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Last time, I gave you a GED practice question about a poem. What did you think? It’ll help you a lot to try to answer the GED question yourself first, and then look at the answer the next week. So I hope you tried this GED test question:

The Silken Tent
by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To everything on earth the compass round,
And only by one’s going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

Here’s the GED Practice Question:

In the last line of the poem, the word “bondage” refers to:

1) being captured and held

2) having ties to the world

3) being held on bond

4) being a slave

5) being a servant

Maybe on the GED test, you’ll read this question and say, “bondage? That means, like, being tied up… maybe ‘captured and held’ sounds right,” and you’ll pick that answer because you’ve only got so much time to take the test and you’re in a hurry to pass your GED! But the question’s not always about what the word means in general. Sometimes on the GED, they want to know what the word means in a specific story or poem. If you see a question like this on the GED test, it can be confusing because a lot of the answers sound right. So, what do you do?

The idea is, you need to look at the reading… what’s the poet really saying? A lot of the GED reading test goes back to that… what’s the writer really saying? What’s the message? The poem compares a woman to a tent, like I talked about a couple weeks ago. The part about “bondage” talks about how the silk ties that tie the tent to the ground sometimes pull tight in the wind, and that’s the only time she feels “bondage.”

That’s metaphor… she is like a tent. So what’s the “bondage” that she feels? Is she a slave or a servant? Bondage can mean that… the GED questions sometimes are confusing like that, giving you answers that could be right. But she probably doesn’t feel like a slave or servant. She’s also not captured or held on bond. The poem doesn’t say anything about those.

What about having ties to the world? The poem talks about her soul being the center pole, pointing up to heaven. What are the ropes tying the tent down? Could they tie her to the world, while her soul points up to heaven? That makes sense… more sense than her being a servant. Do you see how pointing to heaven and being tied to the earth are similar types of things the writer is talking about? There’s nothing like being a slave or those other answers anywhere in the poem.

I say answer 2 is the best answer. On the GED, if you just read the question, the other answers seem more like meanings of “bondage.” But when you’re taking the GED test, you’ve got to think of how the question relates to the poem or reading… that’s the point. Hope this helps! Good luck on your GED studying!

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

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