ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION I
Time— 1 hour
Directions: This section consists of selections from literary works and questions on their content, form, and style.
After reading each passage or poem, choose the best answer to each question and then fill in the corresponding circle
on the answer sheet.
Note: Pay particular attention to the requirements of questions that contain the words NOT, LEAST, or EXCEPT.
Questions 1-14. Read the following poem carefully
before you choose your answers.
1. The poem deals with all of the following
Remembrance EXCEPT the

Cold in the earth—and the deep snow piled above (A) aftermath of a terrible loss
thee, (B) discipline required to address grief
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave! (C) power of time to alter grief
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee, (D) emotions experienced as grief abates
Severed at last by Time’s all-severing wave? (E) happiness that follows after grief has passed
Line
5 Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover 2. The second stanza (lines 5-8) primarily serves to
Over the mountains, on that northern shore, (A) dramatize the power of thoughts to sustain
Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves romantic feelings in the speaker
cover (B) indicate how loneliness causes the speaker to
Thy noble heart for ever, ever more? dwell on the past
(C) ponder the current connection between the
Cold in the earth—and fifteen wild Decembers,
speaker and the loved one
10 From those brown hills, have melted into spring:
(D) communicate the speaker’s ongoing devotion
Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
to a treasured childhood memory
After such years of change and suffering!
(E) compare the loved one to a bird that has
Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee, departed for northern latitudes
While the world’s tide is bearing me along;
15 Other desires and other hopes beset me, 3. Which best describes the speaker’s implication in
Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong! lines 11-12 ?
(A) Only someone remarkably devoted can retain
No later light has lightened up my heaven, the memory of an absent loved one over
No second morn has ever shone for me; time.
All my life’s bliss from thy dear life was given, (B) Only people who embrace a higher faith can
20 All my life’s bliss is in the grave with thee. successfully live with their grief.
(C) Pain strengthens the soul so that the sufferer
But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,
can move forward.
And even Despair was powerless to destroy;
(D) The bereaved must choose to forget the past
Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
in order to bear their losses.
Strengthened and fed without the aid of joy.
(E) People who dwell on the past are usually
25 Then did I check the tears of useless passion— unable to move beyond their personal
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine; losses.
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,

30 Dare not indulge in memory’s rapturous pain;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?

(1846)
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4. In the fourth stanza (lines 13-16), the speaker’s 10. Which is the best paraphrase of line 26 ?
explanation is best described as one of
(A) Trained myself not to miss you
(A) sarcasm and self-mockery (B) Taught myself to forgive you
(B) rationalization and apology (C) Freed myself from suffering
(C) exaggeration and deception (D) Wished that I could help you
(D) equivocation and defensiveness (E) Prayed that I could be free of you
(E) moralizing and invective
11. The speaker’s “burning wish” (line 27) is for a
5. In context, “but cannot do thee wrong” (line 16)
(A) visit to the loved one’s grave
is best understood to express the speaker’s
(B) glimpse of the loved one’s feelings
(A) certainty that the loved one will forgive any (C) second chance at love
transgressions (D) reunion in death
(B) concern that an act of betrayal would be (E) respite from fear
morally wrong
(C) hope that the temptations of the world will 12. The pronoun “it” (line 29) refers to the speaker’s
not cause unfaithfulness
(A) “Despair” (line 22)
(D) belief that no future love will supplant the
(B) “passion” (line 25)
former one
(C) “soul” (line 26)
(E) fear that the loved one is beyond caring about
(D) “wish” (line 27)
their relationship
(E) “tomb” (line 28)
6. In line 17, “later light” most likely refers to a
13. The concept of “divinest anguish” (line 31) is
(A) new love most like that of
(B) rekindled hope
(A) “dear life” (line 19)
(C) flash of awareness
(B) “golden dreams” (line 21)
(D) second thought
(C) “useless passion” (line 25)
(E) spiritual awakening
(D) “burning wish” (line 27)
(E) “rapturous pain” (line 30)
7. The fifth stanza (lines 17-20) makes use of all of
the following EXCEPT
14. Which of the following best describes a central
(A) metaphor paradox of the poem?
(B) repetition
(A) The speaker, attempting to grow closer to a
(C) synecdoche
lost love, becomes even more distant from
(D) consonance
the loved one.
(E) parallelism
(B) The speaker, in the act of remembering a
childhood love, comes to an increasing
8. In context, “check” (line 25) most nearly means
awareness of mortality.
(A) mark (C) The speaker, in the act of mourning, is able
(B) staunch to experience a newfound joy.
(C) influence (D) The speaker, worrying over forgetting a
(D) examine deceased lover, reveals the extent of that
(E) ascertain loved one’s continuing memory.
(E) The speaker, mourning the death of a loved
9. The last three stanzas (lines 21-32) are best one, begins to recognize the extent of an
understood to suggest that remembering the attraction to a present acquaintance.
loved one is
(A) necessary but addictive
(B) important but dangerous
(C) unpleasant but unavoidable
(D) painful but instructive
(E) tempting but destructive

