English Cumulative Exam Review Latest
2023 Already Passed
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.
In the 1400s, Spain and Portugal were competing to explore down the coast of Africa and find a
sea route to Asia. That way, they could have the prized Asian spices they wanted without having
to pay high prices to Venetian and Muslim middlemen. Spanish and Portuguese sailors searching
for that sea route conquered the Canary Islands and the Azores. Soon they began building
Muslim-style sugar plantations on the islands, some of them staffed by slaves purchased from
nearby Africa. One sailor came to know these islands particularly well because he traded in
"white gold"—sugar. And then, as he set off on his second voyage across the sea to what he
thought was Asia, he carried sugar cane plants from Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, with
him on his ship.
His name was Christopher Columbus.
How do the details in the passage most support the central idea? ✔✔The details describe how
Spanish and Portuguese explorations helped expand the sugar trade.
Read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130."
,My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
What is the central idea of the second quatrain? ✔✔His mistress's cheeks are not pink, and her
breath is not sweet.
,Read the excerpt from chapter 6 of Animal Farm.
All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no
effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and
those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human
beings.
What statement best explains how the pacing reveals character in this passage? ✔✔The passage
describes a year in which the animals work extremely hard but feel a sense of accomplishment.
Which statements describe iambic pentameter as it is used in Shakespearean sonnets? Select two
options. ✔✔In a group of two syllables, the second is stressed.
Each line contains five metrical feet.
Read the excerpt from act 4, scene 3, of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
[BRUTUS.] Messala, I have here receivèd letters,
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
, Come down upon us with a mighty power,
Bending their expedition toward Philippi.
MESSALA. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor.
BRUTUS. With what addition?
MESSALA. That by proscription and bills of outlawry,
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus
Have put to death an hundred senators.
BRUTUS. Therein our letters do not well agree.
Mine speak of seventy senators that died
By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.
CASSIUS. Cicero one!
MESSALA. Ay, Cicero is dead,
2023 Already Passed
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.
In the 1400s, Spain and Portugal were competing to explore down the coast of Africa and find a
sea route to Asia. That way, they could have the prized Asian spices they wanted without having
to pay high prices to Venetian and Muslim middlemen. Spanish and Portuguese sailors searching
for that sea route conquered the Canary Islands and the Azores. Soon they began building
Muslim-style sugar plantations on the islands, some of them staffed by slaves purchased from
nearby Africa. One sailor came to know these islands particularly well because he traded in
"white gold"—sugar. And then, as he set off on his second voyage across the sea to what he
thought was Asia, he carried sugar cane plants from Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, with
him on his ship.
His name was Christopher Columbus.
How do the details in the passage most support the central idea? ✔✔The details describe how
Spanish and Portuguese explorations helped expand the sugar trade.
Read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130."
,My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
What is the central idea of the second quatrain? ✔✔His mistress's cheeks are not pink, and her
breath is not sweet.
,Read the excerpt from chapter 6 of Animal Farm.
All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no
effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and
those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human
beings.
What statement best explains how the pacing reveals character in this passage? ✔✔The passage
describes a year in which the animals work extremely hard but feel a sense of accomplishment.
Which statements describe iambic pentameter as it is used in Shakespearean sonnets? Select two
options. ✔✔In a group of two syllables, the second is stressed.
Each line contains five metrical feet.
Read the excerpt from act 4, scene 3, of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
[BRUTUS.] Messala, I have here receivèd letters,
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
, Come down upon us with a mighty power,
Bending their expedition toward Philippi.
MESSALA. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor.
BRUTUS. With what addition?
MESSALA. That by proscription and bills of outlawry,
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus
Have put to death an hundred senators.
BRUTUS. Therein our letters do not well agree.
Mine speak of seventy senators that died
By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.
CASSIUS. Cicero one!
MESSALA. Ay, Cicero is dead,
