Silent Spring🐦☠️ (StudySync Excerpt) Quiz

Why most likely does the author begin the excerpt with a description of a healthy ecology (paragraphs 1-2)?

• Because the destruction did not happen until after she had written the first two paragraphs

• To promote the bird-watching tourism she describes in the text

• To give the natural history of a specific region

• To reveal by contrast the gravity of man-made destruction

Answer explanation

To reveal by contrast the gravity of man-made destruction

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.6

CCSS.RI.11-12.6

CCSS.RI.8.9

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

CCSS.RL.9-10.6

Which of these sentences best fits with the following passage (paragraph 4)? 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. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.

• The town’s economy became drastically worse, with more and more businesses closing their doors every day.

• Doctors couldn’t explain the cause of the mysterious sickness plaguing adults and children alike.

• In a town that was once known for its thriving bird population, it seemed as if there were barely any birds left.

• Too many strange things were happening all at once to chalk it up to mere coincidence.

Answer explanation

In a town that was once known for its thriving bird population, it seemed as if there were barely any birds left is the best fit with the passage describing the absence of birds.

What mainly do the following lines reveal about the town? "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. The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetations as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died. 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 the streams."

• The farmers can’t afford to maintain the cost of raising pigs.

• Some man-made toxin has devastated agriculture, fishing and roadside vegetation.

• The roadsides were never very attractive in the first place.

• People still keep coming to fish.

Answer explanation

Some man-made toxin has devastated agriculture, fishing and roadside vegetation.

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RI. 9-10.1

CCSS.RI.11-12.1

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

Read the question carefully and select the best answer. Which passage from the text best supports the correct answer to Question 3?

• The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs—the litters were small and the young survived only a few days.

• The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit.

• The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as if swept by fire.

• 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 the streams.

Answer explanation

The passage about the white granular powder falling like snow on roofs, lawns, fields, and streams supports the correct answer to Question 3.

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RI. 9-10.1

CCSS.RI.11-12.1

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

Read the question carefully and select the best answer. Which of the following best expresses the central idea of the passage?

• Nature is useful to agriculture.

• People will drive a long way to look at bird species they've never seen before.

• Human action can destroy the beauty and utility of a healthy ecology.

• Human beings have lived in harmony with natural processes for centuries.

Answer explanation

Human action can destroy the beauty and utility of a healthy ecology is the central idea of the passage.

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.11-12.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.8.2