INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
to accompany
FROM IDEA TO ESSAY
A Rhetoric, Reader, and Handbook
Eleventh Edition
Jo Ray McCuen
Glendale Community College
and
Anthony C. Winkler
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Boston
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
New York
Contents
Part One: Comprehension Quizzes on Readings
Chapter Eight: Narration Quizzes
Chapter Nine: Description Quizzes
Chapter Ten: Example Quizzes
Chapter Eleven: Definition Quizzes
Chapter Twelve: Comparison/ Contrast Quizzes
Chapter Thirteen: Process Quizzes
Chapter Fourteen: Classification/ Division Quizzes
Chapter Fifteen: Causal Analysis Quizzes
Chapter Sixteen: Argumentation Quizzes
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15
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29
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43
50
57
Part Two: Answers to Comprehension Quizzes on Readings and
Exercises
Chapter Four: The Sentence
Chapter Five: The Paragraph
Chapter Six: Planning and Organizing the Essay
Chapter Seven: Drafting, Revising, and Style
Chapter Eight: Narration Answers
Chapter Nine: Description Answers
Chapter Ten: Example Answers
Chapter Eleven: Definition Answers
Chapter Twelve: Comparison/ Contrast Answers
Chapter Thirteen: Process Answers
Chapter Fourteen: Classification/ Division Answers
Chapter Fifteen: Causal Analysis Answers
Chapter Sixteen: Argumentation Answers
Chapter Nineteen: Writing the Research paper
Chapter Twenty: Grammar Fundamentals
Chapter Twenty-One: Correcting Common Errors
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Preface
This Instructor’s Manual contains answers to all the questions and nonself-graded exercises in From Idea to Essay: A Reader, Rhetoric, and
Handbook, Eleventh Edition. Although most of the exercises have one correct
answer, a few of the Questions on Meaning and Technique are designed to
evoke argument among the students and are therefore subject to several
interpretive answers. These we have indicated with the expression, “Allow for
open discussion.” In the handbook section, some exercises may have more
than one acceptable solution. In such cases, the solutions provided serve as
examples of appropriate student responses. References to pages in the main
text are reproduced here where necessary.
For each of the professional selections in Chapters 8 through 16, this guide
provides a simple, short multiple-choice quiz that may be used by the
instructor to determine whether students have actually read the essay. In this
edition of the manual, these quizzes are grouped together and featured first for
easy access to the instructor. Each is printed on a separate sheet and may be
reproduced and magnified with a copier. Answers to the quizzes are given in
Part Two of this manual.
Possible uses for the Instructor’s Manual are numerous. The teacher can
use the exercises and questions to test the students' mastery of the chapter,
referring to the answers to facilitate marking. Or, the teacher may wish to
reproduce the answers to selected chapters and distribute these to the students
for self-testing.
JO RAY MCCUEN
ANTHONY C. WINKLER
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PART ONE: COMPREHENSION QUIZZES
ON READINGS
Chapters 8 through 16
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Narration
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Chapter Eight Narration
1
The Code
Richard T. Gill
QUIZ
1. What incident first caused the narrator to question his religious faith?
_____ a. the divorce of his parents
_____ b. his unanswered prayer for a new car
_____ c. the death of his brother
_____ d. the amputation of his leg
2. Why did the narrator's father become angry with the aunts?
_____ a. because they were cooking too much food
_____ b. because they kept referring to the dead brother as a saint
_____ c. because they were singing too loudly
_____ d. because they were constantly quarreling
3. What major figure of World War II did the father most admire?
_____ a. Winston Churchill
_____ b. Franklin D. Roosevelt
_____ c. Charles de Gaulle
_____ d. Joseph Stalin
4. Where was the narrator when his father had a second heart attack?
_____ a. at home with the mother and aunts
_____ b. in a college dormitory
_____ c. vacationing in Hawaii
_____ d. on his way to Japan for the army
5. Why did the narrator want to beg his father's forgiveness?
_____ a. because he had not gone to college
_____ b. because he did not give his father the comfort of religion
_____ c. because he had not promised to take care of his mother
_____ d. because the narrator had always hated the father’s mistress
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Comprehension Quizzes—Narration
2
Richard Cory
Edwin Arlington Robinson
QUIZ
1. The Richard Cory of the poem is
_____ a. dull but well-meaning.
_____ b. exceptionally glamorous.
_____ c. mean and power hungry.
_____ d. scholarly.
2. The “we” in the poem
_____ a. despise Richard Cory.
_____ b. pity Richard Cory.
_____ c. gang up on Richard Cory.
_____ d. envy Richard Cory.
3. One calm summer night, Richard Cory
_____ a. puts a bullet through his head.
_____ b. disappears forever.
_____ c. gives all of his money to the poor.
_____ d. admits that he is miserable and lonely.
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Chapter Eight Narration
3
A Gift of Laughter
Allan Sherman
QUIZ
1. What gift was the son trying to give his father?
_____ a. a football
_____ b. a fruit bowl
_____ c. an erector set
_____ d. a drawing of his father
2. Why was the son trying to give his father a gift?
_____ a. because it was Hanukkah
_____ b. because his father's birthday was coming up
_____ c. because the son had gotten bad grades
_____ d. because he wanted his allowance increased
3. What was the name of the tough kid in the father's neighborhood?
_____ a. Gudgie
_____ b. Biff
_____ c. Spike
_____ d. Harry
4. What does the narrator say was the worst part about crying?
______ a. catching his breath
______ b. hiding his tears
______ c. feeling silly
______ d. trying to stop
5. What did the grandmother say about the narrator's gift?
_____ a. that anything from a child was beautiful
_____ b. that he misunderstood her
_____ c. that the color did not match the furniture
_____ d. that she did not know how he could afford it
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Comprehension Quizzes—Narration
4
Excerpt from Night
Elie Wiesel
QUIZ
1. What old familiar fear did the author admit to having?
_____ a. that his mother would not keep up
_____ b. that he would lose his father
_____ c. that he would not find his sister
_____ d. that he would have nowhere to sleep
2. What no longer made an impression on the prisoners?
_____ a. the bad food
_____ b. the brutality of the guards
_____ c. the coarseness of the other inmates
_____ d. the sight of the crematory
3. What was the author's father stricken with?
_____ a. heart failure
_____ b. syphilis
_____ c. malaria
_____ d. dysentery
4. What did the author's father try to tell him?
_____ a. where the family's money and gold were buried
_____ b. how to escape the camp
_____ c. what medicine to take for the author's illness
_____ d. where the author's mother was hiding
5. How did the father's neighbors treat him?
_____a. they tried to help him.
_____ b. they beat him.
_____ c. they ignored him.
_____ d. they read scripture to him.
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Chapter Eight Narration
In Another Country
Ernest Hemingway
QUIZ
1. Where did the men find themselves every afternoon?
_____a. on the firing range
_____b. at the commissary
_____c. in the hospital
_____d. in church
2. What sport did the narrator play before the war?
_____a. ping-pong
_____b. basketball
_____c. soccer
_____d. football
3. Why did the man who had lost his nose in the war receive no medal?
_____a. He had been a spy against his country.
_____b. He had not been in the war long enough to earn a medal.
_____c. He refused a medal offered to him.
_____d. He wanted a gold medal, not a bronze one.
4. Why did the major insist that soldiers in a war should not marry?
_____a. Because he must not lose everything
_____b. Because a wife keeps a soldier from doing his best
_____c. Because a bachelor can have more fun than a married man
_____d. Because the army does not pay enough to keep a family
5. What did the major learn when he made his phone call?
_____a. He learned that the war was over.
_____b. He learned that his hand would need radiation treatments.
_____c. He learned that his wife had died.
_____d. He learned that his wife was pregnant.
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Comprehension Quizzes—Narration
6
The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe
QUIZ
1. Which of his senses does the narrator say was especially acute?
_____ a. his sense of taste
_____ b. his sense of smell
_____ c. his sense of vision
_____ d. his sense of hearing
2. Why did the narrator want to kill the old man?
_____ a. to steal the old man's money
_____ b. to revenge the old man’s insults
_____ c. to do away with the old man's eye
_____ d. to avoid having to pay the old man rent
3. What lantern did the narrator use to break into the old man's room?
_____ a. a ship's lantern
_____ b. a storm lantern
_____ c. a dark lantern
_____ d. a farmer's lantern
4. How did the narrator kill the old man?
_____ a. he threw the bed on top of him.
_____ b. he stabbed him to death.
_____ c. he shot him.
_____ d. he threw him out the window.
5. What did the narrator do with the old man’s body?
_____ a. he cut it up and buried it under the floorboards.
_____ b. he buried it in the garden.
_____ c. he hid it in the attic.
_____ d. he threw it in the river.
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CHAPTER NINE
Description
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8
Comprehension Quizzes—Description
The Lament
Anton Chekhov
QUIZ
1.
During what time of year does the story take place?
______ a. summer
______ b. winter
______ c. fall
______ d. spring
2.
What does the central character do for a living?
______ a. drives a cab
______ b. runs a farm
______ c. makes shoes
______ d. facets diamonds
3.
One of the men to address Iona impatiently is a
______ a. diabetic.
______ b. quadriplegic.
______ c. lunatic.
______ d. hunchback.
4.
What is on Iona’s mind all during the story?
______ a. the death of his son
______ b. the marriage of his daughter
______ c. the illness of his wife
______ d. the impending Russian Revolution
5.
To whom does Iona end up confiding his troubles?
______ a. his clients
______ b. his wife
______ c. his horse
______ d. his crucifix
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Chapter Eight Description
9
Coats
Jane Kenyon
QUIZ
1. What was the man outside the hospital carrying?
______ a. an umbrella
______ b. a bouquet
______ c. a hat
______ d. a woman's coat
2. What could the man’s sunglasses not conceal?
______ a. his wet face and bafflement
______ b. his guilty looks
______ c. his leering face
______ d. his smug expression
3. How was the weather that particular day?
______ a. rainy
______ b. foggy
______ c. it had just snowed.
______ d. fair and mild
4. What did the man do with his own coat?
______ a. he threw it in the garbage can.
______ b. he pawned it.
______ c. he gave it to a nearby panhandler.
______ d. he zipped it up on him.
5. What does the poem call the weather?
______ a. grim
______ b. a mockery
______ c. an ironic comment
______ d. a political statement
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10
Comprehension Quizzes—Description
Mma Ramotswe Thinks about the Land
Alexander McCall Smith
QUIZ
1. In what continent does Mma Ramotswe live?
_____a. Asia
_____b. South America
_____c. Australia
_____d. Africa
2. What is described as “a slither of golden red ball”?
_____a. The sunrise
_____b. The mango blossoms
_____c. The banks of the Red River
_____d. Mma Ramotswe’s tiny van
3. Who leaped out of the bushes at the side of the road?
_____a. a lion
_____b. a hunter with a gun
_____c. a man who tried to flag down Mma Ramotswe
_____d. one of the local missionaries
4. Name the desert Mma Ramotswe had visited as a young girl.
_____a. Palm Desert
_____b. Lybia
_____c. Saudi Arabia
_____d. Kalahari
5. What were the tokoloshes?
_____a. supernatural beings
_____b. a nearby tribe
_____c. shoes worn in rain weather
_____d. birds of prey
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Chapter Eight Description
11
The Monster
Deems Taylor
QUIZ
1. The monster of the essay is
_____ a. Ludwig van Beethoven.
_____ b. Johann Sebastian Bach.
_____ c. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
_____ d. Richard Wagner.
2. The monster’s main character trait was supreme
_____ a. conceit.
_____ b. generosity.
______ c. loyalty to loved ones.
______ d. timidity.
3. The subject of the essay seemed to believe that
_____ a. World War II was inevitable.
_____ b. the world owed him a living.
_____ c. poetry was useless.
_____ d. wealthy men were unimportant.
4. The subject of the essay was unquestionably a
_____ a. handsome man.
_____ b. devoted father.
_____ c. musical genius.
_____ d. great military strategist.
5. The subject of the essay wrote thirteen
______ a. operas and music dramas.
______ b. symphonies and concertos.
______ c. pieces of chamber music.
______ d. works of jazz.
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Comprehension Quizzes—Description
Sister Flowers
Maya Angelou
QUIZ
1. Which of the following characteristics best describes Mrs. Flowers?
_____a. snobbish elegance
_____b. shyness
_____c. aristocratic bearing
_____d. rudeness
2. How did the narrator meet Bertha Flowers?
_____a. at church
_____b. at the store where Momma worked
_____c. at the elementary school
_____d. at Mrs. Flowers’ house
3. What was the name of the narrator’s brother?
_____a. Bailey
_____b. Bruce
_____c. Buddy
_____d. Bert
4. Where had the narrator seen women like Mrs. Flowers?
_____a. at the movies
_____b. in some of the wealthy southern women’s homes
_____c. in Atlanta
_____d. in the novels she had read
5. Whose writing did the narrator memorize for Mrs. Flowers?
_____a. a biblical psalm
_____b. one of Shakespeare’s sonnets
_____c. a description from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
_____d. a passage from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities
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Chapter Eight Description
13
Laundromat
Susan Sheehan
Quiz
1. In what city is the laundromat located?
_____a. Miami
_____b. Detroit
_____c. San Juan
_____d. New York
2. The clothes are transferred in a “swooping motion”
_____a. from the pushcarts to the tables for folding.
_____b. from the tables to scales for weighing.
_____c. from the washers to the dryers for drying.
_____d. from one person to the next to speed up the work.
3. The laundromat smells of
_____a. dirty clothes.
_____b. soap and heat.
_____c. lavender water.
_____d. worn sneakers.
4. What is the constant number of people in the laundromat?
_____a. about twenty
_____b. about five
_____c. about sixty
_____d. about a dozen
5. Which of the following is NOT part of the Japanese boy’s load of
laundry?
_____a. a pair of Levis
_____b. a lacy slip
_____c. ruffled nightgown
_____d. embroidered rose buds
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CHAPTER TEN
Example
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Comprehension Quizzes—Example
We're Poor
Floyd Dell
QUIZ
1. The narrator’s father was home every day because
_____ a. he was seriously ill.
_____ b. the mother was working and he took care of the children.
_____ c. he was lazy and irresponsible.
_____ d. he was out of a job.
2. The little yellow envelope was to contain
_____ a. money for the poor.
_____ b. a Christmas wish list.
_____ c. verses from the Bible.
_____ d. a letter to the government.
3. What did the narrator whisper into the darkness?
_____ a. “I'm going to be President of the United States.”
_____ b. “When I grow up, I'm going to be rich.”
_____ c. “We're poor.”
_____ d. “I want to go to school.”
4. The narrator’s Christmas stocking contained a
_____ a. shiny new bicycle.
_____ b. bag of popcorn and a pencil.
_____ c. five-dollar bill.
_____ d. book by Charles Dickens.
5. The narrative ends with the words,
_____ a. “I didn't want anything.”
_____ b. “I hated rich people.”
_____ c. “I vowed to get a college education.”
_____ d. “I felt sorry for my parents.”
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Chapter Ten Example
Eleanor Rigby
John Lennon and Paul McCartney
QUIZ
1. On what kinds of people do the lyrics focus?
_____a. selfish people
_____b. lonely people
_____c. devoted Christians
_____d. war mongers
2. Where does Eleanor Rigby keep her face?
_____a. in front of the dirty mirror
_____b. always facing the North
_____c. hidden behind her hands
_____d. in a jar by the side of the door
3. What two activities preoccupy Father McKenzie?
_____a. writing sermons and darning his socks
_____b. riding a bicycle to town and buying tomatoes
_____c. grooming his dog and petting his cat
_____d. taking confession from imaginary people
4. When Eleanor Rigby died, what was buried along with her?
_____a. her pearl necklace
_____b. her diary
_____c. Father McKenzie’s photo
_____d. her name
5. The lyricist wonders
_____a. where all the lonely people come from.
_____b. why Eleanor Rigby was never married.
_____c. if Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie will go to heaven.
_____d. how much society is to blame for the fate of individuals.
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Comprehension Quizzes—Example
How Near Death is a Near Death Experience?
Catherine Houck
QUIZ
1. Which of the following is common when people are near death?
_____ a. They are eager to return to normal life.
_____ b. They feel sad and lonely.
_____ c. They see a brilliant light.
_____ d. They climb a tall mountain.
2. Which of these is NOT a result of a near death experience?
_____a. a woman who had a hysterectomy
_____b. a man hit by a lightning bolt
_____c. a woman hooked up backward to a ventilator
_____d. a college student taking a drug overdose
3. According to the essay,
______a. NDEs are made up and thus untrue.
______b. NDEs are worthy of scientific study.
______c. NDEs are proof of the existence of God.
______d. NDEs are most likely to occur in church.
4. After a near death experience, many people
_____ a. are different from what they were before the experience.
______b. see medical doctors as the most loving professionals.
______c. give all of their money to the poor.
______d. want to remain single or get divorced.
5. According to Diane Sawyer, about all that’s clear is that
_____a. pain killers cause the near death experience.
______b. neither science nor religion can explain the NDE.
______c. the NDE is worse for children than grownups.
______d. all of us fade into darkness when we are near death.
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Chapter Ten Example
What I’ve Learned From Men
Barbara Ehrenreich
QUIZ
1. Which of the following male characteristics should women emulate?
_____a. running a marathon
_____b. having an aura of power and control
_____c. being revered
_____d. not caring about respect
2. What did the prestigious professor do to anger the author?
_____a. He tried to fire her.
_____b. He talked incessantly about himself.
_____c. He made a sexual pass at her.
_____d. He ridiculed her knowledge of baseball.
What characteristic does the author attribute to some film stars?
_____a. a tough guy image
_____b. a sense of fairness
_____c. the image of being sexy
_____d. deep attachment to their roots
4. According to the author, women should stop
_____a. having so many babies.
_____b. wearing mini skirts.
_____c. manipulating men.
_____d. taking responsibility for making conversations go well.
5. Women need to learn from men
_____a. how to defend themselves in the work place.
_____b. how to be more patriotic.
_____c. how to deal with anger.
_____d. how to handle a gun.
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Comprehension Quizzes—Example
Suing for Fun and Profit
Andy Rooney
QUIZ
1. What does Rooney say he's been thinking about doing?
_____a. Hiking the Appalachian Trail
_____b. Running for political office
_____c. Becoming a baseball umpire
_____d. Quitting work and making a living from suing
2. In Los Angeles a jury awarded a woman with lung cancer
_____a. $10 million.
_____b. $28 billion.
_____c. free hospital care for the rest of her life.
_____d. $1,500 per month for ten years.
3. Which companies have gone out of business because of law suits?
_____a. Manufacturers of motorcycles and speed boats
_____b. Manufacturers of snow skis and water skis
_____c. Manufacturers of diving boards and ladders
_____d. Manufacturers of electric blankets and bathroom nightlights
4. Whom did Caesar Barber sue?
_____a. McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and Wendy’s
_____b. Phillip Morris tobacco company
_____c. His own mother for cooking such high cholesterol foods
_____d. The local police department, a gun store, and a local armory
5. Whom would Rooney sue if he ever quits his present job?
_____a. The Writers Guild
_____b. FOX News
_____c. Dan Rather
_____d. CBS
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Chapter Ten Example
The Word as Person: Eponyms
Don Farrant
QUIZ
1. Melba toast was named after a
_____ a. a Scottish engineer.
_____ b. an Australian soprano.
_____ c. an Italian chemist.
_____ d. a 19th-century American lacrosse player.
2. The Seventh Earl of Cardigan also led
_____ a. the Charge of the Light Brigade.
_____ b. the effort to cure measles.
_____ c. the University of Aberdeen.
_____ d. the search for the Northwest passage.
3. The word “boycott” was derived from
_____ a. the name of a St. Louis band leader.
_____ b. the name of a ship sunk in Crimea.
_____ c. the name of a lost tribe of Israel.
_____ d. the name of an unpopular land agent in Ireland.
4. "Mesmerism," after a German physician, is another term for
_____ a. biological symbiosis.
_____ b. a coronary condition.
_____ c. a theory about the dark side of the moon.
_____ d. hypnosis.
5. What is a Plimsoll mark?
_____ a. a loading mark on the side of a ship
_____ b. an Australian rugby out-of-bounds line
_____ c. the mark a cricket bowler steps on before his delivery
_____ d. a Heraldic term
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Definition
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22
Chapter Eleven Definition
Arrangement in Black and White
Dorothy Parker
QUIZ
1. Who is Walter Williams?
_____ a. a French Impressionist painter
_____ b. a major in the Confederate army
_____ c. a black singer
_____ d. a director who makes arrangements for black-and-white films
2. What is the setting of the story?
_____ a. a funeral
_____ b. a wedding
_____ c. a church service
_____ d. a cocktail party
3. Whom does Burton visit in the kitchen every time he goes home?
_____ a. his ailing mother
_____ b. his black nurse
_____ c. the family cook
_____ d. the manor gardener
4. Why can’t the main character invite Walter Williams to her home?
_____ a. Her husband, Burton, would not allow it.
_____ b. Her home is not beautiful enough.
_____ c. The liberals in town would shun her.
_____ d. She and Williams have had a quarrel.
5. Whom does the main character call “a wonderful actress”?
_____ a. Shirley Temple
_____ b. Greta Garbo
_____ c. Katherine Burke
_____ d. Elizabeth Taylor
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Comprehension Quizzes—Definition
23
Incident
Countee Cullen
QUIZ
1. When the incident took place, the speaker was visiting the city of
_____ a. New York.
_____ b. Los Angeles.
_____ c. Baltimore.
_____ d. Washington, D.C.
2. When the speaker smiled, the other little boy
_____ a. smiled in return and said, “Hi.”
_____ b. kept looking straight ahead and ignored the speaker.
_____ c. asked him to play in the park with some local boys.
_____ d. poked out his tongue and called him “Nigger.”
3. Which of the following statements is most accurate, according to the
speaker in the poem?
_____ a. Of all the things that happened between May and December, the
speaker remembers only the confrontation with the little boy.
_____ b. The speaker considers this vacation the most enlightening he has
ever spent.
_____ c. Never again will the speaker visit this particular city between
May and December.
_____ d. The speaker vows to describe the incident to his own children as
an object lesson.
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24
Chapter Eleven Definition
We Aren’t Born Prejudiced
Ian Stevenson
QUIZ
1. What is prejudice?
_____ a. a true generalization
_____ b. a false generalization
_____ c. a kind of syllogistic thinking
_____ d. a kind of Zen reasoning
2. Which statement is false?
_____ a. ignorance is an opinion held because one knows no better.
_____ b. prejudice is an opinion not based on the facts.
_____ c. ignorance is a state of preparedness.
_____ d. ignorance is a lack of knowledge.
3. What does the writer call conforming prejudice?
_____ a. prejudice that conforms to popular opinion
_____ b. prejudice held in spite of popular opinion
_____ c. ingrained prejudice
_____ d. prejudice that is not believed
4. Which of these statements is true?
_____ a. prejudiced thinking is always confined to one subject.
_____ b. prejudiced thinking is rarely confined to one subject.
_____ c. prejudice is rare in Wyoming.
_____ d. prejudice can be treated by a drug.
5. A common type of prejudice is based on
_____ a. guilt.
_____ b. not attending college.
_____ c. membership in a certain religion.
_____ d. a deep sense of insecurity.
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Comprehension Quizzes—Definition
Will Someone Please Hiccup My Pat?
