READING TEST
Directions: This passage is followed by several questions. After reading the passage, chose the best answer to each question and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer document. You may refer to the passage as often as necessary.
Passage 1
PROSE FICTION: This passage is adapted from a short story titled “Lydia McQueen” by Wilma Dykeman, from her book The Tall Woman (1980).
The wind was a wild dark thing plucking at trees
outside, pushing at the door and chinks ofthe house,
then dying down still as death beforeanother rise
and rush and plunge. Listening to it, Lydia
5 McQueen waited and shrank deeper under the quilts,
until the corn shucks in the mattress rustled and
settled into new shapes.
She thought about the wind – like the great fine
horse Papa had owned once, strong and willful with 10 no bit or stirrup that could tame it. Quiet for a spell,
it would break with a sudden burst of energy. Yet
her father, a gentle man, had controlled the wildness
in the horse as surely and invisibly as the sun
controlled the plants in her mother’s garden.
15The wind came again and she felt the pleasure of
her own body-warmth. Like a seed, she felt, one of
those sun-warmed seeds in the spring ground,
growing, ready to give forth new life. She was
aware of the dry smell of the corn shucks. Her mind
20 went back to the day she had sorted them, pulling
the leaves off the hard stalk ends, working toward a
soft stuffing for the mattress.
“It’s a fair morning,” she had said to her mother
as they worked out in the yard beside the corncrib,
25 where the shucks had been stored through the
winter.
“Ah, fair enough today, but dogwood winter yet
to come,” her mother had answered.
And after the cold spell, when dogwoods
30 bloomed, there would be whippoorwill winter and
blackberry winter. The reminder cut through her joy.
She set her mouth and determined to be stingy with
her words the rest of the morning – until she spied
the first flock of robins down in the new-cleared
35 field. Then she cried out in pleasure again for her
mother to come and see the plump, neat birds, for
Lydia Moore was eighteen, and chancy too, like
March.
But, “You’re a girl turned woman now,” her
40 mother said. “No need for such wispy ways.
Anyway, I’m of a mind they won’t last long around
Mark McQueen.”
Lydia thrust a cornhusk into the sack so sharply
That one dry blade cut her middle finger. She knew
45 her mother had wanted her to marry Ham Nelson.
“Ah, Hamilton’s a well-turned boy, and the Nelsons
are good livers,” she had said when he brought
Lydia home once from a sociable at the Burkes’.
And Lydia had replied, remembering all that Ham
50 had told her as they rode home that night, “Could he
buy himself for what he’s worth, and sell himself for
what he thinks he’s worth, he’d be princely rich
overnight.”
But Sarah Moore had not smiled. Neither had
55 she smiled when her daughter came to ask her if
Mark McQueen could speak to Jesse Moore about
their wedding. “With all the boys in the valley,
Lydia, you must choose him?”
“Mama, I didn’t choose.”
60 But she had felt helpless to explain how it was
since that first day she’d seen Mark at the mill, big
and dark with the strength of a mountain in him. She
was full of a strange confidence and beauty, and
wept to herself behind the barn because she had so
65 little confidence and was so lacking in prettiness. It
was a time of days like spring, changeable and quick
with life. She had no words to fit such feelings. “I
didn’t choose, Mama. It’s like I was chosen.”
Her mother looked at her steadily, then.
70 “Living won’t be easy with Mark McQueen. He’s a
proud man, with a restlessness on him that will be
hard to still. Such a man’s life can hurt his wife, be
he ever so in love with her or not.”
For a moment she was quiet, looking no longer
75 at her daughter but at the distant woods. Lydia heard
the first spring insects humming out in the fields,
heard their tiny rustling in the dry cornhusks around
her where the warm sun was stirring them to life.
But all she saw in her mind’s eye was Mark
80 McQueen’s face and his stout sun-browned arms.
“It may not seem so to you now, being a girl
only and a girl in love,” her mother went on, “but
there’s something beyond even love, for a woman as
well as a man. A body’s personhood.”
85Her mother’s gaze came back from the woods to
the yard and the house and the garden patch beyond,
and Lydia did not know how to answer all this
strange talk. The insects ticked and droned even
louder around them.
90“Your papa has gentle ways not common to
many men. A man who is driven is not easy to live
with.”
The silence between them was longer than the
words before Lydia said softly, “I never asked for
95 easy, Mama.”
“I know, I know.” Her mother turned suddenly
back to the crib and an armful of shucks. Her voice
was muffled. “I’m beseeching the Lord to hold you
in the hollow of his hand.”
1. When Sarah Moore says, “No need for such wispy ways. Anyway, I’m of a mind that they won’t last long around Mark McQueen” (lines 40-42), she is expressing her belief that Mark will:
A. be incapable of love.
B. break her daughter’s spirit.
C. treat her daughter like a child.
D. move away from the farmland.
2.It can be reasonably inferred from their conversations that Sarah Moore believes her daughter will:
A.come to her senses before it’s too late.
