university math english 6 potx

neglect and private greed is here to stay, forever a center of our civilization. Nothing is left but to

make the best of a bad bargain.

The story is dark enough, drawn from the plain public records, to send a chill to any heart.

If it shall appear that the sufferings and the sins of the “other half,” and the evil they breed, are but

as a fitting punishment upon the community that gave it no other choice, it will be because that

is the truth. The boundary line lies there because, while the forces for good on one side vastly out￾weigh the bad—not otherwise—in the tenements all the influences make for evil; because they are

the hotbeds of the epidemics that carry death to rich and poor alike; the nurseries of poverty and

crime that fill our jails and courts; that throw off forty thousand human wrecks to the island asy￾lums and workhouses year by year; that turned out in the last eight years a round half million beg￾gars to prey upon our charities; that maintain a standing army of ten thousand panhandlers with

all that that implies; because, above all, they touch the family life with deadly moral poison. This

is their worst crime, inseparable from the system. That we have to own it, the child of our own

wrong, does not excuse it, even though it gives it claim upon our utmost patience and tenderest

charity.

21. The main idea of the first paragraph is:

a. The rich do not care about the poor until their own lives are affected.

b. The rich know nothing about the lives of the poor.

c. The rich and the poor lead very different lives.

d. The poor revolted against the rich.

22. According to the passage, the “other half” refers to:

f. the rich.

g. criminals.

h. children.

j. the poor.

23. According to the Secretary of the Prison Association, the main reason for increased crime was:

a. blamed on younger criminals.

b. a lack of decent housing for the poor.

c. the wealthy people’s indifference to the poor.

d. a shortage of prisons.

24. At the time the passage was written, how many people lived in tenement housing?

f. more than 120,000

g. 37,000

h. 15,000

j. more than 1,200,000

–ACT READING TEST PRACTICE–

219

(30)

(35)

(40)