High School Reading Comprehension
by Jonathan D. Kantrowitz and Sarah M. Williams
Edited by Patricia F. Braccio
Item Code: QWK 7890 • Copyright © 2007 Queue, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-7827-2452-3
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system. Printed in the United States of America.
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Table of Contents
To the Students ..............................................................v
The Gift of the Magi ..........................................................1
by O. Henry
“The Bells” ........................................................................15
by Edgar Allen Poe
from Great Expectations ..................................................23
by Charles Dickens
An Inquiry Into the Causes and Effects of the
Variolæ Vaccinæ, Or Cow-Pox ..................................29
by Edward Jenner
On Women’s Right to Vote ..............................................35
by Susan B. Anthony
The Last Class: The Story of a Little Alsatian ..............43
by Alphonse Daudet
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” ....................................53
by William Wordsworth
“How the Case Stands” from How the Other
Half Lives....................................................................59
by Jacob A. Riis
Paired Passages ..............................................................67
Passage I: from Nature
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Passage II: “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold”
by William Wordsworth
Her First Ball ..................................................................75
by Katherine Mansfield
“My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” ............83
by William Shakespeare
“Delight in Disorder”........................................................87
by Robert Herrick
from “The Most Dangerous Game” ................................91
by Richard Connell
“To Autumn” ....................................................................99
by John Keats
from Act I, Scene IV of Romeo and Juliet ....................105
by William Shakespeare
“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” ................................111
by Emily Dickenson
The Lottery Ticket..........................................................115
by Anton Chekov
from Act III, Scene III of Hamlet ..................................125
by William Shakespeare
Paired Passages ............................................................129
Passage I: “London 1802”
by William Wordsworth
Passage II: “England 1819”
by Percy Shelley
from Book IX of Homer’s The Odyssey ........................137
“The Haunted Oak”........................................................147
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Cask of Amontillado ......................................................155
by Edgar Allen Poe
from David Crockett: His Life and Adventures ............165
by John S.C. Abbott
“The Darkling Thrush” ..................................................171
by Thomas Hardy
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ..177
by Mark Twain
from Pride and Prejudice ..............................................187
by Jane Austen
Paired Passages ............................................................193
Passage I: “Out, Out—”
by Robert Frost
Passage II: from Act V, Scene V of Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
“I Fall Into Disgrace” from David Copperfield ............201
by Charles Dickens
from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest............209
by Oscar Wilde
A Wagner Matinee..........................................................215
by Willa Cather
Journey of the Beagle ....................................................223
by Charles Darwin
John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address ..........................231
“Splendor Falls” from The Princess ..............................239
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Story of an Hour ....................................................245
by Kate Chopin
“Old Ironsides” ..............................................................253
by Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Letter 4” from Frankenstein ........................................259
by Mary Shelley
Street Scenes in Washington ........................................269
by Louisa May Alcott
from Narrative of the Life of a Slave ............................275
by Frederick Douglass
“I Hear America Singing” from Leaves of Grass ..........281
by Walt Whitman
The Metamorphosis........................................................285
by Franz Kafka
Of Regiment of Health ..................................................293
by Sir Francis Bacon
from “Small-Boat Sailing” ............................................299
by Jack London
The Diamond Necklace ..................................................307
by Guy de Maupassant
Plato’s “The Apology” from The Dialogues
of Socrates ................................................................319
edited by Benjamen Jowett
The Plumber ..................................................................327
by Charles Dudley Warner
The Servant ....................................................................335
by S.T. Semyonov
from War of the Worlds ..................................................345
by H.G. Wells
To the Students
In this workbook, you will read many fiction passages, as well as some nonfiction,
poetry, and plays. You will then answer multiple-choice and open-ended questions
about what you have read.
As you read and answer the questions, please remember:
• You may refer back to the text as often as you like.
• Read each question very carefully and choose the best answer.
• Indicate the correct multiple-choice answers directly in this workbook. Circle
or underline the correct answer.
• Write your open-ended responses directly on the lines provided. If you need
more space, use a separate piece of paper to complete your answer.
Here are some guidelines to remember when writing your open-ended answers:
• Organize your ideas and express them clearly.
• Correctly organize and separate your paragraphs.
• Support your ideas with examples when necessary.
• Make your writing interesting and enjoyable to read.
• Check your spelling and use of grammar and punctuation.
• Your answers should be accurate and complete.
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v
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The Gift of the Magi
Della finished her cry and attended to
her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood
by the window and looked out dully at a
gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray
backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas
Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to
buy Jim a present. She had been saving
every penny she could for months, with this
result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far.
Expenses had been greater than she had
calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to
buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a
happy hour she had spent planning for
something nice for him. Something fine and
rare and sterling—something just a little
bit near to being worthy of the honor of
being owned by Jim.
by O. Henry
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That
was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies.