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 Questions 15-23. Read the following passage tumbling “boils” show a dissolving bar and a
carefully before you choose your answers. changing channel there; the lines and circles in the
slick water over yonder are a warning that that
Now when I had mastered the language of this troublesome place is shoaling up dangerously; that
water and had come to know every trifling feature 50 silver streak in the shadow of the forest is the “break”
that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew from a new snag, and he has located himself in the
Line the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable very best place he could have found to fish for
5 acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost steamboats; that tall dead tree, with a single living
something which could never be restored to me while branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a
I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone 55 body ever going to get through this blind place at
out of the majestic river! I still keep in mind a certain night without the friendly old landmark?
wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steam-
10 boating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river (1883)
was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red
hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log
came floating, black and conspicuous; in one place a 15. In context, “the language of this water” (lines 1-2)
long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in is best understood to mean the
15 another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling (A) indications of change in the motion of the
rings, that were as many-tinted as an opal; where the river
ruddy flush was faintest, was a smooth spot that was (B) signals of approaching riverboats
covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever (C) indicators of the fastest channels in the river
so delicately traced; the shore on our left was densely (D) characteristics of life on the river
20 wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this (E) movement of fish and fowl along the current
forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail
that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a 16. By learning the language of the river, the speaker
clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough gains
that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor
25 that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful (A) command of a riverboat, but loses the inno-
curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft dis- cence of youth
tances; and over the whole scene, far and near, the (B) pride in his profession, but loses a broader
dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it, every interest in the world
passing moment, with new marvels of coloring. (C) technical knowledge, but loses an
30 I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a appreciation of the river’s beauty
speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I (D) awareness of the river’s dangers, but loses a
had never seen anything like this at home. But as I sense of confidence
have said, a day came when I began to cease from (E) assurance of his abilities, but loses respect
noting the glories and the charms which the moon for the river’s might
35 and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river’s
face; another day came when I ceased altogether to
note them. Then, if that sunset scene had been
repeated, I should have looked upon it without
rapture, and should have commented upon it,
40 inwardly, after this fashion: This sun means that we
are going to have wind tomorrow; that floating log
means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that
slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which
is going to kill somebody’s steamboat one of these
45 nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those

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17. The statement “A broad expanse of the river was 21. Which of the following best describes the rela-
turned to blood” (lines 10-11) contains an tionship between the first paragraph and the
example of second?
(A) allegory (A) The first paragraph is mainly concerned with
(B) personification aesthetic issues, and the second, with
(C) simile pragmatic ones.
(D) onomatopoeia (B) The diction is sophisticated in the first para-
(E) metaphor graph and simple in the second.
(C) The point of view in the first paragraph is
18. All of the following are found in the sentence mainly subjective; in the second, it is mostly
in lines 10-25 (“A broad expanse . . . the sun”) objective.
EXCEPT (D) The romantic tone of the first paragraph
becomes rather arrogant in the second.
(A) similes
(E) A question posed in the first paragraph is
(B) alliteration
answered in the second.
(C) an accumulation of clauses
(D) regular rhythm
22. As used in lines 38 and 39, “should” is best inter-
(E) an abundance of adjectives
preted to mean
19. In line 20, “somber” is best interpreted to mean (A) could
(B) ought to
(A) serious
(C) would
(B) silent
(D) might
(C) calm
(E) had to
(D) dull
(E) dark
23. The passage primarily suggests that
20. In the second paragraph, the natural aspects of the (A) although the speaker loves the river, he must
river are viewed as leave it in order to challenge himself
(B) as the speaker becomes obsessed with the
(A) impressions
river, he increasingly fears and mistrusts it
(B) signs
(C) as the speaker becomes more familiar with
(C) metaphors
the river, his attitude toward it becomes
(D) allusions
more practical
(E) speculations
(D) when the speaker reflects on the past, he
finds himself growing nostalgic
(E) because the speaker is eager to improve his
navigational skills, he is willing to abandon
other pleasures

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 Questions 24-33. Read the following lines 26. According to the passage, why does Satan not enter
carefully before you choose your answers. the garden by the gate?
(A) The gate is protected by God.
Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill (B) The gate is hidden by overgrown shrubbery.
Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow; (C) He is too large to fit through the gate.
But further way found none; so thick entwined, (D) He is contemptuous of proper procedures.
Line As one continued brake, the undergrowth (E) He fears an encounter with other creatures.
5 Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed
All path of man or beast that passed that way. 27. In which of the following lines does an epic simile
One gate there only was, and that looked east begin?
On the other side: which when the Arch-Felon saw,
Due entrance he disdained, and, in contempt, (A) Line 1
10 At one slight bound high overleaped all bound (B) Line 4
Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within (C) Line 10
Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf, (D) Line 12
Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, (E) Line 20
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve,
15 In hurdled cotes amid the field secure, 28. Which of the following lines contains a play on
Leaps o’er the fence with ease into the fold; words?
Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash (A) Line 3
Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors, (B) Line 6
Cross-barred and bolted fast, fear no assault, (C) Line 10
20 In at the window climbs, or o’er the tiles: (D) Line 14
So clomb this first grand Thief into God’s fold; (E) Line 20
So since into his Church lewd hirelings climb.
29. In line 15, “hurdled cotes” refers to
(1667)
(A) blocked paths
24. Satan’s action is best described as (B) natural obstacles
(C) fenced enclosures
(A) trespass (D) wool garments
(B) usurpation (E) steep hills
(C) betrayal
(D) dream 30. In line 18, the “rich burgher” is analogous to
(E) consecration
(A) a wolf
25. In line 5, “perplexed” is best interpreted to mean (B) Satan
(C) God
(A) widened (D) a traveler
(B) complicated (E) a hireling
(C) questioned
(D) endangered
(E) discovered

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31. The subject of “fear” (line 19) is 33. The imagery in the passage suggests all of the
following about Satan EXCEPT his
(A) “shepherds” (line 14)
(B) “flocks” (line 14) (A) pride
(C) “thief” (line 17) (B) stealthiness
(D) “burgher” (line 18) (C) rapaciousness
(E) “doors” (line 18) (D) stupidity
(E) unscrupulousness
32. Which of the following lines most probably
contains a commentary on the poet’s own era?
(A) Line 2
(B) Line 7
(C) Line 9
(D) Line 10
(E) Line 22

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35. Charles Tansley interprets Mrs. Ramsay’s refusal 38. Charles Tansley’s sense of the words “fellowship”
to allow him to carry her “little bag” (line 6) as and “professorship” (lines 12-13) stands in ironic
evidence of her contrast to
(A) independent, capable nature, which he (A) his attitude toward Mrs. Ramsay
admires (B) his view of himself as an academic
(B) suspicious, wary character, which he deplores (C) his inability to “return hospitality”
(C) gregarious personality, which he envies (line 43)
(D) desire to remain aloof from him, which he (D) Mrs. Ramsay’s own intellectual accom-
regrets plishments
(E) conventional manners, which he deplores (E) Mrs. Ramsay’s reference to “ugly academic
jargon” (line 53)
36. The sentence “She did too” (line 8) conveys
which of the following? 39. The use of the dash in line 14 indicates that
(A) Mrs. Ramsay’s point of view (A) Mrs. Ramsay has become infatuated with
(B) Charles Tansley’s perception of Charles Tansley
Mrs. Ramsay’s character (B) there has been a sudden shift in attitude on
(C) A reply of Mrs. Ramsay to Charles Tansley the part of the narrator
(D) A comment Charles Tansley makes to (C) the narrative point of view has shifted
Mrs. Ramsay from that of Charles Tansley to that of
(E) The narrator’s criticism of Charles Tansley’s Mrs. Ramsay
naïveté (D) Charles Tansley is aware that Mrs. Ramsay
had become critical of him
37. The passage suggests that Charles Tansley would (E) Charles Tansley realizes that Mrs. Ramsay is
like Mrs. Ramsay “to see him, gowned and no longer paying complete attention to him
hooded, walking in a procession” (lines 11-12)
because 40. In the sentence “Never . . . circuses”
(lines 36-38), which of Charles Tansley’s
(A) he would like her to understand the conflict
qualities is most apparent?
within him
(B) only when so dressed could he reveal his true (A) A desire for sympathy
feelings to her (B) Intellectual snobbery
(C) he believes that, in such a costume, he would (C) Fearless candor
appear to be more conventional (D) Genuine empathy
(D) he believes she would be favorably impressed (E) A capacity for self-deception
with his status
(E) he fears that the clothes he is wearing betray
his humble origins

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 The passage is reprinted for your use in answering the remaining questions.

