Study Guide

Field 021: English Language Arts
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Objective 0001
Foundations of Reading (Standard 1)

1. Which of the following sets of words entered the English language from a Germanic language?

  1. commence, etiquette, genre
  2. barbecue, cargo, hurricane
  3. soprano, umbrella, fiasco
  4. angst, hamster, wanderlust
Answer
Correct Response: D.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of the historical, social, and regional influences that have helped shape words in the English language. The words angst, hamster, and wanderlust entered the English language from German. The word angst was borrowed into English from German during the early 1940s. The word hamster developed from the Old High German word hamustro, meaning "to hoard." The word wanderlust, which entered the English language during the late nineteenth century, is from the German words wandern ("to wander") and Lust ("desire").
Objective 0001
Foundations of Reading (Standard 1)

2. Use the sentence below to answer the question that follows.

Despite their fragile nature, the tiny flowers thrived in the barren, unforgiving soil.
A reader is using contextual analysis skills to understand the meaning of the word nature as it is used in the sentence. Which of the following pairs of words from the sentence would provide the best clues?

  1. Despite, thrived
  2. fragile, barren
  3. flowers, soil
  4. tiny, unforgiving
Answer
Correct Response: A.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of word structures and contexts. The word nature has multiple meanings. To determine which meaning applies in the sentence, a reader could use contextual analysis skills. By focusing on the relationship between "Despite" and "thrived," the reader could conclude that given the flowers' "fragile nature," their ability to thrive in a hostile environment is unexpected. The reader could correctly guess that in the sentence, the word nature refers to the flowers' basic constitution, or essence.

Use the excerpt below from an essay to answer the two questions that follow.

Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone. That all men are, when the chips are down, alone, is a banality—a banality because it is very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed. Most of us are not compelled to linger with the knowledge of our aloneness, for it is a knowledge that can paralyze all action in this world. There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed. None of these things can be done alone. But the conquest of the physical world is not man's only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.
Objective 0002
Reading Informational and Persuasive Texts (Standard 2)

3. The primary purpose of the excerpt is to:

  1. explain the origin of the creative impulse.
  2. urge artists to form communities of peers.
  3. argue that solitude is a desirable state.
  4. describe how artists contribute to society.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of the purpose of an informational text. In the excerpt, the author argues that while most people escape solitude by engaging with other individuals in the "conquest of the physical world," artists must cultivate solitude for the purpose of exploring and illuminating the "great wilderness" of the self. According to the author, the artist's contribution to society is to "illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest" of the self, serving as guide and explorer in society's quest "to make the world a more human dwelling place."
Objective 0003
Reading Literary Texts (Standard 3)

4. In the excerpt, an extended metaphor is used primarily to:

  1. highlight differences between artists and laborers.
  2. describe artists' role in exploring the human psyche.
  3. suggest that nature can never be fully conquered.
  4. demonstrate how emotions influence the creative process.
Answer
Correct Response: B.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of literary and rhetorical devices and techniques used in literary texts. In the excerpt, the author compares the common human endeavor of controlling the natural world to the artist's duty to "conquer the great wilderness of himself." This "great wilderness" is a metaphor for the unknown elements of the artist's identity and individuality, conscious and subconscious. The author extends the metaphor by referring to the wilderness as "that darkness" and "that vast forest," thus emphasizing the challenge and significance of the artist's quest.
Objective 0003
Reading Literary Texts (Standard 3)

5. Use the excerpt below from a work of nonfiction to answer the question that follows.

The principal object, then, which I proposed to myself in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used by men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way; and, further, and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings; and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended; and are more durable; and lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.
The views expressed in the excerpt are most closely associated with which of the following literary movements or periods?

  1. modernism
  2. the Victorian era
  3. romanticism
  4. the Elizabethan era
Answer
Correct Response: C.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of thematic characteristics of major literary movements. Romanticism was characterized by a turn away from scientific explanations of nature to an emotional response to nature. The author describes an intention to use the vernacular to describe everyday incidents and situations in a way that reflects raw emotional experience ("the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement"). The author believes that "the essential passions of the heart" are expressed more plainly and simply by people who live in a rural environment. This attempt to capture authentic emotion using authentic language was a basic tenet of the romantic movement, as was the idealization of the rural landscape and its inhabitants. The excerpt is taken from William Wordsworth's preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poetry by Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published in 1800 and generally considered to mark the beginning of romanticism in literature.
Objective 0003
Reading Literary Texts (Standard 3)

6. Use the excerpt below from a novel to answer the question that follows.

"But, perhaps, I keep no journal."

