Exam 3: The Process of Writing Paragraphs

Instructions: Check the following paragraph(s) for unity. Select the number of the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not belong. (1) In nineteenth-century America, chocolate was a rare, expensive treat (2) It was Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey Foods, who made chocolate affordable and widely available. (3) He had built a successful caramel-making company before chocolate-making first fascinated him in 1893. (4) For years, he worked at perfecting a recipe for making milk chocolate, a process which up until then had been the secret of Swiss chocolate makers (5) Hershey experimented with different combinations of milk, sugar, and cocoa until he found the right one (6) Then, using mass-production techniques, he was able to make and sell large quantities of individually wrapped, affordably priced chocolate (7) For decades after Hershey began manufacturing his Hershey bars in 1904, the candy cost only a nickel (8) In the early 1900s, a nickel also bought a ride on the New York subway.

Instructions: Check the following paragraph(s) for unity. Select the number of the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not belong. (1) Many cities have adopted or toughened their laws that protect trees because trees benefit cities and their inhabitants in several ways (2) They clean air by filtering out carbon monoxide, ozone, and other pollutants and then producing oxygen. (3) They also prevent rain from washing oil, vehicle coolant fluid, pesticides, and other chemicals into rivers and lakes. (4) Therefore, they reduce the need for cities to install huge, multibillion-dollar storm-water systems to handle the runoff that occurs in areas with fewer trees (5) Trees also provide cooling shade, thus reducing the need for air conditioning in homes and businesses (6) If it weren't for air conditioning, many cities in Florida, such as Miami and Orlando, would never have grown so large (7) Because trees save money on energy costs, many cities encourage their residents to protect the trees surrounding their homes and businesses.

Instructions: Study the body of each of the following paragraphs. Then, select the letter of the topic sentence that is most accurate. Select the best topic sentence for the paragraph.It dates back to ancient Egypt, when players tried to knock down pins by rolling a ball made of stone or wood at them. One historian claims that Germans were playing the game by 300 A.D. By the Middle Ages, bowling had become so popular that in 1366, England's King Edward III banned the sport because it was distracting his soldiers from archery practice. English, Dutch, and German settlers all imported different variations of the game when they immigrated to America. Today, almost 70 million Americans go bowling every year, making it the most popular participatory sport in the United States.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. Check the following paragraph for unity. Then select the number of the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph. (1) The first batch of one of the world's most popular soft drinks was mixed in a backyard kettle over a hundred years ago (2) On May 6, 1886, Dr. John Styth Pemberton heated a mixture of melted sugar, water, coca leaves, kola nuts, and other ingredients. (3) He planned to make one of the home-brewed medical syrups so popular at that time. (4) However, this one tasted so good that Dr. Pemberton decided to sell it as a soda fountain drink for five cents a glass (5) The first glass of this new drink was sold at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia (6) Atlanta was and still is a wonderful place to live (7) Pemberton's tasty invention, Coca-Cola, caught on (8) Today, Coca-Cola is consumed by 140,000 people every minute.

Instructions: Check the following paragraph(s) for unity. Select the number of the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not belong. (1) Bottled water is not necessarily any purer or healthier than the water you can get from your sink (2) In fact, in many cities and towns, the testing requirements for tap water are much stricter than those for bottled water, and the bottled water may actually contain contaminants that the tap water is not allowed to have. (3) Plus, bottled water usually lacks fluoride, an important mineral that is added to tap water. (4) Another reason to drink tap water is the waste generated by consumption of bottled water (5) While all of those empty plastic bottles can be recycled, most people just toss them into the trash, and they end up in landfills already overflowing with garbage (6) Recycling glass, newspaper, and aluminum will also help to minimize America's waste problem (7) Finally, bottled water costs a lot more than tap water (8) In fact, it's often about 300 times more expensive.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. The group of sentences below could be unscrambled and written as a paragraph. Select the letter of the topic sentence in this group of sentences.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. Select the number of the topic sentence in the paragraph below. (1) Within 20 minutes of quitting smoking, an ex-smoker's blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal (2) Within eight hours, oxygen levels in the blood increase, and carbon monoxide levels decrease. (3) Forty-eight hours after quitting, the ex-smoker's senses of smell and taste return to normal. (4) By three months after quitting, the ex-smoker's circulation will have improved, and his or her lung function will have increased by as much as 30 percent (5) A year after quitting, the ex-smoker's risk for heart disease is slashed by half (6) The risk for lung cancer is cut in half within five years of quitting (7) It's clear that the longer an ex-smoker goes without cigarettes, the healthier he or she becomes.

