Write an analysis of a story, poem or speech
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me
Circle the best answer.
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The Last Run on Route 9 (story excerpt and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text
[1] Amos Teller had driven the last run on Route 9 for eleven years, and he knew the city at midnight as a set of small lights left on for people still working. [2] At the hospital stop a nurse climbed aboard in her coat and scrubs, and he waited, without being asked, until she had found a seat before pulling away. [3] At the bakery stop the night baker waved through the glass, as he did every night, and Amos flashed the headlights twice in reply. [4] The only other passenger was a college student asleep against the window, her backpack hugged to her chest, and Amos turned the radio down to almost nothing. [5] He liked to say that he drove an empty bus, but he never said it to the people on it, and he never said it at all after midnight. [6] When the student woke at the end of the line, he had already pulled into the light beneath the depot's clock, so that she would step off where she could see.
The draft
[7] In "The Last Run on Route 9," the author shows that Amos Teller's quiet habits are a form of care for people the city overlooks after midnight. [8] The opening image presents the city at midnight as "small lights left on for people still working," which sets up the night workers as the real subject. [9] Amos Teller is a bus driver who has driven the same route for eleven years. [10] He waits for passengers to sit, answers the baker's wave, and lowers the radio for a sleeping student. [11] Two moments together show that Teller protects his passengers while keeping that protection unnoticed. (Quotations to come.)
[12] The excerpt ends with Teller pulling into the light beneath the depot's clock just before the student wakes up and steps off the bus. [13] Teller's habit of claiming he drives "an empty bus" becomes ironic, because the reader has watched him attend to everyone on it. [14] The excerpt suggests that some of the most careful work in a city happens when almost no one is awake to notice it.
Ari needs two quotations for [11], which says Teller protects passengers while keeping that protection unnoticed. Which pair proves both parts?
- [3] At the bakery stop the night baker waved through the glass, as he did every night, and Amos flashed the headlights twice in reply. [5] He liked to say that he drove an empty bus, but he never said it to the people on it, and he never said it at all after midnight.
- [4] The only other passenger was a college student asleep against the window, her backpack hugged to her chest, and Amos turned the radio down to almost nothing. [6] When the student woke at the end of the line, he had already pulled into the light beneath the depot's clock, so that she would step off where she could see.
- [2] At the hospital stop a nurse climbed aboard in her coat and scrubs, and he waited, without being asked, until she had found a seat before pulling away. [3] At the bakery stop the night baker waved through the glass, as he did every night, and Amos flashed the headlights twice in reply.
- [1] Amos Teller had driven the last run on Route 9 for eleven years, and he knew the city at midnight as a set of small lights left on for people still working. [3] At the bakery stop the night baker waved through the glass, as he did every night, and Amos flashed the headlights twice in reply.
Bo sees that [9] states a fact instead of a point. Which topic sentence should replace [9] to tie paragraph 2 to the thesis in [7]?
- Teller's care shows most clearly in small courtesies that no passenger asks for and no schedule requires.
- The author shows that Amos Teller's quiet habits are a form of care for the people the city overlooks after midnight.
- Teller's habit of saying that he drives an empty bus turns gently ironic once the reader has watched him at work.
- The author makes the city at night seem peaceful, with small lights glowing for anyone who happens to be awake.
Esme sees that [12] retells the ending. Which sentence should replace [12] to turn it into analysis?
- By ending under the depot's clock, the author shows that Teller is running out of time and fears that his career is ending.
- By ending on a kindness the student never sees, the author makes the reader its only witness, so Teller's care feels both real and unrewarded.
- At the end of the line, Teller stops the bus in the light under the depot's clock, and the student wakes up, gathers the backpack and steps off.
- By having Teller flash the headlights twice, the author shows a friendship that needs no words between two night workers.
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Purl (story excerpt and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text
[1] My grandfather learned to knit during a long Minnesota winter when he was nine, and seventy years later his hands still moved faster than his explanations. [2] "Under, around, through, off," he said, which was the whole of his teaching, and then he knitted a row so quickly that I saw only a blur of gray yarn. [3] For a week my scarf grew crooked and full of holes, and every evening I unraveled it while he watched without offering to help. [4] I decided he was impatient with slow learners, or perhaps simply bored, and I stopped asking him questions. [5] On the eighth night he handed me a small square he had knitted, full of the same holes as mine, and told me it was the first thing he ever made. [6] He had kept it for seventy years in a tin of buttons, and he said that every good scarf starts with a bad one that someone refused to throw away.
