Mother Nature’s Fury

Tracy Wilson

¹ Looking back, I was sure that I was going to die that November afternoon. Tornado watches in Alabama are as common as eggs are for breakfast. So much so, that I had begun to ignore them altogether. This disregard for Mother Nature’s power nearly proved fatal for me and my sister. As we approached a fresh red light on a main thoroughfare through Huntsville, I glanced at the sudden peculiar coloring of the sky. The unusual hue and the stillness of the air gave me a sudden sense of uneasiness. The light changed and we made the left turn that would lead us home. It was after the turn that everything around me seemed to be occurring in slow motion. I heard it before I saw anything. At first I was sure that a train or a big truck was directly behind the car. Then I saw the debris, not the image of swirling winds we tend to associate with a tornado, but trash and wires and dirt. I remember a sudden feeling of weightlessness as we were lifted off of the ground. Strangely, she lifted us up like a feather on a breeze. It seemed more like floating than flying until she launched us from her grip with a fury few will ever understand.

² While I cannot remember the actual impact, pictures from the aftermath tell the story word for word. The tin can that once was a car was belly up in the top of a 100 foot maple. We hung there for hours, oblivious to the disaster around us. When rescuers could finally get to us, power lines made it too dangerous to touch the metal car. I awoke first 32 days after my ride in the sky and remembered much of the ordeal. My sister however, after lying in a coma for nearly three months, has no recollection of any detail from her life before the accident. Lack of oxygen erased her past. My physical wounds have long since healed, but I spend many hours below ground. The slightest hint of thunder or an awkward colored sunset sends me racing to my life below to hide from her.

‘Strangely, she lifted us up like a feather on a breeze.’

What is being compared in this simile from the passage?

(1) From that moment on, Jenna and Juniper were phenomenal equestrian partners.

(2) The teachers at the school told Jenna they'd never seen a horse take to a human the way Juniper took to Jenna.

(3) They got to know each other by riding the dirt paths together every day.

(4) Juniper had ceaseless patience with Jenna, and the pair became inseparable.

Read this paragraph from the draft. Which statement, if used to replace sentence 3, improves the narrative?

Mother Nature’s Fury

Tracy Wilson

¹ Looking back, I was sure that I was going to die that November afternoon. Tornado watches in Alabama are as common as eggs are for breakfast. So much so, that I had begun to ignore them altogether. This disregard for Mother Nature’s power nearly proved fatal for me and my sister. As we approached a fresh red light on a main thoroughfare through Huntsville, I glanced at the sudden peculiar coloring of the sky. The unusual hue and the stillness of the air gave me a sudden sense of uneasiness. The light changed and we made the left turn that would lead us home. It was after the turn that everything around me seemed to be occurring in slow motion. I heard it before I saw anything. At first I was sure that a train or a big truck was directly behind the car. Then I saw the debris, not the image of swirling winds we tend to associate with a tornado, but trash and wires and dirt. I remember a sudden feeling of weightlessness as we were lifted off of the ground. Strangely, she lifted us up like a feather on a breeze. It seemed more like floating than flying until she launched us from her grip with a fury few will ever understand.

² While I cannot remember the actual impact, pictures from the aftermath tell the story word for word. The tin can that once was a car was belly up in the top of a 100 foot maple. We hung there for hours, oblivious to the disaster around us. When rescuers could finally get to us, power lines made it too dangerous to touch the metal car. I awoke first 32 days after my ride in the sky and remembered much of the ordeal. My sister however, after lying in a coma for nearly three months, has no recollection of any detail from her life before the accident. Lack of oxygen erased her past. My physical wounds have long since healed, but I spend many hours below ground. The slightest hint of thunder or an awkward colored sunset sends me racing to my life below to hide from her.

The author of this passage uses which literary device?

Mother Nature’s Fury

Tracy Wilson

¹ Looking back, I was sure that I was going to die that November afternoon. Tornado watches in Alabama are as common as eggs are for breakfast. So much so, that I had begun to ignore them altogether. This disregard for Mother Nature’s power nearly proved fatal for me and my sister. As we approached a fresh red light on a main thoroughfare through Huntsville, I glanced at the sudden peculiar coloring of the sky. The unusual hue and the stillness of the air gave me a sudden sense of uneasiness. The light changed and we made the left turn that would lead us home. It was after the turn that everything around me seemed to be occurring in slow motion. I heard it before I saw anything. At first I was sure that a train or a big truck was directly behind the car. Then I saw the debris, not the image of swirling winds we tend to associate with a tornado, but trash and wires and dirt. I remember a sudden feeling of weightlessness as we were lifted off of the ground. Strangely, she lifted us up like a feather on a breeze. It seemed more like floating than flying until she launched us from her grip with a fury few will ever understand.

² While I cannot remember the actual impact, pictures from the aftermath tell the story word for word. The tin can that once was a car was belly up in the top of a 100 foot maple. We hung there for hours, oblivious to the disaster around us. When rescuers could finally get to us, power lines made it too dangerous to touch the metal car. I awoke first 32 days after my ride in the sky and remembered much of the ordeal. My sister however, after lying in a coma for nearly three months, has no recollection of any detail from her life before the accident. Lack of oxygen erased her past. My physical wounds have long since healed, but I spend many hours below ground. The slightest hint of thunder or an awkward colored sunset sends me racing to my life below to hide from her.

When the narrator states, "I spend many hours below ground," to what is she referring?

