12

Practice Test 1

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 175 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

Three hours are allotted for this examination: 1 hour for Section I, which consists of multiple-choice questions, and
2 hours for Section II, which consists of essay questions. Section I is printed in this examination booklet. Section II is
printed in a separate booklet.

SECTION I

Time—1 hour

Number of questions—54

Percent of total grade—45

Section I of this examination contains 54 multiple-choice questions. Therefore, please be careful to fill in only the
ovals that are preceded by numbers 1 through 54 on your answer sheet.

General Instructions

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.

INDICATE ALL YOUR ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS IN SECTION I ON THE SEPARATE ANSWER SHEET. No credit
will be given for anything written in this examination booklet, but you may use the booklet for notes or scratchwork.
After you have decided which of the suggested answers is best, COMPLETELY fill in the corresponding oval on the
answer sheet.

Example: Sample Answer

Chicago is a A B C D E

(A) state
(B) city
(C) country
(D) continent
(E) village

Many candidates wonder whether or not to guess the answers to questions about which they are not certain. Multiple
choice scores are based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers,
and no points are awarded for unanswered questions. Because points are not deducted for incorrect answer, you are
encouraged to answer all multiple-choice questions. On any questions you do not know the answer to, you should
eliminate as many choices as you can, and then select the best answer among the remaining choices.

Use your time effectively, working as rapidly as you can without losing accuracy. Do not spend too much time on
questions that are too difficult. Go on to other questions and come back to the difficult ones later if you have time. It is
not expected that everyone will be able to answer all the multiple-choice questions.

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  177

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 177 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 The inclusion of the passages in this examination is not intended as an endorsement by the College Board or
Educational Testing Service of the content, ideas, values, or styles of the individual authors. The material has been
selected from works of various historical periods by a committee of examiners who are teachers of language and
literature and who have judged that the passages printed here reflect the content of a course of study for which this
examination is appropriate.

178 1 7C8R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 178 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION I

Time—1 hour

Directions: This part consists of selections from prose works and questions on their content, form, and style. After
reading each passage, choose the best answer to each question and completely fill in the corresponding oval on the
answer sheet.

Note: Pay particular attention to the requirement of questions that contain the words NOT, LEAST, or EXCEPT.

Questions 1-10. Read the following passage carefully reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to
before you choose your answers. (40) be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black
cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children
In his 1729 essay “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not
wrote the following: much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will
be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining
There only remains one hundred and twenty (45) hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in
thousand children of poor parents annually born. The the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through
question therefore is, how this number shall be reared the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them
Line and provided for, which, as I have already said, under suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them
(5) the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two
all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither (50) dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the
employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make
build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper
they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day,
(10) till they arrive at six years old, except where they are especially in winter.
of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the (55) I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just
rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if
however be properly looked upon only as probationers, tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.
as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and
(15) the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have
knew above one or two instances under the age of six, (60) already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the
even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the best title to the children.
quickest proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a
(20) girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; 1. This text can best be described as
and even when they come to this age they will not (A) scientific
yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a- (B) satirical
crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to (C) forthright
account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of (D) humanitarian
(25) nutriment and rags having been at least four times that (E) sadistic
value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own 2. In the first, second, and fourth paragraphs the
thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least author relies on dubious
objection.
(30) I have been assured by a very knowing American (A) similes
of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy (B) ad hominem arguments
child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, (C) extended metaphors
nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, (D) arguments from authority
roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it (E) appeals to ignorance
(35) will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public
consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand
children already computed, twenty thousand may be GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  179

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 179 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 3. “Probationers” (line 13) are 7. The phrase “always advising the mother to let them
suck plentifully in the last month” (lines 47-48)
(A) children learning how to steal
extends the comparison between the children and
(B) children on probation
(C) adults on probation (A) properly nourished mammals
(D) apprentices working at a trade (B) poor and ruthless parents
(E) young artists (C) savages
(D) animals raised for slaughter
4. The phrase “the charge of nutriment and rags hav- (E) the poor treatment of animals
ing been at least four times that value” (lines 24-26)
is humorous because 8. In line 58, “dear” means
(A) food was relatively cheap at that time (A) expensive
(B) “four times” is a hyperbole (B) sweet
(C) rags could be found free (C) cherished
(D) we don’t know who is being charged (D) unforgettable
(E) “rags” is unexpected diction (E) unhealthy

5. The word “fricassee” (line 35) is obviously a(n) 9. In context, “devoured” (line 60) is an effective word
choice because
(A) animal
(B) child (A) it fits both figuratively and literally
(C) dish (B) it is appropriate only literally
(D) place (C) it is indicative of the landlords’ plight
(E) master (D) it works as a sentimental appeal
(E) it reveals the author’s point of view
6. In lines 36-44 the author adopts the standard rhe-
torical pattern of 10. According to the author, the proposal
(A) process analysis (A) makes good economic sense and helps the poor
(B) example (B) provides food for the needy and the rich, alike
(C) cause and effect (C) makes good economic sense but does not
(D) deductive reasoning benefit the poor or rich
(E) analogy (D) benefits the rich in several ways
(E) benefits everyone in many ways

