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NEW JERSEY ASSESSMENT
PROGRAM PRACTICE
EMCParadigm Publishing Saint Paul, Minnesota
Gr11 NJ-HSPA
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Staff Credits
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Design
Laurie Skiba
Managing Editor
Shelley Clubb
Production Manager
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Editor
Lisa Beller
Electronic Design and Production Specialist
Nichola Torbett
Associate Editor
Chris Lee
Associate Editor
Jennifer J. Anderson
Associate Editor
Valerie Murphy
Editorial Assistant
Sara Hyry
Educational Writer
Cover Credits
Cover Designer: C. Vern Johnson
Watson and the Shark [Detail], 1778. John Singleton Copley. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Something on the Eight Ball [Detail], 1953. Stuart Davis. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery through Reconstruction [Detail], 1934. Aaron Douglas. Schomberg
Center for Research in Black Culture, New York.
ISBN 0-8219-2996-8
© 2003 EMC Corporation
All rights reserved. The assessment materials in this publication may be photocopied for classroom use only. No part of this publication may be adapted, reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without permission from the publisher.
Published by EMC/Paradigm Publishing
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800-328-1452
www.emcp.com
E-mail: educate@emcp.com
Printed in the United States of America.
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Test-Taking Skills Practice Worksheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Preparing for Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Answering Multiple-Choice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Answering Reading Comprehension Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Making Inferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Finding the Central Idea or Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Using Context Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Answering Open-Ended Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Writing to Persuade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Writing to Speculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Revise/Edit Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Grade 11 New Jersey HSPA Practice Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Unit 1 Test
Reading Narrative Texts (“The Last Leaf”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Writing to Speculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Unit 2 Test
Reading Persuasive Texts (from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Revise/Edit Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
Unit 3 Test
Reading Persuasive Texts (from Crisis, No. 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Revise/Edit Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
Unit 4 Test
Reading Narrative Texts (“The Cask of Amontillado”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
Writing to Persuade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Unit 5 Test
Reading Narrative Texts (“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Writing to Speculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
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Unit 6 Test
Reading Narrative Texts (“The Story of an Hour”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
Revise/Edit Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Unit 7 Test
Reading Narrative Texts (“Sophistication”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Writing to Speculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114
Unit 8 Test
Reading Persuasive Texts (“English Department Needs African-American Literature Course”) . . . . . . . . .120
Writing to Persuade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Unit 9 Test
Reading Persuasive Texts (“Seabiscuit: A Good Bet”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131
Revise/Edit Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
Unit 10 Test
Reading Persuasive Texts (“Inappropriate Internet Use: Schools Should Censor”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139
Writing to Speculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Unit 11 Test
Reading Persuasive Texts (“The Greening of America?” ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
Writing to Persuade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
Unit 12 Test
Reading Narrative Texts (“Ambush”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158
Writing to Persuade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
Scoring Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168
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Introduction
The EMC Masterpiece Series, Literature and the Language Arts textbook program has been designed to
address the competencies assessed by the New Jersey Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA) and
High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) tests. Competencies are developed throughout the program,
giving students the opportunity to internalize them through multiple practice opportunities. The TestTaking Skills Worksheets and New Jersey GEPA or HSPA Practice Tests in this book are only a small
part of this practice.
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
Carefully constructed practice opportunities for reading and writing are integrated throughout the
Literature and the Language Arts textbook program. Development of these skills is outlined in the Lesson
Plans book, located in the Literacy Resource binder. There you will find a comprehensive list of
integrated reading, writing, visual literacy, and other language arts activities.
The Reading Strategies Resource, also located in the Literacy Resource binder, is specifically designed
to help New Jersey students internalize the reading strategies they need, not only to succeed on the
GEPA, the HSPA, and other standardized tests, but to become proficient, lifelong readers. The Reading
Strategies Resource covers eight reading strategies that help students monitor their comprehension as
they read the selections in the textbook and answer reading comprehension questions after reading.
Each Reading Strategy Mini-Lesson helps students work through a textbook selection by focusing on
one specific reading strategy that they learn to use before, during, and after reading. A fix-up strategy is
provided for students who need extra help. Work with the reading strategy culminates with a Test
Practice page in which students are asked to demonstrate their successful use of the reading strategy by
answering sample multiple- choice and open-ended questions. Questions focus on:
• Making inferences
• Drawing conclusions
• Interpreting visual material
• Finding the central idea
• Analyzing a text’s organizational features
• Understanding sequence
• Evaluating the author’s purpose
• Understanding point of view
• Classifying and reorganizing information
• Distinguishing fact from opinion
• Comparing and contrasting
• Determining cause and effect
• Understanding literary devices
The Teaching Notes for each Reading Strategy Mini-Lesson include sample think-aloud discussions that
model effective ways to approach each standardized test question.
Writing practice can be found in the Guided Writing lessons at the end of each unit, in the Writer’s
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Journal prompts following each selection, and on the Selection Tests and Unit Tests. Writing tasks
stress the importance of prewriting prior to drafting, even in timed writing situations. Self- and peer
evaluation checklists for every Guided Writing lesson help students develop revising and editing skills.
NEW JERSEY ASSESSMENT PRACTICE BOOKS
In addition to the assessment practice integrated throughout the core components of Literature and the
Language Arts, test practice can be found in New Jersey GEPA and HSPA Practice books, available for
grades six through eleven in print and downloadable online (www.emcp.com) formats.
TEST-TAKING SKILLS WORKSHEETS. This book contains a set of test-taking skills worksheets that help students
use the strategies and skills they develop as they work through the Literature and the Language Arts
program to succeed on standardized tests. These worksheets cover such topics as making inferences,
using context clues, and finding the central idea; they also give students tips on answering multiplechoice and open-ended questions and guide them in responding to the various types of writing prompts
found on the GEPA and HSPA. Each worksheet contains instruction followed by practice opportunities.
SAMPLE NEW JERSEY GEPA AND HSPA TESTS. You will also find in this book twelve practice units integrated
with the twelve literature units in the textbook. Each practice unit contains a narrative or persuasive
reading passage related to the textbook unit, followed by multiple-choice and open-ended questions.
Following the reading passage for each unit is a prompt for one of the three types of writing tasks:
writing to persuade, writing to speculate, and revise/edit writing.
NEW JERSEY GEPA AND HSPA PRACTICE SCORING GUIDES. Based on actual New Jersey scoring procedures,
the Scoring Guide at the back of this book includes answers to all multiple-choice questions, sample topscore-point responses for all open-ended items, and rubrics for scoring open-ended questions and
writing tasks.
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Test–Taking Skills Practice Worksheets
PREPARING
FOR
TESTS
Standardized tests like the New Jersey HSPA and others are a common part of school life. These guidelines
will help you prepare for and take a variety of tests.
TEST-TAKING TIPS
Preparing for a Test
Taking a Test
• Pay attention in class. Exercises and activities
throughout the year practice skills that will
benefit you on standardized tests.
• Know what to expect. Your teacher can
provide you with information about the tests
you will be taking.
• Get plenty of sleep the night before the test
and eat a healthy breakfast in the morning.
• Arrive on time. Running late can raise your
stress level and hurt your performance.
• Read directions and questions carefully.
• Consider every choice. Don’t be fooled by
distractors, or answers that are almost correct.
• Spend test time wisely. Within each section,
answer the easiest questions first and come
back to the more difficult questions later.
• Make sure to record your answer on the correct
line of the answer sheet. As you mark each
answer, ask yourself “Am I on the right question
number in the right section of the test?” and “Is
this the answer I mean to mark?”
• Use any extra time to check your work.
EXERCISE
Test-Taking Strategies
Write a brief response to each set of suggestions above. Do you use these strategies now? Which would
help you most on your next test?
1. Preparing for a test
2. Taking a test
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ANSWERING MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
On many standardized tests, including reading portions of the New Jersey High School Proficiency
Assessment (HSPA) test, questions are multiple-choice and have a single correct answer. The guidelines
below will help you answer these kinds of questions effectively.
TIPS FOR ANSWERING MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
Read each question carefully. Pay special attention to any words that
are bolded, italicized, written in all capital letters, or otherwise
emphasized.
Read all choices before deciding on the answer.
Eliminate any answers that do not make sense, that disagree with
what you remember from the passage, or that seem too extreme.
Also, if two answers have the same meaning, you can eliminate both.
Beware of distractors. These are incorrect answers that look attractive
because they are partially correct, they contain a common
misconception, or they apply the right information in the wrong way.
Distractors are based on common mistakes students make.
Rule out incorrect answers; then choose the answer that is most
accurate or complete. Pay special attention to choices such as none of
the above or all of the above.
If a question seems too difficult, skip it and come back to it later.
Keep in mind, though, that most tests allow you to go back only to
questions within a section.
To make sure your answers are scanned accurately, be sure to fill in all
circles solidly.
EXERCISE
Answering Multiple-Choice Questions
Read the Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by William Faulkner on pages 586–587 of your textbook. Then
select the best answer to each of the following questions.
