Reading/ Language Arts Praxis

Read the passage below and use it to answer the questions that follow. 1Thanks to the internet, I was able to find a car with great speed. 2Reading about the options available and to take virtual test drives were two of my favorite features. 3Online shopping is definitely your best option if you're in the market for a new car.

"Thanks to the internet, I was able to quickly find a car."

Which of the following is not a pragmatics issue affecting communication?

. An English-language-learner often confuses listeners with his incorrect diction.

Read the excerpt below from White Fang by Jack London (1906) and answer the question(s) that follow. (1) Once, lying awake, he heard a strange sound in the white wall. (2) He did not know that it was a wolverine, standing outside, all a-tremble with its own daring, and cautiously scenting out the contents of the cave. (3) The cub knew only that the sniff was strange, a something unclassified, therefore unknown and terrible - for the unknown was one of the chief elements that went into the making of fear. (4) The hair bristled up on the grey cub's back, but it bristled silently. (5) How was he to know that this thing that sniffed was a thing at which to bristle? (6) It was not born of any knowledge of his, yet it was the visible expression of the fear that was in him, and for which in this own life, there was no accounting. (7) But fear was accompanied by another instinct - that of concealment. (8) The cub was in a frenzy of terror, yet he lay without movement or sound, frozen, petrified into immobility, to all appearances dead. (9) His mother, coming home, growled, as she smelt the wolverine's track, and bounded into the cave and licked and nuzzled him with undue vehemence of affection. (10) And the cub felt that somehow he had escaped a great hurt. 1. Which of the above sentences provides the best example of potential foreshadowing by the author? 2. Which of the following best describes the point of view from which the excerpt above is written? 3. Which of the following words would best characterize the theme explored by the author in the above passage?

1. Sentence 10 2. Omniscient third-person narration 3. Fear

1Pete's an expert scrounger. 2His eyes are sharp, and he's always on the lookout for a salable piece of goods, even if he can only get a nickel for it. 3One night, we're sitting in a jungle near Sacramento, trying to figure out whether to go north for the grapes, or south for the grapes. 4They're all over California, you know, and they pay pretty well. 5Pete, as usual, is out looking, and pretty soon he comes back into camp with this thing in his hand. 6He handles it like it was hot, but he's pleased he's found it, because he hopes to merchandise it. 7So he walks up to me, and says, "Hey, Eddie. What'll you gimme for this, huh?" --Edward G. Robles, See?, Project Guttenberg 2009 1.) It can be inferred from the author's description of Pete, that the speaker regards Pete as 2.) Which of the following literary elements is not employed by the author?

1.) An accomplice who can be useful. 2.) Use of multiple character perspectives.

Read the following excerpt from Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush", and then answer the two questions that follow. (1) I leant upon a coppice gate (2) When Frost was spectre-gray, (3) And Winter's dregs made desolate (4) The weakening eye of day (5) The tangled bine-stems scored the sky (6) Like strings of broken lyres, (7) And all mankind that haunted nigh (8) Had sought their household fires. Q 1: Which of the above lines provide an example of a slant rhyme? Q 2: Which of the following best describes the rhyme scheme in the stanza above?

1.) Lines 1 and 3 2.) ABABCDCD

It was now high day, cloudless, and very hot. The valley was as clear as in a picture. About half a mile up the water was a camp of red-coats; a big fire blazed in their midst, at which some were cooking; and nearby, on the top of a rock about as high as ours, there stood a sentry, with the sun sparkling on his arms. All the way down along the riverside were posted other sentries; here near together, there more widely scattered; some planted like the first, on places of command, some on the ground level and marching and counter-marching, so as to meet half way. Higher up the glen. Where the ground was more open, the chain of posts was continued by horse-soldiers, whom we could see in the distance riding to and fro. Lower down, the infantry continued; but as the stream was suddenly swollen by the confluence of a larger one, they were more widely set, and only watched the fords and stepping-stones. --Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, 1886 1.) The above text can best be classified as which of the following? 2.) Which of the following best describes the setting of the above passage?

1.) Prose 2.) A rocky countryside

1With its warm weather, sunshine, and dozens of tourist attractions, California draws thousands of visitors from all over the world. 2While cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco often take center stage, many of the state's smaller towns also present wonderful opportunities for adventure, fun, and relaxation. 3One great small-town tourist stop is Oak Glen, nestled at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains. 4Rooted in a tradition of apple growing, Oak Glen offers visitors a chance to pick their own fruit or buy pies, cobblers and candied apples at numerous stores throughout this charming hillside community. 5Music, hayrides, and even a petting zoo, make this a great destination for clean air and family fun. 1.) Which of the following would best be described as the topic sentence of the passage above? 2.)Which of the following sentences contains two independent clauses?

1.) Sentence 3 2.) The building was tall; its height was over five hundred feet.

