Test Prep Test Prep Certifications GED-SECTION-4 Questions & Answers

• Question 1:

  What Is the Authors Father Like?

  It was an impressive place: old, solidly built, in the Tudor style, with leaded windows, a slate roof, and rooms of royal proportions. Buying it had been a big step for my parents, a sign of growing wealth. This was the best neighborhood in town,

  and although it was not a pleasant place to live (especially for children), its prestige outweighed its deadliness. Given the fact that he wound up spending the rest of his life in that house, it is ironic that my father at first resisted moving there.

  He complained about the price (a constant theme), and when at last he relented, it was with grudging bad humor. Even so, he paid in cash. All in one go. No mortgage, no monthly payments. It was 1959, and business was going well for him.

  Always a man of habit, he would leave for work early in the morning, work hard all day, and then, when he came home (on those days he did not work late), take a short nap before dinner. Sometime during our first week in the new house,

  before we had properly moved in, he made a curious kind of mistake. Instead of driving home to the new house after work, he went directly to the old one, as he had done for years, parked his car in the driveway, walked into the house

  through the back door, climbed the stairs, entered the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and went to sleep. He slept for about an hour.

  Needless to say, when the new mistress of the house returned to find a strange man sleeping in her bed, she was a little surprised. But unlike Goldilocks, my father did not jump up and run away. The confusion was eventually settled, and

  everyone had a good laugh. Even today, it still makes me laugh. And yet, for all that, I cannot help regarding it as a pathetic story. It is one thing for a man to drive to his old house by mistake, but it is quite another, I think, for him not to notice

  that anything has changed inside it.

  Paul Auster, from The Invention of Solitude (1982)

  Based on the excerpt, how does the author feel about his fathers life?

  A. His father was a great businessman.

  B. His father lived a sad, lonely life.

  C. His father was a financial genius.

  D. His father was often cruel, but always had good intentions.

  E. His father was impressive and strong, like the house where they lived.

  Correct Answer: B

  The bulk of this excerpt is the story that the author finds "pathetic," so the most logical conclusion regarding his feelings for his father is that he lived a sad life. We know that his business was going well, but the author does not discuss his fathers methods or approach to business, so choice a is incorrect. Choice c is likewise incorrect; there is no discussion of his fathers handling of financial affairs. Choice d is incorrect because there is no evidence that his father was ever cruel. His father may have been impressive and strong (choice e), but the dominant theme is his habitual nature and the sad fact that he did not notice things changing around him.

• Question 2:

  What Is the Authors Father Like?

  It was an impressive place: old, solidly built, in the Tudor style, with leaded windows, a slate roof, and rooms of royal proportions. Buying it had been a big step for my parents, a sign of growing wealth. This was the best neighborhood in town,

  and although it was not a pleasant place to live (especially for children), its prestige outweighed its deadliness. Given the fact that he wound up spending the rest of his life in that house, it is ironic that my father at first resisted moving there.

  He complained about the price (a constant theme), and when at last he relented, it was with grudging bad humor. Even so, he paid in cash. All in one go. No mortgage, no monthly payments. It was 1959, and business was going well for him.

  Always a man of habit, he would leave for work early in the morning, work hard all day, and then, when he came home (on those days he did not work late), take a short nap before dinner. Sometime during our first week in the new house,

  before we had properly moved in, he made a curious kind of mistake. Instead of driving home to the new house after work, he went directly to the old one, as he had done for years, parked his car in the driveway, walked into the house

  through the back door, climbed the stairs, entered the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and went to sleep. He slept for about an hour.

  Needless to say, when the new mistress of the house returned to find a strange man sleeping in her bed, she was a little surprised. But unlike Goldilocks, my father did not jump up and run away. The confusion was eventually settled, and

  everyone had a good laugh. Even today, it still makes me laugh. And yet, for all that, I cannot help regarding it as a pathetic story. It is one thing for a man to drive to his old house by mistake, but it is quite another, I think, for him not to notice

  that anything has changed inside it.

  Paul Auster, from The Invention of Solitude (1982)

  Why does the author think the story of his fathers mistake is pathetic?

