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EOC/Spring Break Review Packet
Day 1
Read the following poem and answer the questions below.
“Casey At The Bat” by Ernest L. Thayer
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day,
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.
The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast.
They thought, "if only Casey could but get a whack at that.
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."
But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake;
and the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake.
So upon that stricken multitude, grim melancholy sat;
for there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat.
But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all.
And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball.
And when the dust had lifted,
and men saw what had occurred,
there was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.
Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
it rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
it pounded through on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat;
for Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.
There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place,
there was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
no stranger in the crowd could doubt t'was Casey at the bat.
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then, while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
and Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped --
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one!" the umpire said.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
like the beating of the storm waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand,
and it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.
With a smile of Christian charity, great Casey's visage shone,
he stilled the rising tumult, he bade the game go on.
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew,
but Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two!"
"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!"
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
and they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.
The sneer has fled from Casey's lip, the teeth are clenched in hate.
He pounds, with cruel violence, his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
and now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.
And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,
but there is no joy in Mudville --
mighty Casey has struck out.
1. Which of these characters is the protagonist?
a) Jimmy Blake b) Cooney c) The pitcher d) Casey
2. In Stanza 1, what do the words “A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game” indicate to the reader?
a. A mysterious illness fell upon the Mudville nine.
b. Everyone in the stadium became ill.
c. The crowd was quiet because things weren’t going well for the Mudville nine.
d. No one will be allowed to leave the stadium due to the sickly silence.
3. What type of irony occurs when Casey strikes out?
a. Situational
b. Personal
c. Dramatic
d. Verbal
4. The word defiance as it refers to the gleam in Casey’s eye (stanza 6) probably means what?
a. Casey had a twinkle in his eye
b. Casey had the look of fear in his eye
c. Casey had the look of determination in his eye
Casey had the look of satisfaction in his eye.
1) Instructions: Place commas and semicolons where appropriate in the following paragraph.
Pasta is made from wheat flour______ but in olden days ____ it used to be made from rice. In order to make pasta _____ wheat flour is mixed with water______ kneaded to form a thick paste______ and then forced through perforated plates or dies that shape it into one of more than 100 different forms. The macaroni die is a hollow tube with a steel pin in its center______ the spaghetti die lacks the steel pin and produces a solid cylinder of paste. The shaped dough is dried carefully to reduce the moisture content to about 12 percent______ and properly dried pasta should remain edible almost indefinitely. Pastas can be colored with spinach or beet juice. The addition of egg produces a richer pasta ________ this pasta is usually made in noodle form and is often sold undried.
3) Capitalization—Many of the following sentences contain errors in standard capitalization. If a sentence contains an error, write the corrected word, term, or phrase after the proper number. If the sentence is correct, write C.
1. I am studying russian, English, and Art this Semester.
2. Go north for two Streets and then turn east on Central Avenue.
3. The Mountain Ranges in the Western states offer a variety of hiking and hunting experiences for those who love the outdoors.
4. For most Americans, Memorial day is one for rest and relaxation.
5. Last summer I enjoyed reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a southern writer.
6. HOMES is an acronym for the great lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.
7. Despite their political differences, my mother, a Democrat, and my father, a Republican, work together to increase voter registration.
8. Born in Mississippi, William Faulkner won the Nobel prize in 1949.
9. The first American woman in space, Sally Ride, was a member of the crew aboard the space shuttle challenger launched from cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 18, 1983.
Punctuation- Commas
Some of the following sentences need commas. Put in the commas where they are needed, and leave the sentence alone or no punctuation is needed.
1. The girl with the bright friendly smile wore a bright green scarf to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
2. As he read the Chekhov story he became aware of the Russian's genius.
3. Dauphin Island located off the coast of Alabama is a favorite spot for fishermen.
4. She was as a matter of fact mainly interested in showing off her vocabulary.
5. I often go to the seashore and collect rocks there.
6. Before reaching the summit the climbers were forced by a storm to turn back.
7. Did you know that James Agee the novelist and poet was also a film critic?
8. Lady Jane Grey was the queen of England from July 10 1553 to July 19 1553.
9. Joseph registered for English 101 History 204 and Biology 106.
10. After discussing "Rain" we agreed that Somerset Maugham could really tell a good story.
11. Squaw Valley California the scene of the winter Olympics in 1960 is a ski resort.
12. Tomorrow I believe is the last day to register to vote in the November general election.
13. To perform well on Saturday afternoon the athlete must train every day of the week.
14. Understanding history increases your understanding of today's world.
15. Ellen Green my cousin hopes to graduate from law school in two years.
16. He reads everything: road maps want ads and cereal boxes.
17. Having cut the roses she decided to bring them to her friend in the hospital.
18. "When" Jane asked "will you return my book?"
In the following sentence draw a line through each letter that should be capitalized and write above it the capital letter.
1. albany is the capital of new york.
2. francis scott key, the author of "the star-spangled banner," was once an attorney in baltimore, maryland.
3. tuesday is lucy's birthday.
4. was paul revere born in massachusetts?
5. miss sneed, may albert and i collect the notebooks?
6. mr. j. d. burkett is our new coach.
7. september, november, april, and june have thirty days.
8. henry w. longfellow was born in portland, maine.
9. i have just finished a letter to my cousin, walton warren, who lives in hot springs, arkansas.
10. bobby saunders and pete salinas are two of the best players on the marvin school team.
11. isn't new orleans the world's greatest banana port?
12. charleston, south carolina, is famous for its beautiful gardens.
13. isn't mt. mckinley the highest mountain in north america?
14. we spent the months of july and august in denver colorado.
15. it took the united states government five years to build hoover dam.
Semicolons
Supply semicolons as needed in the following sentences.
1. For most of us the lecture was a bore, for Grace, however, it was stimulating.
2. Don't ask if this assignment involves you, it does.
3. Although the bridge was damaged, we were able to cross the rampaging river.
4. The lecture delivered, Professor Brooks asked if there were any questions.
5. Arthur is a carefree fellow, nothing seems to bother him.
6. However dangerous my plan appears to you, I am certain it will be successful.
7. Your English class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, doesn't it?
8. The spectators were thrilled by Gibson's long touchdown run, they roared their approval.
9. The storm having passed, we continued our fifty-mile hike.
10. If Coach Perrin says he will retire in June, I am certain that we will win the state championship next year.
11. The crops were severely damaged by the drought, therefore, we were forced to abandon our little farm.
12. We must begin to prepare for final exams, they are only a week away.
13. Mayor Wilson is a busy man, in fact, he is seldom available for public interview.
14. I have studied the text carefully, thus, I shall surely do well in the examination.
15. Although I have several hobbies, stamp collecting is still my favorite.
16. Being exhausted, I lay down for a short nap, then the telephone rang.
17. I have never done well in foreign language classes, in fact, I once failed both French and Russian.
18. Ned has always respected my judgement and has never ridiculed my opinions.
19. You are under arrest, come with us to the police station.
Use e. e. cummings’ “Maggie & millie & molly & may” to answer the following questions.
maggie and millie and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
millie befriended a stranded star
who’s rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.
