Practice Worksheet: Reading Comprehensio

Objective: The purpose of this worksheet is to give you practice reading

passages and solving Reading Comprehension questions. Make sure you’ve
watched the “Reading Comprehension” videos in your course before tackling these
practice questions. Remember to read for “big picture,” employ the strategies you’ve
learned, and be on the lookout for common wrong answer choices. Good luck

Questions 1 and 2 are based on the following reading passage. For each
question, select the best answer of the choices given

The rst tenement New York knew bore the mark of Cain from its birth, though a
generation passed before the writing was deciphered. It was the “rear house,” infamous
ever after in our city’s history. There had been tenant-houses before, but they were not
built for the purpose. Nothing would probably have shocked their original owners more
than the idea of their harboring a promiscuous crowd; for they were the decorous
homes of the old Knickerbockers, the proud aristocracy of Manhattan in the early days.
It was the stir and bustle of trade, together with the tremendous immigration that
followed upon the war of 1812 that dislodged them. In thirty- ve years the city of less
than a hundred thousand came to harbor half a million souls, for whom homes had to be
found. Within the memory of men not yet in their prime, Washington had moved from his
house on Cherry Hill as too far out of town to be easily reached. Now the old residents
followed his example; but they moved in a different direction and for a different reason.
Their comfortable dwellings in the once fashionable streets along the East River front
fell into the hands of real-estate agents and boarding-house keepers; and here, says
the report to the Legislature of 1857, when the evils engendered had excited just alarm,
“in its beginning, the tenant-house became a real blessing to that class of industrious
poor whose small earnings limited their expenses, and whose employment in
workshops, stores, or about the warehouses and thoroughfares, render a near
residence of much importance.

1. According to the passage, who were the original owners of the New York tenements?

(A) The industrious poo

(B) Members of Manhattan’s upper clas
(C) Real-estate agents and boarding-house keeper
(D) Government employee
(E) British investors

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 2. The passage suggests that the author would most likely agree with which of the
following?

(A) The rapid in ux of the working class was at least partially responsible for the
change in tenement demographics.
(B) All of the original residents of Cherry Hill followed Washington into more central
areas.
(C) Increased demand caused Manhattan real-estate prices to soar.
(D) As a result of their aristocratic status, many of the Knickerbockers still live in
Manhattan today.
(E) Real-estate agents and boarding-house keepers owned dwellings along the East
River because of the dwellings’ proximity to water

Questions 3 through 5 are based on the following reading passage. For each
question, select the best answer of the choices given

For many centuries, scientists and scholars did not question the origin of life on Earth.
They accepted the authority of the Book of Genesis, which describes God as the creator
of all life. This belief, known as creationism, was supported by observations made by
scientists about the everyday world. For instance, organisms seemed well adapted to
their environments and ways of life, as if created speci cally to ll their roles; moreover,
most organisms did not seem to change in any observable manner over time.
About two centuries ago, scientists began accumulating evidence that cast doubt on
the theory of creationism. As scientists began to explore remote parts of the natural
world, they discovered seemingly bizarre forms of life. They also discovered the fossils
of animals that no longer existed. These discoveries led scientists to develop new
theories about the origin of species. Count George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon was an
early pioneer of these new theories, proposing that the species he and his
contemporaries saw had changed over time from their original forms. Jean Baptiste
Lamarck was another early pioneer. Lamarck proposed ideas involving the
mechanisms of use and disuse and inheritance of acquired traits to explain how
species might change over time. These theories, though in many ways incorrect and
incomplete, paved the way for Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution

3. What is the primary purpose of this passage?

(A) To explain Count George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon’s role in the theory of evolution
(B) To explain the history and theory of evolution
(C) To denounce creationism and its proponents
(D) To summarize the development of the theory of evolution
(E) To explain creationism and provide evidence in its suppor

4. The tone of this passage is best described as

(A) somewhat enthusiastic

(B) cautious but argumentative
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 (C) mildly sarcastic

(D) violently contentious
(E) impartial and straightforwar

5. In the context in which it appears, “mechanisms” most nearly means

(A) mechanical appliances

(B) mental devices
(C) deceptions
(D) details of processes
(E) repeated manners of actin

Questions 6 through 9 are based on the following reading passage. For each
question, select the best answer of the choices given

