GED Literature and the Arts, Reading Practice Questions

F
ollow the directions carefully as you complete these practice exercises. Then check your
answers carefully. Detailed answers and explanations are provided at the end of this chapter.
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Directions
Read each passage carefully and answer the multiple-choice questions that follow. Choose the one best answer
to each question. Be sure to answer every question; you will not be penalized for incorrect answers. Do not spend
too much time on any one question so you can be sure to complete the questions in the allotted time.
Record your answers on the answer sheet provided on the following page. Make sure you mark the answer in
the circle that corresponds to the question.
Note: On the GED, you are not permitted to write in the test booklet. Make any notes on a separate piece of
paper.
CHAPTER
GED Literature
and the Arts,
Reading Practice
Questions
NOW IT’S time to put all that you have learned and reviewed into
practice. In the following section, you will find 15 passages and 65
multiple-choice questions like those you will find on the Language Arts,
Reading GED.
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Questions 1 through 5 refer to the following excerpt.
What Has Happened to Gregor?
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from
uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in
his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on
his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when
he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-
like brown belly divided into stiff arched seg-
ments on top of which the bed quilt could
hardly keep in position and was about to slide
off completely. His numerous legs, which were
pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk,
waved helplessly before his eyes.
What has happened to me? he thought. It was
no dream. His room, a regular human bedroom,
only rather too small, lay quiet between the four
familiar walls. Above the table on which a col-
lection of cloth samples was unpacked and
spread out—Samsa was a commercial traveler—
hung the picture which he had recently cut out
of an illustrated magazine and put into a pretty
gilt frame. It showed a lady, with a fur cap on
and a fur stole, sitting upright and holding out
to the spectator a huge fur muff into which the
whole of her forearm had vanished!

....
He slid down again into his former position.
This getting up early, he thought, makes one
quite stupid. A man needs his sleep. Other com-
mercials live like harem women. For instance,
when I come back to the hotel of a morning to
write up the orders I’ve got, these others are
only sitting down to breakfast. Let me just try
that with my chief; I’d be sacked on the spot.
Anyhow, that might be quite a good thing for
me, who can tell? If I didn’t have to hold my
hand because of my parents I’d have given
notice long ago, I’d have gone to the chief and
told him exactly what I think of him. That
would knock him endways from his desk! It’s a
queer way of doing, too, this sitting on high at a
desk and talking down to employees, especially
when they have to come quite near because the
chief is hard of hearing. Well, there’s still hope;
once I’ve saved enough money to pay back my
parents’ debts to him—that should take another
five or six years—I’ll do it without fail. I’ll cut
myself completely loose then. For the moment,
though, I’d better get up, since my train goes at
five.
—Franz Kafka, from The Metamorphosis (1912)
1. When Gregor Samsa wakes up, he realizes that he
a. has been having a nightmare.
b. is late for work.
c. has turned into a giant bug.

d. dislikes his job.
e. needs to make a change in his life.
2. Which of the following best describes Gregor’s job?
a. magician
b. traveling clothing salesman
c. advertisement copywriter
d. clothing designer
e. magazine editor
3. Why must Gregor keep his current job for sev-
eral more years?
a. His parents owe his boss money.
b. Gregor is an apprentice and must complete
his program.
c. Gregor wants to take over the chief’s job.
d. His parents own the company he works for.
e. He needs to earn enough money to buy a big-
ger house for his family.
4. Based on the passage, which is the most logical
conclusion to draw about Gregor’s personality?
a. Gregor is lazy and stupid.
b. Gregor is a very successful salesman.
c. Gregor resents being told what to do by peo-
ple in authority.
d. Gregor is hardworking and reliable.
e. Gregor is very close to his family.
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5. In lines 47–48, Gregor tells himself, “I’d better
get up, since my train goes at five.” This suggests
that
a. Gregor has woken up as a bug before and is
used to it.
b. the other characters in the story are also bugs.
c. Gregor is still dreaming.
d. Gregor is going to be late.
e. Gregor does not yet realize how serious his
condition is.
Questions 6 through 10 refer to the following poem.
What Did the Speaker Learn from
Alfonso?
Alfonso
I am not the first poet born to my family.
We have painters and singers, actors and
carpenters.
I inherited my trade from my zio, Alfonso.
Zio maybe was the tallest man
in the village, he certainly was

