“I never thought that I would live in such a beautiful place,”
Mrs. Deverell told Angel when they first moved in. But
nowadays she often suffered from the lowering pain of
Line believing herself happy when she was not. “Who could
(5) be miserable in such a place?” she asked. Yet, on misty
October evenings or on Sundays, when the church bells
began, sensations she had never known before came
over her.
She sometimes felt better when she went back to see
(10) her friends on Volunteer Street; but it was a long way to
go. Angel discouraged the visits, and her friends seemed
to have changed. Either they put out their best china and
thought twice before they said anything, or they were
defiantly informal—“You’ll have to take us as you find
(15) us”—and would persist in making remarks like “Pardon
the apron, but there’s no servants here to polish the grate.”
In each case, they were watching her for signs of grandeur
or condescension. She fell into little traps they laid and
then they were able to report to the neighbors. “It hasn’t
(20) taken her long to start putting on airs.” She had to be
especially careful to recognize everyone she met, and
walked up the street with an expression of anxiety which
was misinterpreted as disdain.
The name “Deverell Family Grocer” stayed for a long
(25) time over the shop, and she was pleased that it should,
although Angel frowned with annoyance when she heard
of it. Then one day the faded name was scraped and burnt
away, and on her next visit to Volunteer Street, she saw
that “Cubbage’s Stores” was printed there instead. She felt
(30) an unaccountable panic and dismay at the sight of this and
at the strange idea of other people and furniture in those
familiar rooms. “Very nice folk,” she was told. “She’s
so friendly. Always the same. And such lovely kiddies.”
Mrs. Deverell felt slighted and wounded; going home
(35) she was so preoccupied that she passed the wife of the
landlord of The Volunteer without seeing her. “I wouldn’t
expect Alderhurst people to speak to a barkeep’s wife,”
the woman told everyone in the saloon bar. “Even though
it was our Gran who laid her husband out when he died.”
(40) All of their kindnesses were remembered and brooded
over; any past kindness Mrs. Deverell had done—and
there were many—only served to underline the change
which had come over her.
At a time of her life when she needed the security of
(45) familiar things, these were put beyond her reach. It seemed
to her that she had wasted her years acquiring skills which
in the end were to be of no use to her: her weather-eye for
a good drying day; her careful ear for judging the gentle
singing sound of meat roasting in the oven; her touch for
(50) the freshness of meat; and how, by smelling a cake, she
could tell if it were baked. These arts, which had taken
so long to perfect, fell now into disuse. She would never
again, she grieved, gather up a great fragrant line of
washing in her arms to carry indoors. One day when they
(55) had first come to the new house, she had passed through
the courtyard where sheets were hanging out: she had
taken them in her hands and, find them just at the right
stage of drying, had begun to unpeg them. They were
looped all about her shoulders when Angel caught her.
- (60) “Please leave work to the people who should do it,” she
had said. “You will only give offense.” She tried hard
not to give offense; but it was difficult. The smell of
ironing being done or the sound of eggs being whisked
set up a restlessness which she could scarcely control.
(65) The relationship of mother and daughter seemed to
have been reversed, and Angel, now in her early twenties,
was the authoritative one; since girlhood she had been
taking on one responsibility after another, until she had
left her mother with nothing to perplex her but how to
(70) while away the hours when the servants were busy and
her daughter was at work. Fretfully, she would wander
around the house, bored, but afraid to interrupt; she was
like an intimidated child.
Which interpretation of Mrs. Deverell’s statement in line 1 (“I never…place”) is most fully supported by the rest of the passage?
A) It reveals an unsatisfied longing for beauty and comfort.
B) It suggests that Mrs. Deverell is unprepared for her new life.
C) It illustrates Mrs. Deverell’s desire to impress her old friends.
D) It hints at Mrs. Deverell’s increasing discomfort with her daughter’s career.
E) It indicates Mrs. Deverell’s inability to be happy in any environment.
The “sensations” (line 7) might best be described as feelings of
A) anger and bitterness
B) reverence and gratitude
C) dejection and isolation
D) nostalgia and serenity
E) empathy and concern
Lines 45-52 (“It…disuse”) suggest which of the following about the way that Mrs. Deverell had viewed the task of running a household?
A) She had believed some elements of it were beneath her.
B) She had understood the importance of its sensory aspects.
C) She had developed a regimented system.
D) She had been afraid to ask Angel for help.
E) She had relied on household help to perform certain chores.
In line 73, the author compares Mrs. Deverell to an “intimidated child” primarily in order to
A) criticize Mrs. Deverell for her naïve view of the world
B) show that Mrs. Deverell continues to be diminished in her new home
C) imply that Mrs. Deverell cannot live up to her responsibilities
D) indicate the simplicity of Mrs. Deverell’s new life
E) justify Angel’s dismissal of her mother’s feelings
Help… I just don’t get critical reading.