A hard choice, and views that clash
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Early Shift (story)
[1] My sister Marit has run the bakery since Papa's stroke, and she runs it the way she used to run our household chores in childhood, from a list taped inside the cupboard door and revised in pencil whenever the world disagreed with it. [2] I work the five o'clock shift on Saturdays, which she describes as a favor to me and which I would describe, if she permitted descriptions, as something closer to a sentence. [3] On the first Saturday in October she made me count the till twice, aloud, while my friends waited outside the window with their coats zipped to their chins, and then she wrote the total on the list without looking up. [4] I told her that she was turning the place into a bank, and she answered that a bank would have noticed the three hundred dollars that went missing in August. [5] Then she asked me to carry the flour.
[6] I should confess that I was in no generous mood, because that same week Mr. Quill, who has driven our delivery van for thirty-one years, began leaving the keys on the hook at four o'clock instead of at six. [7] Marit said nothing about this; she simply began driving the evening deliveries herself, after closing, and entering them on the list in pencil, as though they were a temporary arrangement. [8] I decided that this confirmed what I had always suspected, which was that she trusted nobody with a key.
[9] On the second Saturday the purchasing manager of the Lindqvist Hotel came in to announce that the hotel would end its contract unless the bread arrived by six o'clock every evening, and Marit, who had been reading an invoice, set it down very carefully. [10] She made him coffee in Papa's cup, which she allows no one else to touch, and assured him that it would. [11] When he had gone she stood at the window for a while, and then she took Mr. Quill's name off the pencil list and wrote it in ink on the schedule, on the Monday morning route, and underlined it twice. [12] Her own name went beside the evening route, in ink as well, with no end date.
[13] Later, reaching for the flour, I turned over the list that hangs inside the cupboard door and saw, down its margin, a column of dates beginning in August, each one followed by a total and by the same initial in her small, upright hand. [14] The initial was mine.
Luz sets sentence 3 beside sentence 13. What does the pairing show about how the story handles the counting?
- Sentence 3 is accurate that Marit distrusts him, and sentence 13 just shows how carefully she records what he handles at the till.
- Sentence 3 happens on the first Saturday in October and sentence 13 on a later Saturday, so the story simply moves forward in time from one weekend to the next.
- The count that reads as distrust in 3 is revealed in 13 as a record kept with his initial, so the story shows the reason without stating it.
- Marit is the cold villain of 3 and the secret hero of 13, so the story first condemns her and then rewards her for what she hid.
In sentences 11 and 12 Marit rearranges the routes. Tala looks for two pulls the story supports for her. Which statement names them?
- A wish to push Mr. Quill out so that her brother can drive, which the story hints at in sentence 6.
- Loyalty to Mr. Quill, shown by moving him to the mornings, and a duty to the hotel, shown by taking the evenings herself.
- Distrust of anyone with a key, as the narrator says in sentence 8, together with a wish to keep the contract.
- Duty to the hotel contract, shown by her promise to the manager and the evening route written in ink, and no other pull that the story builds.
Pia sets sentence 8 beside sentence 12. What does the pairing show about the narrator’s verdict?
- Sentence 8 is accurate, since Marit does keep the evening route to herself, and 12 merely confirms that she trusts no one.
- In 8 the narrator is the story’s villain for judging her, and in 12 Marit becomes its hero for taking on the burden of the whole evening route.
- In 8 he reads her evening driving as distrust; in 12 the same duty is written down for good, which shows what his verdict left out.
- Sentence 8 is the narrator’s thought and sentence 12 is a line on the schedule, so the story moves from thinking to writing.
The North Field (story)
[1] Bram Aldous woke at four, as he had for fifty years, and went out to inspect the north field before he attended to anything else, including his own breakfast. [2] The frost had taken the last of the late beans, which he noted without comment, in the manner of a man recording weather in a logbook. [3] He had not told his daughter that the seed order for the spring was still unpaid, and he did not intend to tell her.