the widest. He lost
his voice to cigarettes before I was born, but still
he roared
with his hands, his eyes,
with his brow, and his deafening smile.
He worked the sea with my nonno
fishing in silence among the grottoes
so my father could learn to write and read
and not speak like the guaglione,
filled with curses and empty pockets.
He would watch me write with wonder,
I could hear him on the couch, he looked at
the lines over my shoulder, tried to teach himself to
read
late in the soft Adriatic darkness.
Wine-stained pages gave him away.
But I learned to write from Zio—
He didn’t need words, still he taught me the
language
of silence, the way
the sun can describe a shadow, a
gesture can paint a moment,
a scent could fill an entire village with words and
color and sound,
a perfect little grape tomato can be the most
beautiful thing in the world,
seen through the right eyes.
—Marco A. Annunziata (2002)
Reprinted by permission of the author.
6. In line 5, the speaker says, “I inherited my trade

from my zio, Alfonso.” What trade did the
speaker inherit?
a. painting
b. fishing
c. writing poetry
d. singing
e. carpentry
7. What is the relationship between the speaker and
Alfonso?
a. Alfonso is his uncle.
b. Alfonso is his father.
c. Alfonso is his best friend.
d. Alfonso is his brother.
e. Alfonso is a neighbor.
8. Which of the following statements about Alfonso
is true?
a. He was a poet.
b. He could not speak.
c. He could speak many languages.
d. He was a farmer.
e. He was also a painter.
9. In lines 11–13, the speaker says that Alfonso
“roared / with his hands, his eyes, / with his
brow, and his deafening smile.” These lines sug-
gest that Alfonso
a. was a very loud person.
b. was always angry.
c. was like a lion.
d. was always yelling.
e. was very expressive with his body.

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10. Which of the following best sums up what the
speaker has learned from Alfonso?
a. how to appreciate the beauty of the world
b. how to listen to others
c. how to appreciate his family
d. how to understand himself
e. how to read poetry
Questions 11 through 14 refer to the following excerpt.
How Are Robots Different from
Humans?
[Helena is talking to Domain, the general man-
ager of Rossum’s Universal Robots factory.]
DOMAIN: Well, any one who’s looked into
anatomy will have seen at once that man is too
complicated, and that a good engineer could
make him more simply. So young Rossum

began to overhaul anatomy and tried to see
what could be left out or simplified. In short—
but this isn’t boring you, Miss Glory?
HELENA: No; on the contrary, it’s awfully
interesting.
DOMAIN: So young Rossum said to himself: A
man is something that, for instance, feels happy,
plays the fiddle, likes going for walks, and, in
fact, wants to do a whole lot of things that are
really unnecessary.
HELENA: Oh!
DOMAIN: Wait a bit. That are unnecessary
when he’s wanted, let us say, to weave or to
count. Do you play the fiddle?
HELENA: No.
DOMAIN: That’s a pity. But a working machine
must not want to play the fiddle, must not feel
happy, must not do a whole lot of other things.
A petrol motor must not have tassels or orna-
ments, Miss Glory. And to manufacture artificial
workers is the same thing as to manufacture
motors. The process must be of the simplest,
and the product of the best from a practical
point of view. What sort of worker do you think
is the best from a practical point of view?
HELENA: The best? Perhaps the one who is
most honest and hard-working.
DOMAIN: No, the cheapest. The one whose
needs are the smallest. Young Rossum invented a
worker with the minimum amount of require-

ments. He had to simplify him. He rejected
everything that did not contribute directly to
the progress of work. In this way he rejected
everything that made man more expensive. In
fact, he rejected man and made the Robot. My
dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not people.
Mechanically they are more perfect than we are,
they have an enormously developed intelligence,
but they have no soul. Have you ever seen what
a Robot looks like inside?
HELENA: Good gracious, no!
DOMAIN: Very neat, very simple. Really a beau-
tiful piece of work. Not much in it, but every-
thing in flawless order. The product of an
engineer is technically at a higher pitch of per-
fection than a product of nature.
HELENA: Man is supposed to be the product of
nature.
DOMAIN: So much the worse.
—Karel
ˇ
Capek,
from R.U.R. (1923, translated by P. Selver)
11. According to the passage, why are robots better
workers than humans?
a. Robots have a very simple anatomy.
b. Robots are more intelligent.
c. Robots are more honest and hard-working.
d. Robots do not have a soul.
e. Robots want things that are unnecessary.

