Final Exam Practice Passage                      English 305

SAMPLE PASSAGE FROM CHARLOTTE’S WEB

“Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider’s web?”

       “Oh, no,” said Dr. Dorian.  “I don’t understand it.  But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place.  When the words appeared everyone said they were a miracle.  But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle. . . . It is quite possible that an animal has spoken civilly to me and that I didn’t catch the remark because I wasn’t paying attention.  Children pay better attention than grownups. . . . Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more.  People are incessant talkers—I can give you my word on that.”

Final Exam Practice Passage                      Example 1 (weak response)

This passage comes from Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White.  Fern’s mother is worried about Fern talking and listening to the animals.  Fern’s mother cannot believe it, so she goes to see the doctor.  Dr. Dorian cannot imagine that a spider can spin a web and speak; that’s just crazy, he believes.  But he says that if people just stop talking and listen for once, maybe we could know what animals have to say or understand their feelings because everyone that is living has feelings, including the animals.  I think all people that have children should let their kids talk to animals and have friends that are not real.  It doesn’t mean anything bad, just that their kid has one more friend.

Final Exam Practice Passage                      Example 2 (strong response)

This passage from Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White says so much.  First, we have a doctor speaking to a farmer’s wife.  Her concern for the stories Fern brings home from the Zuckerman’s barn seem to come from her own mental cage about how things are and should be for “proper” living, ideas steeped in adult tradition.  However, when the all knowledgeable, wise doctor doesn’t automatically agree with Mrs. Arable, we have reason to believe that there could be some truth to Fern’s stories, validating the story of Wilbur and Charlotte. 

There is also another idea conveyed here about the miracle of nature.  Just as the townspeople could not see that it was the web that was so spectacular, they also still do not see the great miracles of life and death in the natural realm.  Yes, the words on the web were miraculous, but it was already miraculous in its natural state.  However, most people—except for children—don’t seem to notice that.  Children notice the little miracles of life.  Fern rescued Wilbur because she could notice those miracles. 

Fern noticed something about life that adults ignore, as we see in her mother’s attitude.  This is a running theme throughout the book, a book about the miracle of life and the inevitability of death (and acceptance of it) in the natural world.  We have to accept Charlotte’s death and understand that there was a season for it.  But the adults around the place (except for Dr. Dorian, as we see here) never took notice of these things.  They were all about the daily rituals of their lives and never took into consideration that animals were talking, living, giving life and dying naturally—all everyday miracles.  It took a child to hear it, an intuitive child to see these miraculous things that were rejected by most of the adults, including Fern’s own mother.