Assessment Booklet

Jenkins County School System

Test Booklet: School City Practice Assessment C

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Date: School City Practice Assessment C "A Gentleman Friend" A Gentleman Friend by Anton Chekhov

1 The charming Vanda, or, as she was described in her passport, the "Honorable Citizen Nastasya Kanavkin,"

found herself, on leaving the hospital, in a position she had never been in before: without a home to go to or a farthing

in her pocket. What was she to do?

2 The first thing she did was to visit a pawn-broker's and pawn her turquoise ring, her one piece of jewelry. They gave her a ruble for the ring, but what can you get for a ruble? You can't buy for that sum a fashionable short jacket, nor

a big hat, nor a pair of bronze shoes, and without those things she had a feeling of being, as it were, undressed. She felt

as though the very horses and dogs were staring and laughing at the plainness of her dress. And clothes were all she thought about; the question what she should eat and where she should sleep did not trouble her in the least.

3 "If only I could meet a gentleman friend," she thought to herself, "I could get some money . . . There isn't one who would refuse me, I know."

4 But no gentleman she knew came her way. It would be easy enough to meet them in the evening at the

"Renaissance," but they wouldn't let her in at the "Renaissance" in that shabby dress and with no hat. What was she to

do?

5 After long hesitation, when she was sick of walking and sitting and thinking, Vanda made up her mind to fall back on her last resource: to go straight to the lodgings of some gentleman friend and ask for money.

6 She pondered which to go to. "Misha is out of the question; he's a married man. . . . The old chap with the red hair will be at his office at this time. . ."

7 Vanda remembered a dentist, called Finkel, a converted Jewish man, who six months ago had given her a

bracelet, and on whose head she had once emptied a glass of beer at the supper at the German Club. She was awfully

pleased at the thought of Finkel.

8 "He'll be sure to give it me, if only I find him at home," she thought, as she walked in his direction. "If he doesn't, I'll smash all the lamps in the house."

9 Before she reached the dentist's door she thought out her plan of action: she would run laughing up the stairs, dash into the dentist's room and demand twenty-five rubles. But as she touched the bell, this plan seemed to vanish from her mind. Vanda began suddenly feeling frightened and nervous, which was not at all her way. She was bold and saucy enough at drinking parties, but now, dressed in everyday clothes, feeling herself in the position of an ordinary person asking a favor, who might be refused admittance, she felt suddenly timid and humiliated. She was ashamed and frightened.

10 "Perhaps he has forgotten me by now," she thought, hardly daring to pull the bell. "And how can I go up to him in such a dress, looking like a beggar or some working girl?"

11 And she rang the bell irresolutely.

12 She heard steps coming: it was the porter.

13 "Is the doctor at home?" she asked.

Powered by SchoolCity Inc. | www.schoolcity.com School City Practice Assessment C 14 She would have been glad now if the porter had said "No," but the latter, instead of answering ushered her into the hall, and helped her off with her coat. The staircase impressed her as luxurious and magnificent, but of all its splendors what caught her eye most was an immense looking-glass, in which she saw a ragged figure without a

fashionable jacket, without a big hat, and without bronze shoes. And it seemed strange to Vanda that, now that she was

humbly dressed and looked like a laundress or sewing girl, she felt ashamed, and no trace of her usual boldness and sauciness remained, and in her own mind she no longer thought of herself as Vanda, but as the Nastasya Kanavkin she used to be in the old days.

15 "Walk in, please," said a maidservant, showing her into the consulting-room. "The doctor will be here in a minute. Sit down."

16 Vanda sank into a soft arm-chair.

17 "I'll ask him to lend it me," she thought, "that will be quite proper, for, after all, I do know him. If only that servant would go. I don't like to ask before her. What does she want to stand there for?"

18 Five minutes later the door opened and Finkel came in. He was a tall, dark man, with fat cheeks and bulging eyes. His cheeks, his eyes, his chest, his body, all of him was so well fed, so loathsome and repellent! At the "Renaissance" and the German Club he had usually been rather tipsy, and would spend his money freely on women, and be very long- suffering and patient with their pranks (when Vanda, for instance, poured the beer over his head, he simply smiled and shook his finger at her); now he had a cross, sleepy expression and looked solemn and frigid like a police captain, and he kept chewing something.

19 "What can I do for you?" he asked, without looking at Vanda.

20 Vanda looked at the serious countenance of the maid and the smug figure of Finkel, who apparently did not recognize her, and she turned red.

21 "What can I do for you?" repeated the dentist a little irritably.

22 "I've got toothache," murmured Vanda.

23 "Aha! . . . Which is the tooth? Where?"

24 Vanda remembered she had a hole in one of her teeth.

25 "At the bottom . . . on the right. . ." she said.

26 "Hm! . . . Open your mouth."