"Perhaps you are not sitting in this room, and I am not sitting by you. These are points in which a doubt is equally possible. Not keep a journal! How are your absent cousins to understand the tenour of your life in Bath without one? How are the civilities and compliments of every day to be related as they ought to be, unless noted down every evening in a journal? How are your various dresses to be remembered, and the particular state of your complexion, and curl of your hair to be described in all their diversities, without having constant recourse to a journal?—My dear madam, I am not so ignorant of young ladies' ways as you wish to believe me."
In the excerpt, the author uses dialogue to establish a narrative point of view that is:

  1. nostalgic for the past.
  2. indifferent toward others.
  3. unobservant of events.
  4. amused by social customs.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of points of view, tones, voices, and moods used in literary texts. In the excerpt, the second speaker employs a slightly sarcastic tone while poking fun at the social custom of keeping a journal and at his conversational partner's coy denial that she herself keeps a journal. By rhetorically asking how young women can remember such mundane details as their dresses, complexions, and hairstyles without "constant recourse to a journal," the speaker implies that the practice of keeping a daily journal is as superficial and meaningless as the details described in the journal. The speaker's attitude appears to stand in for the narrator's, establishing a narrative point of view that is amused by, and gently critical of, social customs.
Objective 0003
Reading Literary Texts (Standard 3)

7. Use the excerpt below from a play to answer the question that follows.

Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appear'd to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour!
The excerpt is most characteristic of which of the following verse forms?

  1. blank verse
  2. occasional verse
  3. satiric verse
  4. alliterative verse
Answer
Correct Response: A.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of structural elements of literary texts, such as exposition, denouement, blank verse, and iambic pentameter. The excerpt, taken from Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, is an example of blank verse, a style of dramatic poetry recognizable by its metrical pattern, iambic pentameter, and its lack of rhyme. Poetic lines written in iambic pentameter have five metrical feet, each of which is made up of two syllables, the second of which is stressed. Blank verse is one of the most influential poetic innovations in the Western literary tradition.
Objective 0004
Components of Writing (Standard 4)

8. Use the excerpt below from a work of nonfiction to answer the question that follows.

The mask is the centerpiece of a costume, often with props, that the wearer carries during a masquerade, a ritual ceremony performed before a community. Some masquerades are entertainment—a parade, for example, or dance that reinforces the cultural identity of a community. Others remain embedded in religious or social ritual. In these performances the masquerader may serve as a kind of moral policeman: instructing, punishing, maintaining and restoring order, or presiding over a passage—boy to man, citizen to leader, planting to harvest.
A student is developing a research report and would like to use the excerpt to support an idea. Which of the following attempts to paraphrase the excerpt would be most appropriate for the student to use in the report?

  1. A mask is an important part of a masquerade costume. Masquerades reflect a community's cultural identity in the form of public entertainment or religious ritual. Participants in masquerades have a powerful role in their community.
  2. The mask is the most important element of a masquerader's costume because it symbolizes cultural identity and spiritual beliefs. A masquerade can be a parade or a dance that reflects a community's cultural identity. It can also be a religious or social ritual.
  3. A mask can transform an ordinary person into a teacher, police officer, judge, or spiritual advisor. As the word masquerade suggests, people wear masks at masquerades, which are cultural, social, or religious ceremonies. Masquerades can be fun or serious.
  4. The most significant element of a masquerade costume is the mask. A masquerade reflects a community's cultural identity through public entertainment or ritual ceremony. Costumed performers may take on the role of teacher or enforcer of community morals.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of methods of paraphrasing source information. When attempting to paraphrase a text for a research report, a student's goal should be to use his or her own words and phrasing to accurately, thoroughly, and objectively communicate information and ideas presented in the original text.
Objective 0004
Components of Writing (Standard 4)

9. Use the list of sources below to answer the question that follows.



A student has gathered a list of sources while developing and refining ideas for a research topic. Which of the following topics would the student best be prepared to address in a research paper?

