Worksheet

Write an analysis of a story, poem or speech

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Use this

    The Last Ribbon (story excerpt and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] Mr. Halvorsen had repaired typewriters on Dell Street for forty-one years, and his narrow shop still smelled of machine oil, inked ribbons and cedar shavings. [2] When the young woman set her grandmother's typewriter on the counter, he glanced first at her hands, which held the case as if it were a sleeping cat. [3] "Nobody types letters anymore," she said, almost apologizing, and he answered only that the machine had clearly not heard the news. [4] He opened the case, pressed a single key, and listened to the slow, uneven clack as a doctor listens to a heartbeat, his head tilted. [5] For an hour he worked without speaking, cleaning each typebar with a soft brush and easing one crooked lever back into line. [6] At last he rolled in a clean sheet, typed her grandmother's full name, and turned the page around so that she could read it first.

    The draft

    [7] In "The Last Ribbon," an old repairman fixes a typewriter for a young woman who brings her grandmother's machine into his shop on Dell Street. [8] Throughout the repair, Halvorsen treats the typewriter as an object that carries the memory of the woman who once owned it, rather than as a broken tool. (Quotation to come.) [9] The author also describes the moment when Halvorsen first tests the machine, writing that he listened "as a doctor listens to a heartbeat." [10] In other words, Halvorsen listens to the typewriter very closely, the same way that a doctor would listen carefully to a patient's chest.

    [11] The excerpt's near silence matters as well, because Halvorsen speaks only once and answers the customer's worry with a quiet joke instead of a speech. [12] By keeping him mostly silent, the author lets his careful hands and patient attention communicate what a long explanation would have flattened. [13] The ending, in which he types a name instead of a test sentence, gathers these details into one gesture that the reader understands without being told. [14] Together, these choices suggest that the excerpt is less about machinery than about the respect a stranger can show for someone else's past.

  2. Bo needs a quotation after [8], which says the typewriter carries its owner's memory. Which sentence from the text proves [8]?

    • [5] For an hour he worked without speaking, cleaning each typebar with a soft brush and easing one crooked lever back into line.
    • [6] At last he rolled in a clean sheet, typed her grandmother's full name, and turned the page around so that she could read it first.
    • [3] "Nobody types letters anymore," she said, almost apologizing, and he answered only that the machine had clearly not heard the news.
    • [4] He opened the case, pressed a single key, and listened to the slow, uneven clack as a doctor listens to a heartbeat, his head tilted.

  3. Esme is checking [10], the commentary after the doctor quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • The simile makes Halvorsen sound like an expert with years of training, so the reader trusts that the old typewriter will soon work again.
    • The metaphor of a doctor makes the repair seem like the care of a living patient, so Halvorsen appears to be tending the typewriter.
    • This comparison is a simile, because the author uses the word "as" to compare Halvorsen at work with a doctor who is listening.
    • The simile turns the repair into the examination of something alive, so the reader senses that Halvorsen is caring for the machine, not merely fixing it.

  4. Use this

    Closing Time (story excerpt and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] At ten minutes to closing, Rosa Delgado walked the length of the Bright Wash, touching each silent dryer door the way a teacher counts heads before a bus leaves. [2] One machine was still turning, and inside it a single small sweater rose and fell in the warm drum like a swimmer who refused to leave the pool. [3] Its owner, an old man in a rain-dark coat, had fallen asleep in the plastic chair by the window with a paperback open on his knee. [4] Rosa looked at the clock, then at the key ring in her hand, and finally at the sweater, which was far too small to belong to him. [5] She set the keys down on the folding table, poured two paper cups of coffee from the pot she had meant to empty, and sat. [6] When the dryer buzzed, the man woke with a start, and Rosa said only that the sweater would need a few more minutes to cool.

    The draft

    [7] In "Closing Time," a laundromat attendant waits for an elderly customer's dryer to finish and then speaks with him briefly when he awakens. [8] By the middle of the excerpt, Rosa has decided that a tired stranger's evening matters more than her closing routine. (Quotation to come.) [9] The author's most striking image is the sweater in the dryer, which rises and falls "like a swimmer who refused to leave the pool." [10] This means that the sweater keeps circling inside the dryer, repeatedly rising and falling within the warm, revolving drum.

