Analyze the Image

How does framing a small part of

this scene change your view of it?

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Get hooked by the unit topic.

Stream to Start Video

98 UNIT 2
 UNIT
2

The
Power of
Perception
“The question is not what you
look at, but what you see.”
— Henry David Thoreau

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

How does our point of view

shape our view of the world?

99
 Spark Your
Learning
As you read, you can
use the Response Log
Here are some opportunities to think about the topics (page R2) to track your
and themes of Unit 2: The Power of Perception. thinking about the
Essential Question.

Think About the

Essential Question
How does our point of view shape our view of the
world?
How does your view of a situation change when you
look at it from another person’s perspective? Sketch
an example in the space provided.
Make the Connection
We use visual metaphors for far
more than what our eyes tell us.
We express understanding by
saying “I see”; a radio host signs
off with the impossible “See
you tomorrow”; when someone
recognizes something important
about us, we say “I feel seen.” Even
people with impaired eyesight
use visual metaphors. Why is the
idea of vision more central to our
experience than any other sense?
Discuss your ideas with a partner.

Build Academic Vocabulary

You can use these Academic Vocabulary words to write
and talk about the topics and themes in the unit. Which of
Prove It! these words do you already feel comfortable using when
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Imagine you’re giving speaking or writing?

directions around your
classroom to a blindfolded I can use it! I understand it. I’ll look it up.
classmate. Use one of the differentiate
Academic Vocabulary words
incorporate
in your directions.
mode

orient

perspective

100 UNIT 2
 Preview the Texts
Look over the images, titles, and descriptions of the texts in the unit.
Mark the title of the text that interests you most.

Super Human How Do You See Your Self(ie)? Mirror

Short Story by Nicola Yoon Informational Text by Sarah Mervosh Poem by Sylvia Plath
When a superhero is confronted with However annoying selfies can be, A mirror can show only what it
real-life problems, humanity could pay they serve some important purposes. sees, but what we bring to it affects
the price. the image it reflects.

The Night Face Up The 100-Person Planet A Contribution to Statistics

Short Story by Julio Cortázar Infographic Poem by Wisława Szymborska
It’s hard to know what’s real in this If it’s hard to picture how you fit in on A poet examines categories that
dreamlike story of a motorcyclist a planet of over 7.5 billion people, try describe people and explores their
recuperating from an accident. thinking in terms of just 100 people implications.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (tl) ©stumayhew/Moment/Getty Images; (tc) ©Alexander
Piragis/Shutterstock; (tr) ©Andreas von Einsiedel/Alamy; (bl) ©chris-mueller/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images;

instead.
(bc) ©Science Photo Library/NASA/NOAA/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images; (br) ©Orbon Alija/E+/Getty Images

Think Outside the Box

It’s often said that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but people often
do misjudge others based on appearances. What’s one thing people
tend to get wrong about you based on their first impression? Write or
sketch your ideas.

101
 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does our point of

Super Human view shape our view of

the world?
Short Story by Nicola Yoon

Engage Your Brain

Humanity T-Chart
Choose one or more of these activities to start
What’s great—and not so great—about humans?
connecting with the story you’re about to read.
Make a T-chart listing our positive qualities on
one side and negative qualities on the other.
Discuss your overall conclusion about humanity
with a partner.

Positive qualities Negative qualities

Friend or Foe?
If a real-life superhero was introduced
to the world tomorrow, how do you
think the world would react? Discuss
the possibilities with a partner.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©akids.photo.graphy/Shutterstock

Super Sketch
Sketch your ideal superhero. What qualities
or powers does this person have? What
limitations or weaknesses?

102 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Make Inferences
An inference is a logical deduction that follows from what you know as
a reader, both information the author provides and what you know from
your own experience.

Here is an inference a reader might make while reading “Super Human”:

Detail from Story What I Know My Inference

“Despite her best effort,

+ =
When I’m nervous, She’s afraid but
her voice trembles.”
my voice and doesn’t want to
hands get shaky. show it.

