Reading Comprehension Questions

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Reading Comprehension Questions
346.
What is the main idea of this poem?
a. Life is a misery that never gets any better at any time.
b. Life is what each of us makes of it during our journey down the river of eternity.
c. Life is a play and it follows a specific script, none of which should cause anguish or sorrow.
d. Life is a comedy, and we are all buffoons in pantaloons no matter what we do.
347.
What is the theme of the poem?
a. Death is to be feared.
b. Life is a circle that brings us back to the beginning.
c. The male of the species is the only true measure of the stages of life.
d. The stages of life are unrelated and can be altered by each individuals free will.
348.
The poet uses the words merely (line 2) and mere (line 20)
a. to soften the effect of the strong images he presents to us in those lines.
b. to tie together his theme of the cycle of life.
c. convey his tone to the reader.
d. all of the above 5 6 6801_501_ReadingCompQuest_4E[fin].indd 156 3/18/10 1:34:56 PM

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Reading Comprehension Questions
Answers
329. b. The eagle, who watches from his mountain walls and falls like a
thunderbolt, is depicted as too alert and dynamic to be dying choice a). There is really no joy depicted in the poem nor any sense that this is a baby eagle (choice c), and there is no mention of baby birds the eagle might be watching over (choice d). Saying that the eagle watches and then falls like a thunderbolt implies alertness and then striking, respectively. The most logical choice is that the eagle is hunting. b. The word azure means blue and is often used to describe the sky. Neither a forest nor cliffs are azure (choices a and c), and nature is not mentioned as an entity in the poem (choice d).
331. a. It is the wrinkled sea that crawls in the first line of the second stanza of the poem. b. The fellow frightens the speaker—a, c, and d are not frightening. a. Tighter breathing indicates fear, as does zero at the bone (one is sometimes said to be cold with fear. Also, the subject is a snake, which is generally a feared animal. c. In context, the speaker is discussing animals, because he follows with his contrasting attitude toward this fellow, meaning the snake. The other choices are all human beings. b. Stanza 3 contains the phrase when a boy implying the speaker was a boy in the past and is now, therefore, an adult man. b. The poem describes nature in terms of the murder of a happy flower, and includes the words beheads and assassin; therefore, the most logical description of the poet’s attitude would not be
delight, indifference, or reverence, but rather dismay.
337. c. The flower in the poem is happy and feels no surprise that it must die, which implies acceptance. If there is any hint of fear or hor-
ror in the poem (choices a and b), it is on the part of the poet. Nothing in the poem is described as feeling reverence (choice d).
6801_501_ReadingCompQuest_4E[fin].indd 157 3/18/10 1:34:56 PM

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