    [11] The author never explains whom the small sweater belongs to, and that silence invites the reader to imagine a grandchild the old man is caring for. [12] Rosa's last line is equally restrained, since she offers the man a reason to stay that spares him from having to ask for one. [13] These understated details assemble a portrait of generosity that operates through small actions rather than through any declaration about kindness. [14] The excerpt suggests that a public place like a laundromat can become, for ten minutes, something considerably closer to a home.

  5. Jun wants the draft to open with an arguable claim instead of the summary in [7]. Which sentence should replace [7]?

    • In "Closing Time," the author shows that people today are lonely and that strangers should look after one another more often.
    • In "Closing Time," a worker at the Bright Wash checks the dryers before closing, finds a sleeping customer and pours two cups of coffee.
    • In "Closing Time," Rosa's small, unexplained actions show that kindness can quietly rearrange a routine without anyone naming it.
    • In "Closing Time," the author uses two similes, a teacher counting heads and a swimmer in a pool, and ends with a line of speech.

  6. Kira needs a quotation after [8]. Which sentence from the text proves that Rosa puts the stranger's evening ahead of closing up?

    • [1] At ten minutes to closing, Rosa Delgado walked the length of the Bright Wash, touching each silent dryer door the way a teacher counts heads before a bus leaves.
    • [5] She set the keys down on the folding table, poured two paper cups of coffee from the pot she had meant to empty, and sat.
    • [6] When the dryer buzzed, the man woke with a start, and Rosa said only that the sweater would need a few more minutes to cool.
    • [2] One machine was still turning, and inside it a single small sweater rose and fell in the warm drum like a swimmer who refused to leave the pool.

  7. Luz sees that [10] only restates the swimmer quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • The simile shows that the dryers at the Bright Wash are old and slow, so the reader sees why the shop cannot close on time tonight.
    • The metaphor of a swimmer makes the sweater seem stubborn and full of life, which helps explain why Rosa lets the evening run on.
    • The sweater rises and falls like someone swimming who does not want to get out of the pool, even when it is time to go.
    • The simile gives the sweater a stubborn, playful life, so the reader sees why Rosa cannot bring herself to end the evening.

  8. Use this

    Remarks to the Graduates of Carver Ridge Technical College (speech by an invented speaker and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] Graduates, when I tell people that I designed bridges for thirty-eight years, they usually picture me alone at a drafting table, solving every problem by myself. [2] In truth, every bridge I am proud of was held together by welders I never met, inspectors who caught my mistakes, and drivers who trusted us without knowing our names. [3] You will be tempted, especially in your first year, to measure yourselves by what you can do alone, and I am asking you to resist that temptation. [4] A bridge does not stand because one beam is strong; it stands because every beam carries a share of the load and passes the rest along. [5] So when someone hands you a share of the load, carry it well, and when you are tired, have the humility to pass part of it along. [6] The world does not need more lonely geniuses, but it badly needs people who know how to build things that hold.

    The draft

    [7] In her speech to the graduates of Carver Ridge Technical College, Dr. Vance talks about her thirty-eight years of designing bridges in many places. [8] Vance uses her own career to show the graduates that every success depends on people who are never credited. (Quotation to come.) [9] Her central comparison comes in the middle of the speech, when she says that a bridge stands "because every beam carries a share of the load and passes the rest along." [10] This comparison is an analogy that compares the graduates' future workplaces to the beams of a bridge.

    [11] Her request in sentence 5 is built as two balanced clauses, one about carrying the load well and one about passing it along when tired. [12] This balance suggests that strength and humility are equal duties, which is unusual advice at a ceremony that celebrates individual achievement. [13] Her closing contrast between "lonely geniuses" and "people who know how to build things that hold" leaves the graduates with a choice about whom to become. [14] Through these choices, Vance uses the authority of a long career to question the very idea of individual credit that a graduation honors.

  9. Noah needs a quotation after [8]. Which sentence from the speech proves that Vance's successes depended on people who were never credited?

