Question 1(Multiple Choice Worth 2 points)
(03.03 MC)
Read the following passage from
Heart of Darkness
carefully before you choose your answer.
(1) “I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station. (2) In that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life. (3) Still, one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. (4) I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. (5) They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. (6) The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. (7) You would think they were praying to it. (8) A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. (9) By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so unreal in my life. (10) And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.
(11) “Oh, these months! Well, never mind. (12) Various things happened. (13) One evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don’t know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash. (14) I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with moustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everybody was ‘behaving splendidly, splendidly,’ dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. (15) I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail.
Taken as a whole, the narrator’s point of view in this passage is best described as that of
a judgmental overseer
an active manager
an objective onlooker
a perplexed administrator
a worried spectator
Question 2(Multiple Choice Worth 2 points)
(03.03 MC)
Read the following passage from
Heart of Darkness
carefully before you choose your answer.
(1) “I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station. (2) In that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life. (3) Still, one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. (4) I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. (5) They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. (6) The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. (7) You would think they were praying to it. (8) A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. (9) By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so unreal in my life. (10) And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.
(11) “Oh, these months! Well, never mind. (12) Various things happened. (13) One evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don’t know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash. (14) I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with moustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everybody was ‘behaving splendidly, splendidly,’ dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. (15) I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail.
The narrator most likely includes the description in sentence 10 (“And outside … fantastic invasion”) to
contrast with the imagery of the corpse in the previous sentence
elaborate on the previous observations made about the pilgrims
emphasize the struggle for survival in the African jungle
establish the setting required to understand the story about to follow
highlight the indifference of the natural world to the presence of humans
Question 3(Multiple Choice Worth 2 points)
(03.03 MC)
Read the following passage from
Heart of Darkness
carefully before you choose your answer.
(1) “I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station. (2) In that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life. (3) Still, one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. (4) I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. (5) They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. (6) The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. (7) You would think they were praying to it. (8) A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. (9) By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so unreal in my life. (10) And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.
(11) “Oh, these months! Well, never mind. (12) Various things happened. (13) One evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don’t know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash. (14) I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with moustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everybody was ‘behaving splendidly, splendidly,’ dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. (15) I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail.
The second paragraph can best be described as
an event that foreshadows a promotion in Marlow’s future
a pivotal event crucial to the forward momentum of the plot
a revealing anecdote that provides insight into Marlow’s character
a recollection of an event that builds on the motif of darkness
a singular event given as an example of Marlow’s detached observations
Question 4(Multiple Choice Worth 2 points)
(03.03 MC)
Read the following passage from
Heart of Darkness
carefully before you choose your answer.
(1) “The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. (2) The manager was very placid, he had no vital anxieties now, he took us both in with a comprehensive and satisfied glance: the ‘affair’ had come off as well as could be wished. (3) I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method.’ (4) The pilgrims looked upon me with disfavour. (5) I was, so to speak, numbered with the dead. (6) It is strange how I accepted this unforeseen partnership, this choice of nightmares forced upon me in the tenebrous land invaded by these mean and greedy phantoms.
(7) “Kurtz discoursed. (8) A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart. (9) Oh, he struggled! he struggled! (10) The wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now—images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously round his unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression. (11) My Intended, my station, my career, my ideas—these were the subjects for the occasional utterances of elevated sentiments. (12) The shade of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mould of primeval earth. (13) But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power.”
In the first paragraph of the passage, the river
contrasts with the relative stability of life in the jungle
exemplifies the interior of the interior and exterior motif
highlights the ebb and flow of friendship with the natives
provides a
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