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(1) N'da Ali [a mountain in Cameroon, a country in West Africa] was the largest mountain in the vicinity. (2) It crouched at our backs, glowering over the landscape, the village, and our little hill. (3) From almost every vantage point you were aware of the mountain's mist-entangled, cloud-veiled shape brooding over everything, its heights guarded by sheer cliffs of gnarled granite so steep that no plant life could get a foothold. (4) Every day I had looked longingly at the summit, and every day I had watched N'da Ali in its many moods. (5) In the early morning it was a great mist-whitened monster; at noon it was all green and golden glitter of forest, its cliffs flushing pink in the sun; at night it was purple and shapeless, fading to black as the sun sank. (6) Sometimes it would go into hiding, drawing the white clouds around itself and brooding in their depths for two or three days at a time. (7) Every day I gazed at those great cliffs that guarded the way to the thick forest on its ridged back, and each day I grew more determined that I would go up there and see what it had to offer me.
--Gerald Durrell, The Overloaded Ark
The dominant impression Durrell wants to create is of N'da Ali's |
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| | A) | reputation as a sacred mountain. |
| | B) | reputation as a dangerous mountain for climbers. |
| | C) | changing moods. |
| | D) | remarkably beautiful appearance. |
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2 | |
We can infer that for Durrell the mountain was |
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| | A) | intimidating. |
| | B) | intriguing. |
| | C) | magical. |
| | D) | mesmerizing. |
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3 | |
The words crouched, glowering, and brooding are |
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| | A) | denotative. |
| | B) | connotative with positive overtones. |
| | C) | connotative with negative overtones. |
| | D) | euphemisms. |
| | E) | sneer words. |
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4 | |
In sentence 6, when Durrell writes that sometimes "it would go into hiding, drawing the white clouds around itself," we can infer that he is imaginatively comparing the mountain to _________________ and that the clouds are being compared metaphorically to _____________. |
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From the phrases "sheer cliffs," "gnarled granite so steep," and "ridged back," we can infer that N'da Ali |
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| | A) | was the only mountain in the area. |
| | B) | was an inhospitable environment. |
| | C) | was unexplored. |
| | D) | offered a commanding view of the valley below. |
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6 | |
(1) The ridge lunged upward like a dragon's spine bristling with fir and birch, and clouds were low and flying out from the mountains. (2) Snow from a late-winter storm balanced on boughs and logs. (3) When a riffle of wind stirred the branches, the snow drifted down in crystal veils that added a ghostlike radiance to the forest. (4) Bamboo grew in the understory, the crowded ranks of stems claiming the hillside so completely that the light beneath the bamboo's canopy was a translucent undersea green. (5) The sunless scent of moss and moldering wood choked the gloom. (6) The bamboo was rigid with frost, and a dense silence hung over the ridge; there was no movement and seemingly no life.
(7) In the stillness, leaves suddenly rustled and a stem cracked like breaking glass. (8) Shrouded in bamboo was a giant panda, a female, slumped softly in the snow, her back propped against a shrub. (9) Leaning to one side, she reached out and hooked a bamboo stem with the ivory claws of a forepaw, bent in the stem, and with a fluid movement bit it off near the base. (10) Stem firmly grasped, she sniffed it to verify that it was indeed palatable, and then ate it end-first like a stalk of celery. (11) While her powerful molars sections and crushed the stem, she glanced around for another, her movements placid and skillful, a perfect ecological integration between panda and bamboo. (12) She ate within a circle of three feet, moved a few steps and ate some more, consuming only coarse stems and discarding the leafy tops; she then sat hunched, forepaws in her lap, drowsy and content. (13) Within a circle of three thousand feet was her universe, all that she needed: bamboo, a mate, a snug tree-den in which to bear her young.
George B. Schaller, The Last Panda
The mode of discourse in the passage is |
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| | A) | narration. |
| | B) | description. |
| | C) | exposition. |
| | D) | persuasion. |
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7 | |
State the subject of the first paragraph. State the subject of the second paragraph. |
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8 | |
In your own words, identify the dominant impression conveyed in the entire passage. |
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9 | |
The author makes the point in sentence 13 that the panda |
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| | A) | is near extinction. |
| | B) | finds all her needs in the immediate environment. |
| | C) | eats bamboo only when no other food is available. |
| | D) | is a solitary and shy animal. |
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10 | |
Find two figures of speech in the first paragraph. |
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Do these figures of speech convey visual images or clarify a philosophical concept? |
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12 | |
Look again at sentence 7, which contains a description and a simile intended to appeal to our sense of |
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| | A) | touch. |
| | B) | taste. |
| | C) | hearing. |
| | D) | sight. |
| | E) | smell. |
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13 | |
In the second paragraph, the words fluid, powerful, placid, skillful, drowsy, and content are |
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| | A) | purely denotative. |
| | B) | connotative with positive overtones. |
| | C) | connotative with negative overtones. |
| | D) | examples of scientific jargon. |
2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education