Category: Writing

Of Revenge by Francis Bacon
In the context of this passage, why do people do bad things? Are these things done purposefully or as a consequence of another motivation?
Cite evidence from the text. (also from: other literature, art, or history)

Two Ways of Seeing a River
Discussion Questions
What do you suppose Twain means by the language of the river? Why do you think he refers to a “language” in the river instead stating more directly that he learned crucial things about navigating the river?
What do you think of Twain’s assertion that all of the “grace, the beauty and poetry” had gone out of the river once he learned its language? What does this tell us about this “language”?
Of course, the river did not literally “turn to blood”. What does Twain mean by this and why do you think he used this expression?
What is your response to the long description Twain renders in the opening paragraph? What is your guess as to the effect he wanted to create thereby on his readers? Why do you think Twain uses these long sentences?
Google search a Romantic nineteenth century nature painting. Do you think Twain may have had such paintings in mind as he described the river? Explain why you think this is or is not the case.
Twain refers to being “bewitched”. Look up this word and state the sense in which you think he means to use the term here.
Look up “rapture”. How do you think Twain meant to use this word?
All of the second long paragraph, beginning with, “I stood like one bewitched” is about a shift in the narrator’s perspective of the river. Is there any hint in the description as to what this change was?
Explain the differences in the river’s “language” as it speaks to the narrator in this paragraph? What kind of information does the river seem to offer now? It is the same river, but what has changed? Why does Twain break into long sentences here as he does in the opening paragraph?
Twain compares this scientific, practical use of the river to the kind of information a doctor might seek to discover about his patient. In the final paragraph, Twain mentions a “break” in one’s cheek and how a doctor might see the break. Where is a “break” mentioned earlier in the description? How does the experienced pilot see this break differently from the inexperienced pilot? How is this like what a doctor might see versus what other people might see in human skin?
Twain refers to “hidden decay” in the final stanza. What things along the river are like “decay”? What do you think of this comparison?
Why might the doctor referred to in the final stanza comment on a human’s condition “all to himself”? Why do you think Twain mentions this solitary perception that doctors may have?

To an Inconstant One
by Sir Robert Ayton
I loved thee once; I’ll love no more —
Thine be the grief as is the blame;
Thou art not what thou wast before,
What reason I should be the same?
(5) He that can love unloved again,
Hath better store of love than brain:
God send me love my debts to pay,
While unthrifts fool their love away!
Nothing could have my love o’erthrown
(10) If thou hadst still continued mine;
Yea, if thou hadst remained thy own,
I might perchance have yet been thine.
But thou thy freedom didst recall
That it thou might elsewhere enthral:
(15) And then how could I but disdain
A captive’s captive to remain?
When new desires had conquered thee
And changed the object of thy will,
It had been lethargy in me,
(20) Not constancy, to love thee still.
Yea, it had been a sin to go
And prostitute affection so:
Since we are taught no prayers to say
To such as must to others pray.
(25) Yet do thou glory in thy choice—
Thy choice of his good fortune boast;
I’ll neither grieve nor yet rejoice
To see him gain what I have lost:
The height of my disdain shall be
(30) To laugh at him, to blush for thee;
To love thee still, but go no more
A-begging at a beggar’s door.
1) The question posed by the speaker in line 4 uses logic based on the idea of
a) equal opportunity
b) mutual agreement
c) poetic justice
d) pragmatic action
e) repeated efforts
2) Line 5 (“He that can love unloved again”) describes a person who
a) is attracted to others who have suffered loss in love
b) is fickle and changeable when it comes to love
c) is on the rebound and ready to love someone new
d) has feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness
e) pursues someone who no longer returns his love
3) Line 6 (“Hath better…than brain”) is best interpreted to mean
a) enjoying a relationship of sheer and abiding love
b) having a greater supply of love than intelligence
c) possessing both knowledge and practical skill
d) recalling romantic memories with pure joy
e) valuing romance more than academic pursuits
4) In lines 11-12 (“Yea, if thou hadst…yet been thine”), the speaker tells his love that he might still be hers if she had
a) been less sociable
b) been more loving and kind
c) not been so ambiguous
d) not been so irascible
e) remained true to herself
5) Which best describes the purpose of the second stanza?
a) It contrasts the essential nature of solitude and friendship.
b) It describes the importance of acknowledging the role of fate.
c) It explores the role of both truth and fiction in relationships.
d) It implies a relationship between independence and ownership.
e) It reinforces the distinction between romantic and platonic love.
6) In lines 17 and 18 (“When new desires…thy will”), the speaker uses
a) anachronism
b) euphemism
c) hyperbole
d) metaphor
e) personification
7) Which best describes the speaker’s attitude toward his situation in the final stanza?
a) He is accepting.
b) He is consumed with rage.
c) He is defiantly arrogant.
d) He is regretful.
e) He is unaffected.
8) In the final stanza, the speaker asserts his plan to
a)  celebrate his lover in her choice of a new partner
b) establish distance and detachment from his lover and her suitor
c) fight tirelessly for his lover’s return to his arms
d) resist falling into complete despair over the loss of his lover’s affection
e) smear his lover and her new love by criticizing their faults publicly

1 2 3 4 5 1. PART A: Which statement best expresses the central idea of the text? O A Studies on the human brain prove that love and lust produce the same chemicals in the brain, proving that they are essentially the same feeling. O B Love at first sight is something that occurs more often in books and on television, rather than in our real lives. O C Everyone is capable of experiencing love at first sight if they permit themselves to connect with someone on a deeper level. O D True love can develop within a short period of time for some people if they develop a sudden and deep connection with each other.

Which of the following is the best definition of theme in children’s literature?
?      The story’s location in time and place
?      The sequence of events in the story
?      The underlying idea that ties the plot, characters, and setting together
?      The resolution of the conflict

Near the beginning of the excerpt from the Third Book, Smith writes: “Such actions have ever since the world’s beginning been subject to such accidents, and everything of worth is found full of difficulties, but nothing [is] so difficult as to establish a commonwealth so far remote from men and means and where men’s minds are so untoward as neither do well themselves nor suffer others.” What is he talking about? What assumptions is an observation like that based on? Can you think of modern intercultural misunderstandings that parallel the problem that Smith believes he is facing here?
This is from John Smith’s Third Book, Chapter 2, 7th Chapter.
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/smith-chapter-2-book-3-of-the-generall-historie-of-virginia-new-england-and-the-summer-isles-by-john-1624/