1. What is the purpose of Faulkner’s speech?
A. to explain how he became a writer worthy of the Nobel prize
B. to inspire young writers
C. to persuade listeners to buy his books
D. to inform listeners of the dangers of living in modern times
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2. To what audience does Faulkner speak in this speech?
A. the Nobel committee
B. writers of his own generation
C. young writers
D. politicians who control the world’s future
3. What, according to Faulkner, is the greatest obstacle to writing?
A. fear
B. compassion
C. pity
D. lust
4. What, according to Faulkner, is the writer’s duty?
A. to record human history
B. to preserve the human spirit
C. to ignore the danger in the world
D. to capture victories without hope
5. The word acclaim in the first paragraph means
A. recognition
B. payment
C. review
D. written endorsement
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ANSWERING READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
Reading comprehension questions ask you to read a short piece of writing and answer several
questions about it. To answer reading comprehension questions, follow these steps:
1. Read through all the questions quickly.
2. Read the passage with the questions in mind.
3. Reread the first question carefully.
4. If you know the answer, mark it and move on to the next question. If you don’t, go to Step 4.
5. Scan the passage to look for key words related to the question. When you find a key word, slow
down and read carefully.
6. Answer the question.
7. Repeat steps 4–6 to answer the rest of the questions.
EXERCISE
Answering Reading Comprehension Questions
Read “On the Mall” by Joan Didion on pages 916–920 of your textbook. Then select the best answer to
the questions that follow.
1. According to Didion, which of the following had the GREATEST influence on the
development of shopping malls?
A. World War II
B. automobiles
C. shopping center theory
D. freedom
2. Didion compares shopping centers to “pyramids to the boom years.” This comparison
suggests that
A. many shopping centers are shaped like Egyptian monuments
B. the boom years deserve monuments
C. shopping centers are the land of the living dead
D. the boom years are over
3. James B. Douglas and David D. Bohannon could BEST be described as
A. loan officers
B. early frontiersmen
C. shopping-center theorists
D. avid shoppers
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4. The tone of this essay could BEST be described as
A. informative but critical
B. serious and sincere
C. familiar and playful
D. formal and persuasive
5. Joan Didion suggests that shopping centers reflect the culture of post-World-War-II America.
• What does the author mean by this statement?
• What examples does she provide to support this idea?
Use information from the essay to support your ideas.
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6. Think about a shopping center you have visited.
• Analyze the layout of this shopping center according to Didion’s article.
• Include at least three references to criteria used in the article.
Use information from the article to support your response.
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MAKING INFERENCES
Sometimes the answers to reading comprehension questions can be found in the text you have read.
Other times, however, you will need to make an inference in order to answer the question. Making an
inference means putting together the clues given in the text with your own prior knowledge to make
an educated guess. For example, read the following passage:
Laurel was glad to see that she’d gotten to work a little early and that the regulars hadn’t
yet gathered outside to wait for her to open. She didn’t like to be watched as she put on
her apron, scrubbed her hands, ground the first espresso of the day, and unpacked the
muffins and scones waiting in the box outside the employee entrance. She’d learned a long
time ago that you had to be on time opening the door. Never come between a regular and
his coffee!
What does Laurel do for a living? The passage itself does not say, but it does give you clues: the regulars,
the apron, the espresso, and the pastries. By putting these clues together with your prior knowledge,
you can be pretty certain that Laurel works at a coffee shop.
As you make inferences, remember that each inference needs to fit with all of the clues in the passage
and with your prior knowledge. In multiple-choice questions, you can eliminate answers that contradict
the text and those for which there is no evidence. Then, from the remaining answers, choose the one
that seems most logical.
EXERCISE
Making Inferences
Read Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Journey” on pages 903–905 of your textbook. Then use clues from
the story and your prior knowledge to answer the inference questions that follow.
1. A person who is a “lover of maps” is MOST LIKELY
A. disorganized
B. frightened
C. carefree
D. planful
2. In this story, roads symbolize
A. the way one moves toward one’s goals
B. the way one treats other people
C. the way one should live
D. the way one thinks about one’s self
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3. You remember the map as a blank sheet of paper because
A. you are becoming senile
B. your destination has become less important to you
C. you never had a map to begin with
D. you are so frightened at being lost
4. In this story, the main character, identified as “you,” turns off the smooth, expensive
highway onto a smaller road.
•
Why do you do this?
•
What does this suggest about the way that you want to live?
Use details from the story to support your answer.
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5. At the beginning of this story, you set out for the city.
•
Predict whether you will ever reach the city you’ve set out to reach.
•
Explain why or why not.
Use information from the story to support your predictions.
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FINDING
THE
CENTRAL IDEA
OR
THEME
Many standardized test questions will ask you to identify the central idea or theme of a passage of text.
In general, nonfiction texts have central or main ideas; literary texts (poems, stories, novels, plays, and
personal essays) have themes. Sometimes, however, the term central idea or main idea is used to refer to
the theme of a literary work, especially an essay or poem.
The central idea is a brief statement of what the author wants you to know, think, or feel after reading
the text. In some cases, the central idea will actually be stated. Check the first and last paragraphs for a
sentence that sums up the entire passage.
Usually, however, the author will not tell you what the central idea is, and you will have to infer it. To
infer a central idea, ask yourself these questions about the text:
• Who or what is this passage about?
• What does the author want me to know, think, or feel about this “who” or “what”?
• If I had to tell someone in one sentence what this passage is about, what would I say?
After you have a central idea in mind, check to see whether all the details in the passage fit that central
idea. If any detail contradicts your statement, you need to revise that statement.
TIPS FOR ANSWERING MULTIPLE-CHOICE MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS
• Eliminate any statement that contains incorrect information.
• Eliminate any statement that applies only to one paragraph or section of the passage.
• If two statements are similar, choose the one that contains more information, as long as all
information is correct.
Following a literary passage, you might be asked to identify the theme, or central idea, of the passage.
The theme is usually a general statement or insight about life. It is expressed through the plot, images,
characters, and symbols in a text. To find the theme of a passage, ask yourself these questions:
• How and why has the main character or speaker changed by the end of the story?
• What has the main character learned by the end of the story?
• How is the reader supposed to feel about the events of the story?
• What is the author trying to say about life?
• What is the “moral” or lesson of the story?
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EXERCISE
Finding the Central Idea or Theme
1. Read Patrick Henry’s Speech in the Virginia Convention on pages 154–156 of your textbook. Which of the following statements BEST expresses the central idea of this essay?
A. Having exhausted all peaceful means of resolving conflict, Americans must now fight
the British.
B. In times of crisis, it is important that people speak their minds without reservation.
C. People should not be deceived by false hopes, no matter how much they want those
hopes to be real.
D. Liberty is worth dying for.
2. Turn to page 367 in your textbook and read the excerpt from Song of Myself by Walt
Whitman. Which of the following statements BEST expresses the theme of the poem?
A. Children are wiser than adults.
B. Death is not the end of life.
C. No one is sure what the grass really is.
D. Curiosity is the most valuable quality.
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USING CONTEXT CLUES
Some standardized test questions will ask you to choose the best definition for a word that might be
unfamiliar to you. You can often figure out the meaning of this word by using context clues. Context
clues frequently can be found in nearby words and phrases that provide hints about the word.
EXAMPLES
comparison clue
cause.
Charise is as ardent about her horse as the most devoted activist is about his or her
If Charise feels about her horse the way a devoted activist feels about a cause, ardent must mean
“passionate” or “enthusiastic.”
contrast clue
While the plaintiff’s case seemed tenuous, the opposing lawyer’s defense was solid and
nearly indisputable.
The word while signals a contrast between the validity of one side of the legal dispute and the other. If
the defense was “solid and nearly indisputable,” the plaintiff’s case must be much less solid. Tenuous
must mean “weak” or “flimsy.”
restatement clue
closely.
Stop scrutinizing every move I make! I can’t stand to have someone watch me so
As the second sentence suggests, scrutinize means “examine closely and in great detail.”
apposition clue
Jeffrey expressed with a sigh his resignation, his acceptance that this argument
would not go his way.
By restating the word resignation in different terms, the apposition indicates that resignation means
“acceptance, usually of something undesirable.”
examples clue
one’s eyes.
There are many ways to express reverence, including bowing, kneeling, and lowering
From the actions listed here— bowing, kneeling, and lowering one’s eyes —you can guess that reverence
means “honor” or “respect.”
cause and effect clue
When the dog skulked out of the room as we came in, we immediately
suspected that he had done something bad.
If skulking made this speaker suspect misbehavior, skulk must mean “sneak away out of fear or shame.”
The following table shows words that signal each type of context clue. Look for these words in the
sentences around an unfamiliar word to see if they signal a context clue.
