Comparing Argumentative Texts: Silent Spring And "Save The Redwoods"

On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs—the litters were small and the young survived only a few days. The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. What kind of tone do the underlined words create?

The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire. In this excerpt, the phrase ______ best shows the author's tone of despair.

Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know. Which words and phrases from the excerpt best support the author's purpose of creating a sense of alarm about the environment? Check all that apply.

It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh. In this excerpt, which phrase carries the most positive tone?

In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs, a white granular powder still showed a few patches; some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams. Which best explains how the phrase "white granular powder" supports the author's purpose of calling attention to the environment?

There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Which phrases in the excerpt best support the author's purpose of creating a positive image of a town? Check all that apply.

On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs—the litters were small and the young survived only a few days. The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The repetition of the word "no" in this excerpt helps create a tone of

Which excerpt from Silent Spring best appeals to readers' pathos?

Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings. In this sentence, Carson mostly uses a ____ tone.

In the course of my explorations twenty-five years ago, I found five sawmills located on or near the lower margin of the Sequoia belt, all of which were cutting more or less Big Tree lumber, which looks like the redwood of the coast, and was sold as redwood. One of the smallest of these mills in the season of 1874 sawed two million feet of Sequoia lumber. Since that time other mills have been built among the Sequoias, notably the large ones on Kings River and the head of the Fresno. What does the appeal in this excerpt mainly achieve?

Another, one of the finest in the grove, more than three hundred feet high, was skinned alive to a height of one hundred and sixteen feet from the ground and the bark sent to London to show how fine and big that Calaveras tree was—as sensible a scheme as skinning our great men would be to prove their greatness.

___ is a type of appeal that tries to make readers feel something.

In Silent Spring Rachel Carson makes up a fictional story about what life in the United States will be like if we don't save the environment, whereas in "Save the Redwoods" John Muir .

Which best describes one main difference between Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and John Muir's "Save the Redwoods"?

Which best compares the structure of Silent Spring and "Save the Redwoods"?

Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. The farmers spoke of much illness among their families. This righteous and lively indignation on the part of Californians after the long period of deathlike apathy, in which they have witnessed the destruction of other groves unmoved, seems strange until the rapid growth that right public opinion has made during the last few years is considered and the peculiar interest that attaches to the Calaveras giants. Which word best describes the tone used in both excerpts?

Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler's eye through much of the year. The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when light comes the heart of the people is always right. Which best states a comparison of the tones used in these sentences?