MC Q Types
Rhetorical Terms
Modes of Persuasion
Grammar
100

These very common questions measure your ability to identify the author’s ideas, attitudes, and tone. They may also ask you to identify the subject of the passage or determine which choice best tells what the passage is about. Often, these questions require you to make an inference based on facts that you have to piece together from the passage. These questions usually include one of these key words: think, predict, indicate, feel, probably, seem, imply, suggest, assume, infer, and most likely.

Main Idea questions

100
an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface of the story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric.
Allegory
100
Name the 3 modes of persuasion?
Logos Ethos Pathos
100
Her recorded history began in the third millennium b.c., her bronzes were as old as the pyramids, her classical age was contemporary with that of Greece, her Confucian canon of ethics predated the New Testament if not the Old. The lines above contain which of the following? (a) Elaborate metaphor (b) Parallel syntax (c) A single periodic sentence (d) A compound subject (e) Subordinate clauses
(b)Parallel syntax
200
This question type asks about syntax, point of view, or figurative language. To answer these you must be able to recognize these elements and understand their effect on the entire passage.
Rhetoric Questions
200
Comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship, such as comparing the work of a heart to that of a pump. An analogy is a comparison to a directly parallel case. Ex: Shells were to ancient cultures as dollar bills are to modern American culture. Ex: Running a business is like managing an orchestra. Ex: The heart is like a pump.
Parallelism
200
An author would use this to show to his audience that he is a credible source and is worth listening to.
Ethos
200
During the twenties and thirties practically every human artifact was repatterned in the new mode. Lamps, tables, and chairs; toasters, refrigerators, and clocks; plates, goblets, and flatware—all were simplified, trimmed, and reshaped. Even the humble pencil sharpener did not escape; Raymond Loewy created a streamlined, chrome model in 1933. The structure of lines 49–56 (“During . . . 1933”) can best be described as (a) an exaggeration followed by a series of qualifying statements (b) a movement from the particular to the general (c) an historical example followed by contemporary examples (d) a generalization followed by other generalizations (e) a claim followed by supporting details
(e) a claim followed by supporting details
300

These are basically vocabulary questions about difficult words in a passage or about ordinary words used in unfamiliar ways. The key with these questions is to read the surrounding sentences to decipher the meaning of the word from the context of the passage.

Vocabulary Questions

300
Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent. Ex: "There was the delight I caught in seeing long straight rows. There was the faint, cool kiss of sensuality. There was the vague sense of the infinite...."
Anaphora
300
To use this mode of persuasion would be to cite facts and statistics, historical and literal analogies, and citing certain authorities on a subject.
Logos
300

It is little remembered today that well into the late nineteenth century most American machine manufacturers embellished their creations. While this practice pleased the public, some observers considered it anomalous. A writer in the British periodical Engineering found it “extremely difficult to understand how among a people so practical in most things, there is maintained a tolerance of the grotesque ornaments and gaudy colors, which as a rule rather than an exception distinguish American machines. The tone of lines 18–20 (“It is . . . creations”) can best be described as (a) disbelieving (b) uncertain (c) objective (d) exasperated (e) relieved

(c) objective

400
These questions may test your knowledge of grammar, punctuation, or mechanics, or they may test your understanding of literary terminology.
English Language Qs
400
writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. The work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. This type of writing may be fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.
Didactic
400

Which of the modes of persuasion is used in the excerpt below? "I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed." I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. August 28th, 1963.

Pathos

400

Yet in their reluctance to give up adornment—ridiculous as it might have seemed— these designers were in fact expressing a discomfort we all share, an uneasiness in the face of mathematical severity. Lines 39–43 (“Yet . . . severity”) imply that human beings share which of the following? (a) A preference for some sort of embellishment (b) A natural curiosity about ideas (c) An innate indifference toward designers and design (d) A fear of shifts in cultural styles and taste (e) A rejection of the principle of symmetry

b) A natural curiosity about ideas

500
These frequently asked questions require you to determine how or why the author wrote the material. These questions reflect the writer’s attitude toward the audience and/or subject, and purpose defines the effect the author wants to have on the audience. Writers convey purpose through their use of words (diction), images, and the impression those words and images create.
Tone or Purpose Qs
500
spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of ____________ are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion
Discourse
500
Which mode of persuasion is used in the excerpt below? "I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future." Democratic Presidential Candidate Acceptance Speech by Barack Obama. August 28th, 2008.
Ethos.
500

¹ John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America 1776–1900 (New York: Grossman Publishers, The Viking Press, 1976), Chapter 4, “The Aesthetics of Machinery,” pp. 139–180. ² “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition,” Engineering (26 May 1876), p. 427, cited by Kasson, see note 1 above. Which of the following is an accurate reading of footnote 2? (a) An article by John F. Kasson appears on page 427 of Engineering. (b) “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition” was published in New York. (c) The article “Engineering” can be found on page 427 of “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition.” (d) “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition” is an article published in the May 26, 1876, issue of Engineering. (e) Engineering is an article cited by John F. Kasson.

(d) “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition” is an article published in the May 26, 1876, issue of Engineering.

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