Section B Trying Your Hand
Consolidation Exercise 1
Read the following paragraph and decide what the author’s purpose is in writing this paragraph．
There are many pets that a child can have，but a dog is the best one of all！There are several reasons why dogs make better pets than other animals．They are always willing to play with you when you need a friend．Snakes are interesting，but they don’t play with you．They just sit there coiling around your arm．Dogs can be trained to do many tricks，unlike cats who just stare at you when you try to get them to do anything that you want them to do．They are also very loyal animals that will try to protect you and your household from danger！Have you ever seen a hamster（一种鼠类）try to protect its master？If you are thinking of getting a pet，remember that a dog makes the best one of all！
Questions
What’s the author’s purpose in writing this paragraph？
A．To entertain you with a story about why dogs are wonderful pets．
B．To inform you that dogs are the best pets for kids．
C．To convince you that dogs make better pets than other animals．
Explanations
The author’s purpose in writing this paragraph is to convince you that a dog makes a better pet than other animals．From the two sentences：1）“…dogs make better pets than other animals”；2）“…a dog makes the best one of all”，we could know that the author is trying to convince the reader that dogs make better pets than other animals．When an author writes to convince，or persuade，she／he is trying to talk you into（or out of）doing or believing something！So C is right．
Consolidation Exercise 2
Read the following paragraph and decide what the author’s purpose is in writing this paragraph．
Once there were three little pigs．I know you’ve heard this story before．They set off into the world to be independent and wanted to build a house for themselves．As you know，the first pig built his home out of straw，which was blown down and he was eaten by the big bad wolf．The second pig didn’t learn from his brother，and built his home out of twigs，which was blown down and he too was eaten by that bad wolf．The third little pig was smart and decided that she would take her time and build a strong house out of brick．As the story goes，that pig outsmarted the wolf and had a delicious wolf stew for dinner．It took a female to prevail！
Questions
What’s the author’s purpose in writing this paragraph？And what makes you think so？
Explanations
The author’s purpose in writing this paragraph was to entertain you．Many people are familiar with this story，but the author interpreted this story from a very different angle．His interpretation is full of humor，and readers would be amused by his words．