1. The following is an excerpt from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
The farmer imagines power and place are fine things. But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his many attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne. Or, do men desire the more substantial and permanent grandeur of genius? Neither has this an immunity. He who by force of will or of thought, is great, and overlooks thousands, has the charges of that eminence. With every influx of light comes new danger.
Based on the passage, which of the following would best describe the author’s attitude toward power?
A. Power is something to which all men strive and few men attain. Power once found will always corrupt.
B. While men see power as something laudable and to be sought after, they forget that it comes at a steep price.
C. Power should be avoided by all men who can stay away from it. Each man should be content where he is.
D. Power is all well and fine for the president and similar lofty persons, but is not suitable for the common farmer.
2. The following is an excerpt from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it went out from him truth. It came to him short-lived actions; it went out from him immortal thoughts. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. It was dead fact; now, it is quick thought. It can stand, and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing.
Based on the passage, what is the “it” referred to throughout the paragraph?
A. Poetry
B. Music
C. The world
D. Actions
3. The following is an excerpt from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
According to the text, what does society provide in return for the surrender of liberty and culture?
A. Food security
B. Names and customs.
C. Stocks
D. Manhood.
4. The following is adapted from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. Barring all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether. How many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honor, and who honor us! How many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though silently, we warmly rejoice to be with! The effect of the indulgence of this human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration. The emotions of benevolence and complacency which are felt toward others, are likened to the material effects of fire; so swift, or much more swift, more active, more cheering are these fine inward irradiations. From the highest degree of passionate love, to the lowest degree of good will, they make the sweetness of life.
Based on the passage, what is the general approach of each member of society to each other member of society?
A. They treat one another with chilly selfishness.
B. When they see one another in the street or church they silently ignore them.
C. They see one another in a complacent and benevolent kindness.
D. They experience passionate love for one another.
5. The following is adapted from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Friendship requires that rare mean betwixt likeness and unlikeness, that piques each with the presence of power and of consent in the other party. Let him not cease an instant to be himself. Better be a nettle in the side of your friend, than his echo. The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do without it. That high office requires great and sublime parts. There must be very two before there can be very one. Let it be an alliance of two large formidable natures, mutually beheld, mutually feared, before yet they recognize the deep identity which beneath these disparities unites them.
Based on the passage, what must be true in order for friendship to thrive?
A. Each friend must strive to be as much like the other as possible.
B. Each friend must be great and sublime or the friendship will perish.
C. Each friend must be wholly different from the other.
D. Each friend must be true to himself and have a mutual appreciation for the other.
6. The following is an excerpt from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
A plentiful fortune is reckoned necessary, in the popular judgment, to the completion of this man of the world: and it is a material deputy which walks through the dance which the first has led. Money is not essential, but this wide affinity is, which transcends the habits of clique and caste, and makes itself felt by men of all classes. If the aristocrat is only valid in fashionable circles, and not with truckmen, he will never be a leader in fashion; and if the man of the people cannot speak on equal terms with the gentleman, so that the gentleman shall perceive that he is already really of his own order, he is not to be feared.
According to the passage, what needs to be true in order for men to be a complete man of the world?
A. He must be wealthy and able to use his fortune well.
B. He must be humble, regardless of his wealth.
C. He must be able to connect with men of all social classes.
D. He must be fashionable and a gentleman.
7. The following is an adaptation from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In it, Emerson discusses the works of William Shakespeare:
His lyric power lies in the genius of the piece. The sonnets, though their excellence is lost in the splendor of the dramas, are as inimitable as they: and it is not a merit of lines, but a total merit of the piece; like the tone of voice of some incomparable person, so is this a speech of poetic beings, and any clause as unproducible now as a whole poem. Though the speeches in the plays, and single lines, have a beauty which tempts the ear to pause on them for their euphuism, yet the sentence is so loaded with meaning, and so linked with its foregoers and followers, that the logician is satisfied. His means are as admirable as his ends; every subordinate invention, by which he helps himself to connect some irreconcilable opposites, is a poem too.
According to the text, what makes the work of Shakespeare so admirable?
A. It is part of a greater body of works by English authors.
B. Each part is beautiful on its own and as a part of a beautiful whole.
C. Shakespeare’s tone is incomparable to that of any other writer.
D. Each line is better than the one that is written before it.
8. The following is an adaptation from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It is the science of appearances. It is the outermost action of the inward life. It moves matter after the laws of matter. It is content to seek health of body by complying with physical conditions, and health of mind by the laws of the intellect. The world of the senses is a world of shows; it does not exist for itself, but has a symbolic character; and a true prudence or law of shows recognizes the co-presence of other laws and knows that its own office is subaltern; knows that it is surface and not center where it works. Prudence is false when detached. It is legitimate when it is the Natural History of the soul incarnate, when it unfolds the beauty of laws within the narrow scope of the senses.
Prudence, as expressed by the passage, exists for what reason?