Mother Nature’s Fury

Tracy Wilson

¹ Looking back, I was sure that I was going to die that November afternoon. Tornado watches in Alabama are as common as eggs are for breakfast. So much so, that I had begun to ignore them altogether. This disregard for Mother Nature’s power nearly proved fatal for me and my sister. As we approached a fresh red light on a main thoroughfare through Huntsville, I glanced at the sudden peculiar coloring of the sky. The unusual hue and the stillness of the air gave me a sudden sense of uneasiness. The light changed and we made the left turn that would lead us home. It was after the turn that everything around me seemed to be occurring in slow motion. I heard it before I saw anything. At first I was sure that a train or a big truck was directly behind the car. Then I saw the debris, not the image of swirling winds we tend to associate with a tornado, but trash and wires and dirt. I remember a sudden feeling of weightlessness as we were lifted off of the ground. Strangely, she lifted us up like a feather on a breeze. It seemed more like floating than flying until she launched us from her grip with a fury few will ever understand.

² While I cannot remember the actual impact, pictures from the aftermath tell the story word for word. The tin can that once was a car was belly up in the top of a 100 foot maple. We hung there for hours, oblivious to the disaster around us. When rescuers could finally get to us, power lines made it too dangerous to touch the metal car. I awoke first 32 days after my ride in the sky and remembered much of the ordeal. My sister however, after lying in a coma for nearly three months, has no recollection of any detail from her life before the accident. Lack of oxygen erased her past. My physical wounds have long since healed, but I spend many hours below ground. The slightest hint of thunder or an awkward colored sunset sends me racing to my life below to hide from her.

The tin can that was once a car is an example of which type of figurative language?A)allusionB)hyperboleC)metaphorD)simile

Excerpt from Emily Dickinson

Carole Jenkins

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a very prominent family. Her childhood was normal, filled with friends, activities, and having fun. As she grew older, she began to isolate herself and even to refuse to leave her home. In her latter years, she spent most of her time alone writing poetry. During her lifetime, she anonymously published only seven of her poems. After her death in 1886, her sister discovered packets of her poems in her drawer. Four years later, her first books of poems were published.

She used concrete imagery to illustrate abstract concepts, such as love and death. Her unusual use of capitalization and punctuation and her use of irregular meter and rhyme make her poetry unique.

What is the main purpose of this passage?

Please help to start a recycling program. To start a program, we need help from the school principal, the janitor, and our parents. Each classroom in the school needs a used-paper collection box. We can make these ourselves out of empty cardboard boxes.
We can use garbage cans with clear bags to collect empty drink containers in the lunchroom. We can make posters to show people where to put the used paper and empty containers. We students care about the earth, and want to keep it clean. We need a recycling program to do this—and we all need to pitch in to start one!

Carefully read this concluding paragraph from a persuasive essay on the importance of establishing a recycling program at the writer's school.

What is the primary means of support used in this final paragraph to develop the writer's main idea?

The answers below contain three independent clauses and one subordinate clause.

Select the subordinate clause.

My car is filthy.

If you were to rewrite the sentence above to provide greater detail and description, which would be the best choice?

Choose the sentence in which the underlined word is correct.

What is the BEST way to revise this sentence so that it conveys clear, concise ideas and does not change the meaning of the sentence?

Some teachers like to assign a book for students to read during the summer. I think that this is a bad assignment for several reasons. First of all, summer is a time of rest and relaxing when students can recharge their brains instead of continuing to work. Second of all, we are assigned books to read all year and deserve to pick our own book for a change. For all these reasons, I believe that the summer book reading assignment needs to be ended.

Which sentence could best be added to this paragraph as a supporting detail?

Which type of poem is MOST LIKELY to have a great hero or heroine as its main character?

Which type of poem is MOST LIKELY to have a great hero or heroine as its main character?

Over 1,000 people tried out for a spot on the new reality television show; ______________, many of the contestants stood in line for over ten hours waiting for their turn.

Fill in the blank with the appropriate transition word(s).

Which sentence DOES NOT contain a dangling or misplaced modifier and is correct as written?

Which is a simple sentence?

Hint: (simple sentence= 1 subject, 1 predicate/verb & expresses a complete thought)

The French Quarter from Wikipedia

The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (La Nouvelle-Orléans in French) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the Vieux Carré ("Old Square" in English), a central square. The district is more commonly called the French Quarter today, or simply "The Quarter," related to changes in the city with American immigration after the Louisiana Purchase. Most of the extant historic buildings were constructed either in the late 18th century, during the city's period of Spanish rule, or were built during the first half of the 19th century, after U.S. annexation and statehood.

The district as a whole has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, with numerous contributing buildings that are separately deemed significant. It is a prime tourist destination in the city, as well as attracting local residents. Because of its distance from areas where the levee was breached during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as well as the strength and height of the nearest Mississippi River Levees in contrast to other levees along the canals and lakefront, it suffered relatively light damage from floodwater as compared to other areas of the city and the greater region.

You are writing an essay on the history of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, and are using information from this source.

Which sentence is an example of paraphrase and not plagiarism?

Excerpt from Cherokee Indian Ancestry

US Dept. of the Interior

About 200 years ago the Cherokee Indians were one tribe, or "Indian Nation" that lived in the southeast part of what is now the United States. During the 1830's and 1840's, the period covered by the Indian Removal Act, many Cherokees were moved west to a territory that is now the State of Oklahoma.

In order to be MOST precise in meaning, the underlined phrase labeled (1) should be changed to

A) many Cherokees moved west to a territory that is now the State of Oklahoma.

B) many Cherokees were moved west to a territory that is now the State of Oklahoma.

C) many Cherokees had to be moved west to a territory that is now the State of Oklahoma.

D) the U.S. government moved many Cherokees west to a territory that is now the State of Oklahoma.