1. What literary element is being applied in the title of the poem?
a. metaphor
b. alliteration
c. allusion
d. assonance
2. What is the setting of this poem?
a. a race track
b. the mountains
c. the beach
d. the moon
3. Which lines best describe the theme of this poem?
a. maggie discovered a shell that sang
b. may came home with a smooth round stone
c. millie befriended a stranded star
d. it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.
4. What is the tone of this poem?
a. Sad
b. Playful
c. Dramatic
d. Fearful
5. When “Maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly,” what literary element is being used?
a. Simile
b. Allusion
c. Personification
d. Onomatopoeia
Day 2
Darkness at Noon
Blind from birth, I have never had the opportunity to see myself and have been completely dependent on the image I create in the eye of the observer. To date it has not been narcissistic.
There are those who assume that since I can’t see, I obviously also cannot hear. Very often people will converse with me at the top of their lungs, enunciating [each] word very carefully. Conversely, people will also often whisper, assuming that since my eyes don’t work, my ears don’t either.
For example, when I go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for assistance to the plane, he or she will invariably pick up the phone, call a ground hostess and whisper: “Hi, Jane, we’ve got a 76 here.” I have concluded that the word “blind” is not used for one of two reasons: Either they fear that if the dread word is spoken, the ticket agent’s retina will immediately detach or they are reluctant to inform me of my condition of which I may not have been previously aware.
On the other hand, others know that of [course] I can hear, but believe that I can’t talk. Often, therefore, when my wife and I go out to dinner, a waiter or waitress will ask Kit if “he would like a drink” to which I respond that “indeed he would.”
This point was graphically driven home to me while we were in England. I had been given a year’s leave of absence from my Washington Law firm to study for a diploma in law degree at Oxford University. During the year I became ill and was hospitalized. Immediately after admission, I was wheeled down to the X-ray room. Just at the door sat an elderly woman—elderly I would judge from the sound of her voice. “What is his name?” the woman asked the orderly who had been wheeling me
“What’s your name?” the orderly repeated to me.
“Harold Krents,” I replied.
“Harold Krents,” he repeated.
“When was he born?”
“When were you born?”
“November 5, 1944,” I responded.
“November 5, 1944,” The orderly intoned.
This procedure continued for approximately five minutes at which point even my saint-like- disposition deserted me.
“Look” I finally blurted out, “this is absolutely ridiculous. Okay, granted I can’t see, but it’s got to have become pretty clear to both of you that I don’t need an interpreter.”
“He says he doesn’t need an interpreter,” the orderly reported to the woman.
(16) The toughest misconception of all is the view that because I can’t see, I can’t work. I was turned down by over forty law firms because of my blindness, even though my qualifications included a cum laude degree from Harvard College and a good ranking in my Harvard Law School class.
Fortunately, this view of limitation and exclusion is beginning to change. On April 16, the Department of Labor issued regulations that mandate equal-employment opportunities for the handicapped. By and large, the business community’s response to
offering employment to the disabled has been enthusiastic.
I therefore look forward to the day, with the expectation that it is certain to come, when employers will view their handicapped workers as a little child did me years ago when my family still lived in Scarsdale.
I was playing basketball with my father in our backyard according to procedures we had developed. My father would stand beneath the hoop, shout, and I would shoot over his head at the basket attached to our garage. Our next-door neighbor, aged five, wandered over into our yard with a playmate. “He’s blind,” our neighbor whispered to her friend in a voice that could be heard distinctly by Dad and me. Dad shot and missed; I did the same. Dad hit the rim: I missed entirely: Dad shot and missed the garage entirely. “Which one is blind?” whispered back the little friend.
I would hope that in the near future when a plant manager is touring the factory with the foreman and comes upon a handicapped and nonhandicapped person working together, his comment after watching them work will be “Which one is disabled?”
|What is the author’s main purpose for writing this selection? |
|A to describe what it is like to be blind B to correct mistaken ideas about blindness |
|C to prove that blindness is not a handicap D to encourage the blind to live full lives |
|Which word best describes how the author feels when people assume he cannot hear or speak? |
|A. amused B. confused C. frustrated D. Surprised |
|3. In paragraph 3, what is the author’s purpose in including the following statement about airport ticket agents? |
|“…They fear that if the dread word is spoken, the ticket agent’s retina will immediately detach…” |
| |
|A. to use exaggeration to make his point B. to describe what often causes blindness |
|C. to explain what ticket agents really think D. to impress readers with his use of figurative language |
| |
|Which of the following best brings the author’s experience in the hospital in England alive for the reader? |
|A. first-person narration B. detailed description C. his vivid vocabulary D. his use of dialogue |
|The author most likely included the humorous anecdotes at the beginning of the selection for which of following reasons? |
|A. to entertain the reader with stories of his youth |
|B. to help the reader understand the inappropriate responses people have to others’ disabilities |
|to show the reader the injustice of policies that discriminate |
|D. to convince the reader that people with disabilities are no different than people without disabilities |
|6. According to the author, what is the greatest problem handicapped individuals face? |
|A. poor public facilities for the handicapped B. lack of equal opportunity legislation |
|incorrect ideas about the handicapped D. lack of confidence in themselves |
|In paragraph 16, what does the word misconception mean? |
|A. decision B. incorrect idea C. problem D. wrong behavior |
|What effect does the author create by his shift in tone beginning with paragraph 16? |
| |
|A. He draws attention to the serious nature of the problem he has had to learn to live with. |
|He makes fun of the people who would not consider him for a job, despite his qualifications. |
|He emphasizes the need for federal regulations for employers. |
|He contrasts typical responses of others with responses of potential employers. |
|Why did the author include the story from his childhood at the end of the selection? |
|A. to suggest that children can be smarter than many adults |
|B. to encourage blind individuals to get involved in sports |
|to reveal how his parents supported and encouraged him |
|to show how he wants others to view handicapped people |
|10. Why does the child ask her playmate, “Which one is blind”? |
|A. She does not understand blindness. B. She has never played basketball. |
|C. She cannot see the faces of the author or his dad. D. She sees no difference in how the author and his dad play. |
|Which word best describes the author’s tone at the end of the selection? |
|A. accepting B. appreciative C. hopeful D. satisfied |
Context Clues
Signal words you might see
Type of clue if this clue is being used
Definition this means, that is, or, also know as, also called, defined as
Restatement is, are, meaning, in other words
Comparison like, as, similar to, not unlike, resembling, reminiscent, similarly
Contrast unlike, but, in contrast to, different
from, instead, on the other hand, except for
Cause and Effect since, because, so, as a result, due to, thus
Example such as, especially, like, for instance, for example, including
Part I: Read the passage below. Answer the questions that follow the selection.
