Essayists and Fiction Writers
Passage 4a: Joseph Addison,
True and False Humour
Among all kinds of writing, there is none in which authors are more apt to miscarry
than in works of humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to
excel. It is not an imagination that teems with monsters, a head that is filled with
extravagant conceptions, which is capable of furnishing the world with diversions
of this nature; and yet, if we look into the productions of several writers, who set
up for men of humour, what wild, irregular fancies, what unnatural distortions
of thought do we meet with? If they speak nonsense, they believe they are talking
humour; and when they have drawn together a scheme of absurd, inconsistent
ideas, they are not able to read it over to themselves withour laughing. These poor
gentlemen endeavour to gain themselves the reputation of wits and humorists, by
such monstrous conceits as almost qualify them for Bedlam; not considering that
humour should always lie under the check of reason, and that it requires the direction of the nicest judgment, by so much the more as it indulges itself in the most
boundless freedoms. There is a kind of nature that is to be observed in this sort of
compositions, as well as in all other; and a certain regularity of thought which must
discover the writer to be a man of sense, at the same time that he appears altogether
given up to caprice. For my part, when I read the delirious mirth of an unskilful
author, I cannot be so barbarous as to divert myself with it, but am rather apt to
pity the man, than to laugh at anything he writes.
The deceased Mr. Shadwell, who had himself a great deal of the talent which
I am treating of, represents an empty rake, in one of his plays, as very much surprised to hear one say that breaking of windows was not humour; and I question
not but several English readers will be as much startled to hear me affirm, that
many of those raving, incoherent pieces, which are often spread among us, under
odd chimerical titles, are rather the offsprings of a distempered brain than works
of humour.
It is, indeed, much easier to describe what is not humour than what is; and very
difficult to define it otherwise than as Cowley has done wit, by negatives. Were I to
give my own notions of it, I would deliver them after Plato's manner, in a kind of
allegory, and, by supposing Humour to be a person, deduce to him all his qualifications, according to the following genealogy. Truth was the founder of the family,
and the father of Good Sense. Good Sense was the father of Wit, who married a
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500 AP English Language
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lady of a collateral line called Mirth, by whom he had issue Humour. Humour
therefore being the youngest of this illustrious family, and descended from parents
of such different dispositions, is very various and unequal in his temper; sometimes
you see him putting on grave looks and a solemn habit, sometimes airy in his
behaviour and fantastic in his dress; insomuch that at different times he appears as
serious as a judge, and as jocular as a merry-andrew. But, as he has a great deal of
the mother in his constitution, whatever mood he is in, he never fails to make his
company laugh.
But since there is an impostor abroad, who takes upon him the name of this
young gentleman, and would willingly pass for him in the world; to the end that
well-meaning persons may not be imposed upon by cheats, I would desire my
readers, when they meet with this pretender, to look into his parentage, and to
examine him strictly, whether or no he be remotely allied to Truth, and lineally
descended from Good Sense; if not, they may conclude him a counterfeit. They
may likewise distinguish him by a loud and excessive laughter, in which he seldom
gets his company to join with him. For as True Humour generally looks serious
while everybody laughs about him, False Humour is always laughing whilst everybody about him looks serious. I shall only add, if he has not in him a mixture of
both parents-that
is, if he would pass for the offspring of Wit without Mirth, or
Mirth without Wit, you may conclude him to be altogether spurious and a cheat.
151. According to the claim in the first sentence of the passage:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
authors are ambitious to excel in all kinds of writing
authors are likely to fail when writing humor
authors are not likely to fail when writing humor
there is no kind of writing in which authors are more likely to fail
than any other
there is no kind of writing in which authors are more ambitious than
any other
152. According to the first paragraph, humor is:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
filled with extravagant conceptions
the product of wild, irregular fancies
from unnatural distortions of thought
absurd and inconsistent
required to be reasonable
153. The first paragraph contains all of the following rhetorical techniques except:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
allusion
rhetorical question
oxymoron
personification
complicated syntax
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154. In paragraph three, the writer seeks to prove his claim with the use of:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
literary example
inductive reasoning
deductive reasoning
allegory
anecdote
155. In context, the word "barbarous" in line 18 most nearly means:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
aggressive
cruel
violent
uncivilized
ignorant
156. The second "him" of the last paragraph, in line 42, refers to:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
an impostor
humor
wit
good sense
truth
157. In context, the word "spurious" in line 52 most nearly means:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
counterfeit
facetious
deceptive
authentic
artless
158. The primary mode of composition
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
of the passage as a whole is:
narration
description
classification
definition
cause and effect
159. The tone of the passage can best be described as:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
self-assured
sympathetic
acerbic
somber
frantic
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500 AP English Language Questions to Know by Test Day
160. According to the passage as a whole, humor must be all of the following
except:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(0)
(E)
rational and truthful
amusing to the writer
amusing to the reader
clear and cohesive
both serious and jovial
Passage 4b: Francis Bacon, Of Marriage and Single Life
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works,
and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men; which both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public. Yet it were great reason that those that have children, should have greatest care
of future times; unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges.