This story guides readers to make inferences about what the characters
are thinking, even when they leave their thoughts unsaid. As you
read, track your own inferences to make sure you understand what is
happening and why.

Understand Character Motivations

Focus on Genre
Motivations are the reasons that underlie a character’s choices and Short Story
actions. We can see a character’s actions, but we may have to infer the
• contains literary elements such
reasons behind those actions. Authors provide clues such as the following as plot, character, and setting
for motivations; some are directly stated, and some are not. • builds suspense to maintain
reader interest
• Dialogue: A character might say a reason for a particular action aloud. • expresses a theme, or the
• Thoughts and feelings: The narrator might give readers a peek into a
character’s mind. •
author’s message
can be read in one sitting

• Words and actions of others: Other characters may reveal an event

or action that spurs a response from a major character.

People usually have more than one motivation; when their motivations
conflict with each other is when things get interesting. In the story
you will read, the two main characters both wrestle with conflicting
motivations. You can track these motivations with a chart like this one:
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Character Important Words or Actions Reasons Behind the Words or Actions

Syrita 1. “Stop!” she screams, before 1. She fears what might happen
she can think better of it. either way.
2. 2.

X 1. 1.

2. 2.

Super Human 103

 Get Ready

Annotation in Action
Here is an example of a student’s notes about motivations in “Super
Human.” As you read, mark words that reveal each major character’s
reasons for what he or she does.

It’s when X, the world’s one and only superhero, starts to

pull off his mask that Syrita realizes that they are all going to die
anyway.
It’s kind of a relief, really. Two motivations: save
Her task to save humanity from destruction is impossible. humanity and avoid
Everyone knows that. But if X has already made up his mind, an impossible task
then it doesn’t matter what she says.

Expand Your Vocabulary

Put a check mark next to the vocabulary words that you feel comfortable
using when speaking or writing.

pensive

simultaneously Turn to a partner and talk about the vocabulary words

you already know. Then, write a short news story
meticulous
about a superhero, using as many of the vocabulary

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Steve Zak Photography/FilmMagic/Getty Images
frivolous words as you can. As you read “Super Human,” use the
definitions in the side column to help you learn the
devoid vocabulary words you don’t already know.

dissipate

Background
Nicola Yoon (b. 1972) is the bestselling author of the
novels Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star. A
Jamaican-American writer married to a Korean-American
illustrator, Yoon also serves as a team member with the
nonprofit organization We Need Diverse Books, which
works to ensure that all readers can see their lives
reflected in literature.

104 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Super Human
Short Story by Nicola Yoon

When a superhero is confronted with real-life NOTICE & NOTE

As you read, use the side
problems, humanity could pay the price.
margins to make notes
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©stumayhew/Moment/Getty Images

about the text.

2
I t’s when X, the world’s one and only superhero, starts to pull off his
mask that Syrita realizes that they are all going to die anyway.
It’s kind of a relief, really.
3 Her task to save humanity from destruction is impossible.
Everyone knows that. But if X has already made up his mind, then it
doesn’t matter what she says.
4 Syrita watches as his gloved fingers hook into the seam of his MAKE INFERENCES
mask, readying to pull it over his head. The skin of his neck, and then Annotate: Mark what Syrita
his Adam’s apple, comes into view. demands in paragraph 5.
5 “Stop!” she screams, before she can think better of it. Before she
Infer: Why does she want this?
can think better of ordering a superhero intent on annihilation to How do you know?
stop doing just exactly as he pleases.
6 To her surprise, he does stop. His fingers uncurl from beneath
the flap of his mask. He tilts his chin up and smooths his hand down
his neck. It’s a gentle gesture. A pensive one. In that moment, Syrita pensive
knows that it’s a gesture he repeats often. A part of his ritual for (p≈n´s∆v) adj. thoughtful and
becoming X. serious.

