All SAT II Literature Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #5 : Excerpt Connotation And Implication In Context
Adapted from Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" in Leaves of Grass (1855)
Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also face to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!
On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose,
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
2
The impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours of the day,
The simple, compact, well-join’d scheme, myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated yet part of the scheme,
The similitudes of the past and those of the future,
The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage over the river,
The current rushing so swiftly and swimming with me far away,
The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them,
The certainty of others, the life, love, sight, hearing of others.
Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high,
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
3
It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d,
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.
I too many and many a time cross’d the river of old,
Watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls, saw them high in the air floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,
Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow,
Saw the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual edging toward the south,
Saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams . . .
Which of the following images serves as the closest metaphor for the speaker’s overall conception of time?
"Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore"
"Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high."
"The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings."
"Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d."
"Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried."
"Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried."
The speaker conceives of time in a way that seems contradictory; it is something that clearly exists but "avails not" (it moves on, but people can still be connected across it). The image of simultaneously standing and hurrying creates a similarly complex and paradoxical notion of time, allowing one to function in two different senses of time at once.
Example Question #11 : Excerpt Purpose In Context
Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.)
The little hedge-row birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought—He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
Long patience has such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
—I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
"A last leave of my son, a mariner,
"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital."
The author begins the poem with, “The little hedge-row birds, / That peck along the road, regard him not.” This allows him to __________.
draw the reader's attention to the birds as the poem's main subject
highlight the man's inability to scare the birds
draw the reader's attention to the man in spite of the birds
draw the reader's attention to the man through the birds
draw attention away from nature
draw the reader's attention to the man through the birds
The author wants the reader to focus in on the man as the subject of the poem but also wants to use the birds to focus the reader's attention, as they highlight an essential feature of the man, namely his ability to pass by without disturbing the birds. The author does not want to highlight the man's inability to scare the birds, as the man is not attempting to do so. The birds are essential to the introduction of the man, so nothing is done “in spite of” them.
Example Question #206 : Interpreting The Passage
Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry)
I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod—
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.
Which of the following is true of the last line?
The author belittles the joy of sleeping outside
The author draws a parallel between a place of worship and the wilderness
The author criticizes those who flock to cities
The author commits themselves to eternal solitude
The author bids us to question our treatment of the natural world
The author draws a parallel between a place of worship and the wilderness
The author states in the last line: “So let me lie, The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.” Here there is an obvious parallel drawn between the wilderness of “scenes where man has never trod” and the place of worship belonging to the place where the author may “abide with [his or her] Creator, God.” The “vaulted sky” is a reference to the “vaulted ceilings” often found in churches or other places of worship. The other answers are either not present in the last line or are incorrect in their wording: “The author belittles the joy of sleeping outside,” for instance, is completely contradictory of the last stanza.
Example Question #171 : Overall Language Or Specific Words, Phrases, Or Sentences
Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry)
I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod—
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.
The author begins the passage with the exclamation “I am” this allows him to _________.
frame the poem in the first-person plural
turn the reader's attention to the reader's own being
show that he is conceited
question this statement and his or her own mentality
lead in to a questioning of existence
lead in to a questioning of existence
The first stanza rests on the first exclamation of “I am!” to the extent that it needs the assertion of being to question that being itself. We can tell that the exclamation leads into questioning as the next sentence is itself a question: “Yet what I am who cares, or knows?” We can also say it is a questioning of existence and not mentality as the stanza is questioning who the narrator is without his or her friends, confined with his or her woes.
Example Question #102 : Interpreting Excerpts
1 Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting Heaven
2 That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
3 And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
4 So wild that every casual thought of that and this
5 Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
6 With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
7 And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
8 Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
9 Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
10 Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
11 Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
12 By the injustice of the skies for punishment?
(1916)
If the speaker conveys that there is something good about the sky even though he finds it terrifying, what word or phrase most contributes to this?
"cold" (line 1)
"ice burned" (line 2)
"memories" (line 5)
"rook-delighting" (line 1)
"riddled with light" (line 9)
"rook-delighting" (line 1)
In the first line of the poem, the descriptor "rook-delighting" conveys that the speaker recognizes something about the sky that is good rather than cold or harsh. A "rook" is a type of bird. The fact that the sky delights the rooks means that the sky is not cruel and cold to the rooks; it is their home, their habitat. This reveals, therefore, that even though the speaker finds the sky cold and harsh with respect to himself, he recognizes that there is something about it that could even "delight" a different kind of creature.
Passage adapted from William Butler Yeats' "The Cold Heaven" (1916)
Example Question #11 : Effect Of Specified Text: Poetry
Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.)
The little hedge-row birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought—He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
Long patience has such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
—I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
"A last leave of my son, a mariner,
"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital."
Which of the following can be inferred from the underlined text?
The man is duplicitous in his nature
The man is lost in thought and emotionally turbulent
The man is omnipotent
The man is monotonous
The man is composed and focused
The man is composed and focused
We can rule out “duplicitous,” “monotonous," and “omnipotent,” as none of them suit the passage or the characterization of the man: “duplicitous” means that he is false in his actions as they do not match his words; “monotonous” would suggest he is droning or boring; and "omnipotent" suggests the man has great power like a god. We could say the man is lost in thought, as the latter line suggests he “moves with thought,” but this does not necessarily mean he is “lost” in thought; he could instead be focused on his movements. Furthermore, the answer choice "The man is lost in thought and emotionally turbulent" cannot be correct because the man seems to be at peace, not subject to strong emotions. Therefore, we can assume the man is composed in that he shows discipline in his “face, step and gait” in that they all bespeak one frame of mind or one “expression.”
Example Question #11 : Effect Of Specified Text: Poetry
The descriptor "poor" in line 11 suggests that the "foolish things that live a day" ________________.
are to blame for their foolishness
should be pitied
have little money
are pure of heart
have impoverished intellects
should be pitied
In line 11 the "foolish things that live a day" are also described as "poor." The descriptor "poor" suggests that it is to some extent not the fault of these "foolish" things that they are foolish and short-lived. "Poor" suggests that they simply do not have what it would take for them to be otherwise. Since this is the case, the descriptor "poor" suggests that these things deserve pity, even if they are not the lofty, eternal things the poet really desires to write about.
Passage adapted from "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time" by William Butler Yeats (1893)
Example Question #12 : Effect Of Specified Text: Poetry
To the Dead in the Grave-Yard Under My Window
by Adelaide Crapsey (1878 - 1915)
- How can you lie so still? All day I watch
- And never a blade of all the green sod moves
- To show where restlessly you toss and turn,
- And fling a desperate arm or draw up knees
- Stiffened and aching from their long disuse;
- I watch all night and not one ghost comes forth
- To take its freedom of the midnight hour.
- Oh, have you no rebellion in your bones?
- The very worms must scorn you where you lie,
- A pallid mouldering acquiescent folk,
- Meek habitants of unresented graves.
- Why are you there in your straight row on row
- Where I must ever see you from my bed
- That in your mere dumb presence iterate
- The text so weary in my ears: “Lie still
- And rest; be patient and lie still and rest.”
- I’ll not be patient! I will not lie still!
The word “Oh” (line 8) serves mainly to express __________________.
grief
rapture
surprise
awe
impatience
impatience
Looking at the lines around line 8 (lines 6-10), we see that the speaker is exclaiming over the stillness and acquiescence of the dead. She says, "the very worms must scorn you..." and calls them "pallid mouldering...folk". Clearly the question in line 8 is intended not as a genuine request for information, but as an exclamation of impatience at the behavior (or lack of it) that she observes.
Example Question #11 : Effect Of Specified Text: Poetry
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
(1794)
Why does the author include hammers, chains, furnaces, and anvils in stanza 4?
He is showing how the Tyger devoured them
They express God's anger
They fit the intellectual tone of the poem
These are tools used to create objects
They show man's humanity to contrast a beast's
These are tools used to create objects
Blake wonders about God's motivations in creating a terrible tiger and includes descriptions of these tools to emphasize how God might create it. The terror of these tools might reveal some information on how a terrible creature was formed.
Passage adapted from William Blake's "The Tyger" (1794)
Example Question #13 : Effect Of Specified Text: Poetry
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
(1633)
The allusion to the “Seven Sleepers’ den” in line four serves to __________.
Evoke religious connotations
Establish the author as a contemporary of the Brothers Grimm
Emphasize the relationship between sleep and love
None of these
Establish the setting
None of these
None of these goals is achieved by the allusion. In order to definitively choose one of the answers, the allusion would have to be direct and provable. Since none of these answers is accurate, there is no textual evidence to support this allusion.
Passage adapted from John Donne's "The Good Morrow" (1633).