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UPCAT 2015 - SIMULATED EXAM - SET A - SECTION 4 - READING COMPREHENSION v.4.18.2015 - ONE COLUMN
UPCAT 2015 - SIMULATED EXAM - SET A - SECTION 4 - READING COMPREHENSION v.4.18.2015 - ONE COLUMN
Directions: The reading passage is accompanied by a set of questions based on the passage and any
introductory material that is given. Answer the questions according to what is stated or implied in the
passage.
PASSAGE 1:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And both that morning equally lay
And sorry I could not travel both In leaves no step had trodden black.
And be one traveler, long I stood Oh, I kept the first for another day!
And looked down one as far as I could Yet knowing how way leads on to way
To where it bent in the undergrowth; I doubted if I should ever come back.
Then took the other, as just as fair, I shall be telling this with a sigh
And having perhaps the better claim Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
Though as for that the passing there I took the one less traveled by,
Had worn them really about the same, And that has made all the difference.
207. The line I shall be telling this with a sigh most nearly indicates
A. regret C. acceptance
B. self-satisfaction D. resentment
PASSAGE 2:
While narrativity is a type of meaning, interactivity, when put in the service of entertainment, is a type
of play. The combination of narrativity and interactivity oscillates between two forms: the narrative game, in
which narrative meaning is subordinated to the player’s actions, and the playable story, in which the player’s
actions are subordinated to narrative meaning. Or, to put it differently, in a narrative game, story is meant to
enhance gameplay, while in a playable story, gameplay is meant to produce story.
The concepts of narrative game and playable story reflect, in their opposition, the distinction made by
the French sociologist Roger Caillois between two types of game: ludus and paidia. The best example of paidia
games is building imaginary scenarios with toys, using them, in the words of Kendall Walton, as “props in a
game of make-believe.” These games do not aim at a specific goal, and they do not lead to losing or winning.
The pleasures of paidia reside in the free play of the imagination, in adopting foreign identities, in forming
social relations, in building objects, in exploring an environment, and above all in creating representation:
paidia games are fundamentally mimetic activities. If there are rules, they are spontaneously created by the
participants, as when a group of children decides that a certain tree will be the house of the wolf, and they can
be renegotiated on the fly. Ludus games, by contrast, are strictly controlled by pre-existing rules accepted by
the participants as part of a basic game contract, they lead to clearly define states of winning or losing, and
their pleasure resides in the thrill of competition and in the satisfaction of solving problems.
What I call a narrative game is a ludus activity. If there is one contribution that digital technology has
made to the design of games, it is their narrativization. By this term I mean the transformation of what used to
be abstract playfields (such as chess boards and football fields) into concrete fictional worlds populated by
recognizable objects and indivituated characters. The main difference between an abstract game like soccer or
chess and a narrativized video game like Half-Life, Max Payne, or Grand Theft Auto is that in an abstract game
the goals of players are only made desirable by the rules of the game (Who would, in real life, be interested in
kicking a ball into a net, or in moving tokens on a board?), while in a narrativized game the player pursues the
kind of goals that people may form in everyday life or in their fantasies. But in the intensity of the action,
players may forget whether they are terrorists or counter-terrorists, space aliens or defenders of the earth: in
a narrative game, the player plays to win, to beat the game, and story is mostly a lure into the game world.
While ludus inspires narrative games, the spirit of paidia infuses playable stories. In a playable story
there is no winning or losing: the purpose of the player is not to beat the game, but to observe the evolution
of the story world. Playable stories induce a much more aesthetic pleasure than narrative games because the
player is not narrowly focused on goals. For me the essence of the playable story is captured by what I once
heard a little girl say about the game The Sims: “Guess what I managed to do with my Sims? I made the father
and the mother drown in the pool, and now the kids are alone in the house and they can do whatever they
want.”
211. Which of the following statements would the author be likely to agree?
A. In a playable story, the pleasure of the game did not come from reaching a state defined by rules,
but in coaxing a good story out of the system.