Super Human 105

 7 Maybe he puts on black and gray camouflage pants. Next, black
athletic socks and black Converse high-top sneakers. After that, a
close-fitting, long-sleeved black T-shirt with a big white X painted in
the center. Black motorcycle gloves are next, until, finally, he gets to
the mask.
8 For this part, he stands in front of a mirror. He gathers both sides
of the mask into an accordion fold, raises it to his shaved head, and
pulls it down over his face. He does it a little roughly and all in one
breath. Afterward, he stands there in front of the mirror, taking a few
seconds to adjust. To become. The last thing he does is smooth his
hand down his neck.
9 Watching him now, Syrita wonders if he’s making that gesture for
the last time. Her fear is evident on her face.
10 “I won’t hurt you,” he says. Which is ridiculous, because that is
the whole point of her being here.
11 He is going to hurt everyone.
•••
12 Three days ago, X had broadcast his message on all media
simultaneously simultaneously. No one knew how he accomplished that. No one
(sπ-m∂l-t∑´ n∏-∂s-l∏) adv. knew how he did anything. In part, the message was as follows:
happening at the same time. I no longer believe in humanity. I would see it destroyed.
Send someone to convince me otherwise.
13 After conferring with his counterparts around the world, the
president of the United States had called. Syrita was the one they’d
chosen. She didn’t know what went into the decision-making
process—just that the decision had been made. The president had
spoken to her for a long time. X had given them three days to pick
someone, but they’d come to a decision early so she’d have time to
formulate a plan. Save for her mother, no one else was to know that
she was the chosen one.
14 “Why me?” she’d asked him. “Why choose a seventeen­-year-
old girl? Why not choose a philosopher or a scientist or a religious
leader?”
15 “Because you were the first,” the president answered, before the
line disconnected.
16 He meant that Syrita was the first person X had saved the day he
introduced himself to the world.
It was two years ago, during one of those car chases that Los
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

17
Angeles is famous for, and most of what she remembers about X
saving her is actually from news footage, in the way that video
solidified one’s own memories. She was crossing Wilshire Boulevard
right in front of the county museum. Through her headphones, she
heard helicopters overhead, but that was normal for LA.
18 Like everyone always said, the accident seemed to happen in slow
motion. There was a sound—wheels slipping too fast across asphalt.
A smell that reminded her of being a kid and lighting balloons on
fire in her backyard. Who could be burning balloons in the middle of
the day in the middle of a street? The black Chevy pickup was half a

106 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 block from her when the police sirens penetrated her music. Finally, Don’t forget to
she understood what was happening: she was going to die. Notice & Note as you
read the text.
19 But then something lifted her straight up into the air. Not just a
few feet, but thirty or forty. She was so high that the truck that was
going to kill her seemed small and harmless. She didn’t have time to
MAKE INFERENCES
scream or panic. Was she dead? Was this how people actually got to
heaven? They shot straight up as if they were on some sort of express Annotate: Mark what seems
elevator? But then she realized she was in someone’s arms. He was strangest to Syrita about X in
paragraph 19.
wearing a mask and his eyes were black and kind and surprised. She
remembers thinking how weird it was that he was surprised, because Infer: Why might X appear this
he was the one doing the flying. way? What clues help you make
this inference?
20 After a while he stopped their ascent and they’d hovered in the air
for a while. “You okay?” he asked.
21 How did you even answer a question like that when you’re
defying physics a few hundred feet in the air?
22 Still, she wasn’t dead. “Yes, thank you,” she said.
23 He flew them down to the ground, but not horizontally like
Superman did with Lois Lane in the comics. Instead, they went down
vertically as he held her in kind of a hug. After they landed, he flew
off to stop the truck by melting the engine and the door handles with
his laser eyes. And then he flew away.
24 After that, the entire world went wild.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Finlandi/Shutterstock

