Model Exam

English 101 – English Stream

1. Choose the best transition signal that suits each of the following spaces.

How to Grow an Avocado Tree

After you have enjoyed the delicious taste of an avocado, do not throw out the seed! You

can grow a beautiful houseplant or even your own tree by following these simple steps. First, wash

the seed. (Next – Moreover – However), dry it. Third, insert three toothpicks into its thickest part.

(For example – Then – Although) fill a glass or empty jar with water, and suspend the seed in

the water with the pointed end up and the broad end down. The water should cover about an inch

of the seed.

After finishing the previous steps, you need to expose the seed to sunlight. (Moreover –

However – Therefore), the direct sunlight harms the seed; (additionally – although – therefore),

put the glass in a warm place with an indirect sunlight. Add water when necessary to keep the

bottom of the seed under water at all times. In two to six weeks, you should see roots begin to

grow. (In other words – Meanwhile – In conclusion), the seed will crack open, and a stem will

emerge from the top. Wait until the roots are thick and leaves emerge from the stem. (To sum up

– And – Finally), plant the seed in clay pot with enriched soil.

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Choose the correct transition.

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2. The following essay is not divided into separate paragraphs.

• First, underline the topic sentence and the thesis statement.

• Next, divide the essay into separate paragraphs depending on the thesis statement and

the transition signals.

• Based on the thesis statement, how many paragraphs are included in the body of the

following essay?

Culture Shock

Moving to a new country can be an exciting experience. In a new environment, you

somehow feel more alive: seeing new sights, eating new food, hearing the foreign sounds of a new

language, and feeling a different climate. Suddenly, new experiences seem stressful rather than

stimulating, and delight turns into discomfort. This is the phenomenon known as culture shock.

Culture shock is more than jet lag or homesickness, and it affects nearly everyone who enters a

new culture-tourists, business travelers, diplomats, and students alike. Although not everyone

experiences culture shock in exactly the same way, many experts agree that it has roughly five

stages. In the first stage, you are excited by your new environment. You experience some simple

difficulties such as trying to use the telephone or public transportation, but you consider these

small challenges that you can quickly overcome. Your feelings about the new culture are positive,

so you are eager to make contact with people and to try new foods. Sooner or later, differences in

behavior and customs become more noticeable to you. This is the second stage of culture shock.

Because you do not know the social customs of the new culture, you may find it difficult to make

friends. For instance, you do not understand how to make "small talk," so it is hard to carry on a

casual, get-acquainted conversation. One day in the school cafeteria, you overhear a conversation.

You understand all the words, but you do not understand the meaning. Why is everyone laughing?

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Are they laughing at you or at some joke that you did not understand? Also, you aren't always sure

how to act while shopping. Is this store self-service, or should you wait for a clerk to assist you?

If you buy a sweater in the wrong size, can you exchange it? These are not minor challenges; they

are major frustrations. In the third stage, you no longer have positive feelings about the new

culture. You feel that you have made a mistake in coming here. Making friends hasn't been easy,

so you begin to feel lonely and isolated. Now you want to be with familiar people and eat familiar

food. You begin to spend most of your free time with students from your home country, and you

eat in restaurants that serve your native food. In fact, food becomes an obsession, and you spend a

lot of time planning, shopping for, and cooking food from home. You know that you are in the

fourth stage of culture shock when you have negative feelings about almost everything. In this

stage, you actively reject the new culture. You become critical, suspicious, and irritable. You

believe that people are unfriendly, that your landlord is trying to cheat you, that your teachers do

not like you, and that the food is making you sick. In fact, you may actually develop stomachaches,

headaches, sleeplessness, lethargy, or other physical symptoms. Finally, you reach the fifth stage.

As your language skills improve, you begin to have some success in meeting people and in

negotiating situations. You are able to exchange the sweater that was too small, and you can

successfully chat about the weather with a stranger on the bus. Your self-confidence grows. After

realizing that you cannot change your surroundings, you begin to accept the differences an tolerate

them. For instance, the food will never be as tasty as the food in your home country, but you are

now able to eat and sometimes even enjoy many dishes. You may not like the way some people in

your host country dress or behave in public, but you do not regard their clothes and behavior as

wrong-just different. In conclusion, nearly everyone moving to a new country feels some degree

of culture shock. Symptoms may vary, and not all people experience all five stages. Newcomers

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with a strong support group may feel at home immediately in the new culture, while others may

take months to feel comfortable. Staying in touch with friends and family, keeping a positive

attitude, and, above all, learning the language as soon as possible are ways to overcome the

difficulties and frustrations of adapting to life in a new land.

