In class: vocabulary quiz on rhetorical techniques
Reading comprehension practice.
Part 1
Directions (1–24): Closely read each of the three passages below. After each passage, there are several multiplechoice
questions. Select the best suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate
answer sheet provided for you. You may use the margins to take notes as you read.
Reading Comprehension Passage A
…
The windows were open and the room was filled with loud, unearthly shrieks.
Mrs. Munson lived on the third floor, and across the street was a public school playground.
In the late afternoon the noise was almost unbearable. God, if she’d only known about this
before she signed the lease! With a little grunt she closed both windows and as far as she
was concerned they could stay that way for the next two years.
But Mrs. Munson was far too excited to be really annoyed. Vini Rondo was coming to
see her, imagine, Vini Rondo.…and this very afternoon! When she thought about it she felt
fluttering wings in her stomach. It had been almost five years, and Vini had been in Europe
all this time. Whenever Mrs. Munson found herself in a group discussing the war she
invariably announced, “Well, you know I have a very dear friend in Paris this very minute,
Vini Rondo, she was right there when the Germans marched in! I have positive nightmares
when I think what she must be going through!” Mrs. Munson said it as if it were she whose
fate lay in the balance. …
“Vini, back in America,” she thought, never ceasing to revel in the wonder of it.
She puffed up the small green pillows on the couch and sat down. With piercing eyes she
examined her room. Funny you never really see your surroundings until a visitor is
expected. Well, Mrs. Munson sighed contentedly, that new girl had, for a rarity, restored
pre-war standards.
The door-bell rang abruptly. It buzzed twice before Mrs. Munson could move, she was
that excited. Finally she composed herself and went to answer.
At first Mrs. Munson didn’t recognize her. The woman who confronted her had no chic
up-swept coiffure … indeed her hair hung rather limply and had an uncombed look. A print
dress in January? Mrs. Munson tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice when she
said, “Vini, darling, I should have known you anywhere.”
The woman still stood in the threshold. Under her arm she carried a large pink box and
her grey eyes looked out at Mrs. Munson curiously.
“Would you, Bertha?” Her voice was a queer whisper. “That’s nice, very nice. I should
have recognized you, too, although you’ve gotten rather fat. [sic] haven’t you?” Then she
accepted Mrs. Munson’s extended hand and came in. …
Vini smiled and Mrs. Munson noticed how irregular her teeth were and decided they
could do with a good brushing.
“So,” Vini continued, “when I got back in New York last week I thought of you at once.
I had an awful time trying to find you because I couldn’t remember your husband’s first
name.…”
“Albert,” Mrs. Munson put in unnecessarily.
“… but I finally did and here I am. You know, Bertha, I really started thinking about you
when I decided to get rid of my mink coat.”
Mrs. Munson saw a sudden blush on Vini’s face.
“Your mink coat?”
“Yes,” Vini said, lifting up the pink box. “You remember my mink coat. You always
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Regents Exam in ELA (Common Core) — Jan. ’17 [2]
admired it so. You always said it was the loveliest coat you’d ever seen.” She started to undo
the frayed silk ribbon that held the box together.
“Of course, yes of course,” Mrs. Munson said, letting the “course” trill down softly.
“I said to myself, ‘Vini Rondo, what on earth do you need that coat for? Why not let
Bertha have it?’ You see, Bertha, I bought the most gorgeous sable in Paris and you can
understand that I really don’t need two fur coats. Besides I have my silver-fox jacket.”
Mrs. Munson watched her parting the tissue paper in the box, saw the chipped enamel
on her nails, saw that her fingers were jewel-less, and suddenly realized a great many other
things.
“So I thought of you and unless you want it I’ll just keep it because I couldn’t bear to
think of anyone else having it.” She held the coat and stood turning it this way and that.
It was a beautiful coat; the fur shone rich and very smooth. Mrs. Munson reached out and
ran her fingers across it ruffling the tiny hairs the wrong way. Without thinking she said:
“How much?”
Mrs. Munson brought back her hand quickly, as though she had touched fire, and then
she heard Vini’s voice, small and tired.
“I paid almost a thousand for it. Is a thousand too much?”
Down in the street Mrs. Munson could hear the deafening roar of the playground and
for once she was grateful. It gave her something else to concentrate on, something to lessen
the intensity of her own feelings.
“I’m afraid that’s too much. I really can’t afford it,” Mrs. Munson said distractedly,
still staring at the coat, afraid to lift her eyes and see the other woman’s face.
