Write the correct comparative or superlative form of the words in italics.

1. I thought I was good, but you are ____________________.

2. He writes well, but you write ____________________ among us.
3. Father is funny, but Mother is the __________________ in the family.
4. Contestant No. 3 speaks confidently, but contestant No. 4 speaks ___________________.
5. It’s cold in December, but don’t you think January is the __________________ month of
the year?
6. They’re all sick, I know, but who feels the ___________ of all?
7. We did our work proficiently, and we promise to do it _________________ next time.
8. Many students have joined the Book Readers Club, and Mrs. Asencio hopes that
________________ students will join it.
9. She did badly in the competetition, but her closest rivals played _____________ than she.
10. He looks queer to me. He’s the ___________ person I’ve met.
On the blank before each number, write the predominant sensory image found in each of the
following. Choose from the box below.

Sight Sound Smell

Taste Touch Motion

___________1. A grain of sand in the eye.

___________2. Smoke curling up lazily from the chimney.
___________3. Green mangoes with bagoong.
___________4. A tree in bloom so near my room.
___________5. Slow crunch of footsteps on dry soil.
___________6. Broiled chicken, roasts a-roasting.
___________7. The murmuring of the bees, the waves lapping the shore.
___________8. Scorching rays of the noonday sun.
___________9. Ants crawling down the anthill.
___________10. The tang of salt spray from the sea.
___________11. Pebbles cold and sharp under my feet.
___________12. Sparkling icicles and flaming torches of leaves.
___________13. Acrid fumes of burning wax.
___________14. The hurrying tide.
___________15. Silky and velvety as baby’s skin.
Reading Comprehension

Read the poem slowly and carefully. Then encircle the letter of the best answer to each
question.

IDENTITY
Julio Nobao Polanco

Let them be as flowers,

always watered, fed, guarded, admired,
but harnessed to a pot of dirt,

I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed,

clinging on cliffs, like an angle
wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.

To have broken through the surface of

stone, to live, to feel exposed to the
madness of the vast, eternal sky,
To be swayed by the breezes of an
ancient sea, carrying my soul, my seed,
beyond the mountains of time or into
the abyss of the bizzare.

I’d rather be unseen, and if then

shunned by everyone, than to be a
pleasant-smelling flower, growing in
clusters in the fertile valley, where
they’re praised, handled, and plucked
by greedy, human hands.

I’d rather smell of musty, green stench

than of sweet, fragrant lilac.
If I could stand alone, strong and free.
I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed.
1. What are described in stanza 1?
a. Flowers growing along the bay.
b. Flowers growing in fertile valleys.
c. Flowers growing in jagged rocks.

2. Who is the speaker?

a. A lover of freedom
b. A lover of nature
c. A love – sick lover

3. What is the tone of the speaker in the first stanza?

a. Sarcastic
b. Serious
c. Sentimental

4. What figure of speech is used in stanza 2?

a. Apostrophe
b. Metaphor
c. Simile

5. What is described in stanza 3?

a. A seed
b. A stone
c. A weed

6. Abyss of the bizarre can be paraphrased into

a. Immeasurable distance
b. Hopeless depths
c. Strange happening

7. What figure of speech is used in the third stanza?

a. Personification
b. Onomatopoeia
c. Hyperbole

8. What character trait of the speaker is implied in the third stanza?

a. Determined
b. Industrious
c. Adventurous

9. What does the speaker choose to be?

a. A fragrant lilac
b. An ugly weed
c. A tall tree
10. What is the theme of the poem?
a. To be free is better than to be cherished
b. True beauty can be found in the natural environment
c. Communing with nature brings joy and peace of mind.
Rewrite the following sentences, placing the adjectives in parentheses in correct before the
underlined noun.

1. Draperies hung in the living room. (brocade, old, heavy)

2. I have read novels. (long, science fiction, ten)
3. Players will be recruited this month. (tall, five, basketball)
4. Sponges cover the ocean floor. (large, various, multi-colored)
5. That cabinet has several drawers. (white, ornate, antique)
6. She bought birds from the pet shop. (yellow, fascinating, two)
7. We watched a film in the audio-visual room. (documentary, short , black and white)
8. By nightfall the divers gathered to share their experience with one another. (scuba, four,
female)
9. The Council issued ordinances. (new, some, city)
10. I want to own a camera. (digital, small, underwater)