Part I- Reading Skills and Grammar Reviewer

Part I- Reading Skills and Grammar

Multiple Choice

Which is the best paraphrase of the following sentence?
Deserts cover one fifth of the surface of the Earth. 

• Deserts cover one fifth of the Earth.
• One fifth of the Earth's surface is desert.
• Deserts cover one fifth of the Earth.
• Deserts cover more than half of the Earth's surface.

Multiple Choice

What is the best paraphrase of the following sentence?
Brazil is the largest country in South America and Suriname is the smallest. 

• The biggest country in South America is Brazil, while the tiniest is Suriname.
• Suriname and Brazil the largest and smallest countries in Brazil.
• The largest country is Brazil and the smallest country is Suriname, and they are both countries in Brazil.
• The two countries of Brazil and Suriname are two countries in Brazil.

Multiple Choice

Choose the sentence that BEST paraphrases this sentence:

A high school student usually has summer reading assignments.

• A high school student always has homework assignments in the summer.
• It is common for students in high school to have summer reading assignments.
• Usually school aged students have summer reading assignments.
• Most summer school students have high school reading to do.

Multiple Choice

What is the best paraphrase of the following sentence?
Brazil is the largest country in South America and Suriname is the smallest. 

• The biggest country in South America is Brazil, while the tiniest is Suriname.
• Suriname and Brazil the largest and smallest countries in Brazil.
• The largest country is Brazil and the smallest country is Suriname, and they are both countries in Brazil.
• The two countries of Brazil and Suriname are two countries in Brazil.

Multiple Choice

 Choose the BEST paraphrase of this text: 

Lionel Messi earns a whopping $39.6 million a year for playing striker for La Liga's Barcelona team.
(Scholastic Book of World Records 2011 page 99)

• Lionel Messi earns a whopping $39.6 million a year for playing striker for La Liga's Barcelona team.
• According to Scholastic Book of World Records 2011, I think it is great that soccer player Lionel Messi earns a whopping $39.6 million a year for playing striker for La Liga's Barcelona team!
• Soccer player Lionel Messi earns a whopping $39.6 million a year for playing soccer as striker/winger for La Liga's Barcelona team. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain.
• According to Scholastic Book of World Records 2011, soccer player Lionel Messi makes over $39 million dollars annually. This impressive salary is from his work as a striker for La Liga's Barcelona team (page 99).

Multiple Choice

An allegory is...

• ...a story that represents something beyond itself.
• ...when the characters or story represent historical events.
• ...represent abstract or moral ideas.
• ...All of the above.

Multiple Choice

Allegory must include

• symbolism

• irony

• allusion

• hyperbole

Multiple Choice

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile

What does the mask symbolize?

• a disguise

• hidden emotion

• grins and lies

• a covering for all or part of the face,

Multiple Choice

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow

What does the broken winged bird symbolize?

• goals that you have met

• nightmare

• unfulfilled dreams

• life

Multiple Choice

When analyzing any story which of the following most helps you identify an allegory in the story?

• Tne time period the story is written in.

• The characteristics of the main characters.

• The message in the story.

• The ending of the story.

Multiple Choice

An allegory is a story in which:

• Characters, setting and actions stand for something beyond their literal meaning

• a story in which characters, settings, and symbols have new definitions

• a story in which characters, settings, and symbols have magical powers

• a story in which characters, settings, and symbols know one another

Multiple Choice

Which one of the five senses is used in this sentence? The wolf howled painfully over the loss of his mate.

• Sight
• Sound
• Touch 
• Taste

Multiple Choice

Which of the five senses is used in this sentence? The warm juicy burger felt like heaven on my tongue.

• Taste
• Touch
• Sight
• Sound

Multiple Choice

Imagery is language that creates a picture.

• True
• False

Multiple Choice

The tiny red ant climbed up the broken limb.  Which sense is being described?

• Sight
• Sound
• Smell
• Hear

Multiple Choice

Language that appeals to the senses

• simile
• hyperbole
• metaphor
• imagery

Multiple Choice

What type of imagery is this?
The thunder clapped loudly shaking the house

• Sight
• Sound
• Touch 
• Taste

Multiple Choice

Is this imagery?
They ate food

• Yes
• No
• No clue

Multiple Choice

Vivid description of things seen, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted

• Theme
• Sensory Details 
• Imagery 
• Sound Devices

Multiple Choice

red, silky, dew-covered, bright

• sound
• smell
• touch
• sight

Multiple Choice

sputtering, gurgling, clanking, tapping, thumping

• smell
• sight
• hear
• touch

Multiple Choice

spicy, tangy, salty, sweet, sour, bitter 

• smell
• touch
• taste
• hear

Multiple Choice

This sentence appeals to which sense:

The familiar tang of his grandmother’s cranberry sauce reminded him of his youth.

