PSAT Questions + Answers Part 12
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2022 11:00 am
QUESTION 178
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society.
From the sentence beginning "He entered medical school", it can be inferred that
A. Abeenteredmedicalschoolbecausehewassick.
B. sick people were sent to Manchuria during W orld W ar II.
C. Abe wanted to help the ill and injured in World War II, rather than fight.
D. illness would excuse one from military duty in World War II Japan.
E. Abeneverintendedtopracticemedicine
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Abe forged a medical certificate, so we know he was not actually sick. You can eliminate A. and (B). The passage makes no reference to Abe helping the sick and injured, so eliminate (C). The sentence in the passage says that the forged medical certificate allowed him to avoid fighting. Choice D. corresponds with that meaning. Choice E. can be eliminated because you don't know what his intentions were for after the war.
QUESTION 179
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of
his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society.
The author uses the word "apocalyptic" to emphasize that
A. ManchuriasufferedintenselyasaresultoftheuseofnuclearweaponsinWorldWarII. B. Abewasdeeplyaffectedbythelossofhisfather.
C. there was massive famine in Manchuria at the end of World War II.
D. postwar Manchuria experienced exhilarating change.
E. conditionsinManchuriaafterWorldWarIIweregenerallyhorrific.
Correct Answer: E
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Even if you don't know the defintion of apocalyptic, you probably know that it is a negative word. Eliminate D. (exhilarating is a positive word). There is no reference to nuclear weapons in the passage, so eliminate (A). There was famine, and Abe seems to have been strongly affected by the loss of his father, but neither of these answers is specific enough. Only E. expressly answers the question.
QUESTION 180
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black
humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The word "avant-garde" in this passage could best be replaced by
A. experimental. B. dramatic.
C. novel.
D. profound.
E. realistic.
Correct Answer: A
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
This question is a little bit more difficult than some vocabulary questions because you have to look in a few different places. The third paragraph, where the word appears, tells you that the avant-garde group was political and that Abe worked in various genres. The fourth paragraph refers to his earlier work, which was the work in the third paragraph, as "experimental and heavily political." Since one of these words is an answer choice (A), it is the best answer.
QUESTION 181
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. Which of the following does the passage present as a fact?
A. Abewasabetterplaywrightthannovelist.
B. Abe'searlyworkwasofgreaterqualitythanhislaterwork.
C. The group of avant-garde artists of which Abe was a part were influenced by Marxism.
D. The themes of furusato and the emperor have precluded Japanese literature from playing a major role in world literature. E. Abe'sworkisricherthanhiscontemporaries'becauseheincludedautobiographicalelements.
Correct Answer: C
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
This question basically asks you to distinguish between the author's opinion and the basic facts of Abe's career. Choices (A), (B), and E. all contain evaluative opinions, so eliminate them. The author expresses strong opinions about the themes furusato and the emperor, but never presents any facts about their influence on Japanese literature in the world. The best answer is (C). The author presents it as a known fact that young Japanese artists after World War II were interested in Marxism.
QUESTION 182
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The phrase "blind us" in the last paragraph refers to the
A. absenceoffilmadaptationsforAbe'sothernovels.
B. excessivecriticalattentiontoAbe'snovel,WomanintheDunes.
C. difficulty in reconciling Woman in the Dunes and other later works with the form and content of his earlier works. D. challenge of interpreting Abe's more experimental works.
E. overwhelmingpowerofAbe'snovel,WomanintheDunes.
Correct Answer: B
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
As always, go back to the passage to look for the context of the phrase. Shortly after the phrase appears, the author says that readers have wrongly decided thatWoman in the Dunes was Abe's masterpiece. The author also refers to the lack of translations of Abe's earlier works. The answer that best summarizes these two things is (B).
QUESTION 183
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique. During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese
Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The author's main purpose in the passage is to
A. defendAbe'slaterworksagainsttheprevalentcriticismofit.
B. advocateforAbe'sworkoverthatofhiscontemporaries.
C. explain the differences between Abe's earlier and later works.
D. argue that Abe is an even greater writer and artist than generally perceived. E. demonstratethatAbe'sworkbecamelessinterestingafterheleftManchuria.
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
The author's purpose in paragraph 4 is to suggest that too much attention has been given to Abe's later work. So the answer cannot be (A). There is only a brief comparison to Abe's contemporaries, so B. is too specific. E. is not factually correct, since most of the work the passage discusses was produced in Japan. You are left with C. and (D). C. is too neutral; this author is opinionated. She/he does not suggest that Abe's later work is bad, but rather that his early work also deserves attention. Choice D. is the best answer.
QUESTION 184
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They
suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The author of the passage is most likely a
A. film critic.
B. literarycritic.
C. avant-garde artist. D. translator.
E. novelist.
Correct Answer: B
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
The author is most interested in literary works. There is no reason to suspect that the author is an artist or writer. The tone is critical and scholarly. B. is the best answer.
QUESTION 185
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique. During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society.
The author's attitude toward Marxism can best be described as
A. contemptuousderision. B. reverentespousal.
C. skeptical tolerance.
D. respectful interest.
E. restrainedimpatience.
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
The author of this passage does express many strong opinions, but not in regard to Marxism. You can therefore eliminate both A. and (B). If anything, she/he is more positive than negative about the influence of Marxism on Abe's work. Eliminate C. and (E), which imply a negative bias. The answer is (D).
QUESTION 186
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following offers the best combination of sentences 1 and 2? An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen.
A. Anincrediblehot-airballoonexhibitionwasgivenSeptember5,1862byGlaisherandCoxwell,twoEnglishmen.
B. Anincrediblyhot-airballoonexhibitionhappenedonSeptember5,1862,givenbyGlaisherandCoxwell,twoEnglishmen. C. Given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen, an incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. D. Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen, gave an incredible hot-air balloon exhibition, happening on September 5, 1862.
E. TwoEnglishmen,GlaisherandCoxwell,gaveanincrediblehot-airballoonexhibitiononSeptember5,1862.
Correct Answer: E
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Right away, you should notice two sentences in passive voice and think about making them active. Only D. and E. do that. D. includes an imprecise 2ing verb. The test writers love to throw these around. Sometimes they are the right answer, but you should always scrutinize them. Here E. is a much sharper sentence.
QUESTION 187
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following sentences in the first paragraph appears to be out of order?
A. Therewasnocompressedoxygenforthemtobreatheinthosedays.
B. Theygotsohighthattheycouldn'tusetheirlimbs.
C. Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth.
D. Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of 29 thousand feet. E. Manybelievetheygot8thousandfeethigherbeforetheybegantodescend.
Correct Answer: A
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Doesn't sentence 2 seem too specific? It is really an explanation for why the men couldn't use their limbs. It should therefore follow sentence 4. The answer is (A).
QUESTION 188
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following is the best revision for sentence 8? Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant."
A. Move"inthenineteenthcentury"tothebeginningofthesentenceanddelete"Now" B. Addacommaafter"Now."
C. Begin the sentence with "Moreover,"
D. Delete "now."
E. Replace"togoup"with"exhibition."
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
What is the logical connection between the two sentences? The first deals with the highest trip. The second deals with the largest balloon. Now has nothing to do with that. Neither does in the nineteenth century. You don't want to begin with either of these. Moreover represents paragraph 2 as an extension of the ideas in paragraph 1, which is also inaccurate. The easiest thing to do is simply get rid of now, (D).
QUESTION 189
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following is the best way to combine sentences 9 and 10? The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. It could handle four and a half tons of cargo.
A. Theballoonheld215,000cubicfeetofairandwas74feetwide,whichcouldhandlefourandahalftonsofcargo. B. Theballoonheld215,000cubicfeetofairandwas74feetwide,handlingfourandahalftonsofcargo.
C. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide; it could handle four and a half tons of cargo.
D. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide, and it could handle four and a half tons of cargo. E. Theballoonheld215,000cubicfeetofairandwas74feetwide,butitcouldcarryfourandahalftonsofcargo
Correct Answer: C
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Sentence combination is huge in this section. This example is trickier than most. It already has an and in the first sentence, so if you use and again your sentence will start to sound like a run-on. Here, too, the 2ing verb is imprecise. Which should really go very close to the noun it modifies, so eliminate (A). But implies a contrast, when all of these ideas are similar, so you can eliminate (E). Go with the semicolon (C).