Two modes of argumentation have been used on behalf of women’s emancipation in

Western societies. Arguments in what could be called the “relational” feminist tradition
maintain the doctrine of “equality in difference,” or equity as distinct from equality. They
posit that biological distinctions between the sexes result in a necessary sexual division
of labor in the family and throughout society and that women’s procreative labor is
currently undervalued by society, to the disadvantage of women. By contrast, the
individualist feminist tradition emphasizes individual human rights and celebrates
women’s quest for personal autonomy, while downplaying the importance of gender
roles and minimizing discussion of childbearing and its attendant responsibilities

Before the late nineteenth century, these views coexisted within the feminist
movement, often within the writings of the same individual. Between 1890 and 1920,
however, relational feminism, which had been the dominant strain in feminist thought,
and which still predominates among European and non-Western feminists, lost ground
in England and the United States. Because the concept of individual rights was already
well established in the Anglo-Saxon legal and political tradition, individualist feminism
came to predominate in English-speaking countries. At the same time, the goals of the
two approaches began to seem increasingly irreconcilable. Individualist feminists began
to advocate a totally gender-blind system with equal rights for all. Relational feminists,
while agreeing that equal educational and economic opportunities outside the home
should be available for all women, continued to emphasize women’s special
contributions to society as homemakers and mothers; they demanded special treatment
for women, including protective legislation for women workers, state-sponsored
maternity bene ts, and paid compensation for housework.

Relational arguments have a major pitfall: because they underline women’s

physiological and psychological distinctiveness, they are often appropriated by political
adversaries and used to endorse male privilege. But the individualist approach, by
attacking gender roles, denying the signi cance of physiological difference, and
condemning existing familial institutions as hopelessly patriarchal, has often simply
treated as irrelevant the family roles important to many women. If the individualist
framework, with its claim for women’s autonomy, could be harmonized with the family-

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 oriented concerns of relational feminists, a more fruitful model for contemporary feminist
politics could emerge.

6. The author of the passage alludes to the well-established nature of the concept of
individual rights in the Anglo-Saxon legal and political tradition in order to

(A) illustrate the in uence of individualist feminist thought on more general

intellectual trends in English history
(B) argue that feminism was already a part of the larger Anglo-Saxon intellectual
tradition, even though this has often gone unnoticed by critics of women’s
emancipation
(C) explain the decline in individualist thinking among feminists in non-English-
speaking countries
(D) help account for an increasing shift toward individualist feminism among
feminists in English-speaking countries
(E) account for the philosophical differences between individualist and relational
feminists in English- speaking countries

7. It can be inferred from the passage that the individualist feminist tradition denies the
validity of which of the following causal statements?

(A) A division of labor in a social group can result in increased ef ciency with regard
to the performance of group tasks.
(B) A division of labor in a social group causes inequities in the distribution of
opportunities and bene ts among group members
(C) A division of labor on the basis of gender in a social group is necessitated by the
existence of sex-linked biological differences between male and female members
of the group
(D) Culturally determined distinctions based on gender in a social group foster the
existence of differing attitudes and opinions among group members
(E) Educational programs aimed at reducing inequalities based on gender among
members of a social group can result in a sense of greater well-being for all
members of the group

8. According to the passage, relational feminists and individualist feminists agree tha

(A) individual human rights take precedence over most other social claim
(B) the gender-based division of labor in society should be eliminate
(C) laws guaranteeing equal treatment for all citizens regardless of gender should be
passe
(D) a greater degree of social awareness concerning the importance of motherhood
would be bene cial to societ
(E) the same educational and economic opportunities should be available to both
sexe

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 9. The author implies that which of the following was true of most feminist thinkers in
England and the United States after 1920

(A) They were less concerned with politics than with intellectual issues
(B) They began to reach a broader audience and their programs began to be
adopted by mainstream political parties
(C) They called repeatedly for international cooperation among women’s groups to
achieve their goals
(D) They moderated their initial criticism of the economic systems that characterized
their societies
(E) They did not attempt to unite the two different feminist approaches in their
thought.

