Reading literrature 6 pdf

26. c. Tante Atie is the narrator’s guardian, possibly
her aunt (tante means aunt in French, but it is
also used as a title of respect). She is clearly in a
position of authority over the narrator (she
grabs Sophie’s ears, for example), they seem to
live together, and Tante Atie seems to be in
charge of where Sophie goes and when; she will
put Sophie on the plane to go to her mother.
They are not sisters (choice a), because they
would have the same mother. They are not
friends (choice b) because Tante Atie is older
than Sophie and again is in a position of author-
ity. Tante Atie is not her mother, because the
“secret” is that she must send Sophie back to her
mother, so choice d is incorrect. Sophie goes to
bed (line 23), so they are not in school but
rather living together, so choice e is incorrect.
27. a. She has just learned the secret that Tante Atie
was keeping from her: that she must leave Tante
Atie and live with her mother. Tante Atie tells
her,“I kept a secret.[ ] It was very sudden,
just a cassette from Martine saying, ‘I want my
daughter,’ and then as fast as you can put two
fingers together to snap, she sends me a plane
ticket with a date on it” (lines 27–33). There is
no indication that Sophie will be going to
boarding school (choice b) or that she just
learned she was adopted (choice c). We know
from the lines above that she is going to her
mother’s, not a new foster home (choice d).
There is no evidence that she is being punished,

so choice e is also incorrect.
28. b. The narrator doesn’t want to go. She may be
upset that she didn’t know the secret, but it is
the content of the secret that is so upsetting. The
last lines of the passage are the strongest clues.
That Tante Atie would even joke about putting
her on a plane while she was asleep to imagine
that their time together was a dream suggests
that they are happy together and that she didn’t
tell Sophie because she knew Sophie would not
want to go. There is no evidence that Sophie
misses her mother (choice a), that she doesn’t
like Tante Atie (choice c), or that she is afraid of
flying (choice d). Tante Atie tells us that Sophie
can read (“You try to tell me there is all wisdom
in reading”), so choice e is incorrect.
29. d. Tante Atie can’t even laugh at her own joke
because she is so upset about the circumstances.
She says she didn’t tell Sophie because “I needed
time to reconcile myself, to accept it” (lines
28–29). She doesn’t want Sophie to go, so
choices a and b are incorrect. She may feel angry
(choice c), but sadness is the more likely to be
the dominant emotion. There is no evidence
that she will be afraid (choice e).
30. b. Throughout the essay, the author expresses his
people’s respect for the land. “Every part of the
earth is sacred to my people,” he states (lines
6–7), for example, and “The earth does not
belong to man, man belongs to the earth” (lines

44–45). They clearly do not think they own the
land (choice a); the author asks in lines 2–4,
“how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The
idea is strange to us. If we do not own the fresh-
ness of the air ”Their reverence for the land
contradicts choices c and d. There is no evi-
dence that they believe the land is haunted
(choice e).
31. c. The author is addressing all new Americans—
the people to whom he would be selling the
land. There is a clear distinction between the
“you” of the new Americans and the “we” of the
Native Americans, so choices b, d, and e are
incorrect. Choice a is incorrect because he
speaks of President Washington in the third
person.
32. d. The questions the author asks and the state-
ments he makes are aimed at convincing the
new Americans to treat the land with respect:
“you must give to the rivers the kindness you
would give any brother” (lines 29–30); “if we sell
you our land, you must keep it apart and
sacred” (line 36–37). He does not offer any rea-
sons for the new Americans not to buy the land,
so choice a is incorrect. He does not address the
Native Americans nor suggest that they fight, so
choice b is incorrect. He does not state any rea-
sons not to buy the land, and he praises the land
rather than pointing out any flaws, so choice c is
incorrect. There is no evidence of the power he

has over his people, so choice e is also incorrect.
– GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS–
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33. b. For Chief Seattle, every part of nature was
sacred. “We know the sap which courses
through the trees as we know the blood that
courses through our veins,” he writes in lines
11–13, suggesting that each tree is important
and valuable. This directly contrasts the indif-
ference of Reagan’s statement, so choice a is
incorrect, and so is choice e. Reagan does not
seem to care about the land, so choice c is also
incorrect. Chief Seattle does talk about trees, as
noted above, so choice d is incorrect.
34. c. Mrs. Mallard is crying because she just learned
her husband is dead. This is clear from the last
two paragraphs. Someone has died—his hands
will be “folded in death.” That someone’s eyes
“never looked save with love upon her.” The
relationship of this person to Mrs. Mallard is
suggested by the rest of the passage, in which
she revels in the thought that she will be able to
live for herself, not someone else: “There would
be no powerful will bending hers in that blind
persistence with which men and women believe
they have a right to impose a private will upon a
fellow-creature” (lines 47–50). There is no evi-
dence that she is crying because she is fright-
ened; she is only briefly frightened by the
thought of freedom that is coming to her. Thus,

