501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15 501 critical reading questions p15
274 It can be inferred from the passage that life at Lowood was a very unconventional and modern b very structured and isolated c harsh and demeaning d liberal and carefree e urban and sophisticated 275 After Miss Temple’s wedding, the narrator a realizes she wants to experience the world b decides that she must get married c realizes she can never leave Lowood d decides to return to her family at Gateshead e determines to follow Miss Temple 276 The passage suggests that the narrator a will soon return to Lowood b was sent to Lowood by mistake c is entirely dependent upon Miss Temple d has run away from Lowood before e is naturally curious and rebellious In lines 60–66, the narrator reduces her petition to simply a new servitude because she doesn’t believe in prayer is not in a free country has been offered a position as a servant knows so little of the real world has been treated like a slave at Lowood 277 a b c d e Questions 282–289 are based on the following passage In this excerpt from Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles, Mrs and Mrs Peters make an important discovery in Mrs Wright’s home as their husbands try to determine who strangled Mr Wright (1) (5) MRS PETERS: Well, I must get these things wrapped up They may be through sooner than we think [Putting apron and otfter tftings togetfter.] I wonder where I can find a piece of paper, and string MRS HALE: In that cupboard, maybe MRS PETERS [looking in cupboard]: Why, here’s a birdcage [Holds it up.] Did she have a bird, Mrs Hale? MRS HALE: Why, I don’t know whether she did or not—I’ve not been here for so long There was a man around last year selling 138 501 Critical Reading Questions (10) (15) (20) (25) (30) (35) (40) (45) (50) canaries cheap, but I don’t know as she took one; maybe she did She used to sing real pretty herself MRS PETERS [glancing around]: Seems funny to think of a bird here But she must have had one, or why would she have a cage? I won- der what happened to it MRS HALE: I s’pose maybe the cat got it MRS PETERS: No, she didn’t have a cat She’s got that feeling some people have about cats—being afraid of them My cat got in her room and she was real upset and asked me to take it out MRS HALE: My sister Bessie was like that Queer, ain’t it? MRS PETERS [examining tfte cage]: Why, look at this door It’s broke One hinge is pulled apart MRS HALE [looking too]: Looks as if someone must have been rough with it MRS PETERS: Why, yes [Sfte brings tfte cage forward and puts it on tfte table.] MRS HALE: I wish if they’re going to find any evidence they’d be about it I don’t like this place MRS PETERS: But I’m awful glad you came with me, Mrs Hale It would be lonesome for me sitting here alone MRS HALE: It would, wouldn’t it? [Dropping fter sewing.] But I tell you what I wish, Mrs Peters I wish I had come over sometimes when sfte was here I—[looking around tfte room]—wish I had MRS PETERS: But of course you were awful busy, Mrs Hale— your house and your children MRS HALE: I could’ve come I stayed away because it weren’t cheer- ful—and that’s why I ought to have come I—I’ve never liked this place Maybe because it’s down in a hollow and you don’t see the road I dunno what it is but it’s a lonesome place and always was I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes I can see now— [Sftakes fter ftead.] MRS PETERS: Well, you mustn’t reproach yourself, Mrs Hale Somehow we just don’t see how it is with other folks until— some- thing comes up MRS HALE: Not having children makes less work—but it makes a quiet house, and Wright out to work all day, and no company when he did come in Did you know John Wright, Mrs Peters? MRS PETERS: Not to know him; I’ve seen him in town They say he was a good man MRS HALE: Yes—good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts But he was a hard man, Mrs 139 501 Critical Reading Questions (55) (60) (65) (70) (75) (80) (85) Peters Just to pass the time of day with him—[sftivers] Like a raw wind that gets to the bone [Pauses, fter eye falling on tfte cage.] I should think she would’a wanted a bird But what you suppose went with it? MRS PETERS: I don’t know, unless it got sick and died [Sfte reacftes over and swings tfte broken door, swings it again Botft women watcft it.] MRS HALE: You weren’t raised round here, were you? [MRS PETERS sftakes fter ftead.] You didn’t know—her? MRS PETERS: Not till they brought her yesterday MRS HALE: She—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird her- self—real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery How— she—did—change [Silence; tften as if struck by a ftappy tftougftt and relieved to get back to every day tftings.] Tell you what, Mrs Peters, why don’t you take the quilt in with you? It might take up her mind MRS PETERS: Why, I think that’s a real nice idea, Mrs Hale There couldn’t