Mr. Fornnarino's
English 2, Quiz 23 (Practice
for ELL Students)
This space contains
reference text beginning next to Question 11.
To answer Questions 11-15, please read the
following passage from Chapter 1 of Haruki Murakami’s After Dark.
Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is
one and only one correct answer to each prompt.
Chapter 1, page 3
“Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from
midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic
creature—or more like a single collective entity created by many
intertwining organisms. Countless arteries stretch to the ends of its
elusive body, circulating a continuous supply of fresh blood cells,
sending out new data and collecting the old, sending out new consumables
and collecting the old, sending out new contradictions and collecting
the old. To the rhythm of its pulsing, all parts of the body flicker and
flare up and squirm. Midnight is approaching, and while the peak of
activity has passed, the basal metabolism that maintains life continues
undiminished, producing the basso continuo of the city's moan, a
monotonous sound that neither rises nor falls but is pregnant with
foreboding.”
Note: In this part of his book, Murakami lets
readers feel like they are a bird flying over a large city full of life.
From above, the city looks like an animal or like many animals moving in
and around each other. There are repeating sounds and lights. It is
almost midnight, so there is less movement than during the day, but it
is easy to see that life exists. The sound of the city is like the sound
of a living thing in pain. The sound is full of a feeling that something
bad will happen in the future.
To answer Questions 16-20, please read the
following passage from Chapter 1 of Haruki Murakami’s After Dark.
Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is
one and only one correct answer to each prompt.
Chapter 1, Pages 21-22
"So the three brothers found three boulders on the shore just as the god
had said they would. And they started pushing them along as the god told
them to. Now these were huge, heavy boulders, so rolling them was hard,
and
pushing them up an incline took an enormous effort. The youngest brother
quit first. He said, 'Brothers, this place is good enough for me. It's
close to the shore, and I can catch fish. It has everything I need to go
on living. I don't mind if I can't see that much of the world from
here.' His two elder brothers pressed on, but when they were midway up
the mountain, the second brother quit. He said, 'Brother, this place is
good enough for me. There is plenty of fruit here. It has everything I
need to go on living. I don't mind if I can't see that much of the world
from here.' The eldest brother continued walking up the mountain. The
trail grew increasingly narrow and steep, but he did not quit. He had
great powers of perseverance, and he wanted to see as much of the world
as he possibly could, so he kept rolling the boulder with all his might.
He went on for months, hardly eating or drinking, until he had rolled
the boulder to the very peak of the high mountain. There he stopped and
surveyed the world. Now he could see more of the world than anyone. This
was the place he would live—where no grass grew, where no birds flew.
For water, he could only lick the ice and frost. For food, he could only
gnaw on moss. But he had no regrets, because now he could look out over
the whole world. And so, even today, his great, round boulder is perched
on the peak of that mountain on an island in Hawaii. That's how the
story goes."
Note: The story shows three brothers pushing boulders up a
hill. The youngest stops first. He is near the shore and can catch fish
to eat. The second brother stops farther up where he can eat fruit. The
third and oldest brother stops only when he gets to the top of the
mountain where he can see everything. Unlike his brothers, the oldest
does not have an easy way to get food, but he is happy because he can
see more of the world than anyone else can.
To answer Questions 21-22, please read the
following passage from enotes.com regarding the motifs and themes of
Haruki Murakami’s After Dark. Choose the best responses to the
prompts that follow. There is one and only one correct answer to each
prompt.
“Darkness, however, also represents the subconscious. The subconscious
is the realm of dreams, which usually occur at night in the darkness.
The model of dreams is found in the character of Eri, who sleeps her
life away. In her sleep, she moves from the real to the unreal as her
body passes from her bedroom through the walls of her television into a
different realm. She wakes up on the other side, unaware of where she
is. All she knows is that she is not where she should be. She is not
where she was when she fell asleep. None of the windows or doors will
open. So she goes back to sleep, hoping that all her problems will be
solved the next time she wakes up. Eri wakes in her dreams and sleeps in
her wake-reality, a mix-up for which no one can find a solution.”
"After Dark - Themes" eNotes Publishing Ed. Scott Locklear.
eNotes.com, Inc. eNotes.com 30 Dec, 2016 <http://www.enotes.com/topics/after-dark-murakami/themes#themes-themes>
Note: The article from enotes.com says that Murakami uses
repeated ideas to teach lessons about life. Murakami uses darkness to
represent the uncontrolled thoughts people have when they are sleeping
and dreaming. The character Eri lives in an unnatural condition where
she seems to be awake in her dreams but she is asleep in the real world.
For Questions 1-10, please mark the letter of the correct definition of the given vocabulary word.
indecision
(n.) uncertainty
(adj.) intelligent
vague
(adj.) indistinct; unclear
(n.) uncertainty
destiny
(n.) determination
(n.) fate
perseverance
(n.) fate
(n.) determination
semaphore
(n.) a signal
(n.) used goods
intellectual
(adj.) intelligent
(adj.) indistinct; unclear
industriousness
(n.) motivation
(n.) a signal
meticulously
(n.) a signal
(adv.) carefully
innocuous
(adj.) harmless
(n.) fate
foreboding
(n.) uncertainty
(n.) ominousness; a feeling that something bad is going
to happen
(RL6) What is the author’s most important
reason for using the following line of text? “Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from midair.”
setting the place (telling the reader where the
story happens)
setting the perspective (telling the reader the
viewpoint from which the scene is described)
(RL4) What type of figurative language does Murakami
use in the following lines? “...the city looks like a single gigantic creature—or more like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms.”
metaphor
simile
(RL4) What is used to transfer and communicate information back in forth in this figurative “creature”?
“arteries”
“supply”
(RL1) What is the “it” in the following line?
(What is pulsing and having movement?) “To the rhythm of its
pulsing, all parts of the body flicker and flare up and squirm.”
a party
the city
(RL4) Based on the phrase “pregnant with foreboding,” what sort of tone
or mood does Murakami create in the passage?
wary expectation (a feeling of waiting for something
bad to happen)
bored distractedness (a feeling of not giving attention
to anything)
(RL4) The boulders (big rocks) that the brother
must push create a metaphor. What do the boulders symbolize or represent?
the amount of money that each will one day earn
the difficulties in life that each will have
(RL5) Based on the structure of this passage, which brother takes the longest to push his boulder?
the first (youngest) brother
the second brother
the third (eldest) brother
There’s no way of knowing for sure based on this passage.
(RL4) Based on the underlined lines, what is the best definition of perseverance as it is used here?
determination
uncertainty
(RL3) What did the third brother desire and get more
of than his two younger brothers were able to get?
wealth (money)
perspective (a view of something)
(RL2) What is a good moral to the story? (What does
the story teach?)
If you really want something, you have to be willing to pay the price.
Difficulties in life are worst for those with experience.
(RL2) Which of the following would provide the best objective summary of the central idea of this paragraph?
Dreams represent both the dark and the subconscious.
Sleeping one’s life away is made possible by watching too much television.
(RL6) What is the author’s purpose in this particular passage?
to show how the motif of darkness (the repeated idea
about darkness) is like the lessons he teaches in After Dark
to show where the character of Eri thinks she is in her
dream state in After Dark
Pick the best pronouns to fill in the blanks based on the underlined antecedents
(words that the pronouns are being substituted for). Both of them use _____native language, Portuguese, to describe how
no one gives ______ full attention.
my; their
their; his/her
Which sentence is written correctly?
“Anyone who was unable to attend the concert will have to make up his/her points later,” said Mr. Stevens.
"Anyone that was unable to attend the concert will half to makeup their points later." said Mr. Stevens.