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	Master the GMAT
	Reading Comprehension Drill

20 Questions
Time--25 minutes

Directions: Each passage below is followed by questions based on its content. For each question you are to choose the best answer; that is, the one that answers the question most accurately and completely. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.

Questions 1 - 7

In a recent survey, Garber and Holtz concluded
that the average half-hour children's
television show contains 47 violent acts.
When asked about the survey, network
(5) television executive Jean Pater responded, "I
sure as heck don't think that Bugs Bunny's
pouring a glass of milk over a chipmunk's
head is violence." Unfortunately, both
Garber and Holtz and Pater beg the question.
(10) The real issue is whether children view such
acts as violence.

The violence programming aimed at
children almost always appears in the context
of fantasy. Cartoon violence generally
(15) includes animation, humor, and a remote
setting; make-believe violence generally uses
only the first two cues; realistic, acted violence,
which is not used in programming for children,
depends entirely on the viewer's
(20) knowledge that the portrayal is fictional.
Most children as young as four years can
distinguish these three contexts, though
there is no support for the idea that children,
especially young children, can differentiate
(25) types of violence on a cognitive or rational
basis--for example, by justification of the
motives for the violent behavior.
There is no evidence of direct imitation
of television violence by children, though
(30) there is evidence that fantasy violence can
energize previously learned aggressive responses
such as a physical attack on another
child during play. It is by no means clear,
however, that the violence in a portrayal is
(35) solely responsible for this energizing effect.
Rather, the evidence suggests that any
exciting material can trigger subsequent
aggressive behavior and that it is the excitation
rather than the portrayal of violence
(40) that instigates or energizes any subsequent
violent behavior. "Cold" imitation of violence
by children is extremely rare, and the
very occasional evidence of direct, imitative
associations between television violence and
(45) aggressive behavior has been limited to
extremely novel and violent acts by teenagers
or adults with already established patterns of
deviant behavior. The instigational effect
means, in the short-term, that exposure to
(50) violent portrayals could be dangerous if
shortly after the exposure (within 15 to 20
minutes), the child happens to be in a
situation that calls for interpersonal aggression
as an appropriate response, e.g., an
(55) argument between siblings or among peers.
This same instigational effect, however, could
be produced by other exciting but nonviolent
television content or by any other
excitational source, including, ironically, a
(60) parent's turning off the set.

So there is no convincing causal evidence
of any cumulative instigational effects such
as more aggressive or violent dispositions in
children. In fact, passivity is more likely a
(65) long-term result of heavy viewing of television
violence. The evidence does not warrant
the strong conclusions advanced by many
critics who tend to use television violence as
a scapegoat to draw public attention away
(70) from the real causes of violence--causes like
abusive spouses and parents and a culture
that celebrates violence generally.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) correct a popular misconception
(B) outline the history of a theory
(C) propose a solution to a social problem
(D) criticize the work of earlier researchers
(E) offer a theory of criminal behavior

2. According to the passage, all of the following
would deter a child from regarding an incident of
television violence as real EXCEPT:
(A) including easily recognized cartoon characters
(B) explaining that characters mean to do no harm
(C) having characters laugh at their misfortunes
(D) using a futuristic setting with spaceships and robots
(E) setting the action in prehistoric times

3. It can be inferred that the author uses the word
appropriate in line 54 to mean
(A) acceptable
(B) desirable
(C) learned
(D) normal
(E) violent

4. The author implies that a child who has an argument
with a sibling two to three hours after watching fantasy
violence on television would
(A) almost surely be more aggressive than usual
(B) tend to act out the fantasy violence on the sibling
(C) probably not be unusually violent or aggressive
(D) likely lapse into a state of passivity
(E) generally, but not always, be more violent

