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Reading Assessment VII. VICTORIAN LITERATURE
DIRECTIONSCarefully read the following passage. Use context clues to help define any words with which you are unfamiliar. Pay close attention to the use of figurative language, argument, and tone. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, answer the questions that follow.
from “The New Railway” from “Dombey and Son” by Charles Dickens
| The first shock of a great earthquake had, just at that period, rent the whole neighborhood to its center. Traces of its course were visible on every side. Houses were knocked down; streets broken through and stopped; deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of earth and clay thrown up; buildings that were undermined and shaking, propped by great beams of wood. … Everywhere were bridges that led nowhere; thoroughfares that were wholly impassable; Babel towers of chimneys, wanting half their height; temporary wooden houses and enclosures, in the most unlikely situations; carcasses of ragged tenements, and fragments of unfinished walls and arches, and piles of scaffolding, and wildernesses of bricks, and giant forms of cranes, and tripods straddling above nothing. There were a hundred thousand shapes and substances of incompleteness, wildly mingled out of their places, upside down, burrowing in the earth, aspiring in the air, moldering in the water, and unintelligible as any dream. … In short, the yet unfinished and unopened railroad was in progress; and from the very core of all this dire disorder, trailed smoothly away, upon its mighty course of civilization and improvement. But as yet, the neighborhood was shy to own the railroad. … Nothing was the better for it, or thought of being so. If the miserable waste ground lying near it could have laughed, it would have laughed it to scorn, like many of the miserable neighbors. Staggs’s Gardens was uncommonly incredulous. It was a little row of houses, with little squalid patches of ground before them, fenced off with old doors, barrel staves … and dead bushes; with bottomless tin kettles and exhausted iron fenders, thrust into the gaps. Here, the Staggs’s Gardeners trained scarlet beans, kept fowls and rabbits, erected rotten summer-houses (one was an old boat), dried clothes, and smoked pipes. … Staggs’s Gardens was regarded by its population as a sacred grove not to be withered by railroads; and so confident were they generally of its long outliving any such ridiculous inventions, that the master chimney-sweeper at the corner, who was understood to take the lead in the local politics of the Gardens, had publicly declared that on the occasion of the railroad opening, if ever it did open, two of his boys should ascend the flues of his dwelling, with instructions to hail the failure with derisive jeers from the chimney-pots. There was no such place as Staggs’s Gardens. It had vanished from the earth. Where the old rotten summer-houses once had stood, palaces now reared their heads, and granite columns of gigantic girth opened a vista to the railway world beyond. … The old by-streets now swarmed with passengers and vehicles of every kind. … As to the neighborhood which had hesitated to acknowledge the railroad in its struggling days, that had grown wise and penitent … and now boasted of its powerful and prosperous relation. There were railway patterns in its drapers’ shops, and railway journals in the windows of its newsmen. There were railway hotels, coffee-houses, lodging-houses, boarding-houses; railway plans, maps, views, wrappers, bottles, sandwich-boxes, and timetables. … There was even railway time observed in clocks, as if the sun itself had given in. Among the vanquished was the master chimney-sweeper … who now lived in a stuccoed house three stories high, and gave himself out, with golden flourishes upon a varnished board, as contractor for the cleansing of railway chimneys by machinery. |
COMPREHENSION
Directions Answer these questions about the extract
1.From the context, what do you conclude that the word rent, in line 1, means?
A hired
B torn
C paid
D chartered
E withheld
2.Which of the following literary elements is Dickens using in the phrase Babel towers of chimneys, in lines 6–7?
A allusion
B alliteration
C simile
D understatement
E personification
3.Which of the following literary elements is Dickens using in There were a hundred thousand shapes and substances of incompleteness, in line 10?
A allusion
B metaphor
C simile
D hyperbole
E personification
4.Which of the following literary elements is Dickens using in the phrase unintelligible as any dream, in line 13?
A allusion
B metaphor
C simile
D hyperbole
E personification
5.According to the second paragraph, to what does the word earthquake, in line 1, refer?
A the effects of the unfinished railroad
B the effects of long-term neglect
C the poverty in this particular urban area
D the destruction of a prosperous urban area
E the destruction of a civilization
6.To what does the pronoun its in line 15 refer?