Super Human 107

 meticulous 25 At first, people thought it was a meticulous and elaborate hoax,
(m∆-t∆k´ y∂-l∂s) adj. with extreme but the sheer volume of cell phone video and pictures persuaded the
attention to detail.
world otherwise. There was footage of him saving her everywhere.
MAKE INFERENCES 26 The Los Angeles Times headline the day after he saved her read:
Annotate: Mark all of the BLACK SUPERMAN SAVES GIRL. The American news outlets kept
speculation about X’s race in focusing on the section of skin around his eyes that you could see
paragraph 26. through the mask. He was definitely black, they said. One pundit on
Infer: Why is X’s race significant, CNN called him African American, until another pundit pointed
particularly for an American out that he was a superhero like Superman and was probably from
superhero? another planet and therefore not human, never mind African or
American. Some pundits called him post-racial. Others talked about
race as a social construct,1 and how interesting it was that it would
take a superhero with brown skin to bring that point home to white
Americans. Other countries ignored the race discussion entirely,
calling them inane. WHY ARE AMERICANS SO OBSESSED WITH
RACE? asked a Guardian headline.
27 Syrita remembers thinking: Isn’t everyone?
28 In the aftermath, Syrita did interviews for weeks with every
media outlet, until her mother put a stop to it. She spent hour after
hour being interviewed by military types. The frenzy about him never
abated: Who was he? What was he? Where did he come from? Was he a
he? Should we be afraid?
29 A few months after he saved Syrita, X sent a note to the Los
Angeles Times telling them that his name was not Superman. It was X.
He said nothing about his race.
30 In the two years since, he became the superhero everyone
expected. He saved people and property across the globe. He never
failed. He was like Superman in every way: noble, with superstrength,
superspeed, and the power of flight.
31 But then, just recently, everything changed.
32 At first it was nothing: X didn’t show up to a particularly
devastating apartment building fire downtown. Maybe he was on
vacation. Did superheroes take vacation? Maybe he had business
on his home planet. Maybe he just missed this one. A week later, he
didn’t rescue passengers on an Amtrak train derailment. After that he
wasn’t there to stop a mass shooting on a college campus.
33 Then came the broadcast.
•••
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

34 “Why can’t I take my mask off?” X asks her now.

35 She’s sitting across from him at his small dining table in his small
apartment.
36 “You can do anything you want,” she says, as if he needed
reminding. Despite her best effort, her voice trembles. She’d promised
herself she wouldn’t let him see her fear.
37 Beneath his mask, his mouth twists. Do superheroes smirk?
38 Of course he knows she’s afraid. He has super senses. Probably he
can hear the too-fast rush of her blood pushed along by her too-loud

1
social construct: an artificial distinction between groups of people.

108 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 beating heart. Probably he can smell her adrenaline2 and all the subtle UNDERSTAND CHARACTER
changes in her body that say she’s afraid. Probably he knows all the MOTIVATIONS
signs of human fear. Annotate: Mark indications of
39 “You supposed to convince me,” he prompts, leaning back in his how Syrita is feeling in paragraphs
chair, arms folded across his chest. 36–40.
40 She pulls her shaking hands off the table and clasps them in her Interpret: How do her feelings
lap. Did he really want to be convinced that humanity was worth conflict with what she needs
saving or was this just a game? And if it was a game, then why? Was to do?
he bored with being all-powerful?
41 “You live here?” she asks.
42 “Expecting something different?”
43 What had she been expecting from a superhero’s lair? Something
more like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Something filled with clear
glass crystals and alien technology so impossibly advanced she had
no hope of deciphering it. She wasn’t expecting this dark, cramped
space, overflowing with books and comics. She wasn’t expecting
the clutter, every surface covered in knick-knacks—action figures,
Matchbox cars, and Lego pieces. It vaguely reminded her of her
younger brother’s room.
44 When she first Googled the address he sent, she’d been surprised
at the neighborhood. It was the Crenshaw section of Los Angeles—
the kind of neighborhood that white people and rich black people
like her mother thought of as dangerous but wasn’t.
45 Through her tears, her mother had asked: “What kind of place is
he making you go to?” She hadn’t called it a ghetto, but she wanted to.
People had strange ways of coping with stress, Syrita reminded herself.
46 If humanity survived and historians ever got a chance to write
about this period in time, they would divide the era into Before X and
After X. That’s how Syrita felt about herself too. There was the Syrita
she’d been before she was almost killed—rich, frivolous, untouchable. frivolous
And the Syrita she’d become after, was still becoming, really. Still rich, (fr∆v´ ∂-l∂s) adj. lacking in
but a little less frivolous. The new Syrita volunteered at a soup kitchen seriousness or depth.
near skid row every month over her mother’s objections. The new
Syrita said: “It’s not a crime to be poor, Mom.”
47 Her mother hadn’t responded, just went back to crying.
48 As per X’s instructions, she shared his address with no one else
and drove herself over. The drive from her Beverly Hills address
to his was like going to another country. The houses got smaller
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

