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CT Grade 12 Unit 9 Meeting the Standards
Care has been taken to verify the accuracy of information presented in this book. However, the
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978-0-82195-136-1
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system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
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Mirrors & Windows: Connecting with Literature, British Tradition may photocopy complete
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Printed in the United States of America
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Publisher’s Note
EMC Publishing’s innovative program Mirrors & Windows: Connecting with
Literature presents a wide variety of rich, diverse, and timeless literature to help
students reflect on their own experiences and connect with the world around
them. One goal of this program is to ensure that all students reach their maximum
potential and meet state standards.
A key component of this program is a Meeting the Standards resource for each
unit in the textbook. In every Meeting the Standards book, you will find a study
guide to lead students through the unit, with a practice test formatted to match a
standardized test. You will also find dozens of high-quality activities and quizzes
for all the selections in the unit.
EMC Publishing is confident that these materials will help you guide your
students to mastery of the key literature and language arts skills and concepts
measured in your standardized test. To address the needs of individual students,
enrich learning, and simplify planning and assessment, you will find many more
resources in our other program materials—including Differentiated Instruction,
Exceeding the Standards, Program Planning and Assessment, and Technology Tools.
We are pleased to offer these excellent materials to help students learn to
appreciate and understand the wonderful world of literature.
© EMC Publishing, LLC
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Contents
Introduction
x
Correlation to Formative Survey Results
xii
Postmodern Era Study Guide for Connecticut (with Practice Test and
Master Vocabulary List)
1
Part 1: Realizations
Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell
Build Vocabulary: Using Associations and Making Connections
Build Background: British Rule of Burma
Analyze Literature: Point of View and Conflict
Selection Quiz
19
20
21
22
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night / Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas
Build Background: The Villanelle
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Sound Effects
Selection Quiz
23
24
26
The Hand That Signed the Paper, Dylan Thomas
Build Vocabulary: Layers of Meaning from Context
Analyze Literature: Meter and Rhyme
Selection Quiz
27
28
30
Not Waving but Drowning, Stevie Smith
Build Background: Stevie Smith
Analyze Literature: Sound Devices and Theme
Selection Quiz
31
32
33
That’s All, Harold Pinter
Build Background: Theater of the Absurd
Analyze Literature: Character, Language, and Plot in Absurdist Drama
Selection Quiz
34
35
37
The Horses, Ted Hughes
Build Vocabulary: Compound Words
Analyze Literature: Diction and Mood
Selection Quiz
38
39
41
Follower / Digging, Seamus Heaney
Build Background: Seamus Heaney
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Form
Selection Quiz
42
43
45
A Shocking Accident, Graham Greene
Build Vocabulary: Suffixes -ly (ally), -ity, -ion (-sion)
Analyze Literature: Characterization and Conflict
Selection Quiz
46
47
49
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from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie
Build Vocabulary: Words with Political Relevance in China
Build Background: Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China
Analyze Literature: Character and Setting
Selection Quiz
50
51
52
54
Home Is So Sad, Philip Larkin
Build Vocabulary: Semantic Families
Analyze Literature: Line, Stanza, and Rhyme
Selection Quiz
55
56
58
The Moment, Margaret Atwood
Build Background: Nature and Civilization
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Theme
Selection Quiz
59
60
62
Part 2: Colonial Influences
B. Wordsworth, V. S. Naipaul
Build Vocabulary: Using Context
Analyze Literature: Character and Symbol
Selection Quiz
63
64
66
Telephone Conversation, Wole Soyinka / Midsummer XXIII, Derek Walcott
Build Vocabulary: Etymology
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Mood
Selection Quiz
67
68
70
Games at Twilight, Anita Desai
Build Vocabulary: Greek and Latin Roots
Analyze Literature: Conflict
Selection Quiz
71
72
73
The Train from Rhodesia, Nadine Gordimer
Build Vocabulary: Analysis of Word Parts
Analyze Literature: Setting and Theme
Selection Quiz
74
76
78
No Witchcraft for Sale, Doris Lessing
Build Vocabulary: Practicing with Context
Build Background: Folk Medicine
Analyze Literature: Conflict
Selection Quiz
79
80
81
82
Sparrows, Doris Lessing
Build Vocabulary: Connotations of Synonyms
Analyze Literature: Characterization
Selection Quiz
83
84
86
Dead Men’s Path, Chinua Achebe
Build Vocabulary: Multiple-Meaning Words and Homographs
Analyze Literature: Theme
Selection Quiz
87
89
90
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Answer Key
Postmodern Era Study Guide for Connecticut
Shooting an Elephant
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night / Fern Hill
The Hand That Signed the Paper
Not Waving but Drowning
That’s All
The Horses
Follower / Digging
A Shocking Accident
from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Home Is So Sad
The Moment
B. Wordsworth
Telephone Conversation / Midsummer XXIII
Games at Twilight
The Train from Rhodesia
No Witchcraft for Sale
Sparrows
Dead Men’s Path
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91
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
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Introduction
The Meeting the Standards Unit Resource supplements for Mirrors & Windows
provide students with the opportunity to practice and apply the strategies and
skills they will need to master state and national language arts standards. For each
selection in the student textbook, these resources also supply vocabulary exercises
and other activities designed to connect students with the selections and the
elements of literature.
The lessons in the Meeting the Standards Unit Resource are divided into four
categories, as described in this introduction. The lessons are listed by category in
the Contents at the front of the book.
Unit Study Guide, with Practice Test and Master Vocabulary List
Each Unit Resource book begins with a Unit Study Guide that focuses on key
language arts standards. Following the chronological organization of the Mirrors
& Windows student text, this guide provides in-depth study and practice on
topics related to the historical, social, and political context of the literature of the
era. Specific topics include significant historical events and trends, representative
literary movements and themes, and the literary genre or form explored in the unit.
Also included in the study guide are instructions to help students prepare for
a standardized test and a practice test formatted to match that test. The last page of
the study guide provides a list of the words identified as Preview Vocabulary for the
selections within the unit.
Lessons for Standard Selections
The lessons for standard selections offer a range of activities that provide additional
background information, literary analysis, vocabulary development, and writing
about the selection. The activities are rated easy, medium, and difficult; these
ratings align with the levels of the Formative Survey questions in the Assessment
Guide.
These activities can be used to provide differentiated instruction at the
appropriate levels for your students. For example, for students who are able to
answer primarily easy questions, you may want to assign primarily easy activities.
The Correlation to Formative Survey Results, which follows this introduction, lists
the level for each activity.
To further differentiate instruction, consider adapting activities for your
students. For instance, you may want to add critical-thinking exercises to an easy
or medium activity to challenge advanced students, or you may want to offer
additional support for a difficult activity if students are having trouble completing
the activity.
A Selection Quiz is provided for each selection. This quiz is designed to assess
students’ comprehension of basic details and concepts.
x
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Lessons for Comparing Literature, Author Focus, and
Other Grouped Selections
The lessons for Comparing Literature and other grouped selections in the student
textbook emphasize text-to-text connections. Activities for Comparing Literature
selections ask students to compare and contrast literary elements such as purpose,
style, and theme in the work of two authors. Activities for Author Focus and other
groupings have students examine literary elements across several selections by the
same author, identifying patterns and trends in his or her work. Again, activities are
rated as easy, medium, or difficult.
A recall- and comprehension-based Selection Quiz is provided for each
selection or grouping of selections.
Lessons for Independent Readings
Lessons for Independent Readings build on the strategies and skills taught in the
unit and offer students more opportunities to practice those strategies and skills. As
with the other categories of selections, activities focus on vocabulary development,
literary analysis, background information, and writing instruction. Again, activities
are rated as easy, medium, or difficult.
A Selection Quiz is provided for each selection.
Preparing to Teach the Lessons
Most of the activities in this book are ready to copy and distribute to students.
However, some activities will require preparation. For example, you may need to
select particular elements from a story, create lists or cards to distribute to students,
or make sure that art supplies or computer stations are available. Be sure to preview
each lesson to identify the tasks and materials needed for classroom instruction.
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Correlation to Formative Survey Results
The following chart indicates the difficulty level of each activity. You can use this
chart, in combination with the results of the Formative Survey from the Assessment
Guide, to identify activities that are appropriate for your students.
Selection Title
Shooting an Elephant
Do Not Go Gentle
Into That Good Night /
Fern Hill
The Hand That Signed
the Paper
Not Waving but
Drowning
That’s All
The Horses
Follower / Digging
xii
Activity
Build Vocabulary: Using Associations and Making
Connections, page 19
Easy
Build Background: British Rule of Burma, page 20
Easy
Analyze Literature: Point of View and Conflict, page 21
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 22
Easy
Build Background: The Villanelle, page 23
Difficult
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Sound Effects, page 24
Difficult
Selection Quiz, page 26
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Layers of Meaning from Context,
page 27
Medium
Analyze Literature: Meter and Rhyme, page 28
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 30
Easy
Build Background: Stevie Smith, page 31
Easy
Analyze Literature: Sound Devices and Theme, page 32
Easy
Selection Quiz, page 33
Easy
Build Background: Theater of the Absurd, page 34
Difficult
Analyze Literature: Character, Language, and Plot in
Absurdist Drama, page 35
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 37
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Compound Words, page 38
Medium
Analyze Literature: Diction and Mood, page 39
Difficult
Selection Quiz, page 41
Easy
Build Background: Seamus Heaney, page 42
Difficult
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Form, page 43
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 45
Easy
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Level
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Selection Title
A Shocking Accident
from Balzac and
the Little Chinese
Seamstress
Home Is So Sad
The Moment
B. Wordsworth
Telephone
Conversation / from
Midsummer XXIII
Games at Twilight
The Train from
Rhodesia
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Activity
Level
Build Vocabulary: Suffixes -ly(-ally), -ity, -ion (-sion),
page 46
Easy
Analyze Literature: Characterization and Conflict, page 47
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 49
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Words with Political Relevance in China,
page 50
Medium
Build Background: Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic
of China, page 51
Medium
Analyze Literature: Character and Setting, page 52
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 54
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Semantic Families, page 55
Easy
Analyze Literature: Line, Stanza, and Rhyme, page 56
Difficult
Selection Quiz, page 58
Easy
Build Background: Nature and Civilization, page 59
Medium
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Theme,
page 60
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 62
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Using Context, page 63
Easy
Analyze Literature: Character and Symbol, page 64
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 66
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Etymology, page 67
Medium
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Mood, page 68
Difficult
Selection Quiz, page 70
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Greek and Latin Roots, page 71
Medium
Analyze Literature: Conflict, page 72
Difficult
Selection Quiz, page 73
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Analysis of Word Parts, page 74
Medium
Analyze Literature: Setting and Theme, page 76
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 78
Easy
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Selection Title
No Witchcraft for Sale
Sparrows
Dead Men’s Path
xiv
Activity
Build Vocabulary: Practicing with Context, page 79
Easy
Build Background: Folk Medicine, page 80
Medium
Analyze Literature: Conflict, page 81
Medium
Selection Quiz, page 82
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Connotations of Synonyms, page 83
Medium
Analyze Literature: Characterization, page 84
Easy
Selection Quiz, page 86
Easy
Build Vocabulary: Multiple-Meaning Words and
Homographs, page 87
Easy
Analyze Literature: Theme, page 89
Difficult
Selection Quiz, page 90
Easy
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Level
Meeting the Standards
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Postmodern Era Study Guide for Connecticut
Completing this study guide will help you understand and remember the background information
presented in Unit 9 and recognize how the selections in the unit reflect their historical context. It will
also provide an opportunity to understand and apply the literary form of the short story.
After you read each feature in Unit 9 in your textbook, complete the corresponding section in the
study guide. The completed study guide section will provide an outline of important information that
you can use later for review.
After you read the selections in each part of Unit 9 in your textbook, complete the Applying
sections for that part in the study guide. Refer to the selections as you answer the questions.
After you complete the study guide sections, take the Practice Test. This test is similar to the
state language arts test. In both tests, you read passages and answer multiple-choice questions
about the passages.
Self-Checklist
Use this checklist to help you track your progress through Unit 9.
CHECKLIST
Literary Comprehension
You should understand and apply the elements
of the short story:
❏ setting and mood
❏ narrative voice and point of view
❏ characterization
❏ plot and conflict
❏ theme
Literary Appreciation
You should understand how to relate the
selections to
❏ Other texts you’ve read
❏ Your own experiences
❏ The world today
Vocabulary
In the Master Vocabulary List at the end of
this study guide, put a check mark next to any
new words that you learned while reading the
selections. How many did you learn?
❏ 10 or more ❏ 20 or more ❏ 30 or more
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Writing
❏ You should be able to write a research paper
stating an argument about a contemporary
issue that creates conflict. The paper
should have an introduction, thesis
statement, body, and conclusion.
Speaking and Listening
❏ You should be able to present an oral
analysis of a short story.
Test Practice
❏ You should be able to answer questions
that test your reading, writing, revising, and
editing skills.
Additional Reading
❏ You should choose a fiction or nonfiction
work to read on your own. See For Your
Reading List on page 1228 of your textbook.
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Historical Context
The time line has four time frames. Identify the time span of each time frame.
1. _________________________________
3. _________________________________
2. _________________________________
4. _________________________________
5. Find the dates on the time line in your textbook. Complete the chart by telling what happened in
those years. Then answer the questions that follow.
Date
British Literature
British History
World History
1949
1952
1969
1981
1994
6. What 1956 world event illustrates an international shift in power and imperialism? Summarize
the effects of this change in the twentieth century.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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7. What connection can you make between Chinua Achebe’s publication of Things Fall Apart in
1959 and the end of apartheid in 1994?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. Contrast effects of world events of the 1990s to those since 2000. How could you sum up the
differences?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Complete the outline. Write two sentences summarizing information given in each section on pages
1108–1109 of your textbook.
A. The Cold War
1. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
B. Postwar Britain
1. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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C. Independence for Britain’s Colonies
1. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
D. Domestic Issues
1. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
E. Northern Ireland
1. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
F. Advances in Science and Technology
1. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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Understanding Part 1: Realizations
Complete this page after you read about realizations on page 1111 of your textbook.
1. What themes are predominant in literature of the latter twentieth century?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What caused literature to darken in mood and outlook?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. How does the work of Dylan Thomas contrast with this mood and outlook?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Explain how the work of one or more writers expresses each of the following themes or concerns.
a. isolation ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b. alienation __________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
5. Explain realizations about the roles people assign themselves as they are presented in the
following works:
a. “The Moment” by Margaret Atwood
___________________________________________________________________________
b. “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell
___________________________________________________________________________
c. “Follower” and “Digging” by Seamus Heaney
___________________________________________________________________________
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Applying Part 1: Realizations
Think about what you have learned about realizations. Then answer the following questions after you
have read the selections in Part 1 of Unit 9.
Complete the chart by telling what each selection illuminates about twentieth-century concerns
with isolation and alienation.
Selection
Statement Made About Isolation or Alienation
in Modern Life
1. Shooting an Elephant
2. Not Waving but Drowning
3. That’s All
4. The Horses
5. Follower
6. A Shocking Accident
7. List three ways in which “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and “Fern Hill” contrast
with the works listed in the chart above.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
8. Explain what each poem suggests about the nature of human isolation.
a. The Moment _______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b. Home Is So Sad _____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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Understanding Part 2: Colonial Influences
Complete this page after you read about colonial influences on page 1167 of your textbook.
1. What happened to the British Empire in the latter half of the twentieth century?
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What concerns and feelings did writers of the newly created countries express?
_____________________________________________________________________________
Complete the chart by providing each author’s country of origin and one or more concepts he or she
explored in his or her works.
Author
Country of Origin
Concepts Explored
3. Derek Walcott
4. Wole Soyinka
5. V. S. Naipaul
6. Chinua Achebe
7. Nadine Gordimer
8. Doris Lessing
9. Anita Desai
10. Summarize what the authors listed in the chart offer that balances the outlook and concerns of
British authors in Part 1?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Applying Part 2: Colonial Influences
Think about what you have learned about colonial influences. Then answer the following questions
after you have read the selections in Part 2 of Unit 9.
Complete the chart by summarizing a theme for each selection that speaks to colonial people’s
concerns in today’s world.
Midsummer XXIII
Telephone Conversation
B. Wordsworth
Dead Men’s Path
The Train from Rhodesia
No Witchcraft for Sale
Games at Twilight
1. Compare and contrast the attitudes and outlooks of black and white people in “Telephone
Conversation” and “No Witchcraft for Sale.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. Compare and contrast views of the family suggested in “Sparrows” and “Games at Twilight.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Understanding Literary Forms: The Short Story
Read Understanding Literary Forms: The Short Story on pages 1182–1183 of your textbook. Then
answer the questions.
Complete the chart comparing and contrasting the short story and the novel.
How the Short Story and Novel Are Alike
How the Short Story and Novel Are Different
1.
4.
2.
5.
3.
6.
7. What is setting and what elements does it include?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. Define mood and explain its relationship to setting.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. The character who tells a story is called the __________________________________________.
10. Define point of view and its relationship to story narrator.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. Complete the chart to identify each kind of point of view and describe its limitations.
Point of View
Description
Limitations
First-person narrator
Third-person limited
Third-person omniscient
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12. Define characterization and differentiate between direct and indirect characterization.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
13. What is dialogue? Explain how it can help to establish character.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
14. The series of events that make up a story’s action is called its _____________________________.
List the elements of plot. Tell how each one is related to the conflict, or struggle, in the story.
15. _____________________________________________________________________________
16. _____________________________________________________________________________
17. _____________________________________________________________________________
18. _____________________________________________________________________________
19. _____________________________________________________________________________
20. Define theme. _________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Complete the chart to distinguish between implied theme and stated theme.
Implied Theme
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Stated Theme
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Applying Literary Forms: The Short Story
1. Complete the chart by identifying the setting of each story and telling why it is significant.
Selection
Setting
Significance of Setting
The Train from Rhodesia
Dead Men’s Path
B. Wordsworth
2. List at least three details that give “No Witchcraft for Sale” a mood that is both stoically ironic
and wryly sad.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Complete the chart by describing the narrator in each selection and labeling this person as firstperson, third-person limited, or third-person omniscient.
Selection
Narrator
Type of Narration
A Shocking Accident
Games at Twilight
from Balzac and the Little Chinese
Seamstress
4. Describe the character of Hilda in “Sparrows” and list details that reveal this personality.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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5. Identify the parts of “Games at Twilight” that illustrate elements of plot.
Exposition: ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Rising action: _________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Climax: ______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Falling action: ________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Resolution: ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. Identify the protagonist of each selection and identify the principal conflict with which the
character struggles.
Selection
Protagonist
Principal Conflict
The Train from Rhodesia
No Witchcraft for Sale
Sparrows
7. Write a statement of theme for each selection.
a. B. Wordsworth______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b. Games at Twilight ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
c. Dead Men’s Path ____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
d. No Witchcraft for Sale ________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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Connecticut-Based Practice Test
During high school, students take tests to measure how well they meet the Connecticut standards.
These tests include English language arts tests in which you are asked to read a passage and answer
multiple-choice questions to test your understanding of the passage.
The practice test on the following pages is similar to the Connecticut English language arts test. It
contains passages, each followed by multiple-choice questions. You will fill in circles for your answers
on a separate sheet of paper. Your answer sheet for this practice test is below on this page.
Questions on this practice test focus on the historical background and literary elements you studied in
this unit. The questions also address learning standards such as these Connecticut English language
arts standards:
Standard 1: Reading and Responding
Students read, comprehend and respond in individual, literal, critical and evaluative ways to
literary, informational and persuasive texts in multimedia formats.
1.2 Students interpret, analyze and evaluate text in order to extend under-standing and
appreciation. Students will:
e.discuss and respond to texts by making text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to world connections
Standard 2: Exploring and Responding to Literature
Students read and respond to classical and contemporary texts from many cultures and literary
periods.
2.1 Students recognize how literary devices and conventions engage the reader. Students will:
a.identify the various conventions within a genre and apply this understanding to the evaluation of
the text.
d.analyze literary conventions and devices an author uses and how they contribute meaning and appeal.
2.3 Students recognize and appreciate that contemporary and classical literature has shaped
human thought. Students will:
a.discuss, analyze and evaluate how characters deal with the diversity of human experience and
conflict an understanding of human experience across cultures.
2.4 Students recognize that readers and authors are influenced by individual, social, cultural
and historical contexts. Students will:
c. discuss how the experiences of a reader influence the interpretation of a text.
f.evaluate the effectiveness of the choices that authors, illustrators and filmmakers make to express
political and social issues.
Practice Test Answer Sheet
Name: ____________________________________ Date: ____________________________________
Fill in the circle completely for the answer choice you think is best.
1.
2.
3.
4.
a 
b 
c 
d
5.

g 
j
f 
h 
6.

a 
b 
c 
d
7.

g
j
f
h
8.