  A. It shows how stubborn his father was.

  B. It shows how little he knew his father.

  C. It shows how blind his father was to his needs.

  D. It shows how little attention his father paid to things around him.

  E. It shows how attached he was to the old house.

  Correct Answer: D

  That his father would not realize that someone else was living in the house that he would not notice, for example, different furniture arranged in a different way suggests that his father did not pay any attention to things around him and just went through the motions of his life by habit. Being habitual is different from being stubborn, so choice a is incorrect. The author is writing about his father and seems to know him quite well, so choice b is incorrect. We do not know if the authors father was inattentive to his needs (choice c), though if he did not pay attention to things around him, he likely did not pay much attention to his children. Still, there is not enough evidence in this passage to draw this conclusion. His father may have been very attached to the old house (choice e), but the incident doesnt just show attachment; it shows a lack of awareness of the world around him.

• Question 3:

  What Is the Authors Father Like?

  It was an impressive place: old, solidly built, in the Tudor style, with leaded windows, a slate roof, and rooms of royal proportions. Buying it had been a big step for my parents, a sign of growing wealth. This was the best neighborhood in town,

  and although it was not a pleasant place to live (especially for children), its prestige outweighed its deadliness. Given the fact that he wound up spending the rest of his life in that house, it is ironic that my father at first resisted moving there.

  He complained about the price (a constant theme), and when at last he relented, it was with grudging bad humor. Even so, he paid in cash. All in one go. No mortgage, no monthly payments. It was 1959, and business was going well for him.

  Always a man of habit, he would leave for work early in the morning, work hard all day, and then, when he came home (on those days he did not work late), take a short nap before dinner. Sometime during our first week in the new house,

  before we had properly moved in, he made a curious kind of mistake. Instead of driving home to the new house after work, he went directly to the old one, as he had done for years, parked his car in the driveway, walked into the house

  through the back door, climbed the stairs, entered the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and went to sleep. He slept for about an hour.

  Needless to say, when the new mistress of the house returned to find a strange man sleeping in her bed, she was a little surprised. But unlike Goldilocks, my father did not jump up and run away. The confusion was eventually settled, and

  everyone had a good laugh. Even today, it still makes me laugh. And yet, for all that, I cannot help regarding it as a pathetic story. It is one thing for a man to drive to his old house by mistake, but it is quite another, I think, for him not to notice

  that anything has changed inside it.

  Paul Auster, from The Invention of Solitude (1982)

  Why did the authors family move into the new house?

  A. Their old house was falling apart.

  B. They needed a house with more room.

  C. The new house was in a prestigious neighborhood.

  D. The neighborhood was great for children.

  E. The price was affordable.

  Correct Answer: C

  The author tells us that the new house was in "the best neighborhood in town," and the neighborhood's "prestige outweighed its deadliness" (lines 5

• Question 4:

  What Is the Authors Father Like?

  It was an impressive place: old, solidly built, in the Tudor style, with leaded windows, a slate roof, and rooms of royal proportions. Buying it had been a big step for my parents, a sign of growing wealth. This was the best neighborhood in town,

  and although it was not a pleasant place to live (especially for children), its prestige outweighed its deadliness. Given the fact that he wound up spending the rest of his life in that house, it is ironic that my father at first resisted moving there.

  He complained about the price (a constant theme), and when at last he relented, it was with grudging bad humor. Even so, he paid in cash. All in one go. No mortgage, no monthly payments. It was 1959, and business was going well for him.

  Always a man of habit, he would leave for work early in the morning, work hard all day, and then, when he came home (on those days he did not work late), take a short nap before dinner. Sometime during our first week in the new house,

  before we had properly moved in, he made a curious kind of mistake. Instead of driving home to the new house after work, he went directly to the old one, as he had done for years, parked his car in the driveway, walked into the house

  through the back door, climbed the stairs, entered the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and went to sleep. He slept for about an hour.

  Needless to say, when the new mistress of the house returned to find a strange man sleeping in her bed, she was a little surprised. But unlike Goldilocks, my father did not jump up and run away. The confusion was eventually settled, and

  everyone had a good laugh. Even today, it still makes me laugh. And yet, for all that, I cannot help regarding it as a pathetic story. It is one thing for a man to drive to his old house by mistake, but it is quite another, I think, for him not to notice

  that anything has changed inside it.

