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WorksheetsSilent Spring
Total questions: 14
Worksheet time: 13mins
As described in the selection from Silent Spring, what is the town like before everything begins to change?
Prosperous and Beautiful
Unhappy and crowded
Troubled and unhappy
Prosperous and crowded
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?
A.
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.
Part A: From the details in the selection from Silent Spring, what can you conclude about the town before the changes take place?
The town attracts visitors who enjoy outdoor activities.
The town is full of simple, poor, hard-working people.
The town is a settlement for recent immigrants.
The town is located in an industrial area.
Part B: Which of the following quotations from Silent Spring best supports the answer to Part A?
Remember part A asked: From the details in the selection from Silent Spring, what can you conclude about the town before the changes take place?
There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms....
Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings.
The countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and fall people traveled from great distances to observe them. Others came to fish the streams....
So it had been from the days many years ago when the first settlers raised their houses, sank their wells, and built their barns.
Part A From the details in the selection from Silent Spring, what do you conclude is the author’s main purpose in writing?
to record farm practices and statistics for a farming magazine
to warn people about a dangerous practice
to frighten readers with a tale of mystery and horror
to describe her home town as part of her autobiography
Part B: Which of the following quotations from Silent Spring best supports the answer to Part A?
Remember part A asks: From the details in the selection from Silent Spring, what do you conclude is the author’s main purpose in writing?
Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler's eye through much of the year.
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.
There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a few hours.
A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.
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 phrase best describes the mood established in these sentences from Silent Spring?
There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted.The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices.
mysterious and frightening
hectic and confusing
sad and regretful
bitter and angry
