The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Which detail is the first sign that the danger Aunt Em sees is a tornado?

• One glance told her of the danger close at hand.

• "Quick, Dorothy!" she screamed. "Run for the cellar!”

• Toto jumped out of Dorothy's arms and hid under the bed, and the girl started to get him.

• Aunt Em, badly frightened, threw open the trap door in the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small, dark hole.

Read the sentence from paragraph 6...After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle...

The author included the simile most likely to –

• emphasize how safe Dorothy felt in the house

• suggest that the house will put her to sleep

• identify why Dorothy stays in the house

• help the reader imagine what a tornado is like

The reader can conclude that Toto runs and hides under the bed because he is -

• disobedient

• energetic

• unsure

• scared

Why does the author use descriptive language to show how Dorothy feels while she is inside the tornado?

• to contrast the difference in her calm experience to the expected destruction associated with a tornado

• to emphasize that tornados do not always cause destruction when they lift objects off the ground

• to explain how Dorothy’s feelings are not out of the ordinary but are to be expected

• to describe in detail so the reader can imagine he or she is actually inside a tornado

The word resolved in paragraph 9 means-

• settled

• unmoving

• determined

• absolute

How does the description of the story’s setting in paragraph 6 influence the plot?

• Its shows how the tornado is coming to an end.

• Its shows that the storm is really scary.

• It shows how Dorothy should have been afraid.

• Its shows the trouble in Dorothy’s future.

What is the best summary of the story?

• Toto is the main reason Dorothy ends up in the house high in the sky. The winds of a tornado lifted the house as Dorothy searched for Toto. However, once in the air, Dorothy does not feel afraid but surprisingly calm. She is even able to settle down on the bed and take a nap.

• Aunt Em has always been worried about tornados so when one touches down near the farm, she leaves Dorothy and runs into the cellar. Dorothy does not follow because Toto ran off and ends up getting lifted into the air by the tornado.

• There is a tornado on Aunt Em’s farm. Dorothy runs after Toto and does not make it into the cellar before the house is lifted off the ground and carried up into the air. Dorothy is frightened at first but calms down, eventually falling asleep.

• As Dorothy tries to save Toto during a tornado, the house they are in gets lifted into the air. However, Dorothy feels surprisingly calm. After hours past by safely up in the air, she falls asleep on the bed with Toto.

Read this information about the origin of the word dashed...from the Swedish dash, meaning “strike forcible against”...This information helps the reader understand that dashed in paragraph 9 means -

• spoiled

• crushed

• ruined

• confounded

Which sentence suggests that Dorothy might be dreaming?

• When she was halfway across the room there came a great shriek from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor.

• Then a strange thing happened. The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.

• The north and south winds met where the house stood, and made it the exact center of the cyclone.

• It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily.

The author organizes the story by -

• comparing the two different tornado experiences

• explaining the narrator’s problem and its solution

• detailing the cause and effect of the storm

• describing the narrator’s experiences and sequence of events