choice a is incorrect. There is no evidence that
she has been criticized (choice b) or that she has
been told she was ill (choice d). There is not
enough evidence in the passage to determine
whether or not she is just a typically emotional
person, so choice e is incorrect.
35. d. Mrs. Mallard “saw beyond that bitter
moment”—her husband’s funeral—“a long pro-
cession of years to come that would belong to
her absolutely” (lines 41–43). “There would be
no one to live for during those coming years;
she would live for herself” (lines 45–46) reveals
the root of her joy. There is no suggestion in the
story that she learned her husband was not
dead, so choice a is incorrect. There is no evi-
dence that she realizes she will inherit a lot of
money—in fact, there is no mention of money
at all in the passage—so choice b is incorrect.
We do not know if she has drastic mood
swings—there is no evidence of it in the
passage—so choice c is incorrect. She does not
mention any desire to marry someone else, so
choice e is also incorrect.
36. d. The freedom, again, will be from a “powerful
will bending hers in that blind persistence with
which men and women believe they have a right
to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”
(lines 47–50). There is no evidence that she lives
in debt (choice a) or fear (choice b), or that she
is often criticized by others (choice c). We do

not know anything about any other family
members, so choice e is also incorrect.
37. a. The freedom she embraces is the freedom from
another’s will. In her mind, it is criminal to try
to “bend someone’s will.” The sacredness of the
individual—the freedom to do as one pleases—
is the ultimate right of a person, and to violate
that is a crime. There is no evidence that she
things getting married is in and of itself a crime
(choice b). She “did not stop to ask if it were or
were not a monstrous joy that held her,” so she
does not consider her joy a crime (choice c), nor
does she seem to consider wanting to do things
your way a crime (choice d); rather, she thinks
having someone try to make you do it any other
way is a crime. She does not welcome death, and
that is not the focus of her joy, so choice e is also
incorrect.
38. c. In line 39, we learn that Mr. Mallard “had never
looked save with love” upon Mrs. Mallard, and
that she “would weep again when she saw [his]
kind, tender hands folded in death.” This shows
that they had a loving relationship and elimi-
nates all of the other choices.
39. d.
Throughout the poem, the speaker shows how war
is not kind: It kills a lover, a father, and a son; it
leaves fields littered with thousands of corpses.
That war is kind is therefore not the theme of the
poem (choice

e
), and it is not the truth he wants to
emphasize (choice
a
). He talks to three different
people, not five, so choice
b
is incorrect. He is talk-
ing about war in general—no specific war is
mentioned—so choice
c
is also incorrect.
– GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS–
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40. c. The tone of the poem, especially of the line “war
is kind,” is sarcastic; the poem shows how war is
cruel in taking the lives of the soldiers. The sar-
casm is particularly clear in lines 25–26: “Point
for them the virtue of slaughter / Make plain to
them the excellence of killing.” Choice a is
incorrect; there is no celebration in the poem.
The lover, child, and mother all mourn (choice
b) and they may be angry (choice c), but the
dominant tone is sarcasm. There is tenderness
expressed in a few lines, such as 28–29: “Mother
whose heart hung humble as a button/ On the
bright splendid shroud of your son,” but these
tender lines only serve to heighten the sarcasm
of the final line, “Do not weep. / War is kind.”
41. b.

