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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Water boatmen are compared to whom?

2. How are people like the digger wasp?

3. With what are the pages of the whirligig beetle's poem covered?

4. Why do the two parts do this?

5. For whom is "Requiem?"

Short Essay Questions

1. How are cicadas like a choir?

2. To what else could the water boatmen be compared? Why?

3. Compare the different types of honeybees.

4. How is "Requiem" unlike any of the other poems? Why?

5. How does the author use poetry and literary devices to teach about whirligig beetles?

6. What is "Requiem?"

7. What does "Water Boatmen" describe? Why?

8. How does the poet use poetry to give the reader a sense of what cicadas sound like?

9. How does this poem draw attention to nature and the life cycle of insects?

10. What is the mood of "The Digger Wasp?" Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Personification is an important theme found in each poem.

Part 1) Why is personification an important theme? How are the insects personified? Why does the poet choose to use personification in this poem? Is this effective? Why or why not?

Part 2) What different personalities are found in the insects? How can each of these personalities be related to humans? How is human emotion also important in these poems? Which poems focus the most on human emotion? Why? How is this connected to the behaviors of the insects?

Part 3) What other literary devices are used in this book? When and why is each literary device used? How do these literary devices help the poet make the poems engaging and purposeful?

Essay Topic 2

Mayflies live for only one day.

Part 1) How do they spend their day? Why might they do this? How do they feel about this one day? Are you surprised by this? Why or why not?

Part 2) How are many people like the mayfly? How can one relate to this creature whose life lasts only twenty-four hours?

Part 3) What is the lesson of this poem? What can the reader learn about how one should spend one's life, based on this poem? Why?

Essay Topic 3

The point of view of these poems is often from the point of view of the insect that is the main character of the poem.

Part 1) Support this statement with facts from the book. Why might the poet choose to have most of the poems from the perspective of the insect?

Part 2) What is a poem not from the perspective of one insect? From whose perspective is it? Why? How does this affect your view of the insect?

Part 3) How is perspective important in a story or poem? How does this affect the mood of the story and the readers' view of the story and characters?

(see the answer keys)

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