EOC Bootcamp

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Part A: Select two sentences that best express central ideas of “After Apple Picking.”

• The speaker is reflecting on a life of hard work.

• The speaker is unhappy about leaving things undone when he dies.

• The speaker greatly enjoys life and wishes it to continue.

• The speaker feels he has done everything possible in his life.

• The speaker is afraid to die.

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Part B: Select two details that best support the correct answers in Part A.

• “there may be two or three / Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough. / But I am done with apple-picking now.”

• “My instep arch not only keeps the ache, / It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.”

• “I could tell / What form my dreaming was about to take.”

• “Magnified apples appear and disappear, / Stem end and blossom end, / And every fleck of russet showing clear.”

• “I am overtired / Of the great harvest I myself desired. / There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, / Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.”

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

What does the word skimmed mean in line 11?

• read

• crossed

• lifted

• touched

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Part B: Which phrase from the poem best helps the reader determine the meaning of skimmed?

• a. “from looking through”

• b. “pane of glass”

• c. “from the drinking trough”

• d. “world of hoary grass”

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Part A: What is the literal meaning of “a pane of glass” in line 10?

• a. a sheet of ice

• b. a magnifying lens

• c. a pair of eyeglasses

• d. a stained-glass window

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Part B: Choose two words or phrases from the poem that best support the correct answer in Part A.

• I could see the world

• melted

• my sight

• magnified this morning from the drinking trough

• Upon my way

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

What do lines 9–15 suggest about the speaker?

• He has begun to see the world in a different way.

• He has become mentally and physically weak.

• He has a strong appreciation for the beauty of nature.

• He has concerns about how the coming winter will affect his apple trees.

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Select two lines that suggest the speaker has lived a busy life.

• And I keep hearing from the cellar bin

• Of apple-picking: I am overtired

• No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,

• For I have had too much

• I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Part A: Which is the best literal interpretation of lines 30–38?

• The speaker often dropped apples because he was distracted by his thoughts.

• The speaker had to remember to set some apples aside with which to make cider later.

• The speaker enjoyed the challenge of picking many apples quickly without letting them drop to the ground.

• The speaker dropped some apples and left them on the ground even if they were undamaged.

Passage 4 - "After Apple Picking"

Part B: How do these lines help develop a theme of the poem?

• They reveal the speaker’s concern that others may do his work improperly after he dies.

• They suggest that the speaker may regret some wasted opportunities.

• They reveal that the speaker was once a greedy man but has changed his ways.

• They show that the speaker has led a satisfying life.