B. The pleasure of narrative game resides in the vast imagination of the participants.
C. The users in both playable story and narrative game aim to manipulate one or more characters in
the fictional world.
214. According to the passage, which of the following is not a characterisitc of paidia?
A. The games have no specific rules, and do not aim at specific goal.
B. The rules are instinctively created by the participants.
C. The games are confined with pre-existing rules established by the participants.
D. The games do not lead to winning or losing.
215. Which two main organizational schemes can be identified in this passage?
A. Chronological order and compare and contrast
B. Order by topic and compare and contrast
C. Hierarchical order and order by topic
D. Hierarchical order and chronological order
PASSAGE 3:
Kultura ang itinuturong lakas ng mga anime ng Japan. Kulturang nilalapatan ng malilikhaing kwentong
bumubuhay sa makasaysayang ninja at samurai, modernisadong android at robot, makapangyarihang
salamangkero at ekstra-ordinaryong tao, at iba pang maaaring mapabilang sa bagong likhang mundo. Sa
libo-libong manga na naisulat at ginawang anime, sila at sila rin ang bumibida, isama pa ang mga
pangkaraniwang taong malimit na maging estudyante, iyong kakaiba, sa ugali man o sa itsura. Gayumpaman,
lagi't laging may bago, hindi man sa uri ng tao kundi sa kani-kanilang mga pagkatao, na sinasabayan pa ng
paglalaro sa panahon. Hindi lahat ng samurai, espada ang gustong hawak, iyong iba, baseball bat at raketa.
Hindi lahat ng ninja, mabibilis at matatalas ang mata, iyong iba nakasalamin na para makakita. Hindi lahat ng
robot nasa hinaharap, kung minsan nasa nakaraan, sinasakyan at pinapaandar ng isang samurai. Gayon din
ang android na kung minsa'y nasa kasalukuyan, may asawa't anak na tao.
Nagbabago ang kuwento kasabay ng tauhan. Nabubuhay ang tauhan, umuunlad, at namamatay.
Umuunlad, maaaring paurong o pasulong. Namamatay, maaaring sa may katuturan o wala. Hindi laging
umiiral ang pagiging patas at pantay. Maaaring magtagumpay, kahit isa mang masamang tauhan. Maaaring
mamatay, kahit pa ang isang mabuti at makatarungan. Sa loob ng kuwento, hinahayaang kumilos at mag-isip
ang mga tauhan batay sa sari-sariling kakayahan at kapasidad na ibinigay sa kanila. Sila ang lumulutas at
nag-aayos ng mga suliranin at komplikasyon, hindi ang manunulat. Hindi pinatawad ng mga galit na galit na
mamayan ang pinuno at bidang si Lelouch na pumatay sa kanilang mahal sa buhay, para lang maging maayos
at masaya ang pagtatapos ng palabas. Hindi pakikialaman ng manunulat ang mga tauhan para maging ideyal
ang katapusan. Habang tumatakbo ang kuwento, walang makatitiyak sa katapusan, lagi't laging may
nangyayaring hindi inaasahan na magmamali sa hula ng karamihan.
216. Ano ang posisyon ng may-akda tungkol sa isinulat na paksa?
A. Hinahangaan niya ang mga anime ng Japan.
B. Hinahangaan niya ang mga karakter sa mga anime ng Japan.
C. Hinahangaan niya ang mga manunulat ng mga anime ng Japan.
D. Hinahangaan niya ang kultura sa loob ng mga anime ng Japan.
PASSAGE 4:
http://manilatimes.net/enginex/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/edit20140512.jpg
221. Sino-sino ang mga partikular na tao ang kinakatawan ng “buwaya” na nasa larawan?
A. mga mambabatas
B. mga hukom
C. mga senador
D. mga kurakot na pulitiko
223. Batay sa kasalukuyang sitwasyon, ano ang nilalaman ng “Napoles’ list” na makikitang nakatusok sa likod
ng buwaya?
