serialACT在线阅读练习题1

Sample Reading Passages: Passage 1

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explanations. An actual ACT Reading Test contains 40 questions to be answered in 35 minutes.

DIRECTIONS: The passage in this test is followed by several questions. After reading the passage,

choose

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document. You may refer to the passage as often as necessary.

Passage I

PROSE FICTION:

This passage is adapted from the novel

The Men of Brewster Place

by

Gloria Naylor (

?

1998 by Gloria Naylor).

Clifford Jackson, or Abshu, as he preferred to be

known in the streets, had committed himself several

years ago to use his talents as a playwright to broaden

the horizons for the young, gifted, and black

—

which

5

was how he saw every child milling around that dark

street. As head of the community center he went after

every existing grant on the city and state level to bring

them puppet shows with the message to avoid drugs

and stay in school; and plays in the park such as actors

10

rapping their way through Shakespeare's

A Midsummer

Night's Dream

. Abshu believed there was something in

Shakespeare for everyone, even the young of Brewster

Place, and if he broadened their horizons just a little

bit, there might be enough room for some of them to

15

slip through and see what the world had waiting. No, it

would not be a perfect world, but definitely one with

more room than they had now.

The kids who hung around the community center

liked Abshu, because he never preached and it was

20

clear that when they spoke he listened; so he could zero

in on the kid who had a real problem. It might be an

offhand remark while shooting a game of pool or a one-

on-one out on the basketball court, but he had a way of

making them feel special with just a word or two.

25

Abshu wished that his own family could have

stayed together. There were four of them who ended up

in foster care: him, two younger sisters, and a baby

brother. He understood why his mother did what she

did, but he couldn't help wondering if there might have

30

been a better way

Abshu was put into a home that already had two

other boys from foster care. The Masons lived in a

small wooden bungalow right on the edge of Linden

Hills. And Mother Mason insisted that they tell any-

35

body who asked that they actually lived

in

Linden

Hills, a more prestigious address than Summit Place. It

was a home that was kept immaculate.

But what he remembered most about the Masons

was that it seemed there was never quite enough to eat.

40

She sent them to school with a lunch of exactly one and

a half sandwiches

—

white bread spread with margarine

and sprinkled with sugar

—

and half an apple.

When Abshu dreamed of leaving

—

which was

every day

—

he had his own apartment with a refrigera-

45

tor overflowing with food that he gorged himself with

day and night. The Masons weren't mean people; he

knew he could have ended up with a lot worse.

Abshu lived with these people for nine years, won

a scholarship to the local college, and moved out to

50

support himself through school by working in a dough-

nut shop. By this time his mother was ready to take her

children back home, but he decided that since he was

already out on his own he would stay there. One less

mouth for her to worry about feeding. And after he

55

graduated with his degree in social work, he might even

be able to give her a little money to help her along.

One thing he did thank the Masons for was keep-

ing him out of gangs. There was a strict curfew in their

home that was rigidly observed. And church was

60

mandatory.

“

When you're out on your own,

”

Father

Mason always said,

“

you can do whatever you want,

but in my home you do as I say.

”

No, they weren't

mean people, but they were stingy

—

stingy with their

food and with their affection. Existing that way all the

65

time, on the edge of hunger, on the edge of kindness,

gave Abshu an appreciation for a life fully lived. Do

whatever job makes you happy, regardless of the cost;

and fill your home with love. Well, his home became

the community center right around the corner from

70

Brewster Place and the job that made him most fulfilled

was working with young kids.

The kids who hung out at the community center

weren't all lost yet. They wanted to make use of the

tutors for their homework; and they wanted a safe place

75

to hang. His motto was: Lose no child to the streets.

And on occasion when that happened, he went home to

cry. But he never let his emotions show at work. To the

kids he was just a big, quiet kind of dude who didn't go

looking for trouble, but he wouldn't run from it either.

80

He was always challenged by a new set of boys who

showed up at the center. He made it real clear to them

that this was his territory

—

his rules

—

and if they

needed to flex their muscles, they were welcome to try.

And he showed many that just because he was kind, it

85

didn't mean he was weak. There had to be rules some-

place in their world, some kind of discipline. And if

they understood that, then he worked with them, long

and hard, to let them see that they could make a differ-

ence in their own lives.

?

The point of view from which the passage is told can best be described as that of:

A.

a man looking back on the best years of his life as director of a community

center in a strife-ridden neighborhood.

B.

a narrator describing his experiences as they happen, starting with childhood

and continuing through his adult years as an advocate for troubled children.

C.

an unidentified narrator describing a man who devoted his life to neighborhood

children years after his own difficult childhood.

D.

an

admiring

relative

of

a

man

whose

generosity

with

children

was

widely

respected in the neighborhood where he turned around a declining community

center.

?

It

can

reasonably

be

inferred

from

the

passage

that

which

of

the

following

is

a

cherished dream that Abshu expects to make a reality in his lifetime?