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comparison
and, like, as, just as, as if, as though
contrast
but, nevertheless, on the other hand, however, although, though, in spite of
restatement
that is, in other words, or
examples
including, such as, for example, for instance, especially, particularly
cause and effect
if/then, when/then, thus, therefore, because, so, as a result of, consequently
EXERCISE
Using Context Clues
Read the following sentences. Then choose the best definitions for the underlined words.
1. The new ruler set in place many aspects of a totalitarian regime: he eliminated freedom of
speech, he made it illegal to congregate in public places, he increased surveillance, and he
dissolved the elected congress.
A. illegal
B. based on strict control
C. democratic
D. capitalist
2. I am ravenous, as if I hadn’t eaten in weeks!
A. thoroughly frustrated
B. extremely hungry
C. oversensitive
D. very energetic
3. When we entered this war, I was moderately concerned, but when I saw the list of
casualties from just one battle, I was aghast.
A. reassured
B. worried
C. horrified
D. driven
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4. Ari is so bellicose that he can start fights with even relatively mild-mannered students.
A. imposing
B. hostile
C. relaxed
D. depressed
5. Unfortunately, the policies instituted to improve the economy have been ineffectual. We
need to admit that they just haven’t worked.
A. unsuccessful
B. slow to act
C. uninteresting
D. unethical
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ANSWERING OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
In addition to multiple-choice questions, many standardized tests, including the New Jersey High School
Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) include open-ended questions that require you to write answers in the test
booklet.
Open-ended questions might ask you to identify key ideas or examples from the text by writing a sentence
about each. In other cases, you will be asked to write a paragraph in response to a question about the
selection and to use specific details from the passage to support your answer.
EXAMPLE
Essay prompt: Zora Neale Hurston’s essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” ends with an image of
bags in various colors propped against a wall.
•
How would you describe the items in these bags?
•
What is the significance of these bags for the meaning of Hurston’s essay?
•
Use details from the selection to support your answer.
Short response: The colored bags represent individuals with different skin colors. Hurston
describes herself as a brown bag, in other words, a woman with brown skin. What she emphasizes,
however, is that the bags are filled with an assortment of small, significant objects that are not
much different from the objects in the bags of other colors. This seems to suggest that people of
different races are not that different from each other. This is one of the themes of Hurston’s essay.
As you answer open-ended questions, remember that you are being evaluated based on your
understanding of the text and your ability to interact with the author’s ideas.
The following tips will help you answer open-ended questions effectively.
TIPS FOR ANSWERING OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
• Before reading the passage, skim the questions. When you skim, you glance through material
quickly to get a general idea of what it is about.
• As you read, underline any information that relates to the questions. After you have finished
reading, you can decide which of the underlined details to use in your answers.
• In the margin of your test booklet, list the most important points to include in each answer.
Then number them to show the order in which they should be included. Finally, draft your
answer.
• If you have extra time, use it to revise and proofread your answers.
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EXERCISE
Answering Open-Ended Questions
Turn to page 573 and read “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway. Then answer the openended questions below.
1. The older waiter in this story says he is “of those who like to stay late at the café.”
• What are those people like?
• What is the waiter saying about himself with this statement?
Use information from the story to support your response.
2. The two waiters are characterized largely through their dialogue. Which waiter is a more sympathetic
character?
• What does the character you chose say or do that makes him sympathetic?
• What words or actions from the other waiter make him unsympathetic?
Use information from the story to support your response.
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WRITING
TO
PERSUADE
One of the writing tasks you will encounter on the New Jersey HSPA will be to write a persuasive
response to a written prompt. For example, you might be asked to write a letter to the editor of the
school newspaper expressing your opinion about a change to the school dress code or an essay
explaining your point of view on a controversial law under consideration in your state. Your goal in this
piece of writing should be to convince an audience to take your opinion seriously.
Understanding how your essay will be scored will help you write a successful response. Scorers will use
the New Jersey Registered Holistic Scoring Rubric to evaluate essays; your teacher should be able to give
you a copy of this rubric. Basically, your essay will be graded on
• whether it has a clear opening and closing
• how closely it relates to the assigned topic
• how focused it is on a single thesis, or main idea
• how well it develops that thesis with effective, vivid, explicit, and pertinent details
• how logically the ideas are organized and whether they are joined by transitions
• how many usage errors you make
• how much you have varied your sentences while avoiding fragments and run-ons
• how many errors you make in mechanics (punctuation. capitalization, and spelling)
You can use a modified version of the writing process to complete your essay. Follow these steps:
1. Budget your time. The person administering the exam will tell you how much time you have to
write the essay for each section. Make a plan that allots time for prewriting, drafting, selfevaluation, revising, and proofreading. As you work on your essay, stick to this plan.
2. Prewrite. The first step is to collect and organize your ideas about the prompt. First, brainstorm
ideas using whatever method is most comfortable for you. If you don’t immediately have ideas, try
freewriting about the topic for five minutes or drawing a cluster chart. Then, organize the ideas
you came up with. A simple outline or chart can help. For example, the graphic organizer on the
next page might help you organize your persuasive essay.
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Similarity or Difference #1
Support for Reason #1:
Similarity or Difference #2
Support for Reason #2:
Similarity or Difference #3
Support for Reason #3:
Reason #1:
Responses to Opposition:
3. Draft your response. As you get down to the business of writing, your first task is to write a thesis
statement. The thesis is a one-sentence statement of your main idea. It should appear near the
end of the introduction to your essay. The first part of your introduction should get the reader’s
attention with a quotation, a story, an impressive fact or statistic, or any other device that you
think will make readers want to hear what you have to say.
Follow your organizational plan to write each body paragraph of your essay. Devote one
paragraph to each major point in your organizational plan. Write quickly and keep moving. Don’t
spend too much time on any single paragraph, but try to make your essay as complete as
possible. The more evidence you can provide to support each of your main points, the better you
are likely to score.
End your essay with a conclusion that sums up your major points.
4. Evaluate your response. Use the Writer’s Checklist provided in your test booklet to evaluate your
writing. (This checklist is provided on the next page for your reference.) Place a checkmark next to
every statement that you think you have done well. Next to items you have not checked, make
notes about what you could do better.
5. Revise and proofread your answer. Make the changes you noted in the previous step. Make sure
you have included enough detail in your essay to support your thesis and each of your main
points. Finally, check for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Use proofreading marks to
make changes to your answer. Study the chart on page 22 to learn common proofreading marks.
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Revising/Editing Guide
NEW JERSEY • HIGH SCHOOL
PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT
you may want to use editing
Writer’s Checklist
Important Points to
Remember as You
Write and Critically Read
to Revise/Edit Your Writing
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. Focus on your purpose for writing
and your audience. Convince your
readers (audience) that your point
of view, solution, or causes and/or
effects are reasonable.
2. Support your point of view,
solution, or causes and/or effects
with details and evidence.
3. Put your ideas in the order that
best communicates what you are
trying to say.
shows where
to move text.
cross out
shows what
to get rid of
or change.
marks when you revise and edit,
insert
to move text, text, or eliminate
change text. Sometimes you
may want to add a sentence or
paragraph. A Whatever
changes you make, be sure to
make your revisions and editing
shows what
to insert.
A
shows what
text to add
and where to
add it.
marks clear to your readers.
A
If you want to add new text,
label the new text with a letter
or number. Then write the
lable to show where you are
adding it.
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
4. Use clear and varied sentences.
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. opening and closing
2. development of key ideas
3. logical progression of ideas
4. supporting details
5. transitions
USAGE
5. Use words correctly.
MECHANICS
6. Capitalize, spell, and punctuate
correctly.
7. Write neatly.
New Jersey State Department of Education
March 2000
Copyright © 2000 by
New Jersey State Department of Education
All rights reserved.
© EMC
What to consider when you revise and edit:
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
6. correct sentence structure (syntax)
7. varied sentence structure
USAGE
8. correct verb tenses
9. subject/verb agreement
10. pronoun usage and agreement
11. word choice
MECHANICS
12. spelling
13. capitalization
14. punctuation
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PROOFREADER’S SYMBOLS
Symbol and Example
Meaning of a Symbol
The very first time
Delete (cut) this material.
cat’ cradle
Insert (add) something that is missing.
Georze
Replace this letter or word.
All the horses king’s
Move this word to where the arrow points.
french toast
Capitalize this letter.
the vice-President
Lowercase this letter.
housse
take out this letter and close up space.
book keeper
Close up space.
gebril
Change the order of these letters.
end. “Watch out,” she yelled.
Begin a new paragraph.
Love conquers all
Put a period here.
Welcome friends.
Put a comma here.
Getthe stopwatch
Put a space here.
Dear Madam
Put a colon here,
She walked he rode.
Put a semicolon here.
name brand products
Put a hyphen here.
cats meow
Put an apostrophe here.
cat’s cradle
Let it stand. (Leave as it is.)
EXERCISE
Writing to Persuade
Below is a prompt like the one you are likely to encounter on the HSPA. Read the prompt and prepare a
response using the steps of the writing process outlined above.