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12. Rossum created robots because
a. humans are complicated and inefficient.
b. humans are not honest enough.
c. robots are always happy.
d. he wanted to see if he could.
e. there weren’t enough people to do the work.
13. Which of the following best expresses Rossum’s
view of nature?
a. Nature is beautiful.
b. It is dangerous to try to improve upon nature.
c. Nature is imperfect and unnecessarily
complicated.

d. Mother Nature is the greatest engineer of all.
e. Machines are also a part of nature.
14. Based on the passage, Rossum is most likely
a. a robot.
b. a part-time inventor.
c. a retired doctor.
d. a foreman in the factory.
e. a very intelligent engineer.
Questions 15 through 17 refer to the following excerpt.
What’s Wrong with Commercial
Television?
Kids who watch much commercial television
ought to develop into whizzes at the dialect; you
have to keep so much in your mind at once
because a series of artificially short attention
spans has been created. But this in itself means
that the experience of watching the commercial
channels is a more informal one, curiously more
‘homely’ than watching BBC [British Broadcast-
ing Corporation].
This is because the commercial breaks are
constant reminders that the medium itself is
artificial, isn’t, in fact, “real,” even if the gesticu-
lating heads, unlike the giants of the movie
screen, are life-size. There is a kind of built-in
alienation effect. Everything you see is false, as
Tristan Tzara gnomically opined. And the young
lady in the St. Bruno tobacco ads who currently
concludes her spiel by stating categorically: “And
if you believe that, you’ll believe anything,” is

saying no more than the truth. The long-term
effect of habitually watching commercial televi-
sion is probably an erosion of trust in the televi-
sion medium itself.
Since joy is the message of all commercials, it
is as well they breed skepticism. Every story has
a happy ending, gratification is guaranteed by
the conventions of the commercial form, which
contributes no end to the pervasive unreality of
it all. Indeed, it is the chronic bliss of everybody
in the commercials that creates their final
divorce from effective life as we know it.
Grumpy mum, frowning dad, are soon all smiles
again after the ingestion of some pill or potion;
minimal concessions are made to mild frustra-
tion (as they are, occasionally, to lust), but none
at all to despair or consummation. In fact, if the
form is reminiscent of the limerick and the
presentation of the music-hall, the overall
mood—in its absolute and unruffled deco-
rum—is that of the uplift fables in the Sunday
school picture books of my childhood.
—Angela Carter, from Shaking a Leg (1997)
15. According to the author, what is the main differ-
ence between commercial channels and public
television stations like the BBC?
a. Commercial television is very artificial.
b. Public television is more informal and
uplifting.
c. Commercial television teaches viewers not to

believe what they see on TV.
d. Commercial television is more like the movies
than public television.
e. Commercial television portrays people in a
more realistic manner.
16. Which of the following would the author most
likely recommend?
a. Don’t watch any television at all; read instead.
b. Watch only the BBC.
c. Watch only commercial television.
d. Watch what you like, but don’t believe what
commercials claim.
e. Watch what you like, but don’t watch more
than an hour a day.
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17. According to the author, what is the main thing
that makes commercials unrealistic?

a. Everyone in commercials always ends up
happy.
b. The background music is distracting.
c. Commercials are so short.
d. The people in commercials are always sick.
e. The claims commercials make are unrealistic.
Questions 18 through 22 refer to the following excerpt.
What Happened When He Came to
America?
My parents lost friends, lost family ties and pat-
terns of mutual assistance, lost rituals and habits
and favorite foods, lost any link to an ongoing
social milieu, lost a good part of the sense they
had of themselves. We lost a house, several
towns, various landscapes. We lost documents
and pictures and heirlooms, as well as most of
our breakable belongings, smashed in the nine
packing cases that we took with us to America.
We lost connection to a thing larger than our-
selves, and as a family failed to make any signifi-
cant new connection in exchange, so that we
were left aground on a sandbar barely big
enough for our feet. I lost friends and relatives
and stories and familiar comforts and a sense of
continuity between home and outside and any
sense that I was normal. I lost half a language
through want of use and eventually, in my late
teens, even lost French as the language of my
internal monologue. And I lost a whole network
of routes through life that I had just barely

