ACT试题（一）

Reading

The Reading section of the ACT test measures your comprehension skills by providing a passage from which you should be able to read, then find explicitly stated details, infer from text, draw conclusions, and make comparisons and generalizations. Roughly 25% of the passages come from each of these subject areas: Social Studies, Natural Sciences, Literature, and Humanities.

Most of the reading questions refer to a single passage, but the ACT test has introduced “paired passages,” for which you will need to refer to two separate short paragraphs on the same topic to answer questions. During the Reading section of the ACT test, you have 35 minutes to answer 40 questions. You need to read passages thoroughly, but quickly, attempting to gain the most meaning while wasting no time. This would be a good thing to practice during your preparation.

This is an excerpt of a literary passage written by Edgar Allen Poe.

But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince’s own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.”

It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven – an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been expected from the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue – and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange – the fifth with white – the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet – a deep blood color. Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that protected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.

It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before.

一、What is the author’s attitude toward the prince?

1. He views the prince as an immature child.

2.  He views the prince as misguided, but ultimately good at heart. 

3. He holds the prince in high regard. 

4. He regards the prince as selfish and cruel.

     二、What is the purpose of the author’s inclusion of the castle’s decorations and guests’ clothing? 

1． Poe used the descriptions to allow the reader to feel as though they are a part of the story.

2． Poe included the descriptions as symbols, such as using red to imply love, or green to imply new growth. 

3． Poe included these descriptors to allow the audience to glean a greater understanding of the prince’s surroundings. 

4． Poe included these descriptions to highlight the vast difference between the classes, including the nonchalance and opulence of the wealthy.

三、Given the context of the word, what is the meaning of “sagacious”?

1． Hardened to the difficulties of life

2．To be shrewd or clever in judgment or action

  3．To offer wisdom or counsel to others without regard to oneself

4． To be benevolent and thoughtful toward one’s fellow man

四、 This piece is what is known as an allegory. According to this passage, what is the primary allegorical theme found within the body of Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”?

1． The importance of maintaining drastically different caste systems

2． The allegorical theme found in this passage is the inevitable falling-out between people

3． The futility of money in preventing the eventual presence of death or illness

4． The importance of making time for the good things in life, such as spending time with family and friends

           五、Why is the prince’s decision to hold a ball such an egregious act?

  1．The prince’s ball is appalling because he failed to acknowledge the suffering of his guests at the hands of the clock tower and the room bathed in dark colors.

  2．The prince’s decision is an egregious one because he allows his home to become overcrowded and filled with commoners.

  3．The prince’s decision is appalling because he focuses all of his resources on a party, barricaded against the sick and the poor rather than helping the less fortunate as they literally rot away.

  4．The prince’s ball was an atrocious misstep because he failed to provide his guests with adequate safety measures and procedures.

           六、 Given the descriptions of the prince, his peers, and those who are not present at the party, what time period/system is this passage evocative of?

   1． The middle ages/the feudal system

2. The renaissance/a parliament-based government

  3. The 1800s/colonialism

  4. The 18th century/a democratic republic

        七、 What details support the notion that the prince is an unlikeable character?

 1 .”…the duke’s love of the bizarre…” and “…the giddiest grew pale…”

 2. ”…eccentric, yet august taste…” and “…prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure…”

 3. ”…eccentric, yet august taste…” and “…produced so wild a look upon the countenances…”

 4. ”…Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless…” and “resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress…”

            八、 What does the following passage say about the effect of the clock upon the guests?

  1. The clock was noisy and cumbersome and caused the prince’s guest some agitation or frustration.

2. The clock reminded the guests of their lives outside of the prince’s abbey or castle.

  3. The clock was an unsettling reminder to the guests, both because it pulled them from their celebrations and because it signified the passing of time.

4. The clock was far too loud, and was widely regarded with distaste, despite the prince’s high regard for both the clock and the room in which it stood.

       九、 All of the following details are used to describe the prince’s party, save one. Which of the following is not used to describe the party?

1. vividly blue”

2. “waltzers ceased”

3. “there was Beauty”

4. “extensive and magnificent” 

       十、What is the significance of Poe’s title (“The Masque of the Red Death”)?

   1．The title alludes to the uprising of the ignored peasants.

  2. The title serves as both a summary of the story and offers readers a sense of foreshadowing.

  3. The title refers to the ball the prince is holding.

  4. The title is an allegory.

ACT试题（二）

Reading

The Reading section of the ACT test measures your comprehension skills by providing a passage from which you should be able to read, then find explicitly stated details, infer from text, draw conclusions, and make comparisons and generalizations. Roughly 25% of the passages come from each of these subject areas: Social Studies, Natural Sciences, Literature, and Humanities.

