Atc practist test english 11 pot

At their core, most non-fiction texts except narratives have the basic underlying structure of main idea → support.. That is, they begin with a main idea sometimes called the thesis or t

For example, the conclusion to a passage about a healthy diet might end with a call to action:

Take a good, long look in your refrigerator and pantry What unhealthy foods call your icebox and cabinets their home? Find them, get rid of them, and stock up with foods that will help you live a longer, healthier life.

Practice 13

Read the passage below and answer the questions that correspond to the underlined text

There are two main theories of punishment: retribution and deterrence argues that people who commit crimes deserve to be punished and that the punishment should fit the crime “eye for an eye” philosophy posits that punishing offenders will help prevent future crimes

1 a NO CHANGE

b The first, retribution,

c In the beginning, retribution

d First and foremost, retribution

2 f NO CHANGE

g However, it is an

h Also, an

j In other words, it is an

3 a NO CHANGE

b According to deterrence theory,

c Deterrence theory, on the other hand,

d Meanwhile, deterrence theory

4 Which of the following sentences would most effectively introduce this passage?

f Why do we punish those who commit crimes?

g Crimes should always be punished.

h As they say, crime doesn’t pay.

j There is a record number of people in American prisons today.

Deterrence



An



Retribution



5 Which of the following sentences would most effectively conclude this passage?

a Most criminals do not commit crimes again once they are out of jail.

b Judges and juries typically combine these two theories when sentencing offenders.

c As you can see, crime doesn’t pay.

d Judges and juries should make sure the punishment is just.

Answers

1 b.

2 j.

3 c.

4 f This introduction asks a question that will be answered in the passage.

5 b This conclusion brings the two theories together in a statement that tells us why it is important to know these theories Choices a and c are irrelevant; choice d is more closely related to the topic but

still addresses a different issue

Organization

The ACT English Test’s questions about organization are designed to measure your ability to organize ideas effectively Questions may ask you the best sequence of sentences or paragraphs, the best place to add a sentence or paragraph, or the best sentence or paragraph to eliminate to improve a paragraph’s unity or coherence

At their core, most non-fiction texts except narratives have the basic underlying structure of main idea

→ support That is, they begin with a main idea (sometimes called the thesis or theme of the text) that

con-trols the whole passage; it is this idea that the text will develop The rest of the text then provides support for that idea in the form of examples, definitions, reasons, and so on

On this basic level of main idea → support, everything in the passage must, in fact, support or develop that main idea When sentences or paragraphs lose relevance, when they digress from that controlling idea, the passage loses its focus

Beyond this most basic principle of organization, writers typically rely on several main strategies for organizing their support One of these strategies often serves as the overall organizing principle for the text while individual sections may use other techniques as well For example, in an essay comparing and

con-trasting two film versions of Frankenstein, the writer will use comparison and contrast as the overall

organ-izing principle, but she may also use order of importance when explaining what makes one version better than the other

The four most common organizational patterns are:

■ chronological order

■ order of importance

■ comparison and contrast

■ cause and effect

C HRONOLOGICAL O RDER

When writers use time as their main organization principle, it is called chronological order They describe

events in the order in which they did happen, will happen, or should happen Much of what you read is organ-ized in this way, including historical texts, instructions and procedures, and essays about personal experiences The third paragraph of the Batman text uses this organizational pattern:

Kane’s Batman was a huge success right from the start The masked hero soon moved from

comic books to its own newspaper strip, and in 1943, Batman episodes were aired on the

radio In 1966, live-action Batman shows hit the TV screen, giving ABC network the ratings boost it badly needed The series was wildly popular, and the syndicated show still airs today

on channels such as the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon

Passages organized by chronology typically use many transitional words and phrases to help us follow the passage of time The transitions help us see when things happened and in what order and also help us follow along when the passage shifts from one period of time to another Transitional words and phrases keep events linked together in the proper order

Below is a list of some of the most common chronological transitions:

first, second, third, etc before after next now

in the meantime at last eventually finally afterward

Here, the transitions in the Batman paragraph are underlined:

Kane’s Batman was a huge success right from the start The masked hero soon moved from

comic books to its own newspaper strip, and in 1943, Batman episodes were aired on the

radio In 1966, live-action Batman shows hit the TV screen, giving ABC network the ratings boost it badly needed The series was wildly popular, and the syndicated show still airs today

on channels such as the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon

O RDER OF I MPORTANCE

With this organizational pattern, ideas are arranged by rank instead of time The most important

informa-tion comes first or last, depending upon the writer’s purpose

Organizing ideas from most important to least important puts the most essential information first Writ-ers often do this when they are offering advice or when they want to be sure readWrit-ers get the most important information right away Newspaper articles, for example, generally use this structure They begin with the

most important information (the who, what, when, where, and why about the event) so readers don’t have to

read the whole article to get those facts Details and background information come later in the article

