An older British work and what later writing took from it

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   A Truth Universally Acknowledged, Twice (older British novel and a later text)

   Period note: [1] Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice in 1813, when the daughters of an English country gentleman could rarely earn a living or inherit much property. [2] A good marriage therefore decided a great deal about a family's future. [3] Mrs. Bennet, the mother of five unmarried daughters, speaks first in the dialogue below. [4] Austen's narrator often states a grand general truth and then lets the characters reveal how narrow and self-interested that truth really is.

   From Pride and Prejudice (1813), chapter 1: [5] It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. [6] However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. [7] “My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”… [8] …“Is he married or single?” “Oh, single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

   Later text (ours): [9] It is a truth universally agreed upon, at least on Juniper Court, that whoever buys the house with the big sunny yard must be in need of a vegetable garden. [10] However little the new owners may know about soil, this truth is so firmly fixed in the minds of the neighbors that the yard is considered the rightful project of whichever neighbor reaches the front door first. [11] Mrs. Okafor arrived on moving day with a tray of tomato seedlings, and Mr. Lindqvist followed with compost and strong opinions about raised beds. [12] Nobody had asked the new owners, two nurses who worked nights, what they wanted, and what they wanted was a quiet, shady corner for a hammock.

   Word notes: [13] In want of means lacking and therefore needing. [14] A house that is let has been rented out, and four or five thousand pounds a year was a very large income.

2. 1.

   Ari fills the changed row for sentences 6 and 10. What does the later text change in Austen's rightful property sentence, and what does the change do?

   • The yard, not a person, becomes the neighbors' claim, so the joke targets meddling, not marriage.
   • Nothing important: both sentences mock families who see a newcomer as a future husband.
   • It adds daughters waiting for the newcomer, while Austen's sentence is about a garden.
   • It corrects Austen, since calling a man someone's property was simply wrong to her readers, as we know now.
3. 2.

   Luz fills the theme row for both texts. Which theme do sentences 5 to 8 and sentences 9 to 12 share?

   • Across the ages, neighborhoods are run by selfish people who refuse to help newcomers settle in.
   • A good marriage decided a family's future, so families planned their daughters' lives.
   • Neighbors treat a newcomer's life as theirs to arrange, without asking what the newcomer wants.
   • Money decides who is welcome, since a large fortune makes a newcomer worth visiting.
4. 3.

   Tala sorts the likenesses. Which likeness is a real borrowing from Austen, not a feature that many stories share?

   • An “It is a truth universally” opening, then a “However little” sentence of the same shape.
   • A house named in each text: Netherfield Park and the house with the sunny yard.
   • Mrs. Bennet's eagerness about the newcomer, which Mrs. Okafor shares for the same reason: a match.
   • A new arrival in the neighborhood who causes a stir among the people already there.
5. 4.

   Pia checks sentence 4's description of Austen's narrator against the later text. Does the later text make the same move?

   • No: Austen undercuts her truth, while the later text treats its own truth as correct.
   • Yes, because sentence 4 says Austen's narrator works this way, so a later copy must too.
   • Yes, and both narrators mean it, since universally acknowledged means proven beyond question.
   • Yes: sentence 9 states a grand general truth, and sentence 12 shows how narrow it is.
6. 5.

   Bo asks whether “whichever neighbor reaches the front door first” in sentence 10 borrows from Austen. Which answer is right, and why?

   • Yes: it echoes sentence 6, where the claim goes to some one or other of the daughters.
   • Yes: sentence 14 says a house that is let is rented, like the house on Juniper Court.
   • Yes: both texts turn on news of a newcomer, Netherfield being let and a house being sold.
   • No: neighbors racing to greet a newcomer happen in many stories, so nothing is Austen's.

7. The Brook, and the Night Route (older British poem and a later text)

   Period note:
   [1] Alfred Tennyson, who was Poet Laureate of Britain, first printed “The Brook” in Maud, and Other Poems in 1855, and the stanzas below are copied from an edition of 1859.
   [2] In the longer poem, a man walking past an old farm remembers a song that his brother once wrote, in which the brook itself speaks, and a slash marks the end of each line.
   [3] Tennyson was writing in the Victorian years, when railways and factories were changing the English countryside quickly, and many readers treasured poems about places that seemed to stay the same.
   [4] The speaking brook is an example of personification, the familiar device of giving a natural thing a human voice, a memory and a personality.

   From “The Brook” (1855):
   [5] By thirty hills I hurry down, / Or slip between the ridges, / By twenty thorps, a little town, / And half a hundred bridges.
   [6] Till last by Philip's farm I flow / To join the brimming river, / For men may come and men may go, / But I go on for ever.…
   [7] …I chatter over stony ways, / In little sharps and trebles, / I bubble into eddying bays, / I babble on the pebbles.…
   [8] …I chatter, chatter, as I flow / To join the brimming river, / For men may come and men may go, / But I go on for ever.

   Later text (ours), “The Night Route”:
   [9] I leave the depot after ten / And hum along the river, / Past bakeries with their lights still on / Where early workers shiver.
   [10] The drivers change, the buses change, / New engines every decade, / For buses come and buses go, / But Route 9 runs for ever.
   [11] It runs because the nurses ride / When all the town is sleeping, / And as long as someone needs a ride / The route is worth the keeping.

   Word notes:
   [12] Thorps are small country villages, and a brimming river is one filled completely to the top of its banks.
   [13] Sharps and trebles are high musical notes, so the poem pictures the sound of the water as a kind of music.
   [14] Eddying bays are curving inlets where the current circles back upon itself.

8. 6.

   Tennyson's refrain says men may come and go; sentence 10 says buses come and go. Milo fills the changed row: what does the change do?

   • It moves the brook's thirty hills and half a hundred bridges onto the bus route.
   • It keeps Tennyson's meaning: people pass on while the route, like the brook, stays the same.
   • The things that pass become the machines, so the route lasts while its buses are replaced.
   • It shows that Victorian readers cared more for brooks than for people, unlike readers now.
9. 7.

   Zee fills the theme row for both poems. Which theme do sentences 6 to 8 and sentences 10 to 11 share?

   • Railways and factories changed the countryside, so poets praised places that stayed the same.
   • A thing lasts as long as people need it and keep it going, and no longer.
   • Something that keeps moving along its course outlasts the many things that pass by it.
   • Nature defeats machines in the end, so the river will outlast both the buses and the route.
10. 8.

    Kira sorts the likenesses. Which one did the later poem really borrow from “The Brook”?

    • A poem that rhymes and is set out in stanzas of four lines each.
    • A river in each poem, which the brook flows to join and the bus hums along.
    • A moving thing that speaks as I about its own route, with a come, go and for ever refrain.
    • The brook's chatter and babble, which the bus keeps exactly as its own steady hum.
11. 9.

    Ren compares sentence 11 with Tennyson's stanzas. What reason for lasting does the later poem add, and why does it fit its own time?

    • Philip's farm: the route keeps going so that it can reach the farm by the river.
    • Riders' need: the route runs because night workers depend on it, a reason a brook never needs.
    • Love: the driver cares for the nurses and drives on for ever to keep them safe.
    • No new reason: like the brook, the route simply runs on because nothing can stop it.
12. 10.

    Noah asks whether personification, named in sentence 4, is what the later poem borrowed from Tennyson. Which answer is right?

    • Yes: the bus speaks as I, so the device itself is the later poem's debt to Tennyson.
    • Only partly: many poems personify things, but the borrowed refrain makes this one Tennyson's.
    • No: the brook is water and the bus is a machine, so the two poems share nothing.
    • Yes: sentence 4 says personification is in “The Brook”, which proves the borrowing.