Back

Sample Questions: Analyzing and Interpreting Literature

The following Analyzing and Interpreting Literature sample questions aren't used in actual CLEP exams and aren’t presented here as they will be on the test. Use them to get a sense of question format and difficulty level.

Directions

Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case.

Questions 1–3 refer to the passage below.

(SIR PETER:) When an old bachelor marries a young wife, what is he to expect? ’Tis now six months since Lady Teazle made me the happiest of men—and I have been the most miserable dog ever since! We tift a little going

(5) to church and fairly quarrelled before the bells had done ringing. I was more than once nearly choked with gall during the honeymoon, and had lost all comfort in life before my friends had done wishing me joy. Yet I chose with caution—a girl bred wholly in the country, who

(10) never knew luxury beyond one silk gown, nor dissipation above the annual gala of a race ball. Yet she now plays her part in all the extravagant fopperies of fashion and the town, with as ready a grace as if she never had seen a bush or a grassplot out of Grosvenor Square!*—I am

(15) sneered at by all my acquaintance and paragraphed in the newspapers. She dissipates my fortune, and contradicts all my humors; yet the worst of it is, I doubt I love her, or I should never bear all this. However, I’ll never be weak enough to own it.

*a fashionable section of London

Questions

  1. In lines 3–4, the phrases “the happiest of men” and “the most miserable dog” are best described as:
    1. Metaphors characterizing Sir Peter’s conflicted state of mind
    2. Allusions to literary characters famed for their good and bad marriages
    3. Clichés illustrating the contrast between Sir Peter’s previous hopes and present reality
    4. Stock attitudes about marriage based upon popular myth
    5. Euphemisms describing Sir Peter’s transition from a devoted bridegroom to an adulterous husband
  2. According to lines 8–11 (“Yet I chose . . . race ball”), Sir Peter chose a bride that he hoped would be
    1. different from the rural women of her time
    2. ignorant of his wish for a lavish lifestyle
    3. innocent and guileless in morals and habits
    4. fond of the duties that accompany life on a farm
    5. graceful, accomplished, and socially sophisticated
  3. In context, the word “grace” (line 13) most nearly means
    1. skill
    2. privilege
    3. virtue
    4. prayer
    5. demand

Questions 4–6 refer to the passage below.

O Vanity! how little is thy force acknowledged, or thy operations discerned! How wantonly dost thou deceive mankind under different disguises! Sometimes thou dost Line (5) wear the face of pity, sometimes of generosity: nay, thou hast the assurance even to put on those glorious ornaments which belong only to heroic virtue. Thou odious, deformed monster! whom priests have railed at, philosophers despised, and poets ridiculed: is there a wretch so abandoned as to own thee for an acquaintance (10) in public? yet, how few will refuse to enjoy thee in private? nay, thou art the pursuit of most men through their lives. The greatest villainies are daily practised to please thee; nor is the meanest thief below, or the greatest hero above, thy notice. Thy embraces are often the sole (15) aim and sole reward of the private robbery and the plundered province. It is to pamper up thee, thou harlot, that we attempt to withdraw from others what we do not want, or to withhold from them what they do. All our passions are thy slaves. Avarice itself is often no more (20) than thy handmaid, and even Lust thy pimp. The bully Fear, like a coward, flies before thee, and Joy and Grief hide their heads in thy presence. I know thou wilt think that, whilst I abuse thee, I court thee, and that thy love hath inspired me to write this (25) sarcastical panegyric on thee; but thou art deceived: I value thee not of a farthing; nor will it give me any pain if thou shouldst prevail on the reader to censure this digression as arrant nonsense; for know, to thy confusion, that I have introduced thee for no other purpose (30) than to lengthen out a short chapter; and so I return to my history.

  1. Which of the following best reflects the ideas in the first sentence?
    1. People do not sufficiently recognize the power of vanity in action.
    2. Only discerning people recognize vanity when they come upon it.
    3. Vain actions are usually forceful and can therefore be recognized.
    4. Vanity often causes people to use force against others.
    5. The operations of vanity are difficult to detect because they are not usually forceful.
  2. In line 23, “thou” refers to which of the following?
    1. The reader
    2. Money
    3. The hero
    4. Vanity
    5. The author’s patron
  3. The tone to which the passage shifts in lines 25–28 can best be described as
    1. playful and humorous
    2. formal and scholarly
    3. simple and colloquial
    4. ironic but somber
    5. reticent but obsequious

Questions 7–10 refer to the poem below.

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, Injurious distance should not stop my way; For then, despite of space, I would be brought, Line (5) From limits far remote, where thou dost stay. No matter then, although my foot did stand Upon the farthest earth remov’d from thee; For nimble thought can jump both sea and land As soon as think the place where he would be. But ah, thought kills me, that I am not thought, (10) To leap large lengths of miles when thou are gone, But that, so much of earth and water wrought, I must attend time’s leisure with my moan, Receiving nought by elements so slow But heavy tears, badges of either’s woe.

  1. The speaker complains of “Injurious distance” (line 2) because it
    1. acts like a malicious rival who challenges his supremacy
    2. can be covered only at the cost of his physical health
    3. consists of difficult and hazardous stretches of territory
    4. causes his loved one to forget him
    5. frustrates his desire to be with his beloved
  2. Which of the following is the most accurate restatement of line 5
    1. It once did not matter, although my foot stood
    2. In that case, it would not matter even if my foot stood
    3. In that case, it does not matter even though my foot once stood
    4. It no longer matters, although my foot stands
    5. In that case, it will be immaterial whether my foot could have stood
  3. Lines 7–8 suggest that the speaker’s thought
    1. would rather ignore all the facts of geography than contemplate the lover’s actual situation
    2. would as soon dwell on the speaker’s future prospects as on his present travel plans
    3. has only to determine where it wants to be and immediately it is there
    4. could fly to the lover if only it could imagine the location
    5. would rather travel endlessly around the world than stay in one place worrying about the lover’s plight
  4. Throughout the poem the speaker is
    1. cavalier
    2. jealous
    3. frustrated and yearning
    4. admonitory yet loving
    5. sarcastic and self-deprecatory

Answers

1) C   2) C   3) A   4) A   5) D   6) A   7) E   8) B   9) C   10) C

Learn more about the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature exam.

Get Started