Pennies saved one and two at a time by
bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable
man and the butcher until one’s cheeks
burned with the silent imputation of
parsimony that such close dealing implied.
Three times Della counted it. One dollar
and eighty-seven cents. And the next day
would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop
down on the shabby little couch and howl.
So Della did it. Which instigates the moral
reflection that life is made up of sobs,
sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles
predominating.
There was a pier glass between the
windows of the room. Perhaps you have
seen a pier glass in an $8 flat. A very thin
and very agile person may, by observing his
reflection in a rapid sequence of
longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate
conception of his looks. Della, being slender,
had mastered the art.
While the mistress of the home is
gradually subsiding from the first stage to
the second, take a look at the home. A
furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not
exactly beggar description, but it certainly
had that word on the lookout for the
mendicancy squad.
Suddenly she whirled from the window
and stood before the glass. Her eyes were
shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its
color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she
pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full
length.
In the vestibule below was a letter-box
into which no letter would go, and an
electric button from which no mortal finger
could coax a ring. Also appertaining
thereunto was a card bearing the name “Mr.
James Dillingham Young.”
Now, there were two possessions of the
James Dillingham Youngs in which they
both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s
gold watch that had been his father’s and
his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s
hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the
flat across the airshaft, Della would have
let her hair hang out the window some day
to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s
jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been
the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in
the basement, Jim would have pulled out
his watch every time he passed, just to see
him pluck at his beard from envy.
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the
breeze during a former period of prosperity
when its possessor was being paid $30 per
week. Now, when the income was shrunk to
$20, though, they were thinking seriously
of contracting to a modest and unassuming
D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham
Young came home and reached his flat
above he was called “Jim” and greatly
hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young,
already introduced to you as Della. Which
is all very good.
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So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about
her rippling and shining like a cascade of
brown waters. It reached below her knee
and made itself almost a garment for her.
And then she did it up again nervously and
quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and
stood still while a tear or two splashed on
the worn red carpet.
With that chain on his watch Jim might be
properly anxious about the time in any
company. Grand as the watch was, he
sometimes looked at it on the sly on account
of the old leather strap that he used in place
of a chain.
When Della reached home her
intoxication gave way a little to prudence
and reason. She got out her curling irons
and lighted the gas and went to work
repairing the ravages made by generosity
added to love. Which is always a
tremendous
task,
dear
friends—a
mammoth task.
On went her old brown jacket; on went
her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts
and with the brilliant sparkle still in her
eyes, she fluttered out the door and down
the stairs to the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: “Mme.
Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” One
flight up Della ran, and collected herself,
panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly,
hardly looked the “Sofronie.”
Within forty minutes her head was
covered with tiny, close-lying curls that
made her look wonderfully like a truant
schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in
the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.
“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to
herself, “before he takes a second look at me,
he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus
girl. But what could I do—oh! what could I
do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?”
“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take yer hat
off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting
the mass with a practiced hand.
At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the
frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot
and ready to cook the chops.
“Give it to me quick,” said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by
on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor.
She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s
present.
Jim was never late. Della doubled the
fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner
of the table near the door that he always
entered. Then she heard his step on the
stair away down on the first flight, and she
turned white for just a moment. She had a
habit of saying a little silent prayer about
the simplest everyday things, and now she
whispered: “Please God, make him think I
am still pretty.”
She found it at last. It surely had been
made for Jim and no one else. There was no
other like it in any of the stores, and she
had turned all of them inside out. It was a
platinum fob chain simple and chaste in
design, properly proclaiming its value by
substance alone and not by meretricious
ornamentation—as all good things should
do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As
soon as she saw it she knew that it must be
Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and
value—the description applied to both.
Twenty-one dollars they took from her for
it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents.
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The door opened and Jim stepped in and
closed it. He looked thin and very serious.
Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two—and to
be burdened with a family! He needed a
new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stopped inside the door, as
immovable as a setter at the scent of quail.
2
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His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there
was an expression in them that she could
not read, and it terrified her. It was not
anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor
horror, nor any of the sentiments that she
had been prepared for. He simply stared at
her fixedly with that peculiar expression on
his face.
a year—what is the difference? A
mathematician or a wit would give you the
wrong answer. The magi brought valuable
gifts, but that was not among them. This
dark assertion will be illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat
pocket and threw it upon the table.
“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said,
“about me. I don’t think there’s anything in
the way of a haircut or a shave or a
shampoo that could make me like my girl
any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package
you may see why you had me going a while
at first.”
Della wriggled off the table and went for
him.
“Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at
me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold
because I couldn’t have lived through
Christmas without giving you a present.
It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will
you? I just had to do it. My hair grows
awfully fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim,
and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a
nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for
you.”
