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 yucatán to the

part a
what is a central idea in the passage?
○ 1. the author shows how scientific facts about nature can be fascinating.
○ 2. the author is eagerly awaiting the arrival of hummingbirds to the yard.
○ 3. the author reveals how a poem expresses universal feelings about nature.
○ 4. the author is gradually learning the importance of the names of hummingbirds.

part b
select two main ways that the author develops the correct central idea from part a.
□ 1. the author explains how sunlight gives color to the birds’ feathers.
□ 2. the author discusses the small numbers of fossils from ancient birds.
□ 3. the author visualizes the various locations of the birds on their migration north.
□ 4. the author admires the birds’ actions when

Explanation:

Part A

• Option 1: The passage focuses on the author's connection to nature via planting and hummingbirds, not just scientific facts' fascination. Eliminate.
• Option 2: The author plants nasturtiums in faith hummingbirds will return, showing eagerness for their arrival. This fits.
• Option 3: The poem is a personal memory, not about the poem expressing universal nature feelings. Eliminate.
• Option 4: The passage is about waiting for hummingbirds, not learning their names' importance. Eliminate.

• To support the central idea (awaiting hummingbirds), we need options related to hummingbirds' journey/author's admiration.
• Option 1: Talks about sunlight and feathers, not related to awaiting hummingbirds. Eliminate.
• Option 2: Discusses ancient bird fossils, irrelevant. Eliminate.
• Option 3: Visualizing migration locations shows the author's interest in their journey, supporting eagerness. Correct.
• Option 4: Admiring birds' actions (like migration) ties to awaiting their arrival. Correct.

Answer:

1. The author is eagerly awaiting the arrival of hummingbirds to the yard.

Part B