    • [6] The world does not need more lonely geniuses, but it badly needs people who know how to build things that hold.
    • [2] In truth, every bridge I am proud of was held together by welders I never met, inspectors who caught my mistakes, and drivers who trusted us without knowing our names.
    • [4] A bridge does not stand because one beam is strong; it stands because every beam carries a share of the load and passes the rest along.
    • [1] Graduates, when I tell people that I designed bridges for thirty-eight years, they usually picture me alone at a drafting table, solving every problem by myself.

  10. Pia is checking [10], the commentary after the beam quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • The analogy shows off Vance's technical knowledge, so the graduates are impressed by how much an experienced engineer understands about bridges over the years.
    • This sentence is an example of an analogy, a comparison that explains one thing by setting it beside a different and more familiar thing.
    • The analogy makes sharing the work sound like a law of engineering, so graduates hear depending on others as something structures require, not a weakness.
    • In other words, a bridge stays up because each of its beams carries part of the weight and passes the rest of that weight to the others.

  11. Use this

    Remarks at the Reopening of the Fenmore Public Library (speech by an invented speaker and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] For two years the people of Fenmore have borrowed books from a trailer in the parking lot, and I know that some of you stopped coming because the trailer had no chairs. [2] I want to begin by thanking the people who kept coming anyway, the ones who read standing up and returned every book on time. [3] This building has a new roof, new wiring and a reading room twice the size of the old one, and I am proud of every inch of it. [4] But a library has never really been a building; it is a promise that anyone who walks through the door will be treated as someone worth teaching. [5] We kept that promise in a trailer, and we will keep it here, and if we ever forget it, I hope you will stand at this desk and remind us. [6] The doors are open, the chairs are back, and the first card we issue today will go to the youngest reader in this room.

    The draft

    [7] At the reopening of the Fenmore Public Library, Mr. Wren gives a speech about the new building and thanks the people who used the trailer. [8] Wren wants his audience to see that the library's real work never stopped while the building was closed. (Quotation to come.) [9] At the center of the speech, Wren redefines the library itself, declaring that it "is a promise that anyone who walks through the door will be treated as someone worth teaching." [10] Here Wren says that a library is really a promise to treat everyone who comes in as a person who is worth teaching.

    [11] He opens with an honest admission that some people stopped coming because the trailer "had no chairs," a detail that is both funny and slightly painful. [12] By admitting the trailer's failures before praising the new roof, Wren earns the trust of listeners who remember those two difficult years. [13] His final sentence, built from three short clauses, moves the audience from the doors to the chairs to the first card in a single breath. [14] These choices let Wren celebrate a new building while insisting that the building was never the point.

  12. Ren wants [7] to argue something about the speech instead of listing devices or events. Which sentence should replace [7]?

    • Mr. Wren redefines the library as a promise, not a building, so the reopening honors patrons who kept that promise alive in a trailer.
    • Mr. Wren's speech shows that libraries are the most important places in a town and that people should visit them more often than they do.
    • Mr. Wren's speech uses a metaphor, a list of three short clauses and a joke about the trailer's missing chairs.
    • I liked the part about the first library card going to the youngest reader, because getting my own first card was exciting.

  13. Tala needs a quotation after [8]. Which sentence from the speech proves that the library's real work never stopped during the closure?

    • [1] For two years the people of Fenmore have borrowed books from a trailer in the parking lot, and I know that some of you stopped coming because the trailer had no chairs.
    • [3] This building has a new roof, new wiring and a reading room twice the size of the old one, and I am proud of every inch of it.
    • [6] The doors are open, the chairs are back, and the first card we issue today will go to the youngest reader in this room.
    • [5] We kept that promise in a trailer, and we will keep it here, and if we ever forget it, I hope you will stand at this desk and remind us.

