Free CBEST Section 2: Reading Exam Braindumps (page: 3)

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(1) Produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberrys play, A Raisin in the Sun, was a quietly revolutionary work that depicted African-American life in a fresh, new, and realistic way. The play made her the youngest American, the first African-American, and the fifth woman to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. In 1961, it was produced as a film starring Sydney Poitier and has since become a classic, providing inspiration for an entire generation of African-American writers.
(2) Hansberry was not only an artist but also a political activist and the daughter of activists. Born in Chicago in 1930, she was a member of a prominent family devoted to civil rights. Her father was a successful real-estate broker, who won an anti-segregation case before the Illinois Supreme Court in the mid-1930s, and her uncle was a Harvard professor. In her home, Hansberry was privileged to meet many influential cultural and intellectual leaders. Among them were artists and activists such as Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Langston Hughes.
(3) The success of A Raisin in the Sun helped gain an audience for her passionate views on social justice. It mirrors one of Hansberrys central artistic efforts, that of freeing many people from the smothering effects of stereotyping by depicting the wide array of personality types and aspirations that exist within one Southside Chicago family. A Raisin in the Sun was followed by another play, produced in 1964, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window. This play is about an intellectual in Greenwich Village, New York City, a man who is open-minded and generous of spirit who, as Hansberry wrote, "cares about it all. It takes too much energy not to care."
(4) Lorraine Hansberry died on the final day of the plays run on Broadway. Her early death, at the age of 34, was unfortunate, as it cut short a brilliant and promising career, one that, even in its short span, changed the face of American theater. After her death, however, her influence continued to be felt. A dramatic adaptation of her autobiography, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, consisted of vignettes based on Hansberrys plays, poems, and other writings. It was produced Off-Broadway in 1969 and appeared in book form the following year. Her play, Les Blancs, a drama set in Africa, was produced in 1970; and A Raisin in the Sun was adapted as a musical, Raisin, and won a Tony award in 1973.
(5) Even after her death, her dramatic works have helped gain an audience for her essays and speeches on wide-ranging topics, from world peace to the evils of the mistreatment of minorities, no matter what their race, and especially for her works on the civil-rights struggle and on the effort by Africans to be free of colonial rule. She was a woman, much like the characters in her best-known play, who was determined to be free of racial, cultural, or genderbased constraints. On the basis of above passage please answer the following question.
By including paragraphs 4 and 5, the author most likely intended to show that:

  1. the civil-rights struggle continued even after Hansberry died.
  2. Hansberry actually wrote more poems and essays than she did plays.
  3. Raisin in the Sun was more successful after Hansberry’s death than it was before she died.
  4. Hansberry’s work continued to influence people even after her death.
  5. Hansberry died unusually young.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

Both paragraphs focus on how much Hansberrys work continued to be an influence even after she died. In paragraph 4:Her influence continued to be felt, and in paragraph 5,Even after her death, her dramatic works have helped gain an audience for. . . Choices a and e may be true, but this is not the main purpose of the paragraphs. There is no support for choices b or c.



(1) Produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberrys play, A Raisin in the Sun, was a quietly revolutionary work that depicted African-American life in a fresh, new, and realistic way. The play made her the youngest American, the first African-American, and the fifth woman to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. In 1961, it was produced as a film starring Sydney Poitier and has since become a classic, providing inspiration for an entire generation of African-American writers.
(2) Hansberry was not only an artist but also a political activist and the daughter of activists. Born in Chicago in 1930, she was a member of a prominent family devoted to civil rights. Her father was a successful real-estate broker, who won an anti-segregation case before the Illinois Supreme Court in the mid-1930s, and her uncle was a Harvard professor. In her home, Hansberry was privileged to meet many influential cultural and intellectual leaders. Among them were artists and activists such as Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Langston Hughes.
(3) The success of A Raisin in the Sun helped gain an audience for her passionate views on social justice. It mirrors one of Hansberrys central artistic efforts, that of freeing many people from the smothering effects of stereotyping by depicting the wide array of personality types and aspirations that exist within one Southside Chicago family. A Raisin in the Sun was followed by another play, produced in 1964, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window. This play is about an intellectual in Greenwich Village, New York City, a man who is open-minded and generous of spirit who, as Hansberry wrote, "cares about it all. It takes too much energy not to care."
(4) Lorraine Hansberry died on the final day of the plays run on Broadway. Her early death, at the age of 34, was unfortunate, as it cut short a brilliant and promising career, one that, even in its short span, changed the face of American theater. After her death, however, her influence continued to be felt. A dramatic adaptation of her autobiography, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, consisted of vignettes based on Hansberrys plays, poems, and other writings. It was produced Off-Broadway in 1969 and appeared in book form the following year. Her play, Les Blancs, a drama set in Africa, was produced in 1970; and A Raisin in the Sun was adapted as a musical, Raisin, and won a Tony award in 1973.
(5) Even after her death, her dramatic works have helped gain an audience for her essays and speeches on wide-ranging topics, from world peace to the evils of the mistreatment of minorities, no matter what their race, and especially for her works on the civil-rights struggle and on the effort by Africans to be free of colonial rule. She was a woman, much like the characters in her best-known play, who was determined to be free of racial, cultural, or genderbased constraints.
On the basis of above passage please answer the following question.
According to the passage, how many women had won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year before Lorraine Hansberry did?

  1. none
  2. one
  3. four
  4. five
  5. six

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

See the second sentence of the first paragraph. She was the fifth woman to win the award, which means there were four women before her.