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

180 1 8C0R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 180 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Questions 11-14. Read the following passage carefully seen through a hole bored in one side. Among the
before you choose your answers. most popular scenes were interiors, particularly palace
interiors of European royalty, and so there is a direct
The most obvious joke in the title of Swift’s Travels analogy between peering in the hole of a peepshow
into Several Remote Nations of the World is that what (50) and Gulliver’s looking into the palace in Lilliput: “I
purports to be a chronicle of several excursions to applied my Face to the Windows of the middle Stories,
Line remote nations turns out to be a satiric anatomy of and discovered the most splendid Apartments that
(5) specifically English attitudes and values. But there can be imagined. There I saw the Empress, and the
is a second joke. Many of the supposedly unfamiliar young Princes in their several Lodgings. Her Imperial
and exotic sights Gulliver sees in his sixteen years and (55) Majesty was pleased to smile very graciously upon
seven months of wandering in remote nations, and me, and gave me out the window her Hand to kiss.”
even the radically altered perspectives from which he The queen’s movements could have been seen in the
(10) sees them (as diminutive landscapes, giant people, peepshows, too, for clockwork animating the figures
intelligent animals, etc.), could have been seen or was introduced early in the century. And much the
experienced in a few days by anyone at the tourists (60) same illusion of a living, miniature world could be
sights, public entertainments, shows, spectacles, and found in another popular diversion, the “moving
exhibitions in the streets and at the fairs of London. picture,” a device in which cutout figures were placed
(15) It is not surprising that Gulliver’s Travels should within a frame and activated by jacks and wheels. This
be filled with the shows and diversions of London. curiosity fascinated contemporary Londoners: “The
All the Scriblerians were fascinated with popular (65) landscape looks as an ordinary picture till the clock-
entertainments; collectively and individually, they work behind the curtain be set at work, and then the
satirized them in many of their works. Swift shared ships move and sail distinctly upon the sea till out of
(20) this fascination with his fellow Scriblerians, and he sight; a coach comes out of town, the motion of the
transforms the sights and shows of London into an horses and wheels are very distinct, and a gentleman in
imaginative center of Gulliver’s Travels. (70) the coach that salutes the company; a hunter also and
his dogs keep their course till out of sight.” Swift saw
1 this same moving picture, or one very much like it, and
was impressed.
Gulliver himself senses that the wonders he sees
in remote nations resemble popular entertainments From the article “The Hairy Maid and the Harpsichord: Some
(25) back home in England when he notes that the capital Speculations on the Meaning of Gulliver’s Travels,” by Dennis
city of Lilliput “looked like the painted Scene of a Todd, originally published in the scholarly journal Texas Studies in
City in a Theatre.”1 And other popular entertainments Literature and Language Volume 34 Issue 2, pp. 239-283. Copyright
would allow Londoners to see many of the same sights © 1992 by the University of Texas Press. All rights reserved.
Gulliver saw in Lilliput. A Londoner could experience
(30) what a miniature city looked like to the giant Gulliver 11. The purpose of the passage is most likely to
by going to see the papier-mâché and clay architectural
(A) describe the cultural landscape in Gulliver’s
and topographical models displayed at fairs and in
Travels
inns, some of which were extraordinarily elaborate and
(B) draw a comparison between the fictional
detailed, such as the model of Amsterdam exhibited
(35) world Gulliver experienced and the similar
in 1710, which was twenty feet wide and twenty to
imaginative elements of eighteenth-century
thirty feet long, “with all the Churches, Chappels,
London
Stadt house, Hospitals, noble Buildings, Streets, Trees,
(C) point out the superfluous nature of
Walks, Avenues, with the Sea, Shipping, Sluices,
entertainment in Swift’s London
Rivers, Canals &c., most exactly built to admiration.”2
(40) (D) provide evidence that Swift’s satire is derived
Miniature people, as well as miniature landscapes,
from the natural curiosity of European
could be seen in one of the most popular diversions in
royalty
London, the peepshows, which were enclosed boxes
(E) discredit the notion that Gulliver’s Travels is a
containing scenes made out of painted board, paper
wholly original work
flats, and glass panels and given the illusion of depth
(45) by mirrors and magnifying glasses. All of this was

1 Gulliver’s Travels, in The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert

Davis, 14 vols. (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1939-68), XI:13
2 Quoted in John Ashton, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne
(New York: Chatto and Windus, 1883), 219-20
GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  181

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 181 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 12. The footnote 1 in line 27 indicates that 14. The detail in lines 50-56 suggest the scene is viewed
by which of the following?
(A) the article first appeared as an addendum to
Gulliver’s Travels (A) an impartial anthropologist
(B) Gulliver’s Travels was first published in 1939 (B) an intrigued visitor
(C) the quotation “looked like the…Theater” was (C) a critical literary scholar
excerpted from Gulliver’s Travels, part of a 14 (D) an argumentative architect
volume set of Swift’s works (E) a struggling writer
(D) the quotation “looked like the…Theater” was
originally written by Herbert Davis
(E) Gulliver’s Travels was reprinted in its entirety in
1939, and credited to Herbert Davis instead
of Swift

13. The footnote 2 in line 39 indicates

(A) the quotation was taken from a professional
journal
(B) the quotation refers to a 1710 exhibit in
Amsterdam
(C) the quotation originally appeared in Gulliver’s
Travels in 1883
(D) the quotation, describing a miniature exhibition
of Amsterdam, first appeared in a book by
John Ashton
(E) the quotation was originally published in a
newspaper