A Staten Island couple is suing New York City after ascertaining, in other words discovering, that their son’s brain was on exhibition, or display, at a city morgue. His parent say they had no idea his brain was purged, for instance cleansed or expunged, during an autopsy until some of the teen’s classmates spotted it floating in a cruet, like a large beaker, while on a field trip. After the incident, the city returned the brain. Unlike putting him to rest, the family disinterred their son, so they could bury him with his missing organ. A city attorney says officials are scrutinizing the family’s legal options because of someone’s oversight and disrespect, and hope to resolve the case.
1) What is the meaning of the word “ascertain”?
* learning * eliminating * reading * researching
2) Which type of clue was used to determine the answer? (use the list above)
3) What is the meaning of the word “exhibition”?
* side show * broadcast * presentation * visual aid
4) Which type of clue was used to determine the answer? (use the list above)
5) What is the meaning of the word “purged”?
* kept * expelled * removed * both expelled and removed
6) Which type of clue was used to determine the answer? (use the list above)
7) What is the meaning of the word “cruet”?
* barrel * box * coffin * all of these
8) Which type of clue was used to determine the answer? (use the list above)
9) What is the meaning of the word “disinterred”?
* exhumed * buried * exorcised * blessed
10) Which type of clue was used to determine the answer? (use the list above)
11) What is the meaning of the word “scrutinized”?
* investigated * filing * explored * both investigate and explore
12) Which type of clue was used to determine the answer? (use the list above)
Figurative Language/Literary Terms - What Do You Know?
Part One: Match the following words to their correct definition.
_____1.) Alliteration A.) Use of words to create a sensory experience or image
_____2.) Metaphor B.) Makes a comparison between two unlike things by using a
connective word—like, as, than, or resembles
_____3.) Onomatopoeia C.) Gives human qualities to an animal, thing, or concept
_____4.) Hyperbole D.) Makes a comparison between two unlike things without using
a connective word such as like or as.
_____5.) Personification E.) Figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong
emotion or create a comic effect
_____6.) Simile F.) Repetition of sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning
of words
_____7.) Imagery G.) is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is
describing
_____8.) Pun H.) The author will refer to something famous that most people
know, but he/she doesn’t fully explain it. (could be a person,
place, historical event, literature etc…)
I.) A contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality, or
between what is expected and what actually happens.
_____10.) Diction J.) a joke or play on words where a word is used to convey two
meanings at the same time
K.) The writer’s choice of words
_____12.) Allusion
_____13.) Irony
1. The atmosphere or feeling in a literary work is called the:
a. conflict
b. protagonist
c. mood
d. text features
2. Pictures, side bars, bold print, graphs, charts, and captions are examples of:
a. foreshadowing
b. text features
c. personification
d. alliteration
3. A struggle or problem in the story for the main character is the:
a. protagonist
b. metaphor
c. flashback
d. conflict
4. The main character is the:
a. dialect
b. meter
c. plot
d. protagonist
5. A prediction or hints of what will happen is called:
a. foreshadowing
b. personification
c. alliteration
d. genre
6. “Life is like a box of chocolates” is an example of:
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. meter
d. onomatopoeia
7. “My cat is a log” is an example of:
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. meter
d. onomatopoeia
8. Giving non-human objects human characteristics is called:
a. foreshadowing
b. personification
c. dialect
d. alliteration
9. When the author takes the reader back in time to a memory, he/she is using the technique called:
a. foreshadowing
b. alliteration
c. flashback
d. figurative language
10. “Bob built a brilliant boat” is an example of:
a. foreshadowing
b. simile
c. metaphor
d. alliteration
11. A form of language spoken by people in a particular region is called:
a. dialect
b. dialogue
c. fable
d. meter
12. BAM is an example of:
a. onomatopoeia
b. figurative language
c. genre
d. plot
13. When characters speak, it is called:
a. figurative language
b. dialogue
c. dialect
d. mood
14. “That was so good, I could smack my Mammie!” is an example of:
a. personification
b. alliteration
c. figurative language
d. simile
15. When, where, and the time a story takes place is called the:
a. plot
b. setting
c. resolution
d. conflict
16. When the climax or conflict is solved it is called the:
a. plot
b. setting
c. resolution
d. conflict
17. The sequence of events in a story is the:
a. setting
b. conflict
c. resolution
d. plot
Reading Selection
Read the following selection, and answer the corresponding questions for “Reading Selection 1” on your unit test.
The rain was still falling by the time he reached the little wooden shack that stood in the center of the green, fertile valley. He opened his cloak for an instant to knock at the door, not really expecting a reply.
But it opened, pulled over the roughness of the rock floor by great hairy hands.
“Come in,” a voice commanded him. “Hurry! Before the rain floods me out!”
“Thank you,” the traveler said, removing the soggy garment that covered him and squeezing out some of the water. “It’s good to find a dry place. I’ve come a long way.”
“Not many people are about in this weather,” the man told him, pulling at his beard with a quick, nervous gesture.
“I came looking for you.”
“For me? What is your name?”
“You can call me Shem. I come from beyond the mountains.”
The bearded man grunted. “I don’t know that name. What do you seek?”
Shem sat down to rest himself on a pale stone seat. “I hear talk that you have two fine unicorns here, recently brought from Africa.”
The man smiled proudly. “That is correct. They’re the only such creatures in this part of the world, and I intend to breed them and sell them as beasts of burden.”
“Oh?”
“They can do the work of strong horses, and at the same time, use their horns to defend themselves from attack.”
“True,” Shem agreed. “Very true. I…I don’t suppose you’d want to part with them…?”
“Part with them! Are you mad, man? It costs me money to bring them all the way from Africa!”
“How much would you like for them?”
The bearded man rose from his seat. “No amount, ever! Come back in two years when I’ve bred some. Until then, be gone with you!”
“I must have them, sir.”
