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 yucatan to the

part a questions
○ 2. the phrase compares the flowers to the birds, as they both signal a change of season to the author.
○ 3. the phrase shows how the author has made the wordsworth poem a meaningful part of daily life.
○ 4. 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 is about the meaning of a phrase, likely related to the connection between flowers, birds, and the poem)

• Option 1: Compares flowers and birds as season signals. But the passage links flowers to hummingbirds (for whom they are planted) and the poem. Not just season change. Eliminate.
• Option 2: The author recites the Wordsworth poem (knows it by heart, recites it) and planting nasturtiums (related to the poem's imagery of daffodils) becomes part of daily life (planting, recalling poem). This fits as the author integrates the poem into daily actions (planting flowers with poem in mind).
• Option 3: Says birds are joy for author as flowers were for Wordsworth. But the passage focuses on the author’s connection to the poem and planting, not direct joy comparison. Eliminate.

• Option 1: Only shows the author knows the poem, not how it’s part of daily life. Eliminate.
• Option 2: "I say the poem and see hummingbirds" connects reciting the poem (Wordsworth’s) to the author’s action (seeing hummingbirds, planting flowers for them), showing the poem is part of daily life (planting, recalling poem). Supports Part A’s correct answer.
• Option 3: Focuses on faith in birds returning, not the poem’s daily integration. Eliminate.
• Option 4: About spring beginning, not the poem. Eliminate.

Answer:

1. The phrase shows how the author has made the Wordsworth poem a meaningful part of daily life.

Part B