1. Writing skills: 1) long involved sentences; 2) passive voice; 3) abstract nouns
2. Rhetorical devices: 1) simile; 2) metaphor; 3) irony; 4) pun
3. Stylistic features: expository writing
Explain the meaning of the italicized words.
1. he was among the “chosen” ones. ( )
2. this puts a premium on slovenly work ( )
3. It is going to put off in cold dollars and cents to management… ( )
Key:
1. chosen: (religious term) favored by God chosen by God to go to heaven after death
2. premium: an unusual or high value
3. pay off: yield full recompense or return, for either good or evil
Summarize the theme of the following passage.
The American labor force has changed profoundly during the nation’s evolution from an agrarian society into a modern industrial state.
The United States remained a largely agricultural nation until late in the 19th century. Unskilled workers fared poorly in the early U.S. economy, receiving as little as half the pay of skilled craftsmen, artisans, and mechanics. About 40 percent of the workers in the cities were low-wage laborers and seamstresses in clothing factories, often living in dismal circumstances. With the rise of factories, children, women, and poor immigrants were commonly employed to run machines.
The late 19th century and the 20th century brought substantial industrial growth. Many Americans left farms and small towns to work in factories, which were organized for mass production and characterized by steep hierarchy, a reliance on relatively unskilled labor, and low wages. In this environment, labor unions gradually developed clout. Eventually, they won substantial improvements in working conditions. They also changed American politics; often aligned with the Democratic Party, unions represented a key constituency for much of the social legislation enacted from the time of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s through the Kennedy and Johnson administrations of the 1960s.
Key:
The passage described the prfound changes of the American labor force during the nation’s evolution from an agrarian society into a modern industrial state.
1. The Conscious and Unconscious Mind
2. Psychoanalytic Theory (Literary Theory)