The draft
[7] In "Purl," the author uses a narrator who misjudges a quiet teacher, so that the grandfather's patience is revealed only when the narrator is ready to see it. [8] The excerpt opens by showing a gap between skill and explanation, since the grandfather's hands "still moved faster than his explanations." [9] The grandfather's four-word lesson, "Under, around, through, off," is how he teaches the narrator to knit. [10] The narrator watches a blur of yarn, then struggles alone for a week, unraveling the scarf each evening while the grandfather watches. [11] Two details show that the grandfather's silence was a deliberate kind of patience rather than boredom. (Quotations to come.)
[12] The narrator then receives the grandfather's first square, full of holes, which had been kept for seventy years in a tin of buttons. [13] The grandfather's closing saying turns the scarf into a lesson about keeping faith with beginners, including the young knitter beside him. [14] By delaying this revelation, the author lets the reader share the narrator's misjudgment and then feel its correction.
Jun needs two quotations for [11], which says the grandfather's silence was deliberate patience rather than boredom. Which pair proves both parts?
- [3] For a week my scarf grew crooked and full of holes, and every evening I unraveled it while he watched without offering to help. [5] On the eighth night he handed me a small square he had knitted, full of the same holes as mine, and told me it was the first thing he ever made.
- [2] "Under, around, through, off," he said, which was the whole of his teaching, and then he knitted a row so quickly that I saw only a blur of gray yarn. [3] For a week my scarf grew crooked and full of holes, and every evening I unraveled it while he watched without offering to help.
- [3] For a week my scarf grew crooked and full of holes, and every evening I unraveled it while he watched without offering to help. [4] I decided he was impatient with slow learners, or perhaps simply bored, and I stopped asking him questions.
- [1] My grandfather learned to knit during a long Minnesota winter when he was nine, and seventy years later his hands still moved faster than his explanations. [2] "Under, around, through, off," he said, which was the whole of his teaching, and then he knitted a row so quickly that I saw only a blur of gray yarn.
Kira sees that [9] opens paragraph 2 with a detail. Which topic sentence should replace [9] to tie the paragraph to the thesis in [7]?
- The grandfather learned to knit when he was nine, during a long Minnesota winter seventy years earlier.
- At first the author lets the narrator's frustration shape the reader's view, so the silence looks like coldness.
- The grandfather's saying about bad scarves turns the excerpt into a lesson about keeping faith with beginners.
- The author fills the excerpt with textures, from gray yarn to a tin of buttons, that make the scene feel warm and cozy.
Luz sees that [12] retells what the grandfather gives. Which sentence should replace [12] to turn it into analysis?
- The four-word lesson, "Under, around, through, off," shows that the grandfather's skill has moved beyond words into his hands.
- On the eighth night the grandfather gives the narrator a small knitted square, full of holes, that he made long ago.
- The grandfather should have explained more at the start, since a good teacher would not let a beginner struggle alone for a week.
- The holey square symbolizes the grandfather's own beginning, so his silence becomes an invitation to fail as he once did.
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Address on the Hundredth Anniversary of Marrow Falls (speech by an invented speaker and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text
[1] One hundred years ago, Marrow Falls was a water tower, a quarry and eleven families who had been told that the railroad might someday stop here. [2] The railroad did stop, and then, in 1958, it stopped stopping, and for a few hard years people wondered aloud whether the town would last. [3] It lasted because the quarry families opened a school in a feed store's back room, the library began as a shelf at the post office, and the first park was a vacant lot that neighbors mowed on Saturdays. [4] None of those people expected to be remembered, and most of their names are not on any building in this town. [5] I mention them not to make us proud of the past, although we may be, but to remind us that the next hundred years will be built the same way. [6] Somewhere in this crowd is a person who will start the shelf, the school or the Saturday crew that someone else will thank on our two hundredth birthday.
The draft
[7] At the town's centennial, Mayor Kostas uses the story of Marrow Falls to argue that its future depends on the same unnoticed work that saved its past. [8] She begins with the town's smallest beginnings, a water tower, a quarry and "eleven families," so that the crowd can measure how far the town has come. [9] The speech then talks about the year 1958, when the railroad stopped coming to Marrow Falls. [10] Her pun that the railroad "stopped stopping" lightens a painful memory, and her list of a school, a shelf and a mowed lot shows how the town answered it. [11] Two moments show that Kostas honors uncelebrated people and then asks the crowd to see themselves among them. (Quotations to come.)
