Practice Exam Answers

How do the images help the reader understand how to perform the final steps of the procedure? Choose two correct answers.

Read the passage and study the image from Sugar Changed the World . Expand Image Caption: Based on drawings from around 7000 BCE, this image depicts rock climbers finding honey in cliffs. This is the earliest known form of honey collecting. (Eva Crane, World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting ). . . . A rock drawing in Spain from about 7000 B.C. shows a man who has climbed a hillside, found a crevice holding a hive, and is reaching in to grab the honey. Indeed, a lucky wanderer in just about any part of Europe, Africa, or Asia that wasn’t covered with ice could stumble on a hive and—at the risk of some stings—come away with a treat. (People in the Americas had no bees, so used syrups made from maple trees, agave cactus, or mashed fruits for their sweeteners.) Then someone figured out that you didn't have to be lucky. You could hollow out a log near bees, and they would make it their home. You could "keep" bees—you didn't have to find them. How does the image support the text?

Read the passage from chapter 1 of Animal Farm . Last of all came the cat, who looked round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover; there she purred contentedly throughout Major's speech without listening to a word of what he was saying. What does this excerpt tell us most about the cat?

Read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130.” What is the central idea of the second quatrain?

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World . On a plantation there were large groups of workers—between fifty and several hundred. The mill was right next to the crop, so that growing and grinding took place in the same spot. And all the work was governed by extremely tight, rigid discipline. The Muslims began to put together the rules for this new kind of farming. Both they and the Christians experimented with using their slaves to run the plantations. At first many of the slaves working sugar plantations in the Mediterranean were Russians, or anyone captured in war. But even all this careful organization did not solve the second problem with sugar. What evidence from the passage best supports the inference that making sugar was difficult? Choose two correct answers.

Read the passage from chapter 2 of Animal Farm . But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uneasy for some time past, set up a loud lowing. They had not been milked for twenty-four hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows fairly successfully, their trotters being well adapted to this task. Soon there were five buckets of frothing creamy milk at which many of the animals looked with considerable interest. "What is going to happen to all that milk?” said someone. "Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in our mash,” said one of the hens. "Never mind the milk, comrades!” cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. "That will be attended to. The harvest is more important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes. Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting.” So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared. Which quotation from this passage is the best example of foreshadowing?

Read the excerpt from chapter 7 of Night . A piece fell into our wagon. I decided not to move. Anyway, I knew that I would not be strong enough to fight off dozens of violent men! I saw, not far from me, an old man dragging himself on all fours. He had just detached himself from the struggling mob. He was holding one hand to his heart. At first I thought he had received a blow to his chest. Then I understood: he was hiding a piece of bread under his shirt. With lightning speed he pulled it out and put it to his mouth. His eyes lit up, a smile, like a grimace, illuminated his ashen face. And was immediately extinguished. A shadow had lain down beside him. And this shadow threw itself over him. Stunned by the blows, the old man was crying: "Meir, my little Meir! Don't you recognize me . . . You're killing your father . . . I have bread . . . for you too . . . for you too . . .” In this passage, the author suggests that cruelty can occur when people face horrible conditions. Which evidence best supports this viewpoint? Choose two correct answers.

Which fact best supports the city planner’s opinion?

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. No one interviewed the Africans who labored in the sugar fields to ask them about their hard labor. They were meant to work and die. But there is one way we can hear them. The Africans invented music, dances, and songs that carry on the pulse, the beat, of their lives. (To hear examples of music from the sugar lands, go to www.sugarchangedtheworld.com.) In Puerto Rico, bomba is a form of music and dance that the sugar workers invented. It is a kind of conversation in rhythm involving a woman, the man dancing with her, and the drummers who watch her and find the right rhythm for her movements. A master coming by would see dancing—no words of anger or rebellion. But as she moved and swayed, as the drummers "spoke" back in their beats, the workers were saying that they were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die. Instead, they were alive and speaking to one another in movements and sounds that were all their own. In Cuba, sugar workers told their stories in the words and sounds of rumba. As one song said, "The boss does not want me to play the drum.” Overseers feared the slaves were using drums to send messages and spread thoughts of rebellion. Similarly, in Brazil there is a dance called Maculelê, which some trace to the sugar fields. Maculelê is danced with sticks or sugar cane stalks, and it looks very much like training for combat. On many of the sugar islands, Africans created similar dances in which people spin, jump, and seem to menace each other, then, just on the beat, click sticks and twirl away. The dances were a way of imitating warfare without actually defying the master. Which text evidence best supports the authors' claim and purpose that enslaved people were more than mercilessly treated workers?