“You must have nothing! Be gone from here now before I take a club to you!” And with those words, he took a menacing step forward.
Shem retreated out the door, back into the rain, skipping lightly over a rushing stream of water from the higher ground. The door closed on him, and he was alone. But he looked out into the fields, where a small barn-like structure stood glistening in the downpour. They would be in there; he knew it.
He made his way across the field, sometimes sinking to his ankles in puddles of muddy water. But finally, he reached the outbuilding and went in through a worn, rotten door.
Yes, they were there…Two tall and handsome beasts, very much like horses, but with longer tails and with that gleaming, twisting horn shooting straight up from the center of their foreheads. Unicorns – one of the rarest of God’s creatures!
He moved a bit closer, trying now to lure them out of the building without startling them. But there was a noise, and he turned suddenly to see the bearded man standing there, a long staff upraised in his hands.
“You try to steal them!” he shouted, lunging forward.
The staff thudded against the wall, inches from Shem’s head. “Listen, old man…”
“Die! Die, you robber!”
But Shem leaped to one side around the bearded figure of wrath and through the open doorway. Behind him, the unicorns gave a fearful snort and trampled the earth with their hoofs.
Shem kept running, away from the shack, away from the man with the staff, away from the fertile valley.
After several hours of plodding over the rain-swept hills, he came at last upon his father’s village, and he went down among the houses to the place where a handful of people had gathered.
And he saw his father standing near the base of a great wooden vessel, and he went up to his father sadly.
“Yes, my son?” the old man questioned, unrolling a long damp scroll of parchment.
“No unicorns, father.”
“No unicorns,” Noah repeated sadly, scratching out unicorns on his list. “It is too bad. They were handsome beasts…”
Textual Analysis/Reading Selection
____ 21. Refer to Reading Selection 1. The author’s main purpose in this selection is to
a. generate sympathy. c. warn readers.
b. offer an explanation. d. amuse readers.
____ 22. Refer to Reading Selection 1. What might the reader infer about the man who answered the door through the author’s use of indirect characterization in the following statement? “Not many people are about in this weather,” the man told him, pulling at his beard with a quick, nervous gesture.”
a. The man was embarrassed that a visitor
saw him when he wasn’t looking his best.
b. The man must have been guilty of a crime.
c. The man was expecting other company and wished the visitor to leave.
d. The man was distrustful of strangers.
____ 23. Refer to Reading Selection 1. What does the reader infer about the visitor through the author’s use of indirect characterization in the following statement? “Very true. I...I don’t suppose you’d want to part with them...?”
a. The visitor is reluctant to ask for the man’s prized possessions.
b. The visitor is in a huge hurry.
c. The visitor has a speech impediment.
d. The visitor is frightened of the man.
____ 24. Refer to Reading Selection 1. Based upon context clues, what is the synonym for menacing? (The word has been placed in bold lettering within the reading selection.)
a. Hesitant c. Agreeable
b. Fearful d. Threatening
____ 25. Refer to Reading Selection 1. When the authors states, “...Shem leaped...around the bearded figure of wrath
...” which figure of speech is used?
a. simile c. personification
b. metaphor d. symbol
____ 26. Refer to Reading Selection 1. The repeated reference to rain is an example of
a. foreshadowing c. setting
b. flashback d. tone
____ 27. Refer to Reading Selection 1. When the author states that “...a small barnlike structure stood glistening in the downpour...” he/she foreshadows which event?
a. the eventual end of the rain
b. the victory of the bearded man over Shem
c. the discovery of the unicorns by Shem
d. the release of the unicorns
____ 28. Refer to Reading Selection 1. The allusion in this story is
a. about unicorns
b. to Africa, the birthplace of unicorns
c. about the classic struggle between good and evil
d. to the Great Flood
____ 29. Refer to Reading Selection 1. The overall tone of this story is both
a. energetic and exciting c. spiritual and divine
b. desperate and sad d. educational and scholarly
____ 30. Refer to Reading Selection 1. Why is the bearded man’s statement, “Come back in two years when I’ve bred some...” an example of dramatic irony.
a. Both unicorns are actually female.
b. They will not be able to breed at all if they do not follow Shem.
c. Shem found the unicorns to be in poor health, so they won’t be around in two years.
d. The old man is deliberately lying and has no intention of allowing Shen to take his unicorns - ever.
____ 31. Refer to Reading Selection 1. Which of the following is the best title for this selection?
a. “The Purchase Not Made” c. “The Wet Traveler”
b. “The Selfish Sometimes Win” d. “The Last Unicorn”
Day 3
Air Conditioning by Malcolm Jones Jr.
Frank Lloyd Wright hated it. Las Vegas would not exist without it. It has been credited with everything from lowering the incidence of heart attacks to the rise of the sun belt. It has been blamed for the disappearance of the front porch and the exploding size of the federal government. Few of this century’s inventions have been so damned and praised as air conditioning. The rock band NRBQ once wrote a song called “I Love Air Conditioning,” which included the lyric “And when I’m tired, and I’m so confused/Air conditioning I will use.”
There is even a mythology of air conditioning: for years the (unfortunately) baseless tale has circulated that the big character heads—Mickey, Goofy, et al.—at Disney World and Disneyland are air-conditioned. Like the car and the television set, air conditioning has always done double duty. It is both an appliance and a social force.
People knew they wanted air conditioning long before they were able to produce a machine that could do the job. The early efforts would have made Rube Goldberg blush. The first serious attempt to build an air conditioner in the United States took place in Florida in the 1830s. Dr. John Gorrie created a system that forced air over buckets of ice suspended from the ceiling to lower the temperatures of hospital patients suffering from malaria and yellow fever. Not much progress had been made by the summer of 1881, when President James Garfield lay dying from an assassin’s bullet. Naval engineers contrived a box in which melted ice water saturated flaglike cloths over which a fan blew hot air. This could lower the room temperature by 20 degrees, but in the two months that their machine comforted the dying president, it consumed more than half a million pounds of ice.
What we would recognize as an air conditioner—a machine that cools, cleans and dehumidifies air—was not invented until 1902, when a young engineer named Willis Carrier created what he called an Apparatus for Treating Air. Carrier built his machine for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Co. in Brooklyn, N.Y., where humidity was bedeviling printers' efforts to accurately print color. Carrier used chilled coils to cool the air and lower humidity to 55 percent—or to any level desired and precisely every time. This exactness was the most wondrous aspect of the new invention. Carrier’s machine was the template from which all future air conditioners would be struck.
