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Questions and Answers
What are two animals that attracted visitors to the town?
Angler
What happened to the animals and the people in the town?
They got sick and died
What fell on the roofs, lawns, fields, and streams?
A strange blight
What is the concept of the text 'Silent Spring' depicted in the provided excerpt?
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Analyze the author's word choice in the excerpt. How does the word 'specter' contribute to the overall mood?
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What is the book Silent Spring about?
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What was the impact of Silent Spring on DDT in the United States?
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In Silent Spring, a strange ______ crept over the area causing mysterious maladies and sickness.
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The community described in Silent Spring was a real town in America.
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What scale is used to rate each statement in the presentation evaluation guide?
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In the presentation evaluation guide, the speaker's reasons for choosing the topic are not important.
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What should be included in presentations to clarify claims and findings according to the content provided?
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The presentation included well-sequenced multimedia to emphasize the main ________.
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Write your own sentence that correctly uses the word 'stillness'.
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Find a word in paragraph 3 of the excerpt that ends with the suffix -ness, and write a sentence that shows your understanding of it.
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Identify the mood of each sentence, and tell what it expresses: 1. 'I wish that the town were filled with birds again.' 2. 'If the town’s settlers were present, they would be sad.'
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Identify the incorrect verb form in each sentence. Then, rewrite the sentence correctly: 1. 'Carson wishes that she was wrong about the fate of the town.' 2. 'The situation Carson relates seems to demand that I am more aware of my effects on the environment.'
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Was it easy or difficult to determine your position when writing your argument?
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Have your ideas about our ability to solve environmental problems changed after writing this argument? Why or why not?
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Which words did you specifically choose to make your argument stronger in your writing?
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Study Notes
About the Author
- Rachel Carson was a writer who wanted to raise awareness about the overuse of pesticides and its effects on the environment.
- She was a marine biologist who later earned a master's degree in zoology.
Silent Spring
- Silent Spring is an environmental text that became one of the most influential environmental texts ever written.
- The book was published in 1962 and revealed the dangers of DDT, a pesticide widely used at the time.
- The awareness raised by Silent Spring led to the ban of DDT in the United States in 1972.
Pesticides
- Pesticides are chemical compounds designed to destroy crop-eating insects.
- They can be deadly to many species, including humans, in addition to the insects and pests they are intended to kill.
The Town
- The town described in the excerpt is fictional, but it could easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world.
- The town was once a thriving community with a rich environment, but a strange blight crept over the area, causing destruction and despair.
The Effects of Pesticides
- The pesticides caused mysterious maladies to sweep the flocks of chickens, and the cattle and sheep sickened and died.
- The farmers spoke of much illness among their families, and there were several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but also among children.
- The birds disappeared, and there was no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.
- The apple trees were coming into bloom, but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit.
The Consequences
- The people had done it themselves, causing the destruction of their environment.
- The imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.
- The effect of people on the environment is grim and can lead to a loss of biodiversity and destruction of ecosystems.### Strategies for Appreciating Images and Texts
- To fully appreciate images and experience the mood of a text, use the following strategies:
- Determine the specific meanings of unfamiliar words
- Consider the connotations, or emotional associations, of words, as well as their figurative, or nonliteral, meanings
- Analyze the author's word choice and make inferences, or educated guesses, as to why the author may have chosen certain words
Concept Vocabulary from Silent Spring
- Blight: a source of terror or dread
- Puzzled: feeling confused or uncertain
- Stillness: a state of quiet or calm
- Maladies: diseases or illnesses
- Stricken: affected or afflicted with a disease or illness
- Deserted: abandoned or left uninhabited
Language Development
- Verb Mood: The Subjunctive
- Used to express a wish or desire, a condition that is highly unlikely or contrary to fact, or a request or demand for action
- Often found in clauses that begin with if, as if, as though, or that
- Subjunctive verbs are used in situations where the indicative mood is not suitable
Writing to Sources Assignment
- Write an argument in response to the question: Does Carson's description in Silent Spring inspire readers to take action, or does it discourage action because the problem seems too big?
- Requirements:
- State your position clearly in the introduction
- Support your position with reasons and evidence, including specific details from Silent Spring
- Address alternate or opposing positions, and respond with counterarguments that address these views
- Use transitional words and phrases to connect your ideas and show the relationships among them
- Establish and maintain a formal style
Effective Expression
- Writing to Sources Assignment:
- Reflect on your writing by answering questions about your position, ideas, and word choice
- Speaking and Listening:
- Choose a topic related to Silent Spring and conduct research on the topic
- Deliver a multimedia presentation of your findings to the class
- Use credible Internet and library resources to gather information and relevant visual aids
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Description
Identify and rank vocabulary words from Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring'. Improve your understanding of environmental literature with this quiz.