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

182 1 8C2R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 182 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Questions 15-22. Read the following passage carefully 17. The word “morphology” (line 16) most closely
before you choose your answers. means
(A) structure
It can be demonstrated quite satisfactorily that
(B) sickness
although Romanticism does not erupt into painting
(C) psychology
until the very end of the eighteenth century it is
(D) death
Line comparatively untrammeled in literature long before
(E) revolution
(5) this date. One might remember in this connection
not necessarily Jean-Jacques Rousseau, often invoked
almost automatically as the patron saint of the 18. The “gratuitous demonstrations” (line 20) are
movement, but a novelist like the Abbé Prévost, (A) free of charge
who, in the 1730s and 1740s, writes novels with a (B) calm portrayals
(10) full repertory of Gothic effects, such as crêpe-hung (C) not directly tied to the plot
mortuary chambers and doomed travelers who insist (D) tips for the actors
on telling their life stories to their hapless neighbours (E) gratifying plays
in stage-coaches. Even more relevant than the
novelists are a number of dramatists who accomplish a
(15) revolution in theatrical behaviour which is of singular 19. The “comédies larmoyantes” (lines 22-23) are charac-
importance for the morphology of Romanticism. terized by
Nivelle de la Chausée, Diderot, and their numerous (A) the overwrought emotionalism of the
and more obscure followers create a type of dramatic characters
genre which calls for the actors to go out of their way (B) the subdued control of the action
(20) to give gratuitous demonstrations of the intensity with (C) complicated rhetoric
which they feel. For a long time these demonstrations (D) the death of the main characters at the end of
were confined to tragic-comedies, or comédies the play
larmoyantes, in which the gesticulating characters, often (E) extravagant sets
morbid, always extravagant, were united at curtain fall,
(25) but when they were transposed to a form of tragedy,
dealing with contemporary problems, as they were in 20. “Revolutionary” (line 27) is capitalized because it
the works of the pre-Revolutionary dramatist Louis- (A) refers to a specific revolution
Sébastien Mercier, one is already very close to the more (B) designates a literary movement
rhetorical aspect of Romantic paintings. (C) is a key word in the passage
From “Romanticism and its Discontents” by Anita Brookner.
(D) is part of the author’s title
Copyright © 2000. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, (E) refers to a specific dramatist
LLC.
21. The last sentence (lines 21-29) in the passage is
15. It can be inferred from this passage that
(A) a period
(A) Rousseau’s novels predate those of Abbé (B) a run-on sentence
Prévost (C) a metaphorical conclusion
(B) most critics concur that French Romanticism (D) not to be taken literally
began with Abbé Prévost’s works (E) an attack on the dramatist Mercier
(C) Nivelle de la Chausée is most famous for his
novels 22. Most likely, the passage is part of
(D) the eighteenth-century novel is not relevant to
the discussion of French Romanticism (A) a historical study of drama
(E) Romantic paintings often depict emotional (B) a textbook on history
contemporary issues (C) a study of Romanticism
(D) an article in a travel magazine
(E) a political history of France
16. It can be inferred from this passage that Romantic
works often include
(A) scenes in gloomy interiors
(B) battles with Goths
(C) scenes from the Wild West
(D) discussions with neighbors GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE
(E) vividly decorated chambers

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  183

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 183 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Questions 23-33. Read the following passage carefully pleasures insipid, that ought to sweeten the exercise
before you choose your answers. (50) of those severe duties, which educate a rational and
immortal being for a nobler field of action.
In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote the following in the The education of women has, of late, been more
Introduction to her book A Vindication of the Rights of attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned
Women: a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers
(55) who endeavour by satire or instruction to improve
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them. It is acknowledged that they spend many of the
them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of
fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in accomplishments: meanwhile strength of body and
Line a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to
(5) I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity (60) the desire of establishing themselves—the only way
and human happiness consists—I wish to persuade women can rise in the world—by marriage. And this
women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of desire making mere animals of them, when they marry
mind and body, and to convince them that the soft they act as such children may be expected to act—they
phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, dress; they paint, and nickname God’s creatures—
(10) and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with (65) Surely these weak beings are only fit for a seraglio!—
epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are Can they govern a family, or take care of the poor
only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which babes whom they bring into the world?
has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of
contempt.
23. In the initial paragraph, the author employs both
(15) Dismissing then those pretty feminine phrases,
which the men condescendingly use to soften our (A) apology and classification
slavish dependence, and despising that weak elegancy (B) irony and exposition
of mind, exquisite sensibility, and sweet docility of (C) analogy and extended metaphor
manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics (D) flattery and epithets
(20) of the weaker vessel, I wish to show that elegance (E) induction and persuasion
is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable
ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, 24. In the initial paragraph, the author decries
regardless of the distinction of sex; and that secondary
views should be brought to this simple touchstone. (A) traditional feminine attributes
(25) This is a rough sketch of my plan; and should I (B) traditional male attributes
express my conviction with the energetic emotions (C) modern sexuality
that I feel whenever I think of the subject, the dictates (D) the importance of love
of experience and reflection will be felt by some of (E) the importance of sentiments
my readers. Animated by this important object, I
(30) shall disdain to cull my phrases or polish my style;—I 25. In the initial paragraph, the author suggests that
aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me
unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the (A) men prefer strong women
force of my arguments, than dazzle by the elegance of (B) a man will never truly love a strong woman
my language, I shall not waste my time in rounding (C) men never respect strong women
(35) periods, nor in fabricating the turgid bombast of (D) women need emotional and physical strength
artificial feelings, which, coming from the head, never (E) women need intellectual and physical strength
reach the heart—I shall be employed about things,
not words!—and, anxious to render my sex more 26. The author ties the second paragraph to the first by
respectable to members of society, I shall try to avoid using the words
(40) that flowery diction which has slided from essays
(A) “vessel” and “touchstone”
into novels, and from novels into familiar letters and
(B) “soften” and “inferior”
conversation.
(C) “laudable” and “sex”
These pretty nothings—these caricatures of the real
(D) “slavish” and “virtue”
beauty of sensibility, dropping glibly from the tongue,
(45) (E) “soften” and “weak”
vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly delicacy that
turns away from simple unadorned truth; and a deluge
of false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling
the natural emotions of the heart, render the domestic
GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

