Question

text-dependent questions
directions: for the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. part a: which of the following identifies the central idea of the text?

a. learning a new skill is never easy, but it is worth all of the hard work.
b. learning a new skill is easier for younger people than it is for older people.
c. people often fail at learning several new skills until they find the one they can master.
d. when choosing a new skill to learn, it is important to pick something that comes naturally to you.

1. part b: which detail from the text best supports the answer to part a?

a. \this field of study has been, all at once, the hardest and most rewarding of my life.\ (paragraph 1)
b. \i started writing as a 6-year-old boy under my mother’s tutelage. i always ‘felt’ i could write.\ (paragraph 1)
c. \hopelessness feeds the fatigue that leads the student to quit.\ (paragraph 4)
d. \that is why i ignore all the research about children and their language advantage. i don’t want to hear it.\ (paragraph 4)

1. part a: what is the author’s purpose in the text?

a. to give people an example of how failure is a good thing
b. to encourage people to keep working hard, even if something is difficult
c. to prove that nothing can be rewarding if it’s not challenging
d. to urge people to learn a foreign language since that’s a necessary skill in the 21st century

1. part b: which detail from the text best supports the answer to part a?

a. \i spoke french at the border. i spoke french when i checked in. i spoke french when i went to get lunch.\ (paragraph 2)
b. \if there is such a thing, i don’t have it. i mishear words. i confuse tenses. i can’t really use the subjunctive. yet.\ (paragraph 2)
c. \there is absolutely nothing in this world like the feeling of s—king at something and then improving at it.\ (paragraph 5)
d. \i have said this before, and will say it again: studying french is like setting in a canoe from california to china.\ (paragraph 6)

Answer:

To solve these text - dependent questions, we need to analyze the text (even though the full text isn't provided, we can use the context of the questions).

Question 1 (Part A)

• Option A says "Learning a new skill is never easy, but it is worth all of the hard work." This is a common theme in texts about learning new skills, emphasizing the difficulty and the worth of the effort.
• Option B brings in an age - related comparison which is not indicated to be the central idea from the given options' context.
• Option C is about failing at multiple skills until finding one, which is not a typical central idea for such a text.
• Option D is about choosing a skill that comes naturally, which is not the main focus of a text about the value of learning a new skill.

So the answer for Part A is A. Learning a new skill is never easy, but it is worth all of the hard work.

Question 2 (Part B)

• We need a detail that supports the central idea from Part A (learning a new skill is hard but worth it).
• Option A: "This field of study has been, all at once, the hardest and most rewarding of my life." This directly states that the study (learning a new skill) is hard (hardest) but rewarding, which supports the central idea.
• Option B is about starting to write as a child, not about the difficulty and reward of learning a new skill.
• Option C is about hopelessness leading to quitting, which is not supportive.
• Option D is about ignoring research on children's language advantage, not about the difficulty and reward of learning.

So the answer for Part B is A. "This field of study has been, all at once, the hardest and most rewarding of my life." (Paragraph 1)

Question 3 (Part A)

• The author's purpose is related to the message about learning a new skill.
• Option A: The text is not about failure being good, but about the effort in learning.
• Option B: "to encourage people to keep working hard, even if something is difficult" matches the idea that learning a new skill is hard but worth it (so people should keep going).
• Option C is an extreme statement about nothing being rewarding if not challenging, which is not the purpose.
• Option D is about urging to learn a foreign language, but the text's purpose is more general about learning new skills.

So the answer for Part A is B. to encourage people to keep working hard, even if something is difficult

Question 4 (Part B)

• We need a detail that supports the purpose from Part A (encouraging hard work in the face of difficulty).
• Option C: "There is absolutely nothing in this world like the feeling of s—king at something and then improving at it." (assuming "s—king" is a typo for "stinking" or similar, meaning being bad at something and then getting better) This shows the reward of improving at a difficult task, which supports the idea of working hard through difficulty.
• Option A is about using French in different situations, not about the effort.
• Option B is about the difficulties in language learning but not the reward or the encouragement to keep going.
• Option D is a metaphor about studying French, not a supporting detail for the purpose.

So the answer for Part B is C. "There is absolutely nothing in this world like the feeling of s—king at something and then improving at it." (Paragraph 5)

Final Answers

1. Part A: A. Learning a new skill is never easy, but it is worth all of the hard work.
2. Part B: A. "This field of study has been, all at once, the hardest and most rewarding of my life." (Paragraph 1)
3. Part A: B. to encourage people to keep working hard, even if something is difficult
4. Part B: C. "There is absolutely nothing in this world like the feeling of s—king at something and then improving at it." (Paragraph 5)