Passage Cross-Purposes
Cross-Purposes
What I am is built: concrete and steel.
I defy gravity. I am what every athlete
wants: to remain at the apex of the leap,
up in the air. And yet I am useful, too:
cars, trucks, people, even trains
make their way across my broad back.
Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.
What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older
than anything else you know. No human
built me. I am gravity’s best friend; I pool
and flow wherever gravity takes me.
I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest,
and I catch everything: from the hills,
the mountains. It all washes down through me.
What you are is an accident,
what happens to rain when rain gives in
to Earth’s gravitational pull.
You are some tears dribbling from a mountain’s
eye, running down the pavements
of small towns, into the cities, to the sea.
You are the path of least resistance.
What I am is power. You, of course,
have none: you are a static lump, an artifact
slowly decaying. But my regal flow
nourishes grasses, permits empires to rise.
Those who made you will break you,
in time, replacing you with yet another
clumsy structure. I have seen. I know.
“Clumsy”? Being rebuilt makes me
a friend of time, does it not? And it means
that I have siblings—those “clumsy” structures,
my sisters and brothers.
We stitch across the rip you make.
We are steel thread to the human needle.
We bind you up. We sew you.
And I sow into you; in every cranny
of your superstructure my vapors cling.
They bring out your softness, your rust.
Boast your best, and boast better yet.
I am listening to the bright hum
of the wind in your wires. Because I am,
above all else, patient. I will wait for you.
ospreys: large birds
Question
The use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys the idea that the
- Aforms water can take are less diverse than the types of structures that exist.
- Bnumber of human-made structures is rapidly increasing.
- Cwater passes under many similar-looking structures as it flows.
- Dstructure is powerful because it is one of many.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which idea the use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys in the poem.
A. Incorrect. Although in line 29 the structure refers to itself as “being rebuilt” or taking on new forms, this idea is expressed to reinforce the idea that the structure’s presence is eternal (“a friend of time,” line 30). The use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 does suggest that a variety of structures exist, but no comparison is drawn to suggest that the varieties of structures are more diverse than the forms of water.
B. Incorrect. While the use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys the idea that structures can be replicated by being built, it does not convey the idea that the number of human-made structures is rapidly increasing.
C. Incorrect. Although in line 33 the structure states, “We stitch across the rip you make,” suggesting that water passes under structures, the use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 does not convey the idea that the structures that the water passes under are similar-looking.
D. CORRECT. The use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys the idea that the structure is powerful because it is one of many and because these structures “stitch across the rip” (line 33) that water makes.
Question analysis
This figurative-language question asks what idea the structure in “Cross-Purposes” conveys when it calls other structures its “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32. The words come in the fifth stanza, where the structure takes up the water’s word “clumsy,” so students must decide what this family language adds to the structure’s side of the exchange.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a metaphor in a poem is standard grade 7 work, and the family words themselves are simple. Students must still decide what the comparison means coming from a personified structure in the middle of an argument, a typical grade 7 step.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 57 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The family words answer the water’s taunt in the stanza before, that the structure’s makers will replace it with “yet another clumsy structure,” and the structure turns replacement into kinship. Students who read lines 31–32 alone may stop at the picture of a family, and the strongest wrong choice reads that family as look-alikes. The point arrives only in the next lines, where the structures act as one to bind the water, which makes their number a source of strength.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The structure calls other structures “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers,” a family metaphor followed at once by a sewing one, “We stitch across the rip you make,” so two figures must be read together. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Nothing in lines 31–32 says the structure is powerful; students must infer it from the switch to “We” in the lines that follow, where the many structures together “bind” and “sew” the water. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The choice about similar-looking structures shares the right one’s idea of many structures; it differs in what their number means, a matter of looks rather than strength. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Reread the whole fifth stanza, not just lines 31–32, and say what the structure is arguing there; then choose the idea that the family words add to that argument.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Notes that rebuilding and siblings imply many kinds of structures but adds a comparison with the forms water takes, which the fifth stanza never draws.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes rebuilding and a whole family of siblings as a sign that structures are multiplying fast, though rebuilding replaces one structure with another over time and adds none.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “siblings” as structures that resemble one another, as real siblings might, and adds the water flowing under them from line 33, but the family words stress kinship and number, not looks.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about figurative language, words that mean more than their plain meaning. In lines 31–32 the structure calls other structures “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers.” You need to decide what idea those family words give.
Read what the water said first
The family words answer an insult. In lines 26–28 the water says, “Those who made you will break you, / in time, replacing you with yet another / clumsy structure.” Clumsy means awkward and poorly made. The water means the structure won’t last.
Read the structure’s reply
In lines 29–32, the structure turns the insult around. Being rebuilt makes it “a friend of time.” It has “siblings,” other structures, which it calls “my sisters and brothers.” Then, in lines 33–35, it switches from “I” to “We.” It says, “We stitch across the rip you make.” It adds, “We bind you up. We sew you.” To stitch is to sew. The rip is the gap water cuts through the land.
Work out the idea
A family is a group that sticks together. Working as one, the many structures “bind” the water, like thread holding cloth. One bridge may be replaced, but the family goes on. So being one of many is what makes the structure strong.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The lines never compare kinds of structures with forms of water.
- B is wrong. Being rebuilt swaps one structure for another. It doesn’t mean their number is growing fast.
- C is wrong. Real siblings may look alike, but that isn’t the point here. The family words show the structures are many and connected.
- D is right. The “We” lines show the many structures acting together, which gives them power.
Watch out: C is tempting if you picture siblings who look alike. Read on to line 35 to see what the family does.
Choose the answer
The family words show the structure gets its strength from being one of many. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. It also sees many structures, and in line 33 they do cross the water. But C makes the family words about looks. Lines 33–35 make them about strength: “We bind you up.” That is why D fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)
