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Cathedral High School Academic Quiz Bowl English/Language Arts Test

Attention:1. Please write your name and school on your

answer sheet. 2. Please write Language Arts in the Subject space.

Directions: Chose the best answer for each of the following multiple choice questions and darken the appropriate space on the scantron answer sheet.

You will receive 1 point for each correct answer. The highest, second highest, and third highest score will receive a bonus of 20, 10, and 5 points respectively.

Good Luck!

Punctuation and Capitalization: For each of the following questions (#1-10), look for errors in capitalization and punctuation. If you find no mistake, mark (D).

1. A) She was not informed, that she would have to work overtime.B) The wind blew several papers off the table.C) I believe this is the woman whom you interviewed last week.D) No mistakes

2. A) If an employee wishes to attend the conference, the should fill out thenecessary forms.

B) Mr. Wreath’s request cannot be granted under any conditions.C) Chuck Pine, who is a member of the committee, was asked to confer with

commissioner Watts.D) No mistakes.

3. A) She is the kind of person who is always willing to undertake difficultassignments.

B) The boss entered the room and said, “the work must be completed today.”C) The special project was assigned to Mary Blue and me.D) No mistakes

4. A) Mr. Buck, the taxi dispatcher, has many important duties.B) We checked the addresses once more and sent the letters out.C) Do you agree that this year’s yearbook is the best yet?D) No mistakes.


5. A) The new teacher aides were given their assignments and, they went towork immediately.

B) Jim’s sister, Carol, will begin college in the fall.C) My favorite subjects are English, science, and American history.D) No mistakes.

6. A) Although I am willing to work on most holidays, I refuse to work on

Christmas.B) Every Wednesday afternoon, Jack volunteers at Children’s Hospital.C) If you wish to be considered for the scholarship, you must file your application

immediately.D) No mistakes

7. A) The new student asked the gym teacher if he could join the football team?B) Boy Scout Troop 71 will march in the parade.C) Mrs. Gooch asked Louis and Henrietta to help bake cookies for the party.D) No mistakes.

8. A) I find his study of the mammals of North America to be fascinating.B) The doctor suggested that my grandfather go South for the winter to

avoid frequent infections.C) Under the new rules, when do we revert to Pacific Standard Time?D) No mistakes?

9. A) If you would like to spend the night, you may sleep in Betty’s room.B) The attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, was a complete surprise.C) “May I use the computer this afternoon,” the man asked?D) No mistakes

10. A) “If it rains on Friday,” the girl mused, “the game may be played on Mondayinstead.”

B) The child’s new toy lay on its side near the curb.C) Whenever I drive on a Los Angeles street, I watch for pedestrians.D) No mistakes.

Questions 11-25: Choose the word or group of words that should go into the blank to make a correct sentence.

11. All of the boys and Joyce took ____________ football jerseys to the game.A) herB) theirC) hisD) our

12. Doug was the ________ person who dared to go into the dark cave.


A) most onlyB) onliestC) sole onlyD) only

13. My mother will drive Andrew and _______ to the park.A) meB) IC) myselfD) we

14. If Linda had joined the soccer team, she ____________ been the star.A) should haveB) could ofC) would ofD) might have

15. Even before the rain had stopped, the wind ___________ down.A) was slowedB) has been slowingC) had been slowingD) had been slowed

16. Last week, I had dinner with the boy __________ won the science fair.A) whoB) whomC) which D) what

17. In choosing between strawberry and mango sorbet, I like raspberry sorbet _________.A) mostB) bestC) betterD) more better

18. The employer is depending _______ the employee’s hard work.A) aboutB) ofC) uponD) from


19. I would bring Grandpa to see you, _______ I have no money.A) exceptB) whileC) becauseD) moreover

20. The little boy next door __________ on his rope all day.A) swingedB) swang C) swungD) has swinged

21. Neither Harvey or Alex _________ book report.A) has completed theirB) have completed theirC) have completed hisD) has completed his

22. They had just finished cleaning the car ______ the rain started up again.A) ifB) untilC) whenD) than

23. You must wait for the contest results until we _____________ all the entries.A) had judgedB) have judgedC) are judgingD) have had judged

24. After completing the first aid course ___________________.A) and taking both the written and practical examsB) gaining months of practical experience as an applicantC) you will be eligible to take the licensing testD) at the fire station.

