English Language Arts 9 Midterm Exam

150
WRITING: Rewrite each sentence. Add capitals, quotation marks, commas, and periods where
needed. (33 points)
1. The owner of a restaurant on State Street said, ``My profits increase by 27% during the
summer months.``

2. ``Customers,`` he said, ``enjoy eating outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine.``

3. One of the commuters who I interviewed stated, ``I want to be able to relax and talk to my
friends when I am on the train.``

4. ``We are already overworked,`` explained a conductor on the train.`` He added, ``There is no
way to ensure that the train cars remain quiet.``

5. In his responses to my survey questions, one of my professors wrote, ``We desperately need to
increase the bandwidth on the school’s wifi.``

6. ``How can I teach effectively without technology?`` he asked.

7. ``We expect costs for electricity and cleaning staff to go up approximately 10%,`` said the
president.
There are 7 mistakes in comma splices, run on sentences, and fragments. Find the mistake and
rewrite the sentence in the space provided between the lines. (16 points)
Left-Handedness

Do you know anyone who is left-handed? You probably do, about 10 percent of the

population uses their left rather than their right hand for writing and other tasks. Although many

athletes, musicians, artists, and world leaders are left-handed, being left-handed certainly has a

few disadvantages in a world designed by and for right-handed people.

Social situations can provide opportunities for left-handed people to feel clumsy. First of

all, handshakes. Right-handed people offer their right hands and expect to grasp the right hand of

the other person. The instinct of left-handers, however, is to extend their left hand they have to

train themselves to extend their right. Another social opportunity for awkwardness occurs at the

dinner table. Left-handed diners constantly bump elbows with a right-handed person. Unless they

sit at the far end of the table with no one on their left. What's worse, left-handers have to

concentrate in order to avoid grabbing and drinking from the wrong glass.

Left-handed people can face inconveniences at school, too. Consider the chairs in

classrooms with little fold-up desktops for taking notes. Most of them are made for right-

handers. Left-handers have to write with their left elbow hanging in midair. Or else turn
themselves around almost 180 degrees in order to lay their notebook on the desk. Furthermore,

when lefties write in a three-ring binder or spiral notebook. The rings get in the way of their

hands when they write on the front side of a page. Finally, left-handers write from left to right,

their hand smears the fresh ink across the page.

Last but not least are the many inventions of the modern world. That make life

convenient for right-handers but inconvenient for lefties. These include scissors, can openers,

corkscrews, automobile gear shifts, cameras, and computer keyboards.

In sum, in a world organized for right-handers, left-handed people must confront and

overcome challenges every day.

Write a 5 paragraph essay on the following question: What are the advantages of going to
secondary school in a foreign country? (100 points)
LITERATURE:
Match the figurative language with an example of it. (7 points)

1. Simile __c___ a. Don`t make a dig mistake. Call to

find out where gas lines are before
2. Personification ___g__ you dig.
b. Doug had never felt so special when
3. Pun _a____ he got the A in class.
c. My love is like a sweet sweet rose.
4. Organic imagery __b___ d. Let us never forget the darkest day of
our lives during the terror attacks.
5. Kinesthetic imagery __e___ e. The cheetah stretched out its legs and
twisted its tail before lunging onto
6. Olfactory imagery __f___ the goat.
f. Walking by the garbage dump
7. Oxymoron __d___ brought the pungent scent of rotting
fruit to my senses.
g. The wind howled, and the windows
shivered.

8. Give an example of a Doppelganger in movies or fiction. Make sure you show that you
understand what it is. (4 points)

9. Give an example of the Faustian theme in movies or fiction. Make sure you show that
you understand what it is. (4 points)