Some there are, who though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with
themselves, and account future times impertinences. Nay, there are some other,
that account wife and children, but as bills of charges. Nay more, there are some
foolish rich covetous men, that take a pride, in having no children, because they
may be thought so much the richer. For perhaps they have heard some talk, Such
an one is a great rich man, and another except to it, Yea, but he hath a great charge
of children; as if it were an abatement to his riches. But the most ordinary cause of a
single life, is liberty, especially in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which
are so sensible of every restraint, as they will go near to think their girdles and garters, to be bonds and shackles. Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, best
servants; but not always best subjects; for they are light to run away; and almost all
fugitives, are of that condition. A single life dorh well with churchmen; for charity will hardly water the ground, where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for
judges and magistrates; for if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant,
five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly in their
hortatives, put men in mind of their wives and children; and I think the despising
of marriage amongst the Turks, maketh the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly
wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity; and single men, though
they may be many times more charitable, because their means are less exhaust,
yet, on the other side, they are more cruel and hardhearted (good to make severe
inquisitors), because their tenderness is not so oft called upon. Grave natures, led
by custom, and therefore constant, are commonly loving husbands, as was said
of Ulysses, vetulam suam praetulit imrnortalitati. Chaste women are often proud
and froward, as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the best
bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the wife, if she think her husband wise;
which she will never do, if she find him jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses;
companions for middle age; and old men's nurses. So as a man may have a quarrel
to marry, when he will. But yet he was reputed one of the wise men, that made
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128. The main idea of the last sentence, "Poets alone have not 'such seething
brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more than cooler reason'
can," can be understood as expressing the thought that:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
poets
poets
poets
poets
poets
are not the only source of poetry
can understand more than the rational man can
have imagination and passion above regular men
have keen and perceptive brains
do not have insight, imagination, and understanding
129. The writer would most likely describe poetry as most importantly:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
a product of skill and practice
able to transform people's lives
all that is beautiful and powerful in life
evidence of man's respect for himself
a distinction between us and animals
130. The tone of the passage can best be described as:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
benevolent
effusive
whimsical
elated
facetious
Passage 3d: Walter Pater, Studies in the History of the Renaissance
To burn always with this hard gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in
life. Failure is to form habits; for habit is relative to a stereotyped world; meantime
it is only the roughness of the eye that makes any two persons, things, situations,
seem alike. While all melts under our feet, we may well catch at any exquisite passion, or any contribution to knowledge that seems, by a lifted horizon, to set the
spirit free for a moment, or any stirring of the senses, strange dyes, strange flowers,
and curious odours, or work of the artist's hands, or the face of one's friend. Not
to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in
the brilliance of their gifts some tragic dividing of forces on their ways is, on this
short day of frost and sun, to sleep before evening. With this sense of the splendour
of our experience and of its awful breviry, gathering all we are into one desperate effort to see and touch, we shall hardly have time to make theories about the
things we see and touch. What we have to do is to be for ever curiously testing new
opinions and courting new impressions, never acquiescing in a facile orthodoxy
of Comte or of Hegel, or of our own. Theories, religious or philosophical ideas,
as points of view, instruments of criticism, may help us to gather up what might
otherwise pass unregarded by us. La philosophie, c'est la microscope de la pensee.
The theory, or idea, or system, which requires of us the sacrifice of any part of this
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experience, in consideration of some interest into which we cannot enter, or some
abstract morality we have not identified with ourselves, or what is only conventional, has no real claim upon us.
