Fever 1793

This excerpt from Fever 1793 is told in the tense, from a point of view.

• A. past; first-person

• B. past; third-person

• C. present; first-person

• D. present; third-person

Which of the following selections best describes the city of Philadelphia at the time this excerpt takes place?

• A. Normal activities proceed despite the threat of plague

• B. Everyone has left the city, leaving it entirely empty.

• C. The spreading plague has caused the city fall into ruin.

• The city is recovering from a major disaster.

Which passage from the excerpt best supports the idea that Mrs. Bowles is trustworthy?

• A. “I sat on the hardest plank in the back next to a woman named Mrs. Bowles. Two boys huddled together for comfort.”

• B. “Mrs. Bowles was a straight-backed woman dressed in Quaker gray.”

• C. “She was older than Mother, with kind eyes and laughter lines that curled around the sides of her mouth.”

• D. “Her neck was dirty and her dress was torn. I wanted to speak to her but couldn’t think of what to say.”

Matilda won’t be able to get in touch with her mother for some time mainly because ______________.

• A. her mother is dead from the fever

• B. there is no telephone service

• C. the fever has robbed Matilda of the ability to write, and her grandfather is illiterate

• D. the post office has closed down

The passage below (paragraph 28) adds to the development of the text mainly by .

It was night in the middle of the day. Heat from the brick houses filled the street like a bake oven. Clouds shielded the sun, colors were overshot with gray. No one was about; businesses were closed and houses shuttered. I could hear a woman weeping. Some houses were barred against intruders. Yellow rags fluttered from railings and door knockers—pus yellow, fear yellow—to mark the homes of the sick and the dying. I caught sight of a few men walking, but they fled down alleys at the sound of the wagon.

• A. suggesting to the reader that it is winter

• B. showing how the city has become a grim and frightening place

• C. explaining why a yellow rag in front of a house is a sign for infection

• D. pointing out that the city is experiencing hot temperatures

Which sentence from the passage most strongly supports the correct answer to Question 5?

• A. “It was night in the middle of the day.”

• B. “Clouds shielded the sun, colors were overshot with gray.”

• C. “No one was about; businesses were closed and houses shuttered.”

• “Yellow rags fluttered from railings and door knockers—pus yellow, fear yellow—to mark the homes of the sick and the dying.”

Scullery maid, that was one thing I would never be. I imagined Mother’s face when she arrived home and found what a splendid job I had done running the coffeehouse. I could just picture it—I would be seeing the last customers out the door when Mother would come up the steps. She would exclaim how clean and well-run the coffeehouse was. Grandfather would point out the fancy dry goods store I was building next door. I would blush, looking quite attractive in my new dress—French, of course. Perhaps I could hire Susannah to do the washing up. That would be a way of helping.I broke off my daydream to take in our surroundings. Grandfather and the driver had stopped swapping stories. He turned to look back at me anxiously. We were in the center of a dying city.

• A. Matilda does a great job of running the family coffee house.

• B. Matilda is only now beginning to realize how unpredictable her future has become.

• C. Susannah will go to work for Matilda’s family.

• D. Matilda has a bad habit of getting lost in her thoughts during important moments.

Which sentence from the passage most strongly supports the correct answer to Question 7?

• A. “I imagined Mother’s face when she arrived home and found what a splendid job I had done running the coffeehouse.”

• B. “I could just picture it—I would be seeing the last customers out the door when Mother would come up the steps.”

• C. “I would blush, looking quite attractive in my new dress—French, of course.”

• D. “We were in the center of a dying city.”

What is most closely the meaning of the word shells as it is used in the passage below (paragraph 17)?

The wagon had reached the part of the city where new houses and businesses were under construction. Where there should have been an army of carpenters, masons, glaziers, plasterers, and painters, I saw only empty shells of buildings, already falling into disrepair after a few weeks of neglect.

• A. noun | hard protective covers of seeds, eggs, or mollusks

• B. noun | empty or hollow structures

• C. noun | explosive artillery

• D. verb | heavily attacks with weapons

Place the events in the excerpt in the order they occur:

Answer explanation

Chronological order: First, Second, Third, Fourth!

From beginning of the story to the end !