glimpsed.
Hastening on toward some idea of a future, I
only half-realized these losses, and when I did
realize I didn’t disapprove, and sometimes I
actively colluded. At some point, though, I was
bound to notice that there was a gulf inside me,
with a blanketed form on the other side that
hadn’t been uncovered in decades. My project of
self-invention had been successful, so much so
that I had become a sort of hydroponic veg-
etable, growing soil-free. But I had been formed
in another world; everything in me that was
essential was owed to immersion in that place,
and that time, that I had so effectively
renounced. [ ....]
Like it or not, each of us is made, less by
blood or genes than by a process that is largely
accidental, the impact of things seen and heard
and smelled and tasted and endured in those
few years before our clay hardens. Offhand
remarks, things glimpsed in passing, jokes and
commonplaces, shop displays and climate and
flickering light and textures of walls are all con-
sumed by us and become part of our fiber, just
as much as the more obvious effects of upbring-
ing and socialization and intimacy and learning.
Every human being is an archeological site.
—Luc Sante, from The Factory of Facts (1998)
18. The author came to America when he was
a. an infant.

b. a toddler.
c. in his early teens.
d. in his late teens.
e. a young adult.
19. In the first paragraph, the writer lists more than
a dozen things that he and his family lost when
they immigrated to America. He does this in
order to
a. convince others not to immigrate.
b. show how careless his family was when
packing.
c. show how much he missed his homeland.
d. show how many intangible and important
things were left behind.
e. prove that you are never too old to change.
20. According to the author, our personalities are
formed mostly by
a. our genes.
b. our education.
c. our environment.
d. our parents and caregivers.
e. our peers.
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21. When the author came to America, he
a. embraced American culture.
b. rejected his roots.
c. made sure to keep his heritage alive.
d. became withdrawn.
e. became very possessive about things he
owned.
22. In the last sentence of the excerpt, the author
writes that “Every human being is an archeologi-
cal site.” What does he mean by this?
a. The environment that formed us is a perma-
nent, if buried, part of us.
b. We must dig deep within ourselves to discover
our past.
c. We all have a piece of our past that we would
prefer to keep buried.
d. Only archaeologists understand the impact of
our environment.
e. The past is always with us, no matter where
we go.
Questions 23 through 25 refer to the following passage.
What Is the Work-Study Program?
Overview of the Work-Study Program
The Federal Work-Study (FWS) Program is a

student employment program subsidized by the
federal government and designed to help stu-
dents finance their post-secondary education.
The program provides funds to colleges, univer-
sities, and affiliated organizations which then
provide employment to work-study students.
Students receive their work-study financial
awards in the form of paychecks from their
work-study positions.
Applying for Work-Study
Both undergraduate and graduate students are
eligible to apply. Work-Study grants are awarded
based upon demonstrated financial need. To
apply, students must complete the Free Applica-
tion for Federal Student Aid. This application
must be submitted each year Work-Study
employment is desired.
What Are the Advantages of Work-Study?
A work-study job is essentially just like any
other job—you go to work, do your job, and get
paid. But Work-Study positions have several dis-
tinct advantages over “regular” jobs:
■
Students can work in an environment suited to
their skills, preferences, and possible career
goals.
■
Employers are committed to the students’ educa-
tion and will help students work around their
class schedules.

■
Work-study wages are not counted towards the
next year’s student contribution for financial aid.
What Types of Work-Study Jobs Are Available?
The work-study positions at Madison Commu-
nity College are as diverse as the functions of the
college. Work-study students are employed as
clerical assistants, data entry clerks, computer
technicians, laboratory monitors, research assis-
tants, language tutors, and more.
In addition, Madison Community College
has long-standing relationships with a number
of employers and agencies that provide services
for the community and have been approved to
participate in the Federal Work-Study Program,
including the Madison County Children’s
Museum, the Madison County Library, Children
First Day Care, and Right Start Tutoring Agency.
Students may be employed as museum guides,
library aides, child caregivers, research assis-
tants, tutors, and more.
23. Who is eligible for the Work-Study Program?
a. first-year students only
b. undergraduate students only
c. graduate students only
d. undergraduate and graduate students
e. unemployed students only
24. According to the passage, what is one way Work-
Study employers are different from “regular”
employers?

a. Work-Study employers offer higher wages.
b. Students work less hours with Work-Study
employers.
c. Work-Study employers offer more flexible
scheduling for students.
d. Work-Study employers offer a wide range of
positions.
e. Students earn academic credit for positions
with Work-Study employers.
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25. Based on the information in the passage, you
should apply for Work-Study if
a. you live on campus.
b. you can’t get a “regular” job.
c. you didn’t get any scholarships.

