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CLASS
SELECTION TEST
DATE
Student Edition page 32
The Leap
SCORE
LITERARY RESPONSE AND ANALYSIS
Louise Erdrich
COMPREHENSION (40 points; 4 points each)
On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items.
______ 1. What was the mother’s job before the narrator was born?
A Nurse
B Trapeze artist
C Rodeo clown
D Writer
______ 2. When the narrator says that her mother “has never . . . bumped into a closet door left
carelessly open,” the narrator is referring to the fact that —
F
her mother is unable to walk
G the narrator always keeps her closet doors shut
H the narrator’s mother is blind
J
the narrator’s father liked to play practical jokes
______ 3. Why has the narrator returned to her mother’s house?
A Her mother needs someone to read to her.
B The narrator’s marriage has recently broken up.
C The narrator has not been able to earn her own living.
D Her mother needs help going up and down stairs.
F
The time her mother survived a circus accident
G The time her mother rescued her from a fire
H The time her mother and father first met
J
The fact that the narrator’s sister died
______ 5. The narrator’s mother deals with the past in an unusual way. She —
A keeps old photographs, posters, and clippings all over her house
B often tells highly exaggerated stories about her youth
C hardly talks about it and has kept very few souvenirs
D still seems to think she is living in the time when she was young
______ 6. What does the narrator’s mother tell her about the act of falling?
F
Once you start, you keep going faster and faster till you hit bottom.
G You can get up and try again, no matter how often you fall.
H It’s amazing how many things you can do while you’re falling.
J
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Whether you fall isn’t important; what’s important is how you fall.
Holt Assessment: Literature, Reading, and Vocabulary
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
______ 4. “I owe her my existence three times,” the narrator says. Which of the following is not
one of those three times?
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______ 7. At the time the narrator tells the story, she is living in —
A her mother’s house in the New Hampshire woods
B North Dakota, where she grew up
C a tent at the Avalon Circus
D a hospital where she is recovering from a fall
______ 8. How did the narrator’s mother and father meet?
F
They performed together in a circus.
G The father was a doctor in the hospital where the mother was a patient.
H They were traveling in the same tour group to Rome, France, and Spain.
J
They met when the house caught on fire.
______ 9. The narrator’s mother performs a heroic act when she —
A directs the firefighters in putting out the fire
B puts out the fire with her own hands, burning them severely
C gives up her own life to save her daughter
D does a circus leap up to the window to rescue the narrator
______ 10. The narrator’s father taught the narrator’s mother to —
F
read
G listen
H fly
J
speak
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
LITERARY FOCUS (20 points; 5 points each)
On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items.
______ 11. Another word for foreshadowing is —
A guess
B inference
C hint
D device
______ 12. Which line in the story most clearly foreshadows the fire?
F
“My mother is the surviving half of a blindfold trapeze act. . . . ”
G “She has never upset an object or as much as brushed a magazine onto the floor.”
H “Suddenly the room goes dark, the stitches burn beneath my fingers. . . .”
J
The Leap
“No hot sun beat upon the striped tent. . . .”
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______ 13. Which event in the story is not told in a flashback?
A The narrator remembers events that happened in her youth.
B The Flying Avalons’ act is destroyed by an accident.
C The narrator’s sister is buried.
D The narrator’s mother goes blind.
______ 14. Which of the following four events happens earliest in time?
F
The narrator’s mother and father meet.
G Harold Avalon is killed by lightning.
H The narrator goes to live with her mother.
J
The narrator’s mother saves the narrator’s life.
VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT (20 points; 4 points each)
On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer for each item.
______ 15. The prefix il– and the Latin root word litteratus tell you that the word illiterate means —
A sick; diseased; subject to illness
B not legal; not permitted
C expert in the Latin language
D unable to read and write
______ 16. The prefix ex– helps you understand that extricating means —
F
getting something out from where it was stuck
G pushing something into a place where it fits
J
looking back from a great distance
______ 17. Which word is not closely related to commemorates?
A memory
B month
C memorial
D remember
______18. The derivation of the word radiance shows that the word has to do with —
F
the dark of night
G rays of light
H rates of growth
J
22
dances of joy
Holt Assessment: Literature, Reading, and Vocabulary
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
H giving something to someone as a gift
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______ 19. Generate comes from a Latin word meaning —
A give
B write
C enjoy
D create
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE (20 points)
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
20. Choose an event in “The Leap” that happened before the narrator was born.
On a separate sheet of paper, identify the event, and then relate the event to
the following elements: (a) the device the author uses to put the event into
the narrative; (b) where the event belongs in the story’s chronological
sequence (that is, what happens before and after it); (c) how the event affects
the narrator’s life.
The Leap
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Answer Key
Double Daddy
Constructed Response
by Penny Parker
20. Students’ responses will vary. A sample
response follows:
Diary of a Mad Blender
The premature birth and death of the
narrator’s sister is something that happened before the narrator was born. The
author places the event at the end of the
long flashback that narrates the experiences
of the Flying Avalons and the disaster that
ended their career. The preceding event is
the disaster, which the mother survives
with burns; the subsequent event is the
mother’s meeting and relationship with the
narrator’s father. Because the mother was
in a hospital after she lost the baby, she met
the narrator’s father; thus, it’s possible that
the narrator owes her life to the death of
her older sister.
by Sue Shellenbarger
The Child’s View of Working
Parents
by Cora Daniels
Selection Test, page 18
Comprehension
1. B
2. H
3. D
4. J
5. A
Vocabulary Development
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
autonomy
poignant
phenomenon
The Pedestrian
integrate
by Ray Bradbury
Selection Test, page 24
colleague
The Leap
Comprehension
by Louise Erdrich
Selection Test, page 20
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
Comprehension
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B
H
A
J
C
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
H
A
B
H
A
G
C
G
Literary Focus
D
11. A
12. H
F
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
J
D
H
B
J
13. C
14. F
Vocabulary Development
Literary Focus
11. C
12. H
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
13. D
14. G
Vocabulary Development
15. D
18. G
16. F
19. D
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
intermittent
manifest
ebbing
regressive
antiseptic
17. B
Answer Key
291