Where does the reference come from?
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Sentence
“For two years the bell-schedule dispute had tangled four committees until the new superintendent ______ in one afternoon by scrapping every old rule and starting over.”
Choices mean: cut the Gordian knot (Alexander slices through a famous knot that no one could untie); crossed the Rubicon (Julius Caesar leads his army over a river, starting a civil war); met her Waterloo (Napoleon suffers the defeat that ends his rule); won a Pyrrhic victory (King Pyrrhus wins at a ruinous cost).Bo picks the allusion that fits the gap. Which choice fits the situation and the writer’s meaning?
- crossed the Rubicon
- met her Waterloo
- cut the Gordian knot
- won a Pyrrhic victory
Sentence
“The workers kept their jobs through the summer, but with the closing date hanging over them like ______, no one could enjoy the paycheck.”
Choices mean: the sword of Damocles (a man at a banquet sees a sword hanging by a single hair above his seat); the coming of a Waterloo (Napoleon’s final defeat, 1815); the line of the Rubicon (a river Caesar crossed to start a war); a Catch-22 of rules (a loop of rules that traps a person).Esme picks the allusion that fits the gap. Which choice fits the situation and the writer’s meaning?
- the coming of a Waterloo
- the sword of Damocles
- the line of the Rubicon
- a Catch-22 of rules
Sentence
“The camp director’s idea of a comfortable cabin was a ______ one: a single thin blanket, cold water, and a wooden bench.”
Choices mean: Spartan (from Sparta, the Greek state that trained its people to live plainly and bear hardship); Draconian (from Draco of Athens, who wrote very harsh laws); Lilliputian (from Lilliput, where the people are tiny); Machiavellian (from Machiavelli, who wrote about scheming rule).Jun picks the allusion that fits the gap. Which choice fits the situation and the writer’s meaning?
- Draconian
- Machiavellian
- Spartan
- Lilliputian
Passage
When the town unveiled its new library, the mayor cut the ribbon and called it the Alexandria of the Midwest. Nobody mentioned that the whole collection fit on six shelves.
Note: The ancient library at Alexandria, in Egypt, was famous for holding a vast number of scrolls.Kira reads the passage and the note. What does the allusion do in the passage?
- It sets a grand comparison beside the six shelves, so the mayor’s boast sounds inflated.
- It shows that the mayor is a scholar of ancient history.
- It shows that the town’s library will one day be lost, as Alexandria’s was.
- It tells the reader that the library holds many books, which supports the mayor’s claim.
Passage
Every morning for three summers the harbor master took the same boat to the same patch of water, chasing one record-sized tuna. The dock called him a modern Ahab, and by August he had bought a bigger boat.
Note: In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851), Captain Ahab drives his crew across the sea after one white whale, whatever the cost.Luz reads the passage and the note. What does the allusion do in the passage?
- It shows that the dock admires the harbor master’s patience and his skill at fishing.
- It presents the harbor master’s chase as an obsession that grows with each failed try.
- It shows that the harbor master will put a crew in danger, as Ahab does with his own.
- It tells the reader that the harbor master is chasing a whale, like the one in the novel.
Passage
During the budget meeting, Mr. Ames gazed out of the window; in his mind he was flying the company jet through a storm. His coworker whispered, “Walter Mitty is at it again.”
Note: In James Thurber’s story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1939), an ordinary man escapes dull moments by imagining himself a hero.Milo reads the passage and the note. What does the allusion do in the passage?
- It warns the reader that Mr. Ames will soon face a real storm on an actual flight.
- It shows that Mr. Ames does his job badly and will soon be found out by his employer or the staff.
- It tells the reader that Mr. Ames is a real pilot who flies the company jet each week for the firm.
- It shows Mr. Ames escaping dull moments into daydreams of heroism, in a teasing tone.
Passage
Senator Lopez called her bill a Marshall Plan for the countryside. Her opponent called it a gift to the same contractors who had failed before.
Note: After World War II, the United States gave billions of dollars to help rebuild the economies of Western Europe; the effort is called the Marshall Plan and is widely seen as a success.Noah reads the passage and the note. What does the allusion do in the passage?
- It shows that the senator wants to rebuild a countryside region damaged by a recent war and left in ruins.
- It shows that the bill will succeed on a large scale, as the Marshall Plan did.
- It ties a local bill to a famous rebuilding effort, so the bill seems large and likely to work.
- It tells the reader that the bill will be paid for by European countries after the war.
Source card (written by PencilGo)
In Dickens’s Hard Times (1854), Mr. Gradgrind runs a school where children are taught facts only and told to put imagination aside.
Sentence: “The new principal is a Gradgrind about the science fair: only charts and measurements, no stories or models, though even the students admit the projects have never been so accurate.”Pia reads the source card and the sentence. Which trait does the writer borrow, and with what attitude?
- Gradgrind’s kindness to children, treated with praise, because the principal supports the students.
- Gradgrind’s insistence on facts and nothing else, treated as a limit, with grudging respect.
- Gradgrind’s insistence on facts, treated with open scorn, since the projects have grown worse.
- Gradgrind’s school building, treated as a joke about the principal’s old and crowded office.
Source card (written by PencilGo)
Dr. Jekyll, in Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel, is a respected, gentle doctor. A potion lets him become Mr. Hyde, who is cruel. In time Jekyll can no longer control which of the two appears.
Sentence: “Our coach is a Jekyll and Hyde: patient in practice, snappish on game day, and nobody can predict which one will walk into the gym.”Tala reads the source card and the sentence. Which trait does the writer borrow, and with what attitude?
- Two opposite sides in one person that no one can predict, said with a wary half-joke.
- A respected person who hides a secret crime from the town, said with fear.
- A person who drinks a potion before each game, said as a harmless joke.
- Two opposite sides in one person, said with open admiration for the coach’s range of moods.
Source card (written by PencilGo)
In Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 (1961), a pilot may be excused from flying missions only if he is crazy. But anyone who asks to be excused shows good sense, so he must keep flying. Each rule loops back on itself.
Sentence: “The clerk wanted a signed lease before issuing the permit; the landlord would sign a lease only for a tenant with a permit. ‘Catch-22,’ the tenant sighed.”Zee reads the source card and the sentence. Which trait does the writer borrow, and with what attitude?
- Rules that loop back on each other, said with hope that the clerk will soon relent.
- A danger to pilots, said with fear for the tenant.
- A slow, paper-heavy process of forms and stamps, said with calm patience.
- Rules that loop back on each other and trap a person, said with weary frustration.