Silent Spring PDF by Rachel Carson (1962)

MAKING MEANING About the Author from Silent Spring Concept Vocabulary You will encounter the following words as you read the excerpt from...

MAKING MEANING About the Author from Silent Spring Concept Vocabulary You will encounter the following words as you read the excerpt from Silent Spring. Before reading, note how familiar you are with each word. Then, rank the words in order from most familiar (1) to least familiar (6). Even as a child, Rachel WORD YOUR RANKING Carson (1907–1964) blight wanted to be a writer. Once in college, she maladies renewed her interest in nature and majored in puzzled marine biology. She later earned a master’s degree in stricken zoology. Carson had long been worried about the stillness overuse of pesticides and wanted to raise awareness deserted about this problem. Her book Silent Spring became After completing your first read, come back to the concept vocabulary one of the most influential and review your rankings. Mark changes to your original rankings environmental texts ever as needed. written. First Read NONFICTION Tool Kit Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an First-Read Guide and opportunity to complete the close-read notes after your first read. Model Annotation NOTICE the general ideas of ANNOTATE by marking the text. What is it about? vocabulary and key passages Who is involved? you want to revisit. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing the selection to what you the Comprehension Check and already know and what you by writing a brief summary of have already read. the selection.  STANDARDS Reading Informational Text By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. 362 UNIT 4 PEOPLE AND THE PLANET  ANCHOR TEXT | DESCRIPTIVE NONFICTION from Silent Spring Rachel Carson BACKGROUND Pesticides are chemical compounds designed to destroy crop-eating insects. Pesticides can be deadly to many species—including humans—in addition to the insects and other pests they are intended to kill. In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which revealed to the public the dangers of DDT, a pesticide in wide use at the time. The awareness raised by Silent Spring eventually led the United States to ban DDT entirely in 1972. This excerpt comes from the opening pages of the book. T NOTES 1 here was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town CLOSE READ lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields ANNOTATE: In Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of paragraph 2, mark details the author uses bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple to describe the rich and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a environment of the town. backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently QUESTION: Why might crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings. the author have used such 2 Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and vivid, descriptive details to wildflowers delighted the traveler’s eye through much of the describe the town? year. Even in winter the roadsides were places of beauty, where CONCLUDE: What can you countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads conclude about the town of the dried weeds rising above the snow. The countryside was, from these details? in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and fall people traveled from great distances to observe them. Others came to fish the streams, which flowed clear and cold out of the from Silent Spring 363  hills and contained shady pools where trout lay. So it had been NOTES from the days many years ago when the first settlers raised their houses, sank their wells, and built their barns. blight (blyt) n. something 3 Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything that spoils, prevents began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: growth, or destroys mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and maladies (MAL uh deez) n. sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. The illnesses or diseases farmers spoke of much illness among their families. In the town puzzled (PUHZ uhld) adj. the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of confused and unable to sickness appearing among their patients. There had been several understand something sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even stricken (STRIHK uhn) adj. among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play very badly affected by and die within a few hours. trouble or illness 4 There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where stillness (STIHL nihs) n. had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and absence of noise or motion disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices, there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh. 5 On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs—the litters were small and the young survived only a few days. 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. 6 The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were deserted (dih ZUR tihd) adj. silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now abandoned; empty lifeless. Anglers* no longer visited them, for all the fish had died. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. 7 In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs, a white granular powder still showed a few patches; some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams. 8 No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves. 9 This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world. I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know. ❧ * anglers (ANG gluhrz) n. people who fish with a line and hook. 364 UNIT 4 PEOPLE AND THE PLANET  Comprehension Check Complete the following items after you finish your first read. 1. What are two animals that attracted visitors to the town? 2. What happened to the animals and the people in the town? 3. What fell on the roofs, lawns, fields, and streams? Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. 