Writing Workshop: Comparing Texts — Unit test Answers

Read the excerpt from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone—fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor’s mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens. The appearance of Gatsby from the shadows suggests that

Read the excerpt from The Great Gatsby.Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They were not perfect ovals—like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end—but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size. I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.The use of words such as “fashionable,” “superficial,” “bizarre,” and “sinister” provide

Read the excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s All Rivers Run to the Sea.It is unbelievable how fast people adapt. It hurts to admit it, but within hours of first breathing the cattle car’s nauseating air, we began to feel at home. ‘Home’ was the edge of the wooden plank I sat on as I dreamed of the Jewish exiles of antiquity and the Middle Ages. More curious than afraid, I thought of myself as their brother. Mixed into my sadness there was undeniable excitement, for we were living a historic event, a historic adventure.Which best describes the author at this point in his life?

Which of the following sentences is written correctly?

Read the excerpt from Wiesel’s All Rivers Run to the Sea.No, let us go no further. Decency and custom forbid it. I said it earlier, when speaking of my grandfather: In Jewish tradition a man’s death belongs to him alone. Let the gas chambers remain closed to prying eyes, and to the imagination. We will never know all that happened behind those doors of steel.Read the text and study the images from Spiegelman’s Maus.Which theme is addressed in both excerpts?

Read the sentence.In the story “Mericans,” Micaela thinks her grandmother is awful.Which is the best revision of this sentence using academic vocabulary?

Read the sentence.The speaker of Okita’s poem tries to present herself in ways that have little to do with her customs.Which is the best revision of this sentence using academic vocabulary?

Which accurately describes a contrast between Wiesel’s All Rivers Run to the Sea and Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus?

Read the paragraph from a student’s literary essay comparing two different works.(1) Sandra Cisneros’s “Mericans” is about a young American girl of Mexican descent who is struggling to find her own cultural identity. (2) Cisneros illustrates this through a number of images and ideas. (3) For example, the speaker, Micaela, calls her grandmother “awful,” and seems to resent the woman’s strict views and religious ideals. (4) The speaker also mentions how she and her brother emulate characters from popular American television programs when they play make-believe. (5) Lastly, she describes physically standing outside her family’s church, an act that symbolizes the fact that she feels like an outsider to Mexican culture. (6) Although Micaela is of Mexican descent, she seems to feel a stronger connection to the United States. Which best describes this paragraph?

Which excerpt from The Great Gatsby best indicates that Nick is not fully content with his life?

Which best describes the overall themes of Okita’s “In Response to Executive Order 9066” and Cisneros’s “Mericans”?

Read the sentence.The fake, counterfeit money, which isn't valid, was discovered in the crime investigation.What is the best way to revise this sentence to eliminate wordiness?

Which strategy is the best way to improve the written expression in a redundant sentence?

Roosevelt’s Executive Order No. 9066 was based on

By signing Executive Order No. 9066, President Roosevelt assumed that