  14. Zee sees that [10] repeats the quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • This is a metaphor, because Wren says that a library is a promise without using the word "like" or "as" anywhere in it.
    • The metaphor shifts the audience's pride from the new roof to their own loyalty, so the patrons hear that they, not the building, kept the library going.
    • This simile moves the listeners' attention from the new wiring to their own loyalty, so the patrons feel they kept the library alive.
    • Wren is telling the audience that a library is not just a building but is a promise to teach anyone who walks inside.
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Write an analysis of a story, poem or speech

Answer Key - Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Use this

    The Last Ribbon (story excerpt and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] Mr. Halvorsen had repaired typewriters on Dell Street for forty-one years, and his narrow shop still smelled of machine oil, inked ribbons and cedar shavings. [2] When the young woman set her grandmother's typewriter on the counter, he glanced first at her hands, which held the case as if it were a sleeping cat. [3] "Nobody types letters anymore," she said, almost apologizing, and he answered only that the machine had clearly not heard the news. [4] He opened the case, pressed a single key, and listened to the slow, uneven clack as a doctor listens to a heartbeat, his head tilted. [5] For an hour he worked without speaking, cleaning each typebar with a soft brush and easing one crooked lever back into line. [6] At last he rolled in a clean sheet, typed her grandmother's full name, and turned the page around so that she could read it first.

    The draft

    [7] In "The Last Ribbon," an old repairman fixes a typewriter for a young woman who brings her grandmother's machine into his shop on Dell Street. [8] Throughout the repair, Halvorsen treats the typewriter as an object that carries the memory of the woman who once owned it, rather than as a broken tool. (Quotation to come.) [9] The author also describes the moment when Halvorsen first tests the machine, writing that he listened "as a doctor listens to a heartbeat." [10] In other words, Halvorsen listens to the typewriter very closely, the same way that a doctor would listen carefully to a patient's chest.

    [11] The excerpt's near silence matters as well, because Halvorsen speaks only once and answers the customer's worry with a quiet joke instead of a speech. [12] By keeping him mostly silent, the author lets his careful hands and patient attention communicate what a long explanation would have flattened. [13] The ending, in which he types a name instead of a test sentence, gathers these details into one gesture that the reader understands without being told. [14] Together, these choices suggest that the excerpt is less about machinery than about the respect a stranger can show for someone else's past.

  2. Bo needs a quotation after [8], which says the typewriter carries its owner's memory. Which sentence from the text proves [8]?

    • [5] For an hour he worked without speaking, cleaning each typebar with a soft brush and easing one crooked lever back into line.
    • [6] At last he rolled in a clean sheet, typed her grandmother's full name, and turned the page around so that she could read it first.
    • [3] "Nobody types letters anymore," she said, almost apologizing, and he answered only that the machine had clearly not heard the news.
    • [4] He opened the case, pressed a single key, and listened to the slow, uneven clack as a doctor listens to a heartbeat, his head tilted.

  3. Esme is checking [10], the commentary after the doctor quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • The simile makes Halvorsen sound like an expert with years of training, so the reader trusts that the old typewriter will soon work again.
    • The metaphor of a doctor makes the repair seem like the care of a living patient, so Halvorsen appears to be tending the typewriter.
    • This comparison is a simile, because the author uses the word "as" to compare Halvorsen at work with a doctor who is listening.
    • The simile turns the repair into the examination of something alive, so the reader senses that Halvorsen is caring for the machine, not merely fixing it.

  4. Use this

    Closing Time (story excerpt and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] At ten minutes to closing, Rosa Delgado walked the length of the Bright Wash, touching each silent dryer door the way a teacher counts heads before a bus leaves. [2] One machine was still turning, and inside it a single small sweater rose and fell in the warm drum like a swimmer who refused to leave the pool. [3] Its owner, an old man in a rain-dark coat, had fallen asleep in the plastic chair by the window with a paperback open on his knee. [4] Rosa looked at the clock, then at the key ring in her hand, and finally at the sweater, which was far too small to belong to him. [5] She set the keys down on the folding table, poured two paper cups of coffee from the pot she had meant to empty, and sat. [6] When the dryer buzzed, the man woke with a start, and Rosa said only that the sweater would need a few more minutes to cool.

    The draft

    [7] In "Closing Time," a laundromat attendant waits for an elderly customer's dryer to finish and then speaks with him briefly when he awakens. [8] By the middle of the excerpt, Rosa has decided that a tired stranger's evening matters more than her closing routine. (Quotation to come.) [9] The author's most striking image is the sweater in the dryer, which rises and falls "like a swimmer who refused to leave the pool." [10] This means that the sweater keeps circling inside the dryer, repeatedly rising and falling within the warm, revolving drum.