A. listahan ng mga pekeng organisasyong pagmamay-ari ni Janet Lim Napoles
B. listahan ng mga pulitikong nakipagtransaksyon kay Janet Lim Napoles
C. listahan ng komisyong natatanggap ng mga pulitiko sa bawat transaksyon kay Janet Lim Napoles
D. listahan ng mga kasalukuyang senador na sangkot sa Pork Barrel Scam
PASSAGE 5:
As children often labeled our “hope,” so we must recognized that this phantom --- the child who
never existed, the child we wish we might have been, the child who was lost --- is often indicative of fears of
the future. Child sacrifice is a common trope in our society. And beneath it lurks questions of desire, identity,
and humanity.
I begin with “The Dream of the Burning Child” because Suzzane Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy
dreams the same dream, representing a childhood that is threatened, lost, and unheard. As Katniss Everdeen
is sent to the Hunger Games, she is driven by the desire to survive. But, as Katniss’s efforts to preserve her life
must come at the expense of other children’s lives, desire in all forms --- the desire to survive, to eat, to love
--- is troubled. Children are lost and voices are silenced, and as Katniss fights against the dictates of the
society that demands this sacrifice she becomes “the girl on fire,” fighting against the impotency of the
burning child’s cry, demanding that the adult world take notice (Collins, Hunger 177). Katniss, a sacrificial
child, burns with passion, desire, and eventually, with literal fames, as children are forced to become killers
and technology and social pressures enable the warping of the human form and mind. The void that Lacan
imagines so intertwined with the body of the burning child is made manifest: violence, absence and trauma
irrevocably enmeshed in the conceptions of self.
227. According to the passage, who are the “sacrificial children” in the Hunger Games trilogy?
A. Children who are forced to become killers
B. Children whose voices are silenced
C. Children who are threatened, lost, and unheard
D. Children who are sacrificed in order to reach the Symbolic – adulthood
228. The passage suggests that the author would support which of the following views?
A. The Hunger Games presents a society that demands children as sacrifice for entertainment.
B. The trilogy forces the audience to recognize the aspects of a real, current culture inside a Eutopian
world.
C. To speak of sacrificial children is to speak of mental brutality done to the individual.
D. The vision of “sacrificial children” in the trilogy is one of the most horrific images in the cultural
imagination, but is not pervasive in the society.
229. As it is used in the passage, the term trope can best be described as
A. concept.
B. image.
C. theme.
D. device.
PASSAGE 6:
Matapos ang ilang oras na biyahe mula sa kanilang liblib na baryo patungo sa bayan, narating na ni Mang
Tasyo ang terminal ng tren. Luluwas siya ng Maynila para bisitahin ang kaisa-isang anak na kasalukuyang
nag-aaral sa isang unibersidad doon. May ilang buwan na rin silang hindi nagkikita kaya kahit patang-pata
ang katawan sa mahigit kalahating araw na pagkakatagtag sa biyahe patungong bayan, maligalig siyang
nagtungo sa nakapaskil na iskedyul sa harap ng bilihan ng tiket.
Southbound Northbound
At dahil may kalabuan na ang mga mata, maigi niyang inaninaw ang bawat letrang nakasulat na halos idikit na
niya ang mukha rito. Mabuti’t naalala niyang nakasabit nga pala sa leeg ang salamin niya sa mata. Agad niya
itong isinuot, at saka inaninaw ulit ang mga nakasulat. Malinaw na ang mga letra, ngunit hindi pa rin niya ito
mabasa. Ilang minuto nang tinititigan ni Mang Tasyo ang nakapaskil na iskedyul, habang ang mukha niya’y
daig pa ang nilamukos na papel. Bahagya lamang itong naplantsa nang biglang may lumapit sa kanyang
binatilyo na sangkatutak ang dala-dalahan at sa leeg ay may nakasukbit pang camera. Agad niyang tinanong
si Mang Tasyo kung ano ang problema, at kung ano ang maaaring maitulong niya. Hindi na nag-atubili si
Mang Tasyo at walang humpay na inireklamo ang nakapaskil na iskedyul: Kesyo maliliit ang mga letra, kesyo
nakalilito ang pagkakaayos ng mga salita, kesyo malabo na ang salamin niya. Hindi nagsayang ng oras ang
binatilyo at agad na binasa kay Mang Tasyo ang mga nakasulat. Magiliw namang pinasalamatan ni Mang Tasyo
ang binatilyo. Sa takot niyang muling magtagal sa pagbasa sa kung anu-anong nakapaskil, hindi na niya
hiniwalayan ang binatilyo hanggang sa biyahe. Mula sa Lugao hanggang sa Maynila, walang patid ang pagku-
kwento ni Mang Tasyo tungkol sa ipinagmamalaki niyang anak na nag-aaral at malapit nang magtapos sa isa
sa mga pinakamahusay na unibersidad sa Pilipinas.
