question: Kyle was excited. So excited that he ate and got dressed before his dad even woke up. Today he was going to the store to spend the money his grandma had sent him for his birthday. When Dad was finally ready to go, Kyle hurried to the car. Today was extra special because none of his sisters were going with them. His older sister Sandy was visiting her best friend. His younger sister Sarah was going to a movie with their mom. So today was a special day, only Kyle and Dad being guys together.

Once they reached the store, Kyle walked slowly down each aisle, looking at all the toys and trying to find the best one. Purple superheroes, colorful games, and a bright blue ball all caught his eye, but Kyle kept looking. Finally he saw it, hiding on the bottom shelf. The most perfect toy- a shiny, white jeep. Kyle rushed to pick it up and show it to his dad. His dad thought the jeep was a great toy. And Kyle had enough money to buy it. The clerk took Kyle's money and placed the perfect car into a bag for the boy. As they drove home, Kyle looked into the bag at his dream toy several times, to make sure it was real. And all afternoon he pretended to drive his jeep around the house. This had been the best day ever!
1. What gender is Kyle?
2. Who else is the same gender?
3. What gender is Kyle's older sibling?
4. How about his younger?
5. Who supervised Kyle this day?
6. Who supervised his younger sibling that day?
7. Where did she take his sister?
8. What is Kyle's older sibling named?
9. With whom did that sibling spend the day?
10. How had Kyle obtained his funds?
11. Where were they spent?
12. On what item?
13. How many siblings were in the family?
14. How many kids did the family have?
****
answer: 1. male
2. Dad
3. female
4. female
5. Dad
6. mom
7. the movies'
8. Sandy
9. her best friend.
10. his grandma had sent him it for his birthday
11. the store
12. a jeep
13. Two
14. Three

question: Late in the evening, the wind blew hard around the little house. The sound of the wind is like someone crying. It made the old woman nervous. She had not been getting much sleep lately, but with the wind making the spooky noise, she didn't know what else to do but lie down and try to rest a little.

Once she lay down to try to sleep, many memories of her life in the little house kept her mind busy. She still was having trouble falling asleep. She remembered being a little girl and her dad putting the finishing touches on the house. Her mom loved the big kitchen, and she and her younger sister had their own room in the back.

It was in this, her old bedroom, that she was trying to sleep. The crying sound got louder. It didn't seem like it was outside. It sounded like it was coming from the other side of the bed. When she turned and looked, she saw her younger sister. She still looked five years old. The old woman couldn't remember her any other way, as she had died from a sickness at age five.

"What's wrong?" she asked her sister. "I miss you. I am so lonely," answered the little girl, who was so thin you could see through her. The old lady closed her eyes and reached for her sister. That is how they found her the next day, holding her pillow and smiling.

"She died in her sleep." "It is best that way."
1. what blew hard?
2. where?
3. who was trying to sleep?
4. was it scaring her?
5. could she sleep easily?
6. what occupied her thoughts?
7. of what?
8. what else did she think about?
9. did she think about other people?
10. how many?
11. who?
12. were their names told?
13. did she share a room?
14. with whom?
15. what sounded like crying?
16. was it outside?
17. who was making the noise?
18. was she alive?
19. what did she say to her?
20. what happened to the old woman?
****
answer: 1. wind
2. around the house
3. old woman
4. no
5. no
6. memories
7. her life
8. being a little girl
9. yes
10. three
11. dad, mom, younger sister
12. no
13. yes
14. sister
15. wind
16. no
17. sister
18. no
19. "What's wrong?"
20. died

question: CHAPTER XI

THE VICTORIAN AGE (1850-1900)

THE MODERN PERIOD OF PROGRESS AND UNREST

When Victoria became queen, in 1837, English literature seemed to have entered upon a period of lean years, in marked contrast with the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age which we have just studied. Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron, and Scott had passed away, and it seemed as if there were no writers in England to fill their places. Wordsworth had written, in 1835,

Like clouds that rake, the mountain summits, Or waves that own no curbing hand, How fast has brother followed brother, From sunshine to the sunless land!

In these lines is reflected the sorrowful spirit of a literary man of the early nineteenth century who remembered the glory that had passed away from the earth. But the leanness of these first years is more apparent than real. Keats and Shelley were dead, it is true, but already there had appeared three disciples of these poets who were destined to be far more widely, read than were their masters. Tennyson had been publishing poetry since 1827, his first poems appearing almost simultaneously with the last work of Byron, Shelley, and Keats; but it was not until 1842, with the publication of his collected poems, in two volumes, that England recognized in him one of her great literary leaders. So also Elizabeth Barrett had been writing since 1820, but not till twenty years later did her poems become deservedly popular; and Browning had published his _Pauline_ in 1833, but it was not until 1846, when he published the last of the series called _Bells and Pomegranates_, that the reading public began to appreciate his power and originality. Moreover, even as romanticism seemed passing away, a group of great prose writers--Dickens, Thackeray, Carlyle, and Ruskin--had already begun to proclaim the literary glory of a new age, which now seems to rank only just below the Elizabethan and the Romantic periods.
1. Who were the three "disciples"?
2. Can you name something that Browning wrote?
3. What about Tennyson and Barrett?
4. What era did these writers come after?
5. Who lamented the old days?
6. What did he say?
7. What sort of literature did Keats write?
8. Did Tennyson's work coincide with some of those of the old authors?
9. Was he famous already at that point?
10. Were there more well-known poetry writers than prose writers at this point?
11. Who impressed with his innovativeness?
12. What were two of the greatest periods of literature?
13. What was this age named after?
14. Who wrote something about sounds and fruits?
****
answer:
1. Tennyson, Browning, and Barrett
2. Pauline
3. unknown
4. Romantic age
5. Wordsworth
6. "Like clouds that rake, the mountain summits, Or waves that own no curbing hand, How fast has brother followed brother, From sunshine to the sunless land!"
7. Poetry
8. Yes
9. No
10. No
11. Browning
12. Elizabethan and Romantic
13. A queen.
14. Browning