WRITING SITUATION
Your school is facing a budget crisis, and the school board is looking for ways to save money. One of the
current proposals is to cut back on the staff in the libraries and media centers in each school, which
means that the centers would only be open for student use two days per week. This move would allow
the district to eliminate four staff positions, saving a substantial amount, but some students and teachers
are concerned about the effect this move will have on student learning.
Write a letter to school board members explaining your position on this proposal. What is your point of
view? How would this solution affect you and other students at your school?
DIRECTIONS
FOR
WRITING TASK
Write a letter either supporting or opposing the proposed cutbacks in media center hours. Use facts,
examples, and other evidence to support your point of view.
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1. How will you budget your time as you respond to this prompt?
2. Prewrite.
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3. Draft.
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5. Revise/Proofread by making changes to your draft
on the previous pages.
Revising/Editing Guide
NEW JERSEY • HIGH SCHOOL
PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT
you may want to use editing
Writer’s Checklist
Important Points to
Remember as You
Write and Critically Read
to Revise/Edit Your Writing
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. Focus on your purpose for writing
and your audience. Convince your
readers (audience) that your point
of view, solution, or causes and/or
effects are reasonable.
2. Support your point of view,
solution, or causes and/or effects
with details and evidence.
3. Put your ideas in the order that
best communicates what you are
trying to say.
shows where
to move text.
cross out
shows what
to get rid of
or change.
marks when you revise and edit,
insert
to move text, text, or eliminate
change text. Sometimes you
may want to add a sentence or
paragraph. A Whatever
changes you make, be sure to
make your revisions and editing
shows what
to insert.
A
shows what
text to add
and where to
add it.
marks clear to your readers.
A
If you want to add new text,
label the new text with a letter
or number. Then write the
lable to show where you are
adding it.
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
4. Use clear and varied sentences.
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. opening and closing
2. development of key ideas
3. logical progression of ideas
4. supporting details
5. transitions
USAGE
5. Use words correctly.
MECHANICS
6. Capitalize, spell, and punctuate
correctly.
7. Write neatly.
New Jersey State Department of Education
March 2000
Copyright © 2000 by
New Jersey State Department of Education
All rights reserved.
26
HSPA
What to consider when you revise and edit:
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
6. correct sentence structure (syntax)
7. varied sentence structure
USAGE
8. correct verb tenses
9. subject/verb agreement
10. pronoun usage and agreement
11. word choice
MECHANICS
12. spelling
13. capitalization
14. punctuation
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WRITING
TO
SPECULATE
One of the writing prompts on the New Jersey HSPA will ask you to look at a photograph or piece of
fine art and speculate about what is happening in it. There are essentially two ways to respond to the
picture:
1. You can describe what is happening and how you feel about it. Remember to include a clear thesis
statement that summarizes the main idea of your essay. Also, be sure to use plenty of concrete
details. Some of these details should be from the picture, but others should come from your
imagination, your prior experience, or your background knowledge. You might also compare what
you see to an experience from your own life.
2. You can write a story about the people, animals, or objects you see in the picture. Don’t worry
about getting the interpretation of the picture “right.” What you see in the picture might be quite
different from what another classmate sees. Instead, focus on creating a lively, vivid, wellorganized story around whatever you see.
Understanding how your essay or story will be scored will help you write a successful response. The
scorer will use the New Jersey Registered Holistic Scoring Rubric to evaluate your writing; your teacher
should be able to give you a copy of this rubric. Basically, your story or essay will be graded on
• whether it has a clear opening and closing
• whether it relates closely to the picture
• how focused it is on a single main idea or storyline
• how well you’ve developed it with effective, vivid, explicit, and pertinent details
• how logically the ideas are organized and whether they are joined by transitions
• how many usage errors you make
• how much you have varied your sentences while avoiding fragments and run-ons
• how many errors you make in mechanics (punctuation, capitalization, and spelling)
You can use a modified version of the writing process to complete your essay. Follow these steps:
1. Budget your time. The person administering the exam will tell you how much time you have to
write your response for this section. Make a plan that allots time for prewriting, drafting, selfevaluation, revising, and proofreading. As you work on your response, stick to this plan.
2. Prewrite. The first step is to collect and organize your ideas about the prompt. First, brainstorm
ideas using whatever method is most comfortable for you. If you don’t immediately have ideas,
you might try inserting yourself into the picture. Imagine that you see this scene as you are
walking to school. How would you describe it to a friend? What does it make you think of? As an
alternative, you might imagine the lives of the people, animals, or objects in the picture. Where do
they come from? What is important to them? Why are they doing what they are doing in the
picture? Freewrite about these questions for five minutes.
Then decide whether you will write an essay or a story. Your choice of form will determine how
you organize the ideas you came up with. A simple outline or chart can help. For example, the
following chart might help you organize a descriptive essay.
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Sensory Details (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch):
Association:
Sensory Details (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch):
Association
Sensory Details (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch):
Association
Sensory Details (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch):
Association
A time line or story strip can help you organize a story.
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3. Draft your response. Follow your organizational plan to write your response. Make sure each
paragraph focuses on a single unified idea from your chart or diagram. If you are including
dialogue in your response, start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.
Write quickly and keep moving. Don’t spend too much time on any single paragraph, but try to
make your answer as lively and vivid as possible. The more details you can provide without
straying off the topic, the better you are likely to score.
4. Evaluate your response. Use the Writer’s Checklist provided in your test booklet to evaluate your
writing. (This checklist is provided on page 30 for your reference.) Place a checkmark next to every
statement that you think you have done well. Next to items you have not checked, make notes
about what you could do better.
WRITER’S CHECKLIST
5. Revise and proofread your answer. Make the changes you noted in the previous step. Make sure
you have included enough detail in your response. Finally, check for errors in grammar, spelling,
and punctuation. Use proofreading marks to make changes to your answer. Study the chart below
to learn common proofreading marks.
PROOFREADER’S SYMBOLS
© EMC
Symbol and Example
Meaning of a Symbol
The very first time
Delete (cut) this material.
cat’ cradle
Insert (add) something that is missing.
Georze
Replace this letter or word.
All the horses king’s
Move this word to where the arrow points.
french toast
Capitalize this letter.
the vice-President
Lowercase this letter.
housse
take out this letter and close up space.
book keeper
Close up space.
gebril
Change the order of these letters.
end. “Watch out,” she yelled.
Begin a new paragraph.
Love conquers all
Put a period here.
Welcome friends.
Put a comma here.
Getthe stopwatch
Put a space here.
Dear Madam
Put a colon here,
She walked he rode.
Put a semicolon here.
name brand products
Put a hyphen here.
cats meow
Put an apostrophe here.
cat’s cradle
Let it stand. (Leave as it is.)
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Revising/Editing Guide
NEW JERSEY • HIGH SCHOOL
PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT
you may want to use editing
Writer’s Checklist
Important Points to
Remember as You
Write and Critically Read
to Revise/Edit Your Writing
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. Focus on your purpose for writing
and your audience. Convince your
readers (audience) that your point
of view, solution, or causes and/or
effects are reasonable.
2. Support your point of view,
solution, or causes and/or effects
with details and evidence.
3. Put your ideas in the order that
best communicates what you are
trying to say.
shows where
to move text.
cross out
shows what
to get rid of
or change.
marks when you revise and edit,
insert
to move text, text, or eliminate
change text. Sometimes you
may want to add a sentence or
paragraph. A Whatever
changes you make, be sure to
make your revisions and editing
shows what
to insert.
A
shows what
text to add
and where to
add it.
marks clear to your readers.
A
If you want to add new text,
label the new text with a letter
or number. Then write the
lable to show where you are
adding it.
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
4. Use clear and varied sentences.
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. opening and closing
2. development of key ideas
3. logical progression of ideas
4. supporting details
5. transitions
USAGE
5. Use words correctly.
MECHANICS
6. Capitalize, spell, and punctuate
correctly.
7. Write neatly.
New Jersey State Department of Education
March 2000
Copyright © 2000 by
New Jersey State Department of Education
All rights reserved.
30
HSPA
What to consider when you revise and edit:
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
6. correct sentence structure (syntax)
7. varied sentence structure
USAGE
8. correct verb tenses
9. subject/verb agreement
10. pronoun usage and agreement
11. word choice
MECHANICS
12. spelling
13. capitalization
14. punctuation
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EXERCISE
Writing to Speculate
Below is a prompt like the one you are likely to encounter on the HSPA. Look at the picture, read the
prompt, and prepare a response using the steps of the writing process outlined on the previous pages.
An ancient proverb says, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Regardless of the artist’s original
intent, what we see in the picture can be very different from what other’s see. What words would
you use to describe what is happening in this picture? Use your imagination and experience to
speculate what the story is about or to describe what is happening.
1. How will you budget your time as you respond to this prompt?
2. Prewrite.
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3. Draft.
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5. Revise/Proofread by making changes to your draft
on the previous pages.
