(Note: Passages on the PSAT are between 450 and 850 words long. This passage is taken from the beginning of a short story by a nineteenth-century Russian writer.)
...His name was Akaky Akakyevitch. No one has been able to remember when and how long ago he entered the department. However many directors and high officials of all sorts came and went, he was always seen in the same place, at the very same duty, so that they used to declare that he must have been born a perpetual titular councillor in uniform all complete and with a bald patch on his head. The porters, far from getting up from their seats when he came in, took no more notice of him than if a simple fly had flown across the vestibule. His superiors treated him with a sort of domineering chilliness. The head clerk's assistant used to throw papers under his nose without even saying "Copy this" or "Here is an interesting, nice little case," as is usually done in well-behaved offices. And he would take it, gazing only at the papers without looking to see who had put them there and whether he had the right to do so; he would take the papers and at once set to work to copy them. The young clerks made jokes about him to the best of their clerkly wit, and told before his face all sorts of stories of their own invention about him. They would enquire when the wedding was to take place, or would scatter bits of paper on his head, calling them snow. In the midst of all this teasing, Akaky Akakyevitch never answered a word, but behaved as though there were no one there. Only when they jolted his arm and prevented him from going on with his work would he cry out, "Leave me alone! Why do you insult me?" There was something strange in the words and in the voice in which they were uttered, so that one young clerk, new to the office, was cut to the heart, and in those words thought that he heard others: "I am your brother."

question 6 of 10

The response to Akaky's words by the clerk who is "new to the office" is best described as
(A) confused
(B) mocking
(C) disbelieving
(D) timid
(E) compassionate


(from the October 20, 1998 test)

Correct Answer: E
Explanation: The new clerk is said to be "cut to the heart" by Akaky's protestation, and believes he hears within it the plaintive words "'I am your brother.'" The new clerk's response is best described as compassionate because the clerk empathizes with Akaky.

question 7 of 10

The "simple fly" is used primarily as an image of something that is
(A) annoying
(B) uncomplicated
(C) fast-moving
(D) easily overlooked
(E) potentially harmful


(from the October 20, 1998 test)

Correct Answer: D
Explanation: The reference occurs in a sentence that reads "The porters, far from getting up from their seats when he [Akaky] came in, took no more notice of him than if a simple fly had flown across the vestibule." The comparison illustrates Akaky's relative insignificance in the office: he was a man no one paid much attention to, someone easily overlooked.

(Note: Passages on the PSAT are between 450 and 850 words long. This passage is taken from a 1964 speech given by a prominent African American novelist in which he discusses writers and their art.)
Line    Ernest Hemingway reminds us that both Tolstoy and
Stendahl had seen war, that Flaubert had seen a revolution,
that Dostoyevsky had been sent to Siberia, and that such
experiences were important in shaping the art of these

5  nineteenth-century literary masters. And he goes on to
observe that "writers are forged in injustice as a sword
is forged." He declined to describe the many personal
forms which injustice may take in this chaotic world --
who would be so mad as to try? -- nor does he go into the

10  personal wounds that each of these writers sustained. In the
end it is the quality of Hemingway's art that is primary. It
is the art which allows the wars and revolutions which he
knew, and the personal and social injustice which he suf-
fered, to lay claims on our attention, for it was through his

15  art that they achieved their most enduring meaning. It is a
matter of outrageous irony, perhaps, but in literature great
social clashes of history, no less than the painful experience
of the individual, are secondary to the meaning they take on
through the skill, talent, imagination, and personal vision

20  of the writer who transforms them into art. Here they are
reduced to more manageable proportions; here they are
imbued with humane values; here injustice and catastrophe
become less important in themselves than what the author
makes of them. This is not true, however, of the writer's

25  struggle with that recalcitrant angel called Art, and it was
through this specific struggle that Ernest Hemingway
became Hemingway. And it was through this struggle
with form that he became the master, the culture hero,
whom we have come to know and admire.




question 8 of 10

In the passage, art is described as a "recalcitrant angel" (line 25) because
(A) writers have traditionally found it difficult to achieve mastery of artistic form
(B) so few artists have found fame and appreciation for their work
(C) art does not readily relieve the suffering of those caught in unjust situations
(D) divine inspiration is often considered intrinsic to artistic creation
(E) writer's block is a frequent result of the artist's struggle with new forms


(from the October 16, 1999 test)

Correct Answer: A
Explanation: Line 25 refers to the "struggle with that recalcitrant [difficult to manage] angel called Art" that every writer engages in; lines 27-28 refer to "this struggle with form," the struggle through which Hemingway became a great writer. The struggle with the recalcitrant angel is one and the same as the struggle with literary form. It is most likely that the passage describes art as a recalcitrant angel because writers have always found it difficult to master artistic form, having to struggle to achieve control over it. Choice (A) is the best answer.

question 9 of 10

In line 15, "enduring" most nearly means
(A) lasting
(B) patient
(C) suffering
(D) famous
(E) recurrent


(from the October 16, 1999 test)

Correct Answer: A
Explanation: Lines 11-15 argue that it is through Hemingway's art that the war, revolution, and injustice that he experienced "achieved their most enduring meaning." The word "enduring" is here used in its sense of "lasting," which best complements the discussion of experience transformed through art into something universal and compelling. Choice (A), then, is the best answer.

question 10 of 10

Lines 1-10 suggest that Hemingway would most likely agree with which statement?
(A) Social injustice can be remedied through art.
(B) Living in troubled times shapes a writer's development as an artist.
(C) Nineteenth-century writers surpass modern writers in their descriptions of wars.
(D) The more personal tragedy writers endure, the more prolific they become.
(E) Historic events become more socially significant when interpreted by a skillful writer.


(from the October 16, 1999 test)

Correct Answer: B
Explanation: Hemingway is said to remind us that war, revolution, and exile are experiences "important in shaping the art" of writers such as Tolstoy, Stendahl, Flaubert, and Dostoyevsky. He is quoted as saying that "writers are forged [formed] in injustice." Lines 1-10 strongly suggest that Hemingway would agree that "living in troubled times shapes a writer's development as an artist" -- choice (B).