Passage Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything
Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything
Located underground near Geneva, Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) helps scientists study and understand how the smallest particles of matter interact with one another. The LHC propels atomic particle beams along a 17-mile-long ring.
There are the things the world is made of,
things we can see and feel, and then
there are the things even smaller, things that seem
to exist only when we are looking right at them.
So beneath the level of molecules are atoms,
and beneath the level of atoms, we find
protons, electrons, neutrons; and beneath that—
what, exactly? Because we are talking about
everything here: your fingernail,
the candy at the back of your mouth,
the coffee your teacher drank this morning,
your little sister, and the stuffed dog
she used to carry around with her everywhere.
And everywhere.
Everything and everywhere
are made up of the same stuff, whatever
it is. How do we find it? We can listen for it
in the wavelengths from deep space,
talking back to us from unimaginable
distances. Or we can build long,
deep circular tunnels beneath the surface
of this Earth and race particles
(like racing cars, only very tiny cars
flashing along at close to the speed of light)
until everything we think we know
bangs against everything else we know.
And there, in the explosion, in the darkness,
briefly incandescent, they appear:
the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons;
the baryons and the mesons. Their names
sound like dinosaurs or maybe bands
playing terrible music in someone’s garage.
The one thing we know for sure
is that they spin. This is how gravity
enters our world, how our world is held
both together and apart, what keeps
together the pencil in your hand right now
as well as separate from, say,
Jupiter. They spin, and it is only down there
in the darkness—in the vast garage
where physicists jot down
what they can, whatever seems most real—
that they let us perceive their wild dancing,
combusting to the music they make.
Question
Read lines 27–28 from the poem.
And there, in the explosion, in the darkness,
briefly incandescent, they appear:
The imagery in the lines reveals that the speaker
- Aenvies the physicists who research colliding particles.
- Bhas personally observed colliding particles.
- Cadmires the powerful reactions that occur when particles collide.
- Dhas a simplistic understanding of how particles collide.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks what the imagery in lines 27–28 reveals about the speaker.
A. Incorrect. The physicists mentioned in the fifth stanza (lines 33–44) are described as mere observers: they “jot down / what they can” (lines 41–42). In lines 27–28, the speaker is focused on the reaction between the colliding particles, not on the physicists who study them.
B. Incorrect. The speaker describes the particle collision in detail, but the text does not imply that the speaker has personally witnessed a collision. The speaker implies that his or her understanding of the collision is based on the experiences of the physicists observing the phenomenon (“They spin, and it is only down there / in the darkness—in the vast garage / where physicists jot down / what they can, whatever seems most real— / that they let us perceive their wild dancing” [lines 39–43]).
C. CORRECT. The word “explosion” and the phrase “briefly incandescent” create a picture of rapid changes and short bursts of bright light, revealing how powerful the new particles are. The language the speaker uses is positive, revealing that the speaker admires the power of the reaction and stands in awe of the new particles.
D. Incorrect. The poem reveals the speaker’s deep knowledge about subatomic particles. For example, the speaker is able to name the new particles discovered—“the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons; / the baryons and the mesons” (lines 29–30)—and is able to use imagery to create a powerful picture that reveals the complexity of a scientific process that humans have never been able to see.
Question analysis
This imagery question asks what lines 27–28 of “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” reveal about the poem’s speaker, as particles appear “briefly incandescent” in an explosion inside a particle collider. Students must infer what a vivid image says about the person describing it. The word “incandescent” may be unfamiliar, and the choices are about very different things.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students infer a speaker’s attitude from imagery, but these two lines turn on the uncommon word “incandescent,” state nothing about the speaker outright, and the choices range over the speaker’s knowledge, experience and feelings, which is harder than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines major
- Hard words moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 55 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
Nothing in the two lines names a feeling, so students must judge the speaker’s attitude from the image alone, and its key word is uncommon. The vividness is itself a trap: a scene described this sharply can seem to be one the speaker watched, though the poem says the particles are perceived only through the physicists’ work. The choices range over envy, experience, admiration and understanding, so each must be tested against the lines rather than against an overall impression.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
The lines describe particles, not the speaker, and contain no word of feeling; admiration has to be inferred from the drama of “the explosion” and the glow of “briefly incandescent.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
“Incandescent,” glowing with heat and light, is the word that makes the image dazzling, and a student who does not know it sees only an explosion in the dark. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The two lines are pure imagery, a burst of light in darkness as the particles “appear,” and the question asks what that picture reveals about the person painting it. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Picture the scene in lines 27–28, including what “incandescent” means, decide what the description suggests about the speaker, and test each choice against these two lines.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reasons that someone so drawn to the scene must envy the physicists who study it, though the physicists appear only in lines 39–44 and nothing in the poem hints at envy.
B Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the vivid scene of particles that “appear” in a glow as something the speaker witnessed, though lines 39–43 place that sight “down there,” where physicists record what they can.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats the poem’s playful comparisons, racing cars and garage bands, as a sign of shallow knowledge, though the next lines have the speaker naming quarks, leptons, bosons, baryons and mesons.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what the imagery in lines 27–28 shows about the speaker. Imagery is language that helps you see, hear or feel a scene. The lines describe particles, not the speaker. So you must infer, or figure out from clues, how the speaker feels.
Read lines 27–28
The lines say “And there, in the explosion, in the darkness, / briefly incandescent, they appear:” Briefly means for a short time. Incandescent means glowing with heat and light. So picture a burst of bright light flashing in the dark. The particles have just crashed into each other, or collided. In that flash, the tiny particles appear.
Decide how the speaker feels
The words are bold and bright: “explosion,” “incandescent,” “appear.” The speaker makes the moment sound dramatic and amazing. People describe something this way when they are in awe of it. So the speaker admires, or looks up to, the power of the crash.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Physicists come up only later, in line 41. Nothing shows envy, or wanting what they have.
- B does not fit. Nothing says the speaker was there. Lines 39–42 place the sight “down there,” where “physicists jot down / what they can.”
- C fits. The glowing burst in the dark shows the speaker’s wonder.
- D does not fit. Right after, the speaker names quarks, leptons, bosons, baryons and mesons. That is not a simple understanding.
Watch out: B is tempting because the scene is so vivid. But a writer can picture something without seeing it in person.
Choose the answer
The bright, explosive picture shows a speaker who is amazed by the crash. So the answer is C, “admires the powerful reactions that occur when particles collide.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because the scene feels like an eyewitness report. But the lines never say the speaker was in the tunnel. What they do show is a feeling. Words like “explosion” and “briefly incandescent” make the moment thrilling. That is admiration, so C fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed (pages 32–33)
