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TOEFL Practice Test - 9


William Lloyd Garrison
By: Archibald H. Grimke


Archimedes with his lever desired a place to stand that he might move the
world of matter. [William Lloyd] Garrison with his paper, having found a
place for his feet, demonstrated speedily his ability to push from its solid
base the world of mind. His plan was very simple, viz., to reveal slavery as it
then existed in its naked enormity, to the conscience of the North, to be "as
5) harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice." And so, week after week,
he packed in the columns of the Liberator facts, the most damning facts,
against slaveholders, their cruelty and tyranny. He painted the woes of the
slaves as if he, too, had been a slave. For the first time the masters found a
man who rebuked them as not before had they been rebuked. Others may
10) have equivocated, but this man called things by their proper names, a
spade, a spade, and sin, sin. Others may have contented themselves with
denunciations of the sins and with excuses for the sinner, as a creature of
circumstances, the victim of ancestral transgressions, but this man offered
no excuses for the slave-holding sinner. Him and his sin he denounced in
15) language, which the Eternal puts only into the mouths of His prophets.
It was, as he had said, "On this subject I do not wish to think, or
speak, or write, with moderation." The strength and resources of his mother-tongue
seemed to him wholly inadequate for his needs, to express the transcendent
wickedness of slave-holding. All the harsh, the stern, the terrible and
tremendous energies of the English speech he drew upon, and launched at
20) slaveholders. Amid all of this excess of the enthusiast there was the method
of a calculating mind. He aimed to kindle a conflagration because he had
icebergs to melt. "The public shall not be imposed upon," he replied to one
of his critics, "and men and things shall be called by their right names. I
retract nothing, I blot out nothing. My language is exactly such as suits me;
25) it will displease many, I know; to displease them is my intention." He was
philosopher enough to see that he could reach the national conscience only
by exciting the national anger. It was not popular rage, which he feared but
popular apathy. If he could goad the people to anger on the subject of
slavery he would soon be rid of their apathy. And so week after week he
30) piled every sort of combustible material, which he was able to collect on
board the Liberator and lighting it all, sent the fiery messenger blazing
among the icebergs of the Union. Slaveholders were robbers, murderers,
oppressors; they were guilty of all the sins of the decalogue, were in a word
the chief of sinners. At the same moment that the reformer denied their
35) right of property in the slave, he attacked their character also, held them up
in their relation of masters to the reprobation of the nation and of mankind
as monsters of injustice and inhumanity. The tone which he held toward
them, steadily, without shadow of change, was the tone of a righteous man
toward the workers of iniquity. The indifference, the apathy, the pro-slavery
sympathy and prejudice of the free States rendered the people of the North hardly less culpable.


1. According to the following sentence, what made William Lloyd Garrison different from other abolitionists?
Others may have contented themselves with denunciations of the sins and with excuses for the sinner, as a creature of circumstances, the victim of ancestral transgressions, but this man offered no excuses for the slave-holding sinner.

A) He went onto southern plantations and freed slaves.
B) He worked in Congress to pass abolitionist legislation.
C) He didn't make any excuses in his writings and exposed the truth.
D) He operated an underground railroad to help slaves escape to the north.


2. The word "conflagration" in line 21 is closest in meaning to
A) bonfire
B) shipwreck
C) mess
D) waterfall




3. The word "goad" in line 26 is closest in meaning to
A) forget
B) meander
C) bait
D) explain




4. According to the passage, why was Garrison's language so strong?
A) He had been a slave himself and wrote from experience.
B) He saw himself as a sort of Prophet and his language was given to him by God.
C) He feared having the people being angry with him.
D) He felt like he was the only person talking about this topic.




5. All of the following statements are true about Garrison's intentions EXCEPT:
A) He hoped that people would ignore his writings and keep owning slaves.
B) He wanted to provoke the national anger.
C) He attacked the character of the slaveowners, showing them to be monsters.
D) He wanted people to react so that they wouldn't be apathetic any more




6. Based on the context clues in the passage, what was the Liberator?
A) A ship
B) A movie
C) A train
D) A pamphlet (book)




7. Garrison said that slaveholders were all of the following EXCEPT:
A) generous
B) robbers
C) murderers
D) Oppressors




8. The phrase "aimed to kindle" in line 20 is most similar to:
A) did not want to
B) worked against
C) sat nearby
D) wanted to start




9. Which of the following can be inferred from the sentence
"The indifference, the apathy, the pro-slavery sympathy and prejudice of the free States rendered the people of the North hardly less culpable."?

A) Garrison thought that only the South was responsible for slavery.
B) Garrison wanted slaves to rise up on their own and didn’t think they needed any help.
C) Garrison felt that people in the north were partially responsible because they were indifferent to the plight of the slaves.
D) Garrison hated all white people.




10. An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE (3) answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Write your answer choices in the spaces where they belong. You can write in the number of the answer choice or the whole sentence.

William Lloyd Garrison was a passionate critic of slavery in the American south and held nothing back in his criticism of slaveholders and their sympathizers.


1) Slavery in America began in the earliest days of colonization and was rapidly expanded during the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the invention of the cotton gin.

2) Southern plantation owners were responsible for the vast majority of slave ownership in the United States as they required a large workforce to maintain their agricultural pursuits.

3) Garrison realized that unless he made people angry when reading his abolitionist pamphlet, they would not be moved beyond their usual apathy.

4) Northern states utilized less slave labor due to the difference in physical geography.

5) For Garrison's publication the Liberator, no language was too strong in making his point as he hoped to shed light on the horrible evils of slave ownership.

6) He was most focused on highlighting the evil of southern slave owners but did not shy away from also criticizing the northerners whose passive indifference allowed slavery to continue.




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