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– 370 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– 371 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– 372 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– 373 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– 374 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– 375 . 30–34 indicate that choice a is the best answer. – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 374 61 . d. It is ironic that in a place where there are so many ways to describe one. (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. 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).