B.follow her mother’s advice in spite of her own feelings.
C.listen to her mother but marry Mark anyway.
D.eventually grow out of the youthful desire to marry mark.
3. The idea that love is not the result of rational thought is best exemplified by which of the following quotations from the passage?
A.“You’re a girl turned woman now.”
B. “I didn’t choose.”
C. “There’s something beyond even love.”
D.“A man who is driven is not easy to live with.”
4.As it is used in lines32-33, the phrase “determined to be stingy with her words’ most nearly means that Lydia wants to be:
A.critical.
B. sarcastic.
C.analytical.
D. quiet.
5.The passage makes it clear that Lydia and Mark:
A. get married.
B. don’t really know each other.
C. will be alienated from Lydia’s family.
D. don’t know what love really is.
6.In the second paragraph (lines 8-14), Lydia compares her father to:
A. the wind.
B. a garden.
C. a horse.
D. the sun.
7.We may reasonably infer from details in the passage that the wind, Papa’s horse, and Lydia are alike in that they are all:
A.unpredictable and intense.
B. strong and destructive.
C. beautiful and free.
D. disciplined and stubborn.
8.Lines 60-68 indicate that Lydia’s feelings about herself are best described as:
A.mournful.
B. erratic.
C. peaceful.
D. steady.
9.It can be reasonably inferred that the corn shucks and the seed mentioned in the third paragraph (lines 15-22) are symbolic, respectively, of Lydia’s:
A.memories and regrets.
B. past and future.
C. youth and innocence.
D.maturity and wisdom.
10.Details in the passage suggest that Lydia’s mother objects to her marrying Mark McQueen because she believes:
A. he doesn’t really love her daughter.
B.Lydia will not be well-supported financially.
C.he is of a lower social class than Lydia’s family.
D.Lydia will lose her independent identity.
Passage 2
NATURAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from the article “How to Build a Baby’s Brain” by Sharon Begley (©1997 by Newsweek, Inc.). In this selection, the term neuron refers to a specialized cell of the nervous system, and tomography refers to a method of producing three-dimensional images of internal structures.You cannot see what is going on inside your
newborn’s brain. You cannot see the electrical
activity asher eyes lock onto yours and, almost
instantaneously,a neuron in her retina makes a
5 connection to one inherbrain’s visual cortex that
will last all her life. Theimage of your face has
become an enduring memory inher mind. And you
cannot see the explosive release of a
neurotransmitter—brain chemical—as a neuron
10 fromyour baby’s ear, carrying the electrically
encodedsound of“ma,” connects to a neuron in her
auditorycortex. “Ma” has now commandeered a
cluster of cellsin the infant’s brain that will, as long
as the child lives,respond to no other sound.
15 You cannot see any of this. But Dr. Harry
Chuganican come close. With positron-emission
TomographyPET), Chugani, a pediatric
neurobiologist, watches theregions of a baby’s
brain turn on, one after another, likecity
20 neighborhoods having their electricity restored
after a blackout. He can measure activity in the
primitive brain stem and sensory cortex from the
moment thebaby is born. He can observe the visual
cortex burnwith activity in the second and third
25 months of life. Hecan see the frontal cortex light up
at 6 to 8 months. Hecan see, in other words, that
the brain of a baby is still forming long after the
child has left the womb—notmerely growing
bigger, but forming the microscopicconnections
30 responsible for feeling, learning andremembering.
Scientists are just now realizing how
experiences after birth, rather than something
innate, determine theactual wiring of the human
brain. Only 15 years agoneuroscientists assumed
35 that by the time babies areborn, the structure of
their brains had been geneticallydetermined. But
by 1996, researchers knew that was wrong. Instead,
early-childhood experiences exert adramatic and
precise impact, physically determininghow the
40 intricate neural circuits of the brain are wired.Since
then they have been learning how those experiences
shape the brain’s circuits.
At birth, the brain’s 100 billion or so neurons
formmore than 50 trillion connections (synapses).
45 Thegenesthe baby carries have already determined
his brain’sbasic wiring. They have formed the
connections in thebrain stem that will make the
heart beat and the lungs respire. But that’s all. Of a
human’s 80,000 differentgenes, fully half are
50 believed to be involved in formingand running the
central nervous system. Yet even thatdoesn’t come
close to what the brain needs. In the first
months of life, the number of synapses will increase
20-fold—to more than 1,000 trillion. There simply
55 are notenough genes in the human species to
specify so manyconnections.
That leaves experience—all the signals that a
babyreceives from the world. Experience seems to
exert its effects by strengthening synapses. Just as a
60 memorywill fade if it is not accessed from time to
time, sosynapses that are not used will also wither
away in aprocess called pruning. The way to
reinforce thesewispy connections has come to be
known as stimulation. Contrary to the claims of
65 entrepreneurs preying onthe anxieties of new
parents, stimulation does not mean
subjecting a toddler to flashcards. Rather, it is
something much simpler—sorting socks by color or
listeningto the soothing cadences of a fairy tale. In
70 the mostextensive study yet of what makes a
difference, Craig Ramey of the University of
Alabama found that it wasblocks, beads, peekaboo
and other old-fashioned measures that enhance
cognitive, motor and languagedevelopment—and,
75 absent traumas, enhance them permanently.
