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ACT Reading: Literary Narrative (Drill 4)

Drill 4 · Reading · Literary Narrative

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About This Drill

ACT Reading: Literary Narrative (Drill 4) is a Reading practice drill covering Literary Narrative. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

Literary Narrative passages present fiction or memoir. This drill emphasizes big-picture questions, main idea, overall tone, and the purpose of the passage as a whole, alongside detail questions, giving you practice balancing close reading with a sense of the passage's larger arc.

Passage

LITERARY NARRATIVE: This passage is adapted from the short story "The Lesson" by Adaeze Nwosu (©2020). My father was not a man who explained himself. He fixed things, appliances, shoes, the sagging gutter above the back door, with a focused silence that I mistook for indifference when I was young. He would crouch over a broken radio for an hour without speaking, and I would wander away to find something noisier. The summer I turned sixteen, I broke the old record player that had sat on the shelf in the living room since before I was born. I knocked it with my elbow reaching for a book, and it hit the floor with a sound I still associate with dread. My father came in from the yard, looked at the pieces, and said nothing. For three evenings after dinner he sat at the kitchen table with the record player's innards spread before him on a towel, consulting a manual he had sent away for. He wouldn't let me help, but he didn't ask me to leave either. I sat across from him and watched his hands, careful, unhurried, certain of each small motion. On the fourth evening he lowered the needle onto a record and Coltrane filled the room. He looked up at me then, not with triumph, exactly, but with something quieter. As if he had just said something important and was waiting to see whether I had heard it. I was still figuring out what it meant years later when I found myself crouched over my daughter's bicycle, consulting a video on my phone, her watching me from the porch steps with the same expression I must have worn at sixteen, patient, skeptical, and taking in far more than she let on.

Questions & Explanations

Question 1. The passage as a whole can best be described as a narrator's reflection on:

  • A) the difficulty of communicating with a parent who rarely spoke.
  • B) a lesson learned through observation that she later recognized herself passing on. ✓
  • C) her regret over damaging an object of sentimental value to her family, as described in the passage.
  • D) the moment she first understood her father's love of jazz music.

Explanation: B is correct. The passage moves from the narrator watching her father repair the record player in patient silence, to her later finding herself doing the same thing while her own daughter watches. The central insight is that she absorbed a lesson about quiet, careful effort and is now passing it on. A is too narrow, communication difficulty is mentioned but not the main theme. C is wrong because there is no expressed regret about the object itself. D is wrong because the narrator's interest is in her father's manner, not the music specifically.

Question 2. According to the passage, when the narrator was young she interpreted her father's silence as:

  • F) a form of discipline.
  • G) indifference. ✓
  • H) wisdom she could not yet understand.
  • J) sadness he was unable to express.

Explanation: G is correct. The passage states directly: "with a focused silence that I mistook for indifference when I was young." This is a direct textual fact. F, H, and J are not supported, none of these interpretations are mentioned in the passage.

Question 3. It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that the father's look after playing the record was meant to convey:

  • A) pride in having repaired something others might have discarded.
  • B) that patient, careful effort is itself a form of communication. ✓
  • C) relief that the record player had not been permanently damaged.
  • D) forgiveness for the narrator's carelessness in breaking the record player.

Explanation: B is correct. The narrator describes the look as "not with triumph, exactly, but with something quieter. As if he had just said something important and was waiting to see whether I had heard it." The "something important" is the demonstration itself, that quiet, methodical work is its own language. A is possible but too narrow; D is not supported since no anger or blame was ever established. C misses the deeper meaning, the passage is clearly about more than the object.

Question 4. As it is used in the passage, the word "certain" in the phrase "certain of each small motion" most nearly means:

  • F) specific.
  • G) confident and assured. ✓
  • H) inevitable.
  • J) particular.

Explanation: G is correct. In context, the narrator is describing her father's hands as "careful, unhurried, certain", the word describes a quality of his movements that suggests mastery and sureness, not doubt. "Confident and assured" captures this. F (specific) and J (particular) are similar to each other and describe a different quality, precision rather than sureness. H (inevitable) implies fate, which is not the intended meaning here.

Question 5. The final paragraph primarily serves to:

  • A) show that the narrator has become more skilled at repair work than her father was.
  • B) introduce the narrator's daughter as a new character central to the story's conflict.
  • C) complete the cycle by showing the narrator in her father's role, passing the same lesson to her own child. ✓
  • D) suggest that the narrator has forgotten most of what she observed as a child.

Explanation: C is correct. The final paragraph mirrors the opening: just as the narrator watched her father work in silence, now her daughter watches her. The phrase "the same expression I must have worn at sixteen" makes the parallel explicit. A is not supported, no comparison of skill levels is made. B is wrong because the daughter is not a new central character; she appears only to complete the parallel. D is the opposite, the narrator has clearly internalized the lesson.