 

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Meeting the Standards
a 
b 
c 
d
9.

g 
j
f 
h 
10.

a 
b 
c 
d
11.

g
j
f
h
12.

 

a

f

a

f

b 
c 
d

g 
j
h 

b 
c 
d

g
j
h 
 
BRitish Tradition, Unit 9
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7/13/09 9:20:59 AM
This test has 12 questions. Read each passage/story and choose the best answer for each
question. Fill in the circle in the spaces provided for questions 1 through 12 on your
answer sheet.
Read the following passage. Then mark your answers to the questions on your answer sheet.
1
2
3
4
5
I don’t like to miss it—
planted in an easy chair,
breathing slow and steady,
armed with strong coffee,
dinner plans simmering in the background.
6
7
8
9
10
The music comes up, dramatic
but assured, incisive horns,
the face fatherly, formal, fixed
in its concern, but wry, resigned
in its firm grasp of splintered life.
11
12
13
14
15
It is my exercise in irony, remote-controlled,
my half-hour descent to the other globe:
missile-delivered outrage, cities torn and bleeding,
eyes hungry or hopeless, undancing
to the refrain of cash clinking under the dust.
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BRitish Tradition, Unit 9
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Meeting the Standards
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1. What does the following image in lines 8–9
(the face fatherly, formal, fixed / in its concern,
but wry, resigned) suggest in the poem?
4. What idea is suggested by the poem’s final
line, line 15 (to the refrain of cash clinking
under the dust.)?
a. the importance of the news to the average
family today
b. an ordinary father of the average family
sitting in the living room
c. a news anchor who reassures and reflects
the mood of the audience
d. the sarcastic acceptance of patriarchy as
the best political model
2. What effect is gained by the contrast between
a speaker armed with strong coffee in line 4
and the missile-delivered outrage in line 13?
f. oxymoron
g. irony
h. somber mood
j. paradox
f. The world’s problems can be solved by
mining its raw materials.
g. The countries of the world must have a
sound economic basis to survive.
h. When the world ends, money will be
unimportant.
j. Greed and the quest for wealth underlie
much of the world’s suffering.
5. Which poetic element is used often in the poem?
a. extended metaphor
b. internal rhyme
c. alliteration
d. iambic pentameter
3. What is the meaning of the figure of speech
in line 12 (descent to the other globe)?
a. The secure speaker briefly lets in images and
thoughts of world suffering and turmoil.
b. The news has become so meaningless it
is like standing in a snow globe someone
has shaken up.
c. The speaker acknowledges that he or
she is no better or worse than millions of
others watching the news.
d. The speaker feels superior to people in
other places in the world, and therefore
can judge them.
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BRitish Tradition, Unit 9
15
7/13/09 9:20:59 AM
Read the following passage. Then mark your answers to the questions on your answer sheet.
1 The sun was rising behind the plant entrance, and the air had that rare quality
2 of clear cool that promised a fine spring day. Bernice and her nephew Nat walked
3 in comfortable silence toward the employee entrance, as usual, fifteen minutes
4 early for work.
5 Bernice frowned slightly, ticking through her mental to-do list: drop off
6 MBO form, call Meg’s teacher on break, make grocery list, pick up dry
7 cleaning. . . . Her solid form and head of tousled curls came barely to Nat’s thin
8 shoulders. She gave him an approving look of appraisal: The twenty-four-year-old
9 had been a good bet. Five years ago, she had lobbied for him to apply at the factory,
10 when he was at loose ends and his parents’ arguments about college fell on deaf
11 ears. He had proved a steady, reliable worker and now had a good nest egg in the
12 bank.
13 They reached the door with Harold, the plant foreperson, who stood back
14 politely for Bernice. They exchanged an admiring nod. A thirty-year veteran at the
15 factory, Harold was to retire in a year or two; the workers would miss him. He was
16 fair and respectful to the good workers, and wouldn’t put up with slipshod work or
17 workers who looked for ways to get out of doing an honest day’s work.
18 Bernice pulled on the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Then she
19 noticed the square white paper posted at eye-level. Three sets of eyes fell to
20 its blunt type together, and together felt the shock waves it radiated:
21THIS PLANT IS CLOSED AS OF MONDAY, MAY 9.
22
IT IS NO LONGER OPEN FOR BUSINESS
23
AND WILL NOT REOPEN.
24 They stared in silence. It wouldn’t sink in. Harold turned the words over
25 and over in his mind as he fought panic. He knew sales were down, but why
26 had nothing been said by management? Surely the owners had to give
27 notice? How would the plant’s fifty employees be taken care of?
28 Bernice broke the silence first. “This can’t be happening. There must be a
29 mistake. . . . Maybe it’s a joke?” she turned to Harold, rage rising in her throat.
30 “Harry, did you know about this?” His stricken expression matched his response.
31 “Absolutely not! I can’t imagine.  . . .”
32 Nat stepped back and took a fighting stance. “They can’t do this. We have a
33 right to at least two weeks’ notice, severance pay, retraining.  . . .”
34 Harold felt the fog of incomprehension melting before a cold wind of fear.
35 “The pension fund!” He knew he had to face fifty faces that looked to him for
36 guidance. What recourse did they have? He swallowed hard, and thought aloud, “If
37 they mean business, and I think they do, then we have to protect ourselves. We need
38 a lawyer.”
39 “Yeah,” Nat said crisply, “and TV news cameras wouldn’t hurt, either.”
16
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6. Which plot element does this passage
represent?
10. Nat’s reaction to the notice suggests which of
the following lines of thought?
f. exposition
g. rising action
h. climax
j. falling action
7. Which phrase best describes the character of
Bernice, as set forth by the passage?
a. an unrealistic but happy employee
b. an ambitious, dissatisfied laborer
c. a practical, caring administrator
d. a busy working mother
f. Employees must use public opinion as
well as the legal system to protect their
rights.
g. Employers cannot be trusted and
therefore do not deserve their loyal,
reliable workers.
h. When an authority figure acts against
you, you must rebel and make as much
trouble as possible.
j. When trouble surfaces, look out for
number one first and let the chips fall
where they may.
8. What relationship between Harold and the
other employees can you infer?
11. What mood is established by the passage?
f. tense and determined
g. respectful and caring
h. cynical and standoffish
j. angry and disrespectful
9. What principal conflict does this passage
suggest?
a. youth in conflict with age
b. an inner struggle with self-respect
c. employees struggling against employers
d. a man in conflict with society’s
expectations
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Meeting the Standards
a. sunny and hopeful
b. angry and sullen
c. shocked and dismayed
d. businesslike and congenial
12. What might be a logical climax for this story?
f. Nat decides to go to college, using his nest
egg.
g. Harold determines that he will continue
working another five years.
h. Employers and employees meet to
negotiate a financial settlement.
j. Employees protest outside the factory,
drawing news coverage.
BRitish Tradition, Unit 9
17
7/13/09 9:21:00 AM
Master Vocabulary List
The following vocabulary terms are defined on the indicated pages in your textbook.
admonish, 1215
annul, 1208
appease, 1152
apprehension, 1148
assent, 1177
atrophy, 1198
austere, 1214
brevity, 1151
callousness, 1149
commiseration, 1150
concede, 1177
convulsion, 1149
defunct, 1187
despotic, 1115
discourse, 1150
distill, 1172
dominion, 1129
dregs, 1140
efficacy, 1206
elongated, 1194
eminent, 1209
emphatically, 1213
exasperation, 1207
expostulate, 1214
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British Tradition, Unit 9
0001-0018_MTS_G12_U9_SG_CT.indd 18
frugal, 1213
funereal, 1190
futility, 1117
garish, 1117
gulf, 1141
ignominy, 1190
impotence, 1197
impressionistic, 1194
incredulously, 1208
indolence, 1213
induct, 1179
inevitable, 1205
intervene, 1186
intrinsically, 1151
jubilation, 1186
kindling, 1141
labyrinth, 1115
lithe, 1213
lugubrious, 1190
maniacal, 1185
obscure, 1150
ominous, 1213
patronize, 1172
perfunctory, 1207
perversely, 1208
pretext, 1119
prostrate, 1114
rancid, 1177
rancor, 1179
reproachful, 1205
resolute, 1117
reverently, 1204
segmented, 1196
senility, 1119
serenely, 1215
sovereign, 1129
splay, 1196
squalid, 1115
stridently, 1186
superciliously, 1187
supplant, 1114
temerity, 1188
tortuous, 1140
valance, 1195
voracious, 1217
wryly, 1197
Meeting the Standards
© EMC Publishing, LLC
7/13/09 9:21:00 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Shooting an Elephant, page 1112
Build Vocabulary: Using Associations and
Making Connections
One way to take ownership of new words and remember their meanings is to relate the
word to words you already know and to create pictures of the word’s meaning that involve
strong emotions.
Read each vocabulary word in context in your textbook and read its definition at the
bottom of the page. Then answer the question about it.
1. supplant (page 1114): Think of your favorite food. What could supplant this favorite if you could
no longer eat it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. prostrate (page 1114): What event could leave you prostrate? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. despotic (page 1115): What world leader seems to you most despotic?
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. labyrinth (page 1115) What animal home seems most like a labyrinth to you? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. squalid (page 1115): Describe what a squalid home would look like.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. garish (page 1117): What is the most garish outfit you have seen? Describe it.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Meeting the Standards
BRITISH TRADITION, UNIT 9
19
6/1/09 8:18:10 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Shooting an Elephant, page 1112
Build Background: British Rule of Burma
The story “Shooting an Elephant” takes place in Burma when Burma was ruled by the
British. Burma’s early history is shrouded in mystery since it was not recorded. By the ninth
century, the country was settled, in the lower basin by the Mons people of central Asia and
in the upper basin by Burmans and Thais from China and Tibet. Fighting to protect and
expand Buddhist kingdoms occupied much of the next thousand years. In the thirteenth
century, Kublai Khan’s Mongol army invaded.
Examine the following dates in Burma’s more recent history.
1824 British forces invade.
1885 British take control of whole country.
1886 Burmese monarch sent into exile in India; Burma becomes province of British
Raj; British begin mining oil and mineral resources.
1920s Nationalist movement rises; public protests by students.
1930 poor farmers revolt when rice crop fails and Indians invited by British rulers
receive bounty.
1930s U Nu and Aung San emerge as leaders of the struggle for freedom.
1937 Burma annexed from India; becomes independent British colony; becomes
largest rice exporter in world.
1941 Aung San and other activists travel to Japan for training and to gain support for
independence.
1942 Japanese army (Burma Independence Army) invades Burma; British and
Indians forced from Rangoon.
1943 Power sharing with Japanese falls apart as war turns against Japan; Japan takes
back sovereignty in Burma.
1945 Aung San, with help from British, ousts Japanese.
1947 Aung San and British Prime Minister Clement Atlee agree on timetable for
Burmese independence; Aung San and his aides are assassinated.
1948 Burma becomes independent; U Nu becomes Burma’s first prime minister.
Research an era of Burmese history, either included in the time line above, following
its dates, or preceding them. Learn in-depth about the country’s political, economic, and
cultural traits at that time.
1. Search the Internet, print encyclopedias, or trade books for information about your chosen era.
2. Take careful notes, using quotation marks to indicate quoted passages, and record information
about the source on a note card.
3. Organize your notes and draft a report; include any graphics that will help readers digest the
information.
4. After editing and proofreading, prepare a final copy of your report. With classmates, compile a
Burma notebook for display.
20
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Shooting an Elephant, page 1112
Analyze Literature: Point of View and Conflict
The point of view in a literary work is the perspective from which it is told. “Shooting an
Elephant” is told from the first-person point of view by a British police officer in Burma.
The storyteller shapes the narrative; his or her perceptions of what happens and what
others think and feel are limited by upbringing, intelligence, education, and age. In this
essay, the storyteller perceives conflict beneath the apparently calm surface of a community
event. Much of this conflict, or struggle, is caused by the unnatural relationship between
conquered and conqueror in a British colony.
Answer the following questions on the lines provided.
1. What is Orwell’s perspective on the Burmese people? That is, what does he think of them? What
does he think motivates them?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. How do you think this episode might differ if it were described by a Burmese peasant? Why
would it differ?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. What conflict divides the Burmese from the British authorities in Burma?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What internal conflict does Orwell face, and how is it related to the cultural conflict in the story?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. What evidence do you see that Orwell is able to understand the point of view of the Burmese
people? Why does he lack compassion for them?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Meeting the Standards
BRITISH TRADITION, UNIT 9
21
6/1/09 8:18:12 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Shooting an Elephant, page 1112
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct description on the line next to the matching person or place.
_____ 1. Buddhist priests
A. killed by an elephant
_____ 2. Dravidian coolie
B. city in Burma where narrator lives
_____ 3. mahout
C. elephant trainer
_____ 4. paddy
D. sent to fetch elephant rifle
_____ 5. Moulmein
E. jeered at Europeans
_____ 6. orderly
F. rice field
Fill in the Blank
Fill in the blank with the word from the box that best completes each sentence.
imperialism
must
sahib
van
Winchester
7. The narrator brought a ______________________ with him.
8. An elephant has escaped and is dangerous because it is in a period of ______________________.
9. The elephant has killed a man, destroyed a hut, eaten fruit, and turned over a
______________________.
10. The author feels himself helpless to act appropriately because he is forced into the role of a
______________________.
11. Both the author and the Burmese are forced into unsavory roles by ______________________.
22
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Meeting the Standards
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6/1/09 8:18:12 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night / Fern Hill, page 1123
Build Background: The Villanelle
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is an example of a complex villanelle. A
villanelle is a highly structured nineteen-line poem that turns on a pair of rhyming lines
that are repeated throughout the poem. These vital lines carry the heart of the poem’s
meaning; with each repetition, these lines become more meaningful.
Strangely, the villanelle did not start off with a fixed form. Originally, the villanella and
villancico sprang from Renaissance Italy and Spain, in which these poems were peasant
dance songs with no specified rhythm or rhyme scheme. French poets used the title
villanelle to indicate their subjects—simple pastoral or rustic themes—rather than to imply
any pattern of rhyme or refrain. Scholars disagree about exactly when the set format of
today’s villanelle originated, but they do agree that it was never very popular in France. It
has become increasingly popular, however, among poets writing in English, who apply the
form to many subject matters and may vary its meter and even its refrains somewhat. In the
past hundred years, the villanelle has proven a hardy and flexible poetic form.
Among the English-speaking poets who have popularized the form are
• W. H. Auden
• Seamus Heaney
• David Shapiro
• Elizabeth Bishop
• E. A. Robinson
• Oscar Wilde
Using the Internet, locate and print out a villanelle by one of the poets named above.
Read the poem. Then complete the chart with information about the poem “Do Not Go
Gentle Into That Good Night” and your chosen poem. Finally, respond to the Writing
Prompt. Attach a copy of your chosen poem to your answer.
Poem
Meter
Rhyme (Exact or
Slant)
Subject Matter
Variations in
Villanelle Form
Do Not Go Gentle
Into That Good Night
Writing Prompt
How are the poems alike? How do they differ? Does either or both poems vary from the
traditional villanelle rhyme scheme and repetition? Explain.
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Meeting the Standards
BRITISH TRADITION, UNIT 9
23
6/16/09 9:22:10 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night / Fern Hill, page 1123
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Sound Effects
Poets use imagery, or word pictures built from descriptive and figurative language, to
animate and embody the ideas behind their poems. They include sound effects (such as
rhyme, alliteration, and repetition) to increase the effectiveness of meaning with harmonies.
Consider the following excerpt:
“All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay / Fields high as the house”
It contains images that helps readers picture a boy running in tall hay near a small
cottage on a sunny summer day. The language supports the poet’s perception that his
freedom as a child on a farm was heavenly. The alliteration of repeated initial l and h sounds
and repetition of the words it was enhances the rhythm and the euphoria of the poem.
Part 1: Images
Explain how each image enlivens or embodies Thomas’s themes in “Fern Hill.”
1. “young and easy under the apple boughs / About the lilting house and happy as the grass was
green”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. “the Sabbath rang slowly / In the pebbles of the holy streams”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. “And nightly under the simple stars / As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. “then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white / With the dew, come back, the cock on his
shoulder”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. “Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me / Up to the swallow thronged
loft by the shadow of my hand”
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Meeting the Standards
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6. “Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Part 2: Sound Devices
Identify the sound devices used in the excerpts. Circle repeated sounds and words and
write the name of the sound device. Then explain how this sound device enhances music
and meaning.
7. “I lordly had the trees and leaves / Trail with daisies”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. “be / Golden in the mercy of his means, / And green and golden”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. “I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves / Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear
and cold.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. “the spellbound horses walking warm / Out of the whinnying green stable / On to the fields of
praise”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. “And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows / In all his tuneful turning so few
and such morning songs”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
12. “Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Meeting the Standards
BRITISH TRADITION, UNIT 9
25
6/1/09 8:18:14 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night / Fern Hill, page 1123
Selection Quiz
True or False
Write T if the statement is true or F if the statement is false.
_____ 1. A villanelle contains five tercets and a quatrain.
_____ 2. A villanelle contains only three repeating end rhymes.
_____ 3. Repeating lines in “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” emphasize a theme of
fighting against death.
_____ 4. Stanzas in “Fern Hill” are exact in their number and pattern of lines.
_____ 5. “My wishes raced through the house-high hay” contains both alliteration and assonance.
_____ 6. “Fern Hill” uses a regular rhyme scheme to unify the poem’s thoughts.
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 7. In “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” a reference to “the sad height” refers to
A. old age.
B. suicide.
C. death-bed regrets.
D. wisdom.
_____ 8. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” emphasizes which of the following?
A. At death, all types of men long for and fight for more life.
B. Life is for living; as death approaches, a kind of madness sets in.
C. Only wise men understand the tragedy and permanence of death.
D. Sons face a crisis when their fathers die.
_____ 9. Which statement best summarizes the theme of “Fern Hill”?
A. Everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy a rural upbringing.
B. Childhood is a joyful and carefree time of life that does not last.
C. Animals know the secret of joyful life, which is hidden in nature.
D. Even childhood is saturated with religious significance and symbolism.
_____ 10. Which phrase best describes the poetic style of Dylan Thomas?
A. personal, lyrical, and romantic
B. modernist and aloof
C. cool and jazzy
D. universal and distrustful
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Meeting the Standards
© EMC Publishing, LLC
6/1/09 8:18:15 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Hand That Signed the Paper, page 1128
Build Vocabulary: Layers of Meaning from Context
The context within which a word is used helps to determine its significance. Meaning can
include both definition and symbolic meanings and associations. A poet counts on these
overtones of meaning to carry the words in a poem beyond the obvious meaning.
Write the dictionary definition for each bold word, given its use in the poem. Then write
a sentence explaining symbolic associations that add to the meaning in the poem’s context.
1. felled a city (line 1)
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. sovereign fingers (line 2)
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. goose’s quill (line 7)
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. an end to murder (line 7)
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. locusts came (line 10)
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. holds dominion over (line 11)
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. crusted wound (line 14)
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Hand That Signed the Paper, page 1128
Analyze Literature: Meter and Rhyme
Meter is the regular rhythmic pattern in poetry, as determined by the number of beats,
or stresses, in each line. Stressed and unstressed syllables are divided into rhythmical
units called feet. Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the ends of words; often poets place
rhyming words at the ends of lines for emphasis. Rhyme may be exact (ending sounds are
identical—say/pray) or slant (the rhyming sounds are similar but not identical—fell/fall).
Sight rhyme is slant rhyme in which words are spelled similarly but pronounced differently
(lost/ghost).
Part 1: Identify Meter and Rhyme
Complete the chart to analyze the use of meter and rhyme in “The Hand That Signed the
Paper.”
Element of Meter
Description
Effect
Description
Effect
Number of beats/line
Number of syllables/foot
Element of Rhyme
Rhyme pattern
Type of rhyme:
Exact
Slant
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Part 2: Analyze Meter and Rhyme
Answer the following questions to analyze the use of rhyme and meter in the selection.
1. Why do you think Thomas alternated lines of pentameter with lines of tetrameter or trimeter?
What effect does this have that using only pentameter would not have?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What effect does the use of varied types of metrical feet have?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Describe the types of rhyming pairs used in odd numbered lines. Why do you think Thomas
chose to use rhyme with these characteristics in these locations?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Describe the rhyming words of even numbered lines. What effect do these rhymes have? In your
