Writing an Essay to Compare the Presentation of Ideas across Genres — Cumulative exam Answers

Read the passage from "Cinderella" by the Brothers Grimm.The girl went out to her mother's grave every day and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white cloth over the grave, and when the spring sun had removed it again, the man took himself another wife.This wife brought two daughters into the house with her. They were beautiful, with fair faces, but evil and dark hearts. Times soon grew very bad for the poor stepchild. . . ."Why should that stupid goose sit in the parlor with us?" they said. "If she wants to eat bread, then she will have to earn it. Out with this kitchen maid!"They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes. "Just look at the proud princess! How decked out she is!" they shouted and laughed as they led her into the kitchen.Now it happened that the king proclaimed a festival that was to last three days. All the beautiful young girls in the land were invited, so that his son could select a bride for himself. When the two stepsisters heard that they too had been invited, they were in high spirits.They called Cinderella, saying, "Comb our hair for us. Brush our shoes and fasten our buckles. We are going to the festival at the king's castle."Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go to the dance with them. She begged her stepmother to allow her to go."You, Cinderella?" she said. "You, all covered with dust and dirt, and you want to go to the festival? You have neither clothes nor shoes, and yet you want to dance!"However, because Cinderella kept asking, the stepmother finally said, "I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for you. If you can pick them out again in two hours, then you may go with us."

Read the passage.The woman in the last apartment down the hall was somewhat of a misanthrope, according to most people in Keira's building. She almost never came out of her apartment, but when she did, she answered hellos with a glare, as if she were being insulted. Keira was sure that she could find a way to get to know the woman, if only she could figure out how to invite herself into the woman's apartment to chat.Based on inferences, what is the most likely meaning of misanthrope?

Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale."All of the tales in the first edition bear the marks of their diverse storytellers who believed in the magic, superstitions, and miraculous transformations of the tales. It may be difficult for us to understand why this is the case, but for the storytellers and writers of these tales, the stories contained truths about the living conditions of their times. The tales in the first edition were collected not from peasants, as is commonly believed, but mainly from literate people whom the Grimms came to know quite well. Evidence shows that these people often obtained their tales from illiterate or anonymous informants. Even if they did not know their informants, the Grimms came to trust almost everyone who contributed to their collection. It is this mutual trust that marks the tales as something special and endows them with a certain humanity, what Germans call Menschlichkeit, and it is this mutual trust among folklorists in the nineteenth century that marks it as the golden age of folk and fairy tales. The tales in the first edition set a certain standard that collectors began to follow and still follow even today.

Read the excerpt from chapter 7 of Night.Pressed tightly against one another, in an effort to resist the cold, our heads empty and heavy, our brains a whirlwind of decaying memories. Our minds numb with indifference.

Read the excerpt from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!O anything, of nothing first create!O heavy lightness! serious vanity!Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!Still-waking sleep, that is not what it isThis love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Read the passage.The headmistress of the boarding school was a buttoned-up, austere woman with a tightly wound, slate-gray bun at the top of her head and clunky black shoes on her feet. She made sure that our uniforms were complete at inspection every morning, and if one of us dared to wear a warmer pair of socks than the thin, oatmeal-colored ones we were issued, there would be trouble.What does the use of the word austere imply?

Read the sentences.Focused on helping his neighbors, Mark began rebuilding after the storm. He organized a team of volunteers after a local hardware store began delivering donated supplies. To watch the town come back to life was incredible.

Which paragraphs from the excerpt best support the conclusion that the author’s primary purpose is to teach a lesson? Select two options.

Which quotations from "The Crab That Played with the Sea" convey a comic tone? Select two options.

Read the excerpt from "Children of the Drug Wars."The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees recently interviewed 404 children who had arrived in the United States from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico; 58 percent said their primary reason for leaving was violence. (A similar survey in 2006, of Central American children coming into Mexico, found that only 13 percent were fleeing violence.) They aren’t just going to the United States: Less conflicted countries in Central America had a 712 percent increase in asylum claims between 2008 and 2013.Read the excerpt from Enrique’s Journey.Enrique allows himself to doze only on trains farther north, where the gangsters no longer control the tops of the trains. There, he jams his body into the crevice on top of a hopper, next to the trapdoors used to fill the car. Or he waits until the train rounds a curve, giving him a good view of all of the cars. He spots a boxcar with its door open. When the train slows, he jumps off and races to the boxcar, jumping inside for a quick nap.

Read the excerpt from "Children of the Drug Wars."He also asked Congress to grant powers that could eliminate legal protections for children from Central America in order to expedite removals, a change that Republicans in Congress have also advocated.This would allow life-or-death decisions to be made within hours by Homeland Security officials, even though studies have shown that border patrol agents fail to adequately screen Mexican children to see if they are being sexually exploited by traffickers or fear persecution, as the agents are supposed to do. Why would they start asking Central American children key questions needed to prove refugee status?

Which archetypes best describe Antigone? Select two options.

Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale."This first edition is wholly unlike the so-called definitive edition of 1857. In the process of publishing seven different editions over forty years, the Grimms made vast changes in the contents and style. The stories in the first edition are closer to the oral tradition than the tales of the final, which can be regarded more as a literary collection, because Wilhelm, the younger brother, continually honed the tales so that they would resonate with a growing literary public. Their books would become second in popularity only to the Bible in German-speaking lands. By the twentieth century, they would become the most famous collection of folk and fairy tales in the western world.

In this passage, the author suggests that cruelty can occur when people face horrible conditions. Which evidence best supports this viewpoint? Select two options.

What qualities of the tragic heroine do both of these passages reveal? Select three options.

Read the excerpt from chapter 8 of The Travels of Marco Polo and study the map.The city stands at the mouth or entrance of the gulf of Kalhat, so that no ship can enter or leave the gulf except by leave of its rulers. The malik of this city thus has a powerful hold over the sultan of Kerman, to whom he is subject. For sometimes the sultan imposes some due on the malik of Hormuz or one of his brethren, and they refuse to pay it, and the sultan sends an army to enforce payment.

Which quotations from chapter 7 of Night convey an atmosphere of panic? Select two options.

Which sentences from the texts best provide evidence to support this idea? Select three options.

Read the excerpt from Mohini's essay about the Grimm brothers.When the Grimm brothers first published their collection of folk tales, they stuck to one rule: they wanted to save stories from the past, which had only been spread by word of mouth. They wanted to use details from the changing lives of the average German family to show how the German culture evolved. They also wanted to show how storytelling makes strong connections in a community and is the sign of a civilized people. Their collection of tales was a gift to the German people. They had no idea that these tales would take on a life of their own, becoming a standard source for folklorists from other nations and ensuring their popularity throughout the world to this day.

Which event is part of the rising action in "Little Snow White"?