[4] Inés drove out from the city on Sunday with a folder on the passenger seat and the radio switched off, as she did when she was rehearsing a conversation. [5] During the week she had read the lease terms that a solar company had mailed to her father, who had put them in a drawer unopened, and on Friday afternoon she had sat in the developer's office asking questions that she did not intend to repeat to anyone. [6] At her kitchen table in the city she had written a column of numbers that did not come out right however she added them, and she had added them several times.
[7] At breakfast Bram asked whether she had come to look at the farm or at the figures, and she replied that the two were no longer different things. [8] He said that his father had broken this ground with a horse, and that a man did not cover a field with glass for the convenience of a stranger. [9] She said that she was not asking him to cover anything; she was asking him to read a letter. [10] He said that he would read it after the beans.
[11] Inés washed the cups, because the alternative was to say the next sentence, and from the window she watched him cross the north field with his hands behind his back, slowly, as though the ground itself might object. [12] When he reached the far fence he stood there so long that she went out to the car, took the folder from the seat, and put it back again.
[13] That evening Bram found the developer's business card in the pocket of her coat on the hook, and read the date on which the card had been stamped, and sat down on the back step without turning on the light. [14] He did not call her in. [15] She came out anyway, carrying two cups, and sat one step below him, and neither of them mentioned what they had both read.
Bram keeps the seed order from his daughter and walks the north field. Bo looks for two pulls the story supports for him. Which statement names them?
- A wish to sell to the developer for a fair price, which Inés shows in sentence 5 by studying the lease terms with care.
- Pride in ground his father broke with a horse, shown in sentence 8, and fear of a debt he has hidden, shown in sentence 3.
- Pride in the ground his father broke with a horse, shown in sentence 8, and no other pull that the story builds in him.
- Anger at Inés for visiting the developer, which the story builds from the moment she arrives in sentence 4.
Noah wants to prove this reading: the story gives reasons to doubt that Inés meant to sell. Which set of sentences proves it?
- [1] Bram Aldous woke at four, as he had for fifty years, and went out to inspect the north field before he attended to anything else, including his own breakfast. [2] The frost had taken the last of the late beans, which he noted without comment, in the manner of a man recording weather in a logbook.
- [6] At her kitchen table in the city she had written a column of numbers that did not come out right however she added them, and she had added them several times. [9] She said that she was not asking him to cover anything; she was asking him to read a letter.
- [8] He said that his father had broken this ground with a horse, and that a man did not cover a field with glass for the convenience of a stranger. [13] That evening Bram found the developer’s business card in the pocket of her coat on the hook, and read the date on which the card had been stamped.
- [14] He did not call her in. [15] She came out anyway, carrying two cups, and sat one step below him, and neither of them mentioned what they had both read.
Esme sets sentence 3 beside sentence 6. What does the pairing show about how the story treats Bram and Inés?
- Sentence 3 shows that Bram hides things while sentence 6 shows that Inés is open, so Bram is the one at fault.
- Bram is the stubborn villain of sentence 3 and Inés the practical hero of sentence 6, so the story takes her side from the start.
- Each is shown alone with private arithmetic that will not come out, so the reader sees them share a fear before either admits it.
- Sentence 3 is about seed in the country and sentence 6 about numbers in the city, so the story contrasts two places and two kinds of work.
Notice of Reassignment (story)
[1] I want it clearly understood from the outset that the reassignment of Ms. Hester Vance to the basement archive is a courtesy, and that I proposed it myself. [2] In twenty-two years she has never once been late, which is why I notice, with some concern, that this autumn she has been standing in my doorway three times before nine. [3] Her work is unimpeachable, and I say so freely, because a manager who cannot praise is a manager who cannot be trusted when he does not.
[4] But the front counter is a considerable strain on a woman of her age, with its draft, its stairs and its constant public, and the basement is warm. [5] She did not ask to be moved. [6] I consider that a sign of her modesty.
