English 11B Exam
Which sentence is written correctly?
As an enthusiastic reader, Sanjay often visits the library to check out new books.
The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. How does King conclude this claim?
NOT: A
Which statement best compares the structure of "Harlem" and "The Weary Blues"?
NOT: C
Always wear a helmet when riding a bike because riding without one is stupid. Which revision exhibits the best word choice for the underlined portion of the sentence?
riding without one is dangerous and reckless.
In the excerpt from "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," in which sentence does Hughes indicate that musicians and writers should work without any concern about judgment?
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
Excerpt 1: Some nights Zeitoun struggles to sleep. Some nights he thinks of the faces, the people who arrested him, who jailed him, who shuttled him between cages like an animal, who transported him like luggage. He thinks of the people who could not see him as a neighbor, as a countryman, as a human. Excerpt 2: For many of his clients, it took time for the insurance money to come through, for the FEMA money to appear, for any number of complications to work themselves out. But now things are moving. The city is rising again. Since Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun A. Painting Contractor LLC has restored 114 houses to their former states, or improved versions thereof. Which statement best tells how the conflict in the first excerpt is similar to the conflict in the second excerpt?
Both Zeitoun and the city of New Orleans resist defeat despite having suffered injury and injustice.
Which is the best thesis statement for an essay on the harmful effects video games have on a child's social development?
Excessive game playing can negatively affect a child's social development because they are not interacting with others in the real world.
Which sentence best describes George Bergeron's characterization in "Harrison Bergeron"?
He is a static character, because he has become dehumanized by government controls.
"You been crying?" he said to Hazel. "Yup," she said. "What about?" he said. "I forget," she said. "Something real sad on television." "What was it?" he said. "It's all kind of mixed up in my mind," said Hazel. "Forget sad things," said George. "I always do," said Hazel. How does this interaction between George and Hazel develop Kurt Vonnegut's social criticism?
It shows how technology can dehumanize and desensitize people.
An immigrant and the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants The author's word choice suggests a feeling of
connectedness
"Lourdes, I'm back," Jorge del Pino greets his daughter forty days after she buried him with his Panama hat, his cigars, and a bouquet of violets in a cemetery on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. His words are warm and close as a breath. Lourdes turns, expecting to find her father at her shoulder but she sees only the dusk settling on the tops of the oak trees, the pink tinge of sliding darkness. "Don't be afraid, mi hija. Just keep walking and I'll explain," Jorge del Pino tells his daughter. The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones linking them as if by a flaming ribbon. Which best identifies the magic realism found in the excerpt?
Lourdes's father returning to her from the dead
As we rode in the bus in the weird phosphorescent void of the Lincoln Tunnel we leaned on each other with fingers waving and yelled and talked excitedly, and I was beginning to get the bug like Dean. He was simply a youth tremendously excited with life, and though he was a con-man, he was only conning because he wanted so much to live and to get involved with people who would otherwise pay no attention to him. What does this excerpt demonstrate about the culture of the beat generation?
NOT: A
She considers the vagaries of sports, the happenstance of El Líder, a star pitcher in his youth, narrowly missing a baseball career in America. His wicked curveball attracted the major league scouts, and the Washington Senators were interested in signing him but changed their minds. Frustrated, El Líder went home, rested his pitching arm, and started a revolution in the mountains. Which best explains how Garcia's word choice helps establish her voice in the excerpt?
NOT: A
When I first walked across the tarmac of Saigon's Tansonnhut Airport on a warm evening in April, 1962, nervous that the customs officers might not accept the journalist's visa I had hurriedly obtained from the South Vietnamese consulate in Hong Kong, I believed in what my country was doing in Vietnam. With military and economic aid and a few thousand pilots and Army advisers, the United States was attempting to help the non-Communist Vietnamese build a viable and independent nation-state and defeat a Communist guerilla insurgency that would subject them to a dour tyranny. What is the author's connection to the social and political issues of his day?
