SAT II Literature : Meaning of Specified Text
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Literature
All SAT II Literature Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #131 : Interpreting Excerpts
Adapted from Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, III.i.1126-1185 (1623)
Enter Judges, Senators and Tribunes, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the place of execution; TITUS going before, pleading
Titus Andronicus: Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay!
For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept;
For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed;
For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd;
And for these bitter tears, which now you see
Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;
Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought.
For two and twenty sons I never wept,
Because they died in honor's lofty bed.
[Lieth down; the Judges, &c., pass by him, and Exeunt]
For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write
My heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears:
Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite;
My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush.
O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,
That shall distill from these two ancient urns,
Than youthful April shall with all his showers:
In summer's drought I'll drop upon thee still;
In winter with warm tears I'll melt the snow
And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood.
[Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn]
O reverend tribunes! O gentle, aged men!
Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
And let me say, that never wept before,
My tears are now prevailing orators.
Lucius: O noble father, you lament in vain:
The tribunes hear you not; no man is by;
And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
Titus Andronicus: Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.
Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you,—
Lucius: My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.
Titus Andronicus: Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,
They would not mark me, or if they did mark,
They would not pity me, yet plead I must;
And bootless unto them [—]
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A stone is soft as wax,—tribunes more hard than stones;
A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
[Rises]
But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn?
Lucius: To rescue my two brothers from their death:
For which attempt the judges have pronounced
My everlasting doom of banishment.
Titus Andronicus: O happy man! they have befriended thee.
Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
But me and mine: how happy art thou, then,
From these devourers to be banished!
Which of the following most closely summarizes the content of the bolded and underlined excerpt?
Titus begs the tribunes to spare his condemned sons because they are completely innocent. He notes that he has had two twenty-year old sons die in battle, and both of these young, now honored men, were less pure of heart than his condemned sons.
Titus begs the tribunes to spare his two condemned sons. He claims that he would not weep for these sons if they died honorably, as they are adults in their twenties, but he would weep and mourn for them if they were sentenced to death.
Titus begs the tribunes to spare his two condemned sons. He claims that he never cried for his twenty-two other sons who died honorably, but he will mourn for these two, who have been sentenced to death.
Titus begs the tribunes to spare his condemned sons because they are completely innocent. After the tribunes reject him, he goes into an extended comparison between the tribunes and silent rocks.
Titus begs the tribunes to spare his condemned sons. He says that he has wept for and mourned the death of twenty-two of his sons, even though they all died honorably in battle, but he would feel a depth of sadness he has never before known for the sons condemned to die.
Titus begs the tribunes to spare his two condemned sons. He claims that he never cried for his twenty-two other sons who died honorably, but he will mourn for these two, who have been sentenced to death.
The answer that most closely summarized the content of the excerpt is "Titus begs the tribunes to spare his two condemned sons. He claims that he never cried for his twenty-two other sons who died honorably, but he will mourn for these two, who have been sentenced to death." In this context, "two and twenty" means twenty-two, so Titus is, indeed, stating that he has lost twenty-two sons in battle, for whom he "has never wept" because they died honorably in battle defending Rome.
While Titus does claim that his sons' "souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought," this is not the central aspect of his argument against their being sentenced to death; rather, he leans heavily on his own sadness and past sacrifices for Rome. He does not compare the quality of his twenty-two dead sons to his current condemned ones, only the nature of their demises and his reaction to those demises; he never cried for the sons who died honorably.
Example Question #151 : Overall Language Or Specific Words, Phrases, Or Sentences
Adapted from Act 1, Scene 1, ln. 78-119 of The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604) in Vol. XIX, Part 2 of The Harvard Classics (1909-1914)
FAUSTUS: How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I’ll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates;
I’ll have them read me strange philosophy
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wittenberg;
I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk,
Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;
I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp’s bridge,
I’ll make my servile spirits to invent.
[Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS]
Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference.
Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy
That will receive no object, for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:
’Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish’d me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I that have with concise syllogisms
Gravell’d the pastors of the German church,
And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits
On sweet Musaeigus, when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
Whose shadows made all Europe honor him.
In context, the underlined and bolded phrase "glutted with conceit" most closely means what?
