Cumulative Exam Answers

Which of these are most important for readers to consider when forming an opinion based on a biography?

One of the challenges John Roebling faced during the designing of the Brooklyn Bridge was

Read the passages.Passage A: Birds make great pets. They are easy to take care of, and they fill your home with beautiful music. Birds are fun to watch. And because they are always in their cages, you can watch them whenever you like. Cleaning a bird cage is no party, but all pets need to be cleaned up after.Passage B: Birds make great pets. They are easy to take care of. They fill your home with beautiful music. Birds are fun to watch. They are always in their cages. You can watch them whenever you like. Cleaning a bird cage is not a lot of fun, but all pets need to be cleaned up after.Passage C: Cats make great pets. They are easy to love and care for. All you have to do is feed them and play with them. They may not fetch a ball, but they will play with a string or chase a toy mouse. Cats are also smart and cuddly. Passage D: Cats make great pets. That is because they are as easy as pie to care for. All you have to do is feed them. They bathe and walk themselves. Cats are also as smart as whips and as cuddly as newborn babies. Cats are the best!

Read the excerpt from Immigrant Kids, by Russell Freedman.When their ship docked at the Hudson River pier, the immigrants had numbered identity tags pinned to their clothing. Then they were herded onto special ferryboats that carried them to Ellis Island. Officials hurried them along, shouting "Quick! Run! Hurry!" in half a dozen languages.

In a text, a fact is a piece of information that

Read "Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen.I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,And did He stoop to quibble could tell whyThe little buried mole continues blind, Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,Make plain the reason tortured TantalusIs baited by the fickle fruit, declare If merely brute caprice dooms SisyphusTo struggle up a never-ending stair. Inscrutable His ways are, and immune To catechism by a mind too strewn With petty cares to slightly understand What awful brain compels His awful hand. Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!

Read the excerpt from "Object Lesson, Part 2."He leaned against Louise's desk, forcing himself to relax.It was these "simple" problems. Nothing big and important like murder, blackmail, bank robbery. A miserable seven dollars lifted by a teenage delinquent in an overcrowded classroom . . .He thought furiously.Let the bell ring at 9:35 and the boy strut out of Miss Carpenter's room undetected, with his loot, and he would send up a howl like a wolf cub over his first kill.

Which phrase signals a compare-and-contrast text structure?

Read the excerpt from "Bone Detective," by Lorraine Jean Hopping.Diane made a rubber silicone mold of the impression. Then, she made a sturdy wax cast of the mold and sent it to a metalworks company. The foundry workers coated the wax mold with plaster and put it in an industrial oven. The wax melted off, leaving a plaster shell. The workers poured melted bronze into the shell, and the metal cooled and hardened into a bronze tiger tongue.Diane’s casts of the tongue and paw allowed zoo visitors to share her amazing experience. People felt the roughness of the big cat’s tongue and spread a hand inside the palm of its giant paw. This, she decided, was one of the coolest things I have ever done. She savored the moment, knowing that far graver matters were always just a phone call away.

Read Devin's brainstorming table.

Read the excerpt from "The Eagle” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Which sentence is an example of using a precise pronoun?

Which question might a reader ask to get a better understanding of Paul Moschella's experience on Ellis Island as described in the "Ellis Island Oral History Project" excerpt?

Read the excerpt from "Bone Detective."Diane’s favorite “casting character” of all time wasn’t dead, famous, or even human. In March 1997, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., asked her to make casts of the paw and tongue of a living tiger for an exhibit. Tiger paws have sharp claws, and the tongue is sandwiched between four long, meat-ripping canine teeth. But Diane wasn’t worried about her safety, since the big cat would be tranquilized. She was more worried about the tiger. She didn’t want to harm the animal in any way. She didn’t know—yet—how to cast the body part of a living animal, especially one so large and . . . predatory.

Read the excerpt from "On Becoming an Inventor" by Dean Kamen.I had just finished making a complicated piece of equipment that was to be used for a show opening in Philadelphia called "Fiorello." When the machine arrived they had trouble wiring it, so instead of going off to college that morning for an orientation, I spent several days at the theater fixing my light/sound equipment. The show received poor reviews, except for the mention by one reviewer of the "special effects," which, he wrote, were "outstanding."

Choose the sentence fragment.

Read the excerpt from "On Becoming an Inventor" by Dean Kamen.From this well-stocked basement came a whole new set of really neat projects. My younger brother, Mitch, and his friends, as well as some of my own friends, would come after school to help. At sixteen I was now a young entrepreneur, paying them for their help. I was surprised by the number of orders I was getting for more and more equipment. Soon I didn't have time to build and design new things. Giving over this work to other kids gave me more time to do what I wanted to do. This went on after school and all summer long.

Which would add the most credibility to a book about children’s immigration experiences?

Based on the events of "Object Lesson, Part 1," what will most likely happen in “Object Lesson, Part 2”?

Read this line from "Empire State Building."I am ten million bricks of unshakable faith.

Read the excerpt from "Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge" by Hon. Seth Low, Mayor of the City of Brooklyn.This Bridge is a landway over the water, connecting two cities bearing to each other relations in some respects similar. It is the function of such works to bless "both him that gives and him that takes." The development of the West has not belittled, but has enlarged New York, and Brooklyn will grow by reason of this Bridge, not at New York's expense, but to her permanent advantage. The Brooklyn of 1900 can hardly be guessed at from the city of to-day. The hand of Time is a mighty hand. To those who are privileged to live in sight of this noble structure every line of it should be eloquent with inspiration. Courage, enterprise, skill, faith, endurance--these are the qualities which have made the great Bridge, and these are the qualities which will make our city great and our people great. God grant they never may be lacking in our midst. Gentlemen of the Trustees, in accepting the Bridge at your hands, I thank you warmly in Brooklyn's name for your manifold and arduous labors.

Read the information in the brainstorming table.Which piece of information best completes the table?

Read the following sentence.The student council was not ready to put the issue of vending machines to a vote, so they decided to table the issue for now.

Vanessa is writing a story about a girl who wants to go to a friend's pool party but is afraid of the water. In order to satisfy readers, what should Vanessa include in the story's conclusion?

Which sentence uses a commonly misspelled word incorrectly?