    [11] The author never explains whom the small sweater belongs to, and that silence invites the reader to imagine a grandchild the old man is caring for. [12] Rosa's last line is equally restrained, since she offers the man a reason to stay that spares him from having to ask for one. [13] These understated details assemble a portrait of generosity that operates through small actions rather than through any declaration about kindness. [14] The excerpt suggests that a public place like a laundromat can become, for ten minutes, something considerably closer to a home.

  5. Jun wants the draft to open with an arguable claim instead of the summary in [7]. Which sentence should replace [7]?

    • In "Closing Time," the author shows that people today are lonely and that strangers should look after one another more often.
    • In "Closing Time," a worker at the Bright Wash checks the dryers before closing, finds a sleeping customer and pours two cups of coffee.
    • In "Closing Time," Rosa's small, unexplained actions show that kindness can quietly rearrange a routine without anyone naming it.
    • In "Closing Time," the author uses two similes, a teacher counting heads and a swimmer in a pool, and ends with a line of speech.

  6. Kira needs a quotation after [8]. Which sentence from the text proves that Rosa puts the stranger's evening ahead of closing up?

    • [1] At ten minutes to closing, Rosa Delgado walked the length of the Bright Wash, touching each silent dryer door the way a teacher counts heads before a bus leaves.
    • [5] She set the keys down on the folding table, poured two paper cups of coffee from the pot she had meant to empty, and sat.
    • [6] When the dryer buzzed, the man woke with a start, and Rosa said only that the sweater would need a few more minutes to cool.
    • [2] One machine was still turning, and inside it a single small sweater rose and fell in the warm drum like a swimmer who refused to leave the pool.

  7. Luz sees that [10] only restates the swimmer quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • The simile shows that the dryers at the Bright Wash are old and slow, so the reader sees why the shop cannot close on time tonight.
    • The metaphor of a swimmer makes the sweater seem stubborn and full of life, which helps explain why Rosa lets the evening run on.
    • The sweater rises and falls like someone swimming who does not want to get out of the pool, even when it is time to go.
    • The simile gives the sweater a stubborn, playful life, so the reader sees why Rosa cannot bring herself to end the evening.

  8. Use this

    Remarks to the Graduates of Carver Ridge Technical College (speech by an invented speaker and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] Graduates, when I tell people that I designed bridges for thirty-eight years, they usually picture me alone at a drafting table, solving every problem by myself. [2] In truth, every bridge I am proud of was held together by welders I never met, inspectors who caught my mistakes, and drivers who trusted us without knowing our names. [3] You will be tempted, especially in your first year, to measure yourselves by what you can do alone, and I am asking you to resist that temptation. [4] A bridge does not stand because one beam is strong; it stands because every beam carries a share of the load and passes the rest along. [5] So when someone hands you a share of the load, carry it well, and when you are tired, have the humility to pass part of it along. [6] The world does not need more lonely geniuses, but it badly needs people who know how to build things that hold.

    The draft

    [7] In her speech to the graduates of Carver Ridge Technical College, Dr. Vance talks about her thirty-eight years of designing bridges in many places. [8] Vance uses her own career to show the graduates that every success depends on people who are never credited. (Quotation to come.) [9] Her central comparison comes in the middle of the speech, when she says that a bridge stands "because every beam carries a share of the load and passes the rest along." [10] This comparison is an analogy that compares the graduates' future workplaces to the beams of a bridge.

    [11] Her request in sentence 5 is built as two balanced clauses, one about carrying the load well and one about passing it along when tired. [12] This balance suggests that strength and humility are equal duties, which is unusual advice at a ceremony that celebrates individual achievement. [13] Her closing contrast between "lonely geniuses" and "people who know how to build things that hold" leaves the graduates with a choice about whom to become. [14] Through these choices, Vance uses the authority of a long career to question the very idea of individual credit that a graduation honors.

  9. Noah needs a quotation after [8]. Which sentence from the speech proves that Vance's successes depended on people who were never credited?