William Spooner Donald
QUIZ
1. Which of the following does not describe Spooner as a young man?
_____ a. defective hearing
_____ b. poor physique
_____ c. stammer
_____ d. weak eyesight
2. A spoonerism is best defined as
_____ a. an irony of word association.
_____ b. a hilarious joke.
_____ c. a linguistic transposition.
_____ d. a humorously misspelled word.
3. By profession, Spooner was a(n)
_____ a. high school teacher.
_____ b. priest.
_____ c. butcher.
_____ d. army officer.
4. By “an ordinary signifying glass,” Spooner really meant a
_____ a. drinking glass.
_____ b. mirror.
_____ c. windowpane.
_____ d. magnifying glass.
5. The author states that Spooner was
_____ a. happily married.
_____ b. never married.
_____ c. unhappily married.
_____ d. married three times.
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26
Chapter Eleven Definition
Jim Crow Days
Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth Delany
QUIZ
1. Jim Crow laws were enacted to
_____a. help slaves run away from their masters.
_____b. make sure that Negroes served in the Union army.
_____c. keep Negroes separate from whites.
_____d. keep Washington Carver from being elected.
2. According to the author,
_____a. few white people in those days were free of Negro blood.
_____b. the Negroes were smarter than the whites.
_____c. whites often earned less money than blacks.
_____d. Negroes were more religious than Caucasians.
3. The author’s father did not often shop at white stores because
_____a. they were more expensive than black stores.
_____b. he was afraid of being lynched.
_____c. all he could buy in white stores were the leftovers.
_____d. he felt that black store owners needed the business.
4. How were the white teachers viewed at Saint Aug’s?
_____a. They were viewed as outcasts for helping the Negro race.
_____b. They were seen as heroes by Abraham Lincoln.
_____c. They were seen as cruel masters by the Negro students.
_____d. They were viewed as religious fanatics.
5. The narrator’s grandfather was
_____a. a relative of Jim Crow.
_____b. lynched for running away from his white master.
_____c. white.
_____d. a Roman Catholic.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Definition
Black English Has Its Place
Ron Emmons
QUIZ
1. Which of the following statements was made by the author?
_____ a. “Until I became an adult, I spoke only black English.”
_____ b. “I was taught throughout childhood to loathe black English.”
_____ c. “Black English is more powerful than regular English.”
_____ d. “Black English should be honored by grammarians.”
2. According to the author, black English is
_____ a. demeaning to Blacks.
_____ b. an aspect of the English language that should be abolished.
_____ c. gang-related.
_____ d. respectable and has enriched the fabric of American English.
3. Which of these did NOT bewilder older teachers:
_____ a. “def”
_____ b. “dis”
_____ c. “for the heck of it”
_____ d. “hit the skins”
4. How does the author use black English in his composition classes?
_____ a. To point out how multilingual the students are
_____ b. To point out how creative and inventive their culture is
_____ c. None of the above
_____ d. Both of the above
5. One conclusion drawn in the essay is that
_____ a. usage should be appropriate to the circumstance.
_____ b. black English users will remain powerless in life.
_____ c. the English language needs complete reformation.
_____ d. the university should teach more grammar.
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27
CHAPTER TWELVE
Comparison/Contrast
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Comparison/Contrast
The Dream House
Anthony C. Winkler
QUIZ
1. After moving from Jamaica to California, Jessie’s family
_____a. became extremely poor and remained poor.
_____b. eventually became quite wealthy.
_____c. contracted asthma from the Los Angeles smog.
_____d. made a decent living when the father became a car mechanic.
2. It took Mr. Peterson only two weeks to build
_____a. a vacation cabin in the mountains.
_____b. a computer for Josh.
_____c. a vacuum for his wife.
_____d. a deck off the kitchen.
3. Jessie’s dad’s house was made of
_____a. imaginary ingredients.
_____b. birch twigs.
_____c. materials borrowed from a neighbor.
_____d. bricks and mortar.
4. How many people could see Jessie’s playhouse?
_____a. ten people
_____b. three people
_____c. nobody
_____d. everybody
5. When summer ended, Mr. Peterson
_____a. had a heart attack.
_____b. built another playhouse.
_____c. filed for a divorce.
_____d. became a stock broker.
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30
Chapter Twelve Comparison/Contrast
The Twins
Charles Bukowski
QUIZ
1. The speaker’s father died
_____ a. in a hotel room.
_____ b. on the kitchen floor.
_____ c. in a hospital bed.
_____ d. on a ship at sea.
2. He left his money to
_____ a. his son.
_____ b. the American Cancer Society.
_____ c. a woman in Duarte.
_____ d. the church.
3. The speaker stands in front of a mirror wearing
_____ a. hippy clothes.
_____ b. a tennis outfit.
_____ c. a blue jogging suit.
_____ d. his father's suit.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Comparison/Contrast
Diogenes and Alexander
Gilbert Highet
QUIZ
1. Diogenes lives like a typical
_____ a. monk.
_____ b. king.
_____ c. beggar.
_____ d. soldier.
2. Diogenes believed that privacy was not necessary because
_____ a. natural acts were not shameful.
_____ b. privacy inevitably caused strife and war.
_____ c. it alienated human beings from each other.
_____ d. it promoted aristocracy.
3. Who was Alexander the Great’s teacher?
_____ a. Plato
_____ b. Sophocles
_____ c. Diogenes
_____ d. Aristotle
4. Alexander was in Corinth to
_____ a. study the Odyssey and the Iliad.
_____ b. learn Greek.
_____ c. find an appropriate wife.
_____ d. take command of the League of Greek States.
5. When Diogenes saw Alexander, Diogenes said,
_____ a. “Stand to one side. You’re blocking the sunlight.”
_____ b. “You won’t be happy until he wipes your nose for you.”
_____ c. “I am trying to find a man.”
_____ d. “You must restamp the currency.”
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32
Chapter Twelve Comparison/Contrast
Grant and Lee
Bruce Catton
QUIZ
1. Where did Robert E. Lee surrender to Ulysses S. Grant?
_____ a. At the White House in Washington, D.C.
_____ b. At the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland
_____ c. At the court house in Atlanta, Georgia
_____ d. At Appomattox, Virginia
2. How did Grant and Lee differ in social background?
_____ a. Lee was an aristocrat, Grant a western frontier man.
_____ b. Lee had traveled all over the world, Grant only the U.S.
_____ c. Lee suffered from asthma; Grant was healthy.
_____ d. Lee was a poor military strategist, Grant a brilliant one.
3. The men who followed Grant believed that
_____ a. Napoleon was their great model to emulate.
_____ b. life was competition, and everyone had a chance to win.
_____ c. victory was more important than truth.
_____ d. no slaves should be liberated.
4. The men who followed Lee believed that
_____ a. the landed nobility justified itself.
_____ b. Lee was not tough enough on northerners.
_____ c. money was more important than land.
_____ d. the Confederacy offered a miserably restricted life.
5. What did both men share in common? They both
_____ a. believed that the end justified the means.
_____ b. were unfaithful husbands.
_____ c. wanted peace and reconciliation.
_____ d. loved animals.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Comparison/Contrast
Priest and Pagan
Arthur Grimble
QUIZ
1. This essay compares and contrasts
_____ a. two different approaches to peaceful human death.
_____ b. Athens and Rome, representing two religions.
_____ c. the death of a priest with the death of a native.
_____ d. the foods eaten by Christians and native islanders.
2. What regulation did Father Choblet break?
_____ a. the regulation against hunting baby seals
_____ b. the regulation against trying to convert the natives
_____ c. the regulation against canoe voyages between islands
_____ d. the regulation against drinking liquor
3. What heroic deed was performed by Tabanaora?
_____ a. He walked over red hot coals.
_____ b. He saved ten people from drowning in a canoe.
_____ c. He sucked snake poison out of a child’s arm.
_____ d. He had a duel with a tiger shark.
4. What did Tabanaora do to save Tebina from everlasting extinction?
_____ a. He had to recover a limb for the death ritual.
_____ b. He had to find a priest who would baptize Tebina.
_____ c. He had to find Tebina a bride for his life in paradise.
_____ d. He had to bury him with a shark’s tooth.
5. What character trait did Father Choblet and Tabanora share?
_____ a. They were both angry men.
_____ b. They were both brave men.
_____ c. They were both easily frightened.
_____ d. They were both humorous.
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34
Chapter Twelve Comparison/Contrast
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Lee Dembart
QUIZ
1. What position does the author favor with respect to mind and brain?
_____a. the biological position
_____b. the position supported by her university
_____c. the reductionist position
_____d. the position found in the New Testament
2. Somewhere in the brain, the physical sensation
_____a. is erased completely.
_____b. is turned into a mental sensation.
_____c. is directed toward the pancreas.
_____d. is transferred to the nerves of the body.
3. Asking where vision comes from is like asking
_____a. where clouds come from.
_____b. where hearing comes from.
_____c. where laughter comes from.
_____d. where consciousness comes from.
4. In one experiment, subjects were told to
_____a. bend their finger.
_____b. look up into the sky.
_____c. cross their eyes.
_____d. burst a balloon.
5. According to Jack D. Cowan,
_____a. biology can learn a lot from physics.
_____b. geophysics will some day tell us how the eye works.
_____c. physics is easy compared to biology.
_____d. the eye can be used without our understanding of how it works.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Process
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36
Chapter Thirteen Process
How Mr. Hogan Robbed a Bank
John Steinbeck
QUIZ
1. When did Mr. Hogan commit the crime?
_____ a. on Thanksgiving Eve
_____ b. on Christmas Day
_____ c. on Saturday before Labor Day
_____ d. on Easter Sunday
2. What was Mr. Hogan’s how-to method for bank robbery?
_____ a. leave out the hullabaloo and hanky-panky
_____ b. do it only at night
_____ c. concentrate on getting to know the teller
_____ d. take only the big unmarked bills
3. Who died the year that Mr. Hogan robbed the bank?
_____ a. Mr. Hogan’s mother
_____ b. Mrs. Hogan’s brother
_____ c. Mr. Hogan’s first-born child
_____ d. Mrs. Hogan
4. What contest did Mr. Hogan’s children enter?
_____ a. a beauty contest
_____ b. a bicycle racing contest
_____ c. the “I Love America” essay contest
_____ d. a cookie baking contest
5. What kind of mask did Mr. Hogan wear during the bank robbery?
_____ a. a cardboard Mickey Mouse mask
_____ b. a Lone Ranger mask
_____ c. a Halloween mask
_____ d. a bandanna that covered his face
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Process
37
Tract
William Carlos Williams
QUIZ
1. According to the poem, what colors should not be used for a hearse?
______a. blue and yellow
______ b. green and pink
______ c. pink and purple
______ d. black and white
2. What, according to the poem, should a hearse be like?
______ a. embroidered with cushions
______ b. fancy and trimmed
______ c. rough and plain
______ d. motorized
3. What does the poet expressly ban from funerals?
______ a. mourners
______ b. parades
______ c. personal mementos of the deceased
______ d. wreaths and hothouse flowers
4. What does the poet suggest the hearse driver do?
______ a. drive the hearse with dignity
______ b. wear a silk hat
______ c. dress in black
______ d. hold the reins and walk beside the hearse
5. What sort of procession does the poem recommend for a funeral?
______ a. one in which the mourners follow in cars
______ b. one in which the mourners walk behind the hearse
______ c. one in which the mourners play music
______ d. one in which the mourners dress gaily
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38
Chapter Thirteen Process
In the Garden of Childish Delights
Emily Fox Gordon
QUIZ
1. What jobs did the author’s parents hold?
____a. The father was a janitor, and the mother was a waitress.
____b. The father was a professor, and the mother was a faculty wife.
____c. The father was a priest, and the mother was a professor.
____d. The father owned a store, and the mother worked in the store.
2. White kind of dog accompanied the author to the library?
____a. a Saint Bernard
____b. a golden retriever
____c. a German shepherd
____d. a Great Dane
3. Before going to school, the author had been
____a. shy and lonely.
____b. undisciplined and disobedient.
____c. given to temper tantrums.
____d. a charming, lively child
4. How old is the author at the time of writing this essay?
____a. 56
____b. 86
____c. 26
____d. 36
5. To whom is the Williamstown of the author’s memory eerily accessible?
____a. to everyone who reads her memoir
____b. only to the author’s family
____c. only to the author
____d. to all little children
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Process
In the Valley of the Shadow
Carl Sagan
QUIZ
1. How many times did the author face death?
_____ a. two times
_____ b. he never did
_____ c. five times
_____ d. six times
2. What does the author say he would love to believe but can't?
_____ a. That there is life after death
_____ b. That life exists on other planets
_____ c That miracles happen
_____ d. That medical doctors are not in medicine for the money
3. Whose bone marrow did the author receive in a transplant?
_____ a. His mother's
_____ b. His sister's
_____ c. His twin brother's
_____ d. An anonymous donor's found on the Internet
4. What movie did the author and his wife co-write and co-produce?
_____ a. Space Sluts in the Slammer
_____ b. Contact
_____ c. The Annihilation of Fish
_____ d. Pulp Fiction
5. The author frequently quotes William John Rogers. Who is he?
_____ a. A passenger who went down with the Titanic
_____ b. A poet
_____ c. A Victorian novelist
_____ d. A short story writer from New York
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40
Chapter Thirteen Process
Coming Into Language
Jimmy Santiago Baca
QUIZ
1. Why does the author land in prison the first time?
_____ a. He forged a check.
_____ b. A friend blamed him for raping the friend’s girlfriend.
_____ c. He would not explain a cut on his forearm.
_____ d. He failed a lie detector test about a murder.
2. Harry, who was the author’s pen pal, sent him
_____ a. a popular spy novel.
_____ b. a book by Mary Baker Eddy.
_____ c. the Bible.
_____ d. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.
3. After serving time on death-row, the author was moved to
______ a. the tier that housed the mentally disturbed.
______ b. a new prison in Georgia.
______ c. Mexico.
______ d. Alcatraz.
4. From the time he was seven, teachers had punished him by
_____ a. slapping his hand.
_____ b. making him write “I will do better” a hundred times.
_____ c. calling him “stupid.”
_____ d. making him write lines on the chalkboard.
5. At one point the author describes how some detectives in the county jail
_____ a. kicked some poor drunk to his knees.
_____ b. spit on a prostitute dying of AIDS.
_____ c. called a homeless woman “damned disgusting.”
_____ d. burned a runaway kid with a cigarette.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Process
How to Say Nothing in 500 Words
Paul Roberts
QUIZ
1. The composition assigned is on the subject of
_____ a. a special vacation.
_____ b. college football.
_____ c. a favorite teacher.
_____ d. your favorite U.S. President.
2. Which of the following was not advice given by the author?
_____ a. Get rid of obvious padding.
_____ b. Slip out of abstraction.
_____ c. Call a fool a fool.
_____ d. Choose subjects familiar to your reader.
3. The author says that students often "hedge" in their writing because they
_____ a. want to deceive the instructor.
_____ b. have not prepared for the essay.
_____ c. feel inexperienced and incompetent.
_____ d. are trying to imitate great writers.
4. Expressions such as "to all practical intents and purposes" are
_____ a. pat expressions.
_____ b. important guideposts for the reader.
_____ c. excessively intellectual.
_____ d. useful when developing an argument.
5. "Colored" words are words
_____ a. calculated to produce a picture.
_____ b. loaded with associations.
_____ c. used by black writers.
_____ d. not found in the dictionary.
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41
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Classification/Division
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Classification/Division
Harrison Bergeron
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
QUIZ
1. The story belongs to the literary category of
_____ a. parable.
_____ b. biography.
_____ c. mythology.
_____ d. science fiction.
2. The ballerinas in the story were burdened with weights so that
_____ a. they would develop strong muscles.
_____ b. their dancing would be noisy.
_____ c. their dancing would not excel.
_____ d. no other company would want them.
3. The duty of the Handicapper General was to
_____ a. make everyone the same.
_____ b. get rid of handicaps.
_____ c. experiment on handicapped people in the name of science.
_____ d. improve all quality of life.
4. Harrison Bergeron was sent to jail because he
_____ a. stole a loaf of bread.
_____ b. was talented, intelligent, and individualistic.
_____ c. was accused of being a communist terrorist.
_____ d. refused to marry the Handicapper General.
5. At the end of the story, Harrison Bergeron is
_____ a. allowed to marry the ballerina.
_____ b. praised by Diana Moon Glampers.
_____ c. shot by the Handicapper General.
_____ d. elected to be the next Handicapper General.
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44
Chapter Fourteen Classification/Division
All the World’s a Stage
William Shakespeare
QUIZ
1. How many ages in life does Shakespeare describe?
_____ a. five
_____ b. ten
_____ c. seven
_____ d. three
2. Which age describes someone “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything”?
_____ a. the first—babyhood
_____ b. the fourth—maimed soldier
_____ c. the last—senility
_____ d. none—the poem is about youth
3. According to Shakespeare, the world is a stage. Who are the actors?
_____ a. dramatists
_____ b. lawyers
_____ c. all human beings
_____ d. only people who understand life
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Comprehension Quizzes—Classification/Division
45
The Plot Against the People
Russell Baker
QUIZ
1. In this essay the author is classifying
_____ a. animals.
_____ b. tools.
_____ c. people.
_____ d. inanimate objects.
2. Which of the following items are difficult to break down:
_____ a. pliers, gloves, batteries
_____ b. pliers, lawn mowers, furnaces
_____ c. pliers, gloves, keys
_____ d. pliers, automobiles, garbage disposals
3. The third class listed is those things that
_____ a. don’t work.
_____ b. work all of the time.
_____ c. make work for others.
_____ d. work if you take care of them.
4. Which category has given man the only peace he receives from the things
described?
_____ a. things that always work
_____ b. things that don’t work
_____ c. things that are well made
_____ d. things owned by others
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46
Chapter Fourteen Classification/Division
Three Types of Resistance to Oppression
Martin Luther King, Jr.
QUIZ
1. According to Dr. King, why is acquiescence to oppression immoral?
_____ a. because one will never win one’s freedom with acquiescence
_____ b. because to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with it
_____ c. because acquiescence is taken as proof of inferiority
_____ d. because an oppressor does not respect acquiescence
2. What two opposites does nonviolent resistance seek to reconcile?
_____ a. anger and determination
_____ b. frustration and humility
_____ c. hope and love
_____ d. acquiescence and violence
3. Why is violence unworkable for winning civil rights?
_____ a. because the racist powers are too strong
_____ b. because too many people would be killed
_____ c. because violence would lead to civil war
_____ d. because violence is both impractical and immoral
4. Against whom does Dr. King say nonviolent resistance is aimed?
_____ a. against oppression
_____ b. against the southern power structure
_____ c. against the Ku Klux Klan
_____ d. against racist northern states
5. How does Dr. King regard the struggle for civil rights?
_____ a. as a struggle between groups
_____ b. as a struggle between methods
_____ c. as a struggle between geographic regions
_____ d. as a struggle between justice and injustice
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Classification/Division
College Pressures
William Zinsser
QUIZ
1. Who is Carlos Hortas, to whom the desperate notes are addressed?
_____a. dean at the students’ college
_____b. president of Yale University
_____c. student body president
_____d. captain of the Yale football team
2. Which of the following pressures is NOT listed in the essay?
_____a. dating pressure
_____b. economic pressure
_____c. parental pressure
_____d. peer pressure
3. What do students often do when assigned a five-page paper?
_____a. They will get a paper off the Internet and hand it in.
_____b. They will hand in a shorter paper than required.
_____c. They will hand in a longer paper than required.
_____d. They will hand in the paper late.
4. Why are drama productions popular with students?
_____a. Students hope to become famous actors.
_____b. Acting gets students into a make-believe world.
_____c. These productions are self-limiting
_____d. Participants get to know each other.
5. Ultimately, who will have to break the circle of student pressures?
_____a. the college administration
_____b. the college teachers
_____c. the students’ parents
_____d. the students themselves
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48
Chapter Fourteen Classification/Division
Mother Tongue
Amy Tan
QUIZ
1. What does the author say made her uncomfortable during her speech?
_____ a. the presence of her grandmother
_____ b. her broken English
_____ c. her misquoting her brother
_____ d. her mother was in the audience
2. What kind of English did the author speak with her mother?
_____ a. Standard English
_____ b. Conversational English
_____ c. Broken English
_____ d. A mix of English and Chinese
3. About whom did the author's mother tell her a story?
_____ a. About a gangster in Shanghai
_____ b. About Franklin D. Roosevelt
_____ c. About Charles de Gaulle
_____ d. About Joseph Stalin
4. As a child, how did the author feel about her mother's English?
_____ a. She was indifferent to it.
_____ b. She was ashamed of it.
_____ c. She admired it.
_____ d. She did not understand it.
5. What effect did her mother’s English have on the author?
_____ a. It had no effect.
_____ b. It affected her scores on achievement tests.
_____ c. It affected her ability to speak Chinese.
_____ d. It left her with an accent.
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Causal Analysis
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50
Chapter Fifteen Causal Analysis
The Girls in Their Summer Dresses
Irwin Shaw
QUIZ
1. In what city does the story take place?
_____ a. Chicago
_____ b. San Francisco
_____ c. Los Angeles
_____ d. New York
2. What does Michael do that Frances finds annoying?
_____ a. He propositions women.
_____ b. He looks at women.
_____ c. He sucks his teeth noisily.
_____ d. He was unfaithful to her five times in five years.
3. How does Frances resolve her differences with Michael?
_____ a. She doesn’t really.
_____ b. She divorces him.
_____ c. She agrees to a trial separation.
_____ d. She goes home to her mother.
4. What is the relationship between Michael and Frances?
_____ a. They are living together.
_____ b. She is his mistress.
_____ c. They date.
_____ d. They are married.
5. With whom were Michael and Frances supposed to go to the country?
_____ a. the Joneses
_____ b. the Stevensons
_____ c. the Blinkersmiths
_____ d. the Howards
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comprehension Quizzes—Causal Analysis
Money
Victor Contoski
QUIZ
1. At first money will seem
_____ a. of no use to a wise person.
_____ b. the only important possession.
_____ c. tame and willing to be domesticated.
_____ d. illusive and unattainable.
2. Money is like an ameba because it
_____ a. makes love in secret only to itself.
_____ b. is a parasite that lives on others.
_____ c. keeps multiplying on its own.
_____ d. is the basis of life.
3. Money will
_____ a. make your friends jealous.
_____ b. popularize you among your friends.
_____ c. make you lose all of your friends.
_____ d. delight your friends.
4. One day money will
_____ a. disappear and leave you bankrupt.
_____ b. no longer have any value to society.
_____ c. bite you gently on the hand.
_____ d. kick you as a strong horse would.
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52
Chapter Fifteen Causal Analysis
Mary Todd Lincoln
Irving Stone
QUIZ
1. The North accused Mary Todd Lincoln of being
_____ a. an outsider.
_____ b. a sell-out.
_____ c. a renegade.
_____ d. a spy.
2. Who committed Mary Todd Lincoln to a sanatorium?
_____ a. her daughter
_____ b. her niece
_____ c. her son
_____ d. her nephew
3. What base and ugly charge was made against Mary Todd Lincoln?
_____ a. that her husband did not love her
_____ b. that she was mad
_____ c. that she wanted the South to win
_____ d. that she was extravagant
4. What caused the beginning of Mary Todd Lincoln’s ill health?
_____ a. the assassination of her husband
_____ b. the death of her mother
_____ c. the death of her son William
_____ d. the Civil War
5. To what popular movement did Mary Todd Lincoln turn for comfort?
_____ a. mesmerism
_____ b. hypnotism
_____ c. jingoism
_____ d. spiritualism
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Comprehension Quizzes—Causal Analysis
Why We Crave Horror
Stephen King
QUIZ
1. Who does the author think is mentally ill?
_____ a. himself
_____ b. his family
_____ c. all of us
_____ d. Southerners
2. What is one reason we go to horror movies?
_____ a. to prove that we can take it
_____ b. to make out
_____ c to see who's in the theater
_____ d. to find air-conditioning comfort
3. Who has to be let out to roll around and scream once in a while?
_____ a. the mother inside us
_____ b. the potential lyncher within us
_____ c. the saint within
_____ d. The frightened inner self
4. To what does the mythic horror movie appeal?
_____ a. the best in us
_____ b. the adult in us
_____ c. the worst in us
_____ d. our imagination
5. According to the author, who needs to be kept fed?
_____ a. the sadist
_____ b. the poet
_____ c. the gators
_____ d. the tigers
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54
Chapter Fifteen Causal Analysis
Grow Up? Not So Fast
Lev Grossman
QUIZ
1. What is the average age today for a woman to get married and have a
baby?
_____a. 30 and 40
_____b. 18 and 21
_____c. 21 and 22
_____d. 25 and 25
2. According to Grossman’s essay, the twixters are not lazy but are simply
_____a. reaping the benefits of decades of American affluence.
_____b. escaping a military draft.
_____c. much more close to their parents than in the past.
_____d. waiting to enroll in graduate school to get a better job.
3. Twixters expect to jump laterally from job to job and place to place until
_____a. their parents cut off their money supply.
_____b. an easy job is available.
_____c. they find what they’re looking for.
_____d. society shows them that they are appreciated for the talents.
4. The transition to adulthood is more difficult
_____a. for those on the lower educational or economic ladder.
_____b. for sons whose fathers are ambitious for their offspring.
_____c. for immigrants with several children.
_____d. for girls than for boys.
5. Who sang the hit song “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman”?
_____a. Madonna
_____b. Britney Spears
_____c. Julia Roberts
_____d. Janet Jackson
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Comprehension Quizzes—Causal Analysis
Black Men and Public Space
Brent Staples
QUIZ
1. Who was the author's first victim?
_____ a. a bank
_____ b. his family
_____ c. a young woman
_____ d. a street preacher
2. Where did the author encounter his first victim?
_____ a. in Chicago's Hyde Park
_____ b. in Los Angeles
_____ c in Atlanta
_____ d. in Paris, France
3. What thunk thunk noise does the author often hear?
_____ a. the sounds of weapons being cocked
_____ b. the sounds of car door locks slamming shut
_____ c. the sounds of his own heart
_____ d. the sounds of a tapping foot
4. What does the author say about young black males?
_____ a. they are over-represented among attackers of women.
_____ b. they are not fearful to another black.
_____ c. they are often willing to compromise.
_____ d. they are misunderstood.
5. What melodies does the author often whistle as he walks?
_____ a. selections from rap artists
_____ b. oldies from the Supremes
_____ c. light ballads
_____ d. melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Argumentation
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57
Comprehension Quizzes—Argumentation
War
Luigi Pirandello
QUIZ
1. In what setting does this story unfold?
_____ a. the piazza of a fashionable restaurant
_____ b. the waiting room of a Rome medical center
_____ c. the banks of the river Arno, in Florence
_____ d. the second-class carriage of a railway car
2. What do the people at first argue about?
_____ a. whether it is worse to have one son at the front or two
_____ b. whether it is better to have sons than daughters
_____ c. whether the war is immoral or moral
_____ d. whether Italy should side with the Austro-Hungarian Empire
3. What is peculiar about the mouth of the fat traveler?
_____ a. He has a harelip.
_____ b. He wears gold braces.
_____ c. He has a badly trimmed mustache.
_____ d. He has two front teeth missing.
4. What does the fat traveler say about himself?
_____ a. that he has lost a son but does not mourn
_____ b. that he has lost three sons in the war
_____ c. that he lost his wife to a German soldier
_____ d. that he lost a daughter and a son in the trenches
5. What does the woman say to the old traveler that causes him to weep?
_____ a. “Then ... is your son really dead?”
_____ b. “I, too, weep for my fallen children.”
_____ c. “Your wife must have been a wonderfully brave woman.”
_____ d. “War is a nasty business.”
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Chapter Sixteen Argumentation
Dooley Is a Traitor
James Michie
QUIZ
1. Why has Dooley been brought up before the judge?
_____ a. because he refuses to fight
_____ b. because he has committed manslaughter
_____ c. because he has deserted from the army
_____ d. because he has stolen war material
2. What does the judge specifically forbid Dooley to do in the courtroom?
_____ a. take the Fifth Amendment
_____ b. smoke
_____ c. chew tobacco
_____ d. read the Bible out loud
3. How does Dooley say he would react to a foe attacking his sister?
_____ a. He says he would pray for the foe.
_____ b. He says he would call the police.
_____ c. He says he would knock his brains out.
_____ d. He says he would scream for help.
4. Of what crime does Dooley admit to being guilty?
_____ a. stealing
_____ b. rape
_____ c. kidnapping
_____ d. murder
5. What happens to Dooley at the end of the poem?
_____ a. He is sentenced to die.
_____ b. He is given a life term.
_____ c. He is let go.
_____ d. He is made to do alternative service.
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Comprehension Quizzes—Argumentation
The Case Against Man
Isaac Asimov
QUIZ
1. What is the first mistake in thinking about man?
_____ a. to think of mankind as a thing in itself
_____ b. to separate mankind from womankind
_____ c. to regard mankind as an animal
_____ d. to think that man has a soul
2. To what disease does Asimov compare man?
_____ a. tuberculosis
_____ b. AIDS
_____ c. measles
_____ d. cancer
3. What was the estimated population at the time of Julius Caesar?
_____ a. two billion
_____ b. 150 million
_____ c. 10 million
_____ d. 25 million
4. What does Asimov argue vehemently that mankind must do?
_____ a. alter the food shipment system
_____ b. aim for planetary migration
_____ c. lower the birthrate
_____ d. stop manufacturing plastic containers
5. In how many years will the population of the earth double?
_____ a. 35
_____ b. 1,000
_____ c. 1,200
_____ d. 500
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Chapter Sixteen Argumentation
I Want a Wife
Judy Syfers Brady
QUIZ
1. What triggered the author's musing about a wife?
_____ a. the divorce of a male friend
_____ b. her own divorce
_____ c. her mother's bad marriage
_____ d. a dream
2. The author says that she was also
_____ a. a career woman.
_____ b. a mother.
_____ c. a flight attendant.
_____ d. a poet.
3. How does a wife help her husband with his schoolwork?
_____ a. she attends class for him.
_____ b. she reads the textbook and condenses it for him.
_____ c. she types his papers.
_____ d. she arranges his notes.
4. What is expected of a wife sexually?
_____ a. fidelity
_____ b. passion when the husband is in the mood
_____ c. putting the husband's satisfaction first
_____ d. all of the above
5. How must a wife react if her husband is unfaithful?
_____ a. she should understand.
_____ b. she should retaliate.
_____ c. she should leave her husband.
_____ d. she should scold her husband.
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Comprehension Quizzes—Argumentation
The “Don’t Impose Your Values” Argument Is Bigotry in Disguise
John Leo
QUIZ
1. The “Don’t Impose your Values” argument insists that
_____a. only voters have the right to impose their values.
_____b. teachers have no right to impose their values on students.
_____c. it is wrong to vote your moral convictions
_____d. parents should impose good moral values on their offspring.
2. The civil rights movement was primarily the work of
_____a. Jewish voters.
_____b. Martin Luther King.
_____c. the black churches.
_____d. Abraham Lincoln.
3. Rocco Buttiglione was kept from office because he
_____a. believed that homosexuality was a sin.
_____b. was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
_____b. believed in interracial marriage.
_____d. had smoked marijuana in his youth.
4. The “don’t impose” people need to explain why
_____a. religious arguments are less worthy than secular ones.
_____b. religious arguments usually originate from fanatics.
_____c. secular arguments come from experts or educated people.
_____d. it is helpful to hear arguments from non Americans.
5. John Kerry tried to define the stem-cell argument as science versus
_____a. fiction.
_____b. superstition.
_____c. family values.
_____d. ideology.
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Chapter Sixteen Argumentation
What Would Happen if We Legalized Gay Marriage?
Michael Alvear
QUIZ
1. According to the author, allowing gays to marry will do to homophobia
what
_____a. psychiatry did for schizophrenia.
_____b. Listerine does for bad breath.
_____c. the civil-rights legislation did for racism.
_____d. Social Security does for retired people.
2. How was the life of the author’s friend Cooper shattered?
_____a. He had a gay son who committed suicide.
_____b. He was gay but married to a woman for 38 years.
_____c. He lost his job because he was gay.
_____d. He could not join the Marines because he was gay.
3. How many orphaned kids languish in institutions?
_____a. 568,000
_____b. 2,000,000
_____c. 100
_____d. Very few
4. What percentage of the populace have identified themselves publicly as
gay?