and smaller until they were replaced by cheaply built apartments.

Boutique storefronts with designer everything became check-cashing
and water-supply places. Cars changed from model-year Mercedes
and BMWs to ancient-looking Toyotas and Fords. More people were
on the streets—walking or else waiting for buses. Most everyone was
black or Mexican. It was the kind of neighborhood that Syrita often
drove through on her way to someplace else.

2
adrenaline: a hormone produced in response to a threat, to prepare the body to fight or
run away.

Super Human 109

 49 Now, X makes a show of checking out her clothes. “You rich?”
he asks.
50 Syrita frowns. No one has ever asked her that before. Why would
they? Almost everyone she knows is rich too.
51 She shrugs.
52 Beneath the mask his mouth twists again, but she doesn’t think
it’s a smirk this time.
53 “Can you tell me why?”
54 “Why what? Why I want to kill all you people?” Sometimes, from

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©tommaso79/Shutterstock

watching his hero-ing on TV, it was possible to convince yourself
that he was human. He looked the part. A human being with some
extra bells and whistles. Sometimes, though, his voice would do
this thing—double in on itself like it was its own echo—and you
remembered. It was too other to be human.
55 That’s what his voice was doing now and Syrita couldn’t find her
own, so she just nodded.
UNDERSTAND CHARACTER 56 “You really need me to tell you all the ways human beings are
MOTIVATIONS garbage?”
Annotate: Mark what Syrita says 57 “You liked us once. You saved us. What changed?”
in paragraph 57. 58 He has no answer for that, or if he does, he doesn’t want to give it.
Analyze: Why are X’s “Why they choose you to talk to me?” he asks.
motivations, or reasons for his 59 “I’m the first person you ever saved.”
choices, important to Syrita? 60 “That was you?” He narrows his eyes at her and searches her face.
“Yeah, yeah,” he says after a moment, recognition in his eyes. “In front
of the museum, right?” Syrita nods and he continues, “I thought it
was ’cause you’re black too.” He puts air quotes around the black. All
at once, he seems defiant and tired.

110 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 61 “But you’re not black,” she says, remembering the articles from Don’t forget to
the days after he’d rescued her. Notice & Note as you
read the text.
62 He waves her off as if she’d said something, if not stupid, then
definitely naive.
63 This is not how she thought this would go. Why are they talking
about race instead of him ending the world?
64 She shakes her head and insists, “I’m the first person you saved. I
think I’m supposed to remind you of your humanity.”
65 “But I have no humanity. I’m an alien. Like Superman. You didn’t
hear?” He makes a noise like a laugh, but it is devoid of joy. devoid
66 And now Syrita knows that X’s desire to destroy the world isn’t (d∆ void´) adj. completely lacking.
rooted in some existential crisis. Something happened. Something
specific.
67 She pulls her hands from her lap, places them on the table and
leans in. “What happened?”
68 He shrugs. “I got shot,” he says.
69 It’s an answer, but not an explanation. X gets shot all the time.
There’s endless hours of coverage of it. He’s in the middle of every
fight. Gang shootings. Robberies. Terrorist attacks. The bad guys
always shoot at him even though they know he is impervious to
bullets. Bullets penetrate his costume but never make it past his skin.
70 “I don’t understand,” she says.
71 “By a cop.”
72 “But why would a cop shoot you?” He is an honorary member of
every police force in the country.
73 He leans forward. His gloved hands are close to hers. Syrita resists
the urge to pull away despite her fear.
74 “I wasn’t X when it happened. I was just me.”
75 It takes her a second to figure out what he’s saying. He wasn’t in
his costume. He got shot by the cops for being black on a street.
76 Syrita doesn’t know what to say to that. Television images of UNDERSTAND CHARACTER
protestors marching through the streets of one city or another rise MOTIVATIONS
in her mind. They’re holding signs that say HANDS UP. DON’T Annotate: Mark the issue Syrita
SHOOT. Cops are holding riot shields and batons. It’s almost always struggles with in paragraphs
night. She hears the chatter of news anchors and lawyers and police 76–77.
procedure experts and community advocates all talking at once. Analyze: How does she handle
77 It’s not that she ignores these incidents when they happen. It’s her inner conflict about this issue?
just that she finds them hard to watch. She doesn’t want to know How well does her solution work?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

