Read the excerpts from The Red Badge of Courage. In the first excerpt, Henry Fleming decides to enlist in the Union Army. In the second excerpt, Henry has been with his regiment for a short time.Excerpt 1:At last, however, he had made firm rebellion against this yellow light thrown upon the color of his ambitions. The newspapers, the gossip of the village, his own picturings, had aroused him to an uncheckable degree. They were in truth fighting finely down there. Almost every day the newspaper printed accounts of a decisive victory.One night, as he lay in bed, the winds had carried to him the clangoring of the church bell as some enthusiast jerked the rope frantically to tell the twisted news of a great battle. This voice of the people rejoicing in the night had made him shiver in a prolonged ecstasy of excitement. Later, he had gone down to his mother’s room and had spoken thus: "Ma, I’m going to enlist.”Excerpt 2:In regard to his companions his mind wavered between two opinions, according to his mood. Sometimes he inclined to believing them all heroes. In fact, he usually admired in secret the superior development of the higher qualities in others. He could conceive of men going very insignificantly about the world bearing a load of courage unseen, and although he had known many of his comrades through boyhood, he began to fear that his judgment of them had been blind. Then, in other moments, he flouted these theories, and assured him that his fellows were all privately wondering and quaking.His emotions made him feel strange in the presence of men who talked excitedly of a prospective battle as of a drama they were about to witness, with nothing but eagerness and curiosity apparent in their faces. It was often that he suspected them to be liars.
Read the excerpt from "Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith.Poor chap, he always loved larkingAnd now he’s deadIt must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,They said.Oh, no no no, it was too cold always(Still the dead one lay moaning)I was much too far out all my lifeAnd not waving but drowning.
Which sentence contains an example of personification?
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry Fleming and his regiment are leaving an unsuccessful battle, and Henry is discussing their performance and their leadership."Good Gawd,” the youth grumbled, "we’re always being chased around like rats! It makes me sick. Nobody seems to know where we go or why we go. We just get fired around from pillar to post and get licked here and get licked there, and nobody knows what it’s done for. It makes a man feel like a . . . kitten in a bag. Now, I’d like to know what the eternal thunders we was marched into these woods for anyhow, unless it was to give the rebs a regular pot shot at us. We came in here and got our legs all tangled up in these cussed briers, and then we begin to fight and the rebs had an easy time of it. Don’t tell me it’s just luck! I know better.
Read the passage from Lord of the Flies by William Golding."I’m scared of him,” said Piggy, "and that’s why I know him. If you’re scared of someone you hate him but you can’t stop thinking about him. You kid yourself he’s all right really, an’ then when you see him again, it’s like asthma an’ you can’t breathe. I tell you what. He hates you too, Ralph—”"Me? Why me?”"I dunno. You got him over the fire; an’ you’re chief an’ he isn’t.”"But he’s, he’s, Jack Merridew!”"I been in bed so much I done some thinking. I know about people. I know about me. And him. He can’t hurt you: but if you stand out of the way he’d hurt the next thing. And that’s me.”
Read the passage from Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Ralph is speaking."The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?”He flung out an arm."Look at us! How many are we? And yet we can’t keep a fire going to make smoke. Don’t you understand? Can’t you see we ought to—ought to die before we let the fire out?”There was a self-conscious giggling among the hunters. Ralph turned on them passionately."You hunters! You can laugh! But I tell you the smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one. Do all of you see?” He spread his arms wide and turned to the whole triangle."We’ve got to make smoke up there—or die.”
What is ambiguity?
Read the passages from Lord of the Flies by William Golding.Passage 1Indignation took away Ralph’s control."I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!”"But we want meat!”"And I work all day with nothing but Simon and you come back and don’t even notice the huts!”"I was working too—”"But you like it!” shouted Ralph. "You want to hunt! While I—”They faced each other on the bright beach, astonished at the rub of feeling. Ralph looked away first, pretending interest in a group of littluns on the sand. From beyond the platform came the shouting of the hunters in the swimming pool. On the end of the platform, Piggy was lying flat,looking down into the brilliant water."People don’t help much.”He wanted to explain how people were never quite what you thought they were.Passage 2"You got to be tough now. Make 'em do what you want.”Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses a theorem."If I blow the conch and they don’t come back, then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.”"If you don’t blow, we’ll soon be animals anyway. I can’t see what they’re doing but I can hear.”The dispersed figures had come together on the sand and were a dense black mass that revolved. They were chanting something and littluns that had had enough were staggering away, howling. Ralph raised the conch to his lips and then lowered it.
