60. Why does Thomas keep opening and closing the refrigerator? a. He keeps hoping food will magically appear. b. He can’t believe that the refrigerator is empty. c. He is angry and wants the door to break off. d. He likes the noise the door makes. e. He is bored. 61. The narrator tells us that “Thomas was hungry on a reservation where there are ninety-seven ways to say fry bread.” What is the purpose of this sentence? a. to show us how important fry bread is to the language b. to show us how hungry Thomas was c. to make us want to try fry bread d. to show us the irony of the situation e. to show us how Thomas was inspired Questions 62 through 65 refer to the following excerpt. What Is the Author’s Father Like? It was an impressive place: old, solidly built, in the Tudor style, with leaded windows, a slate roof, and rooms of royal proportions. Buying it had been a big step for my parents, a sign of growing wealth. This was the best neighborhood in town, and although it was not a pleasant place to live (especially for children), its prestige outweighed its deadliness. Given the fact that he wound up spending the rest of his life in that house, it is ironic that my father at first resisted moving there. He complained about the price (a constant theme), and when at last he relented, it was with grudging bad humor. Even so, he paid in cash. All in one go. No mortgage, no monthly payments. It was 1959, and business was going well for him. Always a man of habit, he would leave for work early in the morning, work hard all day, and then, when he came home (on those days he did not work late), take a short nap before dinner. Sometime during our first week in the new house, before we had properly moved in, he made a curious kind of mistake. Instead of driv- ing home to the new house after work, he went directly to the old one, as he had done for years, parked his car in the driveway, walked into the house through the back door, climbed the stairs, entered the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and went to sleep. He slept for about an hour. Need- less to say, when the new mistress of the house returned to find a strange man sleeping in her bed, she was a little surprised. But unlike Goldilocks, my father did not jump up and run away. The confusion was eventually settled, and everyone had a good laugh. Even today, it still makes me laugh. And yet, for all that, I cannot help regarding it as a pathetic story. It is one thing for a man to drive to his old house by mis- take, but it is quite another, I think, for him not to notice that anything has changed inside it. —Paul Auster, from The Invention of Solitude (1982) 62. Why did the author’s family move into the new house? a. Their old house was falling apart. b. They needed a house with more room. c. The new house was in a prestigious neighborhood. d. The neighborhood was great for children. e. The price was affordable. 63. The passage suggests that the author’s father a. did not like change. b. was a very calculating man. c. was unhappy with his life. d. was very proud of his house. e. had many bad habits. 64. Why does the author think the story of his father’s mistake is pathetic? a. It shows how stubborn his father was. b. It shows how little he knew his father. c. It shows how blind his father was to his needs. d. It shows how little attention his father paid to things around him. e. It shows how attached he was to the old house. – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 365 (1) (5) (10) (15) (20) (25) (27) (30) (35) (40) 65. Based on the excerpt, how does the author feel about his father’s life? a. His father was a great businessman. b. His father lived a sad, lonely life. c. His father was a financial genius. d. His father was often cruel, but always had good intentions. e. His father was impressive and strong, like the house where they lived. Answers and Explanations 1. c. The first sentence states that when Gregor awoke,“he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” The sentence clearly states that he “awoke,” so he is not dreaming, and choice a is incorrect. The last sentence reveals that he has to catch a train at five, and he plans on getting up to catch that train, so he is not late, and choice b is incorrect. There is no evidence in the excerpt that Gregor dislikes his job (choice d). He does wish he could get more sleep and tell his boss what he thinks of him, but there’s no evidence in the passage that Gregor realizes he needs to make a change in his life (choice e). 