When writers move from least to most important, they save their most important idea or piece of infor-mation for last Writers often use this approach when they are presenting an argument because this kind of structure is usually more convincing than the most-to-least organizational pattern The more controversial the argument, the more important this structure In an argument, you need to build your case piece-by-piece and win your readers over point by point If your less important points make sense to the reader, then your more important points will be stronger And, as the saying goes, writers often “save the best for last” because

that’s where “the best” often has the most impact In other words, the writer’s purpose helps to determine the

structure he or she uses

Transitions are very important for this organizational pattern, too Here is a list of the most common transitions writers use with the order of importance structure Most of these work for both the most-to-least important and least-to-most important formats:

first and foremost most importantly more importantly moreover

above all first, second, third last but not least

C OMPARISON AND C ONTRAST

When you show how two or more things are similar, you are making a comparison When you show how two

or more things are different, you are contrasting them As an organizational technique, this pattern allows

you to place two (or more) items side by side and see how they measure up against each other How are they similar or different? And why does it matter? For example, a writer comparing and contrasting the 1931 and

1994 film versions of Frankenstein might aim to show that the 1994 version is far truer to the book and rightly

depicts Victor Frankenstein as just as much of a monster as the creature he creates

As with the other organizational patterns, one of the keys to a good comparison and contrast is strong transitions It’s important to let readers know when you are comparing and when you are contrasting As a reader, it’s important to watch for these transitions

Here are some words and phrases that show similarity:

similarly in the same way likewise

The following words and phrases, on the other hand, show difference:

however on the contrary in contrast

C AUSE AND E FFECT

The fourth most common organizational pattern is cause and effect A cause is a person or thing that makes

something happen (creates an effect) An effect is an event or change created by an action (or cause) A pas-sage about cause explains why something took place You might ask, for example, “What caused the Cold War?” A passage about effect, on the other hand, explains what happened after something took place What

happened as a result of the Cold War?

Just as certain key words indicate whether you’re comparing or contrasting, other key words indicate whether things are causes or effects Here is a partial list of words and phrases that indicate cause and effect:

WORDS INDICATING CAUSE

because (of) created (by)

WORDS INDICATING EFFECT

as a result

To answer questions about organization on the ACT, you need to determine the writer’s purpose and

be able to recognize organizational patterns on both the essay and paragraph level In a longer text, all the paragraphs should work together to support the main idea In a paragraph, all of the sentences should work

together to support one controlling idea as well A paragraph is, by definition, a series of sentences about one

main idea If there is more than one main idea, you should have more than one paragraph

By identifying the organizational pattern, you can determine where to insert sentences or paragraphs; you can also determine whether any sentences or paragraphs are misplaced, such as a sentence that is out of chronological order

Practice 14

Part A: Divide the following text into at least three paragraphs.

The Cold War was one of the most interesting and troubling times in American history Sev-eral important historical events led to the Cold War First, in 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter

to President Franklin D Roosevelt In that letter, Einstein told Roosevelt that it was possible to cre-ate an atomic weapon, and he asked Roosevelt to fund research and experiments in atomic weapons Roosevelt agreed, and the government created the Manhattan Project, a massive effort

to develop nuclear weapons Next, the date that will live in infamy: August 6, 1945 The U.S

dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan—a civilian, not military, target An estimated 150,000 civilians were killed in the attack President Harry Truman and others claimed at the time that dropping the bomb was necessary to force Japan to surrender and end World War II Others argue that we used the bomb largely to show the Soviet Union that we were a superior world power Though the U.S and the U.S.S.R were officially allies, tensions between the two countries were already high A deep ideological battle between the two countries—one Communist, the other Capitalist—was already in place, and each country was determined to outdo the other Two years later, in 1947, President Truman established the Truman Doctrine This important document redefined American foreign policy It created a “policy of containment” which framed our foreign policy as a battle between “good” and “evil.” This dramatically increased the growing tension between the two countries

Part B: Arrange the following sentences in a logical order.

■ Many people are afraid of snakes, but most snakes aren’t as dangerous as people think they are

■ There are more than 2,500 different species of snakes around the world

■ Statistically, many other animals are far more dangerous than snakes

■ Only a small percentage of those species are poisonous, and only a few species have venom strong enough to kill a human being

■ In fact, in this country, more people die from dog bites each year than from snakes

■ Furthermore, snakes bite only 1,000–2,000 people in the United States each year, and only ten of those bites (that’s less than 1%) result in death

Answers

Part A

Answers may vary, but this is the most logical way to divide the text into three paragraphs

The Cold War was one of the most interesting and troubling times in American history Sev-eral important historical events led to the Cold War First, in 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D Roosevelt In that letter, Einstein told Roosevelt that it was

possible to create an atomic weapon, and he asked Roosevelt to fund research and

experi-ments in atomic weapons Roosevelt agreed, and the government created the Manhattan

Project, a massive effort to develop nuclear weapons

Next, the date that will live in infamy: August 6, 1945 The U.S dropped an atomic bomb

on Hiroshima, Japan—a civilian, not military, target An estimated 150,000 civilians were

killed in the attack President Harry Truman and others claimed at the time that dropping the bomb was necessary to force Japan to surrender and end World War II Others argue that

we used the bomb largely to show the Soviet Union that we were a superior world power

Though the U.S and the U.S.S.R were officially allies, tensions between the two countries

were already high A deep ideological battle between the two countries—one Communist,