[7] On the matter of the permits, which she has raised, I have only this to say: the county's standards are the county's, and a clerk who stamps a form on the day it arrives has done her duty, whatever the form's later history may prove to be. [8] Ms. Vance has suggested that three permits stamped in March were backdated by the deputy director, and has put the suggestion in writing, which I regret, since writing lends a thing an air of certainty that it has not earned. [9] I have filed her note where the deputy director will not be troubled by it. [10] The deputy director, I should add, has been generous to this office, including on the matter of my own title, which will be reviewed in January. [11] It is in nobody's interest that a good clerk be distracted by matters well above her position.
[12] In the basement she will have no counter, no public, and no one to answer to but the files, which have never filed a complaint. [13] I have had her desk moved personally, along with the chair, which has a back, and I have arranged the lamp where the light is best for reading. [14] On her last afternoon upstairs she thanked me, and I discovered that I could not hold her eye.
Jun wants to prove this reading: the narrator moves Ms. Vance for his own benefit, not hers. Which set of sentences proves it?
- [13] I have had her desk moved personally, along with the chair, which has a back, and I have arranged the lamp … [14] On her last afternoon upstairs she thanked me, and I discovered that I could not hold her eye.
- [7] … the county’s standards are the county’s, and a clerk who stamps a form on the day it arrives has done her duty … [8] Ms. Vance has suggested that three permits stamped in March were backdated by the deputy director, and has put the suggestion in writing …
- [1] I want it clearly understood from the outset that the reassignment of Ms. Hester Vance to the basement archive is a courtesy, and that I proposed it myself. [4] But the front counter is a considerable strain on a woman of her age, with its draft, its stairs and its constant public, and the basement is warm.
- [9] I have filed her note where the deputy director will not be troubled by it. [10] The deputy director, I should add, has been generous to this office, including on the matter of my own title, which will be reviewed in January.
Milo sets sentence 4 beside sentence 12. What does the pairing show about the narrator’s idea of a courtesy?
- Sentence 4 is right that the basement is warmer and 12 is right that she will be quiet there, so the move is a simple kindness.
- The narrator is kind in 4 and cruel in 12, so the story makes him a villain who first fools the reader.
- Sentence 4 sells the move as warmth; sentence 12 shows what the warmth buys, a post with no public and no one to hear her.
- Sentence 4 describes the front counter and sentence 12 the basement, so the story compares two rooms.
Zee looks for two pulls the story supports for the narrator as he moves Ms. Vance. Which statement names them?
- A wish to protect his title, shown in sentences 9 and 10, and no other pull that the story builds.
- A plan to dismiss Ms. Vance once she is out of sight, which sentence 12 suggests.
- A wish to spare Ms. Vance the strain of the counter, which he gives as his reason in sentence 4.
- A wish to protect his title, shown in sentence 10, and a trace of shame, shown in sentence 14.
Kira wants to prove this reading: the narrator praises Ms. Vance for what she does, not for what she noticed. Which set of sentences proves it?
- [1] I want it clearly understood from the outset that the reassignment of Ms. Hester Vance to the basement archive is a courtesy, and that I proposed it myself. [2] In twenty-two years she has never once been late, which is why I notice, with some concern, that this autumn she has been standing in my doorway three times before nine.
- [3] Her work is unimpeachable, and I say so freely, because a manager who cannot praise is a manager who cannot be trusted when he does not. [11] It is in nobody’s interest that a good clerk be distracted by matters well above her position.
- [12] In the basement she will have no counter, no public, and no one to answer to but the files, which have never filed a complaint. [14] On her last afternoon upstairs she thanked me, and I discovered that I could not hold her eye.
- [4] But the front counter is a considerable strain on a woman of her age, with its draft, its stairs and its constant public, and the basement is warm. [6] I consider that a sign of her modesty.