Author: Anonymous

Identify the sentence that expresses the central point or thesis statement in each selection.           1Because teams in many sports earn a large part of their revenue from television contracts, they will sacrifice the interests of paid spectators, even compromise the games themselves, to increase their television income.           2A good example of this is the so-called “TV time-out.” 3In the old days, commercials occurred during natural breaks in a game, for example, during a time-out called by one of the teams, at half-time, or between innings. 4But this meant that commercials appeared too intermittently, and infrequently led to bringing in the increasingly large fees advertisers were willing to pay. 5This led to regular TV time-outs in sports such as football and basketball. 6The owners of sports franchises may be maximizing their incomes from advertising, but they may have sacrificed the quality of the sports. 7For example, the momentum of a team may be lost because of an inopportune TV time-out. 8Thus, these time-outs do alter the nature of some sports; they may even affect the outcome of a game.           9Also, for the fans who watch in person, these time-outs interrupt the flow of the game. 10The fans at home can at least watch the commercials; the spectators at the games have little to watch until the commercial ends and the game resumes. 11But the owners consider such negative effects on the quality of the game insignificant compared with the economic gain from increased advertising. The central point/thesis statement is in sentence _______.

Following are the first three stanzas of William Blake’s poem “The Fly.” Read the poem, and then write the letter of the best answer to each question. The Fly Little Fly, Thy summer’s play My thoughtless hand Has brushed away.   Am I not A fly like thee? Or art thou not A man like me?   For I dance, And drink, and sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. William Blake We can conclude that the image of a wing being brushed symbolizes

Identify the sentence that best expresses the implied main idea of the paragraph.  In species such as the red-back spider, the black widow spider, the praying mantis, and the scorpion, the female commonly eats the male after mating. Another widespread form of cannibalism is size-structured cannibalism, in which large individuals consume smaller ones. Octopus, bats, toads, fish, monitor lizards, salamanders, crocodiles, spiders, crustaceans, birds, mammals, and a vast number of insects have all been observed to engage in size-structured cannibalism. Yet another common form of cannibalism is infanticide. Classic examples include the chimpanzees, where groups of adult males have been observed to attack and consume their infants; and lions, where adult males commonly kill infants when they take over a new harem after replacing the previous dominant males. Also, gerbils and hamsters eat their young if they are stillborn, or if the mothers are especially stressed.

The biological significance of a single sperm is very different from that of a single egg. For healthy men, sperm is a “renewable resource” produced by the testes throughout most of the life course. A man releases hundreds of millions of sperm in a single ejaculation, technically enough to fertilize every woman in North America. However, a newborn girl’s ovaries contain her entire lifetime allotment of immature eggs. A woman releases a single egg from the ovaries every month. Whereas men are biologically capable of fathering thousands of offspring, a woman is able to bear a much smaller number of children. One Transition that signals the pattern of organization is ________________.

Identify the sentence that best expresses the implied main idea of the paragraph.  When an eyewitness is asked a question by a police officer or an attorney, the wording of the question can affect the way the witness recalls the information. In one experiment, the participants were shown a film of two cars crashing into each other. Some were then asked the question, “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” On average, these people estimated the speed to be 41 miles per hour. Another group was asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they bumped into each other?” This group estimated the speed at 37 miles per hour. For a third group, the word contacted was used instead of bumped into. The average estimated speed for this group was only 32 miles per hour. When the witness is a child, the likelihood of error is even greater because the children’s memories are highly vulnerable to the influence of others. In one experiment, 5- to 7-year-old girls who had just had a routine physical examination were shown an anatomically explicit doll. The girls were shown the doll’s genital area and asked, “Did the doctor touch you here?” Three of the girls who did not have a vaginal or anal exam said that the doctor had in fact touched them in the genital area, and one of those three made up the detail “The doctor did it with a stick.”

Several factors influence the justice system’s treatment of criminals. For one thing, the sex of offenders affects the severity of sentences. A woman is less likely to receive the death penalty than a man. Secondly, the court is more reluctant to send a mother to prison than a father. Another factor in the treatment of offenders is their race. Nonwhites are awarded parole and probation less often. Moreover, blacks are executed more often for capital crimes. Finally, the age of offenders is considered in sentencing. Young offenders are given special treatment. And the elderly are given more lenient sentences. One Transition that signals the pattern of organization is ________________.

Words have two kinds of meanings—denotative and connotative. Denotative meaning is precise, literal, and objective. It simply describes the object, person, place, idea, or event to which the word refers. One way to think of a word’s denotative meaning is as its dictionary definition. For example, denotatively, the noun school means “a place, institution, or building where instruction is given.” Connotative meaning is more variable, figurative, and subjective. Put simply, the connotative meaning is what the word suggests or implies. For instance, the connotative meaning of the word school includes the feelings, associations, and emotions that the word touches off in different people. For some people, school might connote personal growth, childhood friends, and a special teacher. For others, it might connote frustration, discipline, and boring homework assignments. The main pattern of organization of the paragraph is __________________.

During the first, or dilation, stage of the birth process, the uterus contracts, and the cervix flattens and dilates to allow the fetus to pass through. This labor stage can last from about two to sixteen hours, or even longer; it tends to be longer with the first child. When the contractions start, they usually come at approximately fifteen- to twenty-minute intervals and are generally mild. Near the end of this first stage, the contractions change, becoming more difficult, longer, and more frequent. This period, lasting about an hour, is called “transition” and is the most difficult part of labor for many women. The second stage of birth involves the actual delivery of the baby. This expulsion stage is quite variable and can last anywhere from two to sixty minutes or more. In the average delivery, the baby’s head appears first, an event referred to as crowning. The rest of the body soon follows. The third stage of the birth process involves the delivery of the placenta (or afterbirth) and fetal membranes. During this stage, mild contractions continue for some time. They help decrease the blood flow to the uterus andreduce the uterus to normal size. One Transition that signals the pattern of organization is ________________.

Choose if the boldfaced word is used correctly or incorrectly. My aunt and uncle are rich but ostentatious. Judging by their modest possessions, you’d never know how much money they really have.

Choose the phrase that best completes the sentence making the vocabulary word in bold used correctly. At a party, a gregarious person is likely to