_____a. 12%
_____b. 1%
_____c. 3%
_____d. 10%
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Comprehension Quizzes—Argumentation
The Marriage Buffet
David Frum
QUIZ
1. The title of the essay is
_____a. The Marriage Contract.
_____b. Same-Sex Marriage.
_____c. The Marriage Bracelet.
_____d. The Marriage Buffet.
2. The institution of marriage is
_____a. more popular than ever.
_____b. on the verge of collapse.
_____c. being threatened by Islam.
_____d. causing envy among gays.
3. It has been estimated that 40% of couples entering civil pacts are
_____a. heterosexual.
_____b. miserable in such a union.
_____c. bisexual.
_____d. stable in their relationship.
4. Compared to marriage, a civil pact is
_____a. harder to get into.
_____b. more expensive.
_____c. less financially rewarding.
_____d. less glamorous.
5. Many advocates of same-sex marriage
_____a. have a heterosexual marriage.
_____b. have had to do jail time for their views.
_____c. are against civil pacts or domestic partnerships.
_____d. are indifferent to the plight of children.
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Chapter Sixteen Argumentation
A More Perfect Union
Jonathan Rauch
QUIZ
1. Which of the following men could NOT be considered a “founding
father”?
_____a. Thomas Jefferson
_____b. George Washington
_____c. Abraham Lincoln
_____d. John Adams
2. Which of the following laws continue to be established by the states?
_____a. marriage and divorce laws
_____b. federal income tax laws
_____c. immigration laws
_____d. Medicare benefit laws
3. The state-by-state approach to same-sex marriage will
_____a. cost less money.
_____b. guarantee the legality of same-sex marriage.
_____c. allow a Democrat to be elected president.
_____d. avoid a national culture war.
4. The moral culture of the United States is
_____a. harmonious.
_____b. homogeneous.
_____c. diverse.
_____d. deplorable.
5. Article IV, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution requires
_____a. U.S. citizens to speak English.
_____b. states to honor one another’s public acts and judgments.
_____c. that same-sex marriage be legalized.
_____d. that abortion be a matter of personal choice.
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PART TWO: ANSWERS TO
COMPREHENSION QUIZZES ON
READINGS AND EXERCISES
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CHAPTER FOUR
The Sentence: Combining, Generating, Judging
Exercises In Sentence Combining By Adding (55)
Here are some possible answers:
1. Wit is often sharp and sarcastic while humor is always soft and usually
kind.
2. He studied artistic theory, practiced mixing colors, and painted hundreds
of canvases.
3. The Muslims of Mecca exclude women from religious festivities because
they fear familiarity between women and their overlords.
4. Miracle plays were still performed on wagons in Shakespeare's day after
theaters had been built.
5. Some people are industrious in the sense that they work energetically for
long periods of time while others are lazy and idle.
6. Scrabble is a fun game that can also increase your vocabulary.
7. My mother loves to shop, and often comes home with bargains, although
she sometimes spends more money than she intended.
8. Boxing is a brutal sport that often results in serious injury or even death.
9. No sport is more addictive than golf, but it has a downside of being
expensive.
10. The Internet is a source of vast quantities of information, but some of it is
inaccurate.
Exercises in Sentence Combining by Deleting (57)
Here are some possible answers:
1. The trouble between the Israelis and Palestinians is a clash between two
cultures fighting for supremacy in the Middle East.
2. Somehow she knew instinctively who had stolen her wallet.
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Chapter Four Answers
67
3. He was a bold man who wanted to find a new home and to lead a less
structured life.
4. I want to find a merry and wise man.
5. The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms that make everything more
beautiful once they have passed.
6. I am a hard-working, conscientious, and trustworthy man.
7. Dictionaries are especially useful for looking up the meanings of words
and their etymologies.
8. I don't like it when the weather is too cold, too hot, or too rainy.
9. The old lady, who walked like she was drunk, had taken too much
medication.
10. Some astronomers are atheists, some are believers, and some are
indifferent to religion.
Exercises (64-65)
The more effective sentences are listed below.
1. a; 2. b; 3. b; 4. a; 5. b; 6. a; 7. a; 8. b; 9. b.; 10 a.
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CHAPTER FIVE
The Paragraph
Exercises (99-100)
1. a. The topic sentence is the lead sentence of the paragraph: “Everyone
who makes money in the mechanical city uses the money that he
makes to escape, as far and as frequently as he can, from the inferno
that is the source of his wealth.”
b. The topic sentence is, “Logic is fun.” It is the final sentence of the
paragraph.
c. The topic sentence is, “Computers, it is often said, manipulate
symbols.” It is the lead sentence of the paragraph.
d. The topic sentence is, “There is a queer stillness and a curious
peaceful repose about the Etruscan places I have been to, quite
different from the weirdness of Celtic places, the slightly repellent
feeling of Rome and the old Campagna, and the rather horrible
feeling of the great Pyramid places in Mexico, Teotihuacán and
Cholula, and Mitla in the south; or the amiably idolatrous Buddha
places in Ceylon.” It is also the lead sentence.
2. a. The pattern of development is definition.
b. The pattern of development used in this paragraph is argumentation.
c. The pattern of development used by Russell is a comparison/contrast
of Lenin and Gladstone.
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CHAPTER SIX
Planning and Organizing the Essay
Exercises (122-123 )
1.
The major divisions of (a) are the service, the topspin shot, the chop,
the full volley, the overhead smash; of (b), secretion of digestive
juices in the stomach, constriction of the circulatory system, elevated
heartbeat; of (c), are vascular pain, nausea, and extreme sensitivity to
all sensory stimuli; of (d), making reservations for guests, providing
directions to restaurants, theaters, and meeting venues, and
troubleshooting complaints.
2.
Various answers are possible, among them the following:
a. Financial debt can affect a family not only fiscally but also
psychologically and emotionally.
b. It is obvious from ancient art and literature that homosexuality has
been around for a long time.
OR
Lately it has become fashionable in the United States for
homosexuals to come out of the closet.
c. Many married women nowadays choose to have and raise babies
by themselves.
d. Type A personalities thrive on competitiveness and the drive for
power.
e. Because they value education highly, some people care more than
others about staying in school.
3.
Item II in the outline is irrelevant to the controlling idea and should
be dropped. This is how the outline should look.
a. Controlling idea: A desktop computer is less expensive, more
powerful, and more flexible than a laptop computer.
I. A desktop computer is less expensive than a laptop.
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Chapter Six Answers
A. A desktop computer is often half the price of an equivalent laptop.
B. Laptop computers charge a premium for portability.
II. Desktop computers are more powerful than laptops.
A. Generally desktop computers are made from the fastest chips.
B. Laptop computers are not made from the fastest chips.
III. Desktop computers are more flexible than laptops.
A. Desktop computers are highly upgradeable.
B. Laptop computers are upgradeable only in a limited way.
b.
Item III in the outline is irrelevant to the controlling idea and should be
dropped. This is how the outline should look.
Controlling idea: The art of reading faster requires a student to read
actively, avoid regressions, and be flexible in adjusting the reading pace
for material of varying difficulty.
I. Active reading is necessary to increase reading speed.
A. Active reading requires a preview of the passage.
B. Active reading is emotional reading.
II. Regressions must be avoided.
A. Regression or rereading of material shows a lack of confidence.
B. Regression can be minimized by reading at a higher speed than usual.
1. Reading pace must be adjusted for the particular material.
A. Shakespeare and poetry cannot be speed-read.
B. Technical material will also require a slower pace.
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Chapter Six Answers
71
Answer to Rewriting Assignment ( 124)
Various answers are possible, including the one below:
Controlling idea: An old goose down pillow can cause multiple sufferings for
a person plagued with allergies.
I.
Dust mites in an old goose down pillow can aggravate allergies.
A. They cause itching eyes.
B. They increase asthma in asthmatics.
C. They cause a runny nose.
II.
Old skin can work its way through the goose down pillow cover.
A. It can cause morning headaches.
B. It can exacerbate eczema.
C. It can lead to itchy skin.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Drafting, Revising, and Style
Exercises (147)
1. Various answers are possible for this revision exercise.
possibility:
Here is one
There were two things I learned in karate before I learned to fight. The
first was respect. I was taught to salute the flags of Korea, the United States,
and our martial arts when I entered or left the training hall. I was taught to
bow to my teachers and my elders such as the black belts. I was expected to
reply yes sir or no sir in a confident tone to all questions. Practicing this kind
of respect encouraged a friendly atmosphere wherever I went and was part of
living a peaceful life.
The second thing I learned was defensive movements. I learned how to
block a punch or a kick and how to escape being held. In the beginning, I
was not very happy with these lessons because I wanted to learn the karate
kicks I had seen in movies. But as the lessons became more advanced and
the escape movements more natural, I began to realize that karatefar from
being aggressivewas a defensive skill for humble people who wanted to
protect themselves against attack.
As I progressed in learning these defensive skills, I became more confident
in everything. I advanced from one belt to the next, and as I learned to break
bricks or boards and began to win trophies, I also acquired an unbeatable
attitude. Karate teaches us to overcome our fears and to face up to obstacles.
It is a sport that makes winners of everyone.
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Chapter Seven Answers
73
2. Various answers also possible for this exercise, including the following:
a. He expected to attract young Americans to the martial art of tae
qwan do.
b. He thought the instructor's rebuttal to the accusation important.
c. The employees are deeply angered over the loss of a pay raise.
d. The hospital, as long as it sees no need for entertainment, cannot
guarantee financial support for the choral group.
e. The Academic Affairs Committee cannot accept the validity of
English prerequisites even though methods of corroborating their
validity have improved.
3. Various answers also possible for this exercise.
a. Many verses have been written by people who believe they are poets
but who are merely rhymesters.
b. Prof. Smith made many derogatory remarks about the Democratic
ticket until after the election.
c. The safety committee planned a mock earthquake, including
evacuating people from the Tower Building, creating a command
post, establishing a triage area, and organizing a system of
transportation.
d. During the medieval period, man was no longer viewed as a superb
creature, capable of Promethean achievements; rather, he was
viewed as a pitiful being, tarnished by original sin and in need of
moral redemption.
e. Society has generally underestimated the ability of women to make
right executive decisions under stress.
4. Here are the sentences without their redundancies.
a. Today, families should limit themselves to two children so as not to
overcrowd planet Earth.
b. By taking ballet dancing lessons, I have achieved a greater selfconfidence.
c. All of our cities' bureaucratic agencies that provide services, such as
law-enforcement, fire prevention, sewage disposal, and library service,
cannot continue to grow without higher local taxes.
d. All of Eloise Martin's hopes were based on her belief that human
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74
Chapter Seven Answers
beings are able to set goals they can reach by applying themselves.
e. Suddenly, the computer graphic turned red and became ugly.
5. Here are some suggestions for replacing the trite, prepackaged expressions.
Other possibilities exist.
a. For years, Gilespie thought he was safe, but in the end he went to jail
for illegal drug trafficking, trapped in his own compromised
cleverness.
b. Yes, Pete McClure should be appointed Senior Vice President of
Marketing because over the past 20 years he has worked hard for
Brendon and Company, selling to small businesses and private
merchants even when our product was unpopular.
c. What I despise about my boss is that he simply mistreats his
employees for the sake of profits.
d. Anyone who continues to buy Johnson and Smith stocks will sooner or
later be disappointed.
e. Most of the crowd attending the town meeting had their own agendas
and were not the least concerned about whether the proposed housing
development was good or bad for the neighborhood.
6. Here are some possible ways to get rid of the grandiose diction in the
sample sentences. Other possibilities exist.
a. Various tennis coaches called to ask about leasing equipment from the
university for their tournament leaders.
b. Dear Mr. Webster: I am in receipt of your letter of March 10 in which
you try to explain why you were not at our last townhouse Executive
Committee meeting.
c. Surely it is education's function to help students understand the
richness, profundity, and mystery of life.
d. Before I came to Harvard, I thought the campus would be socially
harsh, frigid, and tumultuous and whose only compensation would be
that I would get a good education.
e. She was smiling dreamily as she lay on the grass, reading a collection
of Amy Lowell's poems.
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75
CHAPTER EIGHT
Answers
The Code
Richard T. Gill
Answers to Quiz
c, b, a, d, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (161 )
1. The author was a Methodist. He was twelve years old when it first struck
him that he might give up his religion (paragraph 1).
2. He was suddenly conscious of everyone's mortality, of the fact that all
these people could suddenly pass away from the world as his brother had
(paragraph 3). It was a fear response.
3. In paragraph 2, the author states that religion was his mother's and his
aunts' “last support.” Similarly, in paragraph 23, the idea of religion as a
crutch or support is repeated. For his mother and his aunts, religion was a
source of consolation and support.
4. The implication in the story is that the father's athletic ability and
ruggedness led the narrator to identify a rejection of religion with real
masculinity. Moreover, the narrator had only witnessed religion being
practiced by women, and his father's rejection of religion probably led the
narrator to conclude that only women or weak men need the crutch of
religion (paragraphs 20, 21, 23).
5. The intangible quality of courage (paragraph 21). The author came to
believe that his father's rejection of religion was an act of courage. He
shared this courage with his father by similarly rejecting religion.
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Chapter Eight Answers
6. In paragraph 24 the narrator dismisses four years in a single sentence. In
paragraph 26 he writes, “Within forty-eight hours, I was standing in the
early morning light,” thus pacing the story to gloss over the interminably
long flight from Japan.
7. The father wanted the narrator to give him permission to speak to the
minister so he could die consoled by religion. The narrator withheld this
permission because giving it would have amounted to admitting his
father’s weaknesshis father’s fear of death. Rather than allowing that,
the narrator withheld permission, forcing the father either to confess his
weakness to his son and thus violate the bond of “courage” that had grown
up between them, or to die alone and unconsoled by religion.
8. Allow for open discussion. The story indicts both role-playing and
masculinity. Had the son not been playing the role of the masculine and
courageous man, he would have been understanding enough to allow his
father the consolation of religion on his deathbed.
9. Allow for open discussion. Clearly, the father was extremely courageous
to the end. If he really believed that he had been wrong about religion as
he confessed to the son, then it was doubtless courageous of him to forgo
talking to the minister because of the son.
10. The significance is that the son continues to role-play what he conceives
to be the part of the man. It was role-playing that made him deprive his
father of the consolations of religion, now it is role-playing in front of
three anonymous women that prevents him from expressing his grief.
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Chapter Eight Answers
77
Richard Cory
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Answers to Quiz
b, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (163)
1. The poem is narrated from the viewpoint of “we people on the
pavement,” allowing the poet to contrast effectively Cory's lifestyle
with that of the poorer people around him and to do so impartially
and with no sentimentality. Cory's suicide is all the more shocking
because he is portrayed as the object of envy to many.
2. He was enviable because he was imperially slim, quietly arrayed,
rich, and schooled in every grace.
3. He caused excitement when he said, “Good morning.” Cory was such
an admired and resplendent figure that a mere greeting from him
caused hearts to skip.
4. Contrast. Cory is contrasted with the anonymous “we” who tell his
story.
5. That they envied Cory; that they wished to be in his place; that they
were poor, hungry, and struggling (“So on we worked, and waited for
the light,/ And went without the meat, and cursed the bread….”). It is
important for us to know these things about Cory's admirers;
otherwise his suicide would not seem nearly as inexplicable, and the
paradoxical flavor of the poem would be lost.
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Chapter Eight Answers
A Gift of Laughter
Allan Sherman
Answers to Quiz
d, b, a, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique ( 171)
1. The narrator involves us in the story by beginning in the middle of things,
with his son's shrieking at him in his excitement to show the picture he
had drawn of his father. This kind of beginning, known as in medias
res a term from Horace that signifies beginning in the middle of an
actionis very effective for immediately drawing in an audience.
2. The language used throughout the story is colloquial and informal and
helps set the tone and atmosphere for a casual narration. Given the
elements and point of this tale, it is difficult to see how the narrator could
have chosen any other kind of language than this.
3. Money problems are typically serious topics of conversation between
adults and are usually engrossing. He tells us the subject to explain why
he was so distracted that he had no time to listen to his son.
4. The flashback is triggered in paragraph 8 by the sound of his son
slamming the door. That sound takes him back to the time when he
slammed his own door after being rebuffed by his own mother.
5. He omits the details of the trade because he is pacing this story so that it
sticks to the pointnamely, that once he also made a sacrifice that was
not appreciated by adults. Having told us what Gudgie wanted for the
football, he does not need to show us the actual trade that took place.
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6. Allow for open discussion. The adults in the story are actually quite
loving and devoted to their children. The misunderstandings that they
have with their children are quite understandable and typical in the dayto-day affairs of a family.
7. Strictly speaking, if one were grammatically picky one could object that
the sentence should read “then give it back to whomever it belongs.”
However, this stilted though grammatically correct speech would be
totally inappropriate for the circumstances of this story. A writer is more
obliged to faithfully write dialogue that fits the dramatic situation rather
than dialogue that is grammatically right.
8. The odd capitalization of “leaving home” and "left home" indicates that
this is a normal and expected ritual that children go through when they
are hurt.
9. Allow for open discussion. The story is an amusing one and the sort that
might be found in Reader's Digest or some other popular magazine of a
similar level. It is intended strictly for a popular audience and has an
amusing surface appeal. It does, however, lack the depth of some of the
other narrations in this chapter.
Excerpt from Night
Elie Wiesel
Answers to Quiz
b, d, d, a, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (183)
1. Allow for open discussion. Many survivors, even though they are now
very old, simply cannot forgive these cruel former SS officers.
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2. The description consists merely of a series of short sentences that catalog
what the author saw. The writing is plain and straightforward with no
images whatsoever. This style of writing is commonly found in
newspapers. It is highly effective here because of the extraordinary
circumstances the author is describing.
3. He puts “coffee” in quotation marks to signify that the liquid being served
was coffee only in a figurative sense. Later, in paragraph 30, he identifies
the liquid as “hot water.” Using quotation marks is an effective shorthand
way of making clear that the coffee being served was not really coffee.
4. Allow for open discussion. His behavior strikes us as loving, gentle, and
caring under the harshest of circumstances. It seems to us that he has
nothing to reproach himself about.
5. The author uses journalistic paragraphs, some of which are only a short
sentence long. These paragraphs are highly effective for the reportorial
style that the author uses in telling his story.
6. For us, the most moving part of this narration is the way the author keeps
reproaching himself about wanting to stay alive and about the feelings he
had that his dying father was a dead weight on his own chances of
survival. But under the circumstances, these feelings were perfectly
normal and would have been felt by anyone else in his position. Allow
for open discussion.
7. Paragraph 54 consists of a single sentence fragment. It has no main verb
and would therefore not be suitable for a student essay. Yet it is a highly
effective summary of how the author felt and is a good example of the
use of fragments to make a strong point.
8.
The use of exclamation marks in paragraph 58 strongly signals the
author’s outrage and indignation that his own father should thank him for
showing mercy. The marks are a subtle commentary on the depths to
which the inhuman prisoners have descended in the concentration camp.
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9. The advice given to the authorthat he save himself and forget about his
dying fatheris probably sound advice under the brutal circumstances,
but it is also a chilling commentary on the viciousness of life in a Nazi
concentration camp.
10. Many examples of pacing can be found throughout the material. In
paragraph 27, for example, the author writes, “I walked for hours without
finding him.” In paragraph 32, he passes over five uneventful hours in a
single sentence. And in paragraph 36, he marks the passage of time by
writing, “he grew weaker day by day.” Finally, an entire uneventful week
in his father's decline is dismissed in paragraph 59 with a single sentence,
“a week went by like this.”
In Another Country
Ernest Hemingway
Answers to Quiz
c, d, b, a, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (188)
1. On a literal level, the narrator, who is an American fighting a war in
Europe, finds himself in Milan, Italy, “another country,” not his
homeland. On a psychological level, the story tells of a group of soldiers
wounded during the war, which makes them different from citizens who
have never fought in a war. In a sense, they are in “another country.” On
a third level, the narrator feels that he is a stranger to the other men
working the machines because he is American and received his wound
due to an accident rather than due to actual warfare. This difference, too,
places him “in another country.”
2. He means that the war is still on, but the characters in this story no longer
fight in the war because they have been wounded and are now in the
process of getting care at a hospital in Milan.
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3. Today we would simply term the cure “physical therapy,” which is still
used widely to help people move again after they have lost the use of
their limbs—in accidents or at war. Ask students if they trusted the
machines—why or why not?
4. The role of the doctor is to keep up the morale of the soldiers using the
machines. He wants to build up their confidence in the curative power of
the machines, presumably so that the patients will improve. Allow
students to discuss how they reacted to the doctor’s optimism.
5. The people hated these men, who were officers and as such were
privileged—receiving better care and more medals than common
soldiers. The people probably felt that, during fierce battles, officers did
not put their lives on the line as much as did the more lowly foot soldier.
Perhaps the people had lost some of their relatives who were soldiers, not
officers, in the war. Have students discuss this point.
6. This young soldier contributes to the irony of this story. He came from
an aristocratic family and had his nose shot off as he fought on the front
line of the war immediately after graduating from the military academy.
He did not have time to really prove himself; yet, his appearance has been
destroyed forever. The reason “they” (probably the plastic surgeons)
could never rebuild the boy’s nose correctly is because Italian aristocrats
were said to have a Roman nose, denoting patrician looks and nobility.
Have students discuss how they feel about this young soldier.
7. By “detached” the narrator means that the soldiers no longer felt great
passion about their lives. They had lived with death and danger so long,
that in order to save their sanity, they had to create distance between
themselves and the world around them. Other words that might apply are
“aloof,” “isolated,” and “impassive.”
8. Here are some suggested themes: 1) One effect of war is disillusionment
with love and life. 2) One cannot always shield one’s own life and that
of loved ones from inevitable tragedy. 3) The best way to live life is to
savor those pleasant moments that come along.
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9. The pivotal character is the major because he proves that life is ironic
and unpredictable. He did not marry his wife until he was sure that he
would not have to go back to war (having been severely wounded) and
possibly make her a widow. But irony of ironies, she died of pneumonia
while the major was having his hand treated.
10. The narrator is omniscient and omnipresent in the sense that he can move
from character to character, relaying impressions to the reader. He knows
all. One technique used is pacing—that is, featuring important events
while passing quickly over less important ones. For instance, in
paragraph 2, the narrator says, “We were all at the hospital every
afternoon,” but he does not give us a blow by blow description of what
happened on each of those afternoons. A second technique used is
scattering vivid details throughout the essay. Good examples to study
occur in paragraphs 1, 14, and 15. A third technique used is the use of
symbolism. One example occurs in paragraph 17, when the narrator
refers to the other three officers with medals as “hunting hawks,”
meaning that they were eager to get into the front lines of the war and kill
the enemy whereas the narrator is afraid of death and does not have the
killer’s instinct. He is more of a dove than a hawk.
The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe
Answers to Quiz
d, c, c, a, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (193)
1. The narrator begins by telling us that he is not mad precisely because he
is mad. By having the narrator deny that he is mad at the very outset, Poe
is drawing our attention to the fact that the man is most probably mad,
and his madness is an explanation for the narrative that follows.
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Chapter Eight Answers
2. The point of the narrator telling us that he had no motive for killing the
old man can only be to lay the groundwork for a psychological
explanation of his motivenamely, that the narrator is mad.
3. The dashes add a breathlessness to the narration, as if the narrator were
darting from one thought to the next in his confused state of mind. They
are very effective for signaling broken thoughts that one would expect
from someone who is demented.
4. From his language, we gather that the narrator is an educated man from at
least a middle-class background. His vocabulary is sophisticated as is his
sentence structure. The portrayal of him that emerges from his use of
language adds to the inevitable conclusion that only madness can explain
his actions.
5. A reader today would not be particularly shocked by anything in this
story, so used to excesses in the portrayal of madness on the page and on
the screen have we become. In Poe’s day, however, this story would’ve
been shocking. Allow for open discussion of the second part of the
question.
6. In pacing this story, Poe focuses his attention mainly on the night of the
murder. In paragraph 4, for example, he passes over an entire week in his
opening sentence. On the other hand, from paragraph 5 to the end of the
book, the narrative focuses painstakingly on the murder of the old man,
his dismemberment, and burial. Point out to students how time and
events that are unimportant to the narrative are quickly glossed over, as
for example the way the seven nights of watching the old man are treated
in paragraph 4.
7. A modern writer would not invert the subject and object but would most
likely write, “I had no desire for his gold.”
8. The best example of foreshadowing in paragraph 1 is the narrator's
insistence on the acuteness of his hearing. Later, it is this overly sensitive
hearing that gives him away when he imagines that he can hear the old
man’s heart still beating from under the floor boards.
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9. We would guess that they were stunned, the narrator having convinced us
that he had fooled them all along. Part of the suspense of this story is that
we are not told how the officers reacted, but are left to imagine for
ourselves.
10. He uses italics and often. See, for example, paragraphs 5, 8, 12, and 14.
Other paragraphs also use italics for the same effect.
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CHAPTER NINE
Answers
The Lament
Anton Chekhov
Answers to Quiz
b, a, d, a, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (200)
1. A lament is an expression of grief over some loss. In the story the
cabdriver expresses deep grief over the loss of his son.
2. Chekhov examines the sorrow of being rejected by other members of
society, the sorrow associated with being poor, and the sorrow produced
by a severe winter climate.
3. Iona desires desperately to communicate to someoneanyonehis grief
over the loss of his son; he needs to find relief for his pent-up emotions.
4. They all are indifferent to the sorrows of a fellow human being. None
shows the faintest sign of sensitivity or gentleness. All they care about is
their own comfort and entertainment.
5. Paragraph 22.
6. Details suggesting loss or grief include the following: Iona's colorhe is
described as being white like “a phantom”; he is also described as being
bent double (as if in pain) and motionless. He is so engrossed in his own
thoughts that “if a whole snowdrift fell on him, it seems as if he would
not find it necessary to shake it off.” The description suggests a pensive,
possibly grieving man totally absorbed in his own sorrows.
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7. The Paragraph 6: “Iona shifts about on his seat as if he were on needles,
moves his elbows as if he were trying to keep his equilibrium, and gapes
about like someone suffocating.” Paragraph 15: “Death mistook the door
.... instead of coming to me, it went to my son.” Paragraph 16: “His
grief, which has abated for a short while.... ”
8. The conflict is between Iona's urge to communicate his grief and the
unwillingness of people to listen. The conflict is resolved when Iona
pours out his grief to his horse.
Coats
Jane Kenyon
Answers to Quiz
d, a, d, d, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (201)
1. The omission of any particular details about the man makes him into a
more universal “everyman” figure. We think the omission was deliberate
to focus the poem not on a particular man, but on the man as an element in
a mise en scene of grief.
2. This line is intended to reflect the viewpoint of the grief-stricken man.
That the day was fair and mild for December is a mockery of the personal
suffering he was experiencing. Explain to students how poets and writers
manipulate weather and scenery to evoke mood. In this case the evocation
is of opposites that a tragic scene should be played out on a mild and fair
day.
3. Allow for open discussion. One meaning of the coats is the individual
attempt of every soul to cope with its own particular destiny. The woman
is dead and the man is carrying away her now useless coat, while he
himself buttons his own coat against the “irremediable cold.” The poem is
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Chapter Nine Answers
implying that every person rides on the ocean of life in his or her own
particular boat.
4. The “irremediable cold” refers not to the chilly weatherthe poem tells
us that the day was mild and fairbut to the cold caused by the man's loss
and grief. That is why it is “irremediable”; a coat cannot protect from this
kind of cold.
5. That the coat the man is buttoning as he leaves the hospital on a mild and
fair winter day cannot protect him from the chill of his own grief is the
irony implied by the poem.
Mma Ramotswe Thinks about the Land
Alexander McCall Smith
Answers to Quiz
d, a, c, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (209)
1. The two descriptions are of Africa as a desert and Africa as a fertile land.
The switch is easy to follow because at the end of paragraph 4, the
narrator tells us that as a young woman she had been out in the Kalahari
desert during the rainy season. This experience creates the turning point
from the dry desert to the rain-soaked desert.
2. First, Mma Ramotswe attributes to the sun the human characteristic of
“smiling” on Africa. Then she describes the sun as a “slither of golden
red ball, inching up, floating effortlessly free of the horizon to dispel the
last wisps of morning mist.” This is a highly charged, poetic description.
