1. 14 Days Until CAHSEE!!! 15 February 2011

2.  Essay Revision Questions are based on the text of brief rough drafts, and they appear in two basic forms:  Essay Revision Question Type #1: Sentence Revision Questions  Example: What is the BEST way to state the action in sentence 2?  These questions deal with revising a part of the passage based on Grammar and Structure Rules  For most of these, you don’t need to read the passage.  Essay Revision Question Type #2: Reading Passage Questions  Example: Which sentence is NOT related to the main idea of Paragraph 2?  These questions deal with figuring out what a specific part of the passage says.  For most of these, you only need to read parts of the passage.

3.  Since these are rough drafts and may have errors, the title and first/last paragraphs may not be as helpful to us.  We should, however, always start by reading the questions (not the answers).  Is Question #1 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question?  Is Question #2 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question?  Is Question #3 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question?  Is Question #4 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question?  Which kind of question do you think we should tackle first?

4.  Question #1 is a Sentence Revision question. How can you tell?  The question is asking you to revise a sentence from the passage based on the rules of grammar and structure  You don’t need to read the passage to deal with it  This question deals with Passive Voice  Passive voice is using verbs with “to be” forms (like “is” or “was”) to make it sound like the thing doing the action is having the action done to it: “The fool was pitied by me.”  Active voice is using verbs to make the thing doing the action actually do it: “I pity the fool!”  Look for answer choices that express actions with “to be” verbs. Eliminate them.  The remaining answer is the correct choice.

5.  Question #2 is a Sentence Revision question. How can you tell?  The question is asking you to revise an underlined part of a sentence from the passage based on the rules of grammar and structure  You don’t need to read the passage to deal with it  This question deals with Wordiness and Passive Voice  Wordiness is using more words than necessary to say something In answer choice “A,” repeating the word “really” doesn’t add anything to what’s being said except more words  Redundancy is a wordiness problem in which unnecessary words say the exact same thing as some other words in the sentence In answer choice “B,” the words “went away” say what the word “disappeared” already said  Look at the last two answer choices. Which one can be eliminated for using passive voice?  The remaining answer is the correct choice.

6.  This is a Reading Passage question. How can you tell?  The question is asking you to pick a word that better expresses a certain meaning based on the meanings of words in the passage  Reading the part of the passage surrounding the underlined words can help you with answering the question  This question deals with Connotation  This question is basically asking you to figure out the meaning of the underlined words and choose the answer choice with the most similar meaning.  Start with the underlined words. What possible meanings of “double time” come to mind?  Look at the sentence from the passage. What is it talking about? How does that affect the possible meaning of “double time”?  Write down meanings for each of the answer choice words.  Eliminate answers that don’t work with “double time.”  The remaining answer is the correct choice.

7.  This is a Reading Passage question. How can you tell?  The question is asking about the “main idea” of a part of the passage.  You can’t answer the question without reading part of the passage.  This question deals with Main Idea  Read paragraph 2. Keep an eye out for any sentences that seem weird.  What is the main idea of paragraph 2?  Do any of the answer choices clearly not go with the main idea of the paragraph?  If you’re unsure, try to find two answer choices that definitely go together. Then look at the other two sentences. Which one is more like the first two?  The remaining answer is the correct choice.

8.  Look at questions 5-7. Are they Sentence Revision questions or Reading Passage questions?  Question #5 is a Sentence Revision question that deals with Parallelism.  Parallelism is a rule that says words in a sentence that go together must be in the same form.  Look at the sentence from the passage where the underlined phrase is. Which words from the sentence do the underlined words go with? Many species before us have enjoyed great success only to fall victim to changes in climate, competing of other species, or other factors beyond their control.  Which answer choice is in a form most like the other two parts?  Questions #6 and #7 are Connotation questions  Use the steps that we used in the last passage to answer these questions (figure out what the word in the sentence means; figure out what the words in the answer choices mean; see which answer choice matches the meaning in the sentence)

9.  Look at questions 8 and 9. Are they Sentence Revision questions or Reading Passage questions?  Question #8 is a Connotation question  Use the steps that we used in the last two passages to answer this question (figure out what “thing” in the sentence is referring to; figure out what the answer choices mean; see which answer choice matches the meaning in the sentence)  Question #9 is a Reading Passage question that deals with Details.  How can you tell? The question is asking about “ideas,” “details,” and “evidence” contained in the passage. Finding specific information in the passage is important for answering the question.  Since CAHSEE essay revision passages are so short, “What’s It Say?”- type detail questions are pretty straightforward... the four answer choices contain 1 true statement and 3 false statements.  For each answer choice, pick a key word (such as “imaginations” for answer choice “B”) that will help you find the part of the passage that talks about it.  Find the part of the passage that talks about each answer choice.  Which answer choice statement is supported by the passage?