White fingers and nimble tore at the
string and paper. And then an ecstatic
scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick
feminine change to hysterical tears and
wails, necessitating the immediate
employment of all the comforting powers of
the lord of the flat.
“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim,
laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that
patent fact yet even after the hardest
mental labor.
For there lay The Combs—the set of
combs, side and back, that Della had
worshipped long in a Broadway window.
Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with
jeweled rims—just the shade to wear in the
beautiful vanished hair. They were
expensive combs, she knew, and her heart
had simply craved and yearned over them
without the least hope of possession. And
now, they were hers, but the tresses that
should have adorned the coveted
adornments were gone.
“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t
you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me
without my hair, ain’t I?”
Jim looked about the room curiously.
“You say your hair is gone?” he said,
with an air almost of idiocy.
“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s
sold, I tell you—sold and gone, too. It’s
Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it
went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head
were numbered,” she went on with sudden
serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever
count my love for you. Shall I put the chops
on, Jim?”
But she hugged them to her bosom, and
at length she was able to look up with dim
eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so
fast, Jim!”
And then Della leaped up like a little
singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to
wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten
seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny
some inconsequential object in the other
direction. Eight dollars a week or a million
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Jim had not yet seen his beautiful
present. She held it out to him eagerly upon
her open palm. The dull precious metal
seemed to flash with a reflection of her
bright and ardent spirit.
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to the Babe in the manger. They invented
the art of giving Christmas presents. Being
wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones,
possibly bearing the privilege of exchange
in case of duplication. And here I have
lamely related to you the uneventful
chronicle of two foolish children in a flat
who most unwisely sacrificed for each other
the greatest treasures of their house. But in
a last word to the wise of these days let it be
said that of all who give gifts these two were
the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts,
such as they are wisest. Everywhere they
are wisest. They are the magi.
“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over
town to find it. You’ll have to look at the
time a hundred times a day now. Give me
your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.”
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down
on the couch and put his hands under the
back of his head and smiled.
“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas
presents away and keep ’em a while. They’re
too nice to use just at present. I sold the
watch to get the money to buy your combs.
And now suppose you put the chops on.”
The magi, as you know, were wise men—
wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts
!
PoinT of view refers to who is actually telling the story. The “who” is
often called the narrator of the story. Most stories are told in one of the
following points of view:
Ø first Person: The author tells the story from one of the characters’ points of
view. The character can either be a major or minor character. It is
characterized by the use of first person (I, We), and the audience only sees the
thoughts of that one character.
Ø Third Person Limited: The author tells the story from the point of view of a
narrator who can read the thoughts and emotions of just one character;
therefore, the author better knows and makes judgments about this character.
The narrator follows that character throughout the story but does not know
about the thoughts and emotions of the other characters.
Ø Third Person omniscient: The author tells the story from the point of view
of a narrator who can read the minds and thoughts of all the characters. This
narrator can comment and interpret all characters in the story and is said to be
“all knowing.”
Ø objective: This narrator merely “records” what can be heard or seen in a
story. This narrator cannot get into the thoughts of any character.
1.
From which point of view is the story written?
a.
b.
c.
d.
first person
third person limited
third person omniscient
objective
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Determining a narraTor/auThor’S biaS requires you to
recognize the narrator/author’s opinion or belief on an issue. In order
to do this, you must carefully look to separate fact from opinion as well as to
pay attention to specific details and words in the text.
In fiction, it may be helpful to identify when the narrator/author is speaking by
drawing a circle around those places in the text. You may then begin to understand
an author’s bias or beliefs by analyzing those particular passages.
In nonfiction, you must carefully look at who wrote and published the material,
identify specific word choices that illustrate emotion, consider how the information
compares or contrasts to what you already know, and be aware of faulty logic or
persuasive techniques.
2.
According to the narrator, which type of moments mostly make up life?
a.
b.
c.
d.
!
happy moments
terribly sad moments
somewhat sad moments
angry moments
Tone is the attitude of the author or narrator towards the subject on
which he or she is writing. This may even include the way the narrator feels
towards the reader or himself/herself.
In our spoken language, tone is determined by the inflections we use in our voice.
However, in literature we have to look for clues to determine tone. Tone is established
by the following components of a piece of writing: word choice (diction); arrangement
of words (syntax); detail selection; imagery; and figurative language.
Very similar to tone is the mood of a story. Mood refers to the way the audience
is made to feel while reading the text and is created in the same way that tone is
established.
3.
Which of the following best describes the tone of the story as the narrator portrays
Della in the first four paragraphs?
a.
b.
c.
d.
somewhat comic
extremely sad
somewhat angry
mostly happy
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To infer means to conclude based on evidence or personal experience. For
example, if a girl blows out candles and opens presents, it may be inferred
that it is her birthday. Whenever you understand something that is only
hinted at in the text, you are making an inference. Inferring also relates to
the following processes:
Ø drawing Conclusions: Drawing conclusions is using written or visual cues
to figure out something that is not directly stated.