answer, consider the number of syllables, the type of rhyme, and the types of sounds in the pairs.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. On the lines below, write a summary of Thomas’s use of rhyme and meter in “The Hand That
Signed the Paper.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Hand That Signed the Paper, page 1128
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct definition or description on the line next to the matching
term or example.
_____ 1. exact rhyme
A. “These five kings did a king to death.”
_____ 2. synecdoche
B. “The five kings count the dead but do not soften.”
_____ 3. slant rhyme
C. chalk/talk, breath/death
_____ 4. pentameter
D. fever/over, soften/heaven
_____ 5. trimeter
E. use of a part to stand for a whole
_____ 6. tetrameter
F. “That put an end to talk.”
Short Answer
Write your answer to each of the following questions in the space provided.
7. What are the “five kings” that “did a king to death”?
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. How did “a goose’s quill…put an end to murder”?
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. What is the meaning of “the paper” in the first line of the poem?
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. What is the meaning of dominion in the phrase “the hand that holds dominion”?
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Not Waving but Drowning, page 1132
Build Background: Stevie Smith
Florence Margaret Smith’s moniker “Stevie” was acquired when she was a young woman; she
was riding in the park with a friend, who remarked on her resemblance to the jockey Steve
Donaghue. To her family, she was known as Peggy.
From the age of three, that family consisted of her mother Ethel, her aunt Madge,
another aunt, and her older sister, living together on the edge of London. When Stevie was
three, she developed tuberculous peritonitis, and so she lived off and on in a sanatorium for
several years. Her distress over this period led to her preoccupation and fascination with
death, which is the subject of many of her poems.
Upon her mother’s death, Stevie looked for mothering to her stalwart Aunt Madge,
whom she called “the lion of Hull” or “the lion Aunt.” Stevie continued to live with this aunt
until 1968, when Madge died at age ninety-six. In the final years of her aunt’s life, Stevie cared
for the old woman as Madge had cared for her.
While Stevie worked as a secretary for much of her adult life, her real calling was her
poetry and fiction. In five decades, Stevie published three novels, eleven volumes of verse, and
several other books of nonfiction. Her work is characterized by a combination of opposites: it
is at the same time frivolous and serious, devastating and bracing, childlike and sophisticated.
Also unique to Stevie’s voice is its combination of varied voices, playful meter, pervasive
irony, and seemingly commonplace observations. Frequent themes in her poetry are religion,
toward which she was ambivalent, and death, which she called her “gentle friend.”
The following is a partial list of titles by Stevie Smith:
Novels:
Novel on Yellow Paper, 1936
Over the Frontier, 1938
The Holiday, 1949
Poetry:
A Good Time Was Had by All, 1937
Tender Only to One, 1938
Mother, What Is Man?, 1942
Harold’s Leap, 1950
Not Waving But Drowning, 1957
Selected Poems, 1962
The Best Beast, 1969
Scorpion and Other Poems, 1972 (posthumously published)
Collected Poems, 1975
Locate either on the Internet or in library books additional poems by Stevie Smith.
Select two poems that represent her dominant themes and represent her unique style well,
in your opinion. Prepare an oral reading of the poems, along with a brief talk on your
interpretation.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Not Waving but Drowning, page 1132
Analyze Literature: Sound Devices and Theme
Some of the sound devices used in poetry include
onomatopoeia—use of words or phrases that sound like the things to which they refer
repetition—intentional reuse of a sound, word, phrase, or sentence to emphasize ideas
or create musical effect
exact rhyme—exact repetition of sounds at the ends of words
slant rhyme—repeated approximate sounds at the ends of words
A literary work states or suggests a central perception about life, the theme. In poetry,
sound devices enhance and emphasize this important idea.
Part 1: Identify Sound Devices
Identify the type of sound device illustrated in each excerpt: onomatopoeia, repetition,
exact rhyme, slant rhyme. Some examples may illustrate more than one sound device.
1. “Oh, no, no, no”
________________________________
2. “the dead one lay moaning”
________________________________
3. “not waving but drowning”
________________________________
4. “And now he’s dead / … /They said.”
________________________________
5. “he lay moaning: … / not waving but drowning.”
________________________________
Part 2: Analyze Theme and Sound Devices
Answer the following questions analyzing the themes and sound devices in “Not Waving
but Drowning.”
6. The subject appears to be death by drowning. How might this drowning be metaphoric? What
underlying subject is implied?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. What effect does the word moaning have on the poem? What theme might it reinforce?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Not Waving but Drowning, page 1132
Selection Quiz
True or False
Write T if the statement is true or F if the statement is false.
_____ 1. This poem has one speaker—a dead man.
_____ 2. Drowning is a metaphor for emotional struggle in this poem.
_____ 3. By waving his hand, the man intended to greet friends on the shore.
_____ 4. The people who know the man believe that he was always kidding around.
_____ 5. Onlookers believe that the man died because his heart gave out.
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 6. The tone of the poem is predominantly
A. saddened and muted.
B. angry and helpless.
C. ironic and detached.
D. regretful and engaged.
_____ 7. What different voices are heard in the poem?
A. the drowned man, the onlookers, and a detached observer
B. a drowned man and his friends
C. a first-person narrator and a chorus
D. a drowned man, onlookers, and a loved one
_____ 8. Smith’s handling of a serious topic is best described as
A. personal and revealing.
B. profoundly sad and bitter.
C. wry and unsentimental.
D. lyrical and moving.
_____ 9. Which statement best expresses the principal theme of the poem?
A. Swimming at the beach is dangerous and risky.
B. Nonconformity is important, but it should not shut out friends.
C. Isolation makes it difficult for the suffering to plead for help.
D. Sometimes it is necessary to suffer in silence.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
That’s All, page 1135
Build Background: Theater of the Absurd
The works of Harold Pinter, the playwright of “That’s All,” have been identified with
the Theater of the Absurd. Theater of the Absurd, a term coined by critic Martin Esslin
in the 1950s, describes plays expressing the view that the meaning of the universe is
indecipherable and people’s place in it is without purpose.
The social and psychological milieu that gave rise to Absurdist works grew out of the
trauma of World War II and the postwar threat of nuclear annihilation. Absurdist drama
attempts to shock us out of an existence that is trite, mechanical, and complacent. It also
replaces conventional forms and standards (thought to have lost their validity in a new
world order) with highly unusual, innovative form. In effect, Theater of the Absurd is antitheater—surreal, illogical, conflictless, and plotless.
The following qualities characterize most Absurdist drama:
Distrust of language: Words fail to penetrate beyond the surface of experience;
conventional exchanges are meaningless and stereotypical. Absurdist drama shows
that language is an unreliable and insufficient tool of communication; its ridicule of
conventionalized speech reveals how speech acts as a barrier between ourselves and what
the world is really about. In Absurdist drama, what happens is much more important than
what is said. The hidden meaning of words is of primary importance.
Subversion of logic: It negates rational thought which appears to deal only with the
superficial aspects of things. Absurdist drama is filled with the unexpected and the logically
impossible. According to Absurdist thought, being freed from the bounds of logic shatters
the prison of the human condition and brings one into contact with the essence of life. At
the same time, it creates humor.
Lack of dramatic conflict: Clashes of personalities and powers (the conventional
fodder of plot) lose their significance where the established hierarchy of values has lost
its meaning. Characters in Absurdist drama may perform frantically, but nothing ever
happens to change their existence. Instead of being plot dominated, Absurdist drama is
more a lyrical expression of an atmosphere or an archetypal human situation. It attempts to
create a ritualistic, archetypal vision related to the world of dreams.
Find and read one of the following Absurdist dramas. On your own paper, write an
essay analyzing its adherence to the defining qualities of Theater of the Absurd.
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Tango by Slawomir Mrozek
Endgame by Samuel Beckett
Three Plays of the Absurd by Walter Wykes
Rhinoceros by Ionesco
The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter
The Bald Soprano and Other Plays by Ionesco
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
That’s All, page 1135
Analyze Literature: Character, Language,
and Plot in Absurdist Drama
In Absurdist drama, characters tend to be flat, stereotypical, or archetypal; often they
form interdependent pairs. They speak at one another using language or clichés that are
rhythmic and repetitive but evasive and fail to really communicate. In effect, language
demonstrates how people are disconnected. Pinter was famous for using pauses, which
replace primary things characters should address. Traditional plot structures are rarely
considered; cause and effect seem to break down in Absurdist drama. Meaningless plots
echo a dreamlike state and suggest that human action has become useless or senseless.
Part 1: Characters and Language
Complete the charts. In the first chart, describe what you learn about each character in
“That’s All.” In the second chart, analyze the language used in “That’s All.”
Characteristics
Mrs. A
Mrs. B
1. What she focuses on
2. Types of comments
3. Contrast with other character
4. Overall level of connection with
other character
Language
Effect
5. Contrast between Mrs. A and Mrs. B
6. Repetitions
7. Flat quality
8. What it communicates
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Part 2: Characters, Language, and Plot
Answer the following questions about character, language, and plot in “That’s All.”
9. What do you think Pinter is suggesting about Mrs. A and Mrs. B, given the characteristics you
noted in Part 1?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. How does the type of language Mrs. A and Mrs. B use reinforce this concept about the
relationship of the two women?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. Summarize the “plot” of “That’s All.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
12. What do you think is happening beneath the seemingly meaningless “surface” of conversation in
this play?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
That’s All, page 1135
Selection Quiz
True or False
Write T if the statement is true or F if the statement is false.
_____ 1. The play is set in Mrs. B’s kitchen.
_____ 2. Mrs. A dominates the conversation.
_____ 3. Mrs. B speaks mostly in monosyllables.
_____ 4. The conversation is about a woman who has moved into the neighborhood.
_____ 5. Mrs. A and Mrs. B regularly go to the butcher shop on Thursday.
_____ 6. If the third woman visits Mrs. A now, she comes on Thursday.
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 7. Which adjective accurately describes the dialogue of “That’s All”?
A. meaningful
B. important
C. engaging
D. mundane
_____ 8. What does the dialogue suggest these women’s lives are like?
A. exhausting because of labor
B. emotionally fulfilling
C. boring and trivial
D. challenging but rewarding
_____ 9. What does the emphasis on days of the week suggest?
A. Only weekends hold excitement and enjoyment.
B. Life is so routine that a change causes confusion.
C. Unlike Mrs. A, Mrs. B is inflexible about routine.
D. The women work hardest on Monday and Tuesday.
_____ 10. Which phrase best describes Pinter’s style as reflected in “That’s All”?
A. menacing and mysterious
B. chatty and humorous
C. intelligent and stimulating
D. sparse and fragmented
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Horses, page 1139
Build Vocabulary: Compound Words
Compound words are words made up of two or more small words that combine to create a
single meaning. Often, the words form a compound adjective (such as first-person speaker);
other compounds form compound nouns (such as folklore and poet laureate). Compounds
may be written as one word run together; they may be separated by a space, or they may be
hyphenated. The important qualifier is that they work together to create a unit of meaning.
Poets may invent compounds in order to meet the imaginative needs of their poems.
Read each excerpt from “The Horses” and underline the compound word. Identify it as
a compound noun or compound adjective. Then explain its meaning and its significance to
the poem’s imaginative ideas or qualities.
1. “in the hour-before-dawn dark” ___________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. “Evil air, a frost-making stillness” __________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. “the moorline Halved the sky ahead” _______________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. “Huge in the dense gray…Megalith-still” ____________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. “With draped manes and tilted hind-hooves” ________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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6/16/09 9:23:39 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Horses, page 1139
Analyze Literature: Diction and Mood
An author’s diction refers to his or her choice of words. Diction contributes to the mood, or
feel, of a literary work; literary mood is the emotion created in the reader. For example, the
use of many high-flown, abstract intellectual terms can create a formal feel and a mood of
cool snobbism.
Part 1: Analyze Diction
Complete the chart to analyze Hughes’s diction, or choice of words, in “The Horses.”
Identify examples of each part of speech and tell their effect in the poem.
Type of Word
Examples
Effect
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
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Part 2: Analyze Effect of Diction on Mood
Answer the following questions to analyze the effect of diction on mood in “The Horses.”
1. List several qualities that describe Hughes’s choice of words in “The Horses.” For each quality,
give at least three examples from the poem.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. Hughes uses many present participle (-ing) forms as adjectives throughout the poem. What
cumulative effect do these adjectives have?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Does Hughes use mostly specific nouns or broad, general nouns? Concrete nouns or abstract
nouns? What emphasis does this use give the poem?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What verbs does Hughes use in lines 19–21? How are these verbs different from the verbs used
before these lines? What shift is Hughes showing? Why does he want to emphasize it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. Summarize the way in which Hughes’s diction supports and helps create mood in “The Horses.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Horses, page 1139
Selection Quiz
Fill in the Blank
Fill in the blank with the word from the box that best completes each sentence.
size
cold
still
sun
woods
1. The poem’s speaker ascends and descends through ____________________ on a morning walk.
2. He meets horses that are impressive for their ____________________.
3. Details emphasize the ____________________ of the morning.
4. The ____________________ brings a violent waking of color.
5. Despite the coming of light, the horses remain ____________________.
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 6. What perception of nature is suggested by the speaker’s experience?
A. Nature is powerful, pure, and violent.
B. Nature is breathtakingly beautiful and tender.
C. Nature gives humans far more than humans give nature.
D. Nature is a healing force against human destructiveness.
_____ 7. A quality of the natural world that the speaker admires is
A. its brutal indifference.
B. its capacity to endure.
C. its delicate beauty.
D. its usefulness to humans.
_____ 8. The description of the horses suggests that, to the speaker, they represent
A. people’s oldest partner and friend.
B. animals’ strength and acceptance of surroundings.
C. human courage and fortitude.
D. ancient civilizations that have lasted.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Follower / Digging, page 1143
Build Background: Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney’s poems “Follower” and “Digging” recall his father. Heaney’s father owned
and worked a fifty-acre farm in County Derry in Northern Ireland but spent most of his
time in cattle-dealing, a time-honored Gaelic tradition. Heaney’s mother had a stronger
connection with the modern world than with traditional rural life. This difference, along
with the contrast between his father’s silence and his mother’s loquaciousness, formed the
basis for inner tensions that gave rise to his poetry.
While Heaney left the farm at age 12 to attend a Catholic boarding school in Derry, the
rural home of his youth forms his self-described “country of the mind” from which much
of his poetry issues. He continued his education in Belfast, where he lived from 1957 to
1972, and then moved to the Irish Republic.
From 1982, Heaney divided his time between Harvard, where he teaches one semester
a year, and Ireland, where he could devote himself to writing. He was also a professor of
poetry at Oxford University for a time.
Heaney’s study of Latin, Irish, and Anglo-Saxon became determining factors in his
work. For example, the linguistics and poetic line of his work (particularly work done in
the 1980s and 1990s) stress the importance of Anglo-Saxon. Heaney has translated various
works that touch on his Gaelic heritage as well as ancient Greek (parts of Virgil’s Aeneid).
Ireland’s culture and politics remain vital and central to his life and work, although his
poetry is rarely overtly politicized. However, the religious and political divisions and
violence of the culture and politics have caused a dark quality to some of his poetry and a
preoccupation with the poet’s responsibilities.
Use the Internet or trade books and encyclopedias in the library to research Heaney’s
life and work further. Read several more of his poems and relate them to his life in a brief
analytical report.
1. Take careful notes in your own words (or enclose your notes in quotation marks and cite your
sources carefully).
2. Organize your note cards into general categories, such as early life and political views, and
choose one or two key points for your report.
3. Draft your report, including an introduction, body, and conclusion. Be sure each important
point is supported by details from Heaney’s work.
4. Edit your text, removing extraneous material, clarifying unclear wordings, and unifying by
adding transitions.
5. Proofread your draft to correct errors in grammar, spelling, and mechanics. Then prepare a final
copy.
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6/16/09 9:24:41 AM
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Follower / Digging, page 1143
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Form
Figurative language is meant to be understood imaginatively rather literally. Among the
types of figurative language often used by poets are metaphors and similes. A metaphor
refers to one thing as if it were another, and the comparison contains a surprising truth; a
simile compares two seemingly unlike things using the word like or as.
To give a poem form, the poet must choose the format of stanzas (lines grouped
together) and the lengths of lines. The shape of a poem and the tension created by breaking
points reinforce or emphasize its ideas and tone.
Part 1: Describe Poetic Form
Use the chart to describe the form of “Follower” and “Digging.” Then answer the
questions below the chart.
Stanzas
Follower
Digging
Number of lines
Regular or irregular
Reason for form
Lines
Lengths
Use of end rhyme
Reason for line breaks
1. Summarize how the poet uses form to reinforce his theme in “Follower.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What aspects of “Digging” are reinforced by uneven stanza and line formatting?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Part 2: Explain Comparisons
Explain the comparisons in the following metaphors and similes and tell how they help
you understand the poet’s ideas in each poem.
Follower
(Items 3–6 make up an extended metaphor stretching through four stanzas.)
3. “His shoulders globed like a full sail strung”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. “The sod rolled over without breaking”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. “I stumbled in his hobnailed wake”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. “rode me on his back/Dipping and rising”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. “I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,/Yapping always”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Digging
8. “The squat pen rests; snug as a gun”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. “The squat pen rests. / I’ll dig with it.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Follower / Digging, page 1143
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the choice that fits on the line next to the description. Choices may be
used more than once.
_____ 1. Speaker admires father.
A. Follower
_____ 2. Speaker rides on father’s back.
B. Digging
_____ 3. Speaker takes milk to grandfather.
C. Both poems
_____ 4. A man plants potato starts.
_____ 5. Cutting into earth requires skill and strength.
_____ 6. regular stanzaic format
_____ 7. extended metaphor involving the sea
_____ 8. Speaker finds a way to emulate ancestors.
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 9. How do the speakers of these two poems feel about physical farm labor?
A. It is useful work but has too many unpleasant aspects.
B. It is honorable work requiring skill and discipline.
C. It is mindless work that the speakers do not care to do.
D. It once seemed romantic but now appears undesirable.
_____ 10. “Follower” is best described by which phrase?
A. variation of a sonnet with slant rhyme
B. traditional lyric with rhyme scheme abab
C. free verse with occasional rhyme
D. intricate formal lyric with varied rhyme pattern
_____ 11. Heaney’s choice of subject matter in these two poems most strongly suggests which of the
following?
A. a focus on vital aspects of Ireland’s culture and history
B. a disappointment with the simplicity and poverty of his past
C. a worker’s interest in the how and why of physical labor
D. a deep enjoyment of farming that connects him with ancestors
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
A Shocking Accident, page 1147
Build Vocabulary: Suffixes -ly (-ally), -ity, -ion (-sion)
A suffix is a group of letters added after a word or root to change its meaning and part of
speech. Suffixes have specific meanings in themselves; for example, the suffix -ness means
“condition,” “quality,” or “degree.” Callousness is the quality of being callous, or hardhearted. Almost always, adding a suffix changes the part of speech of the base word.
Complete the chart. First identify the base word and the suffix in each vocabulary
word. Then write the part of speech of the base word and the derivative. Finally, use the
completed chart to help with the completion exercise below the chart.
Derivative (part of
speech)
Base Word (part of
speech)
Suffix
Meaning of Derivative
apprehension (n.)
convulsion (n.)
commiseration (n.)
brevity (n.)
perplexity (n.)
inevitably (adv.)
intrinsically (adv.)
Refer to your completed chart and a dictionary, if necessary. Fill in the blanks with the words
from the box that best complete each statement. Some words will be used more than once.
nouns
verbs
adjectives
adverbs
1. The suffix -ity may be added to ___________________ or ___________________ to transform
them into ___________________.
2. The suffix -ly (ally) may be added to ___________________ to transform them into
___________________.
3. The suffix -ion (-sion) may be added to ___________________ to transform them into
___________________.
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A Shocking Accident, page 1147
Analyze Literature: Characterization and Conflict
The dynamic of a short story requires that the author place characters in a situation of
