Section 1: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
1
What is it about Madonna that made her such a trans-continental superstar? The answer to this question is as varied and covers as wide a range of factor as the subject herself. At the peak of her career she once said, Sometimes I get this scary feeling that I could do anything.’ She has an exceptional range of creative talents and has achieved success in several different fields – as a dancer, a singer, a songwriter, a choreographer, a record producer, a ‘tour’ artist and an actress.
2
Madonna trained as a dancer. She really trained for years, and it was her dancing skills which brought her to New York in the first place. This was no ‘disco-queen’ picking up a few steps at the local keep-fit class; her teachers were true professionals. Some of them were– Pearl Lang especially – at the summit of their careers. To be a successful dancer, one has to have a number of skills, but the prime one has to be a sense of musical rhythm.
3
All successful dancers are musical, and Madonna’s years of dance training have contributed greatly to her success. They gave her a professional approach to choreography, and therefore the making of videos, and enabled her to dance to a high standard – when she was given the chance – as well as sing. There can be no doubt that the physical daily discipline of dance training stood her in excellent condition when touring and spending whole days working in studios without a break, until she had achieved the sound she wanted.
4
She spent almost a year learning how to play drums, the piano and the guitar, adding to her musical skills, and playing in a working band, so that by the time she stood before a band as a singer she could do everything being done by any other member of the band behind her. Her training was therefore complete, but the actual tone, the quality of her voice, was not to everyone’s taste.
5
As a singer, Madonna soon took to writing her own material and her talent as a songwriter has also to be considered. Since she knew her own voice, and she knew the importance of rhythm from her dancing, she was able to write songs that were both distinctive and tailor-made for her abilities. Based originally on dance-styles, her songs grew in depth and expressive seriousness so that on the one hand she is responsible for such classics as ‘Into the Groove’ and on the other she was able to create something as utterly different as ‘Promise To Try’. Of course by no means all of Madonna’s songs are entirely her own work; she often writes in collaboration with others but such is her control over all aspects of the finished result that we can justly talk to ‘her’ material. If her music developed, so did her lyric-writing. Whatever lies behind her lines, some have become phrases within most people’s vocabulary.

1. Answer the following questions based on the information in the passage. i. What talents are Madonna famous for? ii. How did Madonna’s years of dance training bring her success? iii. How did learning drums, piano and guitar help Madonna? iv. Why did Madonna write her own songs? v. Name two songs mentioned in the passage.

2. Circle the word that is the closest in meaning to the words/phrases that are bolded.

1. exceptional | a. abnormal | b. remarkable | c. average | d. customary | 2. summit | a. foundation | b. beginning | c. depth | d. top | 3. prime | a. weakest | b. mature | c. major | d. principle | 4. contributed | a. helped | b. enhanced | c. hindered | d. augmented | 5. achieved | a. attained | b. culminated | c. developed | d. expected | 6. distinctive | a. lousy | b. exceptional | c. awful | d. poor | 7. tailor-made | a. man-made | b. custom-made | c. hand-made | d. match-made | 8. in collaboration with | a. together with | b. beset with | c. deal with | d. comply with |

3. Read the passage above and match the titles with each paragraph. There is one extra.

a. Madonna’s Dancing Skills b. Madonna’s Uniqueness and Originality c. How Dancing Helped Madonna Become Successful d. Madonna: The Multitalented Star e. Other Musical Skills Madonna Has f. Madonna’s Schooling

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Paragraph 5 ____________________________________
Section 2: Sentence Skills: The passage below has underlined errors of subject-verb agreement, wrong verb forms, incorrect verb forms of do, be & have, run-ons and fragments. Write the corrections on the space provided below.
Pencil, an amazing writing tool, (1) have a very unique history attached to it. Did you know that modern pencils owe it all to an ancient Roman writing instrument called a stylus? (2) Each thin metal rod of styluses were used to leave a light, but remarkable mark on papyrus (an early form of paper). Early styluses were (3) made of lead, which be what we still call pencil core, even though they actually are made of non-toxic graphite. But (4) pencil history don’t stop there.
The modern pencil was invented in 1795 by Nicholas-Jacques Conte. (5) A scientist serving in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. The magic material that was so appropriate for the purpose was (6) the form of pure carbon that we call graphite it was first discovered in Europe, in Bavaria at the start of the fifteenth century. Initially it was believed to be a form of lead and was called ‘graphite’ only in 1789, (7) using the Greek word ‘graphein’ meaning ‘to write’ pencil is an older word, derived from the Latin ‘pencillus’, meaning ‘little tail’, to describe the small ink brushes used for writing in the Middle Ages.
(8) Anyone who know about pencils can be sure about one thing, the birthplace of modern pencils. Nuremberg, Germany was the birthplace of the first mass-produced pencils in 1662. An active pencil industry developed throughout the 19th century industrial revolution. (9) Spurred by Faber-Castell (established in 1761), Lyra, Steadtler and other companies. Thus, it can be said that, due to the invention of pencils, (10) the writing standard has rose quite a lot.

