SECTION 3 Time 25 minutes 24 Questions 10 1.

. Although a few characters in Chekhovs plays speak in regional -----, most use standard Russian.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

2020 PT 8 | Reading

resoundingly defeated. The Founding Fathers understood the rich tradition of government support for the arts in Europe, and most were themselves well versed in classical literature and the arts. Despite this heritage, they chose limited government and artistic freedom over the idea of government support and imprimatur of the arts. Passage 2

verbosity subtleties dialects monotones connotations

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After thoroughly reviewing his data, the researcher was dismayed to find that his preliminary conclusions were ------, as they were based on ------- information.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

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distorted . . veritable accurate . . empirical groundless . . spurious irreducible . . redundant indispensable . . fabricated

25 6.

The Constitution has proven a valuable charter of government for more than two centuries because it is not a document of specifics. Many important federal programs, such as Social Security, are not specified in the Constitution. However, Social Security and other programs are supported by the American people because the Constitution does give broad power to Congress to promote the general welfare, as its preamble states. In fact, a recent poll indicates that 79 percent of Americans believe that the government should provide financial assistance to arts organizations, and 61 percent say that they would pay an extra $5 a year in taxes toward such assistance. It can be inferred that the motivating principle behind Pinckney's proposal (Passage 1) aligns most closely with which notion found in Passage 2?
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

3.

Although figure skater Michelle Kwan displayed an ----- style of competition during her early career, as she matured she projected a more moderate and ----- attitude.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

enthusiastic . . relentless impassioned . . aggressive indecisive . . apprehensive intense . . equable unflappable . . assured 7.

The Constitution's lack of specificity The enhancement of the common good The Constitution's enduring value The reliability of polling results The legitimacy of government authority

4.

The governor was ------ at ----- challenges on issues that might damage his career: this skillful evasiveness served him well.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

The Founding Fathers, as represented in Passage 1, would most likely consider the role of the government in arts funding advocated in Passage 2 to be
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

clumsy . . denouncing inept . . repelling adroit . . parrying ineffectual . . circumventing resourceful . . inventing 8.

overly expansive somewhat unclear totally unprecedented utterly impractical thoroughly reasonable

5.

Always somewhat irascible, Sandra had become positively ------ of late, quarreling with strangers, with her family, even with her closest friends.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

The author of Passage 2 would most likely argue that the fact that the Constitution is silent (line 1, Passage 1) does NOT mean that
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

torpid profligate melancholy bellicose enigmatic 9.

the act of politicizing the arts diminishes them the framers of the Constitution were uncultured government support of the arts is unconstitutional the Constitution is the touchstone of good governance Social Security is more important to people than the arts are

Questions 6-9 are based on the following passage.

Unlike Passage 1, Passage 2 contains which sort of supporting information?

Passage 1 While the United States Constitution is silent on federal funding of the arts, the question was raised during the Constitutional Convention. On August 18, 1787, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina urged that the federal government be authorized to establish seminaries for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences. This proposal was Statistical data Direct quotation Expert opinion Historical fact Personal experience


Questions 10-15 are based on the following passages.

2020 PT 8 | Reading

The following passage, adapted from an article published in 2001, deals with a nearly universal phenomenon: blushing.

(C) It can be as irritating as a childhood rash. (D) It can sometimes be contagious. (E) It is confined to the face, neck, and upper chest.