3. The following paragraph contains One off-the-topic sentence. Underline it.

It is commonly recognized that dogs have an extreme antagonism toward cats. This enmity

between these two species can be traced back to the time of the early Egyptian dynasties.

Archaeologists in recent years have discovered Egyptian texts in which there are detailed accounts

of the cruel relationship between dogs and cats. In addition, some dogs show cruel and aggressive

reactions towards humans. Today this type of cruelty between these two domestic pets can be

witnessed in regions as close as your own neighborhood. For example, when dogs are walked by

their masters (and they happen to catch sight of a stray cat), they will pull with all their strength

on their leash until the master is forced to yield; the typical result is that a feline is chased up a

tree. The hatred between dogs and cats has lasted for many centuries, so it is unlikely that this

conflict will ever end.

4. The following paragraphs break the rule of unity because they contain one or more

sentences that are off the topic.

Step 1 Locate and underline the topic sentence of each paragraph.

Step 2 Cross out the sentence or sentences that are off the topic.

Paragraph 1

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 Adventure travel is the hot trend in the tourism industry. Ordinary people are no longer

content to spend their two weeks away from the office resting on a sunny beach in Florida. More

and more often, they are choosing to spend their vacations rafting down wild rivers, hiking through

steamy rain forests, climbing the world's highest mountains, or crossing slippery glaciers. People

of all ages are choosing educational study tours for their vacations.

Paragraph 2

Daredevil sports are also becoming popular. Young people especially are increasingly

willing to risk life and limb while mountain biking, backcountry snowboarding, or high-speed

skateboarding. Soccer is also popular in the United States now, although football is still more

popular. One of the riskiest new sports is skysurfing, in which people jump out of airplanes with

boards attached to their feet. Skysurfing rivals skydiving and bungee jumping for the amount of

thrills and risk.

5. Both of the following paragraphs not only have sentences that are off the topic but also

discuss two or more topics.

Step 1 Decide where each paragraph should be divided into two paragraphs. Underline

the topic sentence of each.

Step 2 Find sentence(s) that are off the topic and cross them out.

Paragraph 1

Because the Internet makes the world a smaller place, the value of having a common

language is greatly increased. The question is-which language? Because the Internet grew up in

the United States, the largest percentage of its content is now in English. Bill Gates, Microsoft's

president, believes that English will remain valuable for a long time as a common language for

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international communication. His company spends $200 million a year translating software into

other languages. He says, "Unless you read English passably well, you miss out on some of the

Internet experience." Someday, software may be available to instantly translate both written and

spoken language so well that the need for any common language could decline. That day is decades

away, however, because flawless machine translation is a very tough problem. Computer spelling

checkers also exist for various languages. Software that does crudes translations already exists. It

is useful if all you are trying to do is understand the general idea of something you see on your

computer screen. However, if you are trying to negotiate a contract or discuss a scientific subject

where details are important, machine translation is totally useless (Gates).

Paragraph 2

Even when you try to be polite, it is easy to do the wrong thing inadvertently in a new culture.

For example, when someone offers you food or a beverage in the United States, accept it the first

time it is offered. If you say, "No, thank you" because it is polite to decline the first one or two

offers in your culture, you could become very hungry and thirsty in the United States. There, a

host thinks that "no" means "no" and will usually not offer again. Meals in the United States are

usually more informal than meals in other countries, and the times of meals may be different.

Although North Americans are usually very direct in social matters, there are a few occasions

when they are not. If a North American says, "Please drop by sometime," he may or may not want

you to visit him in his home. Your clue that this may not be a real invitation is the word

"sometime." In some areas of the United States, people do not expect you to visit them unless you

have an invitation for a specific day and time. In other areas of the United States, however,

"dropping by" is a friendly, neighborly gesture. Idioms are often difficult for newcomers to

understand.

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6. Identify the pitfall (problem) of each of the following thesis statements.

(Too general – Obvious fact – Simple announcement)

a) My essay explains why education is very important. Simple announcement

b) Policemen arrest criminals. Obvious fact

c) Online meetings are very helpful. Too general

d) In this paper, I will discuss the importance of physical exercises.

e) Large green areas and forests are very important.

f) A college education is a good investment.

g) Lasers are very useful.

h) I am going to write about sports injuries.

i) The Internet is a communication superhighway.

7. Put the sentences in each of the following sets in the correct order to make an

introductory paragraph. Start with the most general statement. Then make sure that

each sentence explains and contains the key nouns of the preceding one.

a) Before Braille’s invention, blindness was a serious problem and a significant barrier to social

participation.

b) Braille’s invention was a writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people in

nineteenth-century France.

c) As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille’s invention was a

groundbreaking new accessibility tool.

d) The invention of Louis Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

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 e) Such a tool not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of

blindness.

f) To understand the importance of this invention, the reader needs to learn about three main

elements: the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe, the description of the

invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education, and the

effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

D-B–C–E–A–F

8. Complete the following thesis statements by adding subtopics to them. Take care of

observing parallel structures.

a) Online learning has a lot of advantages, the most important of which are:
A. ……………………………
B. …………………………...
C. ……………………….
b) To have a strong and healthy body, you need to pay attention to three important habits:
A. ………………………………………
B. ………………………………………
C. ……………………………………….
c) Social media have some disadvantages, three of which are:
A. …………………………..
B. ……………………………………………
C. ………………………………………...

9. In the following paragraph, the pronouns are not consistent. Correct them to make this

paragraph more coherent.

Olympic Athletes Olympic athletes must be strong both physically and mentally. First

of all, if you hope to compete in an Olympic sport, you must be physically strong. Furthermore,

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 aspiring4 Olympians must train rigorously for many years. For the most demanding sports,

they train several hours a day, five or six days a week, for ten or more years. In addition to

being physically strong, athletes must also be mentally tough. This means that you have to be

totally dedicated to your sport, often giving up a normal school, family, and social life. Being

mentally strong also means that he or she must be able to withstand the intense pressure of

international competition with its accompanying media6 coverage. Finally, not everyone can

win a medal, so Olympians must possess the inner strength to live with defeat.

10. Identify the type of introduction (funnel, surprising facts or statistics, historical, or

dramatic/interesting story), and division (logical – chronological – comparison and

contrast).

Note:

• Chronological order is order by time-a sequence of events or steps in a process.

• Logical division of ideas is when the topic is divided into parts, and each part is discussed

separately.

• In a comparison/contrast paragraph, the similarities and/or differences are discussed.

Travelling to a foreign country is always interesting, especially if it is a country that is

completely different from your own. You can delight in tasting new foods, seeing new sights, and

learning about different customs, some of which may seem very curious. If you were to visit my

country, for instance, you would probably think that my people have some very strange customs,

as these three examples will illustrate.

• Type of introduction:……………………..

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 • Type of division: ………………………

"Never trust a man that a dog doesn't like," the proverb says. This somehow implies that

dogs can tell the character of a person before a human can. In many ways this is true: dogs have

amazing talents when it comes to assessing a person's character. But how do they do it? Pet

behaviorists give the following explanations.

• Type of introduction: ………………………….

• Type of division: ……………………..

"At eighteen, Michelle had a lifetime of promise in front of her. Attending college on a

track scholarship, she was earning good grades and making lots of friends. Then one night her life

was forever altered…"

• Type of introduction: ………………

• Type of division: ………………………….

Men cause more car accidents than women. According to the latest statistics, 25,841 male

drivers caused fatal car accidents versus 10,676 female drivers nationwide. In addition, male

drivers 16 to 19 years old die at twice the rate compared to female drivers the same age. Along with

a driver’s age and gender, many car accidents have certain things in common. These include common

contributing factors, according to News Trail. These factors include: speed and distraction.

• Type of introduction: ………………………………..

• Type of division: …………………………………….

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11. Provide the missing conclusion of the following paragraph.

• Start with a transition signal. (To sum up, – In conclusion, - ….)

• You can summarize the main points (topic sentence - thesis statement – 1st and 2nd

sentences of the body paragraphs - …)

• You can write a recommendation.

• You cannot include any new elements that are not mentioned in your thesis statement.

To sum up, doctors could identify SAD condition which affects most people who live in

areas where winter nights are long. In addition, the cure is now known. It is a daily dose of natural

light which can stop the physical disorder caused by SAD condition.

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Essay Writing

12. Follow the previous model to write an essay on ONE of the following topics:

Write a good topic sentence, include two points in your thesis statement, and do not exceed 4

paragraphs for the whole essay (1 Introduction paragraph – 2 body paragraphs – 1 concluding

paragraph).

• The characteristics of a good friend.

• The bad effects of air pollution.

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