4. Notebook Write a brief summary of the excerpt from Silent Spring. RESEARCH Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the text? from Silent Spring 365  MAKING MEANING Close Read the Text 1. This model, from paragraph 3 of the text, shows two sample annotations, along with questions and conclusions. Close read the passage, and find another detail to annotate. Then, write a question from SILENT SPRING and your conclusion. ANNOTATE: The author uses descriptive details to show the changes in the town. QUESTION: What kind of mood do these words create? ANNOTATE: The author uses the CONCLUDE: This description creates a words everything sense of destruction and despair. and everywhere. QUESTION: Why Then a strange blight crept over the does the author area and everything began to change. use two words Some evil spell had settled on the containing the community: mysterious maladies word every? swept the flocks of chickens; the CONCLUDE: cattle and sheep sickened and died. The use of these words shows Everywhere was a shadow of death. the widespread The farmers spoke of much illness impact of the among their families. blight. Tool Kit 2. For more practice, go back into the text and complete the Close-Read Guide and close-read notes. Model Annotation 3. Revisit a section of the text you found important during your first read. Read this section closely and annotate what you notice. Ask yourself questions such as “Why did the author make this choice?” What can you conclude? Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.  STANDARDS CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE Reading Informational Text Analyze the Text to support your answers. Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what Notebook Respond to these questions. the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 1. (a) Interpret In paragraph 1, what does the phrase “heart of Determine two or more central America” suggest? (b) Speculate Why does Carson use this phrase in ideas in a text and analyze their the first paragraph? development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary 2. Make Inferences In the book, the excerpt you read is called “A Fable of the text. for Tomorrow.” Why does Carson use this title for this section of the Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a book? text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the 3. Essential Question: What effects do people have on the impact of a specific word choice on environment? What have you learned about the effects people have meaning and tone. on the environment by reading this selection? Language Distinguish among the connotations of words with similar denotations. 366 UNIT 4 PEOPLE AND THE PLANET  ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What effects do people have on the environment? Analyze Craft and Structure Author’s Word Choice: Imagery Imagery is language that includes images—words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses. A writer uses imagery to bring his or her writing to life with vivid descriptions of how the subjects look, sound, feel, taste, or smell. A writer’s word choice, or the specific words, phrases, and expressions he or she uses, contributes to memorable imagery. Look at the following examples of imagery, and note the ways in which the individual words help create a realistic image for readers: The phrase “sweet, slippery mango slices” appeals to the senses of taste and touch. The phrase “glaring lights and wailing sirens” appeals to the senses of sight and hearing. Writers also create mood through their use of imagery, word choice, and descriptive details. Mood is the feeling created in the reader by a piece of writing. The mood of a work may be described with adjectives such as joyous or frightening. To fully appreciate images and experience the mood of a text, use these 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 As you review the excerpt from Silent Spring, notice how Carson uses word choice and imagery to create a mood that helps make her central idea more powerful and compelling. CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE Practice to support your answers. Notebook Respond to these questions. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. 1. Review the selection. Then, use a chart like this one to list four images in the text and the sense to which each image appeals. IMAGE SENSE 2. (a) A specter is a source of terror or dread. Why might Carson have chosen to use this word in the last sentence of the excerpt? (b) What mood does this word choice create? 3. How does Carson’s use of imagery help to develop the central idea of the excerpt? Cite at least two textual examples to support your response. from Silent Spring 367  LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Concept Vocabulary blight puzzled stillness maladies   stricken    deserted from SILENT SPRING Why These Words? The concept vocabulary words from the text are related to unwelcome change—in this case, to a town’s landscape. For example, after the town is stricken with the mysterious blight, there is a strange stillness everywhere. 1. How does the concept vocabulary sharpen the reader’s understanding of what happens to the town and its people? 2. What other words in the selection are related to this concept?  WORD NETWORK Practice Add interesting words Notebook First, correctly complete each sentence using a concept related to people and the vocabulary word. Then, identify one synonym, or word with a similar planet from the text to your meaning, and one antonym, or word with an opposite meaning, for Word Network. each vocabulary word. 1. When she returned home from the music festival, the woman found the ________ of her apartment strange in comparison. 2. When the concert hall was ________, you could hear a pin drop from across the room. 3. After carefully following the recipe, Alfredo was _______ when the cake came out of the oven, hard as a rock. 4. The _______ destroyed the potatoes grown in the county. 5. Common ________, such as colds and flus, affect the most people during the winter. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. 6. Before the return of their lost pet, the family had been ________ with worry and fear.  