Analyzing Idea Development in an Essay Quiz Flashcards
Read the excerpt from an essay about folk tales.
The majority of folk tales involve danger. Stories like “Little Red Riding Hood” are based on dangerous situations the characters have to get out of.
Which revision would best help the author present the main point more effectively?
The majority of folk tales involve danger that the main character faces, which often involves family members. Stories like “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Snow White” are based on life-threatening family situations that the main characters have to escape
Read the excerpt from “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.”
The stories the Brothers Grimm first collected are brusque, blunt, absurd, comical, and tragic, and are not, strictly speaking, “fairy tales.” In fact, the Grimms never intended the tales to be read by children. The tales are about children and families and how they reacted to the difficult conditions under which they lived. The Grimms thought the stories and their morals emanated naturally from the German people in an oral tradition, and they wanted to preserve them before the tales were lost forever. In gathering the tales, the Grimms made a unique contribution to folklore, and their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children and Household Tales) is even listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry. It was in large part their first edition, published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815, that inspired folklorists in Europe and Great Britain to gather tales from their oral traditions to preserve as part of their cultural heritage.
Which details best support the central idea of the excerpt? Select three options.
A. The Grimms wanted to preserve German tales before the stories disappeared
C. The stories and their morals come from the oral tradition of the German people
E. The original stories told of the difficult lives of children and families
Read the excerpt from “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.”
All of the tales in the first edition bear the marks of their diverse storytellers who believed in the magic, superstitions, and miraculous transformations of the tales. It may be difficult for us to understand why this is the case, but for the storytellers and writers of these tales, the stories contained truths about the living conditions of their times. The tales in the first edition were collected not from peasants, as is commonly believed, but mainly from literate people whom the Grimms came to know quite well. Evidence shows that these people often obtained their tales from illiterate or anonymous informants. Even if they did not know their informants, the Grimms came to trust almost everyone who contributed to their collection. It is this mutual trust that marks the tales as something special and endows them with a certain humanity, what Germans call Menschlichkeit, and it is this mutual trust among folklorists in the nineteenth century that marks it as the golden age of folk and fairy tales. The tales in the first edition set a certain standard that collectors began to follow and still follow even today.
What is the central idea of this excerpt?
The Grimms collected stories about real living conditions from people they trusted
Yael is writing an essay about the development of folk tales. Read the excerpt from her essay.
Every culture throughout time has had its own folk tales, which were first transmitted from person to person with the technology available at the time. Folk tales began as an oral tradition. With the invention of written language, folk tales were recorded by community scribes, until 1450, when the printing press was invented. The result was a wider distribution of folk tales, which were collected in books.
Based on the beginning of Yael’s essay, how does the structure support her central idea?
Yael gives details in chronological order, which supports her central idea by showing development
Read the excerpt from an essay about fairy tales.
The Grimms’ fairy tales address the experiences of people who are living in difficult situations. For example, there is the story of Rapunzel. There is also the story of Hansel and Gretel, who had to escape their house in order to find food and were locked out.
Which revision would best help the author support the thesis more effectively?
The author should explain how Rapunzel’s story fits into the thesis
Which questions best demonstrate how to objectively evaluate an essay for interesting and unique presentation? Select two options.
D. Do I see that the writer tried to add style to the essay?
E. Do I notice that the writer tries to engage readers?
Read the excerpt from “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.”
Despite difficult personal problems and meager financial support from 1805 to 1812, the brothers proved themselves to be innovative scholars in the new field of German philology by publishing articles and books on medieval literature. In fact, they would be surprised to learn that they are more famous today for their tales than for their superb philological studies, which include pioneering work on German sound shifts, and the founding of the voluminous German Dictionary in 1854. But it was their training in philology and the demands that they placed on themselves as researchers that assisted their collecting and editing the tales.
Which idea does the author introduce first?
The brothers’ ability to overcome difficulties to succeed as scholars
Read the excerpt from “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.”
What compelled the Grimms to concentrate on old German epics, tales, and literature was a belief that the most natural and pure forms of culture—those which held the community together—were linguistic and based in history. According to them, modern literature, even though it might be remarkably rich, was artificial and thus could not express the genuine essence of Volk culture that emanated naturally from experience and bound the people together. Therefore, all their efforts went toward uncovering stories from the past.
Which statement best describes the way the author unfolds ideas in this paragraph?
The author gives supporting details first and concludes with the main idea
Read the excerpt from “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.”
Turning to the tales of the first edition, a reader might notice that many of the stories such as “The Hand with the Knife,” “How Some Children Played at Slaughtering,” and “The Children of Famine,” have nothing to do with fairies or happy endings. Instead, these are stark narratives about brutal living conditions in the nineteenth century. For instance, “The Children of Famine” begins this way:
Once upon a time there was a woman with two daughters, and they had become so poor that they no longer had even a piece of bread to put in their mouths. Their hunger became so great that their mother became unhinged and desperate. Indeed, she said to her children, “I’ve got to kill you so that I can get something to eat.”
How does the author support the main idea in this paragraph?
With an example that shows a specific brutal living condition
Read the excerpt from “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.”
Though it is impossible to clarify fully why certain tales were deleted or placed in footnotes in later editions, we do know that “Death and the Goose Boy” was omitted because of its baroque literary features; “The Strange Feast,” because of its close resemblance to “Godfather Death”; “The Stepmother,” because of its fragmentary nature and cruelty; and “The Faithful Animals,” because it came from the Siddhi-Kür, a collection of Mongolian tales. From the first edition in 1812/1815 to the final one in 1857, the Grimms received numerous versions of tales already in their collection and new tales from strangers, friends, and colleagues, and they often decided to replace one tale with another version, to delete some of the tales, or to include variants in their footnotes.
For what purpose does the author mention the names of various Grimm works in this excerpt? Select three answers.
A. The author mentions the Grimm’s tales to identify some that were omitted or placed in footnotes
D. The author mentions the tales to unfold a series of details to support the main idea of the excerpt
E. The author uses the tales’ content explanations to serve as the reason for omission
Which element of a text best helps the reader determine the central idea?
Key details
When a text encourages the reader to believe or do something, the author’s purpose is
To persuade
What steps best help a reader determine the central idea of a text? Select three options.
A. Distinguishing between key details and minor details
D. Citing evidence from the text to support the conclusion
E. Restating the most important points in the text in one’s own words
Read the excerpt from “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.”
Despite difficult personal problems and meager financial support from 1805 to 1812, the brothers proved themselves to be innovative scholars in the new field of German philology by publishing articles and books on medieval literature. In fact, they would be surprised to learn that they are more famous today for their tales than for their superb philological studies, which include pioneering work on German sound shifts, and the founding of the voluminous German Dictionary in 1854. But it was their training in philology and the demands that they placed on themselves as researchers that assisted their collecting and editing the tales.
Which idea does the author introduce first?
The brothers’ ability to overcome difficulties to succeed as scholars
Ruth is writing an essay about the reasons for changing a folk tale from a dark, grotesque story to a story that is appropriate for children.
How should Ruth organize her writing to provide the best structure for her essay? Select two options.
B. Ruth should use the problem-solution structure to show why the dark stories are problematic, and how changing them solves the problem
D. Ruth should give examples of the problems that dark stories can cause for younger audiences, and the changes that can solve the problem