Have students discuss their responses to the language.
3. The main ingredient of the land is its vast size and its sand the color of
ochre. As one moves inland, the vegetation gets sparser and sparser until
even the thorn bushes thin out. The dryness of the land is oppressive.
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4. Probably the singing is performed by the hot, dry winds that sweep across
this part of the country. It is surely an eerie, fearsome song.
5. Suddenly the dry, empty desert becomes a garden filled with delicate
shoots of grass, flowers, melons, and vines. Anyone who has lived in a
desert environment knows that as soon as water soaks the earth, a
desolate, harsh piece of desert can turn into a flower garden or an
orchard. This is one of the miracles of nature. Think of Palm Springs,
California, which was once a vast, stark desert, but is now a patchwork
of gorgeous lawns, limpid lakes, and brilliant flowers—simply because
irrigation was introduced to the land.
6. The narrator ponders how small she is compared with the land’s endless
expanses. But she finds comfort in thinking that in this vast country there
is a place for everyone to live and call the land “their own.” The
narrator loves the land the way a mother might love a child that broke
her heart. In other words, the dry emptiness of the Kalahari desert is
enough to break her heart, but she loves it despite its emptiness and lack
of fertility. It is, above all, her native country.
7. Mma Ramotswe is aware of her environment and she is careful, the way a
detective should be. She sees a man leap out from the bushes and try to
flag her down, but she ignores him by driving on, fully aware of the
dangers involved in picking up strangers at night.
8. Smith’s language is charged with vivid, poetic language, as exemplified
in these passages: Paragraph 1: “Suddenly it (the sun) was there,
smiling on Africa, a slither of golden red ball, inching up, floating
effortlessly free of the horizon to dispel the last wisps of morning mist.”
Paragraph 3: “This was a dry land. Just a short distance to the west lay
the Kalahari, a hinterland of ochre that stretched off, for unimaginable
miles, to the singing emptinesses of the Namib.” Paragraph 4: “For the
lions were there still, on these wide landscapes, and they made their
presence known in the darkness, in coughing grunts and growls.” Other
passages exist.
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Chapter Nine Answers
9. The tiny white van serves to tie up the description at the beginning of this
chapter. The description begins with Mma Ramotswe driving her tiny
white van, and it ends with her continuing to drive the van along the
road. Thus the description is neatly restricted.
10. Despite its infertility, its dangers, and its recurring ugliness, this is the
narrator’s land; it is her homeland, and she is devoted to it as a patriot
would be.
The Monster
Deems Taylor
Answers to Quiz
d, a, b, c, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (217)
1.
He was a monster of conceit.” Paragraph 2.
2.
He recounts incidents from the life of this genius that show him to be
selfish, irresponsible, egocentric, unscrupulous, disloyal, and
overbearing. Almost any paragraph reveals such incidents.
3. Allow for open discussion.
4. Allow for open discussion.
5.
He means that any artist of Wagner’s magnificent talent deserves to be
supported by society. In other words, the author feels that a cultured,
civilized society ought to be willing to support the few rare geniuses.
6.
Innocent connotes a kind of blamelessness. For instance, a child can be
said to be innocent of evil or corruption because the concept of evil is as
yet unformed in his or her mind.
7. In paragraph 12.
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91
Sister Flowers
Maya Angelou
Answers to Quiz
c, b, a, d, d
Answers to Questions About Meaning and Technique (222)
1. Obviously Mrs. Flowers embodied the refinement and education the
narrator could not find among most of the people in her neighborhood.
Mrs. Flowers looked aristocratic and spoke with a natural, educated
refinement—the kind the narrator had met only in novels she had read.
2. As often happens among blacks—especially decades ago--the
grandmother takes over the nurturing of the grandchildren because the
parents are divorced or they have to work and can’t take care of their
offspring. So, the grandmother in those cases becomes the mother. The
narrator has the typical reaction of most children to their parents:
embarrassment because the parent is not as sophisticated, as educated, or
as successful as a neighbor. In this case, Marguerite had been reading
profusely and therefore had acquired the ability to use proper English
grammar whereas her grandmother did not have this advantage.
Marguerite is mortified when Momma can’t agree her subjects and verbs
and uses the language of black southerners.
3. Mrs. Flowers and Momma bonded as human beings because they had
much in common and were on intimate terms in matters of life and the
people who surrounded them. Have students discuss how they have built
strong, intimate relationships with people of less formal education than
they have had. For instance, you could have strong bonds of friendship
with your TV repairman, your pest control serviceperson, or your shoe
repairman. These people may not have a college degree, but they know
a great deal about work, life, and human relationships.
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4. One lesson was that speaking is as important as reading because the
human voice can make printed words come to life. The narrator learned
that she needed to come out of her shell and speak up in class if she
wanted to strengthen her reputation as a good student. Another lesson
was about the difference between ignorance and illiteracy. The narrator
learned that some illiterate people were not at all ignorant or stupid but
had in fact a great deal of common sense or wit with which they could
add to the “collective wisdom of generations.” Have students give
examples from their experience to distinguish between ignorance and
illiteracy.
5. For the first time in her life she felt the “enchantment” of reading
classical literature, such as Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (see
paragraph 42). Moreover, for the first time in her life she felt liked and
respected for being herself—the person she really was (see paragraph
44).
6. She often uses vivid language or figures of speech. Here are some
examples: Paragraph 2: The entire paragraph is highly descriptive.
a. Paragraph 3: “Her skin was a rich black that would have
peeled like a plum if snagged….”
b. Paragraph 4: The entire paragraph describes Mrs. Flowers’
smile.
c. Paragraph 12: “She acted just as refined as white folks in the
movies and books and she was more beautiful, for none of
them could have come near that warm color without looking
gray by comparison.”
d. Have students point to further examples.
7. Here are some typical southern expressions from the text:
a. Paragraph 1: “I sopped around,” meaning “I walked around
looking glum and sullen.
b. Paragraphs 12 and 13: “white folks,” or “powhitefolks,”
referring
to white southerners or poor white southerners.
8. Paragraph 17: “chifforobe,” to refer to a chiffonier, a small dresser in
which clothes are stored.
a. These expressions increase the authenticity of the story.
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9. Answers may vary.
Encourage students to share their literary
experiences with the class.
Laundromat
Susan Sheehan
Answers to Quiz
d, c, b, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (226)
1. The dominant impression is one of busy activity. Details that support this
dominant impression are these: Paragraph 1: A pretty young black girl
is folding clothes. Paragraph 2: People are busy inserting coins, stuffing
clothes into the machines, and adding detergents, bleaches, or softeners
during the appropriate cycles. Paragraph 3: The tumbling clothes and
linens are in constant motion. Paragraph 4: A middle-aged man wearing
a trench coat hurriedly takes a load of children’s clothes out of the
washing machine and folds them. A young Japanese boy takes some
clothes out of a dryer. Paragraph 5: People come and go.
2. Part of the reason this description keeps our attention is that laundromats
are familiar places, so we chuckle with a sense of recognition.
Additionally, though, Sheehan uses figures of speech that make the
scene spring to life. For instance, she writes about “the kaleidoscopic
activity” inside the machines. She describes some white shirts
“jitterbugging with six or eight pairs of grey socks.” The clothes in the
dryers seem to be “free falling, like sky divers drifting down to earth.”
3. The author makes a clear class observation when she states that most of
the patrons at the laundromat are blacks or Puerto Ricans. The white
people can afford to live in apartments that provide a laundry room
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Chapter Nine Answers
where they can wash their linens and clothes or they can even afford to
send their things out to be cleaned by a Chinese laundry. Another
reference to class is the anecdote about the black woman who tossed a
chicken bone at someone, but her gesture was accepted as “a reasonable
protest against the miserableness of her life.”
4. Nothing much has changed. Sheehan’s description is still recognizable
today. Perhaps the brand of washing machines has changed from
Wascomat to General Electric or some other brand; the price has gone
up; and Chinese laundries are not as widespread as they used to be. But
in essence the picture of the laundromat is as it was.
5. The laundromat is in New York, situated between Seventy-seventh and
Seventy-eighth Street on the west side of Broadway. These streets are
landmarks of New York City.
6. The first parenthetical question occurs in paragraph 4 when the author
asks why the father is in such a hurry. The second question also occurs
in paragraph 4 when the author wonders to whom the lacy slip and
ruffled nightgown, being washed by the Japanese boy, belong. These
questions and their speculated answers add intrigue to the description.
7. Probably the woman’s age and her blond hair are mentioned because the
woman is still young enough to attract attention in the basement laundry
of an apartment complex. However, she is not just a teenager who might
totally imagine some kind of sexual attack or person lurking about to
steal. She is probably not just being paranoid or self-deluded.
8. Sheehan appeals to all of our senses: Visual (the signs listed in paragraph
1), hearing (the constant whirring of the machines), smell (the
laundromat smells of “a sweet mixture of soap and heat,” paragraph 3),
touch (the man in the trench coat holds some damp clothes over his arm,
paragraph 4), and taste (the blond woman wishing she could watch her
laundry while she savors a cup of coffee and a bun).
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CHAPTER TEN
Answers
We're Poor
Floyd Dell
Answers to Quiz
d, a, c, b, a
1.
2. Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (232)
1.
The style is simple and straightforward (notice that there are no vocabulary
words) as is befitting the age of the author at the time of the narrative—six
years old.
2.
Deducing the age of the author at the time of the narrative requires a close
reading of the text. He was actually six years old and seems extraordinarily
sensitive and keen for one so young.
3.
The lack of nourishing food and adequate clothing are two obvious physical
wants. Notice also that poverty led to social isolation of the family as well as
to its dispersal, with the children being farmed out to various relatives. This
separation of children from their natural parents is another insidious effect of
poverty and is our own candidate for its worst effect. Allow for open
discussion of the second part of the question.
4.
That she was proud and was doing her best to shield her young child from
discovering the truth about them.
5.
Throughout, the author is very detailed and concrete about enumerating the
effects of poverty on his family, down to describing the insertion of
cardboard insoles in his shoes to cover the holes. But possibly the most
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Chapter Ten Answers
telling paragraph is paragraph 5, when the author says, “Taking my small bag
of potatoes to Sunday school, I looked around for the poor children; I was
disappointed not to see them.”
6.
By asking himself a series of questions, the answers to which he already half
suspects.
7.
Dell went on to become a writer of some repute, so the incident cannot have
had that great an effect on his life to the point of retarding his development.
Allow for open discussion of the second part of the question. Certainly, the
trauma of such a discovery could have been devastating on Dell, as on any
other small child.
8.
Certainly, it's plausible. What he means is that he had an intuition, but he did
not want to consciously admit to it. Ask your students if they've ever had a
similar experience where they knew something viscerally before their minds
did.
Eleanor Rigby
John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Answers to Quiz
b, c, a, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (234)
1. The repetition of certain lines announces that this is a song—especially
the couplet “Ah, look at all the lonely people!/Ah, look at all the lonely
people!”
2. The most obvious of them is this: “Many people in this world are lonely,
alienated, and unhappy.”
3. Eleanor Rigby lives in a dream world of wishful thinking. She wishes
she could find love and marriage, but the closest she gets to marriage is
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97
picking up the rice thrown at weddings. Have students discuss what a
typical day’s activities for Eleanor might be.
4. The meaning is somewhat obscure, but we believe that Eleanor has a
certain face she puts on for company as they walk through the door; thus
the lyricist pretends that she keeps her face (a mask?) by the door.
5. Father McKenzie is a dreamer like Eleanor Rigby, but his dream is to be
a priest who delivers dynamic sermons that will save the listeners. He
writes these sermons, but he never has the opportunity to move any
audience because evidently people stay away from him (“no one comes
near”). He too feels isolated and abandoned like Eleanor.
6. Where do all the lonely people come from? They come from
everywhere—from luxurious mansions, from broken-down huts, from
under bridges, and from a multitude of other places around the world.
7. Of course, we cannot answer the question specifically, but we can
certainly insist that all lonely people deserve a place to call home—a
place where they can feel safe and happy.
8. Eleanor Rigby died without ever achieving love, and Father McKenzie
probably conducted her funeral, but if he gave an elegy or a sermon, it
was ineffective because “no one was saved.”
9. The poem seems to blame all of us for their sad plight. Over and over
again, the poem commands us to “look at all the lonely people!” and to
ask ourselves not only where they come from but where they belong.
10. Have students present the case of any person they know who fits into the
category of these “lonely people.”
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How Near Death is a Near Death Experience?
Catherine Houck
Answers to Quiz
c, d, b, a, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (245)
1. In a NDE the person, once well, recalls seeing certain heavenly visions.
Have students share any NDE experience they, or someone close to
them, has experienced. Have them indicate how the experience affected
them.
2. No, the NDE is not universally accepted. Some scientists suggest that
NDEers were more likely to have experienced sexual or physical abuse
during childhood (see paragraph 25). Many scientists believe that NDEs
are little-understood products of the deteriorating brain, probably nature’s
way to help victims of trauma relax and conserve energy (see paragraph
29). Other scientists maintain that, like physiological shock, the NDE
keeps potentially damaging emotion in check. They also suggest that
descriptions of NDEs are almost identical to the hallucinations reported
by people who have taken hashish, opium, and angel dust (see paragraph
30). One psychologist, Susan Blackmore, a vehement skeptic of NDE’s,
theorizes that oxygen deficiency brings about compression of the optic
nerve, which can lead to vision of a tunnel and bright light. She claims
that as oxygen levels fall, the brain can go wild, producing images that
seem real but are not (see paragraph 32). Have students discuss the pros
and cons of the controversy.
3. Personal examples are all science can go by at this point. In medical
research case histories form an important base for experiments and their
results. In the particular case of NDEs, however, personal examples can
be misleading because the cause of the experience has not yet been
scientifically established.
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4. Turn to paragraphs 15 and 21 for a summary of the experiences.
5. We believe that the desire to know what happens at the edge between life
and death is a human curiosity that pervades society. It does not matter
whether people are educated or not, they are still intensely interested in
what happens when one dies.
6. It seems reasonable that when a person almost loses his or her life, that
life becomes more precious than ever. One probably does not need to go
as far as having a NDE to feel an intensified love of life. People who have
been diagnosed with any serious disease often say that they didn’t realize
how much they loved life and how much they prayed to have this life
continue. Even a divorce can lead to a greater appreciation of love as one
tends to love more what one has lost.
7. Probably the fact that NDEers nowadays have their own networking
center and that many reputable scientists have joined the group of
researchers interested in NDEs has given the field greater integrity and
reliance in the last 25 years.
8. Science converges with religion, but neither science nor religion has a
satisfactory explanation for the NDE. Perhaps definitive answers will
appear as more research on the subject is accomplished.
9. Sounds of discord or commotion are absent. Everyone feels peaceful and
basks in love and the shimmering light of celestial beings. The whole
atmosphere seems either too good to be true or it is a genuine religious
blessing. Have students share their personal reactions. Do they believe or
are they skeptical?
10. Raymond Moody is the Georgia psychiatrist credited with bringing
NDEs to the world’s attention and coining the term “near death
experience.” In 1975, he published a collection of accounts titled Life
After Life. His contribution was then followed by many other researchers
who analyzed thousands of episodes that seemed to have similar traits.
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Chapter Ten Answers
What I’ve Learned from Men
Barbara Ehrenreich
Answers to Quiz
b, c, a, d, c
Answers to Questions About Meaning and Technique (256)
1. The first example is taken from the author’s own experience, which adds
validity to the example since in it the author exposes herself as weak and
accommodating instead of strong and direct. Have female students bring
up their own personal experiences in circumstances that required a firm
attitude rather than ladylike behavior. Allow the male students to
respond to these experiences.
2. Have students debate this question. It is quite possible that Ehrenreich
indulges in some stereotyping, but stereotyping the male as strong and
silent but the female as pleasing and protective of the male ego is a bias
found throughout recorded history. Only as a result of the feminist
movement in recent decades have women finally been featured as strong,
purposeful, and self-sufficient. It is the stereotype of the puny woman
that Ehrenreich is trying to shatter.
3. Stereotypes of women:
From Victorian novels: The pale invalid, sweetly lying on her couch,
holding a lace handkerchief and smelling salts in her hand; the
manipulator (like Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair and Scarlett O’Hara in
Gone with the Wind) using her feminine wiles to get what she wants in
life; the dumb blonde like Carol Channing who beguiles by being
innocent; the tactful woman who never hurts anyone’s feelings, like the
mother in Little Women.
Stereotypes of men:
The strong silent type like Clint Eastwood; the nimble athlete like Tom
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Cruise, the brilliant tycoon like Howard Hughes, the tough guy like John
Wayne. Have students add to the list.
4. Ehrenreich uses humor throughout her essay—to poke fun both at men
and women. Since she is good natured about her approach, the reader
does not resent what she says. Here are some specific examples of
humor in the essay:
a. Paragraph 1: The anecdote about the waiter.
b. Paragraph 2: “Let me try that again—we’re just too damn
ladylike.”
c. Paragraph 3: Using the term AWOL for a male who reveals
no emotions.
d. Paragraph 5: The descriptions of macho men.
e. Paragraph 7: The suggestions that women cut back on
smiling so much.
f. Paragraph 11: Imitating men on what to do with anger.
g. Paragraph 12: The imaginative replaying of the author’s
scene with the prestigious professor.
h. Humor is a wonderful technique to use when writing on a
subject that could turn belligerent.
5. The kind of male who would approve of Ehrenreich’s attitude is one who
is sure of his own masculinity and who would welcome women being
more assertive in trying to achieve their proper rights. The kind of male
who would be hostile to Ehrenreich’s essay is one who is already
threatened by women’s growing competence and who feels that
women’s place is in the home and subjugated to their men. Have
students discuss where they stand on this issue.
6. The thesis of the essay can be stated in one sentence: “Women need to
stand up for their rights the way men do.” The examples used all
support the author’s thesis.
7. The two characteristics are power and control. But power and control
alone can quickly lead to tyranny. We believe that power and control
must always be softened by fairness and understanding. Have students
discuss this point.
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8. She uses the word “example” in paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, and 12. In each
case the word helps to make the passage more coherent by introducing
the example to follow.
9. The first dictionary definition of the term ladylike is “the quality of being
well-bred, refined, and delicate as associated with women of the
aristocracy.” However, a secondary definition means “a woman who is
unduly sensitive to matters of propriety or decorum.” A third definition
means “lacking vitality and strength.” Have students come up with their
own definitions, which the class can then discuss.
10. Answers will differ. Allow for open deliberations
Suing For Fun and Profit
Andy Rooney
Answers to Quiz
d, b, c, a, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (258)
1. The tone indicates a certain level of outrage. It is also occasionally ironic
as when Rooney threatens to quit work in order sue big companies for a
living. (Irony means saying something you don’t really mean.) His final
paragraph is humorously ironic when he claims to be contemplating a suit
against CBS because while in its employ he has acquired grey hair, a
wrinkled face, a dead brain, and bent over body. This tone is totally in
keeping with Andy Rooney’s curmudgeon image on the noted television
program “60 Minutes.” Since Rooney is up in years, one tends to give
him the right to complain vociferously while still liking him.
2. His thesis can be expressed in this sentence: "Suing has become a popular
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American pastime and I’d like to get in on some of the easy money"
(paragraph 1). Rooney uses numerous examples of frivolous lawsuits to
make his point.
3. Answers may differ, but perhaps the most frivolous lawsuit exemplified
in the essay is the one where Stella Liebeck sued McDonald’s because
their coffee was too hot and she was burned when she spilled some coffee
on her lap while in a car. We think that drinking hot coffee in a car is
not a smart thing to do, but if one insisted on doing it, then one should be
infinitely careful not to spill the coffee.
4. Allow students to express their views on this question; however, it seems
to us that for years the tobacco industry advertised smoking as chic,
glamorous, and sophisticated. The movies were always filming gorgeous
women and handsome men holding cigarettes and exhaling the smoke
with enviable savoir faire. Thus, the tobacco industry can be said to carry
some blame for the many deaths resulting from cancer and heart disease.
But still, individuals who smoked bear the greatest part of the blame—for
being so gullible.
5. He means that people tend to be irresponsible in the way they take risks.
Then, when they reap painful consequences from the choices they made,
they want to blame someone other than themselves. This tendency is
often seen in students’ reactions to getting Fs or Ds on tests or papers.
Instead of blaming themselves for partying instead of studying before the
test, they prefer to belittle the teacher by accusing him of asking
irrelevant questions or questions that were much too obscure and
difficult. Have students cite other similar examples. Rooney is disgusted
with the way no one takes responsibility for being stupid or rash.
6. The only way Rooney could have expanded his thought was to give
examples, but medical examples require a medical vocabulary, which is
often difficult to understand. Also, the perceptive reader will already
know that doctors pay enormous insurance fees to cover liability suits—
these fees sometimes making survival in a medical practice impossible.
It seems to us that most doctors have received excellent training and do
their best to heal their patients. Suing should be a last resort.
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Chapter Ten Answers
7. His tone is one of exasperation with the effrontery of people who sue for
huge sums when they themselves are to blame for such faults as lack of
discipline in eating and speeding out of control on the highway. He uses
sarcasm to ridicule anyone who would sue the telephone company if
someone slams into a telephone pole and is killed.
8. This is an opportunity for students to cite some examples of personal
injuries they or a member of their family suffered. Have the class
respond to the examples.
9. The reason why large companies get sued more often than small
companies is that large companies have large amounts of money in
reserve. However, in today’s market, this is no longer true of some large
companies. For instance, the employee benefits to workers for General
Motors is forcing General Motors to downsize before the company goes
bankrupt. Many of the large airlines are in dire financial trouble, so suing
them would be pointless. Have students debate the Kellogg and Black &
Decker suits. Was the New Jersey couple neglectful, or should the toaster
have had a mechanism that turned it off when the Pop Tart was done?
10. In the final paragraph of the essay, Rooney blasts trial lawyers as greedy
people who make billions of dollars off their personal injury cases while
their clients receive only a minuscule percentage of the court award. The
derogatory term often used for personal injury lawyers is “ambulance
chasers.”
The Word as Person: Eponyms
Don Farrant
Answers to Quiz
b, a, d, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (262)
1. Definition. The article provides a concrete definition of “eponym.”
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2. The first two examples are of food eponyms.
3. This piece was excerpted from Sky magazine, the Delta Airlines in-flight
publication. It was obviously written to entertain an audience of busy
magazine readers, and it bears all the earmarks of a journalistic rather than
a literary piece. These include the short crisp journalistic paragraphs, a
simple diction, and a direct and decidedly uncomplicated syntax.
4. Students seldom appreciate that transitions between paragraphs are not
necessary where the sense of the discussion already flows smoothly
between them. In paragraph 6, the author is discussing eponyms under the
announced heading of “the long history of wearing apparel,” and because
the discussion of bloomers is merely a continuation under this theme, no
transition is necessary. On the other hand, paragraph 11 introduces a
whole new category of eponyms—inventors—and therefore needs the
bridging sentence, “Inventors have done much to enrich our language with
name-inspired nouns.”
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Answers
Arrangement in Black and White
Dorothy Parker
Answers to Quiz
c, d, b, a, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (268)
1. She is a pretty, superficial southern belle who loves to make small talk at
parties and show off her vivacious “charm.”
2. Paragraph 5: She thinks that Walter Williams should be terribly grateful
for being the guest of honor at a party with whites.
Paragraph 12: She says that when blacks are bad, they are simply terrible.
In this way she is singling them out as being different from
whites.
Paragraph 13: She wonders if she should shake hands with Walter
Williams. An unprejudiced person would never question
how to treat him; she would simply treat him as she
would any other famous person.
Paragraph 18: She speaks to the black guest with exaggerated clarity, as if
he lacked the intelligence to understand normal English.
Paragraph 23: She is disappointed that Katherine Burke is so dark,
indicating that to her dark skin is not as beautiful as light.
In fact, she almost slips and calls Katherine Burke a
“nigger.”
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Chapter Eleven Answers
3. She thinks that blacks are best suited to singing spirituals and that they all
have music “right in them.” She believes that one must be cautious about
being too nice to blacks because they may take advantage of one’s
kindness. To her blacks are like little children—easygoing, singing, and
laughing.
4. Burton’s attitude toward blacks is more honest and straightforward than
his wife’s. He admits his prejudice where she does not. He takes a
superior, patronizing attitude toward blacks, giving them castoff clothes
and visiting them out in the kitchen.
5. He is polite but noncommittal. His role is to serve as a sounding board for
the woman’s comments.
Incident
Countee Cullen
Answers to Quiz
c, d, a
3.
4. Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (270)
One painful incident in a strange or new environment can leave an
unpleasant memory that can last for a long time.
1.
Doubtless his environment had taught him to treat blacks as inferior.
Children are not born prejudiced; they are conditioned.
2.
The title is an understatement. The encounter was an “incident,” a minor
event, yet it colored the speaker’s memory of Baltimore. .
3.
The contrast between the black boy’s innocent smile and the white boy's
vicious grimace. He was “heart-filled” and “head-filled” with glee.
Also, he smiled at the white boy.
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Chapter Eleven Answers
4. Allow for open discussion.
5. Answers will vary.
We Aren’t Born Prejudice
Ian Stevenson
Answers to Quiz
b, c, a, b, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (283)
1. The paragraph opens with the question, "What is prejudice?" which
immediately focuses the essay on the task at hand—which is to write a
definition. Opening a defining essay with a question is a good tactic
because it gets you going on the definition immediately.
2. The use of the word "Negroes" dates the writer. Ask your students what
word they would use in place of this. Most modern writers would say
"Black," or "African-American."
3. In paragraph 3, the writer points out what prejudice is not—ignorance.
4. It makes sense because, as the author tells us, prejudice is a faulty way of
thinking and those who would use it against one group of people would
probably also use it against another.
5. The convention that every study quoted be properly cited is an academic,
not a journalistic, one and would not be observed in a popular magazine
such as Parents.
6. There are many examples throughout of paragraphs that use a different
mode of development than definition. For example, paragraph 3
compares and contrasts ignorance with prejudice. Paragraph 4 is
developed by process. Paragraph 5, by classification. Each paragraph
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adds an additional dimension to the definition of prejudice.
7. At the end of paragraph 4, the author uses an analogy of someone sorting
through a box of strawberries and rejecting it because one or two berries
are bad.
8. The author defines prelogical thinking in paragraph 10. It is thinking that
recognizes the similarities of items in a group but fails to see their
differences. The prejudiced person will therefore see all foreigners as
alike but fail to see the difference between an Israeli and a Spaniard.
Will Someone Please Hiccup My Pat?
William Spooner Donald
Answers to Quiz
a, c, b, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (294)
5.
It is a spoonerism. The title is a quotation from Spooner, made when
a gust of wind blew off his hat.
6.
1.
Examples. He cites example after example of spoonerisms.
7.
8.
2.
He uses the quotation marks to show that this is how Spooner was
regarded among his Oxford circle, not necessarily how Spooner
regarded himself. The epithet “character” means someone who is
odd, eccentric, notable; it is usually used with affection.
In the final paragraph he finally tells us that a spoonerism is a “linguistic
transposition.” Up to then, he has allowed examples of spoonerisms to
speak for themselves. It was not necessary—in fact, it might even have
been premature and anticlimactic for the author to have told us exactly
what a spoonerism is before then.
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9.
Chapter Eleven Answers
Allow for open discussion. Personally, we think the business world
would have been far more unforgiving of Spooner than was the
tolerant world of Oxford.
3.
The point is to show that Oxford was a somewhat isolated world of its
own which tolerated not only ivory-towered intellectuals, but was equally
tolerant of Spooner. Had the point not have been made, we might have
wondered why Spooner’s odd linguistic transpositions were regarded as
funny and not annoying.
4.
Undoubtedly, a great part. Oxford is an influential center of the
intellectual world whose members exert considerable weight over all
kinds of styles and fashions, including linguistic ones. That Spooner was
a member of this important center was no doubt responsible for the
rapidity with which the term “spoonerism” spread.
