PRACTICE EXERCISE
1. Greek Poetry Passage
Big Idea: What the poems of the ancient Greeks were like.
Paragraph 2: Ancient Greek poetry was an expression of the community, not individuals.
Paragraph 3: How later ancient Greek poetry (in the “age of heroes”) became more individualistic. (Note contrast keyword “however” signaling this change in
line 23.)
Paragraph 4: More changes in later Greek poetry.
2.
A
Main idea. Only (A) captures paragraphs 1–4. (B) is beyond the scope of this passage. (C) expresses an extreme view that
the author never takes. (D) mentions the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are discussed only in paragraph 4. (E) again does not
address the purpose of the entire passage.
1.
H
Paragraph Topic. Refer to the topic of paragraph 2. (F), (G), (J), and (K) are never mentioned in this paragraph.
2.
D
Inference. You need to use your inference skills to answer this question. The reference to line 42 leads you to the fourth
paragraph. Here “folk poetry” refers to the age before the “heroic age” when poetry was about the entire community, and not
just the warriors and kings. (A), (B), and (E) do not refer to the “folk” at all and are therefore incorrect. (C) mentions class
conflict—something not discussed in this paragraph.
3.
G
Paragraph Topic. The answer is clearly stated in paragraph 4. “In the heroic age, poets became singers of tales who
performed long poems about the fates of warriors and kings” (i.e., individuals).
4.
B
Paragraph Topic. Refer to the topic of paragraph 3, which focuses on the diversification of the Greeks during the heroic
period. Lines 25–26 state that the “communities had become separated into classes of rulers and ruled.” The following
sentence (lines 27–28) expands on this idea by saying that community members “had different, even opposed, interests.”
5.
J
Inference. Here you are asked to apply the ideas of the passage to a hypothetical situation. Paragraphs 3 and 4 discuss the
portrayal of individual heroes in later Greek poetry such as Homer’s Iliad. Journalism focusing on celebrities is analogous.
6.
