“The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving
Reading Warm-up B
Read the following passage. Pay special attention to the underlined words. Then, read it again,
and complete the activities. Use a separate sheet of paper for your written answers.
The mythology of the American wilderness has engaged
scholars for decades. What role did the great expanse of
nature, especially the forest, play in the American imagination?
One fact has been disclosed by the many analyses
of the literature and history of eighteenth-century and
nineteenth-century America. These studies reveal that the
wilderness was undoubtedly a contradiction that embodied
opposing forces, symbolized opposing ideas, and
unleashed opposing impulses.
On the one hand, the wilderness was a refuge, a flourishing
paradise to which Europeans fled in order to
escape difficult, even fatal, circumstances. Arriving from
lands where poverty existed widely and religious persecution
was prevalent, those early Americans imagined the
wilderness as a place of beauty, freedom, and opportunity.
What was uppermost in their minds was the chance
the wilderness provided to create their own lives. To
them, the natural wilderness was a new Eden and they
were all Adams and Eves.
On the other hand, the wilderness was also a place
of danger, an environment of evil itself, and strenuous
efforts were necessary simply to ensure survival in it.
Americans had to take every precaution, exercise every
care, when venturing into the forest, and anyone who
was too squeamish, too sensitive about what might be
found there, was probably better off staying in town or
returning to Europe. The forest was huge and dark,
uncivilized and unforgiving.
So the American wilderness grew in the imagination
as both divine and diabolical. It was a place of delight
and independence and, at the same time, an abode of
crime, sin, and death. It was a place that offered freedom,
but it also demanded that a man or woman face it
steadfastly, with physical hardiness, moral courage, and
firm resolve. The wilderness was a place where an
American might create his identity, meet his doom—or
both.
1. Underline the word that helps explain disclosed. Name a fact disclosed recently in the
news.
2. Circle the words that help explain contradiction. Identify the prefix in contradiction
that indicates two things being “against” each other.
3. Underline the words that help explain prevalent. Identify an attitude you think is
prevalent in your school.
4. Name an antonym for uppermost.
5. Explain why the early Americans’ efforts had to be strenuous. What is a synonym
for strenuous?
6. Circle the word that means precaution. Name a common precaution that people
take in their daily lives.
7. Circle the words that explain squeamish. Name something about which many people
are squeamish.
8. Underline the words that help explain steadfastly.
Describe a situation in which someone acts steadfastly.