2. b. We learn that on Gregor’s table, “a collection of cloth samples was unpacked and spread out” and that Gregor “was a commercial traveler.” Thus, we can conclude that he is a traveling clothing salesman. There is no evidence that he is a magician (choice a), and though he has an advertisement hanging on his wall, it is just a decoration, not something from his work (choice c). Because the passage specifically states he is a commercial traveler, we can also elimi- nate choices d and e. 3. a. In lines 43–44, Gregor reveals that he must keep his job because his parents are indebted to his boss: “once I’ve saved enough money to pay back my parents’ debts to him.” There is no evi- dence that he is an apprentice (choice b); in fact, an apprentice is not likely to be traveling about on his own. He wants to tell his boss what he thinks of him and quit, not take his boss’s job, so choice c is incorrect. The previous quote rules out his parents owning the company (choice d), and there is no evidence that he needs the money to buy a bigger house (choice e). The passage does mention that his room is small, but the only reason given for Gregor keeping his job is to pay off those debts. 4. d. Gregor clearly works hard—he comes to break- fast only after he’s already gotten some orders (lines 28–31), and he gets up early to travel to his destinations. He is also reliable; he plans on getting up and catching the train even though he has become an insect. This evidence rules out choice a; he is not lazy. While we learn that Gre- gor does get orders, we do not know the level of his success as a salesman, so choice b is incor- rect. Gregor does resent his boss (see lines 38–43), but that could very well be personal, not a matter of general resentment of authority, so choice c is not the best answer. We do know that Gregor is working to pay off his parents’ debts, but there is no indication in the passage of how close Gregor is to his family, so choice e is incorrect. 5. e. Gregor is so preoccupied with work and his rou- tine that he seems to think he can just get up and go to work, even if he appears to be a bug. The tone and word choice in the opening sen- tence of the passage (which is also the opening sentence of this short story) suggest that this is the first time this happened to Gregor. He also asks, “What has happened to me?” If this had happened before, he would not likely ask that question, and his internal dialogue would be quite different. Thus, choice a is incorrect. There is no evidence in the story that the other charac- ters are also bugs. The woman in the picture, at any rate, is a real woman, not a bug. Choice b is therefore incorrect. The first sentence clearly states that he awoke, so choice c is incorrect. Gregor says “I’d better get up, since my train goes at five,” suggesting that he still has time to catch that 5:00 train. Choice d is therefore incorrect. – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 366 6. c. Line 1 states,“I am not the first poet in my family, and line 28 states,“But I learned to write from Zio.” Thus, he learned to write poetry from Zio. There is no evidence that either of them paints, except through words and gestures (see lines 28–35), so choice a is incorrect. Zio’s trade was fishing, but the speaker is not a fisherman, so b is incorrect. There is no evidence that he is a singer or carpenter, so choices d and e are incorrect. 7. a. Alfonso cannot be his father, since lines 15–17 state that Alfonso worked the sea so the speaker’s father “could learn to read and write.” Thus, choice b is incorrect. We know Alfonso must be related to the speaker, since family is mentioned in line 1 and the speaker states that he “inherited” his trade from Alfonso, so choices c and e can be elimi- nated. It is unlikely that Alfonso is the speaker’s brother, since Alfonso “lost his voice to cigarettes before I [the speaker] was born”(lines 8–9), so choice d is also incorrect. 8. b. Lines 8–9 state that Alfonso “lost his voice to cigarettes,” so he cannot speak. Alfonso was not a poet (choice a), although he did teach the speaker how to write poems. There is no evi- dence that Alfonso could speak many languages (choice c). He is clearly not a farmer, since we are told that he “worked the sea” (line 15), so choice d is incorrect, and there is no evidence that he was a painter (choice e). 9. e. Alfonso could not speak, so he could not be loud (choice a) or always yelling (choice d). There is no evidence that he was always angry (choice b) or that he was like a lion (choice c). Rather, the poem suggests that he was fun- loving and kind. 10. a. Lines 33–41 show that the speaker has learned how to appreciate, and express, the beauty of the world. Alfonso does not talk, so he does not teach the speaker how to listen (choice b). There is no evidence that the speaker learns how to appreciate his family or understand himself (choices c and d). Lines 22–23 reveal that Alfonso couldn’t read, so choice e is incorrect. 11. d. Domain states that the best workers are those who are “the cheapest” and “whose needs are the small- est”(lines 40–41). To create a creature with mini- mal needs, Rossum created machines with no soul, because the soul “did not contribute directly to the progress of work”—it made people want to play the fiddle, for example. Robots do have a more simple anatomy (choice a ), but anatomy does not have to do with the needs that might dis- tract a robot from work. Robots are more intelli- gent (choice b ), but Domain clearly states that price, not intelligence, is the key factor. Helena suggests that honesty and work ethic are most important, but Domain’s statement contradicts this, so choice c is incorrect. Robots were designed so that they did not want anything that was not necessary, so choice e is also incorrect. 