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TOEFL Experts Reading Practice 2

Reading Section

This section measures your ability to understand academic passages in English. You can skip questions and go back to them later as long as there is time remaining.

Now begin the Reading section.

Reading Section

This section measures your ability to understand academic passages in English. You can skip questions and go back to them later as long as there is time remaining.

Now begin the Reading section.

Realism and Modernism in Literary Fiction

While today we tend to think of realism—the attempt to portray real life as accurately as possible—as one of the major goals of literary fiction, this mode of representation was a revolutionary idea in the middle of the nineteenth century. With the goal of accurate presentation of real life in mind, nineteenth-century novelists embraced new subject matter for their work: the mundane details of everyday, usually middle- and lower-class lives.

This new subject matter and the desire to represent it accurately placed constraints on these authors. Realist novelists believed that we can all know and describe an objective reality, and this impacted both the structure and style of their novels. Writers in Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States confronted these limitations in similar ways, in spite of their different backgrounds. Because these writers limited themselves to the world they could observe, and not one they could only imagine, realist novels tend to follow certain conventions, so that they remain faithful to real experiences. For example, most realist novels have linear plots and omniscient, or all-knowing, narrators. Plots that move both backward and forward in time, for example, are unusual because they differ from the perception of how our lives naturally unfold. However, the circumstances of human lives vary widely across time and place; that is why reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a very different experience from reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch. What varies is not so much the structure of the novel and the perspective of the narrator but the texture of the places and lives it describes. The details of everyday experience are thus limiting factors for the realist novelist.

One might assume that the same constraints would hold for the next generation of novelists, the modernists. Modernists, however, made very different assumptions about how best to represent human life. Modernist novelists no longer assumed that the best representation of reality is also the most literal one, as the realists did. Virginia Woolf, for example, strove to describe the way our conscious mind works by focusing more on memory and reflection than on actual experience. Other authors further experimented with unusual language, shifts in time, and fractured sentences, among other devices, to depict the workings of consciousness. These authors were still trying to describe human experience, but they no longer took for granted that we all experience the world the same way. For example, William Faulkner, in his novel The Sound and the Fury, uses several different narrators who speak with different voices. He does this to portray the same characters and events from different perspectives. In other words, he is trying to represent human experience as subjective and varied, rather than as a universally knowable truth. He uses a number of literary devices, including unusual language and shifts in time, to capture variations in how different people think, focusing more on the nature of individual consciousness than on how people live (as the realists did).

Even though realism again became a dominant trend in fiction later in the twentieth century, the innovations of the modernists and the way they thought about the purpose of fiction have remained part of the contemporary novel. While later generations of novelists have continued to portray the details of everyday lives as the realists did, they also recognize that the ways different people experience life are shaped by the internal workings of their minds. Thus, these novelists incorporate both realistic description and innovative style and structure into their work.

Realism and Modernism in Literary Fiction

→(P1) While today we tend to think of realism—the attempt to portray real life as accurately as possible—as one of the major goals of literary fiction, this mode of representation was a revolutionary idea in the middle of the nineteenth century. With the goal of accurate presentation of real life in mind, nineteenth-century novelists embraced new subject matter for their work: the mundane details of everyday, usually middle- and lower-class lives.

Q: The word “representation” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Election

Metaphor

Portrayal

Study

→(P1) While today we tend to think of realism—the attempt to portray real life as accurately as possible—as one of the major goals of literary fiction, this mode of representation was a revolutionary idea in the middle of the nineteenth century. With the goal of accurate presentation of real life in mind, nineteenth-century novelists embraced new subject matter for their work: the mundane details of everyday, usually middle- and lower-class lives.

Q: Which of the following questions about literary realism is NOT answered in paragraph 1?

When did literary realism first develop?

What was the goal of literary realism?

What subject matter did literary realists draw on?

How did realism change the style and structure of authors’ writings?

→(P1) While today we tend to think of realism—the attempt to portray real life as accurately as possible—as one of the major goals of literary fiction, this mode of representation was a revolutionary idea in the middle of the nineteenth century. With the goal of accurate presentation of real life in mind, nineteenth-century novelists embraced new subject matter for their work: the mundane details of everyday, usually middle- and lower-class lives.

Q: The word “mundane” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Extraordinary

Routine

Sophisticated

Weary

→(P2) This new subject matter and the desire to represent it accurately placed constraints on these authors. Realist novelists believed that we can all know and describe an objective reality, and this impacted both the structure and style of their novels. Writers in Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States confronted these limitations in similar ways, in spite of their different backgrounds. Because these writers limited themselves to the world they could observe, and not one they could only imagine, realist novels tend to follow certain conventions, so that they remain faithful to real experiences. For example, most realist novels have linear plots and omniscient, or all-knowing, narrators. Plots that move both backward and forward in time, for example, are unusual because they differ from the perception of how our lives naturally unfold. However, the circumstances of human lives vary widely across time and place; that is why reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a very different experience from reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch. What varies is not so much the structure of the novel and the perspective of the narrator but the texture of the places and lives it describes. The details of everyday experience are thus limiting factors for the realist novelist.

Q: Why does the author mention Russia and the United States in paragraph 2?

To demonstrate that art can reconcile opposing viewpoints

To describe the migration of realist ideas from one country to another

To illustrate that realism developed in similar ways in different societies

To introduce an analysis of the novel during times of tension between countries

→(P2) This new subject matter and the desire to represent it accurately placed constraints on these authors. Realist novelists believed that we can all know and describe an objective reality, and this impacted both the structure and style of their novels. Writers in Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States confronted these limitations in similar ways, in spite of their different backgrounds. Because these writers limited themselves to the world they could observe, and not one they could only imagine, realist novels tend to follow certain conventions, so that they remain faithful to real experiences. For example, most realist novels have linear plots and omniscient, or all-knowing, narrators. Plots that move both backward and forward in time, for example, are unusual because they differ from the perception of how our lives naturally unfold. However, the circumstances of human lives vary widely across time and place; that is why reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a very different experience from reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch. What varies is not so much the structure of the novel and the perspective of the narrator but the texture of the places and lives it describes. The details of everyday experience are thus limiting factors for the realist novelist.

Q: The word “objective” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Personal

Unfeeling

Ambiguous

Factual

Q: According to paragraph 2, which of the following characteristics varies in realist novels written in different countries?

Narrative perspective in the novels

The structure of the novels

Descriptions of particular details of everyday lives

The way the plot moves through time

Q: Paragraph 2 suggests that which of the following is true of most narrators of realist novels?

They are fully aware of the events described.

Their perspective varies by country.

They are usually from the working class.

They typically use the third person.

Q: According to paragraph 2, all of the following are characteristics of realist novels EXCEPT:

These novels include both forward and backward movements in time.

These novels attempt to describe the world as it really is.

Realist novels based in different societies display features that are alike.

These novels are narrated by all-knowing figures.

→(P3) One might assume that the same constraints would hold for the next generation of novelists, the modernists. Modernists, however, made very different assumptions about how best to represent human life. Modernist novelists no longer assumed that the best representation of reality is also the most literal one, as the realists did. Virginia Woolf, for example, strove to describe the way our conscious mind works by focusing more on memory and reflection than on actual experience. Other authors further experimented with unusual language, shifts in time, and fractured sentences, among other devices, to depict the workings of consciousness. These authors were still trying to describe human experience, but they no longer took for granted that we all experience the world the same way. For example, William Faulkner, in his novel The Sound and the Fury, uses several different narrators who speak with different voices. He does this to portray the same characters and events from different perspectives. In other words, he is trying to represent human experience as subjective and varied, rather than as a universally knowable truth. He uses a number of literary devices, including unusual language and shifts in time, to capture variations in how different people think, focusing more on the nature of individual consciousness than on how people live (as the realists did).

Q: The phrase “the most literal” in the passage is closest in meaning to

The most exact

The most dramatic

The most enhanced

The simplest

→(P3) One might assume that the same constraints would hold for the next generation of novelists, the modernists. Modernists, however, made very different assumptions about how best to represent human life. Modernist novelists no longer assumed that the best representation of reality is also the most literal one, as the realists did. Virginia Woolf, for example, strove to describe the way our conscious mind works by focusing more on memory and reflection than on actual experience. Other authors further experimented with unusual language, shifts in time, and fractured sentences, among other devices, to depict the workings of consciousness. These authors were still trying to describe human experience, but they no longer took for granted that we all experience the world the same way. For example, William Faulkner, in his novel The Sound and the Fury, uses several different narrators who speak with different voices. He does this to portray the same characters and events from different perspectives. In other words, he is trying to represent human experience as subjective and varied, rather than as a universally knowable truth. He uses a number of literary devices, including unusual language and shifts in time, to capture variations in how different people think, focusing more on the nature of individual consciousness than on how people live (as the realists did).

Q: According to paragraph 3, which of the following is an important topic in Virginia Woolf’s work?

Actual experience

Memory

Voice

Time shifts

→(P3) One might assume that the same constraints would hold for the next generation of novelists, the modernists. Modernists, however, made very different assumptions about how best to represent human life. Modernist novelists no longer assumed that the best representation of reality is also the most literal one, as the realists did. Virginia Woolf, for example, strove to describe the way our conscious mind works by focusing more on memory and reflection than on actual experience. Other authors further experimented with unusual language, shifts in time, and fractured sentences, among other devices, to depict the workings of consciousness. These authors were still trying to describe human experience, but they no longer took for granted that we all experience the world the same way. For example, William Faulkner, in his novel The Sound and the Fury, uses several different narrators who speak with different voices. He does this to portray the same characters and events from different perspectives. In other words, he is trying to represent human experience as subjective and varied, rather than as a universally knowable truth. He uses a number of literary devices, including unusual language and shifts in time, to capture variations in how different people think, focusing more on the nature of individual consciousness than on how people live (as the realists did).

Q: The word “fractured” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Polished

Distorted

Reinforced

Splintered

→(P3) One might assume that the same constraints would hold for the next generation of novelists, the modernists. Modernists, however, made very different assumptions about how best to represent human life. Modernist novelists no longer assumed that the best representation of reality is also the most literal one, as the realists did. Virginia Woolf, for example, strove to describe the way our conscious mind works by focusing more on memory and reflection than on actual experience. Other authors further experimented with unusual language, shifts in time, and fractured sentences, among other devices, to depict the workings of consciousness. These authors were still trying to describe human experience, but they no longer took for granted that we all experience the world the same way. For example, William Faulkner, in his novel The Sound and the Fury, uses several different narrators who speak with different voices. He does this to portray the same characters and events from different perspectives. In other words, he is trying to represent human experience as subjective and varied, rather than as a universally knowable truth. He uses a number of literary devices, including unusual language and shifts in time, to capture variations in how different people think, focusing more on the nature of individual consciousness than on how people live (as the realists did).

Q: According to paragraph 3, which of the following distinguishes William Faulkner’s work from that of the realists?

He did not write about middle- and lower-class lives.

He did not believe that every person perceives his or her reality in a similar way.

He desired to capture variations in how people think by using linear plots.

He preferred to use a single, unreliable narrator who is not all-knowing.

In paragraph 4 of the passage, there is a missing sentence. The paragraph is repeated below and shows four letters [A], [B], [C], and [D] that indicate where the following sentence could be added.

To capture those interior mental operations, modern-day authors tend to make use of modernist devices, from shifts in time and narrative perspective to stream-of-consciousness narration.

Where would the sentence best fit?

→(P3)S10 He uses a number of literary devices, including unusual language and shifts in time, to capture variations in how different people think, focusing more on the nature of individual consciousness than on how people live (as the realists did).

→(P4) [A]Even though realism again became a dominant trend in fiction later in the twentieth century, the innovations of the modernists and the way they thought about the purpose of fiction have remained part of the contemporary novel.[B] While later generations of novelists have continued to portray the details of everyday lives as the realists did, they also recognize that the ways different people experience life are shaped by the internal workings of their minds. [C]Thus, these novelists incorporate both realistic description and innovative style and structure into their work.[D]

Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Realism, a mode of representing real life accurately in literary fiction, was actually revolutionary in the mid-nineteenth century.

Believing that the world can be accurately represented, realist authors strove to depict the details of everyday lives.

Focused on the unique experiences of individual minds, modernist authors used unusual techniques to capture the nature of conscious thought.

William Faulkner, a leading modernist, wrote from a variety of perspectives in his novel The Sound and the Fury.

Contemporary authors often blend traditions, combining modernist methods and realist focus on representing daily lives authentically

Realist Russian novels and realist American novels vary in the details of the lives they describe.

Before the nineteenth century, novelists primarily wrote about the lives of the wealthy.

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