EST Practice passage Reading ““The Inheritance” by fictional author Eliza R. Merrow”

adapted from “The Inheritance” by fictional author Eliza R. Merrow.

Elinor stood at the edge of the orchard, the hem of her dress brushing the wet grass, as the early morning mist coiled between the rows of trees like silver smoke. The sun had not yet pierced the thick clouds that hung low over the moors, and the silence felt heavy—almost accusatory. She had returned to Ashcombe House not as a guest, nor as a daughter welcomed home, but as the executor of a will she barely understood.

Her father’s death had come as a surprise only in its finality. For years, he had been a ghost haunting the halls of the estate—present yet distant, deliberate in his avoidance of sentiment. He had spoken little, favoring long walks over conversation, retreating deeper into his books and his solitary routine. Yet when his solicitor handed her the letter with the faded seal, Elinor found herself unwilling to break it open. She delayed. She imagined it might contain a final rebuke, or worse, a last request she could not fulfill.

But the letter was neither. It was short, almost businesslike. “You will find what you need in the west study. Do not trust appearances.” It was unsigned.

That was three days ago. She had arrived with a single suitcase and no illusions. The west study, long untouched, was layered in dust and the faint scent of old wood and mildew. But beneath a loose floorboard, she had found a locked tin box. Its contents were stranger than she could have anticipated—photographs of a woman she did not recognize, letters in a language she could not read, and a key wrapped in velvet.

“You never told me who you really were,” she whispered now to the orchard, though it held no answers. Her father had once told her, sternly, that inheritance was not about money—it was about burdens. She had thought he meant the land, the upkeep of an estate no longer relevant in the modern world. But perhaps he had meant something else entirely.

That night, she laid the photographs out on the long oak table in the dining room. By candlelight, the woman’s face emerged again and again—smiling in some, solemn in others. Sometimes she stood beside a man with a crooked tooth and an inscrutable gaze. None of the dates on the photographs predated the 1940s. All were marked with the same symbol—a triangle inside a circle.

Elinor’s research had begun in earnest the next morning. A visit to the village records office confirmed what she had begun to suspect: her father had changed his name shortly after arriving in England in 1951. There was no record of his life before that. The name he had adopted was entirely fabricated.

The key, she discovered, belonged to a deposit box in London. It took her two days to summon the courage to open it. Inside was a single item: a leather-bound journal. It was written in German—a language she knew only passingly—and filled with meticulous entries, some dated as early as 1943. The more she translated, the clearer the picture became: her father had been a refugee, perhaps more than that—an intelligence operative, possibly both.

The truth didn’t shame her. But it unsettled her. For so long she had viewed her father as cold, remote, indifferent. Now she realized that he had, perhaps, been something else entirely: a man consumed by secrets, defined by sacrifice, constrained by silence.

In the final pages of the journal, one entry was underlined twice. “If the truth is ever to matter, it must be found, not given.” Elinor copied the phrase into her own notebook. The orchard outside her window shimmered in the afternoon light, and for the first time, she felt a thread of connection—not to the house, but to the man she had never truly known.

Questions

1. The main purpose of the passage is to:
A) describe the setting of an ancestral estate.
B) chronicle a woman’s discovery of a family secret.
C) highlight the burden of maintaining inherited property.
D) critique the silence between parents and children.

2. The author most likely uses the imagery of “silver smoke” in paragraph 1 to:
A) create a sense of warmth and familiarity.
B) symbolize the confusion surrounding Elinor’s return.
C) emphasize the estate’s opulence.
D) hint at the estate’s past prosperity.

3. Based on the passage, which choice best describes Elinor’s understanding of her father at the beginning versus the end?
A) From admiring to dismissive
B) From indifferent to sympathetic
C) From fearful to reverent
D) From curious to resentful

4. What does the phrase “Do not trust appearances” (paragraph 3) primarily suggest?
A) The estate is hiding physical dangers.
B) The photographs are fakes.
C) There is a deeper truth hidden beneath the surface.
D) Elinor is being watched.

5. The passage suggests that Elinor’s father’s past:
A) was defined by wealth and prestige.
B) included affiliations with a secret society.
C) was marked by a fabricated identity and hidden experiences.
D) is fully revealed by the end of the journal.