Exam 4: Achieving Coherence

Instructions: Read the passage and then answer the question(s) that follow.According to sports writer Ian Stafford, the British hold the record for winning the world's oddest competitions . In one of these bizarre events, contestants contort their faces and are judged on their ugliness. One competitor removed half his dentures and reversed the other half, rolled his eyes, and tucked his nose into his mustache and upper lip to achieve prize-winning ugliness. Another of these eccentric contests is snail racing. Opponents in this case are, of course, snails, which are placed in the center of a thirteen-inch cloth circle. The first to reach the edge of the circle wins. The race often takes four to five minutes, although the all-time champion (owned and trained by an English seven-year-old) finished the course in two minutes. Toe wrestling, bog snorkeling, worm charming ¾ the British have emerged as unconquered rivals in all of these so-called sports. Perhaps you think that sports writer Ian Stafford should win first prize in the Biggest Liar in the World Competition. No, every one of these outlandish games exists. You can check them all out on the Internet. What synonym refers to the subject of this passage (in italics)?

Instructions: Read the passage and then answer the question(s) that follow.According to sports writer Ian Stafford, the British hold the record for winning the world's oddest competitions . In one of these bizarre events, contestants contort their faces and are judged on their ugliness. One competitor removed half his dentures and reversed the other half, rolled his eyes, and tucked his nose into his mustache and upper lip to achieve prize-winning ugliness. Another of these eccentric contests is snail racing. Opponents in this case are, of course, snails, which are placed in the center of a thirteen-inch cloth circle. The first to reach the edge of the circle wins. The race often takes four to five minutes, although the all-time champion (owned and trained by an English seven-year-old) finished the course in two minutes. Toe wrestling, bog snorkeling, worm charming ¾ the British have emerged as unconquered rivals in all of these so-called sports. Perhaps you think that sports writer Ian Stafford should win first prize in the Biggest Liar in the World Competition. No, every one of these outlandish games exists. You can check them all out on the Internet. What pronoun refers to the subject of this passage?

Instructions: Each topic sentence below is followed by supporting details. Select the letter of the answer that arranges each group of details according to space order. Describe a skyscraper. ____ 150 hotel rooms take up the fifteenth through thirtieth floors ____ offices on floors 2-14 ____ on the ground floor, shops and restaurants ____ condominiums occupying the top eighteen floors ____ at the very top, rooftop penthouses

Instructions: Each topic sentence below is followed by supporting details. Select the letter of the answer that arranges each group of details according to space order. Describe a gift. ____ white rectangular box ____ big blue bow ____ flannel nightgown with Minnie Mouse design ____ white tissue paper, the innermost wrapping ____ flowered wrapping paper

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the letter of the correct response.The cross is, of course, most often associated with Christianity. However, it was also used by the Assyrians to represent their sky god, Anu, and by the Chinese to represent the earth. The symbol appears in Egyptian paintings, too; gods are often shown holding the ankh, a cross topped with a loop, which symbolized immortality. When Hernan Cortés and his Spanish troops invaded Mexico in 1519, they found the cross in native temples there, but the image represented the gods Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl. The Celtic cross, which predates Christianity, symbolized fertility. Which of the following is a synonym used to refer to the subject of the paragraph?

Instructions: Select the letter of the answer that arranges the ideas that develop each of the topic sentences below in their order of importance. Begin with the most important (or largest, most severe, most surprising) and continue to the least important. On January 2, the Waltons returned to find that their home had been robbed. ____ The DVD player was gone. ____ A jar with about $20 in change was nowhere to be found. ____ A video game worth $40 had been taken. ____ Mrs. Walton's diamond ring was missing. ____ Two cans of noodle soup had been filched.

Instructions: For the following question(s), select the letter of the answer that arranges each set of sentences in logical time order. The first sentence is the topic sentence in each set. Long before the English permanently colonized Virginia in 1607, both the French and Spanish had set up colonies in the New World. ____ The first permanent Spanish settlement was finally established in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, forty-two years before the English arrived in Jamestown. ____ Long before Jamestown, in 1526, the Spanish created, in what is now Georgia, the colony of San Miguel de Guadalupe. ____ The French colonized Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Florida, in 1564, but it was destroyed by the Spanish a year later. ____ In 1562, the French established a colony at Port Royal, in what is now South Carolina.