the names of the dead. It’s better for her if the details are left vague
and the facts are left fuzzy. Because if cops are just killing black men
without cause, then how can we all be okay with that? How can she
live in a world like that without hating everything and everyone,
including herself, for their inaction?
78 She looks down at her clasped hands. Should she open them?
Should she take his hands in hers as a way of offering comfort?
79 Maybe reading minds is another of his superpowers, because he
pulls his hands away from the table and springs to his feet.
80 Syrita pushes back from the table with such force that her chair
topples over.

Super Human 111

 81 For the last three days since the president called, the threat to
her life has felt abstract—a problem that could be stated and solved
with philosophy and words. But now it doesn’t. She’s never been more
aware of her physical body and its breakability.
82 “Come on,” X says, ignoring her fear. “I want to show you
something.” He walks to the window just behind him and opens it.
83 She looks from him to the window and back again before
realizing that he means for them to leave through it.
84 “We could use the door,” she says, taking a step back.
85 He doesn’t say anything else, just becomes a blur of motion.
They’re out the window and flying before her brain can register that
her feet have left the ground. A few seconds later he sets her down on
the roof of the tallest building for a couple of blocks.
86 She stumbles over her own feet. Human beings were not meant
to fly.
87 “You all right?” he asks, steadying her with a hand on her elbow.
88 Of course she’s not, but she nods anyway.
dissipate 89 The morning’s fog hasn’t yet dissipated, and the pale yellow sun
(d∆s´ ∂-p∑t) v. to gradually is hazy and indistinct, like it’s struggling to come into focus. The air is
diminish to nothing. cool but windless. In the distance, palm trees are still.
90 X turns his back and walks away from her, toward the edge of the
roof. They’re about ten stories up.
91 Some part of her wants to warn him to be careful. Instead she
says: “What if someone sees you up here?”
92 He shrugs and she realizes again that he’s already made up his
mind about how this will end.
93 “Know something funny? You fly up high enough, everybody
looks the same.” He points to the sky. “Black, white, boy, girl, man,
woman. Even cops. Just people moving around doing the same dumb
stuff people always do.”
94 Now he turns away from the ledge and walks back toward
her. “Don’t last, though. Sooner or later my mind figures out the
neighborhood by the type of car or the number of trees or the size of
the houses or the number of grocery stores. And once you figure out
the neighborhood, you can figure out most of the people. I swear to
you. Even the air is different.”
95 He’s just a few feet away from her now.
96 “Tell me about getting shot,” she says.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

97 He leans in close, intent on something.

98 “What you want me to tell?” he asks. “You know this story
already. I fit the description of a black kid who did something wrong
somewhere in all of America. Don’t matter the city. Don’t matter the
time of day. Don’t matter where I was or who I was with or that no
way it could’ve been me. I fit the description. I got stopped. I got shot.
No story to tell. You know it already.”
99 “Maybe—”
100 “Maybe what?” His voice does that thing where it sounds like
many voices in one.

