VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT: LITERARY TEXT

DIRECTIONS:

1. Read the following excerpts that contain vocabulary words from this unit. The vocabulary words are written in bold font.

2. Select the answer that best completes each question. (5 points)

*You may only select one option for your answer.

EXCERPT #1:

The eyes glimmered like two disks of phosphorus in the darkness. They appalled and yet fascinated me. I could not take my own eyes from them. Nature plays strange tricks with us at such moments of intensity, and those glimmering lights waxed and waned with a steady rise and fall. (“The Brazilian Cat”)

EXCERPT #2:

Nothing could be more hearty than his manner, and he set me at my ease in an instant. But it needed all his cordiality to atone for the frigidity and even rudeness of his wife, a tall, haggard woman, who came forward at his summons. (“The Brazilian Cat”)

EXCERPT #3:

The court next morning was crammed to overflowing, and a murmur of excitement passed over it when Mr. Humphrey was observed to enter in a state of emotion, which even his trained nerves could not conceal, and to confer with the opposing counsel. (“The Black Doctor”)

VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT: INFORMATIONAL TEXT

DIRECTIONS:

1. Read the following passage that contains vocabulary words from this unit. The vocabulary words are written in bold font.

2. Select the answer that best completes each question. (6 points)

*You may only select one option for your answer.

PASSAGE:

In war, survival may depend on an army’s ability to pass data in secret. Armies make intensive efforts to break each other’s communication codes. Each wants to uncover what its enemy plans to do. During World War II, no intelligence group was more valuable to American troops in the South Pacific than the Navajo Code Talkers.

The Navajo Code Talkers were a remarkable group of Navajo soldiers who used their native language to create an unbreakable code. The Navajo language has many earmarks of a successful code: it is unwritten, complicated, and known only by a scant number of non-Navajos. The Japanese could never crack it. During the terrible battle of Iwo Jima, six Navajo Code Talkers sent and received 800 vital messages without a single error.

Philip Johnston got the idea of using the Navajo language for a code in 1941. He had grown up among the Navajo and spoke their language fluently. He believed that any code based on Navajo would be secure. After months of testing and training, the first group of twenty-nine Navajo Code Talkers implemented their distinctive system. They matched Navajo words to common military terms. For example, the Navajo word for “hummingbird” stood for fighter plane; “iron fish” meant submarine; “turtle” meant tank. They also created a secondary code in which Navajo words stood for English letters. Code Talkers could then spell specific words by stringing words together.

Some people found it odd that Native Americans made such valiant efforts to help a nation that had a history of harming them. Yet Navajo Code Talkers never balked at the chance to serve the United States. Their code remains one of the few in all of military history that was never broken. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared August 14 as Navajo Code Talkers Day to honor the contributions of these brave soldiers.

CORRECTING ERRORS

DIRECTIONS:

1. Read each sentence and determine if the bold portion could be written better.

2. Select the answer that best completes each question. (4 points)

*You may only select one option for your answer.

PASSAGE:

During the second half of the nineteenth century, railroads were the single most important element of the American economy. They transported most of the nation's freight, they hired huge numbers of workers, and consuming large amounts of capital. In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, there were about 35,000 miles of track in the United States, by 1900, there were 200,000—nearly a sixfold increase. At the turn of the century, the railroads employed more than a million people to manage a system with 1.4 million freight cars and 35,000 passenger cars.

Railroads were critical to the prosperity of American towns and cities. Chicago, however, grew into a great city because it was a railroad hub between the East and the West. Vast fortunes were made by such railroad barons as Jay Gould, Collis Huntington, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Leland Stanford. Railroads, in fact, were the first big business in America.

READING A PASSAGE #1

DIRECTIONS:

1. Read the following passage that contains vocabulary words from this unit. The vocabulary words are written in bold font.

2. Select the answer that best completes each question. (6 points)

*You may only select one option for your answer.

PASSAGE:

During a recent vacation trip to Canada, my family and I had an unexpected adventure. While we were hiking near the edge of a large lake, I suddenly spotted a huge animal. It had extremely long legs and a head that looked like a cross between a horse and a camel. My brother Tim said it was a deer, but I replied there was no way this could be true, adding that, compared to this strapping creature, a deer is quite delicate and compact. Tim crept closer to the to the animal, making sure to do so in a quiet and stealthy way, and then whispered that he still thought it might be a deer—a very large deer. Again, I had to disagree with him. I insisted that there was nothing ambiguous about the situation. To me, it was indisputable that this was something other than a deer. In fact, I was sure that the titanic beast must be a moose. At this point, my sister Evie, who is a bit of a know-it-all, settled the argument. She announced that we were both right. The animal was indeed a moose—which just happens to be the largest member of the deer family.

READING A PASSAGE #2

DIRECTIONS:

1. Read the following passage that contains vocabulary words from this unit. The vocabulary words are written in bold font.

2. Select the answer that best completes each question. (6 points)

*You may only select one option for your answer.

PASSAGE:

When I visited my cousin Julio at college last week, I got to do something that I could never have done at home. Early on Friday morning, I got into a van with him and his teammates and then traveled to a boathouse by the edge of a river. At first I balked at going out on such a frigid day before the sun had even risen. Julio laughed and said that if I ever wanted to row competitively, I would have to get used to early mornings, especially toward the end of the fall semester, when the coach implemented a particularly intensive training program. This information motivated me to make a valiant effort and stop complaining. Later, as I sat behind Julio and used a pair of oars to help maneuver our boat away from the dock and onto the river, I felt more inspired than ever to someday become a rower.