Jim Crow Days
Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth Delany
Answers to Quiz
c, a, d, a, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (298)
1. The definition is clarified through examples of how blacks had to use
special drinking fountains, sit in appointed sections on trains and buses,
and could not interact socially. Here is a lexical definition of “Jim
Crow”: The systematic practice of segregating and suppressing Negro
people [named after Jim Crow, a character in an act by Thomas Rice,
who died in 1860. He based the character on an anonymous 19 th-century
song called Jim Crow.]
2. The authors suggest that the Jim Crow laws were enacted after the Civil
War to keep the freed Negroes from acquiring too much wealth and from
making political demands. The laws were also a matter of sex—that is,
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keeping the whites and blacks from interbreeding. Have students
compare the atmosphere today with that in existence when the Delany
sisters were growing up.
3. The irony was that many of the whites who looked down on the blacks
had black blood in them. Today our attitudes have shifted and
intermarriage between blacks and whites is more accepted than in the
past although many families, both white and black, still want to keep the
races unmixed.
4. Sadie and Bessie’s mother looked white because she was the product of a
romance between a white man and a black woman, proving that even
after slavery was over, blacks and whites could be attracted to each other
in a romantic way. The Delany family preferred to remain with the
blacks even though the mother could have passed for white and could
have avoided the Jim Crow laws. Have students discuss how they might
have handled having a white mother if they were black.
5. The Delany parents advocated peaceful compliance with the Jim Crow
laws because they did not want their daughters to become pugilistic and
bitter. The father used to tell his daughters that only through education
could they ever obtain true equality. Certainly these parents showed great
wisdom in making that declaration. Today as well, the easiest way to
equality of the races is through education. Have students discuss the
influence of education on equality of the races.
6. The essay is written as if the two women were speaking informally. They
often use interjections like “Honey” and “Child,” typically practiced in
southern talk. They also often use expressions reflecting the informality
of conversation. Here are some examples: Paragraph 2: “This is how we
remember it….” Paragraph 4: “You see, a lot of this Jim Crow mess
was….” Paragraph 10: “Funny thing is….” “That fella even became the
mayor of Raleigh.” Paragraph 13: “So you see, he wasn’t perfect, but
Lord, he did try!” Have students discuss how well they could hear the
sisters' voices.
7. In paragraph 18 we are told that Miss Grace Moseley, a teacher at St.
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Chapter Eleven Answers
Aug’s, would invite Bessie and Sadie to her living quarters, where she
would read Shakespeare to them while they piled on Miss Moseley’s bed.
The sisters retained fond memories of these sessions. In paragraph 11 the
father states that “equality would come as Negroes became more
educated and owned their own land.” Paragraph 29 foreshadows the fact
that Sadie was to achieve a Master’s degree from Columbia University.
8. The sisters lived in North Carolina, an enlightened, liberal state. The
whites with whom they dealt were kind and friendly, especially the
Confederate soldiers and the white teachers at St. Aug’s. But despite this
superficial kindness, the blacks were considered inferior; thus the Civil
War was a necessary to effect their liberation from slavery. Without this
war, the black race would not have progressed to where it is today.
9. Have students discuss their reactions. The incident is certainly one of the
most humorous in the essay, and it would make an excellent scene in a
motion picture. Sadie is seen as clever and in control of her environment.
She strikes us as someone with a strong survival instinct.
10. It was puzzling because it involved such hypocrisy. For instance, the
mayor of Raleigh had a black family on the side; yet, he had to uphold the
Jim Crow laws. Moreover, since Sadie and Bessie’s grandfather was
white, the segregation issue became complicated and involved. Their
mother could have passed for white, but their father could not. This kind
of contradiction was confusing for the sisters.
Black English Has Its Place
Ron Emmons
Answers to Quiz
b, d, c, a, a
10.
11. Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (301)
1. Identifying himself as African American gives the author added
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113
credibility in the debate, since it shows him as one who comes to the
argument not as merely an academic, but also as a speaker of black
English. He therefore, we assume, can be expected to have more than
just abstract knowledge about the subject.
2. Allow for open discussion. One effect, certainly, might be to build a kind
of perverse defiance of the larger world and encourage the flaunting of
black English as a way of asserting the self. On the other hand,
acknowledging black English as a separate, respectable language with its
own rules, allows for the teaching of other variants of English, such as
Standard English, as a means to an end.
3. It adds weight of authority to his words, by showing that even a
successful author such as Amy Tan also felt ashamed of the way her
parents spoke.
4. He uses two fragments: “Shame when a prominent black said words in
the wrong way with the wrong syntax or agreement. Shame when the
pretty girlfriend spoke the wrong English in front of your parents.” Point
out to students (it cannot be repeated often enough) that this use of
fragments is deliberate, not merely an error.
5. He means it was inappropriate. Of course, by the rules of Standard
English, the syntax of black English is wrong, but by the rules of black
English, so is the syntax of Standard English.
6. Paragraph 6 gives a formal definition of black English backed by the
authority of the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association.
Quoting this association shows that the author is not alone in his belief
that black English is a separate language.
7. Examples. Paragraphs 7 and 8 are especially developed by examples.
8. Allow for open discussion. You might ask students to lay down the basic
requirements of a “separate language.”
9. Allow for open discussion.
Ask students if they instinctively know.
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Generally, we think black English appropriate for use in informal social
situations where it is commonly spoken and easily understood. It is
generally inappropriate in formal academic settings and social situations,
especially where it is not likely to be understood. What you can do is
construct various social situations and ask students if they would think
black English appropriate for use here.
10. They prove his point about black English having its own lexicon. As an
aside, ask your students to translate them into Standard English
equivalents. Do this as a class project.
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CHAPTER TWELVE
Answers
Dream House
Anthony C. Winkler
Answers to Quiz
b, d, a, b, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique(311)
1.
One could contrast the two boys or the two fathers. But the most
obvious contrast is the contrast between the two playhouses. One was
real; the other was imaginary. Here are the bases of this contrast: 1) the
designers of the two houses (Mr. Peterson, a skilled worker, and Jessie’s
father, a dreamer); 2) the quality of the house (one is made of wood, the
other of imaginary substances; 3) the value of the house (both have great
value, but the imaginary house lasted longer and created more
excitement than the real house).
2.
To Josh and Jessie the playhouse symbolized their own personal
territory, where they were in control. While lodging in the playhouse,
they could feel like kings of a domain cluttered with enemies whom they
could crush and subjugate. Children love to imagine living in castles or
fortresses where they feel safe and in charge.
3.
Mr. Peterson was gruff, practical, and sure of himself whereas Jessie’s
father was artistic, sensitive, poetic, and filled with self-doubt about his
practical abilities. Have students discuss which man they would choose
to be their father and why.
4.
The following passages contain figurative language and vivid imagery:
a. Paragraph 64: “The stars smothered under a muddy run-off of
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Chapter Twelve Answers
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
light and smog from Los Angeles, and only a planet or two
bobbing overhead like specks of fat in the primordial soup.”
Anyone who has been to Los Angeles will recognize the thick
smog of that area.
Paragraph 74: “The chalky night of Southern California
ghosted by like an old clipper ship under full sail….” This is
a way of emphasizing the speed with which time passes when
one is engrossed in a thrilling conversation. But the author is
also emphasizing the thick, ghostly air of the Los Angeles
basin.
Paragraph 86: “The night was cool and dry, and from the
nearby San Bernardino Freeway came the ceaseless droning
of traffic—constant, shrill and unvarying like the flat line
alarm of an electrocardiogram.” Here the traffic noise is
described as never ending, loud, and without variation.
Paragraph 89: “He was still in traction from a back injury and
had the puffy, whitish look of an old mushroom.” The reader
quickly understands that Josh looks ill and beaten down from
his injury.
Paragraph 101: “After several months on the market, the
house sold and the dreaded day of Josh’s moving arrived
slowly but irresistibly like death from cancer.” Nothing is
more inevitable than death from a terminal disease like
cancer. The reader can sense the unavoidable approach of
Josh’s departure.
Paragraph 117: “Josh and I passed through the preadolescent
years and entered our teens gingerly like explorers stepping
into unmapped territory.” The change from elementary
school to high school is truly like stepping into an unfamiliar,
somewhat frightening foreign country.
Paragraph 118: “The playhouse aged slowly but steadily like a
grounded freighter being devoured in microscopic nibbles by
the sea.” The reader can imagine the freighter sitting in its
dock, paint peeling away and metal parts rusting.
Figurative language and vivid imagery are always an author’s finest tools
to make the writing come to life so that the reader can actually experience
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what is happening. While clarity in writing is a great achievement, it
does not fire up the reader’s imagination the way figurative language
does, as seen in the examples from Winkler’s story.
5.
Like all good story tellers, Winkler writes in detail about important
events; but unimportant events are dismissed with a sentence like the one
in paragraph 54: "After his father left, Josh became depressed and
avoided the playhouse completely." We are given no details about the
father’s departure. Or paragraph 88 where a whole week is dismissed
with the words "A week later…."
Or paragraph 101 where months are condensed into “After several
months on the market, the house sold….” Or paragraph 117 where years
are summed up in the sentence “Josh and I passed through the
preadolescent years and entered our teens gingerly….” Or paragraph 118
where again years have passed without any details from the narrator’s
life. The author merely writes, “I graduated college….” Obviously, it
would have been incredibly tedious if the author had supplied every little
detail of what happened during these years in the narrator’s life. A lively
story entails proper pacing, which means that the writer highlights
important scenes, but dismisses scenes that have no bearing on the story.
All well-crafted stories leave some questions unanswered because life has
a way of leaving questions unanswered, but these questions add to the
fascination of the story. For instance, we do not know what eventually
happened to Josh’s father, and we don’t know what Mrs. Peterson did
after the divorce from her husband. But real life is filled with people who
step in and out of the sphere of our lives, and we can only wonder what
happened to the ones who disappear.
6. The mothers play minor roles in the story, which is really about the
relationship of the boys with their fathers. We know that the mothers
exist, but only as minor characters in the drama that plays out.
Nevertheless, the story would suffer if they were eliminated because they
are foils that emphasize the fathers’ personalities.
7. The real house has the advantage of being a physical structure that you
can see, smell, and touch. You can actually sleep and play in it. You
can invite your friends to step inside and enjoy this private retreat. It has
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Chapter Twelve Answers
the disadvantage of its physical limitations. It is not a palace, and it can
neither soar nor fly. The imaginary house has the advantage of existing
without limitations. It is like a house from a fairy tale. It can be anything
you desire. It can even save you from predatory wild bears.
8.
First, the dialogue adds humor to the story because it reveals the naïve
thinking of these two eleven-year-old boys. We smile as we realize that
Jessie felt he was betraying Josh because Jessie’s parents did not fight.
He even goes so far as to apologize for his parents’ peaceful relationship.
Second, the dialogue divulges certain Jamaican attitudes, such as anger
at having the Jamaican accent ridiculed and fearing hell so much that
even the word must not be spoken. Third, conversations make the
characters sound human and alive.
9.
The narrator feels that awesome is overused and thus has lost its punch.
Other words in that same category today are words like cool, nifty,
amped, or gross.
10. Jessie’s son is crucial to the story because he proves the importance of
having an imagination. In a sense, he wraps up the whole story because
we are sure that, like his father and grandfather, he too has an
imagination that will serve him well when he is confronted with dull,
hopelessly literal people or when he needs courage to confront a
menacing situation. The son also symbolizes the generational cycle of
grandfather, father, son, and grandson and the beauty of close ties
between the older and younger generation.
The Twins
Charles Bukowski
Answers to Quiz
b, c, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (314)
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119
1. Obviously, they had a stormy relationship and hated each other. The
speaker also seems to have felt dominated by his father, as revealed in the
line, “for a father is always your master even when he’s / gone.” We
gather that there was some estrangement between them—“I am a stranger
here, and have been (I suppose) somewhat / the rogue...”
2. The father was settled and rooted—we’re told that he owed $8,000 on his
house and that he was 20 years on the same job. He also seems to have
been financially better off than his son, who admits that his father’s blue
suit is much better than anything he’d ever worn. We can infer that the
son’s lifestyle was arty and drifting—he advises his father to learn to
paint and to listen to Brahms while the father’s was somewhat
conventional and ordinary. Further, the son accuses his father of being
dominated by women and dollars. Notice that the son is decidedly the
opposite in this respect—he says that he doesn’t give a damn that his
father left it all “to some woman in Duarte.” The telling contrast between
them comes in the final stanza: while his father was readying his bulbs
for planting, the son says he was “laying with a whore from 3rd street.”
3. Allow for open discussion. He is simultaneously realistic and poignant
about his dead father, honestly grasping the differences between them
while wistfully trying on his suit.
4. They are twins in that they looked alike and share a common fate. The
father is dead; the son is waiting his turn to die.
5. A Bukowski trademark is the working-class speaker, the kind of voice
rarely, if ever, found in traditional poetry. The language is down-to-earth
and not at all high-flown in the traditional poetic sense. Notice, for
example, lines such as, “he was / my old / man / and he died.” One
doesn’t usually find the speaker of a poem lying with a whore from 3rd
street.
6. It has no rhyme and is written entirely in free verse with a rather
colloquial diction. Bukowski has been a pioneer in importing the
language of the street into poetry.
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Chapter Twelve Answers
7. The line is a psychological truism. A son incorporates the image of the
father into his internal psychological makeup and self, and in this way a
father may be said to be a son’s master. Sons also tend to deify fathers,
enlarging them in memory and retrospect beyond human size, and in this
sense a father can be said to always be the master of a son. Allow for
open discussion of the second question.
Diogenes and Alexander
Gilbert Highet
Answers to Quiz
c, a, d, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (323)
1. Highet’s comparison is based on economics, social position, looks, and
intelligence.
2. He uses the vertical method, dealing fully first with Diogenes and then
with Alexander.
3. In paragraph 11 the attention is shifted from Diogenes to Alexander.
Highet accomplishes the shift smoothly by focusing on Diogenes viewing
the attendants of Alexander.
4. In paragraph 6 the author contrasts Diogenes with the other great
philosophers of his age, Plato and Aristotle.
5. Diogenes is compared to a dog “because he cared nothing for privacy and
other human conventions, and because he showed his teeth and barked at
those whom he disliked.”
6. They are both well educated and wise.
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Chapter Twelve Answers
7. Contrasts drawn between Diogenes and Alexander include old age versus
youth, poverty versus wealth, no political power versus great political
power, lack of popularity versus great popularity, and coarse manners
versus polished manners.
Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
Bruce Catton
Answers to Quiz
d, a, b, a, c
Answers to Questions On Meaning and Technique (332)
1. The word “virtual” means “in practical terms.” While the war was not
officially over, because some armies still had not surrendered, it was
practically over because the South had been overpowered by the North.
The opposite of “virtual” would be “theoretical” or “unreal.”
2. The “chief support” was the slaves who did all of the labor on the
southern farms. Without this free labor, the southern plantation owner
could not remain fiscally solvent.
3. The author sets this sentence off in one paragraph in order to gain
emphasis. Lee represented the aristocracy of the South, but this
aristocracy was about to be obliterated by a new, more democratic,
society from the North.
4. Have students consider the enormous power wielded by wealthy
corporations and their CEOs today. Is this not another form of
aristocracy, meaning “a privileged ruling class”? Perhaps the power is
not inherited, but it certainly makes a distinction between upper and
lower classes.
5. Lee was a man whose family background was filled with culture and
tradition. He was a thoroughbred southern gentleman, who believed that
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the ownership of land by a leisure class was important. Grant, on the
other hand, was a frontiersman, who embodied toughness and selfreliance. He was a man who was far more interested in the future than in
the past. Have students discuss which man appeals to them most.
6. Lee harked back to a time of chivalry—almost knighthood. His soldiers
were willing to die for him just because he was their leader and embodied
noble ideals of aristocracy. In Lee’s world, privilege was handed down
from father to son. Unlike Lee, Grant looked to the future. Like all
frontiersmen, he pushed toward the West, where he believed the greatness
of the future lay. In Grant’s society, privilege had to be earned. Life was
competitive. We believe that the best leader is one who studies the past
and learns from it, but then moves forward toward the future.
7. He begins with Lee and writes about him; then he shifts to Grant and
writes about him. The essay is sprinkled with contrast phrases, such as
the following:
“Grant, the son of a tanner on the Western frontier, was everything Lee
was not” (paragraph 7). "And that, perhaps, is where the contrast between
Grant and Lee becomes most striking" (paragraph 10). “The Westerner,
on the other hand….”(paragraph 11). “So Grant and Lee were in
complete contrast…”(paragraph 12).
8. They were both marvelous fighters, and their fighting qualities were
similar. They were both utterly tenacious and faithful to their cause.
Most important, in the end, both men could turn from war to peace.
9. We believe that all Americans should take pride in what Lee and Grant
represent in our brief history. Without skimping on modern historical
studies, yes, students should know what happened at Appomattox and
what it means to our present.
10. Have students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of economic
growth and expansion. For instance, they might analyze what happens
when industry takes over agriculture and when frontiers continue to be
expanded. Consider the example of colonial empires such as England,
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Chapter Twelve Answers
France, Spain, Belgium, and Russia.
theory of Adolf Hitler.
Consider also the expansionist
Priest and Pagan
Arthur Grimble
Answers to Quiz
a, c, d, a, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (337)
1. Paragraph 2 announces that a comparison/contrast is going to be drawn
between a pagan and a Christian. However, before the author begins his
narration, he wants to explain that for Christians what happens before
death is all important whereas for pagans, it is what happens after death
that counts. Without this distinction, the story would be a mere
recounting of an adventure.
2. Father Choblet broke the law that forbade canoe voyages between the
islands from the end of September to the end of March every year. Have
students discuss whether or not Father Choblet was in the right or
wrong—considering the huge danger involved in the trip. What if all the
canoe boys had been drowned? Are there times when a law must be
broken in order to obey a greater law? This is a subject worth discussing.
You might remind students of Martin Luther King, who went to jail
rather than obey the southern laws of segregation. Student sit-ins and
other protests have often involved breaking curfew laws or laws against
assembly in public places. Have students offer their opinions of such acts
of civil disobedience.
3. He received a desperate message from a mission teacher in Nukunau
Island, 30 miles east of the Gilbertese island where Father Choblet lived.
The message begged Father Choblet to hurry to the island of Nukunau,
where Father Franchiteau lay dying, to administer the Last Sacrament to
him. Since Catholics believe that unless one receives the Last Sacrament
before death, one dies “unshriven”—that is, one’s sins are not forgiven.
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Chapter Twelve Answers
Because only an ordained priest can administer this last rite, it was
important that Father Choblet respond. Have students discuss (with a
sense of tolerance for differing views) what importance the Last
Sacrament has for them.
4. While the report was handed to the author by Father Choblet’s canoe
boys, the report would be considered reliable because it came from actual
witnesses.
5. The canoe boys were probably inspired by Father Choblet’s own courage.
Here was a frail little priest who was willing to undertake this brutal
journey by himself, without anyone’s assistance. Somehow his faith and
courage erased the islanders’ fear.
6. Paragraph 7 is utterly captivating in its drama of how the men hung on to
half of the broken canoe despite the raging sea and were finally swept by
a current to the shores of the Island of Nukunau.
7. The god Nakaa, according to Gilbertese belief, is the guardian of the gate
between earth and paradise. He sits forever at this gate, waiting to catch
and strangle the ghost of any dead persons who did not receive the proper
rituals to send them into a happy afterlife. Underlying the entire plot of
this anecdote is the belief that rituals for the dead are extremely
important.
8. Another important ritual was the young boys’ passage into manhood. This
initiation required the young boys to face some terrible ordeals, such as
being segregated from the other villagers and then facing the “test by
fire,” which presumably required the boy to undergo some severe burns.
Tabanoara’s young brother Tebina successfully passed the initiation into
manhood, which caused Tabanoara to be proud of his younger brother
since Tabanoara had been the one to school Tebina.
9. Because the ritual required some part of the dead person’s body,
Tabanaora valiantly goes to find the shark who killed his brother. He
meets him in the lagoon and kills him with his spear, triumphantly
bearing his brothers remains, found in the maw of the shark. It is
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Chapter Twelve Answers
common for people who accept a new religion to hang on to their old
beliefs because there is comfort in tradition.
10. The final paragraph of the essay tells us clearly what the two stories have
in common: First, both Father Choblet and Tabanaora showed immense
courage in the face of overwhelming danger. Second, both men had faith
in the god or gods of their choosing. Third, both men revealed deep love
for mankind. Have students discuss whether or not it is important to have
a certain belief when one faces death. The author seems to consider the
government bureaucracy ultimately fair and even generous.
Beauty Is in the Eyes of the Beholder, Along With Everything Else
Lee Dembart
Answers to Quiz
c, b, d, a, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (341)
1. The process of seeing seems simple enough: Light passes through the
lens of the eye and strikes the retina behind it, which tickles the optic
nerve and sends an electrical signal to the brain. The mystery is how the
scenes we perceive get put together by the brain. Somewhere in the
brain the physical sensation is turned into a mental one, but how this
happens is a mystery.
2. It is related to the whole mind-body question with which philosophers
and scientists have grappled for centuries. Thoughts are mind; brain is
body, but to fully understand how the two interact is extremely complex
and may never be sorted out completely.
3. The question is at the heart of the essay; yet, the author never fully
answers the question because exactly how seeing works is not
understood. All we know is that somewhere in the brain the physical
sensation is turned into a mental sensation.
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4. The brain is an organ of the body, but it is different from other organs
like, say, the pancreas, which secretes insulin. The brain secretes
thoughts, but you cannot measure this secretion the way you can
measure insulin. The whole process is baffling even to experts in the
field.
5. The author announces that he plans to simplify the problem of
understanding the relationship between the brain and the mind by
dividing the approach into two theories. He achieves coherence by using
the transition, "On the one hand…." in paragraph 8, and then moving on
to paragraph 9 with the transition, "On the other hand." This kind of
parallelism in phrasing makes the paragraphs easier to follow.
6. The author admits that she does not have the full answer, but she declares
that she favors the reductionist position, which says that mind and brain
are the same. She is confident that some day neuroscience will be able
to trace and explain the relationship. Have students discuss the
possibility of how “soul” works in the equation.
7. She quotes a famous experiment in which electrodes were placed on the
heads of human subjects so their brain activity could be monitored. This
experiment proved that brain activity preceded conscious decision to
move.
Have students discuss how convincing they found this
experiment. This kind of scientific experimentation is at the basis of
most progress in complex scientific problem solving.
8. The author questions our present notions of free will. For instance, she
suggests that if thoughts follow brain activity, then we have much less
freedom than we think. She even goes so far as to ponder that if mind
and brain are the same, then people who are smart shouldn’t be praised
or rewarded for it. They can’t help themselves. Certain religious people
will vehemently oppose the idea that human beings have no free will
because believing so would put an end to the great controversy between
good and evil and a matter of choice. Allow for a lively debate on the
question of free will.
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9. The final sentence summarizes the whole essay by quoting a famous
philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, who wrote that “All the interesting
things can’t be written down and described.” That is precisely what the
author has been saying throughout her essay. We just don’t know
enough about such complex things as the brain and mind to explain them
in clear terms.
10. The title emphasizes the idea suggested in paragraph 19: “But it is fair to
conclude that most of what we say about the world says more about us
than it does about the world.”
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Answers
How Mr. Hogan Robbed a Bank
John Steinbeck
Answers to Quiz
c, a, b, c, a
12.
13. Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (350)
1. a. He observes all the daily operations of the bank.
b. He decides on which day to rob the bank—just before vacation when
plenty of money would be available.
c. He goes to work as usual but makes himself a mask out of a cereal
box in the store where he works.
d. He waits until the safe is open and the cash is in the tellers’ boxes. He
puts on a coat, which covers his revolver and Mickey Mouse mask.
e. He puts on his mask, enters the bank, motions a teller to the floor with
the gun, steals money out of a cash register, and leaves.
f. He goes back to work as if nothing had happened.
5. It draws the lesson that many people whose lifestyles label them as nice,
respectable middle-class people harbor secret sins that would shock their
neighbors if they knew about them. The story is an attack on the kind of
moral hypocrisy that compels certain people to pretend to be good,
decent, and upright in public when in actuality they are behaving
despicably in secret.
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6. Paragraph 1: The details of where and how the Hogans live. Paragraph 9:
Typical middle-class domestic problems, such as the children having the
mumps, Mrs. Hogan having to get dentures, a relative dying, John and
Joan wanting to enter the “I Love America Contest.”
7. He will not allow his children to handle guns or shells; yet, he robs a
bank at gunpoint.
8. It is an ironic statement because the author is writing as if robbing a bank
were no different from any casual business venture.
Tract
William Carlos Williams
Answers to Quiz
d, c, d, d, b
14.
15. Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (352)
1. First, create a design for the hearse. Second, find appropriate decorations.
Third, supply a proper place for the driver. Fourth, give instructions to
the mourners.
2. He is trying to point out that a funeral is a way of expressing grief for a
loved one who has died. Consequently, the ritual should be neither
phony nor excessively elaborate. It should be natural because dying is a
natural aspect of life, and mourning a loved one is a natural way of
remembering him.
3. Presumably as a symbol of the fact that when a person is dead, one
should gloss over his imperfections and remember only the good. The
paint could symbolize the glossing-over process, or the gilt wheels could
be intended as a limited, unfinished concession to the practice and
custom of decorating funeral equipment.
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4. Life is not smooth: It has its storms and rough spots.
5. He suggests a remembrance typical of the life of the dead onehis old
clothes, some books, or anything else that would remind the mourners of
the kind of person he was. Such a remembrance, compared to flowers, is
more functional and suitable for the occasion of mourning.
6. Having a driver in a top hat suggests that the undertaker is the center of
attraction of this ceremony when in fact he is not in the least moved by
the death of the one in the coffin. He is merely doing a job and therefore
should not occupy a seat of honor.
7. The author exhorts the mourners to show their grief openly by walking
behind the hearse, not by hiding in the carriage behind veils or curtains.
In a sense, he is saying, “No one is immune to grief (not even the speaker
himself as indicated by the pronoun us), so save the money you would
waste on an elaborate, artificial funeral that would not rightly represent
what death and mourning are all about.”
In the Garden of Childish Delights
Emily Fox Gorden
Answers to Quiz
b, c, d, a, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (360)
1. Gordon is describing the process of how happiness is lost by growing up.
The process begins with childish ecstasy and ends with the “adult variety
of happiness,” which is hard won and ambivalent.
2. Most likely you were left with a feeling of melancholy, realizing how
gradually childhood innocence and delight become tainted on the path
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to adulthood. It is easy to visualize the author and her brother romping
through gardens, meadows, and woods in the safety of Williamstown—
their German Shepherd in tow. We feel the regret of exchanging all of
this innocence and joy with the seriousness of adult life and its hard-won
moments of happiness.
3. Existential happiness is the kind that is so pervasive that it seems to exist
spontaneously and artlessly inside the body whereas psychological
happiness is the result of proper mental hygiene and adjustment. Have
students discuss this contrast.
4. First step: The author goes to school, where she is an academic failure, a
fatty, and a disappointment to her parents. Second step: At twelve her
feelings become moods. Third step: She becomes a 56-year-old adult
who finds that happiness is hard to maintain. Still, as an adult she can
still go back to the fantasies of her childhood.
5. She believed in fairies, God, and history. Actually, some experts believe
that it is healthy for children to believe in benevolent supernatural forces.
For instance, children who believe in guardian angels feel secure and
protected from danger. Of course, certain childhood beliefs, such as the
belief in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, or the Easter Bunny need to be
replaced with more adult beliefs. But most adults still need to believe in
a power stronger than they—such as God—in order to deal with the
enormous challenges in life.
6. Arcadia is a term used by the ancient Greek poets to describe an
environment of rustic simplicity. The people of Arcadia were innocent
shepherds or farmers, who lived their lives in happy contentment. Her
belief that she was living in an Arcadia at the end of time is probably the
result of thinking that history has to end some time. The author does not
describe what happens or what unravels at the end of time.
