In this section, you will be answering questions similar to those you might find on a test for an English course. After you answer each question, check your understanding to see the correct answer and feedback.
1 Lines 5–8 suggest that the snake is —
Explanation: As the grass “divides,” the narrator sees a “spotted” shaft, which implies that the sun and shade make a pattern along the snake’s body, partially hiding it. The “shaft” implies that what the narrator can see is not the whole length of the body but only a part of it.
2 The mention of being “barefoot” in line 11 gives the reader the sense that —
Explanation: The poet probably isn’t trying to make the reader fearful for the child but rather trying to evoke the feeling of having almost stepped on something unpleasant with one’s bare feet.
3 In line 11, the word “Yet” indicates a relationship between finding the snake lying in the sun and the preceding lines about where the snake usually likes to “hang out.” The connection it suggests is the same as which of the phrases below?
Explanation: The narrator contrasts the snake’s usual habitat, which is “boggy” and “cool,” to its occasional appearance in the sun.
4 The narrator often draws attention to important parts of the poem by arranging the words for a particular effect. Which of the following lines of the poem places the words in an unusual order?
Explanation: This line could have been “He suddenly appears,” and it would have fit the rhythm of the poem. “Appears” works about as well as “is” with the rhyme scheme in that part of the poem. In other words, you can’t explain this strange arrangement of the words by saying she had to have a word to rhyme with “rides.” In fact, there is no absolute “explanation” for the author’s choice. We can, however, see the effect this strangeness has on us. For some people, this arrangement resembles the suddenness of the snake’s appearance.
5 When a phrase has repeated vowel sounds, we call it assonance. When a phrase has repeated consonant sounds, we call it consonance. Which of the following phrases uses consonance to heighten the effect of the language?
Explanation: There is an “s” sound in every word in this phrase, which might echo the hissing of a snake.
Note: Notice that one of the “s” sounds is represented by the letter c. Consonance has to do with sounds, not letters of the alphabet. Similarly there are two words in “It wrinkled and was gone” that start with “w,” but only one has a “w” sound. Choice B is not an example of consonance.
6 The final two lines of the poem suggest that the narrator’s reaction to the snake is primarily —
Explanation: Although an emotional and a mental reaction are implied, the narrator’s responses are physical: tightness of breath and a sensation of coldness in the bones.
7 The final sentence of the first paragraph, “The seeds of instinct are preserved under the thick hides of cattle and horses, like seeds in the bowels of the earth, an indefinite period,” implies that —
Explanation: Like seeds, instincts are preserved even if they are not visible. The author does not literally mean that the instincts are seeds under the skins of the cattle, but that their instincts are not lost. They are still there; they are just not active.
8 The following sentence is from lines 4–5 of paragraph 2: “But, alas! a sudden loud Whoa! would have damped their ardor at once.” Here, the word “ardor” means
Explanation: Thoreau suggests that a “Whoa!” from a human might make the cattle return to more domesticated behavior and stop acting like wild animals. He does not, however, disapprove of the “original wild habits and vigor” of the cattle; he loves these behaviors.
9 When Thoreau writes that a “Whoa!” would reduce the cattle “from venison to beef,” he is saying that —
Explanation: In the previous sentence, Thoreau says admiringly that the cattle resemble “the deer tribe.” This comparison is a celebration of the spontaneity and inhibition of the cattle “frisking” on the hill. The “Whoa!” is a human being calling the cattle to submit to human control. Venison is wild; beef is farm raised.
10 Toward the end of paragraph 2, Thoreau comments that “the life of cattle, like many men, is but a sort of locomotiveness.” This sentence implies that —
Explanation: Thoreau uses the comparison with locomotives because train engines are inflexible, heavy, unspontaneous, and do the same thing over and over.
11 In the sentence “Whatever part the whip has touched is thenceforth palsied” at the end of paragraph 2, the word palsied means “paralyzed.” Which of the following phrases comes closest to what Thoreau is implying here?
Explanation: Thoreau is using a metaphor here. He means that not only whippings but any sort of dominance by human beings will deaden the wildness of the animal.
12 Thoreau compares the cattle to buffalo, rats, kittens, deer, locomotives, and cats. Which of these are positive comparisons?
Explanation: The comparison with rats suggests the friskiness of the cattle, so it is positive. The comparison with the locomotive suggests the locomotive’s mechanical immobility, its deadness, so this is definitely a negative comparison.
13 Which of the following is an important difference between the poem and the excerpt?
Explanation: Both texts involve the theme of “wildness,” but in the poem the wildness is not a surprise (although coming across the snake is) and in the excerpt the wildness is a surprise since the cattle usually act submissive.
14 Read these quotations.
“A narrow fellow in the grass,” lines 21–24
But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.
“Walking,” paragraph 2
I saw one day a herd of a dozen bullocks and cows running about and frisking in unwieldy sport, like huge rats, even like kittens. They shook their heads, raised their tails, and rushed up and down a hill, and I perceived by their horns, as well as by their activity, their relation to the deer tribe.
What is the main difference in the attitude of these two narrators toward the wildness they observe in the snake and the cattle?
Explanation: In the poem, the narrator’s attitude is somewhat unclear, but seeing the snake does not clearly produce revulsion or terror. She seems amazed at her own fearful response to this “fellow” creature who is no threat to her since he is “gone” as soon as he is aware of her. While we can safely say that her response is fearful, we can’t say that the narrator is truly afraid of snakes. On the other hand, the attitude of the narrator in the excerpt is much clearer. He loves seeing animals be animals, especially animals that spend most of their lives being “slaves of men.” He says he loves the vigor of these domesticated animals and “rejoices” that animals still have wildness in them even after they are tamed.
15 What emotions are expressed in each of these two quotations?
“A narrow fellow in the grass,” lines 5–8
The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.
“Walking,” paragraph 1
I love even to see the domestic animals reassert their native rights, . . . as when my neighbor’s cow breaks out of her pasture . . . and boldly swims the river. It is the buffalo crossing the Mississippi.
Explanation: The description of the snake making its way through the grass is almost scientific in its attention to detail; the response is curiosity rather than fear. Rather than any disapproval, the description of the cow taking off across the river is full of admiration for this vigorous act of independence.
16 How are the themes of “A narrow fellow in the grass” and the excerpt from “Walking” similar?
Support your answer with evidence from both selections. Use your notes to write your response. When you’re finished, check your understanding to see a sample response and feedback. Sample Short Answer:
In both “A narrow fellow in the grass” and the excerpt from “Walking,” an interest in the idea of wildness appears. The snake’s appearance “sudden is,” and it “meets” you when you don’t expect it. This makes an encounter with a snake different from meeting a bird or a squirrel or a domestic animal; the snake has an unpredictability that makes it “wild” no matter how harmless.
While the cattle appear to be completely predictable, like the snake they give way to wildness that lies dormant “under the thick hides.” Both the snake and the cattle possess an instinctive wildness that both narrators see as worthy.
Explanation: Other possible themes you could write about include the following:
- Both texts connect animals and humans.
- Textual evidence from the poem – “nature’s people” and “cordiality”
- Textual evidence from the excerpt – “slaves of men”
- Both texts also involve animals escaping from humans.
- Textual evidence from the poem – “wrinkled, and was gone”
- Textual evidence from the excerpt – “breaks out of her pasture”