Adapted from "The Social Compact" in Social Contract & Discourses by Jean Jaques Rousseau (1913 ed.)
I suppose men to have reached the point at which the obstacles in the way of their preservation in the state of nature show their power of resistance to be greater than the resources at the disposal of each individual for his maintenance in that state. That primitive condition can then subsist no longer; and the human race would perish unless it changed its manner of existence.
But, as men cannot engender new forces, but only unite and direct existing ones, they have no other means of preserving themselves than the formation, by aggregation, of a sum of forces great enough to overcome the resistance. These they have to bring into play by means of a single motive power, and cause to act in concert.
This sum of forces can arise only where several persons come together: but, as the force and liberty of each man are the chief instruments of his self-preservation, how can he pledge them without harming his own interests, and neglecting the care he owes to himself? This difficulty, in its bearing on my present subject, may be stated in the following terms:
"The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before." This is the fundamental problem of which the Social Contract provides the solution.
The clauses of this contract are so determined by the nature of the act that the slightest modification would make them vain and ineffective; so that, although they have perhaps never been formally set forth, they are everywhere the same and everywhere tacitly admitted and recognised, until, on the violation of the social compact, each regains his original rights and resumes his natural liberty, while losing the conventional liberty in favour of which he renounced it.
These clauses, properly understood, may be reduced to one — the total alienation of each associate, together with all his rights, to the whole community; for, in the first place, as each gives himself absolutely, the conditions are the same for all; and, this being so, no one has any interest in making them burdensome to others.
Moreover, the alienation being without reserve, the union is as perfect as it can be, and no associate has anything more to demand: for, if the individuals retained certain rights, as there would be no common superior to decide between them and the public, each, being on one point his own judge, would ask to be so on all; the state of nature would thus continue, and the association would necessarily become inoperative or tyrannical.
Finally, each man, in giving himself to all, gives himself to nobody; and as there is no associate over whom he does not acquire the same right as he yields others over himself, he gains an equivalent for everything he loses, and an increase of force for the preservation of what he has.
1. Which of the following best describes the purpose of the passage?
A) It introduces and explains a scientific concept.
B) It makes a judgement about the goodness of mankind.
C) It instructs the reader in a specific skill.
D) It enumerates the difficulties of a sociopolitical issue and then offers a solution.
E) It denies the reality of a common myth.
2. What best describes the function of the question posed in paragraph three?
A) It appeals to the audience for support in a particular endeavor.
B) It sarcastically describes the fatal flaws in an economic proposal.
C) It illustrates the dilemma created by a sociopolitical concept.
D) It highlights the familiarity of a political truism.
E) It expresses the mystery of an unsolved mathematical problem.
3. What is the author's point in stating in the underlined selection of paragraph two that "men cannot engender new forces"?
A) to prove that the only solution is thus for men to join together
B) to propose a new scientific theory regarding human ability
C) to assert that men must rely on their individual strength alone
D) to establish the technological limitations of warfare
E) to reiterate the weakness of men when compared to other animals in nature
4. The underlined word "associate" in the sixth paragraph refers to which of the following?
A) an individual belonging to a community
B) a business partner in an economic venture
C) an affiliate of an outside group
D) an employee of a larger organization
E) an ally in a civil disagreement
5. Which of the following best describes the author's tone in paragraph 8?
A) bitter and rousing
B) cautionary and circumspect
C) logical and persuasive
D) hesitant and ambiguous
E) inflammatory and hyperbolic
6. The underlined phrase "conventional liberty" in the fifth paragraph refers to which of the following concepts?
A) the inherent and inalienable rights of the individual
B) the powers accorded by membership in a community
C) the idea of popular sovereignty
D) the conservative political ideology
E) the predictable rights granted by the state
From The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
About a year after Mrs. Bronte's death, an elder sister, as I have before mentioned, came from Penzance to superintend her brother-in-law's household, and look after his children. Miss Branwell was, I believe, a kindly and conscientious woman, with a good deal of character, but with the somewhat narrow ideas natural to one who had spent nearly all her life in the same place. She had strong prejudices, and soon took a distaste to Yorkshire. From Penzance, where plants which we in the north call greenhouse flowers grow in great profusion, and without any shelter even in the winter, and where the soft warm climate allows the inhabitants, if so disposed, to live pretty constantly in the open air, it was a great change for a lady considerably past forty to come and take up her abode in a place where neither flowers nor vegetables would flourish, and where a tree of even moderate dimensions might be hunted for far and wide; where the snow lay long and late on the moors, stretching bleakly and barely far up from the dwelling which was henceforward to be her home; and where often, on autumnal or winter nights, the four winds of heaven seemed to meet and rage together, tearing round the house as if they were wild beasts striving to find an entrance. She missed the small round of cheerful, social visiting perpetually going on in a country town; she missed the friends she had known from her childhood, some of whom had been her parents' friends before they were hers; she disliked many of the customs of the place, and particularly dreaded the cold damp arising from the flag floors in the passages and parlours of Haworth Parsonage. The stairs, too, I believe, are made of stone; and no wonder, when stone quarries are near, and trees are far to seek. I have heard that Miss Branwell always went about the house in pattens, clicking up and down the stairs, from her dread of catching cold. For the same reason, in the latter years of her life, she passed nearly all her time, and took most of her meals, in her bedroom. The children respected her, and had that sort of affection for her which is generated by esteem; but I do not think they ever freely loved her. It was a severe trial for any one at her time of life to change neighbourhood and habitation so entirely as she did; and the greater her merit.
