English II Exam Review (Sp 2025)

Which of the following sentences shows Arana's personal feelings about the people of La Rinconada?

• It is a film about girls who live in desperately hard places.
• Hordes of village boys followed, building huts, bringing their families.
• With little more than small picks and big dreams, some defied the odds and struck gold.
• In a happy trance, I recalled the kindness of a widow who offered me the shelter of her hut.

*What element is used to extract the gold?

• iron
• mercury
• ore
• arsenic

Read the excerpt, then answer the question. Gold from Sleeping Beauty's entrails will glitter on Cartier and Tiffany counters around the world. What idea do these sensory details most clearly convey?

• There is beauty to be found in all places.
• The demand for gold is leading to global violence.
• La Rinconada and it's people pay a high price for the luxury of others.
• The Peruvian government has abandoned the people and the mine.

In La Rinconada the miners do backbreaking work in hopes of becoming rich. What does the author think of their chances of striking it rich?

• It could happen if a worker is extremely lucky.
• It is no longer possible because gold is so rare.
• It is more likely to happen in a different country.
• It is possible only for the hardest of the workers.

What type of persuasive appeal is used in the phrase "the neediest, most vulnerable members of our society" in sentence 8?

• ethos
• logos
• pathos

*Read this excerpt from “In La Rinconada, Peru, Searching for Beauty in Ugliness.” The green is gone. The earth is turned. What you see as Mount Ananea looms into view is a lunar landscape, pitted with orange lakes that reek of cyanide. What does this imagery most emphasize about the setting?

• the destruction caused by mining operations
• the terrible smell caused by lack of plumbing
• the surprising beauty in the midst of ugliness
• the way extreme temperatures affect the landscape

* Read the following excerpt from the article: Like the Ancient Mariner, who stared at the leaden seas and its hideous slime and eventually beheld a rare, soul-lifting, beauty, I suddenly saw the tin rooftops gleam like a mantle of diamonds. As the sun moved over the snow, the ravished mountain seems to ripple with ribbons of color. To which of the senses does the imagery of this passage most clearly appeal?

• sight
• smell
• taste
• touch

What are Arana's personal feelings about the people of La Rinconada?

• She blames them for not obtaining a formal education.
• She is angry with them for risking their children's lives.
• She considers them naive for risking their lives for nothing.
• She admires them for remaining human in brutal conditions.

*What sentence from the texts best shows what the writing means when she says Peru is "like a beggar sitting on a bench of gold"?

• With so much poverty about, it is hard to believe that Sleeping Beauty harbors riches….
• Peru’s economy boasts one of the highest growth rates in the world.
• In the past six years, its annual growth has hovered between 6 and 9 percent, rivaling the colossal engines of China and India.
• Here is a country alive with investment and tourism, a hive of construction, home to a rising and robust middle class.

In “Money,” how do the parents respond to the people who come to their door?

• They send them to the church for help.
• They give them what they need or ask for.
• They turn them away.
• They offer advice on how to make money.