Ten Days in a Madhouse

What do the following lines from the passage mainly reveal about Officer Bockert?

"Come along," Bockert said, "I will find your trunk for you." We all went together, Mrs. Stanard, Tom Bockert, and myself. I said it was very kind of them to go with me, and I should not soon forget them. As we walked along I kept up my refrain about my trunks, injecting occasionally some remark about the dirty condition of the streets and the curious character of the people we met on the way. "I don’t think I have ever seen such people before," I said. "Who are they?" I asked, and my companions looked upon me with expressions of pity, evidently believing I was a foreigner, an emigrant or something of the sort. They told me that the people around me were working people. I remarked once more that I thought there were too many working people in the world for the amount of work to be done, at which remark Policeman P. T. Bockert eyed me closely, evidently thinking that my mind was gone for good.

• A. Bockert is fed up with Nellie and doesn’t want to hear any more about her complaints.

• B. Bockert is trying to trap Nellie so that she can be arrested and taken to jail.

• C. Bockert believes that Nellie’s missing trunk is a top priority situation to be investigated.

• D. Bockert doesn’t realize that Nellie is putting on an act.

Which of the following words best replaces incredulous in the following excerpt?

"When did you come to New York?" he asked.

"I did not come to New York," I replied (while I added, mentally, "because I have been here for some time.")

"But you are in New York now," said the man.

"No," I said, looking as incredulous as I thought a crazy person could, "I did not come to New York."

• unbelieving

• honest

• superior

• stupid

Which of the following inferences about New York City in 1887 (as compared to now) is best supported by the excerpt?

• A. Mentally unstable people were a lot more likely to get sent to prison in 1887.

• B. It appears much easier to get institutionalized in 1887 than it likely would be now.

• C. Judges were kind in 1887 versus how harsh and cruel they are now.

• D. Journalists no longer go undercover pretending to be someone else in order to get a good story.

What do the following lines from Chapter IV mainly reveal about Mrs. Stanard?

"Oh, don’t!" said Mrs. Stanard, in evident alarm. "Don’t! She is a lady and it would kill her to be put on the Island."

• A. Mrs. Stanard fears the Island because she herself has been institutionalized there.

• B. Mrs. Stanard has no confidence in the criminal justice system.

• C. Mrs. Stanard is unaware of Nellie’s plan and genuinely wants to keep her safe.

• D. Mrs. Stanard hopes the judge will send Nellie back to the home so that she herself may take care of Nellie.

Which of the following best sums up how Nellie feels about people with actual mental illness?

• A. She is desperate to become one of them because she truly believes herself to be a crazy person.

• B. She empathizes with their troubles and hopes that they are treated without cruelty.

• C. She believes that many of them could see their conditions improve if they had the chance to live in a home like Mrs. Stanard’s.

• D. She finds it amusing pretending to be one of them.

Which passage from the text most strongly supports the answer to Question 5?

• A. “Everywhere was a sprinkling of well-dressed, well-fed officers watching the scene passively and almost indifferently."

• B. “I said, ‘They all seem to be foreigners, too...They are all foreigners just landed. They have all lost their trunks, and it takes most of our time to help find them for them.’”

• C. “I silently blessed the kind-hearted judge, and hoped that any poor creatures who might be afflicted as I pretended to be should have as kindly a man to deal with as Judge Duffy.”

• D. "So saying, I pulled down my veil and secretly hoped the reporters would be detained elsewhere until I was sent to the asylum.”

Which of these inferences about Nellie’s fear of reporters is best supported by the text?

• A. Nellie thinks that reporters will act cruelly and stare at her.

• B. Nellie has a strong distrust of the press.

• C. Nellie is paranoid about reporters due to her mental illness.

• D. Nellie knows that a reporter could reveal her true identity, since she is one herself.

Which passage from the text best supports the answer to Question 7?

• A. “The entrance to the building was surrounded by a curious crowd and I did not think my case was bad enough to permit me passing them without some remark, so I asked if all those people had lost their trunks.”

• B. “I felt that I would rather face a mass of expert doctors, policemen, and detectives than two bright specimens of my craft.”

• C. “These men are impudent, and I do not want to be stared at. I will go away. I don’t want to stay here.”

• D. “I wish the reporters were here.”