184 1 8C4R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 184 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 27. The word ”vessel” (line 20) is a metaphor for 31. With the phrase “dropping glibly from the tongue”
(line 44) the author begins
(A) sex
(B) woman (A) a caricature of women
(C) man (B) a critique of turgid bombast
(D) phrase (C) a panegyric of sugary writing
(E) character (D) an analysis of sentimental writing
(E) an extended metaphor
28. The author suggests that a woman’s worth may be
best judged by 32. One can infer from the passage that to become
strong human beings, rather than mere children,
(A) comparing her with a praiseworthy man
young women need
(B) examining the elegance of her writing
(C) evaluating the strength of her character (A) an education different from that of young men
(D) evaluating her physical beauty (B) more understanding husbands
(E) examining her manners (C) obliging husbands
(D) a good marriage
29. The author proposes to write in a manner that is both (E) the same education as that of young men

(A) cogent and emotional

33. The tone of the final paragraph is
(B) polished and intellectual
(C) ornate and rhetorical (A) sardonic
(D) elegant and cerebral (B) condescending
(E) convincing and flowery (C) ironic
(D) sarcastic
30. The words “pretty nothings” (line 43) are a reprise of (E) haughty

(A) “letters and conversation” (lines 41-42)

(B) “essays” and “novels” (lines 40-41)
(C) “flowery diction” (line 40)
(D) “rounding periods” (lines 34-35)
(E) “members of society” (line 39)

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  185

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 185 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Questions 34-41. Read the following passage carefully 35. The “old saying” (lines 3-4) serves as
before you choose your answers.
(A) an analogy to the sentences that follow
(B) a contrast to the sentences that follow
In his 1995 book The End of Education, Neil Postman wrote
(C) an illustration of the first sentence
the following: (D) a historical interlude
(E) a tribute to tribal lays
But it is important to keep in mind that the
engineering of learning is very often puffed up,
assigned an importance it does not deserve. As an old 36. The series of infinitives in the initial paragraph em-
Line saying goes, There are one and twenty ways to sing tribal phasizes that the learning process is
(5) lays, and all of them are correct. So it is with learning. (A) long and tedious
There is no one who can say that this or that is the best (B) multifaceted and impersonal
way to know things, to feel things, to see things, to (C) active and varied
remember things, to apply things, to connect things (D) difficult and trivial
and that no other will do as well. In fact, to make (E) mechanical and complicated
(10) such a claim is to trivialize learning, to reduce it to a
mechanical skill. 37. According to the author, motivation is
Of course, there are many learnings that are little
else but a mechanical skill, and in such cases, there (A) not important
well may be a best way. But to become a different (B) synonymous with reason
(15) person because of something you have learned—to (C) abstract and fleeting
appropriate an insight, a concept, a vision, so that (D) momentary and concrete
your world is altered—that is a different matter. For (E) psychological and enduring
that to happen, you need a reason. And this is the
metaphysical problem I speak of. 38. Both the first and third paragraphs contain
(20) A reason, as I use the word here, is different from a (A) aphorisms
motivation. Within the context of schooling, motivation (B) ironical statements
refers to a temporary psychic event in which curiosity (C) syllogistic reasoning
is aroused and attention is focused. I do not mean to (D) ad hominem arguments
disparage it. But it must not be confused with a reason (E) notable parallelism
(25) for being in a classroom, for listening to a teacher,
for taking an examination, for doing homework, for
39. In line 32 , “god” most nearly means
putting up with school even if you are not motivated.
This kind of reason is somewhat abstract, not (A) religion
always present in one’s consciousness, not at all easy to (B) deity
(30) describe. And yet for all that, without it schooling does (C) reason
not work. For school to make sense, the young, their (D) person
parents, and their teachers must have a god to serve, (E) Nietzsche
or, even better, several gods. If they have none, school
is pointless. Nietzsche’s famous aphorism is relevant 40. The author employs the argument from authority as
(35) here: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost
any how.” This applies as much to learning as to living. (A) a contrast to his point of view
To put it simply, there is no surer way to bring an (B) a relevant concrete example
end to schooling than for it to have no end. (C) an apt analogy
(D) an example of cause and effect
From THE END OF EDUCATION by Neil Postman, copyright (E) an illustration of the cruelty in schools
© 1995 by Neil Postman. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a
division of Random House, Inc.
41. The paradox in the final sentence rests on
34. The “engineering of learning” (line 2) most nearly (A) different meanings of “end”
means (B) a crass simplification
(C) the comparison between schooling and
(A) development of schools learning
(B) building of schools (D) the eternal process of learning
(C) educational methodology (E) a new way of bringing schooling to an end
(D) building up of knowledge
(E) study of engineering GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