possibly be any objection to it, could there? Now, just what would I take? I wonder if her patches are in here—and her things [Tftey look in tfte sewing basket.] MRS HALE: Here’s some red I expect this has got sewing things in it [Brings out a fancy box.] What a pretty box Looks like something some- body would give you Maybe her scissors are in here [Opens box Sud- denly puts fter ftand to fter nose.] Why— [MRS PETERS bends nearer, tften turns fter face away.] There’s something wrapped in this piece of silk MRS PETERS [lifting tfte silk]: Why this isn’t her scissors MRS HALE [lifting tfte silk]: Oh, Mrs Peters— it’s— [MRS PETERS bends closer.] MRS PETERS: It’s the bird MRS HALE [jumping up]: But, Mrs Peters—look at it! Its neck! Look at its neck! It’s all—to the other side MRS PETERS: Somebody—wrung—its—neck [Tfteir eyes meet A look of growing compreftension, of ftorror Steps are fteard outside MRS HALE slips box under quilt pieces, and sinks into fter cftair Enter SHERIFF and COUNTY ATTORNEY HALE MRS PETERS rises.] 282 Based on the passage, the reader can conclude that a Mrs Peters and Mrs Hale are old friends b Mrs Peters and Mrs Hale both know Mrs Wright very well c Mrs Peters and Mrs Hale don’t know each other very well d Neither Mrs Peters nor Mrs Hale like Mrs Wright e Neither Mrs Peters nor Mrs Hale have children 140 501 Critical Reading Questions Mrs Hale says she wishes she had come to Mrs Wright’s house (lines 29–31 and 37–39) because she realizes that Mrs Wright must have been lonely she enjoyed Mr Wright’s company she always felt at home in the Wright’s house she realizes how important it is to keep good relationships with one’s neighbors she had a lot in common with Mrs Wright 283 a b c d e 284 According to Mrs Hale, what sort of man was Mr Wright? a gentle and loving b violent and abusive c honest and dependable d quiet and cold e a strict disciplinarian 285 In lines 60–62, Mrs Hale suggests that Mrs Wright a had become even more like a bird than before b had grown bitter and unhappy over the years c was too shy to maintain an intimate friendship d must have taken excellent care of her bird e was always singing and flitting about 286 The phrase take up fter mind in line 64 means a worry her b make her angry c refresh her memory d keep her busy e make her think 287 It can be inferred that Mrs Wright a got the bird as a present for her husband b was forced into marrying Mr Wright c loved the bird because it reminded her of how she used to be d had a pet bird as a little girl e fought often with Mr Wright 141 501 Critical Reading Questions 288 When the women share a look of growing compreftension, of ftorror (line 83), they realize that a Mrs Wright killed the bird b Mr Wright killed the bird, and Mrs Wright killed him c they would get in trouble if the sheriff found out they were looking around in the kitchen d there’s a secret message hidden in the quilt e they might be Mrs Wright’s next victims 289 The stage directions in lines 83–86 suggest that a the women are mistaken in their conclusion b the women will tell the men what they found c the women will confront Mrs Wright d the women will keep their discovery a secret e the men had been eavesdropping on the women Questions 290–298 are based on the following passages In Passage 1, an excerpt from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein explains his motive for creating his creature In Passage 2, an excerpt from H.G Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Dr Moreau, Dr Moreau explains to the narrator why he has been performing experiments on animals to transform them into humans PASSAf tE (1) (5) (10) (15) I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be: listen patiently until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that subject I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibers, muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labour I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of 142 501 Critical Reading Questions (20) (25) (30) (35) (40) (45) (50) (55) a being like myself, or one of simpler organization; but my imagina- tion was too much exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man The materials at present within my command hardly appeared adequate to so arduous an undertaking; but I doubted not that I should ultimately succeed I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imper- fect: yet, when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success Nor could I consider the magnitude and complexity of my plan as any argument of its impracticability It was with these feelings that I began the creation of my human being As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large After having formed this determination, and having spent some months in successfully col- lecting and arranging my materials, I began No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs Pursuing these reflections, I