Question

choose two and decide which of the four keys applies, then briefly explain why, using the key words.
a. beautiful writing makes you think about humanity and the world around us
b. beautiful writing makes you feel something, stirs your emotions
c. beautiful writing paints a picture that appeals to the senses
d. beautiful writing inspires you (to do something, to make a change...)
1.
this passage is beautiful writing because...
you think because he doesnt love you that you are worthless. you think that because he doesnt want you anymore that he is right - that his judgment and opinion of you are correct. if he throws you out, then you are garbage. you think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him. dont. its a bad word, belong. especially when you put it with somebody you love. love shouldnt be like that. did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? they circle all around it; sometimes you cant even see the mountain for the clouds. but you know what? you go up top and what do you see? his head. the clouds never cover the head. his head pokes through, because the clouds let him; they dont wrap him up. they let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him. you cant own a human being. you cant own a human being. suppose you did own him. could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? you really want somebody like that? somebody who falls
2.
this passage is beautiful writing because
it doesnt interest me what you do for a living. i want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
it doesnt interest me how old you are. i want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
it doesnt interest me what planets are squaring your moon. i want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by lifes betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! i want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
i want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
it doesnt interest me if the story you are telling me is true. i want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
i want to know if you can see beauty even when its not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
i want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, yes!
3.
this passage is beautiful writing because...
sometimes i can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives im not living. - jonathan safran foer, extremely loud and incredibly close
4.
this passage is beautiful writing because...
from barbara willards the sping of brooom:
it was mid - october, the harvest was well + stored. the sun was as hot as if it shone in the first week of september, but a tumbling sky threw great clouds before the wind, and when the sun was obscured then all the promise of winter was in the air. but it was magic weather, a gift to sweeten the sadness of the ending year. there were still blackberries, thick and dripping with juice, but these would remain on the bushes, for by now, as it
5.
this passage is beautiful writing because...
oh! but he was a tight - fisted hand at the grindstone, scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! hard and sharp as a flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret and self - contained, and solitary as an oyster. - charles dickens, a christmas carol
6.
this passage is beautiful writing because...
in the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. in the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. the trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.

• ernest hemingway, a farewell to arms

excerpts of beautiful writing
was said, the devil had spat on them and they should not be eaten. so birds gorged themselves, and the ground and the leaves of the brambles were strewn with purple droppings. the water, half shadow and half glitter, tossed them over the boulders

Explanation:

1. Passage 1:

• The text makes the reader think about love, self - worth, and human relationships. For example, it questions the idea of basing one's worth on another's love ("You think because he doesn't love you that you are worthless"). It also uses a metaphor of clouds and a mountain ("Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain?") to explore the concept of belonging. So, it applies to A. Beautiful Writing Makes You Think about humanity and the world around us and B. Beautiful Writing Makes You Feel Something, stirs your emotions (the emotional aspect of questioning love and self - worth).

1. Passage 2:

• The text makes the reader think about what truly matters in life (not just the surface - level "what you do for a living" but "what you ache for"). It also stirs emotions by talking about love, dreams, and the courage to be true to oneself ("I want to know if you can dance with wildness..."). So, it applies to A. Beautiful Writing Makes You Think about humanity and the world around us and B. Beautiful Writing Makes You Feel Something, stirs your emotions.

1. Passage 3 (Jonathan Safran Foer):

• The line "Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living" makes the reader think about the concept of unfulfilled potential (humanity's relation to life's possibilities). It also evokes a sense of melancholy (emotion). So, it applies to A. Beautiful Writing Makes You Think about humanity and the world around us and B. Beautiful Writing Makes You Feel Something, stirs your emotions.

1. Passage 4 (Barbara Willard):

• The description of the autumn scene ("It was mid - October...the harvest was well - stored. The sun was as hot as if...") paints a vivid picture that appeals to the senses (sight - "blackberries, thick and dripping with juice", the description of the sky, sun, and clouds). So, it applies to C. Beautiful Writing Paints a Picture that appeals to the senses.

1. Passage 5 (Charles Dickens):

• The description of Scrooge as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as a flint..." paints a vivid picture (using tactile and visual metaphors) of his character. So, it applies to C. Beautiful Writing Paints a Picture that appeals to the senses.

1. Passage 6 (Ernest Hemingway):

• The description of the village, river, and troops ("In the late summer of that year we lived in a house...the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees") paints a vivid picture that appeals to the senses (sight - "pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun", "dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze"). So, it applies to C. Beautiful Writing Paints a Picture that appeals to the senses.

Answer:

1. A and B.
2. A and B.
3. A and B.
4. C.
5. C.
6. C.