Slam: Performance Poetry Lives On

To compose a letter means to

• mail it.

• read it.

• write it.

• open it.

Euphoria means extreme

• joy.

• skill.

• hope.

• wealth.

Expression means a way to

• excuse bad behavior.

• communicate creatively.

• expand the size of an object.

• repair something that is broken.

Improvisation means something that is

• impossible to understand.

• finished ahead of schedule.

• done without preplanning.

• pre-recorded before a show

A phenomenon means something

• amusing that people laugh at.

• terrible that people are afraid of.

• hopeful that people dream about.

• new that people get excited about.

At a poetry recitation, the poem is always

• read by an audience.

• read aloud in front of people.

• written by people as a group

• combined with music to make a song.

The structure of a poem is

• the way it is organized.

• the way readers react to it.

• the reason the author wrote it.

• the message it communicates.

To transcend difficulties means to

• ignore them.

• suffer from them.

• go beyond them.

• tell others about them.

What is the author’s main purpose for writing this essay?

• to explain what slam is and where it came from

• to persuade readers to enter a slam competition

• to entertain readers with examples of oral poetry

• to question whether slam is as valuable as other kinds of poetry

Why does the author include quotes from journalists and theater critics?

• to make the essay seem like fiction

• to show that slam is being taken seriously

• to provide opinions that are different from hers

• to hint that slam is known only to a select group