Question

ead the selections, and choose the best answer to each question.

Selection 1: Diary Entry—After the Great Crash

1 January 30, 1930. What a gray day. I tried fixing my skates in case the pond freezes, but I realized I’ve outgrown them. They’re lying in the corner now, useless.
2 I normally wouldn’t mind the bleak weather and wasted afternoon, but my cousin Rudy wrote to say he lost his job. My dad says that’s the fault of the stock market crash.
3 Dad used to work for Mr. McGuire. Last year, on October 29, the day the stock market crashed, Mr. McGuire went from being wealthy to poor. He let my dad go soon after.
4 I don’t understand how our country let this happen. If Mr. McGuire’s speculations cost him money, then that’s his business, but if his and others’ speculations put my dad, Rudy, and millions of others out of work, then that’s everybody’s business.
5 The Great Crash is shaking people’s faith that society is working for all of us—not just for some of us—and not against any of us. My dad says the magnitude of the problem is reflected in how much it harms that faith. When people feel they have been robbed, how much will they give? When people feel they have been shoved aside, how much will they trust?
6 Well, that’s enough for today. Maybe the sun will be out tomorrow, and maybe I can swap my old skates for Kenny’s catcher’s mitt. I hope!


Selection 2: After the Great Crash—Multimedia Presentation
Panel 1 of a 3 panel storyboard. A boy is standing at a podium with a microphone. In his left hand, he holds up a pair of scuffed skates by the laces. The boy looks straight ahead with a serious or perhaps sad expression. In younger times
We sped along.
Skating through the carefree days,
Sliding in our thoughtless ways,
Gliding from the first dawn’s light,
Heedless of the coming night.

Performance notes: Read the first stanza in quiet, reflective tones at a steady pace. Hold the skates out steadily for the audience.
Panel 2 of a 3 panel storyboard. The boy is at the podium again. He still holds the skates up in his left hand, but now his right arm is extended out in a broad gesture. His face is tilted up. Abrupt and sharp,
There came a crack.
Splintered now the ice-smooth ways,
Shattered now the chain of days.
Scattered far the fragments cast,
Bright broken tokens of the past.

Performance notes: Read the second stanza at a louder volume and slower pace. Raise hands dramatically.
Panel 3 of a 3 panel storyboard. The panel is a close-up of the boy. He is resting his chin on his two fists with his elbows resting on the podium. The skates still dangle from his left hand. His expression is wistful or dreamy. Trust is that
Over which we glide.
Break it, can we glide again?
Trust those on whom we still depend?
A vision for a winter’s night—
A world full of skaters whirling, twirling, now lost to sight.

Performance notes: Read the final stanza quietly but firmly. Bring arms in toward body to suggest reflection. Pause before each of the last two lines.

Read the sentence from paragraph 5 of Selection 1 in which repeated words have been underlined.

The Great Crash is shaking people’s faith that society is working for all of us—not just for some of us—and not against any of us.

What is the author’s most likely purpose in repeating the underlined words in the sentence?
A. to convey surprise over the fact that society is no longer working as it should
B. to convey strong approval of the changes taking place in society at the time
C. to emphasize the similarities among three different views of society’s purpose
D. to contrast the true purpose of society with the ways it can fail in that purpose

Review Progress

Answer 1

D. The repetition highlights the contrast between how society should work (for everyone, not against anyone) and how it can fail (benefiting some but not others), reinforcing the difference between the ideal and the reality.