H. ELA Connecting With Nature
Whitman includes sensory details such as "moist night air" (line 7) to
contrast with the dry facts of the lecture
By having his speaker look "up in perfect silence" "in the mystical moist night air," Whitman
contrasts the scientific analysis of the lecture with the human sense of wonder
"How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick" (Whitman 5). In what context is the word "sick" being usd in this sentence?
depressed or longing for something
The simile "it's long bones / trailing like a ghost" (lines 11-12) reinforces the impression that the speaker's discovery is
eerie
The structure of Atwood's short story
enhances the feeling of realism
Which figure of speech suggests that the water's appearance can be deceptive?
"the undertow's rough hands" (line 19)
The text in lines 10-12, "highway medians... looked lke the seed-packet promises come true," provides support for which of the following excerpts from the essay?
"The spring of 1998 was the Halley's Comet of desert wildflower years." (lines 1-2)
Which of the following best support this main idea, "Variation reduces competition within species and invasion by annuals."
"Varying, among and within species, their genetic schedules for germination, flowering, and seed-set" (Kingsolver 51).
How does Diction impact literature?
Diction dictates the choice of words that are used in literature.
What is the meaning of the metaphor "It's just a blink, or maybe a smile..." (line 115)?
Each spring flowering is a relatively brief moment
What is the purpose of an exposition in literature?
Exposition is used to to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or other elements of a work to the audience or readers.
Why does the narrator say that "reincrnation as an animal ... is a reward" (line 16)?
It offers a respite from too much thinking and feeling.
How does Syntax impact literature?
Syntax dictates how words are put together in order to convey a complete thought.
Which sentence best describes the narrator's view of people who don't believe in reincarnation?
The narrator feels that people who don't believe are misguided.
Based on the details in the poem, what can be inferred about the speaker?
The speaker recognized the true nature of water
"It's female rains that affect spring flowering, and in some years, uch as 1998, the benefaction trails steadily from winter on into spring" (Kingsolver 53). A benefaction is...
a gift
"Consider: a great many people believe in them, and if sanity is a general consensus about the content of reality, who are you to disagree" (Atwood 71). A word related to consensus is
accord
The astronomer approaches his subject
analytically
Which word best describes the audience's response to the lecture?
appreciative
What is the tone of the water in "it says, come close, you who want to swallow me," (line 24) and "Come near, I will shape myself around you" (line 26)?
enticing
The speaker has "wander'd off" from the lecture room to
experience the heavens in silence
The varying line lengths at the end of the poem (lines 26-32) suggest the
fluidity of water
The inclusion of the simile "the sun will rise like a balloon on fire" (line 50) helps support the idea that the bat
is concerned about the strong rays of the sun
The speaker's response to the lecture reflects Whitman's
love of nature
What tone does the author's syntax and diction create in this story (My Life as a Bat)?
matter-of-fact
Which set of words shows the author's view of the desert flowers?
miracle, magic, remarkable
"There was my preference for the subtleties of dawn and dusk, as opposed to the vulgar blaring hour of high noon" (Atwood 73). To study the subtleties of bats' behavior is to
note specific details
The implied conflict throughout the story (My Life as a Bat) is between
people's misconceptions about bats and the truth
What is the primary literary device indicated by the poet's use of the word "I" when referring to the water?
personification
"For weeks, each day's walk to the mailbox became a botanical treasure hunt, as our attention caught first on new colors, then on whole new species in this terrain we thought we had already catalogued" (kingsolver 52). What does botanical mean?
plant-related
The colorfulness of the desert spring is determined by the amount of rain that falls in the
preceding winter
The excerpt "More and more, I think of this event with longing. The quickness of heartbeat, the vivid plunge into the nectars of crepuscular flowers, hovering in the infrared of night; the dank lazy half-sleep of daytime..." (lines 106-109) indicated that the narrator most likely
prefers the sensory life of the bat to the rational world
The wildflowers seen in the Sonoran Desert
produce seeds that vary in the time they spend dormant
"Challenging conditions for an ephermal, these are. If a little seed begins to grow at the first promise of rain, and that promise gets broken, that right there is the end of it's life" (Kingsolver 53). Ephermal most closely means...
quickly over
What is the astronomer presenting at the beginning of the poem>
scientific calculations
How does the speaker feel while listening to the astronomer?
sick and tired
"The swift love of what will come next, the anticipations of the tongue and of the infurled, corrugated and scrolled nose, nose like a dead leaf, nose like a radiator grille, nose of a denzien of Pluto" (Atwood 74). What is a denzien?
someone who lives in a place
What is the connotation of "locked" in "locked into the dying twist" (line 9)?
stuck
The word "it" in "we pulled it" (line 2) refers to
the fish
The metaphor "water's broken mirror" (line 1) suggests that
the surface of the water is disturbed
incendiary most closely means
to cause fire, flammable
Why does the author insert the dialogue between the narrator and a friend from the East (lines 29-42)?
to emphasize how special and mysterious the annual blooming is
"Many people aren't aware that the desert blooms at all, even in a normal year, and few would guess how much effort we devote to waiting and prognosticating..." (Kingsolver 52) Prognosticating most closely means...
to guess what might happen in the future
Why does the poet write, "it was hawk" (line 7) rather than "it was a hawk"?
to sow that only the essence of the hawk remains
Walt Whitman self published his poems due to the fact that no other publisher would accept them due to their unorthodox nature
true
Walt Whitman was a poet who loved and published his poems during the 1800s. His work was known as being distinctly American, marked by democratic values, a love of nature, and optimism for the future.
true
Lines 1-4, that all start with phrases beginning with "when", demonstrate Whitman's
use of parallelism to convey the monotony of the lecture
The speaker of the poem
values the personal experience of nature
