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

Section s 1
Practice Test Eleven 953
Questions I 0-15 are based on the following passage.
In 1838, at the age of twenty, Frederick Douglass escaped
from slavery. He became a journalist and powerful
speaker for the abolition movement and, in 1845, published
his autobiographical Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. The passage
below is excerpted from that work.
I lived in Master Hugh's family for about seven
years. During this time, I succeeded in learning
to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was
Line compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had
(5) no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly
begun to instruct me, had finally taken the advice
of her husband and not only ceased to instruct
but had set herself against my being instructed by
anyone else.
(10) The plan I adopted was that of making friends
of all the little white boys whom I met in the
street. As many of these as I could, I converted
into teachers. With their aid, I finally succeeded
in learning to read. When I was sent on errands,
( 15) I always took my book with me, and by doing my
errand quickly I found time to get a lesson before
my return. I used to carry bread with me, which
was always in the house and to which I was always
welcome. This bread I used to bestow upon the
(20) hungry urchins, who in return would give me that
more valuable bread of knowledge. I am strongly
tempted to give the names of two or three of those
boys, but prudence forbids-not that it would
injure me, but it might embarrass them; for it is
(25) almost an unpardonable offense to te'1ch slaves to
read in this Christian country. It is enough to say
that the fellows lived on Philpot Street, very near
Durgin and Bailey's shipyard.
I was now about twelve years old, and the
(30) thought of being a slave for life began to bear
heavily upon my heart. Just about this time, I got
hold of a book entitled The Columbian Orator,
where I met with one of Sheridan's* mighty
speeches on behalf of Catholic emancipation.
(35) These were choice documents to me. They gave
tongue to interesting thoughts of my own, which
had died away for want of utterance. The moral
which I gained from the dialogue between master
and slave was the power of truth over the
(40) conscience of even a slaveholder. What I got from
Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery and a
powerful vindication of human rights. The reading
of these documents enabled me to utter my
thoughts and to meet the arguments brought
( 45) forward to sustain slavery.
But while they relieved me of one difficulty,
they brought on another even more painful. The
more I read, the more I was led to abhor my
enslavers. I could regard them in no other light
(50) than as a band of successful robbers, who had left
their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us
from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us
to slavery. As I read and contemplated the subject,
behold! that very discontentment which Master
(55) Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to
read had come. Learning to read had given me a
view of my condition, without the remedy. The
idea of freedom had roused my soul to eternal
wakefulness. It was heard in every sound, and seen
(60) in every thing. It was ever present to torment me
with a sense of my wretched condition.
*Richard Sheridan (1751-1816): an English writer
and politician, famous for his speeches calling for
full citizenship for Roman Catholics and the abolition
of slavery in the British Empire
10. The primary focus of the passage is on the
(A) interaction between Douglass and various
childhood friends
(B) difficult relationship between Douglass and
his master and mistress
(C) ways in which learning to read influenced
Douglass's attitude toward slavery
(D) the importance ofliterature in civil rights
movements
(E) powerful impact of Sheridan's political
speeches
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