¡GED Ahora! | Maria’s GED Blog Site

Carlo writes:

Hi Maria. I got a question. On the GED Test I had a couple of questions that I didn’t understand. Could you help me with these questions. I will type the poem and questions. Thanks.

Okay! Let’s go through the GED reading questions. Here’s the poem Carlo is asking about:

What Are the Fish At The Aquarium?

At the Aquarium

SERENE the silver fishes glide,
Stern-lipped, and pale, and wonder-eyed!
As through the aged deeps of ocean,
They glide with wan and wavy motion.
They have no pathway where they go,
They flow like water to and fro,
They watch with never-winking eyes,
They watch with staring, cold surprise,
The level people in the air,
The people peering, peering there:
Who wander also to and fro,
And know not why or where they go,
Yet have a wonder in their eyes,
Sometimes a pale and cold surprise.

Max Eastman. At The Aquarium, 1883: MODERN AMERICAN POETRY Louis Untermeyer, ed. 1919

That’s the poem. The important part, of course, is the questions… There are two questions to answer, and here’s the first one:

What feelings does the speaker attribute to the fish by calling them “wonder-eyed” (line 2)?

(1) fear of the crowds
(2) sadness at the plight
(3) interest in their surroundings
(4) anxiety about their fact service
(5) happiness with each other’s company

This one is a vocabulary question. What does “wonder-eyed” mean? It’s important to look at the context of the poem… it’s overall meaning. If you know what “wonder” is…. a feeling of amazement, kind of, like that things are WONDERful… then that will help eliminate some answers at least… “fear” isn’t wonderful, or “sadness,” or “anxiety.” That leaves two answers… “interest” or “happiness.”

So, what’s the poem say about the fishes? What’s the context? It’s at an aquarium. Can you kind of picture what an aquarium looks like? Like, the Monterey Bay Aquarium… that’s a big one. There are different ones, especially by the coast, and you go there to look at all the sea creatures, kind of like  a zoo, for fishes, sharks, octopuses… If you’ve seen one on TV or can connect it to your life, then you can picture the fish in your mind, and that can help. Well, what I’m getting out of this poem is that it’s got two parts. The first part is about the fishes swimming in the aquarium. They swim around, and they watch the people. The second part is about the people… how they look to the fishes, watching them. So, which feeling seems to fit most with what the poem’s about? Interest in their surroundings (what’s going on around them), or happiness with each other’s company? Since the poem talks about the fish watching people, but doesn’t really talk about what the fishes think about each other, I’ll have to say (3) interest in their surroundings. The fish are interested in the people that walk around outside the tank.

Here’s the next question:

Why do people appear “level… in the air” (line 9) to the fish?

(1) lying down on the beach
(2) waving frantically at the fish
(3) walking away from the water
(4) swimming around the ocean
(5) standing outside the fish tanks

Here’s where it helps to try to picture what’s happening. Say you’re a fish. You’re in, like, a big tank, looking out at the people. What do they look like? They’re not lying down on the beach, or swimming around the ocean. They might wave or walk away, but that doesn’t seem to go with what the poem’s saying. “Level” seems to mean that they’re not really moving. Think about what it says the people are doing: “peering, peering.” That means, they’re looking at the fish. So, if they’re looking at the fish, they must be standing outside the fish tanks. I’d go with (5) standing outside the fish tanks. It just makes the most sense!

I know the language of a poem can make it seem kind of difficult. Trying to picture it really helps, for me! Good luck on your GED, and let me know if you have any other GED questions.

For more information about the GED and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Hola, GED readers! You know, one of the best ways to improve your reading is to start reading every day. And read things that you like, make it your new hobby. If you read all the time, you’ll get to be a much better reader even before you know it. You can read to your children… that’s one of the things I do with my son, is read him from books, like Peter Pan. It’s good for him, because it makes him interested in reading, and it’s good for my reading, too. Of course, it’s fun to read for yourself, too. And I found out, there’s a lot of free books online to read.

I found books at the Online Books Page, Classic Reader and also Google Books (if you search for “full view”). It’s easy to find  a book to read, any time. I like to read mysteries, because they’re sort of like puzzles, to think about what the solution is. I started reading this one I found on Classic Reader, called Where There’s a Will. So, I thought I’d make a GED reading practice question from it… Here it is!

He sauntered over and dropped a quarter into the slot-machine by the door, but the thing was frozen up and refused to work. I’ve seen the time when Mr. Sam would have kicked it, but he merely looked at it and then at me.

“Turned virtuous, like everthing else around the place. Not that I don’t approve of virtue, Minnie, but I haven’t got used to putting my foot on the brass rail of the bar and ordering a nut sundae…”

When Mr. Sam says “ordering a nut sundae,” it’s a metaphor for:

1) going crazy

2) being virtuous

3) gambling

4) being sinful

What do you think? Can you answer the question? Read the rest of this entry »

Hola, GED learners! I was just looking around on the Internet, and I came across something I never really thought about too much… how many books have been banned in different places at different times. Books like Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and a lot of other ones you wouldn’t think of, really. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a little boy… I want to be careful what he watches on TV or reads, but I just can’t see taking good books out of school libraries, or banning books in another way. So, I thought what I’d do is do a GED reading practice question about a passage from a banned book. Read the rest of this entry »

Jasmin wrote in with this question:

Hello my name is jasmin, and I’m working on getting my ged. I just need some advice on how you think I can better myself in the mathmatics field. I used to be able to understand it fully, but now it’s like it goes in one ear and out the other. So I was wondering is you have any tricks to help me with understanding math a little better, as far as algerbra and geometry?

Hola, Jasmine! Well, my special area is reading. And I would definitely say, you should check out Curtis’s blog… he’s got a lot of help for GED math. But I do have some suggestions. Read the rest of this entry »

Hola! I was talking with a friend of mine who is from Mexico, and came to the U.S. about four years ago. He was looking for some information online, and he was using Google. Then, I saw instead of just searching for words, he was searching Google Images. I asked him about it. Because he’s not so good with English yet, he says it’s easier to look at the pictures sometimes to find what he’s looking for. It got me to think about it… pictures are a big help when you’re trying to read better. If you can use pictures to help you find what you need, it can help a lot. And, pictures can help you study. Read the rest of this entry »

Hola! How’s the GED studying going for everyone? I know studying for the GED can be tough… and whether you’re studying online, in classes, or from books, one thing that can help you get more out of studying so that it goes faster is taking notes. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi everyone! I got a comment from Carlo with a good question. He asks:

How do you figure out Business Documents on the GED Reading Test?

Read the rest of this entry »

Hola, everyone! Hope the GED studying is going well. Here’s a comment from Sunflower on one of my blog posts, and I wanted to write some about it:

when I see a paragraph like this I get scared I feel like its to many words on the page can anyone give me suggestion on reading passage like these and understand what I’m reading I get lost after a few minutes of reading …

I know a lot of people feel this way! Read the rest of this entry »

One thing that you’re sure to come across on the GED reading test is something called “tone.” So, what is tone? I think of it like ‘tone of voice.’ Sometimes I find myself saying to my little boy, “Don’t take that tone with me!” And I mean something pretty much like the “tone” they’re talking about on the GED. Tone is like mood. It’s the emotion behind the words that the writer is saying. Read the rest of this entry »

Hola! The GED reading test has different kinds of thinking questions, and they ask you to do different things. One kind of question is called a synthesis question. Synthesis questions ask you to take two kinds of information and put them together… you compare them, or make conclusions based on both of them, or get new information about the reading based on learning something new. Read the rest of this entry »