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What is this peculiar phenomenon called blushing? A skin reaction? An emotion? A kind of vascular expression? Scientists have never been sure how to describe it. The blush is at once physiology and psychology. On the one hand, blushing is involuntary, uncontrollable, and external, like a rash. On the other hand, it requires thought and feeling at the highest order of cerebral function. Man is the only animal that blushes, Mark Twain wrote in 1897. Or needs to. Observers have often assumed that blushing is simply the outward manifestation of shame. But, as Charles Darwin noted and puzzled over in an 1872 essay, it is not shame but the prospect of humiliation that makes us blush. A man may feel thoroughly ashamed at having told a small falsehood, without blushing, he wrote, but if he even suspects that he is detected he will instantly blush, especially if detected by someone he reveres. But if it is humiliation we are concerned about, why do we blush when were praised? Or when people sing Happy Birthday to us? Or when people just look at us? A noted psychiatry professor routinely demonstrates this effect in his classes. He announces that he will randomly point at a student, that the pointing is meaningless and reflects no judgment whatever about the person. Then he closes his eyes and points. Everyone looks to see who it is. And, invariably, that person is overcome by embarrassment. Why we have such a reflex is perplexing. One theory is that the blush exists to show embarrassment, just as the smile exists to show happiness. This would explain why the reaction appears only in the visible regions of the body (the face, the neck, and the upper chest). Yet although nearly everyone blushes, blushing is, because of the range of human skin color, nearly invisible in many people. Moreover, you dont need to turn red in order for people to recognize that youre embarrassed. Studies show that people detect embarrassment before you blush. Apparently, blushing takes between fifteen and twenty seconds to reach its peak, yet most people need less than five seconds to recognize that someone is embarrassedthey pick it up from the almost immediate shift in gaze, usually down and to the left, or from the sheepish, self-conscious grin that follows a half second to a second later. So theres reason to doubt that the purpose of blushing is entirely expressive. There is, however, an alternate view held by a growing number of scientists. Blushing itself may serve to heighten ones sense of embarrassment. People may hate being embarrassed and strive not to show it when they are, but embarrassment might serve an important good. For, unlike sadness or anger or even love, it is fundamentally a moral emotion. Arising from sensitivity to what others think, embarrassment can provide painful notice that one has crossed certain bounds while at the same time providing others with a kind of apology. It keeps us in good standing with the world. And, if blushing serves to heighten such sensitivity, then blushing may be to ones ultimate advantage.

11. The passage most directly suggests which explanation for Mark Twains claim (lines 7-8) ?
(A) Human skin, unlike fur, feathers, or scales, is able to change

color quickly.
(B) Humans alone are able to control their appearance

consciously.
(C) In 1897, zoology was too new a field to have identified

other animals capable of blushing.

that allows for blushing.

humans are the only ones who need to communicate shame. 12. The quotation from Darwins essay (lines 12-16) serves to support which of the following assertions?
(A) Sometimes the opinions of those we hold in high esteem

(B) (C) (D) (E)

have more impact on us than the knowledge that we have done something wrong. Blushing increases in color and duration if the blusher suspects that his or her lie has been detected. Shame is synonymous with the fear of being humiliated. People in the nineteenth century first understood the causes of blushing after Darwin published his essay. When someone blushes, his or her immediate circumstances offer no explanation for this physiological response.

13. The author uses a series of questions in lines 17-19 primarily to

challenge a particular hypothesis express a fundamental uncertainty reveal a misleadingly popular explanation poke gentle fun at common human quirks suggest possible avenues of research

14. Which statement best expresses the authors understanding of how blushing provides others with a kind of apology (line 52)?
(A) A blushing face is a universal sign of guilt. (B) Blushing distracts others from any wrong we may have

committed, thereby sparing us from punishment.

those we respect teaches us to tell right from wrong.

thus forcing us to apologize in order to make the blush subside. (E) Blushing may serve as an involuntary public acknowledgment that we have done something wrong. 15. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) challenge deeply held notions about the nature of blushing (B) provide a physiological explanation for why people blush (C) give a sense of the number of thinkers who have tackled the

10. In line 5, the authors reference to a rash most directly illustrates which view of blushing?
(A) It bears some resemblance to a disease in its long-term

question of blushing
(D) provide an overview of research into treatments for chronic

effects.
(B) It is a physical reaction that cannot be consciously

blushing
(E) explore some of the theories surrounding blushing

controlled.


Questions 16-24 are based on the following passage.

2020 PT 8 | Reading

16. In lines 4-6, the father is compared to

This passage is set in a Jewish school in New York City in the 1960's. Part of the curriculum at the school is the study of Jewish laws and traditions.

