The Burden of the Feast by Bobbie Ann Mason

Part A.
1. The main idea of the selection is that
b) for women, farm life with its endless preoccupation with food and toil, overwhelmed any chance for independence.
2. The writer's purpose in the selection is to
a) explain the difficulties and limited opportunities in the lives of small farm owners.

Part B.
1. Daily life on the Mason's family farm for the women almost exclusively centered around
b) growing and preparing food.
2. Rather than cooking or helping around the farm, Mason preferred to spend her time
d) reading.
3. Mason describes a sort of psychological poverty, the result of
a) being denied the good life offered in the nearby town.
4. Mason's mother wanted to cook at the Mayfield Restaurant because
b) she wanted to earn money to buy her family things that they didn't have.
5. Which of the following was not mentioned as a reason that Mason's mother quit working at the restaurant?
d) She found the work too tiring with all the other duties she had to perform at home.

Part F.
1. obsessed with food - preoccupied
2. the toil drove me crazy - exhausting labor
3. a recurrent food dream - happening over and over
4. laden with beautiful foods - heavy, loaded
5. working with food was fraught with anxiety - weighed down, filled with
6. any portent of the morrow - prophetic sign, omen
7. I was acutely conscious - sharply, intensely
8. only plain hearty food - providing abundant nourishment
9. conversation detracted from - took away, lessened
10. the sensuous pleasure - appealing to one's senses
11. we ate sumptuous meals - lavish, extravagantly large
12. on the mezzanine at that store - partial story between two main stories
13. the intoxicating smell of hamburgers - stimulating, exciting
14. she was resilient and optimistic - quick to recover, hardy
15. I listened avidly to everything - eagerly, enthusiastically  

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Part A.
1. The main idea of the selection is that the
b) circumcision ceremony marked the initiation of Xhosa boys into manhood.
2. The writer's purpose in the selection is to
d) explain the tradition associated with the circumcision ceremony and his experience undergoing it.

Part B.
1. In the Xhosa tradition, an uncircumcised male
b) has no rights to inherit, to marry, or to take a part in tribal rituals.
2.  Bathing in the cold river waters before the ceremony was intended to
b) purify them
3. Flinching or crying out during the circumcision ceremony was considered disgraceful behavior because it
d) caused disgrace to the entire family.
4. To symbolize the destruction of the young men's last links to childhood, the final step in the ritual was to
a) burn the seclusion lodges and everything in them.
5. Chief Meligqili, the main speaker of the day, warned the initiates that the promise of manhood was illusory and could never be fulfilled because black South Africans were
b) a conquered people with no control over their own destiny.

Part F.
1.  For Mandela and his peers, the camaraderie they experienced while undergoing the initiation ceremony was most enjoyable, especially when they performed the required exploit, which in the old days was more of a martial act than a practical joke.
2. It was considered unmanly, and a boy would be stigmatized if he flinched during the circumcision ceremony, the boys, clad only in blankets after being purified, were expected to accept the pain with bravery and stoicism.
3. For the initiates the period of quietude allowed them to prepare for the trials of manhood that lay in their future and to discard, both physically and symbolically, the remnants of their childhood.
4. Although in comparison to Justice's gifts of an entire herd, Mandela's relatively paltry gift of heifers and sheep nonetheless gave him a heady feeling; in addition, the chief's speech about the prospect of squandering illusory promises made to younger generations planted a seed that lay dormant for a time until he realized what lay in his future.
   

How Mr. Dewey Decimal Saved My Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Part A.
1. The main idea of the selection is that
d) the writer made some discoveries about herself and about the outside world when she began reading books from her high school library.
2. Which of the following excerpts from the selection best identifies the writer's purpose?
c) "Now, with my adolescence behind me and my daughter's still ahead, I am nearly speechless with gratitude for the endurance and goodwill of librarians in an era that discourages reading in almost incomprehensible ways."

