Card 0 of 235
Passage adapted from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813)
"Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced ; their behavior at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general ; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies ; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of being agreeable where they chose it ; but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank ; and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England ; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade."
The phrase "with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister" the narrator is suggesting that ______________.
The answer is that Elizabeth is one to jump to conclusions. With these types of questions it is important to think about the specific language of the phrase given. "More quickness of observation" suggests that Elizabeth has spent less time than she ought to have when casting her opinion on the sisters, and the following phrase "with less pliancy of temper" adds to this suggestion, detailing that Elizabeth's temper, or her state of mind/opinion is not pliable or static and thus subject to bias and dogmatism -- all of which suggests that Elizabeth is one to jump to conclusions.
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There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection, when the air, the heavenly bodies, and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature would indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet, nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts. 2. These halcyons may be looked for with a little more assurance in that pure October weather, which we distinguish by the name of the Indian Summer. 3. The day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills and warm wide fields. 4. To have lived through all its sunny hours, seems longevity enough. 5. The solitary places do not seem quite lonely. 6. At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. 7. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts. 8. Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes. 9. Here we find nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her. 10. We have crept out of our close and crowded houses into the night and morning, and we see what majestic beauties daily wrap us in their bosom. 11. How willingly we would escape the barriers which render them comparatively impotent, escape the sophistication and second thought, and suffer nature to intrance us. 12. The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. 13. The anciently reported spells of these places creep on us. 14. The stems of pines, hemlocks, and oaks, almost gleam like iron on the excited eye. 15. The incommunicable trees begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our life of solemn trifles. 16. Here no history, or church, or state, is interpolated on the divine sky and the immortal year. 17. How easily we might walk onward into the opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures, and by thoughts fast succeeding each other, until by degrees the recollection of home was crowded out of the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of the present, and we were led in triumph by nature.
“The knapsack of custom” (sentence 7) is a metaphor for ________________.
The author is describing the experience of walking into nature and discovering that his habitual civilized ways of thinking are irrelevant there. The man "is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish." That is, the values and perspectives of a human being in society must be abandoned before he can commune with the natural world.
"Artificial politeness," "onerous duties," and "unwarranted assumptions" may each be a small part of what the man must leave behind, but the author does not actually say this. There is nothing in the passage about unjust accusations.
Passage adapted from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Essay VI, Nature" (1836)
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Adapted from Richard III by William Shakespeare, I.i.1-42
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.
When he speaks of “dissembling nature,” underlined in the passage, the speaker is referring to __________.
While it may be tempting to pick the answer choice “his own personality” given that the narrator describes himself as “subtle, false and treacherous,” it is important to consider the context of the underlined phrase. “Dissembling nature” appears in the context of the lines, “I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion / Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, / Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time / Into this breathing world . . . “ By considering the context, you can see that the narrator is not describing “his own personality,” “tricking nature,” “the tendency of all people to lie under pressure,” or “taking apart nature’s features systematically in order to better understand the natural world”; he is instead referring to “a personification of nature.”
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From The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1875)
After complicated journeyings with many pauses, there had come months of monotonous life in a camp. He had had the belief that real war was a series of death struggles with small time in between for sleep and meals; but since his regiment had come to the field the army had done little but sit still and try to keep warm.
He was brought then gradually back to his old ideas. Greek-like struggles would be no more. Men were better, or more timid. Secular and religious education had effaced the throat-grappling instinct, or else firm finance held in check the passions.
He had grown to regard himself merely as a part of a vast blue demonstration. His province was to look out, as far as he could, for his personal comfort. For recreation he could twiddle his thumbs and speculate on the thoughts which must agitate the minds of the generals. Also, he was drilled and drilled and reviewed, and drilled and drilled and reviewed.
The only foes he had seen were some pickets along the river bank. They were a sun-tanned, philosophical lot, who sometimes shot reflectively at the blue pickets. When reproached for this afterward, they usually expressed sorrow, and swore by their gods that the guns had exploded without their permission. The youth, on guard duty one night, conversed across the stream with one of them. He was a slightly ragged man, who spat skillfully between his shoes and possessed a great fund of bland and infantile assurance. The youth liked him personally.
