Selection: L-23

L-23

Grade level: 12

Word count: 3221 words

Author: Stephen Crane

Synopsis: What will happen to the four men who have been shipwrecked for more than 30 hours?

Excerpt: When he achieved safe ground he fell, striking the sand with each particular part of his body. It was as if he had dropped from a roof, but the thud was grateful to him. It seems that instantly the beach was populated with men with blankets, clothes, and flasks, and women with coffeepots and all the remedies sacred to their minds. The welcome of the land to the men from the sea was warm and generous, but a still and dripping shape was carried slowly up the beach, and the land's welcome for it could only be the different and sinister hospitality of the grave.

Question: Based on this excerpt, which expression would you expect to see on the correspondent's face when he reaches the shore?

1. pained but relieved
2. calm and confident
3. anguished and angry
4. nervous but satisfied

Selection: L-24

L-24

Grade level: 12

Word count: 2818 words

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Synopsis: The General Prologue is the first part of a text written by Geoffrey Chaucer. Here, the first half of the Prologue is presented.

Excerpt: There was also in our company a nun, a PRIORESS, called Madam Eglantine, a demure and simply-smiling lady; she could chant by heart the whole of the divine service, sweetly entuning it through her nose; she spoke French well and properly as it is spoken at the school of Stratford-le-Bow, but the French of Paris was to her unknown. Her table manners were precisely well bred and delicate; she never let a morsel fall from her lips nor let a stain of sauce drip upon her napkin; she was very cheerful, pleasant, and amiable in bearing, and took great pains to behave in impeccable fashion, to be stately in manner, and to appear worthy of reverence. She kept several little dogs, which she fed with roast meat, or milk, and fine bread, but she wept if one of them died or if someone hit it smartly with a stick; so charitable and piteous was her nature that a dead or bleeding mouse in a trap would wring her heart. Her cloak was exquisitely sewn; on her arm was a pair of beads of small coral, garnished with green, from which depended a handsome gold brooch, with a great A engraved upon it, and underneath, the motto, "Amor vincit Omnia" ("Love conquers all").

Question: The Prioress was the head of a priory, or a religious house. In this excerpt, Chaucer included descriptions of her "well-bred and delicate" table manners, her "impeccable fashion," and her devotion to her little dogs to whom she fed "roast meat, or milk, and fine bread" to imply

1. she was more concerned about appearing aristocratic than being pious.
2. her dedication to charity was surpassed only by her dedication to prayer.
3. most religious leaders did not know how to behave in a social setting.
4. a person who mistreats animals is very likely to mistreat other people.