Printing plants, textile mills, pharmaceutical manufacturers, the occasional hospital—the first air-conditioned buildings were mostly industrial. (The idea of using Carrier’s invention merely for personal comfort lay decades in the future, although the first air-conditioned home appeared in 1914, when Charles Gates, son of the high-rolling gambler John “Bet a Million” Gates, installed a cooling system in his mansion in—of all places—Minneapolis.) Carrier’s earliest systems were enormous and expensive, as well as dangerous. The original coolant was toxic ammonia. But in 1922 Carrier achieved a double breakthrough, replacing the ammonia with a benign coolant called dielene and introducing a central compressor that made the cooling units much more compact. The biggest step forward came when Carrier sold his invention to the movies, or, more exactly, movie-theater operators.
A handful of movie palaces were air-conditioned in the early ‘20s, but the most important debut was at the Rivoli on Broadway
in New York City in 1925. Adolph Zukor himself, the head of Paramount Pictures, showed up for the opening. Willis Carrier was there, too, literally sweating it out because when the doors opened to let in the first customers, the system had just been turned on and the building was still hot. “From the wings we watched in dismay as 2,000 fans fluttered.” Carrier wrote of that night. “We felt that Mr. Zukor was watching the people instead of the picture—and saw all those waving fans.” At last cool air began flowing through the air ducts. One by one, the patrons dropped their fans into their laps. “Only a few chronic fanners persisted,” according to Carrier, “but soon they, too, ceased fanning. We had stopped them ‘cold’.”
Before long, office buildings, department stores and railroad cars got central air. In 1928 the U.S. House of Representatives got it, followed a year later by the Senate and a year after that by the White House and then the Supreme Court. But the industry’s biggest growth spurt came after World War II. The first window units appeared right after the war, and sales took off immediately, jumping from 74,000 in 1948 to 1,045,000 in 1953. The dripping box jutting out of the bedroom window joined the TV aerial on the roof as instant fixtures in the American suburban landscape.
Washington journalists have written endlessly and only half-jokingly about the effects AC has had on D.C., pointing out that the federal bureaucracy mushroomed only after air conditioning appeared on the scene to keep the city’s famously fetid summers at bay. (Federal workers used to be sent home whenever the temperature/humidity index topped 90 degrees.) But sociologists and historians have been largely silent about a much larger change: the rise of the sun belt in precisely the same decades that air conditioning became commonplace south of the Mason-Dixon line.
In the 1960s, for the first time since the Civil War, more people moved into the South
than left it. In the next decade, twice as many people moved in as departed. The South today is a busier, more crowded, more urban, more industrialized place than it was 50 years ago. It even looks different. Walk down the street of a Southern or Southwestern city at night, and there’s no one out. All you can hear is the sound of the heat pump on the side of the house; all you can see is the blue glow behind the living-room curtains. Where people once wore seersucker and linen, the shoppers of Atlanta and Houston and Phoenix now buy the same clothes people buy in Cleveland or Seattle.
With 95 percent of the houses buttoned up for air conditioning, their porches gone, the owners inside all year round, there is no longer any need to accommodate the weather. As Raymond Arsenault, a professor of history at the University of South Florida, points out, “Ask any Southerner over 30 years of age to explain why the South has changed in recent decades, and he may begin with the civil-rights movement or industrialization. But sooner or later he will come around to the subject of air conditioning. For better or worse, the air conditioner has changed the nature of Southern life.” Mostly, Arsenault suggests, by making it less Southern.
“General Electric has proved a more devastating invader than General Sherman*,” Arsenault writes. The only thing that allows us to talk about places as different as Miami and Houston and Knoxville and Tucson in the same sentence, the only thing, in fact, that allows us to entertain the notion of something called the sun belt, is that all those places are less unique, blander, if you will, than they were before air conditioning. “The modern shopping mall is the cathedral of air-conditioned culture,” says Arsenault, “and it symbolizes the placelessness of the New South.” Perhaps, but it is, at last, a cool place.
1. Which statement best illustrates the author’s argument about the significance of air conditioning?
A. Some major inventions become less important in time.
B. New inventions are often ignored by the public when they first appear.
C. Humans are often reckless in their efforts to control the environment.
D. New technology can cause dramatic change in society.
2. How is the author’s position supported by his use of chronological order?
A. The development and spread of air conditioning illustrates increasing social changes.
B. The increasing difficulty in refining the air conditioner illustrates Carrier’s frustration
C. The transition from personal to commercial use of air conditioning illustrates business control of society.
D. The political and industrial use of air conditioning illustrates cycles of popularity based on financial trends.
3. What effect is the author most likely trying to achieve in the first paragraph with the repetition of the word it?
A. confusion about the conflicting impact of air conditioning
B. anticipation for the subject of the article
C. mystery about technology whose importance is still unknown
D. doubt about the validity of his critics
4. Based on the context of paragraph 4, what does benign mean?
A. cheaper
B. fragrant
C. harmless
D. stronger
5. Why was Carrier’s sale of air conditioning to movie theater operators a major step forward in the history of air conditioning?
A. It created more widespread awareness and demand for air conditioning.
B. It showed how air conditioning could increase business.
C. It was the first time air conditioners were used to cool large spaces.
D. It allowed movie theaters to thrive in warm and humid climates.
6. According to Washington journalists, what has been the impact of air conditioning on government?
A. It has made government more productive by enhancing the working conditions.
B. It has decreased efficiency by encouraging more time spent at work.
C. It has caused more government offices to open in southern states.
D. It allowed government employees to travel to different parts of the country.
7. What is most clearly the effect of Arsenault’s allusion to General Sherman in the last paragraph?
A. to caution people about the potential drawbacks of air conditioning
B. to compare today’s air conditioned South to the way it was during the Civil War
C. to credit air conditioning with conquering the South’s heat and humidity
D. to criticize air conditioning for destroying the South’s unique cultural identity
Text Feature PURPOSE
A. Title ___To compare information visually.
B. Table of contents ___To explain the meanings of the colors and symbols on a map
C. Headings and subheadings ___To show when things happened
D. Captions and labels ___To organize information containing numbers.
E. Bold key words ___Tells us where we can find specific information on topics in the book
F. Index ___Tell us important vocabulary words
G. Glossary ___Gives definitions for important vocab in the text
H. Graph ___Tells the topic of the text
I. Diagram ___To show the parts of something
J. Chart or table ___Tell us what pictures, diagrams, and graphs are showing us
K. Map ___To show locations, routes, and events.
L. Time Line ___Tell us what the major sections of a chapter will be about
M. Map Legend ___Tells us what the major chapters of the book will be about and where they are
Text Structures
1. If you have ever looked up at the sky and thought you saw something strange – perhaps something that looked like a flying saucer – you’re not alone. Every year hundreds of people report seeing strange objects, or objects known as UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects). However, most of these UFOs turn out to be something ordinary, such as meteors, military aircraft, or weather balloons. In some cases, people even make up stories and create fake photos for publicity.
