English I (Old Standards) Quiz

English I (Old Standards) Quiz

Reading: Understanding and Using Literary Texts - (E1-1.1) Compare Contrast Ideas, (E1-1.4) Character, Plot, Theme , (E1-1.5) Author's Craft

Writing: Developing Written Communications - (E1-4) Written Conventions, (E1-4) Proofreading Skills

Reading: Building Vocabulary - (E1-3.1) Vocabulary Context Clues

Student Name: ______/ Date: ______
Teacher Name: Cynthia McQueen / Score: ______

Double Research Passage: “Walt Whitman,” “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” and “On the Beach at Night”

By: Sasha Peterson & Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

By: Sasha Peterson

1Walt Whitman was one of the most influential poets in American history. Whitman believed that poetry should be written for the common people, not just for scholars. This new attitude toward poetry was shaped by his own experience with education, as well as his involvement in nineteenth-century politics.

2Born on May 31, 1819, Whitman was the second son in a family of nine children. The family lived on Long Island, where Whitman’s father worked as a house builder. An apprenticeship with a printer at age twelve cemented Whitman’s life-long love of literature. As for education, he was mostly self-taught. He spent his teen years reading Shakespeare, Dante, and the Bible. His short career as a printer in New York City ended when a fire destroyed the printing district.

3At age seventeen, Whitman began teaching in one-room schoolhouses to make ends meet. Sometimes he had more than eighty students in one classroom, ranging in age from five to fifteen. His teaching techniques were rather progressive for the time. He refused to use corporal punishment, and he often asked students to say their thoughts aloud. Whitman even invented educational games, used his own poems instead of traditional texts, and encouraged children to ask him anything. This teaching philosophy is explored in his famous poem “Song of Myself.” In the poem, the speaker attempts to answer a child’s question, “What is grass?” The narrator describes how the simple things in life, like grass, are often more complex than we think they are.

4By 1841, Whitman had turned to journalism. He even founded his own newspaper. In 1848, he moved to New Orleans to be the editor of the New Orleans Crescent. It was in New Orleans that Whitman witnessed the cruelty of slavery for the first time. For years, he had been writing for newspapers that addressed primarily white issues and ignored the plight of the slaves. His experience in New Orleans had a profound effect on his attitude toward race and politics. Though he was not an abolitionist, Whitman did oppose the extension of slavery into territories gained from the Mexican-American War.

5Whitman moved back to New York that same year and founded another newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman. During this time, he formed friendships with other writers and radical thinkers of the same mind. Whitman also continued to develop his literary skills, taking his free verse poetry in new directions. It was during this period that he developed the universal “I” used in his famous collection of poetry Leaves of Grass. Whitman was famous for exploring the interconnectedness of all things. Other themes in Whitman’s poetry include the endurance of love and the role of the poet in society.

6When the Civil War began in 1861, Whitman volunteered as a nurse in the hospitals of New York and Washington, D.C. He also served as a clerk for the Department of the Interior during his eleven years in the nation’s capital. In the 1870s, Whitman moved to New Jersey to be closer to his ailing mother. He published many poems before his death on March 26, 1892.

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When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

By: Walt Whitman

1 When I heard the learn'd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

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On the Beach at Night

By: Walt Whitman

1 On the beach at night,

Stands a child with her father,

Watching the east, the autumn sky.

2 Up through the darkness,

While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,

Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky,

Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east,

Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter,

And nigh at hand, only a very little above,

Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades.

3 From the beach the child holding the hand of her father,

Those burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all,

Watching, silently weeps.

4 Weep not, child,

Weep not, my darling,

With these kisses let me remove your tears,

The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious,

They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in apparition,

Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge,

They are immortal, all those stars both silvery and golden shall shine out again,

The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again, they endure,

The vast immortal suns and the long-enduring pensive moons shall again shine.

5Then dearest child mournest thou only for Jupiter?

Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars?

6Something there is,

(With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper,

I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,)

Something there is more immortal even than the stars,

(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)

Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter

Longer than sun or any revolving satellite,

Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades.

1) Based on both poems, which is the BEST conclusion to draw about Whitman’s opinion of the stars?

A) / He finds inspiration in the stars.
B) / He feels disconnected from the stars.
C) / He thinks the stars are insignificant.
D) / He believes the stars are guiding him.

