The following passage and questions are reprinted from earlier editions of the text and the test booklets. Working through each carefully will give you excellent practice to prepare for either a midterm or a final examination, depending on your instructor's course schedule. The skills they represent are a composite of those taken up in Parts I and II, Chapter 1 - 7. Good luck!

(1) I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. (2) I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. (3) I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. (4) For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

--Henry Thoreau, Walden

1			The author's purpose is to
			A)	describe the woods he went to
			B)	to explain his personal reasons for going to the woods
			C)	to justify his decision to go to the woods
			D)	to explain how to live in the woods
2			The relationship implied in the first sentence is
			A)	comparison
			B)	general term and a specific example of it
			C)	cause-effect
			D)	a general term and a definition of it
3			Which of these dictionary definitions is the most appropriate one for the word "dear" as Thoreau uses it in sentence 2?
			A)	loved and cherished
			B)	greatly valued, precious
			C)	highly regarded
			D)	high-priced, expensive
			E)	earnest, ardent
4			In sentence 3, when Thoreau writes that he "wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life," he means that he wanted
			A)	to live simply
			B)	to experience everything life had to offer
			C)	to renounce the world and its evils
			D)	to return to the innocence of his childhood
5			In the same sentence, when Thoreau writes that he wanted "to live so sturdily and Spartan-like," "to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms," he means that he wanted
			A)	to live virtuously and to do no harm
			B)	to love his fellow man
			C)	to live as simply as possible
			D)	to learn self-discipline in the face of harsh experience.
6			We can accurately infer that Thoreau
			A)	was of a philosophical bent;
			B)	had been unhappy living in town;
			C)	was trying to avoid paying taxes;
			D)	was a practical, frugal man who avoided spending money unnecessarily.