Tutor-Marked Exercise 1

Question 1

Direction Words

Identify

Submit

State

Explain

State

Describe

State, write & provide.

Choose, give, analyze & Show

Find, give & identify

Repeat

Write, give & explain

Find, give, write & highlight

Repeat.

Question 2

1. Survey - Skim the material before reading

The five main ideas are;

Pharaohs are immortal.

Mummification must be perfect

There’s a physical and spiritual aspect to mummification

There are vital body parts like the heart and useless ones like the brain.

Mummified bodies last for millennia

The title of the book is ‘How to Mummify a Pharaoh’ by Adam Goodheart. The headings are preparing for reading, understanding details and analyzing meaning. 

There are no images, tables, and diagrams.

The main guidelines are to reminisce on any information held regarding mummification and further to watch for the tone of the essay.

First and last paragraph read and understood.

2. Question - Formulate questions while skimming

Headings to questions

How can you better prepare to read the essay?

Did you understand the details?

Can you analyze the meaning?

I had heard about mummification, but only about one famous Pharaoh. I had also watched the movie the mummy returns. My impression of mummies has therefore been hideous undead.

3. Read - While reading

I was able to detect the tone of the essay even as I compared my understanding of mummies with the impressions on my mind.

There was some highlighting in paragraph 4, 6 and 7.

I had to read the part about the person who cuts the stomach being stoned a few times to get the joke.

4. Recite - After reading

Who prepared mummies? Professional artists one of whom ended up stoned.

Who were mummified? Egyptian Kings known as Pharaohs.

Why were they mummified? Because they would return to their bodies now and then to snack!

What preserves a mummy? Removal of some body parts such as the brain, intestines and stomach organs then use of salt and chemicals to preserve the rest.

A simple mind map to the story. The story begins with an explanation about why Pharaohs were mummified. It then proceeds to give a step by step process about how to mummify a corpse. The complex process is made to sound so simple with humor circumspectly instilled in this somber process.

I would want to remember who was mummified, in which culture and why

5. Review - In order to memorize the information

The essay has 8 paragraphs spread across three pages.

It is all about meticulous patience as the job being done will outlive the person performing it. It is all about the minute details. Like working through the story instead of reading it.

Question 3

One phrase topic of essay: Mummification concise edition.

Question 4

The author sought to inform the general public about mummification. Since this topic would be disinteresting to most, the author creates a twist about mummifying a friend. To help overcome the distaste, the author includes interesting humor into the narrative.

Question 5

The main idea is explicit; the entire essay seeks to controvert the contention that mummification is an archaic, dull and disinteresting subject. The author successfully transforms the process into a funny, fun procedure.

Question 6

The essay’s tone from the word go in regard to the topic on mummification creates a fearful impression. It is not just about death, which is a subject that instills fear but also about bodies and ghosts. The fearful prospect is furthered by the instruction to watch for the tone of the essay. The impression is suddenly and pleasantly changed by the actual tone of the easy. It is quite surprising that the essay maintains a light and funny tone throughout. Even sad news like the fact that one of the mummy artists would be stoned is placed in a way that it made me laugh. The funny tone, in an essay on such a weird topic is perfectly pulled off.

Question 7

“Removal of some body parts such as the brain, intestines and stomach organs then use of salt and chemicals to preserve the rest”. This comment creates the impression in the infiniteness of discrimination. Discrimination is a serious problem across the world to date. The purpose of the idea is to show that discrimination is a relative concept that applies to both inter and intra societal groups. The big idea is that there is discrimination within discriminated and discriminating groups. India has the caste system impasse, America has racial discrimination and Muslims countries have gender based discrimination. However, there seems to be levels of discrimination so that even among the very elite themselves; the cream of the society, a discriminative hierarchy exists. Even though the body of the Pharaoh is picked out for mummification, some parts within the hallowed body such as the brain are thrown away to rot. This euphemistically represents members of upper classes being victims of the same treatment as the lowest of class albeit from a relative perspective.

Question 8 

The four step deciphering of a complex sentence

The long sentence is in paragraph 5

“Queen Hettoway, wife of Pinedjem 1 was so overstuffed that when archeologists found her, her face had split open like an old sofa.”

Step 1: Locate the subject, object and main verb Subject- Archeologists

Object- Queen Hettoway’s face

Main verb- overstuffed, found and split 

Step 2: Study the modifiers Overstuffed is the cause verb while split open is the effect verb. Queen Hettoway is the general subject with her face being the specific subject.

‘Like an old sofa’ is a euphemism. Step 3: check vocabulary Split open is a phrasal verb denoting the act of bursting up. Step 4: Paraphrase The face of Queen Hettoway was found busted up due to overstuffing.

Question 9

Coordinate sentence in paragraph 4

“Heap more natron on until he is completely covered.” The Subject is the mummy, the object is natron. The conjunction is ‘until’ joining the clauses ‘Heap more natron on’ and ‘he is completely covered’.

Question 10

Subordinate sentence found in paragraph 3.

“Leave the heart in place.’ This subordinate sentence acts as a conjunction between two main sentences and would be meaningless on its own. Leave is the verb, heart is the object, ‘place’ represents the main noun mummy.

Question 11

Two transitions

Paragraph 5: ‘for extra effect’. This transition shows that whatever comes next is not part of the primary process.

Paragraph 3 ‘Next’. Denotes the end of one process and the beginning of another.

Question 12

Comma use in paragraph 2

‘Right or left, you choose’. The comma creates a relationship between the two objects and the subject without using a conjunction.

Question 13 

Colon use in paragraph 7

‘A note on sarcophagi: careful name tagging will prevent embarrassing mix-ups later’. The colon separates the subject from the explanation thereof within the same sentence.

Semi-colon use on paragraph 6

‘While the resin is still tacky, bandage each of the extremities separately; including fingers and toes.’ The semi colon allows for the seeming use of a second comma without creating the impression of a list which would distort the sentence’s meaning.

Dash use in paragraph 8

‘Hide your mummy well – you have more than just tomb robbers to worry about. The dash is used to separate the action clause from the reason clause.