13 minute read
Exact Evidence
1. Underline the sentence below that shows that Harriet doesn’t believe her children are musically talented.
6 "All the same I shouldn't like to be exhibiting my children about like freaks."
7 "Poor Nelson! there's not much danger of your ever being tempted. It's extremely unlikely that poor Billy or Elsie will ever startle the world. Really, do you know when I heard those Massey children and thought of all they have done, of all they may do, I envied them myself? To youth everything is possible when anything at all is possible."
8 Harriet sighed and Mackenzie fancied he detected a note of disappointment in her voice. He had suspected before that Harriet was disappointed in her children. They suited him well enough, but Harriet was different.
Let’s keep reading.
It’s extremely unlikely that poor Billy or Elsie will ever startle the world.
Oof. That’s brutal honesty from Harriet. Who is Harriet talking about here? Who are Billy and Elsie?
Her kids.
Harriet and Nelson Mackenzie are discussing their children. If you’re ever unsure about a character, check the previous sentences for context clues. Nelson says that he doesn’t want to exhibit his “children about like freaks” which leads naturally to Harriet’s comment. Speaking of which, what does this sentence tell us about Harriet’s point of view on her children?
She doesn’t think they will ever amount to much.
She says they won’t “startle the world.” Usually people who startle the world do so because of their talents. What do we think about this sentence? Could this be the one?
Yes.
Let’s keep reading and make sure there isn’t anything better. What does the next sentence say?
Really, do you know when I heard those Massey children and thought of all they have done, of all they may do, I envied them myself?
Who is Harriet talking about in this one?
The other kids.
So should we keep this one in the running?
Exact Evidence
1. Underline the sentence below that shows that Harriet doesn’t believe her children are musically talented.
6 "All the same I shouldn't like to be exhibiting my children about like freaks."
7 "Poor Nelson! there's not much danger of your ever being tempted. It's extremely unlikely that poor Billy or Elsie will ever startle the world. Really, do you know when I heard those Massey children and thought of all they have done, of all they may do, I envied them myself? To youth everything is possible when anything at all is possible."
8 Harriet sighed and Mackenzie fancied he detected a note of disappointment in her voice. He had suspected before that Harriet was disappointed in her children. They suited him well enough, but Harriet was different.
No.
Because it focuses on the other kids, the Massey kids, we know it doesn’t work. We have to choose one that’s about Harriet’s thoughts on her own children. What is the next sentence about?
Youth in general.
So not really about Harriet’s view of her children? No.
Cut it!
Exact Evidence
1. Underline the sentence below that shows that Harriet doesn’t believe her children are musically talented.
6 "All the same I shouldn't like to be exhibiting my children about like freaks."
7 "Poor Nelson! there's not much danger of your ever being tempted. It's extremely unlikely that poor Billy or Elsie will ever startle the world. Really, do you know when I heard those Massey children and thought of all they have done, of all they may do, I envied them myself? To youth everything is possible when anything at all is possible."
8 Harriet sighed and Mackenzie fancied he detected a note of disappointment in her voice. He had suspected before that Harriet was disappointed in her children. They suited him well enough, but Harriet was different.
Line 8. What does it say?
Harriet sighed and Mackenzie fancied he detected a note of disappointment in her voice.
We’ve shifted perspective. Who is the narration focusing on now?
Mackenzie.
Not Harriet. That’s what really matters. The question is asking about Harriet’s opinion, not Nelson Mackenzie’s. So what can we do?
Eliminate.
Speaking of that, whose opinion does the entirety of paragraph 8 focus on?
Mackenzie’s.
So what can we do with all of those sentences?
Eliminate.
Exact Evidence
1. Underline the sentence below that shows that Harriet doesn’t believe her children are musically talented.
6 "All the same I shouldn't like to be exhibiting my children about like freaks."
7 "Poor Nelson! there's not much danger of your ever being tempted. It's extremely unlikely that poor Billy or Elsie will ever startle the world. Really, do you know when I heard those Massey children and thought of all they have done, of all they may do, I envied them myself? To youth everything is possible when anything at all is possible."
8 Harriet sighed and Mackenzie fancied he detected a note of disappointment in her voice. He had suspected before that Harriet was disappointed in her children. They suited him well enough, but Harriet was different.
