SIFT Reading Comprehension Practice Quiz

I didn’t want him to try. I said, “Jim might wake up and come,” but Tom wanted to risk it. So, we slid in there and got three candles, and Tom laid five cents on the table for pay. Then we got out, and I was in a sweat to get away; but nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands and knees, and play something on him. I waited, and it seemed a good while, everything was so still and lonesome.”

Accordingly, in the evening when the workmen were gone, I assembled a num-ber of my playfellows, and working with them diligently like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built our little wharf. The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after the removers; we were discovered and complained of; several of us were corrected by our fathers; and, though I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest.

He found the door open, and in the front room, which is bare of furniture, dis-covered the body of a gentleman, well dressed, and having cards in his pocket bearing the name of ‘Enoch J. Drebber, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.’ There had been no robbery, nor is there any evidence as to how the man met his death. There are marks of blood in the room, but there is no wound upon his person. We are at a loss as to how he came into the empty house; indeed, the whole affair is a puzzler. If you can come round to the house any time before twelve, you will find me there. I have left everything in statu quo until I hear from you. If you are unable to come I shall give you fuller details, and would esteem it a great kindness if you would favor me with your opinion.

Azerbaijan Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov allegedly worked as a ‘triple agent’ for Russian, Turkish, and US intelligence agencies, according to a report by Ukrainian online newspaper Gordon last Wednesday. Sharifov allegedly worked as a human asset for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service before Turkish intel-ligence recruited him in South Yemen in 1989–1990. Soon after, he allegedly be-gan working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In the Gordon article, their source ascribed this information to “sources in the Russian intelligence community’ who said ‘[Russia’s] agencies penetrated the U.S. intelligence com-munity and obtained important information about some of its human assets.’

Science does not readily connect with life. For most of us all the time, and for all of us most of the time, instinct is the better prompter. But if we mean to be ethical students and to examine conduct scientifically, we must evidently at the outset come face to face with the meaning of goodness. I am, consequently, often sur-prised on looking into a treatise on ethics to find no definition of goodness pro-posed. The author assumes that everybody knows what goodness is, and that his own business is merely to point out under what conditions it may be had.

At first, I was astonished, but very soon I became awfully curious to see what he would find out from me. I couldn’t possibly imagine what I had in me to make it worth his while. It was very pretty to see how he baffled himself, for in truth my body was full only of chills, and my head had nothing in it but that wretched steamboat business. It was evident he took me for a perfectly shameless prevarica-tor. At last, he got angry, and, to conceal a movement of furious annoyance, he yawned. I rose. Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was somber—almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister.

Big Media, in any event, treated the news as a lecture. We told you what the news was. You bought it, or you didn’t. You might write us a letter; we might print it. (If we were television and you complained, we ignored you entirely unless the complaint arrived on a libel lawyer’s letterhead.) Or you cancelled your subscrip-tion or stopped watching our shows. It was a world that bred complacency and ar-rogance on our part. It was a gravy train while it lasted, but it was unsustainable.

Soon they reached the hill. It was pretty steep and Joseph and Marmaduke want-ed to get off and walk up so as to make it easier for the Toyman. He wouldn’t hear of that, but just set his shoulders like Teddy in the shafts and puffed and pulled uphill. On the fields, the snow was light and feathery like powdered sugar; but on the hill, it had been packed down hard by the coasters. There were so many of them; boys and girls from the neighborhood all around! Some were at the top, some at the bottom, and some in the middle, sliding merrily down.