Question

read the passage. there are several questions about this passage.
scant record.
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
this question has two parts. answer part a, and then answer part b.
part a
how does the phrase “they are my daffodils, these birds” in paragraph 15 best help develop the ideas in the passage?

1. the phrase illustrates that many different aspects of nature are fascinating to the author.
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

Explanation:

Part A

To solve this, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The phrase is about the birds and daffodils (from Wordsworth), not many nature aspects. Eliminate.
• Option 2: The phrase compares birds to daffodils (not flowers to birds) and doesn't relate to season change. Eliminate.
• Option 3: The phrase is about the birds being like daffodils (a source of joy), not about making the poem part of daily life. Eliminate.
• Option 4: Wordsworth's daffodils brought joy, and the author says the birds are her daffodils, meaning they bring her joy. This matches.

The correct Part A answer is about the birds being a joy like daffodils in Wordsworth's poem. An excerpt showing the author's connection to Wordsworth's poem (where daffodils brought joy) supports this. If the first option is about knowing Wordsworth's poem, it links the birds (her daffodils) to the poem's joy.

Answer:

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

Part B (assuming the first option starts with "I have known the poem by heart ever since" and relates to Wordsworth's poem and the joy from the birds/daffodils, but since the full options aren't shown, we'll note the logic: The correct excerpt should connect the birds being like daffodils (joy) to Wordsworth's poem. If the first option is about knowing Wordsworth's poem (which has daffodils), it supports Part A's answer. So if the first option is "1. 'I have known the poem by heart ever since...'", then: