Question

read the passage. there are several questions about this passage.

12 europeans, who had never seen the birds until they came to the new world, bestowed upon them dazzling names. there is the amethyst - throated sun angel and the glowing puffleg, the black - hooded sunbeam and the blue - throated star frontlet. in france and england, the rich adorned their capes and hats with hundreds of the jewel - like skins. we do not know how many species were lost before we could name them.

13 in central america they are called chupaflore: flower suckers. a tough - sounding name for a tough and willful bird. a chupaflor will challenge hawks and eagles who fly too close to its nest. it scolds snakes and squirrels. a chupaflor will try to drive bees and butterflies away from the blossoms it guards. a swaggering, irritable little bird. but it dies in fragile ways. chupas have been swallowed by bullfrogs, gnawed to death by praying mantids, stuck in webs and rolled up by garden spiders, snatched out of the air by dragonflies, gulped down by bass, pronged on thistles.

14 i lean over, tamping the nasturtium seeds into last year’s flowerbed in the rain, and i confess i am worrying. the birds aiming for this wet yard must be over west virginia by now. tomorrow they will probably cross those loamy pennsylvania fields. in a few days, they will have to manage the jagged high - rise landscapes of new york and after that, those of boston.

15 they are my daffodils, these birds, and wordsworth taught us that what dances before the inward eye cannot fail to engage the heart.

(from settled in the wild: notes from the edge of town by susan hand shetterly. © 2010 by susan hand shetterly. reprinted by permission of algonquin books of chapel hill. all rights reserved.)

big muddy nickname for the mississippi river
refulgence shining brilliance

part a

1. the phrase compares the flowers to the birds, as they both signal a change of season to the author.
2. the phrase shows how the author has made the wordsworth poem a meaningful part of daily life.
3. the phrase indicates that the birds are a source of joy for the author, as the flowers were for wordsworth.

part b
which excerpt from the passage best supports the correct answer from part a?

1. \i have known the poem by heart ever since my father taught it to me\ (paragraph 2)
2. \i say the poem and see hummingbirds.\ (paragraph 3)
3. \planting the flowers is my gesture of faith\ (paragraph 3)
4. \and another spring has begun.\ (paragraph 4)

Explanation:

Part A (assuming the question was about the meaning of the phrase "They are my daffodils, these birds")

To solve this, we analyze each option:

• Option 2: The passage doesn't compare flowers and birds as season signals. Eliminate.
• Option 3: The phrase is about the birds' significance to the author, not integrating the poem into daily life. Eliminate.
• Option 4: Wordsworth's daffodils brought joy, and the author says the birds are her daffodils, meaning the birds bring her joy, similar to how daffodils brought joy to Wordsworth. This matches.

We need to find the excerpt that supports the idea that the birds are a source of joy (like daffodils were for Wordsworth).

• Option 1: Talks about knowing the poem, not the birds' joy. Eliminate.
• Option 2: "I say the poem and see hummingbirds" connects the poem (where daffodils brought joy) to seeing the birds, showing the birds bring joy as daffodils did. This supports.
• Option 3: About planting flowers as faith, not birds' joy. Eliminate.
• Option 4: About spring beginning, not the birds' significance. Eliminate.

Answer:

1. The phrase indicates that the birds are a source of joy for the author, as the flowers were for Wordsworth.

Part B