5. The author mentions the possible effect of a parent's
turning off a television (line 60) in order to
(A) demonstrate that children are able to distinguish
fantasy violence from real violence
(B) highlight the fact that it is not violence but energy
level that stimulates behavior
(C) refute the suggestion that children are able to
understand the motive for a violent action
(D) question the evidence for the proposition that
television violence causes violent behavior
(E) show that reducing the number of hours a
child watches television effectively eliminates passivity

6. The author would most likely agree with which
of the following statements?
(A) The question of how television affects children
cannot be answered by defining or redefining the term
"violent" but only by assessing the effect of programming
on behavior.
(B) The lack of direct causal evidence of any long-lasting
effect of television viewing on the behavior of children proves
that children's programs do not contain violence.
(C) The number of violent acts in a television program
provides an indication of the cumulative energizing effect
that viewing the program is likely to have on behavior.
(D) Adult action programming which features actors
engaged in violent behavior is likely to have the same
behavioral effects as a cartoon showing similar behavior.
(E) The disagreement between the television industry and
its critics over the content of programming for children
could be resolved by finding an appropriate definition
of "violent."

7. Which of the following best describes the author's
attitude about critics who say that television is an important
cause of violent behavior in children?
(A) qualified endorsement
(B) contemptuous dismissal
(C) enthusiastic acceptance
(D) moderate skepticism
(E) cautious criticism

Questions 8 - 13

It is impossible to describe the arts in the
United States without reference to our
extraordinary ethnic and cultural diversity,
but recognition of the full spectrum of
(5) different traditions has been slow in coming.
The story of the realization of America's
extraordinary artistic diversity can be told
in three chapters, culminating in the fairly
recent proliferation of cultural centers of
(10) color, and demonstrates that art, like life,
can flourish in many different settings.

The settlement houses of the late 1800s,
supported by private philanthropy and
founded to provide artistic training, produce
(15) performances, and mount exhibitions, were
designed to address the needs of poor European
immigrants. As the communities in
which settlement houses were located
changed, so did their constituencies; and
(20) most of these organizations now serve
communities of color. The oldest and best
known, Hull House in Chicago, serves one of
the country's largest multiethnic communities
with immigrants from Asia, Latin
(25) America, Africa, and other parts of the world.

In the 1930s, a variety of visual, performing,
and literary arts projects were initiated
under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration
and aimed not only at providing
(30) employment for artists but at generally
encouraging a wide range of cultural expression.
The achievements of these programs were substantial.
The Negro Unit of the Federal Theater Project employed some 500
(35) blacks in New York and produced
dramas focusing on Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and
Pierre Toussaint. The Federal Music Project
featured all-black opera casts and preserved,
recorded, and published Negro folk music,
(40) and thousands of African-Americans attended
art classes funded by the Project in
the South Side Community Art Center
in Chicago and at the Harlem Art Center.

The 1960s saw a grassroots movement
(45) among artists of color, when an unprecedented
number of college-trained artists of
color who possessed an understanding of the
art forms of the larger society as well as those
of their own communities, and who were
(50) tired of being rejected or stereotyped by
established arts institutions, began to create
informal groups and networks. They experimented
with new artistic forms, often interdisciplinary,
ethnocentric productions, in the
(55) process developing new audiences for the
arts. The country was also in the throes of a
cultural upheaval in which established
models were challenged by young people
from all racial, ethnic, and economic groups.
(60) Many of the cultural institutions established
during this period, such as the Free Southern
Theater of the Student nonviolent Coordinating
Committee and El Teatro Campesino
of the United Farmworkers, were integral
(65) parts of the civil rights struggle. The mood of
activism, experimentation, and optimism
was not limited to artists of color, but it was
in this cultural ferment that the concept of
nonprofit, community-based, ethnically
(70) specific organizations of color took root.

Many of the "culturally elite" regarded
these efforts with skepticism because these
"radical artists" attacked the prevailing view
that tended to rate cultures and their aesthetics
(75) strictly by European standards. But the
result was not the devaluation of one experience
at the expense of another. Rather,
ethnically specific arts organizations, by
preserving and sharing their own cultural
(80) heritages, promoted the unique cultural and
artistic pluralism of the United States.