Instructions: Each group of sentences below could be unscrambled and written as a paragraph. Read each group, and select the letter of the topic sentence for each. Choose the topic sentence.

Instructions: For each group of sentences below, select the letter of the sentence that is limited enough to be the topic sentence of a good paragraph. Select the good topic sentence.

Instructions: Study the body of each of the following paragraphs. Then, select the letter of the topic sentence that is most accurate. Select the best topic sentence for the paragraph.One parent in Oklahoma, fed up with her daughter's poor grades and chronic tardiness, forced her daughter to stand at a busy intersection and hold a sign that read "I don't do my homework and I act up in school. My parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food." After her son was suspended from school for the seventh time, a Kansas City mom required her son to wear a sandwich board declaring that he was the class clown and pace for hours outside her workplace. In California, two parents were charged with abuse after they sent their son to school with dog excrement in his backpack to punish him for failing to clean up after his pet.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. The group of sentences below can be unscrambled and written as a paragraph. Select the letter of the topic sentence in this group of sentences.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. From the group below, select the letter of the sentence that is limited enough to be the topic sentence of a good paragraph.

Instructions: For each group of sentences below, select the letter of the sentence that is limited enough to be the topic sentence of a good paragraph. Select the good topic sentence.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. Check the following paragraph for unity. Then select the number of the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph. (1) At Paradise Produce, attractive displays of fruit and vegetables caught my eye. (2) On the left, oranges, lemons, and apples were stacked in neat pyramids. (3) In the center of the store, baskets of ripe peaches, plums, and raspberries were grouped in a kind of still life. (4) Many nutritionists believe that berries help prevent certain diseases (5) On the right, the leafy green vegetables had been arranged according to intensity of color: dark green spinach, then romaine lettuce and parsley, next the lighter iceberg lettuce, and finally the nearly white Chinese cabbage (6) On the wall above the greens hung braided ropes of garlic.

Instructions: Each group of sentences below could be unscrambled and written as a paragraph. Read each group, and select the letter of the topic sentence for each. Choose the topic sentence.

Instructions: For each group of sentences below, select the letter of the sentence that is limited enough to be the topic sentence of a good paragraph. Select the good topic sentence.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. Study the body of the following paragraph. Then, select the letter of the topic sentence that is most accurate.From 1869 to 1875, as a poor child in Ohio, Annie Oakley paid off the family's mortgage by hunting and selling wild game. In her teens, she competed against Frank Butler, a famous marksman who came to town, and beat him by one point. European kings and queens loved to watch her perform, and she once shot a cigarette from the lips of the future Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Years later, Annie married Butler and joined Wild Bill's Wild West Show, where she was the star.

Instructions: Each group of sentences below could be unscrambled and written as a paragraph. Read each group, and select the letter of the topic sentence for each. Select the topic sentence.

Instructions: For each paragraph below, select the number of the topic sentence. Identify the topic sentence of the paragraph below. (1) Statistics show that the average American generates about 4 pounds of trash every day. (2) When you multiply that by the number of people living in the United States, you realize we throw away about 210 million tons of stuff each year. (3) That's a lot of trash. (4) However, we can all combat this problem by taking three steps: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." (5) Reduce refers to lessening the amount of trash you generate. Buy only the amount you need (6) Persuade manufacturers to reduce the amount of packaging they use (7) Mow your lawn with a mulching mower and leave the clippings on the grass (8) Reuse means finding other locations for items besides the garbage can (9) Figure out other ways you can use things like cans or plastic bags (10)Share unused portions with neighbors or charities (11)Donate unwanted items to others rather than throwing them away (12)If you can't reuse, recycle (13)The recycling process can be applied to glass, paper, plastics, steel, and cardboard, which can be made into useful products rather than thrown into an overflowing landfill.

Instructions: For each group of sentences below, select the letter of the sentence that is limited enough to be the topic sentence of a good paragraph. Select the good topic sentence.