Case for Short Words

from the passage "The Case for Short Words"

In paragraphs 10 through 17, the author bolsters his position by —

• citing researchers with similar views

• demonstrating the foolishness of opposing points of view

• illustrating that students approach writing differently from adults

• providing examples from his own classroom

from the passage "The Case for Short Words"

One technique the author uses to support his case in the selection is —

• using short words himself

• giving examples of foreign words and phrases

• citing the scientific principles behind language acquisition

• noting opposing views

from the passage "The Case for Short Words"

Short words are bright like sparks that glow in the night, prompt like the dawn that greets the day, sharp like the blade of a knife, hot like salt tears that scald the cheek, quick like moths that flit from flame to flame, and terse like the dart and sting of a bee.

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Which technique does the author use in paragraph 3?

• Foreshadowing

• Testimonials

• Questions

• Figurative language

from the passage "The Case for Short Words"

What is the author’s primary purpose for writing this selection? (Why did he write it?)

• To convince readers that communication can be improved through the use of short, precise words

• To complain that long words have steadily replaced short words to the point that people no longer understand many short words

• To suggest that our modern, technologically driven culture has been forced to rely on increasingly complex words in order to convey meaning

• To prove that there is no need for English to use words longer than two or three syllables

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from the passage "The Case for Short Words"

Shakespeare’s contemporaries made the King James Bible a centerpiece of short words—“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.” The descendants of such mighty lines live on in the twentieth century. When asked to explain his policy to Parliament, Winston Churchill responded with these ringing monosyllables: “I will say: it is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us.” In his “Death of the Hired Man” Robert Frost observes that “Home is the place where, when you have to go there,/They have to take you in.” And William H. Johnson uses ten two-letter words to explain his secret of success: “If it is to be,/It is up to me.”

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What is the primary purpose of paragraph 9?

• To break down English into its basic parts

• To support the author’s premise with illustrations

• To demonstrate the limitations of single-syllable words

• To suggest that English is a simple language

from the passage "The Case for Short Words"

Reference the "Long & Complicated vs. Short & Simple" Table in the passage.

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Based on his argument in the selection, with which of the following statements about the table titled “Long & Complicated vs. Short & Simple” would the author most likely agree?

• Shorter words like those in the right-hand column aren’t necessarily easier to understand.

• Words like those in the left-hand column are more precise.

• The main problem with words like those in the left-hand column is that they come from foreign languages.

• Using words like those from the right-hand column can improve writing.

from the passage "Memories of New York City Snow"

That they bothered to have this photograph taken—I suppose to send back to family in Cuba—has always been a source of enchantment for me. That something so common to winters in New York would strike them as an object of exotic admiration has always spoken volumes about the newness— and innocence—of their immigrants’ experience. How thrilling it all must have seemed to them, for their New York was so very different from the small town surrounded by farms in eastern Cuba that they hailed from. Their New York was a fanciful and bustling city of endless sidewalks and unimaginably high buildings; of great bridges and twisting outdoor elevated train trestles; of walk up tenement houses with mysteriously dark basements, and subways that burrowed through an underworld of girded tunnels; of dance halls, burlesque houses, and palatial department stores with their complement of Christmastime Salvation Army Santa Clauses on every street corner. Delightful and perilous, their New York was a city of incredibly loud noises, of police and air-raid sirens and factory whistles and subway rumble; a city where people sometimes shushed you for speaking Spanish in a public place, or could be unforgiving if you did not speak English well or seemed to be of a different ethnic background. (My father was once nearly hit by a garbage can that had been thrown off the rooftop of a building as he was walking along La Salle Street in upper Manhattan.)

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In paragraph 2, the author uses semicolons and commas to string together multiple phrases into two very long consecutive sentences in order to —

• create a vivid image of how complex the city must have appeared to the immigrants

• reflect the evolution of the urban lifestyle of New York City in the 1940s

• provide an objective description of the many hazards Cuban immigrants faced

• describe the wonderful opportunities that only New York City could supply

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from the passage "Memories of New York City Snow"

Perhaps that’s why to this day my own associations with a New York City snowfall have a mystical connotation, as if the presence of snow really meant that some kind of inaccessible divinity had settled his breath upon us. (***Use a dictionary for words you do not know the meaning to***)

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In the final sentence of the essay, the author’s diction results in a tone (The feeling) that can best be described as —

• intolerant

• reverent

• strident

• moralistic

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from the passage "Memories of New York City Snow"

In this essay, the author uses snow as a symbol (representing something) of —

• hostility and resentment

• expansion and development

• love and devotion

• innocence and peace

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from the passage "Memories of New York City Snow"

Which of these best conveys the importance of appearance to the Cuban immigrants discussed in the essay?

• Dressed to the hilt, they’d leave their uptown neighborhoods and make an excursion to another part of the city. . . .

• For immigrants of my parents’ generation, . . . the very existence of snow was a source of fascination.

• My own mother, speaking nary a word of English, did a stint in the garment district as a seamstress.

• Delightful and perilous, their New York was a city of incredibly loud noises, of police and air-raid sirens and factory whistles and subway rumble. . . .

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