Cumulative Exam — Cumulative exam Answers

Which excerpt from ”First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban is the best example of magic realism?

Read the excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia.She considers the vagaries of sports, the happenstance of El Líder, a star pitcher in his youth, narrowly missing a baseball career in America. His wicked curveball attracted the major league scouts, and the Washington Senators were interested in signing him but changed their minds. Frustrated, El Líder went home, rested his pitching arm, and started a revolution in the mountains.Which best explains how Garcia’s word choice helps establish her voice in the excerpt?

Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban.“Lourdes, I’m back,” Jorge del Pino greets his daughter forty days after she buried him with his Panama hat, his cigars, and a bouquet of violets in a cemetery on the border of Brooklyn and Queens.His words are warm and close as a breath. Lourdes turns, expecting to find her father at her shoulder but she sees only the dusk settling on the tops of the oak trees, the pink tinge of sliding darkness. “Don’t be afraid, mi hija. Just keep walking and I’ll explain,” Jorge del Pino tells his daughter.The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones linking them as if by a flaming ribbon.Which best identifies the magic realism found in the excerpt?

Read the following scene from Trifles.COUNTY ATTORNEY (preoccupied). Is there a cat? (Mrs. Hale glances in a quick covert way at Mrs. Peters.)MRS. PETERS. Well, not now. They’re superstitious, you know. They leave. COUNTY ATTORNEY (to Sheriff Peters, continuing an interrupted conversation.) No sign at all of anyone having come from the outside. Their own rope. Now let’s go up again and go over it piece by piece. (They start upstairs.) It would have to have been someone who knew just the— (Mrs. Peters sits down. The two women sit there not looking at one another, but as if peering into something and at the same time holding back. When they talk now, it is the manner of feeling their way over strange ground, as if afraid of what they are saying, but as if they cannot help saying it.) How would an audio recording most likely convey the characters’ actions during this scene?

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. The restaurant opens for business at seven o’clock, and for the next hour or so, Elisa and the manager hold down the fort, handling all the orders. As the place starts to get busy, other employees arrive. Elisa works behind the counter. She takes orders and hands food to customers from breakfast through lunch. When she finally walks home, after seven hours of standing at a cash register, her feet hurt. She’s wiped out. She comes through the front door, flops onto the living room couch, and turns on the TV. And the next morning she gets up at 5:15 again and starts the same routine.How does the description of Elisa’s daily routine support the author’s claim that the fast food industry seeks out teenage employees?

Read the line from “Child of the Americas.”An immigrant and the daughter and granddaughter of immigrantsThe author’s word choice suggests a feeling of

Read the excerpt from Brown v. Board of Education.Reargument was largely devoted to the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.The Supreme Court studies the Fourteenth Amendment to determine

Read this claim from an argumentative essay about zoos. Zoos must improve conditions so that they can meet the health and safety needs of the animals.Which piece of evidence, if true, would best support this claim?

Read the excerpt from "Harrison Bergeron."“You been crying?” he said to Hazel. “Yup,” she said. “What about?” he said.“I forget,” she said. “Something real sad on television.”“What was it?” he said.“It’s all kind of mixed up in my mind,” said Hazel.“Forget sad things,” said George.“I always do,” said Hazel.How does this interaction between George and Hazel develop Kurt Vonnegut’s social criticism?

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. Instead of relying upon a small, stable, well-paid, and well-trained workforce, the fast food industry seeks out part-time, unskilled workers who are willing to accept low pay. Teenagers have been the perfect candidates for these jobs, not only because they are less expensive to hire than adults, but also because their youthful inexperience makes them easier to control.Which of the following choices best presents a counterclaim to the argument presented in this excerpt?

Which statement best describes why an author might choose to write a memoir over other nonfiction formats?

Read the sentence.The president of the company was attending the mandatory sales meeting.Which type of phrase or clause is underlined in the sentence?

Read this excerpt from part 5 of Zeitoun.It was a test, Zeitoun thinks. Who among us could deny that we were tested? But now look at us, he says. Every person is stronger now. Every person who was forgotten by God or country is now louder, more defiant, and more determined. They existed before, and they exist again, in the city of New Orleans and the United States of America. What assumption does the narrator make in this excerpt?

Read the excerpt from Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue.”I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.Which phrase from the excerpt uses informal English?

Imagine you are writing an ad slogan for a new type of breakfast cereal using the media technique of association. In order for the slogan to be effective, it should

Read the excerpt from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Death by Black Hole.”If you stumbled upon a black hole and found yourself falling feet-first toward its center, then as you got closer, the black hole’s force of gravity would grow astronomically. Curiously, you would not feel this force at all because, like anything in free fall, you are weightless. What you do feel, however, is something far more sinister. While you fall, the black hole’s force of gravity at your two feet, they being closer to the black hole’s center, accelerates them faster than does the weaker force of gravity at your head. The difference between the two is known officially as the tidal force, which grows precipitously as you draw nearer to the black hole’s center. For Earth, and for most cosmic places, the tidal force across the length of your body is minuscule and goes unnoticed. But in your feet-first fall toward a black hole the tidal forces are all you notice.Which sentence from the excerpt best supports the idea that falling into a black hole would be excruciatingly painful?

Read this excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban.Square by square, she searches the night skies for adversaries then scrutinizes the ocean, which is roiling with nine straight days of unseasonable April rains.What is the meaning of the underlined word?

Each paragraph of your media analysis essay should

Study the image from Art Spiegelman’s Maus.How does Spiegelman’s visual representation of the Holocaust aid with comprehension?

Read the passage from “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica.”all wanting the comfortof spoken Spanish, to gaze upon the family portraitof her plain wide face, her ample bosomresting on her plump arms, her look of maternal interestas they speak to her and each otherof their dreams and their disillusions—In this passage, the words “ample” and “plump” are