Henry Ford with his motor car? Before gasoline was discovered they would have been too early, but then their inventions would not have materialized.
2 The world moves, and great men are the springs of progress. But no man is born too soon or too late.
1. Which quotation from the text supports the idea that Burroughs believes people are born when they are meant to be born?
A. “If he is behind his times, would he not have been behind at whatever period he had been born?”
B. “Babies are in order at any time.”
C. “A piece of true literature is not superseded.”
D. “But no man is born too soon or too late.”
2. What is true of the author?
A. He has little imagination.
B. He is reflective by nature.
C. He thinks that life is too short.
D. He worries about meaningless things.
3. What does the text suggest about life?
A. People are born randomly in time.
B. Time does not matter in the long run.
C. It is unimportant when people are born.
D. There is a reason that people are born when they are.
Directions: Read the following text, which is excerpted from Love of Life by Jack London. Then answer the questions that follow.
1 He was lost and alone, sick and injured too badly to walk upright. He crawled on. There came frightful days of snow and rain. He did not know when he made camp, when he broke camp. He traveled in the night as much as in the day. He rested wherever he fell and crawled on whenever the dying life in him flickered up and burned less dimly. He did not try. It was the life in him, unwilling to die, that drove him on. He didn’t suffer. His nerves had become blunted and numb, while his mind was filled with weird visions and delicious dreams.
2 There were some members of a scientific expedition on the whaleship, Bedford. From the deck they saw a strange object on the shore. It was on the beach, moving towards the water. They couldn’t tell what it was. Being scientists, they took a boat to see. They saw something alive, but it hardly looked like a man. It was blind, unconscious, and crawled on the beach like a giant worm. Most of its effort to crawl was useless, but it kept trying. It turned and twisted, moving about 20 feet an hour.
3 Three weeks afterwards the man lay in a bunk on the whaleship, and with tears streaming down his wasted cheeks told who he was and what he had undergone. He also babbled words that made no sense: about his mother, of sunny Southern California, and a home among the orange groves and flowers.
4 The days were not many after that when he sat at table with the scientific men and ship’s officers. He was happy over the sight of so much food, watching it anxiously as it went into the mouths of others. With the disappearance of each mouthful, an expression of deep regret came into his eyes. He was quite sane, yet he hated those men at mealtimes because they ate so much food. He was haunted by a fear that it would not last. He inquired of the cook, the cabin-boy, the captain concerning the food stores. They reassured him countless times; but he could not believe them and pried cunningly about the food storage chest to see with his own eyes.
5 It was noticed that the man was getting fat. He grew stouter with each day. The scientific men shook their heads and theorized. They limited the man at his meals, but still his girth increased and his body grew fatter under his shirt.
6 The sailors grinned. They knew. And when the scientific men followed the man, they knew, too. They saw him bent over after breakfast, and like a mendicant, with outstretched palm, stop a sailor. The sailor grinned and passed him a fragment of sea biscuit. He clutched it avariciously, looking at it as a miser looks at gold, and thrust it inside his shirt. Similar were the donations from other grinning sailors.
7 The scientific men respected the man’s privacy. They left him alone. But they secretly examined his bunk. It was lined with seamen’s crackers; the mattress was stuffed with crackers; every nook and cranny was filled with crackers. Yet he was sane. He was taking precautions against another possible famine—that was all. He would recover from it, the scientific men said; and he did, ’ere the Bedford’s anchor rumbled down in San Francisco.
4. Which quotation from the text best supports the idea that the scientists were not disturbed by the man hiding food in his bunk?
A. “They saw something alive, but it hardly looked like a man.”
B. “The scientific men shook their heads and theorized.”
C. “They saw him bent over after breakfast, and like a mendicant, with outstretched palm, stop a sailor.”
D. “He was taking precautions against another possible famine—that was all.”
5. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. how scientists study behavior
B. how a starving man recuperated
C. what kind of food a starving person ate
D. why scientists picked up a starving person
6. Why did the man store biscuits in his mattress?
A. He enjoyed stealing.
B. He wanted to feed the wildlife on shore.
C. He knew that biscuits were in short supply.
D. He wanted to be prepared in case the ship ran out of food.
7. What generalization can be made based on the story?
A. Humans are resilient.
B. Scientists are emotional.
C. Humans have many needs.
D. Scientists enjoy helping others.
Directions: Read the following text, which is excerpted from Lincoln by Emil Ludwig. Then answer the questions that follow.