7. Here are examples of the author’s figures of speech:
Paragraph 2: The Williamstown campus was “a kind of Eden”
(metaphor)
Paragraph 3: “The elms stood guard” (personification).
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Paragraph 5: “I pushed the threatening world of school to the
margins of my mind” (personification and metaphor).
Paragraph 5: “Feelings of happiness and sadness continued to run
through me in discrete layers, like currents in a river”
(personification, metaphor, simile).
Paragraph 5: “Feelings become soluble in mood” (metaphor).
Paragraph 5: “They carry the air of the that time and place as if
the Williamstown of my childhood had been lying under an
unbroken seal for 50 years” (personification, simile).
8. Allow for varying answers to this question. The author insists that she
cannot “tell” a picture; she can only “describe” it. But she can tell a
story. We assume that she can tell the story of her life so that it becomes
a living experience.
In the Valley of the Shadow
Carl Sagan
Answers to Quiz
d, a, b, b, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (370)
1. This is a highly autobiographical essay. Like a diary, it allows the reader
to catch glimpses of the author’s mind and emotions. From him the reader
can learn what it is like to face physical pain and the agony of death. The
title is taken from the Bible, Psalm 23: “Yeah though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me.” It is interesting that
Sagan chose this title since he died an agnostic.
2. He writes in a restrained tone, always focusing on the scientific
interpretation or observation of what is happening to his health. He could
have whined and whimpered about all of the pain and agony he had to
suffer, but he never loses sight of his point of view—that of a professional
scientist.
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3. Most ancient and worldwide cultures believe that when human beings
die, they are eventually transformed into another body with an eternal
life—of either gruesome punishment for having been evil or blissful
reward for having been good. Yet, Sagan clearly asserts that he thinks the
belief in a life beyond death is merely “wishful thinking.” Have students
discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Sagan’s belief. Ask them
what they think is the pivotal point on which believers and nonbelievers
disagree. Is it faith? Is it intellectual pride?
4. Sagan felt that his illness had taught him much about life—especially the
beauty of human existence, the preciousness of friends and family, and
the transforming power of love. After reading the essay, we realize that
he was particularly moved by the incredible devotion of certain people:
his sister, Cari, who donated her own bone marrow to save Sagan’s life;
his wife, Annie, who nursed him with untiring care; and total strangers
whose sincere prayers wished him a speedy recovery. Sagan’s essay is in
part a beautiful ode to human goodness. What keeps him from wishing
the same experience on everyone is the risk factor. Life can hang on a
thin thread, and anyone near death may actually die.
5. Step 1: Annie notices an ugly black-and-blue mark on Sagan’s arm.
Step 2: Blood tests indicate that Sagan’s white and red blood cells are
compromised.
Step 3: Sagan enters the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in
Seattle.
Step 4: Sagan’s sister, Cari, proves to have stem cells compatible with
those of Sagan, and she donates her stem cells so that Sagan can
have a bone marrow transplant.
Step 5: Preparations begin for the stem cell transplant, including lethal
doses of chemotherapy.
Step 6: The transplantation takes place and turns out to be painless and
successful, allowing Sagan to return home to lead a normal life.
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Step 7: Sagan’s bone marrow reveals the presence of a new population of
dangerous, rapidly reproducing cells. Sagan must go back to
Seattle for a special enzyme cure and more stem cells from his
sister. Again the procedure is successful, and Sagan seems to be
cured. A year goes by.
Step 8: Because, after a year, the disease has returned with greater
virulence than ever before, Sagan must return to Seattle for more
therapy in the hospital and more bone marrow from Cari.
At the time the essay ends, Sagan is filled with hope concerning his
health.
6. Just as the writer of the post card was living in a delusion, not realizing
that he was about to die, so Sagan was living with false hope about his
health, not aware that death was calling. The Titanic sank, and Sagan’s
body gave up. Encourage students to discuss their reaction to life’s
fickleness and betrayal.
7. This paragraph is a warning to all human beings that death can strike in
the midst of happiness, well being, and success. It is similar to the
warning in Oedipus Rex, where the Chorus warns that no man should call
himself happy until he has witnessed the end of life.
8. He limits the amount of scientific terminology used. When he does use
terms like “mylodisplasia,” “stem cells,” or “suppressed immune
system,” he explains them clearly and simply so the average reader can
understand them.
9. He compares the experience to swallowing a dose of arsenic or cyanide
and hoping for the right antidote to be supplied in time to be saved from
death. Have students indicate how this analogy affected them.
10. He learned, above all, that the future is unpredictable and that, in fact,
there is no certainty about what even the next moment holds (see
paragraph 27). Have students discuss this point. You might ask them if
they would really want to know the future before it happens.
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Coming Into Language
Jimmy Santiago Baca
Answers to Quiz
c, b, a, d, a
16.
17. Answers to Questions on Meaning and Content (377)
1. The voice is that of a prison inmate; it is clearly one of triumph over
despair, of victory following ruin. Have students share their reactions to
Baca’s story. Did they like him or were they turned off by his criminal
background? Baca seems to be writing the essay the way a person writes a
journal—partly to understand himself better and partly to relieve himself
of the huge burden connected with such a horrendous past.
2. Here is a possible sequence; other possibilities exist, of course, depending
on how the steps are summarized:
18. The author finds and peruses a hospital book with illustrations of the
female anatomy.
19. The author looks at 450 Years of Chicano History, an illustrated book
about Chicano revolts.
20. The author listens to male prisoners read aloud the works of famous
writers.
21. The author reads a stolen university literature anthology that includes
Wordsworth and Coleridge.
22. The author acquires a Red Chief notebook and starts to write down
his impressions of life.
23. The author finds freedom in language (see paragraph 17).
24. The author establishes a barter business while in solitary
confinement—trading his poems or letters for novels, pencils, and
writing tablets.
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25.
26. The author keeps a journal and finds unity with the universe, but also
insanity.
27. The author is moved to death-row and then to the row for
mentally-disturbed prisoners.
28. The author emerges from a state of total madness and rejection to be
born a poet.
3. While answers may differ, we think that paragraph 17 expresses the
author’s recognition of how language can set one free.
4. Examples abound throughout the essay. Here are three:
Paragraph 5: “Listening to the words of these writers, I felt that invisible
threat from without lessen—my sense of teetering on a rotting plank over
swamp water where famished alligators clapped their horny snouts for my
blood.”
Paragraph 11: “But soon the heartache of having missed so much of life,
that had numbed me since I was a child, gave way, as if a grave illness
lifted itself from me and I was cured, innocently believing in the beauty
of life again.”
Paragraph 17: “Each word steamed with the hot lava juices of my
primordial making, and I crawled out of stanzas dripping with
birth-blood, reborn and freed from the chaos of my life.”
5. Twice in the narrative he expresses an impassioned determination to
conquer grammar (see paragraphs 12 and 20).
6. With phrases such as these: “One night. . .” (paragraph 2); “Before I
was eighteen. . .” (paragraph 5); "Two years passed" (paragraph 8);
“One night in my third month in the county jail. . . ” (paragraph 9);
“Days later. . . ” (paragraph 13); “When I had been in the county jail
longer than anyone else. . . ”(paragraph 18); “After that interview. . .
(paragraph 20); As the months passed . . . " (paragraph 26).
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7. His past was filled with rage, hopelessness, betrayal, psychological or
physical damage, and injustice. He wrote because, despite this terrible
past, he had an indestructible love of life and wanted to affirm “breath
and laughter and the abiding innocence of things” (see final paragraph).
8. He was suffering from obvious depression, which is often anger turned
inward. People who are depressed typically have no energy and want to
sleep all the time, as a way of escaping the pain of their reality.
9. The punishment of humiliating students (having them sit in front of the
class wearing a dunce cap, having them stand in a corner, or having them
wear a sign stating “I need to behave in class”), although popular forty
years ago, is today considered poor pedagogy and harmful to students’
psyche and future success. The trend today is to build up confidence in
underachievers.
11. The title hints at the process so meticulously outlined in the essay.
Indeed the essay tells us exactly how the author came into the English
language, mastering it and becoming a successful writer. Encourage
students to come up with other titles.
How to Say Nothing in 500 Words
Paul Roberts
Answers to Quiz
b, d, c, a, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (387)
1. The author's opening draws us in by giving us the hypothetical case of a
student faced with having to write a paper on that old chestnut of a topic,
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"college football." Yet the author's detail is so fresh and vivid and the
scenario he sketches is so plausible and true to life that we are caught up
in it. Instead of merely regaling us with principles of essay writing, the
author is able to vividly demonstrate the kind of essay writing errors
students make and show us how to overcome them. This is a highly
effective teaching technique and is partly responsible for the popularity of
this essay.
2. The student writes the essay by delaying it to the last minute and then
finally getting down to the job the night before the essay is due. While
the author admits that there is some exaggeration in his portrayal of the
student writer, he also says that he did not exaggerate much. We think
his depiction is fairly true to life and gives an accurate picture of how
students typically tackle an essay assignment. Ask your students for their
own opinions.
3. We think the "D" is mainly deserved and for the precise reason given by
the instructorthat the essay is weak in content. Ask your students what
grade they think this essay deserves.
4. This effect is partly achieved by a sprightly writing style and a brisk,
humorous discussion of the principles of essay writing. We think the
popularity of this essay, however, is largely owing to its humor.
5. We think he would argue that the purpose of education is to overcome the
shallowness of thought manifested in the student's thinking about a topic,
and it is no excuse to say that the student knew no better about the topic
and therefore could not write a good essay on it. Every writer, students
included, is expected to master the topic on which he/she is supposed to
write an essay. That the writer has failed to do that is no excuse for a trite
essay.
6. Some teachers, in fact, have argued that Roberts’ approach is little better
than pandering to the reader and that the student who takes his advice is
doomed to write a shallow, self-serving essay. We do not agree with this
point of view. Writers are expected to make any material fresh and
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inviting and to treat it with a new wrinkle whenever they can, and part of
doing this often requires the writer to take the less than usual side.
7. The question at the beginning of paragraph 9 is intended as a transition
that focuses the discussion on what a writer can do to make a dull subject
interesting.
8. As a matter of fact, we think many, if not most, teachers would object to
this sentence as altogether too slangy and colloquial for a student essay.
Part of the students' burden is that they are discouraged from writing with
this kind of extravagant flair and flamboyance but, instead, are expected
to write good, solid, workmanlike prose that is grammatically correct and
straightforward and not loaded down with idiosyncrasies. No doubt, in
some rare cases this is an unfair requirement, but all writers labor under
some stylistic expectation that they have to work around.
9. The second assertion is made in a fragment rather than a complete
sentence, but it is done for the sake of emphasis and rhythm. Many
teachers simply do not allow their students to write in fragments, while
many professional writers use them every now and again to make a point
emphatically.
10. The offensive assumption contained in this particular passage is that the
student is male, and this stereotype is confirmed repeatedly by the use of
third person male pronouns. A modern textbook writer would no doubt
cast this particular passage in the plural, using the pronoun "they" and
thus avoiding the sexual stereotype.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Answers
Harrison Bergeron
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Answers to Quiz
d, c, a, b, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (395)
1. The types of handicaps are mental (noises that hinder ideas), physical
(sash weights to stop athletic abilities), and aesthetic (masks to hide
beauty).
2. The answer to this question depends on what students value in life.
Some may value athletic ability; others may value beauty; yet others
may value intelligence. We consider intelligence the greatest gift of
humankind and consider mental handicaps as not only tragic but a way
of truncating the advancement of civilization. Of course, without the
beauty of art and athletics, life would be paltry, indeed.
3. George thinks more creatively, independently, and imaginatively than
does Hazel, but his handicap keeps bringing him down to her level.
She represents the well-adjusted “normal” commoner who is
compassionate and simply exists in her society. Nothing about her
stands out. She would hate a society in which all levels of intelligence
and talent were competing for rank and position because she would not
be able to compete, having no particular physical beauty, artistic talent,
or mental brilliance. Occasionally George longs to be free of the
mental handicap assigned to him, but then he has been brainwashed to
believe that competition would lead to political and social chaos. On
rare occasion Hazel wishes she could hear all of the sounds that
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handicap George, but inevitably she settles down to her average life,
convinced that it is best to have all human beings equal.
4. The equality described here is an exaggerated version of totalitarian
communism, a society in which nothing can surpass the norm—not in
intelligence, artistic beauty, or physical prowess. This is a society in
which there can exist no deep thinkers, no great artists, and no
beautiful bodies. It is a dull, humdrum society that marches to the tune
of an uninspired dictator. The narrator’s point of view reveals great
contempt for the system. He never speaks out to vilify it, but the entire
story is filled with satirical put-down. For example, in paragraph 2, he
states, “Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though.” In
paragraph 10, George toys with the idea that “maybe dancers shouldn't
be handicapped.” In paragraph 41, the ballerina is made to apologize
because her voice was “warm, luminous, timeless, melody.” Of course,
the satire is obvious because no one should have to apologize for
having a beautiful voice, especially not a radio announcer. In the end,
the reader is totally on the side of the dancing lovers, and while the
Handicapper General wins, the death of the lovers is tragically
regrettable.
5. Allow the class to discuss their views on this question. We believe
that history has palpably proved that equality of ambition, spirituality,
and talents is impossible to achieve and that those totalitarian countries
that try to do so ultimately face revolution. The human spirit must be
free to express itself and to fulfill its dreams if society is to flourish.
6. It sets the stage for the action to follow. It informs us that the entire
story is science fiction and that we shall deal with a society in which
everyone is equal. The tone is satirical; we sense a critical attitude
toward the conflict in the story.
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7. An intriguing exercise for the class is to narrate the story from
Harrison’s point of view. Doubtless he would be heroic in his defiance
of the whole grotesque system. But the advantage of having an
omniscient observer tell the story is that you, the reader, can render
your own judgment.
8. He uses words that suggest movement: shifted, reeled, whirled,
swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, spun, leaped.
All the World’s a Stage
William Shakespeare
Answers to Quiz
c, c, c
1.
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (397)
1. The world is conceived as the stage of a theatre, implying that human life
is simply a play in which all human beings have their assigned parts.
Other appropriate metaphors are these: life as a circus with people as
clowns, acrobats, lion tamers, and sideshow characters; or, life as a
battleground for the forces of good versus evil; or, life as a bordello, where
everyone is a client seeking to fulfill some fantasy. Students’ choice of
metaphor will largely depend on their out-look on life—whether
optimistic or pessimistic.
2. Stage 1: Infants represent childhood.
Stage 2: Schoolboys represent boyhood.
Stage 3: Young lovers represent adolescence.
Stage 4: Soldiers represent adulthood.
Stage 5: Judges represent middle age.
Stage 6: Pantalooned gentlemen represent old age.
Stage 7: Senile old men represent second childhood.
Of course, the careful reader will realize that in Stage 7 life has come full
circle.
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3. It reveals the youthful passion so typical of first love, when the lover will
write a sentimental poem praising some aspect of his mistress’s body,
such as her eyebrows. Of course, Jacques is being satirical about young
love.
4. The soldier is swaggeringly masculine, wearing a bristly beard and
uttering swear words. He is also ambitious to earn some honor on the
battlefield, even if doing so means death. Yes, soldiers today—especially
regiments like the Marines—are seen as having considerable “machismo.”
However, many young people today hate the army because it represents
war, which is no longer a chance for honor but rather for annihilation of
the human race.
5. He portrays life as “strange” and “eventful.” As usual, Shakespeare has
written what most human beings feel—that life is indeed a strange and
tangled web of events. No one is entirely free from the incomprehensible
ironies and haphazard juxtapositions of happiness and sadness.
The Plot against People
Russell Baker
Answers to Quiz
d, c, a, b
2.
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (405)
1. On the fantasy that inanimate objects, such as a car, can think, plot, and
plan like human beings. This literary technique is referred to as
personification—imbuing inanimate objects with human characteristics.
Sometimes personification is poetic and dramatic, such as in the lines,
“Oh Death, where is thy sting?” But in this case it is comical.
2. He bases his classification on the method objects use to defeat humans—
breaking down, getting lost, or never working. Other bases could be the
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following: quality, appearance, or importance, but, of course, these might
not lend themselves to ironic humor.
3. The purpose is to create laughter. The argument is preposterous since
neither side is right. Inanimate objects do not have the faculties to be
either hostile or stupid; they just irritate in the same way hostile or stupid
people do.
4. In paragraph 5 the author mentions that many inanimate objects find it
extremely difficult to break down; therefore, they have evolved “a
different technique for resisting man.” Then Baker goes on to describe the
technique of breaking down.
5. Here are some examples of the personification he uses:
Paragraph 3: “With the cunning peculiar to its breed. . .” “It waits. . . .”
Paragraph 6: “They get lost.” “Science has still not solved the mystery of
how they do it. . . .The most plausible theory is that they have developed
a secret method of locomotion . . . .”
Paragraph 7: “. . .for a pair of pliers to climb . . . .” “Keys have been
known to burrow. . . . ”
Paragraph 12: “. . .the things that don't work have attained the highest
state possible . . . .”
Paragraph 14: “They have truly defeated man. . . .”
6. Because many of the inanimate objects mentioned in the essay are poorly
built or assembled, they break down unnecessarily. Thus, factories should
devise systems of strict quality control of such items as cars, washing
machines, flashlights, and battery-operated things. The loss of objects can
be reduced when owners keep certain objects, like keys or glasses, in their
appointed places, concentrating on where they placed the object. Flighty
persons are much more prone to losing objects than persons who are well
organized.
7. You might lead a discussion in which you have the class imagine what
would happen if a nuclear war or some other catastrophe wiped out our
capacity to produce such objects as television sets, automobiles, clocks,
and the like. Or, you might have the students answer this question: If you
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could keep only ten manufactured objects, which ten would you choose
and why?
8. The paragraph sounds scientific—straight to the point and without frills.
Such a no-nonsense beginning serves Baker’s purpose of pretending to be
serious.
Three Types of Resistance to Oppression
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Answers to Quiz
b, d, d, a, d
3.
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (414)
1. The characteristic ways that oppressed people use to deal with oppressors.
2. Acquiescence, violent resistance, and nonviolent resistance.
3. They do not always welcome their deliverers.
4. That it is immoral to passively accept an unjust system. Moreover, he
argues that acquiescence will confirm the oppressor’s contempt of the
Negro.
5. He objects that it is impractical as well as immoral. He says that violence
is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than to win
his understanding.
6. Nonviolent resistance is a synthesis of the opposing views of acquiescence
and violence. Proponents of nonviolent resistance oppose physical
aggression but believe that evil must be resisted.
7. The height of opposing an unjust system while loving its perpetrators.
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8. That it be militant, that it be nonviolent, and that it be a mass
movement.
9. They will engage the support of people of conscience while exposing
the oppressor as an instigator and practitioner of violence.
College Pressures
William Zinsser
Answers to Quiz
a, a, c, c, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (420)
1. His purpose is to identify four pressures faced by college students: 1).
economic, 2). parental, 3). peer, and 4). self-induced. The author achieves
his purpose by carefully describing each pressure and giving plenty of
examples as evidence of the reality of these pressures.
2. The students are motivated by a relentless and nervous ambition to
succeed by getting good grades so that they can be accepted into the
proper graduate school and be successful in elite jobs. The author sees
this motivation as stultifying and ultimately defeating. He believes that
students should investigate courses and activities that will stretch their
minds, enlarge their spirits, and satisfy their curiosity about life. Only
then can they lead enriched lives.
3. He would look for graduates with a great deal of curiosity—students who
risked themselves by taking a variety of courses that would enlarge their
knowledge and stretch the limits of their abilities rather than by
registering for safe courses that would assure them top grades that would
then assure them prestigious jobs. Have students discuss what college
courses they think would be valuable as a foundation for a happy life.
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4. He singles her out because she wants to be an artist—a career that rarely
brings huge commercial success or power. The result is that the student
is torn between her father’s wish that she choose a practical, moneymaking career and her wish for a life of artistic satisfaction. Have
students offer their advice and opinions.
5. Students should perceive that the notes reveal the desperation and
frustration felt by students who are victims of the four pressures described
in the essay. Also, they add a touch of reality because they are written by
actual students.
6. Zinsser clearly states that women are under even more pressure than men
because it is more difficult for them to succeed despite the fact that they
may be superbly equipped with an excellent education. Society has not
yet accepted fully the idea that women are as qualified for advanced jobs
as are men.
7. He uses transitions from one pressure to the next. For instance, in
paragraph 22 he writes, “Along with economic pressure goes parental
pressure.” In paragraph 31 he writes, “Peer pressure and self-induced
pressure are also intertwined….”
8. He wants his audience to realize that the students are not 100% uptight,
driven, overly ambitious, and calculatingly clever in their attempts to
make good grades. They have another side: They juggle their crowded
schedules in order to maintain a balanced life of entertainment and
studies. They are easy to like and they offer their friendships unstintingly.
9. He does not mention the computer age with its new hold on students.
Have students discuss how computers have affected students in the last
decade.
10. Some of the same pressures listed in the essay exist today. Students still
need financial aid; students still try to please parents who want their
offspring to make money; students still compete with each other for
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grades and may even stoop to cheating in order to get them; students still
hesitate to follow their own bliss, worrying that they might end up as
failures.
Mother Tongue
Amy Tan
Answers to Quiz
d, c, a, b, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (426)
1. By admitting that she is not an expert on English or literature, she
narrows her purpose while staking out her ground as a best-selling
writer.
2. The principle behind the classification is the audience for which the
different kind of Englishes are meant. Since this classification is based
on the author's personal use of English, it is an informal classification.
3. The sentence has no subject and its verb is truncated, which makes it
seem cryptic. The formal equivalent of this sentence would be something
like, “You should not waste money that way."
4. It is somewhat pedantic and academic, with stuffy phrases such as "the
intersection of memory upon imagination." Ask students their opinion
of it.
5. Allow for open discussion. Most languages of intimacy are based upon
simplification of the formal language, which can be demonstrated in the
student examples.
6. Various translations are possible. Here is one: “Du Yusong had a
business like a fruit stand on the street. He is like Du Zong—but not like
the Tsung-ming island people. He belonged to the putong people who
live on the east side of the river. That man wanted to ask Du Zong’s
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father to take him into his own family. But the father didn't take him
seriously until the man became a Mafia chieftain. Now that the man was
an important figure, it was very hard not to invite him. He came only to
show his respect for the big celebration, but did not stay for dinner. It is a
Chinese custom that if you're very important, you don't have to stay long.
He came to my wedding, but I did not see him, I only heard about his
presence. I was 19 years old at the time and I had gone to the side of the
boys at the YMCA dinner."
7. Allow for open discussion.
8. Although she does not outright classify the kinds of Englishes she uses,
she seems to imply at least three: formal English, her mother's English,
and intimate English. The distinction between number two or number
three is not clear-cut but seems to exist anyway.
9. Language is not necessarily to blame. The explanation might lie in the
different culture from the mainstream that was the author's.
10. Allow for open discussion. Most likely anyone who spoke nothing but
formal standard English would be stereotyped as a prig or a stuffed shirt
with a corresponding effect on his/her self-image. You should also point
out to students that using nothing but formal English is really not
suitable in all situations. Some occasions of intimacy demand the use of
informal or street English.
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Answers
The Girls in Their Summer Dresses
Irwin Shaw
Answers to Quiz
d, b, a, d, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (434)
1. Frances is jealous of Michael because she completely misunderstands his
appreciation of beauty. She interprets his admiration of young girls as lust
and as a rejection of her instead of as a genuine appreciation of youth, life,
and beauty.
2. They are the culmination of the list of women Michael loves to look at.
Presumably, he loves to look at them because, on a bright summer day,
they represent beauty in a particularly lissome and unencumbered form.
3. He loves her and is attracted to her:
“I’m a happily married man” (paragraph 10)
“I have not touched another woman. Not once. In all the five years”
(paragraph 13)
“I love you” (paragraph 19).
“You're beautiful.” (paragraph 19).
“Michael watched her walk, thinking what a pretty girl, what nice legs”
(paragraph 25).
4. He makes her feel insecure because she interprets his attentions to other
women as a desire to leave her and have an affair.
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5. Allow for open discussion.
6. Frances has insisted that Michael not share his feelings with her. This kind
of lack of communication is bound to create a growing barrier between
them. It is quite possible that the marriage will not survive because
Michael will one day “make a move” and get involved with another
woman. On the other hand, if Frances comes to understand Michael’s
feelings without being threatened, then the marriage may grow into a
stable love relationship. It may also be argued that by censuring Michael’s
harmless gazing at other women, Frances may deprive him of a useful
channel for sublimating his sexual restlessness and thereby push him into a
real affair.
7. If we are to believe the writings of psychologists and sociologists, Michael
is very much the average male. Most men enjoy looking at pretty girls.
Money
Victor Contoski
Answers to Quiz
c, a, d, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (436)
1. The poem tells you that while money may appear to be your confidant,
pleasurable companion, and submissive pet, in the end it will destroy you.
Or, don’t trust money; it will destroy you. The theme is stated in the final
line of the poem.
2. The dominant figure of speech is the comparison between money and a
treacherous animal—probably a snake—whom you befriend and trust,
only to have it bite you and kill you with its poison.
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3. An allusion to the presidents of the United States—because several of
them—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, for example—appear on U.S.
legal tender.
4. Allow students to express their views on whether money can be of benefit
to one’s personal life. It seems rather clear that many individuals have
used money wisely and for their own good. However, such a result is
usually due to the person’s sense of discipline—not using money
profligately or senselessly. Moreover, it appears that the happiest rich
people are those who use part of their money for altruistic ends. An
interesting question to ask the class is, “What would you do with a
hundred million dollars?”
5. When you first receive a sizable amount of money, you may believe that
it will never control you or change your way of life. For instance, you tell
yourself that if you were to win the lottery, you would continue to keep
your same friends and you would continue to remain down to earth and
approachable. The phrase “at first” gives away the poet’s view that you
are being deluded. The title is crucial to an understanding of the pronoun
“It.”
6. Because the poem is not so much thinking of a physical death but rather
of the slow erosion of character. It is possible that the corruption caused
by money is slow and cumulative until one day a person who in the past
was a simple, happy, loving, decent human being wakes up to realize that
money has destroyed marriage, family, serenity, trust of other human
beings, and even life itself. The poet is stressing the secret diabolism of
money.
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Mary Todd Lincoln: Second Thoughts on Our Most Vilified
First Lady
Irving Stone
Answers to Quiz
d, c, a, c, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (449)
1. The worst charge was that Abraham Lincoln did not love his wife.
According to the author, this accusation was first made by a jealous law
partner, William Herndon. Mary reacted foolishly by showing her
unmitigated hatred for Herndon.
2. Her excessive grief over the death of her second son, Edward. Our view
is that no grief over a child can be considered excessive. In fact,
psychological studies indicate that losing a child is the most stressful
event a person can experience. Allow students to offer their views.
3. She turned a worn-down, shabby residence into a magnificent one
because she felt that the executive mansion should be symbolic of a
successful country—to Americans as well as to foreigners visiting the
United States. Have students offer their opinions on this issue.
4. Eleanor Roosevelt, Bessy Truman, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Pat Nixon.
Have students decide whether or not a first lady has the right, or even
duty, to keep the White House looking impressively beautiful.
5. Time has a strange way of making some mistakes look worse than they
were, while making others disappear or seem glossed over. In the case
of Mary Lincoln, the fear might be that some people hated this woman so
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much that they would exaggerate her mistakes and then these
exaggerations would show up in the history books.
6. He approaches the charges chronologically, beginning with the
Springfield years.
7. To show that castigating first ladies is common among U.S. citizens.
8. It gives him credibility and also lets the reader know that the author was
deeply interested in the Lincolns and their relationship to each other.
9. The causal analysis begins in paragraph 3, where the author probes what
he considers the worst charge, refutes the charge, and assigns causes to it.
10. Have students discuss what view of Mary Todd Lincoln they retained
after reading the essay. Especially, have them state how the essay
changed their attitude toward this woman.
Why We Crave Horror Movies
Stephen King
Answers to Quiz
c, a, b, c, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (458)
1. The author is suggesting that inside each of us lurks a person with some
kind of mental sickness. Whereas some people hide their mental sickness
better than others, everyone falls into the category of being mentally ill.
Have students discuss the validity of the author’s view. But first, have
them give their definition of mental illness. For instance, can someone
with a fear of flying airplanes be labeled as mentally ill? Surely a matter
of degree becomes important here.
2. The author believes that anyone attending a horror movie is “daring the
nightmare.” By that he means that the viewer in essence is saying this:
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“Yes, I am afraid of the many demons that plague my life and mind, but
when I watch this horror movie, I am daring that nightmare to overcome
me. I am showing the demons that I can stand my ground.
3. In paragraph 3, the author uses the analogy of a roller coaster because
those boarding a roller coaster know that they are going to be somewhat
frightened, but they board anyway, just to show that they can do it. Have
students come up with another analogy. One student used the analogy of
the glass floor at the top of a high rise in Toronto, Canada. The view
through the glass floor is enormously frightening for most tourists
because one feels sure that if walked on, the glass will break and one
will fall through the air hundreds of stories to the cement sidewalk
below. Knowing that the glass can’t possibly break does not seem to
reassure the average visitor. Yet, hundreds of tourists each day force
themselves to walk on the glass floor and look down—just to prove that
they have the courage to do so.
4. One reason we go to horror movies is to be convinced that we are not as
utterly abnormal as the hideous devils or witches in these movies. In
other words, compared with them, we are essentially normal. The author
also points out the conservative, reactionary nature of horror movies.
These movies never change; they always deal with hideous creatures
who pervade the dark places of the world, and they always react against
light and goodness.
5. We are turned into children because horror movies make us see morality
in terms of black and white, not shades of gray. In the world of horror
movies the good and the bad are not at all the same, and we can see
which is which clearly. We also become like children because we can
freely let out our emotions. We can scream, gasp, or clench our teeth
without embarrassment.
6. In paragraph 9 the author uses the metaphor of a “potential lyncher” who
resides in all of us. This lyncher needs to be let out to roll about and
scream once in a while in order to keep him from getting out of control
and causing real damage—which is what happens with crazy people.
Another way of expressing this thought is to say that pent up emotions
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need occasional release through anger, love, fear, or some other socially
acceptable channel.
7. Here are some examples of informal English:
Paragraph 2: “bucks” rather than “dollars.”
Paragraph 8: “clap you away in the funny farm” rather than “place you in
a mental hospital.”
Paragraph 10: “our rotten little puke of a sister” rather than our
“annoying monster of a sister.”
Paragraph 13: “man” used as a slang accent.
Paragraph 14: “gators” rather than “alligators.”
Because Stephen King is a powerful novelist and essay writer, he can get
by with an occasional informal or slang expression. We do not encourage
students to use slang or informal English because formal English is what
they will be required to write throughout their college education and in
the professional world.
8. For King, sanity and insanity are a matter of degree. He believes all of us
are insane, but society accepts certain forms of insanity, such as talking
to yourself or making grimaces, but it does not accept other forms, such
as carving up women.
9. He promises to tell us why we crave horror movies—a promise he does
fulfill by listing the reasons why we want to see them and what happens
to us psychologically when we give in to this desire.
10. He believes that in order for us to reveal the acceptable emotions of
“love, friendship, loyalty, and kindness,” we must occasionally give vent
to our less acceptable emotions. Have students suggest ways other than
watching a horror movie to get rid of pent up emotions. Consider the
following: exercising strenuously, listening to soft music, confiding in a
good friend, or going for a long walk.
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Grow Up? Not So Fast
Lev Grossman
Answers to Quiz
d, a, c, a, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (467)
1.
Here are the other terms used: kidults, threshholders, emerging adult
hood. All the terms connote the movement from one stage of life to
another. Have students try to think of creative terms for the twixters.
Here are examples from other countries: Canada: “boomerang kids,”
England: “kippers,” (acronym for “kids in parents’ pockets eroding
retirement savings” France: “Anguy syndrome” (from a 2001 film about
a charming 28-year-old who refuses to move out of his parents’
apartment.) Germany: “nest hockers,” Italy: “mammones,” (for kids
who won't give up their mother’s cooking) Japan: “freefers” (a
combination of the words “free” and arbeiter,” (the German word for
“worker). One student suggested delayed trail blazers. Another came up
with ADs, for “adolescent adults.”
2. Social scientists are trying to answer the question, “Do the twixters refuse
to grow up or is it that they simply can’t grow up? The essay seems to
favor the idea that present economic and educational circumstances
impede the twixter’s ability to grow up. Have students propose their
own answers, backed up by personal experience.
3.
It is taking students much longer to finish college with a degree than it
used to. The average student now takes five years before getting a
diploma. According to Grossman, the reason for this extended time is
that colleges no longer prepare students for life because a B.A. or B.S. is
now so common that employers pay little attention to such degrees,
taking them for granted. Colleges are often so out of step with the
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demands of the real world that vocational schools are experiencing an
enrollment boom. Also, going to college has become extremely
expensive, causing students to stay at home so as to avoid paying for
room and board in addition to the high college tuition and textbook
costs.
4.
This term is obviously a take off on the popular expression “thinking
outside the box.” Thinking “outside the box” means using your
imagination to go beyond the routine accomplishments of a company.
Thinking “outside the book” means to leave the impractical ideas found
in books and get down to the practical requirements of the work place.
For instance, students who have completed their pre-medical school
requirements will know little about healing patients. It is the hands-on
experience that will turn them into accomplished doctors. Likewise, a
student might learn the theory of accounting in a finance class, but until
he has actually worked with real-life ledgers, he will not be ready to take
his place in the world of finance. The author is criticizing colleges for
not preparing students to enter the practical world and earn a decent
income. Have student discuss whether or not this criticism is warranted.
5.
See paragraph 29 for an answer to this question. The twixters make up
for the loss in family support by having friends with whom they throw
cocktail parties, dinner partiers, and poker games. They stay in touch
with their friends by taking advantage of the new technologies of cell
phones, email, instant messaging, and online communities. According to
authors Cagen and Watters, they also remain close to their parents and
contact them by cell phone daily. Have students confirm or deny this
new emphasis on friendship. We suggest that remaining close to parents
and other wise adults can keep these twixters from getting into selfdestructive lifestyles, such as taking drugs, drinking too much, or going
into debt.
6.
See paragraph 33 for a partial answer to this question. According to
Grossman, pop culture not only defines youth, but also shapes it.
Various markets have noticed that while twixters are waiting to find out
who and where they want to be, they spend considerable sums of
money—propping up the markets for electronic gadgets like Game Boys,
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flat-screen TVs, Ipods, couture fashion, and expensive vacations. Other
items to mention are joining exercise gyms and buying exotic cars. All
these items are expensive and have caused numerous twixters to become
debt ridden.
7. They ignore such matters as paying into Social Security, having medical
benefits, and setting up retirement plans. While they probably think of
life as a long, long journey with the end still far away, if they throw all
caution to the wind, they may find themselves like the grasshopper in
Aesop’s fable, who frittered away her days in fun and gaiety, neglecting
to work, while her neighbor, the hard-working ant, stashed away food
for the winter. Have student think of the advice they would give twixters
living only for the here and now.
8.
The following paragraphs contain figurative language: Paragraph 3:
“Who are these . . . twentysome Peter Pans?" Peter Pan is the little boy in
a children’s story who never grew up. This is an apt image to portray the
twixters because they also don’t want to grow up. Paragraph 5:
“…whatever cultural machinery used to turn kids into grownups has
broken down.” The image of machinery cranking out people is effective.
(But the machinery has broken down, so the kids are not coming out
adults.) Paragraph 7: “Legally they’re adults, but they’re on the
threshold, the doorway to adulthood, and they’re not going through it.”
This metaphor of the threshold and doorway stresses the twixters’
reluctance to become adults—to walk over the threshold into adulthood.
Paragraph 18: “To them, the period from 18 to 25 is a kind of sandbox,
a chance to build castles and knock them down….” Again, this image
reminds us that, in a way, twixters are still children. Paragraph 30:
“Like Goldilocks, they want to find the one that’s just right.” This
hopping about applies to their lovers as well as their jobs. Vivid images,
including metaphors and similes, when aptly used, as they are by
Grossman, add sparkle to an essay that could otherwise be dull.
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9.
Chapter Fifteen Answers
His style is direct, and his sentences flow coherently throughout the
essay. He remains objective and does not become emotionally involved
in the argument. At no point does he vilify or denigrate young people.
In fact, he points out that our culture may need to accommodate twixters
as a permanent stage in life.
10. Grossman convinces by carefully analyzing the cause-effect relationship
between society and the goals of young people facing adulthood.
Grossman has done meticulous research for his essay. He quotes
numerous scholars and social scientists. The essay is filled with
quotations from experts in the field. This kind of documentation adds
intellectual weight to the essay.
Black Men and Public Space
Brent Staples
Answers to Quiz
c, a. b, a, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (472)
1. Anecdotes are always an excellent way to capture the reader’s attention.
The fact that the narrator calls the woman a “victim” makes the reader
want to find out what happened because we are always fascinated with
people who have been victimized. Ironically, in this case, the real victim
was the narrator, who was totally misjudged. Later on in the essay we
find out that pedestrians, especially women are often frightened by black
males whom they encounter on deserted, dark streets.
2. The details add believability to the scene. Since the narrator is described
as tall, with a beard and billowing hair, he does cut a rather fearsome
figure. Allow the females in the class to discuss how they might have
reacted under similar circumstances.
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3. Staples’ primary purpose is to get across to his readers what it is like, as a
black man, to be in public places at certain times, especially at night. He
wants to describe in detail the irrational fear a passerby may feel when
encountering a black man. Staples is writing in order to gain
understanding from the reader. He probably knows that it takes time for
society to stop having irrational fears of people who are different in color
or looks from them. But by describing several incidents in which he was
mistaken for a criminal just because he was black, he hopes to educate
the reader to be tolerant. We think he hopes that when we are confronted
by a person who looks different from us, we will not immediately
attribute evil motives to that person, but will judge the situation
intelligently.
4. In the last sentence of paragraph 3 he specifically refers to “policemen,
doormen, bouncers, cab drivers, and others whose business it is to screen
out troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness.”
5. The author’s definition is how people react physically and emotionally
when they are afraid. In this essay, they start walking faster; they cross
the street; or they try to protect themselves with a dog when they believe
they are confronting a dangerous person. You might have students
discuss how they react to persons from the Middle East since the suicide
bombings of 2001 and on.
6. Indeed, statistics and news stories are grim evidence that the streets of
most large cities are not completely safe for anyone vulnerable to
criminal attacks. In recent years, parents have become especially
watchful of their children because so many little girls have been
kidnapped and murdered, grabbed by a total stranger with homicidal
compulsions. Discuss how neighborhoods can make their streets safe
without profiling certain cultures or races.
7. Allow students to discuss this question, especially the aspect of selfesteem. Let them consider what their city, college, church, or family is
doing to improve tolerance in their communities.
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8. The conclusion is effective because it injects a bright note into an
otherwise somber text. Additionally, the narrator’s ruse of whistling
“bright, sunny” tunes while walking at night probably works since it is
true that most night strollers would not expect a mugger to be whistling
tunes from Vivaldi’s compositions.
9. Factors cited by most sociologists and politicians are the following: 1)
poverty that leads many blacks to desperation, 2) lack of education that
keeps many blacks ignorant and thus unable to achieve middle or upper
class status, 3) working mothers who are unable to give their children
the supervision they need to grow up in a secure environment. Other
factors can be cited. See if your students can think of some.
10. The tone seems to reflect some anger, but mostly dismay and resignation
about a situation that exists and cannot be changed dramatically any time
soon. For anger, see paragraph 11; for dismay and resignation, see
paragraphs 2 and 11.
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Answers
War
Luigi Pirandello
Answers to Quiz
d, a, d, a, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (479)
1. All the high-flown phrases about the glory of dying for one’s country lose
their meaning entirely when one is confronted with the reality of losing
one’s son in a war.
2. The fat man pretends that children do not belong to their parents but are
destined for noble contributions to society, perhaps even to die for their
nation. He waxes eloquent about the glory of sacrificing a son in the war,
claiming that young men who die in a war die happily, having escaped the
ugly sides of life. He even claims (paragraph 21) that he feels no
unhappiness at his son’s death, that he does not even wear mourning for
his son. In fact, however, he has not yet faced the death of his son, and
when he suddenly realizes that his son is actually dead, he breaks into
uncontrollable sobs.
3. The conflict lies in the difference between the attitudes toward war of the
fat man whose son has just died and the woman whose son has just been
called to service. It is also mirrored in the fat man’s professed attitude
toward the war versus his secret grief over the loss of his son.
4. The woman asks him, “Then is your son really dead?” She does this to
reassure herself, but this seemingly incongruous question completely
destroys the fat man’s steadiness.
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5. When the fat man is first introduced in paragraph 15, he is described as a
“red-faced man with bloodshot eyes of the palest gray.” This detail
suggests that the man is not at ease but has spent some sleepless nights.
6. Allow for open discussion.
Dooley Is a Traitor
James Michie
Answers to Quiz
a, b, c, d, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (482)
1. He objects to war because it requires that a man kill in cold blood.
Dooley himself has been in jail for murder, but it was murder as a result
of personal anger. He killed with passion and vengeance because he held
a personal grudge against the man he killed. He finds it morally
intolerable to kill unknown masses of people in an impersonal way and
for an abstract idea.
2. He argues that fighting a war on behalf of one’s country is fighting for
principles that are “sanctioned by God, led by the Church, against a
godless, churchless nation!”
3. Dooley summarizes the New Testament incident where Christ chased
some evil spirits out of a man and had them enter a herd of pigs, which
then threw themselves over a cliff. The implied lesson is that Christ did
not declare war in which entire nations kill each other off in a coldly
calculated, premeditated manner.
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4. He admits without hesitation that he’d knock the enemy's brains out.
This is consistent with Dooley's view that killing for personal reasons is
excusable while impersonal killing is not.
5. Dooley’s logic is mad logic, but Dooley makes more sense in his madness
than the judge who argues by repeating set phrases and standard
suppositions.
6. No one wins—all lose in the end because all are doomed to die
eventually. But Dooley would rather be shot as a deserter and have a
clear conscience than kill or be killed in a war.
7. Allow for open discussion.
8. The fact that Dooley has killed before adds authenticity and belief to his
opposition to war. It also underscores his attitude toward war: that it
involves cold-blooded killing rather than killing done in a state of intense
passion.
The Case Against Man
Isaac Asimov
Answers to Quiz
a, d, b, c, a
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (501)
1. His argument is that we must start using birth control now. He states this
point explicitly in the final paragraph. Doing so allows him to present
first all the evidence he needs to convince the reader that future life is
unthinkable if our population is allowed to grow unchecked.
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2. We will reach the stage of planetary high-rise with no animals but man,
no plants but algae, no room for even one more person (see paragraphs
28 and 35.)
3. He states that just as cells out of control in the human body (cancer) can
destroy a human life, so any organism growing out of control would
eventually destroy the larger system of life it belongs to.
4. They are both intricately interrelated systems. Both are made up of
nonliving as well as living portions. Loss of any part will affect the
whole.
5. They add authority and also an element of horror as the reader follows
the mathematical growth explosion.
6. We are not ready to send 80 million people per year to another planet.
We could not engineer those worlds to sustain that many people.
7. Allow for discussion.
I Want a Wife
Judy Syfers Brady
Answers to quiz
a, b, c, d, a
Answers to Questions About Meaning and Technique (513)
1. Syfer’s argument is based on the premise that all wives are completely
devoted to advancing their husbands' causes, be it their careers or their
home life. At the same time, they remain glamorous and ready to shine at
a social gathering. Careful thinking, of course, should lead you to
recognize that the amazing creature –“a wife”—she describes probably
exists only as a composite picture of many outstanding wives. Moreover,
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the author never addresses the advantages of being a wife, only those of
being a husband.
2. Exaggeration, also known as hyperbole, contributes heavily to the delight
of reading this essay. The wife described simply has no faults. She is
every man’s dream companion, but since we know that no such perfect
wife exists, we can laugh at the portrait.
3. She keeps using the pronouns “I,” “my,” and “me” in order to emphasize
the point that a wife is most useful and laudable when she caters to her
husband’s every need and desire. See paragraph 4 and 8, where my is
italicized for emphasis.
4. The evidence she uses is probably based on her own experience, having
observed husbands who had wives support them through school, take care
of their children, run their social life, and clean their house—all without
bothering the husband’s own busy schedule and, of course, without
complaining.
5. Have students discuss the fairness issue. We think that much of the essay
is written with the voice of exaggerated sarcasm—as if by someone who
felt bitter about having been used and then discarded like a dirty
handkerchief.
6. Many husbands today provide the following comforts for their wives:

income so that a wife can remain at home with the children

hard physical work, such as carrying heavy bags or suitcases

intelligent companionship

doing most of the driving when an automobile trip is involved

maintaining success on the job to keep the family happy and
respectable
Have students add to the list.
7. Since 1970, women have made immense strides in the work place,
becoming lawyers, physicians, CEOs, TV news anchors, college
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presidents, and successful political candidates. While women still
complain about a “glass ceiling” that keeps them from getting the top
jobs as easily as men do, they have become ever more educated and ever
more visible in the world of executive privilege.
8. She makes it look as if the wife is the long-suffering martyr in a
relationship where the husband is selfish and demanding while also being
extremely nonchalant about his own spousal fidelity. We believe this
picture to be grossly exaggerated because in the real world, sexual ennui
is displayed by both genders, as is sexual fidelity.
9. The final sentence of the essay is like taking a big breath after quickly
reciting a long list of items. The answer she expects from the reader is,
“No one would not want a wife!” The sentence is italicized for emphasis.
10. Encourage freedom of discussion on this question. You might consider
placing a list on the chalkboard, giving each item a ranking in terms of its
importance in a marriage.
The “Don’t Impose Your Values” Argument is Bigotry in
Disguise
John Leo
Answers to Quiz
c, c, a, a, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (516)
1. He interprets it as the belief that “it is wrong, and perhaps dangerous, to
vote your moral convictions unless everybody else already shares them.”
The author turns the belief into a paradox, because if you did not vote
your beliefs unless everyone already shared them, then there would be no
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need for voting them—because voting is lawmaking, and lawmaking is a
way of imposing one’s belief.
2. Leo points to the abolition movement and the civil rights movement as
being primarily responsible for the freedom of the slaves and for giving
blacks equal rights with whites. Religious movements in the country
have also contributed excellent hospitals, schools, and valuable social
programs for the poor.
3. Leo deplores the fact that whereas the “don’t impose” people criticize
Catholics for being against abortion and stem cell research, they forget to
criticize those Catholics who do not follow the pope’s insistence that rich
people should share their wealth with the poor or that they should oppose
the death penalty. In other words, Leo feels that the “don’t impose”
people are biased in favor of their own special interests. Have students
think of similar inconsistencies on the part of the evangelicals or
Catholics. One example is the fact that many religious people insist on
everyone’s freedom to pursue happiness; yet, they would deny gays the
right to marry or adopt children.
4. This question should engender a lively class discussion.
students to share their views with the class.
Encourage
5. All of us tend to scoff at people whose views we consider fanatic, or
inhumane, or stupid; however, in a democratic society we must be careful
not to trample on individual, personal beliefs—especially if they do not
harm the public weal.
6. The example is bared because it supports the author’s argument that
voters should not keep someone out of office just because that person
holds a religious views in conflict with that of the voter. Now, let’s look
at this example: Should a teetotaler refrain from voting for, say, a city
mayor because the mayor was seen having a glass of wine at a public
banquet? Have students bring up other possible examples for discussion
by the class.
7. Allow for individual answers and examples.
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8. In paragraph 9. Leo’s assertion merely reinforces the truth that what we
personally believe always seems more right or moral than what an
opponent believes. It is difficult to listen without bias to someone who
thinks quite differently from what we do, but unprejudiced listening is
what an intelligent person must develop.
9. Leo’s answer is to realize that neither religious nor secular answers are
privileged or out of bounds. The goal is to drop the “don’t impose your
beliefs on me” argument and to be unprejudiced.
10. He makes himself look reasonable by admitting that he is “struggling” to
understand the “don’t impose your values” attitude. Also, he never
becomes emotional or irrational. During this short essay, he uses four
references from other sources to support his view: 1) Paragraph 2 and 9:
UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, 2) Paragraph 7: The Times’
comment on the Rocco Buttiglione case. In your own writing, remember
that the opinion of experts gives strong support to an opinion.
What Would Happen if We Legalized Gary Marriage?
Michael Alvear
Answers to Quiz
c,b, a, c, d
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (522)
1. The opening sentence of the essay is the author’s thesis, and he repeats
the thesis in the final sentence, thus leaving the reader with the thesis as
the last thought to remember. Moreover, the thesis is a direct answer to
the title of the essay. Only a superficial reader would miss the main
point of this essay.
2. Students may differ in their answers, but we think that the two most
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171
persuasive elements are the statistics used by the author to show the vast
numbers of people involved in the homosexual community, and the
reference to how children’s lives would be improved if they were adopted
by gay parents.
3. He cites six powerful agencies to prove his point: 1) The American
Academy of Pediatrics, 2) the Child Welfare League of America, 3) the
North American Council on Adoptable Children, 4) the American
Psychiatric Association, 5) the American Psychological Association, and
6) the National Association of Social Workers. One weakness of these
reference is that he does not quote any one person from these
organizations, but simply assumes that we will accept his blanket
statement that these agencies have concluded that gay and lesbian homes
would be an improvement for many kids in foster care. The reader might
want to check on these agencies to confirm their view.
4. This is a sticky issue because no one would want to see Billy suffer;
however, one might ask, “Do we need to revamp the entire marriage code
in order to save Billy?” If our society would allow civil unions that
would grant legal rights to gay couples, that might save Billy without
having his parents actually “get married.” Encourage debate, but not
hostility or intolerance, on this issue.
5. According to the author, gays will go in and refurbish a community so
that it will then attract the “creative class” because this class is drawn to
the values gays represent—diversity, open-mindedness, variety,
eccentricity. We add to this the argument that people like to see gays
move into a run-down community because they refurbish the community
with great artistic skills. Real estate values that have plummeted rise
again—a boon to business.
6. This is an important question to ponder. The class might consider such
factors as the ease with which divorces can be obtained, the absence from
home of working parents—during the children’s formative years, the
secularization of moral values, or the longer life spans that place tension
on an already rocky marriage. Encourage students to bring other ideas to
this debate.
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The Marriage Buffet
David Frum
Answers to Quiz
d, b, a, a, c
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (526)
1. Frum focuses on the word marriage, thus getting away from the issue of
homosexuality. The author wants to emphasize the fact that his argument
is not a vilification of the gay community, but rather a protection of
marriage.
2. Frum says that these advocates of change are riding a very fast train—one
that will not stop anywhere between the criminalization of homosexuality
and full state recognition of homosexual relationships. A train hurtling
along its tracks is certainly a powerful image, indicating that such a train
would be difficult to stop before it reaches its destination. Have students
suggest other images, such as a huge rock rolling downhill, or a tsunami
advancing toward the shore.
3. It is ironic that both sides have come to understand the importance of
marriage at a time when the institution of marriage is approaching
collapse. The author is surely thinking of the high divorce rate among
married couples and the ease with which some modern couples sever
their marriage ties. Have students discuss what has contributed to this
growing frailty of marriage. Consider such factors as couples living
longer, women holding jobs, and the secularization of society so that
churches have lost their influence on parishioners.
4. Frum insists that same-sex marriage would reduce the odds of children
growing up in a stable home. In support of his argument, he cites the
laws of foreign countries like Denmark, France, Hungary, Iceland, the
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Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Canada, which have established legal
partnerships similar to same-sex marriage, and these partnerships blur the
line between being married and not married; moreover, they are easier to
get out of than a marriage and thus do not offer greater stability for
children than the present concept of marriage. Have students offer their
opinions on this point.
5. By “continuum” the author means a gradual change from true singlehood
to formal matrimony. The author finds this continuum bad for children
because in countries where pact laws occur, couples usually break up
before they have co-habited for five years, leaving the child in a broken
home.
6. The “crazy-quilt” figure of speech brings to mind one of these quilts
where people add squares of their own making in order to celebrate a
special occasion. While in some cases the quilt can be striking, from an
artistic point of view it often reveals confusion and disorder. Frum uses
another image in the title of his essay—“the marriage buffet,” which also
indicates the variety of relationships that would result from pact laws.
We consider both images vivid and effective. Have students discuss why
appropriate figurative language perks up and improves an essay.
7. Frum states his thesis as the final sentence of his essay: “It is a strange
idea of conservatism that would fail to see marriage as something to
conserve.” This is the punch line the reader is left with. The beginning
and the end of an essay are usually the best places for the most important
idea the writer wants to put across.
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Chapter Sixteen Answers
A More Perfect Union: How the Founding Fathers Would Have Handled
Gay Marriage
Jonathan Rauch
Answers to Quiz
c, a, d, c, b
Answers to Questions on Meaning and Technique (529)
1. Rauch, himself an acknowledged homosexual, takes the position that the
federalist approach—that is, the approach that the rights of the individual
states must be protected against blanket dictatorship by the federal
government. This idea forms the thesis of his essay.
2. One certainly must admit that emotions run hot among many
conversations on the subject of homosexual marriage. Some people
shudder at the idea as if Satan himself were threatening the moral fiber of
our world; others are uncomfortable with the notion but remain silent so
as not to offend; yet others support an individual’s right to control his or
her own destiny in matters of love and marriage. To avoid the turmoil
associated with conflict, people will need to study the issue calmly and
vote on it when the opportunity presents itself. Then, as is our custom in
the United States, whatever the outcome is, we must accept it—just as we
do in presidential elections. The losing side simply settles down to
normal living.
3. At the end of paragraph 2, the author indicates that he will present three
reasons why a decentralized approach would improve the odds of making
same-sex marriage work. Then, he introduces his first guidepost with the
word “First,….” In paragraph 4, he introduces his second guidepost with
the words “Just as important is the social benefit of letting the states find
their own way.” He introduces his third guidepost at the beginning of
paragraph 5 with the word “Finally,….” Guidepost like these add to the
coherence of the essay, making it flow more smoothly and logically.
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175
4. Probably the most obvious moral communities are the people who
believe in the Bible as a moral guide and those who see the Bible as a
collections of myths. Other moral communities are those who form
attitudes about capital punishment, the welfare system, and treatment of
immigrants.
Have students add their own examples of moral
communities they have confronted. We believe that living in a
homogeneous society is a true blessing (despite its challenges) because it
assures that the talents of a varied citizenry are used for the improvement
of our country. If we were all white Anglo Saxon Protestants or all black
southern Baptists our country would not have the verve or the progress it
experiences due to so many divergent cultures living side by side.
5. They can move to a state where this law does not exist. For instance, if
you were uncomfortable in a state that allowed homosexual marriage, you
could move to a state that did not allow it. Of course, moving from one
state to another in order to find a compatible environment could cause a
hardship to individual families. Have students discuss this issue and offer
their opinions on it.
6. He feels that domestic laws are best handled by the individual states
because the citizens in our country often disagree strongly on matters of
personal choice and morality; thus a law forced on all states might cause
pandemonium. Rauch feels that for the sake of domestic tranquility,
domestic laws should be left to a level of government closest to home—
in other words, the state.
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
Writing and Documenting the Research Paper
Exercises (589)
Exercise 1
a. Doctorow, E. L. Ragtime. New York: Random House,
1975.
b. “What Is the Federation Cup?” World Tennis Aug. 1976: 32-34.
c. O’Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People.” The Modern Tradition. 2nd
ed. Ed. Daniel F. Howard. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972.
d. Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Jessie Coulson. New
York: Oxford UP, 1953.
e. “The Dutiful Child’s Promises.” Readings from American Literature. Eds.