One of the most unsettling recent public health trends has been rising tobacco use among teenagers. In 1991, 14 percent of eighth graders, 21 percent of tenth graders, and 28 percent of 12th graders smoked. By 1996, those percentages had risen to 21 percent of eighth graders, 30 percent of tenth graders, and 34 percent of twelfth graders. What is most infuriating is that tobacco companies have geared their marketing toward children. Our nation was shocked several months ago to read about tobacco companies' documents detailing their plans to market their products to children. They showed that when industry officials marketed tobacco products to "young adults, they were referring to children as young as 13." [And] their strategy worked. In the first four years that Camel ads featured the cartoon character Joe Camel, smokers under 18 who preferred Camels rose from less than 1 percent to as much as 30 percent of the market. Some studies even show that six-year-olds are as familiar with Joe Camel as they are with Mickey Mouse. --Hon. John Stephen Horn (CA), 1998 1.) Which of the following best describes the writer's pattern of organization in the opening two paragraphs of the passage? 2.) Which of the following would be classified as an imperative sentence?

1.) Statistical evidence followed by the main idea. 2.)Keep your flashlight with you at all times.

Read the excerpt below from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven", then answer questions 10 and 11 that follow. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door- Only this, and nothing more." Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore- For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore- Nameless here for evermore. 1.) The poem makes extensive use of which two structural devices? 2.)The narrator in the poem could be considered ____________.

1.) internal rhyme and alliteration 2.) unreliable and haunted by loss

Read the excerpt below from the article "Art in the Eye of Beholding Bureaucrats", appearing on Spencer Speaks (www.spencerspeaks.com) the Weblog of former Denver Post and Chicago Tribune columnist Jim Spencer. Then answer the questions that follow. 1It's been more than three months since Mike Mahaney had to worry about graffiti scarring the sides of his shop on South Broadway. 2The taggers stopped painting Mahaney's Headed West store in April. 3They stopped because he hired some artists to paint a mural of Alice in Wonderland on one side of the store. 4Paintings of Jerry Garcia, Bob Marley, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin cover another side. 5In a metro area like Denver, where graffiti is not only an eyesore but a predictor of gang activity, substituting art for vandalism might seem like a good thing. 6Yet Englewood officials are prosecuting Mahaney for doing just that. 7"I'll plead not guilty," Mahaney said of his scheduled August 22 appearance for what the city claims are sign code violations. 1.) Which of the above sentence(s) most strongly suggest(s) that this is an opinion/editorial column? 2.) Using MLA format, how would you cite the above article as a source in the bibliography of an academic research paper?

1.)Sentences 5 and 6 2.) Spencer, Jim. "Art in the Eye of Beholding Bureaucrats." Spencer Speaks 3 August 2007. http://www.spencerspeaks.com

Read the sentence below and answer the question that follows. The teacher returned the homework after she noticed the error. The above sentence would be classified as which of the following?

A complex sentence

Which of the following is not a clear example of how semantics has changed over time?

A father reads a book to his son about America's "guerilla warfare tactics" in the Revolutionary War, but the son thinks he meant "gorilla warfare tactics

What is the main idea of the following passage? "Sunday mornings my grandfather presided at his church. And every Sunday afternoon, the family ate chicken. The preacher had to have his Sunday chicken. He was served chicken, but I got chicken feet. Once I left my grandparents' home to play professional baseball, I never ate chicken again. I also didn't attend church until my career was over."

A young man rebels against his upbringing.

In the sentence, "I ran quickly to get out of the rain," the word "quickly" would be considered which of the following?

An adverb

Which of the following would not be classified as an alphabetically-based language?

Chinese

In which of the following sentences is the underlined word used correctly?

David was arrested by the police for possession of illicit drugs.

Put the stages of writing development into the correct chronological order.

Drawing, Scribbling, Producing letter like forms, Writing letter sequences, Spelling phonetically, Spelling conventionally

During which of the following phases of the writing process should a student examine the organizational structure of his essay?

Editing

The word "democracy" is derived from the Greek language. This is an example of what?

Etymology

A student writes a paper for their science class attempting to explain the life cycle of a bluebird. The paper would best be classified as what genre of writing?

Expository

Miss Caron creates a list of ten words and then asks her student to tell her the opposite of each one. Given this method of instruction, which of the following skills is Miss Caron most likely interested in measuring?

Expressive skills

The sentence, "He liked to play basketball and riding horses," suffers from which of the following usage errors?

Faulty parallelism

According to the Common Core standards for language progressive skills, what is the earliest grade in which a student would be expected to produce complete sentences, recognizing and correcting inappropriate fragments and run-ons?

Grade 4

Which of the following skills would not necessarily be associated with a metacognitive reader?

Highly-developed word recognition ability

Which of the following is a valid teaching strategy for letter-sound correspondence?

Lower case letters are taught before upper case letters.

When reading a passage, a student recognizes an error in the text. This would best be described as an example of what?

Metacognition

Which of the following is not a feature of the Common Core standards for argumentative writing?

Organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.

A student has begun to recognize text in larger units, develop broader word recognition, and utilize decoding skills with fluency. These are all indicators that the student has entered which phase of literacy development?