thought, that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption These thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued my under- taking with unremitting ardour My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I failed; yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might realize One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my midnight labors, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil, as I dabbled among the unhal- lowed damps of the grave, or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay? My limbs now tremble, and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but then a resistless, and almost frantic, impulse urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit 143 501 Critical Reading Questions PASSAf tE (1) (5) (10) (15) (20) (25) (30) (35) “Yes These creatures you have seen are animals carven and wrought into new shapes To that—to the study of the plasticity of living forms—my life has been devoted I have studied for years, gaining in knowledge as I go I see you look horrified, and yet I am telling you nothing new It all lay in the surface of practical anatomy years ago, but no one had the temerity to touch it It’s not simply the outward form of an animal I can change The physiology, the chemical rhythm of the creature, may also be made to undergo an enduring modifica- tion, of which vaccination and other methods of inoculation with liv- ing or dead matter are examples that will, no doubt, be familiar to you “A similar operation is the transfusion of blood, with which subject indeed I began These are all familiar cases Less so, and probably far more extensive, were the operations of those medieval practitioners who made dwarfs and beggar cripples and show-monsters; some vestiges of whose art still remain in the preliminary manipulation of the young mountebank or contortionist Victor Hugo gives an account of them in L’Homme qui Rit But perhaps my meaning grows plain now You begin to see that it is a possible thing to transplant tissue from one part of an animal to another, or from one animal to another, to alter its chemical reactions and methods of growth, to modify the articulations of its limbs, and indeed to change it in its most intimate structure? “And yet this extraordinary branch of knowledge has never been sought as an end, and systematically, by modern investigators, until I took it up! Some such things have been hit upon in the last resort of surgery; most of the kindred evidence that will recur to your mind has been demonstrated, as it were, by accident—by tyrants, by criminals, by the breeders of horses and dogs, by all kinds of untrained clumsy- handed men working for their own immediate ends I was the first man to take up this question armed with antiseptic surgery, and with a really scientific knowledge of the laws of growth “Yet one would imagine it must have been practiced in secret before Such creatures as Siamese Twins And in the vaults of the Inquisi- tion No doubt their chief aim was artistic torture, but some, at least, of the inquisitors must have had a touch of scientific curiosity ” “But,” said I “These things—these animals talk!” He said that was so, and proceeded to point out that the possibili- ties of vivisection not stop at a mere physical metamorphosis A pig may be educated The mental structure is e v en less determinate than the bodily In our growing science of hypnotism we find the promise 144 501 Critical Reading Questions (40) (45) (50) (55) (60) (65) of a possibility of replacing old inherent instincts by new suggestions, grafting upon or replacing the inherited fixed ideas [ ] But I asked him why he had taken the human form as a model There seemed to me then, and there still seems to me now, a strange wickedness in that choice He confessed that he had chosen that form by chance “I might just as well have worked to form sheep into llamas, and llamas into sheep I suppose there is something in the human form that appeals to the artistic turn of mind more powerfully than any ani- mal shape can But I’ve not confined myself to man-making Once or twice ” He was silent, for a minute perhaps “These years! How they have slipped by! And here I have wasted a day saving your life, and am now wasting an hour explaining myself!” “But,” said I, “I still not understand Where is your justification for inflicting all this pain? The only thing that could excuse vivisection to me would be some application—” “Precisely,” said he “But you see I am differently constituted We are on different platforms You are a materialist.” “I am not a materialist,” I began hotly “In my view—in my view For it is just this question of pain that parts us So long as visible or audible pain turns you sick, so long as your own pain drives you, so long as pain underlies your propositions about sin, so long, I tell you, you are an animal, thinking a little less obscurely what an animal