Question

read the passage. there are several questions about this passage.
from settled in the wild
1
it is a rainy morning, the first week of may, good weather to plant
nasturtiums. i sit on the porch steps with rubber boots on, a baseball cap,
and a slicker, holding the packages of seeds i bought at the feed store in
town yesterday. the rain is steady and cold, the light is steel gray, and the
yard is patchy and wet. but the pictures on the packages vibrate with color.
nothing looks as good as these nasturtium flowers right now: deep red,
eye - jolting orange, electric yellow.
2
absentmindedly, i begin to recite william wordsworth’s “i wandered
lonely as a cloud” to myself. i have known the poem by heart ever since my
father taught it to me when i was a child:
for oft, when on my couch i lie
in vacant or in pensive mood,
they flash upon the inward eye
which is the bliss of solitude;
and then my heart with pleasure fills,
and dances with the daffodils.
3
wordsworth’s inner eye saw daffodils. i say the poem and see
hummingbirds. the nasturtiums are for them, and planting the flowers is
my gesture of faith that they will come back to my yard once more. as i rip
open the packages and push the seeds into the dirt, i know that these tiny
bright - colored nectar - drinking birds, each of whom weighs only a few
grams—about the weight of four or five of these seeds—have already
whirred in erratic flocks across five hundred miles of open water, running
the gulf of mexico in a twenty - six - hour heat.
4
hummers do exactly what physiologists once insisted they could not do.
a bird that weighs so little, they argued, cannot go from the yucatan to the
select two connections the author makes between the
nasturtium seeds and the hummingbirds.

1. the seeds will eventually thrive in the author’s

yard, just as the birds will.

1. the seeds will create flowers that will provide

nectar for the birds to eat.

1. planting the seeds reaffirms the author’s

belief that the hummingbirds will return.

1. planting the seeds makes the author worry,

while also worrying about the birds.

1. the seeds will grow into plants that help the

birds find the location they are seeking.

Explanation:

• For option 2: The passage says "The nasturtiums are for them" (the hummingbirds), and nasturtium flowers provide nectar, which hummingbirds eat. So this connection is valid.
• For option 3: The text states "planting the flowers is my gesture of faith that they will come back to my yard once more", showing planting seeds reaffirms the author's belief the hummingbirds will return.
• Option 1: There's no info suggesting the seeds thriving like the birds will thrive in the yard.
• Option 4: The passage shows the author has faith, not worry, about the birds and seeds.
• Option 5: No info that the plants help birds find location.

Answer:

1. The seeds will create flowers that will provide nectar for the birds to eat.
2. Planting the seeds reaffirms the author's belief that the hummingbirds will return.