Read the excerpt from chapter 6 of Animal Farm . Afterwards Squealer made a round of the farm and set the animals’ minds at rest. He assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball. A few animals still felt faintly doubtful, but Squealer asked them shrewdly, "Are you certain that this is not something that you have dreamed, comrades? Have you any record of such a resolution? Is it written down anywhere?" Which statement best explains how the pacing in this passage helps reveal Squealer’s character?

Read the passage from Animal Farm. Suddenly, early in the spring, an alarming thing was discovered. Snowball was secretly frequenting the farm by night! The animals were so disturbed that they could hardly sleep in their stalls. Every night, it was said, he came creeping in under cover of darkness and performed all kinds of mischief. He stole the corn, he upset the milk-pails, he broke the eggs, he trampled the seedbeds, he gnawed the bark off the fruit trees. Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that Snowball had come in the night and done it, and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal. The cows declared unanimously that Snowball crept into their stalls and milked them in their sleep. The rats, which had been troublesome that winter, were also said to be in league with Snowball. Which statement about the passage best reflects the influence of a totalitarian dictator?

Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale." Though brusque and raw, the Grimms’ tales of the first edition still resonate with us today because they indicate how we can transform ourselves and our conditions to live in a better world. As philologists, collectors, translators, researchers, editors, and mediators, the Grimms worked in the hope that their tales would benefit us in unimaginable ways, and, indeed, it is this hope that can still be felt when we read and listen to their tales. Which statement best explains the structure of this passage?

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World . The end of slavery was a great step for human rights. But what did it mean on the sugar plantations—which had depended on extremely cheap labor to keep up with the twenty-four-hour cycle from harvest to mill? In 1836, the same John Gladstone whose sugar estate had exhibited the chained body of the slave leader Quamina wrote to a shipping company. Gladstone asked it to provide a hundred workers (the slang name was "coolies") from India to labor on his plantations. Gladstone's first ships, the Whitby , carrying 249 passengers, and the Hesperus , carrying 244, sailed for Demerara in 1838. What evidence do the authors include to support the central idea that the sugar plantations' cheap labor source changed from enslaved people to indentured Indians?

Read the excerpt from chapter 10 of Animal Farm . But the luxuries of which Snowball had once taught the animals to dream, the stalls with electric light and hot and cold water, and the three-day week, were no longer talked about. Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally. How does Orwell use irony in this excerpt?

Study the cartoon More Beaches Reported with Unhealthy Contaminants by Don Landgren Jr. Expand Image © Don Landgren – USA TODAY NETWORK. How does the cartoonist use an analogy to express his viewpoint in this cartoon?

A student is writing a conclusion for a research-based expository essay on the possibility of exploring and inhabiting Mars. What should he include in his conclusion? Choose two correct answers.

Read the sentence. Will you pick up the dog's toys in the yard, please? What is the mood of this sentence?

Study the poster created during World War II. The poster advertises war savings stamps, which were sold to citizens to raise war revenue. Expand Image How does the poster best demonstrate the use of the glittering generalities technique?

How can a causal relationship affect the plot of a story?

What does the comprehension strategy of clarifying involve?

Read the example sentence and study the chart of word parts. Javed constantly tries to aggrandize his family, always depicting them as heroes. Word Part Definition agr filed or country ag to do grand great, powerful -ize make or treat in a certain way What is the definition of aggrandize ?

What can a writer describe about two characters to help develop their personalities?

Which central ideas are developed in chapters 3 and 4 of Animal Farm ? Choose two correct answers.

