Robinson Crusoe (Test Preparation SAT100-I)

Vocabulary-in-Context Exercises, Set 1

Choose the best answers to complete the statements below.
Question 1 Multiple Choice
"In his words, in his attitude, he seemed to regard her as little more than an idle young
scaramouche."
In the sentence above, "scaramouche" most nearly means
Answer Options

1. child.

2. underling.

3. rascal.

4. dreamer.

Question 2 Multiple Choice

"Thrown to the ravenous journalists, the story took on an entirely different, more titillating
quality."
As used in the sentence above, "ravenous" most nearly means
Answer Options

1. biased.

2. eager.

3. inventive.

4. unscrupulous.

Question 3 Multiple Choice

"Among the more respectable journals on the topic, enthusiasm for that particular trend was
ebbing."
As used in the sentence above, "ebbing" most nearly refers to
Answer Options

1. expectations.
 2. tastelessness.

3. development.

4. decrease.

Question 4 Multiple Choice

"Ignoring for the moment the inappropriately harsh tone in which it was delivered, his point held
some truth: that the elderly isolate themselves from their younger family members by refusing to
talk about anything other than their own afflictions."
In the sentence above, "afflictions" most nearly refers to
Answer Options

1. memories.

2. conflicts.

3. aches and pains.

4. unfulfilled promises.

Question 5 Multiple Choice

"If demand continues unabated, production will fall behind, prices will rise, and consumers will
fret."
As used in the sentence above, "unabated" is closest in meaning to
Answer Options

1. indefinitely.

2. notwithstanding.

3. without decreasing.

4. without interference.

Question 6 Multiple Choice

"A mutiny had broken out among the staff, interrupting lessons and jarring students from their
sense of normalcy just as the final exams were approaching."
As used in the sentence above, "mutiny" most nearly means
Answer Options

1. open revolt.

2. secret subversion.

3. sense of ennui.
 4. pandemic.

Question 7 Multiple Choice

"She approached this problem as she did all others: with incorrigible optimism."
As used in the sentence above, "incorrigible" most nearly refers to the inability to be
Answer Options

1. intensified.

2. changed.

3. ignored.

4. cheered.

Question 8 Multiple Choice

"Hidden in every free sample is a pressing obligation to repay the favor."
In the sentence above, "obligation" is closest in meaning to
Answer Options

1. duly.

2. urge.

3. option.

4. implication.

Question 9 Multiple Choice

"We had expected him to hide his intentions. However, he entered the battlefield of negotiations,
so to speak, with his flag fully hoisted."
As used in the second sentence above, "hoisted" is closest in meaning to
Answer Options

1. furled.

2. lifted.

3. visible.

4. dragging.

Question 10 Multiple Choice

"That streak of providence was the most valuable thing his parents left to him."
As used in the sentence above, "providence" most nearly means
Answer Options

1. investments.

2. independence.

3. defiance.

4. frugality.

Vocabulary-in-Context Exercises, Set 2

Choose the best answers to complete the statements below.
Question 1 Multiple Choice
"…from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in
England, we are now called-nay we call ourselves and write our name-Crusoe; and so my
companions always called me."
As used in the sentence above, "corruption" most nearly refers to
Answer Options

1. decomposition.

2. destruction.

3. diffusion.

4. change.

Question 2 Multiple Choice

"Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very
early with rambling thoughts."
As used in the sentence above, "rambling" most nearly refers to a desire to
Answer Options

1. explore.

2. loaf.

3. earn money.

4. write.
Question 3 Multiple Choice
"My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he
foresaw was my design."
As used in the sentence above, "design" most nearly means
Answer Options

1. mark.

2. goal.

3. destination.

4. destiny.

Question 4 Multiple Choice

"…that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things,
and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the
great..."
As used in the sentence above, "mean" most nearly means
Answer Options

1. average.

2. lowly.

3. crude.

4. cruel.

Question 5 Multiple Choice

"After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young
man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the station of life I was born in,
seemed to have provided against..."
In the sentence above, "pressed" is closest in meaning to
Answer Options

1. encouraged.

2. assured.

3. embraced.

4. applied.
Question 6 Multiple Choice
"However, I did not act quite so hastily as the first heat of my resolution prompted; but I took my
mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my
thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world..."
As used in the sentence above, "heat" is closest in meaning to
Answer Options

1. passion.

2. deferrence.

3. lecture.

4. pain.

Question 7 Multiple Choice

"…I might depend I should never have their consent to it; that for her part she would not have so
much hand in my destruction; and I should never have it to say that my mother was willing when
my father was not..."
As used in the first sentence above, "hand" most nearly indicates
Answer Options

1. power.

2. involvement.

3. dissuasion.

4. protection.

Question 8 Multiple Choice

"And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, who had enticed me away,
comes to me…"
As used in the sentence above, "enticed" most nearly means
Answer Options

1. whisked.

2. lured.

3. stolen.

4. cast.
Question 9 Multiple Choice
"…so the hurry of my thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up
by the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the
vows and promises that I made in my distress."
In the sentence above, "current" is closest in meaning to
Answer Options

1. echo.

