Create an account to track your scores
and create your own practice tests:
Flashcards: Making Inferences in Narrative Humanities Passages
"Poetry and Philosophy" by Justin Bailey
As the logical positivism rose to ascendancy, poetic language was increasingly seen as merely emotive. Wittgenstein’s influential Tractatus argued that only language corresponding to observable states of affairs in the world was meaningful, thus ruling out the value of imaginative language in saying anything about the world. Poetry’s contribution was rather that it showed what could not be said, a layer of reality which Wittgenstein called the “mystical.” Despite Wittgenstein’s interest in the mystical value of poetry, his successors abandoned the mystical as a meaningful category, exiling poetry in a sort of no man’s land where its only power to move came through the empathy of shared feeling.
Yet some thinkers, like Martin Heidegger, reacted strongly to the pretensions of an instrumental theory of knowledge to make sense of the world. Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur all gave central value to poetry in their philosophical method; signifying a growing sense among continental thinkers that poetic knowing was an important key to recovering some vital way of talking about and experiencing the world that had been lost.
It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
Heidegger's complaint was that philosophers were taking poetic language too seriously in their philosophical method
philosophers agree that instrumental theories of knowledge are sufficient in understanding the world
most positivists followed Wittgenstein in arguing for poetic knowledge as a meaningful category in philosophy
some of Wittgenstein's successors used his work to exclude something that was important to Wittgenstein
poetry's power to move through empathetic feeling signifies that its claims about the world are true
All SSAT Upper Level Reading Resources
Our SSAT Upper Level Reading Comprehension Flashcards each contain one question that might appear on the Upper Level Reading Comprehension section of the SSAT. You can use them to get a comprehensive overview of each topic covered by the SSAT Upper Level Reading Comprehension section one problem at a time, or to do problem drills that focus on particular problem types or content areas found on the SSAT Upper Level Reading Comprehension section.
Reading and comprehending what is written is a very important skill your child needs to learn well to succeed inside and outside of the classroom. If your child is taking the SSAT Upper Level test soon, then they need to prepare well for the Reading section of the test, which will test their reading comprehension rigorously. Varsity Tutors' Learning Tools offers a full suite of SSAT Upper Level Reading study help activities that can be accessed from any computer, tablet, or smartphone.
While other Learning Tools, like the practice tests, are great study materials for your child to use when they have time to sit down and complete them, the SSAT Upper Level Reading Flashcards are perfect for studying when on-the-go or when time is limited. Your child can practice these free flashcards online between classes in school, while riding to and from school and extracurricular activities, or even during commercial breaks of that favorite television show they just can't miss every week!
Unlike the practice tests, the SSAT Upper Level Reading Flashcards don't have timers that determine how long your child takes to answer the questions. While getting in some timed practice is very important, especially when test day is near, if there are topics your child struggles with immensely, then studying the concepts without feeling like they are working “against the clock” can be helpful at first. They can take as long as they need to learn the steps needed to find the right answer without feeling anxious about how long it takes for them to build up this skill. Once they learn to solve the questions they struggle with accurately, they can later work on building up speed during the practice tests.
The SSAT Upper Level Reading review flashcards were created in the same format as the official test, and they each contain a literary passage and a multiple-choice question based on that passage. If you do decide to use the flashcards maker to create additional flashcards for your child to study, they will be most helpful for test preparation if they are also created in this format. When using the flashcards builder, you can also enter the same literary passage on several blank flashcards templates, because each passage on the SSAT will be followed with several questions based on it.
The SSAT Upper Level Reading flashcards have several types of literary passages on them, including humanities, argumentative humanities, narrative humanities, literary fiction, poetry, science, narrative science, social science, and narrative social science passages. The passages on the SSAT will be based on similar topics. Follow-up questions on the flashcards quiz your child on their understanding of authorial attitude, authorial tone, main ideas, and details of the passages. Groups of flashcards also help your child practice determining the meaning of a word based on the context.
The SSAT Upper Level Reading test will contain 40 questions based on a handful of literary passages. Even if your child has great reading skills, don't assume that their reading comprehension skills are at the level they need to be to perform well on the test. Locate the weak areas of your child's reading comprehension skills by having them take a diagnostic exam, and you can then help them build the skills they are weakest in by having them study with the flashcards based on them.
Certified Tutor