Part B.
1. Kingsolver writes that the school she attended, Nicholas County High School, at the end of the 60s was
a) poorly funded
2. According to the writer, the most important thing that teenagers in her town lacked was
d) entertainment
3. Which of the following does Kingsolver not mention as a way she compensated for her status as a "skinny,  unsought-after" girl?
a) She became a pregnant.
4. The books Kingsolver enjoyed reading most and learned from most were those that
c) let her live other people's lives.
5. For Kingsolver, censorship in this country - both in school libraries and in the scientific curriculum - is the result of deference to
b) the religious beliefs of a relatively small minority.

Part E.
1) The local council has decreed that the hospital should close.

2) She showed a lofty disregard for their objections.
3) It is difficult to discern any pattern in these figures.
4) The lecturer spoke so quietly that he was scarcely audible at the back of the hall.
5) There is no tangible evidence to support her claim.
6) I describe seeing Steven Gerrard’s play football as one of the transcendent moments of my life.
7) These new findings challenge the current dogma in the field.
8) He worked, apparently impervious to the heat.
9) She was a very placid child who slept all night and hardly ever cried.
10) Ignoring the avalanche warnings, the fatuous skiers continued on their course.

The New Orleans That Was by Curtis Wilkie

Part A.
1. The main idea of the selection is that New Orleans
b) exerts an exotic and hypnotic appeal that made it a unique  place, one unlikely any other Southern city.
2. The writer's purpose is to
a) write a retrospective look at New Orleans, showing its cultural influences, distinctive characteristics, and unique appeal.

Part B.
1. Wilkie states that the city's uniqueness - its history and culture - derives from
d) the presence of water.
2. New Orleans i unlike other Southern cities, which he characterizes as
b) soulless and  sprawling metropolises.
3. According to Wilkie, the spirit of New Orleans residents is represented by their
a) determination to enjoy life in spite of adversity.
4. Which of the following was not referred to in the essay as a slogan for New Orleans?
c) "Sin City"
5. Wilkie writes that New Orleans has had less racial conflict than other Southern cities largely because of
d) the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

Part E.
1. She had learnt from the girls at the salon how to appear perfectly poised.

2. Devil-may-care young, pilots are the reasons for most air crashes.
3. They loved to visit exotic places.
4. Complacency is endemic in the industry today.
5. In Scotland 'goods' includes all corporeal movables except money.
6. The road to happiness is paved with adversities.
7. Doing many things at the same time is so disorienting.
8. The engine had been making an ominous sound all the way from London.

9. He lives in a tony neighborhood of Los Angeles.

10. There's great mystique surrounding the life of a movie star.

11. The Prime Minister was in a defiant mood in the Parliament.

12. Aluminum is a conductive metal.

Refugee's Journey by K. Oanh Ha

Part A.

1. Here are four excerpts from the selection. Which best represents the central idea of the selection as a whole?

b) Now, after  a lifetime of embracing my assimilation into American life, I am travelling back in time to find out more about who we were before we were changed.

2. With respect to the main idea, the writer's purpose is to 

d) retrace her family's history before they became assimilated by revisiting the refugee camp, their way station between Vietnam and the United States.

Part B.
1. Ha states that her family's immigration experience was different from that of other immigrant families because her family
c) were forced to leave, making their exile more difficult to accept.
2. Ha's family was forced to leave Vietnam because
a) the communist government confiscated the assets of Vietnamese of Chinese descent and then expelled them.
3. In the refugee camp at Puala Bidong, Ha's mother was forced to sell her gold wedding necklace in order to obtain
b) shelter.
4. When the writer was growing up, she experienced a "hyphenated American life," meaning that she
d) looked Vietnamese but was really Americanized.
5. When Ha returned to the Malaysian island and the site of the refugee camp, she found
a) that nature had reclaimed it and that little of the camp was left.

Part E.
1. the scraggly shapes - ragged, unkempt
2. four harrowing pirate attacks - keenly disturbing, distressing
3. our forced exile is a scar - removal from one's country
4. our assimilation began - process of being absorbed, integrated
5. began expelling them - driving or forcing out
6. the boat exodus - mass departure, flight
7. a pilgrimage of sorts - journey to a sacred place, shrine
8. my past is receding - retreating, withdrawing
9. my mother taunted me - mocked, teased
10. after years of futilely trying - uselessly, in vain