Unseen Passages

Read the unseen poetic passage below carefully:

High on the cliff the solitary pine,
Whispers its secrets to the passing breeze,
While below, the restless waves align,
And crash against the ancient, rugged trees.
In silent watch it stands against the night,
A sturdy sentinel of stone and bark,
Holding the embers of the fading light,
Before the coastline yields unto the dark.

What is the rhyme scheme of the passage above?

Read the unseen excerpt below carefully:

The morning sun broke through the heavy grey,
Casting a pale and fragile streak of light,
As Martha swept the withered leaves away,
And smiled to see the garden growing bright.

What is the predominant mood of the passage?

Read the unseen prose extract below:

"The newly appointed director faced an inimical board of trustees whose hostility toward innovation threatened to derail the reform agenda. To counter their opposition, she employed an astute diplomatic strategy, shrewdly identifying common interests among key members. Her unsparing critique of past administrative failures forced the committee to confront harsh realities, while her unwavering commitment to transparency ultimately secured their reluctant support."

Match each bold vocabulary word from the passage on the left with its correct contextual meaning on the right.

Read the prose extract below:

"The young archivist approached the ancient manuscript with immense diffidence, aware that a single careless touch could tear the brittle parchment. Despite her initial hesitation, her scrutiny of the text soon revealed hidden margins annotated with obscure symbols. The master scholar had long considered these scribbles superfluous, dismissing them as mere ink blots, but she recognized their true significance as secret navigational codes."

Match each vocabulary word from the passage on the left with its correct contextual meaning on the right.

Read the poem below carefully:

The old blacksmith turns his back on the glowing coals,
His heavy apron cast beside the anvil's base.
Where hammers once rang out like thunderous tolls,
Now silent cobwebs weave across the space.
He sweeps the iron filings from his palm,
And steps into the evening's quiet calm.

Based on the extract above, what can be inferred about the blacksmith's situation?

The golden scepter lies in quiet rust,
Beneath the marble arches, silent, cold;
The grand decrees now turn to drifting dust,
Where once an emperor's pride was fiercely told.
No trumpet sounds across the barren courtyard now,
Save for the wind that sweeps the shattered brow.

In the excerpt above, what are the speaker's tone and the passage's mood?

Read the passage excerpt below carefully:

"During the parliamentary debate, the minister delivered an acidic response to his critics, leaving the chamber in awkward silence as his sharp words cut through their complacency."

Which of the following best captures the contextual meaning of the word acidic as used in the passage?

Read the prose excerpt below carefully:

"The prime minister's speech was received with perfunctory applause from the backbenchers, who were well aware of the illusory nature of his promises. His attempt to obfuscate the financial deficits through convoluted rhetoric only heightened the skepticism of the press, leaving his cabinet in a precarious position."

Match each vocabulary word on the left with its correct contextual meaning on the right as used in the passage.

Read the verse extract below carefully:

"The old fisherman mends his net by dusk,
His calloused hands working without a pause.
He gazes not at the dark, rolling waves,
Nor listens to the tide's familiar roar.
Yet, when a faint lamp flickers on the shore,
He folds his nets and quietly walks home."

Based on the extract above, what can be inferred about the flickering lamp on the shore?

Read the prose extract below carefully:

"Judge Vane smoothed the hem of his velvet robe and stared past the triumphant defense counsel toward the empty gallery seats. The acquittal was lawful, the evidence insufficient, yet his quill hovered over the official ledger for several minutes before making a single mark. He closed the thick volume with a heavy thud, refusing the congratulations of the court clerk."

Based on the extract above, what can be inferred about Judge Vane's attitude toward the trial's outcome?

Read the unseen poem excerpt below:

The weaver sits beside his ancient loom,
His fingers dance across the faded thread;
Though shadows lengthen in the narrow room,
He sings of harvests and of daily bread.
No bitter murmur escapes his weary lip,
Though age has bowed his back and dimmed his sight,
He greets each sunrise with a steadfast grip,
And weaves his dreams into the gathering night.

What is the speaker's tone toward the old weaver?

Read the unseen dramatic extract below carefully:

EBI: (Tracing the dust on the mantelpiece) Father left the grandfather clock to Nnamdi, though Nnamdi hasn't stepped into this compound since the rainy season of '98.
TENA: (Pausing as she polishes the silver cutlery) And he left you the mahogany writing desk, Ebi—the one with the locked bottom drawer whose key was buried with him.

Based on the extract above, evaluate the truth of the following statement:
It can be deduced from the extract that the father intended for a vital aspect of Ebi's inheritance to remain physically inaccessible.

Match each of the following unseen prose extracts with the central theme or main idea it predominantly explores.

Read the following lines of poetry carefully:

The morning mist begins to clear away,
And songbirds awaken in the tall oak tree,
A gentle breeze heralds the brand new day,
While quiet waters wander toward the sea.

What is the rhyme scheme of the stanza above?

Read the passage below carefully:

'The surveyor folded the topographical map, pressed his thumb against the damp parchment until the ink smeared over the northern boundary, and handed the roll to his assistant without a word. He looked back once at the sprawling ridge where the ancient baobabs stood, then instructed the team to mark the soil as unfit for cultivation in their official log.'

From the passage, what can be inferred about the surveyor's underlying motivation?

Read the unseen passage below carefully:

The archivist carefully turned the brittle parchment of the 1898 ledger. The official log recorded that three crates of brass artifacts were lost during a river transit to Lagos. However, a hasty note scrawled at the bottom of the page read: 'Crates loaded onto the Liverpool vessel at midnight; tell the elders the current swept them away.'

Statement: Based on the passage, it can be deduced that the reported loss of the brass crates in the river was a deliberate cover-up for their secret shipment abroad.

Read the unseen poem below carefully:

1 The ancient oak stands firm against the blast,
2 Whose gnarled boughs have braved a hundred years,
3 Unshaken by the tempest's sudden fears,
4 Holding the sacred memory of the past.
5 Though winter shadows are around it cast,
6 And cold mists rise like silent, ghostly tears,
7 Within its heart no fleeting dread appears,
8 Knowing the fury of the storm won't last.
9 Yet when the spring returns with gentle breath,
10 A softer music stirs the sleeping wood,
11 And green shoots burst from winter's frozen sheath,
12 Now life awakens where the dark trees stood;
13 The quiet earth forgets the chill of death,
14 And finds in silent bloom that all is good.

Which of the following best describes the structural form and rhyme scheme of the poem?

The village square, once loud with honest trade,
Now bends beneath a tawdry reign of show;
Where gilded banners mask the debts unpaid,
And shallow praises in the market flow.
The elders mourn the quiet worth of old,
As empty glitter buys the hearts of gold.

In the poem above, what does the word tawdry most nearly mean as used by the speaker?

Read the following unseen prose excerpt: "As the night train crested the ridge, a sudden gale swept through the open carriage, snuffing out the solitary lantern. Darkness swallowed us whole. I reached out frantically for my father's hand, feeling the coarse fabric of his coat before a voice whispered in the shadow, 'Hold fast, child, we are nearly home.'"

Statement: The passage above is written using a third-person omniscient narrative point of view.

Read the unseen passage below:

"The heavy iron gates of the courtyard swung shut with a hollow clang, sealing the courtyard in silence. From behind the carved mahogany screen, we held our breath as the inspector examined the forged document under the flickering lamp, entirely unaware that our covert eyes recorded his every tremor of hesitation."

True or False: The narrative point of view in the passage above is third-person limited because the focus of observation is restricted entirely to the inspector's actions.