SSAT Middle Level Reading Practice Test 9

I was working as a consultant in a beer company, helping the president and senior vice-presidents prepare and apply their plans for the future. It was an enormous challenge. At the same time, my mother was in the final stages of cancer.

I worked during the day and drove 40 miles home to be with her every night. It was tiring and stressful, but it was what I wanted to do. My commitment was to do excellent work during the day, even though my evenings were very hard. I didn't want to bother the president with my situation, yet I felt someone at the company needed to know what was going on. So I told the vice-president of Human Resources, asking him not to share the information with anyone.

A few days later, the president called me into his office. When I entered, he asked me to sit down. He faced me from across his large desk, looked me in the eye and said, "I hear your mother is very ill."

I was totally caught by surprise and burst into tears. He just looked at me, let my crying subside, and then gently said a sentence I will never forget: "Whatever you need." His understanding and his willingness to both let me be in my pain and to offer me everything were qualities of compassion that I carry with me to this day.

-Martin Rutte

1. The major theme of this passage is

• A. consistency
• B. illness
• C. sharing
• D. challenge
• E. compassion

2. According to the selection, all of the following contributed to the narrator's stress EXCEPT

• A. not knowing his mother's condition.
• B. having to work throughout the day.
• C. his mother being very ill with cancer.
• D. the difficulty of his position at the company.
• E. traveling many miles to and from work.

3. According to the passage, what job did the narrator do at the beer company?

• A. He directed the human resources department.
• B. He graded employees' work performances.
• C. He aided the leaders in their business strategies.
• D. He worked with the employees in accounting.
• E. He supervised beer production and distribution.

4. It can be inferred from the passage that the company president found out about the narrator's situation

• A. through the narrator's family.
• B. by observing the narrator's stress.
• C. by reading an unidentified note.
• D. through another company employee.
• E. by observing the narrator's work performance.

5. In the last sentence, the narrator was impressed with the company president's ability to

• A. understand a mother's pain.
• B. do two thoughtful things at the same time.
• C. allow the narrator to cry.
• D. look beyond an employee's work routine.
• E. keep a problem a secret.