View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How are the lives of the two types of bees similar?

2. "The Digger Wasp" tells of the life of a digger wasp as it prepares for what?

3. How can people relate to the worker bee?

4. How do the two parts relate to the whirligig beetle?

5. How does "Requiem" end?

Short Essay Questions

1. How could a person relate to a day in the life of the whirligig beetle?

2. What does "The Digger Wasp" describe? Why?

3. Why might the digger wasp die before its young are born?

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

5. How can the world of the honeybee be compared to your own world?

6. How is the artwork important, specifically to the whirligig beetle poem? Why?

7. Describe the whirligig beetle, based on this poem.

8. How does this mood in "The Digger Wasp" change? Why?

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

10. What is the mood of "Cicadas?" Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Requiem" is a unique poem.

Part 1) How is it unique? Why is it so different from the other poems? What is the purpose of this poem? How is this poem connected to all the other poems?

Part 2) What is the lesson of this poem? How can humans relate this to their own lives?

Part 3) What is a requiem? Why are requiems created? How do those who hear these requiems benefit from them?

Essay Topic 2

The tone of this book changes from one poem to another.

Part 1) Which poems give off a sense of chaos and frenzy? Why? How does the poet give the poems this tone? What tools does the poet use to create very different poems from these chaotic poems?

Part 2) How has the poet chosen certain insects to have certain personalities and characteristics? Do these personalities reflect the actual creatures? If so, how? If not, why not?

Part 3) Do you believe the insects are truly as the poet describes? Why or why not? What is the poets reason for giving the insects these varying personalities, opinions, and characteristics?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,000 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample