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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. How can people relate to the worker bee?

2. What is the mood of "Water Boatmen?"

3. Upon contemplating this poem and the deaths of these insects, one becomes more aware of what?

4. What covers the pages of this poem reflect what?

5. "Honeybees" is quite different from the previous poems. Why?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the moods of this poem? Why do they differ?

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

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

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

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

6. Compare the different types of honeybees.

7. What is the purpose of "Cicadas?"

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

9. From whose perspective is "Honeybees?" Why?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

This book is filled with poems about insects.

Part 1) Why might the poet have chosen insects as his subject matter? What might have led him to choose these types of insects? What do these insects have in common?

Part 2) After reading these poems, how has your opinion of insects been altered? Why? Which insect is your favorite, after reading this book? Why?

Part 3) Why is it important to learn about insects? How are insects important to our world? How different would our world be without insects? Would it be a balanced world without insects? Why or why not?

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

The book is written for two speakers.

Part 1) Why might the poet have chosen to have two speakers read his poems in unison? How does this affect the poems as a whole?

Part 2) How do these poems compare to poems that have only one speaker? Which type of poems do you prefer, those with one speaker or two? Why?

Part 3) How does the use of poetry enhance the subjects of the poems? Would these stories of insects be as interesting or appealing if they were written in prose instead of poetry? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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