More Review and Mastery Tests
Chapter 10: Review Test 6
 
Author's Purpose

A. Label each of the types of writing in the list according to its purpose as follows:

I = to inform
P = to persuade
E = to entertain

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

      B. Read the following passages. Identify the primary purpose of each passage.

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Eulogy to the Late President, Delivered in the Rotunda
of The United States Capitol,November 24, 1963
By Mike Mansfield,
Majority Leader of the United States Senate

     There was a wit in a man neither young nor old, but a wit full of an old man's wisdom and of a child's wisdom, and then, in a moment it was no more. And so she took a ring from her finger and placed it in his hands.
     There was a man marked with the scars of his love of country, a body active with the surge of a life far, far from spent and, in a moment, it was no more. And so she took a ring from her finger and placed it in his hands.
     There was a father with a little boy, a little girl and a joy of each in the other. In a moment it was no more, and so she took a ring from her finger and placed it in his hands.
     There was a husband who asked much and gave much, and out of the given and the asking wove with a woman what could not be broken in life, and in a moment it was no more. And so she took a ring from her finger and placed it in his hands, and kissed him and closed the lid of a coffin.
     A piece of each of us died at that moment. Yet, in death he gave of himself to us. He gave us of a good heart from which the laughter came. He gave us of a profound wit, from which a great leadership emerged. He gave us of a kindness and a strength fused into a human courage to seek peace without fear.
     He gave us of his love that we, too, in turn, might give. He gave that we might give of ourselves, that we might give to one another until there would be no room, no room at all, for the bigotry, the hatred, prejudice, and the arrogance which converged in that moment of horror to strike him down.
     In leaving us—these gifts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States, leaves with us. Will we take them, Mr. President? Will we have, now, the sense and the responsibility and the courage to take them?
     I pray to God that we shall and under God we will.

Mike Mansfield. Eulogy to the Late President. 24 November
1963. John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. 15 April 2004.
http://www.cs.umb.edu/jfklibrary/rotunda_eulogies.html.

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Weight Control


     Have you noticed that some women just don't seem to gain weight, no matter what they eat? You'll be in a restaurant, eating a Diet Plate consisting of four tunafish molecules garnished with low-sodium parsley, and you can nevertheless actually feel yourself gaining weight. Meanwhile at the next table is a woman wearing a size zero dress, wolfing down a chocolate cake that had to be delivered to her table via forklift. How does she get away with it? Where does she put the calories?
     The answer is: into your body. Yes! If you look into her purse, you'll find that she, like many modern weight-conscious women, is carrying an electronic device called a Calorie Transmaterializer, which transforms the food entering her body into invisible rays and shoots them into the body of whoever is sitting nearby. If you are so unfortunate as to be sitting near several hungry women with Calorie Transmaterializers, you could easily explode before they get past their appetizers. If I were you, I'd get one of these handy devices soon.

—From Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40, 1990, p. 41

10.  

 
 
 





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