Academic Language
The definition of "simile"
A comparison using the words "like" or "as"
The definition of "inference"
To determine something not stated directly by using reasoning and evidence from the text.
Which line from the poem most strongly supports that the speaker still has a great distance left to travel?
Answer choices for the above question
A. “The darkest evening of the year.”
B. “Of easy wind and downy flake.”
C. “And miles to go before I sleep.”
D. “His house is in the village, though;”
C
What can the reader mainly infer about Coleman from the following passage (paragraph 15)?
Coleman's funeral in Jacksonville on May 2, 1926, was attended by more than 5,000 mourners, many who were prominent members of black society. Three days later her body arrived in Orlando, Fla., where thousands more attended a funeral at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Her final journey took her back to Chicago, where more than 10,000 people filed past her coffin to pay final respects before her burial in the Lincoln Cemetery.
Answer choices for the above question
A. She lessened discrimination against African Americans.
B. She had always craved attention.
C. She was widely popular in America.
D. She was practically unknown in her homeland.
C
She had to have three funerals, in different cities, to accommodate thousands of admirers.
Which word or phrase best replaces futile in the following passage (paragraph 3)?
I clutched its mate to my chest like a baby, though of course it was futile. What is one boot without the other boot? It is nothing. It is useless, an orphan forevermore, and I could take no mercy on it. It was a big lug of a thing, of genuine heft, a brown leather Raichle boot with a red lace and silver metal fasts. I lifted it high and threw it with all my might and watched it fall into the lush trees and out of my life.
Answer choices for the above question
A. showing a lack of intelligence
B. confusing
C. amusing
D. having no result or effect
D
Strayed’s attachment to her lone boot served no purpose, because “[i]t [was] useless” without its match; she knew it was ultimately not worth keeping.
Elements of a good thesis statement
1) Debatable
2) Narrow / Specific
3) Sums up the central ideas
NOTE: Make sure (on the test) that the thesis matches the rest of the passage ... REREAD
The definition of "refined"
Developed or improved so as to be precise or subtle.
Based on the following passage, what mainly can the reader infer about the traveler (lines 27-32)?
27 and there was a new voice,
28 which you slowly
29 recognized as your own,
30 that kept you company
31 as you strode deeper and deeper
32 into the world,
Answer choices for the above question
A. The traveler wants to hear the opinions of strangers.
B. The traveler is afraid of going further into the unknown.
C. The traveler has not considered her own thoughts and desires for a long time.
D. The traveler thinks more clearly in silence.
C
The traveler "slowly recognized" her own voice because she has not heard it in a while.
Which of the following sentences from the text best shows what the parents’ relationship is like in "Volar?"
Answer choices for the above question
A. In the kitchen my mother and father would be talking softly over a café con leche.
B. In the kitchen they would be discussing events in the barrio.
C. “It was their time together at the beginning of each day and even at an early age I could feel their disappointment if I interrupted them by getting up too early.”
D. Ay, si yo pudiera volar.
C
This sentence shows that the parents like to spend special time together every day and are disappointed if they are interrupted, suggesting that they have a devoted relationship.
Choose the best sentence to add descriptive details to the following passage (paragraph 14).
I gazed at my bare and battered feet, with their smattering of remaining toenails. They were ghostly pale to the line a few inches above my ankles, where the wool socks I usually wore ended. My calves above them were muscled and golden and hairy, dusted with dirt and a constellation of bruises and scratches. I’d started walking in the Mojave Desert and I didn’t plan to stop until I touched my hand to a bridge that crosses the Columbia River at the Oregon-Washington border with the grandiose name the Bridge of the Gods.
Answer choices for the above question
A. “I finally regretted setting off on this hike alone, but it was far too late for that now.”
B. “I kept an extra pair of black wool socks in my left pocket.”
C. “My shins were visibly swollen underneath a crusty exterior of dried mud and scabs.”
D. “I bought the shirt I’d been wearing at a vintage store in San Diego.”
C
Strayed includes physical descriptions of part of her legs and feet; a sentence about her shins would most likely fit after the one about her calves.
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Elements of an effective conclusion
Examples:
- Restate the thesis (in new words)
- So what?
- Clincher / Closure
Which of the following inferences about the speaker’s journey is best supported by the poem (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening)?
Answer choices for the above question
A. He still has a great distance left to travel.
B. He is traveling through a country where he does not speak the language.
C. He must find shelter before the weather gets worse.
D. He slowly realizes that he is being followed.
A
The speaker directly references the long journey before him.
What is most likely a central idea of "Highest Duty?"
Answer choices for the above question
A. Pilots should have military experience.
B. Sully became a pilot by accident.
C. Sully decided to become a pilot because of the lessons and heroes of his youth.
D. Flying is not as special as it used to be, mainly because of new laws that have hurt the airline industry.
C
Sully was led to become a pilot by his early exposure to jets, his study of heroic pilots like Lindbergh, and other influences.
With which of the following statements would the author of Wild most likely agree?
