Read the following excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.

Salinger
carefully before you decide on your answers to questions 12-24.

IF YOU REALLY want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I
was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before
they had me, and that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to
know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would
have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told you anything pretty personal about them. They’re quite
(5)
touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They’re nice and all—I’m not saying that—but
they’re also touchy as hell. Besides, I’m not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or
anything. I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just
before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that’s all I told D. B.
about, and he’s my brother and all. He’s in Hollywood. That isn’t too far from this crumby place,
and he comes over and visits me (10)
practically every weekend. He’s going to drive me home when I go home next month maybe. He just
got a Jaguar. One of those little English jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour. It cost
him damn near four thousand bucks. He’s got a lot of dough, now. He didn’t use to. He used to be
just a regular writer, when he was home. He wrote this terrific book of short stories. The Secret
Goldfish, in case you never heard of him. The best one in it was “The Secret Goldfish.” It was about
this little kid that wouldn’t let anybody (15)
look at his goldfish because he bought it with his own money. It killed me. Now he’s out in
Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention
them to me.
Where I want to start telling is the day I left Pencey Prep. Pencey Prep is this school that’s in
Agerstown, Pennsylvania. You probably heard of it. You’ve probably seen the ads, anyway.
(20)
They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hotshot guy on a horse
jumping over a fence. Like as if all you did at Pencey was play polo all the time. I never even once saw
a horse anywhere near the place. And underneath the guy on the horse’s picture, it always says:
“Since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men.” Strictly for the
birds. They don’t do any damn more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school. And I
didn’t know (25)
anybody there that was splendid and clear-thinking and all. Maybe two guys. If that many. And they
probably came to Pencey that way.
Anyway, it was the Saturday of the football game with Saxon Hall. The game with Saxon Hall
was supposed to be a very big deal around Pencey. It was the last game of the year, and you were
supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pencey didn’t win. I remember around three o’clock
(30)
that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill, right next to this crazy cannon
that was in the Revolutionary war and all. You could see the whole field from there, and you could
see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. You couldn’t see the grandstand too hot,
but you could hear them all yelling, deep and terrific on the Pencey side, because practically the
whole school except me was there, and scrawny and faggy on the Saxon Hall side, because the
visiting team hardly ever brought many (35)
people with them.
 There were never many girls at the football games. Only seniors were allowed to bring girls
with them. It was a terrible school, no matter how you looked at it. I like to be somewhere at least
where you can see a few girls around once in a while, even if they’re only scratching their arms or
blowing their noses or even just giggling or something. Old Selma Thurmer—she was the
headmaster’s daughter—showed (40)
up at the games quite often, but she wasn’t exactly the type that drove you mad with desire. She
was a pretty nice girl, though. I sat next to her once in the bus from Agerstown and we sort of struck
up a conversation. I liked her. She had a big nose and her nails were all bitten down and bleedy-
looking and she had on those damn falsies that point all over the place, but you felt sort of sorry for
her. What I liked about her, she didn’t give you a lot of horse manure about what a great guy her
father was. She probably knew what a phony slob he was. (45)
The reason I was standing way up on Thomson Hill, instead of down at the game, was
because I’d just got back from New York with the fencing team. I was the goddam manager of the
fencing team. Very big deal. We’d gone into New York that morning for this fencing meet with
McBurney School. Only, we didn’t have the meet. I left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the
goddam subway. It wasn’t all my fault. (50)
I had to keep getting up to look at this map, so we’d know where to get off. So we got back to
Pencey around two-thirty instead of around dinnertime. The whole team ostracized me the whole
way back on the train. It was pretty funny, in a way.

1. The narrator’s tone could best be described as

I. Defensive
II. Hostile
III. Self-assured
a. I only
b. II only
c. III only
d. I and II only
e. I and III only

2. When the narrator states, “Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute,” (Line 17) he
most likely means that
a. His brother is selling out his talent by writing screenplays
b. Only prostitutes make money in Hollywood
c. His brother is exchanging sex for money
d. He views all movie actors as sex fiends
e. His brother has exchanged sex for fame

3. In the passage, the narrator blames Pencey Prep for all of the following EXCEPT:
a. Misrepresenting itself to students and parents
b. Not truly shaping students in the way it claims
c. His problems at home with his parents
d. Being pretentious and snobby
e. Being overly publicized
4. Which of the following is NOT a logical assumption from the passage?
a. The narrator’s parents are financially secure
b. The writer is sympathetic to the narrator
c. The narrator’s parents are reserved and somewhat detached emotionally
d. The narrator is very interested in sports.
e. The writer is critical of certain aspects of society

5. It can be reasonably inferred from the passage that the narrator can best be described as a
person who
a. Enjoys the perks of his school
b. Has benefitted from his Prep school experience
c. Believes that your school is only for the elite
d. Willingly participates in school activities
e. Is an outsider at Pencey Prep

6. The diction in the passage is best described as

a. Indifferent
b. Cautious
c. Caring
d. Judgmental
e. Thankful

7. The author uses the statement, “The reason I was standing way up on Thomson Hill, instead
of down at the game, was because I’d just got back from New York with the fencing team. I
was the goddam manager of the fencing team. Very big deal.” (Lines 28-29) for the purpose
of
a. Expressing the narrator’s pride about being the manager of the fencing team
b. Showing the narrator’s condescending attitude towards being the manager of the
fencing team
c. Helping the reader to understand Holden’s general outlook on Pencey Prep
d. Showing that the narrator is very concerned about his responsibility as manager
e. Exemplifying Holden’s feelings of inferiority

8. The atmosphere established in the second paragraph is that of

a. positivity
b. laziness
c. cynicism
d. disinterest
e. filth

9. The first paragraph primarily serves

a. To shock and alienate the reader
b. To create sympathy for the narrator’s unhappy childhood experiences
c. To give hints about the narrator’s current circumstances
d. As an expository foil to the next two paragraphs
e. As an objective assessment of the narrator’s character
10. The sentence “I like to be somewhere at least where you can see a few girls around once in a
while, even if they’re only scratching their arms or blowing their noses or even just giggling
or something.“ (Lines 38-40) is an example of
a. Loose sentences
b. Periodic sentences
c. Repetition
d. Parallelism
e. Alliteration

11. From the context, the reader can infer that “this crumby place” (Lines 10-11) the narrator
refers to in the middle of the first paragraph is most likely
a. A mental institution
b. A boarding school
c. A school in California
d. His brother’s house
e. A detention center for juvenile offenders

12. The effect of the left-behind fencing equipment on the fencing team (lines 25-27) might best
be characterized as an example of
a. A metaphor
b. Personification
c. Hyperbole
d. Irony
e. Synecdoche
1 E
2 A
3 B
4 C
5 D
6 E
7 D
8 B
9 C
10 C
11 D
12 A