Orthographic phase

A three-year-old mistakenly says "I go-ed" instead of "I went". This is an example of which of the following?

Over-regularization

Which of the following is not considered plagiarism?

Paraphrasing and mentioning the source

The underlined section in the sentence that follows is an example of what type of usage error? One of Charles Dickens' most marked characteristics is the extraordinary wealth and richness of his invention.

Redundancy

Which of the following is the best explanation of how primary sources and secondary sources differ?

Secondary sources are based on primary sources.

Miss Link spends the day going over a list of words with her class of new readers. Given that the list includes words such as he, me, she, got, hot, not, keep, sleep, and three, it is likely that she is attempting to familiarize her students with which of the following linguistic concepts?

Sight Words

Which of the following sentences does not adhere to correct capitalization rules?

Some studies even show that six-year-olds are as familiar with Joe camel as they are with Mickey mouse.

An ELL instructor has her students work with magnetic letters in an attempt to improve their spelling skills. This would be an example of which of the following word-recognition approaches?

Tactile / kinesthetic activities

Which of the following is not considered one of the four key elements to good listening?

Taking notes on what is said.

Most languages are similar in which respect?

The basic principles of phrase structure (i.e. subject/predicate)

In which of the following sentences is the underlined word used correctly?

The lobbyists were able to effect radical changes in the economic policy.

What is the key difference between a novel and the movie version of the novel?

The movie is an interpretation of the novel by the director, script writers, and actors.

Which of the following is not a stage associated with the acquisition of a new spoken language?

The orthographic stage

If a teacher emphasizes reading immersion techniques to help familiarize her students with the irregularities in English spellings, she is utilizing which of the following literacy approaches?

The whole language approach

Which of the following is not true about rhetorical questions?

They are meant to be answered by the audience after the speaker has finished.

What would most likely explain a child's development of print awareness at home before they have started school?

They've had multiple exposures to text within their environment

When listening, which of the following actions is important when attempting to evaluate what has been said by the speaker?

Thinking about what you hear. Asking questions about what you don't understand. Coming to a thoughtful conclusion about what was said.

Which of the following would qualify as an example of "exceptional" language development for a three-year-old child?

Understanding the use of metaphors

Which of the following would not be considered a complete sentence?

Working far into the night in an effort to salvage her little boat.

Which of the following is not considered a prewriting strategy?

copy editing

Anaphora, the repetition of a certain phrase in rhetorical speech, is most effective for:

creating a feeling of building excitement or importance.

A reader infers that the author of an article is biased. This is an example of which of the following?

critical comprehension

In the phrase "the massive green dinosaur" what would be considered the head word?

dinosaur

Which of the following would not be considered a proper example of correct syllabication?

do-zen

A recipe from a cookbook would be considered which type of writing?

expository

A _____________ speech is pre-planned with an outline but not written out.

extemporaneous

Which of the following is not typically found in Native American folk tales?

extended metaphors and complex plot structures

What is the author's point of view? "You cannot rely on a name. The dessert named napoleon was not invented by Napoleon Bonaparte. Rather, it was named in his honor. Brassiere did not invent a form of woman's undergarments. He only marketed them. Pythagoras was probably not the first person to discover the relationship between the sides of a right triangle. He is merely the author of the oldest reference."

insightful

When great writers break the "rules of effective writing," these deviations are typically done _____________.

intentionally and with purpose

A 5-year-old child becomes confused when his father rolls his eyes and says "that guy was really helpful" following an argument with an unhelpful store clerk. The child's confusion is most likely due to:

lack of understanding of the role of pragmatics in interpreting meaning

An individual who speaks a language historically related to English may have an advantage in learning English as a second language because _______.

many words and roots are likely to have similar spellings and meanings

Websites that allow children to easily create short stories and publish them online are called ___________.

online story-makers

An advertisement would best be described as an example of which of the following types of text?

persuasive text

Which of the following is considered the best predictor of a child's success in learning to read?

phonemic awareness and understanding of letters

The process of deriving meaning from text through application of what the reader already knows, the reader's ability to decipher the text, and the context of the passage is known as _______.

reading comprehension

The syllable "ick" in the word "stick" is an example of which of the following?

rime

A teacher shows a class cards with various words and reads them aloud, pronouncing certain written units distinctly. For example: nobody = "no/bo/dy" saxophone = "sax/o/phone" elementary = "el/em/en/ta/ry" This exercise is an example of ________.

syllabication

A child says the phrase "I hungry." This can be considered an example of which of the following?

telegraphic speech

The idea that, in English, words are made up of letters that approximate the sounds heard when we speak these words is called _____________.

the alphabetic principle

At which of the following stages of literacy development would a child first be able to start using phonemic awareness to decode unknown words?

the late alphabetic stage

Clues to a word's connotative meanings can usually be found in all of the following except _______.

the presence of blends

It is most important to take control of your surroundings and minimize audience interaction when you are speaking _________.

to a large audience

An opera singer holds a note for 10 seconds. The sound she is making employs a ________.

vowel