Revising/Editing Guide
NEW JERSEY • HIGH SCHOOL
PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT
you may want to use editing
Writer’s Checklist
Important Points to
Remember as You
Write and Critically Read
to Revise/Edit Your Writing
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. Focus on your purpose for writing
and your audience. Convince your
readers (audience) that your point
of view, solution, or causes and/or
effects are reasonable.
2. Support your point of view,
solution, or causes and/or effects
with details and evidence.
3. Put your ideas in the order that
best communicates what you are
trying to say.
shows where
to move text.
cross out
shows what
to get rid of
or change.
marks when you revise and edit,
insert
to move text, text, or eliminate
change text. Sometimes you
may want to add a sentence or
paragraph. A Whatever
changes you make, be sure to
make your revisions and editing
shows what
to insert.
A
shows what
text to add
and where to
add it.
marks clear to your readers.
A
If you want to add new text,
label the new text with a letter
or number. Then write the
lable to show where you are
adding it.
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
4. Use clear and varied sentences.
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. opening and closing
2. development of key ideas
3. logical progression of ideas
4. supporting details
5. transitions
USAGE
5. Use words correctly.
MECHANICS
6. Capitalize, spell, and punctuate
correctly.
7. Write neatly.
New Jersey State Department of Education
March 2000
Copyright © 2000 by
New Jersey State Department of Education
All rights reserved.
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What to consider when you revise and edit:
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
6. correct sentence structure (syntax)
7. varied sentence structure
USAGE
8. correct verb tenses
9. subject/verb agreement
10. pronoun usage and agreement
11. word choice
MECHANICS
12. spelling
13. capitalization
14. punctuation
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REVISE/EDIT WRITING
One of the three writing tasks on the New Jersey HSPA asks you to revise and edit a student essay that is
provided for you. The essay you are given might contain problems with organization, number and
specificity of details, sentence structure, usage, word choice, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
Your task is to decide what to change to develop the student’s ideas and improve the essay.
Follow these steps to complete the task.
1. Preview the content of the essay. Read through the piece once to get a sense of the student’s
main ideas.
2. Improve the content and organization. Ask yourself the following questions about the student’s
draft.
• What is the purpose of the writing, and does it achieve its purpose?
• Does the writing have a single central focus? If not, what can I delete in order to create a
single focus?
• Which ideas need to be explained in more detail? Which would benefit from the addition of
facts, examples, anecdotes, or other supporting details?
• Are the ideas arranged in the most sensible order?
• How can I use transitions to improve the flow of ideas and show how the main ideas are
connected?
• Does the essay have a strong opening and closing? How can I improve these?
Keep in mind that there are four basic ways to improve the content of an essay.
a. Adding or Expanding. Sometimes writing can be improved by adding details, examples, or transitions to
connect ideas. Often a single added adjective can make a piece of writing clearer or more vivid.
EXAMPLE
A bonechilling wind
Wind whistled through the park.
At other times you will need to add details to back up a main idea. To add a longer passage, write the
passage on the lined pages, label it with a letter or number, and mark where that letter or number
should go in the text.
EXAMPLE
Everyone uses the park, so its destruction would be a major loss to the community.
Insert A
Insert A
An average of 72 people use the park every day. Of the 653 neighborhood residents surveyed, 85
percent said they use the park at least several times each year. Forty-two percent said they use the
park weekly.
b. Cutting or Condensing. Often writing can be improved by cutting unnecessary or unrelated material.
EXAMPLE
Watson was firmly determined to find the structure of the DNA molecule.
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c. Replacing. Sometimes weak writing can be replaced with stronger writing that is more concrete,
more vivid, or more precise.
EXAMPLE
Original: Chandra lived in a house down the street.
Replacement: Chandra lived in a Garrison colonial down Mulberry Street.
d. Moving. Often you can improve the organization of a piece of writing by moving part of it so that
related ideas appear near one another.
EXAMPLE
Mince the garlic in very fine pieces. Sauté the garlic in a small skillet just until it starts to brown.
Before you add the garlic to the skillet, you should heat a small amount of olive oil. Use medium low
heat. Remove the browned garlic from the skillet.
You can use proofreading and editing marks like those used above to make changes right on the copy of
the essay in your answer folder. You can also add new text by writing inserts on the two lined pages and
marking on the student essay where each insert should be placed. (See the second example under
“Adding” above.) You can also rewrite the entire essay on the lined pages, but you aren’t required to do so.
3. Improve word choice. Is the language of the essay appropriate to the audience and purpose?
Where could the word choices be improved to make the essay more precise, lively, or vivid? Can
you delete any unnecessary words? Mark corrections on the draft.
4. Proofread the essay for errors in sentence construction, usage, spelling, punctuation, and
capitalization. Eliminate any fragments or run-on sentences. Combine short, choppy sentences
using conjunctions. Make sure you have included a variety of sentences—simple, compound, and
complex. Check that verbs agree with their subjects and pronouns agree with their antecedents.
Fix spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors. Be sure to proofread your inserts as well as the
original student’s text. Read the draft one last time, slowly, to catch any remaining errors.
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EXERCISE
Revise/Edit Writing
Below is a prompt like the one you are likely to encounter on the HSPA. Read the prompt and complete
the task.
Marge has just started volunteering at the local dog shelter, and she is appalled at the number of
animals who are put to sleep each month because no homes can be found for them. She decides
to write a persuasive essay for the school paper expressing her views on this topic. Read her first
draft and think about how to improve the meaning and the clarity of the text. Then make your
revisions.
Too many dogs are being deemed “unadoptable and euthanized.” The truth is that only responsible
pet owners can stop this access of unwanted puppies and even older dogs.
Spaying or neutering your pet is relatively low-cost. In addition, spaying or neutering has a side
benefit of being better for your dog. By fixing your dog, you are keeping it safer, because it won’t be
as tempted to run off. Anyone who has witnessed a dog getting hit by a car knows how paneful that
experience can be. Neutered and spayed dogs tend to be less hyper, less aggressive, and plus they are
more focused on training and generally better behaved.
Neutered males won’t get testicular cancer and will have fewer health problems. So the cost of the
surgery to spay or neuter a pet begins to sound like a good investment, rather than a drawback.
Some states have laws or programs or other things that require animal shelters to fix dogs before they
are put up for adoption. However, that isn’t nearly enough. All states should institute a similar law.
There is another point to consider: It is popular for families who want a dog to get a brand knew
puppy. Who can resist a warm, cuddly, darling puppy? This idea only adds to the problem of too
many dogs in the world. There are hundreds upon hundreds of dogs who are as loving and gentle as
can be, but may not have a pedigree or come from a top breeder. Its a good idea to visit animal
shelters when looking for a dog. There are many, many wonderful dogs out there who got left,
because their owner was moving and couldn’t take them, or maybe it was a big dog and there wasn’t
enough space for it to run around, or any other reasons that dogs end up in a shelter.
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New Jersey HSPA Practice, Grade 11
UNIT 1 TEST
READING
DIRECTIONS
This passage is similar to those you will find on the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment
for Language Arts Literacy. You will read a narrative passage and then respond to the multiplechoice and open-ended questions that follow.
“The Last Leaf“
by O. Henry
In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into
small strips called “places.” These “places” make strange angles and curves. One street crosses itself a
time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in this street. Suppose a collector with a
bill for paints, paper and canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself coming back,
without a cent having been paid on account!
So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows
2
and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter
mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth Avenue, and became a “colony.”
At the top of a squatty, three-story brick Sue and Johnsy had their studio. “Johnsy” was familiar
3
for Joanna. One was from Maine; the other from California. They had met at the table d’hôte of an
Eighth Street “Delmonico’s,” and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so
congenial that the joint studio resulted.
That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia,
4
stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side this
ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores, but his feet trod slowly through the maze of the
narrow and moss-grown “places.”
Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old gentleman. A mite of a little woman
5
with blood thinned by California zephyrs was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed
old duffer. But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron bedstead, looking
through the small Dutch window-panes at the blank side of the next brick house.
One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with a shaggy, gray eyebrow.
6
“She has one chance in – let us say, ten,” he said, as he shook down the mercury in his clinical
7
thermometer. “ And that chance is for her to want to live. This way people have of lining-up on the
side of the undertaker makes the entire pharmacopoeia look silly. Your little lady has made up her
mind that she’s not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?”
“She – she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day.” said Sue.
8
“Paint? – bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking twice – a man for instance?”
9
“A man?” said Sue, with a jew’s-harp twang in her voice. “Is a man worth—but, no, doctor; there
10
is nothing of the kind.”
“Well, it is the weakness, then,” said the doctor. “I will do all that science, so far as it may filter
11
through my efforts, can accomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her
funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines. If you will get her
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to ask one question about the new winter styles in cloak sleeves I will promise you a one-in-five
chance for her, instead of one in ten.”
After the doctor had gone Sue went into the workroom and cried a Japanese napkin to a pulp.
Then she swaggered into Johnsy’s room with her drawing board, whistling ragtime.
Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window. Sue
stopped whistling, thinking she was asleep.
She arranged her board and began a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate a magazine story. Young
artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write
to pave their way to Literature.
As Sue was sketching a pair of elegant horseshow riding trousers and a monocle of the figure of
the hero, an Idaho cowboy, she heard a low sound, several times repeated. She went quickly to the
bedside.
Johnsy’s eyes were open wide. She was looking out the window and counting – counting
backward.
“Twelve,” she said, and little later “eleven”; and then “ten,” and “nine”; and then “eight” and
“seven”, almost together.
Sue look solicitously out of the window. What was there to count? There was only a bare, dreary
yard to be seen, and the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away. An old, old ivy vine, gnarled
and decayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick wall. The cold breath of autumn had
stricken its leaves from the vine until its skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling
bricks.
“What is it, dear?” asked Sue.
“Six,” said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. “They’re falling faster now. Three days ago there were
almost a hundred. It made my head ache to count them. But now it’s easy. There goes another one.
There are only five left now.”
“Five what, dear? Tell your Sudie.”
“Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I’ve known that for three days.
Didn’t the doctor tell you?”
“Oh, I never heard of such nonsense,” complained Sue, with magnificent scorn. “What have old
ivy leaves to do with your getting well? And you used to love that vine so, you naughty girl. Don’t
be a goosey. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for getting well real soon
were – let’s see exactly what he said – he said the chances were ten to one! Why, that’s almost as
good a chance as we have in New York when we ride on the street cars or walk past a new building.
Try to take some broth now, and let Sudie go back to her drawing, so she can sell the editor man
with it, and buy port wine for her sick child, and pork chops for her greedy self.”
“You needn’t get any more wine,” said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed out the window. “There
goes another. No, I don’t want any broth. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before
it gets dark. Then I’ll go, too.”
“Johnsy, dear,” said Sue, bending over her, “will you promise me to keep your eyes closed, and
not look out the window until I am done working? I must hand those drawings in by to-morrow. I
need the light, or I would draw the shade down.”
“Couldn’t you draw in the other room?” asked Johnsy, coldly.
“I’d rather be here by you,” said Sue. “Beside, I don’t want you to keep looking at those silly ivy
leaves.”
“Tell me as soon as you have finished,” said Johnsy, closing her eyes, and lying white and still as
fallen statue, “because I want to see the last one fall. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of thinking. I
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want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor,
tired leaves.”
“Try to sleep,” said Sue. “I must call Behrman up to be my model for the old hermit miner. I’ll
not be gone a minute. Don’t try to move ‘til I come back.”
Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them. He was past sixty and
had a Michael Angelo’s Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along with the body of
an imp. Behrman was a failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near
enough to touch the hem of his Mistress’s robe. He had been always about to paint a masterpiece,
but had never yet begun it. For several years he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in
the line of commerce or advertising. He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists
in the colony who could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin to excess, and still talked
of his coming masterpiece. For the rest he was a fierce little old man, who scoffed terribly at
softness in any one, and who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two
young artists in the studio above.
Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his dimly lighted den below. In one
corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive
the first line of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy’s fancy, and how she feared she would,
indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float away, when her slight hold upon the world grew
weaker.
Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming, shouted his contempt and derision for such
idiotic imaginings.
“Vass!” he cried. “Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die because leafs dey drop off
from a confounded vine? I haf not heard of such a thing. No, I will not bose as a model for your
fool hermit-dunderhead. Vy do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in der brain of her? Ach, dot
poor leetle Miss Yohnsy.”
“She is very ill and weak,” said Sue, “and the fever has left her mind morbid and full of strange
fancies. Very well, Mr. Behrman, if you do not care to pose for me, you needn’t. But I think you are
a horrid old – old flibbertigibbet.”
“You are just like a woman!” yelled Behrman. “Who said I will not bose? Go on. I come mit you.
For half an hour I haf peen trying to say dot I am ready to bose. Gott! dis is not any blace in which
one so goot as Miss Yohnsy shall lie sick. Some day I vill baint a masterpiece, and ve shall all go
away. Gott! yes.”
Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shade down to the window-sill, and
motioned Behrman into the other room. In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy
vine. Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking. A persistent, cold rain was
falling, mingled with snow. Behrman, in his old blue shirt, took his seat as the hermit miner on an
upturned kettle for a rock.
When Sue awoke from an hour’s sleep the next morning she found Johnsy with dull, wide-open
eyes staring at the drawn green shade.
“Pull it up; I want to see,” she ordered, in a whisper.
Wearily Sue obeyed.
But, lo! after the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had endured through the livelong
night, there yet stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last one on the vine. Still
dark green near its stem, with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it
hung bravely from the branch some twenty feet above the ground.
“It is the last one,” said Johnsy. “I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind.
It will fall to-day, and I shall die at the same time.”
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“Dear, dear!” said Sue, leaning her worn face down to the pillow, “think of me, if you won’t think
of yourself. What would I do?”
But Johnsy did not answer. The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making
ready to go on its mysterious, far journey. The fancy seemed to possess her more strongly as one by
one the ties that bound her to friendship and to earth were loosed.
The day wore away, and even through the twilight they could see the lone ivy leaf clinging to its
stem against the wall. And then, with the coming of the night the north wind was again loosed,
while the rain still beat against the windows and pattered down from the low Dutch eaves.
When it was light enough Johnsy, the merciless, commanded that the shade be raised.
The ivy leaf was still there.
Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. And then she called to Sue, who was stirring her chicken
broth over the gas stove.
“I’ve been a bad girl, Sudie,” said Johnsy. “Something has made that last leaf stay there to show
me how wicked I was. It is a sin to want to die. You may bring a me a little broth now, and some
milk with a little port in it, and – no; bring me a hand-mirror first, and then pack some pillows
about me, and I will sit up and watch you cook.”
An hour later she said:
“Sudie, some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples.”
The doctor came in the afternoon, and Sue had an excuse to go into the hallway as he left.
“Even chances,” said the doctor, taking Sue’s thin, shaking hand in his. “With good nursing you’ll
win.” And now I must see another case I have downstairs. Behrman, his name is—some kind of an
artist, I believe. Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is acute. There is no hope
for him; but he goes to the hospital to-day to be made more comfortable.”
The next day the doctor said to Sue: “She’s out of danger. You won. Nutrition and care now –
that’s all.”
And that afternoon Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, contentedly knitting a very blue and
very useless woolen shoulder scarf, and put one arm around her, pillows and all.
“I have something to tell you, white mouse,” she said. “Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia to-day in
the hospital. He was ill only two days. The janitor found him the morning of the first day in his
room downstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold. They
couldn’t imagine where he had been on such a dreadful night. And then they found a lantern, still
lighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some scattered brushes, and a
palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it, and—look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf
on the wall. Didn’t you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling,
it’s Behrman’s masterpiece—he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.”
1. Which of the following is a central idea in the story?
A. People need a sense of purpose in order to live.
B. It is extremely difficult to make a living as an artist.
C. Art is important to all people.
D. Pneumonia is more dangerous for older people.
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2. Which of the following quotations contains an example of personification?
A. “These ‘places’ make strange angles and curves.”
B. “In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the
colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers.”
C. “The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious,
far journey.”
D. “‘I have something to tell you, white mouse,’ she said.”
3. What does the word swagger mean in paragraph 12?
A. call out
B. walk with confidence
C. inch quietly forward
D. lie blatantly
4. When the doctor says, “Paint?—bosh!” he means
A. Johnsy isn’t a very good artist
B. Sue should convince Johnsy to give up painting
C. he doesn’t think women can be good artists
D. art isn’t enough to motivate Johnsy to want to live
5. What do Sue and Mr. Behrman have in common?
A. They are both from Maine.
B. They both get pneumonia.
C. They both care about Johnsy.
D. They both like chicory salads.
6. Why does Behrman paint the last leaf?
A. He is finally ready to create his masterpiece.
B. He has no will to live, so he makes himself susceptible to pneumonia.
C. He wants to protect Johnsy and Sue.
D. He wants to make a mural on the building so Johnsy will have something nice to look at.
7. When the author writes “Young artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine
stories that young authors write to pave their way to Literature” he means
A. there are many people who want to be artists or writers, but many don’t succeed
B. magazines need both illustrators and writers
C. artists and writers often have to produce commercial products to make money before they reach
the heights of their craft
D. creating art and writing literature are closely linked pursuits, and writers and artists need each
other
8. Why does Johnsy decide she wants to live?
A. She is touched by Mr. Behrman’s sacrifice.
B. She wants to paint the Bay of Naples.
C. Sue has been so good to her and done so much for her while she has been sick.
D. She views as a sign the persistence of the single ivy leaf.
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9. The narrator claims that Behrman is a failed artist.
• In what senses is Behrman a failure?
• Is Behrman really a failure as an artist? Explain.
Use specific details from the story in your response.
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10. Irony is the difference between appearance and reality. In irony of situation, the expectations of the
reader or of the characters are violated.