Read the excerpt from "The Story of a Warrior Queen." Then these cruel, wicked men laughed at her [Boadicea]. And because she was a woman and had, they thought, no one to protect her, they beat her with rods and were rude to her daughters. But although the Romans were clever, they sometimes did stupid things. They thought very little of their own women, and they did not understand that many of the women of Britain were as brave and as wise as the men, and quite as difficult to conquer. What qualities of the villain support the universal theme that women are as capable as men? Choose two correct answers.

Read the excerpt from "The Three Questions" by Leo Tolstoy. All the answers being different, the King agreed with none of them, and gave the reward to none. But still wishing to find the right answers to his questions, he decided to consult a hermit, widely renowned for his wisdom. The hermit lived in a wood which he never quitted, and he received none but common folk. So the King put on simple clothes, and before reaching the hermit's cell dismounted from his horse, and, leaving his body-guard behind, went on alone. When the King approached, the hermit was digging the ground in front of his hut. Seeing the King, he greeted him and went on digging. The hermit was frail and weak, and each time he stuck his spade into the ground and turned a little earth, he breathed heavily. The King went up to him and said: "I have come to you, wise hermit, to ask you to answer three questions: How can I learn to do the right thing at the right time? Who are the people I most need, and to whom should I, therefore, pay more attention than to the rest? And, what affairs are the most important, and need my first attention?" The hermit listened to the King, but answered nothing. He just spat on his hand and recommenced digging. "You are tired," said the King, "let me take the spade and work awhile for you." Which paragraphs from the excerpt best support the conclusion that the author’s primary purpose is to teach a lesson? Choose two correct answers.

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

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World . In the 1930s, reporters spread out across the American South to capture the voices of history. Some African Americans who had been born as slaves were still alive, and could describe how they had lived sixty years earlier. Through their words we can finally begin to hear about sugar slavery from those who lived it. Ellen Betts, who grew up as a slave on a sugar plantation in Louisiana, recalled that they worked "hour in, hour out, the sugar cane fields sure stretch from one end of the earth to the other." Ceceil George remembered that she "come up in hard times—slavery times." "Every body worked, young, an ole’, if yo’ could carry two or three sugar cane yo’ worked. Sunday, Monday, it all de same . . . it like a heathen part o’ de country." She meant that in other states slaves got Sunday off to worship God. Not in Louisiana: There, sugar was god, and work was the only religion. How do the historical details in this passage support the authors' claim?

Read the excerpt from Persepolis . Expand Image Which elements does the author use most to develop the central idea of these panels?

Read the passage from Animal Farm . "Boxer!" cried Clover in a terrible voice. "Boxer! Get out! Get out quickly! They're taking you to your death!" All the animals took up the cry of "Get out, Boxer, get out!" But the van was already gathering speed and drawing away from them. It was uncertain whether Boxer had understood what Clover had said. But a moment later his face disappeared from the window and there was the sound of a tremendous drumming of hoofs inside the van. He was trying to kick his way out. The time had been when a few kicks from Boxer's hoofs would have smashed the van to matchwood. But alas! his strength had left him; and in a few moments the sound of drumming hoofs grew fainter and died away. In desperation the animals began appealing to the two horses which drew the van to stop. "Comrades, comrades!" they shouted. "Don't take your own brother to his death!" But the stupid brutes, too ignorant to realise what was happening, merely set back their ears and quickened their pace. Boxer's face did not reappear at the window. Too late, someone thought of racing ahead and shutting the five-barred gate; but in another moment the van was through it and rapidly disappearing down the road. Boxer was never seen again. Which statement best expresses the theme of the passage?

Read the excerpt from Enrique’s Journey. The train passes into northern Chiapas . Enrique sees men with hoes tending their corn and women inside their kitchens patting tortillas into shape. Cowboys ride past and smile. Fieldworkers wave their machetes and cheer the migrants on: " Qué bueno! " Mountains draw closer . Plantain fields soften into cow pastures . Enrique’s train slows to a crawl. Monarch butterflies flutter alongside, overtaking his car . How do the underlined phrases support the author’s purpose?