We’re left with two sentences. What do the instructions say we should do if we get down to two options?
Eliminate the one that is most open to debate. Right. We need to eliminate the sentence that could be the right one, but it also might not be—the answer choice that we could force to fit, but we would have to make a lot of connections and leaps ourselves. Which sentence, out of these two, is the most debatable?
Exact Evidence
1. Underline the sentence below that shows that Harriet doesn’t believe her children are musically talented.
6 "All the same I shouldn't like to be exhibiting my children about like freaks."
7 "Poor Nelson! there's not much danger of your ever being tempted. It's extremely unlikely that poor Billy or Elsie will ever startle the world. Really, do you know when I heard those Massey children and thought of all they have done, of all they may do, I envied them myself? To youth everything is possible when anything at all is possible."
8 Harriet sighed and Mackenzie fancied he detected a note of disappointment in her voice. He had suspected before that Harriet was disappointed in her children. They suited him well enough, but Harriet was different.
The first one. Why?
It’s saying that Harriet thinks her husband won’t be tempted to parade her children around.
It hints at the idea that Harriet doesn’t believe her children are musically talented, but the sentence doesn’t exactly state why she feels this way. It’s not that explicit, or clear. Why is the next sentence a better choice?
Because she says they will never startle the world.
Saying that her children will never “startle the world” is much closer to saying they’re not talented enough to startle, or surprise, the world. That sentence is the closest choice we’ve got, and it’s the right one.
2. Read these sentences from the passage.
“...her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had slated her for a very different career.” (paragraph 9)
What is the meaning of slated as used in the passage?
A. recommended
B. rejected
C. trained
D. imagined
The Grade 10 FAST ELA test will throw a ton of vocabulary questions your way, whether you’re reading Info texts or Lit texts. We know how important it is to apply strategy here. Do you need to know the definition of every word?
No.
Nobody knows all the words. There are so many strategies for figuring out meaning, but for multiple choice, this one knocks all the others out of the park. What strategy is it?
Plug In.
How does Plug In work?
You have to put the answer choices into the sentence. What do you do with the answer choices that sound off?
Eliminate them.
Something else that’s really cool about vocab questions: you don’t have to go back and reread the passage. Why is that?
You can get enough out of the quote. The rest of the passage doesn’t matter that much.
Let’s put it into practice. What does the quote sound like if we plug the first word in?
Her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had recommended her for a very different career.
Does that make sense? Maybe.
I guess, if we want to force it to work, it could. Her friends could have recommended her for jobs, maybe? But what does that have to do with her marriage to her husband? It just doesn’t quite make sense. Continue
Plug In
2. Read these sentences from the passage.
“...her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had slated her for a very different career.” (paragraph 9)
What is the meaning of slated as used in the passage?
A. recommended
B. rejected
C. trained
D. imagined
Plug In
2. Read these sentences from the passage.
“...her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had slated her for a very different career.” (paragraph 9)
What is the meaning of slated as used in the passage?
A. recommended
B. rejected
C. trained
D. imagined
Let’s try the next one. Someone read out the quote with the word “rejected” in it.
Her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had rejected her for a very different career.
How does that sound?
Bad.
That makes zero sense. Let’s cut it.
What’s left?
Trained and imagined.
Try out “trained.” What does that sound like?
Her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had trained her for a very different career.
What do you think?
Doesn’t work.
Can you imagine? A friend training you? You train Pokemon, not friends.
Plug In
2. Read these sentences from the passage.
“...her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had slated her for a very different career.” (paragraph 9)
What is the meaning of slated as used in the passage?
A. recommended
B. rejected
C. trained
D. imagined
We still have to test out “imagined.” What does that sound like?
Her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had imagined her for a very different career.
How’s that?
Pretty good.
It makes way more sense for your friends to imagine a future for you. How does this compare to “recommend ?”
Plug In
2. Read these sentences from the passage.
“...her friends could not have been more surprised than when she married Nelson Mackenzie. They had slated her for a very different career.” (paragraph 9)
What is the meaning of slated as used in the passage?
A. recommended
B. rejected
C. trained
D. imagined
Imagined is better.
