Jess+Debski+and+Allie+Moore


 * From Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell **


 * The Burmese sub-inspector and some Indian constables were waiting for me in the quarter where the elephant had been seen. It was a very poor quarter, a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palmleaf, winding all over a steep hillside. I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains. We began questioning the people as to where the elephant had gone and, as usual, failed to get any definite information. That is invariably the case in the East; a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes. Some of the people said that the elephant had gone in one direction, some said that he had gone in another, some professed not even to have heard of any elephant. I had almost made up my mind that the whole story was a pack of lies, when we heard yells a little distance away. There was a loud, scandalized cry of "Go away, child! Go away this instant!" and an old woman with a switch in her hand came round the corner of a hut, violently shooing away a crowd of naked children. Some more women followed, clicking t heir tongues and exclaiming; evidently there was something that the children ought not to have seen. I rounded the hut and saw a man's dead body sprawling in the mud. He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie, almost naked, and he could not have been dead many minutes. The people said that the elephant had come suddenly upon him round the corner of the hut, caught him with its trunk, put its foot on his back and ground him into the earth. This was the rainy season and the ground was soft, and his face had scored a trench a foot deep and a couple of yards long. He was lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side. His face was coated with mud, the eyes wide open, the teeth bared and grinning with an expression of unendurable agony. (Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.) The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit. As soon as I saw the dead man I sent an orderly to a friend's house nearby to borrow an elephant rifle. I had already sent back the pony, not wanting it to go mad with fright and throw me if it smelt the elephant. **


 * 1. The main topic of this selection is **
 * a) to describe a mans death **
 * b) to show that people will all describe different events in a time of panic **
 * c) to find an elephants whereabouts **
 * d) that children should not witness death **
 * e) that elephants are known as beasts **


 * 2. The general tone of this passage is **
 * a) ironic **
 * b) serious **
 * c) persuasive **
 * d) comical **
 * e) dramatic **


 * 3. This sentence “ The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit.” contains which of the following? **
 * a) metaphor **
 * b) personification **
 * c) alliteration **
 * d) onomatopoeia **
 * e) simile **


 * 4. What is meant by “clicking” in line 12? **
 * a) short, sharp sound **
 * b) becoming friendly **
 * c) becoming understandable **
 * d) gossiping **
 * e) showing distaste in something **


 * 5. In the sentence “ (Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.)” the author put it in parenthesis and expresses in order to **
 * a) emphasis how death usually is portrayed **
 * b) express personal view of the dead **
 * c) foreshadow an event **
 * d) introduce a new topic **
 * e) summarize the previous event **


 * 6. The speakers attitude towards locating the elephant in the beginning of the story is that of **
 * a) gratitude **
 * b) excitement **
 * c) reluctance **
 * d) eagerness **
 * e) anticipation **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">7. All of the following are figurative except **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">a) “he could not have been dead many minutes” (line 15) **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">b) “a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts” (line 2) **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">c) “whole story was a pack of lies” (line 9) **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">d) “ clicking t <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">heir tongues” (line 12) **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">e) “sprawling in the mud” (line 14) **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">8. All of the following adjectives could properly be used to describe the style and effect of this passage except **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">a) serious **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">b) vulgar **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">c) eventful **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">d) obscene **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">e) comical **


 * Answer key: **
 * 1. C. The answer is C because the main point of the passage is locating the elephant. The man's death is an event that occurred while the elephant was trying to be found which would eliminate answer A. All other options (B, D and E) are little topics in the passage, not the main topic. **


 * 2. B. The answer is B Because the story is not ironic (A), it is not persuading the reader of anything (C ), and the passage is not comical (D). It could be thought of as dramatic when the man was killed or the children were rushed away, but in the total passage the tone would be serious more than dramatic, so B would be the best choice. **


 * 3. E. The answer is E because a simile is a comparison using “like” or “as”. The sentence uses as when it states “as neatly as”, so answer E is correct. **


 * 4. E. The answer is E because the women were saying that they do not approve of the children seeing something. The children seeing the dead man was distasteful to the women. Answer A was the actual noise the women made, but it is not what was meant by the clicking. So, answer A is a trick answer. **


 * 5. <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">B. The answer is B because the sentence shows how the author feels about the dead. Answer A is a trick answer because the sentence does show how people usually view the dead, but Answer B is the better answer. **


 * 6. <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">C. The answer is C because the narrator did not even believe the stories about the elephant and the more he asked people about the elephant the more reluctant he was to finding the elephant. **