NOT: A
Whereas the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities. . . . Which best describes the impact of the words "prosecution," "espionage," and "sabotage"?
NOT: A
Despite these misgivings, I do not see how we can do anything but continue to prosecute the war. We can and should limit the violence and the suffering being inflicted on the civilians as much as possible, but for whatever reasons, successive Administrations in Washington have carried the commitment in Vietnam to the point where it would be very difficult to prevent any precipitate retreat from degenerating into a rout. If the United States were to disengage from Vietnam under adverse conditions, I believe that the resulting political and psychological shockwaves might undermine our entire position in Southeast Asia. Which statement best describes the paradox in this excerpt?
NOT: B
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. The difference between the two is known officially as the tidal force, which grows precipitously as you draw nearer to the black hole's center. For Earth, and for most cosmic places, the tidal force across the length of your body is minuscule and goes unnoticed. But in your feet-first fall toward a black hole the tidal forces are all you notice. Which sentence from the excerpt best supports the idea that falling into a black hole would be excruciatingly painful?
NOT: B
She met her friends in the lobby, the bottom floor, of the hotel so that they could head over to the refreshing pool for a cool, brisk swim. Which is the best revision of this sentence?
NOT: B
The learning process at many schools is being compromised. Instead of focusing on their education, students are concerned with their appearances. Fashion choices are of higher importance than completing homework assignments and passing tests. In addition, many current clothing trends are entirely inappropriate for the school setting. School uniforms will remove these distractions and allow schools to once again become a place of learning. According to the author, what are the benefits of school uniforms?
NOT: B
This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction. These sentences articulate which philosophical concept?
NOT: B
What is meant by the term "intelligent planet" as it is used in "The Intelligent Planet"?
NOT: B
What is the speaker in "The Weary Blues" attempting to convey in his description of the scene?
NOT: B
Square by square, she searches the night skies for adversaries then scrutinizes the ocean, which is roiling with nine straight days of unseasonable April rains. What is the meaning of the underlined word?
enemies or antagonists
Why were those trains allowed to roll unhindered into Poland? Why were the tracks leading to Birkenau never bombed? I have put these questions to American presidents and generals and to high-ranking Soviet officers. Since Moscow and Washington knew what the killers were doing in the death camps, why was nothing done at least to slow down their "production"? That not a single Allied military aircraft ever tried to destroy the rail lines converging on Auschwitz remains an outrageous enigma into Poland? Why were the tracks leading to Birkenau never bombed? How does Wiesel's choice of genre prove beneficial in the excerpt?
NOT: B
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson talks about independence through his use of big words and fancy argument skills. First, Jefferson states his thesis, which makes it seem important that the colonists get independence. Next, Jefferson gives evidence against the king of England and how he mistreats the American colonies. Finally, Jefferson suggests that colonists should stop paying taxes and fight, which is the obvious answer to the colonists' problems. What is the best way for the student to revise the essay?
NOT: C
Teaching the rambunctious group of canines at the obedience school was a great deal of work, but each instructor took a respite once the dogs were placed in their individual kennels. Which word is closest in meaning to the underlined word?
NOT: C
The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation. Why does the author include these sentences?
NOT: C
But there is more bad news. All parts of your body are moving toward the same spot—the black hole's center. So while you're getting ripped apart head to toe, you will also extrude through the fabric of space and time, like toothpaste squeezed through a tube. To all the words in the English language that describe ways to die (e.g., homicide, suicide, electrocution, suffocation, starvation) we add the term "spaghettification." In this excerpt, Tyson conveys his complex ideas by
NOT: D
In "Ambush," which sentence best reflects the idea that O'Brien is more concerned with emotional truth than factual truth?
NOT: D
Progress is being made. It's so slow sometimes, so terribly so sometimes, but progress is being made. We have removed the rot, we are strengthening the foundations. There is much work to do, and we all know what needs to be done. We can only do the work, he tells Kathy, and his children, and his crew, his friends, anyone he sees. So let us get up early and stay late, and, brick by brick and block by block, let us get that work done. Which word best describes the tone of this excerpt?
