Entwined test

Name

Part A What can the reader infer about the narrator, based on what he says in the first section of the story?

• He had few friends in school.
• He was a star baseball player.
• The accident ruined his business plans.
• The accident instilled in him a fear of driving.

Part B Which quote from the story best supports the answer to Part A?

• With a start, I realized I knew Chris; I had played baseball against him. (paragraph 17)
• “A freshman. Apparently some pathetic loser.” (paragraph 47)
• . . . I did not renew it, nor have I ever driven a car again after that day I killed Professor G. (paragraph 52)
• In my early twenties I aimlessly worked boring, dead-end jobs. (paragraph 54)

Read paragraph 50 of the selection. “There are connections in our lives that we’re often not aware of. We’re entwined. We intersect, like chains, or strands of DNA.” Which theme does this quote help develop?

• People cannot escape the ways in which they are all linked.
• People should become more aware of their connections.
• People’s interconnections can create obstacles in their lives.
• People’s differences are not as significant as their similarities.

Choose the word or phrase from the surrounding text that provides a clue to the meaning of the word discernible as used in paragraph 112. Another faint but discernible conversation is a woman telling a friend about what a jerk her boss is.

• Another
• faint but
• conversation
• woman telling

Daria’s decision to call the narrator advances the plot by —

• giving Daria an opportunity to confess the truth about her father’s crimes
• leading the narrator to learn that Chris pushed his father in front of the car
• giving the narrator an opportunity to talk about memories that weigh on his mind
• leading Daria to learn about the demons that haunted her brother for many years

Which small lie does the narrator tell the police following the car accident?

• That Russell jumped in front of his car
• That he was traveling at 35 miles per hour
• That Chris pushed Russell in front of his car
• That he tried but failed to swerve out of the way

Which sentence about the selection uses a colon correctly?

• The narrator admits he was distracted while driving: by one of his favorite songs.
• The narrator explains he was driving: the 1979 Impala his father gave him.
• The narrator admits he was actually going around: forty miles per hour.
• The narrator explains that he had another major distraction: Daria.

Read the dictionary entry. boilerplate \boil′ər-plat′\ n 1. steel in the form of flat plates used in making steam boilers 2. journalistic material, such as syndicated features, made available by agencies in a form that is already typeset, originally in plate form, for easy incorporation into publications such as newspapers 3. hackneyed or conventional language, usually expressing a generally accepted viewpoint 4. standardized or set language that is meant to be used repeatedly, often in organizational publications or legal documents Based on context clues in the surrounding text, which definition best matches the meaning of boilerplate as it is used in paragraph 48?

• Definition 1
• Definition 2
• Definition 3
• Definition 4

Which excerpt from the selection best supports the inference that the narrator is a music fan?

• A song I loved, Pearl Jam’s “Alive,” came on the radio, and I took my hand off the two positions of the ten-and-two driving stance I had so recently been taught in driver’s ed. (paragraph 4)
• There was a faint whiff of something burnt—my tires on the asphalt—and Pearl Jam was still playing on the radio. (paragraph 10)
• Hymns were sung. Speakers came up to a makeshift stage and talked about Russ or Professor G. (paragraph 48)
• There was laughter around the table, and my questioner added, quoting Johnny Cash, “When you shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die?” (paragraph 57)