Answer choices for the above question
A. A hiker must always bring two pairs of everything, in case of loss or emergency.
B. When faced with challenges, the first step to moving forward is simply moving.
C. There is no better way to learn about oneself than spending time in solitude.
D. Personal attachment is the only cause of pain.
B
Strayed realizes that there is only one option when circumstances become difficult (e.g., losing her shoe): “To keep walking.”
The definition of "metaphor"
A figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. A metaphor states that one thing is another thing.
The definition of "precise language"
The use of exact nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc., to help produce vivid mental pictures without resorting to using too many words to convey thoughts.
Which of the following inferences is best supported by the passage below (lines 5–8)?
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
Answer choices for the above question
A. The speaker is on the run from the law.
B. The speaker misses his wife and children.
C. The speaker is hopelessly lost.
D. The speaker is far away from civilization.
D
There are no buildings or signs of people in any direction.
Which inference about Coleman is best supported by the passage below (paragraphs 10-11)?
In February of 1922, Coleman appeared in her first American airshow, an event honoring veterans of the all black 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I. The show, held at Curtiss Field on Long Island, N.Y., billed Coleman as "the world's greatest woman flier," and featured aerial displays by some of America's top ace pilots of the first world war.
Soon after her New York performance, she returned to Chicago where she dazzled huge crowds with daredevil maneuvers that included figure eights, loops and near-ground dips at the Checkerboard Airdrome, now Midway Airport.
Answer choices for the above question
A. She loved the excitement of traveling.
B. She was a very skillful pilot.
C. She was a better pilot than some ace pilots of World War I.
D. She was not treated as she deserved in America.
B
She could only perform daredevil feats and be billed as the “greatest woman flier” if she were very skilled.
Which inference about the author’s decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail is best supported by the passage below (paragraphs 5-7)?
In the years before I pitched my boot over the edge of the mountain, I’d been pitching myself over the edge too. I’d ranged and roamed and railed—from Minnesota to New York to Oregon and all across the West—until at last I found myself, bootless, in the summer of 1995, not so much loose in the world as bound to it.
It was a world I’d never been to and yet had known was there all along, one I’d staggered to in sorrow and confusion and fear and hope. A world I thought would both make me into the woman I knew I could become and turn me back into the girl I’d once been. A world that measured two feet wide and 2,663 miles long.
A world called the Pacific Crest Trail.
Answer choices for the above question
A. Strayed had no expectations in mind when she planned to hike; she was simply looking for adventure.
B. The hike would be an exercise in learning to trust and adapt to nature.
C. She had hoped the hike, as part of her wanderings, would result in self-exploration and discovery.
D. The PCT would be the trail she would take to visit Minnesota, New York, and Oregon.
C
Strayed thought that hiking the PCT by herself would give her the opportunity to reflect on her past, reveal her true personality, and grow her “into the woman [she] knew [she] could become.”
The definition of cliche
A very predictable or unoriginal thing/person.
The process of looking at a question on a test
Examples:
1) Look for key words in the question
2) Go back and reread the portion of the text that it is asking about
3) Eliminate answers
4) Look for key words / thoughts in the answers
Which inference about “the traveler” is best supported by the passage below?
The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own,
and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.
A. In order to reach his or her destination, the traveler must leave the comfort zone behind.
B. Most travelers don’t want to knock on any strangers’ doors unless absolutely necessary.
C. The traveler is running out of money.
D. The traveler is stuck on another planet.
A
The speaker says that the traveler must journey to strangers’ homes and through the wilderness to reach a place of belonging.
Which of the following inferences is best supported by the sentences below (paragraph 1)?
Once I saw our landlord, whom I knew my parents feared, sitting in a treasure-room dressed in an ermine coat and a large gold crown. He sat on the floor counting his dollar bills. I played a trick on him. Going up to his building’s chimney, I blew a little puff of my super-breath into his fireplace, scattering his stacks of money so that he had to start counting all over again. I could more or less program my Supergirl dreams in those days by focusing on the object of my current obsession.
Answer choices for the above question
A. The landlord is a greedy figure who creates problems for the narrator’s family.
B. The narrator is a very mischievous young woman.
C. The narrator starts to experience powers outside her dreams.
D. The landlord has threatened to evict the narrator’s family on multiple occasions.
A
The image of the landlord counting his money and the narrator’s desire to disrupt that process shows that the landlord is a problematic figure.
Which sentence from the text best supports that Strayed had hoped the hike, as part of her wanderings, would result in self-exploration and discovery?
Answer choices for the above question
A. “It was a world I’d never been to and yet had known was there all along, one I’d staggered to in sorrow and confusion and fear and hope.”
B. “A world I thought would both make me into the woman I knew I could become and turn me back into the girl I’d once been.”
C. “In the years before I pitched my boot over the edge of the mountain, I’d been pitching myself over the edge too.”
D. “ I’d ranged and roamed and railed—from Minnesota to New York to Oregon and all across the West—until at last I found myself, bootless, in the summer of 1995, not so much loose in the world as bound to it.”
B
This sentence mentions Strayed’s desire for self-understanding, personal growth, and acceptance as part of her adventure into this new “world.”