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Information and IdeasHardQuotation supporting a claim of envy

Information and Ideas practice question

A student claims that the poem's speaker envies the migrating birds she describes.

Which quotation from the poem would best support the student's claim?

  1. A. 'They go where the warm wind takes them, / and I, who cannot, count the days until they return.'Correct
  2. B. 'The starlings blacken the evening sky.'
  3. C. 'I scatter crumbs for them on the kitchen step.'
  4. D. 'Their song is thin and does not carry far.'

Answer: A. 'They go where the warm wind takes them, / and I, who cannot, count the days until they return.'

'I, who cannot' — the speaker sets her own confinement against the birds' freedom. That is envy.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. 'The starlings blacken the evening sky.'
A visual description with no feeling toward the birds.
C. 'I scatter crumbs for them on the kitchen step.'
Feeding the birds shows care, not envy.
D. 'Their song is thin and does not carry far.'
A mild criticism of their song, the opposite of envy.

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