112 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 101 She wants what he’s saying not to be true even as she knows it is Don’t forget to
true. She wants to convince him that the cop hadn’t meant to do it. Notice & Note as you
read the text.
The gun misfired because of a glitch. It was a technical accident.
102 Or maybe X himself had done something wrong, made a move he
shouldn’t have, didn’t put his hands where the cop could see them. It
was a procedural accident.
103 Or maybe he really did fit the description. It was an unfortunate
accident. Wrong place. Wrong time.
104 Or maybe.
105 Or maybe.
106 Or maybe. NOTICE & NOTE
107 She knows none of the excuses are true. She knows it in her heart, TOUGH QUESTIONS
and where is there to go from here? If she can’t convince him the When you notice a character
shooting was justified, then his anger is justified. And if his anger is asking a question that reveals an
justified, then how can she stop what he wants to do? How can she internal struggle, you’ve found a
Tough Questions signpost.
tell him not to reject a world that has always rejected him? How can
she tell him not to destroy the human race? Notice & Note: Mark the
108 “I fit all the descriptions,” he says. questions Syrita asks herself in
paragraph 107.
109 This time when he starts to pull off his mask, she doesn’t
stop him. Infer: What do these questions
110 He hesitates for a moment, and all she sees is the lower half of make you wonder about?
his face. Dark brown skin. Square chin and jawline. Wide nose, sharp
cheekbones. No facial hair. He pulls the mask the rest of the way off
Wide-set black eyes, the most perfect set of eyebrows, bald head. His
eyes meet hers and all his parts coalesce. He is beautiful. He even
looks like a superhero. If she’d seen him walking down her school
hallway, she would’ve noticed him. She suspects she would’ve never
been able to un-notice him.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Lucian Coman/Shutterstock

Super Human 113

 VOCABULARY 111 The thought doesn’t last. He’s not in her school hallway. She’s not
Context Clues: Mark the word allowed to notice him this way. And those black eyes are looking at
in paragraph 111 that helps you her with equal parts pain and wrath. She wants to tell him not to be
understand the meaning of the angry, but how can she ask that of him?
word wrath. 112 “Don’t you ever get tired of it?” he asks her.
Interpret: Why is X feeling 113 He means the constant doubling. He means the awareness of
wrath? yourself and the awareness of someone else’s awareness of you. But
not you, your skin. One of her white friends had once asked her why
black people thought about race so much. “Because you guys do,” she
had said.
114 X says, “I’m not from another planet. I’m from here. I’m from this
neighborhood. My mom made me this way by making a wish. My
brother got shot. My uncle got shot. Before she died, my mom said
she wanted a world where bullets could never break my skin. The
next day, I woke up like this.”
•••
115 She’s come here to convince him not to destroy the world.
She’s come armed with a litany3 of human achievements. For every
argument, she had prepared a counterargument.
MAKE INFERENCES 116 Yes, we are flawed, she had planned on saying. But we have
Annotate: Mark the contrasts an endless capacity for joy and hope. We are capable of loving
between humanity’s qualities in unconditionally.
paragraphs 116–126. 117 Humans go to war and kill each other.
Infer: Why does Syrita run 118 Counterargument: All wars end and in our peace we find a way
through this list in her mind to love each other.
when she knows it won't 119 Humans invented guns, nuclear devices, torture.
convince X? 120 Counterargument: We also invented vaccines, hospitals, prayer.
121 Humans invented vengeful gods.
122 Counterargument: Vengeance can be merciful.
123 Humans invented god.
124 Counterargument: Or the other way around.
125 Humans hate what they don’t understand.
126 Counterargument: We are young yet. Give us time.
127 And so on.
128 But he is human. He knows all this already.
129 And in the face of this, his justified anger and his grace, she finds
that she has no words.
130 Always the wrong place.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

131 Always the wrong time.

132 A country that did not value his life.
133 “What you got?” he asks her now. In his eyes, she sees hurt and
anger in equal measure.
134 It’s still not cold and there’s still no wind, but she wraps her arms
around her body anyway.
135 “Nothing,” she says too soft for him to hear, but he hears it
anyway. He’s superhuman.
136 He puts his face in his hands.

