Deck 8: Comparing and Contrasting

Question 1

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
-What is the paragraph's main idea?

Answer 1

Fat people are jolly people.

Question 2

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

-What topics is Jordan comparing and contrasting? List the points for each topic.

Answer 2

Question 3

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?

Answer 3

By points of comparisons

Question 4

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?

Question 5

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 topics is Tannen comparing and contrasting? List the points for each topic.

Question 6

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
-Does the author organize the paragraph by topics or by points of comparison?
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

Question 7

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?

Question 8

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.

Question 9

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
-Does the author organize the paragraph by topics or by points of comparison?

Question 10

What does the activity of comparing involve?

A) discovering patterns
B) discovering differences
C) discovering characteristics
D) discovering similarities

Question 11

Why is the word compare often used to refer to both comparing and contrasting?

A) Even though comparing involves discovering differences and contrasting involves discovering similarities, they are generally considered part of the same process.
B) Even though contrasting involves discovering differences and comparing involves discovering similarities, they are generally considered part of the same process.
C) Comparing and contrasting are synonyms to describe the same process.
D) Comparing and contrasting are the same activity.

Question 12

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

A) topic sentence
B) introduction
C) transition sentence
D) second sentence

Question 13

An effective comparing and contrasting paragraph must be based on

A) items that are different.
B) items that are from the same category.
C) items that your audience understands and knows well.
D) items that you would normally never compare or contrast.

Question 14

Brainstorming before writing a comparing and contrasting essay lets you

A) clear your mind.
B) get all your ideas out on paper.
C) switch between comparing and contrasting.
D) see any patterns develop between your ideas.

Question 15

A comparing and contrasting paragraph should be organized

A) chronologically.
B) from general to specific or from specific to general.
C) by topics or by points.
D) spatially whenever possible.

Question 16

Which of the following pairs will make an acceptable comparison?

A) Tony Romo and Michael Phelps
B) your local high school baseball team and a Division I collegiate baseball program
C) your teacher and your local grocer
D) a movie and a bag of popcorn

Question 17

Why would it be useful to organize a paragraph comparing and contrasting dogs and cats as pets point-by-point?

A) It would be easy to prove that cats make better indoor pets.
B) Each aspect of both pets would appear close to each other, so it would be easier for the reader to compare the two.
C) Cats would be discussed, and then dogs would be discussed so the reader could make up his or her own mind.
D) The reader could then argue against each point.

Question 18

What main point does Deborah Tannen make in her paragraph about the behavior of groups of boys and girls?

A) Boys and girls tend to socialize similarly in groups.
B) Boys and girls tend to socialize differently in groups.
C) Girls tend to socialize in large groups.
D) Boys tend to socialize in small groups.

Question 19

Deborah Tannen's paragraph compares and contrasts two topics from which category?

A) humans
B) children
C) boys
D) girls

Question 20

In everyday life, we use comparison and contrast to make ____________________.

Question 21

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

Question 22

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

Question 23

To write a successful comparison, you need to choose items from the same ____________.

Question 24

A comparing and contrasting paragraph should be organized by ____________ or by ___________.

Question 25

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-The grocers did not give children a pilón, they did not stand at the door and coax you to come in and buy, as they did in Mazatlán.

A) bribe
B) force
C) charm
D) tell

Question 26

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Neither was there a plaza, only parks which had no bandstands, no concerts every Thursday, no Judases exploding on Holy Week, and no promenades of boys going one way and girls the other.

A) processions
B) teams
C) gangs
D) pairs

Question 27

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Sacramento did not have a mercado and a plaza with the cathedral to one side.

A) circle
B) town square
C) parking lot
D) city hall

Question 28

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-In the American style, there was little difference between a laugh and a roar, and until you got used to them you could hardly tell whether the boisterous Americans were roaring mad or roaring happy.

A) quiet
B) angry
C) insane
D) overexcited

Question 29

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-They were continuously taking up collections to pay somebody's funeral expenses or to help someone who had had a serious accident.

A) frequently
B) infrequently
C) constantly
D) seldom

Question 30

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-New Year greeting cards were exchanged, showing angels and cherubs in bright colors sprinkled with grains of mica so that they glistened like gold dust.

A) sparkled
B) felt
C) smelled
D) appeared

Question 31

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-For both the cinco and the sixteenth, queens were elected to preside over the ceremonies.

A) decorate
B) look
C) guard
D) be in control

Question 32

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Between celebrations, neither the politicians uptown nor the Comisión Honorífica attended to the daily needs of the barrio.

A) cared for
B) ignored
C) knew about
D) learned about

Question 33

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-This was done by volunteers, the ones who knew enough English to interpret in court, on a visit to the doctor, a call at the county hospital, and who could help make out a postal money order.

A) make sense of
B) translate
C) find a seat
D) talk to

Question 34

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-In Mazatlán Don Salvador had told us, saluting and marching as he talked to our class, that the Cinco de Mayo was the most glorious date in human history.

A) tragic
B) famous
C) magnificent
D) shameful

Question 35

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What is being compared in the first paragraph?

A) different items in a grocery store
B) fly spray and floor cleaners
C) grocery stores and grocery shopping
D) pineapples and limes

Question 36

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What did the American grovery stores smell like?

A) fly spray and oiled floors
B) pine and cedar
C) fruits and vegetables
D) pineapples and limes

Question 37

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What did the Sacramento barrio lack?

A) a hotel
B) a grocery store
C) a central place for everyone
D) a cleaners

Question 38

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-According to the narrator, if you did not speak loudly, Americans would not

A) think you were intelligent.
B) listen to you.
C) like you.
D) even know you were there.

Question 39

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-In the barrio, the older people remained

A) indoors.
B) vulnerable.
C) American.
D) Mexican.

Question 40

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What language did the older people speak in their homes?

A) English
B) Chinese
C) Spanish
D) French

Question 41

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-Why did the people of the barrio not have "official titles"?

A) They distrusted the titles.
B) They had their own version of titles.
C) They had no place or voice in public business or political positions.
D) They thought the titles would be useless.

Question 42

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?

A) They are celebrations of Mexican heroes, and they reaffirm the Mexican culture.
B) They are celebrations of their new lives in America.
C) They are the only celebrations in the Mexican culture.
D) They are celebrations of American heroes, and they reaffirm the American way of life.

Question 43

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What did it mean to turn pocho?

A) to become Mexican
B) to begin to turn American
C) to become insensitive
D) to become an immigrant

Question 44

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What holiday did Americans not know about?

A) The Day of the Dead
B) Cinco de Mayo
C) Sixteenth of September
D) Memorial Day

Question 45

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

Question 46

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-To Galarza, the American way of ______________ was strange because he could not tell if they were angry or happy.

Question 47

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Often, Galarza would have to __________________ for non-English speakers in court.

Question 48

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Mexicans who had grown up in California were called ___________________.

Question 49

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Instead of the Fourth of July, the narrator celebrated ____________________________.

Question 50

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.

Question 51

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?

Question 52

Answer the following questions about the essay.

-How do you think Galarza feels about America? What in the essay leads you to think this?

Question 53

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Throughout the essay, Galarza uses Spanish words in an essay otherwise directed toward an English-speaking audience. Why does he do so? Does this make the essay more or less confusing? Why?

Question 54

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Do you think the narrator considers himself a chicano or a pocho? Why?

Question 55

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Interest in Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, began long before people were able to send spacecraft to the "Red Planet."

A) one of Mars's moons
B) nickname for Mars
C) name of exploratory robot
D) nickname for Earth

Question 56

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Mars missions will launch about every two years to gain a better understanding of Mars' geologic history and search for evidence of past and present life.

A) temporal
B) political
C) atmospheric
D) physical

Question 57

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.

A) the planets in our galaxy
B) the reading of star constellations
C) nickname for Earth
D) the system of the sun and the objects that orbit around it

Question 58

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Even early astronomers were able to see Mars' brightness and position changes in the sky.

A) scientific observers of space
B) astronauts
C) readers of the horoscope
D) physical scientists

Question 59

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-By studying places on Mars where water appears to have flown across the surface in ancient times, scientists are unlocking the history of Mars when liquid water seemed abundant .

A) precarious
B) inevitable
C) in large quantity
D) in small quantity

Question 60

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Why do people have an interest in planetary science , and what kind of technology do we gain from space travel?

A) study of stars
B) study of planets
C) study of meteorites
D) study of space travel

Question 61

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.

A) half of a sphere
B) continent
C) pole
D) ocean

Question 62

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Scientists observe the Martian surface by using orbiting spacecraft, and they study Martian meteorites found on Earth.

A) traveling
B) flying
C) circling
D) guided

Question 63

Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.

-Olympus Mons is characterized not only by its height, but also by its gently sloping volcanic cone.

A) ascending
B) dusty
C) colorful
D) leaning

Question 64

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.

A) research
B) creation
C) deduction
D) rise

Question 65

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-According to the author, what detail about Earth's surface gives scientists clues about how areas on Mars were formed?

A) the way surface rocks lean after flood
B) the composition of soil
C) the way that lightning strikes
D) the way craters are created

Question 66

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?

A) air
B) frozen water
C) liquid water
D) seeds

Question 67

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-Why is there a current absence of surface water on Mars?

A) Mars's hot temperature
B) Mars's thin atmosphere
C) Mars's high atmospheric pressure
D) Mars has never had surface water

Question 68

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What other industries have benefitted from the lightweight, yet extremely strong materials that NASA has developed for space travel?

A) automobile
B) information technology
C) manufacturing and electronics
D) environmental

Question 69

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What is the unit of measurement developed to measure distances in the Solar System?

A) the lightyear (LY)
B) the particle distance (PD)
C) the astrophysical unit (APU)
D) the astronomical unit (AU)

Question 70

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What would currently happen to liquid water on Mars's surface?

A) freeze into ground frost
B) become steam
C) melt
D) freeze into solid ice

Question 71

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What is the name of the largest volcano on Mars?

A) Olympus the Great
B) Olympus Mons
C) Red Everest
D) Mt. Olympus

Question 72

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-What is the name of the largest canyon on Mars?

A) Canyon Exemplar
B) The Grand Martian Canyon
C) Valles Martian
D) Valles Marinaris

Question 73

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?

A) like our feet was in summer and our head was in winter
B) like we were heavier than usual
C) like time moved faster than usual
D) the same as we feel standing on Earth

Question 74

Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.

-If a person drove at 60 mph, how long would it take them to get to Mars?

A) 12 years
B) 35.5 years
C) 66.5 years
D) nearly 100 years

Question 75

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-The invention of powerful ___________, scientists were able to see the surface of Mars for the first time.

Question 76

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Scientists reviewing pictures of Mars's surface during the ______________________ mission in 1997 noted that surface rocks at the ______________ landing site appear to lean in the same direction.

Question 77

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Similar to our Moon, Mars's surface is covered with thousands of __________________________.

Question 78

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Helping to make life better on Earth and exploring the unknown are some of ______________ greatest achievements.

Question 79

Answer the following questions about the essay.
-Scientists can learn about rocks by looking at the ______________________ (infrared light) coming off the surface of Mars.

Question 80

Answer the following questions about the essay.

-What is the author comparing?