Recommended sort of fits, but we really have to stretch it and make leaps to make it work. Ultimately, recommended doesn’t fit with the idea of marriage as well as imagined does. Remember, if you’re doing mental gymnastics to make an answer choice work, it’s probably wrong. That leaves us with imagined as the best answer.
Context Is Everything
Let’s check out this question. What’s given to us to use?
A quote.
3
Will someone read that quote for us?
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
Context Is Everything
3. Read these sentences from the passage.
“Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.” (paragraph 15)
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
D. by emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet
Poor dears! There are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.
And what does the question ask?
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
Who can summarize what’s going on in this quote? Don’t look back at the passage to find out! Can you remember?
No.
I don’t think anyone would remember! Seeing this quote out of context does not give me enough information to even start the process of elimination. So what do we need to do?
Go back and reread.
How much should we reread?
The paragraph it comes from.
Context Is Everything
"I'm so glad you've come, Harriet, dear. We were just about to begin and I didn't want you to miss Adrienne's first number. It's the waltz song from Romeo et Juliette; she had special drill on that from Madame Marchesi you know, and in London they considered it one of her best. I know this is a difficult hour, but they have to sing again after dinner and I don't want to tax them too much. Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them." (paragraph 15)
It’s a lot, I know. But it has to be done. And once you do read it, you’re gonna feel so much more confident approaching the answer. Take one minute to reread the paragraph from the beginning. Underline the sentence from the question when you get to it. When you’re done, look up!
Give students one minute to reread the paragraph.
Give me a baseline summary: What does the underlined sentence mean in context? How can we translate the underlined sentence into how people talk now? “Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.”
My children have so much going on.
Seems like Kate wants to emphasize to Harriet that her kids are so busy because they are so talented. Do you think she really feels sorry for her kids, or is she just humblebragging?
It’s a brag.
Context Is Everything
“Poor
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
D. by emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet
Without going back and rereading, we were really in the dark here. We didn’t even have a baseline for what was going on. By going back and rereading the passage, we’re in a much better place to start strategizing. We know that Kate is bragging about her children, and that she wants to show off all the things that they do. Now we can shift our focus to strategy: Someone remind me, how should we approach the answer choices?
Elimination.
We have to eliminate answer choices that don’t have evidence, and that don’t answer the question. Who will read answer choice A?
Context Is Everything
3. Read these sentences from the passage.
“Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.” (paragraph 15)
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
D. by emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet
Context Is Everything
3. Read these sentences from the passage.
“Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.” (paragraph 15)
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
D. by emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet
By showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age.
Does Kate regret anything?
No.
Cut it.
What about choice B? Does it work?
No.
Why?
She’s not insecure.
If anything, she feels the opposite. What should we do with choice B?
Context Is Everything
3. Read these sentences from the passage.
“Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.” (paragraph 15)
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
D. by emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet
Eliminate.
Throw it out! Done! Moving on to choice C. Will someone read choice C for us?
By making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere.
What do you think?
Context Is Everything
3. Read these sentences from the passage.
“Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.” (paragraph 15)
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
D. by emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet
Looks good.
Insincere means fake, and she seems like she is being pretty fake to me. How is she being fake, though?
She is pretending like she is worried about her kids.
She wants to seem like she’s worried, but really she just wants to rub her kids’ talent in Harriet’s face. So what should we do with that answer choice?
Hold onto it.
We need to check choice D before we can make a solid decision. Will someone read D?
By emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet.
In the paragraph you just read, is there anything about Harriet?
No.
Is there any evidence that Kate and Harriet are alike? No.
So we can do what with answer choice D?
Context Is Everything
3. Read these sentences from the passage.
“Poor dears! there are so many demands on their time and strength that I sometimes feel like fleeing to the North Pole with them.” (paragraph 15)
How does this exclamation by Kate Massey serve to develop her character in the passage?
A. by showing that Kate regrets introducing her children to music at a young age
B. by revealing Kate’s insecurities about her children’s talent
C. by making Kate’s expression of concern for her children seem insincere
D. by emphasizing similarities between Kate and Harriet
Eliminate!
That leaves us with choice C. Somebody remind me— what should you do when you see a short quote out of context that just isn’t enough to approach the question?
Reread the paragraph. Basic summary. Eliminate.
Boot Camp for B.E.S.T. Algebra I
SECTION X