"Yank," the other had informed him, "yer a right dum good feller." This sentiment, floating to him upon the still air, had made him temporarily regret war.
Various veterans had told him tales. Some talked of gray, bewhiskered hordes who were advancing with relentless curses and chewing tobacco with unspeakable valor; tremendous bodies of fierce soldiery who were sweeping along like the Huns. Others spoke of tattered and eternally hungry men who fired despondent powders. "They'll charge through hell's fire an' brimstone t' git a holt on a haversack, an' sech stomachs ain't a'lastin' long," he was told. From the stories, the youth imagined the red, live bones sticking out through slits in the faded uniforms.
Still, he could not put a whole faith in veteran's tales, for recruits were their prey. They talked much of smoke, fire, and blood, but he could not tell how much might be lies. They persistently yelled "Fresh fish!" at him, and were in no wise to be trusted.
However, he perceived now that it did not greatly matter what kind of soldiers he was going to fight, so long as they fought, which fact no one disputed. There was a more serious problem. He lay in his bunk pondering upon it. He tried to mathematically prove to himself that he would not run from a battle.
Previously he had never felt obliged to wrestle too seriously with this question. In his life he had taken certain things for granted, never challenging his belief in ultimate success, and bothering little about means and roads. But here he was confronted with a thing of moment. It had suddenly appeared to him that perhaps in a battle he might run. He was forced to admit that as far as war was concerned he knew nothing of himself.
A sufficient time before he would have allowed the problem to kick its heels at the outer portals of his mind, but now he felt compelled to give serious attention to it.
In the underlined selection, what is meant by the expression "recruits were their prey"?
In the selection, it is intimated that the veterans might be purveying lies to the recruits. They talk of smoke, fire, and blood (and presumably other things as well). However, who knows if these tales are mere lies meant to impress the young recruits? Therefore, to say that the recruits are "prey" is to intimate that they are left at the mercy of the veterans in this regard—namely as regard the telling of tales. Thus, it would seem that the veterans use the naivety of the recruits to their advantage in tale-telling.
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Adapted from Act 1, Scene 1, ln. 78-119 of The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604) in Vol. XIX, Part 2 of The Harvard Classics (1909-1914)
FAUSTUS: How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I’ll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates;
I’ll have them read me strange philosophy
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wittenberg;
I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk,
Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;
I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp’s bridge,
I’ll make my servile spirits to invent.
\[Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS\]
Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference.
Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy
That will receive no object, for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:
’Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish’d me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I that have with concise syllogisms
Gravell’d the pastors of the German church,
And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits
On sweet Musaeigus, when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
Whose shadows made all Europe honor him.
In context, the underlined and bolded phrase "glutted with conceit" most closely means what?
In context, the phrase "glutted with conceit" most closely means "filled with the idea." In this context, "conceit" would most closely be said to mean "idea", "notion," or "concept". Faustus is stating that he is filled (with feeling) at the idea of having necromantic powers, and of possibly having the spirits do his bidding. The voluminous imagining of what he might do with his powers is evidence of his being "full with the idea" of these powers.
"Conceit" can be used in reference to deceit, but it is important to remember that Faustus is the speaker, and as evidenced by his speech that follows, he does not believe that anyone is deceiving him. He does not express confusion, nor does he seem particularly overwhelmed. While Faustus is obviously filled with pride and arrogance in his speech, the term "conceit" does not refer to pride in this context, as the rest of his speech focuses on the idea or notion or his powers, not his own self-conscious pride.
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Adapted from Act 1, Scene 1, ln. 78-119 of The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604) in Vol. XIX, Part 2 of The Harvard Classics (1909-1914)
FAUSTUS**:** How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I’ll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates;
I’ll have them read me strange philosophy
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wittenberg;
I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk,
Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;
I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp’s bridge,
I’ll make my servile spirits to invent.
\[Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS\]
Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference.
Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy
That will receive no object, for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:
’Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish’d me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I that have with concise syllogisms
Gravell’d the pastors of the German church,
And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits
On sweet Musaeigus, when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
Whose shadows made all Europe honor him.
