Show you understand the vocabulary words by answering these questions.

Does someone with prescience predict future events or excel in chemistry?

Mark Twain said that it was Bret Harte who "trimmed and schooled me patiently until he changed me from an awkward utterer of coarse grotesqueness to a writer of paragraphs and chapters." Harte also influenced Ambrose Bierce and Rudyard Kipling. Why do you think Harte might have had a strong impact on so many writers?

Life on the Mississippi first appeared serially in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in 1875 . In 1874 , Twain wrote the magazines editor that he liked writing for the audience of the Atlantic "for the simple reason that it don't require a 'humorist' to paint himself striped and stand on his head every fifteen minutes." In other words, he liked an audience that appreciated subtle humor. Do you find this sensibility reflected in the selection you have just read? Explain.

Choose the word that is not related in meaning to the other words.

(a) vivid, (b) lurid, (c) sensational, (d) vapid

"A Wagner Matinee" created a stir when it appeared in 1904. Cather's family objected to the fictional portrait of her real-life aunt Franc. One of her friends remarked: "The stranger to this state will associate Nebraska with the aunt's wretched figure, her ill-fitting false teeth, her skin yellowed by the weather." Do you agree? Examine the imagery and figurative language used to describe the people and scenes of Nebraska. Do you think Cather's Nebraska relatives were justified in taking offense? Cite evidence from the story to support your answer.

A contemporary critic commented, "When we look beneath the high surface gloss of Wharton's world, we see a marketplace, pure and simple. Hers is an almost purely economic conception of life." What insights does this story give you into the economic position of women at the turn of the zoth century? What kinds of work were available to them, and at what kinds of wages? Is it surprising that an educated young woman would try to make money by writing? Support your answer with evidence.

One writer described Stephen Crane's stories as "intensely realistic." He attributed this realism to Crane's training as a reporter, saying "his English flow[s] simple and pure." Do you agree? Explain why or why not, citing evidence from the story to support your answer.

Choose the word from the list that best completes each sentence.

Yet she found it ______ difficult to listen to the beautiful music.

How might Aunt Georgiana be different if she had stayed in Boston? Use examples from the story and your views about the importance of place to support your answer.

Choose the word that is not related in meaning to the other words.

(a) cavorting, (b) trembling, (c) shaking, (d) jarring

The goal of regionalists was to capture life at a particular time in history. In your opinion, how well did Harte convey the region, the people, and the times in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"? Cite evidence to support your view.

Match each vocabulary word in the first column with the word in the second column that is closest in meaning.

8. gullible h. variously

Show you understand the vocabulary words by answering these questions.

Who is more likely to be jocular, a runner or a comedian?

Compare and contrast London's portrayal of nature in this story with Crane's in "The Open Boat." Consider in particular the characters' fates and any differences in tone. Record your answers with evidence from the stories in a Venn diagram. In which version of nature would you prefer to live? Explain.