Questions 10 through 12 are based on the following passages. For each question,
select the best answer of the choices given

Passage

Writers, those self-consuming solitaries, are fascinated by other writers. They know
how curious and, in the sought-for fusion of word and thing, arduous the trick of their
trade is, and yet how commonly available the tools are — a little learning, a little
imagination. They eye each other with a vigorous jealousy and suspicion. They are swift
to condemn and dismiss, as a means of keeping the eld from getting too crowded

Passage

In 1933 Gertrude Stein launched the most massive attack on Ernest Hemingway since
he came under re by Austrian trench mortars in 1918. Her novel Autobiography of Alice
B. Toklas stabbed at Hemingway’s most vulnerable points and was all the more
wounding because of the core truth at the heart of each bitter accusation. Hemingway
believed he had created an original style; she demoted him to a dull-witted disciple “who
does it without understanding it.” He thought he was sophisticated and cosmopolitan;
she reduced him to a country provincial. But Hemingway outlived Stein by fteen years
and so had the last word in this quarrel. In A Moveable Feast he wrote, “I cannot
remember Gertrude Stein ever speaking well of any writer who had not written favorably
about her work or done something to advance her career except for Ronald Firbank
and, later, Scott Fitzgerald.”


10. Passage 1 best supports which statement about Stein’s “attack” (line 1, Passage
2)

(A) It betrays her envy of other, more accomplished writers

(B) It was atypical of her overall judgment of Hemingway
(C) It stemmed from an unpleasant personal experience with Hemingway
(D) It was most likely inspired by professional rivalry
(E) It probably spurred Hemingway to improve his writing

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 11. Which best describes the relationship between the two passages

(A) Passage 1 belittles a literary theory that is discussed in Passage 2

(B) Passage 1 offers a personal anecdote that explains the quarrel described in
Passage 2
(C) Passage 2 presents information that supports a claim made in Passage 1
(D) Passage 2 introduces an argument that challenges a theory put forth in Passage
1
(E) Passage 2 celebrates a literary phenomenon that Passage 1 dismisses

12. Which best characterizes the rhetorical approaches of Passage 1 and Passage 2

(A) The rst presents theories while the second discusses the author’s personal
experience
(B) The rst makes generalizations while the second draws upon literary history
(C) The rst refers to speci c literary sources while the second quotes historical
documents
(D) The rst acknowledges multiple viewpoints while the second presents only one
side of an argument
(E) The rst employs a severe tone while the second relies on humorous
understatement

Questions 13 through 16 are based on the following reading passage. For each
question, select the best answer of the choices given

Adapted from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1513

Every one admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep faith, and to live with
integrity and not with craft. Nevertheless our experience has been that those princes
who have done great things have held good faith of little account, and have known how
to circumvent the intellect of men by craft, and in the end have overcome those who
have relied on their word. You must know there are two ways of contesting, the one by
the law, the other by force; the rst method is proper to men, the second to beasts; but
because the rst is frequently not suf cient, it is necessary to have recourse to the
second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the
beast and the man. This has been guratively taught to princes by ancient writers, who
describe how Achilles and many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron
to nurse, who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as they had for
a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know
how to make use of both natures, and that one without the other is not durable. A prince,
therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and
the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the fox cannot
defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the
snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not
understand what they are about. Therefore a wise lord cannot, nor ought he to, keep
faith when such observance may be turned against him, and when the reasons that
caused him to pledge it exist no longer. If men were entirely good this precept would not

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hold, but because they are bad, and will not keep faith with you, you too are not bound
to observe it with them. Nor will there ever be wanting to a prince legitimate reasons to
excuse this non-observance. Of this endless modern examples could be given, showing
how many treaties and engagements have been made void and of no effect through the
faithlessness of princes; and he who has known best how to employ the fox has
succeeded best. But it is necessary to know well how to disguise this characteristic, and
to be a great pretender and dissembler; and men are so simple, and so subject to
present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always nd someone who will
allow himself to be deceived

13. The lion and fox are mentioned in order to

(A) suggest that these are the only two animals worth studying
(B) challenge the reader’s perceptions of these animals
(C) undermine human abilities
(D) contrast the advantages and disadvantages of each animal
(E) highlight two animals’ strengths

14. Which of the following is given as an example of the faithlessness of princes in the
passage?

(A) The tendency for princes to act like animal

(B) False worship of idol
(C) Treaties and engagements that have been made voi
(D) Wars started without cause by prince
(E) Over-reliance on scholarly writing

15. All of the following can be inferred from the text EXCEPT:

(A) a person who is deceived has likely allowed himself to be deceive

(B) princes tend to share similar value
(C) in general, faith is seen as a positive attribut
(D) princes must be able to engage both manlike and beastlike behavior
(E) the qualities of a fox are advantageous over those of a lio

16. The author believes that a prince is not bound to observe faith because

(A) it is enough to pretend to have faith

(B) faith is a sign of weakness
(C) other men do not have faith
(D) animals do not have faith
(E) there is no logical reason to have faith.

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