Vini tossed the coat on the couch. “Well, I want you to have it. It’s not so much the
money, but I feel I should get something back on my investment.…How much could you
afford?”
Mrs. Munson closed her eyes. Oh, God, this was awful! Just plain damned awful!
“Maybe four hundred,” she answered weakly. …
Vini leaned against the wall, her pale face looking hard in the magnified sunlight of the
big bedroom windows.
“You can make out the check to me,” she said disinterestedly.
“Yes, of course,” Mrs. Munson said, suddenly coming back to earth. Imagine Bertha Munson
with a mink of her own!
They went back into the livingroom and she wrote the check for Vini. Carefully folding
it, Vini deposited it in her small beaded purse.
Mrs. Munson tried hard to make conversation but she came up against a cold wall at
each new channel. Once she asked, “Where is your husband, Vini? You must bring him
around for Albert to talk to.” And Vini answered, “Oh, him! I haven’t seen him for aeons.
He’s still in Lisbon for all I know.” And so that was that.
Finally, after promising to phone the next day, Vini left. When she had gone Mrs. Munson
thought, “Why, poor Vini, she’s nothing but a refugee!” Then she took her new coat and
went into the bedroom. She couldn’t tell Albert how she got it, that was definite. My, but
he would be mad about the money! She decided to hide it in the furthest reaches of her
closet and then one day she’d bring it out and say, “Albert look at the divine mink I bought
at an auction. I got it for next to nothing.”
Groping in the darkness of her closet she caught the coat on a hook. She gave a little
yank and was terrified to hear the sound of ripping. Quickly she snapped on the light and
saw that the sleeve was torn. She held the tear apart and pulled slightly. It ripped more and
then some more. With a sick emptiness she knew the whole thing was rotten. “Oh, my God
[sic] she said, clutching at the linen rose in her hair, “Oh, my God, I’ve been taken and taken good, and there's nothing in the world I can do about it, nothing in the world!" For suddenly Mrs. Munson realized Vini wouldn't phone tomorrow or ever again.-
Truman Capote
excerpted from “A Mink of One’s Own”
Decade of Short Stories, 1944
1) The opening paragraph introduces Mrs. Munson’s
character by establishing her
(1) compassion 2 deception
(3) intolerance
( (4) resourcefulness
2) The statement “Mrs. Munson said it as if it were
she whose fate lay in the balance” (lines 12 and
13) serves to illustrate Mrs. Munson’s desire to
(1) impress others (2) incite conflicts
(3) justify behavior
( (4) avoid criticism
3) Lines 21 through 24 signal a transition in
Mrs. Munson’s attitude from one of
(1) loyalty to betrayal (2) anticipation to confusion
(3) friendship to hostility
(4) sympathy to indifference
4) The description in line 38 implies that Vini has a
(1) carefree past (2) hidden motive
(3) fiery temper (4) secret identity
5) The purpose of Vini’s comments in lines 44
through 46 is to
(1) expose Vini’s stinginess
(2) describe Vini’s coat
(3) characterize Mrs. Munson
(4) entrap Mrs. Munson
6) Based on the details in lines 47 through 49,
Mrs. Munson discovers that Vini
(1) is meticulous about her appearance
(2) is comfortable in her circumstances
(3) has an inflated self-image
(4) has experienced difficult times
7) Lines 71 and 72 refine a central idea by emphasizing
Mrs. Munson’s
(1) indignation regarding Vini
(2) irritation with negotiators
(3) concern for appearances
(4) suspicion regarding Vini
8) In the context of the text as a whole, the purpose
of Mrs. Munson’s imagined conversation in lines
83 and 84 is to
(1) convince her husband to buy her a new mink
(2) rehearse an excuse for a costly purchase
(3) protect an acquaintance from persecution
(4) share her successful negotiations with her
husband
9) What mood is created by the final paragraph?
(1) desperation
(3) satisfaction
(2) aggression
(4) exhilaration
10) Which statement from the text best foreshadows
Vini Rondo’s true intentions for the visit?
(1) “Funny you never really see your surroundings
until a visitor is expected.” (lines 16 and 17)
(2) “It buzzed twice before Mrs. Munson could
move, she was that excited.” (lines 19 and 20)
(3) “The woman who confronted her had no
chic up-swept coiffure … indeed her hair
hung rather limply and had an uncombed
look.” (lines 21 and 22)
(4) “Down in the street Mrs. Munson could
hear the deafening roar of the playground
and for once she was grateful.” (lines 58 and
59)
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