Reading comprehension Home Exercise- 11, PASSAGE E

She was one of those pretty, charming women who are born, as if by an error of fate, into a petty official’s family. She had no dowry, no hopes, nor the slightest chance of being loved and married by a rich man- so she slipped into marriage with a minor civil servant.

Unable to afford jewels, she dressed simply: But she was wretched, for women have neither case not breeding- in them beauty, grace, and charm replace pride of birth, innate refinement, instinctive elegance, and wit give them their place on the only scale that counts, and these make humble girls the peers of the grandest ladies.

She suffered, feeling that every luxury should rightly have been hers. The poverty of her rooms, the shabby walls, the worn furniture, the ugly upholstery caused her pain. All these things that another woman of her class would not even have noticed made her angry. The very sight of the little Breton girl who cleaned for her awoke rueful thoughts and the wildest dreams in her mind. She dreamt of rooms with Oriental hangings, lighted by tall, bronze torches, and with two huge footmen in knee breeches made drowsy by the heat from the stove, asleep in the wide armchairs. She dreamt of great drawing rooms upholstered in old silks, with fragile little holding priceless knickknacks, and of enchanting little sitting rooms designed for tea- time chats with famous, sought – after en whose attentions all women longed for.

She sat down to dinner at her round table with is three- day- old cloth, and watched her husband lift the lid of the soup tureen and delightedly exclaim: “Ah, a  good homemade beef stew! There’s nothing better!” she visualized elegant dinners with gleaming silver and gorgeous china. She yearned for wall handlings peopled with knights and ladies and exotic brides in a fairy forest. She dreamt of eating the pink flesh of trout or the wings of grouse. She had no proper wardrobe, no jewels, nothing. And those were the only things that she loved – she felt she was made for them.

She would have so loved to charm to be envied, to be admired and sought after dowry: property women brought to her husband in marriage.

1.       Which word best describes the actual living conditions of the couple in the selection?

A.      Destitute

B.      Poor

C.      Comfortable

D.      Wealthy

2.         Which line best demonstrates the couple’s true economic standing?

A.      She had no dowry , no hopes, not the slightest chance of being married by a rich man

B.      The poverty of rooms the shabby walls, the won furniture, the ugly upholstery caused her pain.

C.      She sat down to dinner at her round table with its three –day-old cloth, and watched her husband lift the lid of the soup tureen.

D.      The very sight of the little Breton girl who cleaned for her awoke rueful thoughts and the wildest dreams in her mind.

3.       According to the selection, what can be stated about the marriage of this woman?

A.      She married but was ashamed of the insignificant position her husband held.

B.      She married on the rebound after a wealthy suitor had abandoned her.

C.      She married for love without realizing the consequences to her social standing.

D.       She never loved her husband.

4.       What can be inferred about the values of both husband and wife?

A.      They share the same values.

B.      The husband values family and simple comforts of home, whereas his wife views these comforts as cause for her anguish.

C.      The husband has ceased to enjoy the simple things and only strives to quench his wife’s insatiable desire for luxury.

D.      The husband believes that a wholesome meal can solve all problems, while his wife believes it is the presentation of the meal that counts.

5.       The main idea of the passage is

A.      To have the reader feel great sympathy for the wife.

B.      To have the reader feel great sympathy for the husband.

C.      To show the class distinctions that was so obvious during the setting of the story.

D.      To show the reader how selfish and self centered the wife is.

6.       What part of speech does the author employ to weave the rich images he presents through the wife’s descriptions?

A.      Adjectives

B.      Adverbs

C.      Nouns

D.      Verbs

Answer:

1.       C    The husband had a civil servants job and received a steady salary; the wife had a servant who cleaned for her. The couple lived in a dwelling that had several rooms. This implies that they lived comfortably. Choice a is incorrect because they obviously were not impoverished. Choice b   is incorrect because the wife had a maid. Choice d is incorrect because this was the lie the wife wanted to have, but instead had shabby walls, worn furniture etc.

2.       D      This question relates to the previous one. This choice presents the fact that the wife had a maid. Choice a does not deal with the couple’s economic standing, but only the wife’s before she was married. Choice b is tempting, but the poverty of her rooms is more in her eyes than a truthful economic indicator. How poverty stricken can she is if she has a maid? Choice c deals with a tablecloth that has been used three days in a row. It has nothing to do with economic standing because it could have been washed by the maid or the wife, and the situation would have been remedied.

3.       A     it is obvious from the description of the wife’s thoughts in the first paragraph that she wished she had married a rich man. Instead, she slipped into marriage with a minor civil servant. The woman is ashamed of her marriage and of her husband’s occupation to the point of making it sound like an accident, as one may slip on a wet floor. Choices b, c and d are incorrect because the wife loving anything other than expensive things is never mentioned in the passage.

4.       B     The husband’s delight with the homemade stew only seems to send his wife into another bout of daydreams to escape her middle-class prison. Choice a is blatantly incorrect, because the husband obviously enjoys homemade beef stew while the wife dreams of wings of grouse. Choice c is incorrect because the husband is either unaware of his wife’s anguish or doesn’t let it affect his delight in his dinner. Choice d is irrelevant to the passage.

5.       D    This is reinforced by the last two sentences of the passage. The wife admits she only loves rich things. Believes she was made for them, and focuses all her desires on being admired and sought after, thinking only of her at all times. Choice a is incorrect because the author paints a negative picture of the wife. Although choice b is tempting, the author does not develop the husband enough for him to become the focus of the passage. Choice c is incorrect because it is not developed in the passage. The focus is on the wife, not on class distinctions in general.

6.       A   Adjectives are the words that describe nouns. These are the words that truly add dimension to the descriptions of the home and the day dreams of the wife. Innate, instinctive, grandest, gorgeous, gleaming, and pink are some of the adjectives that enrich the nouns of the wife’s dreams. Shabby, worn, ugly, and homemade are adjectives that add to the undesirable view she has of her present situation. None of the other choices add such richness to the passage.