What is a metaphor?
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, a soldier who Henry encounters while out in the field (referred to as the tattered soldier) is talking to Henry Fleming about the battle they had just experienced.But the other hobbled industriously after him. There was an air of apology in his manner, but he evidently thought that he needed only to talk for a time, and the youth would perceive that he was a good fellow."Was pretty good fight, wa’n’t it?” he began in a small voice, and then he achieved the fortitude to continue. "Dern me if I ever see fellers fight so. Laws, how they did fight! I knowed th’ boys’d like it when they onct got square at it. Th’ boys ain’t had no fair chanct up t’ now, but this time they showed what they was. I know it’d turn out this way. Yeh can’t lick them boys. No, sir! They’re fighters, they be.”He breathed a deep breath of humble admiration. He had looked at the youth for encouragement several times. He received none, but gradually he seemed to get absorbed in his subject.
Read the excerpts from The Red Badge of Courage. In the first excerpt, Henry Fleming decides to enlist in the Union Army. In the second excerpt, Henry has been with his regiment for a short time.Excerpt 1:At last, however, he had made firm rebellion against this yellow light thrown upon the color of his ambitions. The newspapers, the gossip of the village, his own picturings, had aroused him to an uncheckable degree. They were in truth fighting finely down there. Almost every day the newspaper printed accounts of a decisive victory.One night, as he lay in bed, the winds had carried to him the clangoring of the church bell as some enthusiast jerked the rope frantically to tell the twisted news of a great battle. This voice of the people rejoicing in the night had made him shiver in a prolonged ecstasy of excitement. Later, he had gone down to his mother’s room and had spoken thus: "Ma, I’m going to enlist.”Excerpt 2:In regard to his companions his mind wavered between two opinions, according to his mood. Sometimes he inclined to believing them all heroes. In fact, he usually admired in secret the superior development of the higher qualities in others. He could conceive of men going very insignificantly about the world bearing a load of courage unseen, and although he had known many of his comrades through boyhood, he began to fear that his judgment of them had been blind. Then, in other moments, he flouted these theories, and assured him that his fellows were all privately wondering and quaking.His emotions made him feel strange in the presence of men who talked excitedly of a prospective battle as of a drama they were about to witness, with nothing but eagerness and curiosity apparent in their faces. It was often that he suspected them to be liars.
Which excerpt from "Yearbook” is an example of direct characterization?
Read the excerpt from "The Thing about Terry.”I’ve got it! I grinI’ve got just the surpriseI rush to tell them,Feeling happy and wise
Read the excerpt from "The Thing about Terry.”We work four long hours Nervous stomachs a-churnThen sneak into the closetTo await her return
Read the excerpt from "The Thing about Terry.”We work four long hours Nervous stomachs a-churnThen sneak into the closetTo await her return
Which excerpt from "The Masque of the Red Death" best shows Prince Prospero’s self-centeredness?
Read this excerpt from "The Mysterious Stranger" using comprehension strategies.The romantic character of the place delighted me; I was very much amused by the air of adventure and intrigue that prevailed in this region of masks and gondolas; and I was exceedingly smitten by a pair of languishing black eyes, that played upon my heart from under an Italian mantle. So I persuaded myself that I was lingering at Venice to study men and manners. At least I persuaded my friends so, and that answered all my purpose.What statement best describes the narrator in this excerpt?
Read this excerpt from chapter 41 of Moby-Dick using comprehension strategies.If such a furious trope may stand, his special lunacy stormed his general sanity, and carried it, and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark; so that far from having lost his strength, Ahab, to that one end, did now possess a thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon any one reasonable object.What is the meaning of this excerpt?
Which of Ahab’s character traits does Melville develop most thoroughly in Chapter 41 of Moby-Dick?
In Chapter 41 of Moby-Dick, which belief about society and nature does Ahab’s relationship with the White Whale best demonstrate?
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