A. Not for itself, but to work on the surface seeking the health of the person.
B. To seek only after appearances in order to best present the body to the world.
C. To be a symbol of good moral character when interacting with the world.
D. Not for itself, but to seek good in the world around.
9. The following is an excerpt from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
The actions and events of our childhood and youth are now matters of calmest observation. They lie like fair pictures in the air. Not so with our recent actions,—with the business which we now have in hand. On this we are quite unable to speculate. Our affections as yet circulate through it. We no more feel or know it than we feel the feet, or the hand, or the brain of our body. The new deed is yet a part of life,—remains for a time immersed in our unconscious life. In some contemplative hour it detaches itself from the life like a ripe fruit, to become a thought of the mind. Instantly it is raised, transfigured; the corruptible has put on incorruptibly. Henceforth it is an object of beauty, however base its origin and neighborhood.
Based on the passage, why are recent memories so difficult to calmly observe compared to older memories?
A. Recent memories are still filled with emotions and still part of our life.
B. Older memories have had more time to process and fade to nothingness.
C. Recent memories have detached from life like an unripe fruit and cannot be eaten.
D. Older memories are far more precious than recent memories and so must be often thought of.
10. The following is an adaptation from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
All infractions of love and equity in our social relations are speedily punished. They are punished by fear. Whilst I stand in simple relations to my fellow-man, I have no displeasure in meeting him. We meet as water meets water, or as two currents of air mix, with perfect diffusion and interpenetration of nature. But as soon as there is any departure from simplicity, an attempt at halfness, or good for me that is not good for him, my neighbor feels the wrong; he shrinks from me as far as I have shrunk from him; his eyes no longer seek mine; there is war between us; there is hate in him and fear in me.
Based on the passage, what causes the relationship between two people to sour?
A. Simple relations that never progress to deeper understanding of one another.
B. Meeting as two currents of air that must mix together in unity.
C. Any complication of a simple interaction or show of selfishness.
D. A war or argument between mutual friends and neighbors.
- B. In the first sentences we see that men without power (farmers) think that power and place are good things while forgetting the cost that “the president” has paid for his position of power in the White House. The rest of the passage builds on this idea, explaining the costs of gaining and maintaining power. This makes answer B correct and answers C and D incorrect. Answer A is incorrect as the author does not state power will always corrupt.
- C. This question is answered in the first sentence where the author says that the scholar of the first age received “the world”. He then brooded thereon and gave “it” the new arrangement. From thereon “it” refers to “the world”. All other answers are incorrect readings of the context.
- A. In the second sentence the author contends that “society is a… company in which members agree, for the better securing of his bread… to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.” In other words, in order to survive and have food on the table, people agree to conform to the rules of society. This make answer A correct and the others incorrect.
- C. The author says extensively throughout the passage that, even toward strangers, people tend to be “a great deal more kind than is ever spoken”. While Emerson does admit that there is some “selfishness that chills” he maintains that “the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether.” This best fits with answer C. Answers A and B are too negative and answer D is incorrect because while some members of society will feel passionate love for some, they do not feel it for all members of society.
- D. The author maintains that friendship requires a balance between similarity and difference and holds that no one should “cease… to be himself”. He goes on to say that friends must “recognize the deep identity which beneath these disparities unites them.” In other words, each friend must be true to himself and appreciate the other, making option D correct. Option A is incorrect as the author thinks there should be some differences. Option B is incorrect as there is no discussion of them having to be great. Option C is incorrect as the friends must have a common “deep identity” to unite them.
- C. The first sentence tells us that most people think a fortune is necessary for the “competition of this man of the world”. He goes on to say that there are other necessary qualification and that “money is not necessary.” One of the author’s stated qualifications is an affinity which “transcends the habits of clique and caste and makes itself felt by men of all classes.” The author goes on to give examples of men who are not complete me of the world because they lack the ability to transcend class. This makes option C correct and the other options incorrect.
- B. The author says that “single lines have a beauty which tempts the ear to pause… yet the sentence is so loaded with meaning, and so linked with its foregoers and followers that the logician is satisfied.” In other words, he sees great beauty in individual lines yet “it is not a merit of lines, but a total merit of the piece.” Both the lines and the whole are beautiful. No other answer encompasses this concept.
- A. Answer option B is incorrect as the passage does not talk about appearances. Answer option C is incorrect as prudence has a symbolic character, but is not symbolic in and of itself. Answer option D is incorrect as there is no discussion of seeking good.
- A. We see in the passage that older memories are matters of calmest observation, but “not so with our recent actions” because “our affections as yet circulate through it.” Our affections could also be called our emotions. Later on, the author clarifies that “the new deed is yet a part of life”, giving further reason why detached observation is difficult. This makes option A the best answer. The other options are all wrong due to misreading of the passage.
- C. In the passage the author describes the simplicity of human interactions, but holds that “as soon as there is any departure from simplicity, an attempts at… good for me that is not good for him, my neighbor feels the wrong” and the hate ensues. Something that is attempted that is good for one’s self but not the neighbor could be described as selfishness, which makes answer C the best option. The author does not describe a relationship that is always simple as bad, making answer A wrong. The simple mixing of two currents of air is seen as the positive relationship prior to it souring, so answer B is wrong, and the war and argument in answer D must happen after the relationship has already soured. It is therefore not causal.