Read the following passage from "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather and answer
questions 31–35.
1 When he awoke, it was three o’clock in the afternoon. He bounded
up with a start; half of one of
2his precious days gone already! He spent more than an hour in dressing,
watching every stage of his
3toilet carefully in the mirror. Everything was quite perfect; he was
exactly the kind of boy he had always
4wanted to be.
5 When he went downstairs Paul took a carriage and drove up Fifth
Avenue toward the Park. The
6snow had somewhat abated; carriages and tradesmen’s wagons were hurrying
soundlessly to and fro
7in the winter twilight; boys in woolen mufflers were shoveling off the
doorsteps; the avenue stages
8made fine spots of color against the white street. Here and there on the
corners were stands, with
9whole flower gardens blooming under glass cases, against the sides of
which the snowflakes stuck and
10melted; violets, roses, carnations, lilies of the valley—somehow vastly
more lovely and alluring that
11they blossomed thus unnaturally in the snow. The Park itself was a
wonderful stage winterpiece.
12 When he returned, the pause of the twilight had ceased and the
tune of the streets had changed.
13The snow was falling faster, lights streamed from the hotels that reared
their dozen stories fearlessly up
14into the storm, defying the raging Atlantic winds. A long, black stream
of carriages poured down the
15avenue, intersected here and there by other streams, tending
horizontally. There were a score of cabs
16about the entrance of his hotel, and his driver had to wait. Boys in
livery were running in and out of
17the awning stretched across the sidewalk, up and down the red velvet
carpet laid from the door to the
18street. Above, about, within it all was the rumble and roar, the hurry
and toss of thousands of human
19beings as hot for pleasure as himself, and on every side of him towered
the glaring affirmation of the
20omnipotence of wealth.
21 The boy set his teeth and drew his shoulders together in a spasm
of realization; the plot of all
22dramas, the text of all romances, the nerve-stuff of all sensations was
whirling about him like the
23snowflakes.
- What does the passage suggest about Paul’s attitude toward Fifth Avenue?
(1 point)He had been there often.
He was too young to remember having been there.
He dreamed of being there.
He had avoided going there in the past.
questions 31–35.
1 When he awoke, it was three o’clock in the afternoon. He bounded
up with a start; half of one of
2his precious days gone already! He spent more than an hour in dressing,
watching every stage of his
3toilet carefully in the mirror. Everything was quite perfect; he was
exactly the kind of boy he had always
4wanted to be.
5 When he went downstairs Paul took a carriage and drove up Fifth
Avenue toward the Park. The
6snow had somewhat abated; carriages and tradesmen’s wagons were hurrying
soundlessly to and fro
7in the winter twilight; boys in woolen mufflers were shoveling off the
doorsteps; the avenue stages
8made fine spots of color against the white street. Here and there on the
corners were stands, with
9whole flower gardens blooming under glass cases, against the sides of
which the snowflakes stuck and
10melted; violets, roses, carnations, lilies of the valley—somehow vastly
more lovely and alluring that
11they blossomed thus unnaturally in the snow. The Park itself was a
wonderful stage winterpiece.
12 When he returned, the pause of the twilight had ceased and the
tune of the streets had changed.
13The snow was falling faster, lights streamed from the hotels that reared
their dozen stories fearlessly up
14into the storm, defying the raging Atlantic winds. A long, black stream
of carriages poured down the
15avenue, intersected here and there by other streams, tending
horizontally. There were a score of cabs
16about the entrance of his hotel, and his driver had to wait. Boys in
livery were running in and out of
17the awning stretched across the sidewalk, up and down the red velvet
carpet laid from the door to the
18street. Above, about, within it all was the rumble and roar, the hurry
and toss of thousands of human
19beings as hot for pleasure as himself, and on every side of him towered
the glaring affirmation of the
20omnipotence of wealth.
21 The boy set his teeth and drew his shoulders together in a spasm
of realization; the plot of all
22dramas, the text of all romances, the nerve-stuff of all sensations was
whirling about him like the
23snowflakes.
He was too young to remember having been there.
He dreamed of being there.
He had avoided going there in the past.