230. Sa mga nabasang talata, alin sa mga sumusunod ang maipalalagay na hindi totoo?
A. Ang binatilyo ay taga-Maynila.
B. Matalino ang anak ni Mang Tasyo.
C. Hindi mabasa ni Mang Tasyo ang nakapaskil na iskedyul dahil sa liit ng mga letra.
D. Nanlalata na si Mang Tasyo dahil sa matagal na biyahe patungong terminal ng tren.
231. Batay sa kwento, ano ang nais iparating ng “..... ang mukha niya’y daig pa ang nilamikos na papel.”?
A. Nahihilo na si Mang Tasyo.
B. Naguguluhan na si Mang Tasyo.
C. Kinakabahan na si Mang Tasyo.
D. Pagod na pagod na si Mang Tasyo.
PASSAGE 7:
236. In using day and night or light or dark as metaphors for life and death in the poem, it is most likely that
the poet is:
A. Implying the never ending cycle of life and death.
B. Contrasting with the emotions of joy and anger in the poem.
C. Alluding to the inevitability and unpleasantness of death
D. Referring to life and death that are as natural as day and night.
237. What could be the most possible reason for the poet to refer to men who are “wise, good, wild, and
grave” in his poem?
A. To assert that death comes to all kinds of men
B. To emphasize that death does not distinguish among different types of men
C. To emphasize that the way one lived one’s life is inconsequential to death
D. To communicate to his father that he should be all these at least while dying.
ACTS ACHI & AHIA, INC. 744-6250 / 701-7018
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4 U P C A T 2 0 1 5 – S e t A 4
238. Which of the following best paraphrases the line, ‘wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight?’
A. Men who have lived life to the fullest.
B. Men who lived life sensationally.
C. Men who lived life uncontrollably.
D. Men who live life in simple and uncivilized ways.
239. How would you best characterize the speaker's feelings toward his father?
A. The speaker is ambivalent about him.
B. The speaker is angy at him and does not care if he lives.
C. The speaker is not certain about how he feels for his father.
D. The speaker loves him immensely and wishes him to live.
PASSAGE 8:
SA PAMILIHAN NG PUSO
Huwag kang iibig nang dahil sa pilak
pilak ay may pakpak
dagling lumilipad
pag iniwan ka na, ikaw’y maghihirap.
PASSAGE 9:
PASSAGE 10:
1.
Napapagod din kami. Sa klase, kailangang ipakitang kami’y walang-pagod, hindi napupuyat,
laging handa, laging mabilis ang pag-iisip, at matalas ang siste. Pero tulad ng sinumang tao,
napapagod din kami. Nauubusan ng pasensya at umiinit ang ulo. Kailangan din naming mabuhay
bilang isang tao na hinahangad ang walang-trabahong Sabado o Linggo. Pero sa mga bakanteng araw,
karamihan sa amin ay nagbabasa, naghahanda ng Powerpoint, nagwawasto ng papel, naghahanda ng
lektura, nagbabasa ng mga papel sa mga dapat sana’y libreng oras. Kaya pasensiya kung sumusungit
kami minsan, tumataas ang boses, o agad nagbibigay ng isang sorpresang pagsusulit. Pasensiya na
rin kung minsan, kami ang nagbubulakbol.
