Contemporary Poetry: Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” — Cumulative exam Answers

Read the second stanza from "Mutability.”We rest.—A dream has power to poison sleep; We rise.—One wandering thought pollutes the day; We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away

Read the excerpt from "A Defence of Poetry.”There is this difference between a story and a poem, that a story is a catalogue of detached facts, which have no other connexion than time, place, circumstance, cause and effect; the other is the creation of actions according to the unchangeable forms of human nature, as existing in the mind of the Creator, which is itself the image of all other minds. The one is partial, and applies only to a definite period of time, and a certain combination of even

Read the paragraph.School administrators should be encouraged to increase funding for music education. Many feel that school music programs are expensive and time-consuming. However, participating in band, orchestra, or chorus has been shown to improve student learning. Studies show that children who participate in school music programs achieve higher grades than students who do not. They also perform better on standardized tests.

Read the excerpt from "Early Victorian Tea Set.” Among the upper classes, tea had been popular since before 1700. It received celebrity endorsement from Charles II’s queen, Catherine of Braganza, and from Queen Anne. It came from China, it was expensive, refreshingly bitter and drunk in tiny cups without milk or sugar. People kept their tea in locked tea caddies, as if it were a drug; for those who could afford it, it often was. In the 1750s Samuel Johnson confessed himself a happy addict:A hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant, whose kettle scarcely has time to cool, who with Tea amuses the evening, with Tea solaces the midnights, and with Tea welcomes the morning.

Read the lines from "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company:I gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought

Emanuelle is writing an analytical essay comparing "Mutability” and "A Defence of Poetry.”The main focus of her essay should be

Read the excerpt from "Digging."The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head.But I've no spade to follow men like them.Read the haiku by Bashō. Sickly,but somehow the chrysanthemum is budding. How do the senses used in the excerpt from "Digging" and the haiku affect a reader's understanding and interpretation of each?

Read the excerpt from Pat Mora’s essay "The Leader in the Mirror."I hoped that most of the students were going to enroll in college. The confetti would be for their private celebrations, those solitary moments when they had passed a test that worried them, finished a difficult paper at 2 A.M., found a summer internship. Sometimes, even when no one else is around, it’s important to celebrate when we have struggled and succeeded—to sprinkle a little confetti on our own heads.Now read the excerpt from the article "Career Planning for High Schoolers."About two-thirds of high school graduates from the class of 2013 enrolled in college that fall, according to BLS: 42 percent in baccalaureate (4-year) colleges and 24 percent in 2-year schools. Of the remaining one-third of 2013 graduates, who opted not to go to college, 74 percent entered the labor force.College-bound high school graduates may not know it, but BLS data show that wages are usually higher, and unemployment rates lower, for people who continue their education after high school.

Read the excerpt from "Digging."By God, the old man could handle a spade.

Read the excerpt from Roosevelt’s State of the Union address and the poster below it.As spokesmen for the United States Government, you and I take off our hats to those responsible for our American production—to the owners, managers, and supervisors, to the draftsmen and the engineers, and to the workers—men and women—in factories and arsenals and shipyards and mines and mills and forests—and railroads and on highways.

Read the passage from "Ode on a Grecian Urn."Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leaveThy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Which line best highlights Frodo’s loyal nature?

Read the excerpt from "Hokusai's The Great Wave” by Neil MacGregor.Here’s a snatch of the letter from the president of the United States that Perry delivered to the Japanese emperor:Many of the large ships-of-war destined to visit Japan have not yet arrived in these seas, and the undersigned, as an evidence of his friendly intentions, has brought but four of the smaller ones, designing, should it become necessary, to return to Edo in the ensuing spring with a much larger force. But it is expected that the government of your imperial majesty will render such return unnecessary, by acceding at once to the very reasonable and pacific overtures contained in the president’s letter . . .This was textbook gunboat diplomacy, and it worked. Japanese resistance melted, and very quickly the Japanese embraced the new economic model, becoming energetic players in the international markets they had been forced to join. They began to think differently about the sea that surrounded them, and their awareness of the possible opportunities in the world beyond grew fast.

Which line is written in iambic pentameter?

Read the excerpt from "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.

Which statement about Pat Mora’s essay "The Leader in the Mirror" is correct?

Read the passage.(1) Universal health care should be adopted by every country around the world. (2) Over 100 million people become poor every year because of healthcare bills. (3) Imagine how it feels to be afraid to go to the doctor for fear of plunging into debt. (4) That is a really terrible thing, and governments need to act. (5) The World Health Organization (WHO) says that universal health care is achievable, even in poor countries. (6) The WHO recommends spreading the costs of health care

Look at the excerpt from "How to Think Like a Researcher," a chapter from How to Find Out Anything.More to our purpose, we need to ask answerable questions for the eminently practical reason that if a question has no end, neither does the research. Pursuing an open-ended question can be a fool’s errand. So, to become a skilled researcher, step number one is learning how to craft the answerable question.______________To become a skilled researcher, step number one is learning how to craft the answerable question._______________Say you’re a reporter for a business magazine and your editor wants to run an article on computer executive compensation. The editor asks you to find out if computer executives are overpaid. This is a great idea for a magazine article. It would probably make for a nifty feature in any number of business and tech magazines.

Read the passage.(1) I think that schools should switch from using paper textbooks to using computer tablets. (2) Textbooks were effective in the pre-digital age, but now we live in a technology-based society, so schools need to get with the program and adopt a modern approach to learning. (3) In fact, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission said that "it’s time for the next stage” of learning with tablets and pointed out how textbooks are often out of date. (4) Opponents argue that t