Reading Comprehension — Mock Test 4

Its object is the ordinary and repetitive, not the epochal.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on everyday-life theory, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It describes everyday-life studies as the study of overlooked routines (walking, eating, working) that never count as historical 'events'. It notes that theorists differ on their politics: Lefebvre-style critique sees alienation under capitalism, Foucault sees power at work in private life, and de Certeau finds in everyday practices 'tactics' of quiet resistance in the interstices of the dominant order.

In The Practice of Everyday Life (1980) users' 'tactics' resist the 'strategies' of institutions.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on everyday-life theory, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It describes everyday-life studies as the study of overlooked routines (walking, eating, working) that never count as historical 'events'. It notes that theorists differ on their politics: Lefebvre-style critique sees alienation under capitalism, Foucault sees power at work in private life, and de Certeau finds in everyday practices 'tactics' of quiet resistance in the interstices of the dominant order.

Quotidian (Latin quotidie, 'daily') means ordinary, everyday.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on everyday-life theory, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It describes everyday-life studies as the study of overlooked routines (walking, eating, working) that never count as historical 'events'. It notes that theorists differ on their politics: Lefebvre-style critique sees alienation under capitalism, Foucault sees power at work in private life, and de Certeau finds in everyday practices 'tactics' of quiet resistance in the interstices of the dominant order.

An interstice is a gap or in-between space; 'monolithic' (solid, uniform) is its opposite.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on everyday-life theory, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It describes everyday-life studies as the study of overlooked routines (walking, eating, working) that never count as historical 'events'. It notes that theorists differ on their politics: Lefebvre-style critique sees alienation under capitalism, Foucault sees power at work in private life, and de Certeau finds in everyday practices 'tactics' of quiet resistance in the interstices of the dominant order.

'Small' refers to the micro-level routines it studies.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on everyday-life theory, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It describes everyday-life studies as the study of overlooked routines (walking, eating, working) that never count as historical 'events'. It notes that theorists differ on their politics: Lefebvre-style critique sees alienation under capitalism, Foucault sees power at work in private life, and de Certeau finds in everyday practices 'tactics' of quiet resistance in the interstices of the dominant order.

She is a mountain moved only by faith, and the speaker sends her his faith.

Note: Passage I is a modern copyrighted poem and is not reproduced. Its speaker describes a woman 'as huge as Asia', seismic with laughter, tender to lame dogs and hurt birds, unafraid when bombers pass, a mountain that only faith could move. The speaker sends her all his faith and love, trusting that she will go on moving 'from grief to grief'.

She is tender to 'the lame dogs and hurt birds'.

Note: Passage I is a modern copyrighted poem and is not reproduced. Its speaker describes a woman 'as huge as Asia', seismic with laughter, tender to lame dogs and hurt birds, unafraid when bombers pass, a mountain that only faith could move. The speaker sends her all his faith and love, trusting that she will go on moving 'from grief to grief'.

'Huge as Asia' is a map image; 'seismic' and 'mountain' are images from nature.

Note: Passage I is a modern copyrighted poem and is not reproduced. Its speaker describes a woman 'as huge as Asia', seismic with laughter, tender to lame dogs and hurt birds, unafraid when bombers pass, a mountain that only faith could move. The speaker sends her all his faith and love, trusting that she will go on moving 'from grief to grief'.

Per the key, the line points to her complexion.

Note: Passage I is a modern copyrighted poem and is not reproduced. Its speaker describes a woman 'as huge as Asia', seismic with laughter, tender to lame dogs and hurt birds, unafraid when bombers pass, a mountain that only faith could move. The speaker sends her all his faith and love, trusting that she will go on moving 'from grief to grief'. The poem is not reproduced and the key is doubtful: if the line is the 'huge as Asia' comparison, option 2 (physique) fits better.

The present and future tenses ('she is', 'she will move') show she is living.

Note: Passage I is a modern copyrighted poem and is not reproduced. Its speaker describes a woman 'as huge as Asia', seismic with laughter, tender to lame dogs and hurt birds, unafraid when bombers pass, a mountain that only faith could move. The speaker sends her all his faith and love, trusting that she will go on moving 'from grief to grief'.

Looking for internal coherence means judging the text on its own terms, apart from context.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on practical criticism, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It explains that close reading, still common in schools, comes from I. A. Richards's 1920s experiments. His method judged a poem by its words and technique, apart from author and context, and looked for coherence of image, theme and language, aiming to be objective and 'scientific'. It shaped the American New Critics (Ransom, Brooks) and implied a hierarchy of texts of 'universal' value, the canon.

The passage says Richards and his colleagues saw the method as scientific and objective.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on practical criticism, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It explains that close reading, still common in schools, comes from I. A. Richards's 1920s experiments. His method judged a poem by its words and technique, apart from author and context, and looked for coherence of image, theme and language, aiming to be objective and 'scientific'. It shaped the American New Critics (Ransom, Brooks) and implied a hierarchy of texts of 'universal' value, the canon.

