Exam 8: Comparing and Contrasting

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay. -What language did the older people speak in their homes?

Answer the following questions about the essay. -How does Galarza structure the information of the body paragraphs: subject-by-subject, point-by-point, or a mixture of the two? Is this an effective structure? Explain.

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay. -What is the name of the largest canyon on Mars?

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay. -What would it feel like to stand on the surface of Mars?

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay. -Why are Cinco de Mayo and the Sixteenth of September important to the people of the barrio?

Recently, a white woman from Texas, who would quickly describe herself as a liberal, asked me about my hometown. When I told her that in Stamps my grandmother had owned the only Negro general merchandise store since the turn of the century, she explained, "Why, you were a debutante." Ridiculous and even ludicrous. But Negro girls in small Southern towns, whether poverty-stricken or just munching along on a few of life's necessities, were given as extensive and irrelevant preparation for adulthood as rich white girls shown in magazines. Admittedly the training was not the same. While white girls learned to waltz and sit gracefully with a teacup balanced on their knees, we were lagging behind, learning the mid-Victorian values with very little money to indulge them. (Come and see Edna Lomax spending the money she made picking cotton on five balls of ecru tatting thread. Her fingers are bound to snag the work, and she'll have to repeat the stitches time and time again. But she knows that when she buys the thread.) -Maya Angelou -What topics is Angelou comparing and contrasting? List the points for each topic.

Answer the following questions about the essay. -The author uses comparison to make an argument. What do you think is the main argument?

Comparing involves discovering _______________; contrasting is based on finding ____________.

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay. -Why is there a current absence of surface water on Mars?

While comparing and contrasting indicate two separate activities, they are generally considered one activity called _____________.

Read the following paragraphs and answer the questions after each paragraph. Some people say the business about the jolly fat person is a myth, that all of us chubbies are neurotic, sick, sad people. I disagree. Fat people may not be chortling all day long, but they're a hell of a lot nicer than the wizened and shriveled. Thin people turn surly, mean, and hard at a young age because they never learn the value of a hot-fudge sundae for easing tension. Thin people don't like gooey soft things because they themselves are neither gooey nor soft. They are crunchy and dull, like carrots. They go straight to the heart of the matter while fat people let things stay all blurry and hazy and vague, the way things actually are. Thin people want to face the truth. Fat people know there is no truth. One of my thin friends is always staring at complex, unsolvable problems and saying, "The key thing is… ." Fat people never say that. They know there isn't any such thing as the key thing about anything. -Suzanne Britt Jordan -Does the author organize the paragraph by topics or by points of comparison?

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay. -For instance, the northern Martian hemisphere has very few craters compared with the southern hemisphere.

Answer the following questions about the essay. -In much of the essay, Galarza focuses his details and descriptions on the Mexican culture and often does not describe the American equivalents. Why do you think he does this?

Answer the following questions about the essay. -In his essay, Ernesto Galarza compares and contrasts Sacramento and _____________.

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay. -What essential ingredient to life on Earth was also probably on Mars?

You must include your purpose and your items for comparison in your ___________ when writing a comparing and contrasting paragraph.

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay. -Because the Solar System is so large and the distances between planets are so great, scientists developed a special way to measure distances in the Solar System.

Recently, a white woman from Texas, who would quickly describe herself as a liberal, asked me about my hometown. When I told her that in Stamps my grandmother had owned the only Negro general merchandise store since the turn of the century, she explained, "Why, you were a debutante." Ridiculous and even ludicrous. But Negro girls in small Southern towns, whether poverty-stricken or just munching along on a few of life's necessities, were given as extensive and irrelevant preparation for adulthood as rich white girls shown in magazines. Admittedly the training was not the same. While white girls learned to waltz and sit gracefully with a teacup balanced on their knees, we were lagging behind, learning the mid-Victorian values with very little money to indulge them. (Come and see Edna Lomax spending the money she made picking cotton on five balls of ecru tatting thread. Her fingers are bound to snag the work, and she'll have to repeat the stitches time and time again. But she knows that when she buys the thread.) -Maya Angelou -What is the paragraph's main idea?

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay. -However, in the past, both of these processes have contributed to the formation of these amazing Martian features.

Unfortunately, women and men often have different ideas about what's appropriate, different ways of speaking. Many of the conversational rituals common among women are designed to take the other person's feelings into account, while many of the conversational rituals common among men are designed to maintain the one-up position, or at least avoid appearing one-down. As a result, when men and women interact-especially at work-it's often women who are at the disadvantage. Because women are not trying to avoid the one-down position, that is unfortunately where they may end up. -Deborah Tannen -What is the paragraph's main idea?