In the underlined and bolded section of the passage, Faustus makes which of the following arguments?
In the underlined and bolded section of the passage, Faustus argues that earthly academic pursuits—"philosophy", law and physic, and "divinity"—are all "base," "odious," etc., and that his listeners should help him ("gentle friends aid me in this attempt") master his new interest the occult (which he claims has "ravished" him).
He includes academics with doctors and lawyers in his dismissal of conventional, earthly learning. He makes no mention of his academic position, nor of resigning. While he later claims to have defeated "pastors" with "syllogism," he does not mention that in the indicated section, nor does he specifically claim that the occult cannot also be defeated in this manner (although that is implied). While he feels divinity is the "basest" of academic disciplines, he does not ask his listeners for any help in correcting it.
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Adapted from Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, III.i.1126-1185 (1623)
Enter Judges, Senators and Tribunes, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the place of execution; TITUS going before, pleading
Titus Andronicus:Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay!
For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept;
For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed;
For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd;
And for these bitter tears, which now you see
Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;
Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought.
For two and twenty sons I never wept,
Because they died in honor's lofty bed.
\[Lieth down; the Judges, &c., pass by him, and Exeunt\]
For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write
My heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears:
Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite;
My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush.
O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,
That shall distill from these two ancient urns,
Than youthful April shall with all his showers:
In summer's drought I'll drop upon thee still;
In winter with warm tears I'll melt the snow
And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood.
\[Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn\]
O reverend tribunes! O gentle, aged men!
Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
And let me say, that never wept before,
My tears are now prevailing orators.
Lucius: O noble father, you lament in vain:
The tribunes hear you not; no man is by;
And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
Titus Andronicus: Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.
Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you,—
Lucius: My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.
Titus Andronicus: Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,
They would not mark me, or if they did mark,
They would not pity me, yet plead I must;
And bootless unto them \[—\]
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A stone is soft as wax,—tribunes more hard than stones;
A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
\[Rises\]
But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn?
Lucius:To rescue my two brothers from their death:
For which attempt the judges have pronounced
My everlasting doom of banishment.
Titus Andronicus:O happy man! they have befriended thee.
Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
But me and mine: how happy art thou, then,
From these devourers to be banished!
In context, the bolded and underlined word "pitiful" is closest in meaning to which of the following?
In this context, "pitiful" most closely means merciful. Titus is asking the tribunes to be merciful (pitying or forgiving of) to his sons. "Meager" and "pathetic" are both common definitions of "pitiful," but they are not relevant to this context. "Charitable" is a possible meaning, but since the sons are "condemned," it is more mercy that is being asked for than charity.
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Adapted from Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, III.i.1126-1185 (1623)
Enter Judges, Senators and Tribunes, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the place of execution; TITUS going before, pleading
Titus Andronicus:Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay!
For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept;
For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed;
For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd;
And for these bitter tears, which now you see
Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;
Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought.
For two and twenty sons I never wept,
Because they died in honor's lofty bed.
\[Lieth down; the Judges, &c., pass by him, and Exeunt\]
For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write
My heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears:
Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite;
My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush.
O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,
That shall distill from these two ancient urns,
Than youthful April shall with all his showers:
In summer's drought I'll drop upon thee still;
In winter with warm tears I'll melt the snow
And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood.
\[Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn\]
O reverend tribunes! O gentle, aged men!
Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
And let me say, that never wept before,
My tears are now prevailing orators.
Lucius: O noble father, you lament in vain:
The tribunes hear you not; no man is by;
And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
Titus Andronicus: Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.
Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you,—
Lucius: My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.
Titus Andronicus: Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,
They would not mark me, or if they did mark,
They would not pity me, yet plead I must;
And bootless unto them \[—\]
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A stone is soft as wax,—tribunes more hard than stones;
A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
\[Rises\]
But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn?
Lucius:To rescue my two brothers from their death:
For which attempt the judges have pronounced
My everlasting doom of banishment.
Titus Andronicus:O happy man! they have befriended thee.
Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
But me and mine: how happy art thou, then,
From these devourers to be banished!
Which of the following most closely summarizes the content of the bolded and underlined excerpt?
