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SHSAT ELA · Reading Comprehension
Author's Purpose & Function Practice Quiz
Analyze why the author makes specific choices. Answer all 8 questions below, then submit to see your score and an explanation for each question. Free, no account needed. This topic quiz helps you practice the skills used on the computer-based SHSAT.
Read the passage, then answer all 8 questions
Passage
From the introduction to The Weary Blues, with a poem excerpt
I have merely sketched a primitive outline of a career as rich in
adventures as a fruit-cake is full of raisins. I have already
stated that I hope Langston Hughes may be persuaded to set it
down on paper in the minutest detail, for the bull-fights in
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Mexico, the drunken gaiety of the Grand Duc, the delicately
exquisite grace of the little black girls at Burutu, the exotic
languor of the Spanish women at Valencia, the barbaric jazz
dances of the cabarets in New York’s own Harlem, the
companionship of sailors of many races and nationalities, all
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have stamped an indelible impression on the highly sensitized,
poetic imagination of this young Negro, an impression which has
found its initial expression in the poems assembled in this book.
And also herein may be discerned that nostalgia for color and
warmth and beauty which explains this boy’s nomadic instincts.
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“We should have a land of sun,
Of gorgeous sun,
And a land of fragrant water
Where the twilight
Is a soft bandanna handkerchief
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Of rose and gold,
And not this land where life is cold,”
Question 1 of 8
Based on the passage, what can the reader infer about Langston Hughes's travels?
Question 2 of 8
The quoted lines beginning “We should have a land of sun” most strongly suggest the speaker’s
Question 3 of 8
According to the passage, which of the following places is mentioned as part of Hughes's experiences?
Question 4 of 8
The comparison of Hughes's career to "a fruit-cake full of raisins" serves to
Question 5 of 8
What is the central idea of the quoted poem "We should have a land of sun"?
Question 6 of 8
In the poem, "the twilight / Is a soft bandanna handkerchief / Of rose and gold" is an example of
Question 7 of 8
The phrase "this land where life is cold" most likely uses "cold" to symbolize
Question 8 of 8
The tone of the prose introduction toward Langston Hughes is best described as
0 of 8 answered
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