12. a. Domain tells us that Rossum “began to overhaul anatomy and tried to see what could be left out or simplified” (lines 4–6) because he thought “man is too complicated” (lines 2–3). He also states that the things humans like to do (e.g., play the fiddle) are “unnecessary” (line 20), and that “a working machine must not want to play the fiddle” (lines 26–27) if it is to be efficient. He does not question the honesty of humans (choice b ) or mention any- thing about the robot’s level of happiness (choice c ); in fact, the passage suggests that the robots aren’t able to feel any emotions at all. Choice d is incorrect because Rossum had a specific reason for creating the robots. There is no evidence that there weren’t enough people to do the work (nor is there any indication of what sort of work it is), so choice e is incorrect. 13. c. Rossum wanted to simplify nature, and Domain states that “the product of an engineer is techni- cally at a higher pitch of perfection than a product of nature” (lines 58–60), showing that Rossum felt nature was imperfect and unnecessarily compli- cated. Rossum seems to think that machines are more beautiful (more perfect) than nature, so choice a is incorrect. Rossum clearly tries to improve upon nature and seems to think he’s a better engineer, so choices b and d can be ruled out. There is a clear distinction in the passage between products of humans (engineers) and products of nature, so choice e is incorrect. – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 367 14. e. Domain tells Helena in lines 1–5 that “any one who’s looked into anatomy will have seen at once that man is too complicated, and that a good engi- neer could make him more simply. So young Rossum began to overhaul anatomy.” This makes e clearly the best choice. Rossum created robots, so choice a is incorrect. Rossum was clearly an inven- tor (choice b ), but the emphasis in the passage is on his engineering skills. Domain mentions engi- neers again in lines 58–60: “The product of an engineer is technically at a higher pitch of perfec- tion than a product of nature.” There is no evi- dence that Rossum was a doctor (choice c ) or that he was a foreman in the factory (choice e ). 15. c. The author states in lines 10–12 that “commer- cial breaks are constant reminders that the medium itself is artificial” and that “the long- term effect of habitually watching commercial television is probably an erosion of trust in the television medium itself” (lines 20–23). Thus, commercial television teaches viewers not to believe what they see or hear on TV. Commer- cial television is very artificial (choice a), but we do not get a sense from the passage about the level of artificiality of public television stations. Choice b is incorrect because line 7 states that watching commercial channels is a “more infor- mal” experience than watching public television. The only comparison to the movies is in lines 12–14, which simply state that the people on tel- evision are more “realistic” because they are life- size, so choice d is incorrect. The entire third paragraph discusses how commercials portray people in a very unrealistic manner (they are always happy), so choice e is incorrect. 16. d. The author doesn’t seem to think watching televi- sion—whether it is commercial or public—is inherently a bad thing, so choice a is incorrect. She doesn’t state that we shouldn’t watch commercial television and only watch the BBC (choice b ); rather, she is emphasizing that we should not (indeed, can’t) believe everything we see on com- mercial TV (choice d ). She does not suggest that we do not watch public television, so choice c is incorrect. There is no indication of how much time in front of the television the author would recommend, so choice e is incorrect. 17. a. The author writes that “Every story has a happy ending which contributes no end to the per- vasive unreality of it all” (lines 25–29) and “it is the chronic bliss of everybody in the commer- cials that creates their final divorce from effec- tive life as we know it” (lines 29–31). There is no mention of background music, so choice b is incorrect. She does not discuss the length of commercials, so choice c can be eliminated. The author notes that anyone who is ill in a com- mercial ends up feeling better by the end, so choice d is incorrect. She does not discuss spe- cific claims or the merits of those claims, so choice e is also incorrect. 18. c. The author was most likely in his early teens when he came to America. The author states that “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” (lines 17–20). This makes it clear that he must have been in the United States several years before he was in his “late teens,” making choices d and e incorrect. He was also old enough to have friends “and stories and familiar comforts and a sense of continuity between home and outside” and “a whole network of routes through life that I had just barely glimpsed” (lines 15–16 and 20–22), so choices a and b are incorrect. 