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NAME
CLASS
SELECTION TEST
Student Edition pages 419, 429
DATE
page 00
SCORE
LITERARY RESPONSE AND ANALYSIS
The Masque of the Red Death Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Death from When Plague Strikes James Cross Giblin
COMPREHENSION (40 points; 4 points each)
On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items.
_______ 1. The events of this story are related to —
A a popular ballroom dance
B a spreading, infectious disease
C a nickname for Prince Prospero
D costumes for masquerade balls
_______ 2. What is unusual about where the masquerade takes place?
F
There is a ballroom as large as the entire imperial suite in Prince Prospero’s palace.
G Musicians play in a curved hall while guests dance in colored chambers.
H It begins at sundown and does not end until an ebony clock strikes.
J
There are colored rooms that are not connected to each other or situated along a
straight hall.
______ 3. “Gaudy and fantastic appearances” are created at the masquerade ball by —
A the prince who wears a frightening costume and dances in several rooms
B a man in a red mask who enters the various rooms and does a bizarre dance
D the guests who take turns putting on a red mask, which makes them act in
strange ways
_______ 4. Few people dare to enter the black apartment because —
F
faces look frightening there, and an ebony clock makes a strange sound
G without light, no one can see or dance without causing injury to others
H it is the room where Prince Prospero wears the masque of the Red Death
J
in this room a strange voice can be heard whose origins no one can trace
______ 5. Prince Prospero is a person who basically desires —
A good company and entertainment
B to face pain and suffering with courage
C to be surrounded by people in simple clothes
D others to share their feelings with him
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Holt Assessment: Literature, Reading, and Vocabulary
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
C flames that shine through red glass windows in each of many rooms along a
hallway
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______ 6. Under the circumstances the appearance and behavior of guests at the ball come
across as —
F
handsome
G ordinary
H elegant
J
grotesque
______ 7. When Prince Prospero confronts the strangely masked guest, the prince —
A challenges the guest to a duel and then draws his sword in order to fight
B demands that the masked guest leave since he or she was not invited
C draws a dagger, then chases the masked guest by going from room to room
D asks for the mask and costume so that he, the prince, can wear them
______ 8. The outcome of the story is that —
F
the pendulum clock strikes the hour of twelve, and the guest in the strange mask
flees the palace of Prince Prospero
G Prince Prospero kills the strangely masked guest in a duel, suddenly becomes ill
from the Red Death, and dies
H the guests die after grabbing the masked figure, whose costume turns out to
be empty
J
the guests take revenge on the strangely masked guest, kill him or her in the black
room, and then perform a bizarre dance
______ 9. According to “The Black Death,” how did people in the fourteenth century get
bubonic plague?
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
A Infected fleas from infected rats bit humans and transmitted the disease.
B A boat from Sicily with infected sailors traveled to other harbors in Europe,
spreading the disease.
C Rats entered the house of a sick person, contracted the disease, and then spread it
to other animals.
D Without modern refrigeration, leftover food became rotten and people who ate
the food got sick.
______ 10. According to Boccaccio, the people of Florence took all of the following measures to
avoid the plague except —
F
eat lightly, and receive no visitors and no news
G enjoy life, and act as if news of the plague were a joke
H arrest foreigners to keep them from spreading the disease in the city
J
flee to the countryside to escape the people who carried the disease
The Masque of the Red Death / The Black Death
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LITERARY FOCUS (20 points; 5 points each)
On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items.
______ 11. An allegory is a narrative story —
A with an unexpected turning point and climax in its plot
B told by a narrator who knows more about events than other characters know
C that uses imaginary characters to tell about a historical event
D in which characters and settings stand for abstract ideas or moral qualities
______ 12. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the red mask probably stands for —
F
the bubonic plague that had been killing much of the population of
fourteenth-century Europe
G the desire that all people had to become a prince or princess
H Prince Prospero’s wish to be anything but ordinary
J
the people in fourteenth-century Europe who survived the bubonic plague
______ 13. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Prince Prospero stands for —
A a terrible, deadly disease that had been spreading through Europe
B a future people who learned how to fight infectious diseases successfully
C anyone who believed they could fool death by their cleverness
D weak people who were easily infected by and died from bubonic plague
______ 14. Which statement expresses the theme of this allegory?
F
Money can buy you happiness.
G Laugh and the world laughs with you.
J
Death can master life.
VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT (20 points; 4 points each)
On the lines provided, write the letter of the choice that is the best antonym for each
Vocabulary word. Remember that an antonym is a word that means the opposite of
another word.
______ 15. sagacious
A clever
B humorous
C foolish
D somber
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Holt Assessment: Literature, Reading, and Vocabulary
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
H Live life to the fullest.
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______ 16. profuse
F
plentiful
G scarce
H questionable
J
reluctant
______ 17. sedate
A simplified
B tranquil
C boring
D excited
______ 18. pervaded
F
contained
G attacked
H invented
J
spread
______ 19. propriety
A respectability
B indecency
C modesty
D possibility
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE (20 points)
20. On a separate sheet of paper, describe how “The Masque of the Red Death”
acts as an allegory for historical information you learn about in “The Black Death.”
