CLT Reading Comprehension 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A passage states: 'The philosopher does not flee from the crowd because he despises it, but because he fears to become like it.' What does this suggest about the philosopher's primary motivation for solitude?
- Contempt for ordinary people
- Fear of losing his own identity (Correct answer)
- A desire for fame through exclusivity
- Boredom with common conversation
Correct answer: Fear of losing his own identity
The passage explicitly says the philosopher fears becoming like the crowd, pointing to self-preservation of character rather than contempt.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes the logical relationship between a premise and a conclusion in an argument?
- The premise restates the conclusion in simpler terms
- The premise provides evidence or reasons that support the conclusion (Correct answer)
- The conclusion always contradicts the premise to create tension
- The premise and conclusion are interchangeable
Correct answer: The premise provides evidence or reasons that support the conclusion
In formal argument structure, premises supply the evidential or logical foundation upon which the conclusion rests.
Question 3: A narrator describes a battle using phrases like 'the soil drank deeply' and 'iron voices rang across the plain.' These details primarily serve to:
- Provide precise historical statistics
- Create vivid sensory imagery that conveys the battle's intensity (Correct answer)
- Distance the reader emotionally from the events
- Establish the narrator as an impartial witness
Correct answer: Create vivid sensory imagery that conveys the battle's intensity
Personification and sensory language ('drank,' 'voices') are rhetorical devices used to immerse the reader in the scene's atmosphere.
Question 4: An author argues that 'a just law is one that uplifts human personality.' What does this definition imply about an unjust law?
- An unjust law is one that is not written by legislators
- An unjust law degrades or diminishes human personality (Correct answer)
- An unjust law lacks a clear penalty for violators
- An unjust law applies only to certain social classes
Correct answer: An unjust law degrades or diminishes human personality
By the logic of contrast, if justice uplifts human personality, injustice must do the opposite—degrade it.
Question 5: The word 'magnanimity' in a classical text most likely refers to:
- Excessive pride in one's accomplishments
- Smallness of spirit in adversity
- Greatness of soul, especially in overlooking injury (Correct answer)
- An obsessive concern with material wealth
Correct answer: Greatness of soul, especially in overlooking injury
'Magnanimity' derives from Latin magna (great) + animus (soul), classically denoting nobility in forgiving offenses or bearing hardship.
Question 6: A text transitions from describing individual virtues to describing the virtuous city. This structural move most likely signals that the author wants to:
- Abandon the earlier argument about individuals
- Argue that individual virtue is less important than civic virtue
- Use the larger, more visible example to illuminate what is harder to see at the individual level (Correct answer)
- Prove that cities are morally superior to individuals
Correct answer: Use the larger, more visible example to illuminate what is harder to see at the individual level
This move—scaling up for clarity—is a classic pedagogical technique, most famously used by Plato in the Republic to examine justice in the soul through the city.
Question 7: A passage reads: 'He who conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a city.' The rhetorical purpose of this comparison is to:
- Dismiss the importance of military achievement
- Exalt self-mastery by contrasting it with an impressive but lesser feat (Correct answer)
- Argue that cities should not be conquered under any circumstance
- Suggest that physical strength surpasses mental discipline
Correct answer: Exalt self-mastery by contrasting it with an impressive but lesser feat
The comparison uses a concrete, culturally admired achievement (conquering a city) as a reference point to magnify the even greater achievement of self-conquest.
CLT Reading Comprehension 2
A passage states: 'The philosopher does not flee from the crowd because he despises it, but because he fears to become like it.' What does this suggest about the philosopher's primary motivation for solitude?