2019 MCAS
Grade 10 English Language Arts
Question 9

The central idea of vulnerability is fully developed in an insightful analysis of the passages. Skillful selection and explanation of sensory details is balanced with high-level commentary. The use of vivid imagery in the passages is explained as a means of conveying a sense of fear and helplessness to readers. Organization is by passage, yet the writing maintains a unified flow of ideas throughout the essay. The first body paragraph introduces "the destructive power of nature and how it reclaims what humans have worked so hard to build for themselves." In Rebecca, "forces out of [people's] control" create "a vulnerable mood for readers knowing that through this character's experience in the passage, a real and scary truth about life as a whole is revealed." The quotations from the passage are used to support a larger commentary about nature's "indifference" to humans. In Station Eleven, sensory details convey ominous change in a once familiar setting: nature takes over a post-apocalyptic world, and the reader feels the dominant sense of "helplessness and vulnerability" experienced by the Symphony as they travel disintegrating roads and visit a derelict school—nature "[takes] away from society all that people have worked to build." The narrator in Dracula feels trapped as he experiences the force of a storm while traveling through a threatening landscape: he has lost any sense of control and "has no agency in his [carriage] experience," which "creates a mood of vulnerability." Again, vivid sensory details from the passage are used to include the reader in an overall mood of helplessness. The effective conclusion reinforces the idea that certain "truths" create feelings of vulnerability when the narrators "see and hear things that they can't fight and have no power to control." Explanations are used to expand and elaborate on details from the text and to tie the evidence to a larger conclusion. Even though the essay contains five paragraphs, this is not a defining feature of a high-scoring paper. There are numerous other ways to organize ideas in a multi-paragraph essay.

The essay contains a variety of sentence forms, including complex sentences like this example: "No matter how much they care about the house and the value it has to them, nature reclaims it because nature is indifferent to the wants, hopes, and dreams of people." Coherence is strengthened by correctness in sentence formation, grammar, usage, and mechanics. Advanced vocabulary is used correctly, as evidenced through words such as "reclaims," "inevitable," and "eerily." Consistent control of grammar, usage, and mechanics supports clear meaning.