Most of the reading questions refer to a single passage, but the ACT test has introduced “paired passages,” for which you will need to refer to two separate short paragraphs on the same topic to answer questions. During the Reading section of the ACT test, you have 35 minutes to answer 40 questions. You need to read passages thoroughly, but quickly, attempting to gain the most meaning while wasting no time. This would be a good thing to practice during your preparation.

This is a passage on a scientific topic.

Living In a Post-Antibiotic World

Following the release of the CDC’s overview regarding antibiotics and their use in conventional medicine, readers can reach one conclusion: a post-antibiotic world is one to be feared. As fewer new antibiotics are created, and the increasing use of antibiotics is sustained, more and more bacteria are developing resistance to antibiotic treatment, including a strand of bacteria found in New Zealand in January of 2013. This is a substantial find for the future of medicine, as it suggests that the world as we know it may be heading toward a potentially cataclysmic stage in which antibiotics are ineffective, and a simple head cold is capable of extreme destruction.

What does this mean for conventional medicine? Antibiotics are used in virtually every facet of modern medicine. Ear infections, common ailments among the young, are treated with antibiotics. Surgery requires first lowering the body’s defenses through antibiotic administration to prevent the body’s rejection of any implements or implants used. Modern medicine is thoroughly steeped in antibiotic use, and would not function as the world knows today without the assistance of antibiotic drugs. For this reason, illnesses common in today’s world and regarded with nonchalance such as a cold, the flu, or an ear infection could easily prove deadly to those afflicted, and may even usher in a new age of past or third-world illnesses, including variations of the plague, fever, and malaria.

Modern medicine is not the only affected industry, however; because most modern food sources strive to provide large quantities of food quickly, all food industries have become heavily reliant upon antibiotic use. This is certainly the case for those raising livestock of any kind, ranging from cows, to pigs, to chickens. These animals are typically fed a steady diet of antibiotics, as these allow the animals to be grouped together in smaller quarters, and fed a diet encouraging quick and easy fat production. Without antibiotics, the cost of red meat, fish, and poultry would all likely skyrocket, rendering meat of any kind a precious commodity. Similarly, many fruits and plants are treated with antibiotics to stave off bacterial contamination that would render entire crops inedible. A post-antibiotic era would force the entire food industry to raise prices due to lower production and a greater likelihood of failure.

While these revelations are certainly alarming, a seemingly post-antibiotic world can be ushered in with grace—given the immediate action taken by scientists and doctors alike. Given the time and funding, doctors and scientists may be able to do several things to ward off the dangers of a post-antibiotic era. These include developing newer antibiotic strains—a practice that has long been all but abandoned due to its high cost and low profit yield—and developing greater research regarding new strains of bacteria resistant to most antibiotics. While these steps may seem small or easy, both require high levels of funding in a time where funding is increasingly difficult to come by.

一、What is the purpose of this passage?

1. To urge readers to talk to local and state government regarding antibiotic use

2. To prevent readers from overusing antibiotics in the future

3. To inform readers of what the post-antibiotic era is, and how it can be prevented

4. To frighten readers into staying away from conventional medicine, including the use of antibiotics

     二、 What is the main idea of the second paragraph?

1． Antibiotic use is an essential aspect of modern medicine, and modern medicine will cease to exist without it.

2．The post-antibiotic era is upon us and must be stopped.

3．Without antibiotics, illnesses such as malaria may run rampant.

4．The United States is entering a period known as the “post-antibiotic era” and methods of prevention must be enforced.

三、In the first paragraph, the word “cataclysmic” is used. Given the context of the word, what is the meaning of “cataclysmic”?

1． Disastrous; indicative of great change

2． Unexpected; indescribable

  3． Novel; unprecedented

  4.Ineffectual; hopeless

四、What type of writing does this passage exemplify?

1. expository

2. persuasive 

3. narrative

4. descriptive

      五、According to the passage, what has led to the post-antibiotic era?

    1. The failure in modern medicine to accurately identify bacterial strains

2. Over-use of antibiotics and the failure to create newer, stronger antibiotic strains

  3.The failure of medical labs to create adequate medicine and a lack of funding in the medical industry

  4.Doctors’ failure to adequately quarantine patients with antibiotic-resistant illnesses

       六、 The passage suggests that the post-antibiotic era will be one of great __.

  1. innovation

2. turmoil

3. education

4. peace

        七、 The passage made a point of identifying New Zealand as a country suffering from the advent of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Why might the author have thought this point important?

 1. The point is pivotal in a sense that it demonstrates how to prevent the onset of an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection.

 2.The point is important because it indicates the areas that readers should avoid.

 3.The point is important because it reveals that New Zealand is the origin point of these bacteria.

 4.This point is important because it illustrates that the issue is a worldwide concern.

        八、Which of the following is not a consequence of a post-antibiotic world?

  1.Greater fatalities from simple illnesses

 2.Increased food prices

  3.Decreased treatment options

  4.Decreased medical coverage

       九、 Which of the following is a characteristic of the bacteria the article fears?

