Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing Skills

1. Once you've previewed an essay or other reading assignment, you can help yourself to enhance your comprehension of the material by
A. writing a response to what you've previewed.
B. drawing conclusions based on your own experience.
C. immediately looking up words with which you were unfamiliar.
D. formulating questions that will guide your reading.

2. In the following sentence, identify the prepositional phrase, and tell whether it acts as an adjective or adverb.
The children found the pictures in the book interesting.
A. The children; adjective
B. the pictures in; adjective
C. found the pictures; adverb
D. in the book; adjective

3. While you're reading an essay or assignment, you can determine the relative importance of the ideas expressed in the material by
A. research the author's background.
B. pausing to read materials you think might be related.
C. highlighting key points.
D. take a break if the material doesn't interest you.

4. Which of the following is a demonstrative pronoun?
A. That
B. Which
C. An
D. The

5. Why do writers often strive to write using more active-voice verbs and fewer passive-voice verbs?
A. The passive voice is usually more emphatic.
B. The active voice is more emphatic and usually makes it easier for readers to understand who is performing the action of a sentence.
C. The active voice emphasizes the receiver of the action.
D. The active voice often puts the actor in a phrase after the verb.

6. After reading an essay or other assigned material, you can enhance and clarify your understanding by creating a graphic organizer that tracks
A. your annotations.
B. unfamiliar words and phrases.
C. the key elements of the material.
D. everything you've highlighted.

7. Annotating a text involves
A. distinguishing between topic sentences and supporting statements.
B. jotting down your reactions to the material you're reading.
C. identifying key elements.
D. summarizing what you're reading.

8. The _______ case of a pronoun indicates that it's the receiver of an action.
A. direct
B. objective
C. possessive
D. subjective

9. In college-level, academic writing, you can expect to
A. write in different forms or genres.
B. always write in the first person.
C. use slang and idioms in all of your writing.
D. have all your writing published.

10. One way to correct a sentence fragment that begins with a subordinating word is to
A. revise the fragment to begin with an infinitive verb.
B. insert a relative pronoun into the fragment.
C. join the fragment to another sentence.
D. add a helping verb.

11. Denise is required to write a summary of an essay she read for her English Literature class. In her summary, she should include
A. the author's thesis, exactly as it appears in the text.
B. the main ideas the author presented to support his or her thesis.
C. her personal responses or opinions.
D. little information so that people who haven't read the essay must read it in order to understand it.

12. Unless directed otherwise by an instructor, the best approach to writing a response paper is to
A. focus on a key idea or a question raised by the essay to which you're responding.
B. prepare by reading related essays.
C. critique the author's writing style.
D. begin by reading responses other people have written.

13. Which of the following is one of the eight standard parts of speech?
A. Article
B. Subject
C. Modifier
D. Preposition

14. Which of the following is an example of an infinitive phrase?
A. having been running
B. to run
C. which had been running
D. running

15. Shawn is assigned to read an article that he finds challenging because the ideas are complicated and difficult for him to understand. One strategy he can use to deal with this challenge is to
A. rephrase each idea in his own words.
B. learn more about the author's background.
C. look for clues to the meanings of unfamiliar words.
D. pay more attention to the headings in the material.

16. Word choices, sentence patterns, and other stylistic elements convey how an author feels about the topic about which he or she is writing, an element of writing commonly referred to as
A. intention. B. tone.
C. euphemism. D. voice.

17. A/An _______ phrase uses the present participial form of a verb, along with any modifiers, as a noun, serving as a subject, object, or subject complement.
A. participial B. gerund
C. appositive D. infinitive

18. Which one of the following sentences demonstrates correct subject-verb agreement?
A. Robert's friend Steve, as well as his wife, are going to the fair.
B. Each of his sisters go to a different school.
C. A number of my friends have bought new cars recently.
D. Elena thinks five dollars are a lot of money.

19. Writing a summary of an essay, article, or other assigned reading material is an effective way to
A. record your impressions.
B. determine whether you've understood the material.
C. formally present your own response to the author's ideas.
D. offer a critical analysis of the material.

20. _______ adjectives name a quality of a person, place, thing, or idea.
A. Interrogative
B. Descriptive
C. Limiting
D. Personal