Most scientists do not believe that the planet Earth has been visited by alien beings. In fact, space exploration supports the belief that no other planet in our solar system has the technology that could send flying objects to Earth. In addition, the distance between our planet and the nearest star would make it extremely difficult for alien beings to visit Earth.
a. cause and effect
b. main idea and details
c. compare and contrast
d. sequence
2. Auditions for Fame were held Saturday from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. in the auditorium. Julie woke up early that morning to finish reading the play. At 9:30 A.M. her mother drove her to school for the audition. As she walked into the auditorium, she grew nervous, but once she saw her friends, she relaxed a bit. During auditions, Julie read a few scenes and did a monologue. At the end of auditions, Mrs. Martinez announced that callbacks would be posted outside her door on Monday.
a. compare and contrast
b. main idea and details
c. sequence
d. cause and effect
3. Last summer, there was very little rain. Because of the dry conditions, there were more forest fires than usual. People’s lawns and gardens were brown and sun-baked. Water supplies were very low, and many cities and towns put limits on how much water people could use.
a. sequence
b. cause and effect
c. main idea and details
d. problem and solution
4. Have you ever heard the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s fortune?” There are a number of stories from people who have found valuable antiques at auction sales, rummage sales, or Salvation Army resale shops. Next time you think about throwing or giving something away, perhaps you should determine its value.
a. main idea and details
b. cause and effect
c. problem and solution
d. sequence
5. Bats are important pollinators and are vital to our ecosystem; however, several species of North American bats have become endangered. Contributing to their endangerment is the fact that bats are sometimes deliberately killed by people and are also disturbed by spelunkers and tourists entering their caves. For example, caves are often vandalized when bats hibernate in the winter. Just entering a hibernation cave can result in mortality to the bat because disturbances can arouse them, requiring them to use enough stored energy that they do not survive the winter. The Gray Bat and the Indiana Bat of the Eastern and Midwestern United States, for example, are both endangered as a result of these activities.
Many bat caves now have gates that allow bats to fly through the open grating, but keep people out. This preventative measure has helped to protect important bat hibernation areas. Also, rather than killing bats that roost in buildings or block up entries, Bat Conservation International encourages the placement of bat houses nearby, which the bats tend to occupy instead.
a. problem and solution
b. compare and contrast
c. main idea and details
d. sequence
Important Words to Know
EOC Terms: Words Found in Form I Questions
Fragment – An incomplete sentence (Sentence lacking a subject or predicate)
5. Which of the following is a fragment?
12. Which of the following is a fragment?
Suggest – To remind or make someone think of something, or to hint at something
6. Which of the following suggests that the writer enjoyed the summer?
31. In “A City Remembered,” what does the simile in lines 26-28 suggest?
41. At the end of the selection, what does the dialogue suggest?
Combine – To join sentences together
7. How should sentences 1 and 2 best be combined to reduce wordiness and increase sentence variety?
18. How should sentences 14 and 15 best be combined to improve clarity?
Variety – Showing many different forms or structures of sentences
7. How should sentences 1 and 2 best be combined to reduce wordiness and increase sentence variety?
Emphasize – To stress or give importance to something
9. Which sentence should be added the final paragraph to emphasize the main idea of the selection?
26. In the middle of paragraph 30, what does the simile, “Like a child…” emphasize about the narrator?
55. In paragraph 8, what do words such as misfortune, ostracized, and disheartened emphasize?
Main Idea – What the text is mostly about
9. Which sentence should be added the final paragraph to emphasize the main idea of the selection?
34. How is the main idea of the selection reflected in its title?
42. What is the main idea of this selection?
Clarity – The quality of being clearly expressed (Clearness of expression)
14. How could sentence 5 best be rewritten to improve clarity and conciseness?
18. How should sentences 14 and 15 best be combined to improve clarity?
Conciseness – Using as few words as possible to give the necessary information (Short and clearly written)
14. How could sentence 5 best be rewritten to improve clarity and conciseness?
Indicate – To state or show an opinion, feeling or intention
19. What is the writer indicating in sentence 1 by the term rebels?
24. Which action best indicates the narrator’s desire to protect Geri’s feelings?
25. In paragraphs 23 and 24, what does Geri’s personification of animals indicate about her character?
Conclude – To end (The final or last)
20. Which would make the best concluding sentence for the selection?
Narrator – Somebody who tells a story, or the speaker of a poem
21. In what way are the narrator and turtle similar?
24. Which action best indicates the narrator’s desire to protect Geri’s feelings?
26. In the middle of paragraph 30, what does the simile, “Like a child…” emphasize about the narrator?
39. What does the narrator imply when she refers to Dr. Singh as “a chauffeur of the exotic”?
40. …the narrator writes, “Not in all the world could we think of a better one.” To what is she referring?
Symbolize – To stand for or represent something (An object representing an abstraction)
22. What do ponds symbolize in the selection?
Dialogue – The words spoken by a character in the selection
23. How does Joe’s dialogue characterize him?
41. At the end of the selection, what does the dialogue suggest?
Characterize (Character) – To represent the way a person behaves or looks (Qualities of reputation)
23. How does Joe’s dialogue characterize him?
25. In paragraphs 23 and 24, what does Geri’s personification of animals indicate about her character?
Personification – The attribution of human qualities to animals, objects, or abstract notions
25. In paragraphs 23 and 24, what does Geri’s personification of animals indicate about her character?
Simile – A comparison between two different things using “like” or “as”
26. In the middle of paragraph 30, what does the simile, “Like a child…” emphasize about the narrator?
31. In “A City Remembered,” what does the simile in lines 26-28 suggest?
Tone –The author’s attitude or view of their subject
32. Which of the following best describes the tone at the end of “A City Remembered”?
35. What is the significance of the author’s tone?
Significance (Significant) – Having importance or great meaning, or implied or intended meaning
35. What is the significance of the author’s tone?
45. Based on the selection, what would be the most significant consequence of coral reef extinction?
Summarize – To give a shortened version of something, stating its main points
36. Based on the selection, which statement best summarizes the narrator’s opinion?
54. Which statement best summarizes the author’s opinion about America and its citizens?
Opinion – The view somebody takes about an issue, based on personal judgment. (Not Fact)
36. Based on the selection, which statement best summarizes the narrator’s opinion?
54. Which statement best summarizes the author’s opinion about America and its citizens?
Setting – The place and time of the events of the selection
37. What does the description of the setting foreshadow?
Foreshadow – To indicate or suggest something that is going to happen
37. What does the description of the setting foreshadow?
Effect – An impression produced in the mind of somebody who reads something
38. What effect does the author create by including Nanda in the selection?
46. What is the effect of the statistics and research findings provided in the selection?
Imply – To make something understood without expressing it directly
39. What does the narrator imply when she refers to Dr. Singh as “a chauffeur of the exotic”?
Refer – A written comment that mentions or calls to attention somebody or something
39. What does the narrator imply when she refers to Dr. Singh as “a chauffeur of the exotic”?
40. …the narrator writes, “Not in all the world could we think of a better one.” To what is she referring?