  1. The bacteria will travel from continent to continent without warning.

  2. The bacteria will lead to “superbugs” that will result in a resurgence of the Black Death.

  3. The bacteria will resist all current forms of antibiotics.

  4. The bacteria will replicate at an alarming rate.

       十、What prompted the creation of the passage?

   1．The upcoming legislation regarding antibiotic use.

  2.The release of the CDC’s overview of the post-antibiotic era.

  3.The discovery of an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria in New Zealand.

  4.The revelation that more funds were needed to conduct research about the post-antibiotic era.

ACT试题（三）

Reading

The Reading section of the ACT test measures your comprehension skills by providing a passage from which you should be able to read, then find explicitly stated details, infer from text, draw conclusions, and make comparisons and generalizations. Roughly 25% of the passages come from each of these subject areas: Social Studies, Natural Sciences, Literature, and Humanities.

Most of the reading questions refer to a single passage, but the ACT test has introduced “paired passages,” for which you will need to refer to two separate short paragraphs on the same topic to answer questions. During the Reading section of the ACT test, you have 35 minutes to answer 40 questions. You need to read passages thoroughly, but quickly, attempting to gain the most meaning while wasting no time. This would be a good thing to practice during your preparation.

This passage was written by the essayist and lecturer, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

ESSAY II Self-Reliance

I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.

What pretty oracles nature yields us on this text, in the face and behaviour of children, babes, and even brutes! That divided and rebel mind, that distrust of a sentiment because our arithmetic has computed the strength and means opposed to our purpose, these have not. Their mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered, and when we look in their faces, we are disconcerted. Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself. Do not think the youth has no force, because he cannot speak to you and me. Hark! in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold, then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.

The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature. A boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests: he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you. But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness. As soon as he has once acted or spoken with eclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that he could pass again into his neutrality! Who can thus avoid all pledges, and having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formidable. He would utter opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private, but necessary, would sink like darts into the ear of men, and put them in fear.

一、  What is one of the primary themes found in this excerpt of Emerson’s essay?

  1.Societal conformity

  2.Trusting oneself

  3.Faith in others

  4.The importance of education

二、 What does Emerson urge his audience to do in the first paragraph?

1. To believe in the wisdom of others and follow the leadership of great men

2. To focus on educating oneself in the face of opposition

3. To believe in yourself and to speak your convictions aloud

4. To become a man or woman of the world, investigating the thoughts and ideas of others

三、 What is the meaning of the word “unaffrighted” as it is used in the final paragraph in the passage?

1. unhindered, nonchalant

2. disobedient, rebellious

3. unafraid, brave

4. uninterested, detached

四、 What, does Emerson argue, is the function of intuition?

  1.Intuition separates mankind from other animals.

  2.Intuition is a gift given to the wise, and should be used to educate those who are less learned.

  3.Intuition is the means by which men and women judge one another.

  4.Intuition serves as one’s moral center.

五、 What is the core purpose of the essay’s first paragraph or introduction?

  1．To posit the notion that mankind must learn to listen to self before listening to others

  2．To introduce the idea of following great leaders to the audience

  3．To provide exposition of Emerson as an author qualified to compose this essay

  4．To identify the inspiration for Emerson’s essay

六、 Which of the following statements would Emerson likely agree with?

  1．Time not spent in the company of others is wasted.

  2．A day gone by without a serious discussion is a day lost.

  3．Harmony may only be achieved through the melding of minds.

  4．Peace cannot be achieved without extensive self-observation and inward thought.

七、 What is the overall tone of the passage?

  1． Weary, resigned

  2． Frantic, urgent

  3．Hopeful, musing

  4． Persuasive, manipulative

八、 What is Emerson’s attitude toward children and youth?

  1． Emerson commends youth for their honesty, but encouraged adults to practice greater tact in their everyday doings.

  2． Emerson regards children with fondness, but acknowledges the importance of moving past childish fancy.

  3． He considers children to be fiendish in their behavior, and youth more so.

  4． He regards the innocence and guilelessness of youth with respect and envy.

九、 How does the title “Self-Reliance” relate to the passage?

  1．  “Self-Reliance” serves as the thesis for this piece.

  2． “Self-Reliance” serves as the antithesis to the piece.

  3． “Self-Reliance” is the name of the work that inspired Emerson’s essay.

  4． “Self-Reliance” refers to Emerson’s experiences in his early childhood.

十、 What is the meaning of this excerpt, found at the base of the first paragraph?

  1． You should always strive to have the first word in an argument.

  2． Originality is a concept long ago abandoned, and cannot be reclaimed.

  3． Those around you will inevitably speak shameful words.

  4． Waiting to speak one’s opinion until another has spoken the same opinion will result in a feeling of shame or disconnection from that opinion.