Quiz:
Paraphrasing the Topic Sentence

Directions: Fill in the blank with the number or numbers of the topic sentence. Then paraphrase the topic sentence on the blank lines that follow.

Note: Italicized vocabulary words are all defined at the end of the exercise. As you work your way through the exercise, see if the context, or setting, can provide you with a definition for the italicized words you don’t know. Jot the definitions in the margins. When you finish the exercise, check those definitions against those on the final list.

(1) Like almost everything else in the world, architecture has come under the sway of computers. (2) At present, there are a number of different ways computers have affected the practice of architecture.(3) Engineering, design and drafting calculations can now be made with lightning speed, thanks to the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. (4) Computers are also now used to monitor and adjust the energy, security and structural systems of buildings. (5) But the most powerful effect of computers on architecture may be in the world of corporate office buildings. (6) Office buildings, once the show pieces of an architect’s work, may become a thing of the past as computers play an increasingly important role in every aspect of business. (6) Employees with a computer and a modem can now send files from all parts of the world without ever setting foot in an office building.(7) Thanks to the computer, architects will have fewer office buildings to design in the future, and those they do design are bound to be a good deal smaller than the ones erected fifty years ago.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

2. (1) True, basketball may have gotten its start in the United States. (2) Still, although Americans don’t generally like to admit it, basketball was not an American invention. (3) The game of basketball was the brainchild of a Canadian. (4) In 1891, Canadian-born Dr. James Naismith was working as an instructor at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. (5) Because his charges became especially unruly during the winter months, Dr. Naismith needed an activity to keep them occupied. (6) Initially at least, nothing he tried seemed to work. (7) But then Naismith nailed a half-bushel peach basket to the bleachers, which were ten feet off the floor at each end of the YMCA’s gymnasium. (8) The goal of the game was to see which team could make the most baskets. (9) Naismith knew he had a hit when he couldn’t get members of his youth group to stop playing the new game. (10) Within a few years, basketball was being played by professional teams around the country.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

3. (1)The Monroe Doctrine has played an important role in the history of the United States, (2) First introduced by President James Monroe in an 1823 speech, the Monroe Doctrine stated that the United States would not allow any European government to oppress, control, or otherwise interfere with independent nations in the Western Hemisphere. (3) The Monroe doctrine also forbade any further colonization in the Americas. (4) It originated as a response to what Monroe thought of as threatening behavior from Russia and Austria, two countries that seemed intent on suppressing democracy in the Americas. (5) Unfortunately, the Monroe Doctrine, designed to protect democracy, was often used to undermine it. (6) Citing the Monroe Doctrine, President Theodore Roosevelt sent U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic in 1905 and to Nicaragua in 1911 and 1915. (7) Neither of these two countries was being threatened by foreign powers, but their governments were unwilling to support U.S. business interests. (8) Roosevelt used the Monroe Doctrine to intervene in their affairs and force compliance with U.S. interests.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

4. (1) Just the thought of death is enough to render most of us speechless. (2) Yet some have kept their wits about them while lying at death’s door; as a result, their last words have been recorded for posterity. (3) President Glove Cleveland’s last words upon his death in 1908 typified his hard-working character: "I have tried so hard to do it right." (4) Dancer Isadora Duncan’s final words after a 1928 auto accident also summed up her flamboyant character: "Adieu, my friends, I go to glory." (5) When he died in 1916, novelist Henry James uttered a line that could have come from one of his novels: "So here it is at last, the distinguished thing." (6) Nazi war criminal Hans Frank was hanged in 1946. (7) Just before he died, he called out what might be thought of as a curse: "A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased." (8) But the award for best last words probably belongs to playwright William Saroyan who died in 1981: "Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?"

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

5. (1) Even though Gertrude Lintz had spent the early part of her life as a proper Brooklyn lady, her neighbors began to shun her in 1930s. (2) Lintz, a devoted animal lover, had decided to raise two young gorillas as if they were her own children, and that decision was to be her undoing. (3) The two gorillas, Massa and Buddy, wore sailor suits and slept in beds covered in freshly washed cotton sheets. (4) Although she never taught either gorilla to drive, Lintz let them sit in the front seat of her car, which often swerved sharply when two-hundred pound Buddy would grab the wheel. (5) As the gorillas got older, they also got more rambunctious and started attacking their bewildered benefactor. (6) After a time, Lintz had to admit her experiment was a failure. (7) She allowed a circus to buy Buddy, and Massa was sent to the Philadelphia zoo. (8) Nevertheless, Lintz’s neighbors never quite forgave her, and she remained the neighborhood outcast.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