  1. the experiences of U.S. women as workers inside and outside the home during the mid-twentieth century
  2. the influence of U.S. women as consumers on television programming during the 1950s
  3. the failures of the woman suffrage movement and its impact on U.S. women during the mid-twentieth century
  4. the reasons more U.S. women than ever enrolled in college during the 1950s and 1960s
Answer
Correct Response: A.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of methods of selecting and refining topics for research projects. The student's list of sources broadly covers women's history. While the Neuhaus book focuses on the portrayal of the American housewife in advertising over a span of 200 years, most of the other sources focus on women's changing roles during the mid-twentieth century. All of the sources would most likely provide information about the experiences of U.S. women as workers inside and outside the home during the mid-twentieth century.
Objective 0005
Modes of Writing (Standard 5)

10. A student is developing an introductory paragraph for a personal essay about growing up with an older brother. Which of the following versions of the paragraph uses imagery most effectively to convey a vivid impression of the student's relationship with his brother?

  1. Growing up with an older brother was the worst! He once locked me out of the house during a snowstorm. There I was, standing on the porch wearing my pajamas while he sat in the living room watching TV. My brother thought his endless pranks were funny, but they made me miserable. Sadly for us both, now that I'm older I don't believe anything he says.
  2. My older brother ruined my childhood. When I was five, he locked me out of the house and I stood outside in the snow wearing pajamas. Our parents told me it was a phase and to wait for him to grow out of it. But when he left Dad stranded in the attic without a ladder and went out for a joyride in Dad's car, they changed their tune.
  3. One cold winter night when I was five, my brother told me there was a surprise for me outside. I believed him because he was my big brother. But the only surprise was how cold I got wearing flimsy flannel pajamas in a snowstorm. By the time my brother let me back into the house, my toes were blue. But after that experience I still fell for his ruses because I wanted to believe he had changed.
  4. I can't wait for my brother to go away to college so I can finally live in peace without worrying about what practical joke he's going to pull next. One time when I was a little kid, he told me there was a surprise for me on the porch and locked me out of the house when I went to get it. He left me outside in my pajamas during a snowstorm for hours.
Answer
Correct Response: C.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of methods of developing narrative writing that establishes a distinct point of view and is creative, compelling, and insightful. One way to establish a distinct point of view that is creative, compelling, and insightful is to use imagery that conveys a vivid impression. The images of "flimsy flannel pajamas" and toes turning blue from the cold convey a vivid impression of the student's relationship with his brother by focusing on visual details that highlight the student's gullibility, as well as the brother's apparent callousness.
Objective 0005
Modes of Writing (Standard 5)

11. Which of the following versions of a thesis statement from an argumentative essay on bottled water would be most effective for a student to use to establish a clear position?

  1. To save our planet from environmental catastrophe, we must ban disposable plastic water bottles.
  2. Though bottled water is convenient, it has some environmental disadvantages we must be aware of.
  3. Through examining the use of plastic by the bottled water industry, we will see that action must be taken.
  4. Bottled water has been popular for the past 30 years, and it is finally time for us to make a change.
Answer
Correct Response: A.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of methods of establishing a clear position in persuasive writing. The thesis statement "To save our planet from environmental catastrophe, we must ban disposable plastic water bottles" establishes a clear position by stating a clear argument (disposable plastic water bottles harm the global environment) and a specific call to action (ban the bottles).
Objective 0005
Modes of Writing (Standard 5)

12. Which of the following versions of a paragraph for a cover letter would be most appropriate for a student to use?

  1. Until the school year commenced, I was a dedicated employee of Timber Trails Swim Club. During my tenure as a snack bar attendant, I became versed in the idiosyncrasies of maintaining an outdoor food preparation facility. Challenges abounded, to be sure.
  2. My most recent work experience was at the snack bar of Timber Trails Swim Club. I worked this job three summers in a row. I took orders and did upkeep around the snack bar. My responsibilities included filling vending machines, stocking ice cream bars, and sweeping up the outdoor picnic area.
  3. As the snack bar guy at Timber Trails Swim Club, I pretty much just took orders and made sure kids got their candy and pizza. It was a pretty good gig for the summer, but the pool's closed for the season now. My job at the snack bar gave me a good sense of responsibility.
  4. Timber Trails Swim Club is right off Wolf Road, past the school and the library. I worked at the snack bar at Timber, and it was definitely a nice job for a sophomore. I can't say that I didn't spend most of my time eating candy, but I think I did a pretty good job, I have to admit.
Answer
Correct Response: B.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of methods of incorporating appropriate and effective styles, tones, and diction, such as projecting confidence rather than boastfulness, in expository and persuasive writing. The purpose of a cover letter is to provide relevant information about the writer's professional qualifications for a specific job, as well as relevant information about the writer's previous professional experience. Because many prospective employers have a limited amount of time to read cover letters, cover letters should be clear and concise. Formal language and an objective tone will add to the effectiveness of a cover letter by demonstrating the writer's professionalism and seriousness of purpose.
Objective 0006
Listening, Speaking, and Interpersonal Communication (Standard 6)

