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Mr. Hodge’s Homework
January 11, 2023
Homework Navigation
General English 1-2
Answer the first three question on the study guide and copy the one below. Complete it a second time.
Answer the first three questions on your own. Please use details from the text to support your answer.
1. What is the purpose of the title, “The sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradley?
The title is a phrase taken from the narrative of Bradbury’s short story; it is used twice. The first time it is a description of the footsteps of the Tyrannosaurus Rex that Eckels has contracted to shoot, and the second time it is a description of the sound of a deadly blast from a rifle. Thus, it has two meanings. After the Time machine takes Eckels back a million years, he finds himself in a jungle which is full of various sounds, such as “twitterings, rustlings, murmurs, and sighs”; however, as the great dinosaur approaches, all the creature that live in this jungle stop what they are doing. As the monstrous creature marches through the jungle, the activities of all the other occupants are arrested in trepidation. The giant has the jungle to itself while it walks with such weight and strength that it makes sounds as powerful as the reverberations of thunder. It is this terrifying sound which causes Eckels to recoil in fear. When Eckels sees this prehistoric giant, he is so intimidated by its power that he feels that the rifle he holds is like a mere cap gun. He tells his guides, “We were fools to come. This is impossible.” These remarks infuriate his guides, who have to shoot the giant reptile themselves. They order the frightened Eckels back into the Time Machine and tell him to walk quietly and carefully.
stepped off the gravity path which prevents anyone from making any changes to the environment into which they time travel. Unfortunately, Eckels has stepped upon a butterfly, killing it.When Eckels and the others return to the present time and the office of Time Safari, Inc., there is a different person behind the desk, words on the sign are indecipherable, and there is a chemical taint to the air. Eckel senses other changes, as well. So, fearfully, he examines the bottom of his shoe: Eckels falls to his knees. Trembling, he asks if there is not some way that the butterfly can be brought back to life, and reverse things to the way they were before he left on the adventure. “Can’t we start over?” he asks in desperation. Frozen in fear, Eckels waits.
MS AB English
Answer the first three question on the study guide and copy the one below. Complete it a second time.
Answer the first three questions on your own. Please use details from the text to support your answer.
Why does Ben Price pretend that Jimmy is Ralph Spencer at the end of the story?
Knowing that Ben Price has not only closed in on him but witnessed him using his tools on the bank vault, Jimmy surrenders himself to the detective. However, Ben acts strangely and feigns ignorance, suggesting that he doesn’t know what “Mr. Spencer” is talking about. Ben has been determined to arrest Jimmy but when he has the chance to, he realizes there would be no point: having witnessed Jimmy’s selfless act of opening the safe, Ben understands that Jimmy is marrying the bankers daughter out of love, not because he is planning to rob the bank. Having seen that Jimmy is a reformed man, Ben Price is content to let Jimmy live his new an honest life under his assumed identity. To send him back to prison would only risk continuing their pointless cycle of catch-and-release.
Why does the narrator mention Jimmy’s looks so often in the story?
Jimmy is described as youthful, pleasant-looking, and nice-looking. His appearance is significant because it engenders strangers’ trust in him. Starting with the warden and ending with Ben Price, everyone throughout the story sees some intangible yet trustworthy quality in Jimmy. Jimmy does not display any overt signs of criminality or untrustworthiness, and this clean image allows him to swindle people in the towns in which he briefly settles before committing a robbery and skipping out. Even when his intentions are pure, Jimmy relies on his ability to garner trust and then exploit it so that he may ingratiate himself into Annabel’s family. When Jimmy turns out to have a noble heart after all, it becomes clear that what people saw in Jimmy was real; by leading a dishonest life, he was misleading himself by neglecting his selfless nature.
Transitions English
Make a prediction of what will happen next in the story the Monkey paw. Write a paragraphs discussing what the next two wishes ans why do you think they will make the wish. Make sure to use what we have read to make your predictions.
Basic English
Answer the first three question on the study guide and copy the one below. Complete it a second time.
Answer the first three questions on your own. Please use details from the text to support your answer.
- What are the respective positions of the banker and the lawyer with respect to capital punishment?
The banker believes that the death penalty is more humane than life imprisonment and argues that no one could stand being alone for a long time. The lawyer, on the other hand, argues that the death penalty is more inhumane than life imprisonment because you are depriving someone of their life–something that you cannot give back. Therefore, life imprisonment is preferable because you will still be alive throughout, and there will always remain the chance that will be freed. This philosophical disagreement is what motivates the bet; in fact, the bet itself can be seen as an extension of this very argument.
2. Why does the lawyer extend the bet from 5 to 15 years?
Initially, the banker makes the bet for 5 years. He believes that the lawyer would not be able to endure 5 years of voluntary imprisonment. In the heat of the moment, the lawyer raises the stakes to fifteen years. He probably does this to prove how serious he is, and how much he believes that he is in the right. This is corroborated by the fact that he ultimately intentionally loses the bet just 5 hours before he would have won it: he makes deliberate choices in an effort to prove his commitment to his principles.
3. What does the lawyer do to take solace in his time of imprisonment? How does his attention shift over the course of his imprisonment?
The lawyer plays the piano, reads a lot of books, and learns several languages. Though he initially shies away from wine and tobacco, he later turns to them for comfort.The piano sits silent after the first year of his imprisonment, however; progressively, the lawyer focuses more on reading and the acquisition of knowledge, up to the point at which he spends an entire year reading the Gospel. Thus we could describe him as starting out focusing on comforts, and transitioning towards a total focus on enlightenment.
4. With the themes of “The Monkey’s Paw” in mind, do you think there is any possible combination of words that Mr. White could have used to make his wish not result in an ironically tragic impact on somebody they cared about? Why or why not?
It is important to note that there is nothing anywhere in the text to indicate that any member of the White family has done anything deserving of such wicked retribution as what happens to them as a consequence of making the wish on the paw. This is an essential component of the thematic foundation of the story. Clearly, the monkey’s paw is invested with some strange supernatural power to punish, but the punishment is remarkably fair and democratic: anyone who makes any wish for any reason will be dealt with rather severely solely on the basis of having had the temerity to think they could place dice with fate. Which means the consequences of trying to make a deal with this hairy little devil is not high stakes game of chance where statistical probabilities gamed to manipulate the odds for success. The severity of the terms of that justice may change according to the wording of the wish, but the point is clear: there is no escaping justice if you choose to mess with the monkey.