186 1 8C6R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 186 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Questions 42-47. Read the following passage carefully In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will,
before you choose your answers. (50) in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision
made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott Case.
From Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): It was adjudged in that case that the descendants
of Africans who were imported into this country, and
It is one thing for railroad carriers to furnish, or to sold as slaves, were not included nor intended to be
be required by law to furnish, equal accommodations (55) included under the word “citizens” in the constitution,
for all whom they are under a legal duty to carry. and could not claim any of the rights and privileges
Line It is quite another thing for government to forbid which that instrument provided for and secured to
(5) citizens of the white and black races from traveling citizens of the United States; that, at the time of the
in the same public conveyance, and to punish officers adoption of the constitution, they were “considered
of railroad companies for permitting persons of the (60) as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had
two races to occupy the same passenger coach. If a been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether
state can prescribe, as a rule of civil conduct, that emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their
(10) whites and blacks shall not travel as passengers in the authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as
same railroad coach, why may it not so regulate the those who held the power and the government might
use of the streets of its cities and towns as to compel (65) choose to grant them.” The recent amendments of the
white citizens to keep on one side of a street, and constitution, it was supposed, had eradicated these
black citizens to keep on the other? Why may it not, principles from our institutions.
(15) upon like grounds, punish whites and blacks who I am of opinion that the state of Louisiana is
ride together in street cars or in open vehicles on a inconsistent with the personal liberty of citizens, white
public road or street? Why may it not require sheriffs (70) and black, in that state, and hostile to both the spirit
to assign whites to one side of a court room, and and letter of the constitution of the United States.
blacks to the other? And why may it not also prohibit If laws of like character should be enacted in the
(20) the commingling of the two races in the galleries of several states of the Union, the effect would be in the
legislative halls or in public assemblages convened for highest degree mischievous. Slavery, as an institution
the consideration of the political questions of the day? (75) tolerated by law, would, it is true, have disappeared
Further, if this statute of Louisiana is consistent with from our country; but there would remain a power in
the personal liberty of citizens, why may not the state the states, by sinister legislation, to interfere with the
(25) require the separation in railroad coaches of native full enjoyment of the blessings of freedom, to regulate
and naturalized citizens of the United States, or of civil rights, common to all citizens, upon the basis of
Protestants and Roman Catholics? (80) race, and to place in a condition of legal inferiority a
The white race deems itself to be the dominant large body of American citizens, now constituting a
race in this country. And so it is, in prestige, in part of the political community, called the “People of
(30) achievements, in education, in wealth, and in power. the United States,” for whom, and by whom through
So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time, if representatives, our government is administered.
it remains true to its great heritage, and holds fast to (85) Such a system is inconsistent with the guaranty
the principles of constitutional liberty. But in view of given by the constitution to each state of a republican
the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this form of government, and may be stricken down by
(35) country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. congressional action, or by the courts in the discharge
There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, of their solemn duty to maintain the supreme law of
and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. (90) the land, anything in the constitution or laws of any
In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before state to the contrary notwithstanding.
the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. For the reason stated, I am constrained to withhold
(40) The law regards man as man, and takes no account my assent from the opinion and judgment of the
of his surroundings or of his color when his civil majority.
rights as guarantied by the supreme law of the land
are involved. It is therefore to be regretted that this
42. The speaker in this passage is
high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental
(45) law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is (A) delivering a political speech
competent for a state to regulate the enjoyment by (B) rendering a legal judgment
citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of (C) reminiscing about the past
race. (D) a state governor
(E) involved with the railroad company

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  187

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 187 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 43. In the first paragraph, the series of rhetorical ques- 46. In the speaker’s opinion, the Louisiana law is sub-
tions serves the speaker’s strategy of reasoning by ject to censure by
(A) appeals to authority (A) either the United States Congress or the United
(B) analogy States Supreme Court
(C) description (B) Louisiana legislation only
(D) induction (C) United States legislation only
(E) deduction (D) the people of Louisiana only
(E) neither the United States Congress nor the
44. Based on the passage, the speaker holds that United States Supreme Court

(A) racial equality will become a reality in America

47. The style of the entire passage can be best described
(B) civil equality is guaranteed by the Constitution
as
(C) racial equality is guaranteed by the
Constitution (A) ornate and whimsical
(D) both civil and racial equality are guaranteed by (B) dry and objective
the Constitution (C) abstract and legalistic
(E) neither civil nor racial equality is guaranteed (D) terse and opinionated
by the Constitution (E) probing and subtle

45. In line 50, “pernicious” most nearly means

(A) just
(B) unjust
(C) useful
(D) propitious
(E) harmful

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

188 1 8C8R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 188 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Questions 48-54. Read the following passage carefully 49. The speaker is addressing
before you choose your answers.
(A) a friend
(B) a group of his peers
Sir, believe me, to conduct the Government of this
(C) a king
country is a most arduous duty; I may say it without
(D) a crowd of voters
irreverence, that these ancient institutions, like our
(E) his political adversaries
Line physical frames, are “fearfully and wonderfully
(5) made.” It is no easy task to ensure the united action
of an ancient monarchy, a proud aristocracy, and 50. The most significant transition takes place in
a reformed constituency. I have done everything I (A) line 10 (“I have thought it consistent…”)
could do, and have thought it consistent with true (B) line 18 (“These were my objects…”)
Conservative policy to reconcile these three branches (C) line 22 (“But as a feeling of honour…”)
(10) of the State. I have thought it consistent with true (D) line 26 (“But, Sir, I will not…”)
Conservative policy to promote so much of happiness (E) lines 30-31 (“I will not, Sir, undertake…”)
and contentment among the people that the voice
of disaffection should be no longer heard, and that
thoughts of the dissolution of our institutions should 51. All of the following are part of the same extended
(15) be forgotten in the midst of physical enjoyment. metaphor EXCEPT
These were my attempts, and I thought them not (A) “helm” (line 28)
inconsistent with true and enlarged Conservative (B) “vessel” (line 29)
policy. These were my objects in accepting office—it (C) “fairly” (line 29)
is a burden too great for my physical, and far beyond (D) “course” (line 30)
(20) my intellectual structure; and to be relieved from it (E) “unshackled” (line 41)
with perfect honour would be the greatest favour that
could be conferred on me. But as a feeling of honour
and strong sense of duty require me to undertake those 52. Which term in the first paragraph serves to prepare
responsible functions, I declare, Sir, that I am ready to the dominant point of the final paragraph?
(25) incur these risks, to bear these burdens, and to front (A) “disaffection” (line 13)
all these honourable dangers. But, Sir, I will not take (B) “enjoyment” (line 15)
the step with mutilated power and shackled authority. (C) “dangers” (line 26)
I will not stand at the helm during, such tempestuous (D) “tempestuous” (line 28)
nights as I have seen, if the vessel be not allowed fairly (E) “unfettered” (line 35)
(30) to pursue the course which I think she ought to take. I
will not, Sir, undertake to direct the course of the vessel
53. Based on the passage, the speaker’s motivation to
by the observations which have been taken in 1842. I
serve as Prime Minister is dictated mostly by
will reserve to myself the marking out of that course;
and I must, for the public interest, claim for myself the (A) greed
(35) unfettered power of judging of those measures which I (B) political ambition
conceive will be better for the country to propose. (C) sense of honor
Sir, I do not wish to be the Minister of England; but (D) political power
while I have the high honour of holding that Office, (E) youthful exuberance
I am determined to hold it by no servile tenure. I
(40) will only hold that office upon the condition of being 54. The tone of the entire passage
unshackled by any other obligations than those of
consulting the public interests, and of providing for the (A) remains consistently cynical
public safety. (B) shifts according to the speaker’s mood
(C) shifts from light to serious
From British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel’s speech about the
(D) becomes more frivolous in the final paragraph
repeal of the Corn Laws (1846)
(E) remains consistently lighthearted