Instructions: For the following question(s), select the letter of the answer that arranges each set of sentences in logical time order. The first sentence is the topic sentence in each set. Creating a blog, or personal online journal, is relatively easy. ____ Once your blog is created, post new material every day, but wait until you have posted a month's worth of entries before you begin telling people about it. ____ First of all, choose the type of blog you want to create by picking a focus, such as one of your areas of expertise or some type of current event that fascinates you. ____ After selecting a topic on which to focus, go to a simple blog creation site, such as Blogger.com, and follow the directions there to create your blog. ____ When you have a month's worth of postings, tell your friends to visit your site and begin leaving links to your blog at other blogs you enjoy reading.

Instructions: Number the sentences 1, 2, 3, and so on, as if you were preparing to write a paragraph. ____ She started her new work with the poor by teaching the street children of Calcutta arithmetic and reading. ____ Mother Teresa was rightly and lovingly named the "Saint of the Gutters." ____ After several years at the school, she decided that her calling lay with the poor. ____ After her efforts in India, she aided relief agencies in Lebanon and Ethiopia, caring for the displaced and the starving. ____ With help from local authorities, she opened and staffed free clinics in the worst sections of Calcutta. ____ Soon she realized that what these poor people needed most was adequate medical facilities. ____ She began her career working at a Catholic school for the wealthy in Calcutta. Select the letter of the answer that lists this set of sentences in logical order.

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the letter of the correct response.When Lewis and Clark made their way through what is now North Dakota, the Shoshone Indian woman named Sacajawea joined the team of explorers. Because the expedition was traveling with a Native American, other tribes did not attack the group. In fact, one tribe even supplied horses to help the explorers and their interpreter cross the Rocky Mountains. This invaluable team member taught the men how to find medicine and food in the wilderness and once even saved the records of the journey when a canoe overturned during a storm. She reached the Pacific Ocean with Lewis and Clark in 1805. Her fame eventually spread; one of the best-known monuments to her is a statue in Portland, Oregon. Which of the following is a synonym used to refer to the subject of the paragraph?

Instructions: Select the letter of the answer that arranges the ideas that develop each of the topic sentences below in their order of importance. Begin with the most important (or largest, most severe, most surprising) and continue to the least important. For three reasons, motorists should not exceed the posted speed limit. ____ At highway speeds, driving too fast can lower gas mileage by as much as 33 percent, resulting in higher gasoline bills. ____ People who drive the speed limit are less likely to cause or be involved in traffic accidents that injure and kill. ____ Driving the speed limit will eliminate the worry of getting a speeding ticket and having to pay hundreds of dollars in fines and court costs.

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the letter of the correct response.The cross is, of course, most often associated with Christianity. However, it was also used by the Assyrians to represent their sky god, Anu, and by the Chinese to represent the earth. The symbol appears in Egyptian paintings, too; gods are often shown holding the ankh, a cross topped with a loop, which symbolized immortality. When Hernan Cortés and his Spanish troops invaded Mexico in 1519, they found the cross in native temples there, but the image represented the gods Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl. The Celtic cross, which predates Christianity, symbolized fertility. Which of the following is a synonym used to refer to the subject of the paragraph?

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the letter of the correct response.When Lewis and Clark made their way through what is now North Dakota, the Shoshone Indian woman named Sacajawea joined the team of explorers. Because the expedition was traveling with a Native American, other tribes did not attack the group. In fact, one tribe even supplied horses to help the explorers and their interpreter cross the Rocky Mountains. This invaluable team member taught the men how to find medicine and food in the wilderness and once even saved the records of the journey when a canoe overturned during a storm. She reached the Pacific Ocean with Lewis and Clark in 1805. Her fame eventually spread; one of the best-known monuments to her is a statue in Portland, Oregon. Which of the following is a pronoun used to refer to the subject of the paragraph?

Instructions: Number the sentences 1, 2, 3, and so on, as if you were preparing to write a paragraph. The apartment needed work before the new tenants could move in. ____ The handles on the kitchen cabinets were loose. ____ Every room needed plastering and painting. ____ The living room and bedroom rugs needed deep cleaning. ____ Two closet doors hung off the hinges. What type of order did you use to arrange the sentences above?

Instructions: Each topic sentence below is followed by supporting details. Select the letter of the answer that arranges each group of details according to space order. Describe a person. ____ intense brown eyes ____ narrow hips ____ broad shoulders ____ two-inch scar on right cheek ____ big feet ____ rumpled sandy-colored hair