25. __________________, when the doorbell rang.A) Attempting to overcome a frustrating night’s lack of sleepB) No sooner said than doneC) In the middle of dinnerD) We had just gone to bed


Questions #26-30 are based on your ability to select the right vocabulary and sentence structure. Pick the right words to complete the blanks.

26. Because land is limited and the population is constantly growing, real estate __________ typically __________ over time.

A) values … increaseB) brokers … compromiseC) development … faltersD) agents … magnifyE) properties … classify

27. Infants and toddlers may sometimes have _______ sleep patterns due to growth spurts and rapid changes in their physical development.

A) cohesiveB) naturalC) erraticD) mistakenE) fanciful

28. The maintenance workers handle quite a range of __________: irrigation repair, plumbing, and general maintenance.

A) flowersB) responsibilitiesC) visitorsD) attractionsE) distractions

29. Natural fibers like organic cotton and bamboo are ________ and ________ without the use of harsh chemicals.

A) woven … filteredB) manufactured … deployedC) commissioned … forgottenD) grown … processedE) pilfered … used

30. __________ mattresses contain many toxic substances, such as flame-retardants, adhesives and chemical foams, which are not present in natural latex rubber.

A) SignificantB) Queen-sizedC) ConventionalD) WhiteE) Maximum


Questions 31-34: Reading Comprehension. Read the following passage and answer the questions:

Chess is called the game of kings. It has been around for a long time. People have been playing it for over 500 years. Chess is based on an even older game from India. The chess we play today is from Europe. Chess is a two-player game. One player uses the white pieces. The other uses the black pieces. Each piece moves in a special way. One piece is called the king. Each player has one. The players take turns moving their pieces. If a player lands on a piece, he or she takes it. The game ends when a player loses his or her king. There are a few more rules, but those are the basics.

Some people think that chess is more than a game. They think that it makes the mind stronger. Good chess players use their brains. They take their time. They think about what will happen next. These skills are useful in life and in chess. Chess is kind of like a work out for the mind.

You don't always have lots of time to think when playing chess. There is a type of chess with short time limits. It's called blitz chess. In blitz chess, each player gets ten minutes to use for the whole game. Your clock runs during your turn. You hit the time clock after your move. This stops your clock. It also starts the other player's clock. If you run out of time, you lose. Games of blitz chess are fast-paced.

Chess is not just for people. Computers have been playing chess since the 1970s. At first they did not play well. They made mistakes. As time went on they grew stronger. In 1997, a computer beat the best player in the world for the first time. It was a computer called Deep Blue. Deep Blue was big. It took up a whole room. By 2006 a cell phone could beat the best players in the world. Chess sure has come a long way. Don't you think so?

31. What is the author's purpose in writing the second paragraph?a. To explain the rules of chess b. To compare different types of gamesc. To talk about game pieces d. To persuade people to play chess

32. Which is not a reason that chess is a good workout for the mind according to the text?a. Good chess players think about what will happen next.b. Good chess players take a lot of risks.c. Good chess players take their time.d. Good chess players use their brains.


33. Which best describes the main idea in the third paragraph?a. This paragraph argues that players should think less.b. This paragraph explains how blitz chess is played.c. This paragraph explains time clocks work.d. This paragraph describes many different ways to play chess.

34. How is blitz chess different from regular chess?a. Each player has two kings. b. Players are blindfolded.c. Players only have ten minutes to play. d. Players start from a random position.

Questions 35-38. Reading Comprehension. Read the following passage and answer the questions:

What Methods Do Andean Farmers Use?

Public debate around climate change and its effects on agriculture tends to focus on the large-scale industrial farms of the North. Farmers who work on a small scale and use traditional methods have largely been ignored. However, as the world slowly comes to terms with the threat of climate change, Native farming traditions will warrant greater attention.

In the industrial model of agriculture, one or two crop varieties are grown over vast areas. Instead of trying to use local resources of soil and water optimally and sustainably, the natural environment is all but ignored and uniform growing conditions are fabricated through large-scale irrigation and the intensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. For example, a handful of basically similar potato varieties, all of which require nearly identical soil conditions, temperature, rainfall, and growing seasons, account for almost all global production. When these global crops are no longer suited to the environment in which they are grown, when their resistance to disease and pests begins to fail, or the climate itself changes, the best way to rejuvenate the breeding stock will be to introduce new genetic material from the vast diversity of crop varieties still maintained by indigenous peoples.

In contrast to the industrial model, Andean potatoes and other Andean crops such as squash and beans grown by Quechuan farmers exhibit extraordinary genetic diversity, driven by the need to adapt crops to the extraordinary climatic diversity of the region. Along the two axes of latitude and altitude, the Andes encompasses fully two-thirds of all possible combinations of climate and geography found on Earth. The Andean potato has been adapted to every environment except the depth of the rainforest or the frozen peaks of the mountains. Today, facing the likelihood of major disruptions to the climatic conditions for agriculture worldwide, indigenous farmers provide a dramatic example of crop adaptation in an increasingly extreme environment. More importantly, Native farmers have also safeguarded the crop diversity essential for the future adaptations.


35. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?A. Attention to Native farming practices will lead to greater awareness of the threat of

climate change.B. Popularity of small-scale farming in the North will lead to greater attention to

Native farming practices.C. Global demand for food will lead to increasing efficiency of large-scale farming in

the North.D. It will be worthwhile to include a greater focus on Native farming practices in

public discussions concerning the threat of climate change.E. Despite potential climate change, public debate will have little effect on industrial

farming practices.

36. In the second paragraph, the information about potato-growing practices in theindustrial model of agriculture serves to:A. give an example of a potential problem that Native farming practices could help to

alleviate.B. show the likely global consequences of a possible food shortage caused by

industrial farming practices.C. show how pests and disease are less effectively resisted by crops grown in the

industrial farming model.D. give an example of how public debate has had little effect on the agricultural

practices of the North.E. give an example of how Native farming practices and industrial farming practices

derive from different climatic conditions.

37. The passage states that which of the following is true of the small number of potatovarieties that account for most of the potatoes produced on Earth currently?A. They are grown in the Andean region.B. They all require very similar soil and climate conditions.C. They are no longer suited to their environment.D. They are based on genetic material from crops developed by indigenous peoples.E. They make optimal use of available soil and water resources.

38. As it is used in the passage, the underlined word fabricated most nearly means:A. woven.B. falsely stated.C. fully clothed.D. manufactured.E. unwrapped.


Questions #39-46: Reading Comprehension. Read the following passage and answer the questions:

In the 1930s, why did author Zora Neale Hurston choose Eatonville, Florida, to be the first source for her collection of folklore?

I was glad when somebody told me, “You may go and collect Negro folklore.” In away, it would not be a new experience for me. When I pitched headforemost into the world I landed in the crib of Negroism. It was fitting me like a tight chemise. I couldn't see it for wearing it. It was only when I was off in college, away from my native surroundings, that I could stand off and look at my garment. Then I had to have the spy-glass of anthropology to look through. I was asked where I wanted to work and I said, “Florida. It’s a place that drawspeople—Negroes from every Southern state and some from the North and West.” So Iknew that it was possible for me to get a cross section of the Negro South in one state. And then I realized that I felt new myself, so it looked sensible for me to choose familiar ground. I started in Eatonville, Florida, because I knew that the town was full of material andthat I could get it without causing any hurt or harm. As early as I could remember, it wasthe habit of the men particularly to gather on the store porch in the evenings and swapstories. Even the women would stop and break a breath with them at times. As a childwhen I was sent down to the store, I'd drag out my leaving to hear more. Folklore is not as easy to collect as it sounds. The ideal source is where there are thefewest outside influences, but these people are reluctant at times to reveal that which thesoul lives by. I knew that even I would have some hindrance among strangers. But here inEatonville I knew everybody was going to help me.

39. Which of the following does the author use as a metaphor for the culture in whichshe was born?A. CollegeB. GarmentC. Southern stateD. Spy-glassE. Story

40. Based on the first paragraph, it is most reasonable to conclude that while in collegethe author:A. decided to become a professor of anthropology.B. decided that she did not want to live permanently in Eatonville, Florida.C. felt that her teachers prevented her from studying what she wanted.D. became disenchanted with anthropology.E. understood her own culture in new and different ways.


41. As it is used in the passage, the word material most nearly means:A. diversity.B. fabric.C. information.D. money.E. energy.

42. In the second paragraph, the author indicates that one reason she chose to work inFlorida was that she wanted to collect folklore:A. from people of different geographical backgrounds.B. where her teachers suggested she do so.C. from a place she had never visited.D. in a state far from where she grew up.E. in a state with a large urban population.