48. The opening sentence of the passage contains

(A) an expression of fear
(B) an appeal to authority
(C) a humorous simile
(D) an irreverent attack
(E) equivocation
END OF SECTION I

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  189

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 189 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION II

Time—2 hours

Number of questions—3

Percent of total grade—55

Each question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.

Question 1 Synthesis Essay..................................... suggested time—40 minutes

Question 2 Essay.................................................. suggested time—40 minutes

Question 3 Essay.................................................. suggested time—40 minutes

(Additional 15 minutes for reading sources at the beginning of Section II)

Section II of this examination requires answers in essay form. To help you use your time well, the coordinator will
announce the time at which each question should be completed. If you finish any question before time is announced,
you may go on to the following question. If you finish the examination in less than the time allotted, you may go back
and work on any essay question you want.

Each essay will be judged on its clarity and effectiveness in dealing with the requirements of the topic assigned and on
the quality of the writing. After completing each question, you should check your essay for accuracy of punctuation,
spelling, and diction; you are advised, however, not to attempt many longer corrections. Remember that quality is far
more important than quantity.

Write your essays with a pen, preferably in black or dark blue ink. Be sure to write CLEARLY and LEGIBLY. Cross out
any errors you make.

The questions for Section II are printed in the green insert. You are encouraged to use the green insert to make notes
and to plan your essays, but be sure to write your answers in the pink booklet. Number each answer as the question is
numbered in the examination. Do not skip lines. Begin each answer on a new page in the pink booklet.

190 1 9C0R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 190 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION II

Time—2 hours

Question 1

(Suggested writing time—40 minutes.)

This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.

Carefully read the following six sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize
information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-written essay that develops a
position on the most important consideration in granting suffrage to women in America.

Make sure that your argument is central; use the sources to illustrate and support your reasoning. Avoid merely
summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation,
paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the descriptions in
parentheses.

Assignment: Relying heavily on the sources that follow, write a well-organized essay addressing this prompt: In
democratic nations today, the ability to vote is presumed. Many consider this right a “natural right,” while others
consider it a privilege or even a civic duty.

You may refer to the sources by their titles (Source A, Source B, etc.) or by the descriptions in parentheses.

Source A (Anthony lecture)

Source B (Daily Graphic)
Source C (Hunt)
Source D (66th Congress)
Source E (Minor v. Happersett)
Source F (Woman’s Sphere)

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  191

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 191 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Source A
In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested and
charged with voting illegally. The following
passage is the opening of her lecture entitled, “Is
It a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to
Vote?”

Friends and Fellow-citizens: I stand before you to-night, under indictment for the alleged
crime of having voted at the last Presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote.
It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed
Line no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s right, guaranteed to me and all United
(5) States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.
Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of the natural right of
every individual member thereof to a voice and a vote in making and executing the laws.
We assert the province of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their
unalienable rights. We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights.
(10) Before governments were organized, no one denies that each individual possessed the right
to protect his own life, liberty and property. And when 100 or 1,000,000 people enter into a
free government, they do not barter away their natural rights; they simply pledge themselves
to protect each other in the enjoyment of them, through prescribed judicial and legislative
tribunals. They agree to abandon the methods of brute force in the adjustment of their
(15) differences, and adopt those of civilization.
Nor can you find a word in any of the grand documents left us by the fathers that assumes
for government the power to create or to confer rights. The Declaration of Independence, the
United States Constitution, the constitutions of the several states and the organic laws of the
territories, all alike propose to protect the people in the exercise of their God-given rights. Not
(20) one of them pretends to bestow rights.
“All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these, governments
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Here is no shadow of government authority over rights, nor exclusion of any from their
(25) full and equal enjoyment. Here is pronounced the right of all men, and “consequently,” as the
Quaker preacher said, “of all women,” to a voice in the government. And here, in this very
first paragraph of the declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for,
how can “the consent of the governed” be given, if the right to vote be denied. Again:
“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
(30) of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations
on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their safety and happiness.”
Surely, the right of the whole people to vote is here clearly implied. For however
destructive in their happiness this government might become, a disfranchised class could
(35) neither alter nor abolish it, nor institute a new one, except by the old brute force method of
insurrection and rebellion. One-half of the people of this nation to-day are utterly powerless
to blot from the statute books an unjust law, or to write there a new and a just one.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

192 1 9C2R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 192 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Source B
Political cartoon by Thomas Wust, The Daily Graphic,
1873

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  193

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 193 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Source C
An excerpt from Judge Ward Hunt’s instructions
to the jury in the case of United States v. Susan B.
Anthony, June 18, 1873.