  Paul Auster, from The Invention of Solitude (1982)

  The passage suggests that the authors father

  A. did not like change.

  B. was a very calculating man.

  C. was unhappy with his life.

  D. was very proud of his house.

  E. had many bad habits.

  Correct Answer: A

  The author tells us that his father was "always a man of habit" - so much so that he forgot he’d moved and went to his old house, into his old room, and lay down for a nap, not even noticing that the furniture was different. This suggests that he has a difficult time accepting and adjusting to change. There is no evidence that he is a calculating man (choice b). He may be unhappy with his life (choice c), which could be why he chose not to notice things around him, but there is little to support this in the passage, while there is much to support choice a. We do not know if he was proud of the house (choice d). We do know that he was a man of habit, but we do not know if any of those habits were bad (choice e).

• Question 5:

  What Inspires Thomas?

  [Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a Spokane Indian living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.]

  So Thomas went home and tried to write their first song. He sat alone in his house with his bass guitar and waited for the song. He waited and waited. Its nearly impossible to write a song with a bass guitar, but Thomas didn't know that. He’d

  never written a song before. "Please," Thomas prayed. But the song would not come, so Thomas closed his eyes, tried to find a story with a soundtrack. He turned on the television and watched The Sound of Music on channel four. Julie

  Andrews put him to sleep for the sixty-seventh time, and neither story nor song came in his dreams.

  After he woke up, he paced around the room, stood on his porch, and listened to those faint voices that echoed all over the reservation. Everybody heard those voices, but nobody liked to talk about them. They were loudest at night, when

  Thomas tried to sleep, and he always thought they sounded like horses. For hours,

  Thomas waited for the song.

  Then, hungry and tired, he opened his refrigerator for something to eat and discovered that he didnt have any food. So he closed the fridge and opened it again, but it was still empty. In a ceremony that he had practiced since his youth, he

  opened, closed, and opened the fridge again, expecting an immaculate conception of a jar of pickles. Thomas was hungry on a reservation where there are ninety-seven different ways to say fry bread.

  [. . . .]

  As his growling stomach provided the rhythm, Thomas sat again with his bass guitar, wrote the first song, and called it "Reservation Blues."

  Sherman Alexie, from Reservation Blues (1995)

  The narrator tells us that "Thomas was hungry on a reservation where there are ninety-seven ways to say fry bread."What is the purpose of this sentence?

  A. to show us how important fry bread is to the language

  B. to show us how hungry Thomas was

  C. to make us want to try fry bread

  D. to show us the irony of the situation

  E. to show us how Thomas was inspired

  Correct Answer: D

  It is ironic that in a place where there are so many ways to describe one food (indicating that this food is a central part of the culture), Thomas is hungry. The passage does not mention the language of the reservation, so choice a is incorrect. The sentence does not show any measure of how hungry Thomas is, so choice b is incorrect. The sentence does not describe fry bread or make it sound in any way appealing, so choice c is also incorrect. The passage tells us that it was Thomass hunger, not the number of ways to say fry bread, that provided his inspiration, so choice e is incorrect.

• Question 6:

  What Inspires Thomas?

  [Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a Spokane Indian living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.]

  So Thomas went home and tried to write their first song. He sat alone in his house with his bass guitar and waited for the song. He waited and waited. Its nearly impossible to write a song with a bass guitar, but Thomas didn't know that. He’d

  never written a song before. "Please," Thomas prayed. But the song would not come, so Thomas closed his eyes, tried to find a story with a soundtrack. He turned on the television and watched The Sound of Music on channel four. Julie

  Andrews put him to sleep for the sixty-seventh time, and neither story nor song came in his dreams.

  After he woke up, he paced around the room, stood on his porch, and listened to those faint voices that echoed all over the reservation. Everybody heard those voices, but nobody liked to talk about them. They were loudest at night, when

  Thomas tried to sleep, and he always thought they sounded like horses. For hours,

  Thomas waited for the song.

  Then, hungry and tired, he opened his refrigerator for something to eat and discovered that he didnt have any food. So he closed the fridge and opened it again, but it was still empty. In a ceremony that he had practiced since his youth, he

  opened, closed, and opened the fridge again, expecting an immaculate conception of a jar of pickles. Thomas was hungry on a reservation where there are ninety-seven different ways to say fry bread.

  [. . . .]

