What a thing, a whole story or a reference stands for
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Great Stone Face, from the ending (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850)
What happens before this excerpt: [1] Ernest grows up a quiet farmer who studies the Great Stone Face every evening, in a valley where an old legend says that a great man with the Face's features will one day appear. [2] The valley hails three famous men in turn as that man, a rich merchant, a general and a statesman, but none has the Face's noble kindness. [3] In old age Ernest, visited by a poet he admires, speaks at sunset to his neighbors.
The excerpt: [4] Ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his heart and mind. [5] His words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the life which he had always lived. … [6] The poet, as he listened, felt that the being and character of Ernest were a nobler strain of poetry than he had ever written. … [7] At a distance, but distinctly to be seen, high up in the golden light of the setting sun, appeared the Great Stone Face, with hoary mists around it, like the white hairs around the brow of Ernest. … [8] At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so imbued with benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms aloft and shouted, “Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face!” [9] Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said was true. [10] The prophecy was fulfilled. [11] But Ernest, having finished what he had to say, took the poet’s arm, and walked slowly homeward, still hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE.
Esme reads the poet's shout in part 8. What does “Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face!” mean on both levels?
- Literally, the poet is joking with the crowd; allegorically, he is mocking the people for believing in old legends.
- Literally, his face now resembles the rock; allegorically, greatness is a life lived in harmony with one's thoughts, and Ernest does not claim it.
- Literally, his face resembles the rock; allegorically, the valley at last receives the famous man it was promised.
- Literally, his face resembles the rock, and that resemblance alone fulfills the legend, with no further meaning in the poet's words.
Tala reads the ending, where Ernest is “still hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by appear” (part 11). What does this add?
- It shows that Ernest is disappointed that the prophecy came true so quietly and so late in his life.
- It shows that Ernest doubts the poet and thinks the legend has not truly come true.
- It shows that no one in the valley can be as great as the Great Stone Face itself.
- It confirms his humility: the man the poet calls great does not claim greatness.
Zee weighs two readings. Reading 1: the Face stands for nature's indifference to people. Reading 2: it stands for an ideal people can grow into. Which is better supported?
- Neither, because the excerpt does not say outright what the Face stands for in the story.
- Reading 1, because the Face appears “high up” and “at a distance” (part 7), far above the people and silent.
- Reading 2, because Ernest comes to resemble the Face after a life in harmony with his thoughts (parts 5 and 8).
- Both, because the Face is a rock formation and also an ideal at the same time for the valley.
Pia weighs two readings. Reading 1: the valley seeks greatness in wealth, war and office. Reading 2: the three earlier men were secretly good. Which is better supported?
- Reading 2, because the valley hails each of the three men, so each must have earned its respect.
- Neither, because the summary only lists the three men and never judges any of them as good or bad.
- Reading 1, because the valley hails three famous men, though none has the Face's “noble kindness” (part 2).
- Reading 1, because merchants, generals and statesmen are mostly shown as villains in stories.
Milo weighs two readings. Reading 1: Ernest's words move people because the sunset and the Face frame him. Reading 2: they move people because they match his life. Which is better supported?
- Both, because setting and honesty together are what move any listener in a story like this one.
- Reading 1, because the Face appears in the golden light behind him (part 7) just as he is about to speak.
- Neither, because part 5 describes his words and the crowd but does not explain their power.
- Reading 2, because part 5 says his words “accorded with his thoughts,” which “harmonized with the life.”
The Blank Corner (an original story)
[1] Lena spent the summer before senior year at the Bellmont County Archive, cleaning and repairing a hand-drawn survey map of the county made in 1858. [2] Most of the map was crowded with careful detail: farms with their owners' names, a mill on each creek, and the dotted line of a stagecoach road. [3] The northeast corner, however, held nothing but a pale wash of ink and one word in faded capitals, UNSURVEYED. [4] Mr. Halvorsen, the archivist, liked to call Lena the office's Marco Polo, because each morning brought a report from some faraway township. [5] Lena, in turn, called Mr. Halvorsen Sancho Panza, since the archivist was the practical one who remembered the glue, the gloves and the lunch while the intern wandered through 1858. [6] All summer the blank corner stayed blank, and Lena began to look at it first each morning, as if it were a door that might open. [7] In the last week, a woman brought in a box of letters written by her great-great-grandfather, one of the surveyors. [8] One letter explained that the team had run out of daylight, money and patience at the edge of a cedar swamp, and had promised to return the next spring. [9] They never returned, and the survey office closed two years later, so the corner stayed empty for over a century and a half. [10] Lena asked whether the archive should fill in the swamp from a modern satellite photograph, but Mr. Halvorsen answered that a map is honest only when it admits where its makers stopped. [11] On the final afternoon, Lena mounted the surveyor's letter in a clear sleeve beside the blank corner, so that visitors would see both the empty space and the reason for it. [12] Then, packing for a first college visit, Lena realized that next year looked rather like that corner: unmapped, a little daunting, and waiting to be walked into.
Ren reads about the blank corner. What does it mean on the literal and the symbolic level?
- Literally, an unsurveyed corner; symbolically, the surveyors' failure, which the archive keeps on display as a warning to later map-makers and to visitors.
- Literally, an unsurveyed corner of an 1858 map; symbolically, an honestly admitted unknown, left as the surveyors left it and waiting to be walked into.
- Literally, a corner the surveyors ran out of time to finish, with no further meaning for the story's readers beyond the facts of the survey itself.
- Literally, a swamp the archive plans to fill in from a photograph; symbolically, a danger that visitors and staff must avoid.
Noah reads Mr. Halvorsen's answer: a map “is honest only when it admits where its makers stopped” (sentence 10). How does it connect to the ending?
- It explains why the archive left the swamp unmapped, and it does not touch the ending of the story.
- Admitting where knowledge stops is honest, and it prepares the intern to face an unmapped future.
- It shows that the archive refuses modern satellite photographs of any kind in its map room.
- It teaches that maps are less useful than letters and should be replaced by them in the archive.
Jun reads sentence 4. What does calling the intern “the office's Marco Polo” add that “a good reporter” would leave out?
- It casts the intern as a traveler of the imagination, bringing back reports from faraway places.
- It casts the intern as a merchant who profits from trade with distant townships and their farms.
- It teases the intern for staying in the archive and refusing to travel even in the mind.
- It names a merchant from Venice who traveled to China in the 1270s and wrote a famous book.
Kira reads sentence 5. What does calling Mr. Halvorsen “Sancho Panza” add to the picture of the archivist?
- It casts him as a servant who follows an unwise master without asking a single question.
- It casts him as the practical companion who keeps the dreamer supplied and grounded.
- It teases him for being just as dreamy and unrealistic as the knight he serves.
- It names the squire who travels with a dreamy knight in the famous novel by Cervantes.
Ari links the allusions to the ending, where next year looks like “that corner” (sentence 12). Which statement is best supported?
- Like Marco Polo, the intern must go out into the unmapped, with the archivist's honesty to steady the way.
- The first college visit is the whole meaning of the unmapped future that the story describes for the intern next year.
- The intern will leave the unknown to a Sancho Panza and stay behind in the archive like a Marco Polo.
- The nicknames switch at the end, so the intern becomes the practical one and the archivist the dreamer.
