Practice Test B Passage 1

1. Practice Test B Passage 1 Answers and Justification

2. Question 1: E The speaker presents himself as a quirky, unpredictable gentleman. The sentence in question, which seems unrelated to the topic of eating, illustrates exactly what the first sentence of the second paragraph is about: “fickle and inexplicable changes.”

3. Question 2: E The first sentence of the paragraph is the topic sentence. The remainder of the paragraph supports the topic sentence and adds to the self-portrait of the author. There is no evidence of a change in the author’s tone.

4. Question 3: B The speaker’s explanation of his preference for fish contributes to his portrait as a careful and fastidious eater.

5. Question 4: E Line 12 contains an alliteration (“my fasts are my feasts”). Two clauses in the last sentence of the paragraph are parallel in structure (“As it goes against…” and “…my taste rebels against…”). The phrase “dainty tooth” is a synechdoche. “My fasts are my feasts” is a paradox. Onomatopoeia is missing.

6. Question 5: C The author enjoys eating and never feels guilty about consuming too much.

7. Question 6: C The discussion of eating habits appears in the context of a description of how the author manages to lead a pleasurable life—by acceding to his whims and fancies.

8. Question 7: D According to the previous paragraph, one’s dining companions at a pleasurable meal are at least as important as the quality of the food. Lines 25-26 reiterate that sentiment.

9. Question 8: D To stay warm, the speaker keeps putting on additional layers of clothing. His body, however, shortly craves more layers. Having grown weary of putting on more and more, the speaker would like to return to the time before he first put on a cap to keep his head warm.

10. Question 9: E In the next to last paragraph, the author describes the methods he uses to keep warm. He knows that it would be ridiculous to resort to “a hare’s skin or a vulture’s plumage.” Yet he uses the terms to emphasize the lengths to which he is forced to go in order to remain comfortably warm.

11. Question 10: B The passage is devoted to descriptions of the author’s preferences, particularly in food and health care. Although his preferences often to fly in the face of convention, he makes no apology.