The tone of the poem makes it clear that war is not
kind and that there is no virtue in slaughter or
excellence in killing. There is no suggestion in the
poem that war is necessary, so choice
a
is incor-
rect. The poem shows that the soldiers did not die
in glory (indeed, the glory is “unexplained”), so
choice
c
is incorrect. Each of the people the
speaker addresses has sacrificed, but the theme of
the poem is that such sacrifice is unnecessary and
wrong, so choice
d
is incorrect. The poem
describes a few ways to die in a war (choice
e
), but
this is not a central idea of the poem.
42. a. The speaker is telling the maiden, child, and
mother not to weep, and they have all lost a
loved one, so he is addressing their grief. They
may also be proud (choice b), angry (choice c)
or afraid (choice e), but their main emotion
concerning the death of their loved one is grief.
They are not weeping with joy, so choice d is
also incorrect.
43. c.
The speaker does not approve of war and would

most likely protest it. Because he does not believe
war is kind and he does not see any virtue in
slaughter, he would not join the military (choice
a
). The speaker is clearly anti-war, so he would
definitely not travel the country rallying support
for the war (choice b). He probably would not
want to fight, but there is no evidence that he
would attempt to hurt himself so he would not
have to fight (choice
e
). Rather, his aim seems to
be to help prevent war, making choice
c
the most
logical answer. There is no evidence to suggest that
he would cover the war as a reporter (choice
d
).
44. e. If the kingdom of a god is only corpses, he must
be a powerful god (he can create such death and
destruction), but he is also a terrible god who
lacks love and compassion. In addition, if his
kingdom is only corpses, then he has no living
worshippers to follow him, so his power is para-
doxical and, essentially, useless. These lines do
show that the battle-god is mighty (choice a),
but the theme of the poem is the terrible nature
of war, so e is a better choice. There are indeed
many casualties in a war (choice b) and many

deaths in a battle (choice c), but these ideas do
not convey an attitude toward war, and repeti-
tion is usually used to help convey theme. The
poem does not try to make us afraid of war;
rather, it wants us to see the terrible nature of
war, so choice d is incorrect.
45. c.
Biff tells Happy,“And whenever spring comes to
where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God,
I’m not gettin’ anywhere! [ ] I oughta be makin’
my future. That’s when I come running home”
(lines 12–18). The answer is clearly stated in this
excerpt, so choices
a
,
b
,
d
, and
e
are incorrect.
46. b.
Happy seems to think that money can buy him
happiness (Biff seems to think this, too). Happy
tells the story of his manager, who built himself a
wonderful house and can’t enjoy it—and he says
he’d do the same thing. He tells Biff:“I think of the
rent I’m paying. And it’s crazy. But then, it’s what I
always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and
plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I’m

lonely” (lines 44–48). Happy believed that these
material things would bring him happiness. He
doesn’t try to run away from himself (that’s what
Biff does), so choice
a
is incorrect. There’s no evi-
dence that he’s getting what’s coming to him, or
that he’s done something that he will be retaliated
for, so choice
c
is incorrect. The passage suggests
that he doesn’t have a lot of patience, so choice
d
is
incorrect. Though money isn’t making Happy
happy, it has not made him evil, just lonely; choice
e
is therefore incorrect.
– GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS–
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47. e. Biff seems to keep moving around as if he is try-
ing to get away from something (himself, his
past) and searching for something else (happi-
ness). But as he tells Happy, every spring, wher-
ever he is, he realizes he is still not happy and he
doesn’t know what he’s doing with his life.
There is no evidence that he is selfish, so choice
a is incorrect. He does not appear to be very
mature, but he does not act like a baby (he is
independent enough to travel around and sup-

port himself through work), so choice b is
incorrect. Settling on one career won’t necessar-
ily bring him happiness, and he can’t pick the
right career until he accepts who he is and what
sort of work is best suited for him, so choice c is
not correct. Moving around (choice d) and
switching careers are further part of the root
problem, which is Biff’s attempts to run away
from himself and his past.
48. c. Happy explains that the manager built a “terrific
estate” but lived there for only two months
because “He can’t enjoy it once it’s finished”
(line 41). Happy says he would do the same
thing, and Happy is also a character who always
wants more. The manager clearly has a lot of
money, so choice a is incorrect. There is no evi-
dence that he knows Happy is after his job, so
choice b is incorrect. Happy tells us that he is
lonely, but we do not know if the manager is
also lonely, so choice d is incorrect. Happy says
that the estate was “terrific,” and there is no evi-
dence that the manager didn’t like the way it was
built, so choice e is incorrect.
49. a. Happy is clearly not happy. As he tells Biff, he is
very lonely. Thus, his name contradicts his state
of being. Choice b is therefore incorrect. We do
not know if Happy is a nickname or not his real
name, so choices c and d are incorrect. Because
happy is an adjective, not a thing, it is difficult
for it to be symbolic and represent something

