Silent Spring
Concept vocabulary
 Blight: n. something that spoils, prevents growth, or destroys
 Maladies: n. illnesses or diseases
 Puzzled: adj. confused and unable to understand something
 Stricken: adj. very badly affected by trouble or illness
 Stillness: n. absence of noise or motion
 Anglers: fishermen
1. What are two animals that attracted visitors to the town?
Migrant birds and the fish
2. What happened to the animals and the people in the town?
They all got sick and started to die because of the pesticide or the powder
they added to all the fields and streams
3. What fell on the roofs, lawns, fields, and streams?
the pesticides or the chemical powder they sprayed to kill the insects but
instead it killed all living things including humans
4. Reread paragraphs 1 & 2 of the text. Explain what the author is telling
the reader about the town she is describing. Cite at least TWO details
from the text to support your response.
All living things live in harmony and beauty.
 Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers
delighted the traveler’s eye through much of the year.
 Countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the
dried weeds rising above the snow.
5. Reread paragraph 7 of the excerpt from Silent Spring. What can you infer
that the “white granular powder” is? Support your inference using at least
two details from the text and background knowledge.
It’s a pesticide because it is the only powder that farmers use on their fields
hoping it only kills the insects but instead it kills many more.
“it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and
streams.”
6. Did the author present a counterclaim? Write the counterclaim here:
Yes, she presented a counterclaim when she said, “I know of no community
that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe.”