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His fathers class was on the second floor, down the hallway to the back. On the walls no posters, no maps, not even the little grids by the stairwells telling you where to go in case of emergency or fire. The impression he always got approaching his fathers classroom was of books as an ocean, his father adrift among them, possibly going down. There were books on the sills, on the students wooden desks, on a long table near the window, books piled open-face on each other, threatening to spill onto the floor. Sometimes David knocked, sometimes he walked straight in, so his father would look up and see him. Other times he stood at the door, playing a game he did not really enjoy, seeing how long it would be before his father, hunched over a smeary manuscript he was translating for some journal, would notice him. He watched his fathers big head under its black yarmulke1, watched his incomprehensible scrawl on the yellow writing paper. At times he just stood there and thought, This is his other world, when hes not home with us. The response when it came, in any case, was always the same. His father would look up, startled, genuinely surprised to see him there, glad. He would check his watch, Am I late? he would say, knowing he was, enjoying the ritual, Just one more second. And David would bring out his baseball cards to check for Yankees or loiter halfway up the hall, embarrassed in more ways than he could acknowledge, at his fathers absent-mindednesstwo, three times every week he had to come get him for dinnerat his own unwanted role as messenger, at the shabby familiarity of these rooms and halls, at the way his father would look up from his books every time like a man shocked from dreaming, alarmed, happy, smiling to see him. On the way out, students would nod at his father, occasionallyusually the younger onesstop and ask a question about their work. Older boys sat on the steps to argue, and they didnt rise, as David didnt for his teachers, as his father passed. They said good night in Yiddish2 or, not pausing in their conversations at all, simply raised their chins at his father, a bare acknowledgment in which David saw condescension, traces of contempt. It galled him that they knew his father in all his weaknesseshis dreamymindedness, his affection for puns, his penchant for flying off the handle and his killing remorse afterwardthey knew all these things as well as his own son did. He registered what he believed was the complacent derision in their faces, and recognized much the same in himself, which made him even angrier. He knew his father just that well, and of course he loved him. Did they? Did they love him, these pale boys with their green suits, smugly arguing laws nobody but they cared about anyway? On the street, as his father pulled papers from his suit pocket or tried to relatch his briefcase, which had come undone, as he called, Wait, David, tell me about your day, the boy would tuck his chin into his neck and walk faster, willing himself deaf and blind.
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a treasure a ship a warning an island an oar

17. The description in lines 4-9 (The impression . . . floor) reflects Davids perception of his father as being
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

easily distracted humorously animated unwillingly confined nearly overwhelmed seriously endangered

18. As described in the opening paragraph (lines 1-18), the other world (line 17) is one in which Davids father is
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

absorbed in intellectual matters escaping from family pressures saddened by others lack of respect for him struggling to assert his individuality engaged in discussion with his students

19. Lines 19-22 (The response . . . late? ) indicate that the father usually views Davids arrival as
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

an annoying intrusion a sad reminder a sign of affection an implicit reproach an unexpected pleasure

20. The author uses the word ritual in line 22 in order to convey which of the following?
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

The religious overtones of a remark The solemnity of an occasion The rigidity of a family tradition The predictability of an interaction The sanctity of a location

21. In line 42, killing most nearly means

fatal canceling excruciating amusing ultimate

22. In line 43, registered most nearly means

A skullcap worn for religious purposes A language brought to the United States by Jewish immigrants.

endorsed expressed chronicled achieved noted


23. The details in lines 50-52 (his father . . . undone) reinforce earlier descriptions of the fathers
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

2020 PT 8 | Reading

5.

No amount of cajoling could ----- the anxiety the child felt on her first day of school; her parents attempts to ----- her failed completely.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

intellectual accomplishments frequent sense of being surprised sudden changes of mood general absent-mindedness deep affection for his son

assuage .. mollify palliate .. upbraid exacerbate .. comfort penetrate .. implicate gauge .. unnerve

24. The authors primary concern in the passage is to

depict a specific academic setting contrast two very different cultures portray a complicated relationship distinguish youthful from mature views relate the details of a particular event

6.