6. (1) Women are three times more likely than men to develop diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. (2) They are also twice as likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea and AIDS. (3) Women who smoke are at an even greater risk of developing lung cancer than men are. (4) In the event of a heart attack, a woman is more likely to die than a man is. (5) Women are two to three times more likely than men to suffer from clinical depression. (6) True, women live longer then men, but when it comes to a number of serious diseases, they are at an obvious disadvantage.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

7. (1) Trial by jury is a cherished part of our legal system. (2) Yet few people realize that juries are open to the kind of manipulation that can actually hinder jurors’ ability to arrive at a just decision. (3) For example, in some cases, lawyers create "shadow juries." (4) These juries consist of men and women who possess the same backgrounds, personalities, and habits as the members of a real jury taking part in a trial. (5) By means of the shadow jury, lawyers try to determine the feelings and attitudes of the people they hope to persuade. (6) Then they use that knowledge to try and sway the real jury’s verdict. (7) In addition, lawyers consciously employ language they think will influence a jury’s verdict. (8) This is particularly obvious in a rape trial. (9) Attorneys for the defense often rely on words that suggest flirtation and romance whereas attorneys for the victim employ the language of force and violence.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

8. (1) Current research suggests that traditional beliefs about what makes for a happy and satisfied life may just be wide of the mark. (2) Yes, financial security, a happy marriage, and a large circle of friends do contribute to contentment. (3) Still, the biggest contributor to personal happiness seems to be a person’s temperament or personality. (4) In fact, in one of several studies conducted at Wesleyan University, temperament proved to be the central factor in attaining happiness. (5) When researchers James Conley and Richard Marsh tracked the lives of 600 men and women, they discovered that subjects happy at twenty tended to be happy at forty, even in those cases where life had been unduly harsh. (6) By the same token, those who were miserable at twenty tended to unhappy and dissatisfied as they got older. (7) Even those whose lives had been showered with recognition and rewards were still basically unhappy and discontented with their lives. (8) Similar findings concerning the connection between happiness and temperament have been reported by researchers working at the National Institute of Mental Health and at the University of California at Berkeley.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

9. (1) Seemingly thousands of Americans share the sentiments expressed by Los Angeles resident Larry Wood, who says "I really believe we could be the first generation that lives forever." (2) Believers like Wood call themselves "life extensionists " and are seriously pursuing the notion of immortality. (3) Wood, for example, consumes or injects around 140 grams of liquids or powders meant to lengthen his life. (4) Some of what he ingests are ordinary vitamins and minerals. (5) He just takes them in triple, even quadruple, doses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (6) Also not approved are some of the other substances Wood regular consumes such as steroids and melatonin. (7) Unlike Wood, Sam Kent, another native of California concentrates on experiments in "cryonic freezing." (8) The theory beyond cryonics is that the body, if subjected to freezing temperatures, will stop aging. (9) Unfortunately neither Kent nor anyone else knows how to revive a body that has been frozen, and numerous dogs have been sacrificed in the pursuit of an answer. (10) At one point, New Age philosopher Timothy Leary had planned to use cryonics in the hopes of cheating death. (10) But in 1996, Leary decided it was time to give in and die, and he refused the cryonic option. (11) Needless to say, many life extensionists were deeply disappointed.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

10. (1) According to legend, American pioneer and explorer Davy Crockett (1786-1836) died at the Battle of the Alamo fighting to make Texas independent from Mexico. (2) Yet like so many legends, this one may be in need of some qualification. (3) A newly discovered manuscript left behind by a Mexican soldier also present at the Alamo tells a story different from the one that paints Crockett as hero who went down fighting. (4) According to the soldier’s journal, Crockett was actually captured at the Alamo and taken before the President of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. (5) He was then interrogated and executed. (6) This new evidence about Crockett’s demise has aroused a good deal of controversy, and there are certainly those who insist the memoir is nothing but a fraud, trumped up to sully the name of a true hero. (7) Still someone must believe it is authentic because the manuscript was auctioned off for the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. (8) The buyers were two Texans who insisted on remaining anonymous. (9)The only thing the two let be known was that the manuscript was never leaving Texas.

Topic Sentence:____

Paraphrase:

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