Developing Critical Reading Skills, 7 th Edition Chapter 6

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1 Developing Critical Reading Skills, 7 th Edition Chapter 6 PRACTICE EXERCISE 1 (Pg. 187) For the following pairs of words, mark the word that carries a positive connotation with a plus sign and the word that carries a negative connotation with a minus sign. Chubby Assertive Shopping binge Faux Childish Loiter Frankenfoods Modest Lurk Follow Surgeon Slumlord Conservative Plump Aggressive Shopping Spree Fake Childlike Wait Genetically-Altered Foods Prudish Hide Stalk Sawbones Real State Magnate Reactionary PRACTICE EXERCISE 2 Study these pairs of synonyms. Label one informal (ordinary) and the other formal (elevated). If you are unsure of the meanings, check the dictionary. Osculate Door Particle Salty Quotidian House Kiss Portal Smidgeon Saline Daily Domicile Pg.188 Consider the word demure. What is the word s denotative meaning? Is its connotation positive or negative? To which gender is it more generally applied? Does it suggest any particular age? (Hint: Which person would you describe as demure-a fifty-year-old man or a thirteen-year-old girl?) The persistent cloud cover (pg. 189)

2 Taken together, do these words and phrases have a positive or a negative connotation? Once you establish that, does the writer intend the word narcotic to have a positive or negative connotation? Explain your thinking. How is she using the word here? Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (pg. 190) Consider the words and phrases you underlined; then write a sentence explaining what these connotative words and phrases suggest about Miss Murdstone s character. My first surprise (pg. 195) Taken together, what impression of Kerouac s fictional mother do these figures of speech suggest? PERSONIFICATION Farhaven (pg. 195) What literal comparison is Junger making between Gloucester and New Bedford? Spc. David Johnson (pg ) What is the literal idea and how is it personified (to what is it compared) in the passage? PRACTICE EXERCISE 3 (pg ) Read the short passages containing figurative language to analyze. First, decide whether the excerpt uses simile, metaphor, or personification. Then decide what the literal subject is and what is it metaphorically being compared to. Finally, briefly explain the meaning. 1. (It was a big cemetery ) Simile Metaphor Personification 2. (America is a large ) Simile Metaphor Personification 3. (We set our backpacks ) Simile Metaphor Personification

3 4. (With the other hand ) Simile Metaphor Personification 5. (Thinking such worrying thoughts ) Simile Metaphor Personification 6. (Regret grew only more insistent ) Simile Metaphor Personification 7. (In the mornings ) Simile Metaphor Personification 8. (It seems that ) Simile Metaphor Personification 9. (Up and up ) Simile Metaphor Personification 10. (Parker s wife ) Simile Metaphor Personification

4 11. (And his marriage, too, ) Simile Metaphor Personification 12. (An old lady ) Simile Metaphor Personification 13. (Spring weather ) Simile Metaphor Personification 14. (The man who has not the habit ) Simile Metaphor Personification 15. (Snaking diagonally ) Simile Metaphor Personification 16. (Wyoming had been dry ) Simile Metaphor Personification 17. (And then, abruptly, she woke ) Simile Metaphor Personification 18. ( a new business in town ) Simile Metaphor Personification

5 19. (The logic that pointed ) Simile Metaphor Personification 20. (There were times ) Simile Metaphor Personification 21. (Martin Luther King, Jr., ) Simile Metaphor Personification 22. As final challenge, try to unravel the meaning of this linguistic puzzle, a poem titled Metaphors by Sylvia Plath. I m riddle in nine syllables. An elephant, a ponderous house, A melon strolling on two tendrils. O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers! This loaf s big with its yeasty rising. Money s new-minted in this fat purse. I m a means, a stage, a cow in calf. I ve eaten a bag of green apples, Boarded the train there s no getting off. PRACTICE EXERCISE 4 (pg. 210) Read the passages. Then decide which type of misuse or abuse of language is being usedclich, code words, doublespeak, euphemism, jargon, PC language, or sneer words. 1. (When Maryland beat..) 2. (In 1998 )

6 3. (Real-estate ) 4. (When diplomats ) 5. (The American Hair Loss ) 6. (Former secretary of state ) 7. (In elementary schools ) 8. (A brochure ) 9. (Employees at Sea World ) 10. (An animal-rights organization ) 11. (A television commercial ) 12. (At the First International ) (pg. 211) Finally, consider the Doonesbury cartoon by Garry Trudeau (May-June 2003), which appears on page 212. It parodies nearly all of the language abuses we have been discussing in this chapter. List the abuses parodied and give examples from the cartoon ( use space below): CHAPTER EXERCISE Section 2 (pg ) A. Content and Structure 1. A good title for this passage would be a. Canadian Cities. b. Winnipeg: A City of the Prairie. c. Winnipeg: An Unusual and Complex City. d. A Lesson in Canadian Geography. 2. Which of these statements accurately interprets sentence 3? a. Winnipeg is a difficult city to get to know. b. Winnipeg at first glance is an unappealing city that eventually grows on the visitor. c. Winnipeg needs to be explored until it reveals its true character. d. Winnipeg is not an especially welcoming city to those who don t know it well.

