Answer:
Explanation:
Answer Explanations
Section 1: Reading Test
QUESTION 1
Choice D is the best answer. The passage begins with the main character, Lymie, sitting in a restaurant
and reading a history book. The first paragraph describes the book in front of him (“Blank pages front
and back were filled in with maps, drawings, dates, comic cartoons, and organs of the body,” lines 11-
13). The second paragraph reveals what Lymie is reading about (the Peace of Paris and the Congress of
Vienna) and suggests his intense concentration on the book (“sometimes he swallowed whole the food
that he had no idea he was eating,” lines 23-24). In the third paragraph, the focus of the passage shifts
to a description and discussion of others in the restaurant, namely “A party of four, two men and two
women . . . ” (lines 42-43).
Choice A is incorrect because the passage does not provide observations made by other characters, only
offering Lymie’s and the narrator’s observations. Choice B is incorrect because the beginning of the
passage focuses on Lymie as he reads by himself and the end of the passage focuses on the arrival of
Lymie’s father, with whom Lymie’s relationship seems somewhat strained. Choice C is incorrect because
the setting is described in the beginning of the first paragraph but is never the main focus of the
passage.
QUESTION 2
Choice C is the best answer. The main purpose of the first paragraph is to establish the passage’s setting
by describing a place and an object. The place is the Alcazar Restaurant, which is described as being
“long and narrow” and decorated with “art moderne,” murals, and plants (lines 2-6), and the object is
the history book Lymie is reading.
Choice A is incorrect because rather than establishing what Lymie does every night, the first paragraph
describes what Lymie is doing on one night. Choice B is incorrect because nothing in the first paragraph
indicates when the passage takes place, as the details provided (such as the restaurant and the book)
are not specific to one era. Choice D is incorrect because nothing in the first paragraph clearly
foreshadows a later event.
QUESTION 3