2. gust.

3. lack of control.

4. stream of thought.

Question 10 Multiple Choice

"…for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and
most hardened wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy of."
As used above, "take this for" is a reference to
Answer Options

1. misunderstanding.

2. interpretation.

3. appreciation.

4. punishment.

Reading Comprehension Exercises

Questions 21-26 are based on the following passage from Daniel Defoe's The Life and Adventur
es  of  Robinson  Crusoe.
 
5 All this while the storm increased, and the sea went
very high, though nothing like what I have seen many
times since; no, nor what I saw a few days after; but it
was enough to affect me then, who was but a young
sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. I
10 expected every wave would have swallowed us up,
and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought it
did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should
never rise more; in this agony of mind, I made many
vows and resolutions that if it would please God to
15 spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my
foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to
my father, and never set it into a ship again while I
lived; that I would take his advice, and never run
myself into such miseries as these any more. Now I
20 saw plainly the goodness of his observations about
the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably
he had lived all his days, and never had been
exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore; and
I resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal,
25 go home to my father.
 
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the
while the storm lasted, and indeed some time after;
but the next day the wind was abated, and the sea
calmer, and I began to be a little inured to it; however,
30 I was very grave for all that day, being also a little
sea-sick still; but towards night the weather cleared
up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fine
evening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear,
and rose so the next morning; and having little or no
35 wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the
sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that ever I
saw.
 
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more
sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon
40 the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before,
and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a
time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should
continue, my companion, who had enticed me away,
comes to me; "Well, Bob," says he, clapping me upon
45 the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I warrant you
were frighted, wer'n't you, last night, when it blew but
a capful of wind?" 
 
"A capful d'you call it?" said I; "'twas a terrible storm." 
 
"A storm, you fool you," replies he; "do you call that a
50 storm? why, it was nothing at all; give us but a good
ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a
squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water
sailor, Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and
we'll forget all that; d'ye see what charming weather
55 'tis now?" 
 
To make short this sad part of my story, we went the
way of all sailors; the punch was made and I was
made half drunk with it: and in that one night's
wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my
60 reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions
for the future. In a word, as the sea was returned to
its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by
the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my
thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of
65 being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and
the current of my former desires returned, I entirely
forgot the vows and promises that I made in my
distress. I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection;
and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to
return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and
roused myself from them as it were from a distemper,
and applying myself to drinking and company, soon
mastered the return of those fits-for so I called them;
and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory
75 over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not
to be troubled with it could desire. But I was to have
another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such
cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely
without excuse; for if I would not take this for a
80 deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the
worst and most hardened wretch among us would
confess both the danger and the mercy of. 
Question 1 Multiple Choice
Which choice best summarizes the passage?
Answer Options

1. The narrator endures a series of violent storms at sea that cause him to question his own
faith.
 2. The narrator swears to return home to obey his father should he live through the storm,
then reneges on that promise as he acclimates to life at sea.
3. The narrator attempts to talk with God, then drowns his fears and doubts in both drink
and in the company of his friends.
4. The narrator becomes the master of his own conscience by enduring the violent storms at
sea and realizing that he has somehow survived.
Question 2 Multiple Choice
The companion who speaks with the narrator in lines 44-55 would probably perceive the
narrator's thoughts in lines 9-13 ("I expected… rise more") as evidence of
Answer Options

1. idiocy.

2. inexperience.

3. a failure to appreciate nature.

4. a lack of confidence in the ship's crew.

Question 3 Multiple Choice

Why does the narrator forget "the vows and promises" he had made (line 67)?
Answer Options

1. He feels more allegiance to an earlier promise he had made to himself: to explore the
world.
2. Fear had inspired those promises, and the fear has since disappeared.

3. His companion mocks those promises, causing the narrator to hastily forsake them.

4. Alcohol clouds the narrator's judgment, essentially erasing the promises from his
memory.
Question 4 Multiple Choice
By the end of the passage, what is the result of the narrator's struggle with his fears and doubts?
Answer Options

1. He is still completely at the mercy of his ever-changing fears and doubts.

2. He has tamed his fears and doubts somewhat, but expects them to resurface.

3. He is now the master of his own fears and doubts, having fully vanquished them.

4. He has fully repressed his fears and doubts, but only temporarily; it is only known to the
reader that these emotions are sure to resurface.
Question 5 Multiple Choice
Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
Answer Options

1. Lines 56-58 ("To make…with it")

2. Lines 64-65 ("My fears…forgotten")

3. Lines 74-76 ("I had…desire")

4. Lines 76-77 ("But I…still")

Question 6 Multiple Choice

The main purpose of the second paragraph (lines 26-37) is to
Answer Options

1. suggest that the narrator interprets the calming of the sea as an act of God.

2. connect the changing weather to the narrator's changing mood.

3. characterize the narrator as moody and too easily affected by the weather.

4. intimate that sea-sickness accompanies moral depravity in the narrator.