Passage Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
by Grace Livingston Hill
With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.
It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead. Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.
The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her. Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her. Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.
There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her wrist.
In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get out like this.
She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train, as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and rolled down the short bank, while the train . . . ran giddily off into the night.
The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they hurried by her—one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.
Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that there was none!
The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the lonely night.
No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was heavy.
A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine’s drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the engine for a regular stop at a station.
cinders: track bed made from the residue of burnt coal
From A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS by Grace Livingston Hill—Public Domain
Question
Read paragraph 9 from the excerpt.
A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.
The imagery in this sentence conveys the
- Agrowing irritation Margaret feels as she is ignored by people on the train.
- Beffort Margaret is making despite being physically unable to keep up with the train.
- Canger that Margaret is experiencing as she watches the train leave without her.
- Dvulnerability Margaret feels as the train leaves her behind.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for an explanation of what the imagery in the excerpt from paragraph 9 conveys. The words “useless” and “failure” in the sentence indicate that Margaret’s best efforts do not help her. The phrase “the last car slatted itself past” shows that Margaret is helpless to stop the train from departing, which leaves her completely vulnerable, as described in Option D.
Option A is incorrect because describing Margaret’s “sickening sense of terror” indicates that she is extremely afraid of being left behind rather than increasingly irritated with the other passengers.
Option B is incorrect because Margaret spends her time “screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention” in an effort to be noticed so that the train will stop, not attempting to run as fast as the train.
Option C is incorrect because while Margaret’s screaming and running could easily suggest feelings of anger, descriptions of her “sickening sense of terror and failure” indicate otherwise.
Question analysis
This imagery question quotes paragraph 9 of A Voice in the Wilderness, a single long sentence describing the moment the last car of the train rattles past Margaret. Students decide what feeling the imagery conveys. The scene is full of action and noise, so it is easy to name an emotion that fits her behavior but not the words used.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Reading imagery for a character’s feelings is everyday grade 7 work. Paragraph 9 is a single sentence with strong emotional words, so the task stays inside one sentence rather than ranging across the story.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 97 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misspelling of the main character’s name in the explanation was corrected.
- 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 sentence names Margaret’s feelings outright, “terror and failure,” and calls her screaming “useless,” so the question is mostly about trusting those words over the noisy action around them. Students who read the actions alone tend to name anger or irritation. Seeing that a train which seems to enjoy her distress makes her look powerless, not angry, is what leads to the right reading.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The last car “slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort,” and students must see that the personified mockery stresses her helplessness, not her temper. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 9 is one 36-word sentence that lists fragments, “useless screaming, running” and “a sickening sense of terror and failure,” before its only main verb arrives. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The anger choice shares the right one’s frame, a feeling as the train leaves her behind, and differs only in the feeling named, which the sentence’s “terror and failure” settle. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Pick out the words in the sentence that name feelings, along with what the personified train seems to do, and match the choice to those words.
Traps
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- 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 Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Rightly sees that no one notices her, but names irritation, a mild and growing annoyance, where the sentence speaks of a “sickening sense of terror.”
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Treats her running as a race to keep pace with the train, though she runs and screams only “to attract some one’s attention” so the train will stop.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the screaming and the train’s “mocking clatter” as signs of anger, overlooking “terror and failure,” the words the sentence uses for what she feels.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook spells the name “Margret” once, in the reason Option C is wrong. The passage and the rest of the explanation spell it “Margaret,” as the site now does.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about imagery: words that help you see, hear or feel a scene. What do the images in paragraph 9 show about Margaret?
Find the key words
Paragraph 9 describes “useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention.” She feels “a sickening sense of terror and failure.” Then “the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.”
Work out what the words mean
“Useless” and “failure” tell you nothing she does works. “Terror” is great fear. The train even seems to mock her, like a mean person laughing. Giving human traits to a thing is called personification. All of this shows she is helpless. That feeling is vulnerability: being open to harm, with no way to protect yourself.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Irritation is mild annoyance. The sentence says “terror.”
- B is wrong. She runs to get someone’s attention, not to keep up with the train.
- C is wrong. Screaming might suggest anger, but the sentence names “terror and failure.”
- D is right. She is helpless as the train leaves her behind.
Watch out: The train is “mocking,” which might make you think of anger. But it is the train that seems mean. Her own feelings are fear and failure.
Choose the answer
The images show a girl who can do nothing as the train leaves. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because screaming and a mocking train can suggest anger. But the sentence names her feelings directly: “a sickening sense of terror and failure.” Those are the feelings of someone who is helpless, not angry. D matches those words.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)
