All Watched Over by Machines

What is the main topic of the poems “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” and “Sonnet, without Salmon”?

• humans’ relationship to the past

• humans’ relationship to the future

• humans’ relationship to technology

• humans’ relationship to one another

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What is the world described in “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” like?

Choose two options.

• Machines are not needed to make people’s lives easier.

• Living creatures and electronics live together in peace.

• Machines have learned to program each other.

• Electronic devices have replaced all plant life.

• Human beings do not need to do any work.

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What does the reader know about the speaker in “Sonnet, without Salmon”?

Choose two options.

• He built a large dam.

• He is Native American.

• He does not like fishing.

• He enjoys drinking coffee.

• He loved his grandmother.

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Use context clues to choose the most likely meaning of eccentric as it is used in this excerpt from “Sonnet, without Salmon.” Here, the speaker is

describing his grandmother.

7. She swam wearing all of her clothes, even her shoes. 8. I don’t know if that was a tribal thing to do, or if she was just eccentric.

• odd

• cold

• happy

• nervous

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Part A Read this passage from “Sonnet, without Salmon.”

14. Today, in Seattle, I watched a cute couple at the next table whispering to their cell phones instead of to each other. But, chivalrous, he walked to the self-service coffee bar to get her a cup. Lovely, I thought. She was busy on her phone while he was ten feet away.

What is the most likely meaning of chivalrous as it is used in this passage?

Choose the meaning based on context clues.

• considerate

• cautious

• unwilling

• independent

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Part B. Which phrase from the passage best supports the answer to Part A?

• whispering to their cell phones

• to the self-service coffee bar

• to get her a cup

• busy on her phone

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What does the context suggest is the most likely meaning of cybernetic as it is used in these lines from “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving

Grace”?

I like to think (and

the sooner the better!)

of a cybernetic meadow

where mammals and computers

live together in mutually

programming harmony . . .

• related to musical sounds

• related to the plants in a meadow

• related to the ways that mammals survive in the wilderness

• related to the ways that living creatures and machines interact

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At the end of “Sonnet, without Salmon,” a girl sends a text message (“get me sugar and cream”) to her friend, who is only ten feet away from her.

How is this event most likely meant to affect readers, and why?

• It makes readers angry because they see the dangers of text messaging.

• It makes readers sad because they realize that the friend has been rejected.

• It surprises readers because they realize the silliness of the situation.

• It confuses readers because now they wonder whether the girl really wants the coffee.

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Part A In “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace,” how does the speaker feel about the world he describes?

• He is impatient for it to become a reality.

• He is doubtful it will ever become a reality.

• He is pleased it has finally become a reality.

• He is sad because it will never become a reality.

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Part B Which of these lines from “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” best supports the answer to Part A?

• I like to think . . .

• (right now, please!)

• where we are free of our labors

• brothers and sisters

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