  As his growling stomach provided the rhythm, Thomas sat again with his bass guitar, wrote the first song, and called it "Reservation Blues."

  Sherman Alexie, from Reservation Blues (1995)

  Why does Thomas keep opening and closing the refrigerator?

  A. He keeps hoping food will magically appear.

  B. He can't believe that the refrigerator is empty.

  C. He is angry and wants the door to break off.

  D. He likes the noise the door makes.

  E. He is bored.

  Correct Answer: A

  Thomas refers to this opening and closing of the refrigerator as a "ceremony," and he was "expecting an immaculate conception of a jar of pickles" (lines 28

• Question 7:

  What Inspires Thomas?

  [Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a Spokane Indian living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.]

  So Thomas went home and tried to write their first song. He sat alone in his house with his bass guitar and waited for the song. He waited and waited. Its nearly impossible to write a song with a bass guitar, but Thomas didn't know that. He’d

  never written a song before. "Please," Thomas prayed. But the song would not come, so Thomas closed his eyes, tried to find a story with a soundtrack. He turned on the television and watched The Sound of Music on channel four. Julie

  Andrews put him to sleep for the sixty-seventh time, and neither story nor song came in his dreams.

  After he woke up, he paced around the room, stood on his porch, and listened to those faint voices that echoed all over the reservation. Everybody heard those voices, but nobody liked to talk about them. They were loudest at night, when

  Thomas tried to sleep, and he always thought they sounded like horses. For hours,

  Thomas waited for the song.

  Then, hungry and tired, he opened his refrigerator for something to eat and discovered that he didnt have any food. So he closed the fridge and opened it again, but it was still empty. In a ceremony that he had practiced since his youth, he

  opened, closed, and opened the fridge again, expecting an immaculate conception of a jar of pickles. Thomas was hungry on a reservation where there are ninety-seven different ways to say fry bread.

  [. . . .]

  As his growling stomach provided the rhythm, Thomas sat again with his bass guitar, wrote the first song, and called it "Reservation Blues."

  Sherman Alexie, from Reservation Blues (1995)

  Thomas titles the song "Reservation Blues." Based on this passage, you can expect the song to be about

  A. the good times he's had on the reservation.

  B. how he and his friends started a band.

  C. fry bread.

  D. the sounds he hears at night on the reservation.

  E. the difficulties of living on a reservation.

  Correct Answer: E

  Even if you don't know that "the blues" are typically songs about hard times, the fact that Thomas used "his growling stomach" to "provide the rhythm" (lines 33

• Question 8:

  What Inspires Thomas?

  [Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a Spokane Indian living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.]

  So Thomas went home and tried to write their first song. He sat alone in his house with his bass guitar and waited for the song. He waited and waited. Its nearly impossible to write a song with a bass guitar, but Thomas didn't know that. He’d

  never written a song before. "Please," Thomas prayed. But the song would not come, so Thomas closed his eyes, tried to find a story with a soundtrack. He turned on the television and watched The Sound of Music on channel four. Julie

  Andrews put him to sleep for the sixty-seventh time, and neither story nor song came in his dreams.

  After he woke up, he paced around the room, stood on his porch, and listened to those faint voices that echoed all over the reservation. Everybody heard those voices, but nobody liked to talk about them. They were loudest at night, when

  Thomas tried to sleep, and he always thought they sounded like horses. For hours,

  Thomas waited for the song.

  Then, hungry and tired, he opened his refrigerator for something to eat and discovered that he didnt have any food. So he closed the fridge and opened it again, but it was still empty. In a ceremony that he had practiced since his youth, he

  opened, closed, and opened the fridge again, expecting an immaculate conception of a jar of pickles. Thomas was hungry on a reservation where there are ninety-seven different ways to say fry bread.

  [. . . .]

  As his growling stomach provided the rhythm, Thomas sat again with his bass guitar, wrote the first song, and called it "Reservation Blues."

