Practice Exam Answers

Which best explains the inconsistency in writing used in this paragraph?

Read the excerpts from “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” and “Speaking Arabic.” My friend had concluded that if he took his language and culture out of his poetry, he stood a better chance of receiving a fellowship. He took out his native language, the poetic patois of our reality, the rich mixture of Spanish, English, pachuco and street talk which we know so well. In other words, he took the tortillas out of his poetry, which is to say he took the soul out of his poetry. At a neighborhood fair in Texas, somewhere between the German Oom-pah Sausage Stand and the Mexican Gorditas booth, I overheard a young man say to his friend, “I wish I had a heritage. Sometimes I feel—so lonely for one.” And the tall American trees were dangling their thick branches right down over his head. Which best states how the structures of both excerpts support ideas about cultural diversity?

Now, review the prompt for hints about the audience. Who will read your writing?

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. Read the excerpt from Billy Collins’s “Man Listening to Disc.” the only true point of view, is full of the hope that he, the hub of the cosmos with his hair blown sideways, will eventually make it all the way downtown. Which choice best describes the differing views Tyson and Collins present of humanity?

Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue." Those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as “Even though Tom was ______, Mary thought he was _____.” And the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, “Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was ridiculous.” Well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. So I never did well on tests like that. Which information from the excerpt best supports the inference that achievement tests ignore imagination as an element of language ability?

Read the excerpt from Flannery O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.” “A body and a spirit,” he repeated. “The body, lady, is like a house: it don’t go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like a automobile: always on the move, always . . .” This excerpt contains

Read the lines from "Harlem." Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Read the lines from "The Weary Blues." He did a lazy sway . . . He did a lazy sway. Which best describes the relationship between these lines?

Read the excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. How does King support this claim?

Read this excerpt from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close . I knew I could never let Mom hear the messages, because protecting her is one of my most important raisons d’être , so what I did was I took Dad’s emergency money from on top of his dresser, and I went to the Radio Shack on Amsterdam. It was on a TV there that I saw that the first building had fallen. I bought the exact same phone and ran home and recorded our greeting from the first phone onto it. I wrapped up the old phone in the scarf that Grandma was never able to finish because of my privacy, and I put that in a grocery bag, and I put that in a box, and I put that in another box, and I put that under a bunch of stuff in my closet, like my jewelry workbench and albums of foreign currencies. Which word best describes the tone of this excerpt?

Which is the best definition of the term “magic realism”?

Which strategy is the best way to improve the written expression in a redundant sentence?

Read the sentence from an argumentative essay about chemical waste. The chemical waste produced by factories is out of hand, and factory owners should get in trouble. Which revision offers the most improvement in word choice?

Use the following definitions to answer the question. emerge: 1. (verb) to come up, appear immerge: 1. (verb) to sink into, immerse Which sentence contains correct word usage?

Read the excerpt from part 1 of Zeitoun . The leaks began at about two or three. The first was in the corner of Nademah’s bedroom. Zeitoun went down to the garage and retrieved a forty-gallon garbage can to catch the water. Another leak opened a few minutes later, this one in the upstairs hallway. Zeitoun found another garbage can. A window in the master bedroom broke just after three o’clock, as if a brick had been thrown through the glass. Zeitoun gathered the shards and stuffed the opening with a pillow. Another leak opened in Safiya and Aisha’s room. He found another, bigger garbage can. What conclusion can readers draw about this character vs.nature conflict?

Jack Kerouac demonstrates the influence of American blues and jazz music in “The Railroad Earth” through his use of

Read this excerpt from Diane Di Prima’s poem "Buddhist New Year Song." I could see the planet from which we had come I could not remember (then) what our purpose was but remembered the name Mahakala, in the dawn in the dawn confronted Shiva, the cold light revealed the “mindborn” worlds How do the allusions exemplify Beat poetry?

Read the excerpt from "As Debris Piles Up, Americans Are Skeptical Enough Will Be Done to Limit Space Junk.” Circling the Earth at speeds around 10 times faster than a bullet, the kinetic energy of even miniscule objects can pack a punch strong enough to puncture the hull of a space station or damage solar panels and communication arrays. As more satellites are launched into space, the probability of collisions grows. There are, however, preventive measures that could mitigate the problem. Based on the signal words, which is the best prediction about the rest of the paragraph?

Read the excerpt from “In Response to Executive Order 9066.” I tell her she’s going bald. She tells me I copy on tests. We’re best friends. Read the excerpt from “Mericans.” “ Girl . We can’t play with a girl. ” Girl . It’s my brother’s favorite insult now instead of “sissy.” “You girl ,” they yell at each other. “You throw that ball like a girl .” Which theme best describes the two passages?

Read the excerpt from Brown v. Board of Education . Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment . Why does the Supreme Court conclude that the plaintiffs have been denied their rights?

Which accurately describes a contrast between Wiesel’s All Rivers Run to the Sea and Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus ?