ISEE Middle Level Reading : Determining Context-Dependent Word Meanings in History Passages
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Example Question #31 : Determining Context Dependent Word Meanings In History Passages
Adapted from A Modern History from the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon by John Lord (1874)
For more than ten centuries, great struggles have been going on in society between the dominant orders and sects. The victories gained by the oppressed millions over their different masters, constitute what is called the progress of society. When any great order defended the cause of the people against the tyranny and selfishness of another order, then the people have advanced a step in civil and social freedom.
When feudalism weighed heavily upon the people, the clergy sought justice on their behalf. By the aid of the church, royalty also rose above feudalism, and aided the popular cause. The church, having gained the ascendency, sought then to enslave the kings of the earth. But royalty, borrowing help from humiliated nobles and from the people, became the dominant power in Europe.
In these struggles, the people acquired political importance. They had obtained a knowledge of their rights and of their strength; and they were determined to maintain them. They liked not the tyranny of either nobles, priests, or kings; but they bent all their energies to suppress the power of the latter, since the two former had been already humiliated.
The struggle of the people against royalty is preeminently the genius of the English Revolution. It is to be doubted whether any king could have resisted the storm of popular fury which hurled Charles from his throne. But no king could have managed worse than he; no king could be more unfortunately and unpropitiously placed, and his own imprudence and folly hastened the catastrophe.
The House of Commons, which had acquired great strength, spirit, and popularity during the reign of James, fully perceived the difficulties and necessities of Charles, but made no adequate or generous effort to relieve him from them. Some of the more turbulent rejoiced in them. They knew that kings, like other men, were selfish, and that it was not natural for people to part with their privileges and power without a struggle, even though this power was injurious to the interests of society. In the Middle Ages, barons, bishops, and popes had fought desperately in the struggle of classes; and it was only from their necessities that either kings or people had obtained what they demanded. King Charles, no more than Pope Boniface VIII, would surrender, as a boon to man, without compulsion, his supposed omnipotence.
The underlined word “compulsion” most nearly means __________.
vice
coercion
oppression
virtue
desire
coercion
In context, the author is talking about the reluctance of King Charles to forfeit some of his royal powers for the good of society. The key clues that should help you determine the meaning of the word “compulsion” can be found earlier in the paragraph, where the author says, "They knew that kings, like other men, were selfish, and that it was not natural for people to part with their privileges and power without a struggle." So, Charles does not want to part with his privileges and power without putting up a fight, he therefore needs to be forced to do so. So, King Charles would not surrender his power without “compulsion,” or being forced to. The answer choice most similar to this is “coercion.” To provide further help, “oppression” is extended and unjust control; “virtue” is a good quality or good qualities in general; and “vice” is a bad quality or bad qualities in generally.
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