from Silent Spring 1

1. As described in the selection from Silent Spring, what is the town like before everything begins to change? Choose two options.

• prosperous
• unhappy
• beautiful
• crowded
• troubled

2. In the selection from Silent Spring, why are doctors in the town puzzled?

• More children are being born with birth defects.
• People are reacting more violently to insect stings.
• People are being attacked more often by wild animals.
• More people are becoming sick from new kinds of illnesses.

3. What is most likely the cause of the great changes that happen to the town in the selection from Silent Spring?

• pesticides
• radiation
• bacteria
• floods

4. In the selection from Silent Spring, how do animal populations change after the town changes?

• Animal populations mostly stay the same.
• Birds are still plentiful, but most insects die.
• Most birds disappear, but farm animals are fine.
• Animal life in general disappears or does poorly.

5. In the selection from Silent Spring, how do plants change after the town changes?

• Most plants become overgrown and weedy.
• Some plants turn into a white powder.
• Many plants wither and die.
• Most plants burn in a fire.

6. What would a blight most likely do to a farmer’s crops?

• make them more plentiful
• allow them to sell for a profit
• help them to ripen sooner
• cause them to rot or die

7. Which of these words tells how a person with maladies is most likely to feel?

• ill
• silly
• angry
• embarrassed

8. Which sentence best illustrates the meaning of deserted?

• A caravan of traders moved slowly across the hot sand.
• Late at night, not a soul was to be seen on Roosevelt Avenue.
• We decided to wait and see the movie when Max was feeling better.
• The beach was so crowded that we had trouble finding a place to sit.

9. From the details in the selection from Silent Spring, what can you conclude about the town before the changes take place?

• The town attracts visitors who enjoy outdoor activities.
• The town is full of simple, poor, hard-working people.
• The town is a settlement for recent immigrants.
• The town is located in an industrial area.

10. Which of the following quotations from Silent Spring best supports the answer to question ( 9)?

• There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms....
• Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings.
• The countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and fall people traveled from great distances to observe them. Others came to fish the streams....
• So it had been from the days many years ago when the first settlers raised their houses, sank their wells, and built their barns.