Position – A view or opinion one has about a topic
43. What position does the author appear to take on the subject of global warming?
Eventually – In the end, after a long time
44. How can warmer waters eventually lead to corals’ deaths?
Consequence – Something that follows as a result, the relation between a result and its cause
45. Based on the selection, what would be the most significant consequence of coral reef extinction?
Purpose – The reason for which something exists, the goal, or the intended outcome
47. In paragraph 2, what is the purpose of the description of fishing techniques used in Indonesia and…?
49. What is the main purpose of this selection?
Appropriate – Suitable for the occasion or circumstances
50. What makes the selection’s title appropriate?
Alternate – To shift back and forth
53. Why does the author alternate between first and third person?
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Person Narration – Point of View of the narrator (1st-I, 2nd-You, 3rd-She, He, or It)
53. Why does the author alternate between first and third person?
From People Magazine September 13, 2004 Vol. 62 No. 11
Climbing Higher
By Thomas Fields-Meyer
Alone in the Wilderness, Aron Ralston Cheated Death by Amputating His Arm. That Was Just the Start of His Amazing Tale
• In high school, Aron Ralston earned a quirky nickname: "Hoover." Sit down to brunch with the lanky mountaineer, and it's easy to see why. At an outdoor cafe near his home in Aspen, Colo., the 28-year-old vacuums up french fries covered with Parmesan cheese, a Bloody Mary, a Dungeness crab and egg dish—then caps the meal off with a pile of pistachio ice cream. "I've eaten four large pizzas in a single sitting," he boasts between mouthfuls. His mother, Donna, still can't figure out where he stows it all on his 6'2", 175-lb. frame. "He can consume," she says. "You sit there in awe."
Whether it's eating or the adventure sports at which he excels—telemark skiing, climbing, mountain biking—Ralston goes for the gusto. Never more so than since May 2003, when he made headlines after an 800-lb. boulder crashed down on his right hand as he hiked alone in a Utah canyon. Trapped for six days, Ralston eventually freed himself—by sawing his limb off just above the wrist with a 3-in. pocketknife. Hearing the yarn is enough to make most people cringe, but Ralston is matter-of-fact about the ordeal. When strangers ask about his arm, the soft-spoken outdoorsman says simply, "I got it trapped under a boulder and cut it off." Since scattering the ashes of the amputated limb in the same canyon 6 months after his escape, Ralston, a concert pianist in college, says he hasn't mourned. "I dealt directly with what I went through," he says. "There wasn't a lot of grief left."
What has moved Ralston is the impact of his story on others. Now he's relived the experience in Between a Rock and a Hard Place, a memoir he hopes will inspire readers to overcome adversity. "There was a miracle that was enacted through me," he says of the ordeal. "It's not so impressive that I cut my arm off, but that I survived cutting my arm off."
Ralston acknowledges that luck had a lot to do with it. Out for a day of solo canyoneering on April 26, 2003, he slithered down a steep, narrow stone "slot" in the Utah desert, 120 miles from the nearest gas station. Scrambling over rocks, he loosened a boulder, which tumbled forward and pinned his hand.
A cool head—and some previous rescue training—saved his life. Subsisting on two burritos and one liter of water, Ralston fended off hypothermia during frigid desert nights. By the fourth day he had run out of provisions, and he drank his urine to keep hydrated. Rigging a pulley system with his climbing gear, he struggled in vain to budge the rock. "Twenty-four hours into it, I was sure I was going to die," he says. Taping a will with his camcorder, he asked loved ones to spread his ashes in the wilderness. ("I watched his video last summer—it took me a long time to get up the courage," says Donna, 57, who is director of a landscapers' association. "We watched it together, and we cried.")
Ralston had considered self-amputation early on—going so far as to apply an improvised tourniquet and stab his arm with his small pocketknife. But he believed the blade was too dull to cut through bone. Still, starving, dehydrated, and fading in and out of consciousness on the morning of his sixth day, he probed his wounds and discovered the flesh was rotting. Certain a growing infection would kill him, he writes, "I lash out in fury, trying to yank my forearm straight out from the sandstone handcuff, never wanting more than I do now to simply rid myself of any connection to this decomposing appendage."
In that moment Ralston realized he could snap the bones in his arm by jerking the limb sharply, "like bending a two-by-four in a table vise." Accomplishing the task, he then cut away the flesh, muscles and tendons in his arm for nearly an hour. Save for slicing through a single nerve bundle that felt "as though I [had] thrust my entire arm into a cauldron of magma," he felt more elation than pain, and never screamed. "I don't want it," he writes of how he viewed his dying limb. "It's garbage. Throw it away, Aron. Be rid of it." By noon he had freed himself, wrapped his bleeding stump in a sling, rappelled down a 65-foot canyon wall and hiked 6 miles before running into a pair of Dutch hikers. "I was trying to pace myself," he says. "I'd lost so much blood."
Airlifted first to a Utah hospital, Ralston soon underwent five operations, including two to halt a life-threatening bone infection. In one procedure, doctors grafted muscle and skin from his thighs onto the damaged arm. Those excruciating days and the weeks of depression that followed were "the low point of my life," he says. "It was like, 'I got out of the canyon for this?' "
But with physical therapy, medication and cutting-edge prosthetics (see box), he was back in the high country by September. After his experience, "a lot of people would have thought, 'That's all the reason I need not to go climbing again,' " says Ralston. "But that was the first thing I wanted to do." His mother had other ideas. "I've asked him not to do it," says Donna. "And he said, 'But Mom, you always told us to finish what we started.' "
This winter Ralston plans to complete a long-stated goal of solo summiting all of the state's 14,000-ft. peaks. Aided by prosthetic forearms, he climbed two mountains before this year's thaw. "Since the incident, his enthusiasm has done nothing but increase," says Ralston's Aspen roommate Brian Payne, 26.
