abnicole12
1. Read the following excerpt from Walden by Henry Thoreau and…
1. Read the following excerpt from Walden by Henry Thoreau and then choose your answer.
I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Which of the following best states the author’s claim? (5 points)
A. It is only through cautious deliberation that one will reach his or her dreams of success.
B. Abandoning caution in the pursuit of dreams frees people from a static life and encourages growth.
C. The more complicated human life becomes, the more likely one is to reach his or her dreams.
D. One need not work hard to reach his or her dreams; fate controls our destiny
2. Read the following excerpt from Walden by Henry Thoreau and develop a paraphrase of his claim. (10 points)
[I speak to] the mass of men who are discontented, and idly complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they might improve them. There are some who complain most energetically and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their duty. I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.
3. Read the following excerpt from an essay by Henry David Thoreau, and develop a one-paragraph response in which you defend his claim. Your response should include a paraphrase of the author’s claim, a clear statement of your position, and specific supporting evidence from your reading, experience, or observation. Use proper spelling and grammar. (20 points)
I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!