Elizabeth perversely saw her ----- as a useful strategy: because she always mistrusted other people, nobody ever disappointed her.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

SECTION 4 Time 25 minutes 24 Questions 1. The biography of Marie Curie describes her life so ----- that readers feel they are hearing the French scientists thoughts and experiencing her emotions.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

sarcasm insincerity misanthropy dispassion dejection

7.

Franks natural ---- and moral ----- were evidenced by his indecisiveness and avoidance of controversial issues.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

sparsely mysteriously cautiously graciously vividly

pessimism .. uprightness fearfulness .. honesty irresolution .. cowardice instability .. depravity fortitude .. deficiency

8.

In his protest sonnets, Claude McKay yoked ----- with ----- by using a traditional verse form to convey powerful challenges to contemporary social standards.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

2.

Although some bacteria are known to ----- water, recent findings suggest that certain other species may actually be -----because they remove dangerous trace minerals from drinking water.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

pollute .. harmful consume .. porous poison .. vulnerable resist .. profitable contaminate .. beneficial

politics .. partisanship convention .. dissent piety .. ingenuity novelty .. aspiration custom .. conservatism

Questions 9-10 are based on the following passage.

3.

Skeptics ----- the companys decision to use new computer software, believing it would be -----, wasting money and hindering efficiency.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

rejected .. provident opposed .. uneconomical admired .. frugal ignored .. expedient endorsed .. detrimental

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Joining a travel tourthat was a gamble. Paul dreads fund-raisers and cocktail parties, all occasions at which he must give an account of himself to people he will never see again. Yet there are advantages to the company of strangers. You can tell them whatever you please: no lies perhaps, but no affecting truths. Paul does not fabricate well, and the single truth he offered these random companionsthat recently he lost his wifebrought down a flurry of theatrical condolence. (A hand on his at the breakfast table in Athens, the very first day: Time, time, and more time. Let Father Time do his tedious, devious work.)

4. The cellists ----- was evident in the fervent, expressive manner in which she practiced and performed her music.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

9.

Joining a travel tour was a gamble (line 1) because Paul

callowness evasiveness ardor impartiality jocularity

feels ill at ease in foreign countries was uncertain whether he could afford the trip made arrangements through an unreliable agent dislikes interacting with strangers prefers to travel in a less structured way


10. The narrator presents the parenthetical material in lines 9-11 as an example of
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

2020 PT 8 | Reading

Passage 1 Today, tragedy and romantic drama are equally old and worn out. An entirely new world has arisen in our century; it has sent us back to the study of documents, to experience, made us realize that to start afresh we must first take things back to the beginning, become familiar with human beings and nature, verify what is. Thenceforward, the great naturalistic school, which has spread secretly, irrevocably, often making its way in darkness but always advancing, can finally come out triumphantly into the light of day. An irresistible current carries out society toward the study of reality.

a calculatedly offensive gesture an overly dramatic show of sympathy a comically irrelevant remark profound yet undervalued wisdom trite yet appreciated sentiment

Questions 11-12 are based on the following passage.

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I first encountered the work of Confucius in college, when I attempted to read The Analects. But none of it really sank in. The words I understood. The meaning escaped me. Part of it, perhaps, was that I was reading an English translation. In English, a line like The Master said, Unbending strength, resolution, simplicity and reticence are close to benevolence comes off like a parody of fortunecookie philosophy. In Chinese, such a line can draw force from its imprecision. There is less connective tissue in a Chinese sentence. There is thus something more compact and expressive about a Chinese word. That something can get lost in translation.

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11. The author initially found the works of Confucius
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

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impossible to disregard difficult to comprehend tedious to read out loud inconvenient to study challenging to translate

The old dramatic formulas, both classical and romantic, were based upon the rearrangement and systematic amputation of the truth. They determined on principle that the truth is not good enough; they tried to draw out of it an essence, poetry, on the pretext that nature must be expurgated and magnified. Up to the present, the different literary schools disputed only over the question of the best way to disguise the truth so that it might not look too brazen to the public. The classicists adopted the toga; the romantics fought a revolution to impose the suit of armor. Essentially the change of dress made little difference; the counterfeiting of nature went on. But today the naturalistic thinkers are telling us that the truth does not need clothing; it can walk naked.

