From Silent Spring

As described in the selection from Silent Spring, what is the town like before everything begins to change? Choose two options.

• prosperous

• unhappy

• beautiful

• crowded

• troubled

In the selection from Silent Spring, why are doctors in the town puzzled?

• More children are being born with birth defects.

• People are reacting more violently to insect stings.

• People are being attacked more often by wild animals.

• More people are becoming sick from new kinds of illnesses.

What is most likely the cause of the great changes that happen to the town in the selection from Silent Spring?

• pesticides

• radiation

• bacteria

• floods

In the selection from Silent Spring, how do animal populations change after the town changes?

• Animal populations mostly stay the same.

• Birds are still plentiful, but most insects die.

• Most birds disappear, but farm animals are fine.

• Animal life in general disappears or does poorly.

In the selection from Silent Spring, how do plants change after the town changes?

• Most plants become overgrown and weedy.

• Some plants turn into a white powder.

• Many plants wither and die.

• Most plants burn in a fire.

What would a blight most likely do to a farmer’s crops?

• make them more plentiful

• allow them to sell for a profit

• help them to ripen sooner

• cause them to rot or die

Which of these words tells how a person with maladies is most likely to feel?

• ill

• silly

• angry

• embarrassed

Which sentence best illustrates the meaning of deserted?

• A caravan of traders moved slowly across the hot sand.

• Late at night, not a soul was to be seen on Roosevelt Avenue.

• We decided to wait and see the movie when Max was feeling better.

• The beach was so crowded that we had trouble finding a place to sit.

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

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