Final Exam Review

Americans of all ages know that [Taylor] Swift is one of the most successful, influential pop stars of all time. She has won 10 Grammy Awards and is up for six more in this year’s competition. [...] She surprised her millions of adoring fans with two unannounced albums in 2020 — “Folklore” and “Evermore.” Both received critical acclaim for their storytelling and production, but I heard another reason to celebrate them: They are filled with the language and images of the natural world.

Which best summarizes the argument this paragraph introduces?

• Taylor Swift is one of the most famous pop stars

• Taylor Swift should win numerous Grammys this year

• Taylor Swift released two surprise albums last year

• Taylor Swift's albums are compelling because of their natural imagery

The moral of the book can seem to be that Holden will outgrow his attitude, and this is probably the lesson that most of the ninth-grade teachers who assign “The Catcher in the Rye” hope to impart to their students—that alienation is just a phase. But people don’t outgrow Holden’s attitude, or not completely, and they don’t want to outgrow it, either, because it’s a fairly useful attitude to have. One goal of education is to teach people to want the rewards life has to offer, but another goal is to teach them a modest degree of contempt for those rewards, too.

What best describes the purpose of the first sentence?

• to summarize the main idea of this paragraph

• to introduce a common belief that will be argued against

• to provide textual evidence to support the argument

• to give the reader background information about the topic

A metaphor is a comparison between two ______________ things.

• similar

• unlike

What literary device is this an example of?

"All the world's a stage."

• personification

• repetition

• metaphor

• simile

Which of these best describes personification?

• giving human characteristics to something nonhuman

• comparing two things that are completely dissimilar

• using sensory details to paint a picture of a scene

• emphasizing a point through repetition

Julia Holter is different: her new album, “Loud City Song,” which is her third, earns her claims that it was cinematically inspired. The first song she wrote for the record was an attempt to capture the feeling of a scene in the musical film version of “Gigi,” the 1944 novella by Colette, about a courtesan in training. Holter likened the way in which Gigi was judged by respectable society to certain aspects of contemporary celebrity culture in Holter’s home town, Los Angeles. But the album doesn’t need to represent that movie for the listener to appreciate it.

What is the purpose of the bolded sentence in this paragraph?

• to introduce the writer's argument

• to provide supporting evidence

• to include another perspective

• to analyze the musician's songwriting

Is "love" a good example of one of the themes of Their Eyes Were Watching God?

• yes

• no, love is not addressed in the book

• no, it does not explain the book's message

The Catcher in the Rye teachers readers that you're not alone in your frustrations. Holden spends the bulk of the book complaining. It's endearing at times, sad at others, but on the whole it makes him somewhat of an irritating character. Still, his frustrations with the disingenuousness of others, and especially his grievances about dating and lost love, can help readers to understand that they aren't the only one coping with problems, big or petty.

What evidence does the writer use to support their argument?

• Holden's complaints about other people

• Holden's relationship with his parents

• Holden's fight with Stradlater

• Holden's date with Sally

From The Simpsons to Seinfeld, from Everybody Loves Raymond to Everybody Hates Chris, from Taxi to Arrested Development to Parks & Recreation, there is a highly-specific, minute-by-minute recipe used to write the vast majority of sitcoms out there. And once you know the formula, it makes it much easier to write them, and much

harder to watch them without seeing that formula—the “sitcom code”—everywhere you look.

Which best describes the writer's argument?

• sitcoms are one of the best forms of entertainment

• The Simpsons and Seinfeld are two of the best sitcoms ever

• all sitcoms follow a very similar storytelling pattern

• writers on sitcoms are lazy and not good at their jobs

[1] This week, the Winter Olympics, the awkward, wintry stepsibling of the main summer event, kick off in Pyeongchang. [2] Unlike their warm-weather counterparts, which feature more straightforward feats of athleticism that test how high people can jump or how fast they can swim, the Winter Olympics skew toward weirder, more esoteric sports. [3] There’s biathlon and curling, bobsledding and ski jumping, the one where you slide down ice really fast, and the one where you do it backward. [4] Because of this, and perhaps because the Winter Olympics include fewer sports in general, they’re generally seen as the less exciting of the two Olympics. [5] That may well be true, but perhaps because they are the weirder of the two contests, the Winter Olympics are also far more fun for viewers.

Which sentence introduces the argument of this essay?

• Sentence 1

• Sentence 3

• Sentence 4

• Sentence 5