Connect at least two details in “The Masque of the Red Death” to two facts in
“The Black Death.”
The Masque of the Red Death / The Black Death
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Answer Key
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
When he swims through the tunnel, the
rocks are no longer monsters. Instead,
“Sunlight was falling through it, showing
the clean, dark rock of the tunnel. . . .”
Through the exercise of will, self-control,
strength, and intelligence, Jerry has earned
his rite of passage. In the light of his
accomplishment, he sees the rocks as they
really are—not as monsters that intimidated him as a young boy. Compared to the
silly, exaggerated way Jerry acted before he
could make it through the tunnel, he feels
self-assured at the end of the story. In his
newly found maturity, he does not even
feel the need to boast of his accomplishment to his mother. Instead, he tells her
only that he’s learned to hold his breath
underwater.
The Masque of the Red Death
by Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Death
from When Plague Strikes
by James Cross Giblin
Selection Test, page 122
Comprehension
1. B
6. J
2. J
7. C
3. C
8. H
4. F
9. A
5. A
10. H
Literary Focus
11. D
13. C
12. F
14. J
Coming of Age, Latino Style:
Special Rite Ushers Girls into
Adulthood
Vocabulary Development
by Cindy Rodriguez
17. D
Vision Quest
Constructed Response
from Encyclopaedia Britannica
20. Students’ responses will vary. A sample
response follows:
Crossing a Threshold to
Adulthood
by Jessica Barnes
Selection Test, page 120
Comprehension
1. B
4. H
2. F
5. A
3. D
Vocabulary Development
6. inevitable
7. formidable
8. vigil
9. indigenous
10. solitary
Answer Key
15. C
18. F
16. G
19. B
One term used for bubonic plague was
Black Death. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, a
plague is considered the Red Death. In history the Black Death was carried by an
invisible bacteria that caused humans to
become suddenly very ill and die horribly.
In the story, the strangely masked and costumed creature at the party vanishes and
leaves only its costume and mask behind.
The uninvited guest, who is actually the
Red Death, is invisible. It is this invisible
force that affects all the party guests and
kills them, one by one. “The Black Death”
points out three ways in which people in
Florence reacted to the plague, according to
the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
Some people in Florence “adopted an attitude of ‘play today for we die tomorrow.’”
This was Prince Prospero’s approach to the
appearance of the plague in his realm.
305
Answer Key
Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost
After Apple-Picking
by Robert Frost
Selection Test, page 126
Comprehension
1. A
6. G
2. H
7. A
3. C
8. J
4. J
9. A
5. D
10. H
Literary Focus
11. C
13. D
12. J
14. F
Constructed Response
15. Students’ responses will vary. A sample
response follows:
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening” begins with the delight the
speaker feels at seeing the snowy woods.
The speaker considers that the owner of the
woods is probably at home in his village
house while the speaker and his horse
enjoy some time in the snowy countryside.
About the owner the speaker says, “He
will not see me stopping here / To watch
his woods fill up with snow.” By the end of
the poem, though, the speaker thinks about
his entire life, not just this day’s journey.
He says, “But I have promises to keep,”
which refers to promises for his whole life,
not just this day. Then the speaker repeats
the line “And miles to go before I sleep” to
emphasize his life journey in addition to
the day’s journey through the snow. Thus,
the speaker arrives at a wisdom that looks
beyond immediate concerns.
306
Collection 6 Summative Test,
page 129
Vocabulary Skills
1. C
4. H
2. G
5. B
3. A
Comprehension
6. G
9. B
7. D
10. F
8. H
Reading Skills and Strategies:
Constructed Response
Understanding Symbols
11. Students’ responses will vary. A sample
response follows:
a. Symbol—glass; Functions—“implies
sight,” “suggests depth,” “mirrors and
makes real,” “is sought and is seen,”
“reflects.”
Symbol—shoe; Functions—“implies miles,”
“suggests length,” “measures,” “makes
solid,” “wears,” “is worn.”
b. Like the fairy tale the poem is teaching
about love and how to attain it.
c. The poet has taken the fairy tale’s
emblematic shoe and split it in two. The
famous glass slipper becomes two symbols,
each based on one of its functions.
The poet links the shoe to the prince. A
shoe is utilitarian and practical; it “wears
and is worn.” The prince wants someone
who can fulfill practical functions, and he is
equally willing to perform practical functions in a relationship. He seeks someone
who wants to make this exchange.
To the speaker, the Cinderella figure,
the poet assigns the function of glass. Here
the poet inserts a twist. She makes the glass
a mirror—a looking glass. The primary
function of a looking glass is to show the
“gazer” himself or herself. Thus, the poet
shows that Cinderella knows that the
prince seeks more than a practical relation-
Holt Assessment: Literature, Reading, and Vocabulary
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
Unfortunately, all his power and cleverness
could not control the power of the disease
that would lead to his death.