Assignment: Asset E2 Test - Reading Skills

Social Media in Education
2020-12-05T01:54:36Z

Due:

Passage 1: E2

Mr. Perls began to smile and said [to Wilhelm], “I understand from Doctor Tamkin that you’re going into some kind of investment with him, partners.”

“You know, he’s a very ingenious fellow,” said Dr. Adler. “I really enjoy hearing him go on. I wonder if he really is a medical doctor.”

“Isn’t he?” said Perls. “Everybody thinks he is. He talks about his patients. Doesn’t he write prescriptions?”

“I don’t really know what he does,” said Dr. Adler. “He’s a cunning man.”

“I don’t know what sort of psychologist or psychiatrist he may be,” said his father. “He’s a little vague. It’s growing into a major industry, and a very expensive one. Fellows have to hold down very high jobs in order to pay those fees. Anyway, this Tamkin is clever. He never said he practiced here, but I believe he was a doctor in California….He gives the impression of knowing something about chemistry, and things like hypnotism. I wouldn’t trust him, though.”

“And why wouldn’t you? Wilhelm demanded.

“Because he’s probably a liar, do you believe he invented all the things he claims?”

Mr. Perls was grinning.

“He was written up in Fortune,” said Wilhelm. “Yes, in Fortune magazine. He showed me the article. I’ve seen his clippings.”

“That doesn’t make him legitimate,” said Dr. Adler. “It might have been another Tamkin. Make no mistake, he’s an operator. Perhaps even crazy.”

“Crazy, you say?”

“Mr. Perls put in, “He could be both sane and crazy. In these days nobody can tell for sure which is which.”

“An electrical device for truck drivers to wear in their caps,” said Dr. Adler, describing one of Tamkin’s proposed inventions.

“To wake them with a shock when they begin to be drowsy at the wheel. It’s triggered by the change in blood-pressure when they start to doze.”

“It doesn’t sound like such an impossible thing to me,” said Wilhelm.

Mr. Perls said, “To me he described an underwater suit so a man could walk on the bed of the Hudson in case of an atomic attack. He said he could walk to Albany in it.”

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” cried Dr. Adler in his old man’s voice. “Tamkin’s Folly. You could go on a camping trip under Niagara Falls.”

“This is just his kind of fantasy,” said Wilhelm. “It doesn’t mean a thing. Inventors are supposed to be like that. I get ideas myself. Everybody wants to make something. Any American does.”

But his father ignored this and said to Perls, “What other inventions did he describe?”

While the frazzle-faced Mr. Perls and his father in the unseemly, striped shirt were laughing. Wilhelm could not restrain himself and joined in with his own panting laugh. But he was in despair. They were laughing at the man to whom he had given a power of attorney over his last seven hundred dollars to speculate for him in the commodities market. They had bought all that lard. It had to rise today. By ten o’clock, or half-past ten, trading would be active, and he would see.

Adapted from Sal Bellow, Seize the Day.

Passage 1: E2

Mr. Perls began to smile and said [to Wilhelm], “I understand from Doctor Tamkin that you’re going into some kind of investment with him, partners.”

“You know, he’s a very ingenious fellow,” said Dr. Adler. “I really enjoy hearing him go on. I wonder if he really is a medical doctor.”

“Isn’t he?” said Perls. “Everybody thinks he is. He talks about his patients. Doesn’t he write prescriptions?”

“I don’t really know what he does,” said Dr. Adler. “He’s a cunning man.”

“I don’t know what sort of psychologist or psychiatrist he may be,” said his father. “He’s a little vague. It’s growing into a major industry, and a very expensive one. Fellows have to hold down very high jobs in order to pay those fees. Anyway, this Tamkin is clever. He never said he practiced here, but I believe he was a doctor in California….He gives the impression of knowing something about chemistry, and things like hypnotism. I wouldn’t trust him, though.”

“And why wouldn’t you? Wilhelm demanded.

“Because he’s probably a liar, do you believe he invented all the things he claims?”

Mr. Perls was grinning.

“He was written up in Fortune,” said Wilhelm. “Yes, in Fortune magazine. He showed me the article. I’ve seen his clippings.”

“That doesn’t make him legitimate,” said Dr. Adler. “It might have been another Tamkin. Make no mistake, he’s an operator. Perhaps even crazy.”

“Crazy, you say?”

“Mr. Perls put in, “He could be both sane and crazy. In these days nobody can tell for sure which is which.”

“An electrical device for truck drivers to wear in their caps,” said Dr. Adler, describing one of Tamkin’s proposed inventions.

“To wake them with a shock when they begin to be drowsy at the wheel. It’s triggered by the change in blood-pressure when they start to doze.”

“It doesn’t sound like such an impossible thing to me,” said Wilhelm.

Mr. Perls said, “To me he described an underwater suit so a man could walk on the bed of the Hudson in case of an atomic attack. He said he could walk to Albany in it.”

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” cried Dr. Adler in his old man’s voice. “Tamkin’s Folly. You could go on a camping trip under Niagara Falls.”

“This is just his kind of fantasy,” said Wilhelm. “It doesn’t mean a thing. Inventors are supposed to be like that. I get ideas myself. Everybody wants to make something. Any American does.”

But his father ignored this and said to Perls, “What other inventions did he describe?”

While the frazzle-faced Mr. Perls and his father in the unseemly, striped shirt were laughing. Wilhelm could not restrain himself and joined in with his own panting laugh. But he was in despair. They were laughing at the man to whom he had given a power of attorney over his last seven hundred dollars to speculate for him in the commodities market. They had bought all that lard. It had to rise today. By ten o’clock, or half-past ten, trading would be active, and he would see.

Adapted from Sal Bellow, Seize the Day.