d. you need financial aid and are willing to work.
e. you enjoy working with community service
organizations.
Questions 26 through 29 refer to the excerpt below.
Why Are the Characters Arguing?
[Sophie, the narrator, is talking with Tante Atie.
The first line is spoken by Tante Atie.]
“Do you know why I always wished I could
read?”
Her teary eyes gazed directly into mine.
“I don’t know why.” I tried to answer as
politely as I could.
“It was always my dream to read,” she said,
“so I could read that old Bible under my pillow
and find the answers to everything right there
between those pages. What do you think that
old Bible would have us do right now, about this
moment?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“How can you not know?” she asked. “You try
to tell me there is all wisdom in reading but at a
time like this you disappoint me.”
“You lied!” I shouted.
She grabbed both my ears and twisted them
until they burned.
I stomped my feet and walked away. As I
rushed to bed, I began to take off my clothes so
quickly that I almost tore them off my body.
The smell of lemon perfume stung my nose
as I pulled the sheet over my head.

“I did not lie,” she said, “I kept a secret, which
is different. I wanted to tell you. I needed time
to reconcile myself, to accept it. It was very sud-
den, 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. I am not even cer-
tain that she is doing this properly. Alls he tells
me is that she arranged it with a woman who
works on the airplane.”
“Was I ever going to know?” I asked.
“I was going to put you to sleep, put you in a
suitcase, and send you to her. One day you
would wake up there and you would feel like
your whole life here with me was a dream.” She
tried to force out a laugh, but it didn’t make it
past her throat.
—Edwidge Danticat, from Breath, Eyes, Memory (1998)
26. What is the relationship between the narrator
and Tante Atie?
a. They are sisters.
b. They are friends.
c. Tante Atie is the narrator’s guardian.
d. Tante Atie is the narrator’s mother.
b. Tante Atie is the narrator’s teacher.
27. What is happening to the narrator?
a. She just found out she must leave to live with
her mother.
b. She just found out she must leave to go to
boarding school.

c. She just found out she was adopted.
d. She is being transferred to a new foster home.
e. She is being punished.
28. Why is the narrator so upset?
a. She misses her mother.
b. She doesn’t want to leave.
c. She doesn’t like Tante Atie.
d. She is afraid of flying.
e. She never learned to read.
29. How will Tante Atie feel when the narrator is
gone?
a. happy
b. relieved
c. angry
d. sad
e. afraid
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Questions 30 through 33 refer to the following excerpt.
What Is the Author Asking for?
The President in Washington sends word that he
wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or
sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us.
If we do not own the freshness of the air and the
sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of this earth is sacred to my peo-
ple. Every shining pine needle, every sandy
shore, every mist in dark woods, every meadow,
every humming insect. All are holy in the mem-
ory and experience of my people.
We know the sap which courses through the
trees as we know the blood that courses through
our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part
of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The
bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our
brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the
meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man, all
belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams
and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our
ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must
remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflec-
tion in the clear water of the lakes tells of events
and memories in the life of my people. The
water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s
father.
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our
thirst. They carry out canoes and feed our chil-

dren. So you must give to the rivers the kindness
you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air
is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit
with all the life it supports. The wind that gave
our grandfather his first breath also receives his
last sigh. The wind also gives our children the
spirit of life. So, if we sell you our land, you
must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where
man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened
by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have
taught our children? That the earth is our
mother? What befalls the earth, befalls all sons
of the earth.
This we know: The earth does not belong to
man, man belongs to the earth. All things are
connected like the blood which unites us all.
—Chief Seattle, from “This We Know” (1854)
30. According to the author, what sort of relation-
ship do his people have with the land?
a. They own it and do whatever they want
with it.
b. They respect it and do not understand how
anyone can own it.
c. They are indifferent and can live anywhere.
d. They live there only because they have to and
would be glad to sell it.
e. They believe it is haunted and full of spirits
and ghosts.

31. The intended audience of this essay is most likely
a. President George Washington only.
b. Native Americans only.
c. all new Americans.
d. all Americans, Native and new.
e. Chief Seattle himself.
32. What is the author’s main goal in this essay?
a. to convince the American government not to
buy the land
b. to convince Native Americans to fight the new
Americans
c. to persuade Americans that the land is not
worth buying
d. to convince the new Americans that the land
is sacred
e. to show how much power he has over his
people
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GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS
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