1 The postmastership seems to have become his main source of income; he holds it four years and finds it advantageous in many ways. He is appointed because people trust him, and because he can write and read so well; now he can enjoy a first reading of all the newspapers brought by the post-coach. That is an old privilege of western postmasters, and the subscriber is apt to expect, when he receives his journal, that the postmaster will be so obliging as to give him an abstract of the contents. The recipient of a letter, too, generally gets the postmaster to read it aloud to him; or, if he is one of the lucky ones who can read, he will not be such a curmudgeon as to keep all the news to himself. This is very agreeable to our anecdotalist and student of human nature; and as he goes his rounds, carrying all the undelivered letters in his hat, he gets to know folk more intimately.
2 All this brings him day after day into touch with the varied thoughts of the people. He learns about classes, temperaments, grades of life, types of character; and during the next few years, in this remote settlement, he gains by direct observation such treasures of human experience as no formal process of education on the grand scale could ever have supplied.
3 Still, he remains an omnivorous reader. All is grist that comes to his mill: besides the newspapers which pass through his hands as postmaster, he gets books from wayfarers, some of them light reading. When by a lucky chance an emigrant in a covered wagon wants to get rid of a barrel full of rubbish, Lincoln good-naturedly buys it. A few days later, emptying his new acquisition, he finds amid the plunder the four volumes of a famous work, Blackstone’s “Commentaries on the Laws of England,” the most notable law book of the day. This supplies him with a hundred important ideas and teaches him where to look for additions to his knowledge. He borrows more books from judges and lawyers and immerses himself in study, withdrawing for a time from his comrades.
4 But he soon gets acquainted with a vagabond of artistic temperament, an inspired loafer who spends most of his time on the river bank with rod and line and knows by heart long passages of Shakespeare and Burns. He quotes them feelingly to Lincoln, and lends him the originals, thus opening new worlds to his friend. Lincoln, however, is most eager to get hold of history books. In them he discovers that the fathers of his country were more or less opposed to slavery; that Washington and Adams, Jefferson and Madison, Franklin and Hamilton—in their various ways the best men in the land, and some of them slave owners—wanted to check the spread of the system. Ever ready to store up anecdotes in his mind, he cannot fail to note and to remember that Washington would not have a runaway Negress hunted and recaptured, but left it to her free choice whether she would stay away or return.
5 However, the reading of books and desultory conversations do not provide a living. The store, naturally, does not flourish, and the day comes when store and contents are seized by creditors. Berry decamps, and Lincoln has to shoulder the whole burden of debt, eleven hundred dollars in all. Daily bread can be earned readily enough, and in addition to such casual earnings he has his salary as postmaster. Enough for current expenses; but how on earth is he to free himself from the crushing load of his debts?
8. What can the reader conclude about Lincoln?
A. He loved learning.
B. He was competitive.
C. He was light hearted.
D. He longed for excitement.
9. Which quotation supports the idea that Lincoln was interested in the subject of slavery?
A. “He is appointed because people trust him, and because he can write and read so well; now he can enjoy a first reading of all the newspapers brought by the post-coach.”
B. “All is grist that comes to his mill: besides the newspapers which pass through his hands as postmaster, he gets books from wayfarers, some of them light reading.”
C. “In them he discovers that the fathers of his country were more or less opposed to slavery; that Washington and Adams, Jefferson and Madison, Franklin and Hamilton—in their various ways the best men in the land, and some of them slave owners—wanted to check the spread of the system.”
D. “The store, naturally, does not flourish, and the day comes when store and contents are seized by creditors.”
10. How does paragraph 4 develop the main idea of the text? It shows that Lincoln
A. did not like poetry.
B. was not very sociable.
C. was particular about whom he talked to.
D. was open to knowing all kinds of people.
11. Based on the text, what generalization can be made? People who want to
A. be trusted do not read other people’s mail.
B. stand out must learn to keep away from trouble.
C. get ahead must work hard to learn what they need to know.
D. become successful must study how to be good businessmen.
12. Which detail supports the main idea?
A. Lincoln’s store closes.
B. Lincoln has a lot of debt.
C. Lincoln knew about slavery.
D. Lincoln obtains books to read.