The answer that most closely summarized the content of the excerpt is "Titus begs the tribunes to spare his two condemned sons. He claims that he never cried for his twenty-two other sons who died honorably, but he will mourn for these two, who have been sentenced to death." In this context, "two and twenty" means twenty-two, so Titus is, indeed, stating that he has lost twenty-two sons in battle, for whom he "has never wept" because they died honorably in battle defending Rome.
While Titus does claim that his sons' "souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought," this is not the central aspect of his argument against their being sentenced to death; rather, he leans heavily on his own sadness and past sacrifices for Rome. He does not compare the quality of his twenty-two dead sons to his current condemned ones, only the nature of their demises and his reaction to those demises; he never cried for the sons who died honorably.
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1 Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
9 The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
13 The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
(1595)
In line 14, what is "our toil" referring to?
It is clear from line 12--"Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage"--that this speech is the introduction to a play. Because of the context of the plot outline, and because the phrase used is "our stage," it is clear that in this passage one of the actors is introducing what is going to be performed. This, combined with a reference in line 13 to the audience's "patient ears," makes it clear that "our toil" in line 14 refers to the effort of the actors as they perform the play.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595).
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RAPHAEL
The Sun, in ancient guise, competing
With brother spheres in rival song,
With thunder-march, his orb completing,
Moves his predestin'd course along;
His aspect to the powers supernal
Gives strength, though fathom him none may;
Transcending thought, the works eternal
Are fair as on the primal day.
GABRIEL
With speed, thought baffling, unabating,
Earth's splendour whirls in circling flight;
Its Eden-brightness alternating
With solemn, awe-inspiring night;
Ocean's broad waves in wild commotion,
Against the rocks' deep base are hurled;
And with the spheres, both rock and ocean
Eternally are swiftly whirled.
MICHAEL
And tempests roar in emulation
From sea to land, from land to sea,
And raging form, without cessation,
A chain of wondrous agency,
Full in the thunder's path careering,
Flaring the swift destructions play;
But, Lord, Thy servants are revering
The mild procession of thy day.
(1808)
Which of these terms does not describe an characteristic of nature as described in the passage?
Since the sun is moving on a "predestind course," it cannot not choose its own course nor move independently.
Passage adapted from Johann von Goethe's Faust (1808)
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PROSPERO:
In the context of the passage, “ebbing Neptune” (line 3) most likely means _________________.
Prospero is addressing supernatural beings who dart across the sand without leaving footprints, chasing the waves as they recede and then running away when they come crashing onto the beach. “Ebbing” means “receding”, and Neptune is the Roman god of the sea: here a metaphorical term for the ocean. The correct answer is "waves on the beach."
The depths of the sea do not ebb and “come back”, so it’s clear that’s not what Prospero is talking about. We usually associate the word “ebb” with tides, but Prospero says nothing here about that. Nor does he mention mythical sea creatures. The king of the underworld (Hades/Pluto) is unrelated to anything in this speech.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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PROSPERO:
In the context of the passage, the word “bolt” (line 14) means _________________.
Prospero states that he has created a storm at sea, and has added lightning (“fire”) to the “rattling thunder”. He then took the lightning and used it to split an oak tree. (Jove was the Roman god of lightning, and the oak was sacred to him, so Prospero is using one of the god’s symbols to destroy another one.) Once we see how the storm/thunder/lightning idea is developed, it’s clear that “bolt” in this context has nothing to do with bars, locks, or axes. “Bonfire” can be eliminated because it has nothing to do with thunder and lightning.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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PROSPERO:
In the context of the passage, “spurs” (line 15) most nearly means ___________________.
Prospero is talking about using magic to uproot pines and cedars. Once we know we’re talking about trees, we can eliminate “heels” as an answer choice. Clearly we’re not talking about literal spurs that are worn on boots. Instead, Prospero means something resembling spurs, and related to trees. Bare tree roots that have just been pulled out of the ground may be spur-shaped, and their location on the tree is analogous to the location of a spur on a human being. “Roots” is the correct answer.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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PROSPERO:
In line 18, the word “art” most nearly means __________________.