43. In the first paragraph, the author’s claim, “In a way, it would not be a newexperience for me," refers to the fact that:A. she had already attended college in Florida.B. she had already collected folklore in Florida for a college course.C. she had already experienced new cultures by leaving home.D. she was already familiar with the folklore she was to collect.E. she had already received permission to conduct the study.

44. Based on information in the third paragraph, which of the following statementsabout the interactions on the porch can be most reasonably inferred?A. The adults encouraged the author (as a child) to stay and tell stories.B. Men were more frequent participants than were women.C. Most of the storytellers had not grown up in Eatonville.D. The author's parents sent her to the porch to hear the stories.E. One man in particular told most of the stories.

45. In the last paragraph, the author writes that folklore collecting:A. is less difficult than it appears.B. is easiest to accomplish in isolated places because people there freely reveal theirinnermost thoughts.C. can be difficult in isolated places, even though the people there are the best sources.D. is more difficult than publishing what has been collected.E. is the best way to reveal what is important to people.


46. Which of the following is NOT among the reasons the author gives for her decisionto collect folklore in Eatonville?A. The people of Eatonville would be grateful that she published their stories.B. The people of Eatonville would have many stories for her collection.C. Eatonville and its people are familiar to her.D. She believes that she can collect stories without doing harm.E. She believes that the people of Eatonville will help her in her project.

Questions #47-50: Reading Comprehension. Read the following passage and answer the questions:

Climatologists speak of thunderstorms pregnant with tornadoes, storm-breeding clouds more than twice the height of Mount Everest; they speak of funicular envelopes and anvil clouds with pendant mammati and of thermal instability of winds in cyclonic vorticity, of rotatory columns of air torquing at velocities up to three hundred miles an hour (although no anemometer in the direct path of a storm has survived), funnels that can move over the ground at the speed of a strolling man or at the rate of a barrel-assing semi on the turnpike; they say the width of the destruction can be the distance between home plate and deep center field and its length the hundred miles between New York City and Philadelphia. A tornado, although more violent than a much longer lasting hurricane, has a life measured in minutes, and weathercasters watch it snuff out as it was born: unnamed. I know here a grandfather, a man as bald as if a cyclonic wind had taken his scalp—something witnesses claim has happened elsewhere—who calls twisters Old Nell, and he threatens to set crying children outside the back door for her to carry off. People who have seen Old Nell close, up under her skirt, talk about her colors: pastel-pink, black, blue, gray, and a survivor said this: All at once a big hole opened in the sky with a mass of cherry-red, a yellow tinge in the center, and another said: a funnel with beautiful electric-blue light, and a third person: It was glowing like it was illuminated from the inside. Te witnesses speak of shapes: a formless black mass, a cone, cylinder, tube, ribbon, pendant, thrashing hose, dangling lariat, writhing snake, elephant trunk. They tell of ponds being vacuumed dry, … chickens clean plucked from beak to bum, water pulled straight up out of toilet bowls, … a wife killed after being jerked through a car window, a child carried two miles and set down with only scratches, a Cottonwood Falls mother (fearful of wind) cured of chronic headaches when a twister passed harmlessly within a few feet of her house, and, just south of Chase, a woman blown out of her living room window and dropped unhurt sixty feet away and falling unbroken beside her a phonograph record of “Stormy Weather.”

47. The author is best described as (A) a curious individual who seeks out diverse information from a variety of sources (B) a serious scientist who is determined to learn more about the causes of these storms (C) an excited eyewitness who is too distracted to fear for personal safety (D) a confused novice who is unable to decide which claims are accurate (E) an ironic interpreter who comments on the failures and follies of others

48. The passage implies that unlike hurricanes, tornadoes are not given human names


because (A) there are too many of them (B) their destruction is not as great as that of hurricanes (C) they last too short a time (D) they move too erratically to be plotted (E) they can appear in any area of the world

49. The phrase “as bald as if a cyclonic wind had taken his scalp” does all of the following EXCEPT (A) describe the grandfather with an image related to the cyclone (B) suggest a lighter tone for the paragraph (C) particularize the first of several sources of information mentioned in the paragraph (D) suggest the power of the tornado (E) express concern about the condition of the grandfather

50. Which of the following best describes the images in the last sentence of the passage? (A) A disdainful rehearsal of other people’s experiences (B) A random listing of repulsive or frightening occurrences (C) A thorough review of absurd legends (D) A series of increasingly detailed and implausible events (E) A chronological account of major storms

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