Vocab-in-Context and Roman Numeral Practice                Name:_______________

 

Morrison – Learning Strategies

 

Directions: Using the strategy we talked about, replace the word with a word of your own to help you figure out its meaning. Then decide which word is correct and circle the answer.

 

Vocab-in-Context example:

She pulled the wagon for about eight blocks until they came to the big, new house that was being built. The ladder was still propped against the edge of the roof, and she screwed up nerve and began to climb.

 

The phrase screwed up most nearly means:        The word I used to replace “screwed up” was:

A. lost            

B. made a mistake                        __________________________

C. examined

D. gathered

 

 

Duchamp's statue of a nude man on a staircase was a nude on the move. Still, most people saw something else entirely-- “an explosion in a shingle factory,” “an earthquake on the subway,” “a staircase descending a nude” -- jokes all, uttered even as the jokesters themselves stood in long lines, necks craning, to see the object of their ridicule. The modern era might be abhorrent, absurd, unnatural, but oh to get a glimpse of it!

 

2. As it is used in line 42, the word abhorrent most nearly means: The word I used to replace “abhorrent” was:

    A. colorful        

    B. flimsy                            ___________________

    C. awful

    D. tiresome

 

 

Many artists have spoken of seeing things differently while drawing, and have often mentioned that drawing puts them into a somewhat altered state of awareness. In that different subjective state, artists speak of feeling transported, “at one with their work,” able to grasp relations that they ordinarily cannot see.

 

3. In line 79, the word transported is used to mean:       The word I used to replace “transported” was:

    A. moved from one place to another.

    B. engaged in artistic endeavor            ______________________________

    C. in an altered state of consciousness

    D. dreaming

 

 

“Now...this” is commonly used on radio and television newscasts to indicate tat what one has just heard or seen has no relevance to what one is about to hear or see, or possibly to anything one is ever likely to hear or see. The phrase is a means of acknowledging the fact that the world as mapped by the speeded-up electronic media has no order or meaning and is not to be taken seriously.

 

4. As it is used in line 5, the word mapped most nearly means:   The word I used to replace “mapped” was:

    A. obscured

    B. explored                             ___________________

    C. destroyed

    D. defined

 

Directions: Using the strategy we talked about, decide whether each roman numeral is true or false before looking at the answer choices.

 

In Scotland, bees are carried in carts to the Highlands and set free. In France and Poland, bees are carried from pasture to pasture and along rivers in barges so that they can collect the honey from the vegetation that grows along the rivers' banks. In Egypt they are taken up the Nile and floated slowly home again.

 

5. According to the passage, bees:                True or False?

are attracted to pastures                        _______

are attracted to cultivated fields.                    _______

are attracted to vegetation that grows along river banks.        _______

 

A. I only

B. II only

C. III only

D. I and III only

 

6. According to the passage, bees were transported by river in which of the following countries?

                                True or False?

    I. Scotland                            ______

    II. France                            ______    

    III. Egypt                            ______

                        

    A. I only

    B. II only

    C. III only

    D. II and III only

 

Van Gogh was right in saying that the method he had chosen could be compared to that of the caricaturist. Caricature had always been “expressionist,” for the caricaturist plays with the likeness of his victim, and distorts it to express just what he feels about his fellow man. In one of his letters, van Gogh had explained how he set about painting the portrait of a friend who was very dear to him. The conventional likeness was only the first stage. Having painted a “correct” portrait, he proceeded to change the colors and setting: “I exaggerate the fair color of the hair, I take orange, chrome, lemon color, and behind the head I do not paint the trivial wall of the room; instead, I paint the Infinite. Alas, my dear friend, the public will see nothing but caricature in this exaggeration, but what does that matter to us?”

 

7. According to the author, which of the following factors entered into van Gogh's decision to employ methods similar to those of a caricaturist?                            True or False?

    I. A desire to upset the public                                _____

    II. A desire to express a sense of superiority                        _____

    III. A desire to express what he felt about his fellow man                 _____

    

    A. III only

    B. II and III only

    C. I and II only

    D. I only