Never

Read the following excerpt from Kenneth Follet's novel Never, a novel about the beginning of a nuclear war.  Pauline Green is the president of the United States of America in this novel and has just launched an attack on North Korea in retaliation for North Korea's attack on South Korea and Japan.

Pauline had killed hundreds of people, perhaps thousands, by bombing North Korean military bases, and more would have been maimed by the blast and ravaged by the radiation.  In her head she knew she had done the right thing: General Pak's murderous regime had to be closed down.  But no amount of reasoning could make her feel all right about it in her heart.  Every time she washed her hands she thought about Lady Macbeth trying to get the blood off. 

What is the purpose of the allusion in the above passage?

a. to show how Pauline was justified in taking the action she took
b. to show how Pauline feels guilty for the deaths of those caught in the US's bombing
c. to show how guilty General Pak is from his actions
d. to let the reader know that nuclear war is never a justifiable option

Scroll down for the answer

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In order to answer this question correctly, you must:

• know what an allusion in
• be able to find the allusion in the passage
• understand how the allusion relates to the passage

Allusions are often difficult to spot because you may have never read the book being alluded to.  Allusions that may appear on the state test will probably come from Shakespeare, mythology, or the Bible.  

So, how do you find the allusion in the above passage if you do not recognize the work it is coming from?  First thing to do is to look for anything that does not belong.  We have three names: Pauline, General Pak, and Lady Macbeth.  We know from reading the blurb before the passage that Pauline is a character in the book.  We can guess that General Pak is her adversary in North Korea.  That leaves Lady Macbeth, who doesn't seem to have a role here.  That could be our allusion.  We see she is washing blood off her hands.  Given that this was a missile strike, there would be no literal blood on anyone's hands, so we can read this to be figurative.  The phrase "blood on one's hands" deals with a guilty conscience, so armed with that knowledge, we can narrow the answers to B or C.  Since it is Pauline that the passage is focused on and not General Pak, we can narrow the answer to B.

Make Sure to Get Extra Seasoning on Those Fries

Read the following and decide on the tone of the writer:

The coach yelled at us for losing the game. I didn't see what the big deal was. It's not like we're professional athletes or anything. Besides, my mom is taking me to Bojangles after the game whether we win or lose.

Is the tone of this passage:

a. angry 
b. ecstatic
c. indifferent 
d. sarcastic





Scroll down for the answer











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Answer:

C - indifferent (this means that the person does not care one way or the other)

D - is wrong because the level of sarcasm in this passage is much lower than the level of indifference - HOWEVER - D is the best wrong answer, so your guessing skills aren't too far off

A - is wrong because the coach is angry, not the speaker

B - is wrong because ecstatic means very, very happy and while Bojangles should be enough to make anyone happy (mmm...Bojangles), the speaker is not showing great happiness

What the Heck Was Going on in That School?

Read the following passage:

With all the bombilation of the students yelling, alarms ringing, and teachers crying, I could not hear the intercom tell us what we were supposed to be doing.

As used in the above passage, what does bombilation mean?

a. an explosion

b. large crowds

c. mass chaos

d. loud noises

Scroll down for the answer.









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a. is incorrect. It is a good strategy to look at the word and see "bomb" since many times words have similar meanings to others with the same word parts.

b. is incorrect. While there is likely a large crowd in the area, it does not fit in the sentence where bombilation is.

c. is incorrect. This does seem to fit, but the next answer choice matches better because of the context clue of "I could not hear" later int he sentence. This is the best wrong answer.

d. is correct. Bombilation does mean loud noises.

*

When You Wish upon a Star

Look at the picture below:

What literary term is this an example of?

a. personification
b. alliteration
c. pun
d. irony









Scroll down for the answer.







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c. is the correct answer.  A pun is a play on words and this is a play on "Once upon a time."

Thanks to http://thatspunny.blogspot.com/ for the picture.
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Which Disney Character Is Especially Good at Expectorating?

Read the following sentences:

I tried something that my mom made for dinner.  It was so awful that before I realized what I was doing, I expectorated it.  My mom was furious with me.

The word expectorated as used in the above sentence probably means:

a. threw up
b. spit out
c. swallowed
d. chewed it up














Scroll down for the answer.






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a. is incorrect.  While it might fit with the idea of bad food, it does not fit as well with the mom being furious. 
b. is correct.
c. is incorrect.  Why would the mom be furious over swallowing her cooking?
d. is incorrect.  Why would the mom be furious over chewing your food?

By the way, Gaston is especially good at expectorating.  It says so right in the song that bears his name in Beauty and the Beast.


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Happy Maundy Thursday

Read the text below.

Tomorrow is Good Friday.  What is the reason that the Friday before Easter, the day marking the death of Jesus on the cross, is known as "Good" rather than "Evil" or something negative?


a. it was created by Romans who did not believe the death of Jesus was a bad thing

b. it is a Celtic holiday that has nothing to do with Jesus, but happens to fall on the same day

c. Christians believe that Jesus' death is a good thing since his resurrection provides a way to heaven

d. it is used ironically to emphasize the gruesomeness of a cross as a method of execution.





Scroll down for the answer.








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c. is the correct answer.  Both A and B or not bad guesses, as long as you had a rationale for thinking that way.  Any idiot can randomly guess, but if you are coming up with a reason for why you think one answer is better than another, then you are going to probably come out ahead on the state test.

Wat did 'e say?

Read the following quotes taken from the Harry Potter books.  All quotes are from Hagrid, the giant friend of Harry and his pals who lives outside the castle at Hogwarts and is not allowed to use magic like the rest of the characters.

"I'm not blamin' yeh...but I gotta tell yeh, I thought you two'd value yer friend more'n broomsticks or rats. Tha's all."

"What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does."

"Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."

"Yeh did as much as yer father would've done, an' I can' give yeh no higher praise than that."

"Gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I've heard you've bin givin' out signed photos. How come I haven't got one?"


"Yer' great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."
 

What is the most likely reason that the author uses this dialect?
 
a. to show Hagrid is not like everyone else
b. to confuse the reader anytime Hagrid speaks
c. to show that Hagrid isn't as intelligent since he didn't finish his education
d. it foreshadows that Hagrid is not to be trusted
 
 
 

 











 
 
Scroll down for the answer.
 
 
 
 
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a. is correct.  Everything about Hagrid is to make him different.  He's big, he has no fashion sense, he lives in a small house outside the castle, he can but doesn't normally use magic, he speaks differently from the others, etc.
 
Note that you do not need to have read or watched the movies to get this question correct.  The EOC will give you everything you need to know in the little blurb before the passage.