QUESTION 190
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following is the best way to revise sentences 11 and 12? Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. All of whom returned safely.
A. Replace"whom"with"who."
B. Makethesecondsentenceread"Whoallreturnedsafely."
C. Delete "of"
D. Replace the period at the end of sentence 11 with a comma.
E. Deletetheperiodattheendofsentence11andchange"returned"to"returning
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
All of whom returned safely is not a complete sentence. It modifies "passengers" in the preceding sentence. Only D. addresses that major problem!
QUESTION 191
(1) On my nineteenth birthday, I began my trip to Mali, West Africa. (2) Some 24 hours later I arrived in Bamako, the capital of Mali. (3) The sun had set and the night was starless. (4) One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me. (5) After the melee in the baggage claim, we proceeded to his car. (6) Actually, it was a truck. (7) I was soon to learn that most people in Mali that had automobiles actually had trucks or SUVs. (8) Apparently, there not just a convenience but a necessity when you live on the edge of the Sahara. (9) I threw my bags into the bed of the truck, and hopped in to the back of the cab. (10) Riding to my welcome dinner, I stared out the windows of the truck and took in the city. (11) It was truly a foreign land to me, and I knew that I was an alien there. (12) "What am I doing here?" I thought.
(13) It is hard to believe but seven months later I returned to the same airport along the same road that I had traveled on that first night in Bamako, and my perspective on the things that I saw had completely changed. (14) The landscape that had once seemed so desolate and lifeless now was the homeland of people that I had come to love. (15) When I looked back at the capital, Bamako, fast receding on the horizon, I did not see a city foreboding and wild in its foreignness. (16) I saw the city which held so many dear friends. (17) I saw teadrinking sessions going late into the night. (18) I saw the hospitality and open-heartedness of the people of Mali. (19) The second time, everything looked completely different, and I knew that it was I who had changed and not it.
Which of the following is revision of sentence 4?
One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me.
A. Asitisnow.
B. OneoftheliteracyprogramIwasworking'sofficialswastheretomeetme.
C. There, was one of the officials from the literacy program I was working to meet me.
D. One of the officials from the literacy program where I worked had been there to meet me.
E. OneoftheofficialsfromtheliteracyprogramwhereIwouldbeworkingwastheretomeetme.
Correct Answer: E
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
What's missing in this sentence is where. As it stands now, it implies that literacy program is the direct object of working. Choices D. and E. correct the error, but D. makes undesirable changes to the verb tenses. E. is the best answer.
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society.
From the sentence beginning "He entered medical school", it can be inferred that
A. Abeenteredmedicalschoolbecausehewassick.
B. sick people were sent to Manchuria during W orld W ar II.
C. Abe wanted to help the ill and injured in World War II, rather than fight.
D. illness would excuse one from military duty in World War II Japan.
E. Abeneverintendedtopracticemedicine
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Abe forged a medical certificate, so we know he was not actually sick. You can eliminate A. and (B). The passage makes no reference to Abe helping the sick and injured, so eliminate (C). The sentence in the passage says that the forged medical certificate allowed him to avoid fighting. Choice D. corresponds with that meaning. Choice E. can be eliminated because you don't know what his intentions were for after the war.
QUESTION 179
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of
his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society.
The author uses the word "apocalyptic" to emphasize that
A. ManchuriasufferedintenselyasaresultoftheuseofnuclearweaponsinWorldWarII. B. Abewasdeeplyaffectedbythelossofhisfather.
C. there was massive famine in Manchuria at the end of World War II.
D. postwar Manchuria experienced exhilarating change.
E. conditionsinManchuriaafterWorldWarIIweregenerallyhorrific.
Correct Answer: E
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Even if you don't know the defintion of apocalyptic, you probably know that it is a negative word. Eliminate D. (exhilarating is a positive word). There is no reference to nuclear weapons in the passage, so eliminate (A). There was famine, and Abe seems to have been strongly affected by the loss of his father, but neither of these answers is specific enough. Only E. expressly answers the question.