Filled with the idea
Overwhelmed by information
Filled with pride
Confused by the notion
Fooled by deceit
Filled with the idea
In context, the phrase "glutted with conceit" most closely means "filled with the idea." In this context, "conceit" would most closely be said to mean "idea", "notion," or "concept". Faustus is stating that he is filled (with feeling) at the idea of having necromantic powers, and of possibly having the spirits do his bidding. The voluminous imagining of what he might do with his powers is evidence of his being "full with the idea" of these powers.
"Conceit" can be used in reference to deceit, but it is important to remember that Faustus is the speaker, and as evidenced by his speech that follows, he does not believe that anyone is deceiving him. He does not express confusion, nor does he seem particularly overwhelmed. While Faustus is obviously filled with pride and arrogance in his speech, the term "conceit" does not refer to pride in this context, as the rest of his speech focuses on the idea or notion or his powers, not his own self-conscious pride.
Example Question #152 : Overall Language Or Specific Words, Phrases, Or Sentences
Adapted from Act 1, Scene 1, ln. 78-119 of The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604) in Vol. XIX, Part 2 of The Harvard Classics (1909-1914)
FAUSTUS: How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I’ll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates;
I’ll have them read me strange philosophy
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wittenberg;
I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk,
Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;
I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp’s bridge,
I’ll make my servile spirits to invent.
[Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS]
Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference.
Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy
That will receive no object, for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:
’Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish’d me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I that have with concise syllogisms
Gravell’d the pastors of the German church,
And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits
On sweet Musaeigus, when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
Whose shadows made all Europe honor him.
In the underlined and bolded section of the passage, Faustus makes which of the following arguments?
He argues that earthly academic pursuits are beneath him, and his listeners should aid him in mastering his new interest, the occult.
He argues that conventional divinity can be defeated by argument, and that the occult cannot.
He argues that conventional divinity is misapplied, and asks for his listeners in correcting practices of that discipline.
He argues that doctors, priests, and lawyers are beneath pure academics, and that only scholars should he entitled to help in mastering the occult.
He argues that because he is interested in occult practices he must resign his academic position.
He argues that earthly academic pursuits are beneath him, and his listeners should aid him in mastering his new interest, the occult.
In the underlined and bolded section of the passage, Faustus argues that earthly academic pursuits—"philosophy", law and physic, and "divinity"—are all "base," "odious," etc., and that his listeners should help him ("gentle friends aid me in this attempt") master his new interest the occult (which he claims has "ravished" him).
He includes academics with doctors and lawyers in his dismissal of conventional, earthly learning. He makes no mention of his academic position, nor of resigning. While he later claims to have defeated "pastors" with "syllogism," he does not mention that in the indicated section, nor does he specifically claim that the occult cannot also be defeated in this manner (although that is implied). While he feels divinity is the "basest" of academic disciplines, he does not ask his listeners for any help in correcting it.
Example Question #131 : Ap English Literature And Composition
Adapted from Richard III by William Shakespeare, I.i.1-42
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.
When he speaks of “dissembling nature,” underlined in the passage, the speaker is referring to __________.
the tendency of all people to lie under pressure
taking apart nature’s features systematically in order to better understand the natural world
tricking nature
a personification of nature
his own personality
a personification of nature
While it may be tempting to pick the answer choice “his own personality” given that the narrator describes himself as “subtle, false and treacherous,” it is important to consider the context of the underlined phrase. “Dissembling nature” appears in the context of the lines, “I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion / Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, / Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time / Into this breathing world . . . “ By considering the context, you can see that the narrator is not describing “his own personality,” “tricking nature,” “the tendency of all people to lie under pressure,” or “taking apart nature’s features systematically in order to better understand the natural world”; he is instead referring to “a personification of nature.”
Example Question #7 : Meaning Of Specified Text: Drama
PROSPERO:
- Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
- Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
- The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
- And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
- Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
- Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
- The pine and cedar: graves at my command
- Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure, and, when I have required
- Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I'll drown my book.
In the context of the passage, “ebbing Neptune” (line 3) most likely means _________________.
the turning of the tide
the depths of the sea
waves on the beach
a mythical sea creature
the king of the underworld
waves on the beach
Prospero is addressing supernatural beings who dart across the sand without leaving footprints, chasing the waves as they recede and then running away when they come crashing onto the beach. “Ebbing” means “receding”, and Neptune is the Roman god of the sea: here a metaphorical term for the ocean. The correct answer is "waves on the beach."