 * 7. <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">A. The answer is A because in “he could not have been dead many minutes” there is no known figurative language. B, C, D and E are all metaphors so they have figurative language. Answer a is literal. **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">8. E. The answer is E because the excerpt was not comical in anyway. The passage was serious (A), vulgar (B), eventful (C ), and obscene (D), but not comical. so, the correct answer is E. **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Questions 1-8 refer to the following selection. Read the passage carefully and then choose the best answers to the questions. The following passage was written by Frederick Douglass. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">From Learning to Read and Write **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">I lived in Master Hugh's family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by any one else. It is due, however, to my mistress to say of her, that she did not adopt this course of treatment immediately. She at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness. It was at least necessary for her to have some training in the exercise of irresponsible power, to make her equal to the task of treating me as though I were a brute. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first went to live with her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another. In entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, she did not seem to perceive that I sustained to her the relation of a mere chattel, and that for her to treat me as a human being was not only wrong, but dangerously so. Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness. The first step in her downward course was in her ceasing to instruct me. She now commenced to practise her husband's precepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he had commanded; she seemed anxious to do better. Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper. She seemed to think that here lay the danger. I have had her rush at me with a face made all up of fury, and snatch from me a newspaper, in a manner that fully revealed her apprehension. She was an apt woman; and a little experience soon demonstrated, to her satisfaction, that education and slavery were incompatible with each other. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">From this time I was most narrowly watched. If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself. All this, however, was too late. The first step had been taken. Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the ~inch,~ and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ~ell.~ **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. What is the speaker’s primary purpose in writing this passage? **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) to entertain the reader with a memoir **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) to persuade the reader learn to read and write better **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) to inform the reader of why it's important to read and write **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) to show what it was like to live as a slave **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) to give an in depth analysis of the ways to learn to read and write **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. The general tone of the passage is **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) satirical **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) informative **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) authoritative **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) objective **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) subjective **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. The contrast of the mistresses personality traits are due to **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) her attitude at work versus her attitude at home **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) how she felt she should treat people versus how society forced her to treat slaves **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) how she treated kids versus how she treated adults **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) her attitude on a stressful day versus on a relaxed day **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) her attitude on reading versus her attitude on working **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. "Mistress, in teaching me thealphabet,had given me the inch, and noprecaution could  prevent me from taking the mile." **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">The about lines means that **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) the narrator resents the mistress for teaching him to read **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) the mistress is at fault anytime the narrator got in trouble **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) the narrator could not be to blame if he was ever caught reading **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) the mistress had opened the door to new opportunities and didn't warn him of the possible consequences **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) if children are taught something from an elder they should not be to blame for using that knowledge **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. At the end of paragraph one the word "brute" best describes **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) how uncivilized the narrator was **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) how the narrator did not know how to read **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) that the narrator is below the mistress **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) that the narrator has no manners **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) how barbaric the narrator acts **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">6. What is the best rationale as to why the mistress no longer treated the narrator as a “one human being ought to treat another”? **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) the narrator began acting out and she thought he need discipline **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) she realized that there needed to be a line between slave and slave keeper **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) she was a cold- hearted woman that did not like children **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) she feared that her husband would get mad that she treated him with respect **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) she wanted the slaves to fear her so that they would not act out **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">7. Based on the passage which of the following would the author agree on? **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) reading is a useless skill that is not necessary to learn **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) all slaves should learn to read because it is important to there work **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) reading should be done for pleasure as well as a necessary life skill **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) slave keepers should be more warm and friendly toward the slaves **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) slavery turns happy people into mean spirited people **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">8. The lesson to be learned by the authors experience is **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(A) that its important to read and write **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(B) sometimes good things can come from the worst of situations **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(C) slavery is a bad thing and it should be illegal everywhere **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(D) reading books can get you into trouble **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">(E) you have to be careful when you are alone so that people don’t always assume you’re reading **


 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Answer Key **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. The correct answer is (A). Douglass did not write this passage with any motive to persuade the reader to do anything or to write a rationale on why to read and write. He wrote the passage to express an important time in his life which is when he learned how to read and write. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. The correct answer is (E). Since the passage is written as a first person narration it is subjective. Douglass is talking about his life and his experiences in a serious tone it is not (A) satirical, (C) authoritative, or (D) objective. Although it does have a slight informative tone that is not the main point of the passage. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. The correct answer is (B). In the text Douglass describes her as a kindhearted woman but then he expresses how the mistress’s husband made her treat the slaves different than she had wanted to treat them. Answer (B) is the best answer. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. The correct answer is (D). Although the other answers make sense answer (D) is the most relevant to what Douglass is expressing in that excerpt. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. The correct answer is (C). None of the other answer choices make sense in that context. Answer (C) expresses how the mistress was in charge of the slaves and Douglass was a slave so he was below her. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">6. The correct answer is (B). Answer (A) is not true because Douglass did not act out. Answer (C) is not correct because Douglass never described her as being coldhearted and (D) and (E) were never mentioned in the passage nor could they be inferred. (B) is the best answer for this question. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">7. The correct answer is (C). Answers (A), (B), (D) or (E) were never mentioned nor implied in the passage. Answer (C) is correct because Douglass valued his knowledge of knowing how to read and write and would love for other people to share his passion. **
 * <span style="background-color: #fffcf6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">8. The correct answer is (B). Although all of the answer choices are true answer (B) is the most relevant because it is the bigger theme of the book that even though he was a slave he was able to learn to read and write. **