A civilization
B the railway
C disorder
D the neighborhood
E Staggs’s Gardens
7.In lines 26–30, how does Dickens reveal the master chimney-sweeper’s personality?
A by direct characterization
B by indirect characterization
C in metaphors
D as a symbol
E by personification
8.What can you infer from the master chimneysweeper’s actions in lines 26–30?
A He believes that the railroad will help improve commerce in Staggs’s Gardens.
B He is unaware of the railroad’s existence.
C He is in favor of the destruction of Staggs’s Gardens.
D He has never seen a railroad before.
E He assumes that the railroad will fail.
9.Which of the following literary elements is Dickens using in the phrase palaces now reared their heads, in line 32?
A allusion
B metaphor
C simile
D hyperbole
E personification
10.From the context, what do you conclude that the word penitent, in line 36, means?
A angry
B perfect
C unsure
D repentant
E vengeful
11.Which of the following literary elements is Dickens using in the phrase as if the sun itself had given in, in line 40?
A allusion
B metaphor
C simile
D hyperbole
E personification
12.What is the tone of the last sentence in this passage?
A unsure
B melancholic
C ironic
D bitter
E sympathetic
13.From what point of view is this passage written?
A first person
B second person
C third-person omniscient
D third-person limited
E ironic
14.On the basis of this passage, which of the following ideas do you think Dickens would most likely agree with?
A It was a terrible crime for Staggs’s Gardens to have been destroyed.
B The risks associated with progress far outweigh any potential benefits.
C Technological progress can bring many social and economic benefits.
D There is no such thing as progress.
E The railroads are a destructive force and have little merit.
15.What is the overall tone of this passage?
A unsure
B melancholic
C ironic
D bitter
E confrontational
DIRECTIONSCarefully read the following passages. Use context clues to help define any words with which you are unfamiliar. Pay close attention to the use of figurative language, argument, and tone. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, answer the questions that follow.
Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy
| We stood by a pond that winter day, And the sun was white, as though chidden of God, And a few leaves lay on the starving sod; —They had fallen from an ash, and were gray. Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove Over tedious riddles of years ago; And some words played between us to and fro On which lost the more by our love. The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Alive enough to have strength to die; And a grin of bitterness swept thereby Like an ominous bird a-wing. . . Since then, keen lessons that love deceives, And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree, And a pond edged with grayish leaves. |
from “Adam Bede” by George Eliot
| It was about three o’clock when Adam entered the farmyard and roused Alick and the dogs from their Sunday dozing. Alick said everybody was gone to church but “th’ young missis”—so he called Dinah; but this did not disappoint Adam, although the “everybody” was so liberal as to include Nancy, the dairymaid, whose works of necessity were not unfrequently incompatible with church-going. There was perfect stillness about the house: the doors were all closed, and the very stones and tubs seemed quieter than usual. Adam heard the water gently dripping from the pump—that was the only sound; and he knocked at the house door rather softly, as was suitable in that stillness. The door opened and Dinah stood before him, coloring deeply with the great surprise of seeing Adam at this hour, when she knew it was his regular practice to be at church. Yesterday he would have said to her without any difficulty, “I came to see you, Dinah: I knew the rest were not at home.” But today something prevented him from saying that, and he put out his hand to her in silence. Neither of them spoke, and yet both wished they could speak, as Adam entered, and they sat down. Dinah took the chair she had just left; it was at the corner of the table near the window, and there was a book lying on the table, but it was not open: she had been sitting perfectly still, looking at the small bit of clear fire in the bright grate. Adam sat down opposite her, in Mr Poyser’s three-cornered chair. “Your mother is not ill again, I hope, Adam,” Dinah said, recovering herself. “Seth said she was well this morning.” “No, she’s very hearty today,” said Adam, happy in the signs of Dinah’s feeling at the sight of him, but shy. “There’s nobody at home, you see,” Dinah said; “but you’ll wait. You’ve been hindered from going to church today, doubtless.” “Yes,” Adam said, and then paused, before he added, “I was thinking about you: that was the reason.” This confession was very awkward and sudden, Adam felt; for he thought Dinah must understand all he meant. But the frankness of the words caused her immediately to interpret them into a renewal of his brotherly regrets that she was going away, and she answered calmly, “Do not be careful and troubled for me, Adam. I have all things and abound at Snowfield. And my mind is at rest, for I am not seeking my own will in going.” “But if things were different, Dinah,” said Adam, hesitatingly—“if you knew things that perhaps you don’t know now . . .” Dinah looked at him inquiringly, but instead of going on, he reached a chair and brought it near the corner of the table where she was sitting. She wondered, and was afraid—and the next moment her thoughts flew to the past: was it something about those distant unhappy ones that she didn’t know? Adam looked at her: it was so sweet to look at her eyes, which had now a self-forgetful questioning in them,—for a moment he forgot that he wanted to say anything, or that it was necessary to tell her what he meant. “Dinah,” he said suddenly, taking both her hands between his, “I love you with my whole heart and soul.” |
COMPREHENSION
Directions Answer these questions about the poem “Neutral Tones.”