2) With which statement would both Walt Whitman and the speaker of “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” agree?

A) / Teachers always have the answers.
B) / Classrooms should have strict rules.
C) / There are many different ways to learn.
D) / Students should only speak when spoken to.

3) With which figure would Walt Whitman MOST LIKELY identify?

A) / the child in “On the Beach at Night”
B) / the father in “On the Beach at Night”
C) / the speaker in “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
D) / the astronomer in “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”

4) Based on both the biography and “On the Beach at Night,” which of these was MOST LIKELY important to Walt Whitman?

A) / his money
B) / his family
C) / his college degrees
D) / his fans and readers

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A Girl of the Limberlost

By: Gene Stratton-Porter

1 Elnora unlocked the case, took out the pail, put the napkin in it, pulled the ribbon from her hair, binding it down tightly again and followed to the road. From afar she could see her mother in the doorway. She blinked her eyes, and tried to smile as she answered Wesley Sinton, and indeed she did feel better. She knew now what she had to expect, where to go, and what to do. Get the books she must; when she had them, she would show those city girls and boys how to prepare and recite lessons, how to walk with a brave heart; and they could show her how to wear pretty clothes and have good times.

2 As she neared the door her mother reached for the pail. "I forgot to tell you to bring home your scraps for the chickens," she said.

3 Elnora entered. "There weren't any scraps, and I'm hungry again as I ever was in my life."

4 "I thought likely you would be," said Mrs. Comstock, "and so I got supper ready. We can eat first, and do the work afterward. What kept you so? I expected you an hour ago."

5 Elnora looked into her mother's face and smiled. It was a queer sort of a little smile, and would have reached the depths with any normal mother.

6 "I see you've been bawling," said Mrs. Comstock. "I thought you'd get your fill in a hurry. That's why I wouldn't go to any expense. If we keep out of the poorhouse we have to cut the corners close. It's likely this Brushwood road tax will eat up all we've saved in years. Where the land tax is to come from I don't know. It gets bigger every year. If they are going to dredge the swamp ditch again they'll just have to take the land to pay for it. I can't, that's all! We'll get up early in the morning and gather and hull the beans for winter, and put in the rest of the day hoeing the turnips."

7 Elnora again smiled that pitiful smile.

8 "Do you think I didn't know that I was funny and would be laughed at?" she asked.

9 "Funny?" cried Mrs. Comstock hotly.

10 "Yes, funny! A regular caricature," answered Elnora. "No one else wore calico, not even one other. No one else wore high heavy shoes, not even one. No one else had such a funny little old hat; my hair was not right, my ribbon invisible compared with the others, I did not know where to go, or what to do, and I had no books. What a spectacle I made for them!" Elnora laughed nervously at her own picture. "But there are always two sides! The professor said in the algebra class that he never had a better solution and explanation than mine of the proposition he gave me, which scored one for me in spite of my clothes."

11 "Well, I wouldn't brag on myself!"

12 "That was poor taste," admitted Elnora. "But, you see, it is a case of whistling to keep up my courage. I honestly could see that I would have looked just as well as the rest of them if I had been dressed as they were. We can't afford that, so I have to find something else to brace me. It was rather bad, mother!"

13 "Well, I'm glad you got enough of it!"

14 "Oh, but I haven't" hurried in Elnora. "I just got a start. The hardest is over. To-morrow they won't be surprised. They will know what to expect. I am sorry to hear about the dredge. Is it really going through?"

15 "Yes. I got my notification today. The tax will be something enormous. I don't know as I can spare you, even if you are willing to be a laughing-stock for the town."

16 With every bite Elnora's courage returned, for she was a healthy young thing.

17 "You've heard about doing evil that good might come from it," she said. "Well, mother mine, it's something like that with me. I'm willing to bear the hard part to pay for what I'll learn. Already I have selected the ward building in which I shall teach in about four years. I am going to ask for a room with a south exposure so that the flowers and moths I take in from the swamp to show the children will do well."

18 "You little idiot!" said Mrs. Comstock. "How are you going to pay your expenses?"