conflict. He or she characterizes these people (establishes their personalities and motives)
through description, dialogue, and the way in which they respond to the struggles they face.
On the other hand, the conflict, or struggle between forces, has an impact on character: it
can force a character to grow and change or lead to the character’s defeat or death.
Part 1: Analyze Characterization
Complete the chart to analyze Jerome’s characterization.
Information about Jerome
How Information Is Revealed;
What It Means
What It Suggests About Character
1. Jerome was a warden in his prep
school.
2. Jerome worshipped his father.
3. Jerome believed his father was a
spy or gun-runner.
4. Jerome asked, “What happened
to the pig?”
5. Jerome is ridiculed for the
circumstances of the death.
6. Jerome develops strategies for
telling the story.
7. Jerome becomes an accountant.
8. Jerome puts off telling the story
to his fiancée.
9. Jerome’s love for his father and
desire to respect his memory
increases.
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Part 2: Analyze Conflict
Answer each question on the lines provided to analyze the conflict in “A Shocking
Accident” and its relationship to character.
10. How do schoolmates react to the story of Jerome’s father’s death? What conflict does this cause
Jerome? How might it affect his personality?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. How does Jerome strategize his telling of the story of his father’s death? Do you think this lessens
his conflict or increases it? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
12. How is Jerome’s conflict brought to a climax by his engagement? What possible outcomes does
he foresee when his fiancée hears the story? How will this affect his life?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
13. How does Jerome’s conflict shape his adult personality? What details show this?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
14. How is Jerome’s conflict resolved? How does this resolution promise to shape his life and his
personality in the future?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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A Shocking Accident, page 1147
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct description on the line next to the matching character or
place.
_____ 1. Torquay
A. site of the accident
_____ 2. Jerome’s aunt
B. wonders whether Jerome ought to be a warden
_____ 3. Sally
C. seaside resort where newlyweds will honeymoon
_____ 4. Mr. Wordsworth
D. always begins the story “A shocking accident”
_____ 5. Naples
E. a careful man who traveled widely
_____ 6. Jerome’s father
F. sympathetic person who adores babies
Short Answer
Write your answer to each of the following questions in the space provided.
7. As a child, what did Jerome suspect his father did for a living?
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. Why does Jerome avoid introducing his fiancée to his aunt?
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. Why does Jerome fear his engagement cannot survive his fiancée’s reaction to the story?
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. How does his fiancée react when she hears the story?
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, page 1156
Build Vocabulary: Words with Political Relevance in China
The denotations, or dictionary definitions, of certain words have additional meanings and
associations when considered in a particular historical context. For example, comrade
means “companion” or “intimate associate.” To a member of the Communist Party, the
word is a form of address or a title.
Find each word in context on the page number given in parentheses to see how it is
used in the selection. Write its meaning in this context. Then explain what special cultural
relevance it had in Communist China in the 1960s.
1. re-educated (page 1156) _________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. revolutionary (tune) (page 1157) __________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Chairman Mao (page 1157) ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. propaganda committee (page 1157) ________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. socialist (page 1157) ____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. capitalist (page 1157) ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. overlord (page 1160) ____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, page 1156
Build Background: Mao Zedong and the People’s
Republic of China
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a story set during Mao’s Cultural Revolution in
China. Mao Zedong (or Tse-Tung) was the leader who oversaw the revolutionary reshaping
of China into a communist state. He led China’s communist revolution and served as
chairman of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1959 and chairman of the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) from 1931 until his death in 1976. He suppressed criticisms of
his regime and enforced indoctrination of school children by requiring the reading of his
“Little Red Book,” Quotations from Chairman Mao, a collection of his maxims or sayings.
Born in Hunan in 1893, Mao remained in his home province until he was 25. His
formal education was brief and lacking in study of science and foreign language, but it
helped him understand social problems and Chinese history. He was determined to seek
pragmatic and utilitarian ways of strengthening China.
Inspired by Marxist teachings, Mao would later realize the revolutionary potential
of the Chinese peasants, who had suffered greatly under the tyranny of warlords. (This
appeal to agricultural workers differed from the Soviet communists focus on the exploited
industrial worker.)
From 1925, he worked to mobilize the Chinese peasants. At the same time, he
developed a mobile warfare guerilla strategy and carried it out with the cohesive and
disciplined Red Army. The following events were central to his career:
1935, the Long March (threatened by the ruling Kuomintang [army of war lords], the
Red Army marched 6,000 miles to Yenan); invasion by the Japanese in 1937 forced
uneasy, temporary alliance between the two rival factions
1949, established a new People’s Republic of China
1950, sent troops to aid North Korean army when U.S. and U.N. forces crossed the 38th
parallel
1950s, rapid collectivization of the countryside
1958, the Great Leap Forward (massive campaign to communize entire Chinese
population, collapsed into a famine and led to the deaths of 20 to 40 million)
1965, the Cultural Revolution (Chinese students indoctrinated for unquestioning
loyalty to Mao were given power to destroy elitist “class enemies” such as intellectuals
and professionals; country nearly descended into civil war)
1972, met with U.S. President Nixon to improve relations and gain competitive edge
over Soviet Russia
Read further about one aspect of Mao Zedong’s life and career, using books, articles,
and biographies on the Internet, in encyclopedias, and in trade books. Share your notes
with a group and prepare together for a panel presentation on the importance of Mao
Zedong as a world leader.
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from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, page 1156
Analyze Literature: Character and Setting
Characters, the individuals that populate a work of fiction, show their personal qualities
through their actions, reactions, and interactions with other characters. Setting, the time
and place of a literary work, is created through details describing elements such as weather,
landscape, buildings, clothing, and season; characters’ comments can also establish setting.
The struggles of characters within their setting is the heart of any story.
Part 1: Describe Characters
Complete the chart by describing the characters of Luo and the narrator and of the tailor
and his daughter, the Little Seamstress.
Element of Character
Luo
Narrator
Seamstress
Tailor
Skills and interests
Ways of interacting with others
Prospects for future
Appearance
Actions
Treatment by others
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Part 2: Identify Setting
Answer the following questions about setting in the excerpt from Balzac and the Little
Chinese Seamstress.
1. When does the narrative take place? Why is this time important to the story?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. Where does the action occur? Describe the surroundings.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. How does location act as a cause in precipitating the narrative events?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. How does setting accentuate the character of Luo and the narrator?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. What tensions are set up by the contrasts between Luo and the narrator? Between the little
seamstress and her father?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, page 1156
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct description on the line next to the matching item or person.
_____ 1. seamstress
A. gifted storyteller
_____ 2. Luo
B. ruler of China
_____ 3. Phoenix mountain
C. has great appreciation for storytelling
_____ 4. tailor
D. respected, well-traveled man of his community
_____ 5. headman
E. unashamed of being illiterate
_____ 6. Chairman Mao
F. rural area where story is set
_____ 7. Yong Jing
G. village with makeshift cinema
Fill in the Blank
Fill in the blank with the phrase from the box that best completes each sentence.
Four-Eyes
Made in Shanghai
oral cinema show
retell movies
shorten trousers
8. The boys put on a(n) _____________________________ for villagers.
9. The headman will pay Luo to _____________________________.
10. The seamstress works at a machine called _____________________________.
11. Luo and the narrator ask the seamstress to _____________________________.
12. The boys meet the tailor on their way to visit _____________________________.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Home Is So Sad, page 1163
Build Vocabulary: Semantic Families
Semantics refers to the study of the meanings of words. A semantic family is a group of
words that have related meanings and name or describe aspects of one general concept;
semantic families may include everyday words and technical ones as well as slang and
professional jargon. For example, precipitation is a concept whose semantic family can
include rain, mist, sleet, snow, clouds, thunderhead, cold front, warm front, storm, blizzard,
white-out, snowflakes, hail, drifting, torrential, tornado warning, and many other words.
Brainstorm words to fit each category in the chart and build a semantic family for the
concept of home. Then respond to the Writing Prompt below the chart.
Synonyms
Types or Examples
Descriptive Words
Related Items or Actions
Related Ideas
Writing Prompt
On your own paper, write a paragraph defining home as it pertains to the theme of “Home
Is So Sad.” Use your chart about the dimensions of the word’s meaning to help you.
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Home Is So Sad, page 1163
Analyze Literature: Line, Stanza, and Rhyme
Two elements give a poem its structure: the form of stanzas it uses and the way in which
each stanza is broken into lines. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, named for the
number of lines it contains—couplet, triplet (or tercet), quatrain, quintain, and so on. A
stanza may be broken into lines in a certain way to create a pattern of end rhyme, to control
the pace of the poem, or to emphasize and isolate ideas.
Rhyme, the repetition of the ending sounds of words, is used to create musical
harmonies and to emphasize ideas in poems. End rhyme refers to the use of rhyming words
at the ends of lines; it sets up a rhyme scheme, or pattern of rhyme, that may be designated
by letters (e.g., abab). When rhymes are similar but not identical in sound, they are
identified as slant rhyme.
Part 1: Analyze Poetic Elements
Complete the chart to analyze the handling of line, stanza, and rhyme in “Home Is So
Sad.”
Element
Description
Effects on Ideas, Mood
Line
Length
Placement of breaks
Likely reason for length
Stanza
Length
Likely reason for length
Overall appearance
Rhyme
Rhyme scheme
Type of rhyme (exact, slant, end)
Rhyming words
Emphasis established
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Part 2: Analyze Structure and Sound
Answer the following questions about the structure and sound of “Home Is So Sad.”
1. Have lines been structured to match the ends of thoughts or to divide them? How do lines
compare to sentences? What effect does this structure have on the pace and feel of the poem?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What is the feel and look of the stanzas? What reasons do you think the poet had for setting up
this structure? Can you see any way in which this format complements the poem’s analysis of
home?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Describe the poem’s rhyme scheme. What effects does this pattern of rhyme have?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Are the rhymes exact or slant? Give examples.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. Why might the poet have chosen these types of rhyming words? Explain what effect they have.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Home Is So Sad, page 1163
Selection Quiz
Short Answer
Write your answer to each of the following questions in the space provided.
1. What is the setting of this poem?
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. To what does the theft of line 5 refer?
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. What mood saturates the house and the speaker?
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What objects suggest the former goodness of the home?
_____________________________________________________________________________
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 5. Which phrase best describes the poem’s style?
A. rhythmic, stilted, juvenile
C. simple, straightforward, conversational
B. intricate, intellectual, flowing
D. concrete, dignified, dull
_____ 6. Which rhyming pair illustrates slant rhyme?
A. was / vase
C. be / cutlery
B. left / bereft
D. so / go
_____ 7. How are stanzas 1 and 2 related?
A. 1 and 2 both describe a theft
at the home.
B. 1 describes the home; 2 explains
the speaker’s philosophy of home.
C. 1 describes home as it is now;
2 describes what it was once like.
D. 1 describes a home; 2 describes
the people who once lived there.
_____ 8. Why is the home “bereft”?
A. It is in bad condition because
it has been abandoned.
B. It is emptied of its owners and
their youthful dreams.
C. It is the site of a death that robbed
a family of its happiness.
D. The people who live there are
no longer happy.
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The Moment, page 1165
Build Background: Nature and Civilization
“The Moment” makes clear that people and their civilizations do not own the natural
world. According to the poem, people and their civilizations have not conquered the
natural world. However, throughout human history, people have sought to manipulate
and control the environment in ways that enable them to establish productive agriculture,
towns and cities, and means of living more secure and stable lives than simple subsistence
in the wilderness. Civilization, we reason, is superior because it permits a more comfortable
life and the prospect of living longer and healthier.
A look back at previous civilizations shows that they often fail because they get into
environmental trouble. The earliest civilization was Sumer, located in what is today
southeastern Iraq. The Sumerian economy was based on a sophisticated irrigation system.
More than six thousand years ago, the Sumerians developed agriculture to such a degree
that they lived in cities, and they developed the first written language. However, a flaw in
their irrigation system caused the water table to rise too high; large-scale evaporation left
too much salt in the ground, and their food supply shrank, dooming their civilization.
History also teaches that the human quest for “advancement” (and the ever growing
population) puts us at odds with natural cycles and ecosystems and places ever increasing
demands on earth’s natural capacities. Today, the demands of earth’s population have
exceeded, and in some cases overwhelmed, earth’s natural capacities to meet our needs.
For example, forests are shrinking; fresh water resources are being depleted; desertification
of arable land is advancing at a rapid pace. The earth’s ecosystems enable our water
purification, pollination, flood control, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration. Some
scientists now estimate that the majority of our ecosystem services are being degraded or
pushed beyond their limits.
Civilization has always promoted an “I own this” attitude toward earth and its
resources. Our economic model, with its fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered,
throwaway economy, will no longer work for the world’s billions.
Among the changes that may help establish a viable world economy:
Production of power by renewable sources of energy
Diversification of transportation system
Reuse and recycling of goods and resources
Research one of the three solutions listed above to discover new ideas and technologies
that are currently being suggested or applied to solve the environmental crisis. Collect
information, images, and other multimedia materials (for example, videos, songs, samples)
and organize them to produce a report, documentary, or display. Prepare to present your
finished product to the class and to answer questions.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Moment, page 1165
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Theme
The theme of a literary work is the central message or perception about life that it reveals.
Often, this idea is suggested through images, details, and outcomes rather than stated.
A poem depends on its imaginative use of language to imply its theme. Figurative
language, writing intended to be understood imaginatively rather than literally, helps
readers to see ideas in a new and startling way.
Part 1: Explain Figurative Meaning
Explain the figurative meaning of each of the following excerpts from “The Moment.” If a
comparison is being made, explain what two things are compared.
1. “after many years…and a long voyage”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. “the trees unloose / their soft arms from around you”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. “the birds take back their language”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. “the cliffs fissure and collapse”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. “the air moves back from you like a wave”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. “You were a visitor.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Part 2: Analyze Theme
Answer the following questions to analyze the theme of “The Moment.”
7. Who could the “you” in the poem be? What stage in life or civilization is implied in stanza 1?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. What progression is implied in the list: “room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country”?
What does the poet imply by saying the subject stands “in the centre”?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. How does the natural world react to the assertion in stanza 1? What does this kind of reaction
imply about nature? About humanity?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. Paraphrase the meaning of this excerpt:
“We never belonged to you. / You never found us. / It was always the other way around.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. State a possible theme for this poem.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Moment, page 1165
Selection Quiz
True or False
Write T if the statement is true or F if the statement is false.
_____ 1. The poem contains a human speaker and nature as a speaker.
_____ 2. The poem uses regular meter and stanza form.
_____ 3. The “long voyage” in line 2 is a metaphor for life’s journey.
_____ 4. The reaction of nature in stanza 2 is sudden and violent.
_____ 5. This poem implies that humans and nature do not interact.
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 6. This poem suggests what trait of humans that has no counterpart in nature?
A. a dynamic cycle of life
B. a strong sense of self-preservation
C. the need to possess or hold on to things
D. the need to move and deal with change
_____ 7. What aspect of humanity is suggested by the following image?
“climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming”
A.
B.
C.
D.
working and organizing
adventure and sport
organized government
exploration and conquest
_____ 8. Which statement is the most logical theme of the poem?
A. Life is made up of moments of sudden understanding.
B. Humans lose their connection with nature when they try to rule it.
C. Nature is full of conflict and catastrophes that threaten humans.
D. A person gains both wealth and wisdom over a lifetime of experience.
_____ 9. Which of the following is the best description of this poem?
A. a personal lyric in free verse
B. a lyrical ballad with a lesson
C. a narrative about adventure
D. a dialogue in verse with set meter
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
B. Wordsworth, page 1168
Build Vocabulary: Using Context
Readers often predict the meaning of an unfamiliar word by studying the context in which
it is used. Context clues are found in the phrases and sentences surrounding the unfamiliar
word. The general discussion may suggest the word’s meaning, or the author may plant
clues such as synonyms, examples, antonyms, or even definitions in apposition.
Predict the meaning of each bold selection word from the context. Write your
predicted meaning on line a. Check a dictionary to confirm the accuracy of your prediction.
Use line b for notes, corrections, or the dictionary definition.
1. Emigrants to a country are often marginalized and viewed with suspicion, causing them to feel a
sense of alienation.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
2. Brent’s perceptive analysis of the story showed that he understood well the ideas and emotions
behind the plot.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
3. After a number of public officials had been convicted of unethical conduct, the voters despaired
of finding an incorruptible candidate.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
4. The military dictator suppressed all protests and opposition with military strength.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
5. The little country store we used to patronize daily after school had long since been torn down.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
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B. Wordsworth, page 1168
Analyze Literature: Character and Symbol
In literary works, a character is an individual who participates in the action. The most
important character is the protagonist, who is engaged in a struggle with the antagonist
(a character or force). To understand a character, readers analyze the character’s actions,
words, and attributes.
A symbol is anything that represents both itself and something else. A writer may
invest a character or the character’s actions with symbolic meaning. That is, the character
represents himself or herself but also represents an idea or phenomenon.
Part 1: Analyze Character
Complete the chart to analyze the character B. Wordsworth. Explain what each of the
actions, descriptions, or statements shows about the poet’s real nature.
Character’s Words, Actions, Attributes
What It Reveals about B. Wordsworth
1. small, tidily dressed; wearing hat, white shirt, black
trousers
2. speaks slowly, using correct English
3. watches bees, ants, and so on; “that’s what I do. I just
watch.”
4. “I am a poet.…The greatest in the world.”
5. “It is the poet’s tragedy.” [when narrator’s mother will
not buy poem]
6. “The [poet’s home] seemed all green.…looked green.”
7. He shows the angry narrator the stars.
8. “What you doing here?” [the question he has asked
himself for forty years]
9. Lives in a “little room” that looks clean, healthy, and
lonely.
10. “did everything as though he were doing it for the first
time in his life” and it were “some church rite”
11. is writing “the greatest poem in the world” one line a
month
12. hopes to “distill” experiences into a poem that will
“sing to all humanity”
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Part 2: Analyze Symbolic Significance
Answer the following questions to analyze the symbolic significance of the character B.
Wordsworth.
13. How is B. Wordsworth like other characters in the story? How is he different?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
14. What is significant about the name he has given himself? What qualities of Trinidadians does it
emphasize?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
15. What does he mean when he says he is a poet? Why do you think he says he is “the greatest poet
in the world”?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
16. In a sentence or two, summarize the concept or group that B. Wordsworth symbolizes.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
B. Wordsworth, page 1168
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct character or place on the line next to the matching
description.
_____ 1. Port of Spain
A. beats the narrator
_____ 2. narrator’s mother
B. cries for everything
_____ 3. police officer
C. place with a view of the harbor and city
_____ 4. B. Wordsworth
D. important city in Trinidad and Tobago
_____ 5. Chancellor Hill
E. asks “What you doing here?”
Short Answer
Write your answer to each of the following questions in the space provided.
6. What does B. Wordsworth ask for when he first comes to the narrator’s house?
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. What does he try to sell the narrator’s mother?
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. How does the poet’s home differ from those around it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. How does B. Wordsworth earn a living?
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. What sets B. Wordsworth apart from the narrator?
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Telephone Conversation / from Midsummer XXIII, page 1175
Build Vocabulary: Etymology
The etymology of a word is its history, shown by tracing its development. It lists the
earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, traces its transmission
from one language to another, and may analyze it into its component parts. The following
abbreviations are common in etymologies:
Afrik
AF
F
Afrikaans
Anglo French
French
fr.
It.
L
from
Italian
Latin
ME
ML
OE
Middle English
Middle Latin
Old English
Look up the meaning of each word and write it on line a. Then read the etymology
for the word. On line b, write a way you can use the etymology to help you remember the
word’s meaning.
1. antic [It. antico ancient thing or person, fr. antico ancient, fr. L antiquus]
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
2. apartheid [Afrik. fr. apart apart + -heid –hood]
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
3. assent [ME, fr. AF assenter, assenter, fr. L assentari, fr. assentire, fr. ad- + sentire to feel]
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
4. concede [F or L; F conceder, fr. L concedere, fr. com- + cedere to yield]
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
5. induct [ME, fr. ML inductus, pp. or inducere, fr. in- + ducere to lead]
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Telephone Conversation / from Midsummer XXIII, page 1175
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Mood
Imagery is the mental images produced through language, often through figurative
or imaginative language. Most images are concrete, enabling readers to perceive the
dimensions of the subject by using the senses. Effective images possess a vivid or striking
quality that suggests the essence of the subject or which creates a particular mood, or
emotional state of mind.
Part 1: Analyze Images
Complete the chart to analyze each image. Identify what the image describes, explain the
sense(s) to which it appeals, and suggest the way it changes your perception of the subject.
Image
Subject Described
Appeal to Sense(s)
Effect on Perception
Telephone Conversation
ll. 7–9 “Voice…Lipstick
coated, / long gold-rolled /
Cigarette-holder pipped”
ll. 11–12 “Stench / Of
rancid breath of public
hide-and-speak”
ll. 33–34 “Her receiver
rearing on the thunderclap
/ About my ears”
Midsummer XXIII
l. 1 “stampeding hiss and
scurry of green lemmings”
ll. 6-7 “leaf stems bend at
their chains, the branches
bending like Boer cattle”
l. 14 “Their thick skulls bled
with rancor”
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Part 2: Analyze Mood
Answer the following questions to analyze the mood of “Telephone Conversation” and
“Midsummer XXIII.”
1. What seems to be the speaker’s attitude toward the woman on the telephone in “Telephone
Conversation”? Why does he feel this way?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. How does the landlady react to the speaker? What feeling does this create?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Summarize the mood of “Telephone Conversation.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What emotional states are suggested by the images of “Midsummer XXIII”? List words and
phrases that confirm these emotions.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. Summarize the mood of “Midsummer XXIII.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Telephone Conversation / from Midsummer XXIII, page 1175
Selection Quiz
Fill in the Blank
Fill in the blank with the word or phrase from the box that best completes each sentence.
African
apartheid
Caliban
Turner’s ships
West African sepia
1. The speaker in “Telephone Conversation” confesses that he is __________________________.
2. The speaker in “Midsummer XXIII” describes his color as __________________________.
3. The speaker’s reference to __________________________ suggests segregation of the races.
4. The allusion to __________________________ suggests slavery and oppression.
5. The allusion to __________________________ suggests fighting related to slavery.
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 6. In “Telephone Conversation,” a potential landlady questions a would-be renter about
A. the size of his family.
B. his income and past rental history.
C. the shade of his skin color.
D. his status as an alien or citizen.
_____ 7. In “Midsummer XXIII” the attitude of white intellectuals toward Africans is
A. superior and dismissive.
B. suspicious and frightened.
C. compassionate and helpful.
D. outraged and retaliatory.
_____ 8. What theme runs through both poems?
A. education versus ignorance
B. failure to communicate
C. racial tension
D. African tragedy
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Games at Twilight, page 1184
Build Vocabulary: Greek and Latin Roots
Many English words are built on Greek or Latin roots. A word root is a core part that
cannot be divided further. Affixes are added to roots to form derivatives. For example,
the Latin root cent means “hundred”; adding the affix -ury creates the derivative century,
a period of a hundred years. Other derivatives made from cent include bicentennial,
centimeter, and centigrade. Learning the meanings of Greek and Latin roots can help you
predict the meanings of new words and expand your vocabulary.
Write the letter of the correct Latin or Greek root on the line next to the matching
vocabulary word. Then write at least two words with the same root. You may use a
dictionary for help.
A. L lugere to mourn; akin to Gk lygros mournful
B. L cilium eyelid
C. Gk fr. mainesthai to be mad; akin to Gk menos spirit
D. L venire to come
E. L fungi to perform
F. L temere blindly, recklessly
G. L stridere to make a harsh noise
H. L funus funeral
I. L nomin-, nomen name, repute
_____ 1. defunct (page 1187)
_____________________________________
_____ 2. funereal (page 1190)
_____________________________________
_____ 3. ignominy (page 1190)
_____________________________________
_____ 4. intervene (page 1186)
_____________________________________
_____ 5. lugubrious (page 1190)
_____________________________________
_____ 6. maniacal (page 1185)
_____________________________________
_____ 7. stridently (page 1186)
_____________________________________
_____ 8. superciliously (page 1187)
_____________________________________
_____ 9. temerity (page 1188)
_____________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Games at Twilight, page 1184
Analyze Literature: Conflict
Every story embroils its characters in conflict. In a literary work, a conflict, or crisis, is a
struggle between two forces, developed through the events of the plot. Some conflicts are
external, involving a character’s struggle with another character, forces of nature, society,
or fate. Other conflicts are internal, involving a character’s struggle against some element
within himself or herself.
Complete the chart by identifying and describing conflicts that occur in “Games at
Twilight.” Then respond to the Writing Prompt below the chart.
Conflicts
Description
Outcome
1. with natural forces (heat, dust,
closed atmosphere)
2. among children
3. Ravi’s struggle to avoid capture
4. Ravi’s struggle to overcome fear
5. Ravi’s struggle to gain recognition
from siblings
6. Ravi’s struggle with insignificance
Writing Prompt
On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph analyzing the central conflict in “Games at
Twilight.” Trace its development through plot events to the resolution.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Games at Twilight, page 1184
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct description on the line next to the matching character or
place.
_____ 1. Ravi
A. dominant sibling who organizes play
_____ 2. Raghu
B. frightening but excellent hiding place
_____ 3. Mira
C. place where Ravi was locked in
_____ 4. shed
D. gets involved to stop conflict
_____ 5. mother
E. soccer-playing, aggressive sibling
_____ 6. linen closet
F. timid, uncertain younger sibling
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 7. How is setting related to mood in this story?
A. The conflicts of children create a mood of irritation.
B. Dampness and mold create a mood of fear.
C. A middle-class home creates a mood of comfort.
D. Extreme heat creates a mood of discomfort and tension.
_____ 8. Which element of this story illustrates an archetype?
A. A shed serves as a symbol of safety.
B. A boy moves from innocence to experience.
C. Conflict reveals undercurrents of sibling rivalry and jealousy.
D. Imagery emphasizes the power of weather.
_____ 9. Which statement best describes the dynamics among the children in this family?
A. They are close and cooperative.
B. They are in fierce competition for their mother’s attention.
C. Each vies for a position of power and recognition.
D. They help one another to succeed.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Train from Rhodesia, page 1192
Build Vocabulary: Analysis of Word Parts
A word root is a central word part that cannot stand alone but does have meaning. An affix
is a letter or letters added to a word to change its meaning. Affixes may be prefixes (added
to the beginnings of words) or suffixes (added to the ends of words). The word impotence
consists of the prefix im-, the root pot, and the suffix -ence. Many English words consist
of a root and one or more affixes, whose combined meanings give the meaning of the
derivative.
Use the table to help you analyze the probable meanings of the words on the next page.
Affix (Prefix/
Suffix)
Meaning
Example
Root (or Base)
Meaning
Example
im-
not OR in, into
impossible,
import
valar
to lower
in-
not OR within, in,
on, toward
insane
indoors, inscribe
-cred-
belief, trust
credible
e-
away
emit
pressare
to press
pressure
a-
not
amoral
-sort-
lot, share
sortable
con-
with
conform
trophe
nourishment
-ic
characteristic of
romantic
pote-
able
potential
-ance/-ence
quality, state of
confidence
longus
long
longevity
-sion/-tion
action, process
tension, solution
-y
state, quality
beggary
-ous
having, full of
pretentious
-ism
adherence to a
system or set of
principles
socialism
-ium
small one
podium
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Circle the affixes in each word and underline the root or base word. Write the meaning
of each word part and the meaning of the derivative that you predict based on the word
parts. Check your prediction against the definition of the word in a dictionary. Revise your
meaning if necessary.
1. atrophy ______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. consortium ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. elongated ____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. impotence ____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. impressionistic ________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. incredulous ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. valance ______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Train from Rhodesia, page 1192
Analyze Literature: Setting and Theme
The setting of a story is the time and place in which it occurs and is made up from all the
details that describe the landscape, buildings, weather, furnishings, clothing, and social
attitudes of the era and location. Setting is one literary element the author may use to
suggest theme, the central message or perception about life explored in the story. Character
actions and the way in which conflict is resolved also suggest theme.
Part 1: Identify Setting
Complete the chart to explore the nature of the story’s setting and what it suggests.
Element of Setting
How It Is Described
What It Suggests
Train station
1950s South Africa
Landscape
Train
Vendors
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Part 2: Explain Significance
Explain the significance of each excerpt and the idea it suggests about this time and place.
1. “All up and down the length of the train in the dust the artists sprang, walking bent, like
performing animals, the better to exhibit the fantasy held toward the faces on the train.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. “Somewhere there was an idea that he, that living with him, was part of the holiday, the strange
places.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. “If you wanted it, why didn’t you pay for it? Why didn’t you take it decently, when he offered it?
Why did you have to wait for him to run after the train with it…?”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. “A weariness, a tastelessness, the discovery of a void made her hands slacken their grip, atrophy
emptily, as if the hour was not within her grasp.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. “The train had cast the station like a skin. It called out to the sky, I’m coming, I’m coming; and
again, there was no answer.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
The Train from Rhodesia, page 1192
Selection Quiz
True or False
Write T if the statement is true or F if the statement is false.
_____ 1. Young newlyweds are traveling by train on their honeymoon.
_____ 2. The young woman is drawn to a beautiful carved basket.
_____ 3. Black artisans are sullen and angry toward the whites on the train.
_____ 4. The young woman bargains with an artist for what she wants to buy.
_____ 5. The artist and young man complete the sale after the train moves on.
Short Answer
Write your answer to each of the following questions in the space provided.
6. What does the young woman especially like about a carved lion?
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. What does she wonder about the purchases she has made on her honeymoon?
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. What object is associated with the stationmaster’s wife?
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. What does the train’s whistle seem to call out?
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. Why is the young wife ashamed?
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
No Witchcraft for Sale, page 1203
Build Vocabulary: Practicing with Context
Context can help you learn difficult new words. Context is the language (the sentence or
passage) surrounding a word that suggests its meaning. Learning to give context clues in
your writing can also help you to strengthen your understanding of words you are adding
to your vocabulary.
Find each word in the textbook. Study the context in which it appears and predict its
meaning. Then read its definition at the bottom of the page. Use what you have learned
about the word to write a sentence with the word. Be sure your sentence contains clear
context clues to its meaning.
1. reverently (page 1204) __________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. reproachful (page 1205) _________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. inevitable (page 1205) ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. efficacy (page 1206) ____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. exasperation (page 1207) ________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. perfunctory (page 1207) _________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. incredulously (page 1208) ________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. eminent (page 1209) ____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
No Witchcraft for Sale, page 1203
Build Background: Folk Medicine
Folk medicine plays an important part in the story “No Witchcraft for Sale.” For thousands
of years, various societies have used medical treatments and health practices based on plant,
animal, and mineral-based medicines, manual techniques and exercises, acupuncture, and
other methods. Today, these traditional, or folk, medicine practices are still used by the
majority of the population in some countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the
United States, millions of people use alternative medicine (which incorporates traditional
medicine) either in combination with conventional, physician-based medicine, or alone.
For example, an adult may combine a doctor-prescribed statin drug with an omega-3
fatty acid supplement to lower cholesterol levels. The combination of conventional and
alternative medical care is known as integrative medicine.
Many herbal remedies have existed for hundreds of years and are widely accepted in
certain populations. Indigenous medicine involves the use of gathered plant parts to make
teas, poultices, or powders that are reported to effect a cure. Often these remedies remain
untested scientifically because of the expense of such studies. However, time has proven
that some folk remedies are effective and, in fact, have given rise to conventional medicines.
The bark and leaves of the willow had long been used for fever and pain before scientists
discovered it contains salicylic acid—you know this as aspirin. Wild cherry bark, used for
sore throat, is now included in patent cough syrups.
Explore one of the following aspects of folk or alternative medicine:
Ayruveda: originated in India more than 5,000 years ago; incorporates yoga,
meditation, massage, diet, and herbs
Homeopathy: treatment using minute doses of a substance that causes symptoms to
stimulate the body’s self-healing response
Naturopathy: treatment focused on noninvasive methods to help the body heal itself;
incorporates massage, acupuncture, herbal remedies, exercise, and lifestyle counseling
Dietary supplements and herbal remedies: herbs and supplements taken as teas, oils,
syrups, powders, tablets or capsules
Energy therapies: treatment focused on balancing and restoring the natural flow of
energy (chi, prana, life force) in the body (acupuncture is one example)
1. Research your chosen topic thoroughly, using reliable Internet resources: look for URLs ending
in .org or .edu. or widely respected medical sites, such as mayoclinic.com.
2. Take careful notes and be sure to document the source of each note so you can find it again.
3. If possible, interview practitioners of alternative or complementary medicine to learn their views
about the potential of folk medicine in today’s world.
4. With a group of classmates, share your findings and work to create a panel presentation on
alternative or folk medicine. Be sure to make your presentation balanced, citing both its pros and
its cons. Be prepared to answer your classmates’ questions.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
No Witchcraft for Sale, page 1203
Analyze Literature: Conflict
A story holds our interest because it involves conflict in which the characters struggle with
some force, problem, or difficulty. The conflict may be external (a battle with nature or a
struggle with other characters or society) or internal (an inner struggle with conscience,
emotions, or motives). Conflict is developed through plot events, increasing tension until
the climax, or high point.
Complete the chart by explaining the nature of each conflict listed. Tell if and how the
conflict is resolved.
Conflict
Nature / Description of the Conflict
Gideon and Teddy
Teddy and his feelings for Gideon
Gideon and his feelings for Teddy
Gideon and the scientist
Human need to connect and racial segregation
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
No Witchcraft for Sale, page 1203
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct quote on the line next to the character who said it.
_____ 1. Teddy
A. “God chose you as an instrument for his goodness.”
_____ 2. Gideon
B. “These things get exaggerated in the telling.”
_____ 3. Mrs. Farquar
C. “He’s only a black boy.”
_____ 4. doctor
D. “His eyes will get better.”
Fill in the Blank
Fill in the blank with the word or phrase from the box that best completes each sentence.
be saved
make money
herb root
piccanin
Little Yellow Head
tree snake
5. Gideon’s youngest son is known as _____________________________.
6. Gideon’s name for Teddy is _____________________________.
7. Teddy could go blind because a _____________________________ spit in his eyes.
8. Gideon is able to save Teddy by applying juice from a(n) _____________________________
to his eyes.
9. The Farquars want Gideon to reveal the source of the medicine so that people will
_____________________________.
10. A scientist wants to find out about the medicine so that people will
_____________________________.
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Sparrows, page 1211
Build Vocabulary: Connotations of Synonyms
Synonyms are words with the same or similar meanings. Synonyms differ in their shades
of meaning and in their connotations, or the emotional associations that accompany
them. Some synonyms have opposite or contrasting connotations. For example, destined
describes something predetermined, or dedicated in advance as in “George felt he was
destined for the presidency.” A word that has a similar meaning is fated, as in “the ship
was fated to sink.” However, destined connotes a great or noble course or end, and fated
connotes a usually adverse outcome.
Circle all synonyms for each bold vocabulary word; then choose one synonym whose
connotations are very different from those of the vocabulary word. Explain the differences
in connotation on the lines provided. Consult a dictionary about unfamiliar words.
1. indolence: sickness, laziness, lassitude, inactivity, enjoyment
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. frugal: thrifty, uncertain, economical, helpful, stingy
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. ominous: threatening, oily, menacing, portentous, smelly
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. peevish: rough, fretful, forgotten, crabby, spiteful
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. contemplative: introspective, neat, untouched, withdrawn, pensive,
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. admonish: dress, caution, scold, deny, placate
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Sparrows, page 1211
Analyze Literature: Characterization
Authors include details to explain what makes their characters “tick.” Methods of
characterization include direct description, reactions of others to the character, and reports
of what the character says and does.
Part 1: Analyze Details
For each character, list four story details that reveal something about the person. Explain
how each detail adds to your understanding of this character.
Hilda
Detail 1. ________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Detail 2. ________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Detail 3. ________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Detail 4. ________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Alfred
Detail 1. _________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
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Detail 2. _________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Detail 3. _________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Detail 4. _________________________________________________________________________
Reveals: _________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Part 2: Describe Characters
Use your analysis of details of characterization from Part 1 to answer the following
questions.
1. List three adjectives that describe Hilda’s personality.
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. List three adjectives that describe Alfred’s personality.
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. How would you characterize the relationship between Hilda and Alfred? What reasons for this
relationship are suggested by story events?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Which character is more sympathetic? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Sparrows, page 1211
Selection Quiz
Short Answer
Write your answer to each of the following questions in the space provided.
1. Where and when does this story take place?
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. About what do Hilda and Alfred disagree with regard to their daughter?
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. What does Hilda teach the youngest sparrow?
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What future concern about her husband worries Hilda?
_____________________________________________________________________________
Multiple Choice
Write the letter of the correct answer on the line.
_____ 5. The couple’s attitudes toward the sparrows reflect
A. indulgent kindness and encouragement.
