Through the Tunnel

Read the following passage:

"That day and the next, Jerry exercised his lungs as if everything, the whole of his life, all that he would become, depended upon it. Again his nose bled at night, and his mother insisted on his coming with her the next day. It was a torment to him to waste a day of his careful self-training, but he stayed with her on that other beach, which now seemed a place for small children, a place where his mother might lie safe in the sun. It was not his beach."

Which sentence accurately describes the conflict in this passage?

• Jerry is desperate to prove he is no longer a child.

• Jerry's mother is happy when he stays with her on the beach.

• Jerry is an excellent swimmer and wants to prove that to his mother.

Which of the following identifies the plot development and events in "Through the Tunnel"?

• linear, with rising action, falling action, and resolution

• linear, with exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution

• nonlinear, with flashback

• nonlinear, with a flash forward

The boy's mother INSISTED that he go with her to the calm beach instead of the wild bay. What is another term (synonym) for the word INSISTED?

• Demand

• Blame

• Resisted

• Ask Politely

"In a minute, he had swum in and was on the rocks beside them, smiling with a desperate, nervous SUPPLICATION." What is the best definition of the word SUPPLICATION?

• Humbly begging for something

• To provide supplies

• To reject something

Mr. Crelin had a major CRAVING for pizza. What is the best denotative meaning of the word CRAVING?

• A deep hate

• A deep knowledge

• A deep intense longing

The child PESTERED his mother until she took him to the store to buy a pair of goggles. What is a synonym for the word PESTERED?

• Nagged

• Bothered

• Annoyed

• All of the above

If someone is BESEECHING, they are...

• Asking politely

• Demanding in a persuasive way

• Overexaggerate

• To Question

Which of the figurative language is being used in the following lines?

"...his nose bled so badly that he turned dizzy and had to lie limply over the big rock like a bit of seaweed, watching the thick red blood flow onto the rock and trickle slowly down to the sea."

• Simile

• Metaphor

• Personfication

• Idiom

What feelings motivate Jerry’s resolution to swim through the tunnel?

• delight in viewing the undersea world

• rebellion against his mother’s strictness

• ambition to be a champion swimmer

• shame at his childishness and fear

Which of the following details would be most useful in answering questions about Jerry’s motivation to swim through the tunnel?

• “And yet, as he ran, he looked back over his shoulder at the wild bay; and all morning, as he played on the safe beach, he was thinking of it.”

• “The boys were gathering up their bits of clothing and running off along the shore to another promontory. They were leaving to get away from him.”

• “He knew he must find his way through that cave, or hole, or tunnel, and out the other side.”

• “He took the edges of the hole in his hands and drew himself into it, wriggling his shoulders in sidewise as he remembered he must, kicking himself along with his feet.”