Banana Multiple Choice Quiz

The writer wants to add a sentence before sentence 1 to introduce the main topic of the passage. Which of the following choices best accomplishes this goal?

• Bananas have come a long way from being a luxury food in the early twentieth century to being one of the most widely available fruits today.

• The popular Cavendish banana requires a great deal of fertilizer and water as well as pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides to grow.

• The Cavendish banana, the most widely available type of banana in the world, is prized by consumers and producers in part because of its predictability.

• The popularity of bananas today can be traced back to an advertising campaign in the 1960s that focused on the uniform, blemish-free appearance of Chiquita-brand bananas.

• Americans eat an average of 28.5 pounds of bananas per person every year, making bananas the most popular fruit in the United States.

Answer explanation

This choice introduces the Cavendish banana, which is discussed throughout the passage, and establishes the uniformity of bananas of this type. 

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.11-12.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

The writer wants to add a transition to the beginning of sentence 2 (reproduced below), adjusting the capitalization and punctuation as needed, to show the relationship between sentences 1 and 2.

The uniformity of the Cavendish banana makes it uniquely vulnerable to disease.

Which of the following choices best accomplishes this goal?

• Similarly

• However

• Therefore

• Particularly

• For example

Answer explanation

Sentence 1 describes the advantages arising from the consistency of Cavendish bananas, and sentence 2 describes the vulnerability that arises from this consistency. 

The relationship between the two sentences is one of contrast, making “However” an appropriate transition from the first sentence to the second.

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.6.5

CCSS.RI.7.5

CCSS.RI.8.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

The writer wants to add a thesis statement after sentence 2 that accurately represents the main argument of the passage. Which of the following choices best accomplishes this goal?

• If they successfully branch out, growers may be able to come up with a variety of banana that is even more appealing to consumers than the Cavendish banana.

• To ensure that bananas survive for years to come, producers and consumers need to diversify the types of bananas they grow and eat.

• Banana growers will have to take advantage of the latest developments in genetic research if they are to deal with the threats that face the Cavendish banana.

• Consumers who are used to eating bananas for breakfast may therefore need to find new fruits to eat.

• Both buyers and sellers of bananas should take the vulnerability of bananas into consideration, because it could lead to volatility in the market for this fruit.

Answer explanation

This choice successfully captures the passage’s argument about the need to introduce more variety into the types of bananas that are grown and eaten.

In the underlined portion of sentence 3 (reproduced below), the writer wants to use a neutral tone when describing the growing practices used to cultivate Cavendish banana trees.

Growing only one breed of a crop is a common way for farmers to maximize output and other desirable qualities, but the Cavendish banana is terribly lacking in diversity because its trees are grown not from seeds but from cuttings of existing trees.

Which of the following choices best accomplishes this goal?

• (as it is now)

• hopelessly

• bizarrely

• weirdly

• unusually

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

The writer wants to add a sentence after sentence 4 that develops the narrative in the second paragraph in a way that makes the audience feel the impact of the loss of the Gros Michel banana. Which of the following sentences best accomplishes this goal?

• This delicious and productive banana was also grown from cuttings until a fungus called fusarium wilt devastated Gros Michel trees.

• A fungus called fusarium wilt began to kill Gros Michel trees, which were also grown from cuttings.

• Fusarium wilt is a fungus that kills banana trees, and Gros Michel trees, which were also grown from cuttings, began to be infected by the wilt.

• Also grown from cuttings, Gros Michel bananas were never as popular as Cavendish bananas would become, but they were the most common type of banana until they were killed by a fungus called fusarium wilt.

• A devastating fungus called fusarium wilt began to kill Gros Michel banana trees, which, like Cavendish banana trees, were grown from cuttings.

Answer explanation

This choice highlights qualities of the Gros Michel banana, its delicious taste and its productivity, that indicate to the audience the impact of its loss. 

It also uses the emotionally evocative word “devastated” to describe the effects of the fusarium wilt fungus on the trees, again highlighting the sense of loss.

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.6.5

CCSS.RI.7.5

CCSS.RI.8.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

In sentence 9 (reproduced below), the writer wants to make a claim that rebuts the claim made in sentence 8 and that sets up the rest of the paragraph.

But decisions about what bananas to grow depend on what consumers will buy.

Which of the following versions of sentence 9 best accomplishes this goal?

• (As it is now)

• However, banana growers essentially have no control over what they plant.

• It is a fantasy to imagine that the Cavendish will be replaced with something else.

• But there are other ways to combat epidemics, such as modifying the genes of bananas to increase their resistance to disease.

• Bananas are just one of many crops that are vulnerable to such diseases, though, and they are arguably not the most important one.

Answer explanation

This choice rebuts the claim made in sentence 8, which suggests that growers are free to cultivate more varieties of bananas;

The version of sentence 9 that is in the passage makes it clear that consumers ultimately have the final say in determining what varieties get cultivated.