Reading Passage Analysis
- 1. Developmental Reading
Handouts
Handout for Assignment 3.1: Reading Passage Analysis
Melissa Murphy
Reading 3.0
Passage 1
Life to me is like Nature. To determine the implied central point I
determined the main point by all the information in the passage. In one
sentence it says season by season is indeed a spirit a living oraganism. In
the next it states that Nature could never betray a heart that loved it. The
main idea is how life is clearly like nature. To be awake is to be alive!!
Passage B
In passage B the implied main idea is she wants communication with
someone, anyone. I gathered this from the implied central point I took it
that she lead a very boring life. She states she sees no point in a post
office, and she does not receive letters. She states that Mass of men leads
lives of quiet desperation. She is desperate for communitcation.
Passage C
The main idea is that the 1960’s were hard because people had to leave
their families to work and support them. In this passage as the implied
central point was stated that people were happy to return to campsites to
see their family. It was not natureal to them to have to work nine to five
jobs everyday just to support each other.
Developmental Reading Handout 3.1 V2.8
© 2012 Pearson Education
Page 1 of 3
2/8/2014
- 3. Developmental Reading
Handouts
Passage A
Nature, as Henry David Thoreau describes it in his book Season by Season, is
indeed a spirit, a living organism. Like William Wordsworth (a famous Romantic
poet), Thoreau believed that nature could never betray a heart that loved it.
Whether or not we would have the courage to follow in his footsteps and forsake
the city altogether, we would do well to keep a copy of Walden on our night table, if
only to help us realize the limitations of our usual concerns:
―To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a
perpetual morning. To be awake is to be alive. I have never met a man who was
quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?‖
Passage B
―... I could easily do without the post office. I think there are very few important
communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than
one or two letters in my life... that were worth the postage. The mass of men lead
lives of quiet desperation.‖
Passage C
The last sentence is probably Thoreau’s most celebrated contribution to the human
legacy. During the 1960s, it became a battle cry for many who left work, school,
marriage, or family, to find something better; the rationale was often that they
wished to live as nature intended. Substituting the free and natural life for the
nine–to–five structure they regarded as unnatural, many found joy when they
joined their peers in campsites hundreds of miles from city conveniences. Some
have never been heard from since, others quickly returned.
—Janaro, Richard, and Thelma Altshuler. The Art of Being Human. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Longman, 1997. Print.
Developmental Reading Handout 3.1 V2.8
© 2012 Pearson Education
Page 3 of 3
2/8/2014
