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All Common Core: 7th Grade English Language Arts Resources

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Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

“The Petrified Forest of Arizona” by E.A. J. Seddon, Associate Editor, Southern Division in The Mountain States Monitor, September 1918.

The Petrified Forest of Arizona is an area covered with the fossil remains of prehistoric trees. The name “Petrified Forest” is somewhat of a misnomer: the word “forest” suggests standing trees, but these trees fell over long ago and have been preserved in stone. At one time, they formed part of a forest of gigantic trees. They proudly reared their heads above the surrounding country, but they were conquered and laid low by some force of nature.

Then began the process of embalming and preserving these fallen monarchs. They were buried thousands of feet beneath the bottom of an inland sea. This was a vast pickling vat where the wood was slowly converted into living gems. We can tell this because volcanic cones and mineral springs still exist in the area.

Water containing minerals slowly forced its way into the trunks and limbs and roots of the fallen monarchs under a terrific pressure. Eventually, the woody material was gradually replaced by silica, a type of rock. Iron oxides were present in the silica. These oxides created brilliant and beautiful brown, yellow, and red colors in the rock.

Eventually, the sediment containing the petrified trees was thrown up from nature’s subterranean chemical laboratory. The wrappings of the dead monarchs were slowly washed away by erosion and corrosion. Then the glorious sun shone upon the trees once again. They were no longer rulers of the kingdom of flora, but preserved for all time as agate, jasper, opal, and other forms of silica.

The author uses personification in the passage to develop a comparison of the petrified trees to human monarchs. Which of the following sentences does NOT use personification to characterize the trees as if they were people?

"This was a vast pickling vat where the wood was slowly converted into living gems."

"They proudly reared their heads above the surrounding country, but they were conquered and laid low by some force of nature."

"They were no longer rulers of the kingdom of flora, but preserved for all time as agate, jasper, opal, and other forms of silica."

"Water containing minerals slowly forced its way into the trunks and limbs and roots of the fallen monarchs under a terrific pressure."

"Then began the process of embalming and preserving these fallen monarchs."

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Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

Your answer:

"They proudly reared their heads above the surrounding country, but they were conquered and laid low by some force of nature."

Your answer:

"They were no longer rulers of the kingdom of flora, but preserved for all time as agate, jasper, opal, and other forms of silica."

Your answer:

"Water containing minerals slowly forced its way into the trunks and limbs and roots of the fallen monarchs under a terrific pressure."

Your answer:

"Then began the process of embalming and preserving these fallen monarchs."

Correct answer:

"This was a vast pickling vat where the wood was slowly converted into living gems."

Explanation:

Personification is the act of describing a non-living thing as if it were human. Authors might describe non-sentient things as feeling a certain way or as performing human actions or having human traits. The author does this quite frequently in this passage in order to develop an extended metaphor in which he describes the petrified trees as monarchs. Let's look at each of the sentences given as answer choices to pick out the one in which the author does NOT do this.

"Then began the process of embalming and preserving these fallen monarchs." - The word "embalming" and the reference to the trees as "fallen monarchs" compares them with royalty in this sentence, so this isn't the correct answer.

"Water containing minerals slowly forced its way into the trunks and limbs and roots of the fallen monarchs under a terrific pressure." - In this sentence, the author again refers to the trees undergoing the petrification process as "fallen monarchs." This sentence isn't correct either.

"They proudly reared their heads above the surrounding country, but they were conquered and laid low by some force of nature." -

"They were no longer rulers of the kingdom of flora, but preserved for all time as agate, jasper, opal, and other forms of silica."

"This was a vast pickling vat where the wood was slowly converted into living gems." - This sentence uses not one but two metaphors, calling the underground environment in which petrification takes place "a vast pickling vat" and the petrified wood that results from the process "living gems." Neither of these metaphors involve describing the trees as if they are people, though, so this is the correct answer!

Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

"Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare

1 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
13 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

In this poem, the speaker is addressing __________.

death

someone who criticized his or her other written works

a fellow writer

an enemy

someone he or she loves

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Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

In this poem, the speaker is addressing __________.

Your answer:

death

Your answer:

someone who criticized his or her other written works

Your answer:

a fellow writer

Your answer:

an enemy

Correct answer:

someone he or she loves

Explanation:

The poem establishes addressee most directly in its first two lines:

1 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Here, we see that the speaker is asking if he should compare the poem's addressee before saying that this person is "more lovely" and "more temperate" ("temperate" meaning mild or restrained). Lines 3–8 all talk about negative aspects of "a summer's day," thus making the addressee look better than "a summer's day." If the poet is praising the addressee's beauty (e.g. by calling them "more lovely" than a summer's day) and general demeanor (e.g. by calling them "more temperate" than a summer's day), we can infer that the poem is addressed to the speaker's beloved. None of the other answer choices make sense.

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All Common Core: 7th Grade English Language Arts Resources

Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

Flashcards: Reading to Determine Main Idea or Theme

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