ACT
Practice Test 11

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HUMANITIES: This passage is adapted from The Nature of Goodness by George Herbert Palmer ©1903.

My reader may well feel that goodness is already the most familiar of all the thoughts we employ, and yet he may at the same time suspect that there is something about it perplexingly remote. Familiar it certainly is. It

Line 5 attends all our wishes, acts, and projects as nothing else does, so that no estimate of its influence can be excessive. When we take a walk, read a book, pick out a dress, visit a friend, attend a concert, cast a vote, enter into business, we always do it in the hope of attaining

10 something good. Since they are so frequently encountering goodness, both laymen and scholars are apt to assume that it is altogether clear and requires no explanation. But the very reverse is the truth. Familiarity obscures. It breeds instincts and not understanding. So

15 woven has goodness become with the very web of life that it is hard to disentangle. Consequently, we employ the word or some synonym of it during pretty much every waking hour of our lives. Wishing some test of this frequency I turned

20 to Shakespeare, and found that he uses the word “good” fifteen hundred times, and its derivatives “goodness,” “better,” and “best,” about as many more. He could not make men and women talk right without incessant reference to this concept.

25 How then do we employ the word “good”? I do not ask how we ought to employ it, but how we actually do. For the present, we shall be engaged in a psychological inquiry, not an ethical one. We need to get at the plain facts of usage. I will therefore ask each reader

30 to look into his own mind, see on what occasions he uses the word, and decide what meaning he attaches to it. Taking up a few of the simplest possible examples, we will through them inquire when and why we call things good.

35 Here is a knife. When is it a good knife? Why, a knife is made for something, for cutting. Whenever the knife slides evenly through a piece of wood, and with a minimum of effort on the part of him who steers it, when there is no disposition of its edge to bend or

40 break, but only to do its appointed work effectively, then we know that a good knife is at work. Or, looking at the matter from another point of view, whenever the handle of the knife neatly fits the hand, following its lines and presenting no obstruction, we may say that

45 in these respects also the knife is a good knife. That is, the knife becomes good through adaptation to its work, an adaptation realized in its cutting of the wood and in its conformity to the hand. Its goodness always has reference to something outside itself, and is measured 50 by its performance of an external task. Or take something not so palpable. What glorious weather! When we woke this morning, drew aside our curtains and looked out, we said “It is a good day!” And of what qualities of the day were we thinking? We

55 meant, I suppose, that the day was well fitted to its various purposes. Intending to go to our office, we saw there was nothing to hinder our doing so. We knew that the streets would be clear, people in an amiable mood, business and social duties would move forward easily.

60 In fact, whatever our plans, in calling the day a good day we meant to speak of it as excellently adapted to something outside itself. A usage more curious still occurs in the nursery. There when the question is asked, “Has the baby

65 been good?” one discovers by degrees that the anxious mother wishes to know if it has been crying or quiet. This elementary life has as yet not acquired positive standards of measurement. It must be reckoned in negative terms, a failure to disturb.

70 This signification of goodness is lucidly put in the remark of Shakespeare’s Portia, “Nothing I see is good without respect.” We must have some respect or end in mind in reference to which the goodness is compared. Good always means good “for.” That little preposition

75 cannot be absent from our minds, though it need not audibly be uttered. The knife is good for cutting and the day for business. Omit the “for,” and goodness ceases. To be bad or good implies external reference. To be good means to be an efficient means; and the end to

80 be furthered must be already in mind before the word good is spoken. In short, whenever we inspect the usage of the word good, we always find behind it an implication of some end to be reached. Good is a relative term. The

85 good is the useful, and it must be useful for something. Silent or spoken, it is the mental reference to something else which puts all meaning into it. So Hamlet says, “There’s nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” No new quality is added to an object or

90 act when it becomes good.

One of the main arguments the author is trying to make in the passage is that:

  • Solution

    The best answer is B. Throughout the passage, the author talks about the prevalence of the word “good,” further discusses several different meanings and methods for interpreting the word, and suggests that there is no one specific denotation for the word “good.” The other answer choices are not supported by the context of the passage.

