Passage Serpent Mound
Serpent Mound
The Great Serpent Mound, located in Adams County, Ohio, is a human-made mound of earth that researchers believe was created between 300 B.C. and A.D. 1100 by an indigenous culture.
Ohio, 1846
Brush Creek stood low when the museum men came
with their measuring tapes and sketchbooks.
It was winter. Fringed with ice,
the creek doubled back on itself
as if it had forgotten something.
Pa was in Cincinnati, or else on his way home,
so Ma told me to lead the men
into the marshy low grounds. It being winter,
there was little underbrush to speak of—
in the summer there would have been
briars, poison ivy, biting flies. I listened
for the swish of a beaver’s heavy tail,
the chitter of a chickadee, or the cry of a hawk,
but the winter silence of the creek pressed
down on all of us like a weight.
The humps in the ground were all but
invisible until you were right up on them. The figure
was even less obvious: the sinuous body,
the tail coiled three times around,
and at the other end, the mouth wide open.
In the summer the creek bottom was crowded
with so much life that you could trip over
the ridges of earth before you saw
anything at all. In winter you could climb
a tree and get some idea of the whole thing:
the serpent’s body undulating, slithering
silently across the ancient
earth. At the mouth end, there was an oval mound
as if the snake were about to swallow an egg—
as snakes sometimes did in our rickety
henhouse—my Pa always said, or
as if swallowing the sun, one of the museum
men suggested, taking notes with his quill pen,
an old-style inkhorn slung at his side.
I liked that: swallowing the sun,
just the sort of thing a snake might do,
might want to do. When, later, I told my sister Ruth,
she disagreed. It is singing to the sun,
she insisted. That is why its mouth
is wide open. She said, “Sometimes I think
I hear it on summer nights. Not swallowing, singing.”
Question
How does the speaker’s interaction with Ruth in lines 37–41 convey a central idea of the poem?
- AIt suggests that the most accurate interpretations of the mound come from knowing the purpose of the mound.
- BIt emphasizes that there are multiple interpretations of the mound based on feelings and experiences.
- CIt reveals the benefit of considering different interpretations of the mound’s significance.
- DIt implies that scientific study of the mound’s purpose will affect what the mound symbolizes to people.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the interaction between the speaker and Ruth in lines 37–41 conveys a central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. While there are many different interpretations of the mound’s meaning, there is no way to determine which of the interpretations is most accurate, and there is no way to know the mound’s true purpose.
B. CORRECT. The interaction references Ruth’s interpretation of the open-mouth shape as a serpent singing to the sun. This interpretation creates a joyful mood. The speaker contrasts this perspective with the idea that the mound is swallowing the sun, which creates a more aggressive feeling. These various interpretations of a physical shape arise out of what the individuals feel when they look at the mound.
C. Incorrect. The speaker does not describe any benefit to considering what different people imagine when they see the mound. Instead, the speaker is simply describing different interpretations.
D. Incorrect. Ruth’s interpretation of the mound’s shape is fanciful and symbolic. It is unlikely that scientific study would change the minds of people such as Ruth about the meaning of the mound.
Question analysis
This central idea question asks how the speaker’s conversation with a sister, Ruth, in lines 37–41 of “Serpent Mound” conveys a central idea of the poem. Ruth explains the serpent’s open mouth in her own way, and students must connect this short exchange to the rest of the poem before choosing among four claims about what it shows.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking a short exchange between two characters to a poem’s central idea is standard grade 7 work. The language is plain, though the choices differ in what they claim the exchange shows, so each must be checked closely.
- 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
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 78 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
Ruth’s “Not swallowing, singing” makes the disagreement plain, so most students see that the mound is read in more than one way. The difficulty is in what the choices add to that: a lesson about the benefit of differing views, a ranking of readings by the mound’s purpose, or a role for science. The poem only sets the readings side by side, each rooted in what its speaker has lived or felt.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about the benefit of considering different interpretations shares the key’s subject, several readings of the mound, and differs only in adding a lesson, that weighing them is worthwhile. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The exchange is a plain disagreement, swallowing against singing, and students must infer the central idea it serves, that people see the mound through their own feelings and experiences. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
Ruth’s reading answers earlier ones, Pa’s egg from the henhouse in lines 29–31 and the museum man’s sun in line 32, so her lines must be read against them. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Sum up what Ruth says and how the speaker reacts, compare it with the earlier ideas about the oval mound, and pick the claim the poem shows rather than one it might only suggest.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Applies the sensible idea that knowing why something was built settles what it means, but the poem never ranks the readings or says anyone knows the mound’s purpose.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Rightly sees several readings of the mound, then adds a moral, that weighing them is helpful, which the poem never states; Ruth and the speaker simply disagree.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Connects the museum men’s measuring with the family’s readings at the end, but nobody suggests that study will change what the mound means to Ruth or anyone else.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the talk between the speaker and Ruth, in lines 37–41, shows a central idea. A central idea is a big point the whole poem makes. Compare Ruth’s idea about the mound with the speaker’s, and with the ideas that come before.
Read the talk with Ruth
The speaker liked a museum man’s idea that the snake was “swallowing the sun.” But when the speaker told Ruth, “she disagreed. It is singing to the sun, / she insisted.” Ruth explains, “That is why its mouth / is wide open.” Then she says, “Sometimes I think / I hear it on summer nights. Not swallowing, singing.”
See where each idea comes from
Each person sees the same oval mound in a different way. Pa always said it was like a snake about to swallow an egg, as snakes did in the family’s henhouse. A museum man saw it swallowing the sun. Ruth hears it singing on summer nights. Each idea grows out of that person’s own feelings and experiences, or what they have lived through. That is a central idea: people see the mound in many ways.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. No one in the poem knows the mound’s purpose, and no idea is called the most accurate.
- B fits. Ruth and the speaker see the mound differently, each from what they feel and have lived.
- C does not fit. The poem never says that thinking about other ideas helps anyone. Ruth and the speaker just disagree.
- D does not fit. Nobody says the men’s study will change what the mound means to people.
Watch out: C starts out right, since there are different ideas. But it adds a lesson, a “benefit,” that the poem never gives.
Choose the answer
The disagreement shows more than one way to see the mound, each rooted in a person’s own feelings and experiences. So the answer is B, “It emphasizes that there are multiple interpretations of the mound based on feelings and experiences.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice. It also says there are different ideas about the mound. But it claims there is a benefit, or gain, in thinking them over. The poem shows no one gaining anything. Ruth keeps her own idea, and the poem never says who is right. It simply sets the ideas side by side, each from a person’s own life.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Serpent Mound” as printed (page 40)