(1) Produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberrys play, A Raisin in the Sun, was a quietly revolutionary work that depicted African-American life in a fresh, new, and realistic way. The play made her the youngest American, the first African-American, and the fifth woman to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. In 1961, it was produced as a film starring Sydney Poitier and has since become a classic, providing inspiration for an entire generation of African-American writers.
(2) Hansberry was not only an artist but also a political activist and the daughter of activists. Born in Chicago in 1930, she was a member of a prominent family devoted to civil rights. Her father was a successful real-estate broker, who won an anti-segregation case before the Illinois Supreme Court in the mid-1930s, and her uncle was a Harvard professor. In her home, Hansberry was privileged to meet many influential cultural and intellectual leaders. Among them were artists and activists such as Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Langston Hughes.
(3) The success of A Raisin in the Sun helped gain an audience for her passionate views on social justice. It mirrors one of Hansberrys central artistic efforts, that of freeing many people from the smothering effects of stereotyping by depicting the wide array of personality types and aspirations that exist within one Southside Chicago family. A Raisin in the Sun was followed by another play, produced in 1964, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window. This play is about an intellectual in Greenwich Village, New York City, a man who is open-minded and generous of spirit who, as Hansberry wrote, "cares about it all. It takes too much energy not to care."
(4) Lorraine Hansberry died on the final day of the plays run on Broadway. Her early death, at the age of 34, was unfortunate, as it cut short a brilliant and promising career, one that, even in its short span, changed the face of American theater. After her death, however, her influence continued to be felt. A dramatic adaptation of her autobiography, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, consisted of vignettes based on Hansberrys plays, poems, and other writings. It was produced Off-Broadway in 1969 and appeared in book form the following year. Her play, Les Blancs, a drama set in Africa, was produced in 1970; and A Raisin in the Sun was adapted as a musical, Raisin, and won a Tony award in 1973.
(5) Even after her death, her dramatic works have helped gain an audience for her essays and speeches on wide-ranging topics, from world peace to the evils of the mistreatment of minorities, no matter what their race, and especially for her works on the civil-rights struggle and on the effort by Africans to be free of colonial rule. She was a woman,much like the characters in her best-known play, who was determined to be free of racial, cultural, or genderbased constraints.
On the basis of above passage please answer the following question.
As it is used in paragraph 3, the underlined phrase wide array most nearly means

  1. variety.
  2. gathering.
  3. arrangement.
  4. decoration.
  5. features.

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

Choice a is the most logical choice, given the context of the sentence. It is illogical to describe personality types and aspirations as a gathering, arrangement, decoration, or feature (choices b, c, d, and e).



(1) Produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberrys play, A Raisin in the Sun, was a quietly revolutionary work that depicted African-American life in a fresh, new, and realistic way. The play made her the youngest American, the first African-American, and the fifth woman to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. In 1961, it was produced as a film starring Sydney Poitier and has since become a classic, providing inspiration for an entire generation of African-American writers.
(2) Hansberry was not only an artist but also a political activist and the daughter of activists. Born in Chicago in 1930, she was a member of a prominent family devoted to civil rights. Her father was a successful real-estate broker, who won an anti-segregation case before the Illinois Supreme Court in the mid-1930s, and her uncle was a Harvard professor. In her home, Hansberry was privileged to meet many influential cultural and intellectual leaders. Among them were artists and activists such as Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Langston Hughes.
(3) The success of A Raisin in the Sun helped gain an audience for her passionate views on social justice. It mirrors one of Hansberrys central artistic efforts, that of freeing many people from the smothering effects of stereotyping by depicting the wide array of personality types and aspirations that exist within one Southside Chicago family. A Raisin in the Sun was followed by another play, produced in 1964, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window. This play is about an intellectual in Greenwich Village, New York City, a man who is open-minded and generous of spirit who, as Hansberry wrote, "cares about it all. It takes too much energy not to care."
(4) Lorraine Hansberry died on the final day of the plays run on Broadway. Her early death, at the age of 34, was unfortunate, as it cut short a brilliant and promising career, one that, even in its short span, changed the face of American theater. After her death, however, her influence continued to be felt. A dramatic adaptation of her autobiography, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, consisted of vignettes based on Hansberrys plays, poems, and other writings. It was produced Off-Broadway in 1969 and appeared in book form the following year. Her play, Les Blancs, a drama set in Africa, was produced in 1970; and A Raisin in the Sun was adapted as a musical, Raisin, and won a Tony award in 1973.
(5) Even after her death, her dramatic works have helped gain an audience for her essays and speeches on wide-ranging topics, from world peace to the evils of the mistreatment of minorities, no matter what their race, and especially for her works on the civil-rights struggle and on the effort by Africans to be free of colonial rule. She was a woman,much like the characters in her best-known play, who was determined to be free of racial, cultural, or genderbased constraints.
On the basis of above passage please answer the following question.
According to the passage, which of the following dramatic works was based most directly on Hansberrys life?

  1. A Raisin in the Sun
  2. Les Blancs
  3. The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
  4. To Be Young, Gifted, and Black
  5. The musical Raisin

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

See paragraph 4, which describes To Be Young, Gifted, and Black as a dramatic adaptation of an autobiography. Choices a and e are wrong because there is no support for the idea that Raisin is Hansberrys family. Les Blancs is set in Africa, which rules out choice b. The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window is about a man, which rules out choice c.






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