else, so choice e is incorrect.
50. c. The author states that the man “stands on a
bridge” and is “completely disregarded by
passers-by” (lines 12–13). Thus, he is not falling
through the sky (choice a), nor is he alone on
the bridge (choice b). The author asks why the
man is “alone in his scream” (lines 15–16), so
the others are not screaming, and choice d is
incorrect. Because the passers-by are unaffected,
we can also rule out choice e.
51. d.
The author speculates that “Something horrible
has happened or been realized by the man”(lines
23–25) and asks,“what has he realized or seen that
is making him scream?” (lines 16–17). He may
have seen something horrible (choice
a
). The real-
ization could be something about himself (choice
b
), including his isolation from others (choice
c
).
Thus, choice
e
is an incorrect answer.
52. b.
The author says that it is “a very dynamic and yet
frightening painting” that causes the viewers to
wonder about the man’s horror. Because the

painting does not offer any answers to those ques-
tions, the viewers are left carrying the image of a
screaming man with them, wondering what is the
root of his horror. The author also states that the
colors of the painting are “haunting”(line 35) and
points out that viewers can connect to the man’s
feelings (“We are often alone in our feelings”).
Choice
a
is incorrect because the main feeling
conveyed by the painting is loneliness and horror;
we do not know why he is suffering, so it is diffi-
cult to feel pity. We may feel relieved that we are
not on the bridge (choice
c
), but the impact of the
scream is far more powerful. We certainly do not
feel a sense of calm and quiet (the “blood-red sky
and eerie water/air seem to be moving and
twirling”), so choice
d
is incorrect. Because the
horror belongs to the man, not to us (although the
point is that we can relate to that horror), the
viewer is not likely to feel like screaming, so choice
e
is also incorrect.
53. a. The last sentence states, “This could be any man
or woman, left to deal with his or her own hor-
rors,” suggesting that the reason the face is non-

descript is to enable us all to identify with the
screamer. There is no evidence that Munsch did
not like to paint faces (choice b) or that he
couldn’t decide how to make the person look
(choice c). He may have wanted the person to
look innocent (choice d) or to have the face
contrast with the sky (choice e), but there is no
suggestion of this in the review.
– GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS–
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54. b. The first paragraph lists several items that are
expressly prohibited by the new dress code.
These items include sandals, flip-flops, and
shorts, so choices a and d are incorrect. The
memo does not specify that employees must
wear suits or dresses (choice b), nor does it
mention the suitability of hats (choice e).
T-shirts are prohibited, but short-sleeved shirts
are not on the list, so choice b is the only possi-
ble correct answer.
55. d. The second paragraph clearly states the penal-
ties for each offense. Employees will be dis-
missed for their third offense.
56. c.
The third paragraph clearly states management’s
reason for implementing the dress code: The
lack of a dress code leads to a decrease in produc-
tivity. Formal dress codes may make a better
impression than casual clothes on customers
(choice

a
), but this is not mentioned in the memo-
randum. Management feels that formal dress will
help “maintain the reputation” of the company,
but there is no suggestion that management wor-
ries that casual dress will ruin the company’s repu-
tation (choice
b
). There is nothing in the
memorandum suggesting the personal tastes of
the management (choice
d
), nor is there evidence
that formal dress fosters cooperation (choice
e
).
57. a. The memo begins by stating that a “new” dress
code is going into effect, suggesting that this is
the first policy of its kind for employees. More
importantly, if there were an existing dress code,
the memorandum would make comparisons
between the current and new dress codes
throughout the memo (e.g., “Under the new
policy, employees will no longer be permitted to
wear jeans to the office”). If the company were
reinstating a prior policy (choice c), the memo-
randum would likely say so, especially for the
benefit of employees who may remember the
former code. It may be true that the dress code
has been controversial (choice b), that employ-

ees will be unhappy with the code (choice d), or
that there has been a recent change in manage-
ment (choice e), but there is no evidence of any
of these choices in the memorandum.
58. b. We can conclude that Thomas is poor because
he does not have any food; his refrigerator was
empty. The passage suggests that Thomas takes
care of himself—he attempts to feed himself
when he is hungry—and there is no evidence
that he doesn’t take care of himself, so choice a is
incorrect. We do not know if Thomas had
always wanted to be in a band or not (choice c).
Thomas is waiting for inspiration, but there is
no indication that he is waiting for someone to
help him, so choice d is incorrect. He watches
television in this excerpt, but we have no way of
judging whether this is “too much” television or
not, so choice e is also incorrect.
59. e. Even if you don’t know that “the blues” are typi-
cally songs about hard times, the fact that
Thomas used “his growling stomach” to “pro-
vide the rhythm” (lines 33–34) tells us that the
song is about the hard times he has experienced
on the reservation. We learn that this is not the
first time he has been hungry and found his
refrigerator empty; opening and closing the
refrigerator is “a ceremony that he had practiced
since his youth” (lines 25–26). The passage does
not include any references to good times
Thomas has had on the reservation, so choice a

