A Musical Instrument
1. The poem as a whole is best described as a
C. dramatic retelling of a mythological story that resonates with the speaker’s experience
8. The pacing of the narrative is set by the fact that the events it describes are
E. John’s internal reactions to a series of people and things in the order he encounters them
16. The details in the passage suggest that the relationship of the “young lady” mentioned in the title to the speaker is that of
A. an inexperienced person seeking wise advice
22. The relationship between Farebrother and Lydgate can best be described as
A formal
29. In the first, third, and final paragraphs, the repeated references to Lila’s unborn child (“this child,” “the child,” “this baby”) have which effect?
A. They punctuate the ongoing narrative to show how Lila’s thoughts continually return to the child.
2. The speaker’s description of the reed’s pith as being “like the heart of a man” (line 21) serves in part to emphasize
A. Pan’s casual cruelty
9. In the second sentence of the final paragraph, the description of how John saw his family “like figures on a screen” most clearly emphasizes his
C. feeling of detachment from them
17. In responding to the young lady, the speaker explicitly offers a
C. broad yet ultimately inadequate frame of reference
23. To the narrator and Lydgate, the furnishings of the parsonage seem to embody a more
A affluent, bygone era
30. The description in the second paragraph (“You could see . . . without lying”) of Lila’s thoughts about the pelicans at the river is best described as a
D. stream-of-consciousness presentation of how Lila’s thoughts quickly roam from the present to the past to the future
3. The speaker’s series of exclamations in lines 31-33 (“Sweet . . . Pan”) interrupt the pace of the narrative in order to
A. dramatize the overwhelming beauty that is revealed as Pan begins to play
10. In the middle of the final paragraph, the details in the description of the kitchen (“The room was narrow . . . windows to dry”) most clearly emphasize
D. the family’s constant but futile efforts to keep their home and its contents clean
18. Which image from the poem most clearly suggests that the speaker considers love to be a condition worthy of pity?
D. A ship wrecked on a dangerous coast
24. In the middle of the passage, Lydgate’s reaction to Farebrother’s domestic situation (“Lydgate had not expected to see so quaint a group: knowing simply that Mr. Farebrother was a bachelor, he had thought of being ushered into a snuggery where the chief furniture would probably be books and collections of natural objects”) reveals that
C Farebrother does not fit Lydgate’s notion of a bachelor
31. After Lila’s musings about the pelicans, the sentence at the end of the second paragraph has which effect?
B. It undercuts the poetic description of the pelicans to reveal that she thinks of them primarily as an alibi
4. In lines 34-36 (“The sun . . . river”), the changes that occur in the setting surrounding the river most clearly serve to establish the
D. hypnotic beauty of Pan’s music in comparison to his earlier activities
11. By describing the windows as gleaming “like beaten gold or silver” in the middle of the final paragraph, the narrator emphasizes both the physical appearance of the light shining through the windows and the
B. value of the family’s diligent housekeeping despite the ever-present dust
19. Images in lines 15-32 (“Say what . . . there”) represent the lover through the motif of
E. a traveler who cannot reach a desired destination
25. The fact that Lydgate initially considers the possibility that Farebrother might have appeared “like an actor of genial parts disadvantageously cast for the curmudgeon,” near the middle of the passage, but then decides that the comparison is not appropriate, primarily serves to emphasize that Farebrother
E. is not ill-tempered and difficult around his family
32. In the second paragraph, “She’d never once heard of anybody eating one” suggests which of the following about Lila’s past relationship to her surroundings?
E. She has primarily been focused on the practical aspects of survival.
5. The description of Pan as “half a beast” in lines 37-38 (“Yet half . . . river”) emphasizes that
D. although Pan has the ability to create beautiful music, he still remains a callous and destructive force
12. The epiphany that John has toward the end of the final paragraph (“. . . for was it not he, in his false pride and his evil imagination, who was filthy?”) is a moment in which
C. his judgment of himself as well as of others leads him to feel intense guilt
20. Which interpretation of the last stanza (lines 21-32) is most fully supported by the speaker’s statements and use of imagery?
C. A person’s first love leaves a stronger impression than all others.
26. What does Lydgate’s observation, near the middle of the passage, that Farebrother seemed “a trifle milder and more silent” at home reveal about Farebrother’s relationship to the others in the room?
E. He has a great deal of respect for the elder members of his family.
33. The description in the third paragraph (“She’d . . . wind”) suggests that the cornfield in part symbolizes
B. Lila’s apprehension about the future and her fear that her secure life with her new husband will not last