The canon is the body of the most revered texts, held to have universal significance.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on practical criticism, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It explains that close reading, still common in schools, comes from I. A. Richards's 1920s experiments. His method judged a poem by its words and technique, apart from author and context, and looked for coherence of image, theme and language, aiming to be objective and 'scientific'. It shaped the American New Critics (Ransom, Brooks) and implied a hierarchy of texts of 'universal' value, the canon.

It ranked texts by their supposedly universal meaning and significance.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on practical criticism, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It explains that close reading, still common in schools, comes from I. A. Richards's 1920s experiments. His method judged a poem by its words and technique, apart from author and context, and looked for coherence of image, theme and language, aiming to be objective and 'scientific'. It shaped the American New Critics (Ransom, Brooks) and implied a hierarchy of texts of 'universal' value, the canon.

Close reading attends to 'the words on the page' and the technique of the verse.

Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on practical criticism, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It explains that close reading, still common in schools, comes from I. A. Richards's 1920s experiments. His method judged a poem by its words and technique, apart from author and context, and looked for coherence of image, theme and language, aiming to be objective and 'scientific'. It shaped the American New Critics (Ransom, Brooks) and implied a hierarchy of texts of 'universal' value, the canon.

They clear the room for the parlour game.

Note: Passage I is Andrew Motion's 'Are You There?', which is copyrighted and not reproduced. The speaker and his father push the furniture to the walls to play the blindfold newspaper-swatting game 'Are you there, Moriarty?'. As the speaker raises his rolled-up Times to strike, he realises from his father's stillness and cold, stiff fingers that his father has died.

'Are you there, Moriarty?' is the name of the blindfold game.

Note: Passage I is Andrew Motion's 'Are You There?', which is copyrighted and not reproduced. The speaker and his father push the furniture to the walls to play the blindfold newspaper-swatting game 'Are you there, Moriarty?'. As the speaker raises his rolled-up Times to strike, he realises from his father's stillness and cold, stiff fingers that his father has died.

Blindfolded, the speaker can only imagine it.

Note: Passage I is Andrew Motion's 'Are You There?', which is copyrighted and not reproduced. The speaker and his father push the furniture to the walls to play the blindfold newspaper-swatting game 'Are you there, Moriarty?'. As the speaker raises his rolled-up Times to strike, he realises from his father's stillness and cold, stiff fingers that his father has died.

The game is played with rolled-up newspapers.

Note: Passage I is Andrew Motion's 'Are You There?', which is copyrighted and not reproduced. The speaker and his father push the furniture to the walls to play the blindfold newspaper-swatting game 'Are you there, Moriarty?'. As the speaker raises his rolled-up Times to strike, he realises from his father's stillness and cold, stiff fingers that his father has died.

The stillness and cold, stiff fingers leave the speaker certain.

Note: Passage I is Andrew Motion's 'Are You There?', which is copyrighted and not reproduced. The speaker and his father push the furniture to the walls to play the blindfold newspaper-swatting game 'Are you there, Moriarty?'. As the speaker raises his rolled-up Times to strike, he realises from his father's stillness and cold, stiff fingers that his father has died.

Value depends on how readers in different positions relate to a text.

Note: Passage II is from Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. Eagleton argues that 'literature' names a number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing, not a fixed set of texts with an 'essence'. Any text can be read 'non-pragmatically', and, as with John M. Ellis's 'weed', the word is a functional, not an ontological, term: it tells us what we do with a text, not what it permanently is.

Per the key: nothing fixed and central makes a text literary.

Note: Passage II is from Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. Eagleton argues that 'literature' names a number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing, not a fixed set of texts with an 'essence'. Any text can be read 'non-pragmatically', and, as with John M. Ellis's 'weed', the word is a functional, not an ontological, term: it tells us what we do with a text, not what it permanently is.

Reading not for a practical purpose but for feeling and reflection.

Note: Passage II is from Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. Eagleton argues that 'literature' names a number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing, not a fixed set of texts with an 'essence'. Any text can be read 'non-pragmatically', and, as with John M. Ellis's 'weed', the word is a functional, not an ontological, term: it tells us what we do with a text, not what it permanently is.

Like 'weed', 'literature' is a judgement of value and function, not a description of a kind of object.

Note: Passage II is from Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. Eagleton argues that 'literature' names a number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing, not a fixed set of texts with an 'essence'. Any text can be read 'non-pragmatically', and, as with John M. Ellis's 'weed', the word is a functional, not an ontological, term: it tells us what we do with a text, not what it permanently is.

Ontology is the study of being; epistemology studies knowledge.

Note: Passage II is from Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. Eagleton argues that 'literature' names a number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing, not a fixed set of texts with an 'essence'. Any text can be read 'non-pragmatically', and, as with John M. Ellis's 'weed', the word is a functional, not an ontological, term: it tells us what we do with a text, not what it permanently is.