Jake thought his homework assignment would be easy. All he had to do was interview a family member. But Mom was working, and Dad was helping Jayne study for a math test. Jake wandered into the living room, where his little brother Jesse was lying upside down on the couch with his feet hanging over the top, watching TV. A dubious subject for an interview, to be sure. But his options were limited, and the assignment was due tomorrow. "Well, here it goes," Jake mumbled to himself as he approached the couch. He shoved his collar up around his chin, took out his notebook and pencil, and adopted the look of a seasoned reporter. Jesse looked away from the TV and studied him suspiciously with his upside-down eyes. "I would like to know how the world looks from your point of view," Jake said solemnly.
Click on the two words that are closest in meaning to the word "adopted" as it is used in the passage.
approved
selected
accepted
imitated
followed
assumed
selected
assumed
At school ... I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though at the same time, a very severe master, the Reverend James Bowyer. He early moulded my taste to the preference of Demosthenes to Cicero, of Homer and Theocritus to Virgil, and again of Virgil to Ovid. He habituated me to compare Lucretius, (in such extracts as I then read,) Terence, and above all the chaster poems of Catullus, not only with the Roman poets of the, so called, silver and brazen ages; but with even those of the Augustan aera: and on grounds of plain sense and universal logic to see and assert the superiority of the former in the truth and nativeness both of their thoughts and diction. At the same time that we were studying the Greek tragic poets, he made us read Shakespeare and Milton as lessons: and they were the lessons too, which required most time and trouble to bring up, so as to escape his censure. I learned from him, that poetry, even that of the loftiest and, seemingly, that of the wildest odes, had a logic of its own, as severe as that of science; and more difficult, because more subtle, more complex, and dependent on more, and more fugitive causes.
(from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Which meaning of the word censure is used in the passage?
1. accusation
• 2. blame
• 3. fault
• 4. reprimand
4. reprimand
As Marcus scanned the jewelry cases, his eyes came to rest on an intricately wound necklace. The chain was delicate silver strands, fine as hair, woven together in a subtle, beautiful pattern. Hanging from the chain shimmered a spiral, also made of exquisitely thin silver threads, and arranged in the center were several small lustrous onyx stones. He was stunned at the meticulous craftsmanship that must have been required to fashion such a painstaking work. The artisanship of its maker was clearly unequaled. He knew instinctively that his mother would love it.
Tim read this paragraph. When he came across the word meticulous, he decided it must mean "amazing."
Is Tim's understanding of meticulous correct?
• 1. No, because the passage indicates that "meticulous" is.used to describe very tiny objects.
2. No, because the context explains that the necklace was made with great attention to detail.
• 3. Yes, because most of the passage is describing how fantastic Marcus thinks the necklace is.
• 4. Yes, because most of the passage gives details about how Marcus admires objects of amazing quality.
2. No, because the context explains that the necklace was made with great attention to detail.
And he was no soft-tongued apologist;
He spoke straightforward, fearlessly uncowed;
The sunlight of his truth dispelled the mist,
And set in bold relief each dark-hued cloud;
To sin and crime he gave their proper hue, And hurled as evil what was evil's due.
Through good and ill report he cleaved his way
Right onward, with his face set toward the heights,
Not feared to face the foeman's dread array, The lash of scorn, the sting of petty spites.
He dared the lightning in the lightning's track, And answered thunder with his thunder back.When men maligned him, and their torrent wrath In furious imprecations o'er him broke,
He kept his counsel as he kept his path;
'T was for his race, not for himself, he spoke.
He knew the import of his Master's call, And felt himself too mighty to be small.
(from "Frederick Douglass" by Paul Laurence Dunbar)
In which way does the tone of the poem express the author's intent?
1. Words of strength and power establish a forceful tone, revealing an outrage at how a public figure was treated.
2. Heroic imagery establishes an admiring tone, showing an effort to inspire reverence for a public figure.
• 3. Ideas of conflict and struggle establish an insistent tone, illustrating an attempt to incite others into action.
• 4. The theme of perseverance establishes a hopeful tone, indicating a belief that hard work breeds success.
3. Ideas of conflict and struggle establish an insistent tone, illustrating an attempt to incite others into action.
Panting with eagerness, and struggling to suppress my hopes, I hurried home, and rushed up stairs to my room,—having first provided myself with a candle, though it was scarcely twilight yet, —then, shut and bolted the door, determined to tolerate no interruption, and sitting down before the table, opened out my prize and delivered myself up to its perusal-first, hastily turning over the leaves and snatching a sentence here and there, and then, setting myself steadily to read it through.
I have it now before me; and though you could not of course, peruse it with half the interest that I did, I know you would not be satisfied with an abbreviation of its contents and you shall have the whole, save, perhaps, a few passages here and there of merely temporal interest to the writer, or such as would serve to encumber the story rather than elucidate it. It begins somewhat abruptly, thus-but we will reserve its commencement for another chapter.
(from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte)
Dictionary
encumber v. 1. to stop 2. to cram or fill 3. to burden
Which word means the same as encumber as it is used in the second paragraph?
1. delay
• 3. inconvenience
2. hinder
• 4. prohibit
3. inconvenience
A recent editorial suggested the candidates ignored the issues of greatest interest to the citizens. This caused a majority of voters to purposely neglect voting. The low voter turnout at the polls yesterday supports the idea that the voters are jaded.
Dictionary
jaded (ja' did
1. adj. overworked, exhausted, weary
2. adj. bored, tired, or uninterested from having too much of something
3. adj. hardened due to negative experience or living to excess; indifferent
When Paul first read this paragraph in the newspaper, he thought the word jaded meant "busy." He looked it up in a dictionary to see if he was correct.
In the context of this paragraph, is Paul's understanding of the meaning of jaded correct?
• 1. No, because people were simply uninterested in the election.
• 2. No, because people had a negative experience with the candidates.
• 3. Yes, because people were overworked and therefore too tired to vote.
• 4. Yes, because people had rejected voting as a result of numerous elections.