An Excerpt from "Living Like Weasels"
by Annie Dillard
The sun had just set. I was relaxed on the tree trunk, ensconced in the lap of lichen, watching
the lily pads at my feet tremble and part dreamily over the thrusting path of a carp. A yellow bird
appeared to my right and flew behind me. It caught my eye; I swiveled around—and the next
instant, inexplicably, I was looking down at a weasel, who was looking up at me.
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Weasel! I'd never seen one wild before. He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled
ribbon, brown as fruitwood, soft-furred, alert. His face was fierce, small and pointed as a lizard's;
he would have made a good arrowhead. There was just a dot of chin, maybe two brown hairs'
worth, and then the pure white fur began that spread down his underside. He had two black
eyes I didn't see, any more than you see a window.
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The weasel was stunned into stillness as he was emerging from beneath an enormous shaggy
wild rose bush four feet away. I was stunned into stillness twisted backward on the tree trunk.
Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the key.
Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly on an overgrown path
when each had been thinking of something else: a clearing blow to the gut. It was also a bright
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blow to the brain, or a sudden beating of brains, with all the charge and intimate grate of
rubbed balloons. It emptied our lungs. It felled the forest, moved the fields, and drained the
pond; the world dismantled and tumbled into that black hole of eyes. If you and I looked at each
other that way, our skulls would split and drop to our shoulders. But we don't. We keep our
skulls.
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He disappeared. This was only last week, and already I don't remember what shattered the
enchantment. I think I blinked, I think I retrieved my brain from the weasel's brain, and tried to
memorize what I was seeing, and the weasel felt the yank of separation, the careening splashdown into real life and the urgent current of instinct. He vanished under the wild rose. I waited
motionless, my mind suddenly full of data and my spirit with pleadings, but he didn't return.
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Please do not tell me about "approach-avoidance conflicts." I tell you I've been in that
weasel's brain for sixty seconds, and he was in mine. Brains are private places, muttering
through unique and secret tapes-but the weasel and I both plugged into another tape
simultaneously, for a sweet and shocking time. Can I help it if it was a blank?
What goes on in his brain the rest of the time? What does a weasel think about? He won't
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say. His journal is tracks in clay, a spray of feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected,
unconnected, loose leaf, and blown.
1.) In lines 1-2, the what parts of nature are
personified?
2.) The second paragraph contains all of these
EXCEPT…
a. tree, lichen, lily pads
b. lichen, carp
c. tree, lap, path
d. lichen, lily pads
e. sun, feet, path
a. metaphor
b. personification
c. simile
d. metonymy
e. analogy
3.) In line 12, the phrase "Our eyes locked,
and someone threw away the key", could be
described as…
a. ironic
b. an antithesis
c. exaggerated
d. a metaphor
e. a pun
4.) In lines 13-19, the author emphasizes…
a. violence
b. surprise
c. noise
d. nature
e. hostility
5.) In paragraph 5, which phrase breaks the
pattern of a natural atmosphere?
a. " drained the pond"
b." blow to the brain"
c. " an overgrown path"
d. "rubbed balloons"
e. " our skulls"
6.) The speaker's attitude towards the
weasel's brain is that of…
a. love
b. annoyance
c. wonder
d. fear
e. confusion
7.) This piece was best titled "Living Like
Weasels" because…
a. Dillard has studied the lives of Weasels
extensively
b. Dillard was a weasel in her past life
c. Dillard likes weasels
d. Dillard believes that weasels have hard lives
e. Dillard believes the life of a weasel is
beyond understanding
8.)Paragraph 7 best describes the moment of
weasel-human interaction instantly as what?
a. a blank tape
b. a private place
c. a secret tape
d. sixty seconds
e. sweet and shocking
An Excerpt from “Politics and the English Language”
By George Orwell
Meaningless words. In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary
criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking
in meaning. Words like romantic, plastic, values, human, dead, sentimental, natural,
vitality, as used in art criticism, are strictly meaningless, in the sense that they not only do
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not point to any discoverable object, but are hardly ever expected to do so by the reader.
When one critic writes, "The outstanding feature of Mr. X's work is its living quality,"
while another writes, "The immediately striking thing about Mr. X's work is its peculiar
deadness," the reader accepts this as a simple difference opinion. If words like black and
white were involved, instead of the jargon words dead and living, he would see at once
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that language was being used in an improper way. Many political words are similarly
abused. The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something
not desirable." The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have
each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In
the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt
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to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a
country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of
regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word
if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a
consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private
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definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements
like Marshal Petain was a true patriot, The Soviet press is the freest in the world, The
Catholic Church is opposed to persecution, are almost always made with intent to
deceive. Other words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly,
are: class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality.
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Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another
example of the kind of writing that they lead to. This time it must of its nature be an
imaginary one. I am going to translate a passage of good English into modern English of
the worst sort. Here is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
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strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet
favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
2005–2006 Stanford MLA Application Critical Writing Piece Page 5 of 9
Here it is in modern English:
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that
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success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate
with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must
invariably be taken into account.
9.) Which phrase in this sentence, "Words like
romantic, plastic, values, human, dead,
sentimental, natural, vitality, as used in art
criticism, are strictly meaningless, in the sense
that they not only do not point to any
discoverable object, but are hardly ever
expected to do so by the reader", could be
improved in clarity?
a. " romantic, plastic, values, human, dead,
sentimental, natural, vitality, as used in art
criticism, are strictly meaningless"
b. "any discoverable object"
c. " they not only do not point to any
discoverable object"
d. "but are hardly ever expected to do so by
the reader"
e. "as used in art criticism, are strictly
meaningless"
10.) "Mr. X" represents
a. an author
b. an artist
c. a reader
d. the character in a book
e. a variable
11.) According to the author, in a writing
piece, "living quality" is to "dead" as ____is to
_____.
a. nice , mean
b. up, down
c. complex, simple
d. lively, boring
e. wrong, right
12.) Why does the author not like to use
political words such as fascism or democracy?
a. They are overused
b. They are not used correctly
c. They have no set meaning
d. They reflect a county's government
e. Everyone makes up their own definitions
for them
13.) The phrase, "swindles and perversions",
refers to what in this essay?
a. the time wasted in reading this essay
b. the English language
c. political phrases
d. the deceptive use of words
e. the twisting of a thesis
14.) What is most likely the authors attitude
towards the verse from Ecclesiastes?
a. appreciation
b. horror
c. joy
d. nausea
e. devotion
15.) The last paragraph can be considered
a(an)…
a. complex epithet
b. metaphor
c. parallelism
d. analogy
e. a hyperbole
16.) The author would most likely encourage…
a. the use of political phrases
b. very descriptive wording for simple
concepts
c. assigning concrete definitions to
controversial words or phrases
d. the reading of Ecclesiastes
e. the careful consideration of wording
Answer key
1. D
2. B
3. E
4. A
5. D
6. C
7. E
8. E
9. C
10. A
11. B
12. C
13. D
14. A
15. E
16. E