It flattered him; snubbed as he had been, it smoked the cheapest tobacco; shag; the same the old
soothed him that Mrs. Ramsay should tell him this. men did in the quays. He worked hard—seven hours
Charles Tansley revived . . . she made him feel better a day; his subject was now the influence of some-
Line pleased with himself than he had done yet, and he thing upon somebody—they were walking on and
5 would have liked, had they taken a cab, for example, 50 Mrs. Ramsay did not quite catch the meaning, only
to have paid for it. As for her little bag, might he not the words here and there . . . dissertation . . . fellow-
carry that? No, no she said, she always carried that ship . . . readership . . . lectureship. She could not
herself. She did too. Yes, he felt that in her. He felt follow the ugly academic jargon, that rattled itself
many things, something in particular that excited off so glibly, but said to herself that she saw now why
10 him and disturbed him for reasons which he could 55 going to the circus had knocked him off his perch,
not give. He would like her to see him, gowned and poor little man, and why he came out, instantly, with
hooded, walking in a procession. A fellowship, a all that about his father and mother and brothers and
professorship, he felt capable of anything and saw sisters, and she would see to it that they didn’t laugh
himself—but what was she looking at? At a man at him anymore; she would tell Prue about it. What he
15 pasting a bill. The vast flapping sheet flattened itself 60 would have liked, she supposed, would have been to
out, and each shove of the brush revealed fresh legs, say how he had gone not to the circus but to Ibsen
hoops, horses, glistening reds and blues, beautifully with the Ramsays. He was an awful prig—oh yes, an
smooth, until half the wall was covered with the adver- insufferable bore. For, though they had reached the
tisement of a circus; a hundred horsemen, twenty town now and were in the main street, with carts
20 performing seals, lions, tigers . . . Craning forwards, 65 grinding past on the cobbles, still he went on talking,
for she was shortsighted, she read it out . . . “will visit about settlements, and teaching, and workingmen, and
this town,” she read. It was terribly dangerous work helping our own class, and lectures, till she gathered
for a one-armed man, she exclaimed, to stand on top that he had got back entire self-confidence, had
of a ladder like that— his left arm had been cut off in recovered from the circus, and was about (and now
25 a reaping machine two years ago. 70 again she liked him warmly) to tell her—but here, the
“Let us all go!” she cried, moving on, as if all houses falling away on both sides, they came out on
those riders and horses had filled her with childlike the quay, and the whole bay spread before them and
exultation and made her forget her pity. Mrs. Ramsay could not help exclaiming, “Oh, how
“Let’s go,” he said, repeating her words, clicking beautiful!” For the great plateful of blue water was
30 them out, however, with a self-consciousness that 75 before her; the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in
made her wince. “Let us go to the circus.” No. He the midst; and on the right, as far as the eye could see,
could not feel it right. But why not? she wondered. fading and falling, in soft low pleats, the green sand
What was wrong with him then? She liked him dunes with the wild flowing grasses on them, which
warmly, at the moment. Had they not been taken, always seemed to be running away into some moon
35 she asked, to circuses when they were children? 80 country, uninhabited of men.
Never, he answered, as if she asked the very thing
he wanted; had been longing all these days to say, Excerpt from To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, copyright 1927 by
Harcourt, Inc. and renewed 1954 by Leonard Woolf. Reprinted by
how they did not go to circuses. It was a large family, permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
nine brothers and sisters, and his father was a work-
40 ingman. “My father is a chemist, Mrs. Ramsay. He
keeps a shop.” He himself had paid his own way since
he was thirteen. Often he went without a great coat in
winter. He could never “return hospitality” (those
were his parched stiff words) at college. He had to
45 make things last twice the time other people did; he

