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Flashcards: Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts
Flashcards: Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts
Select the word that matches the definition:
Ready to take place, happening soon
Your answer:
Omniscient
Your answer:
Inert
Your answer:
Ominous
Correct answer:
Imminent
Explanation:
Imminent
Flashcards: Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts
Adapted from “Feathers of Sea Birds and Wild Fowl for Bedding” from The Utility of Birds by Edward Forbush (ed. 1922)
In the colder countries of the world, the feathers and down of waterfowl have been in great demand for centuries. These materials have been used as filling for beds and pillows. Such feathers are perfect insulators of heat, and beds, pillows, or coverlets filled with them represent the acme of comfort and durability.
The early settlers of New England saved for such purposes the feathers and down from the thousands of wild-fowl which they killed, but as the population of people increased, the quantity of feathers furnished in this manner became insufficient, and the people sought a larger supply in the vast colonies of ducks and geese along the Labrador coast.
The manner in which the feathers and down were obtained, unlike the method practiced in Iceland, did not tend to conserve and protect the source of supply. In Iceland, the people have continued to receive for many years a considerable income by collecting eider down (the small, fluffy feathers of eider ducks), but there they do not “kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.” Ducks line their nests with down plucked from their own breasts and that of the eider is particularly valuable for bedding. In Iceland, these birds are so carefully protected that they have become as tame and unsuspicious as domestic fowls In North America. Where they are constantly hunted they often conceal their nests in the midst of weeds or bushes, but in Iceland, they make their nests and deposit their eggs in holes dug for them in the sod. A supply of the ducks is maintained so that the people derive from them an annual income.
In North America, quite a different policy was pursued. The demand for feathers became so great in the New England colonies during the middle of the eighteenth century that vessels were sent to Labrador for the express purpose of securing the feathers and down of wild fowl. Eider down having become valuable and these ducks being in the habit of congregating by thousands on barren islands of the Labrador coast, the birds became the victims of the ships’ crews. As the ducks molt all their primary feathers at once in July or August and are then quite incapable of flight and the young birds are unable to fly until well grown, the hunters were able to surround the helpless birds, drive them together, and kill them with clubs. Otis says that millions of wildfowl were thus destroyed and that in a few years their haunts were so broken up by this wholesale slaughter and their numbers were so diminished that feather voyages became unprofitable and were given up.
This practice, followed by the almost continual egging, clubbing, shooting, etc. by Labrador fishermen, may have been a chief factor in the extinction of the Labrador duck. No doubt had the eider duck been restricted in its breeding range to the islands of Labrador, it also would have been exterminated long ago.
Which of the following most accurately describes the role of the underlined sentence, also shown below?
“No doubt had the eider duck been restricted in its breeding range to the islands of Labrador, it also would have been exterminated long ago.”
It subtly revisits the comparison between the Icelandic and North American methods of collecting feathers and down.
It suggests that the effect a method of feather-collecting has on a duck species is unique to that particular species.
It suggests that Labrador ducks are hardier and healthier than eider ducks.
It suggests that the down of eider ducks is more valuable than the feathers of Labrador ducks.
It tells readers for the first time in the passage that collecting duck feathers can be dangerous to the ducks depending on the method used to collect the feathers.
Flashcards: Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts
Which of the following most accurately describes the role of the underlined sentence, also shown below?
“No doubt had the eider duck been restricted in its breeding range to the islands of Labrador, it also would have been exterminated long ago.”
Your answer:
It suggests that the effect a method of feather-collecting has on a duck species is unique to that particular species.
Your answer:
It suggests that Labrador ducks are hardier and healthier than eider ducks.
Your answer:
It suggests that the down of eider ducks is more valuable than the feathers of Labrador ducks.
Your answer:
It tells readers for the first time in the passage that collecting duck feathers can be dangerous to the ducks depending on the method used to collect the feathers.
Correct answer:
It subtly revisits the comparison between the Icelandic and North American methods of collecting feathers and down.
Explanation:
The underlined sentence compares the eider duck with the Labrador duck, as we can tell from the sentence that precedes it:
This practice, followed by the almost continual egging, clubbing, shooting, etc. by Labrador fishermen, may have been a chief factor in the extinction of the Labrador duck. No doubt had the eider duck been restricted in its breeding range to the islands of Labrador, it also would have been exterminated long ago.
We can immediately determine that this sentence does not "suggest that the effect a method of feather-collecting has on a duck species is unique to that particular species." It is comparing, not contrasting, the two types of duck and suggesting that if the eider duck had the same breeding range as the Labrador duck, that it would also have gone extinct. Similarly, we can ignore "It suggests that Labrador ducks are hardier and healthier than eider ducks" and "It suggests that the down of eider ducks is more valuable than the feathers of Labrador ducks." Both of these answers again suggest that the passage is emphasizing some sort of distinction when it is actually emphasizing a similarity. "It tells readers for the first time in the passage that collecting duck feathers can be dangerous to the ducks depending on the method used to collect the feathers" is not correct either, because this is certainly not the first time this idea has been presented to readers in the passage. The entire third paragraph details how millions of ducks were killed for their feathers on the Labrador feather voyages. The only remaining answer is the correct one: this sentence "subtly revisits the comparison between the Icelandic and North American methods of collecting feathers and down." Eider ducks are discussed when the author describes the Icelandic feather-collecting method, and Labrador ducks are described when he describes the Labrador feather voyages that were undertaken in North America. By suggesting that the eider duck could have met with the same fate as the Labrador duck did, the author highlights how the eider duck was not driven to extinction due to the feather-collecting method used. By comparing the type of ducks mentioned as part of each method's description, the author revisits the comparison that forms such a major part of the passage.
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