1.Which word best describes the overall tone of this poem?
Aindifferent
Bbleak
Csarcastic
Dadmiring
2.Which words from the poem best convey its tone?
Apond, leaves, winter
Bstarving, gray, ominous
Calive, keen, tedious
Dstrength, wrong, white
3.Reread lines 5 and 15. The speaker in the poem is addressing a
Adeceased child
Bnew spouse
Cformer love
Dyounger self
4.The speaker of “Neutral Tones” is a
Adistant observer of events in the poem
Bvoice that talks to the reader
Csymbol of the forces of nature
Dperson who is involved in the experience
5.The speaker is reflecting on
Aa failed relationship
Ba newfound love
Cchildhood dreams
Dthe difficulties of marriage
6.You can infer from lines 13–16 that the speaker
Abelieves that love is strengthened through separation
Bhas had other experiences that confirm a pessimistic view of love
Cplans to reconcile with the beloved
Dhas found happiness in a current relationship
Directions: Answer these questions about the excerpt from “Adam Bede”.
7.Lines 6–9 illustrate which characteristic of realism?
Aa detailed setting that is drawn from real life
Bthe exposing of society’s ills in order to help the oppressed
Ca focus on characters’ feelings rather than on action
Ddialogue that sounds like everyday speech
8.Adam and Dinah are realistic characters because they are
Acertain of what the future holds for them
Bsymbolic of popular ideas of the era
Ccomplex people shown in everyday circumstances
Dtwo young people who are deeply in love
9.Reread lines 10–23. What can you infer about Adam’s and Dinah’s feelings from this encounter?
AThey are angry at each other.
BThey are attracted to each other.
CThey are confused about their plans.
DThey are happy about their upcoming marriage.
10.From the information the narrator reveals about Dinah, you can infer that she is
Asecretive
Bserious
Carrogant
Dunreasonable
11.Alick’s expression “‘th’ young missis” adds realism to the excerpt because it
Ainjects humor into a serious scene
Bdeals with issues of youth and old age
Creflects feelings of social discontent
Dcaptures the sound of everyday speech
12.You can tell that this excerpt is written from an omniscient point of view because the narrator is
Aa main character who addresses the reader directly
Ban outside voice who reveals the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters
Can observer who relays the emotions of just one character
Da minor character who refers to himself or herself in the first person
13.The omniscient point of view helps the author create
Ainteresting and complex characters
Ba world of fantasy and reality
Cexciting and suspenseful action
Dsympathy for one character over another
Directions: Answer these questions both selections.
14.Which statement accurately compares the themes presented in both selections?
A“Neutral Tones” offers a lighthearted message about love, while Adam Bede suggests that love is a somber experience.
BBoth selections use nature imagery to convey a message about the fragile beauty of young love.
C“Neutral Tones” contemplates a romantic breakup, while Adam Bede describes the hopeful beginning of a romance.
D“Neutral Tones” implies that love grows over time, while Adam Bede implies that love fades over time.
WRITTEN RESPONSE
Short Response Write three or four sentences to answer this question.
15.Omniscient narrators of the Victorian era are often described as “intrusive”; they frequently air their own opinions. Is the narrator of Adam Bede intrusive? Explain your answer.
Extended ResponseWrite two or three paragraphs to answer this question.
16.What words and images allow each writer’s tone to emerge? Support your answer with examples from each selection.