A “U” essay is a writing sample that fails becauseof one or more of the following: ■ failure to address the assigned topic ■ illegibility ■ written primarily in a language other than Eng
Trang 1A “U” essay is a writing sample that fails because
of one or more of the following:
■ failure to address the assigned topic
■ illegibility
■ written primarily in a language other than
English
■ length insufficient to score
A “B” essay is a writing sample left completely
blank (that is, the test-taker did not respond at all)
Following are examples of scored writing
sam-ples (Note: There are some deliberate errors in all the
essays.)
Sample “4” essay
Courage and cowardice seem like absolutes We are
often quick to label other people, or ourselves, either
“brave” or “timid,” “courageous,” or “cowardly.”
However, one bright afternoon on a river deep in the
wilds of the Ozark mountains, I learned that these
qualities are as changeable as mercury
During a cross-country drive, my friend Nina
and I decided to stop at a campsite in Missouri and
spend the afternoon on a float trip down Big Piney
River, 14 miles through the wilderness We rented a
canoe and paddled happily off
Things went fine—for the first seven or eight
miles We gazed at the overhanging bluffs,
com-mented on the wonderful variety of trees (it was
spring, and the dogwood was in bloom), and
mar-veled at the clarity of the water Then, in
approach-ing a bend in the river (which we later learned was
called “Devil’s Elbow”) the current suddenly swept
us in toward the bank, underneath the low-hanging
branches of a weeping willow The canoe tipped
over and I was pulled under, my foot caught for just
a few seconds on the submerged roots of the willow
Just as I surfaced, taking my first frantic gulp of air,
I saw the canoe sweeping out, upright again, but empty, and Nina frantically swimming after it
I knew I should help but I was petrified and hung my head in shame as I let my friend brave the treacherous rapids and haul the canoe back onto the gravel bar, while I stood by cravenly
Then came the scream Startled, I glanced up
to see Nina, both hands over her eyes, dash off the gravel bar and back into the water I gazed down into the canoe to see, coiled in the bottom of it, the unmistakable, black-and-brown, checkerboard-pat-tered form of a copperhead snake It had evidently been sunning itself peacefully on the weeping willow branch when we passed by underneath
I don’t know exactly why but the supposedly inborn terror of snakes is something that has passed
me by completely I actually find them rather charm-ing in a scaly sort of way
Nina was still screaming, near hysterics: “Kill it!” But I was calm in a way that must have seemed smug “We’re in its home, it’s not in ours,” I informed her And gently I prodded it with the oar until it reared up, slithered over the side of the canoe, and raced away—terrified, itself—into the underbrush
Later that night, in our cozy, safe motel room,
we agreed that we each had cold chills thinking about what might have happened Still, I learned something important from the ordeal I know that, had we encountered only the rapids, I might have come away ashamed, labeling myself a coward, and had we encountered only the snake, Nina might have done the same And I also know that neither of
us will ever again be quite so apt to brand another person as lacking courage Because we will always know that, just around the corner, may be the snake
or the bend in the river or the figure in the shadows
or something else as yet unanticipated, that will cause our own blood to freeze
– T H E A P R A C T I C E E X A M 2 –
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Trang 2Sample “3” essay
Courage can be shown in many ways and by many
kinds of people One does not have to be rich, or
educated, or even an adult to show true courage
For example, a very heartbreaking thing
hap-pened in our family It turned out all right but at the
time it almost made us lose our faith However, it
also taught us a lesson regarding courage In spite of
our father’s and my repeated warnings, my brother
Matt went ice-fishing with some friends and fell
through the ice into the frigid water beneath He is
prone to do things that are dangerous no matter
how many times he’s told Fortunately there were
grown-ups near and they were able to throw him a
life line and pull him to safety However, when they
got him onto shore they discovered he was
uncon-scious There were vital signs but they were weak, the
paramedics pronounced him in grave danger
He is our little sisters (Nans) hero He is 16 and
she is 13, just at the age where she admires
every-thing he does When they took him to the hospital
she insisted on going that night to see him, and she
insisted on staying with me there My father thought
we should insist she go home, but it was Christmas
vacation for her so there was no real reason So he
decide to let her stay She stayed every night for the
whole week just to be by Matt’s side And when he
woke up she was there Her smiling face the was
first thing he saw
In spite of the fact she was just a child and it
was frightning for her to be there beside her brother