7. The narrator seems to have drawn most from which of the following?
A) widely reported gossip
B) firsthand observations
C) trenchant muckraking
D) detailed background research
E) personal life experience
8. In context, the underlined phrase "wild beasts" is used for what purpose?
A) to expose the various threats posed by the family's solitude
B) to evoke the mysterious noises in the old house
C) to condemn the behavior of the children toward their aunt
D) to describe the ferocious animals in the vicinity
E) to illustrate the intensity of the weather
9. The author's choice in the underlined phrase "I have heard" suggests which of the following?
A) The narrator is making an inference based on evidence.
B) Miss Branwell's habit has been recalled by those close to her.
C) The narrator has witnessed Miss Branwell's behavior.
D) The narrator is embellishing more commonplace details.
E) Miss Branwell was fiercely secretive in her private life.
10. Which of the following words, each underlined in the passage, is parallel in function to the underlined and bolded word "customs"?
A) "town"
B) "disliked"
C) "arising"
D) "childhood"
E) "damp"
11. Which of the following best describes the tone in which Miss Branwell's "narrow ideas" are described in the underlined sentence?
A) dismissive
B) hyperbolic
C) denunciatory
D) admiring
E) sympathetic
12. Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?
A) to expound upon the children's love for Miss Branwell
B) to persuade the reader of Miss Branwell's ultimate guilt
C) to put forth an extended metaphor about nature
D) to characterize daily life in Penzance
E) to explain the reasons behind Miss Branwell's attitudes and behavior
Adapted from Thomas Jefferson's "First Inaugural Address" [1801]
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety.
But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
13. In the underlined selection, which word is used by Jefferson to express a kind of personification?
A) arrange
B) passed
C) announced
D) decided
E) worn
14. Based on the whole passage, what is the author's purpose in the underlined selection?
A) to express partisan political views
B) to delineate himself clearly from his opponents
C) to encourage unanimity in the country
D) to ask his party to set their agenda with a view to the good of the poor
E) to give preference to underrepresented minorities
15. Which of the following devices is used in the expression "the will of the law"?
A) analogy
B) onomatopoeia
C) personification
D) allusion
E) simile
16. What is the purpose of the underlined statement ("We have called…")
A) to diminish the animosity between two factions
B) to predict upcoming political battles
C) to acknowledge the divisions in the political landscape
D) to castigate two factions for their bitter warring
E) to hint at Jefferson's major plan for upcoming years
17. To what does Jefferson draw an analogy for the current political strife?
A) the recent war for independence
B) religious disagreements over theological matters
C) the wars of religion in Europe
D) the disagreements of medieval men
E) the peace of antiquity
18. What is the purpose and effect of the underlined section in the sentence "Under the throes…"
A) to detail a litany of facts in support of Jefferson's argument
B) to state a simple fact about the history of mankind
C) to question the wisdom of most political systems
D) to increase the rhetorical fervor of Jefferson's argument
E) to recount the woes of a bygone era
19. Which of the following is one method used by President Jefferson to make his audience feel immediately "at one" with his point of view?
A) by showing great dramatic rhetoric for the sake of unifying opinions
B) by hinting that he is one among the people whom he addresses
C) by exhibiting great erudition in his writing style
D) by kindly showing the unity of the nation
E) by frightening them by stories of gore and mayhem
20. In the last paragraph, Jefferson talks about the relationship between principles and opinions. Which of the following best captures the relationship he describes?
A) A principled decision is race in political discourse, though it is more important than one based upon opinions.
B) Principles and opinions are not equivalent; two people can have the same principles while differing in their opinions.
C) Principles are unchanging things, while opinions change quite frequently.
D) On the whole, they really are equivalent; opinions merely have less force than principles.
E) Principles are quite changing things, even if opinions also do vary as well.
21. Who is the audience of Jefferson's address?
A) the party leaders in Congress
B) those who are looking to overthrow the government
C) the leaders of the majority party
D) men and women of good will throughout the world
E) the voting public
22. To what does the word "angels" refer to?
A) men of impeccable character
B) those whose job it is to protect others
C) men of religious temperaments
D) a spiritual being
E) people of kindness and goodwill
23. What can be inferred about certain parties in the audience based on the remarks made in the last paragraph?
A) Freedom of press was under assault by Jefferson's predecessor.
B) Many people question the need for an army as well as a free press.
C) Some are highly dissatisfied with the current governmental structure of the United States.
D) A number of people are vexed about issues of taxation.
E) The country is in a riotous period of instability.
24. What is the tone of the opening of the second paragraph?
A) exhortatory
B) inquiring
C) celebratory
D) announcing
E) deprecatory
1D; 2C; 3A; 4A; 5 C; 6 B; 7 D; 8 E; 9 B; 10 E; 11 E; 12D
13E; 14C; 15C; 16A; 17C; 18D; 19B; 20B; 21E 22A; 23C; 24A