C. the training of a naturalist.
B. selfish, misguided irritation.
D. their attitude toward their daughter.
_____ 6. Hilda’s attitude toward Arthur can best be described as
A. timid and deferential.
C. quiet understanding.
B. controlled anger and impatience.
D. bitter resentment and rage.
_____ 7. What is the likely reason for Alfred’s fearfulness and irritation?
A. His mental decline and loss of
C. He believes the Health Department
control has made him anxious.
will raid the café.
B. The loss of his job has left the family
D. He and Hilda can ill afford to
in a precarious financial position.
give their daughter money.
_____ 8. Details of the story suggest Hilda is
A. wishy-washy.
B. painfully shy.
C. bossy.
D. nurturing.
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Dead Men’s Path, page 1224
Build Vocabulary: Multiple-Meaning Words
and Homographs
Many English words have several meanings; to determine which meaning of a multiplemeaning word an author has used, the reader must consider the context.
Certain words that are spelled alike are in fact different in derivation and sometimes
pronunciation; they are called homographs. A dictionary provides separate entry words
.
for homographs. For example, bow (bō) names a weapon or something curved; bow (au)
describes the action of bending the head, body, or knee in submission. Mole may represent
a Germanic word for a pigmented spot on the skin (originating from OHG meil), a word
naming a burrowing insectivore (originating from MLG mol), or a word for a spicy sauce
(originating from Nahuatl molli, pronounced mō lā).
Part 1: Identify Meaning
Find each word in the story; look on the page given in parentheses. Read the word in
context and decide the meaning of the word as used. Write this meaning on line a; write
another meaning the word can have on line b.
1. sound (page 1224)
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
2. narrow (page 1224)
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
3. prospect (page 1225)
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
4. retired (page 1225)
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
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5. standard (page 1225)
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
6. compound (page 1225)
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
7. row (page 1226)
a. ___________________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________________
Part 2: Identify Homographs
Identify the words in Part 1 that are homographs. (The dictionary will list them as
separate entry words and distinguish between their etymologies, or word histories.)
Summarize the difference in origin of the homographs listed in the dictionary.
8. homograph: ___________________________________________________________________
How the words differ in origin: ____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. homograph: ___________________________________________________________________
How the words differ in origin: ____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Dead Men’s Path, page 1224
Analyze Literature: Theme
In a story, the author either states or suggests a central message or perception about life;
this is the story’s theme. To understand what theme or themes an author implies, analyze
the events and characters: What do characters represent? How do they act? What effects do
their actions and ideas have? What messages about life do these outcomes suggest?
Explain what each of the following suggests about a character or action. Then respond
to the Writing Prompt.
1. “his passion for ‘modern methods’ and his denigration of ‘these old and superannuated people in
the teaching field who would be better employed as traders in the Onitsha market.’”
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. “Ndume School was backward in every sense of the word.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. “‘I remember there was a big row some time ago when we attempted to close it (the path to the
shrine and burial ground).’” [a teacher who had been there three years]
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. “‘This path was here before you were born and before your father was born. The whole life of this
village depends on it.’” [village priest of Ani]
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. “What I always say is let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch.” [village priest]
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. “Two days later a young woman in the village died in childbed.…Obi woke up the next morning
among the ruins of his work.…the beautiful hedges were torn up…the flowers trampled to death
and one of the school buildings torn down.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
Writing Prompt
On a separate sheet of paper, write a statement summarizing an important theme of the
story. Write a paragraph defending your conclusion; give supporting details from the
story to develop your thesis.
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Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Dead Men’s Path, page 1224
Selection Quiz
Matching
Write the letter of the correct description on the line next to the matching place,
organization, or character.
_____ 1. Michael Obi
A. commercial center in Nigeria
_____ 2. village priest
B. directs villagers to make “heavy sacrifices”
_____ 3. diviner
C. focus of schoolmaster’s ambitions
_____ 4. Onitsha
D. judges schoolmaster harshly for “misguided zeal”
_____ 5. Ndume School
E. mastermind of beautiful gardens
_____ 6. Nancy Obi
F. man with many progressive ideas
_____ 7. Government Education Officer
G. village spokesman
Short Answer
Write your answer to each of the following questions in the space provided.
8. What does Michael Obi condemn in older headmasters?
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. What is his passion?
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. According to the village priest, who uses the path?
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. How does Michael Obi put an end to use of the path?
_____________________________________________________________________________
12. What happens to cause villagers to damage the school?
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Answer Key
Postmodern Era Study Guide for Connecticut
Historical Context
1. 1945 to 1959; 2. 1960 to 1974; 3. 1975 to 1989; 4. 1990 to 2007;
5.
1949 George Orwell published 1984, and Mao Zedong rose to lead the new communist state,
the People’s Republic of China.
1952 Elizabeth was crowned Queen of Britain, and Samuel Beckett published Absurdist
drama Waiting for Godot.
1969 U.S. astronauts landed on the moon; The IRA split into two factions; John Fowles
published The French Lieutenant’s Woman.
1981 The British Social Democratic Party was founded, and racial tensions in south London
erupted in the Brixton Riots.
1994 The Chunnel connecting Great Britain and Europe’s mainland opened, and apartheid
(and its white government) ended in South Africa.
6. Britain, France, and Israel fought Egypt for control of the Suez Canal and suffered political
defeat, signaling an end to imperialistic dominance. 7. Achebe’s work revealed the cancerous
effects of imperialism and racist government in Africa. The next four decades saw steady
erosion of white control and growing international pressure against oppression, ending with
failure of the apartheid government in 1994. 8. The 1990s saw the end of the Cold War and of
apartheid in South Africa as well as the opening of the Internet, seeming to point to a brave new
world of equality and opportunity. From 2000 to the present, terrorism and natural catastrophes
have dominated the world stage and caused great destruction and death.
Possible answers:
A 1.At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union took control of Eastern Europe.
2.An “iron curtain” soon divided free West European nations from eastern dictatorships.
3.Conflict between communist and democratic countries dominated the world until the
Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s.
B 1.After the war, a new Labour government tried nationalizing industry and health care but
failed to make progress.
2.Queen Elizabeth was crowned, and Britain focused on rebuilding war-ravaged cities.
3.Britain’s inability to retain control over the Suez Canal showed its weakened international
presence.
C 1.Nationalist movements in its colonies caused Britain to dismantle its empire.
2.In 1947, India was divided into a Hindu state (India) and a Muslim state (Pakistan),
leading to large-scale religious conflict.
3.Kenya, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) South Africa, Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka
(Ceylon), Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Zambia (northern Rhodesia), Trinidad and Tobago, and
Uganda gained independence; the Empire became a Commonwealth.
D1.British youth revolted through rock ’n’ roll and radical style.
2.British economy floundered, but Britain joined the European Community.
3.Conservative government under Thatcher privatized industries but angered citizens with a
poll tax.
4.Labour government led by Blair made liberal gains but eventually lost favor for its support
of the U.S. war in Iraq.
E 1.Violence erupted in Northern Ireland, where Catholics sought civil rights and the IRA
attacked from underground.
2.The terrorist arm of the IRA began bombings and violence escalated.
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F 1. The Internet had profound impact on communication worldwide.
2.The Human Genome Project allowed mapping of DNA, leading to advances in disease
treatment and cloning of animals.
3. Environmental and overpopulation issues challenge world populations.
Understanding Part 1: Realizations
1. alienation, negation, emptiness; 2. economic depression, a sense of technology spinning out
of control, and cynicism 3. He focused on youth, aging, and death. 4. a. Smith explores the
failure of a desperate man to connect with those “on the shore”; Greene shows the isolating
effects of emotional pain. b. Pinter shows people who cannot communicate; Larkin reveals
human alienation through sorrow over a lost home. 5. a. Atwood explores the relationship of
humans to nature. b. Orwell shows the effect of British imperialism and oppression on human
relationships. c. Heaney explores the relationship of people to their past and forebears.
Applying Part 1: Realizations
1. Oppression of one people by another dehumanizes both and sets them against each other.
2. People fail to notice the suffering and desperation caused by an individual’s isolation. 3. What
people say to each other fails to connect them, and in fact isolates them from each other and the
truth. 4. In lonely moments with nature, a person can gain quiet understanding and strength
from its power. 5. Parents and children are separated at each end of their lives by opposing
perceptions and capacities. 6. Emotional pain can isolate a person and even form personality.
7. a. Their mood is exuberant. b. Their content is lush and celebratory. c. Their language is
effusive and overwhelmingly musical. 8. a. People alienate themselves from nature because they
believe themselves more important than they are. b. The loss of one’s home leaves a sense of
emptiness and sorrow.
Understanding Part 2: Colonial Influences
1. Most countries and territories it held became independent. 2. ways British imperialism had
affected their lives and identities; 3. West Indies (St. Lucia); how colonialism cripples selfconcept and work of artists; 4. Nigeria; the hurt done to blacks by blatant prejudice; 5. Trinidad
and Tobago; the limitations of colonial artists created by unfavorable comparison to British;
6. Nigeria; the conflicts born of white denial of the value and importance of African culture;
7. South Africa; the shamefulness of humiliations imposed on Africans by white Europeans;
8. Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe); the impossibility of real, honest human relationships
between natives and white Europeans; 9. India; the isolation and fear of children, who compete
fiercely with siblings; 10. a view of imperialism from the receiving end of oppression and
difficulties of assembling a healthy, whole identity
Applying Part 2: Colonial Influences
Midsummer XXIII: Racism and oppression lead to outrage and violence. Telephone
Conversation: Prejudice dehumanizes the African in Great Britain. B. Wordsworth: The
poet and visionary of a colonial people is limited by a sense of inferiority and ignored by his
people. Dead Men’s Path: Trying to replace African culture and belief with white culture and
belief causes severe conflict. The Train from Rhodesia: The mistreatment of blacks because of
apartheid is shameful. No Witchcraft for Sale: Africans and white colonials cannot bridge the
gulf caused by racism, nor can they understand each other’s full humanity. Games at Twilight:
The discovery of one’s insignificance in the family and the world isolates the maturing child.
1. In “Telephone Conversation” a black man is dumbfounded by a white woman’s blatant
racism and unconcern about how he feels. In “No Witchcraft for Sale,” a white family and
their black servant have genuine affection for each other but cannot connect because of racist
social mores and white failure to recognize the humanity of blacks. 2. “Sparrows” suggests
that children are vitally important to parents and can be nurtured and helped to become
independent individuals, while “Games at Twilight” focuses on the meanness of sibling rivalry
and the isolation and hurt of realizing one is not important to one’s family.
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Understanding Literary Forms: The Short Story
1. fictional narrative with plot; 2. authentic characters; 3. theme; 4. story’s more narrow focus;
5. story’s fewer characters; 6. story’s quicker development and momentum; 7. time and place in
which a story occurs; details such as specific location, historic period, or season and weather,
which create the specific conditions; 8. atmosphere or emotional field created in reader; specific
aspects of surroundings, such as smells, sights, create emotional responses in characters and
evoke feelings; 9. narrator; 10. perspective from which a story is told, created by the narrator,
who tells the story; 11. First-person narrator: character in the story, subjective and limited by
what he or she can observe; third-person limited: may or may not be a character in the story but
lacks information needed to understand situation or motives; third-person omniscient: may or
may not be a character but understands everything about all characters and the plot;
12. the act of creating or describing a character; direct characterization gives explicit explanation
of a character, while indirect characterization shows or suggests personality by describing
what characters say, do, or think and what others say or think about them. 13. conversation; it
can reveal personal qualities by giving reactions and interactions with others. 14. plot;
15. exposition: introduces characters and conflict; 16. rising action: establishes and increases
conflict; 17. climax: high point of interest or suspense, showing character’s critical action or
understanding of problem; 18. falling action: steps after the climax; 19. resolution: central
conflict solved; 20. a central message or perception about life revealed in a literary work; implied
theme—not stated but inferred from story clues; stated theme—presented directly by author
Applying Literary Forms: The Short Story
1. The Train from Rhodesia: South Africa in the early 1950s, in a small village that exists as a
tourist stop on a railway line; apartheid and the poverty of the natives means they must wait
and cater to the white tourists, hoping to sell their artworks to earn money. Dead Men’s Path:
colonial Nigeria on a mission schoolgrounds in a small village; throws together native culture
and resistance with white colonial attitude that “modern” (white) is better. B Wordsworth:
Trinidad, a colonial city with impoverished natives; most natives are “busy” being dissatisfied
with their lives and who they are; the poet B Wordsworth is mistrusted in this environment and
lacks self-esteem and confidence to really believe he can be great. 2. Possible answer: Gideon
loves Teddy but will not allow his body to touch the white boy’s. Gideon smiles as he says to
Teddy, “Soon you will own a farm of your own,” but this badge of white land-ownership is what
makes Teddy an enemy to Gideon. Gideon pretends he is leading the scientist and Farquars
to the plant when he has no intention of doing so. 3. No Witchcraft for Sale: someone outside
the story observing all the characters and aware of their thoughts; third-person omniscient;
Games at Twilight: someone outside the story who follows Ravi closely and knows his thoughts
but can only report the actions of other characters, third-person limited; from Balzac and the
Little Chinese Seamstress: a character, the middle-class teenage boy who lives with Luo; firstperson; 4. Hilda is nurturing and understanding of youngsters who are dependent on their
parents but trying to gain independence; her patience is tried by her failing husband, whose
advancing senility makes him querulous and unable to cover his fear and stinginess. She feeds
the fledglings with enjoyment, encouraging them. She knows the youngest fledgling by sight.
She believes they should give their daughter money to put down on a share in a home.
5. Exposition: Heat and the close atmosphere of the house drive the young children of a middleclass Indian couple outside, where they initiate a game of hide-and-seek; they are contentious
and cruel in their interactions. Rising action: Ravi finds a hiding place in a shed. Despite his
fear, he stays and begins to feel triumphant, certain he will win. After a long wait, he realizes
to his frustration that he has not touched the den to win the game. Climax: Ravi races to the
house, only to find the others are playing a game and have not missed him. Furious, Ravi attacks
the children and demands that they acknowledge his victory. Falling action: Everyone in the
family tells Ravi not to be a baby, but he realizes that they have forgotten him and he cannot
forgive this failure. Resolution: Ravi lies on the grass, despairing over his insignificance. 6. The
Train from Rhodesia: a young wife, a white woman; she cannot accept her husband’s shabby,
humiliating treatment of an African artist and feels ashamed of her role in the discrimination.
No Witchcraft for Sale: Gideon, an African servant to white farmers in Rhodesia; he struggles to
deny his love for a white child, whom he knows is becoming his oppressor. Sparrows: a middleaged woman whose husband is becoming senile; she struggles to keep calm and show that
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they should help their daughter become independent. 7. a. A real poet is a keen observer and a
visionary or interpreter of the world for his people, but colonial imperialism has deprived native
artists of the sense of worth necessary to succeed. b. Learning one’s insignificance in the world
is a bitter blow to a child’s self-esteem. c. Uncompromising attempts to root out African culture
and substitute white culture will lead to resistance and violent conflict. d. A fully developed
relationship between oppressed and oppressor is not possible, for the slave must resent the
master and the master cannot acknowledge the humanity of the slave.
Connecticut-Based Practice Test
1. c; 2. g; 3. a; 4. j; 5. c; 6. f; 7. d; 8. g; 9. c; 10. f; 11. c; 12. h
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Shooting an Elephant
Build Vocabulary: Using Associations and Making Connections
1–6. Students’ associations will vary but should indicate a grasp of the meanings of the terms.
Build Background: British Rule of Burma
Students’ reports should include an introduction, body, and conclusion. The body should
include at least three paragraphs and be organized logically. Text should be unified by
transitions, and the report should focus on a thesis, presented in the introduction.
Analyze Literature: Point of View and Conflict
Possible answers: 1. Orwell dislikes the Burmese because they thwart and ridicule him, but
philosophically he sympathizes with their plight. They are motivated by poverty and helpless
fury over the loss of their freedom, dignity, and prosperity. 2. A Burmese peasant would
describe Orwell’s actions as those of an oppressor, coloring them with his or her rage and
disdain for a cruel and inhumane ruler. 3. The Burmese want the British to leave and give them
back their country; the local British authorities want peace and order—basically obedience from
subjects. 4. He wants to spare the elephant, whose rampage has ended; however, the crowd
expects him to kill the elephant, and he must if he is to be respected as the sahib. 5. He explains
the futility and ugliness of imperialism, with which the Burmese people must live. Because he is
constantly mistreated by the people in his work life, he reacts to their enmity with enmity of his
own.
Selection Quiz
1. E; 2. A; 3. C; 4. F; 5. B; 6. D; 7. Winchester; 8. must; 9. van; 10. sahib; 11. imperialism
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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night / Fern Hill
Build Background: The Villanelle
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: iambic pentameter; exact: night/light/ right/bright/
flight/sight/height; fighting against death; none; poet adheres strictly to traditional format;
Information for chosen poems will vary. Students’ answers to the question will vary depending
on their choice of poems.
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Sound Effects
Possible answers: 1. Every aspect of the imagery emphasizes a carefree happiness: the easy
manner of the boy, the lilt of the house, the greenness of the grass. 2. Thomas infuses the rural
scene with dignified spiritual and religious significance: the sound of water running over stones
in a brook is “holy” and peaceful as a “Sabbath.” 3. By night, the farm has a quality that grows
out of the boy’s energy and imagination: As he drops off to sleep, hooting owls seem to him to
carry off the farm. 4. The image reinforces the adventurous quality of youth: Returning at dawn
when the boy wakes, the farm seems a bold adventurer announced by cock’s crow and veiled
with heavy dew. 5. An upper area, out of reach of a young child, is associated with initiation into
life’s truths: leaving behind the absolute innocence of “lamb white days,” the maturing youth
sees himself as ushered into a shadowy loft thronged by swallows—darting and mysterious
birds. 6. Looking back at youth, the speaker sees himself as joyous but imprisoned by time:
“chains” in fact restrained the boy, who was happily oblivious to the fact that from the moment
of birth, a person is moving toward death. The boy felt as limitless as the sea; nonetheless, his
end was inescapable. 7. trees/leaves, trail/daisies, trees/trail; alliteration and assonance; long
e and a sounds are open and expansive, like the youth’s sense of freedom.8. be/means/green;
mercy/means, golden/golden; assonance, alliteration, repetition; golden is both a splendid color
and a euphorically royal emotional state; again, the open long e sound emphasizes freedom.
9. huntsman/herdsman/horn/hills, clear/cold, huntsman/herdsman; alliteration, repetition;
the initial /h/ and /k/ dominate with a strong, masculine feel suitable to the manly arts of
hunting and herding. 10. spellbound/out, walking warm/whinnying, green/fields, stable/praise;
assonance, alliteration; open vowel sounds and soft w sounds suggest the fantasylike, awed
vision of Eden. 11. nothing/turning/songs, my sky/ time, time/tuneful turning; consonance,
assonance, alliteration; beginning /t/ and ending /ng/ enclose the long i sounds, making them
mournful in quality to match the poet’s realization that his youthful kingdom was illusory.
12. Time/dying/I/my/like; green/sea, dying/sang; assonance, consonance; a relentless shower of
long i and e sounds, punctuated by ng endings, accompanies the ambivalent ending of this lush
song: the backward look at his joyous youth is at once glad and rueful.
Selection Quiz
1. T; 2. F; 3. T; 4. T; 5. T; 6. F; 7. A; 8. A; 9. B; 10. A
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The Hand That Signed the Paper
Build Vocabulary: Layers of Meaning from Context
Possible answers: 1. cut or knocked down; to fell a city calls up images of raw stumps and
crumbled buildings that give visceral meaning to the concept of destruction. 2. having supreme
power; absolute; emphasizing the absolute authority of the king without naming him calls to
mind all the tyrants of history. 3. a pen made from or resembling the quill of a feather; that the
pen used is a quill places the act in the past and also ties it ironically to an innocent animal.
4. crime of killing a person with malice aforethought; calling the taking of life in war murder
makes it heinous rather than glorious or patriotic. 5. migratory grasshopper that travels in
hordes and strips areas of vegetation; the image adds the feeling of a land made barren and