Isa pang pakiusap sa mga mag-aaral: Bigyan ninyo ang mga guro ng dahilan para pumasok
sila sa klase.
10.
Mas nanaisin namin ang masipag na mag-aaral kaysa matalinong mag-aaral. (Siyempre, bonus
na ang masipag na nga, matalino pa.) Malaking parte sa aming pagmamarka ang pagtingin sa
attendance ng isang mag-aaral. Maraming matatalino at talentadong mag-aaral ang nakakukuha ng
mababang grado sa amin. Katamaran ang sanhi nito. Ang pag-aaral ay paghahanda sa tunay na buhay
--- ang mapuyat, ang mapagod, ang tiyakin ang mga prayoridad sa buhay, ang pumila sa xerox
machine, ang magtiyagang manaliksik sa maalikabok na library, ang sumunod sa mga pinakasimpleng
instruksyon, ang makisalamuha sa klase, ang tuparin ang mga deadline. Ang mga mag-aaral na hindi
makatutugon sa kahilingan sa klase ay kadalasang hindi nakakaya ang mga pagsubok sa tunay na
buhay. Lagi naming pinapaalala na mas mabuti ang sumubok, kaysa sumuko. Gayundin, totoo ang
babala na ang “hell week” sa akademiya ay wala sa kalingkingan ng tunay na “hell week” ng buhay.
Evasco Eugene Y. “Sampung Bagay na Hindi Sasabihin sa Iyo ng Isang Guro.” Mga Pilat sa Pilak: mga personal na sanaysay. UST Publishing
House, 2011.
257. Ano ang damdaming ipinakikita ng mananaysay at guro para sa kanyang mga mag-aaral?
A. pagkauyam
B. pagkabalisa
C. pag-aalala
D. paghihinuha
PASSAGE 11:
264. The phrase Here East and West have oft displayed their might indicates
A. struggle.
B. brutality.
C. placidness.
D. fairness.
PASSAGE 12:
MANGGAGAWA
Bawat palo ng martilyo sa bakal mong pinapanday
alipatong nagtilamsik, alitaptap sa kadimlan;
mga apoy ng pawis mong sa Bakal ay kumikinang
tandang ikaw ang may gawa nitong buong Santinakpan.
PASSAGE 13:
Pebrero 3, 1945 Agosto 6, 1945 Agosto 15, 1945 Disyembre 1945
Nagsimula ang Binomba ng Inanunsyo ni Emperor Hinatulan ng Abril 3, 1946
labanan sa Amerika ang Hirohito ang pagsuko kamatayan si Hen. Pinatay si Hen.
Maynila. Hiroshima sa Japan ng Japan. Tomoyuki Yamashita Masaharu Homina.
Oktubre 1944 Marso 4, 1945 Agosto 9, 1945 Setyembre 2, 1945 Pebrero 23, 1946
Bumalik si Hen. Opisyal na Binomba ng Opisyal na sumuko Binitay si Hen.
MacArthur sa napalaya ang Amerika ang ang Japan. Yamashita sa
Pilipinas. Maynila. Nagasaki sa Japan. Pilipinas.
C. Pebrero 3, 1945
D. Setyember 2, 1945
PASSAGE 14:
For me, as for the others, The Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the
information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate
access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and dully
applauded. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhab pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive
channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And
what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind
now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swifty moving stream of particles. Once I
was a suba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on jetski.
Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched into our genes the
way speech is. We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language
we understand. And the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading
play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains. Experiments demostrate the readers of
ideograms, such as Chinese, develop a mental circuitry for reading that is very different from the circuitry
found in those of us whose written language employs an alphabet. The variations extend across many regions
of the brain, including those trhat govern such essential cognitive functions as memory and the interpretation
of visual and auditory stimuli. We can expect as well that circuits woven by our use of the Net will be different
from those woven by our reading of books and other printed works.
