Also in 2026 Practice Test A English, question 16.
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 this sentence from paragraph 4.
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.
The simile used in the sentence affects the tone of the paragraph by emphasizing a
- Afeeling of comfort as Margaret connects her unfamiliar surroundings with familiar images.
- Bsense of lonesomeness as Margaret realizes that she is on her own in the wilderness.
- Csense of tranquility as Margaret is distracted from the urgency of her situation by the beauty of the night.
- Dfeeling of dread as Margaret regards the desolation of the land that surrounds her.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the simile in the sentence from paragraph 4 reflects the tone of the paragraph. The image of two or three fireflies creating small specks of light in the darkness creates a sense of isolation or loneliness in Margaret, as shown in the sentence, “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her” (paragraph 4). Therefore, Option B is correct.
Option A is incorrect because Margaret is confused and indecisive, showing her discomfort with her situation.
Option C is incorrect because Margaret expresses distress in her situation, questions her decision, and worries about being labeled a “fool” (paragraph 4).
Option D is incorrect because the simile is meant to show how far away things are from Margaret, not create a feeling of dread, which develops later in paragraph 9.
Question analysis
This figurative-language question asks how a simile comparing distant lights to fireflies affects the tone of paragraph 4 in A Voice in the Wilderness. Students connect the image to Margaret’s state of mind as she stands beside the stopped train in the dark. The choices range from calm to fear, so the answer must rest on what Margaret is thinking.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a simile shapes tone is regular grade 7 work with figurative language, and this one is typical. Students must read the comparison in the light of the paragraph around it, since the image alone could suggest several moods.
- 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
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 109 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 simile itself is gentle, which is why the comforting reading tempts some students, but the paragraph around it is not: two sentences later, “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.” That sentence decides the question. The harder choice is between loneliness now and the dread and desolation that come after the train has gone, so the question rewards keeping to paragraph 4.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The dread choice is built like the lonesomeness choice, a feeling plus Margaret alone in empty country, “the desolation of the land” beside “on her own in the wilderness”; only the feeling named, dread rather than loneliness, separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Fireflies are usually a cheerful, homey image, so students must read the simile through its setting, “two or three specks of light” far off in the dark, to see that it stresses distance. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The choices hinge on near-synonyms for feelings, “lonesomeness,” “tranquility,” “dread” and “desolation,” whose shades of meaning have to be weighed against one paragraph. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Picture the scene the comparison creates, then reread paragraph 4 around it and choose the feeling that the paragraph itself supports.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes fireflies at face value as a cozy, familiar image, but Margaret is straining to see and wondering whether she should have left the train, hardly comforted.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the beauty of the night, which belongs to paragraph 12’s stars and sky after the train has gone, not to this anxious moment beside it.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Moves ahead to the dread and desolate land of paragraphs 9 to 13, after the train leaves; here the faraway lights stress distance and a first feeling of isolation.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about a simile: a comparison that uses “like” or “as.” How does this simile shape the tone, or feeling, of paragraph 4?
Find the simile
Margaret looks into the dark and sees “two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance.” The far-off lights are compared to fireflies.
Picture what it shows
Fireflies are tiny lights. Here there are only two or three, and they are far away. Everything else is dark. The picture makes Margaret seem small and far from other people. A few lines later, the paragraph says it: “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.” Isolation means being alone and cut off.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Fireflies can seem cozy, but Margaret is straining to see. She feels alone, not comforted.
- B is right. The tiny, faraway lights stress that she is on her own.
- C is wrong. The beauty of the night comes later, in paragraph 12. Here she is worried.
- D is wrong. Dread and the empty land come later, after the train leaves.
Watch out: D jumps ahead. Her terror starts in paragraph 9, and the empty land appears in paragraphs 12 and 13. Both come after the train is gone.
Choose the answer
The few faraway specks of light in the dark make Margaret feel small and alone. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because Margaret does feel dread later in the story. But in paragraph 4 the train is still there, and the land has not been described yet. The paragraph names the feeling itself: “a sudden feeling of isolation.” Lonesomeness matches that.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)
