Practice Test Answers

Read the passage from "Cinderella" by the Brothers Grimm. The girl went out to her mother's grave every day and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white cloth over the grave, and when the spring sun had removed it again, the man took himself another wife. This wife brought two daughters into the house with her. They were beautiful, with fair faces, but evil and dark hearts. Times soon grew very bad for the poor stepchild. . . . "Why should that stupid goose sit in the parlor with us?" they said. "If she wants to eat bread, then she will have to earn it. Out with this kitchen maid!" They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes. "Just look at the proud princess! How decked out she is!" they shouted and laughed as they led her into the kitchen. Now it happened that the king proclaimed a festival that was to last three days. All the beautiful young girls in the land were invited, so that his son could select a bride for himself. When the two stepsisters heard that they too had been invited, they were in high spirits. They called Cinderella, saying, "Comb our hair for us. Brush our shoes and fasten our buckles. We are going to the festival at the king's castle." Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go to the dance with them. She begged her stepmother to allow her to go. "You, Cinderella?" she said. "You, all covered with dust and dirt, and you want to go to the festival? You have neither clothes nor shoes, and yet you want to dance!" However, because Cinderella kept asking, the stepmother finally said, "I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for you. If you can pick them out again in two hours, then you may go with us." The stepmother is most likely motivated by

Read the passage. The woman in the last apartment down the hall was somewhat of a misanthrope , according to most people in Keira's building. She almost never came out of her apartment, but when she did, she answered hellos with a glare, as if she were being insulted. Keira was sure that she could find a way to get to know the woman, if only she could figure out how to invite herself into the woman's apartment to chat. Based on inferences, what is the most likely meaning of misanthrope ?

Read the sentence. The shopkeeper smiled at David as if he were just telling a joke, but his disparaging comments made David feel insulted and embarrassed. Based on context clues in the sentence, what is the most likely meaning of disparaging ? Choose two correct answers.

After the high point of a story, what includes the resolution of the conflict?

Which elements does strong narrative writing always contain? Choose three correct answers.

Read the passage from a story in The Arabian Nights Entertainments . The fisherman was very unhappy. "What an unlucky man I am to have freed you! I implore you to spare my life." "I have told you," said the genius, "that it is impossible. Choose quickly; you are wasting time." The fisherman began to devise a plot. "Since I must die," he said, "before I choose the manner of my death, I conjure you on your honour to tell me if you really were in that vase?" "Yes, I was," answered the genius. "I really cannot believe it," said the fisherman. "That vase could not contain one of your feet even, and how could your whole body go in? I cannot believe it unless I see you do the thing." Then the genius began to change himself into smoke, which, as before, spread over the sea and the shore, and which, then collecting itself together, began to go back into the vase slowly and evenly till there was nothing left outside. Then a voice came from the vase which said to the fisherman, "Well, unbelieving fisherman, here I am in the vase; do you believe me now?" What is the fisherman’s motivation for asking the genius if he really was in the vase?

Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale." This first edition is wholly unlike the so-called definitive edition of 1857. In the process of publishing seven different editions over forty years, the Grimms made vast changes in the contents and style. The stories in the first edition are closer to the oral tradition than the tales of the final, which can be regarded more as a literary collection, because Wilhelm, the younger brother, continually honed the tales so that they would resonate with a growing literary public. Their books would become second in popularity only to the Bible in German-speaking lands. By the twentieth century, they would become the most famous collection of folk and fairy tales in the western world. What is the author's purpose in writing this paragraph?

Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale." All of the tales in the first edition bear the marks of their diverse storytellers who believed in the magic, superstitions, and miraculous transformations of the tales. It may be difficult for us to understand why this is the case, but for the storytellers and writers of these tales, the stories contained truths about the living conditions of their times. The tales in the first edition were collected not from peasants, as is commonly believed, but mainly from literate people whom the Grimms came to know quite well. Evidence shows that these people often obtained their tales from illiterate or anonymous informants. Even if they did not know their informants, the Grimms came to trust almost everyone who contributed to their collection. It is this mutual trust that marks the tales as something special and endows them with a certain humanity, what Germans call Menschlichkeit , and it is this mutual trust among folklorists in the nineteenth century that marks it as the golden age of folk and fairy tales. The tales in the first edition set a certain standard that collectors began to follow and still follow even today. Which idea does the author use to conclude the paragraph?

Which quotations from "The Crab That Played with the Sea" convey a comic tone? Choose two correct answers.

Read the excerpt from "The Crab That Played with the Sea.” And the Rat said, ‘I am too busy biting through the line that this old Fisherman is spinning. I do not play with the Sea.’ And he went on biting the line. Then the little girl-daughter put up her little soft brown arms with the beautiful white shell bracelets and said, ‘O Eldest Magician! when my father here talked to you at the Very Beginning, and I leaned upon his shoulder while the beasts were being taught their plays, one beast went away naughtily into the Sea before you had taught him his play. And the Eldest Magician said, ‘How wise are little children who see and are silent! What was the beast like?’ Which quotation from the passage is the best example of imagery?