The depths of the sea do not ebb and “come back”, so it’s clear that’s not what Prospero is talking about. We usually associate the word “ebb” with tides, but Prospero says nothing here about that. Nor does he mention mythical sea creatures. The king of the underworld (Hades/Pluto) is unrelated to anything in this speech.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
Example Question #3 : Meaning Of Specified Text: Drama
PROSPERO:
- Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
- Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
- The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
- And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
- Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
- Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
- The pine and cedar: graves at my command
- Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure, and, when I have required
- Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I'll drown my book.
In the context of the passage, the word “bolt” (line 14) means _________________.
a lock
a bonfire
an iron bar
an axe
lightning
lightning
Prospero states that he has created a storm at sea, and has added lightning (“fire”) to the “rattling thunder”. He then took the lightning and used it to split an oak tree. (Jove was the Roman god of lightning, and the oak was sacred to him, so Prospero is using one of the god’s symbols to destroy another one.) Once we see how the storm/thunder/lightning idea is developed, it’s clear that “bolt” in this context has nothing to do with bars, locks, or axes. “Bonfire” can be eliminated because it has nothing to do with thunder and lightning.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
Example Question #9 : Meaning Of Specified Text: Drama
PROSPERO:
- Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
- Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
- The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
- And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
- Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
- Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
- The pine and cedar: graves at my command
- Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure, and, when I have required
- Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I'll drown my book.
In line 18, the word “art” most nearly means __________________.
magical power
ascetic self-discipline
creative design
demonic contract
intoxicating potion
magical power
Prospero gives us a list of his incredible accomplishments, ending the sentence with, “…By my most potent art.” “My most potent art” is the means by which he’s achieved everything he just described: i.e., his magical power. In this context “art” suggests “power” or “skill” rather than anything related to visual design. The speech mentions “elves” — small supernatural spirits of various kinds — but there’s nothing here about demons or a contract. There’s also no mention of a potion. And while Prospero may practice ascetic self-discipline, that’s not what he’s discussing in this speech.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
Example Question #10 : Meaning Of Specified Text: Drama
PROSPERO:
- Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
- Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
- The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
- And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
- Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
- Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
- The pine and cedar: graves at my command
- Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure, and, when I have required
- Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I'll drown my book.
“The azured vault” (line 26) most likely means ________________.
the shoreline
a burial chamber
the sky
the blue sea
a battlefield
the sky
In lines 9-12, Prospero describes how he has used magic to cause a solar eclipse, raise the winds, and create a huge storm (“roaring war”) at sea. (This is the eponymous tempest.) The storm fills the space between ocean and sky: the “azure vault”, with “vault” used in the architectural sense of a high, arched structure covering something else.
Prospero does mention the sea (line 11), but if we plug that in as the meaning of “azured vault”, we can see that a storm blowing “'twixt the green sea and the sea” doesn’t make sense. The same is true of a storm “'twixt the green sea and the shoreline.” There is nothing in the speech about a battlefield or a burial chamber.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
Example Question #11 : Meaning Of Specified Text: Drama
PROSPERO:
- Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
- Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
- The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
- And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
- Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
- Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
- The pine and cedar: graves at my command
- Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure, and, when I have required
- Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I'll drown my book.
The turning point in the speech occurs when Prospero announces his plan to _______________.
give up his magical powers
take revenge on his enemies
become a hermit in the wilderness
destroy the spirits who have served him
go willingly to his death
give up his magical powers
Prospero describes his magical feats at great length. Then he suddenly states: “But this rough magic I here abjure.” (lines 18-19.) He intends to finish one last spell, then say goodbye forever to his magician’s staff and book. “Give up his magical powers” is the correct answer. He says nothing about becoming a hermit, destroying his helper spirits, or going to his death. Though he’s casting a spell on his enemies, he is not planning to take revenge on them.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
Example Question #32 : Meaning Of Specified Text
PROSPERO:
- Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
- Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
- The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
- And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
- Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
- Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
- The pine and cedar: graves at my command
- Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure, and, when I have required
- Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I'll drown my book.
In the context of the passage, “spurs” (line 15) most nearly means ___________________.
branches
needles
tips
roots
heels
roots
Prospero is talking about using magic to uproot pines and cedars. Once we know we’re talking about trees, we can eliminate “heels” as an answer choice. Clearly we’re not talking about literal spurs that are worn on boots. Instead, Prospero means something resembling spurs, and related to trees. Bare tree roots that have just been pulled out of the ground may be spur-shaped, and their location on the tree is analogous to the location of a spur on a human being. “Roots” is the correct answer.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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