Module I: Reading and Writing

timer
When Charlie Chaplin, English comic actor and filmmaker, was developing his most famous The Great Dictator in 1940, a film that satirized Hitler, he was under mounting pressure; he was only able to ___ this pressure through tremendous political courage.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
1
Mark for Review
alleviate
soothe
aggravate
defuse
To members of the Tory Party in Great Britain, the Reform Bill came as a dire ___, and the repeal of the Corn Laws was an unpardonable atrocity; both were attributable to the dismal failure of a presumably functioning bipartisan institution.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
2
Mark for Review
calamity,
breakthrough,
frustration,
trepidation,
The following text is adapted from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the text, the narrator, Nick Carraway, recalls the moments before and after elaborate parties at his neighbor Jay Gatsby’s house.
At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking [in] the sun on the sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the water, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears repairing the ravages of the night before.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
3
Mark for Review
It demonstrates the wide selection of vehicles Gatsby possesses.
It portrays the popular and crazy, yet fleeting, nature of Gatsby’s parties.
It implies that Gatsby’s guests do not enjoy his parties and leave in a rush.
It suggests that Gatsby needs many additional workers to clean up after parties.
A study by Richard E. Lucas and Nicole M. Lawless explores the effects of weather on life satisfaction judgments. By using a representative 5-year period of over 1.5 million American participants across all states, Lucas and Lawless closely examine the association between weather conditions and psychological phenomena. They found that daily life judgments were largely uninfluenced by weather conditions, and slight effects were only shown due to the statistical power of the analyses.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
4
Mark for Review
To summarize the results of the team’s analysis
To present a specific example that illustrates the study’s findings
To explain part of the methodology used in the team’s study
To call out a challenge the team faced in conducting its analysis
The following text is from The Murder at the Vicarage, a mystery novel by Agatha Christie. The narrative is from the perspective of the vicar, Reverend Leonard Clement. Griselda is his wife.
Griselda is nearly twenty years younger than myself. She is most distractingly pretty and quite incapable of taking anything seriously. She is incompetent in every way, and extremely trying to live with. She treats the parish as a kind of huge joke arranged for her amusement. I have endeavored to form her mind and failed. I am more than ever convinced that celibacy is desirable for the clergy. I have frequently hinted as much to Griselda, but she has only laughed.
According to the text, what is true about Griselda?
5
Mark for Review
She is nonchalant to everything that the vicar says.
Joking around is her favorite pastime.
She wishes that things were taken more seriously.
She is not a typical conforming wife.
logo

Guest