AP Langauge and Composition - MCQ Practice 1

The organization of the passage can best be described as

• Personal narrative followed by analysis

• Empirical data followed by conjecture

• Nonjudgemental explanation of a current phenomenon followed by a question

• Descriptive analysis followed by a final judgement

• Condemnation of a practice followed by partial acceptance

In context, the author places the term "book club" in quotation marks in lines 3 and 9 in order to:

• Show that these are humorous examples

• Highlight how formal some of these clubs are

• Reveal that the book clubs that appear online or on television are unsatisfactory

• Suggest that the term is being broadened beyond its original meaning

• Imply that many book club members do not like the term

The first paragraph (lines 1 - 15) serve to

• Explain why the author enjoys one way of reading

• Describe the extension of a particular activity into nontraditional areas

• Make generalizations that will be developed later

• Explore ways in which people can structure free time

• Detail the power of media

According to lines 23-26, Stephanie Nolen's primary criticism of book clubs is that they:

• Are too programmed

• Do not offer enough variety

• Cause readers to be anxious

• Overlook many classics

• Forego quality over quantity

The clubs referred to in line 39 are discussed in:

• The online discussion group of a particular book club

• A study sponsored by book club participants

• An editorial in a Canadian magazine

• A guide written by Elaine Daspin

• An article published in the Wall Street Journal

The "recent book-club guides" (lines 45-46) tend to emphasize:

• How book clubs need to be structured and regular in order to succeed

• How difficult it is to start a book club in New York

• How often even the best book clubs fail

• The variety of reasons that people have for starting book clubs

• The challenges of selecting books for discussion

The last paragraph (lines 49-64) marks a shift from

• Popular to academic contexts

• Supported to unsound generalizations

• Impersonal to personal examples

• Subtle irony to explicit sarcasm

• Neutral to negative characterization of book clubs

The functions of lines 52-58 ("Yet despite.....abstractions) is to

• Argue for the value of a particular literary theory

• Explain how important it is not to make abstract judgements

• Point out discrepancy between teaching practices and literary theory

• Highlight the demand for a way to measure emotional responses to texts

• Explore the author's views about reading in isolation

The final sentence (lines 62-64) serves to:

• Conclude an argument begun in the first paragraph

• Suggest a probable cause for an ongoing phenomenon

• Argue that publishers need to pay more attention to book clubs

• Offer a final analysis of the phenomenon described in the second paragraph

• Explain why the author has chosen a particular field of study

One function of sentence 3 (lines 8 - 10) and footnote 1 is to:

• Give an example of a group that earns money by reading

• Show that book clubs are not intended for literary scholars

• Note the connection between marketing and book clubs

• Cite one book club as a particular model of excellence

• Suggest the benefits of online discussion groups