Post date: Mar 11, 2014 5:46:51 PM
Question 1
(Suggested time: 40 minutes. This question counts one-third of the total essay section score.) Read the following two passages about Florida's Okefenokee Swamp carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the distinctive style of each passage reveals the purpose of its writer.
Passage 1
Passage 2
Vast and primeval, unfathomable, unconquerable,
bastion of cottonmouth, rattlesnake and leech, mother
of vegetation, father of mosquito, soul of silt, the
Okefenokee is the swamp archetypal, the swamp of
legend, of racial memory, of Hollywood. It gives birth
(5) to two rivers, the St. Maryís and the Suwannee,
fanning out over 430,000 leaf-choked acres, every last
one as sodden as a sponge. Four hundred and thirty
thousand acres of stinging, biting and boring insects,
of maiden cane and gum and cypress, of palmetto,
(10) slash pine and peat, of muck, mud, slime and ooze.
Things fester here, things cook down, decompose,
deliquesce. The swamp is home to two hundred and
twenty-five species of birds, forty-three of mammals,
fifty-eight of reptiles, thirty-two of amphibians and
(15) thirty-four of fish--all variously equipped with
beaks, talons, claws, teeth, stingers
and fangs--not to mention the seething galaxies of
gnats and deerflies and no-see-ums, the ticks, mites,
hookworms and paramecia that exist only to com-
pound the misery of life. There are alligators here,
(20) bears, puma, bobcats and bowfin, there are cooters
and snappers, opossum, coon and gar. They feed
on one another, in the sludge and muck and on the
floating mats of peat they bury eggs, they scratch
(25) and stink and sniff at themselves, caterwauling and
screeching through every minute of every day and
night till the place reverberates like some hellish zoo.
(1990)
Okefenokee Swamp, primitive swamp and wildlife
refuge in southeastern Georgia and northern Florida,
is a shallow, saucer-shaped depression approximately
25 mi wide and 40 mi long and covers an area of
more than 600 sq mi. Lying about 50 mi inland from
(5) the Atlantic Coast, the swamp is bounded on the east
by the low, sandy Trail Ridge, which prevents direct
drainage into the Atlantic. The swamp is partially
drained southward into the Atlantic by the Suwannee
and St. Maryís rivers. The Okefenokee Swamp
(10) includes low, sandy ridges, wet grassy savannas,
small islands (called hummocks) surrounded by
marshes, and extensive "prairies," or dark water areas
covered by undergrowth and trees. Vegetation is
dense in the swamp and includes giant tupelo and
(15) bald cypress trees festooned with Spanish moss,
brush, and vines: where sandy soil is above the
water, pine trees predominate. Meandering channels
of open water form an intricate maze. Exotic flowers,
among them floating hearts, lilies, and rare orchids,
(20) abound. The swamp is populated with diverse and
abundant wildlife, with about 175 species of birds
and at least 40 species of mammals, which include
raccoons, black bear, white-tail deer, bobcats, fox,
and otter. Alligators are also present.
(1988)