STANDARDS Language Word Study Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English Notebook Anglo-Saxon Suffix: -ness The Anglo-Saxon suffix grammar and usage when writing or -ness means “the condition or quality of being.” It usually indicates that speaking. Use knowledge of language and its the word in which it appears is a noun. In the text, Carson describes the conventions when writing, speaking, stillness that occurs after the blight as “strange.” It is strange because reading, or listening. Determine or clarify the meaning the absence of noise and movement is unusual in the town. of unknown and multiple-meaning 1. Write your own sentence that correctly uses the word stillness. words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing 2. Find a word in paragraph 3 of the excerpt that ends with the suffix flexibly from a range of strategies. Use the relationship between -ness, and write a sentence that shows your understanding of it. particular words to better understand each of the words. 368 UNIT 4 PEOPLE AND THE PLANET  ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What effects do people have on the environment? Conventions Verb Mood—The Subjunctive Speakers and writers convey their attitudes toward the actions expressed by verbs by using different moods. The indicative mood is used for statements of fact. By contrast, the subjunctive mood expresses one of the following: a wish or desire a condition that is highly unlikely or contrary to fact a request or demand for action Subjunctive verbs are often found in clauses that begin with if, as if, as though, or that. This chart shows situations in which a speaker or writer would use the subjunctive mood. Indicative Mood Subjunctive Mood What Subjunctive Expresses Jill is coming with us. I wish that Jill were coming with us. wish She knows the answer. She wishes that she knew the answer. He will not be elected. If he were elected, we’d be shocked. condition that is highly unlikely I am at home. If I were at home, I’d take a nap. condition that is contrary to fact Jake has a new car. If Jake had a new car, he’d be happy. They are quiet. We asked that they be quiet. request Matt works hard. Kia insisted that Matt work hard. demand or strong suggestion Avoid using the incorrect verb form to express the subjunctive mood, especially for third-person singular verbs and all forms of the verb be. Incorrect: Blake speaks as if he was in charge. Correct: Blake speaks as if he were in charge. Incorrect: Julia’s mother requires that she gets home before dinner. Correct: Julia’s mother requires that she get home before dinner. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. Read It 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. Write It Notebook 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. from Silent Spring 369  EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION Writing to Sources Assignment In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson paints a harsh picture of the future. Write an argument in which you answer this question: Does Carson’s from SILENT SPRING description inspire readers to take action, or does it discourage action because the problem seems so big? First, decide on your position. Then, review the selection to find specific details that support your position. As you draft, be sure to do the following: State your position clearly in the introduction. In the body of your argument, 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. Vocabulary and Conventions Connection Think about including several of the concept vocabulary words in your writing. Also, remember to avoid improper shifts in mood in your writing by using verbs in the indicative and subjunctive moods correctly. blight puzzled stillness maladies    stricken    deserted Reflect on Your Writing After you have written your argument, answer these questions.  STANDARDS Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. Writing 1. Was it easy or difficult to determine your position? Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and 2. Have your ideas about our ability to solve environmental problems organize the reasons and evidence changed after writing this argument? Why or why not? logically. b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an 3. Why These Words? The words you choose make a difference in understanding of the topic or text. your writing. Which words did you specifically choose to make your c. Use words, phrases, and clauses argument stronger? to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. 370 UNIT 4 PEOPLE AND THE PLANET  ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What effects do people have on the environment? Speaking and Listening Assignment Choose one of the following topics, conduct research on the topic, and deliver a multimedia presentation of your findings to the class. the importance of Silent Spring and the impact it had on the way in which humans view their environment the struggle to ban DDT and the ban’s eventual victory the parallels between the current threats to bee populations worldwide and the impacts DDT had on wildlife when Carson wrote Silent Spring 1. Organize Your Presentation Research the topic you have chosen.  EVIDENCE LOG Use credible Internet and library resources to gather information Before moving on to a new and relevant visual aids. selection, go to your log 2. Prepare Your Presentation and record what you’ve Use the information you find to create your presentation. learned from Silent Spring. Decide how to sequence textual and visual information so that each emphasizes your main points. 3. Deliver Your Presentation Explain why you chose your topic. Maintain eye contact with your audience. Speak at an appropriate volume and with clear pronunciation so as to be heard by the entire class.  Standards Writing 4. Evaluate Presentations Use a presentation evaluation guide like the Conduct short research projects one shown to analyze your classmates’ presentations. to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. PRESENTATION EVALUATION GUIDE Gather relevant information from Rate each statement on a scale of 1 (Not Demonstrated) to multiple print and digital sources, 5 (Demonstrated). using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the The speaker clearly explained the topic and his or her reasons for data and conclusions of others while choosing the topic. avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. The presentation included well-sequenced multimedia that Speaking and Listening emphasized the main points. Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with The presentation was easy to follow, and the speaker maintained pertinent descriptions, facts, details, appropriate volume and eye contact. and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points. from Silent Spring 371