from Silent Spring 2

1. In the selection from Silent Spring, who or what is responsible for the white powder that has fallen on the town and its surroundings?

• an accumulation of fallout from nuclear testing
• blossoms from fruit trees growing nearby
• a sudden snowstorm in early spring
• humans living in or near the town

2. Which of the following quotations from Silent Spring best supports the answer to question (1) ?

• The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields.
• Some evil spell had settled on the community . . .
• . . . some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and the streams.
• No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.

3. From the details in the selection from Silent Spring, what do you conclude is the author’s main purpose in writing?

• to record farm practices and statistics for a farming magazine
• to warn people about a dangerous practice
• to frighten readers with a tale of mystery and horror
• to describe her home town as part of her autobiography

4. Which of the following quotations from Silent Spring best supports the answer to question (3) ?

• Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler’s eye through much of the year.
• Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens, the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was the shadow of death.
• There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a few hours.
• A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.

5. In this sentence from Silent Spring, to which of the five senses does the imagery most strongly appeal? "Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings."

• hearing and touch
• sight and hearing
• touch and taste
• smell and sight

6. Which set of words in this description from Silent Spring has the greatest negative connotations? "Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens, the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was the shadow of death."

• evil, sickened, died, death
• spell, community, shadow
• settled, mysterious, everywhere
• swept, flocks, chickens, cattle, sheep

7. Which phrase best describes the mood established in these sentences from Silent Spring?There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where had they gone? "Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices."

• mysterious and frightening
• hectic and confusing
• sad and regretful
• bitter and angry

8. Which of these central ideas does Carson develop in the selection from Silent Spring by using word choices with negative connotations?

• Life in and near the town is being destroyed.
• People often foolishly destroy what they love most.
• Important changes can occur in a matter of moments.
• Farmers are having trouble keeping insects off their crops.

9. Which of the following quotations from Silent Spring best supports the answer to question ( 8)?

• Even in winter the roadsides were places of beauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow.
• On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs—the litters were small and the young survived only a few days.
• In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs, a white granular powder still showed a few patches; some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams.
• I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them.

10. What is one meaning of the Old English suffix -ness?

• the quality of being
• the opposite of
• the study of
• to become