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Found a nice passage- is it GRE standard?


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Calling all experts!

 

 

 

 

 

I came across this passage in some material from a local coaching class. I found some questions extremely difficult (especially nos. 5 and 8 :yuck: ). I'd like to know if this passage is comparable to the passages in the actual GRE. I've heard that in India, at least, the verbal section in general and the RC passages in particular on the actual test are much tougher than those in PP. Feedback appreciated from all quarters-especially from Indian test takers with experience.

 

 

 

Passage

 

If the 1950’s was a sparse period for Black poetry, the 1960’s more than compensated for it; during the 1960’s, Black poets appeared all over the United States. By the end of the decade not only had poetic giants such as Melvin Tolson, LeRoi Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, and Langston Hughes reappeared with new volumes of poetry, but also at least five anthologies of Black poetry were published. Some of the new Black poets made their debuts in the anthologies. Others were first published in Harlem’s new avant-garde literary publication, Umbra. And then, as the decade drew to a close, the ‘Broadside Press’ poets appeared through Dudley Randall’s series of Broadside Press editions and in Hoyt Fuller’s Negro Digest later known as Black World. They brought with them new poetic concepts, a new aesthetic, and a strong awareness of the Black ghetto experience.

Like the spirituals and the secular songs of slavery, the new Black poetry burst forth out of a time of racial turmoil. The catalyst for creativity was a series of events beginning with the Montgomery bus boycott and encompassing the nonviolent sit-in demonstrations of the early 1960’s and big-city riots of the mid-1960’s. So behind the poets and their songs of bitter protest against racism in America were the bombings, the assassinations, the burning ghettos, the screaming sirens, the violent confrontations, and the cruel awareness of spreading Black poverty and white affluence.

 

The most forthrightly militant representatives of the new Black mood in poetry were the Broadside Press poets – so called because their poems are social, political, and moral broadsides protesting against the body politic and the establishment. Before the Broadside Press poets emerged as a definable literary group, other poets had written protest poetry in the early 1960’s that was caustic, bitter, and at times mordantly cynical. But the poetry became more than bitter militant protest. Under the leadership of LeRoi Jones and others, there developed a Black aesthetic that, in some measure, prescribed the guidelines for Black poetic militancy. Under the racial pressures of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Jones himself had undergone a metamorphosis, moving from an avant-garde aestheticism to a Black nationalism-activism. In the process, he abandoned his ‘slave’ name and became Imamu Amiri Baraka. He also moved out of the deep melancholy and pessimism that permeate many of his earlier poems. His "Black Art" indicates that the pessimism was replaced by a vigilant and militant activism. Indeed, "Black Art" announces the credo of the new Black aesthetic – that the direct objective of all Black artistic expression is to achieve social change and moral and political revolution. Poems, Jones asserts, should be assets, should be "fists and daggers and pistols to clean up the sordid Black world for virtue and love".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. According to the author the most significant feature of Broadside Press poetry was that it:

(A) was born out of racial turmoil

 

(B) brought in new poetic concepts

 

© expressed bitter protest

 

(D) incorporated a strong aware-ness of the Black ghetto experience

 

(E) aimed at transforming relation-ships between Blacks and Whites

 

 

2. It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers which of the following to be the most important development relating to Black poetry in the 1960’s:

 

(A) that the Umbra, published avante garde black poets

 

(B) that the new Black poetry grew out of a souce common with the spirituals and secular songs of slavery

 

© that a new philosophy for Black artistic expression was established

 

(D) that Dudley Randall and Hoyt Fuller began publishing the poetry of the Broadside Press poets

 

(E) that several collections of Black poetry were brought out

 

 

 

3. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage:

 

(A) "Racial Turmoil in the 1960’s: The Broadside Press’s Cradle of Creativity:

 

(B) "The 1950’s and the 1960’s: Two Phases in Black poetry"

 

© "Racial Revolution: From Pessimism to Protest in Poetry"

 

(D) "The Broadside Press: Causes and Contributions"

 

(E) "LeRoi Jones’ New Ideal for Black Poetry"

 

 

4. The passage gives us information to answer all of the following questions EXCEPT:

 

(A) Would LeRoi Jones have acquired such stature as a poet in the absence of the racial pressures of the late 1950’s and the early 1960’s?

 

(B) Was the appearance of Black poets in America of the 1960’s a localized phenomenon?

 

© What is the author’s attitude to black poets such as Melvin Tolson, LeRoi Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden and Langston Hughes?

 

(D) Does the author believe that Le Roi Jones is a slave name?

 

(E) Did LeRoi Jones believe that poetry can have an impact on politics?

 

 

5. Which of the following is assumed in the passage?

 

I Moral change necessarily accompanies social change

 

II Social conditions shape literature

 

III Melancholy and militancy are mutually exclusive

 

IV The reputation of Langston Hughes was established even before the end of the 1960’s

 

(A) (I), (II) and (IV)

 

(B) (II), (III) and (IV)

 

© (I) only

 

(D) (I) and (III)

 

(E) (IV) only

 

 

6. What is the author’s attitude to the events that were "behind the poets and their songs of bitter protest" (second highlighted portion)

 

(A) calm appraisal

 

(B) mild disapproval

 

© enthusiastic endorsement

 

(D) moral indignation

 

(E) intense disdain

 

 

 

7. Which of the following is implied in the passage:

 

 

(A) The new Black poetry and "the spirituals and the secular songs of slavery" (first highlighted portion) had the same origin.

 

(B) The Black aesthetic that "prescribed the guidelines for Black poetic militancy" (third highlighted portion) was developed solely under the leadership of LeRoi Jones.

 

© "Fists and daggers and pistols" (fourth highlighted portion) can clean up the world for virtue and love.

 

(D) The author had discussed Black poetry in the 1950’s just before this passage

 

(E) The debuts of new poets indicate poetic revival.

 

 

8. It can be inferred that the author used the term "poets" in the second highlighted portion to refer to:

 

(A) The Broadside Press Poets.

 

(B) The new Black poets of the 1960’s.

 

© Melvin Tolson, LeRoi Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden and Langston Hughes.

 

(D) The poets of the 1950’s

 

(E) The Black poets of the 1960’s.

 

 

 

 

ANSWER KEY

1. E

2. C

3. D

4. A

5. E

6. D

7. D

8. E

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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done the exercise...though not an expert...i feel the construction of the passage to be very much like ETS GRE ones and the questions framed are also as per GRE standards (except the last two...these two seemed to me substandard though)...btw, i hv never seen higlightening few portions of a passage in GRE RC...

 

the passage and the first 6 questions - are of GRE stds, i think...nice one illusionz

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..i feel the construction of the passage to be very much like ETS GRE ones and the questions framed are also as per GRE standards (except the last two...these two seemed to me substandard though)...btw, i hv never seen higlightening few portions of a passage in GRE RC...

 

My sentiments exactly...thanks for this Dipesh. The highlighting has been done by me- I was too lazy to format the passage in terms of line numbers :p
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