QUESTION 180
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black
humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The word "avant-garde" in this passage could best be replaced by
A. experimental. B. dramatic.
C. novel.
D. profound.
E. realistic.
Correct Answer: A
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
This question is a little bit more difficult than some vocabulary questions because you have to look in a few different places. The third paragraph, where the word appears, tells you that the avant-garde group was political and that Abe worked in various genres. The fourth paragraph refers to his earlier work, which was the work in the third paragraph, as "experimental and heavily political." Since one of these words is an answer choice (A), it is the best answer.
QUESTION 181
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. Which of the following does the passage present as a fact?
A. Abewasabetterplaywrightthannovelist.
B. Abe'searlyworkwasofgreaterqualitythanhislaterwork.
C. The group of avant-garde artists of which Abe was a part were influenced by Marxism.
D. The themes of furusato and the emperor have precluded Japanese literature from playing a major role in world literature. E. Abe'sworkisricherthanhiscontemporaries'becauseheincludedautobiographicalelements.
Correct Answer: C
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
This question basically asks you to distinguish between the author's opinion and the basic facts of Abe's career. Choices (A), (B), and E. all contain evaluative opinions, so eliminate them. The author expresses strong opinions about the themes furusato and the emperor, but never presents any facts about their influence on Japanese literature in the world. The best answer is (C). The author presents it as a known fact that young Japanese artists after World War II were interested in Marxism.
QUESTION 182
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The phrase "blind us" in the last paragraph refers to the
A. absenceoffilmadaptationsforAbe'sothernovels.
B. excessivecriticalattentiontoAbe'snovel,WomanintheDunes.
C. difficulty in reconciling Woman in the Dunes and other later works with the form and content of his earlier works. D. challenge of interpreting Abe's more experimental works.
E. overwhelmingpowerofAbe'snovel,WomanintheDunes.
Correct Answer: B
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
As always, go back to the passage to look for the context of the phrase. Shortly after the phrase appears, the author says that readers have wrongly decided thatWoman in the Dunes was Abe's masterpiece. The author also refers to the lack of translations of Abe's earlier works. The answer that best summarizes these two things is (B).
QUESTION 183
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique. During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese
Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The author's main purpose in the passage is to
A. defendAbe'slaterworksagainsttheprevalentcriticismofit.
B. advocateforAbe'sworkoverthatofhiscontemporaries.
C. explain the differences between Abe's earlier and later works.
D. argue that Abe is an even greater writer and artist than generally perceived. E. demonstratethatAbe'sworkbecamelessinterestingafterheleftManchuria.
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
The author's purpose in paragraph 4 is to suggest that too much attention has been given to Abe's later work. So the answer cannot be (A). There is only a brief comparison to Abe's contemporaries, so B. is too specific. E. is not factually correct, since most of the work the passage discusses was produced in Japan. You are left with C. and (D). C. is too neutral; this author is opinionated. She/he does not suggest that Abe's later work is bad, but rather that his early work also deserves attention. Choice D. is the best answer.
QUESTION 184
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They
suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique.
During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of
Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society. The author of the passage is most likely a
A. film critic.
B. literarycritic.
C. avant-garde artist. D. translator.
E. novelist.
Correct Answer: B
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
The author is most interested in literary works. There is no reason to suspect that the author is an artist or writer. The tone is critical and scholarly. B. is the best answer.
QUESTION 185
This passage discusses the work of Abe Kobo, a Japanese novelist of the twentieth century.
Abe Kobo is one of the great writers of postwar Japan. His literature is richer, less predictable, and wider-ranging than that of his famed contemporaries, Mishima Yukio and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo. It is infused with the passion and strangeness of his experiences in Manchuria, which was a Japanese colony on mainland China before World War II.
Abe spent his childhood and much of his youth in Manchuria, and, as a result, the orbit of his work would be far less controlled by the oppressive gravitational pull of the themes of furusato (hometown) and the emperor than his contemporaries'.
