2013 Intro 2nd Semester Test
Read the following story and answer the questions:
Fish jumps into boat, breaks woman's leg
Fifth time in a month that a sturgeon has landed in boat on Florida river
msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated 5/31/2011 4:02:39 PM ET
FANNING SPRINGS, Florida — Just three days after the state issued a warning to
boaters to beware of jumping sturgeon, one of the fish did just that — breaking a
woman's leg.
Witnesses say the sturgeon was about 5- to 6-feet long and weighed about 60- to 75pounds.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers say Tina Fletcher, 25, was a
passenger in an airboat Sunday on the Suwannee River when the sturgeon jumped and
hit her leg.
According to wildlife officials, this is the fifth report this year of a person injured by a
jumping sturgeon. The first happened on April 27.
In a warning to Memorial Day weekend boaters, the commission on Friday said the river
has a large population of sturgeon: up to 14,000.
"We recommend boaters reduce their speed to reduce the risk of impact and to give
people more time to react if they do encounter a jumping sturgeon," commission officer
Lee Beach said.
Why sturgeons jump isn't certain, but the commission noted theories include as a way to
communicate or to show dominance.
"I have seen these encounters referred to as 'attacks,'" Allen Martin, a commission
biologist, said in the statement. "However, these fish are in no way attacking when they
jump. They are simply doing what they have been doing for millions of years: jumping.
They aren't targeting the boaters."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
1. ____ Which fact is more important?
A. The name of the person who was attacked
B. Where she was attacked
2. ____ Which fact is more important?
A. Why the fish jump in the boats
B. The size of the fish
3. ____ Which section of the paper would this story most likely be found?
A. Front page
B. Obit page
C. Editorial
D. Regional/Local
4. _____ Why is it important to include the size of the sturgeon?
A. So people know it wasn’t a tiny minnow that injured her leg
B. So people know to be on the lookout for that size of fish
C. It’s an interesting fact
D. The reporter had to fill up space
5. _____ Another headline for the story could be:
A. Killer Fish On The Loose
B. Fish Tired of Being Dinner
C. Woman’s Encounter with Fish Sends Her To Hospital
D. Sturgeon Hoping for a Ride Jumps into Boat and Breaks Woman’s Leg
6. ____ Which would be the best second day story to follow up on?
A. What are Sturgeon
B. How to safely fish
C. The injured woman’s point of view
D. An in-depth feature on the wildlife commission
7. ____ How do you know this story made national headlines?
A. It’s from Florida
B. It’s unusual
C. The by-line is from msnbc – a national website
D. The woman who was injured is famous
8. ____ When writing a news story you should:
a. Keep sentences long
b. Make sentences complex to expound on ideas
c. Keep sentences short
d. Keep writing until you think your point is made
9. ____ Keep ideas in your writing simple because:
The readers aren’t all that smart
a. Less chance of confusion
b. You’ll get done faster
c. You can write more stories that way
10. ____Why is it important to use familiar words?
a. makes the reader comfortable
b. the reader will be able to understand you
c. if you’re too technical the article won’t make sense
d. you will sound fake if you use words you don’t know
11. ____ Imagery is important in news writing EXCEPT when:
a. it’s better than a picture
b. they can’t be there in person
c. they need to be able to see what happened in their mind
d. it leads to better understanding and clearer writing
12. ____Why could having the best sentence ever be an utter failure?
a. Your editor cuts it
b. The reader has no clue what you said
c. It has grammatical errors
d. It’s better than the entire story
13. ____Which is the best example of good imagery in news writing:
a. The dog sat next to the car.
b. The brown dog lounged near the running car.
c. The car almost hit the brown dog.
d. The massive car revved its engine which caused the whining dog to jump in the air.
14. ____Which is NOT a reason weather stories are important?
a. To figure out when to leave for the beach
b. What to wear that day
c. Which roads are closed
d. Whether the local baseball game has been cancelled
15. ____Which of the following groupings is usually an international weather story?
a. Volcanoes, tsunami, earthquake
b. Wildfires, tsunami, snowfall
c. Volcanoes, river flood, tornado
d. Earth quake, tsunami, nuclear reactor meltdown
16. ____What conditions make a blizzard?
a. Lots of snow and wind
b. Zero visibility and wind
c. 35 mph winds, zero visibility, snow
d. Snow, ice, and rain
17. ____What type of weather story would accompany the following lead: “The community
spend the night sandbagging around the local hospital in an effort to preserve their last
spot of dry land.”
a. Flood
b. Blizzard
c. Heat wave
d. Tornado
18. ____What type of weather story would accompany the following lead: “The egg plopped
to the pavement with a splatter, and within moments began to sizzle.”
a. Regular weather forecast
b. Heatwave
c. Record setting cold temps
d. Human interest
19. ____ What type of weather story would accompany the following lead: “The debris field
scattered across ten miles; cars were in trees and houses were rolled on their sides.”
a. Blizzard
b. Wildfire
c. Volcano
d. Tornado
20. ____Which of the following quotation usage is correct?
a. “Gee, I really like that stone, Bob said.
b. “Gee, I really like that stone,” Bob said.
21. ____Which of the following quotation usage is correct?
a. The main competition for the band “Joes’ BBQ” is from CatKnot
b. The main competition for the band “Joes’ BBQ is from “CatKnot”.
22. ____Which of the following quotation usage is correct?
a. “I don’t think,” Mary said, “we can haul that trash.”
b. “I don’t think” Mary said “we can haul that trash.”
23. ____Which of the following quotation usage is correct?
a. “I think the new painting is very pretty.” Said Bob.
b. “I think the new painting is very pretty,” said Bob.
24. ____Which of the following is a better quote to use for a lead:
a. “I think I like the new truck stop,” resident Dave Barry said.
b. “That truck stop is a sight for sore eyes,” said Bob Barker, resident.
c. “Every time I hear those blasted trucks I imagine I’m being choked to death on diesel
fumes,” complained resident Betty White.
d. “That new truck stop poses dangers to the environment,” said health activist Woody
Harrelson.
Read the following story and answer the questions.
Blackbeard's anchor recovered off N.C. coast
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) — Archaeologists recovered the first anchor from what's
believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship off the North Carolina coast
Friday, a move that might change plans about how to save the rest of the almost 300year-old artifacts from the central part of the ship.
Divers had planned to recover the second-largest artifact on what's believed to be the
Queen Anne's Revenge but discovered it was too well-attached to other items in the
ballast pile, said project Mark Wilde-Ramsing. Instead they pulled up another anchor
that is the third-largest artifact and likely was the typical anchor for the ship.
Apparently, pirates had everyday anchors and special anchors just as the rest of us
have everyday dishes and good china.
"That's a big ship to be putting that out to stop it," Wilde-Ramsing said admiringly as a
pulley system of straps and men holding ropes moved the anchor from a boat to the
back of truck. It's the first large anchor that divers have retrieved; they earlier brought up
a small, grapnel anchor.
The anchor is 11 feet, 4 inches long with arms that are 7 feet, 7 inches across. It was
covered with concretion — a mixture of shells, sand and other debris attracted by the
leaching wrought iron — and a few sea squirts. Its weight was estimated at 2,500 to
3,000 pounds.
The anchor's size is typical for a ship the size of the Queen Anne's Revenge, while the
two other anchors probably were used in emergencies, such as storms, Wilde-Ramsing
said.
Archaeologists had planned to remove the second-largest anchor, which is 13 feet long
with arms that are 8 feet across, from the top of the ballast pile. But it was too wellattached, so instead the divers went in from the side to retrieve the everyday anchor.
That means that future dives may involve going in from the side of the shipwreck rather
than the top, he said.
Divers will work four days next week, when they'll decide how to proceed.
State officials hope the anchor and other artifacts will attract tourists. The largest exhibit
of artifacts from the shipwreck, which was discovered in 1996, will be shown starting
June 11 at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Wilde-Ramsing has said the team
hopes to recover all the artifacts by the end of 2013.
And the timing of the recovery of the anchor couldn't be better for North Carolina
officials, trying to increase tourism interest in the shipwreck. The Disney film "Pirates of
the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" starring Johnny Depp was released earlier this
month and features both Blackbeard and the Queen Anne's Revenge.
The only remaining parts of the ship — the wooden hull structure, ribs and a plank —
are at the bottom of the pile, protected by ballast that kept the ship upright. Six cannon
and three other anchors are also in the pile.
Wendy Welsh, field conservator and QAR lab manager, and archaeologist Chris
Southerly dived in the Atlantic to hook up the anchor for its lift to the ocean surface. "It
lifted great," said Welsh, who has worked with the project for nine years. "I didn't think
I'd see this day so soon."
Southerly compared the retrieval to the child's game of Pick-Up-Sticks, where players
toss plastic sticks on a hard surface and then remove them one at a time without
disturbing the ones underneath. "It's really satisfying that I've had privilege of seeing it,"
he said.
In 1717, Blackbeard captured a French slave ship and renamed it Queen Anne's
Revenge. Blackbeard, whose real name was widely believed to be Edward Teach or
Thatch, settled in Bath and received a governor's pardon. Volunteers with the Royal
Navy killed him in Ocracoke Inlet in November 1718, five months after the ship thought
to be Queen Anne's Revenge sank.
The Queen Anne's Revenge shipwreck site, which is listed on the National Register of
Historic Sites, has already yielded more than 250,000 artifacts.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.
25. ____ Which news gathering organization wrote the story?
a. Rueters
b. UPI
c. The local paper
d. AP
26. ____ In which city is the story taking place?
a. North Carolina
b. Athens
c. Morehead City
d. Charlotte
27. ____ What type of news story is this?
a. Hard news
b. Feature news
c. sports
d. Human interest
28. ____ Why would people read this story?
a. It’s short
b. Tied to a legend
c. Local
d. Gives them vital information
29. ____ The third paragraph offers which trait of a good writer:
a. Knowing word size
b. Writing for your audience
c. Good visual imagery
d. Making the fact relative for the reader
30. ____ If you were writing an obit for Blackbeard – which bit of information does the
article provide that would be critical?
a. His birth date
b. When/how he died
c. The name of his ship
d. Where he lived
31. _____ Movie reviews include all the following except:
a. Running time of the movie
b. Rating
c. Director’s name
d. Name of the main actor’s mother
32. _____ You should always include what in the lead or nut graph of a sports story?
a. Who won the game
b. Who the coaches are of both teams
c. Who owns the teams
d. Stats from the best player on the team
The following leads would fit with which type of stories?
33. _____ The Bass Masters Championships saw numerous fishermen hauling in 15 pound
plus fish.
a. Sports
b. Hard news
c. Weather
d. Obits
34. _____ Bob Jones, locally known to people as “The Best Mayor Ever” succumbed to
cancer on Sunday; he was 55.
a. Sports
b. Hard news
c. Entertainment
d. Obits
35. _____ BOSTON — Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in
a cemetery in Virginia with the help of a faith coalition, his uncle said Friday.
a. Sports
b. Hard news
c. Weather
d. Reviews
36. ____ What is an editorial?
a. A hard news story with some opinions
b. A story written by a member of the editorial staff and has opinions
c. A type of obit
d. A news story that covers more than the initial story
37. ____ In the masthead you would NOT find:
a. Movie reviews
b. Name of publisher
c. Phone number of paper
d. How often it’s published
38. ____ An explanatory editorial:
a. Tries to change the reader’s mind about something
b. Offers up solutions how to fix the problem
c. Contains humor
d. Tries to offer more insight into a subject
39. ____ A column is
a. Written by a member of the news staff and may contain opinions
b. Always about sports
c. Written by a member of the public