8. The author is primarily concerned with
(A) celebrating cultural diversity in the United States
(B) presenting a definition of art and aesthetics
(C) explaining the concept of the settlement house
(D) describing the realization of America's artistic diversity
(E) encouraging the growth of cultural centers

9. The author's purpose in mentioning Hull House (line 22) is to
(A) give an illustration of an ethnically specific arts
organization of color
(B) explain in further detail the process of establishing
a settlement house
(C) show how patterns of immigration help determine
the ethnic make-up of communities
(D) provide an example of a settlement house that now
serves a community of color
(E) describe a model for cultural centers that serve
ethnically diverse communities

10. According to the passage, all of the following are true
of the artists of color who worked during the 1960s EXCEPT:
(A) They developed new forms of artistic expression.
(B) They contributed to the civil rights movement.
(C) They worked with people from other disciplines.
(D) They often focused on their own ethnic traditions.
(E) They benefited greatly from government grants.

11. The passage suggests that the primary function
of the Works Progress Administration was to
(A) fund arts organizations
(B) encourage artistic expression
(C) establish cultural centers
(D) create jobs for the unemployed
(E) maximize cultural diversity

12. With which of the following statements would the
author most likely agree?
(A) Familiarity with one aesthetic tradition can blind
people to the beauty of an alternative tradition.
(B) Government support for the arts is necessary
if culture is to flourish.
(C) Counter-cultural revolutions are most successful
when lead by artists rather than intellectuals.
(D) The European tradition of aesthetics is less valid
than the traditions of people of color.
(E) The cultural contribution of an artist depends upon
the level of formal education attained by the artist.

13. The author regards the achievements of the
artists of color of the 1960s as
(A) well-intentioned but amateurish
(B) innovative but unimportant
(C) radical and invaluable
(D) political and misguided
(E) predictable and derivative

Questions 14 -20

Literary critics are fond of referring to a work
as a "musical novel" whenever a writer
employs techniques that can be conveniently
described in musical terminology, but the
(5) notion that all such works are of the same
genre is an oversimplification. The writers
who have given us the most important
"musical novels" have used musical techniques
for very different purposes.

(10) In The Waves, Virginia Woolf uses musical
techniques to evoke imagery. Early in the
novel, a descriptive leitmotif is introduced
for each of the six characters, and colors
associated with different settings are like
(15) chords that are sounded again and again. A
musical composition, however, is heard in
time; a novel exists outside of time. In this
sense, the words of a novel are more like the
notes of a score, and the reader like the
(20) musician; so Woolf needed a literary device
to keep time. Her solution is again visual and
is expressed in the novel's title. The rise and
fall of the sea waves are a metronome, seen
but not heard by the reader; like the
(25)movements of the conductor's baton, they provide
the tempo.

In Moderato Cantabile, Marguerite Duras
follows the form of the first movement of a
sonata, presenting and developing two
(30) contrasting themes in different keys--the
first tonic, the second dominant--and finally
resolving them in a recapitulation by modulation
of the second theme to the key of the
first theme, thereby providing resolution and
(35) closure, an interesting form for exploring the
duality of human experience. "Moderato"
indicates measure and control, and the time
signature of the sonata is a square four-four:
Anne's life is structured and boring.
(40) "Cantabile" signifies the lyrical impulse: She
is stifled by a structured, boring life. In the
second chapter, Anne begins her strange
affair with Chauvin. Chauvin, or the second
theme, is Anne's quest for the "cantabile."
(45) They meet again and again, at the same bar
and always at the same time of day, until the
eighth chapter. Then, just as the eighth note
of the musical scale is the same as the first--
the tonic--but an octave higher, the final
(50) resolution comes in the form of a symbolic
reenactment of the murder that occurs at the
end of the first chapter:

Chauvin: I wish you were dead.
Anne: I already am.

