1
Description:
Recognize that text is anything that communicates a message.
Maps to Reading Plus skills:
9B
Exemplars
9B: Classifying
9B: Classifying
Description:
Classify
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
L-10
L-10
Grade level: 12
Word count: 2596 words
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Synopsis: Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story gives a whole new meaning to the term "solitary confinement."
Excerpt:
My outstretched hands eventually encountered some solid obstruction: a wall, seemingly of stone masonry, very smooth, slimy, and cold. I followed it up, a process which afforded me means of ascertaining the dimensions of my dungeon, that I might make its circuit and return to the point of commencement. My clothes had been exchanged for a wrapper of coarse serge; I tore part of the hem from the robe and placed the fragment at full length at right angles to the wall. In groping my way around the prison, I would encounter this rag upon completing the circuit, or so I calculated. I staggered onward for some time when I stumbled and fell, excessive fatigue induced me to remain prostrate, and sleep overtook me where I lay.
Upon awaking, I found beside me a loaf and a pitcher with water; I was too drowsy to reflect upon this circumstance, but ate and drank with frantic avidity. I resumed my tour around the prison, with much toil coming at last upon the fragment of serge. Up to the period when I fell, I had counted fifty-two paces, upon resuming my walk I had counted forty-eight more when arriving at the serge. There were in all a hundred paces; I presumed the dungeon to be fifty yards in circuit, I had encountered, however, many depressions in the wall, and thus couldn't guess the shape of the dungeon.
Regarding its size I was greatly mistaken, as the entire circuit of its walls did not exceed twenty-five yards. The truth at length flashed upon me -- in my first attempt at exploration I had counted fifty-two paces, I must have been within a few paces of the serge when I fell -- in fact, I had nearly performed the circuit of the dungeon. I then slept, and upon awaking, must have missed the serge, thus supposing the circuit nearly double what it actually was.
I had been deceived, too, in respect to the shape of the enclosure. The angles were simply slight depressions, or niches, at odd intervals, the general shape of the prison was square. What I had taken for masonry revealed itself as iron, or some metal, in massive plates. I noticed the floor, too, which was stone, in the center of which yawned the circular pit from whose jaws I fortuitously, albeit unwittingly, escaped.
Upon awaking, I found beside me a loaf and a pitcher with water; I was too drowsy to reflect upon this circumstance, but ate and drank with frantic avidity. I resumed my tour around the prison, with much toil coming at last upon the fragment of serge. Up to the period when I fell, I had counted fifty-two paces, upon resuming my walk I had counted forty-eight more when arriving at the serge. There were in all a hundred paces; I presumed the dungeon to be fifty yards in circuit, I had encountered, however, many depressions in the wall, and thus couldn't guess the shape of the dungeon.
Regarding its size I was greatly mistaken, as the entire circuit of its walls did not exceed twenty-five yards. The truth at length flashed upon me -- in my first attempt at exploration I had counted fifty-two paces, I must have been within a few paces of the serge when I fell -- in fact, I had nearly performed the circuit of the dungeon. I then slept, and upon awaking, must have missed the serge, thus supposing the circuit nearly double what it actually was.
I had been deceived, too, in respect to the shape of the enclosure. The angles were simply slight depressions, or niches, at odd intervals, the general shape of the prison was square. What I had taken for masonry revealed itself as iron, or some metal, in massive plates. I noticed the floor, too, which was stone, in the center of which yawned the circular pit from whose jaws I fortuitously, albeit unwittingly, escaped.
Question:
The purpose of these two excerpts is to
- illustrate how disoriented the narrator was in his initial examination of the dungeon.
- demonstrate how the narrator's excessive fatigue aided his ability to notice subtle details.
- expose the varied weaknesses of the cell, which were obscured in the initial darkness.
- analyze the construction of the cell, whose design suggested it was originally intended for animals.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Classify the kinds of characters in a fictional narrative selection (narrator, protagonist, antagonist, anti-hero, foil, symbolic, etc.) and describe their functions. Use details from a selection you have read to illustrate and explain your classifications.
Evaluator
Organization:
Certica Solutions