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Section 3: Paragraph Organization
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The homeless people in Dhaka look disgusting.1___________________, their hair is shaggy and filled with lice.2 Many of them look like they have not been near scissors in their lives. 3 Some of them have hair that sprout in different directions, and some have facial hair that makes them look terrifyingly unclean. 4 They can be seen eating food on the streets.5 The clothes they wear look heavily worn and are tattered.6 ________________, as one can see, stains of various kinds cover the majority of the surface of the clothes.7 __________________comes the smell. 8 Most of them smell like a mixture of sweat and excrement that can make people puke. 9 This is made worse by the fact that many of them have warts, tumors, and other growths on their skin that add to their horrific appearances.10 These dot their bodies at places they use strategically to gain sympathy when they are begging.11 They take showers once a week.12 Finally, many of them do not have legs due to accidents.13 They crawl around on the streets.14 _________________, homeless people in this city are dirty and horrifying.15 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

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1. Write a suitable title for the paragraph. 2. Underline the topic sentence with a single line, put a double line under the topic, and circle the controlling idea. 3. Identify the two irrelevant sentences in the paragraph. Write the numbers here: _____ and _____. 4. What order does the writer use: chronological, spatial, generality, or emphatic? _____________________ 5. Fill in the blank spaces with a transition. There is one extra. First of all | To conclude | Then | Also | Later 6. Write a concluding sentence in the space provided for the paragraph. 7. Identify the sensory details (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell) in the following sentences. An example has been provided: sight
The clothes they wear look heavily worn and are tattered. a. Some of them have hair that sprout in different directions, and some have facial hair…. b. The clothes they wear look heavily worn and tattered. c. Most of them smell like a mixture of sweat and excrement that can make people puke. d. They crawl around on the streets.
KEY
Vocabulary 1. Exceptional-remarkable 2. Summit-top 3. Prime-major 4. Contributed-helped 5. Achieved-attained 6. Distinctive-exceptional 7. Tailor-made—custom-made 8. In collaboration with-together with | Matching titles 1. Madonna: The Multitalented Star 2. Madonna’s Dancing Skills 3. How Dancing Helped Madonna Become Successful 4. Other Musical Skills Madonna Has 5. Madonna’s Uniqueness and Originality |
Q/A
1. Madonna is famous for a wide range of creative talents, which include being a dancer, a singer, a songwriter, a choreographer, a record producer, a ‘tour’ artist and an actress. 2. Madonna’s years of dance training brought her success as they gave her a professional approach to choreography, and, therefore, the making of videos, and enabled her to dance to a high standard as well as sing. The physical daily discipline of dance training stood her in excellent condition when touring and spending whole days working in studios without a break, until she had achieved the sound she wanted. 3. Because of learning drums, piano and guitar, when Madonna stood before a band as a singer she could do everything being done by any other member of the band behind her. 4. Madonna wrote her own songs because she knew her own voice, and she knew the importance of rhythm from her dancing. Thus, she was able to write songs that were both distinctive and tailor-made for her abilities. 5. The passage mentions Madonna’s classical song named “Into the Groove” and a unique song titled “Promise to Try”.
Sentence Skills
Pencil, an amazing writing tool, (1) has (sub-v) a very unique history attached to it. Did you know that modern pencils owe it all to an ancient Roman writing instrument called a stylus? (2) Each thin metal rod of styluses was (sub-v) used to leave a light, but remarkable mark on papyrus (an early form of paper).. Early styluses were (3) made of lead, which is(sub-v) what we still call the pencil core, even though they actually are made of non-toxic graphite. But (4) pencil history doesn’t(incorrect V) stop there.
The modern pencil was invented in 1795 by (5) Nicholas-Jacques Conte, a scientist(frag) serving in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. The magic material that was so appropriate for the purpose was the (6) form of pure carbon that we call graphite. It(RO) was first discovered in Europe, in Bavaria at the start of the fifteenth century. Initially it was believed to be a form of lead and was called ‘graphite only in 1789, (7) using the Greek word ‘graphein’ meaning ‘to write’. Pencil(RO) is an older word, derived from the Latin ‘pencillus’, meaning ‘little tail’, to describe the small ink brushes used for writing in the Middle Ages.
8) Anyone who knows (sub-v) about pencils can be sure about one thing, the birthplace of modern pencils. Nuremberg, Germany was the birthplace of the first mass-produced pencils in 1662. An active pencil industry developed throughout the 19th century industrial revolution (9) spurred by Faber-Castell (established in 1761), Lyra, Steadtler and other companies. OR It was spurred by Faber-Castell (established in 1761), Lyra, Steadtler and other companies.(fragment) Thus, it can be said that, due to the invention of pencils, (10) the writing standard has risen (incorrect V form) quite a lot.
Paragraph Organization 1. Anything related to beggars (e.g.“Homeless People”; “Beggars in the Dhaka City”) 2. First sentence: The homeless people in Dhaka look disgusting.1 3. 5 and 12 4. Emphatic 5. In sequence: First of all, Also, Then, To conclude 6. A sentence that rephrases the topic sentence. sight sight 7. Some of them have hair that sprout in different directions, and some have facial hair…. sight
The clothes they wear look heavily worn and tattered. smell
Most of them smell like a mixture of sweat and excrement that can make people puke. sight
They crawl around on the streets.