Ø making and analyzing Predictions: Predicting involves figuring out what
will happen next based on evidence in the story. Later you should compare and
contrast those predictions with what actually happens in the text.
Ø making Generalizations: A generalization is a broad statement about a
particular subject made based on a number of facts or observations about the
subject.
4.
The narrator mentions that Della wanted to buy Jim “something fine and rare and
sterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned
by Jim.” From this quote, what can be inferred?
a.
b.
c.
d.
5.
What is the most likely climax of the story?
a.
b.
c.
d.
6.
Della considers herself equal to Jim.
Jim treats Della like a queen.
Della is subservient to Jim.
Jim wants to make Della happy.
Della cuts off all of her hair for $20.
Jim arrives home and presents the combs.
Jim reveals he sold his watch for money.
Della cries because she only has $1.87.
Right after Jim mentions that he sold his watch he says, “And now suppose you put
the chops on.” What is the most likely reason that he says this?
a.
b.
c.
d.
He
He
He
He
is angry that Della cut her hair.
is upset that he sold his watch.
is sad that he can’t use his gift.
doesn’t want Della to be upset.
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Irony is the difference between what is expected of something (or how
something actually appears) and what actually is (the reality of something);
irony is divided into three categories:
Ø Situational irony: This is when what the audience expects to occur does not
actually occur. This type of irony includes things such as surprise endings to
books or stories.
Ø dramatic irony: This is when the audience knows more than a character in
a story. It is often used in plays.
Example:
The audience knows that someone is hiding in the room with a
certain character but that character doesn’t know; this is
dramatic irony.
Ø verbal irony: This is when the opposite of what is said is true or the opposite
of what is said is meant. Sarcasm is one form of verbal irony.
Example:
7.
Someone walks out into a cold, rainy day and says, “Ah, it’s a
beautiful day,” and the listener understands that the speaker
probably means the opposite.
What type of irony is found in the final paragraph when Jim says, “They’re too nice
to use just at present”?
a.
b.
c.
d.
situational irony
dramatic irony
verbal irony
no irony
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Figurative language refers to the use of figures of speech. When you use a
figure of speech, you are saying one thing by saying another. While some
experts have named as many as 250 figures of speech, the main ones are
listed below:
Ø Simile: This is a comparison between two unlike things using like, as, than,
similar to, resembles, or seems.
Example:
She is like the sun.
Ø metaphor: This is a comparison between two unlike things by saying that one
thing “is” something else.
Example:
She was a rock.
Ø Personification: This gives human characteristics to abstract ideas or objects.
Example:
The tree limbs reached out and grabbed for me.
Ø hyperbole: This is an exaggeration of the truth.
Example:
8.
The narrator comments that “Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and
shining like a cascade of brown waters.” Which figure of speech is used in this
statement?
a.
b.
c.
d.
9.
I could eat a whole cow.
hyperbole
metaphor
simile
imagery
Describe the setting’s effect on the overall story. How would you describe the couple’s
apartment? How does the apartment add to the overall effect of the story? Use
specific details from the text to support your answer.
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10. What would you say is the major conflict in the story? How is this conflict resolved
at the end of the story? Use specific details to support your point.
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diction is the author’s word choice when writing. In order to analyze
diction, a word’s denotation and connotation must be considered.
Denotation is the actual dictionary definition of the word. Connotation
includes all of the associations implied by a word in addition to its literal
meaning.
For example, although odor and scent both are defined as a smell (the denotative
meaning), we normally associated odor with a negative smell and scent with a positive
smell (the connotative meaning).
11. O. Henry writes, “She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat
walking a gray fence in a gray backyard.” What effect does the repetition of the
word, “gray,” have on the short story? What is the connotation of the word, “gray”?
Why does the author use this word repeatedly at this point in the text? Use specific
evidence from the text to support your answer.
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12. Within the story, the author alludes to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The
Queen of Sheba was known to be beautiful, intelligent, and very rich. King Solomon
was said to exceed all kings in riches and in wisdom. At one point the Queen of
Sheba tested King Solomon’s wisdom and, when he succeeded, she showered him in
gifts. How do these allusions add to the development of the story? Use specific
evidence from the text to support your answer.
13. What is ironic about this short story? What type of irony is it? How does it add to
the main idea (theme) in the passage?
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14. At the end of the story, the narrator first calls the couple “foolish children . . . who
most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house.” The
narrator then says that “of all who give gifts these two were the wisest.” How does
your opinion of the couple compare and/or contrast with the author’s opinion? Use
specific evidence from the text to support your opinion of the couple.
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15. Evaluate “The Gift of the Magi.” What qualities does it have that make it effective or
ineffective for you as a reader? Give specific examples from the story to support your
reasons for your evaluation.
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