19. d. While some of the things the author’s family lost were tangible (the house, the heirlooms), most of the list includes intangible things that are very important in establishing our identity and sense of self. He is not trying to convince others not to immigrate (choice a); he is not criticizing America or his experience since he arrived. There is no evidence that the crates were smashed because his family packed carelessly (choice b). In the second paragraph, the author tells us that he did not consciously miss his homeland; he “actively colluded” in the losses they suffered and tried to reinvent himself. Thus, choice c is incorrect. The focus of this passage is how important place is to one’s sense of self; it is not trying to show that you are never too old to change (choice e). – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 368 20. c. The author states, “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 . . . ” The entire third paragraph lists things in our environment that contribute to who we are. The first sentence in the paragraph contradicts choices a and d. There is no men- tion of education (choice b) or peers (choice e). 21. b. The author states that he lost his native language through lack of use and that he not only didn’t disapprove of losing his heritage—he often “actively colluded.” In addition, he states that he “had so effectively renounced” the part of him that “had been formed in another world” (lines 32–33). This directly contradicts choice c.We do not know if he embraced American culture (choice a) or became withdrawn (choice d). There is no evidence that he became possessive about the things he owned, as there is no men- tion of what he owned in America. 22. a. In the third paragraph, the author lists all the aspects of our environment that have an impact on our identity and sense of self. Even if we don’t consciously think of these things, or even notice them, they are a part of who we are. We do not necessarily have to dig deep within our- selves to discover our past, so choice b is incor- rect. We may all have a part of our past that we want to keep buried (choice c), but the author doesn’t state that anywhere in the passage. The author does not appear to be an archaeologist, and he does not claim that only archaeologists understand the impact of our environment, so choice d is incorrect. Choice e may be true, and the author seems to convey this in the passage, but that is not what he means by this sentence. 23. d. The second paragraph clearly states that “both undergraduate and graduate students are eligi- ble to apply.” This eliminates choices a, b, and c. No employment criteria are mentioned, so choice e is incorrect. 24. c. The second of the three bulleted points under “Advantages” states that “employers are commit- ted to the students’ education and will help stu- dents work around their class schedules.” There is no mention of wages or number of hours of employment, so choices a and b are incorrect. Work-Study employers may offer a wide range of positions, but so do “regular” employers, so choice d is incorrect. There is no mention of earning academic credit for Work-Study posi- tions, so choice e is also incorrect. 25. d. The first paragraph states that the Work-Study Program is “designed to help students finance their post-secondary education” and that stu- dents in the program receive their “financial awards in the form of paychecks from their work-study positions.” Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that students should apply for Work- Study only if they (1) need money to finance their education and (2) are willing to work (choice d). These students may or may not live on campus (choice a) and may or may not have tried and failed to get “regular” jobs (choice b). They may or may not have scholarships (choice c); students who did receive scholarships may not have received enough to cover their expenses, so they may still need Work-Study. It would be good if students who applied for Work-Study liked working with community service organizations (choice e), but that is not one of the reasons to apply for Work-Study. Those students could volunteer or apply for a regular position with a community service organization. – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 369 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 . attached he was to the old house. – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 365 (1) (5) (10) (15) (20) (25) ( 27) (30) (35) (40) 65. Based on the excerpt, how does the author feel about. that he is a singer or carpenter, so choices d and e are incorrect. 7. a. Alfonso cannot be his father, since lines 15– 17 state that Alfonso worked the sea so the speaker’s father “could learn. and products of nature, so choice e is incorrect. – GED LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, READING PRACTICE QUESTIONS– 3 67 14. e. Domain tells Helena in lines 1–5 that “any one who’s looked into anatomy