Prospero gives us a list of his incredible accomplishments, ending the sentence with, “…By my most potent art.” “My most potent art” is the means by which he’s achieved everything he just described: i.e., his magical power. In this context “art” suggests “power” or “skill” rather than anything related to visual design. The speech mentions “elves” — small supernatural spirits of various kinds — but there’s nothing here about demons or a contract. There’s also no mention of a potion. And while Prospero may practice ascetic self-discipline, that’s not what he’s discussing in this speech.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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PROSPERO:
“The azured vault” (line 26) most likely means ________________.
In lines 9-12, Prospero describes how he has used magic to cause a solar eclipse, raise the winds, and create a huge storm (“roaring war”) at sea. (This is the eponymous tempest.) The storm fills the space between ocean and sky: the “azure vault”, with “vault” used in the architectural sense of a high, arched structure covering something else.
Prospero does mention the sea (line 11), but if we plug that in as the meaning of “azured vault”, we can see that a storm blowing “'twixt the green sea and the sea” doesn’t make sense. The same is true of a storm “'twixt the green sea and the shoreline.” There is nothing in the speech about a battlefield or a burial chamber.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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PROSPERO:
The turning point in the speech occurs when Prospero announces his plan to _______________.
Prospero describes his magical feats at great length. Then he suddenly states: “But this rough magic I here abjure.” (lines 18-19.) He intends to finish one last spell, then say goodbye forever to his magician’s staff and book. “Give up his magical powers” is the correct answer. He says nothing about becoming a hermit, destroying his helper spirits, or going to his death. Though he’s casting a spell on his enemies, he is not planning to take revenge on them.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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Caliban: This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,
Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst give me
Water with berries in't, and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee
And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' the island.
The lines: "and teach me how/ To name the bigger light, and how the less,/ That burn by day and night" most likely describe ________________.
This description of Caliban being taught to name the "bigger light" and "the less" is a description of him learning the names for the sun and the moon. The elaboration that the lights "burn by day and night" should make it clear to students that that is what is being described. Students who do not read closely or struggle with comprehension may choose one of the other answers, but the passage contains no direct evidence to support those answers.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611).
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Passage adapted from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897)
Translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard (in public domain)
\[Cyrano speaks to Roxane.\]
CYRANO:
The word “mine”(line 5) refers to ____________________.
The word “mine” refers to Cyrano’s own joy. “I for your joy would gladly lay mine own down” means, “I would gladly sacrifice my own joy for yours.”
The archaic syntax of this sentence makes it tricky to parse. The verb is “would lay down”. The subject of that verb (i.e., the doer of the action) is “I”. In modern English, the subject and verb would be right next to each other: “I would lay down . . .” Here, a prepositional phrase — “for your joy” — has been stuck in between. We have to keep reading the end of the sentence to find out what that phrase means, and what it has to do with the verb.
Contrasting words or phrases are usually a big clue to meaning. Here, Cyrano is contrasting his own joy with Roxane’s:
“I for YOUR joy would gladly lay MINE OWN down.”
This is the quickest way to see that “joy” is what the two contrasting elements have in common. Therefore, that’s what they’re both referring to.
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Passage adapted from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897)
Translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard (in public domain)
\[Cyrano speaks to Roxane.\]
CYRANO:
In the context of the passage, the meaning of “so late” (line 11) is most likely ______________.
Here, “so late” means “at long last”. Lines 15-16 tell us that Cyrano has loved Roxane for a long time.
Try plugging the other answer choices into the sentence. When we realize that Cyrano's tone is hopeful, "at long last" is the only choice that makes sense, because it's expressing his hope that his dream may finally be coming true.
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Passage adapted from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897)
Translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard (in public domain)
\[Cyrano speaks to Roxane.\]
CYRANO:
The word “guerdon” (line 16) is best understood as ______________.
“Guerdon” means “reward”. Even if you don’t know the word, you can still home in on the correct answer if you understand that Cyrano is exclaiming about something positive. He’s saying something like, “Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined anything as wonderful as this \[guerdon\] that I’m getting now!”
The other answer options — “suffering”, “imprisonment”, “hubris”, and “treachery” — are all negative and don’t make sense in the context.
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