Abe, like most of the sons of Japanese families living in Manchuria, did return to Japan for schooling. He entered medical school in Tokyo in 1944--just in time to forge himself a medical certificate claiming ill health; this allowed him to avoid fighting in the war that Japan was already losing and return to Manchuria. When Japan lost the war, however, it also lost its Manchurian colony. The Japanese living there were attacked by the Soviet Army and various guerrilla bands. They suddenly found themselves refugees, desperate for food. Many unfit men were abandoned in the Manchurian desert. At this apocalyptic time, Abe lost his father to cholera.
He returned to mainland Japan once more, where the young were turning to Marxism as a rejection of the militarism of the war. After a brief, unsuccessful stint at medical school, he became part of a Marxist group of avant-garde artists. His work at this time was passionate and outspoken on political matters, adopting black humor as its mode of critique. During this time, Abe worked in the genres of theater, music, and photography. Eventually, he mimeographed fifty copies of his first "published" literary work, entitled Anonymous Poems, in 1947. It was a politically charged set of poems dedicated to the memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Shortly thereafter, he published his first novel, For a Signpost at the End of a Road, which imagined another life for his best friend who had died in the Manchurian desert. Abe was also active in the Communist Party, organizing literary groups for workingmen.
Unfortunately, most of this radical early work is unknown outside Japan and underappreciated even in Japan. In early 1962, Abe was dismissed from the Japanese Liberalist Party. Four months later, he published the work that would blind us to his earlier oeuvre, Woman in the Dunes. It was director Teshigahara Hiroshi's film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes that brought Abe's work to the international stage. The movie's fame has wrongly led readers to view the novel as Abe's masterpiece. It would be more accurate to say that the novel simply marked a turning point in his career, when Abe turned away from the experimental and heavily political work of his earlier career. Fortunately, he did not then turn to furusato and the emperor after all, but rather began a somewhat more realistic exploration of his continuing obsession with homelessness and alienation. Not completely a stranger to his earlier commitment to Marxism, Abe turned his attention, beginning in the sixties, to the effects on the individual of Japan's rapidly urbanizing, growthdriven, increasingly corporate society.
The author's attitude toward Marxism can best be described as
A. contemptuousderision. B. reverentespousal.
C. skeptical tolerance.
D. respectful interest.
E. restrainedimpatience.
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
The author of this passage does express many strong opinions, but not in regard to Marxism. You can therefore eliminate both A. and (B). If anything, she/he is more positive than negative about the influence of Marxism on Abe's work. Eliminate C. and (E), which imply a negative bias. The answer is (D).
QUESTION 186
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following offers the best combination of sentences 1 and 2? An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen.
A. Anincrediblehot-airballoonexhibitionwasgivenSeptember5,1862byGlaisherandCoxwell,twoEnglishmen.
B. Anincrediblyhot-airballoonexhibitionhappenedonSeptember5,1862,givenbyGlaisherandCoxwell,twoEnglishmen. C. Given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen, an incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. D. Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen, gave an incredible hot-air balloon exhibition, happening on September 5, 1862.
E. TwoEnglishmen,GlaisherandCoxwell,gaveanincrediblehot-airballoonexhibitiononSeptember5,1862.
Correct Answer: E
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Right away, you should notice two sentences in passive voice and think about making them active. Only D. and E. do that. D. includes an imprecise 2ing verb. The test writers love to throw these around. Sometimes they are the right answer, but you should always scrutinize them. Here E. is a much sharper sentence.
QUESTION 187
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following sentences in the first paragraph appears to be out of order?
A. Therewasnocompressedoxygenforthemtobreatheinthosedays.
B. Theygotsohighthattheycouldn'tusetheirlimbs.
C. Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth.
D. Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of 29 thousand feet. E. Manybelievetheygot8thousandfeethigherbeforetheybegantodescend.
Correct Answer: A
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Doesn't sentence 2 seem too specific? It is really an explanation for why the men couldn't use their limbs. It should therefore follow sentence 4. The answer is (A).
QUESTION 188
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following is the best revision for sentence 8? Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant."