12. Which of the following is most similar to the phenomenon referred to in the last sentence of the passage?
(A) The precise societal rules about addressing others often (B) (C) (D) (E)

prove an obstacle to Americans attempting to learn Japanese. Diplomats in foreign countries learn the native language of those countries in order to conduct effective negotiations. The meanings of some words in ancient Greek cannot be fully expressed in English. Some specific terms have different meanings in different regions of the United States. Native English speakers, learning French as adults, can rarely pronounce the language properly.

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The naturalistic movement says squarely that poetry is everywhere, in everything, even more in the present and the real than in the past and the abstract. With the superior works being produced in these times by the naturalistic school works of high endeavor, pulsing with lifeit is ridiculous and false to park our poetry in some antiquated temple and bury it in cobwebs. Poetry flows at its full force through everything that exists; the truer to life, the greater it becomes. And I mean to give the word poetry its widest definition, not to pin it down exclusively to the cadence of two rhymes, nor to bury it in a narrow coterie of dreamers, but to restore its real human significance, which concerns the expansion and encouragement of every kind of truth.

READING WALKTHROUGH (with a teacher)

In the nineteenth century, a group of playwrights followed the lead of the naturalist novelist, who sought in their writing to depict everyday life as realistically as possible. The following two passages, written in 1881 and 1902, respectively, present two writers views about the appropriateness of naturalism in the theater.

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The future is with naturalism. It will be proved that there is more poetry in the little apartment of a middle-class citizen than in all the empty palaces of history. In the end we will see that everything truly poetic meets in the real.


Passage 2 The aim of naturalistic staging is to intensify the reality of things, to give the illustration of an actual room, or meadow, or mountain. We have achieved great skill in giving this crude illusion of reality. Our stage painters can imitate anything, but what they cannot give us is the emotion which the playwright wishes to indicate by means of the scene. It is the very closeness of the imitation that makes our minds unable to accept it. The eye rebounds, so to speak, from this canvas as real as wood, this wood as real as water, this water that is actual water.

2020 PT 8 | Reading

14. Which statement best expresses the authors key point about the classical and romantic dramatic formulas (line 11)? (A) Neither classical nor romantic drama provides the kind of emotional impact that modern audiences prefer. (B) Classical drama possesses a wider appeal than romantic works. (C) Both dramatic genres are provocative but lack a clear focus. (D) Both schools of drama conceal rather than reveal the truth. (E) Both forms of drama embody a sense of poetry that naturalism lacks.

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15. In Passage 1, the author implies that the toga (line 19) and the suit of armor (line 20) primarily serve to (A) illustrate how an individuals physical appearance was a misleading indicator of his or her social status (B) show how romanticized costuming compensated for human frailties (C) represent the theaters tendency to exaggerate the importance of Western culture (D) convey militaristic overtones that diminish the theaters poetic power (E) exemplify how artificial historical settings obscured the reality of human experience

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The new theater will take us beyond reality, replacing the pattern of the thing itself with a new pattern: the symbolic association which that thing evokes in the mind. In this new convention of the stage, a plain cloth, modulated by light, can stand for space or for limit, may be the tight walls of a tent or the sky and the clouds. The eye loses itself among those severe, precise, and yet mysterious lines and surfaces; the mind is easily at home in them; it accepts them as readily as it accepts the convention by which, in a poetical play, the characters speak in verse rather than in prose.

16. Which hypothetical dramatic scene contains the most poetry based on the authors argument in lines 24-26? (A) A traveler waiting for a train in a railway station (B) A mythological deity performing a miracle (C) A reenactment of a minor incident in the American Revolution (D) A dramatization of a legendary confrontation between an outlaw and a sheriff (E) An imaginative interpretation of a realistic dream

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A rural, pastoral scene, for example, might include conventional but not naturalistic elements: nymphs in straight dresses and straight ribbons lying back laughing on the ground, children in little modern straw hats tossing paper roses among the nymphsand tossing colored balloons into the air, carrying the eye upward, as if it saw the wind chasing the clouds. You would feel the actual sensation of a pastoral scene, of country joy, of spring and the open air, as no trickle of real water in a trough, no sheaves of real corn among painted trees, no imitation of a flushed sky on canvas, could trick you into feeling it. The idea would be to catch the imagination; to make a suggestion that strikes straight to the nerves of delight; and to be sure those nerves, that imagination, will do the rest, better, more effectually, than the deliberate assent of the eyes to an imitation of natural appearances.