Ralston has also honed his first aid skills as a member of a mountain rescue squad, learning how to perform CPR with a prosthesis. "If I detach at the wrist," he says, "I can get really good pressure to do chest compressions." "He's a good team player, tough as nails," says Hugh Zuker, president of Mountain Rescue Aspen. And he's also gotten used to an unlikely celebrity that's led to marriage proposals from strangers. But Ralston, who isn't dating at the moment, isn't ready to settle down. "He's in love with Mother Nature," says sister Sonja Ralston Elder, 24. "I don't know how a girl could compete with that."
Ralston's parents have long supported that passion since moving from Indiana to Colorado when Aron was 12. Not long after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, he quit a job at Intel in Albuquerque to move to Aspen and the mountains he loves. Says Sonja: "He was living his dream."
Although the idyll briefly turned hellish, Ralston says it gave him a mission: to help others live life to its fullest. Still stricken by phantom pain, he takes strength from strangers' letters—including one from a woman who wrote she'd stockpiled sleeping pills until reading his tale, then decided suicide wasn't an option. "My accident has given me an ability to be deep with people very quickly," he says. "Can you imagine how good it feels when a stranger walks up to you, shakes your hand and says, 'I think you're an amazing person'?"
To Save a Life, a Limb Is Sacrificed
Once I've opened up a large enough hole in my arm, about 4 inches below my wrist, I momentarily stow the knife, holding its handle in my teeth, and poke first my left forefinger and then my left thumb inside my arm.... Prodding and pinching, I can distinguish between the hard tendons and ligaments and the soft, rubbery feel of the more pliable arteries. I should avoid cutting the arteries until the end if I can help it at all, I decide.
Withdrawing my bloody fingers to the edge of my incision point, I isolate a strand of muscle between the knife and my thumb, and using the blade like a paring knife, I slice through a pinky-finger-sized filament. I repeat the action a dozen times, slipping the knife through string after string of muscle without hesitation or sound. Sort, pinch, rotate, slice.
—from Between a Rock and a Hard Place
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR DAYBOOK!
1. What do you learn about Aron Ralston through both direct characterization and indirect
characterization.
2. How does the imagery presented through the following similes and metaphor affect your
understanding of Ralston’s predicament?
“…like bending a two-by-four in a table vise…”
“…felt as though I [had] thrust my entire arm into a cauldron of magma…”
“It’s garbage.”
3. Why would some people consider it to be ironic that Ralston chose to climb again?
4. What does the scattering of the ashes of Aron’s amputated limb symbolize?
5. Why is the title of Ralston’s memoir Between a Rock and a Hard Place appropriate?
Day 4
Telephone Conversation
Wole Soyinka
The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. “Madam,” I warned,
5 “I hate a wasted journey—I am African.”
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
10 “HOW DARK?” . . . I had not misheard . . . “ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?” Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
15 By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfoundment to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—
“ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?” Revelation came.
“You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?”
20 Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wavelength adjusted,
I chose. “West African sepia”—and as an afterthought,
“Down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
25 Hard on the mouthpiece. “WHAT’S THAT?” conceding,
“DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.” “Like brunette.”
“THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?” “Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
30 Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—
Foolishly, madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment madam!”—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—“Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you rather
35 See for yourself?”
Answer the questions below.
_____ 1. When the voice on the phone asks “ARE YOU LIGHT / OR VERY DARK?” in lines 10-11, the primary concern is:
a. if the narrator is white or black
b. how dark skinned is the narrator (with the assumption that he is black)
c. if the narrator is African or not
d. it is symbolic of the narrator’s moral mindset
_____ 2. In line 5, the narrator says, “I hate a wasted journey.” This implies:
a. the narrator is an impatient person
b. the narrator has more important things to do than to meet with the landlord
personally
c. the narrator has experienced discrimination previously
d. the narrator wishes to make the most out of life
_____ 3. The tone set by the narrator in line 19 is:
a. facetious
b. inquisitive
c. incredulous
d. jaded
_____ 4. What is the effect of using all capitals for the landlady’s words?
a. it gives more importance to the landlady’s meaning
b. it points out the theme of the poem
c. it is ironic since the landlady is being fair
d. it reinforces that the landlady is being unreasonable
_____ 5. What is most likely to happen next?
a. the narrator will get the apartment
b. the narrator will make the trip to see the apartment, but will not be allowed to rent
c. the narrator will turn down the chance to rent the apartment
d. the landlady will not allow the narrator a chance to look at the apartment
Constructed Response:
In lines 28-32, the narrator describes himself in many shades of black and brown. Use at least one example from the text to show how this exemplifies the theme of this poem. Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper.
Analogy Practice
1.) BIRD : NEST ::
(A) dog : doghouse
(B) squirrel : tree
(C) beaver : dam
(D) cat : litter box
(E) book : library
2.) DALMATIAN : DOG ::
(A) oriole : bird
(B) horse : pony
(C) shark : great white
(D) ant : insect
(E) stock : savings
3.) DOCTOR : HOSPITAL ::
(A) sports fan : stadium
(B) cow : farm
(C) professor : college
(D) criminal : jail
(E) food : grocery store
4.) CUB : BEAR ::
(A) piano : orchestra
(B) puppy : dog
(C) cat : kitten
(D) eagle : predator
(E) fork : utensil
1. December is to winter as September is to _______________.
|spring |cooler |school |autumn |
2. Good is to better as cool is to _______________.
|cold |good |cooler |warm |
3. Water is to liquid as ice is to _______________.
|snow |freezing |solid |slippery |
4. Trade is to maid as cool is to _______________.
|lower |chill |neat |rule |
5. Milk is to refrigerator as ice cream is to _______________.
|flavors |scoop |frozen |freezer |
6. Fahrenheit is to Thirty-two as Celsius is to _______________.
|zero |degrees |freezing |thermometer |
7. Rain is to drop as snow is to _______________.
|flake |shovel |storm |white |
[pic]
[pic]
Define the following terms
• Central Idea
• Characterization
• Conflict
• Dialogue
• Inference
• Metaphor
• Oxymoron
• Personification
• Point of View 1st, 2nd, and different types of 3rd
• Setting
• Simile
• Theme
• alliteration
• allusion
• analogy
• flashback
• foreshadowing
• hyperbole
• imagery
• irony – dramatic, situational, verbal
• mood
• onomatopoeia
• parallel structure
• symbolism
• tone
• understatement
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