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.