17. In Passage 2, the action of the eye described in lines 48-50 most directly serves to point out (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) a shortcoming of realistic staging an instinctive reliance on comforting imagery an inability to interpret abstract scenery a preference for things perceived as familiar a tendency to fixate on bizarre images

18. In the opening paragraph of Passage 2 (lines 41-50), the author recognizes the ability of naturalistic staging to (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) manipulate scenery deftly to create fantasy evoke emotions through the use of scenery make audiences forget that they are in a theater simulate authentic settings proficiently ascribe meaning to the most everyday sights

13. The image of the current in line 9 serves to (A) exemplify the new movements realistic portrayal of nature (B) characterize the outpouring of praise for naturalist playwrights (C) describe the steady rise in the influence of naturalism (D) illustrate the cyclical nature of theatrical trends (E) convey the highly charged emotions evoked by naturalist drama


19. In line 54, convention most nearly means (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) assembly requirement custom stodginess judgment

2020 PT 8 | Reading

23. The author of Passage 1 would most likely respond to the prediction in Passage 2 about the new theater (lines 51-53) with which statement? (A) Such theater would provide welcome comic relief from the prevailing formal and humorless dramatic style. (B) Such theater would alienate its audiences because most people yearn for fantasy rather than realism. (C) Because such theater deals with traditional subjects, it would be better if its form were also traditional. (D) Since this new theater would rely on artificial conventions, it will offer nothing truly poetic to its audience. (E) The arrival of the new theater might be embraced by amateur performers, but most professional actors will reject it.

20. In lines 53-56, the author presents a set of images primarily to (A) demonstrate that real-life experiences are different from the experience of naturalistic theater (B) show that the new staging uses simple means to convey a variety of meanings (C) prove that what people think they see is not the same as what they actually see (D) characterize the fickle nature of peoples attitudes toward dramatic styles (E) establish the main points on which naturalists and those who prefer symbols disagree

24. How does each passage view naturalism? (A) Passage 1 hails naturalism for ushering in a new age; Passage 2 sees naturalism as a throwback to the past. (B) Passage 1 asserts that naturalism makes theater socially relevant; Passage 2 argues that naturalisms appeal is timeless. (C) Passage 1 claims that naturalism is a powerful form of poetry; Passage 2 treats naturalism as a dangerous assault on poetry. (D) Passage 1 sees naturalism as a unique means of reaching new audiences; Passage 2 portrays naturalism as too cynical for most people. (E) Passage 1 asserts that naturalism depicts life as it really is; Passage 2 claims that naturalism portrays only a surface reality.

21. In Passage 2, the author suggests that an idea for a rural scene (lines 61-71) is to (A) illustrate how the presence of children on the stage can enliven a performance (B) explain how even the most visually fanciful spectacles can be socially relevant (C) illustrate the presumptuousness of trying to replicate accurately the beauty of nature (D) make the point that a realistic setting often fails to capture the spirit of a scene (E) offer an example of conventional staging that leaves nothing to the imagination

22. Which best describes how the two passages differ on the issue of poetry in the theater? (A) Both passages dismiss poetic drama as simplistic, but Passage 2 is more cautious about eliminating poetry entirely. (B) Passage 1 would allow unrhymed but not rhymed poetry; Passage 2 would allow both. (C) Passage 1 assumes that poetry arises from everyday pursuits; Passage 2 associates poetic truth with emotion and the imagination. (D) Passage 1 insists on casual, conversational language; Passage 2 claims that more formal language is the only true form of poetry. (E) Passage 1 maintains that poetry has no place in naturalistic drama; Passage 2 sees poetry as essential to the theaters appeal.