For the next four days, we’ll be picking apart this passage-based reading test. There will be eight questions about it; I’ll give two a day for the next four days.
Source: majortests.com
A stout old lady was walking with her basket down the middle of a
street in Petrograd to the great confusion of the traffic and with no
small peril to herself. It was pointed out to her that the
pavement was the place for pedestrians, but she replied: ‘I’m going
5 to walk where I like. We’ve got liberty now.’ It did not occur
to the dear old lady that if liberty entitled the pedestrian to
walk down the middle of the road, then the end of such liberty
would be universal chaos. Everybody would be getting in
everybody else’s way and nobody would get anywhere.
10 Individual liberty would have become social anarchy.
There is a danger of the world getting liberty-drunk in
these days like the old lady with the basket, and it is just as well
to remind ourselves of what the rule of the road means. It means
that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved, the
15 liberties of everybody must be curtailed. When the policeman,
say, at Piccadilly Circus steps into the middle of the road and
puts out his hand, he is the symbol not of tyranny, but of liberty.
You may not think so. You may, being in a hurry, and seeing
your car pulled up by this insolence of office, feel that your
20 liberty has been outraged. How dare this fellow interfere with
your free use of the public highway? Then, if you are a
reasonable person, you will reflect that if he did not interfere with
you, he would interfere with no one, and the result would be that
Piccadilly Circus would be a maelstrom that you would never
25 cross at all. You have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty
in order that you may enjoy a social order which makes your
liberty a reality.
Liberty is not a personal affair only, but a social
contract. It is an accommodation of interests. In matters which do
30 not touch anybody else’s liberty, of course, I may be as free as I
like. If I choose to go down the road in a dressing-gown who
shall say me nay? You have liberty to laugh at me, but I have
liberty to be indifferent to you. And if I have a fancy for dyeing
my hair, or waxing my moustache (which heaven forbid), or
35 wearing an overcoat and sandals, or going to bed late or getting
up early, I shall follow my fancy and ask no man’s permission. I
shall not inquire of you whether I may eat mustard with my
mutton. And you will not ask me whether you may follow this
religion or that, whether you may prefer Ella Wheeler Wilcox to
40 Wordsworth, or champagne to shandy.
In all these and a thousand other details you and I please
ourselves and ask no one’s leave. We have a whole kingdom in
which we rule alone, can do what we choose, be wise or
ridiculous, harsh or easy, conventional or odd. But directly we
45 step out of that kingdom, our personal liberty of action becomes
qualified by other people’s liberty. I might like to practice on the
trombone from midnight till three in the morning. If I went on to
the top of Everest to do it, I could please myself, but if I do it in
my bedroom my family will object, and if I do it out in the streets
50 the neighbors will remind me that my liberty to blow the
trombone must not interfere with their liberty to sleep in quiet.
There are a lot of people in the world, and I have to
accommodate my liberty to their liberties.
We are all liable to forget this, and unfortunately we are much
55 more conscious of the imperfections of others in this respect than
of our own. A reasonable consideration for the rights or feelings
of others is the foundation of social conduct.
It is in the small matters of conduct, in the observance of
the rule of the road, that we pass judgment upon ourselves, and
60 declare that we are civilized or uncivilized. The great moments of
heroism and sacrifice are rare. It is the little habits of
commonplace intercourse that make up the great sum of life and
sweeten or make bitter the journey.
Questions for day 1:
1. The author might have stated his ‘rule of the road’ as
A. do not walk in the middle of the road
B. follow the orders of policemen
C. do not behave inconsiderately in public
D. do what you like in private
E. liberty is more important than anarchy
2. The author’s attitude to the old lady in paragraph one is
A. condescending
B. intolerant
C. objective
D. sardonic
E. supportive
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Ok, I must admit that I missed #1 the first time I tried it. I put (E). On reflection, I now see why I was wrong. The author never says that liberty is “more important” than anarchy; what he really says is that liberty that has no rules becomes anarchy. Anarchy is an undesirable state of affairs. It’s not that liberty is more important, it’s that it’s more desirable. So (E) is not correct. (A) is too specific. He uses the example of the woman to demonstrate a larger principle—the idea that liberty doesn’t mean doing whatever one wants to do whenever one wants to do it. (B) is also too specific. (D) does not follow from the article at all. The author is saying that liberty involves giving up certain things for the greater good. We cannot conclude from that that the author would say that anything goes when one is alone. The answer is (C). The main thrust of the article is the idea that our liberties cannot be exercised at the expense of others. We must be considerate of others’ needs as well.
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This one seems like an opinion question. It really isn’t. Is the author intolerant of the woman? Not really. He’s critical of her, but he does not indicate that he finds her intolerable. It is certainly not an objective point of view; he clearly has issues with the woman’s behavior and is not just reporting it as something that occurred. Sardonic means scornful or mocking. That seems too strong a description. Supportive is obviously not the right choice. Enough said on that! The answer is (A). He’s condescending toward her. This is especially seen in his reference to her as a “dear old lady.” Clearly he is not using this phrase sincerely, but in a sarcastic way. He sees himself as superior to the woman. Definitely a condescending attitude.
