TOEFL

Reading Comprehension Read the passage and choose one answer that best responds to each question below. Answer the questions based on information that is stated or implied in the passage. The Amish, a denomination of Anabaptists, are known for their religiosity and for their social isolation. Not to be confused with Mormons or Mennonites, the Amish live primarily in the United States and Canada, with significant concentrations in Pennsylvania and Ohio. A subculture, the Amish largely shun the mores and folkways of modern society in favor of a way of life that they deem suitable. Amish lifestyle can vary from one Amish community to the next; each community must follow its particular Ordnung, or Amish rules of living. The word is German (meaning “order”), reflecting the strong Swiss-German ancestry of the Amish. Though lifestyles can fluctuate across Amish communities, there are shared features of Amish lifestyles across the board. Specifically, all Amish isolate themselves from modern culture, maintain religious devotion, dress and behave in a modest manner, work hard, and consider the man as the dominant figure in the family. Probably the most famous attribute of this lifestyle is the general absence of technology, such as electricity and automobiles. However, in some Amish clusters, thoughtfully chosen types of technologies are allowed under certain circumstances, such as farming needs or that which sustains lif, and does not disrupt the tradition of a simple life over one that places an individual’s pining for possessions over one’s community. Technology is not what Amish communities fear, but the vanity and lack of humility that often results from consumerism. The Amish regard such traits with distaste, as ego and pride clash directly with their religious beliefs, which value humility and community. Determined to uphold these beliefs, along with their desire to maintain negligible contact with non-Amish, the Amish educate their young outside of the American public school system. American public schools, aside from exercising the palpable modern practices that the Amish shun, value autonomy and individual thinking, both of which go against the core of Amish philosophy. As a result, the Amish prefer to use schoolhouses within their communities, run by their own, maintained by their own, and attended by their own. Amish children are not educated beyond the eighth grade, as any more education is not pragmatic for farm life, and could even rouse ambition and greed in the young. Such education, like much of American society at large, is viewed as a threat to the way of life and the values that the Amish work hard to preserve. Though much of their culture is misunderstood and often attacked, most Amish families are content with their protected way of life. 1. The Ordnung is: (A) the Amish rules of living (B) a town in Pennsylvania with a large Amish population (C) a religious sect within the Amish community (D) the history of the Amish in America TOEFL Answers: Reading Comprehension 1. The correct answer is (A). The first sentence of the second paragraph states that the Ordnung is the term for the Amish rules of living: “each community must follow its particular Ordnung, or Amish rules of living.”