n&c+Mult+mim

__MC Mimic #1__ “I got up. The Burmans were already racing past me across the mud. It was obvious that the elephant would never rise again, but he was not dead. He was breathing very rhythmically with long rattling gasps, his great mound of a side painfully rising and falling. His mouth was wide open--I could see far down into caverns of pale pink throat. I waited a long time for him to die, but his breathing did not weaken. Finally I fired my two remaining shots into the spot where I thought his heart must be. The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but still he did not die. His body did not even jerk when the shots hit him, the tortured breathing continued without a pause. He was dying, very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further. I felt that I had got to put an end to that dreadful noise. It seemed dreadful to see the great beast Lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die, and not even to be able to finish him. I sent back for my small rifle and poured shot after shot into his heart and down his throat. They seemed to make no impression. The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock. In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away. I heard later that it took him half an hour to die. Burmans were bringing dahs and baskets even before I left, and I was told they had stripped his body almost to the bones by the afternoon. Afterwards, of course, there were endless discussions about the shooting of the elephant. The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing. Besides, legally I had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if its owner fails to control it. Among the Europeans opinion was divided. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie. And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.”

1. What is the speaker’s primary purpose in writing this passage? a. Demonstrate how to kill an elephant b. Describe the elephant’s death c. Show what the native people are interested in d. Portray the emotions of a man after killing the elephant e. Explain how the Burmans treat a dead elephant

2. The sentence, “The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but still he did not die.” (lines 6-7) contains which of the following? a. Hyperbole b. Metaphor c. Simile d. Alliteration e. Personification

3. How can the reaction to the elephant’s death best be described? a. Everyone had one single opinion. b. The Europeans all believed one thing, while the Burmese believed another. c. The Europeans blamed the Burmese for the author killing the elephant. d. The Burmese blamed the Europeans for the author killing the elephant. e. Overall, the opinions were very divided among particular groups.

4. What is the tone of the passage in paragraph 1? a. Indifferent b. Mourning c. Animated d. Awestruck e. Loving

5. George Orwell would agree with which of the following statements? a. The coolie deserved to be killed. b. He wanted to watch the elephant die. c. He did not feel bad for killing the elephant. d. He would have avoided killing the elephant if he didn’t look like a fool in the process. e. The elephant was worth more than any coolie.

6. The passage is primarily concerned with: a. Describing how the author felt while killing the elephant. b. Explaining why the author killed the elephant. c. Describing the effects of imperialism on the Burmese natives. d. Explaining why the author should not have killed the elephant. e. The author’s thoughts upon approaching the elephant, before he shot it.

7. In the second paragraph, the author identifies that it took how long for the elephant to die? a. A few seconds b. 3 hours c. A day d. A half-hour e. A few minutes

8. The author shot the elephant for which of the following reasons? a. It was killing too many people. b. It was legally necessary. c. He did not want to look like a fool. d. He hated the elephant. e. He would put the elephant out of its misery.

__MC Mimic #2__

(1)“Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he (5)feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and (10)which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers. I will come back to this presently, and I hope that by that time the meaning of what I have said here will have become clearer.

(15)The first is staleness of imagery; the other is lack of precision. The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not. This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract (20)and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse.

The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy (25)of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics." All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. I should (30)expect to find -- this is a guess which I have not sufficient knowledge to verify -- that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years, as a result of dictatorship.”

1) Which of the following best states the speaker’s purpose in lines (3-4) “But an...on indefinitely”? a) The cause and effect are not related b) Bad writing leads to more bad writing c) The outcome of the original cause will worsen the issue d) The cause creates many effects e) The effect can spread to other areas

2) All of the following may be found in the passage except a) Imitation is the reason for the spread of bad habits b) What writers struggle with in their writing c) How to combat the issue of bad writing d) Clarity in language is a direct result of an author being perfidious e) Why this struggle is not curable

3) George Orwell would agree with which of the following statements? a) Dictatorship results in the downfall of language b) You do not have to believe it to write about it in a clear manner c) It is important to chose words by their meaning d) Politics are not involved all issues e) Declining language only has to do with political issues

4) The speaker’s attitude towards what politics in lines 28-29 (All issues...schizophrenia) is which of the following? a) Contentment b) Resentment c) Gratuity d) Anger e) Disbelief

5) What is the meaning of “hackneyed” in line 20? a) Common b) Complicated c) Assuring d) Populare e) Defected

6) This sentence “A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details.” (line 23) contains which of the following? a)Alliteration b) Personification c) Metaphor d) Simile e) Onomatopoeia

7) What is the meaning of “mass” in line 23? a) A body of matter b) Size c) Affecting a large number of people d) A number or quantity e) A collection of objects that forms one body

8) In lines 4-8, why does the author compare the English language to a man who drinks? a) The never-ending cycle of one action being caused by the other is similar. b) Authors drink too much, and that is why they have misused the English language. c) A man who drinks too much will not be able to become a successful writer. d) Alcohol will ruin the quality of anything. e) Having foolish thoughts will push someone towards making bad decisions.

__Answer Key (#1)__ 1. The correct answer is (D). The passage focuses on how the narrator sees the dying elephant. He is emotional about slow death and contemplates on the what he did.

2. The correct answer is (C). The phrase isn’t saying that the blood is red velvet, nor is the description heavily exaggerated, so we can eliminate (A) and (B). The blood does not have any human characteristics, so we can eliminate (E). The blood is being compared to something, using the word “like”, indicating that it must be functioning as a simile.

3. The correct answer is (E). (C) and (D) did not occur in the passage. The passage states that the Europeans had different opinions among themselves, thus (A) and (B) must be eliminated as well.

4. The correct answer is (B). The description can be seen as negative and emotional. (C ) and (E) must be eliminated because they are positive descriptors, while (D) is not negative and (A) is not emotional.

5. The correct answer is (D). Throughout the passage, the author expresses his discomfort with killing the elephant. Later, the author states in the last sentence that he only killed the elephant because he did not want to look like a fool. Therefore, he would not have killed the elephant if he was not going to be seen as a fool.

6. The correct answer is (A). (C) and (E) did not occur in this passage, while (B) and (D) are only briefly mentioned in the last paragraph.

7. The correct answer is (D). The answer lies in lines 14-15: “In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away. I heard later that it took him half an hour to die.”

8. The correct answer is (C). The answer is in the last sentence of the passage: “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.”

__Answer Key (#2)__ 1) The correct answer is (C.) The author states the the effect can become a cause, reinforce the original cause, and produce the same effect in an intensified form.

2) The correct answer is (E). The author provides multiple ways the English language is curable and revivable. The other choices have been stated in the passage.

3) The correct answer is (A). In the last sentence of the passage the author mentions what he thinks is the cause of the downfall of the German, Russian, and Italian languages.

4) The correct answer is (B). The author feels resentment or displeasure in politics when he lists the negativities of politics and when he cites them as issues.

5) The correct answer is (A). Hackneyed means common or frequent. The author makes the point that writers often turn topics into “abstract” subjects. In this sentence, he emphasizes how their speech is NOT simple/common place.

6) The correct answer is (D). A simile is a comparison that includes the word “like” or “as”.

7) The correct answer is (D). Here, you can replace the word “mass” with any of the choices to see which one makes the most sense. Each word is an individual thing, and therefore a mass of words must mean a number of words.

8) The correct answer is (A). The comparison is not literal, so (B), (C), and (D) can be eliminated. (E) is somewhat correct, but fails to recognize the second part of the statement, which explains that both actions really cause the other to occur, in a cycle.