AnswersGA-Literature and Composition IIIBeat Movement Spontaneous Prose

Vietnam Literary Journalism Answers

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Which excerpt from A Rumor of War best illustrates Vietnam’s uncomfortable climate?

A
By autumn, what had begun as an adventurous expedition had turned into an exhausting, indecisive war of attrition in which we fought for no cause other than our own survival.
B
But there were no Normandies and Gettysburgs for us, no epic clashes that decided the fates of armies or nations. The war was mostly a matter of enduring weeks of expectant waiting and, at random intervals, of conducting vicious manhunts through jungles and swamps where snipers harassed us constantly and booby traps cut us down one by one.
C
The tedium was occasionally relieved by a large-scale search-and-destroy operation, but the exhilaration of riding the lead helicopter into a landing zone was usually followed by more of the same hot walking, with the mud sucking at our boots and the sun thudding against our helmets while an invisible enemy shot at us from distant tree lines.
D
Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of orgiastic violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles.
2
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Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War. Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of orgiastic violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles.In this excerpt, the author uses imagery to describe

A
the soldiers’ feelings of fear.
B
the soldiers’ feelings of relief.
C
the chaos and frenzy of war.
D
the pain and anguish of war.
3

Read the excerpt from Dispatches.I remembered the way a Phantom pilot had talked about how beautiful the surface-to-air missiles looked as they drifted up toward his plane to kill him, and remembered myself how lovely .50-caliber tracers could be, coming at you as you flew at night in a helicopter, how slow and graceful, arching up easily, a dream, so remote from anything that could harm you.Based on the sensory details, what can be inferred about the narrator’s feelings toward the airstrikes he witnessed?

A
He was fascinated by the way they looked.
B
He became drowsy from their slowness.
C
He despised them because they were destructive.
D
He feared them for their unpredictability.
4

Which sentence from Dispatches contains the best example of sensory language?

A
Sometimes you’d step from the bunker, all sense of time passing having left you, and find it dark out.
B
There would be dozens of them at once sometimes, trailing an intense smoke, dropping white-hot sparks, and it seemed as though anything caught in their range would be made still, like figures in a game of living statues.
C
Once in a while—I guess I saw it happen three or four times in all—there would be a secondary explosion, a direct hit on a supply of NVA ammunition.
D
If they did, when they did, it might not matter that you were in the best bunker in the DMZ, wouldn’t matter that you were young and had plans, that you were loved, that you were a noncombatant, an observer.
5

Read the excerpt from Dispatches. The far side of the hills around the bowl of the base was glimmering, but you could never see the source of the light, and it had the look of a city at night approached from a great distance. Flares were dropping everywhere around the fringes of the perimeter, laying a dead white light on the high ground rising from the piedmont. There would be dozens of them at once sometimes, trailing an intense smoke, dropping white-hot sparks, and it seemed as though anything caught in their range would be made still, like figures in a game of living statues. There would be the muted rush of illumination rounds, fired from 60-mm. mortars inside the wire, dropping magnesium-brilliant above the NVA trenches.The sensory details in the excerpt evoke a sense of

A
awe and wonder.
B
confusion and disgust.
C
hope and strength.
D
surprise and excitement.
6

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War.Repeatedly, I have found myself wishing that I had been the veteran of a conventional war, with dramatic campaigns and historic battles for subject matter instead of a monotonous succession of ambushes and firefights. But there were no Normandies and Gettysburgs for us, no epic clashes that decided the fates of armies or nations. The war was mostly a matter of enduring weeks of expectant waiting and, at random intervals, of conducting vicious manhunts through jungles and swamps where snipers harassed us constantly and booby traps cut us down one by one.Based on the excerpt, why might the author have titled the book A Rumor of War?

A
because the author wrote about the Vietnam War, but he did not actually fight in it
B
because many people have forgotten the events that happened during the Vietnam War
C
because the Vietnam War was fought in an especially brutal and untraditional way
D
because many of the Vietnam War stories are believed to be untrue and exaggerated
7

Which excerpt from Dispatches uses imagery to reflect the conflicting emotions that soldiers face during a war?

A
Flares were dropping everywhere around the fringes of the perimeter, laying a dead white light on the high ground rising from the piedmont.
B
It was different with the incoming at Khe Sanh. You didn’t get to watch the shells very often. You knew if you heard one, the first one, that you were safe, or at least saved. If you were still standing up and looking after that, you deserved anything that happened to you.
C
Night was when you really had the least to fear and feared the most. You could go through some very bad numbers at night.
D
No wonder everyone became a luck freak, no wonder you could wake at four in the morning some mornings and know that tomorrow it would finally happen, you could stop worrying about it now and just lie there, sweating in the dampest chill you ever felt.
8

Read the excerpt from Dispatches.Because, really, what a choice there was; what a prodigy of things to be afraid of! The moment that you understood this, really understood it, you lost your anxiety instantly. Anxiety was a luxury, a joke you had no room for once you knew the variety of deaths and mutilations the war offered.The purpose of the paradox in the excerpt is to

A
illustrate the narrator’s desire to relieve his uneasiness.
B
reinforce the physical and emotional challenges of war.
C
show that indulgences are stolen during war, not provided.
D
highlight the idea that fear can be viewed in different ways.
9

Which excerpt from Dispatches is an example of paradox?

A
And at night it was beautiful. Even the incoming was beautiful at night, beautiful and deeply dreadful.
B
One hit anywhere in the chopper would bring you back, bitten lips, white knuckles and all, and then you knew where you were.
C
At night you could lie out on some sandbags and watch the C-47’s mounted with Vulcans doing their work.
D
At night in Khe Sanh, waiting there, thinking about all of them (40,000, some said), thinking that they might really try it, could keep you up.
10

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War. The tedium was occasionally relieved by a large-scale search-and-destroy operation, but the exhilaration of riding the lead helicopter into a landing zone was usually followed by more of the same hot walking, with the mud sucking at our boots and the sun thudding against our helmets while an invisible enemy shot at us from distant tree lines. The paradox in the excerpt illustrates the idea that

A
danger could alleviate the monotony of war.
B
walking was often necessary after flying.
C
the soldiers could not see their enemies.
D
the heat was more difficult to overcome than the enemy.

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