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12th grade reading comprehension

12th grade (Year 13 in England) · 16 questions · Common Core: RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.5, RI.11-12.8 · England: GCSE English Language Paper 1 Q4, A-level English Literature, GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q4

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  1. Question 1

    Type the metrical term (in English) that matches this description. A foot with two stressed syllables: DUM-DUM.

    Answer

  2. Question 2

    Which part of the Toulmin model matches this description? The conditions under which the claim might not hold, or the answer to an objection.

    • A. rebuttal
    • B. grounds
    • C. claim
    • D. warrant

The Quiet Infrastructure

When we speak of infrastructure, we tend to picture concrete and steel: bridges, railways, power lines. We rarely think of the public library. Yet libraries are a form of infrastructure as essential, in their way, as any road – and, because their work is quiet, they are easier to neglect. Consider what a library actually provides. It offers free access not only to books but to the internet, to printers, to warm and safe space, to help with forms and applications, to activities for toddlers and to company for the isolated elderly. For a student without a quiet room at home, it is a study hall. For a job-seeker without a computer, it is an office. For a newly arrived family, it may be the first public institution that welcomes them without asking anything in return. Critics argue that, in an age of smartphones, these functions are obsolete. Information is everywhere; why fund buildings full of paper? But the argument confuses access to information with access to opportunity. A phone cannot print a CV, provide a warm room on a winter afternoon or offer the patient guidance of a librarian who can tell a reliable source from a persuasive fake. Moreover, millions of people still lack reliable internet at home. To assume that everyone is connected is to design policy for the comfortable and forget the rest. None of this means libraries should stand still. The best have already transformed themselves into community hubs, hosting coding clubs, repair cafés and citizenship classes. But transformation requires investment, and investment requires us to recognise libraries for what they are: not a nostalgic luxury, but part of the foundation on which a fair society is built. A bridge that collapses makes headlines. A library that closes rarely does. Its users simply scatter, each a little more alone than before. That silence is precisely why we should pay attention.

  1. Question 3

    Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". According to the writer, what mistake do critics make?

    • A. They overestimate the cost of books.
    • B. They ignore the needs of bridges.
    • C. They confuse access to information with access to opportunity.
    • D. They think libraries are too modern.

  1. Question 4

    Which literary movement does this description most closely match? A novel's narrator interrupts the story to discuss with the reader how she might end it, offering three different endings.

    • A. Gothic
    • B. Transcendentalism
    • C. Realism
    • D. Postmodernism

  2. Question 5

    Type the part of the Toulmin model (in English) that matches this description. The assumption that links the evidence to the claim, often unstated.

    Answer

The Quiet Infrastructure

When we speak of infrastructure, we tend to picture concrete and steel: bridges, railways, power lines. We rarely think of the public library. Yet libraries are a form of infrastructure as essential, in their way, as any road – and, because their work is quiet, they are easier to neglect. Consider what a library actually provides. It offers free access not only to books but to the internet, to printers, to warm and safe space, to help with forms and applications, to activities for toddlers and to company for the isolated elderly. For a student without a quiet room at home, it is a study hall. For a job-seeker without a computer, it is an office. For a newly arrived family, it may be the first public institution that welcomes them without asking anything in return. Critics argue that, in an age of smartphones, these functions are obsolete. Information is everywhere; why fund buildings full of paper? But the argument confuses access to information with access to opportunity. A phone cannot print a CV, provide a warm room on a winter afternoon or offer the patient guidance of a librarian who can tell a reliable source from a persuasive fake. Moreover, millions of people still lack reliable internet at home. To assume that everyone is connected is to design policy for the comfortable and forget the rest. None of this means libraries should stand still. The best have already transformed themselves into community hubs, hosting coding clubs, repair cafés and citizenship classes. But transformation requires investment, and investment requires us to recognise libraries for what they are: not a nostalgic luxury, but part of the foundation on which a fair society is built. A bridge that collapses makes headlines. A library that closes rarely does. Its users simply scatter, each a little more alone than before. That silence is precisely why we should pay attention.

  1. Question 6

    Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". How does the writer strengthen the rebuttal in paragraph 3?

    • A. by giving concrete examples of what a phone cannot do and noting many lack internet
    • B. by changing the subject to transport
    • C. by admitting the critics are entirely right
    • D. by quoting a famous author

  1. Question 7

    Is the proposed answer correct? What do some platforms and camera makers now attach to images to show how they were made or edited? → provenance information (content credentials or metadata)

    • A. yes, it is correct
    • B. no, it is not correct

  2. Question 8

    Which fallacy matches this description? Dismissing criticism by pointing out that the critic does the same thing.

    • A. loaded question
    • B. appeal to nature
    • C. tu quoque
    • D. equivocation

  3. Question 9

    Which literary movement matches this description? 1920s–1930s: a flowering of African American literature, music and art centred in Harlem, New York.

    • A. Postmodernism
    • B. Harlem Renaissance
    • C. Gothic
    • D. Romanticism

Inheritance

When my aunt died she left me her piano, which was the one thing in her house I had never wanted. It was an upright of dark, scarred wood, too large for any room it had ever stood in, and it had been out of tune for as long as I could remember. As a child, I had been made to sit at it every Thursday while she counted the beats aloud in a voice like a ruler rapping a desk. I had hated it with the pure, uncomplicated hatred of a nine-year-old. The removal men groaned it up the three flights to my flat and left it in the hall, where it blocked the light from the only window. For a month I edged around it sideways, as one edges around a guest who has outstayed their welcome. I told friends I would sell it. I photographed it twice for the listing and deleted the pictures both times. It was during a power cut in February that I finally lifted the lid. I could not have said why. The flat was cold and dark and silent, and perhaps I simply wanted to hear something. I pressed middle C. It was flat, of course – everything about that piano was slightly flat – but the note hung in the hall far longer than I expected, and something in the slowness of its fading undid me. I played the only piece I still knew, a dull exercise in C major that my aunt had made me repeat a hundred times. My fingers found it before my mind did. Halfway through, I realised I was counting under my breath, in her rhythm, in her voice. I have not had the piano tuned. People ask me why, and I tell them I haven't got round to it, which is true in the way that most convenient answers are true. The other reason is harder to explain. Every flat note is exactly as she left it. I am not ready to correct her yet.

  1. Question 10

    Read "Inheritance". What is the best interpretation of "I am not ready to correct her yet"?

    • A. He thinks his aunt played badly.
    • B. Tuning the piano would feel like erasing a trace of her, and he is still grieving.
    • C. He cannot afford a piano tuner.
    • D. He plans to become a piano tuner.

  1. Question 11

    Which metrical term matches this stress pattern? (Capitals show stressed syllables.) con-tra-DICT, re-com-MEND, in-com-PLETE

    • A. dactyl
    • B. trochee
    • C. anapest
    • D. iamb

  2. Question 12

    Which comic or satirical technique is used here? The cartoon shows the famously proud mayor with a head three times the size of his body, admiring himself in a mirror.

    • A. caricature
    • B. satire
    • C. reductio ad absurdum
    • D. parody

Inheritance

When my aunt died she left me her piano, which was the one thing in her house I had never wanted. It was an upright of dark, scarred wood, too large for any room it had ever stood in, and it had been out of tune for as long as I could remember. As a child, I had been made to sit at it every Thursday while she counted the beats aloud in a voice like a ruler rapping a desk. I had hated it with the pure, uncomplicated hatred of a nine-year-old. The removal men groaned it up the three flights to my flat and left it in the hall, where it blocked the light from the only window. For a month I edged around it sideways, as one edges around a guest who has outstayed their welcome. I told friends I would sell it. I photographed it twice for the listing and deleted the pictures both times. It was during a power cut in February that I finally lifted the lid. I could not have said why. The flat was cold and dark and silent, and perhaps I simply wanted to hear something. I pressed middle C. It was flat, of course – everything about that piano was slightly flat – but the note hung in the hall far longer than I expected, and something in the slowness of its fading undid me. I played the only piece I still knew, a dull exercise in C major that my aunt had made me repeat a hundred times. My fingers found it before my mind did. Halfway through, I realised I was counting under my breath, in her rhythm, in her voice. I have not had the piano tuned. People ask me why, and I tell them I haven't got round to it, which is true in the way that most convenient answers are true. The other reason is harder to explain. Every flat note is exactly as she left it. I am not ready to correct her yet.

  1. Question 13

    Read "Inheritance". What does the narrator's realisation that he is counting "in her voice" reveal?

    • A. He is imitating her to mock her.
    • B. He has forgotten the piece.
    • C. He has hired a teacher.
    • D. His aunt's influence has become part of him, despite his earlier resentment.

  1. Question 14

    Type the fallacy (in English) that matches this description. Assuming that something is good because it is natural, or bad because it is not.

    Answer

  2. Question 15

    Which rhetorical appeal does this sentence mainly use? "Think of the grandparents who will never meet their grandchildren because of this disease."

    • A. ethos (credibility)
    • B. pathos (emotion)
    • C. logos (logic)
    • D. kairos (timing)

  3. Question 16

    Which fallacy is used here? The minister told us to cut energy use, but she flies to every meeting, so we can ignore her advice.

    • A. tu quoque
    • B. appeal to tradition
    • C. moving the goalposts
    • D. loaded question

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Answer key: 12th grade reading comprehension

  1. 1. spondee

  2. 2. A. rebuttal

  3. 3. C. They confuse access to information with access to opportunity.

  4. 4. D. Postmodernism

  5. 5. warrant

  6. 6. A. by giving concrete examples of what a phone cannot do and noting many lack internet

  7. 7. A. yes, it is correct

  8. 8. C. tu quoque

  9. 9. B. Harlem Renaissance

  10. 10. B. Tuning the piano would feel like erasing a trace of her, and he is still grieving.

  11. 11. C. anapest

  12. 12. A. caricature

  13. 13. D. His aunt's influence has become part of him, despite his earlier resentment.

  14. 14. appeal to nature

  15. 15. B. pathos (emotion)

  16. 16. A. tu quoque