Top of the Food Chain

In what way is T. C. Boyle’s "Top of the Food Chain" an example of satire?

• A. It depicts the behavior of animals and people.

• B. It focuses on harm to the environment.

• C. It indirectly calls attention to a serious situation to promote change.

• D. It makes fun of people only to entertain its readers.

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Who is the narrator?

• One of the people affected by the horrible chain of events

• A leader from the World Health Organization

• A leader from the government in Borneo

• A chemical company executive

To whom is the narrator speaking?

• The Senate

• His boss

• The President of Borneo

• His mother

In "Top of the Food Chain," why does the narrator first spray with DDT?

• To hide evidence of the bubonic plague

• To keep the government confused

• To kill off a certain species of wasp

• To help control the insects in Borneo

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Select one piece of supporting textual evidence to show why the narrator used DDT even though he knew it was harmful?

• “And please don't forget they asked us to come in there, practically begged us-and not only the World Health Organization, but the Sultan of Brunei and the government in Sarawak too.”

• “But just because we banned it domestically, under pressure from the bird watching contingent and the hopheads down at the EPA, it doesn't necessarily follow that the rest of the world-especially the developing world-is about to jump on the bandwagon. And that's the key word here, Senator: developing.”

• “Your Malathion and pyrethrum and the rest of the so-called environmentally safe products didn't begin to make a dent in it, not a dent, I mean it was utterly useless”

• “And no one could have foreseen the consequences, no one, not even if we'd gone out and generated a hundred environmental-impact statements-it was just one of those things, a freak occurrence”

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Of these events in "Top of the Food Chain," which happens first?

• Cats are flown in from Australia to control the rat population.

• Cats die from eating the bodies of infected geckos.

• Villagers' roofs collapse and are replaced with tin.

• A species of wasp that eats caterpillars is killed off.

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What causes the cats to die?

• They eat the geckos that had been poisoned by the DDT in the insects.

• They are killed by the villagers who think they are bad luck.

• They are infected with bubonic plague and have to be killed.

• They are bitten by the same mosquitoes as the villagers.

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What causes the geckos to die?

• They eat flies that are contaminated with harmful chemicals.

• They die after contracting the bubonic plague from the rats.

• They are killed by the villagers after eating all the flies.

• They are killed by cats flown in from other countries.

Of these events in "Top of the Food Chain," which happens first?

• People contract the bubonic plague.

• Geckos die from eating poisoned flies.

• Crops fail and people begin to starve.

• Cats are flown in to control the rats.

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What or who is being satirized in this story?

• The people of Borneo impacted by the insect vector

• The government for allowing such chaos to continue

• The chemical company that sprayed the DDT

• Humanity for making quick decisions and underestimating the value of each species’ life

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