Mary Edwards Calhoun and Emma Lenore MacAlarney. Boston:
Ginn, 1915.
f. Wallbank, T. Walter, and Alastair M. Taylor. Civi1ization—Past and
Present. 2 vols. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1949.
g. “Tiryns.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1963 ed.
h. Garrison, Karl C. Psychology of Adolescence. 6th ed. Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
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Chapter Nineteen The Research Paper
177
i. “To Plains with the Boys in the Bus.” Time 9 Aug. 1976: 16, 19.
j. Murray, Jim. "The Real Olympian." Los Angeles 'Times, 4, Aug. 1976,
pt. 3: 1, 7.
Exercise 2
a.
The Canadian Tax Foundation.
(1979).
Provincial and municipal
finances. Toronto, Canada.
b. Rice, B. (1988, April). Boom & doom on Wall Street. Psychology
Today, 52-54.
c. Kerr, B., Davison, J., Nelson, J., & Haley S. (1982). Children and
psychological testing. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,
34, 526-541.
d. Skinner, B.F. (1952). Beyond freedom and dignity. In H. Hall and N.
B.
Bowie (eds.) The tradition of philosophy (pp.
321-325).
Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
e. Athlete’s heart. (1975) New Columbia encyclopedia (p. 176). New
York: Columbia UP.
Exercise 3
MLA
a.
(Garrison 25)
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Chapter Nineteen The Research Paper
b.
(50)
c.
(Wallbank and Taylor, vol. 1: 30)
d.
(31)
e.
(Calhoun and MacAlarney 205)
f.
(Murray 1)
g.
(“Tiryns” 248)
h.
(Dostoevsky 48).
i.
(qtd. in The Modern Tradition 507).
j.
(Doctorow 46).
Exercise 4
Answers will vary. Have students read their choices.
Exercise 5
Answers will vary. Have students volunteer to read their summaries.
Exercise 6
Answers will vary. Have students volunteer to read their paraphrases.
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CHAPTER TWENTY
Grammar Fundamentals
The Sentence (616)
Underline the simple subject once and the simple predicate twice in the
following sentences. Identify the verb first. To find the subject, ask, “Who
or what did it?”
1. The teacher arrived ten minutes after the class was to begin.
2. Mary believes in the intelligence and honesty of dogs.
3. After seeing the movie twice, Alice was sure she was in love with Robert
Redford.
4. At the end of the first act, the big star made his appearance.
5. People all over the world expect America to feed them.
6. Ted was elected to run as vice-president.
7. We danced in the hallway, in the cellar, and on the patio.
8. Grace, her voice controlled and her head held high, debated the issues
with her rival.
9. My father, a business consultant, is going to New York on Friday.
10. At the end of the examination, Bill breathed a sigh of relief.
In the following sentences, draw a line between the complete subject and the
complete predicate. (617)
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Chapter Twenty Grammar Fundamentals
1. Jane / arranged her schedule to allow for study.
2. As an usher as well as a waiter, Bruce /worked to save $300.
3. Alaska, with all of its natural beauty, /appealed to the Smiths.
4. Playing a guitar / demands skill and sensitivity. Angry and tired, the dean
/ arrived and was hit with a water balloon.
5. Separate wills / are recommended for couples who have been married
twice.
6. The top of Mt. Whitney / offers a breathtaking view of the Sierras.
7. The undefeatable Johnson / was dropped from the squad.
8. Horses, covered with flies, / stood scratching their backs on the fence.
9. Honor / is more important than love.
Clauses and Phrases (619)
Label the following passages I (independent clause), D (dependent clause), or
P (phrase).
1. Spring has begun (I)
2. Since their parents died (D)
3.
Although Sam is an atheist (D)
4. Follow the main road for a mile (I)
5. Between the two houses (P)
6. Everyone told him to stay home (I)
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7. For your country (P)
8.
If Mary enrolled in the class (D)
9. You may wish to return the picture today (I)
10.
People who attend religious services (D)
11. Begging her to love him (P)
12. Flowers blossom (I)
13. Have you seen the five napkins (I)
14. He seldom speaks his mind (I)
15.
Because she grew up in Poland (D)
Sentence Types (622)
Place the appropriate punctuation mark at the end of the following sentences.
1. Oh, crime and violence, how long will you continue to rob us of peace?
2. This is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.
3. Come here this minute!
4. Have you, by chance, already met this gentleman?
5. Help! I am caught in a mousetrap.
6. Go to the store and buy me a quart of milk.
7. If I need you, will you be available?
8. What an exciting evening!
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Chapter Twenty Grammar Fundamentals
9. Should we never meet again, I wish you the best of luck.
10. I asked him if he had been paid for his time.
Classify each of the following sentences as (A) simple, (B) compound, (C)
complex, or (D) compound-complex.
Justify your classification by
identifying the various clauses. (623)
1. At the end of the day, Alice made an appearance; however, she did not
smile once. (B)
2. Because the winter was nearly over, Maxine arranged to be home with
her mother, her grandmother, and her sisters. (C)
3. After he had reached the end of the road, Mr. Leffingwell began to cross
the bridge. (C)
4. Big Tom was dropped from the club after one month of membership; he
now is trying out for the swimming team. (B)
5. At the end of the race, Jane let out a yell, for she had finished in third
place. (B)
6. Maybelle operated an elevator for three years to save enough money to go
to night school, to buy a new car, and to pay her mother's doctor bills.
(A)
7. In the top drawer you will find two pairs of old gloves, three torn
sweaters, and a yellowed picture album. (A)
8. We all believed that the U.S. Constitution must be preserved, because
our liberties, which our ancestors paid for with their lives, must be
nurtured with care. (C)
9. After freezing all night, Nancy decided she should have worn a sweater.
(A)
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10. When my family left for New Orleans, I thought they would return within
two weeks; instead, they stayed there a full year. (D)
11. My uncle, a famous poet, gave me a handwritten manuscript and asked
me to take care of it for him. (A)
12. Your letter was delightful; I am sure that it offended no one. (B)
13. Because Tom gave the most forceful pep talk, he was asked to represent
the senior class at the fine arts festival. (C)
14. The mayor, his voice trembling with rage, denounced his opponent, Jack
Wilson. (A)
15. He flew to New York, and she drove to Chicago because she was afraid
to fly with him. (D)
Parts of Speech (632)
Identify the part of speech of each italicized word in the following
paragraphs:
Il went back to the Devon School2 not long ago and3 found4 it looking oddly5
newer than when6 I was a student there7 fifteen years before. It seemed more8
sedate than9 I remembered it, more perpendicular10 and straitlaced, with11
narrower12 windows and shinier woodwork, as though13 a coat of14 varnish
had been put15 over16 everything for better preservation. But,17 of course,
fifteen years before18 there had been a war going on. Perhaps the school
wasn’t as well19 kept up in those days; perhaps2O varnish, along with2l
everything22 else, had gone to war.
I didn’t entirely23 like this glossy new surface,24 because25 it made the
school look like26 a museum, and that’s exactly what27 it was to me, and what
I did not want it to be. In the deep, tacit way in which feeling28 becomes
stronger than thought, I had always felt29 that30 the Devon School came into31
existence the day32 I entered it, was vibrantly real33 while34 I was a student
there, and then blinked out like a candle the35 day I left.
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Chapter Twenty Grammar Fundamentals
John Knowles, A Separate Peace
1. pronoun
4. verb
2. noun
5. adverb
3. conjunction
6. conjunction
7. adverb
10. adjective
13. conjunction
16. preposition
19. adverb
22. pronoun
25. conjunction
28. noun
31. preposition
34. conjunction
8. adverb
11. preposition
14. preposition
17. conjunction
20. adverb (conjunctive adverb)
23. adverb
26. preposition
29. verb
32. adverbial noun
35. article
9. conjunction
12. adjective
15. verb
18. adverb
21. preposition
24. noun
27. pronoun
30. pronoun
33. adjective
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Correcting Common Errors
Fragments, Comma Splices, Run-Together Sentences (635)
C means the sentence is correct; frag, means it is a fragment; CS means it is a
comma splice, and RT means it is a run-together sentence. Correct any
sentence that is incorrect.
1. People must eat. (C)
2. The countless women who need jobs. (frag)
3. Chicago being a city riddled with crime. (frag)
4. The rivers overflowed their banks the trees were swept away. (RT)
5. Houses were destroyed, and homes were burned. (C)
6. Pet lovers in our country as well as abroad. (frag)
7. In particular the mayor, who had supported a transit system when he
spoke to the legislature. (frag)
8. Irresistible also were the lovely orchards surrounding the swimming pool.
(C)
9. However, some crowds were vengeful. (C)
10. “I cannot marry you,” said the princess, “I am too ugly.” (CS)
11. Every one of us felt the loss. (C)
12.
The Vietnam War was senseless it gained us nothing. (RT)
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
13. Run as fast as you can you need the practice. (RT)
14. Recalling his visit to Paris, my uncle smiled. (C)
15. All of us visited the statue, few of us admired it. (CS)
16. Originally made in Taiwan but then transported to the United States.
(frag)
17. Soon giving up trying. (frag)
18. She was as delicate as a butterfly. (C)
19. I want to excel not only as a musician, but also as a human being. (C)
20. The car weighed a ton; they could not lift it. (C)
Subject-Verb Agreement (638)
Answers to exercise on changing each verb that does not agree with its
subject. C means the sentence is correct.
1.
Neither storms nor illness delay (delays) our newspapers.
2.
His five children and their education was (were) his main worry.
3.
There's much to be said for simplicity. (C)
4.
The importance of words are (is) being stressed in all newspapers.
5.
My chief concern this summer are (is) my expenses.
6.
Taste in books differs from student to student. (C)
7.
The Three Stooges are (is) a wonderful movie.
8.
Mathematics is one of my worst subjects. (C)
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
9.
Either you or I am mistaken. (C)
10.
My brothers as well as my sister is (are) coming to visit me.
187
Case (643)
Answers to exercise on underlining the correct form of the pronoun in the
following sentences:
1. I am more to be pitied than (he, him).
2. The saleslady (who, whom) they think stole the stockings lives next to us.
3. You must praise (whoever, whomever) does the best job.
4. During the Vietnam War some of (we, us) football players felt guilty.
5. Florence insists that I was later than (he, him).
6. Was it (she, her) who called you the other day?
7. The candidate made an excellent impression on us—my Dad and (I, me).
8. (Who, whom) do you think will set a better example?
9. We were relieved by (his, him) paying the bill.
10.Between you and (me, I), is she innocent or guilty?
11.The coach said that I swim better than (him, he).
12.(Him, his) daydreaming affected his work negatively.
13.Bud doesn't care (who, whom) he gives his cold to.
14.The pinecones were divided among the three of us—John, Bill, and (me,
I).
15.(Our, us) leaving the inner city was a blessing in disguise.
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
16.Do you remember (me, my) telling you?
17.Can you tell me the rank of the general (who, whom), it is said, struck
one of his soldiers?
18.(Whom, who) the Cubs will play next is unknown.
19.Marilyn Monroe, (who, whom) most women envied, was unhappy.
20.Give the papers to (he and I, him and me).
Point of View (647)
Possible answers to exercise on shifts in sentences. A shift in person is
indicated by (A), in tense by (B), in mood by (C), in discourse by (D), in
voice by (E), and in key word by (F).
1.
(A) Everyone must live according to his or her conscience.
2.
(D) She insisted loudly, “I am opposed to abortions.”
3.
(E) All of us enjoy a good meal, and we like fresh air, too.
4.
(B) She revealed that an unknown intruder was in the room.
5.
(A) So far we have not mentioned poverty. So let us discuss it now.
6.
(A) Truth is a principle everyone should cherish because one can be a
better person when one adheres to it.
7.
(C) Lock the door and turn out the lights.
8.
(E) The robber stole her jewelry and mugged her, too.
9.
(B) Slowly he crept toward me and grabbed for my wallet.
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10.
(D) A straightforward question to ask the salesman is, “Why should
people buy your razors?”
11.
(A) He helped me by pointing out where I could find an inexpensive
hotel.
12. (E) The doorman opened the door; then a porter picked up my baggage.
13. (B) In his memory he heard the melody of the song and knew that time
was passing quickly.
14. (B) She was a spoiled brat, it always seemed to me.
15. (F) The senator’s question was an intelligent one; the chairman’s answer
was also intelligent.
Pronoun Reference (650)
Possible answers to exercise on sentences with confusing, implied,
nonexistent, or vague pronoun references.
1. Many people have difficulty showing their emotions.
2. At the factory where I work at night, my fellow workers say not to ask for
salary advances.
3. My dad warned my brother, “You won't got a promotion.”
4. She sat knitting by the window, which was too small to let in any light.
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
5. The nuclear bomb was developed in the twentieth century; this weapon
completely changed man’s approach to war.
6. The fact that the leading baritone did not show up for opening night
caused all kinds of gossip.
7. New York accents are not understood in the South.
8. Life is a cycle of happiness followed by misery, but I want to have equal
portions of happiness and misery.
9. Although the river’s bank is muddy, the water looks inviting.
10. The first chapter awakens the readers’ interest in mining, and this interest
continues until the Camerons move to America.
11. The American colonists’ refusal to pay taxes without being represented
was the major cause of the 1776 revolution.
12. Our roof must be protected against the rain that may fall tomorrow.
13. Because the heat really bothered them, the guests were perspiring and
fanning themselves with the printed program.
14. The rose garden in Hoover Park is spectacular. Some of the roses are
deep purple, almost black.
15. Although, I went over my check stubs three times, my account never
balanced.
Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers (654)
The following are possible answers to the exercise on dangling or misplaced
modifiers.
1. Looking down in horror, I saw the snake crawl away.
2. The teachers organized collective bargaining to protect their rights.
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191
3. She did not realize until Friday that he had had major surgery.
4. For two weeks John had looked forward to getting married to Mary Ellen.
5. The Honda was promoted in response to consumer demands for better
gasoline mileage.
6. At a small stand we bought ice cream cones that cost forty cents.
7. She decided to telephone her friend immediately.
8. Arriving at the pack station, we noticed our dried food had been stolen.
9. I held my breath as the car that had raced ahead suddenly slid into the
curb.
10. While I dreamed about the future, lightning flashed and the rain began to
pour.
11. My mother reluctantly consented to let me use her car.
12. Continue to whip the cream until you are tired.
13. One must read the classics in order to understand The Lord of the Rings.
14. I could tell he was an excellent dentist by the way he drilled my teeth.
15. He was not willing to give up drinking completely.
16. Looking at the mountain range from the valley, we could see a lovely
rainbow.
17. My uncle warned me never to leave a loaded gun in my car.
18. If you want a Democrat in the White House, now is the time to vote for
our governor.
19. At the party hors d’oeuvres on silver trays were served to all the guests.
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
Parallelism (658)
Possible answers to exercise on parallelism.
1. Bright sunbeams on the water, dark shadows across the cliffs, and
delicate flowers in the desert created a memorable picture.
2. I prefer small dinners to big banquets.
3. What we claim to believe rarely coincides with what we do.
4. The anthropologist traveled into heated jungles, along insect-infested
rivers, and up steep mountain trails.
5. I tried to explain that time was short, that the firm wanted an answer, and
that efficiency was important.
6. Most women’s fashions come from Paris, Rome, and New York.
7. As we watched through the bars of the cage, we could see the monkeys
eating bananas, scratching their fur, and swinging on rails.
8. Most teachers try not only to engage the students’ attention but also to say
something important.
9. Victor Hugo was a statesman who also wrote novels, including Les
Miserables.
10. Bigger Social Security checks would allow senior citizens to pay for
decent living quarters, to get proper medical help, and to afford sound
nutrition.
11. Basketball, football, and baseball are favorite American spectator sports.
12. I admire the songs of Paul McCartney, formerly a member of the Beatles
but now on his own.
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13. Their divorce was due to his stressful job, his hot temper, and his dislike
of her friends.
14. You have two choices: to take the exam or to write a research paper.
Word Choice (668)
The correct term in each of the following sentences is underlined:
1. When they arrived at West Point, they received some practical (advise,
advice) regarding the honor system.
2. During his lecture the professor made an (allusion, illusion) to Abraham
Lincoln.
3. The prime minister's illness was so (aggravated irritated) by his drinking
that he needed surgery.
4. My aunt does a (credible, creditable) job of sewing evening gowns.
5. In the past, interviewers were (disinterested, uninterested) when they
interviewed candidates; now they are biased.
6. I was (enthusiastic, enthused) when they told me about the new director.
7. When we heard about the theft, we immediately (suspicioned, suspected)
collusion within the company.
8. They received the news that he would return (within, inside of) a week.
9. Pete Sampras’ (latest, last) match gave the world of tennis something to
rave about.
10. Be careful not to (loose, lose) the keys.
11. We drank the spring water (as if, like) we would never drink water again.
12. That information seriously (affects, effects) the decision.
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
13. The agreement was (oral, verbal), so it will not hold up in court.
14. The reason grades are necessary (is that, is because) they are a point of
reference for students.
15. If I had known you were coming I (would of, would have) baked a cake.
16. Most people improve (somewhat some) the moment they take one
spoonful of Kay's cough syrup.
17. For Christmas I sent mother some blue (stationary, stationery) so she
could write to her friends.
18. Never use a large (number, amount) of words when (less, fewer) will do.
19. We still had a long (way, ways) to trudge uphill, but none of the students
complained.
20. Will the person (who’s, whose) wallet this is please claim it at the front
ticket booth?
21. Before the tall buildings were built, we (used to could, used to be able to)
see the ocean.
22. That scandal in her (passed, past) may keep her from getting the
promotion.
23. Many Americans want to return to old-fashioned (principals, principles).
24. (Regardless, irregardless) of the consequences, the ambassador stood by
his post.
25. The glint in her eye (implied, inferred) more clearly than words how she
really felt.
Concrete Words (671)
Some possible answers to exercise on replacing vague words with more
concrete words or phrases are given below.
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195
1. John leaped on his horse and quickly galloped away.
2.
Eloise always wears such sloppy blue jeans and blouses.
3.
The streets of Amsterdam are crowded with cars and bicycles.
4.
The lecturer was tediously dull.
5.
She gobbled her food voraciously.
6.
It was fascinating to watch the children laughing and frolicking on the
playground.
7.
I was upset by this whole scandal.
8.
What an ingenious idea!
9.
We expect to have a relaxing time in Palm Springs.
10. Eskimos have many peculiar customs.
11. I couldn’t follow the complicated ritual in his church.
12. My psychology class was one of the most enlightening experiences of
my college days.
13. Spanking is an important practice of child rearing.
14. The problems of driving large cars outweigh the pleasures.
15. All the President’s Men is a suspenseful movie.
16. Here are the arbitrary and unfair considerations that bother me about
assigning grades.
Wordiness (675)
Answers to exercise on eliminating redundancies or wasted words.
1.
The secretary behind the big mahogany desk seemed efficient.
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
2.
Most people find tenderness difficult to express.
3.
The winner was reticent to accept the trophy.
4.
Her fur coat cost $2,000.
5.
Ancestor worship is a venerable tradition among the Chinese.
6.
My study of history indicates that the Danes were a militant people.
7.
Paying decent wages is usually the right thing to do.
8.
The employed shouldn't be allowed to collect food stamps.
9.
If he wants to be president, he had better bring about some innovations
in Congress.
10. Generally speaking, improper diet causes gallstones.
11. Present clothing styles reflect a taste for the bizarre.
12. At 10:00 P.M. a strange knock was heard.
13. The consensus of our class was to invite Dr. Boling as our keynote
speaker.
14. The story dealt with a murder and had a tragic ending.
15. As a rule, one should lock one’s car while shopping.
16. Three women decided to volunteer for the job.
17. Neil Simon writes comedies that really make you laugh.
18. If we don’t cooperate with the Russians, a nuclear war could annihilate
the world.
19. Palestinians and Israelis are very different.
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20. Today it is difficult to find a musician who touches people’s hearts the
way Charles Witt does.
Choosing the Right Subordinator (681)
1.
The doctor was taking the patient’s temperature when suddenly a rock
came crashing through the window.
2.
In mid-July he was inspecting the dig when he was alerted by someone
who was moving along the northern edge of the plateau.
3.
It was a bright day in May when the drums exploded as two priests from
the temple appeared.
4.
The crowd groaned with disappointment since they had hoped to see a
glamorous young girl.
5.
While others planned the forthcoming battle, he remained alone in the
shaded grove, meditating and praying to his god, from whom he needed
guidance.
6.
Members of the city council can ill afford to vote themselves additional
fringe benefits inasmuch as their constituents mistrust them.
7.
Alif was entirely wrong when he guessed that she was in love with
Abdul since in fact she was merely bedazzled by his brilliant lyrics,
which reminded her of starry nights in Egypt.
8.
The fraternity members all carried banners as they marched back and
forth tirelessly, their signs calling for an end to building nuclear reactors.
9.
It occurred to Madeline that perhaps she could improve the situation if
she could create an atmosphere of goodwill.
10. Give out those sample tubes of toothpaste to whoever asks for one.
11. Phil Brown regularly attends church, where he loves to hear the old
hymns and a rousing sermon, which make him feel purged and give him
a new lease on life.
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12. Although the specific notes had faded from his memory, a certain
melody remained, which haunted him for the rest of his life.
13. Such facts cannot be ignored, assuming that we want to preserve the
wilderness.
14. Those of us who are prisoners must face the grim truth, which is that
even our wives and lovers will leave us even though we have shared the
most tender and intimate moments with them.
15. The scientific establishment now believes that the earth was formed
10-15 billion years ago, after an explosion, or “big bang,” which set the
universe in motion.
Punctuation (692)
Answers to exercises on inserting commas. C means that the sentence is
correct.
1.
Professor Grover, as all of his students agree, is one of the most exciting
history teachers on campus.
2.
Madam, I beg to differ with you; that is my purse.
3.
We were asked to check with Mr. Weaver, our head custodian. (C)
4.
Because the water was murky, cold, and swift, we did not go swimming.
5.
In denouncing the hypocritical, Truman encouraged honest dealings.
6.
Let’s not give up until everyone agrees with us. (C)
7.
Since they belong to the neighborhood, they should pay for part of the
damage.
8.
Address your letter to Mrs. Margerie Freedman, 320 N. Lincoln Blvd.,
Reading, Massachusetts.
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9.
199
So many memories are connected with the home of my grandparents, a
big red brick mansion surrounded by a white picket fence.
10. Twice the doctor asked, “Have you ever had laryngitis before?”
11. Relaxed and happy, Jim ignored the people who were angered by his
decision.
12. July 4, 1776, is an important date for patriotic Americans.
13. Glistening like a diamond in the sun, the lake beckoned us.
14. Readers of the Times, however, were not all equally impressed with the
editorial on abortions.
15. All together, some ten thousand people filled out the questionnaire.
16. “My most exquisite lady,” he said gallantly, “you deserve the Taj
Mahal.”
17. From the mountains, from the prairies, and from numerous villages
came the good news. (C)
18. One of her sisters lives in Chicago; the other, in New York. (C)
19. Pat Moynihan, who was once the U.S.
Nations, is a popular lecturer.
ambassador to the United
20. Well, Mary, are you satisfied with the effect of your crass remark?
21. The laboratory technician has finished the gold tooth, hasn't he?
22. Anyone who feels this is a bad law should write to his congressman. (C)
23. Outside, a spectacular rainbow arched across the deep blue sky.
24. We walk down this street unafraid, not even thinking of danger. (C)
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25. Now his grandparents live in a condominium in Florida, where they
have no yard.
Answers to punctuation exercise (694)
1.
Shakespeare wrote many plays, including the famous Hamlet.
2.
“Listen,” he said, “if you want, we can to go to a movie—any movie.”
3.
The word renaissance has several pronunciations.
4.
We can have the party at John’s cabin or the Fieldings’ apartment.
5.
Its overtaxed heart failing, the race horse collapsed before everyone’s
eyes.
6.
The most tragic poem I can imagine is Keats’ “Ode to Melancholy.”
7.
Get off my lawn, you swine!
8.
The big bands of the ’40s still sell millions of records.
9.
Last year’s flowers have wilted; they have withered and died.
10. As far as the committee is concerned, you have lost the grant;
nevertheless, you are to take the exam one more time.
11. Just as the situation appeared hopeless, a surprising thing happened: a
number of leading American artists became interested in making
lithographic prints.
12. Then, in the summer of 1976 the counterrevolutionary army took over.
13. Do you know the difference between the verbs compose and comprise?
14. Wonderful! Here comes the beer! Cheers!
15. He entitled his paper “June Wayne: Profile of a California Artist.”
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201
16. He lived a stone’s throw from Twin Lakes.
17. This is what Bertrand Russell says: “Science from the dawn of history
and probably longer has been intimately associated with war.”
18. Bertrand Russell has said: “Science...has been intimately associated
with war.” (Refer to item 17.)
19. He received his Ph.D. at 9:00 A.M. on Sunday, June 6.
20. My friend asked me, “Did you read Bill Shirley’s article ‘World’s First
Bionic Swim Team,’ published in the Sports Section of the Los
Angeles Times?”
21. The rule is that you must sign up two days in advance. (See Section
25, paragraph 2.)
22. Dear Sir: This is in answer to your letter of May 13.
23. A slight tinge of embarrassment—or was it pleasure?—crept across his
face.
24. The first day we studied; later in the week, however, we relaxed.
25. The babies’ carriages were broken.
Capitalization (698)
Answers to the exercise on capitalization. C means the sentence is correct.
1.
Our memorial day picnic was canceled due to rain.
2.
The headline read: “U.S.
Ammunition.”
3.
Any mayor of a city as large as Chicago should be on good terms with
the President of the United States. (C)
agent Fired in Investigation of Missing
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Chapter Twenty-One Common Errors
4.
The democrats will doubtless hold their convention at the cow palace in
san francisco.
5.
The tennis courts at Nibley park are always busy.
6.
If you have to take a psychology course, take psychology 101 from Dr.
Pearson, a graduate of harvard.
7.
There is something elegant about the name “Tyrone Kelley, III, esq.”
8.
Until easter of 1949, they lived in a big white georgian home.
9.
During the second world war, switzerland remained neutral.
10. I intend to exchange my capri for a toyota.
11. Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, used dialogue as a teaching
method.
12. Some Socialists have joined the Republican Party. (C)
13. She said, “the ticket entitles you to spend a night at the Holiday inn in
Las Vegas.”
14. The bible was not fully canonized until the council of trent.
Exercise (699)
Some possible answers are given below:
1. street
Jane lives on a narrow street.
2. Street
Mail it to 22 Plymouth Street.
3. Democratic
The Democratic National Committee will meet.
4. democratic
We live in a democratic country.
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203
5. academy
He went to school in a private academy.
6. Academy
The Academy of Renaissance Arts donated the statue.
7. biology
I hate biology.
8. Biology
Biology 101 is a difficult course.
9. memorial
The tree is a living memorial to his worth.
10. Memorial
They never celebrate Memorial Day.
11. father
Shakespeare’s father tanned gloves.
12. Father
Father and Mother agree with me.
13. senior
My brother is the senior member.
14. Senior
Will you go to the Senior Election Council?
15. against
Don’t fight against the owners.
16. Against
The book was entitled One Against All.
17. company
Mr. McDuff owns the company.
18. Company
McDuff and Company, Inc. is a large firm.
Spelling (702)
Exercise 3
a. existance, describe, personal
existence
b. paid, particular, oportunity
opportunity
c. benificial, apparent, experience
beneficial
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d. controversy, concious, occurred
conscious
e. preformance, similar, succeed
performance
f. probably, marriage, predjudice,
prejudice
g. profession, persue, separate
pursue
h. catagory, paid, disastrous
category
i. effect, disasterous, mere
disastrous
j. preceed, proceed, procedure
precede
k. embarrass, exaggerate, envirement
environment
l. prevailent, probably, existent
prevalent
m. coming, heighth, professor
height
n. define, fascinate, posession
possession
o. repetition, quiet, receive
receive by the
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