This document provides questions and answers about the short story "The Lady and the Spider" by Robert Fulghum. It examines key details like the thoughts and actions of both the lady and the spider when they unexpectedly encounter each other. The tone of the story is described as humorous and informal, achieved through techniques like exaggeration and comparing the unusual perspectives of the lady and spider.

1. The Lady and the Spider
by Robert Fulghum
Review

2. 1. What is a fact?
 A statement that can be proved.

3. 2. What is an opinion?
 A judgment that can be supported but not
proved.

4. 3. What resources can you use to
check facts?
 Dictionaries
 Encyclopedias
 Reliable Web sites

5. 4. What is tone?
 The writer’s attitude toward his or her
audience and subject.

6. 5. What factors contribute to tone?
 Word choice, sentence structure, and
sentence length
 Characteristics such as the use of complex
sentences, sentence fragments, contractions,
scientific vocabulary, or slang describe tone.
 Ex. If you plan ahead, I promise you, you’ll have
the best party ever!
(Notice how word choice can create a friendly
tone.)

7. 6. What does the lady do with her
baggage?
 She flings her baggage everywhere.

8. 7. What do her actions show about her
feelings toward spiders?
 They show she is
terrified of spiders.

9. 8. What are some thoughts the woman
has about the situation?
 She thinks about
where the spider is,
about getting it off her,
and that the spider is
about the size of a
lobster and has big
rubber lips and
poisonous fangs.

10. 9. What are some thoughts the spider
has about the situation?
 All of a sudden—
earthquake, tornado,
volcano. A huge piece of
raw-but-painted meat is
making a sound the spider
never heard before. Jump
in? Hang on and hope?
Dig in? She wonders
where the human is going
and what it will do when it
gets there.

11. 10. Why does the narrator tell what
both the lady and the spider are
thinking?
 Hearing what both the
spider and the woman
are thinking makes the
woman’s behavior
seem exaggerated
and even funnier and
makes the spider’s
unusual view of the
situation seem more
reasonable.

12. 11. How does the author feel about
spiders? How do you know?
 The author thinks spiders are amazing.
 He describes how long they’ve been
around, their number, and how they make
webs.

13. 12. List two details about the lady’s
fear that the narrator presents as
facts.
 She flings her bags and clutches her face
and hair.

14. 13. List two details about the lady’s
fear that the narrator presents as
opinions.
 Her scream is “about
the level of a fire
engine at full cry” and
she “thinks the spider
is about the size of a
lobster.”

15. 14. What are two facts from the essay
that you could prove true or false
by checking on the Internet?
 Spiders have been around for about 350
million years.
 There are sixty or seventy thousand spiders
per suburban acre.

16. 15. Describe the tone of “The Lady
and the Spider.”
 The tone is humorous and informal.

17. 16. Why does Robert Fulghum
describe the song “Eensy, Weensy
Spider” in this essay?
 To make a point that
spiders can teach us
an important lesson to
keep going and never
give up.

18. 17. How does Robert Fulghum make
his essay funny?
 He uses exaggeration such as describing the
lady’s scream at about the level of a fire engine at
full cry or the spider having rubber lips.
 He uses the point of view of the spider to describe
the woman.
 She flings her baggage in all directions. And at the same
time does a high-kick, jitterbug sort of dance—like a
mating stork in crazed heat. The web is torn loose and is
wrapped around a frenzied haystack, and a huge piece of
raw-but-painted meat is making a sound the spider never
heard before.

19. 17. continued
 The author also describes the spider as if it were
human.
 Ordinary, middle-aged lady spider that has been up since
before dawn working on her web and thinking about the
little gnats she’d like to have for breakfast.
 He considers what it would be like if people were
equipped like spiders.
 With the little six-nozzled aperture at the base of the
spine, humans could make something like glass fiber to
wrap packages, to mountain climb, and to compete in
Olympic events.

20. 17. continued
 He uses repetition to mention the woman’s
scream: “AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!”

21. 18. Mode
 Way of doing something
Please
study for
your test!

22. 19. Frenzied
 Acting in a wild, uncontrolled way

23. 20. Inhabited
 Lived in; occupied