Question

exercise 1: first read
read the passage below to develop a general understanding. ask yourself, what does this say? or
what does this mean? then answer the questions that follow on your own or with a partner.
from my boyhood (autobiography)
by john burroughs
the first seventeen years of my life were spent on
the farm where i was born (1837 - 1854); the next
ten years i was a teacher in rural district
schools (1854 - 1864); then i was for ten years a
government clerk in washington (1864 - 1873);
then in the summer of 1873, while a national
bank examiner and bank receiver, i purchased
the small fruit farm on the hudson where you
were brought up and where i have since lived,
cultivating the land for marketable fruit and the
fields and woods for nature literature, as you well
know. i have gotten out of my footpaths a few
times and traversed some of the great highways
of travel - have been twice to europe, going only
as far as paris (1871 and 1882) - the first time
sent to london by the government with three
other men to convey $50,000,000 of bonds to
be refunded; the second time going with my
family on my own account.... i have known but
few great men. i met carlyle in the company of
moncure conway in london in november, 1871.
i met emerson three times - in 1863 at west point;
in 1871 in baltimore and washington, where i
heard him lecture; and at the holmes birthday
breakfast in boston in 1879. i knew walt whitman
intimately from 1863 until his death in 1892. i
have met lowell and whittier, but not longfellow
or bryant; i have seen lincoln, grant, sherman,
early, sumner, garfield, cleveland, and other
notable men of those days. i heard tyndall deliver
his course of lectures on light in washington in
1870 or 71, but missed seeing huxley during his
visit here. i dined with the rossettis in london in
1871, but was not impressed by them nor they by
me. i met matthew arnold in new york and heard
his lecture on emerson. my books are, in a way, a
record of my life - that part of it that came to flower
and fruit in my mind. you could reconstruct my
days pretty well from those volumes. a writer who
gleans his literary harvest in the fields and woods
reaps mainly where he has sown himself. he is a
husbandman whose crop springs from the seed of
his own heart.
my life has been a fortunate one; i was born
under a lucky star. it seems as if both wind and
tide had favoured me. i have suffered no great
losses, or defeats, or illness, or accidents, and
have undergone no great struggles or privations;
i have had no grouch, i have not wanted the
earth. i am pessimistic by night, but by day i am
a confirmed optimist, and it is the days that have
stamped my life. i have found this planet a good
corner of the universe to live in and i am not in a
hurry to exchange it for any other.

1. what jobs did john burroughs have before he became a farmer and nature writer?

1. how does burroughs feel about the life he has lived? why does he feel this way?

Explanation:

1. For the first question:

• The passage clearly states the time - periods and corresponding jobs. From 1837 - 1854, he was on the farm (but this is before the jobs in question). From 1854 - 1864, he was a teacher in rural district schools. From 1864 - 1873, he was a government clerk in Washington.

1. For the second question:

• Burroughs feels his life has been fortunate. He mentions having suffered no great losses, defeats, illnesses, or accidents, and no great struggles or privations. He also says he is an optimist by day and has found the planet a good place to live.

Answer:

1. He was a teacher in rural district schools (1854 - 1864) and a government clerk in Washington (1864 - 1873).
2. He feels his life has been fortunate. Because he has suffered no great losses, defeats, illnesses, or accidents, and no great struggles or privations. He is an optimist by day and has found the planet a good place to live.