alludes to biblical references to plagues of locusts. 6. absolute ownership; the word has a long
history; the poet is reinforcing the idea that tyranny has dogged all of history. 7. scabbed over
with hardened, dried blood; that the wound inflicted by violence in war has not been cared for
reinforces the idea of the indifference of the ruler to the suffering he has caused.
Analyze Literature: Meter and Rhyme
Possible answers: odd-numbered lines with 5 beats; even-numbered lines with 4 or 3 beats;
longer flowing lines alternate with truncated lines, creating tension; short final lines of
each stanza have the most force—both in sound and ideas. many iambs with a number of
other combinations of stress scattered in (Doubled/the globe/of dead; The five kings count
the dead, and so on); odd numbered lines end with an unstressed syllable. abab cdcd efef
ghgh; even numbered lines are monosyllabic and solid; odd numbered rhymes are feminine
(multisyllabic)—end on falling note. Exact rhyme: breath/death, chalk/talk; came/name—
increases emphasis on short lines. Slant rhyme: city/country, shoulder/murder, fever/over,
soften/heaven, brow/flow (sight rhyme)—subtle, unifying but does not slow down flow of
ideas. Possible answers: 1. Changing the rhythm causes the reader to slow after every two lines
and consider the ideas within them; the shorter lines have more punch. 2. Iambs are similar
to simple speech, but mixing in other feet randomly increases the “real speech” element of the
poem; it also adds rhythmic complexity which is interesting. 3. Approximate or slant rhymes
such as city/country, shoulder/murder, and fever/over create a subtle harmony because of the
similarity of sound without causing the reader to pause consciously to savor that sameness.
Thus, the slant rhyme both unifies the poem and encourages its forward movement. 4. The
monosyllables of the exact rhymes in even-numbered lines create a blunt emphasis on the
concrete and the basic: breath and death, for example, are fundamental words about life’s most
important everyday concerns. Exact rhyme on these pairs also emphasizes the importance of the
words and the idea in those lines. 5. In “The Hand That Signed the Paper” Thomas uses slant
rhyme to bind his ideas together subtly with sound, exact rhyme to emphasize the life-and-death
importance of his theme to ordinary people, and meter to imitate speech and call attention to
strong statements.
Selection Quiz
1. C; 2. E; 3. D; 4. B; 5. F; 6. A; 7. the fingers of the hand that signed a document; 8. A pen made
from a goose quill ended the killing of war. 9. an official document authorizing war or the use of
violence; 10. supreme authority
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Not Waving but Drowning
Build Background: Stevie Smith
Students’ readings should be fluent, well-paced, well-modulated, and appropriate to the style of
the poem. Students’ explanations should show understanding of figurative language and levels
of meaning.
Analyze Literature: Sound Devices and Theme
1. repetition; 2. onomatopoeia; 3. repetition of sound (-ing) and of phrase; 4. exact rhyme;
5. slant rhyme; Possible answers: 6. The drowning stands for the way the man struggled with his
life and was ultimately overwhelmed. The underlying subject is emotional or mental struggle
and the inability to communicate to others the depth and seriousness of that struggle.
7. Moaning sounds like what it names. It reinforces the idea of suffering in isolation.
Selection Quiz
1. F; 2. T; 3. F; 4. T; 5. T; 6. C; 7. A; 8. C; 9. C
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That’s All
Build Background: Theater of the Absurd
Students’ essays should explore an Absurdist drama’s unique use of language, character (or
archetype), and plot (or atmosphere). Essays should begin with an introduction containing a
clear thesis and end with a conclusion that sums up what the student learned about Theater of
the Absurd from this example. The body should contain at least three paragraphs, each focused
on a specific element in the play and backed up by relevant supporting details and examples
from the play.
Analyze Literature: Character, Language, and Plot in Absurdist Drama
Possible answers: 1. Mrs. A: the loss of her routine and perhaps of her friendship with a woman
who has moved; Mrs. B: nothing apparent, perhaps Mrs. A and her attention or lack of attention
to Mrs. B; 2. Mrs. A: repetitive and rambling reportage on change in days of marketing at a
butcher shop; Mrs. B: monosyllabic affirmations of what Mrs. A says and one observation that
appears to be wrong (but may simply show Mrs. A’s dissembling). 3. Mrs. A: she seems selfcentered and to have social tunnel vision; Mrs. B: she seems either taciturn or hawklike in her
attention to what really underlies Mrs. A’s running commentary. 4. Mrs. A: Mrs. B might as well
not be there, for all the attention Mrs. A pays to her; Mrs. B: she may be paying little attention
to what her friend says or she may be able to detect the hurt beneath Mrs. A’s patter (at being
avoided by the third woman). 5. Mrs. A’s domination of the conversation suggests that she has a
problem with the situation; Mrs. B’s “follower” status and lack of response may show that she is
upset, disengaged, or acting more as a sounding board than a conversation partner. Overall,
the dialogue shows lack of connection by one or both women. 6. Mrs. A’s repetition has the feel
of a ritual; she may be obsessed with “losing” the third woman because she has so little to fill her
life. Her repetition that “She still comes in” may be a denial of reality. 7. Both women
speak simply and in circles; the language suggests either terrible boredom or repression.
8. Ironically, the words these women say to each other communicate their failure to
communicate. Either they do not listen to each other, or they have no intention of speaking
what is really on their minds. 9. Mrs. A may be trying to console herself for the loss of someone
she considered a friend and confidante; Mrs. B may be slyly trying to ascertain how upset
Mrs. A is and to get her to admit that the third woman is avoiding her. 10. The repetitious and
circular language suggests the boredom of lives in which the day when meat is bought assumes
great significance. The one-sidedness of the conversation suggests an unattractive quality about
Mrs. A that could explain why Mrs. B has little to say to her. 11. Mrs. A invites a neighbor, Mrs.
B, in for tea and then talks of nothing but the neighbor whom she used to have in regularly for
companionship and whom she now sees only occasionally. 12. Mrs. A is revealing her selfish
nature and her lack of attachment for Mrs. B; Mrs. B is fishing for clues about what has really
happened between the third woman and Mrs. A and how Mrs. A really feels about her.
Selection Quiz
1. F; 2. T; 3. T; 4. F; 5. F; 6. T; 7. D; 8. C; 9. B; 10. D
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The Horses
Build Vocabulary: Compound Words
Possible answers: 1. hour-before-dawn; compound adjective; time of night when light is
beginning to appear; he emphasizes the nearness of sunrise and the remaining darkness that
shrouds much of the world. 2. frost-making; compound adjective; quality of air and moisture
that results in frozen moisture that covers objects; he suggests that the stillness is not tranquil or
benevolent but a space in which natural phenomena create yet another challenge for the living.
3. moorline; compound noun; the horizon where an open and rolling expanse of grassland
begins; he enables readers to visualize his progress through steep woods to a moor and at the
same time focuses a vast geographic region into a mere line of vision, emphasizing his inability
to see detail. 4. megalith-still, compound adjective; the unmoving quality of something ancient,
immense, and stony, as the rough stones used in prehistoric times for monuments or building;
he captures numerous qualities he perceives in the horses: they are statuelike in their stillness,
primeval or timeless, strong as stone, enduring, and mysterious. 5. hind-hooves; compound
noun; curved covering of horn that protects the ends of back legs in an ungulate mammal; he
reminds of the hardness and power of hooves while at the same time showing (by their tilt) that
the horses are at rest, not reacting with fear or a need to protect themselves.
Analyze Literature: Diction and Mood
Possible answers: Nouns: stillness, leaf, bird, world, frost, wood, breath, statues, light, valleys,
darkness, dregs, sky, horses, manes, hind-hooves, fragments, emptiness, silence, sun, gulf, fever,
dream, planets, horizons; nouns present concrete pictures of things but are general rather than
specific. Verbs: climbed, cast, draining, breathed, leafed, erupted, tore, flung, shook, endure;
verbs describing the sunrise are violent in contrast to the rest of the poem, which is passive or
acted upon by outside forces; Adjectives: evil, frost-making, tortuous, blackening, brightening,
dense, megalith-still, draped, tilted, silent, orange, red, kindling, steaming, glistening, stirring,
patient, lonely; describing words suggest threat, power, and mute acceptance; Adverbs: slowly,
silently, down, not, no, open; actions (by the world) are slow, silent, and unstoppable.
1. primitive and powerful: megalith-still, statues in iron light, moorline halved the sky, splitting
to its core; threatening or suffering: evil air, world cast in frost, tortuous statues, sun erupted,
stumbling in fever of dream; enduring and uncomplaining vitality: big planets hanging, steaming
and glistening, hung heads patient, horizons endure; 2. Participles such as brightening, kindling,
steaming, glistening, and stirring inject the objects they describe with energy and vitality. They
emphasize the actions that are performed on the natural world, which is still. 3. He uses more
broad, general nouns such as wood, light, horses, world, planets, horizons; they are mostly
concrete nouns; this gives emphasis to the world the poet encounters, not his thoughts and ideas
about it. 4. erupted, tore, flung, shook; verbs before this described much more quiet actions or
passive constructions in which the world is acted upon. He is showing the violent power of the
world and its cycles, as symbolized by the sunrise. He suggests the violence that living things
must be able to endure to live in the world. 5. Hughes uses concrete, basic words to represent
the simple but overwhelming power of the natural world and its rhythms and to honor the
patient strength with which horses (animals) endure it.
Selection Quiz
1. woods; 2. size; 3. cold; 4. sun; 5. still; 6. A; 7. B; 8. B
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Follower / Digging
Build Background: Seamus Heaney
Students’ reports should include an introduction with a clearly stated thesis, a body with
important points supported well by detailed references to specific poems, and a conclusion that
sums up the thesis.
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Form
Possible answers: Number of lines: Follower—4 in each stanza; Digging—varied—5, 4, 5, 4,
6, 4, 3; Regular or irregular: Follower—regular, similar length; boxlike appearance; Digging—
irregular; pattern for stanzas 1–4; broken in final stanzas 5–7; Reason for form: Follower—may
reinforce exactness of father’s plowing; formal feel for homage; each stanza self-contained;
Digging—4-line stanzas contain shift in focus / time; longer stanzas describe digging; final
stanza gives poet’s solution; Lengths: Follower—medium; mostly 8 or 9 syllables; Digging—
variable but without extremes of variation; Use of end rhyme: Follower—abab pattern; mix of
exact and slant rhyme; Digging—slant and exact rhyme in stanza 1; nowhere else; Reason for
line breaks: Follower—maintain even flow and pace of words and thoughts; Digging—often the
breaks isolate an image; Possible answers: 1. Regular stanzas with a dependable rhyme scheme
and boxlike shape establish a harmonious and dependable form that matches the qualities the
poet admires in his father: disciplined and artful movement that has a regular rhythm, and
which is in tune with the rhythms of nature. 2. The unevenness of stanzas and line formatting
suit the poet’s back and forth through past and present as well as through admiration for
his father and grandfather and recognition that his own skills and path are different. 3. The
father’s shoulders are compared to a sail filled with wind; they have the same tension and
ability to engender forward movement. 4. The row of sod is compared to a crested wave; rows
are like waves in the land, and have a visual similarity. 5. The area behind the just plowed
row is compared to the wake behind a sailboat; the turned earth is uneven, with a furrow and
raised area on each side, just as a wake has. 6. The up and down movement of the father’s back
is compared to the rise and fall of a sailboat moving on waves; both movements are regular
and caused by unevenness in the medium through which one moves. 7. The speaker as a boy
is compared to a puppy; both are intent on following an adored master / father and having
difficulty keeping up. 8. The speaker’s pen is compared to a gun tucked into the writer’s hand
(arm); both are tools that can be used forcefully and can do violence. 9. The speaker’s pen
is compared to a spade or shovel; just as a shovel unearths things that are underground, the
writer’s pen can unearth memories and insights and bring them to light.
Selection Quiz
1. C; 2. A; 3. B; 4. B; 5. C; 6. A; 7. A; 8. B; 9. B; 10. B; 11. A
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A Shocking Accident
Build Vocabulary: Suffixes -ity, -ly (ally), -ion (-sion)
apprehend, v., -sion, anxiety, worry, fear; convulse, v., -ion, spasm, fit; commiserate, v., -ion,
pity, sympathy; brief, adj., -ity, briefness, conciseness; perplex, v., -ity, confusion, bewilderment;
inevitable, adj., -ity, unavoidably, certainly; intrinsic, adj., fundamentally, inherently; 1. verbs,
adjectives, nouns; 2. adjectives, adverbs; 3. verbs, nouns
Analyze Literature: Characterization and Conflict
Possible answers: 1. Narrator states that Jerome is an “approved, reliable” boy to adults; shows
he wants approval; suggests that he is thoughtful and considered in his actions and reactions
to others. 2. Narrator states this; normal behavior for a boy of his age, intensified by father’s
absence; shows need for affection; 3. Narrator describes Jerome’s daydreams and thinking;
shows need of boy to give his father a compelling reason to leave son alone; Jerome has a vivid
imagination and daydreams; he needs to believe his father is special. 4. Narrator informs readers
that Jerome “was only attempting to visualize the strange scene to get the details right.” He
will relive this episode in his imagination many times; it will prove formative to his character.
5. Narrator suggests by using word comic; Jerome will not be able to share the most important
thing with others because they could hurt him; shows his sensitivity and how important his
father is to him; suggests he will turn inward. 6. Narrator describes and shares Jerome’s
versions of the story as monologue; Jerome’s revelation is carefully rehearsed to protect him;
shows he strategizes and limits his relationships with others to minimize pain to himself.
7. Narrator states; tells that Jerome does things “neither too early nor too late” and studies “the
statistics”; shows that Jerome calculates everything about his life, trying to make it ordinary and
unremarkable, as if compensating for the extravagant absurdity of his father’s accident.
8. Narrator enters Jerome’s most intimate thoughts to reveal; Jerome has moved to that part of
his life in which a wife and family will take priority in his emotional life, but he is stuck on his
fear that his beloved father’s memory will be destroyed; shows that Jerome places enormous
significance on emotional responses, while he ironically has suppressed them to avoid pain.
9. Narrator exposes Jerome’s deepest emotions and fears and his morbid reluctance to share
what matters most to him; shows that Jerome has emotional depth, since he accepts and loves
the father who was never around him and perceives love in the small things the dead man did.
10. They find it comic and laugh; they nickname Jerome “Pig.” This hurts Jerome deeply, since
he adores his father. It causes him to keep his feelings and the story to himself. 11. He makes
up two versions that are intended to deflect laughter—one that is boring and one that is short
and shocking—and protect himself (and his father) from humiliation. 12. He will have to tell
the story to his fiancée, and her reaction is most important to him: he cannot share his life with
someone who does not understand and sympathize. She might laugh, showing insensitivity,
or be indifferent, proving she is indifferent to Jerome. Their “quiet” love might not survive the
incident; should they marry, Jerome might be condemned to a shallow relationship in which he
cannot share his intimate thoughts and fears. 13. He becomes an accountant—a “safe” career in
which calculations are paramount, not feelings—and even chooses the time of his engagement
according to the “averages.” These details suggest Jerome’s protective shell has made him even
more careful and protective of his real feelings. 14. Sally reacts with compassion and horror
to the story; she even asks the same question Jerome did when he first got the news. Jerome
is ecstatic and feels real passion for his fiancée because she, like him, has proven sensitive and
loving. This bodes well for an emotionally satisfying married life.
Selection Quiz
1. C; 2. D; 3. F; 4. B; 5. A; 6. E; 7. gun runner or member of the British Secret Service (spy);
8. He is afraid Sally will laugh. 9. Their quiet love might be destroyed if she threatens his beloved
father’s memory. 10. She is horrified and sympathetic.
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from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Build Vocabulary: Words with Political Relevance in China
Possible answers: 1. retrained or rehabilitated through education; re-education of the middleclass (urban educated) was intended to “teach” intellectuals, artists, and professionals the
error of their ways and the value of the simplicity and directness of peasant life; ironically,
the peasants had no education, while the middle class did. 2. song intended to help bring
about fundamental change in government, economy, and socio-cultural ways of thinking; the
communist government sought to indoctrinate the Chinese people by bombardment with such
tools. 3. Mao Zedong, the ruler of China; he sought and achieved almost religious devotion,
especially among the young, who were indoctrinated from earliest schooling to accept his
philosophy without question; his rule would transform China but also cost many millions
of lives. 4. a group of Communist Party-approved officials whose job is to spread ideas and
support for a cause; in the 1960s in China, such a group would have been chosen to promote
the communist cause and Chairman Mao; the narrator would perform what he was told,
becoming essentially a tool of the government. 5. a person advocating socialism—the abolition
of private property so that government can control production and distribution of goods
and in which ownership of property is either collective or governmental; socialist theories lie
behind communist governments. 6. a person advocating capitalism—an economic system in
which private or corporate ownership predominates and free-market competition determines
prices, production, and distribution of goods; in communist China, capitalism was the enemy.
7. a lord who has authority over other lords; an absolute ruler; warlords had fought against
Mao’s Red Army for control of China in the 1930s and 1940s, and China’s past was a long tale
of oppression of peasants by absolute rulers; the dissatisfaction of the peasants gave Mao his
opportunity to rise to power.
Build Background: Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China
Students’ group work should show cooperative effort; panel presentations should be coherently
organized, offer relevant and accurate information, and pose stimulating questions to encourage
class discussion.
Analyze Literature: Character and Setting
Possible answers: Luo: master of storytelling; taking complete control of situation before
audience; direct and enthusiastic but emotionally volatile; thrives in the spotlight; bleak
prospects—lacks skills propagandists might use; Narrator: love of classical music and reading;
more quiet, observant; suffers stage fright; notices every detail of seamstress’s beauty and
personality; Seamstress: has “an untamed quality,” “gleam of uncut gems” in eyes; glowing
complexion; fine features; impressive sensual beauty; is open and forthright with strangers;
informal; unashamed of who she is; shows favor to the boys who visit; has many admirers
infatuated with her beauty; she is “a diamond in the rough” to be polished; Tailor: slight
build, thin, wrinkled, full of energy, capricious, commanding, interested in the world; actions
eccentric and mysterious, self-centered; well-traveled for a peasant, he keeps daughter hidden
at home; he expects to be catered to and leaves the boys abruptly; others in his community treat
him like a king; he is shown utmost respect; daughter displeased with his untamed actions;
1. in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution, when the educated elite were stripped of their
positions and their children were re-educated by being sent away into rural villages, where
they depended on the Chinese peasants and their ability to adapt to hard work for their lives;
this story would not have occurred if China’s political reality of the 1960s had not occurred.
2. in a rural but mountainous region in several remote and isolated villages; the boys live in a
hut on stilts in a crude village without refinements such as a cinema; villages are connected by
treacherous mountain paths; steep terrain and valleys are often shrouded in fog; homes and
places of business are not cleaned regularly and in some disorder. 3. The narrow mountain
path gives the boys a close-up encounter with the tailor; the lack of a cinema gives them an
opportunity to retell movies to villagers; having only one tailor means the boys will meet
the seamstress because they need alterations to clothing. 4. The remote and isolated setting
accentuate the pair, who are so different from the peasants, and provide the opportunity for
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Luo to excel because of his storytelling ability. 5. The narrator worries about Luo’s future, which
seems even more hopeless than his own; their opposite personalities and similar attraction to
the seamstress suggest that they will compete for her affections. The seamstress’s youth, beauty,
and unassuming nature oppose her father’s age, imperiousness, and eccentricity, suggesting that
she will oppose him and become involved with one or both of the boys.
Selection Quiz
1. E; 2. A; 3. F; 4. D; 5. C; 6. B; 7. G; 8. oral cinema show; 9. retell movies; 10. Made in Shanghai;
11. shorten trousers; 12. Four-Eyes
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Home Is So Sad
Build Vocabulary: Semantic Families
Possible answers: Synonyms: house, residence, dwelling, abode, domicile, household, family,
haunt, habitation, stomping grounds, habitat; Types or Examples: bungalow, cottage,
mansion, split level, apartment, hut, ranch, prefab, cape cod, stucco, frame, brick, masonry;
Descriptive words: domestic, homey, relaxed, comfortable, stylish, plain, fancy, shabby,
simple, sophisticated, well-ordered, untidy, inviting, unwelcoming; Related Items/Actions:
housekeeping, decorating, furnishing(s), tables, chairs, beds, dressers, closets, windows, floors,
attic, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, pantry, basement, rugs, dishes, sink,
couch, television; Related Ideas: style, ownership, where the heart is, familiarity, belonging,
self-expression, square footage, equity, resale value, investment, mortgage; Paragraphs should
include a topic sentence that frames the concept and limits it, supporting detail sentences that
explore each of the aspects of the concept listed in the chart, and a concluding sentence that
wraps up the topic. They should read smoothly, use appropriate transitions, and contain few
grammatical or syntactic errors.
Analyze Literature: Line, Stanza, and Rhyme
Possible answers: Line: all are ten syllables, except line 10, which has eleven; same length;
breaks fall on syllable counts but often also fall at end of a clause or sentence. Most lines are
end-stopped by punctuation; lines 2–3 are exceptions. Length is carefully measured as the
boards for a house, part of a formal plan that matches the formal feel of a visit to a former home.
Stanza: each is five lines and contains a complete thought about the home; ten lines matches ten
syllables per line, giving the poem a roughly square structure, also imitative of a house. Rhyme:
ababa cdcdc; end rhymed; stanza 1 contains exact rhyme (left/bereft/theft, go/so); stanza 2
uses slant rhyme (as/was/vase) and rather mismatched exact rhyme (be/cutlery); giving oddnumbered lines to one rhyme and even-numbered lines to another causes the ideas and sounds