is incorrect. There is no information in the pas-
sage about how he and his friends started the
band, so choice b is also incorrect. The passage
does mention fry bread (choice c), but then the
title of the song would logically have some refer-
ence to fry bread. Choice d is incorrect for the
same reason.
60. a. Thomas refers to this opening and closing of the
refrigerator as a “ceremony,” and he was “expect-
ing an immaculate conception of a jar of pick-
les” (lines 28–29)—a magical appearance of
food. He is unlikely to feel disbelief that there is
no food (choice b) because he has always had an
empty refrigerator (he’s performed this “cere-
mony [ ] since his youth”). There is no evi-
dence that Thomas is angry (choice c) or that he
likes the noise of the door (choice d), if the door
indeed makes any noise. Thomas may be bored
(choice e), but lines 30–34 indicate that choice a
is the best answer.
– GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS–
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61. d. It is ironic that in a place where there are so
many ways to describe one food (indicating that
this food is a central part of the culture),
Thomas is hungry. The passage does not men-
tion the language of the reservation, so choice a
is incorrect. The sentence does not show any
measure of how hungry Thomas is, so choice b
is incorrect. The sentence does not describe fry

bread or make it sound in any way appealing, so
choice c is also incorrect. The passage tells us
that it was Thomas’s hunger, not the number of
ways to say fry bread, that provided his inspira-
tion, so choice e is incorrect.
62. c. The author tells us that the new house was in
“the best neighborhood in town,” and the neigh-
borhood’s “prestige outweighed its deadliness”
(lines 5–8). There is no indication that their old
house was falling apart (choice a) or that they
needed more room (choice b). The neighbor-
hood is clearly not great for children (“it was not
a pleasant place to live [especially for chil-
dren]”), so choice d is incorrect. The author tells
us that business was going well for his father—
so well, in fact, that he could pay for the house
in cash—but that does not mean the house was
affordable (choice e). In fact, if it was in the
most prestigious neighborhood, it was probably
expensive.
63. a. The author tells us that his father was “always a
man of habit”—so much so that he forgot he’d
moved and went to his old house, into his old
room, and lay down for a nap, not even noticing
that the furniture was different. This suggests
that he has a difficult time accepting and adjust-
ing to change. There is no evidence that he is a
calculating man (choice b). He may be unhappy
with his life (choice c), which could be why he
chose not to notice things around him, but there

is little to support this in the passage, while
there is much to support choice a. We do not
know if he was proud of the house (choice d).
We do know that he was a man of habit, but we
do not know if any of those habits were bad
(choice e).
64. d. That his father would not realize that someone
else was living in the house—that he would not
notice, for example, different furniture arranged
in a different way—suggests that his father did
not pay any attention to things around him and
just went through the motions of his life by
habit. Being habitual is different from being
stubborn, so choice a is incorrect. The author is
writing about his father and seems to know him
quite well, so choice b is incorrect. We do not
know if the author’s father was inattentive to his
needs (choice c), though if he did not pay atten-
tion to things around him, he likely did not pay
much attention to his children. Still, there is not
enough evidence in this passage to draw this
conclusion. His father may have been very
attached to the old house (choice e), but the
incident doesn’t just show attachment; it shows
a lack of awareness of the world around him.
65. b. The bulk of this excerpt is the story that the
author finds “pathetic,” so the most logical con-
clusion regarding his feelings for his father is
that he lived a sad life. We know that his busi-
ness was going well, but the author does not dis-

cuss his father’s methods or approach to
business, so choice a is incorrect. Choice c is
likewise incorrect; there is no discussion of his
father’s handling of financial affairs. Choice d is
incorrect because there is no evidence that his
father was ever cruel. His father may have been
impressive and strong (choice e), but the domi-
nant theme is his habitual nature and the sad
fact that he did not notice things changing
around him.
– GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS–
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