NOT: D
They used to tell me I was building a dream, And so I followed the mob— When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear I was always there—right on the job. They used to tell me I was building a dream With peace and glory ahead— Based on this excerpt and your knowledge of American history, why did the stock market crash make Americans lose confidence in business?
NOT: D
Thus, in the final analysis, American strategy in Vietnam consists of creating a killing machine in the form of a highly equipped expeditionary corps and then turning this machine on the enemy in the hope that over the years enough killing will be done to force the enemy's collapse through exhaustion and despair. This strategy, although possibly the only feasible alternative open to a modern industrial power in such a situation, is of necessity brutal and heedless of many of its victims. What is the philosophical concept in this excerpt?
NOT: D
She met her friends in the lobby, the bottom floor, of the hotel so that they could head over to the refreshing pool for a cool, brisk swim. Which is the best revision of this sentence?
She met her friends in the lobby of the hotel, and they headed over to the pool for a cool, refreshing swim.
Which sentence is written correctly?
Summer produce, such as heirloom tomatoes, can be used to create delicious salads.
Lately, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as "broken" or "fractured" English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no other way to describe it other than "broken," as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. How does Tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt?
Tan discusses her mother's use of English to build the idea that a form of language can be purposeful and meaningful even if it is nonstandard.
Excerpt 1: Some nights Zeitoun struggles to sleep. Some nights he thinks of the faces, the people who arrested him, who jailed him, who shuttled him between cages like an animal, who transported him like luggage. He thinks of the people who could not see him as a neighbor, as a countryman, as a human. Excerpt 2: For many of his clients, it took time for the insurance money to come through, for the FEMA money to appear, for any number of complications to work themselves out. But now things are moving. The city is rising again. Since Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun A. Painting Contractor LLC has restored 114 houses to their former states, or improved versions thereof. Which statement best tells how the main conflict in the first excerpt is different from the main conflict in the second excerpt?
The first excerpt illustrates an internal conflict, while the second excerpt illustrates an external conflict.
I have been a nurse for twenty years. In that time, I have seen a great number of patients suffer because they did not have health insurance. One of the worst cases was a young mother of two who was diagnosed with early stage skin cancer. Because she could not afford treatment, the cancer spread from her skin to other parts of her body. By the time I saw her for the first time, the cancer had reached her brain, and she could no longer be helped. This sort of thing should not happen to anyone. A strong universal health care system could prevent instances like this from occurring. Which rhetorical appeal is used in the text, "I have been a nurse for over twenty years"?
ethos, an appeal based on the author's character
Each paragraph of your media analysis essay should
focus on one major idea that relates to your thesis.
Our school is considering mandating school uniforms next year. The student government supports school uniforms for a number of reasons. First, school uniforms save time. Students will not have to figure out what they will wear and thus will have more time to devote to their studies. They will be more focused on learning and less on appearance. Second, although there are up-front costs, uniforms will ultimately save families money. Finally, uniforms will promote a sense of equality because students are dressed the same regardless of economic status. This will encourage a greater sense of community at our school. What strategy does the author use in her choice of language to convey her message?
logic and reason
The main purpose of an argumentative essay is to
persuade readers to agree with your viewpoint.
I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling and a messy room. If it helps any, I will tell you I have always felt funny using chopsticks and my favorite food is hot dogs. Why does Okita include this description of the speaker?
to highlight the fact that the speaker is no different from any other average American girl
MRS. HALE (resentfully). I don't know as there's anything so strange, our takin' up our time with little things while we're waiting for them to get the evidence. (She sits down at the big table, smoothing out a block with decision.) I don't see as it's anything to laugh about. MRS. PETERS. (apologetically). Of course they've got awful important things on their minds. (Pulls up a chair and joins Mrs. Hale at the table.) How would an audio recording most likely convey the characters' emotions during this scene?
with a change in each character's tone of voice
