Diploma Exam Preparation-Reading Comprehension


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Sample Questions


On a piece of paper, record your answers to questions 1–5, based on your reading of “Television’s Child.”  You will receive the correct answers later, along with some important tips for answering questions such as these.

NOTE:  The first time you answer these questions, it will not be for marks, but it will help you become familiar with what you can expect on the Reading section of your diploma exam.


  1. The sense of distance between mother and son is first conveyed in the phrase
  1. “slipped from the womb” (lines 1–2)
  2. “sat him in a corner” (line 6)
  3. “his ears echoed with voices” (lines 10–11)
  4. “speaking always to someone else” (lines 12–13)
  1. The effect of television on the boy’s development is most appropriately described as
  1. exciting
  2. enriching
  3. paralyzing
  4. patronizing
  1. In context, the use of the word “cathode” in lines 8 and 65, implies
  1. the boy’s excitement builds when watching television
  2. the boy is defiant because of what he watches on television
  3. the television has had a negative effect on the boy’s development
  4. the boy and his parents will become closer as a result of what they have learned
  1. The use of metaphor to illustrate the long-term effect of television on the boy is most dramatically conveyed in which of the following lines?
  1. “his parents plugged / his umbilical cord / into a living room outlet / and sat him in a corner” (lines 3–6)
  2. “They didn’t worry, / for in their hectic days, / they needed their child to be / the way he was” (lines 27–30)
  3. “speaking always to someone else” (lines 12–13)
  4. “His mind was a scrapbook / of images that did not connect, / his present was simply / where he was now, and / his future was / empty of possibilities” (lines 54–59)
  1. By comparing the phrase “his ears / echoed with voices / speaking always to / someone else” (lines 10–13) to the phrase “Oh, plug him in again!” (line 60), the poet reinforces the idea that, for the boy,
  1. his communication with both the television and with his parents is passive
  2. the only meaningful communication occurs when the boy watches television
  3. his communication with both the television and with his parents is fulfilling
  4. the only meaningful communication occurs when the boy is engaged in conversation with his parents