feels This pain—” I gave an impatient shrug at such sophistry “Oh! But it is such a little thing A mind truly open to what science has to teach must see that it is a little thing.” In the first paragraph of Passage (lines 1–10), Frankenstein reveals that the purpose of his tale is to a entertain the reader b explain a scientific principle c teach a moral lesson d share the secret of his research c reveal his true nature 290 291 The word baffled in line 23 means a hindered b confused c puzzled d eluded e regulated 145 501 Critical Reading Questions During the creation process, Frankenstein could best be described as calm horrified evil indifferent obsessed 292 a b c d e From Passage 2, it can be inferred that Dr Moreau is what sort of scientist? artistic calculating and systematic careless, haphazard famous, renowned materialist 293 a b c d e 294 Tftese tftings that the narrator refers to in Passage 2, line 35 are a Siamese twins b inquisitors c pigs d creatures Moreau created e tyrants and criminals 295 From the passage, it can be inferred that Dr Moreau a does not inflict pain upon animals when he experiments on them b has caused great pain to the creatures he has experimented on c is unable to experience physical pain d is searching for a way to eliminate physical pain e has learned to feel what an animal feels Based on the information in the passages, Dr Moreau is like Victor Frankenstein in that he also used dead bodies in his experiments wanted his creations to worship him made remarkable discoveries kept his experiment a secret from everyone had a specific justification for his pursuit of knowledge 296 a b c d e 146 501 Critical Reading Questions 297 Frankenstein would be most upset by Dr Moreau’s a indifference to suffering b arrogance c great achievements d education of animals e choice of the human form Which of the following best expresses Frankenstein’s and Moreau’s attitudes toward science? Both believe science can be dangerous Frankenstein believes science should have a tangible applica- tion; Moreau believes scientific knowledge should be sought for its own sake Frankenstein believes scientists should not harm living crea- tures in an experiment; Moreau believes it is acceptable to inflict pain on other creatures Both men believe scientists should justify their work Both men believe the greatest discoveries often take place in secrecy 298 a b c d e Answers 233 234 235 236 237 b The we go to school, so the reference must be to school-aged dren In addition, the passage contrasts the we’s with the respectable boys and the ricft ones (lines 2–3), so the we’s are neither wealthy nor respected a The author and his classmates go to scftool tftrougft lanes and back streets (line 1) to avoid the students who go to school dressed in warm and respectable clothing He also states in lines 15–16 that they are asftamed of tfte way we look, implying that they are poorly dressed d The boys would get into fights if the rich boys were to utter derogatory words or pass remarks c While the quote here does show how the author’s school masters talked, it has a more important function: to show that his school masters reinforced the class system by telling the author and his classmates to stay in their place and not challenge the existing class structure e The author “knows,” based only on the fact of which school the boys attend, what they will be when they grow up—the respectable boys will have the administrative jobs (lines 5–6) while [...]...143 501 Critical Reading Questions PASSAf tE 2 (1) (5) (10) (15) (20) (25) (30) (35) “Yes These creatures you have seen are animals carven and wrought into new shapes To that—to the study of the plasticity of living... do not stop at a mere physical metamorphosis A pig may be educated The mental structure is e v en less determinate than the bodily In our growing science of hypnotism we find the promise 144 501 Critical Reading Questions (40) (45) (50) (55) (60) (65) of a possibility of replacing old inherent instincts by new suggestions, grafting upon or replacing the inherited fixed ideas [ ] But I asked him why... principle c teach a moral lesson d share the secret of his research c reveal his true nature 290 291 The word baffled in line 23 means a hindered b confused c puzzled d eluded e regulated 145 501 Critical Reading Questions During the creation process, Frankenstein could best be described as calm horrified evil indifferent obsessed 292 a b c d e From Passage 2, it can be inferred that Dr Moreau is what... experiments wanted his creations to worship him made remarkable discoveries kept his experiment a secret from everyone had a specific justification for his pursuit of knowledge 296 a b c d e 146 501 Critical Reading Questions 297 Frankenstein would be most upset by Dr Moreau’s a indifference to suffering b arrogance c great achievements d education of animals e choice of the human form Which of the following