27 Finkel frowned and, holding his breath, began examining the tooth.

28 "Does it hurt?" he asked, digging into it with a steel instrument.

30 "Shall I remind him?" she was wondering. "He would be sure to remember me. But that servant! Why will she stand there?"

31 Finkel suddenly snorted like a steam-engine right into her mouth, and said, "I don't advise you to have it stopped. That tooth will never be worth keeping anyhow."

32 After probing the tooth a little more and soiling Vanda's lips and gums with his tobacco-stained fingers, he held his

breath again, and put something cold into her mouth. Vanda suddenly felt a sharp pain, cried out, and clutched at

Finkel's hand.

33 "It's all right, it's all right," he muttered; "don't you be frightened! That tooth would have been no use to you, anyway . . . you must be brave. . ."

34 And his tobacco-stained fingers, smeared with blood, held up the tooth to her eyes, while the maid approached and put a basin to her mouth.

35 "You wash out your mouth with cold water when you get home, and that will stop the bleeding," said Finkel.

36 He stood before her with the air of a man expecting her to go, waiting to be left in peace.

37 "Good day," she said, turning towards the door.

38 "Hm! . . . and how about my fee?" enquired Finkel, in a jesting tone.

39 "Oh, yes!" Vanda remembered, blushing, and she handed him the ruble that had been given her for her ring.

40 When she got out into the street she felt more overwhelmed with shame than before, but now it was not her poverty she was ashamed of. She was unconscious now of not having a big hat and a fashionable jacket. She walked along the street, spitting blood, and brooding on her life, her ugly, wretched life, and the insults she had endured, and would have to endure tomorrow, and next week, and all her life, up to the very day of her death.

41 "Oh! how awful it is! My God, how fearful!"

42 Next day, however, she was back at the "Renaissance," and dancing there. She had on an enormous new red hat, a new fashionable jacket, and bronze shoes. And she was taken out to supper by a young merchant from Kazan.

1. Which definition best fits the way frigid is used in paragraph 18?

frigid \frij-id\ adj. 1. very cold in temperature 2. without warmth of feeling 3. unresponsive to stimuli 4. unimaginative; lacking passion

A. definition 1 B. definition 2 C. definition 3 D. definition 4

2. What does this sentence suggest about Vanda?

"Next day, however, she was back at the 'Renaissance,' and dancing there." (paragraph 42)

A. She decides to lead a different lifestyle. B. She no longer believes her life is awful. C. She persuades the club to let her in for free. D. She dismisses her insight from the day before.

3. What does this sentence suggest is Vanda's major flaw?

"And clothes were all she thought about; the question what she should eat and where she should sleep did not trouble her in the least." (paragraph 2)

A. attitude B. vanity C. pride D. greed

Powered by SchoolCity Inc. | www.schoolcity.com School City Practice Assessment C "A Father's Legacy to His Daughters" from A Father's Legacy to His Daughters by John Gregory

1 John Gregory (1724-1773) was a medical doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh,

Scotland. The following excerpt is from A Father's Legacy to his Daughters (1774), which consists of the letters

Gregory wrote to his daughters as his health was failing.

2 One of the chief beauties in a female character is that modest reserve, that retiring delicacy, which avoids the public eye, and is disconcerted even at the gaze of admiration. I do not wish you to be insensible to applause. If you were, you must become, if not worse, at least less amiable women. But you may be dazzled by that admiration, which yet rejoices your hearts.

3 When a girl ceases to blush, she has lost the most powerful charm of beauty. That extreme sensibility which it indicates may be a weakness and encumbrance in our sex, as I have too often felt; but in yours it is peculiarly engaging. Pedants, who think themselves philosophers, ask why a woman should blush when she is conscious of no crime. It is a sufficient answer that Nature has made you to blush when you are guilty of no fault, and has forced us to love you because you do so. Blushing is so far from being necessarily an attendant on guilt that it is the usual companion of innocence.

4 This modesty, which I think so essential in your sex, will naturally dispose you to be rather silent in company, especially in a large one. People of sense and discernment will never mistake such silence for dullness. One may take a share in conversation without uttering a syllable. The expression in the countenance shows it, and this never escapes an observing eye.

5 I should be glad that you had an easy dignity in your behavior at public places, but not that confident ease, that unabashed countenance, which seems to set the company at defiance. If, while a gentleman is speaking to you, one of superior rank addresses you, do not let your eager attention and visible preference betray the flutter of your heart. Let your pride on this occasion preserve you from that meanness into which your vanity would sink you. Consider that you expose yourselves to the ridicule of the company, and affront one gentleman, only to well the triumph of another, who perhaps thinks he does you honor in speaking to you.

6 Converse with men even of the first rank with that dignified modesty, which may prevent the approach of the most distant familiarity, and consequently prevent them from feeling themselves your superiors.