(60) And Anne returns permanently to her boring life.

When most literary critics pronounce
both The Waves and Moderato Cantabile
"musical novels," it is these gross features
(65) that they have in mind; and so they overlook
what makes Moderato Cantabile a truly
musical novel: It is actually "heard" by the
reader. The novel is mostly dialogue punctuated
by the sounds of a radio, boats, and
(70) crowds, like musical phrases defined by rests;
all that we know and all that we need to
know of Anne and Chauvin is what we hear
them say. Ironically, this technique that
makes Moderato Cantabile more successful
(75) than The Waves as a "musical novel" may
account for Duras' relative lack of success as a
filmmaker. Despite the great success of her
screenplay for "Hiroshima, Mon Amour," few
of the 19 films that she wrote and directed
(80) did well, primarily because words often
replaced action entirely.

14. The author's primary concern is to
(A) provide a definition for the phrase "musical novel"
(B) compare the literary works of Virginia Woolf
to those of Marguerite Duras
(C) show that the term "musical novel" does not
have a clear, unambiguous meaning
(D) provide guidelines for interpreting musical novels
(E) evaluate the relative effectiveness of different
literary techniques

15. According to the author, The Waves is less
successful than Moderato Cantabile in creating the
experience of music for the reader because
(A) Woolf used musical devices primarily to evoke
visual images
(B) sea waves make a rhythmic crashing sound as
they break on the beach
(C) The Waves does not parallel a musical structure
such as a sonata
(D) a conductor's baton is seen but not heard by
audience members
(E) the title Moderato Cantabile has a musical
significance

16. The author mentions Duras' lack of success
as a filmmaker in order to
(A) prove that good novelists do not necessarily
make good filmmakers
(B) help show that dialogue has a different effect
than imagery
(C) demonstrate that Duras was an artist who was
more than just a writer
(D) suggest that a successful filmmaker needs to use
action as well as dialogue
(E) suggest that most great novels cannot be made
into great films

17. Which of the following conclusions can be inferred
about the musical structure of Moderato Cantabile?
(A) Chapter two of the novel is intended to represent
the recapitulation.
(B) The symbolic re-enactment of the murder represents
the modulation of the second theme.
(C) Anne corresponds to the tonic theme, and Chauvin
corresponds to the dominant theme.
(D) Anne's return to her previous life corresponds to the
end of a sonata.
(E) The murder in the first chapter echoes the "moderato"
of the novel's title.

18. Which of the following musical interpretations of the
final exchange between Anne and Chauvin would the author
most likely agree with?
(A) The Anne theme has been modulated into the Chauvin
theme and continues to survive Anne's departure.
(B) Chauvin has absorbed the Anne theme, thereby
providing the reconciliation of the final part of the movement.
(C) Anne has renounced the Anne theme in favor of the
Chauvin theme, so no reconciliation has actually occurred.
(D) Both the Anne theme and the Chauvin theme continue
to exist side by side in Anne and can never be reconciled.
(E) The Chauvin theme has been modulated into the Anne
theme and thereby extinguished in a reconciliation.

19. With which of the following statements would the
author most likely agree?
(A) The musical form of the sonata is ideal for exploring
the complexities of human feelings.
(B) Music is a more effective art form for expressing the
duality of experience than literature.
(C) Unless a novel has a title and subject matter that
suggest musical form, it cannot be "heard" by the reader.
(D) Novels with musical structures are interesting
experiments but will not likely produce serious literature.
(E) Musical structures and techniques can be used to
enhance the effectiveness of a literary work.

20. The author's attitude toward Duras' work
can best be described as
(A) studied neutrality
(B) muted criticism
(C) scholarly indifference
(D) qualified admiration
(E) unbridled enthusiasm

Answer Key

1. A
2. B
3. D
4. C
5. B

6. A
7. B
8. D
9. D
10. E

11. D
12. A
13. C
14. C
15. A

16. B
17. C
18. E
19. E
20. D