The right of voting, or the privilege of voting, is a right or privilege arising under the
Constitution of the State, and not of the United States. The qualifications are different in the
different States. Citizenship, age, sex, residence, are variously required in the different States,
Line or may be so. If the right belongs to any particular person, it is because such person is entitled
(5) to it by the laws of the State where he offers to exercise it, and not because of citizenship of
the United States. If the State of New York should provide that no person should vote until
he had reached the age of 31 years, or after he had reached the age of 50, or that no person
having gray hair, or who had not the use of all his limbs, should be entitled to vote, I do not
see how it could be held to be a violation of any right derived or held under the Constitution
(10) of the United States. We might say that such regulations were unjust, tyrannical, unfit for the
regulation of an intelligent State; but if rights of a citizen are thereby violated, they are of that
fundamental class derived from his position as a citizen of the State, and not those limited
rights belonging to him as a citizen of the United States. (…)
If she believed she had a right to vote, and voted in reliance upon that belief, does that
(15) relieve her from the penalty? It is argued that the knowledge referred to in the act relates to
her knowledge of the illegality of the act, and not to the act of voting; for it is said that she
must know that she voted. Two principles apply here: First, ignorance of the law excuses
no one; second, every person is presumed to understand and to intend the necessary effects
of his own acts. Miss Anthony knew that she was a woman, and that the constitution of
(20) this State prohibits her from voting. She intended to violate that provision—intended to
test it, perhaps, but certainly intended to violate it. The necessary effect of her act was to
violate it, and this side is presumed to have intended. There was no ignorance of any fact,
but all the facts being known, she undertook to settle a principle in her own person. She
takes the risk, and she cannot escape the consequences. It is said, and authorities are cited
(25) to sustain the position, that there can be no crime unless there is a culpable intent; to render
one criminally responsible a vicious will must be present. A commits a trespass on the land
of B, and B, thinking and believing that he has a right to shoot an intruder on his premises,
kills A on the spot. Does B’s misapprehension of his rights justify his act? Would a Judge be
justified in charging the jury that if satisfied that B supposed he had a right to shoot A he was
(30) justified, and they should find a verdict of not guilty? No Judge would make such a charge.
To constitute a crime, it is true that there must be a criminal intent, but it is equally true that
knowledge of the facts of the case is always held to supply this intent. An intentional killing
bears with it evidence of malice in law. Whoever, without justifiable cause, intentionally kills
his neighbor is guilty of a crime. The principle is the same in the case before us, and in all
(35) criminal cases. (…)
Upon this evidence I suppose there is no question for the jury and that the jury should be
directed to find a verdict of guilty.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

194 1 9C4R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 194 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Source D
Joint resolution of the 66th Congress, May 19, 1919.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  195

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 195 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Source E
Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1874)

In October, 1874, the Supreme Court voted unanimously that the Constitution of the United
States does not confer on women the right to vote in federal elections.
When the Federal Constitution was adopted, all the States, with the exception of Rhode
Line Island and Connecticut, had constitutions of their own. These two continued to act under
(5) their charters from the Crown. Upon an examination of those constitutions we find that in no
State were all citizens permitted to vote. Each State determined for itself who should have that
power. Thus, in New Hampshire, “every male inhabitant of each town and parish with town
privileges, and places unincorporated in the State, of twenty-one years of age and upwards,
excepting paupers and persons excused from paying taxes at their own request,” were its
(10) voters; in Massachusetts “every male inhabitant of twenty-one years of age and upwards,
having a freehold estate within the commonwealth of the annual income of three pounds,
or any estate of the value of sixty pounds”; in Rhode Island “such as are admitted free of
the company and society” of the colony; in Connecticut such persons as had “maturity in
years, quiet and peaceable behavior, a civil conversation, and forty shillings freehold or forty
(15) pounds personal estate,” if so certified by the selectmen. (…)
Certainly, if the courts can consider any question settled, this is one. For nearly ninety
years the people have acted upon the idea that the Constitution, when it conferred citizenship,
did not necessarily confer the right of suffrage. If uniform practice long continued can settle
the construction of so important an instrument as the Constitution of the United States
(20) confessedly is, most certainly it has been done here. Our province is to decide what the law is,
not to declare what it should be.
We have given this case the careful consideration its importance demands. If the law
is wrong, it ought to be changed; but the power for that is not with us. The arguments
addressed to us bearing upon such a view of the subject may perhaps be sufficient to induce
(25) those having the power, to make the alteration, but they ought not to be permitted to
influence our judgment in determining the present rights of the parties now litigating before
us. No argument as to woman’s need of suffrage can be considered. We can only act upon her
rights as they exist. It is not for us to look at the hardship of withholding. Our duty is at an
end if we find it is within the power of a State to withhold.
(30) Being unanimously of the opinion that the Constitution of the United States does not
confer the right of suffrage upon any one, and that the constitutions and laws of the several
States which commit that important trust to men alone are not necessarily void, we affirm the
judgment.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

196 1 9C6R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 196 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Source F
Nineteenth-century political cartoon.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  197

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 197 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Question 2

(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

The passages that follow were published shortly after the appearance of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). At that
time, very few people knew the identity of the author. The first passage has been extracted from an anonymous piece
from The Quarterly Review. The second passage is part of (Sir) Walter Scott’s review of Frankenstein in Blackwood’s
Edinburgh Magazine.

Read the passages carefully. Then write a carefully organized essay in which you compare and contrast the manner in
which each critic uses language to convey a point of view.