• How is this story ironic?
• What effect does this use of irony have on the reader?
Use information from the story to support your response.
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New Jersey HSPA Practice, Grade 11
UNIT 1 TEST
WRITING
TO
SPECULATE
WRITING TASK
An ancient proverb says, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Regardless of the artist’s original
intent, what we see in the picture can be very different from what others see. What words would
you use to describe what is happening in this picture? Use your imagination and experience to
speculate what the story is about or to describe what is happening.
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Revising/Editing Guide
NEW JERSEY • HIGH SCHOOL
PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT
you may want to use editing
Writer’s Checklist
Important Points to
Remember as You
Write and Critically Read
to Revise/Edit Your Writing
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. Focus on your purpose for writing
and your audience. Convince your
readers (audience) that your point
of view, solution, or causes and/or
effects are reasonable.
2. Support your point of view,
solution, or causes and/or effects
with details and evidence.
3. Put your ideas in the order that
best communicates what you are
trying to say.
shows where
to move text.
cross out
shows what
to get rid of
or change.
marks when you revise and edit,
insert
to move text, text, or eliminate
change text. Sometimes you
may want to add a sentence or
paragraph. A Whatever
changes you make, be sure to
make your revisions and editing
shows what
to insert.
A
shows what
text to add
and where to
add it.
marks clear to your readers.
A
If you want to add new text,
label the new text with a letter
or number. Then write the
lable to show where you are
adding it.
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
4. Use clear and varied sentences.
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. opening and closing
2. development of key ideas
3. logical progression of ideas
4. supporting details
5. transitions
USAGE
5. Use words correctly.
MECHANICS
6. Capitalize, spell, and punctuate
correctly.
7. Write neatly.
New Jersey State Department of Education
March 2000
Copyright © 2000 by
New Jersey State Department of Education
All rights reserved.
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What to consider when you revise and edit:
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
6. correct sentence structure (syntax)
7. varied sentence structure
USAGE
8. correct verb tenses
9. subject/verb agreement
10. pronoun usage and agreement
11. word choice
MECHANICS
12. spelling
13. capitalization
14. punctuation
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UNIT 2 TEST
READING
DIRECTIONS
This passage is similar to those you will find on the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment
for Language Arts Literacy. You will read a persuasive passage and then respond to the multiplechoice and open-ended questions that follow.
from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
by Jonathan Edwards
1
2
3
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You probably are not sensible1 of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of
God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your
own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if
God should withdraw His hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air
to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and
pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend
and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence,
and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and
keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a fallen rock. Were it not for the
sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the
creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not
willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth
does not willingly yield her increase2 to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your
wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of
life in your vitals,3 while you spend your life in the service of God’s enemies. God’s creatures are good,
and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and
groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world
would spew4 you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of Him who hath subjected it in hope. There
are black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and
big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth
upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays His rough wind; otherwise it would
come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of
the summer threshing floor. . . .5
The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the
arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of
an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from
being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by
the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls, all you that were never born again, and
made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether
unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed
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4
5
your life in many things, and may have had religious affections,6 and may keep up a form of religion
in your families and closets,7 and in the house of God, it is nothing but His mere pleasure that keeps
you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may
now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone
from being in the like circumstances with you see that it was so with them; for destruction came
suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it and while they were saying, peace and
safety: now they see that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but
thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect
over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire; He looks
upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire; He is of purer eyes than to bear to
have you in His sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in His eyes than the most hateful
venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended Him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did
his prince; and yet it is nothing but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.
It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to
awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be
given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has
held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat
here in the house of God, provoking His pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending His
solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very
moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and
bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is
provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a
slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it,
and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save
yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have done,
nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.
________________________________________________________________________________
1. sensible. Aware
2. increase. Harvest
3. vitals. Necessary organs
4. spew. Throw up; eject
5. chaff . . . threshing floor. Chaff—husks of wheat that are left behind; threshing floor—place where grain is
separated from its husks
6. affections. Feelings
7. closets. Studies; meditations
1. To which of his congregation’s emotions does Jonathan Edwards appeal MOST in this sermon?
A.
anger
B. sorrow
C. joy
D. fear
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2. The MAIN purpose of this selection is to
A. inspire
B. inform
C. entertain
D. persuade
3. Read the sentence below
The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the
arrow at your heart, and strains the bow . . .
This sentence is an example of
A. metaphor
B. personification
C. exposition
D. paradox
4. When Edwards compares human beings to spiders, he means that
A. human beings are disgusting, loathsome creatures
B. human beings are tiny and powerless in the face of God’s wrath
C. human beings spin webs of connection
D. human beings are small and have eight legs
5. What have Edwards’s listeners done to provoke God?
A. They have refused to acknowledge God’s total power over their lives.
B. They have sinned too much.
C. They have been cruel to their fellow human beings.
D. They have reformed their lives in many ways.
6. What does Edwards mean when he says in paragraph 3, “However unconvinced you may now be of
the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it”?
A. He knows people will respond to his sermon.
B. He believes that people cannot fail to hear the truth.
C. Listeners will be convinced when God destroys them.
D. It is always possible to be more open to the truth.
7. What does the word induce mean in the last sentence?
A. create
B. infer
C. suggest
D. force
8. Edwards tells his listeners that God abhors them in order to
A. make them doubt God’s love
B. cause them to lose faith in God
C. make them more independent in how they live their lives
D. evoke fear for their souls in the afterlife
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9. This sermon describes a certain kind of God.
• How does the speaker view God?
• What rhetorical techniques does Edwards use to create this image of God?
Use information from the selection to support your response.
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10. Imagine that you disagree with Edwards’s ideas. What would you say to Edwards at the church
door?
• Clearly state your position.
• Provide at least two supporting details that explain your opposition to the speaker’s point of view.
Use information from the sermon to support your response.
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New Jersey HSPA Practice, Grade 11
UNIT 2 TEST
REVISE/EDIT WRITING
The 11th-grade student who wrote this draft was assigned the task of writing a reflective essay
about an experience that has helped shape his life. It is a rough draft, and it needs to be edited
before it is revised for the final time. You may make changes directly on the student text. Two
lined pages are also provided for you to use if you want to reorganize the entire essay or if you
decide to add new text.
Working in My Family’s Restaurant
After school, students head off in a lot of different places. Some go to practise, some go home, some
go to part time jobs, some go hang out at the mall. Do you want to know where I go? I go to my
familys restaurant where every day after school and on the week ends I work for the rest of the night.
My family’s restaurant is a great place. They started it when they first moved to this country. When
they got here they barely spoke English, they didn’t have hardly any money, they didn’t have educations
but they were determined to make something out of their lives.
My grandma is a great cook. You should try her chicken satay. anyway, since she’s such a good cook,
they decided to start a restaurant. My dad and all of his brothers and sisters worked in the restaurant
most of their lives. And now that they have kids, all of us work there too.
It’s a lot of work too. I have a lot of different jobs. I do the prep, make the sauces and do a lot of the
precooking. I also do a lot of clean up like doing the dishes and the pots and pans. Then there’s
sweeping and mopping the floors, the cutting boards, walk-in refrigerator, vacuming, and tables. All of
this takes a lot of time.
I work from about 4 to 9 almost every week night and from 4 to 11 on Saturday. Sometimes I get off
because of school work or event, but basicaly other than school and work I have no life.
I have to admit I hate it sometimes. It takes up all of my the time — the time I want just to do what
other kids do after school, hang out, go to mall, sleep, watch tv. Sometimes it’s fun, like being with my
family.
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We like to laugh and play jokes on each other. And my grandma and grandfather are cool people.
Some of the money from the restaurant goes into my college fund so I can go to college when I finish
high school
So I may be stuck working in my family’s restaurant now while I’m in high school, but when I get
done I know I’m going to college. And when I get there I’ll probably do good because I will know what
hard work is like and I will know that I can do it. And I’ve learned a lot already about getting along with
people and handling money and a business.
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Revising/Editing Guide
NEW JERSEY • HIGH SCHOOL
PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT
you may want to use editing
Writer’s Checklist
Important Points to
Remember as You
Write and Critically Read
to Revise/Edit Your Writing
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. Focus on your purpose for writing
and your audience. Convince your
readers (audience) that your point
of view, solution, or causes and/or
effects are reasonable.
2. Support your point of view,
solution, or causes and/or effects
with details and evidence.
3. Put your ideas in the order that
best communicates what you are
trying to say.
shows where
to move text.
cross out
shows what
to get rid of
or change.
marks when you revise and edit,
insert
to move text, text, or eliminate
change text. Sometimes you
may want to add a sentence or
paragraph. A Whatever
changes you make, be sure to
make your revisions and editing
shows what
to insert.
A
shows what
text to add
and where to
add it.
marks clear to your readers.
A
If you want to add new text,
label the new text with a letter
or number. Then write the
lable to show where you are
adding it.
