Language and Mood

DIRECTIONS: Read the following excerpt from H. G. Wells’s “A Story of the Stone Age.”

The afternoon sky was blue with piled white clouds sailing through it, and the southwest wind came like a soft caress. The new-come swallows drove to and fro. What is the mood of the excerpt?

• Calm and peaceful

• Tense and suspenseful

• Dark and ominous

• Joyful and exuberant

DIRECTIONS: Read the following excerpts from H. G. Wells’s “A Story of the Stone Age.”

As she went, she heard a voice among the bracken calling softly. She stopped. Then suddenly she heard a rustle behind her, and turning, saw Ugh-lomi rising out of the fern. There were streaks of brown blood and dirt on his face, and his eyes were fierce. … What is the mood of the excerpt?

• Calm and peaceful

• Tense and suspenseful

• Joyful and happy

• Sad and melancholic

DIRECTIONS: Read the following excerpt from H. G. Wells’s “A Story of the Stone Age.”

But it was lonely hunting without Andoo, and she-bear returned caveward before dawn. The sky was gray and overcast; the trees up the gorge were black and unfamiliar. Into her bearlike mind came a dim sense of strange and dreary happenings. What is the mood of the excerpt?

• Joyful

• Lonely and dreary

• Exciting

• Hopeful

Match the following moods with the descriptions from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

• A scene filled with dullness and monotony.

• Joyful

• A scene filled with intrigue and suspense.

• Mysterious

• A scene filled with rage and frustration.

• Boring

• A scene filled with happiness and delight.

• Angry

Which details from the excerpt of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle help create the mood?

... A short walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular story which we had listened to

in the morning. It was a poky, little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy two-storied brick

houses looked out into a small railed-in enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of

faded laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and un-congenial atmosphere. Three gilt

balls and a brown board with “Jabez Wilson” in white letters, upon a corner house, announced the place

where our red-headed client carried on his business. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head

on one side and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between puckered lids. ... Having

thumped vigorously upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up to the door and

knocked. It was instantly opened by a bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step in

• The setting and atmosphere

• The characters' dialogue

• The plot development

• The author's writing style