Passage 1 greater the ability with which it may be executed

the worse it is—it inculcates no lesson of conduct,
On board this ship poor Frankenstein, after telling manners, or morality; it cannot mend, and will not
his story to Mr. Walton, who has been so kind to write even amuse its readers, unless their taste have been
it down for our use, dies of cold, fatigue, and horror; (40) deplorably vitiated—it fatigues the feelings without
Line and soon after, the monster, who had borrowed interesting the understanding; it gratuitously
(5) (we presume from the flourishing colony of East harasses the sensations. The author has powers,
Greenland) a kind of raft, comes alongside the ship, both of conception and language, which employed
and notwithstanding his huge bulk, jumps in at Mr. in a happier direction might, perhaps (we speak
Walton’s cabin window, and is surprised by that (45) dubiously), give him a name among these whose
gentleman pronouncing a funeral oration over the writings amuse or amend their fellow-creatures; but
(10) departed Frankenstein; after which, declaring that we take the liberty of assuring him, and hope that
he will go back to the Pole, and there burn himself he may be in a temper to listen to us, that the style
on a funeral pyre (of ice, we conjecture) of his own which he has adopted in the present publication
collecting, he jumps again out the window into his raft, (50) merely tends to defeat his own purpose, if he really
and is out of sight in a moment. had any other object in view than that of leaving the
(15) Our readers will guess from this summary, wearied reader, after a struggle between laughter
what a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity and loathing, in doubt whether the head or the heart
this work presents. It is piously dedicated to Mr. of the author be the most diseased.
Godwin, and is written in the spirit of his school.
The dreams of insanity are embodied in the strong
(20) and striking language of the insane, and the author,
notwithstanding the rationality of his preface, often
leaves us in doubt whether he is not as mad as his
hero. Mr. Godwin is the patriarch of a literary family,
whose chief skill is in delineating the wanderings of
(25) the intellect, and which strangely delights in the most
affecting and humiliating of human miseries. His
disciples are a kind of out pensioners of Bedlam, and
like “Mad Bess” or “Mad Tom,” are occasionally visited
with paroxysms of genius and fits of expression, which
(30) makes sober-minded people wonder and shudder.
But when we have thus admitted that Frankenstein
has passages which appall the mind and make the flesh
creep, we have given it all the praise (if praise it can
be called) which we dare to bestow. Our taste and our
(35) judgment alike revolt at this kind of writing, and the

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

198 1 9C8R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 198 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Passage 2 language should be as extravagant as the fiction. The
ideas of the author are always clearly as well as forcibly
Exhausted by his sufferings, but still breathing (55) expressed; and his descriptions of landscape have in
vengeance against the being which was at once his them the choice requisites of truth, freshness, precision,
creature and his persecutor, this unhappy victim to and beauty.
physiological discovery expires just as the clearing
Line away of the ice permits Captain Walton’s vessel to
(5) hoist sail for the return to Britain. At midnight, the
daemon, who had been his destroyer, is discovered
in the cabin, lamenting over the corpse of the person
who gave him being. To Walton he attempts to justify
his resentment towards the human race, while, at the
(10) same time, he acknowledges himself a wretch who had
murdered the lovely and the helpless, and pursued to
irremediably ruin his creator, the select specimen of all
that was worthy of love and admiration.
“Fear not,” he continues, addressing the astonished
(15) Walton, “that I shall be the instrument of future
mischief. My work is nearly complete. Neither yours
nor any man’s death is needed to consummate the
series of my being, and accomplish that which must
be done; but it requires my own. Do not think that I
(20) shall be slow to perform this sacrifice. I shall quit your
vessel on the ice-raft which brought me hither, and
shall seek the most northern extremity of the globe; I
shall collect my funeral pile and consume to ashes this
miserable frame, that its remains may afford no light to
(25) any curious and unhallowed wretch, who would create
such another as I have been….”
“He sprung from the cabin-window, as he said this,
upon the ice-raft which lay close to the vessel. He was
soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness
(30) and distance.”
Whether this singular being executed his purpose or
not must necessarily remain an uncertainty, unless the
voyage of discovery to the north pole should throw any
light on the subject.
(35) So concludes this extraordinary tale, in which the
author seems to us to disclose uncommon powers
of poetic imagination. The feeling with which we
perused the unexpected and fearful, yet, allowing the
possibility of the event, very natural conclusion of
(40) Frankenstein’s experiment, shook a little even our firm
nerves; although such and so numerous have been
the expedients for exciting terror employed by the
romantic writers of the age, that the reader may adopt
Macbeth’s words with a slight alteration:
(45) “We have supp’d full with horrors
Direness, familiar to our ‘callous’ thoughts,
Cannot once startle us.”
It is no slight merit in our eyes that the tale,
though wild in incident, is written in plain and
(50) forcible English, without exhibiting that mixture of
hyperbolical Germanisms with which tales of wonder
are usually told, as if it were necessary that the
GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

T H E P R I N C E TO N R E V I E W A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N P R A C T I C E T E S T 1  199

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 199 6/15/2011 [Link] AM

 Question 3

(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

Read carefully the passage below. Then write an essay in which you support, refute, or qualify the claim that a
“neutral” stand on race perpetuates racial imbalance.

I am saying that sometimes colorblindness is racism.

I know that sounds counterintuitive, but let me go on.
Think of society as comprised of lots of different
Line groups of people, identified by their race, gender, etc.
(5) Neutrality in our society is supposed to be the great
equalizer because we believe that, if we don’t favor
any one group, things will work themselves out and
become more equal. But the thing is this: neutrality
has this effect only if there is no previous social or
(10) historical context. But that’s not how the real world is.
There is, in fact, a social and historical context for every
situation. So if I were being “neutral” and viewing
everyone as being the same, ignoring personal contexts,
I wouldn’t be promoting equality because I would be
(15) ignoring the differences that exist and allowing the
inequalities to continue to exist, given that I wouldn’t
do anything to help change them. Identifying problems
and actively promoting solutions are necessary to effect
useful change; being neutral is consenting to the status
quo.

END OF EXAMINATION

200 2 0C0R A C K I N G T H E A P E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E A N D C O M P O S I T I O N E X A M

12 AP EngLang PT [Link] 200 6/15/2011 [Link] AM