7 Wit is the most dangerous talent you can possess. It must be guarded with great discretion and good nature,

otherwise it will create you many enemies. Wit is perfectly consistent with softness and delicacy; yet they are seldom

found united. Wit is so flattering to vanity that they who possess it become intoxicated and lose all self-command.

8 Humor is a different quality. It will make your company much solicited; but be cautious how you indulge it. It is

often a great enemy to delicacy, and a still greater one to dignity of character. It may sometimes gain you applause, but

will never procure you respect.

9 Be ever cautious in displaying your good sense. It will be thought you assume a superiority over the rest of

the company. But if you happen to have any learning, keep it a profound secret, especially from the men, who generally

look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of great parts and a cultivated understanding.

10 A man of real genius and candor is far superior to this meanness. But such a one will seldom fall in your way; and if by accident he should, do not be anxious to show the full extent of your knowledge. If he has any opportunities of seeing you, he will soon discover it himself; and if you have any advantages of person or manner, and keep your own secret, he will probably give you credit for a great deal more than you possess. The great art of pleasing in conversation consists in making the company pleased with themselves. You will more readily hear than talk yourselves into their good graces.

11 Beware of detraction, especially where your own sex are concerned. You are generally accused of being particularly addicted to this vice. I think unjustly. Men are fully as guilty of it when their interests interfere. As your

interests more frequently clash, and as your feelings are quicker than ours, your temptations to it are more frequent. For

this reason, be particularly tender of the reputation of your own sex, especially when they happen to rival you in our regards. We look on this as the strongest proof of dignity and true greatness of mind. [. . .]

12 Dress is an important article in female life. The love of dress is natural to you, and therefore it is proper and reasonable. Good sense will regulate your experience in it, and good taste will direct you to dress in such a way as to conceal any blemishes and set off your beauties, if you have any, to the greatest advantage. But much delicacy and judgment are required in the application of this rule. A fine woman shows her charms to most advantage when she seems most to conceal them. The finest bloom in nature is not so fine as what imagination forms. The most perfect elegance of dress appears always the most easy and the least studied.

13 Do not confine your attention to dress to your public appearances. Accustom yourselves to a habitual neatness, so that in the most careless undress, in your most unguarded hours, you may have no reason to be ashamed of your appearance. You will not easily believe how much we consider your dress as expressive of your characters. Vanity, levity, loveliness, folly, appear through it. An elegant simplicity is an equal proof of taste and delicacy.

14 In dancing, the principal points you are to attend to are ease and grace. I would have you to dance with

spirit; but never allow yourselves to be so far transported with mirth, as to forget the delicacy of your sex. Many a girl

dancing in the gaiety and innocence of her heart is thought to discover a spirit she little dreams of.

15 I know no entertainment that gives such pleasure to any person of sentiment or humor as the theatre. But I am sorry to say there are few English comedies a lady can see, without a shock to delicacy. You will not readily suspect the comments on such occasions. Men are often best acquainted with the most worthless of your sex, and from them too

readily form their judgment of the rest. A virtuous girl often hears very indelicate things with a countenance

unembarrassed, because in truth she does not understand them. Yet this is, most ungenerously, ascribed to that command of features, and that ready presence of mind, which you are thought to possess in a degree far beyond us; or, by still more malignant observers, it is ascribed to hardened effrontery.

16 Sometimes a girl laughs with all the simplicity of unsuspecting innocence, for no other reason but being infected with other people's laughing; she is then believed to know more than she should. If she does happen to understand an improper thing, she suffers a very complicated distress; she feels her modesty hurt in the most sensible manner, and at the same time is ashamed of appearing conscious of the injury. The only way to avoid these inconveniences is never to go to a play that is particularly offensive to delicacy. Tragedy subjects move you to no such distress. Its sorrows will soften and ennoble your hearts.

4. What is the meaning of the word malignant as it is used in paragraph 9?

A. apprehensive B. spiteful C. obnoxious D. scathing

5. Which is the best summary of paragraph 5?

A. Men of higher position may speak with you, but they may not be as sincere as men of lower ranking. Remember to keep your facial expression clear. B. Be dignified in public but not so overly confident as to appear base. Treat all men who speak to you as equally important, even if your vanity dictates otherwise. C. Protect yourself from your pride if you become flattered by a man who converses with you. Other men may see your vanity as cruelty toward them. D. Be careful not to appear at ease in public because the whole company will be observing your behavior. Hide your vanity while conversing with important men.

6. What does the word encumbrance mean as it is used in paragraph 3?

A. mortification B. barricade C. obstruction D. liability

7. Why does the author include paragraph 11 in the passage?

A. to explain why women should not criticize other women B. to explain why women should not be jealous of other women C. to explain why men prefer humble women D. to explain why men prefer quiet women