The formation of synapses (synaptogenesis)
andtheir pruning occurs at different times in
different partsof the brain. The sequence seems to
coincide with theemergence of various skills.
80 Synaptogenesis begins in the motor cortex at about
2 months. Around then,infants losetheir “startle”
and “rooting” reflexes andbegin tomaster
purposeful movements. At 3 months,synapse
formation in the visual cortex peaks; thebrainis
85 fine-tuning connections allowing the eyesto focus
onan object. At 8 or 9 months thehippocampus,
whichindexes and files memories,becomes fully
functional;only now can babies formexplicit
memories of, say,how to move a mobile. Inthe
90 second half of the firstyear, finds Chugani, the
prefrontal cortex, the seat of forethought and logic,
forms synapses at such a ratethat it consumes twice
as much energy as an adultbrain. That furious pace
continues for the child’sfirstdecade of life.
11. The main point of this passage is to:
A. illustrate the importance of genetics in the formation of a baby’s brain.
B. illustrate the importance of stimulation and experience in the formation of a baby’s brain.
C. indicate the great need for conducting further research on babies’ brains.
D. compare the latest research on babies’ brains with similar research conducted fifteen years ago.
12.The main point made in the second, third, and fourth paragraphs (lines 14–52) is that the structure of a baby’s brain:
A.is genetically determined before the child is born.
B.can be seen through positron-emission tomography.
C.can be altered through a process known as pruning.
D.is still developing after the child is born.
13. According to the passage, one thing PET allows neurobiologists to do is:
A. observe activity in the frontal cortex of a baby’s brain.
B. determine the number of genes involved in the formation of a baby’s brain.
C. control the release of neurotransmitters in a baby’s auditory cortex.
D. restore microscopic connections in a baby’s brain.
14.1When she compares a baby’s brain to city neighborhoods, the author is most nearly illustrating her point that:
A.neurotransmitters are actually brain chemicals.
B.regions of the brain are awakened through experience.
C.the visual cortex allows a baby to recognize specific images.
D.a baby’s brain has about 1,000 trillion synapses.
15.Which of the following would the author of the passage be LEAST likely to recommend as a way to strengthen the synapses of a baby’s brain?
A.Reading to a baby
B.Playing peekaboo with a baby
C.Teaching a baby with flashcards
D.Showing a baby how to distinguish red socks from blue blocks
16.The last paragraph suggests that the formation of synapses occurs most rapidly:
A.during the first two months of a child’s life.
B.during the first nine months of a child’s life.
C.from the time a child is about six months old until that child is about ten years old.
D.from the time a child is about one year old until that child is well into adolescence.
17.As it is used in line30, the phrase something innate most nearly means:
A.a memory.
B.learned behavior.
C.physical immaturity.
D.an inherited trait.
18. The fifth paragraph (lines 53–70) suggests that one of the main causes of pruning is:
A.a lack of stimulation.
B.an insufficient number of genes.
C.the use of flashcards.
D.the strengthening of synapses.
19. When the author refers to “entrepreneurs preying on the anxieties of new parents” (lines 60–61), she is most likely suggesting that new parents should:
A.give their babies products such as flashcards only if they have examined these products carefully.
B.not be deceived by advertising that claims certain products will increase a baby’s intelligence.
C.not worry if their babies’ development is slightly behind that suggested by neurobiologists.
D.take their pediatrician’s advice before they listen to the advice given by other family members.
20. The passage states that, in terms of development, the average baby should be able to:
A.focus his or her eyes on an object at two months of age.
B.develop a “startle” reflex at about two months of age.
C.make logical connections between ideas at about four months of age.
D.form explicit memories at about nine months of age.
ENGLISH TEST
DIRECTIONS: In this passage, certain words or phrases have been underlined and numbered. Choose the answer that best expresses the idea, makes the statement grammatically correct for standard written English, or is worded most consistently with the style and tone of the passage. If you think the original version is best, choose “NO CHANGE.”
PASSAGE 1
The Andean Panpipe
The best answer is C. This question asks the test taker to choose the LEAST likely way to strengthen a baby's synapses. Lines 61-62 clearly state that "stimulation does not mean subjecting a toddler to flashcards." This suggests that flashcards are not the preferred way to strengthen brain connections.
The best answer is NOT A because the author suggests that "listening to the soothing cadences of a fairy tale" (lines 63-64) is a good way to strengthen a baby's synapses.
The best answer is NOT B because the author suggests that "peekaboo and other old-fashioned measures" (lines 67-68) are good ways to strengthen a baby's synapses.