Literary Texts Quiz
Student Name: ______/ Date: ______Teacher Name: Monica Shallenberger / Score: ______
1)
Excerpt from: A Tour of the PrairiesWashingtonIrving
One of the hunters immediately ran up with a whisp of lighted hay as defense against the bees. The latter, however, made no attack and sought no revenge; they seemed stupified by the catastrophe and unsuspicious of its cause, and remained crawling and buzzing about the ruins without offering us any molestation. Every one of the party now fell to, with spoon and hunting knife, to scoop out the flakes of honey-comb with which the hollow trunk was stored. Some of them were of old date and a deep brown colour, others were beautifully white, and the honey in their cells was almost limpid. Such of the combs as were entire were placed in camp kettles to be conveyed to the encampment; those which had been shivered in the fall were devoured upon the spot.
Which words best describe the overall tone of the passage?
A) / dry and factualB) / arrogant and formal
C) / personal and lively
D) / scholarly and pedantic
The Mill
By: Edwin Arlington Robinson
The miller's wife had waited long,
The tea was cold, the fire was dead;
And there might yet be nothing wrong
In how he went and what he said:
"There are no millers any more,"5
Was all that she had heard him say;
And he had lingered at the door
So long that it seemed yesterday.
Sick with a fear that had no form
She knew that she was there at last; 10
And in the mill there was a warm
And mealy fragrance of the past.
What else there was would only seem
To say again what he had meant;
And what was hanging from a beam15
Would not have heeded where she went.
And if she thought it followed her,
She may have reasoned in the dark
That one way of the few there were
Would hide her and would leave no mark: 20
Black water, smooth above the weir
Like starry velvet in the night,
Though ruffled once, would soon appear
The same as ever to the sight.
2) Read this excerpt from stanza 1 of the poem, lines 7-8.
And he had lingered at the door
So long that it seemed yesterday.
Why does the narrator MOST likely use the phrase ‘So long that it seemed yesterday’?
B) / to demonstrate her love for her husband and how she wanted him to linger in the doorway
C) / to connect the reader with the idea that yesterday there were millers and now they are no more
D) / to show that he had lingered so long by the door, the wife felt that he had been there more than an entire day
3)
Sick with a fear that had no formShe knew that she was there at last;
Why does the author MOST likely use this phrase in the poem?
A) / to show that she is not afraidB) / to explain that the wife has walked to the door of the mill
C) / to suggest that the wife has arrived at a place of fear in her heart
D) / to connect the reader to the fact that she is indeed the miller’s wife
4) Which line from the poem suggests the passage of time?
A) / She may have reasoned in the darkB) / Sick with a fear that had no form
C) / The tea was cold, the fire was dead
D) / And there might yet be nothing wrong
5) Which of these BEST expresses a possible theme of this poem?
A) / unhappiness with one's jobB) / unhappiness with one's marriage
C) / disappointment with the modern world
D) / discontent with one's station in society
6) The characteristics that identify this selection as a poem include all of the following EXCEPT
A) / selection is written in proseB) / selection is written in lines
C) / selection is written in stanzas
D) / selection contains rhythm and rhyme
Fight or Flight: The Evolution of Stress
By:
1 Imagine you are a caveman out innocently picking berries when suddenly you come nose to nose with a sabre-tooth tiger. While you were simply gathering, the tiger was actually hunting, and the sight of you makes his mouth water.
2 Luckily for you, millions of years of evolution has endowed you with a set of automatic weapons that take over in the event of an emergency. At the sight of the tiger, your hypothalamus sends a message to your adrenal glands and within seconds, you can run faster, hit harder, see better, hear more acutely, think faster, and jump higher than you could only seconds earlier.
3 Your heart is pumping at two to three times the normal speed, sending nutrient rich blood to the major muscles in your arms and legs. The tiny blood vessels (called capillaries) under the surface of your skin close down (which consequently sends your blood pressure soaring) so you can sustain a surface wound and not bleed to death. Even your eyes dilate so you can see better.
4 All functions of your body not needed for the struggle about to commence are shut down. Digestion stops, sexual function stops, even your immune system is temporarily turned off. If necessary, excess waste is eliminated to make you light on your feet.
5 Your suddenly supercharged body is designed to help level the odds between you and your attacker. Consequently, you narrowly escape death by leaping higher and running faster than you ever could before. With the danger now over, you find a safe place to lie down and rest your exhausted body.
6 FLASH FORWARD to the present day. Despite the huge amount of technological change in the ensuing 25,000 years, you are walking around with essentially the same set of internal body parts as that of the caveman. At this very moment you're in the break room at work, hunting for coffee and gathering donuts. Your boss is out hunting too. But guess what? He's hunting for you.
7 As you gulp down your third cup of Java you hear your boss say those dreaded words: "Could I see you for a moment in my office, please?" At the sight of the tiger, er, uh...your boss...your hypothalamus sends a message to your adrenal glands and within seconds your body summons all the same powers that your stone-age ancestor needed to fight a sabre tooth tiger.
8 You can almost feel your blood pressure soar as you take the long walk down the hall to your boss's office. You remember a rumor you heard about an upcoming round of layoffs. Now your mind is racing, your heart is pumping, your blood pressure is soaring, your mouth dries up, your hands feel cold and clammy, your forehead is perspiring and you may even feel a sudden urge to go (to the bathroom). As you imagine your boss firing you, the caveman inside of you wants to come out. Maybe you'd like to run and hide or maybe you'd like to punch your boss in the nose, but you can't do either. Welcome to the modern era.
9 As your boss ushers you into his office and closes the door, you're experiencing a full-blown episode of the fight or flight response. But since you can't fight and you can't flee, all of that energy is pent-up inside of you with no place to go. You feel like you're going to explode. Your boss begins to speak. "Here it comes," you think to yourself. But you're so shocked by what you hear you can't believe you heard it right. "What did you say?" you ask your boss. "We are considering you for a promotion," he repeats.
10 (Every time your body triggers the fight or flight response, for situations that are not truly life-threatening, you are experiencing, in effect, a false alarm. Too many false alarms can lead to stress-related disorders like, heart disease, high blood pressure, immune system disorders, migraine headaches, insomnia and sexual dysfunction. The above example from the modern era was doubly false since the fight or flight response was in anticipation of an event (getting fired) that never materialized.)
7) The author explains the "fight or flight" response by comparing
A) / humans to animalsB) / workers to bosses
C) / modern man to cavemen
D) / adrenalin to a heart attack
8) What point of view does the author use to evoke a sense of companionship between himself and the reader?
A) / first personB) / second person
C) / third person-limited
D) / third person-omniscient
9) Which is the LEAST accurate description of the writing style of this passage?
A) / uses sensory detailsB) / uses formal language
C) / contains action verbs
D) / contains colorful modifiers
10) What metaphor does the author use to help readers understand how the "fight or flight" response works in humans?
A) / a boss calling a meetingB) / the body is supercharged
C) / a caveman running from a tiger
D) / the heart is an automatic weapon