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
4. Use clear and varied sentences.
CONTENT/ORGANIZATION
1. opening and closing
2. development of key ideas
3. logical progression of ideas
4. supporting details
5. transitions
USAGE
5. Use words correctly.
MECHANICS
6. Capitalize, spell, and punctuate
correctly.
7. Write neatly.
New Jersey State Department of Education
March 2000
Copyright © 2000 by
New Jersey State Department of Education
All rights reserved.
60
HSPA
What to consider when you revise and edit:
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
6. correct sentence structure (syntax)
7. varied sentence structure
USAGE
8. correct verb tenses
9. subject/verb agreement
10. pronoun usage and agreement
11. word choice
MECHANICS
12. spelling
13. capitalization
14. punctuation
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Scoring Guide
located as far away from each other as possible
so that customers have to walk past all of the
other, smaller stores to get from one to the
other. Rosedale would thus be classified as an
“A” center because it has a department store—
Sears—that carries major appliances.
Test-Taking Skills Practice
Worksheets
MAKING INFERENCES
PREPARING
FOR TESTS
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary.
1.
2.
3.
4.
ANSWERING MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B
C
A
B
A
ANSWERING READING COMPREHENSION
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B
D
C
A
Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric to
evaluate responses.
Example of top-score response: Didion
means that the growth of shopping centers
came about because of certain factors in
American culture right after World War II. This
belief is supported with several details. First,
Didion links the success of shopping centers to
the widespread use of cars and the
development of suburbs, both qualities of postWorld-War-II culture. Second, she says that
shopping centers fuse the profit motive and
the idea of equality, both of which were part of
the fifties optimism about the future.
6. Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric to
evaluate responses.
Example of top-score response: Rosedale
Center reflects many of the tenets of shopping
center theory as explained in Didion’s article.
For one thing, it has the kind of hopeful name
Didion mentions: “All those Plazas and Malls
and Esplanades. All those Squares and Fairs. All
those Towns and Dales. . . .” It also has several
“anchor stores,” or large department stores
that draw customers—a J. C. Penney, a
Marshall Fields, and a Sears. These stores are
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D
A
B
Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric to
evaluate responses.
Example of top-score response: You turn off the
highway because the well-traveled, easy route
becomes boring after a while : “you become
sleepy from the monotony and wonder if perhaps
there is another, less perfect road parallel to this.”
There seems to be something about the relentless
cheeriness of the highway “where the sun shines
ceaselessly” that is oppressive. The winding road,
with its “small cramped turns,” goes past more
interesting scenery—villages and foothills and
forests. You must be someone more interested in
appreciating the things along the route than in
getting to your destination. You live in the
moment.
5. Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric to
evaluate responses.
Example of top-score response: The “you” in
the story will probably never reach the city.
Shortly after turning off the highway, you
drove into some woods and lost sight of the
city. When you turned off the smaller road
onto the unpaved one, you moved further and
further into the country. It seems unlikely that
such a road will take you to the city. Perhaps
more importantly, you seem to have lost your
drive to get to the city and are pleased to be
exactly where you are.
FINDING
THE
CENTRAL IDEA
OR
THEME
1. A
2. B
USING CONTEXT CLUES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B
B
C
B
A
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ANSWERING OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
1. Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score response: By saying that
he is “of those who like to stay late at the café,”
the waiter identifies himself with the old man.
Part of that identification is that, like the old
man, the older waiter lacks youth and
confidence. The other part of what he means is
that he sympathizes with people who need a
pleasant place to be in the face of darkness. The
night seems to be associated with the nada that
the waiter fears. Staying in the well-lighted café
helps him avoid confronting this nothingness.
2. Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score response: I think the
older waiter is the more sympathetic character.
He feels sorry for the old man and urges the
younger waiter to be patient with him and let
him stay and drink. He seems to be a
compassionate person. The younger waiter
thinks only of himself and of wanting to get
home to his wife. He seems overly proud of his
life, and he is definitely unsympathetic to the
old man. He even says mean things to him,
knowing the old man can’t hear him.
WRITING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
TO PERSUADE
Responses will vary. Make sure students allot
time for each stage of the writing process:
prewriting, drafting, evaluating, and
revising/proofreading. Some students might be
tempted to allow the shortest amount of time
for prewriting. Emphasize with these students
that they must allow time to gather ideas.
Otherwise drafting will take much longer, and
their final product is likely to be weaker.
Responses will vary. Make sure students are
familiar with ways of generating, fleshing out,
and organizing ideas.
Responses will vary.
Responses will vary. Check to see that students
understand how to use the Revising/Editing
Checklist.
Responses will vary. Use the New Jersey
Registered Holistic Scoring Rubric on page 176
to evaluate responses.
WRITING
TO
SPECULATE
1. Responses will vary. Make sure students allot
time for each stage of the writing process:
© EMC
2.
3.
4.
5.
prewriting, drafting, evaluating, and
revising/proofreading. Some students might be
tempted to allow the shortest amount of time
for prewriting. Emphasize with these students
that they must allow time to gather ideas.
Otherwise drafting will take much longer, and
their final product is likely to be weaker.
Responses will vary. Make sure students are
familiar with ways of generating, fleshing out,
and organizing ideas.
Responses will vary.
Responses will vary. Check to see that students
understand how to use the Revising/Editing
Checklist.
Responses will vary. Use the New Jersey
Registered Holistic Scoring Rubric on page 176
to evaluate responses.
REVISE/EDIT WRITING
Responses will vary. Use the Revising/Editing
Scoring Guide on page 177 to evaluate
students’ work.
Grade 11 HSPA Practice Tests
UNIT 1 TEST
READING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
A
B
B
D
C
C
C
D
Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score response: Behrman
spends most of his life as a failed artist, but in the
end he paints a masterpiece. Berman had been
painting for forty years, but had never painted a
masterpiece. The narrator says, “For several years
he had painted nothing except now and then a
daub in the line of commerce or advertising.” He
lives among artists, serving as a model, but he
creates little himself. Shortly before he dies, he
creates his “masterpiece,” a leaf on the wall
across from their building. The leaf saves the life
of Johnsy, who believes she will die when the last
leaf falls. Although his painting is a simple work, it
is one that inspires at least one person. For
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touching a life so profoundly, this work can be
seen as a masterpiece. While Behrman did not
have a great body of work and his only work of
any importance was a simple painting on a
building wall, he is not a failure in the end.
10. Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score-point response: The
ending of “The Last Leaf” is ironic because the
story leads the reader to believe that Johnsy
will die, and instead, Behrman dies. By ending
the story this way, O. Henry not only save
Johnsy, but also makes Behrman a hero and an
artist. It is ironic that Behrman, who is
characterized as a failure, ends up a hero. This
twist makes the story satisfying to the reader.
TO SPECULATE
Use the New Jersey Registered Holistic Scoring
Rubric on page 176 to evaluate responses.
10. Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score-point response:
Jonathan Edwards’s argument rests on the
notion that God is angry and vengeful. I
believe in a loving, merciful God. While
Edwards may be right when he says that we
are sinners, a compassionate and loving God
offers forgiveness, not damnation. This does
not mean that people should not reform their
ways and turn from sin, but if they repent God
will forgive them. I also believe that God will
not cast people down into Hell on a whim. I
don’t see His actions as vindictive.
REVISE/EDIT WRITING
Use the Revising/Editing Scoring Guide on
page 177 to evaluate students’ work.
WRITING
UNIT 2 TEST
READING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
D
D
A
B
A
C
D
D
Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score-point response: The God
depicted in the Sermon is all-powerful; he holds
in his hands the fates of everyone. Edwards uses
synecdoche when he refers to God’s hand and his
“pure eyes,” when what he really means is all of
God. He also uses a variety of metaphors to
convey God’s power. For example, he compares
God to a ruthless hunter with bow bent and
arrow in place, ready to kill people. The God in
this sermon is also subject to extreme rage;
Edwards uses figurative language to portray God’s
dangling people over the pit of Hell. He also
compares God’s wrath to an ominous cloud over
God’s head. Edwards says that He “abhors you,
and is dreadfully provoked,” and that his wrath
“burns like fire,” a simple but powerful simile.
Finally, this God is fickle. He might keep you alive
today but let you drop into Hell tomorrow.
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UNIT 3 TEST
READING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
D
B
A
B
C
C
C
A
Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score-point response: Paine
does not promote all war. He does make a
distinction between a just war and an unjust
war. He shows that Americans tried to avoid
this military conflict, but that it was not
possible. He seems to recognize that war is
very serious because of the loss of human life,
but he also argues that in some cases it is
necessary. Paine makes the point that at some
point, when attacked at home, we need to
defend ourselves. He’s right. If not, there might
not be war, but other countries could just
overtake us with no resistance.
10. Use the Reading Open-Ended Scoring Rubric
on page 175 to evaluate responses.
Example of top-score-point response:
Although Paine says he would never support
an offensive war, he has no doubt that the
Revolutionary War is just. He praises the
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