7 3. What specifically is Abley contrasting in the details provided in sentence 4? 4. The passage as a whole, but especially sentences 5 to 9, describe Winnipeg s a. odd appearance in comparison to other cities. b. importance as a major metropolis, unlike Calgary and Edmonton. c. position as the biggest population center in all Canada. d. essential role in the Canadian economy. 5. What can we infer about Winnipeg from the passage? a. It is the capital of Alberta. b. It is the capital of Ontario. c. It is the capital of Manitoba. d. It is as large as Calgary and Edmonton. B. Language Analysis 1. In sentence 1 and 2, how would you characterize these words: paradoxes, nonchalant, complexity. extravagance. and abundance? a. They have positive connotations. b. They have negative connotations. c. They are purely denotative. d. 2. The word ghoulish in sentence 4 typically means gruesome or ghastly. What values does Abley intend it to have in this context-describing a rock band? a. It has a positive connotation. b. It has a negative connotation. c. It is purely denotative. 3. What figure of speech is included in sentence 11? a. a metaphor. b. a simile. c. personification 4. In this same figure of speech, what specifically is being compared to this strange creature? a. the province that includes Winnipeg b. the city of Winnipeg c. the Canadian prarie d. the white west Section 3 (pages ) Content and Structure 1. In your own words, write a sentence stating Atwood s main idea.

8 2. When Atwood writes at the beginning of paragraph 2, in referring to Americans, bless their innocent little hearts, she is being a) honest. b) scornful. c) sarcastic. d) religious. c) admiring. 3. From what Atwood implies on paragraph, explain what Americans think about Canadians. 4. From the information on paragraph 4, why specifically do Canadians worry a lot about their southern neighbor? 5. What are the broader implications of Atwood s passage? What is the central inference you can make about the relationship between Canada and the United States? B. Language Analysis 1. Read paragraph 1 again. why do Canadian s noses resemble Porky Pig s? 2. What does Atwood mean when she refers to the border between Canada and the United States as a one-way mirror? What does this metaphor say about Canadians? 3. How would you characterize the word snoop in the context it is used toward the end of paragraph 1? It suggests a a. neutral, denotative meaning. b. positive connotation. c. negative connotation. d. cliché. 4. Atwood says in paragraph 2 that Americans go on playing in the sandbox of the world, bashing one another on the head and planning how to blow things up, same as always. What does the sandbox metaphor refer to?

9 Explain what the metaphor means: 5. In paragraph 3, Atwood switches metaphors, comparing the border between Canada and the United States to the longest undefended backyard fence in the world. In your own words, explain Atwood s thinking about how these neighboring nations get along. Specifically try to determine what she means when she refers to the Canadian s neat little bungalow, the Americans sprawly mansion, and the perpetual party with the raucous laughter and the beer bottles and Coke cans thrown in the peonies. 6. In paragraph 4, what is the literal meaning of these sentences? Sometimes they do drop by next door, and find it exciting but scary. Sometimes the Americans drop by their house and find it clean. PRACTICE ESSAY: The Death of the Moth (pages ) A. Comprehension 1. The main idea of the essay is that, for Woolf, a. The death of the moth illustrates the cruelty of nature. b. Rural life is the scene of daily tragedies and triumphs. c. Observing death up close makes the observer more accepting and reflective of this inevitability. d. The little moth embodied life itself, but it could not overcome death s power. 2. The sentence, It was as if someone had taken a tiny bead of pure life and deckling it as lightly as possible with down and feathers, had set it dancing and zigzagging, shows a. What moths look like and they fly. b. The strangeness of insect life. c. The true nature of life. d. How pathetic and insignificant the moth was.

10 3. Woolf views the little moth with pity because a. His shape so limited his activities. b. He would not survive the heat of the day. c. His death would be unnoticed by everyone but her. d. He would live for only one day. 4. In the moth s death, Woolf sees a. An admirable yet futile struggle to survive death s superior force. b. A foreshadowing of her own death. c. A rebellion against and a refusal to accept death s inevitability. d. A triumph over force greater than life itself. 5. In observing the little moth, Woolf concludes that a. Life and death are inextricably linked. b. Death s triumph over the forces of life was both strange and moving. c. All organisms have an innate desire to triumph over death. d. Its death shows the impersonality and indifference of the universe. B. Vocabulary For each italicized word from the selection, choose the best definition according to the context in which it appears. 1. a pleasant morning,... benignant [paragraph 1] a) mild, gentle b) promising good fortune. c) hot, humid d) inactive, lazy 2. his zest enjoying his meagre opportunities ( British spelling os meager ) [2]: a) unusual, different b) limitless, abundant c) paltry, limited d) curious, stranger 3. to move with the greatest circumspection [3]: a) care, watchfulness b) frenzy, frantic activity c) grace, elegant d) curiosity, inquisitiveness 4. triumph...over so mean an antagonist [5]: a) victor b) opponent c) instigator of trouble d) bearer of bad tidings C. Language Analysis 1. Read paragraph 1 again. In her description of the ploughman, the rooks, and the horses the dominant mood and atmosphere she establishes are a) sleepy and languid b) full of life, energy, and vigor c) mournful, somber d) exciting, adventurous

11 2. In paragraph 1, Woolf figuratively compares the rooks to 3. This figure of speech is meant to illustrate a) the bird s movements and energy b) the great clamor the birds were making c) the bird s mating habits d) the bird s disruption by the ploughman and his horses. 4. Read paragraph 2 again, which emphasizes that, despite its insignificant size and simple activities, the moth a) represents all the energy and life in the world b) longed to be more than merely insignificant c) reflected the same energy as the rooks and the horses d) had probably been injured somewhere before flying into the house 5. What realization does Woolf come to when she considers trying to help the struggling moth with her pencil? 6. Consider this excerpt from paragraph 5: One could only watch the extraordinary efforts made by those tiny legs against an oncoming doom which could, had it chosen, have submerged an entire city, not merely a city, but masses of human beings... Explain what Woolf means in your own words.

Developing Critical Reading Skills, 6 th edition Chapter 6 Exercises

Connotation and synonyms pg. 186-187 Developing Critical Reading Skills, 6 th edition Chapter 6 Exercises In each pair of words, mark the word with the Positive connotation with a plus sign; mark the word