  Sherman Alexie, from Reservation Blues (1995)

  Based on the passage, we can conclude that Thomas

  A. does not take good care of himself.

  B. is poor.

  C. has always wanted to be in a band.

  D. is waiting for someone to help him.

  E. watches too much television.

  Correct Answer: B

  We can conclude that Thomas is poor because he does not have any food; his refrigerator was empty. The passage suggests that Thomas takes care of himself he attempts to feed himself when he is hungry and there is no evidence that he doesnt take care of himself, so choice a is incorrect. We do not know if Thomas had always wanted to be in a band or not (choice c). Thomas is waiting for inspiration, but there is no indication that he is waiting for someone to help him, so choice d is incorrect. He watches television in this excerpt, but we have no way of judging whether this is "too much" television or not, so choice e is also incorrect.

• Question 9:

  What Is the New Dress Code Policy?

  MEMORANDUM

  TO:All Employees FROM:Helen Suskind, Director,

  Human Resources Department

  DATE:March 22, 2005 RE: Implementation of New Dress Code

  A new dress code for all employees will take effect on September 1. All employees will be required to wear professional business attire while in the office. In this context, professional business attire excludes T-shirts, sleeveless shirts, shorts,

  jeans, athletic attire, miniskirts, sandals, flip-flops, and sneakers. The attached sheet provides a complete list of attire that is inappropriate for the office. Please be sure to review this list carefully.

  Violations of the new dress code will be handled as follows:

  If you have any questions about the parameters of the dress code, please contact Martin Lamb in Human Resources immediately to schedule an appointment.

  It is important that all employees understand the seriousness of this policy. Management based its decision to implement this code upon evidence that the lack of a dress code leads to a decrease in productivity. Our new dress code will help

  maintain the reputation and integrity of our company by keeping us aware of the need for professionalism. Thank you for your cooperation.

  It is possible to conclude from this memorandum that

  A. the company does not currently have a dress code.

  B. the dress code has been a controversial issue at the company.

  C. the company used to have a formal dress code and it is simply being reinstated.

  D. the employees will be unhappy about the policy.

  E. there has been a recent change in management.

  Correct Answer: A

  The memo begins by stating that a "new" dress code is going into effect, suggesting that this is the first policy of its kind for employees. More importantly, if there were an existing dress code, the memorandum would make comparisons between the current and new dress codes throughout the memo (e.g., "Under the new policy, employees will no longer be permitted to wear jeans to the office"). If the company were reinstating a prior policy (choice c), the memorandum would likely say so, especially for the benefit of employees who may remember the former code. It may be true that the dress code has been controversial (choice b), that employees will be unhappy with the code (choice d), or that there has been a recent change in management (choice e), but there is no evidence of any of these choices in the memorandum.

• Question 10:

  What Is the New Dress Code Policy?

  MEMORANDUM

  TO:All Employees FROM:Helen Suskind, Director,

  Human Resources Department

  DATE:March 22, 2005 RE: Implementation of New Dress Code

  A new dress code for all employees will take effect on September 1. All employees will be required to wear professional business attire while in the office. In this context, professional business attire excludes T-shirts, sleeveless shirts, shorts,

  jeans, athletic attire, miniskirts, sandals, flip-flops, and sneakers. The attached sheet provides a complete list of attire that is inappropriate for the office. Please be sure to review this list carefully.

  Violations of the new dress code will be handled as follows:

  If you have any questions about the parameters of the dress code, please contact Martin Lamb in Human Resources immediately to schedule an appointment.

  It is important that all employees understand the seriousness of this policy. Management based its decision to implement this code upon evidence that the lack of a dress code leads to a decrease in productivity. Our new dress code will help

  maintain the reputation and integrity of our company by keeping us aware of the need for professionalism. Thank you for your cooperation.

  According to the memorandum, management decided to implement a formal dress code because

  A. a formal dress code makes a good impression on customers.

  B. casual dress may ruin the company's reputation.

  C. not having a dress code makes people less productive.

  D. formal dress reflects management's personal taste.

  E. formal dress helps create an atmosphere of cooperation.

  Correct Answer: C

  The third paragraph clearly states managements reason for implementing the dress code: The lack of a dress code leads to a decrease in productivity. Formal dress codes may make a better impression than casual clothes on customers (choice a), but this is not mentioned in the memorandum. Management feels that formal dress will help "maintain the reputation" of the company, but there is no suggestion that management worries that casual dress will ruin the company's reputation (choice b). There is nothing in the memorandum suggesting the personal tastes of the management (choice d), nor is there evidence that formal dress fosters cooperation (choice e).