The Open Response Practice Page
The excerpts found here are from many different genres: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc. Included are multiple choice and an open response question. Use these to practice your reading and writing skills.
Remember: You can not write anything in your open response that can not be supported by the text.
#1. First excerpt:
What Happened About the Statues
I expect you’ve seen someone put a lighted match to a bit of newspaper which is propped up in a grate against an unlit fire. And for a second nothing seems to have happened; and then you notice a tiny streak of flame creeping along the edge of the newspaper. It was like that now. For a second after Aslan had breathed upon him the stone lion looked just the same. Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white marble back—then it spread—then the color seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper—then, while his hindquarters were still obviously stone, the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stone folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened a great red mouth, warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. And now his hind legs had come to life. He lifted one of them and scratched himself. Then, having caught sight of Aslan, he went bounding after him and frisking round him whimpering with delight and jumping up to lick his face.
Of course the children’s eyes turned to follow the lion; but the sight they saw was so wonderful that they soon forgot about him. Everywhere the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum; it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was almost hidden in the crowd. Instead of all that deadly white the courtyard was now a blaze of colors; glossy chestnut sides of centaurs, indigo horns of unicorns, dazzling plumage of birds, reddy-brown of foxes, dogs and satyrs, yellow stockings and crimson hoods of dwarfs; and the birch-girls in silver, and the beech-girls in fresh, transparent green, and the larch-girls in green so bright that it was almost yellow. And instead of the deadly silence the whole place rang with the sound of happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, barkings, squealings, cooings, neighings, stampings, shouts, hurrahs, songs and laughter.
“Oh!” said Susan in a different tone. “Look! I wonder—I mean, is it safe?”
Lucy looked and saw that Aslan had just breathed on the feet of the stone giant.
“It’s all right!” shouted Aslan joyously. “Once the feet are put right, all the rest of him will follow.”
“That wasn’t exactly what I meant,” whispered Susan to Lucy. But it was too late to do anything about it now even if Aslan would have listened to her. The change was already creeping up the Giant’s legs. Now he was moving his feet. A moment later he lifted the club off his shoulder, rubbed his eyes and said,
“Bless me! I must have been asleep. Now! Where’s that dratted little Witch that was running about on the ground. Somewhere just by my feet it was.” But when everyone had shouted up to him to explain what had really happened, and when the Giant had put his hand to his ear and got them to repeat it all again so that at least he understood, then he bowed down till his head was no further off than the top of a haystack and touched his cap repeatedly to Aslan, beaming all over his honest ugly face. (Giants of any sort are now so rare in England and so few giants are good-tempered that ten to one you have never seen a giant when his face is beaming. It’s a sight well worth looking at.)
From The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Ch. 16, by C.S. Lewis
Multiple Choice
1. “…then the color seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper” is an example of a:
0 metaphor
0 simile
0 personification
0 hyperbole
2. A synonym for the word prodigious that fits the context of this passage is:
0 marvelous
0 large
0 threatening
0 none of the above
3. This passage is mostly about:
0 Burning like a fire
0 Being restored to life
0 Making loud animal noises
0 Turning a museum into a zoo
4. The main purpose of this passage is to:
0 Reveal Aslan’s healing powers
0 Show how animals have fun
0 Explain what happened to the statues
0 All of the above
Open Response
In this passage, C.S. Lewis reveals the ability of Aslan the lion to restore life to the statues that had previously been turned into stone by the Witch.
A. Describe in your own words the sequence of events that takes place in this passage.
B. Explain why the image of lighting a newspaper to start an unlit fire at the beginning of the passage is appropriate for the entire passage.
SCORING GUIDE
4 Student gives correct answers for parts A and B. All explanations are clear and complete. There is evidence of clear understanding of the passage.
3 Student gives correct answers for parts A and B. Explanations are correct, but possibly vague. There is less evidence of clear understanding.
2 Student answers 1 (A or B) part of the question completely correct. There is some evidence of understanding.
1 Student gives only parts of correct answers. There is little evidence of understanding.
0 Response is totally incorrect or irrelevant (does not add any new information to the question)
B No response
Open Response Answer Sheet
