Practice Test 2 Verbal Module 1

Question 1 | Words in context

In the early 1800s, the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah created the first script, or writing system, for an Indigenous language in the United States. Because it represented the sounds of spoken Cherokee so accurately, his script was easy to learn and thus quickly achieved ______ use: by 1830, over 90 percent of the Cherokee people could read and write it.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• widespread

• • careful

• unintended

• infrequent

Question 2 | Words in context

Like the 1945 play it reimagines—Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba—Marcus Gardley’s 2014 play The House That Will Not Stand prominently features women. In both plays, the all-female cast ______ an array of female characters, including a strong mother and several daughters dealing with individual struggles.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• engulfs

• encourages

• comprises

• provokes

Question 3 | Words in context

During a 2014 archaeological dig in Spain, Vicente Lull and his team uncovered the skeleton of a woman from El Algar, an Early Bronze Age society, buried with valuable objects signaling a high position of power. This finding may persuade researchers who have argued that Bronze Age societies were ruled by men to ______ that women may have also held leadership roles.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• waive

• concede

• refute

• require

Question 4 | Words in context

The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.

CECILY: Have we got to part?

ALGERNON: I am afraid so. It’s a very painful parting.

CECILY: It is always painful to part from people whom one has known for a very brief space of time. The absence of old friends one can endure with equanimity. But even a momentary separation from anyone to whom one has just been introduced is almost unbearable.

As used in the text, what does the word “endure” most nearly mean?

• Regret

• Persist

• Tolerate

• Encourage

Question 5 | Text structure and purpose

The following text is from the 1924 poem “Cycle” by D’Arcy McNickle, who was a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

There shall be new roads wending,
A new beating of the drum—
Men’s eyes shall have fresh seeing,
Grey lives reprise their span—
But under the new sun’s being,
Completing what night began,
There’ll be the same backs bending,
The same sad feet shall drum—
When this night finds its ending.
And day shall have come.....

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

• To consider how the repetitiveness inherent in human life can be both rewarding and challenging

• • To question whether activities completed at one time of day are more memorable than those completed at another time of day

• • To refute the idea that joy is a more commonly experienced emotion than sadness is

• • To demonstrate how the experiences of individuals relate to the experiences of their communities

Question 6 | Text structure and purpose

The following text is from Charlotte Forten Grimké’s 1888 poem “At Newport.”

Oh, deep delight to watch the gladsome waves
Exultant leap upon the rugged rocks;
Ever repulsed, yet ever rushing on—
Filled with a life that will not know defeat;
To see the glorious hues of sky and sea.
The distant snowy sails, glide spirit like,
Into an unknown world, to feel the sweet
Enchantment of the sea thrill all the soul,
Clearing the clouded brain, making the heart
Leap joyous as it own bright, singing waves!

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

• • It portrays the surroundings as an imposing and intimidating scene.

• • It characterizes the sea’s waves as a relentless and enduring force.

• • It conveys the speaker’s ambivalence about the natural world.

• • It draws a contrast between the sea’s waves and the speaker’s thoughts.

Question 7 | Text structure and purpose

The following text is adapted from Aphra Behn’s 1689 novel The Lucky Mistake. Atlante and Rinaldo are neighbors who have been secretly exchanging letters through Charlot, Atlante’s sister.

[Atlante] gave this letter to Charlot; who immediately ran into the balcony with it, where she still found Rinaldo in a melancholy posture, leaning his head on his hand: She showed him the letter, but was afraid to toss it to him, for fear it might fall to the ground; so he ran and fetched a long cane, which he cleft at one end, and held it while she put the letter into the cleft, and stayed not to hear what he said to it. But never was man so transported with joy, as he was at the reading of this letter; it gives him new wounds; for to the generous, nothing obliges love so much as love.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

• • It describes the delivery of a letter, and then portrays a character’s happiness at reading that letter.

• • It establishes that a character is desperate to receive a letter, and then explains why another character has not yet written that letter.

• • It presents a character’s concerns about delivering a letter, and then details the contents of that letter.

• • It reveals the inspiration behind a character’s letter, and then emphasizes the excitement that another character feels upon receiving that letter.

Question 8 | Central ideas and details

The following text is adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel The Secret Garden. Mary, a young girl, recently found an overgrown hidden garden.

Mary was an odd, determined little person, and now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed, indeed. She worked and dug and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with her work every hour instead of tiring of it. It seemed to her like a fascinating sort of play.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• • Mary hides in the garden to avoid doing her chores.

• • Mary is getting bored with pulling up so many weeds in the garden.

• • Mary is clearing out the garden to create a space to play.

• • Mary feels very satisfied when she’s taking care of the garden.

Question 9 | Central Ideas and Details

Believing that living in an impractical space can heighten awareness and even improve health, conceptual artists Madeline Gins and Shusaku Arakawa designed an apartment building in Japan to be more fanciful than functional. A kitchen counter is chest-high on one side and knee-high on the other; a ceiling has a door to nowhere. The effect is disorienting but invigorating: after four years there, filmmaker Nobu Yamaoka reported significant health benefits.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• • Although inhabiting a home surrounded by fanciful features such as those designed by Gins and Arakawa can be rejuvenating, it is unsustainable.

• • Designing disorienting spaces like those in the Gins and Arakawa building is the most effective way to create a physically stimulating environment.

• • As a filmmaker, Yamaoka has long supported the designs of conceptual artists such as Gins and Arakawa.

• • Although impractical, the design of the apartment building by Gins and Arakawa may improve the well-being of the building’s residents.

Question 10 | Text structure and purpose

The following text is from Maggie Pogue Johnson’s 1910 poem “Poet of Our Race.” In this poem, the speaker is addressing Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Black author.

Thou, with stroke of mighty pen,
Hast told of joy and mirth,
And read the hearts and souls of men
As cradled from their birth.

The language of the flowers,
Thou hast read them all,
And e’en the little brook
Responded to thy call.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

• • To praise a certain writer for being especially perceptive regarding people and nature

• • To establish that a certain writer has read extensively about a variety of topics

• • To call attention to a certain writer’s careful and elaborately detailed writing process

• • To recount fond memories of an afternoon spent in nature with a certain writer