12.Practice.Tests.for.the.SAT_2015-2016_1128p

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Section 8
Practice Test Ten
Captain Ahab, a master whaler who has long been
obsessed with his prey. In order to portray the
(70) hunt as a titanic struggle, Melville needed to paint
a detailed portrait of the whale-a worthy rival for
the ruthless and skilled Ahab. How could Melville
create such a sense of personality and agency for
a mute animal? How could he make the character
(75) of Mo by Dick as compelling and fully realized as
Ahab?
Melville met these challenges by educating the
reader. Melville had served on a whaling ship
himself and had also read much of the most cur-
(80) rent scientific information available about the
creatures. Drawing on this deep understanding,
Melville interspersed a number of instructional
chapters throughout the book which conveyed
a sense of the intelligence and majesty of these
(85) animals. As with any literary portrait, Melville
also saw the need to create a palpable sense of
the place the character inhabited. Several chapters
describe the climate and environment of the
whale's underwater world, including an entire
(90) chapter on the plants to be found on the ocean
floor. Just as Melville's contemporary Charles
Dickens created vivid portrayals of London to cast
a sense of light and shade on his characters, so did
Melville describe the sea in order to more fully
(95) reveal the character of Moby Dick.
Melville set before himself not only the task
of describing whales and their environments,
but also of describing whaling and the culture
of its practitioners. At its core, Moby Dick is the
(100) chronicle of a man's obsession. In order to paint
a convincing picture of Ahab's fixation, Melville
needed the reader to appreciate the tremendous
financial and psychic prize such an enormous and
unusual whale would represent to a master whaler
(105) such as Ahab. Melville also takes considerable
pains to clearly portray the techniques and culture
of whaling; several chapters are devoted entirely
to describing the process of hunting and killing a
whale. Although these chapters don't advance the
( 110) plot directly, they help the reader appreciate the
foolishness and bravery of a crew aboard a small
ship, armed with only a few harpoons, attempting
to bring down a creature as gigantic and powerful
as Moby Dick.
7. The phrase "an advance among its predecessors"
(lines 11-12) indicates that the author of Passage 1
believes that
(A) Melville's works have steadily decreased in
quality
(B) Melville's literary innovations were based on
the work of others
(C) Moby Dick is the finest novel that Melville
wrote
(D) Melville was a talented, innovative writer
(E) the descriptive passages about whaling detract
from the novel's plot
8. The author of Passage 1 most likely uses
quotation marks around the phrase "fine writing"
(lines 15-16) in order to convey
(A) the high esteem that he has for Moby Dick
(B) his contempt for Melville's writing style
(C) that the words were first written by another
critic
(D) the success of Melville's literary ambitions
(E) that Melville used the term to refer to his
own writing
9. The discussion of"a connected and collected
story" (lines 19-20) in Passage 1 implies that
(A) Melville mixed a narrative plotline with
instructional material to help readers
appreciate the characters
(B) Moby Dick has more literary merit than
Melville's previous work.
( C) more of the novel is devoted to instructive
rather than entertaining material
(D) the author believes that the novel lacks a
continuous plotline
(E) Melville had moments of inspiration
separated by periods of doubt
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