Theme and Idiom Practice

Theme and Idiom Practice

Excerpt from The Prophet

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.10

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

Multiple Choice

Which statement BEST states the theme of this poem?

• Love is risky and should be avoided.

• Anyone can fall in love.

• Love causes people to become irrational.

• Love is the greatest of all human experiences.

Excerpt from To an Athlete Dying Young

Eyes the shady night has shut

Cannot see the record cut,

15 And silence sounds no worse than cheers 15

After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout

Of lads that wore their honours out,

Runners whom renown outran

20 And the name died before the man.20

Multiple Choice

Which statement is the BEST summary of this poem?

• Because the athlete has died, he will never see his record broken nor his fame

  diminished.

• Like the athlete, all of us will be forgotten after our deaths.

The Lion and the Mouse

ONCE when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him. ‘Pardon, O King,’ cried the little Mouse: ‘forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?’ The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go. Some time after, the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters, who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. ‘Was I not right?’ said the little Mouse.

Multiple Choice

Which is likely to be the moral or theme of this passage?

• You can never trust a lion.

• Little friends may prove to be great friends.

Idioms

Idioms are word combinations that have a different figurative meaning than the literal meanings of each word or phrase.

Multiple Choice

What does, "a bull in a china shop" mean?

• Someone is clumsy

• Something is unclear

• Something is too expensive

• Someone told me a secret

Multiple Choice

What does "a rip off" mean?

• Someone is clumsy

• Something is unclear

• Something is too expensive

• Someone told me a secret

Multiple Choice

What does "grey area" mean?

• Someone is clumsy

• Something is unclear

• Something is too expensive

• Someone told me a secret

Multiple Choice

What does "a little birdie told me" mean?

• Someone is clumsy

• Something is unclear

• Something is too expensive

• Someone told me a secret