• taste
• sound
• sight
• smell

Multiple Choice

"The fragrance of the flowers filled the air."
What sense created the image?

• touch
• smell
• sight
• taste

Multiple Choice

What is a simile? 

• Comparing two unlike things without  using  like and as
• Comparing two things in a text
• Comparing two unlike things using  like and as
• None of the above

Multiple Choice

What is a metaphor?

• Comparing two things in a text
• Comparing two things using like and as
• An over exaggeration 
• Comparing two things without using like and as

Multiple Choice

What is an example of an alliteration?

• The vase flew off of the shelf. 
• Powerful pandas punch parrots.
• The plant liked to fly.
• I like to eat pie

Multiple Choice

What is a metaphor?

• Comparing two things in a text
• Comparing two things using like and as
• An over exaggeration 
• Comparing two things without using like and as

Multiple Choice

The firework exploded in the air, making a big BOOM! in the air, is an example of 

• Personification
• Onomatopoeia
• The 4th of July
• All of the above

Multiple Choice

Which is an example of a simile?

• His room was a hurricane of a mess.
• His room looked as if a hurricane came through.
• A hurricane! AHHH!
• The hurricane screamed through the town. 

Multiple Choice

The pie was so tough I needed an ax to cut it.

• hyperbole
• personification
• metaphor
• onomatopoeia

Multiple Choice

The ball jumped out of the receiver's hands. 

• simile
• metaphor
• hyperbole
• personification

Multiple Choice

I wouldn't worry wacky worries unless it was something to really worry about.

• alliteration
• repetition
• idiom
• hyperbole

Multiple Choice

The rope SNAPPED in half, and the panic in the child's face was evident.

• personification
• metaphor
• simile
• onomatopoeia

Multiple Choice

What is a summary?

• a short explanation of a text
• a persuasive argument about a text
• a movie based off of a book
• a theme or universal lesson

Multiple Choice

When would you most likely summarize a book?

• when you want to forget a book you've read
• when you want to tell a friend your opinion of a book but not what it was about
• when you want to tell a friend the gist or main ideas of a book
• when you don't understand a vocabulary word you read in a book

Multiple Choice

A summary should

• answer the 5 W's: who, what, when, where, and why
• describe the details but not the main ideas
• never mention the plot of the text
• always mention the age of the author

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage and then answer the question.
There are five teams of students in the fifth grade. The blue team has math first period, and the red team has science. The yellow team gets to go outside early in the morning, while the green team goes to music. Only students on the orange team get to play games first period. Each student wears a nametag with his or her color, so that the teachers and students all know where a student should be.

• Students are organized by teams with color names .
• The blue team has math first.
• Students wear nametags.
• The yellow team has the best schedule.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage and then answer the question.
The Elk River flows from the far northern part of the state all the way to the southern tip. All kinds of animals rely on it for drinking water, people eat the fish they catch in it, and farmers in the state depend on it for irrigating their crops. Since there is very little rain in this state, the Elk River gives animals and humans the water they need to stay alive. Even though the river is not nearly the biggest in the nation, it is very important to the people and animals that live near it.

• The Elk River is a small river.
• The Elk River starts in the northern part of the state.
• The Elk River is very important to people and animals.
• People catch fish in the Elk River.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage and then answer the question.
Books lay in the middle of his floor. Several broken toys were shoved halfway under the bed, and dirty clothes were everywhere. Frank's parents kept telling him to clean his room, but it never seemed to get clean. In fact, if Frank did manage to clean part of it, the rest of the room just got messier. In one corner of the room was an old peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and an open bag of potato chips was thrown on the dresser.

• Frank's room was a mess.
• A peanut butter and jelly sandwich was in one corner of the room.
• Frank liked potato chips.
• Frank got in big trouble because his room was not clean.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage and then answer the question.
Math didn't make much sense to Cathy. She always got area and perimeter mixed up and she had no idea what a right angle was. Last quarter she failed math, and this quarter wasn't any better. As long as she could remember, math had been hard for Cathy. She did fine in reading and science, but not math. Now she was working on her math homework, but she didn't know how to do most of it. Who invented math, anyway!

• Who invented math?
• Cathy did well in reading and science.
• Cathy always got area and perimeter mixed up.
• Cathy was not very good at math.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage and then answer the question.
Jose carefully poured out the bag of marbles on his bed. He picked his ten favorite marbles and carefully set them to the side. Then he got out a small bag from his top drawer, and put the ten marbles inside. Just to make sure he wouldn't forget them, he placed the bag of marbles in his backpack. Jose loved show and tell, and he was excited that he would get to show his class some of his favorite marbles.

• Jose had lots of marbles.
• Jose was getting his favorite marbles ready to take to school for show and tell.
•  Jose would rather play marbles than play baseball.
• Jose placed the bag of marbles in his backpack.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage and then answer the question.
"Are you already done, son?" his father asked. "It seems like you just got in the water." Jacob was finished with his bath in less than two minutes. He got his body and hair wet, rubbed some grape flavored shampoo on his hair, washed his body with soap, and quickly rinsed it off. He liked to take fast baths so he would have more time to play. In fact, Jacob never took a long bath. To him, the faster the bath, the better.

• Jacob is very clean.
• Jacob uses grape flavored shampoo.
• Jacob likes to take fast baths.
• Jacob never took showers.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage and then answer the question.
Lisa knew all of the seven dwarfs except one. She remembered Grumpy, Sleepy and Bashful. And of course she couldn't forget Doc and Dopey. Dopey was her favorite. But there was one she just could not remember. Let's see. There's also Sneezy, and that's six. But she could not remember that last one. What was his name?

• Dopey was Lisa's favorite dwarf.
• Lisa could not remember the name of one of the dwarfs.
• There were seven dwarfs in all.
• Lisa had a good memory.

Multiple Choice

It started when they got to the bears. Peter felt tired and his stomach hurt. He dragged himself over to see the elephants, which were eating from a stack of hay. Normally, the elephants were his favorite. Without much interest, Peter followed his classmates to the camels, which were busy swatting flies with their tails. Peter knew he should be having fun at the zoo, but he just felt terrible and all he wanted to do was lie down and rest. Even the lions and tigers did not interest him now. 
The Summary of this passage is:

• Peter's favorite animals were the elephants.
• The camels were swatting flies with their tails.
•  It was really hot at the zoo.
• Peter didn't enjoy the zoo because he felt really bad.

Multiple Choice

What is the best definition of an infinitive?

• A verb phrase with an -ing word

• A verb that ends in -ing and functions as a noun

• A combination of helping verbs and other words

• The word "to" plus a verb

Multiple Choice

What is the best definition of a gerund?

• A verb phrase with an -ing word

• A verb that ends in -ing and functions as a noun

• A combination of helping verbs and other words

• The word "to" plus a verb

Multiple Choice

What is the gerund in the following sentence?

Running for political office would be kind of exciting.

• running

• exciting

• office

Multiple Choice

What is the gerund in the following sentence?

During the concert, the crowd was said to like my singing.

• during

• to like

• singing

Multiple Choice

What is the gerund phrase in the following sentence?

When I was growing up, I remember going to the lake to fish in the summers.

• growing up

• going to the lake to fish in the summers

• to fish in the summers

• to the lake

Multiple Choice

What is the infinitive in the following sentence?

To win, you must be playing aggressively.

• To win

• be playing

• playing aggressively

Multiple Choice

What is the infinitive phrase in the following sentence?

I had hoped I could come over to your house, but I had a long list of things to finish before dinner.

• had hoped I could come

• over to your house

• long list of things

• to finish before dinner

Multiple Choice

IDENTIFY THE GERUND(S) 
Piling too much laundry into a washing machine will cause it to malfunction.

• washing
• piling
• malfunction
• cause

Multiple Choice

What is the gerund?
Bernard hates buttering toast with a fork.

• Bernard
• hates
• buttering
• toast

Multiple Choice

What type of verbal is used in this sentence?

Students like to walk around with their friends.

• Gerund

• Infinitive

• Participle

• No Verbal

Multiple Choice

What type of verbal is used in the following sentence?

Terry, walking into the room, saw the new baby.

• Infinitive

• Gerund

• Participle

• No Verbal

Multiple Choice

What is the gerund in the following sentence acting as?

My favorite form of exercise is walking.

• Direct Object

• Predicate Noun

• Object of the Preposition

• Subject

Multiple Choice

What type of verbal is used in the following sentence?

Printed on the very first press, the document was extremely valuable.

• Infinitive

• Participle

• Gerund

• No verbal

Multiple Choice

What type of verbal is used in the following sentence?

Rising out of the sea in front of us, the sun started to warm our faces.

• Infinitive

• Participle

• Gerund

• No Verbal

Multiple Choice

What type of verbal is used in the following sentence?

Some people consider my interest in gardening an obsession.

• Infinitive

• Gerund

• Participle

• No verbal

Multiple Choice

What type of verbal is used in the following sentence?

I dislike the work associated with planting.

• infinitive

• participle

• gerund

• No verbal

Multiple Choice

What type of verbal is in the following sentence?

My mother needs to plant her rosebush.

• Infinitive

• Participle

• Gerund

• No verbal

Multiple Choice

What is the participle in the following sentence?

The truck, burdened with its load, traveled slowly over the rough road.

• burdened

• rough

• traveled

• slowly

Multiple Choice

Identify the gerund in the following sentence.

His favorite way to spend his evening is relaxing in the hot tub.

• to spend

• evening

• favorite

• relaxing