[12] At the end of the speech, Kostas says that someone in the crowd will start something new that will be thanked in another hundred years. [13] Her concession, "although we may be," allows pride without letting pride become the point of the occasion. [14] The address therefore uses a celebration of the past mainly as a way to recruit the future.
Noah sees that [9] only names a year. Which topic sentence should replace [9] to tie paragraph 2 to the thesis in [7]?
- Kostas ends by handing the speech's praise forward to someone in the crowd who has not yet begun the work.
- Kostas then turns the town's hardest years into proof that its survival came from neighbors, not from the railroad.
- In 1958 the railroad stopped stopping at Marrow Falls, and people wondered aloud whether the town would last.
- Mayor Kostas uses the story of Marrow Falls to argue that its future depends on the same unnoticed work that saved its past.
Pia sees that [12] retells the end of the speech. Which sentence should replace [12] to turn it into analysis?
- By ending on the town's two hundredth birthday, Kostas shows that Marrow Falls will certainly survive another hundred years, whatever the residents do.
- By ending on an unnamed "person" in the crowd, Kostas hands the praise forward, so listeners hear the celebration as a job they might accept.
- By joking that the railroad "stopped stopping," Kostas softens the town's hardest memory for the crowd.
- Mayor Kostas is right to remind people of their duty, because residents of small towns too often leave the work to others.
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Remarks to the Graduates of the Pine Hollow Science Camp (speech by an invented speaker and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text
[1] For two weeks you have counted beetles, measured stream flow and written down numbers that refused to agree with each other, and I hope that bothered you. [2] I have studied the same pond for twenty-two years, and I can tell you that the most important page in my notebook says only, in large letters, "I was wrong." [3] That page cost me a summer of work, and it was the best summer of my career, because it sent me looking for the answer I actually needed. [4] Science is often described as a collection of answers, but in the field it feels much more like a long, polite argument with the world. [5] The world usually wins the argument, and the trick is to lose it carefully, writing down exactly how you lost. [6] So when you go home and someone asks what you learned here, I hope you will say that you learned how to be wrong on purpose and in ink.
The draft
[7] Speaking to campers at the end of their first fieldwork, Dr. Reyes argues that being wrong is not a failure of science but its working method. [8] She opens by naming the campers' own frustration, the numbers "that refused to agree," and hopes aloud that it bothered them, which surprises an audience expecting praise. [9] Dr. Reyes has studied the same pond for twenty-two years and keeps a detailed observation notebook. [10] She describes for the campers one particular page in that notebook and the entire summer of work the page eventually cost her. [11] Two lines show that Reyes presents her own mistake as the turning point of her career, not as an embarrassment. (Quotations to come.)
[12] Next, Reyes explains that science resembles an argument with the world, and that the world usually wins it. [13] Her closing hope that the campers will be wrong "on purpose and in ink" turns the lesson into an instruction they can carry home. [14] By celebrating error at a graduation ceremony, Reyes deliberately reverses what the occasion usually honors, and that reversal is her central point.
Ren needs two quotations for [11], which says Reyes presents her own mistake as the turning point of her career. Which pair proves both parts?
- [2] I have studied the same pond for twenty-two years, and I can tell you that the most important page in my notebook says only, in large letters, "I was wrong." [3] That page cost me a summer of work, and it was the best summer of my career, because it sent me looking for the answer I actually needed.
- [5] The world usually wins the argument, and the trick is to lose it carefully, writing down exactly how you lost. [6] So when you go home and someone asks what you learned here, I hope you will say that you learned how to be wrong on purpose and in ink.
- [1] For two weeks you have counted beetles, measured stream flow and written down numbers that refused to agree with each other, and I hope that bothered you. [4] Science is often described as a collection of answers, but in the field it feels much more like a long, polite argument with the world.
- [4] Science is often described as a collection of answers, but in the field it feels much more like a long, polite argument with the world. [5] The world usually wins the argument, and the trick is to lose it carefully, writing down exactly how you lost.
Zee sees that [12] retells the middle of the speech. Which sentence should replace [12] to turn it into analysis?
- Her metaphor of "a long, polite argument with the world" makes error sound civil and expected, so campers can lose without feeling defeated.
- Her metaphor of an argument shows that Reyes believes nature is an enemy that scientists must defeat at any cost.
- Reyes is a humble and admirable scientist, and the campers are lucky to hear advice from someone so wise.
- Reyes says that science is less a collection of answers than an argument with the world that the world usually wins.