Spring Final Exam: Composing Skills

Spring Final Exam: Composing Skills

Directions:

Questions 46-56 require you to rewrite sentences in your head. Each question tells you exactly how to begin your new sentence. Your new sentence should have the same meaning and contain the same information as the original sentence.

Example:

The student senate debated for two hours and finally voted down the resolution.

Rewrite, beginning with

Having debated the issue for two hours, . . .

The next word or words will be

(A) the issue

(B) it

(D) a vote

46. Success in the corporation comes to those executives who do not merely manage machines, but manage people.

Rewrite, beginning with

The executives who succeed in the corporation do not merely manage . . .

The next words will be

(A) machines and also

(B) machines; they manage

(D) machines, which

47. Most spiders are harmless friends of people and destroy fleas, mosquitoes, and other insects; black widows and tarantulas are the only exceptions.

Rewrite, beginning with

Except for black widows and tarantulas, . . .

The next word or words will be

(A) spiders

(B) the destruction

(D) harmless friends

48. One person may try to increase satisfaction with his or her job by seeking more responsibility; another may compensate for dissatisfaction by devoting more time to hobbies.

Rewrite, beginning with

Dissatisfaction with a job may lead one person . . .

The next words will be

(A) to seek more responsibility and another to

(B) who searches for more responsibility and another for

(D) to seek more responsibility or to compensate

49. The cause was so worthy that there could be no criticism of it.

Rewrite, beginning with

There could be no criticism . . .

The next words will be

(A) since there was

(B) of the worthiness

(D) for the reason being

50. The environmental movement has been a force in society for over a decade and has helped to bring about a number of important changes.

Rewrite, beginning with

A force in society for over a decade, . . .

The next words will be

(A) it has been

(B) the environmental movement

(D) there have been

51. The impact of fiber optics on the people of the twenty-first century may be comparable to the impact of the dynamo on the people of the nineteenth.

Rewrite, beginning with

Fiber optics may be to the people of the twenty-first century . . .

The next words will be

(A) what the dynamo was

(B) a dramatic impact

(D) the dynamo of

52. Pasteur's discovery of a way to identify parasite-infested silkworm eggs saved the French silk industry.

Rewrite, beginning with

By discovering a method of identifying parasite-infested silkworm eggs, . . .

The next words will be

(A) the French silk industry was saved

(B) the saving of the French

(D) Pasteur saved

53. Bitter memories of the Great Depression were evoked when Britain's unemployment figure reached more than one million recently.

Rewrite, beginning with

Britain's unemployment figure reached more than one million . . .

The next words will be

(A) recently, evoking

(B) recently, evoked by

(D) recently by evoking

54. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton, shows the heroine falling from great success to misery and destitution.

Rewrite, beginning with

In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, . . .

The next words will be

(A) it shows the heroine falling

(B) the heroine's falling is

(D) the heroine's fall to misery is

55. A clenched fist shows anger, and drooping shoulders indicate despondency; the first is an example of conscious body language, while the second is unconscious.

Rewrite, beginning with

Body language may be unconscious, . . .

The next words will be

(A) that shows

(B) the first example

(D) and, for example, a

56. Images from the alleys and tenements of the Lower East Side of New York City in the late nineteenth century were brought to the attention of America by the photographs of Jacob Riis.

Rewrite, beginning with

Through his photographs, . . .

The next words will be

(A) he brought

(B) the attention

(D) the alleys

Directions:

In each of questions 57-67, select the best version of the underlined part of the sentence. Choice (A) is the same as the underlined portion of the original sentence. If you think the original sentence is best, choose answer (A).

Example:

Ancient Greeks ate with their fingers, wiped them on pieces of bread, and tossed them to the dogs lying under the table.

(A) tossed them

(B) tossing them

(D) they tossed

57. Camera crews have been taking pictures of traffic during the rush hours, and it caused worse traffic congestion than usual.

(A) and it caused worse traffic congestion than usual

(B) and worse traffic congestion than usual had been caused

(D) with worse than usual traffic congestion being caused

58. Unlike that of human beings, who die of thirst when deprived of water for several days, camels can survive for long periods without drinking.

(A) Unlike that of human beings, who die

(B) Unlike human beings, who die

(D) Dissimilar to human beings dying

59. According to Greek mythology, Perseus killed a hideous creature named Medusa, who had snakes in place of hair, and an onlooker would turn to stone by her glance.

(A) hair, and an onlooker would turn to stone by her glance

(B) hair, onlookers turned to stone when she glanced at them

(D) hair, an onlooker being turned to stone by her glance

60. The avocado farmers were looking for machinery that would help them harvest their crop more efficiently.

(A) that would help them harvest their crop

(B) for it to help them harvest the crop

(D) for their crop being harvested

61. Interferon, the best known of the body's natural chemical defenses, can destroy cancer cells as well as increase immunity to viruses.

(A) as well as increase

(B) also increasing

(D) as well as to increase

62. Requiring students to take more courses in order to graduate, argued the student representative,that it would place an impossible economic burden on students who must work to pay for their education.

(A) that it would place an impossible economic burden

(B) an impossible economic burden would be placed

(D) would place an impossible economic burden

63. Faced with rising costs, the administrators of the museum have hired a consulting firm to help them devising a marketing strategy, a highly unusual move for a nonprofit institution.

(A) devising a marketing strategy,

(B) devise a marketing strategy,

(D) devise a marketing strategy, and is

64. Humpback whales spend their summers in polar waters, feeding intensively on small crustaceans and fish, and then migrating to the tropics and they seldom feed, if at all.

(A) migrating to the tropics and they seldom feed, if at all

(B) migrate to the tropics and they rarely, if at all, feed

(D) migrate to the tropics, where they feed rarely or not at all

65. The discovery of pulsars raised again the suspicion that civilizations more advanced than ours exist in outer space.

(A) The discovery of pulsars raised again the suspicion that

(B) The suspicion was raised again by discovering pulsars that

(D) The suspicion having been raised again by the discovery of pulsars,

66. The Santa Ana winds cause forest fires and also atmospheric humidity reduces almost to zero.

(A) atmospheric humidity reduces

(B) the atmosphere's humidity is reduced

(D) reducing atmospheric humidity

67. One of the wonders of the world, the Great Wall of China is as high as a two-story house and stretching for 1,500 miles across deserts, mountains, and plains.

(A) house and stretching

(B) house, which stretches

(D) house and stretches

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Directions:

Each of questions 68-81 presents a passage with a missing sentence indicated by a series of dashes. Read each passage and the four sentences that follow it. Then choose the sentence that can best be inserted in place of the dashes.

68. ------. John Gilbert, for example, saw his attraction as a romantic star dwindle and die during the first wave of "talkies." As for the popular Vilma Banky, she chose simply to retire in 1928 rather than run the risk of making a sound movie.

(A) Greta Garbo was one of the stars who were successful in both silent and sound films.

(B) The coming of sound to film was a serious challenge to many of the stars of the silent screen.

(D) The Jazz Singer appeared in 1927 and marked the beginning of the use of synchronized sound in films.

69. ------. From the Tagus River to St. George's Castle atop a high hill, the streets are filled with autos, trucks, and pedestrians. They move, however, against a background of ageless Renaissance buildings with their tile roofs, time-stained stone, and elaborate wrought iron.

(A) Lisbon is an important European capital, little known to visitors from the United States.

(B) As you enter Lisbon for the first time, you will be amazed at how completely modern it is.

(D) Life in Lisbon seems somewhat strange to many people from the United States.

70. ------. A product of its combustion, sulfur dioxide, is frequently blamed for the acid rain that pollutes streams, forests, and farms. However, because oil is expensive and nuclear power is opposed by many people, coal has much appeal.

(A) Coal is not a perfect solution to the energy problem.

(B) Coal remains in plentiful supply in the United States.

(D) Coal offers a short-term solution to our energy shortage.

71. ------. But the bones of these structures reveal an essential similarity in design. Zoologists conclude that whales, bats, and human beings evolved from a common ancestor. Even if there were no other evidence, the comparison of the skeletons would suffice to support that conclusion.

(A) Whales, bats, and human beings only look different from one another.

(B) A whale's flipper, a bat's wing, and a human being's arm differ greatly in outward appearance and function.

(D) Various forms that correspond to a human arm--a whale's flipper, a bat's wing--have a common history.

72. ------. For instance, wine makers in the Chablis district of France are bound by law and by centuries of tradition to a clear concept of exactly what a Chablis wine should be. Every step they take must be directed toward making wine in that traditional way.

(A) Chablis wines are among the best in the world.

(B) Wine making is neither an art nor a science.

(D) In Europe, the wine maker's freedom has precise limits.

73. The attributes of the right brain and the left brain have captured the public's imagination in the last several years as a means of defining personality. ------. Recent studies indicating that mental tasks are shared between the brain's right and left halves suggest that we are not trapped in one personality type.

(A) Studies show that each half of the brain deals with incoming information differently.

(B) People whose right brain is dominant are intuitive and creative, whereas people whose left brain is dominant are logical and analytical.

(C) Yet the fatalistic attitude that one is born with a personality determined by either half of the brain seems to be losing scientific support.

(D) Individuals can do much to improve their performance on a given task by determining whether they are ruled predominantly by the right or left brain.

74. Often identified as the American Madame Bovary, Kate Chopin's The Awakening is parallel to Flaubert's novel in many ways. Like Emma Bovary, Edna Pontellier is unable to free herself of romantic dreams and illusions. ------. But many critics think Edna is a more tragic figure than Emma Bovary because she confronts a social order that is bound to defeat her.

(A) Interestingly, the novels were published less than fifty years apart.

(B) Having fallen into obscurity after its publication in 1899, The Awakening, unlike Flaubert's work, did not receive critical reevaluation until the 1950's.