A. Move"inthenineteenthcentury"tothebeginningofthesentenceanddelete"Now" B. Addacommaafter"Now."
C. Begin the sentence with "Moreover,"
D. Delete "now."
E. Replace"togoup"with"exhibition."
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
What is the logical connection between the two sentences? The first deals with the highest trip. The second deals with the largest balloon. Now has nothing to do with that. Neither does in the nineteenth century. You don't want to begin with either of these. Moreover represents paragraph 2 as an extension of the ideas in paragraph 1, which is also inaccurate. The easiest thing to do is simply get rid of now, (D).
QUESTION 189
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following is the best way to combine sentences 9 and 10? The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. It could handle four and a half tons of cargo.
A. Theballoonheld215,000cubicfeetofairandwas74feetwide,whichcouldhandlefourandahalftonsofcargo. B. Theballoonheld215,000cubicfeetofairandwas74feetwide,handlingfourandahalftonsofcargo.
C. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide; it could handle four and a half tons of cargo.
D. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide, and it could handle four and a half tons of cargo. E. Theballoonheld215,000cubicfeetofairandwas74feetwide,butitcouldcarryfourandahalftonsofcargo
Correct Answer: C
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
Sentence combination is huge in this section. This example is trickier than most. It already has an and in the first sentence, so if you use and again your sentence will start to sound like a run-on. Here, too, the 2ing verb is imprecise. Which should really go very close to the noun it modifies, so eliminate (A). But implies a contrast, when all of these ideas are similar, so you can eliminate (E). Go with the semicolon (C).
QUESTION 190
(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862. (2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen. (3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days. (4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs. (5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth. (6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty- nine thousand feet. (7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant." (9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. (10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo. (11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. (12) All of whom returned safely. (13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot- air balloon would become a form of common transportation.
Which of the following is the best way to revise sentences 11 and 12? Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. All of whom returned safely.
A. Replace"whom"with"who."
B. Makethesecondsentenceread"Whoallreturnedsafely."
C. Delete "of"
D. Replace the period at the end of sentence 11 with a comma.
E. Deletetheperiodattheendofsentence11andchange"returned"to"returning
Correct Answer: D
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
All of whom returned safely is not a complete sentence. It modifies "passengers" in the preceding sentence. Only D. addresses that major problem!
QUESTION 191
(1) On my nineteenth birthday, I began my trip to Mali, West Africa. (2) Some 24 hours later I arrived in Bamako, the capital of Mali. (3) The sun had set and the night was starless. (4) One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me. (5) After the melee in the baggage claim, we proceeded to his car. (6) Actually, it was a truck. (7) I was soon to learn that most people in Mali that had automobiles actually had trucks or SUVs. (8) Apparently, there not just a convenience but a necessity when you live on the edge of the Sahara. (9) I threw my bags into the bed of the truck, and hopped in to the back of the cab. (10) Riding to my welcome dinner, I stared out the windows of the truck and took in the city. (11) It was truly a foreign land to me, and I knew that I was an alien there. (12) "What am I doing here?" I thought.
(13) It is hard to believe but seven months later I returned to the same airport along the same road that I had traveled on that first night in Bamako, and my perspective on the things that I saw had completely changed. (14) The landscape that had once seemed so desolate and lifeless now was the homeland of people that I had come to love. (15) When I looked back at the capital, Bamako, fast receding on the horizon, I did not see a city foreboding and wild in its foreignness. (16) I saw the city which held so many dear friends. (17) I saw teadrinking sessions going late into the night. (18) I saw the hospitality and open-heartedness of the people of Mali. (19) The second time, everything looked completely different, and I knew that it was I who had changed and not it.
Which of the following is revision of sentence 4?
One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me.
A. Asitisnow.
B. OneoftheliteracyprogramIwasworking'sofficialswastheretomeetme.
C. There, was one of the officials from the literacy program I was working to meet me.
D. One of the officials from the literacy program where I worked had been there to meet me.
E. OneoftheofficialsfromtheliteracyprogramwhereIwouldbeworkingwastheretomeetme.
Correct Answer: E
Section: Reading Comprehension Questions Explanation
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
What's missing in this sentence is where. As it stands now, it implies that literacy program is the direct object of working. Choices D. and E. correct the error, but D. makes undesirable changes to the verb tenses. E. is the best answer.