to weave in and out of one another; rhyming words are short and plain, like language of poem,
except for cutlery, perhaps part of attempt to unsettle stanza 2, show speaker’s emotion. 1. In
about half the lines, sentences end in mid-line; only lines 9 and 10 end with a period. Half the
lines end with a pause for a comma or colon; line breaks are a counterpoint to sentence endings.
The line structure leads readers forward through the stanza and emphasizes the conversational
feel. 2. The stanzas look exact, even, and balanced; their number of lines and lengths of lines are
the same. The poet may have wanted to echo the straight, dependable structure of the house and
suggest its solidity. This format gives the poem substance and, by referral, the house; ironically,
the home is constant while the people proved inconstant. 3. In each stanza, three odd-numbered
lines have one rhyme, while two even-numbered lines have a second rhyme. Strong (long
vowels) exact rhymes anchor the center of each stanza, while more subtle matching or similar
sounds (short vowels, or variants of a) are laced through them. This pattern of sound knits each
stanza together strongly, so that its idea can be savored and turned over. 4. First stanza rhymes
are exact: left/bereft/theft, go/so; second stanza rhymes are both slant and exact: as/was/vase, be/
cutlery. 5. Short rhyming words match the simple, straightforward, and conversational style of
the poem; more subtle and disjointed use of rhyme in the second stanza suggests the speaker’s
upset as he points out to a companion the details that show how happy the life in that house had
been.
Selection Quiz
1. a home whose inhabitants have left; 2. the loss of the people and the life they brought to the
house; 3. bereft, sad, lonely; 4. artwork, cutlery, music, piano, vase; 5. C; 6. A; 7. C; 8. B
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The Moment
Build Background: Nature and Civilization
Results of students’ research (notes, photocopies, sources) should be submitted with their
products. Presentations should show evidence of adequate research, understanding of the topic
and materials encountered, and logical organization of facts and ideas.
Analyze Literature: Figurative Language and Theme
Possible answers: 1. The imagery suggests a peak in everyman’s life (compared to a “long
voyage”), a time when the realization of survival and some success occurs. Generally, at this
point in life, one has accumulated property (house, land, material wealth) that affirms this
belief. 2. The image suggests that a person’s perception of the botanical world as mere beauty
with the purpose of supporting humanity is taken away; either nature becomes less “friendly”
or the person begins to perceive that it is not human-oriented. 3. The image suggests that
humans lose the capacity to communicate with the natural world, or that such communication
is not possible. A world that is not friendly to humans may be perceived as hostile by humans.
4. The image suggests that the solid earth may withdraw its support from humans, leading to
catastrophe. 5. Withdrawal of air by nature is the most threatening of the poem’s images; the
poet may suggest the poisoning of earth’s atmosphere by pollution, which threatens all life.
Ironically, nature does not withhold the air; it merely reacts to human causes. 6. The image
compares humanity to a house guest, rather than a ruler, of earth. As a visitor, the poem implies,
the person should be respectful of the “house” and act according to its needs and rules rather
than damage it. 7. The “you” is any person who has the attitude that individuals own the earth,
or their little portion of it, and can do as they wish with it. The stanza suggests a civilization in
which agricultural and economic security have been attained. 8. Each item in the list progresses
to a high level of “ownership”: one’s room, the whole building in which one lives, the land on
which it stands, the land around it, and so on, up to an entire country. Being “in the center”
implies that the speaker buys into this attitude of ownership and believes himself or herself to
be in control. 9. Nature withdraws from the person who declares ownership, denying support
and even threatening life. This reaction implies that nature reacts to humans—it does react to
the pressures inflicted on ecosystems by civilized economies. This realization also implies that
humans are ignorant or too proud to understand that they cause their own problems with their
interference in the natural world. 10. The land that the Western world “discovered” and claimed
had existed and thrived, according to its natural rhythms, for eons. It did not suddenly become
valuable and useful because explorers and settlers exploited it. Instead, nature supports people,
as it supports all life. 11. Human beings are a part of the web of ecosystems on Earth, but they
are only a part; if they seek to “own” and dominate nature, they will fail and nature will destroy
them.
Selection Quiz
1. T; 2. F; 3. T; 4. F; 5. F; 6. C; 7. D; 8. B; 9. A
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B. Wordsworth
Build Vocabulary: Using Context
Predicted meanings will vary; dictionary meanings are shown. 1. a withdrawal of a person or
person’s affections from a thing or position of attachment; 2. capable of or exhibiting keen
discernment; 3. incapable of being bribed or morally corrupted; 4. subdued or put down by
force and authority; 5. to be a frequent customer or regular client of
Analyze Literature: Character and Symbol
Possible answers: 1. pride in person; self-respect and belief that he is worthy; 2. care in the use of
language, in what he communicates to others; 3. observant and thoughtful; understands small
things are important; 4. knows himself and knows what he wants; reaches for the highest goal;
5. understands that his world views the poet with suspicion, does not appreciate him; 6. has a
love for the natural world; also suggests vitality of way of life; 7. compassion and understanding
for youthful suffering, how to escape oppression; 8. focus on purpose and what he knows to
be important in life: capacity to see, understand, “cry for” things; 9. isolated and lonely but
not depressed; 10. lives fully in the present; has zenlike awareness; acknowledges spiritual
dimensions of life; 11. deliberate, thoughtful; also suggests slowing of creative process, loss of
inspiration; 12. understands the poet’s mission is to capture life’s essence and show it to others;
13. He is a native of Trinidad and poor. He uses correct English rather than dialect; he spends
his time observing rather than doing; he is deliberate in his actions and is looking for meaning
in life; he is creative and intellectually curious. 14. He identifies himself with a great poet whom
he admires, but he distinguishes himself as Black Wordsworth. This shows his ambition is
led by emulation of white culture, but he considers himself lesser. 15. He is a poet because he
perceives his world minutely, “cries for” it, distills lessons from it, and attempts to give it a
voice. His idea of his greatness may reflect his understanding of the profundity of insight into
“why we are here”; however, it is a greatness he also grants to the narrator. The suggestion is,
within his or her own perceptions, each poet is “the greatest.” 16. B. Wordsworth symbolizes the
creative heart of Trinidad’s people, that aspect that is intellectually curious but also doomed to
fail, perhaps because of his alienation and isolation from fellow Trinidadians. He is also a social
guardian, observing truths about existence on his island and distilling them.
Selection Quiz
1. D; 2. A; 3. E; 4. B; 5. C; 6. permission to observe the bees; 7. a poem about mothers; 8. It is
green and wild and fruitful, not sterile and concrete. 9. singing calypso songs; 10. He speaks
correct English.
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Telephone Conversation / Midsummer XXIII
Build Vocabulary: Etymology
Possible answers are given for b. 1. a. an attention-drawing, usually comic action; whimsical;
b. Possible answer: Something very old may seem odd or funny. 2. a. a former policy of
segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the
Republic of South Africa; b. he policy set black Africans apart from whites. 3. a. agreement;
act of concurring with; b. To assent to something, you feel with or the same as the person with
whom you agree. 4. a. to acknowledge hesitantly or grudgingly; b. Acknowledging that someone
else is right requires yielding to them, or going along with them. 5. a. to install formally, as a
member; to admit as a member; Possible answer: b. those inducted into a society or office were
probably led in by existing members.
Analyze Literature: Imagery and Mood
Telephone Conversation: ll. 7–9: potential landlady interviewing the speaker; appeal to sight,
touch; she is pretentious and has an attitude of superiority. ll. 11–12: falsely polite dialogue that
pretends racism is not the problem; smell, taste; the woman’s prejudice and the way it degrades
the conversation are foul. ll. 33–34: anticipated hanging up by the white woman; sound, touch;
the final rejection does violence and damage to the spirit of the African. Midsummer XXIII: l. 1:
blowing leaves compared to rodents acting en masse; sound, sight; the leaves seem mindless and
out of control to the speaker. ll. 6–7: leaves compared to slaves or cattle in chains; touch, sight;
the leaves (rioters) are pushed and pulled by discrimination and prejudice, and the negative
emotions these cause. l. 14: blacks who took part in the riot; touch, sight; the rioters who were
clubbed into submission were subdued but their outrage simmered as bitter hatred. Possible
answers: 1. He is dumbfounded by her blunt prejudice and failure to recognize that it might hurt
him. She splits hairs about whether the degree of darkness of his color is objectionable. 2. She is
wary and does not understand his attempt at irony and then becomes irritated, creating a tense
feeling. 3. The mood is outraged surprise and tension. 4. Words like stampeding, hiss, and scurry
suggest a threatening and exciting mood; words like seethe, chains, whips, and howls suggest fury
against oppression; the speaker’s reference to the rioter’s “thick skulls” and the praise of white
colleagues introduce an ironic tone. 5. The mood is ominous and boiling with suppressed anger.
Selection Quiz
1. African; 2. West African sepia; 3. apartheid; 4. Caliban; 5. Turner’s ships; 6. C; 7. A; 8. C
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Games at Twilight
Build Vocabulary: Greek and Latin Roots
1. E; function, dysfunctional; 2. H; funerary, funeral; 3. E; nominate, ignominious; 4. D; event,
intervention 5. A; lugubriously, lugubriousness; 6. C; kleptomania, manic; 7. G; stridency,
stridulous; 8. B; cilia, superciliousness; 9. F ; temerarious, temerariousness
Analyze Literature: Conflict
Possible answers: 1. The children feel closed up in the house and overheated outside; discomfort
makes them more contentious. The heat lessens in the evening. 2. The children wrestle over who
will be it, who is cheating, and so on, becoming more and more contentious until the mother
intervenes to change the game. When adults are present, the children control themselves.
3. Ravi is terrified of Raghu and of the shame of being caught; as Raghu gets close, he squeezes
into the shed, which he fears. Raghu does not discover him. 4. Ravi’s fear shifts to concerns
about snakes and other creatures in the dark shed. He is reassured by the sounds of Raghu
outside and later comforted by his pride in his courage and victory. 5. Ravi charges his brothers
and sisters, crying and yelling to get them to admit that he is the winner of the game; they do not
respond. His quest for recognition is drowned in the anguish of realizing they have forgotten
him. 6. Ravi withdraws and experiences torment as he realizes for the first time that he is
insignificant. This conflict is not resolved. Students’ paragraphs should begin with a statement
of the central conflict (most likely, they will choose Ravi’s struggle to gain recognition from
his siblings). They should include sentences outlining the progression of this conflict and
giving story details that support the topic sentence. A concluding sentence should sum up the
significance of Ravi’s conflict.
Selection Quiz
1. F; 2. E; 3. A; 4. B; 5. D; 6. C; 7. D; 8. B; 9. C
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The Train from Rhodesia
Build Vocabulary: Analysis of Word Parts
1. a- (not) + -troph- (nourishment) + -y (state, quality); state of being wasted away (as a
muscle or body part); 2. con- (with) + -sort- (share) + -ium (small one); group formed to share
resources in order to undertake a cooperative task; 3. e- (away) + longus (long) + -ate (cause to
become); to stretch out; lengthen; 4. im- (not) + -pot- (able) + -ence (state of); state of lacking
strength or capacity; weakness; 5. im- (into) + pressare (to press) + -ion (process) + -istic
(characteristic of); characteristic of the process of painting with daubs of paint to imitate light
and create a subjective sense of a scene; 6. in- (not) + -cred- (belief) + -ulous (full of); filled
with disbelief; 7. valar (to lower) + -ance (state of); a short curtain or board across the top of a
window
Analyze Literature: Setting and Theme
Possible answers: Train station/: station master’s tin house with veranda, station with
chalet roof decorated with scroll; grayness; decorated mud wall. It suggests poverty of black
Africans, hardship of their lives, and their attempts to create something artistic. 1950s South
Africa: whites call black men “boy”; blacks call whites “baas” (boss). It suggests humiliating
discrimination and control of lives of black Africans. Landscape: sand stretches away from
station and village like an ocean, grayness of things, natives; dust. It suggests sterility and
infertility (or failure to thrive) both of the land and the social system. Train: engine described
as powerful, cars as “dwindling”; as beast with “steaming complaint”; compartmentalized,
separating passengers from outside life; it casts the station off like a skin. Suggests inhuman
power that dehumanizes both whites and blacks and symbolizes the segregated society, with
blacks subordinate and “business” conducted without any connection. Vendors: squatting and
waiting; gray or gray-black, bent, “like performing animals.” They suggest the dehumanizing
quality of apartheid, which reduces people to glorified beggars who must take what they can get,
though their products are artfully made. 1. It describes the African vendors trying to exhibit and
sell their artworks to white tourists on the train. It shows that their desperation and degradation
in contrast with the superiority and separation of the whites, who hold the power. 2. It expresses
the woman’s lost-ness as she tries to fit a husband into her “real world.” She does not know the
man she married well and can’t imagine their life together. 3. It expresses the frustration of the
woman, who valued the artist’s creative genius and feels disgusted that her husband would force
the artist to take next to nothing and to run after the train. It suggests that the apartheid system
dehumanizes people and robs them of dignity and worth. 4. The woman now feels depressed
because she realizes her values and her husband’s are opposed: he likes being powerful and
getting things for less than they are worth, while she finds such tactics ugly and unworthy.
5. The train is once more compared to a beast, this time a snake that leaves the station and its
people behind like a cast-off skin. Its cry of self-importance is unanswered. The description
suggests the unthinking, bestial quality of such blind white power, which does not consider how
it alienates the oppressed.
Selection Quiz
1. T; 2. F; 3. F; 4. F; 5. T; 6. its mane and the artistry with which it is done; 7. how they will fit in
to her “real life” when she gets them home; 8 a dangling sheep’s carcass ; 9. I’m coming…I’m
coming. 10. She feels they humiliated and cheated the black artist.
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No Witchcraft for Sale
Build Vocabulary: Practicing with Context
Students’ sentences will vary but should provide context that gives clues to the meaning of the
vocabulary words. For example: 1. The grateful parents lit a candle and placed it reverently on
the altar at church. 2. When I failed to back up his excuse for being late to class, Arthur gave me
a reproachful look. 3. Sandra walked into the kitchen after school and waited for the inevitable
question: How was your day? 4. Great-Aunt Mabel swore to the efficacy of chicken soup for
helping alleviate the symptoms of a cold. 5. After numerous failed attempts to open the jar,
Wendell exhaled a great sigh of exasperation. 6. Anxious to leave for the game, Brianna gave the
required farewells to relatives in a perfunctory manner. 7. When told the dog had dialed 911,
the press reacted incredulously with spontaneous laughter. 8. After a decade of study and the
publication of many scholarly articles, Dr. Torres at last felt he deserved to be called “an eminent
Hemingway scholar.”
Build Background: Folk Medicine
Students’ panel presentations should identify the alternative medicinal methods and substances
and their strengths and weaknesses in their uses today.
Analyze Literature: Conflict
Possible answers: Gideon and Teddy: Their sunny relationship takes a turn when Teddy insults
Gideon’s son. Gideon withdraws; Teddy feels remorse but cannot say “I’m sorry.” The rift
changes their relationship from close to distant, loving to professional. Teddy and his feelings
for Gideon: Teddy struggles to fit Gideon, whom he loves, into the racist matrix of his society.
He resolves his conflict by becoming the “baas” and substituting light cheery banter for real
feeling. Gideon and his feelings for Teddy: Gideon struggles to give up his deep love for Teddy,
who is hardening into a social position of oppressor, and accept the loss. He withholds his
warm affection, substituting a formal relationship; his real feelings are buried. Gideon and
the scientist: Gideon fights passively to withhold his expertise, his one area of power, from the
white materialistic society that would exploit it as they have his people. He leads the group,
acknowledging that they hold power over him, but he does not reveal anything of worth to
them. Human need to connect and racial segregation: The Farquar family and their servants
have real affection for one another, but it any real relationship is doomed by the unyielding
attitudes and mores of white Afrikaan society. Gideon remains a valued servant, but the
Farquars’ capacity to understand his life and attitudes is limited; a permanent wall separates
them.
Selection Quiz
1. C; 2. D; 3. A; 4. B; 5. piccanin; 6. Little Yellow Head; 7. tree snake; 8. herb root; 9. be saved;
10. make money
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Sparrows
Build Vocabulary: Connotations of Synonyms
1. laziness, lassitude, inactivity; possible answer: laziness suggests a disinclination to take
trouble or work, while indolence suggests a love of ease and a dislike of movement. 2. thrifty,
economical, stingy; possible answer: stingy suggests mean-spirited withholding, while frugal
suggests the virtuous quality of wise saving. 3. threatening, menacing, portentous; possible
answer: something portentous suggests frightening or impressive size, whereas ominous
suggests something alarming, foreshadowing disaster. 4. fretful, crabby, spiteful; possible
answer: someone who is peevish would show annoying irritability, but someone who is spiteful
would strike out hurtfully. 5. introspective, withdrawn, pensive; possible answer: someone who
is withdrawn is rude or ill-adjusted, whereas someone contemplative is likely concentrating on
spiritual thoughts or devotions. 6. caution, scold; a scolding is harsh, whereas admonishment is
gentle.
Analyze Literature: Characterization
Possible answers: Hilda: Detail 1. Walks cautiously up the steps, great care taken with
appearance, moderation; one or both of them is afraid of getting hurt and takes pride in
appearance, and they are not given to excess. Detail 2. Smiles at dog and approves of the scene
she sees (people, animals, activity, pleasant buildings); outgoing, social, generally positive
outlook on life. Detail 3. is gentle, patient, and encouraging in offering crumbs to fledglings,
“teaching” them; very nurturing person who feels fulfilled by helping youngsters to grow, learn,
and become independent. Detail 4 Detail 5. wants to help their daughter by giving money to
buy a share in a home; she believes that children need help to get their start in life. Alfred: Detail
1. Walks cautiously up the steps, great care taken with appearance, moderation; one or both of
them is afraid of getting hurt and takes pride in appearance, and they are not given to excess.
Detail 2. reacts peevishly to wife’s feeding sparrows because it’s “against the law”; irritable and
picky about small things, generally does not feel “safe” when stepping outside rigid boundaries;
Detail 3. has “the frustrated look of one who did not feel in control of anything”; gobbles scone
so it won’t be stolen; not reacting reasonably to the situation, needs to control situations, may
have health problem that has left him feeling vulnerable; Detail 4. seems near panic when not
irritated; worries that bird might be sick (danger to himself); reinforces illogical overreaction of
someone who is ill; 1. nurturing, capable, loving and giving; 2. irritable, panicked (about losing
control), stingy; 3. She humors and cares for him because he is ill, possibly becoming senile; her
world centers around him now, and he is consumed with the fear that he will lose all control of
his life. She resents his crabbed, self-pitying outlook; he seems too far gone to realize that he is
causing her distress. 4. Hilda is more sympathetic because her nurturing, gentle personality is
emphasized, and the success of the fledgling is central to the action.
Selection Quiz
1. in a garden café in London, right after a rain; 2. whether to help her financially as she leaves
home; 3. how to peck up crumbs for itself; 4. She is afraid he is becoming senile. 5. D; 6. B; 7. A;
8. D
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Dead Men’s Path
Build Vocabulary: Multiple-Meaning Words and Homographs
Possible answers given for b:1. a. free from error; b. sensation perceived by hearing; 2. a. illiberal
in views, prejudiced; b. of slender width; 3. a. something awaited and expected, possibilities,
chances; b. to explore for mineral deposits; 4. a. to retreat or recede; b. to withdraw from a job
or usual service; 5. a. something set by authority as a model or rule for measure of quality; b. flag
or banner, e.g., to show emblem or represent group or a basis of value in a monetary system; 6.
a. walled-in area containing buildings; b. composed of separate elements or parts or to form by
combining parts; 7. a. noisy disturbance or quarrel; b. to propel a boat with oars or objects set up
in a line; 8. sound; the word with meaning a comes from OHG gisunt , meaning “healthy”; the
word with meaning b comes from L sonare, meaning “to sound.”9. row; the word with meaning
.
a (pronounced rau) originated in 1746, and its origin is unknown; the word with meaning b
(pronounced rō) comes from L remus, meaning “oar” or OHG riga, meaning “line.”
Analyze Literature: Theme
Possible answers: 1. Obi is arrogant in his self-assurance about “modern methods”; he is eager to
throw out old ideas without considering what vacuum will be left when they are removed.
2. The school is run according to (or at least in harmony with) traditional African customs and
beliefs. 3. A clear warning is sounded to Obi, who ignores this voice of experience: the village
will not permit its ancestral path to be closed or altered. 4. The priest speaks for the entire
village (perhaps all of Africa) in insisting that this path (a symbol for Africa’s spirituality) is
what gives the village life. Obi does not understand, but the priest is telling him that this is
one aspect of village life that is not open to change. 5. The priest (a traditional voice, but one
of reason) is saying that both the village’s and Obi’s attitudes are strong. They should not test
each other by open conflict or competition, but they should both step back and find a way to
compromise about what “progress” will be good for the village. 6. The death’s juxtaposition to
the closing of the path suggests that native beliefs about the path are correct; in any event, the
villagers’ reaction is swift and predictable. The act that threatens their life is evil to them and
must be undone. Students’ paragraphs should contain a reasonable statement of theme in a
topic sentence and include accurate, relevant details from the story in five to eight supporting
sentences.
Selection Quiz
1. F; 2. G; 3. B; 4. A; 5. C; 6. E; 7. D; 8. their old-fashioned, outdated ideas about education;
9. modern methods of education; 10. the dead, visiting ancestors, and babies being born;
11. erects fences and puts up barbed wire to block the path; 12. a young woman dies in
childbirth; a diviner orders sacrifices
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