279. What does the last sentence of the first paragraph most likely suggest?
A. The author is practicing a new form of reading, which is skimming.
B. The author is not reading online in the traditional sense.
C. The author developed a reading technique through constant internet browsing.
D. The author lost the ability to read and absorb long articles both online and print.
282. Which organizational schemes are used in the first and second paragraph of the passage?
PASSAGE 15:
- Alone
Edgar Allan Poe
C. a pessimist.
D. a hermit.
284. The speaker presents his thought in the first person point of view from the perspective of
A. a child foreseeing his future.
B. an adult man looking back on his childhood.
C. a young adult reminiscing his past.
D. a young boy narrating his present condition.
PASSAGE 17:
The lives of Ancient Greeks revolved around eris, a concept by which they defined the
universe. They believed that the world existed in a condition of opposites. If there was good, then
there was evil, if there was love, then there was hatred; joy, then sorrow; war then peace; and so on.
The Greeks believed that good eris occurred when one held a balanced outlook on life and coped with
problems as they arose. It was a kind of ease of living that came from trying to bring together the
great opposing forces in nature. Bad eris was evident in the violent conditions that ruled men’s lives.
Although these things were found in nature and sometimes could not be controlled, it was believed
that bad eris occurred when one ignored a problem, letting it grow larger until it destroyed not only
that person, but his family as well. The Ancient Greeks saw eris as a goddess: Eris, the Goddess of
Discord, better known as trouble.
One myth that expresses this concept of bad eris deals with the marriage of King Peleus and
the river goddess Thetis. Zeus, the supreme ruler, learns that Thetis would bear a child strong enough
to destroy its father. Not wanting to ruin the father, Zeus convinces Thetis to marry a human, a mortal
whose child could never challenge the gods. He promises her, among other things, the greatest
wedding in all of Heaven and Earth and allows the couple to invite whomever they please. This is one
of the most mixed marriages of Greek Mythology and the lesson learned from it still applies today.
They do invite everyone . . . except Eris, the Goddess of Discord. In other words, instead of facing the
problems brought on by a mixed marriage, they turn their backs on them. They refused to deal
directly with their problems and the result is tragic. In her fury, Eris arrives, ruins the weddings,
causes a jealous feud between the three major goddesses over a golden apple, and sets in place the
conditions that lead to the Trojan War. The war would take place 20 years in the future, but it would
result in the death of the only child of the bride and groom, Achilles. Eris would destroy the parents’
hopes for their future, leaving the couple with no legitimate heirs to the throne.
Hence, when we are told, “If you don’t invite trouble, trouble comes,” it means that if we don’t
deal with our problems, our problems will deal with us . . . with a vengeance! It is easy to see why the
Greeks considered many of their myths learning myths, for this one teaches us the best way to defeat
that which can destroy us.
288. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage about Zeus?
A. He feared having an affair with Thetis and, subsequently, a child by her.
B. He wanted to be the great king of mankind.
C. He had foreseen that he will be killed during the Trojan War.
D. He has a secret affair with Thetis.
289. The author makes which of the following points about the concept of eris?
A. It defined the universe as a series of problems.
B. It defined the universe as a condition of opposites.
C. It defined the universe a mixture of gods and man.
D. It defined the universe as a violent condition that ruled men’s lives.
290. The passage suggests that Zeus did not fear a child sired by King Peleus because
A. he knew that no matter how strong a mortal child was, he could not overthrow an immortal god.
B. he knew that Thetis would never love a child from a mortal.
C. he knew that the child would be killed in the Trojan War.
D. he knew that Thetis would always love him above everyone else.
293. Which of the following statements is the message offered in the myth?
A. Do not let future circumstances control the present situation.
B. Do not hate the Greek Gods.
C. Do not consider a mixed marriage.
D. Do not ignore the problems that arise in life.
A. hierarchical order
B. chronological order
C. order by topic
D. compare and contrast
295. Which of the following statements would the author be likely to agree with?
A. Greek myths teach the people to face the problems in life which can obliterate them.
B. One can defeat bad eris by disregarding his problems in life.
C. Greek myths will not always be too didactic.
D. Bad eris recurs in one’s life if he keep on accepting the difficulties in life.