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41. Which of the following has an effect on 45. The final sentence (lines 74-80) differs from the
Mrs. Ramsey similar to that of the circus rest of the passage in that it
advertisement in the first paragraph?
(A) uses a more colloquial style
(A) “a shop” (line 41) (B) has a more didactic tone
(B) “the cheapest tobacco; shag” (line 46) (C) makes greater use of metaphoric language
(C) “dissertation . . . fellowship . . . readership (D) introduces a new narrator
. . . lectureship” (lines 51-52) (E) offers a summary of previous exposition
(D) “Ibsen” (line 61)
(E) “the whole bay” (line 72) 46. Which of the following best describes the way the
passage is narrated?
42. For which of the following reasons are the
(A) The reader’s perspective is limited to
words “dissertation . . . fellowship . . . readership
Mrs. Ramsay’s point of view.
. . . lectureship” (lines 51-52) attractive to
(B) The reader views the scene the way that
Charles Tansley?
Charles Tansley does.
(A) He thinks the terms will be universally (C) The narrator comments directly on the moral
understood. significance of events.
(B) He associates the terms with advancement in (D) The narrator shifts the point of view from one
his career. character to the other.
(C) They are terms that have a fresh, new sound (E) The narrator maintains an ironic distance
to him. from both characters.
(D) Mrs. Ramsay often employs such terms.
(E) Mrs. Ramsay has made a point of encour- 47. Which of the following is true of Mrs. Ramsay’s
aging his academic aspirations. attitude toward Charles Tansley throughout the
passage?
43. In lines 59-62, Mrs. Ramsay’s conjectures about
(A) It changes from bemused tolerance to
going to the circus and going to a play by Ibsen
passionate longing.
serve to indicate her
(B) It vacillates between liking and disliking.
(A) view of the decline in popular taste (C) It becomes increasingly mocking.
(B) love of modern theater (D) It changes suddenly from contempt to pity.
(C) inability to criticize Charles Tansley (E) It alternates between admiration and
(D) impatience with Charles Tansley’s tolerance indifference.
of avant-garde art
(E) recognition of Charles Tansley’s need to be
seen as a cultured person

44. Compared with the style of lines 38-47, the

style of lines 63-80 is best described as
(A) more learned and scholarly
(B) more lyrical and expansive
(C) more simple and relaxed
(D) less reflective and philosophical
(E) less complex and intricate

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 Questions 48-55. Read the following poem 48. In the poem, the frog is mainly depicted as
carefully before you choose your answers. (A) isolated and unattractive
(B) regal and dignified
The Frog in the Swimming Pool (C) fearsome and dangerous
(D) lovable because of his appearance
A wet green velvet scums the swimming pool, (E) alienated but deserving of his lot
furring the cracks. The deep end swims
in a hatful of rain, not enough to float 49. Lines 1-4 (“A wet . . . cart”) incorporate all of the
following EXCEPT
Line the bedspring barge, the tug of shopping cart.
5 Green-wet himself, the bullfrog holds his court, (A) unconventional verbs
sounding the summons to a life so low (B) regular meter
(C) visual imagery
he’s yet to lure a mate. Under the lip (D) tactile imagery
of concrete slab he reigns, a rumble of rock, (E) metaphor
a flickering of sticky tongue that’s licked
50. Line 6 contains which of the following?
10 at any morsel winging into view. (A) Onomatopoeia
How would he love her? Let me count the waves* (B) Antithesis
that scrape the underside of night and then (C) Alliteration
(D) A simile
let go, the depth of love unplumbed, the breadth, (E) An oxymoron
the height of the pool all he needs to know.
15 How do I love him? Let me add the weight 51. The effect of the allusion in lines 11-14 is to
of one hush to another, the mockingbird (A) enhance understanding of a natural
at midnight echoing itself, not him, phenomenon
one silence torn in two, sewn shut again. (B) invest a secular object with spiritual qualities
(C) evoke images of antiquity
Down to his level in time wings everything. (D) dignify a common occurrence
20 He calls the night down on his unlovely head, (E) introduce an element of sympathetic humor
on the slimy skin that breathes the slimy air—
52. Lines 20-21 (“He calls . . . air”) suggest that the
the skin that’s shed and still he is the same, frog
the first voice in the world, the last each night. (A) regrets having chosen a life of nonconformity
His call has failed to fill the empty house (B) inhabits a form inconsistent with his inner
qualities
25 across the street, the vacant swing that sways (C) longs to escape his repetitive existence
halfheartedly, the slide slid into rust, (D) is naturally linked to the scene he inhabits
the old griefs waiting burial by the new. (E) has an insidious power to charm
* Lines 11-14 allude to the Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
sonnet that begins, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

From Off-Season at the Edge of the World. Copyright 1994 by

Debora Greger. Used with permission of the poet and the University
of Illinois Press.

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