One of the most beautiful places in the writings of Rousseau is that in the sixth
book of the Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of the literary
sense. An undefinable taint of death had always clung about him, and now in early
manhood he believed himself stricken by mortal disease. He asked himself how
he might make as much as possible of the interval that remained; and he was not
biassed by anything in his previous life when he decided that it must be by intellectual excitement, which he found in the clear, fresh writings of Voltaire. Well,
we are all condarnnes, as Victor Hugo says: les hommes sont tous condamnes a
morte avec des sursis indefinis: we have an interval, and then our place knows us no
more. Some spend this interval in listlessness, some in high passions, the wisest in
art and song. For our one chance is in expanding that interval, in getting as many
pulsations as possible into the given time. High passions give one this quickened
sense of life, ecstasy and sorrow of love, political or religious enthusiasm, or the
'enthusiasm of humanity.' Only, be sure it is passion, that it does yield you this
fruit of a quickened, multiplied consciousness. Of this wisdom, the poetic passion,
the desire of beauty, the love of art for art's sake has most; for art comes to you
professing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they
pass, and simply for those moments' sake.
131. The passage begins ("To burn always with this hard gem-like flame, to
maintain this ecstasy, is success in life") with:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(0)
(E)
a claim
evidence
a warrant
a qualifier
a rebuttal
132. In context, the word "roughness" in line 3 most nearly means:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(0)
(E)
the lack of skill or sophistication
the lack of smoothness
the lack of the finish or polish of art or culture
the lack of attention to details
a crude and unpolished state
133. Paragraph one contains each of the following except:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(0)
(E)
metaphor
simile
asyndeton
polysyndeton
allusion
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134. In context, the word "discriminate"
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in line 8 most nearly means to:
(A) act with prejudice toward
(B) differentiate berween
(C) recognize as distinct
(D) treat with disdain
(E) have condescending feelings against
135. In the sentence "Not to discriminate every moment some passionate
attitude in those about us, and in the brilliance of their gifts some tragic
dividing of forces on their ways is, on this short day of frost and sun, to
sleep before evening," "to sleep before evening" can best be understood as
a metaphor for:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
enjoying the prime of your life
giving up on the people around you for providing you with comfort
dying at too young an age
believing that your best years are yet to come
missing out on the best life has to offer before it is over
136. In line 27, "it" refers to:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
137. The
I.
II.
III.
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
the interval
anything
making as much as possible of the interval that remained
previous life
intellectual excitement
passage appeals primarily to:
ethos
logos
pathos
I
II
III
I and III
1, II, and III
138. The rhetorical function of the first half of paragraph rwo, through "fresh
writings of Voltaire," is to:
(A) provide an anecdote of the writer's claim that we should focus on
beautiful experiences because of the brevity of life
(B) provide an example of the writer's claim that we should focus on
beautiful experiences because of the brevity of life
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(C) acknowledge the counterargument against the claim that we should
focus on beautiful experiences because of the brevity of life
(D) refute the claim that we should focus on beautiful experiences because
of the brevity of life
(E) qualify the claim that we should focus on beautiful experiences
because of the brevity of life
139. The primary mode of composition
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
of the passage as a whole is:
narration
description
cause and effect
definition
argument
140. The tone of the passage can best be described as:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
indignant
passionate
flippant
pensive
delighted
Passage 3e: John Ruskin, Of the Pathetic Fallacy
Now, therefore, putting these tiresome and absurd words52 quite out of our way,
we may go on at Out ease to examine the point in question.c=namely, the difference between the ordinary, proper, and true appearances of things to us; and the
extraordinary, or false appearances, when we are under the influence of emotion,
or contemplative fancy; false appearances, I say, as being entirely unconnected with
any real power or character in the object, and only imputed to it by us.
For instance-
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The spendthrift crocus, bursting through the mould
Naked and shivering, with his cup of gold.53
This is very beautiful, and yet very untrue. The crocus is not a spendthrift, but a
hardy plant; its yellow is not gold, but saffron. How is it that we enjoy so much the
having it put into our heads that it is anything else than a plain crocus?
It is an important question. For, throughout Out past reasonings about art, we
have always found that nothing could be good or useful, or ultimately pleasurable,
52. Three short sections discussing the use of the terms "Objective" and "Subjective" have been
omitted from the beginning of this chapter.
53. Holmes (Oliver Wendell), quoted by Miss Mitford in her Recollections of a Literary Life.
[Ruskin.] From "Asrrsea, a Poem" delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College.
The passage in which these lines are found was later published as "Spring."
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