19 "Now that is just what I was going to ask you!" said Elnora. "You see, I have had two startling pieces of news to-day. I did not know I would need any money. I thought the city furnished the books, and there is an out-of-town tuition, also. I need ten dollars in the morning. Will you please let me have it?"

20 "Ten dollars!" cried Mrs. Comstock. "Ten dollars! Why don't you say a hundred and be done with it! I could get one as easy as the other. I told you! I told you I couldn't raise a cent. Every year expenses grow bigger and bigger. I told you not to ask for money!"

21 "I never meant to," replied Elnora. "I thought clothes were all I needed and I could bear them. I never knew about buying books and tuition."

22 "Well, I did!" said Mrs. Comstock. "I knew what you would run into! But you are so bull-dog stubborn, and so set in your way, I thought I would just let you try the world a little and see how you liked it!"

23 Elnora pushed back her chair and looked at her mother.

24 "Do you mean to say," she demanded, "that you knew, when you let me go into a city classroom and reveal the fact before all of them that I expected to have my books handed out to me; do you mean to say that you knew I had to pay for them?" Mrs. Comstock evaded the direct question.

25 "Anybody but an idiot mooning over a book or wasting time prowling the woods would have known you had to pay. Everybody has to pay for everything. Life is made up of pay, pay, pay! It's always and forever pay! If you don't pay one way you do another! Of course, I knew you had to pay. Of course, I knew you would come home blubbering! But you don't get a penny! I haven't one cent, and can't get one! Have your way if you are determined, but I think you will find the road somewhat rocky."

26 "Swampy, you mean, mother," corrected Elnora. She arose white and trembling. "Perhaps some day God will teach me how to understand you. He knows I do not now. You can't possibly realize just what you let me go through to-day, or how you let me go, but I'll tell you this: You understand enough that if you had the money, and would offer it to me, I wouldn't touch it now. And I'll tell you this much more. I'll get it myself. I'll raise it, and do it some honest way. I am going back to-morrow, the next day, and the next. You need not come out, I'll do the night work, and hoe the turnips."

27 It was ten o'clock when the chickens, pigs, and cattle were fed, the turnips hoed, and a heap of bean vines was stacked beside the back door.

5) The characters' traits are revealed primarily through

A) / dialogue
B) / imagery
C) / narration
D) / soliloquy

6) Which BEST identifies Elnora's main problem and its resolution?

A) / Elnora cannot manage school work and farm chores. Wesley Sinton will help.
B) / Elnora needs money for books and out-of-town tuition. She will raise the money herself.
C) / Elnora's clothes caused her to be laughed at by the city girls. She will sew new clothes.
D) / Elnora cannot convince Wesley Sinton to help her with school costs. She will raise the money herself.

7) What is a theme for the passage?

A) / Sometimes determination is all you have.
B) / Money is the most important thing in the world.
C) / Mothers and daughters cannot find a common ground.
D) / You should not be educated if you do not have money.

8) Why does Elnora refer to herself as ‘a regular caricature?’

A) / She has a good sense of humor.
B) / The other students drew pictures of her.
C) / Everything about her is orderly and regular.
D) / She felt like she was an object of ridicule.

9) How does the author convey that Elnora is a strong, determined, and goal-oriented young woman?

A) / by showing Elnora remain firm in her goals in spite of humiliation
B) / by showing that Elnora will never back down from a fight--even a fist-fight
C) / by showing her standing up to the kids at school while they are taunting her
D) / by describing how all of Elnora's relatives are strong, determined, and goal-oriented

10) How does Elnora compare in appearance to the city kids who attend her school?

A) / Elnora happily is dressed just as the city kids are and fits right in.
B) / Elnora is dressed like a homeless child, with no shoes and burlap sack.
C) / Elnora is dressed far fancier than any of the city kids bothered to dress for school.
D) / Elnora looks out of place, like a country bumpkin wearing poor clothes that are out of fashion.

Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne

1 That very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger, once invited four venerable friends to meet him in his study. There were three white-bearded gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, and a withered gentlewoman, whose name was the Widow Wycherly. They were all melancholy old creatures, who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves. It is a circumstance worth mentioning that each of these three old gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow Wycherly, and had once been on the point of cutting each other's throats for her sake. And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint that Dr. Heidegger and all his foul guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves,--as is not unfrequently the case with old people, when worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections.