STAAR Day 7

What is one DIFFERENCE between the excerpt from Impossible Music and the poem “The Sick Child”?

• Impossible Music deals with a child who is deaf while “The Sick Child” deals with a child who is sick.

• Impossible Music deals with a child who is dying while “The Sick Child” deals with a child who is going to sleep

• Impossible Music deals with a child who is blind while “The Sick Child” deals with a child who has a fever

• Impossible Music deals with a child who is mute while “The Sick Child” deals with a child who is blind.

These quotations provide evidence that BOTH the child in the poem and the child in the excerpt are -

• unaffected by their mothers’ reactions

• irritated with their mothers’ reactions

• aware of their mothers’ reactions

• confused by their mothers’ reactions

What are two SIMILARITIES between the excerpt from Impossible Music and the poem “The Sick Child”? Select TWO correct answers.

• Both include a child suffering from a deadly disease.

• Both reveal how a mother deals with the loss of a child

• Both deal with a child’s unwell condition.

• Both indicate that a child is suffering from a rare illness.

• Both reveal how a mother deals with feelings of helplessness

In the poem “The Sick Child,” how is the mother’s response DIFFERENT from the mother’s response in the excerpt from Impossible Music?

• The mother in the poem is completely overwhelmed by her child’s condition

• The mother in the poem knows that her child will recover.

• The mother in the poem knows that her life has changed permanently

• The mother in the poem is frustrated with her child’s condition.

Read this quotation from paragraph 3 of Impossible Music.

"The message had finally gotten through, which was ironic: Mum could hear the words better than I could. She just didn’t want to listen."

What is the irony expressed in this quotation?

• The boy suffers from a very rare condition that the mother does not understand.

• The mother is upset that she is not able to comfort her son.

• The mom can hear; the boy can’t, but he fully understands his condition before she does

• The mom can hear what the doctors are saying, and it overwhelms her

Read this quotation from paragraph 5.

"It was like I’d woken up that fateful day with my head in a bucket of water, but a thousand times worse. I felt drowned by nothing, smothered by silence."

Why does the narrator use figurative language in this quotation?

• To explain the cause of his deafness

• To describe his mother’s silent response when she realizes he is deaf

• To suggest he tries to hear noises again by sticking his head in a bucket of water

• To reveal what he feels and experiences when he realizes he cannot hear

Read this quotation from paragraph 2

"As she listened, she crushed in on herself like a car in an accident with a semi."

Based on the quotation, the reader can best infer that the mother -

• becomes visibly upset upon hearing the news about her son

• is feeling ill and needs to see a doctor

• begins to feel embarrassed

• feels jealous that her son is getting all of the attention

In paragraph 5 of Impossible Music, the word​ ​ (a)   means “to suppress or stifle.”

• smothered
• ghastly
• bickering
• hiss

(1) The last words I ever heard were my mother telling me to turn my music off and go to sleep, which wasn’t unreasonable it being a Wednesday and she having to work early the next day. (2) Mum crunches numbers in an office for a living. (3) Statistics and other things I don’t understand, although I like that she has in her head a seemingly inexhaustible supply of them, like the odds of drowning in the bath (1/685,000) or the number of states, counties, and townships named after George Washington (103).

What change should be made in sentence 1?

• Changed heard to herd

• Change were to was

• Insert a comma after unreasonable

• Change Wednesday to wednesday

(1) The last words I ever heard were my mother telling me to turn my music off and go to sleep, which wasn’t unreasonable it being a Wednesday and she having to work early the next day. (2) Mum crunches numbers in an office for a living. (3) Statistics and other things I don’t understand, although I like that she has in her head a seemingly inexhaustible supply of them, like the odds of drowning in the bath (1/685,000) or the number of states, counties, and townships named after George Washington (103).

The meaning of sentence 3 is unclear. Which phrase should replace them in this sentence?

• facts and figures

• numbers and things

• items

• experiences