she loves so much, and had to wonder, every day if
he would die, she stayed So courage has many faces
Sample “2” essay
time he took me camping and I had a tent of my own I wanted to crawl in with him but he said there was nothing to be afriad of And I went to sleep sooner than I would have expect He taught me not
to be afriad
There are many reasons for courage In a war
a solder has to be couragous and a mother has to be
no less couragous if she is rasing a child alone and has to make a living So, in me it is totally alright to
be afriad as long as you face your fear I have been greatful to him ever since that night
If we dont learn from our parents, like I did from my father, then we have to learn it after we grow up But it is better to learn it, as a child I have never been as afriad as I was that night, and I learned
a valuble lesson from it
Sample “1” essay
Courage is important in a battle and also ordinary life In a war if your buddy depends on you and you let him down he might die Courage is also impor-tant in daly life If you have sicknes in the famly or
if you enconter a mugger on the street you will need all the courage you can get There are many dangers in life that only courage will see you through
Once, my apartment was burglerised and they stole a TV and micro-wave I didnt have very much They took some money to I felt afraid when I walked in and saw things moved or gone But I call the police and waited for them inside my apartment which was brave and also some might say stupid! But the police came and took my statement and also later caught the guy Another time my girlfreind and I were in my apartment and we looked out the
– T H E A P R A C T I C E E X A M 2 –
Trang 3S c o r i n g
Once again, in order to evaluate how you did on this
practice exam, start by scoring the three sections of
the THEA—Reading, Mathematics, and Writing—
separately You will recall that the Reading section, the
Mathematics section, and the multiple-choice
subsec-tion of the Writing secsubsec-tion are scored the same way:
First find the number of questions you got right in
each section Questions you skipped or got wrong don’t
count; just add up the number of correct answers
Divide the number of questions you got right by the
number of questions on that section of the exam to find
a percentage equivalent
In addition to achieving a passing score on the
Reading section and the Mathematics section, you must
receive a passing score on the writing sample subsection
of the Writing section of the THEA Your writing
sam-ple will be graded by two trained readers and their
combined score used to evaluate how you did Your
score will be a combination of the two readers’
judg-ments, somewhere between a possible high of 8 and a
low of 2 The best way to see how you did on your
essay for this practice exam is to give your writing
sample and the scoring criteria to a teacher and ask him
or her to score your essay for you
You have probably seen improvement between your first practice exam score and this one; but keep in mind that how you did on each of the basic skills tested
by the exam is more important than your overall score right now Use your scores on this practice test to once again diagnose your strengths and weaknesses so that you can concentrate your efforts as you prepare for the exam Turn again to the review lessons in Chapters
4, 5, and 6 that cover each of the basic skills tested on the THEA
If you didn’t score as well as you would like, ask yourself the following: Did I run out of time before I could answer all the questions? Did I go back and change
my answers from right to wrong? Did I get flustered and sit staring at a difficult question for what seemed like hours? If you had any of these problems, once again, be sure to go over the LearningExpress Test Preparation System in Chapter 2 to learn how to avoid them After working on your reading, writing, and math skills, take the final practice exam in Chapter 8 to see how much you have improved
– T H E A P R A C T I C E E X A M 2 –
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Trang 5Much like the previous practice exams in this book, this one is divided into three sections: a
Read-ing section, a Mathematics section, and a two-part WritRead-ing section that consists of multiple-choice questions and one essay topic on which you are to write from 300–600 words
For this exam, you should simulate the actual test-taking experience as closely as you can Work in a quiet place, away from interruptions Use the answer sheet on the following page and, as you did before, write your essay
on a separate piece of paper Before you begin, decide in what order you are going to do the sections Use a timer and allow yourself five hours for the entire exam
After the exam, use the answer explanations that follow to find out which questions you missed and why
C H A P T E R
THEA Practice Exam 3
C H A P T E R S U M M A R Y
This is the third practice test in this book based on the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) Use this test to see how much you have improved
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