501 Critical Reading Questions

b. was forced into marrying Mr. Wright.
c. loved the bird because it reminded her of how she used to be.
d. had a pet bird as a little girl.
e. fought often with Mr. Wright.
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Critical Reading Questions

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288.
When the women share a look of growing comprehension, of horror
(line 83), they realize that
a. Mrs. Wright killed the bird.
b. Mr. Wright killed the bird, and Mrs. Wright killed him.
c. they would get in trouble if the sheriff found out they were
looking around in the kitchen.
d. there’s a secret message hidden in the quilt.
e. they might be Mrs. Wright’s next victims.
289.
The stage directions in lines 83–86 suggest that
a. the women are mistaken in their conclusion.
b. the women will tell the men what they found.
c. the women will confront Mrs. Wright.
d. the women will keep their discovery a secret.
e. the men had been eavesdropping on the women.
Questions 290–298 are based on the following passages.
In Passage 1, an excerpt from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor
Frankenstein explains his motive for creating his creature. In Passage 2, an
excerpt from H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, Dr. Moreau
explains to the narrator why he has been performing experiments on animals
to transform them into humans.
PASSAGE 1
I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes
express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with
which I am acquainted; that cannot be: listen patiently until the end
of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that
subject. I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then was, to
your destruction and infallible misery. Learn from me, if not by my
precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of
knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native
town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his
nature will allow.
When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I
hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ
it. Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to
prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibers,
muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty
and labour. I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of
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