Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

a.
complicated.
b.
generous.
c.
curious.
d.
unusual.
6.
The title of the course “Creative Journaling for
Teens: Discovering the Writer Within” implies that
a.
all young people should write in a journal
daily.
b.
teenagers do not have enough hobbies.
c.
writing in a journal can help teenagers
become better and more creative writers.
d.
teenagers are in need of guidance and
direction.
7.
Which of the following correctly states the
primary subject of this article?
a.
Leah Martin’s personal ideas about young
adults
b.
The McGee Foundation’s grant to the
Allendale Cultural Center
c.
three new classes for young adults added to
the cultural center’s arts program
d.
the needs of young adults in Allendale
8.
This article is organized in which of the
following ways?
a.
in chronological order, from the past to the
future
b.
most important information first, followed by
background and details.
c.
background first, followed by the most impor-
tant information and details.
d.
as sensational news, with the most controver-
sial topic first
–
P R E T E S T
–
6

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(excerpt from the opening of an untitled essay)
John Steinbeck’s 
Grapes of Wrath
, published in 1939, was followed ten years later by A.B. Guthrie’s 
The Way West
.
Both books chronicle a migration, though that of Guthrie’s pioneers is considerably less bleak in origin. What
strikes one at first glance, however, are the commonalities. Both Steinbeck’s and Guthrie’s characters are pri-
marily farmers. They look to their destinations with nearly religious enthusiasm, imagining their “promised”
land the way the Biblical Israelites envisioned Canaan. Both undergo great hardship to make the trek. But the
two sagas differ distinctly in origin. Steinbeck’s Oklahomans are forced off their land by the banks who own
their mortgages, and they follow a false promise—that jobs await them as seasonal laborers in California.
Guthrie’s farmers willingly remove themselves, selling their land and trading their old dreams for their new hope
in Oregon. The pioneers’ decision to leave their farms in Missouri and the East is frivolous and ill-founded in
comparison with the Oklahomans’ unwilling response to displacement. Yet, it is they, the pioneers, whom our
history books declare the heroes.