The main idea of the sixth paragraph (lines 63–69) is that:

  • Solution

    The best answer is H. As stated by the author, babies are so young and powerless (“this elementary life has not yet acquired positive standards or measurement”), that they can only be judged in negative terms, “a failure to disturb.” Answer choice G may appear to be correct; however, the “anxious mother” is still able to judge whether her baby has been good by what the baby did or did not do—in this case, cry

According to the passage, why does the author concern himself with Shakespeare’s usage of the word good?

  • Solution

    The best answer is A. The author states that “we employ the word or some synonym of it during pretty much every waking hour of our lives. Wishing some test of this frequency, I turned to Shakespeare.” In simpler terms, the author is asserting that we use the word “good” or some form of it constantly, and he believed that the works of Shakespeare would provide a good test of this notion. In other words, if Shakespeare used forms of the word “good” as often as the author predicted, the author’s theory on use of the word would be proven true. This best supports answer choice A.

The author of the passage asserts that the weather and a knife are similar because:

  • Solution

    The best answer is H. The author writes “goodness always has reference to something outside itself, and is measured by its performance of an external task.” The author goes on to write, “The knife is good for cutting and the day for business ... To be bad or good implies external reference.” This best supports answer choice H.

As it is used in line 70, the word lucidly most nearly means:

  • Solution

    The best answer is D. The author describes a quote by Shakespeare’s Portia as being spoken “lucidly,” and goes on to analyze and apply Portia’s quotation. The author does so in a positive light, thus eliminating answer choices A and B. It does not make sense that Portia’s quote was “enthusiastic,” or excited. Answer choice D makes the most sense within the context of the passage; “coherently” means “logically and meaningfully.”

The author argues that a knife may be described as good:

  • Solution

    The best answer is H. When discussing the knife, the author states, “Its goodness always has reference to something outside itself.” Although the passage mentions cutting wood, the author never says that a knife is good only if it cuts wood. Answer choices G and J are not supported by the context of the passage.

As it is used in the passage, the word palpable most nearly means:

  • Solution

    The best answer is A. The author begins by discussing the goodness of a clear, tangible object—a knife. The author then moves on to discussing the goodness of the weather—something “not so palpable.” Answer choice A, “apparent,” makes the most sense. The goodness of an intangible thing, such as the weather, is not nearly as “evident or clear” as that of a tangible object. The goodness of the weather is not less “complicated” than that of the knife; likewise, it does not make sense that the goodness of the weather would be less “powerful” or “drab” than that of the knife.

The main argument that the author tries to make in the seventh paragraph (lines 70–81) is that:

  • Solution

    The best answer is J. The author states, “We must have some respect or end in mind in reference to which the goodness is compared.” In other words, in order to understand what “good” means, you must know specifically what is being referred to as “good” before interpreting the definition of “good.” Answer choice G may appear to be correct, but the passage states that “good always means good ‘for;’” thereby asserting that the two are actually identical concepts.

It can be reasonably inferred from the passage that the author would agree that the word good actually means:

  • Solution

    The best answer is D. Throughout the passage the author refers to the actual application of the word “good,” and that the word “must be useful for something.” This best supports answer choice D.

When, referring to the role of goodness in life, the author states, “no estimate of its influence can be excessive” (lines 6–7), he most likely means that:

  • Solution

    The best answer is G. According to the author, goodness in life “attends all our wishes, acts, and projects as nothing else does, so that no estimate of its influence can be excessive.” The author furthers this point by adding that every action we take is in hopes of achieving something good. In simpler terms, the author is saying that because our pursuit of goodness has such a huge impact on our lives, there is no way we could overestimate or over-emphasize the influence this has on us. Answer choice F is incorrect because it is the opposite of what the author is trying to say. Answer choices H and J are beyond the scope of the passage.

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