    • [6] The world does not need more lonely geniuses, but it badly needs people who know how to build things that hold.
    • [2] In truth, every bridge I am proud of was held together by welders I never met, inspectors who caught my mistakes, and drivers who trusted us without knowing our names.
    • [4] A bridge does not stand because one beam is strong; it stands because every beam carries a share of the load and passes the rest along.
    • [1] Graduates, when I tell people that I designed bridges for thirty-eight years, they usually picture me alone at a drafting table, solving every problem by myself.

  10. Pia is checking [10], the commentary after the beam quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • The analogy shows off Vance's technical knowledge, so the graduates are impressed by how much an experienced engineer understands about bridges over the years.
    • This sentence is an example of an analogy, a comparison that explains one thing by setting it beside a different and more familiar thing.
    • The analogy makes sharing the work sound like a law of engineering, so graduates hear depending on others as something structures require, not a weakness.
    • In other words, a bridge stays up because each of its beams carries part of the weight and passes the rest of that weight to the others.

  11. Use this

    Remarks at the Reopening of the Fenmore Public Library (speech by an invented speaker and a student's analysis draft; invented people and places): The text

    [1] For two years the people of Fenmore have borrowed books from a trailer in the parking lot, and I know that some of you stopped coming because the trailer had no chairs. [2] I want to begin by thanking the people who kept coming anyway, the ones who read standing up and returned every book on time. [3] This building has a new roof, new wiring and a reading room twice the size of the old one, and I am proud of every inch of it. [4] But a library has never really been a building; it is a promise that anyone who walks through the door will be treated as someone worth teaching. [5] We kept that promise in a trailer, and we will keep it here, and if we ever forget it, I hope you will stand at this desk and remind us. [6] The doors are open, the chairs are back, and the first card we issue today will go to the youngest reader in this room.

    The draft

    [7] At the reopening of the Fenmore Public Library, Mr. Wren gives a speech about the new building and thanks the people who used the trailer. [8] Wren wants his audience to see that the library's real work never stopped while the building was closed. (Quotation to come.) [9] At the center of the speech, Wren redefines the library itself, declaring that it "is a promise that anyone who walks through the door will be treated as someone worth teaching." [10] Here Wren says that a library is really a promise to treat everyone who comes in as a person who is worth teaching.

    [11] He opens with an honest admission that some people stopped coming because the trailer "had no chairs," a detail that is both funny and slightly painful. [12] By admitting the trailer's failures before praising the new roof, Wren earns the trust of listeners who remember those two difficult years. [13] His final sentence, built from three short clauses, moves the audience from the doors to the chairs to the first card in a single breath. [14] These choices let Wren celebrate a new building while insisting that the building was never the point.

  12. Ren wants [7] to argue something about the speech instead of listing devices or events. Which sentence should replace [7]?

    • Mr. Wren redefines the library as a promise, not a building, so the reopening honors patrons who kept that promise alive in a trailer.
    • Mr. Wren's speech shows that libraries are the most important places in a town and that people should visit them more often than they do.
    • Mr. Wren's speech uses a metaphor, a list of three short clauses and a joke about the trailer's missing chairs.
    • I liked the part about the first library card going to the youngest reader, because getting my own first card was exciting.

  13. Tala needs a quotation after [8]. Which sentence from the speech proves that the library's real work never stopped during the closure?

    • [1] For two years the people of Fenmore have borrowed books from a trailer in the parking lot, and I know that some of you stopped coming because the trailer had no chairs.
    • [3] This building has a new roof, new wiring and a reading room twice the size of the old one, and I am proud of every inch of it.
    • [6] The doors are open, the chairs are back, and the first card we issue today will go to the youngest reader in this room.
    • [5] We kept that promise in a trailer, and we will keep it here, and if we ever forget it, I hope you will stand at this desk and remind us.

  14. Zee sees that [10] repeats the quotation in [9]. Which sentence should replace [10] so it names the choice and its effect?

    • This is a metaphor, because Wren says that a library is a promise without using the word "like" or "as" anywhere in it.
    • The metaphor shifts the audience's pride from the new roof to their own loyalty, so the patrons hear that they, not the building, kept the library going.
    • This simile moves the listeners' attention from the new wiring to their own loyalty, so the patrons feel they kept the library alive.
    • Wren is telling the audience that a library is not just a building but is a promise to teach anyone who walks inside.