13. Which of the following versions of an excerpt from a speech demonstrates the most effective use of pauses to enhance speech delivery?

  1. "Students in our public school system cannot…afford to lose…their music program. I know…money is scarce, but for many of our students, the music education class…is the only chance they have to begin a lifelong journey…of music appreciation. And while it is true…that time students spend in music class…could be spent in academic courses, research shows that students who study music do better…academically."
  2. "Students in our public school system…cannot afford to lose their music program. I know money is scarce,…but for many of our students, the music education class is the only chance they have…to begin a lifelong journey of music appreciation. And while it is true that time students spend in music class could be spent in academic courses, research…shows that students who study music…do better academically."
  3. "Students in our public school system cannot…afford to lose their music program. I know money…is scarce, but for many of our students, the music education class…is the only chance they have to begin…a lifelong…journey of music appreciation. And while it is true that time students spend in music class could be spent…in academic courses, research shows that…students who study music do better academically."
  4. "Students…in our public school system cannot afford to lose…their music program. I know money is scarce, but for many of our students, the music education class…is the only chance they have to begin a lifelong journey of music…appreciation. And while it is true…that time students spend…in music class could be spent in academic courses, research shows that students who study music do better…academically."
Answer
Correct Response: B.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of types of speech delivery. Strategic use of pauses is a highly effective way to enhance speech delivery. For example, pausing before a key word or idea builds listeners' interest by creating anticipation and implying that listeners will hear something important when the speaker resumes. Pauses give listeners time to process information and to respond emotionally. In the excerpt, pauses highlight key points in the speaker's argument ("cannot afford to lose their music program," "but for many of our students, the music education class is the only chance they have"). In addition, pauses give listeners time to process information that supports the speaker's argument ("research…shows that students who study music…do better academically").
Objective 0007
Visual Literacy and Media Presentation (Standard 7)

14. Use the editorial cartoon below to answer the question that follows.



The editorial cartoon is most likely intended to influence public opinion about which of the following issues?

  1. the effects of climate change on global sea levels
  2. the limits on government funding of space travel
  3. the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas production
  4. the possibility that life exists in other galaxies
Answer
Correct Response: C.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of strategies for interpreting meanings and messages conveyed through visual images used in media texts and on the Internet, such as photographs and editorial cartoons. The editorial cartoon presents a literal interpretation of the term carbon footprint, which refers to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere as a result of human actions. Because greenhouse gases do not escape the earth's atmosphere, they contribute to climate change. In the cartoon, a gigantic human footprint covers a large portion of North America, in particular the United States, indicating that inhabitants of this part of the world leave a carbon footprint that is much larger than that left by inhabitants of other parts of the globe. The question "Is this any way to treat your mother?" reflects the commonly used phrase "Mother Earth" while appealing to viewers' sense of guilt for polluting their planet.
Objective 0008
English Language Arts Instruction and Assessment (Standard 8)

15. A high school teacher creates a blog where students can post responses to a novel they are reading for class. The novel takes place in Australia, where none of the students have ever been. Which of the following additional activities would make blogging about the novel a richer educational experience for the students?

  1. posting links to reviews of the novel by Australian critics and readers
  2. creating hyperlinks to maps of, photographs of, and news articles about Australia
  3. viewing scenes filmed on location in Australia from the film version of the novel
  4. reading about the author's experience growing up in Australia on the author's Web site
Answer
Correct Response: B.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of strategies for integrating English language arts instruction with electronic resources and technology, such as Web logs/blogs. Hyperlinks to maps of, photographs of, and news articles about Australia would provide students with the opportunity to learn about the novel's setting by accessing information presented in a range of formats. Building students' background knowledge in this way would not only enhance their comprehension of the novel, it would help students develop visual and media literacy, as well as research skills.