3
litany: a memorized recitation or list.

114 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 137 His anger is justified and she can’t ask him to set it aside. Not
when it’s his life, his body, that’s at stake. If he wants to destroy the ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
world, she won’t be the one to stop him. How does our point of
138 He says, “They all thought I wasn’t human.” He presses two view shape our view of
the world?
fingers into his chest, just above his heart. “But I am.”
139 And finally she knows what to do.
Review your notes and
140 When X got his powers, he didn’t choose to destroy. He chose
add your thoughts to your
to save.
Response Log.
141 She’s counting on his humanity.
142 She walks to the edge of the roof and falls backward.

COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION
What do you think will happen next? Discuss your ideas
with a partner.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. Why is Syrita chosen to try to reason with X?

A She volunteered when she saw the news.

B She was the first person he saved.

C X specifically requested to speak with her.

D Her mother recommended her negotiating skills.

2. Which quotation from X best expresses his motivation, or reason, for his decision?

A “I want to show you something.”

B “You fly up high enough, everybody looks the same.”

C “Don’t you ever get tired of it?”

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

D “I’m not from another planet. I’m from here.”

3. What does Syrita do to persuade X that humanity is worth saving?

A She forces him to rescue her.

B She gives up and does nothing.

C She explains that his shooting was accidental.

D She counters his negativity with logical arguments.

Test-Taking Strategies

Super Human 115

 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE

1 INFER In what ways does being rescued change Syrita’s approach to Review what
life? Why might this change have occurred? you noticed and
noted as you read
the text. Your
annotations can
2 COMPARE AND CONTRAST Contrast Syrita’s neighborhood with X’s
help you answer
neighborhood. Why does this distinction between them matter? these questions.

3 CONNECT How do X’s experiences relate to the Essential Question:

How does our point of view shape our view of the world? How might the
experiences and therefore the view of someone with a family member in
law enforcement be different from X’s?

4 PREDICT Based on what you know about X, how do you predict he will
respond to Syrita’s action at the end of the story? Will his response change
his view of humanity? Why or why not?

5 ANALYZE Complete the Venn diagram to consider X’s conflicting

motivations, or reasons for what he does. Consult the character
motivations chart you completed as you read for evidence to include.
What is the significance of the motivation(s) you identify in the
overlapping part of the diagram?

X’s Motivations
. . . for Saving Humanity . . . for Destroying Humanity

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

6 ANALYZE One Tough Question that Syrita wrestles with is this: “How
can she tell him not to destroy the human race?” X echoes this question
when he demands of Syrita, “’What you got?’” What is her answer, and how
does it express a theme?

116 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of the
ideas in this lesson.

Social & Emotional Learning

As you write and discuss,
Public-Service Announcement be sure to use the
Although X’s plan to destroy humanity is so extreme that it only makes Academic Vocabulary
words.
sense in a fantasy story, his feelings of anger and desire for revenge are
commonplace. In a small group, create a video or print advertisement differentiate
with a message about the importance of channeling anger in a
positive way. Before you create your public service announcement, incorporate
discuss how the following issues relate to “Super Human”:
mode
• How can anger harm the person who feels this emotion?
orient
• Why does revenge often lead to more revenge?

• What alternatives to revenge can people use to address injustice? perspective

Research
Current Events
Writing
In this story, the protagonist suffers an
Compare Archetypes injustice at the hands of a police officer. Yet
There’s no shortage of superhero depictions on a police officer’s job is to protect the people
TV and movie screens and the pages of graphic in a community. Research an example of
novels and comic books. Superheroes are law enforcement doing something good for
archetypes, or models of characters that fit a set humanity. How does reading these other
pattern or group of characteristics. Compare and depictions in conjunction with “Super Human”
contrast X with an archetypal superhero from a influence your perceptions? Share your ideas in a
movie, TV show, or comic book. panel discussion or blog.

• Choose a familiar superhero depicted in

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

media and make a list of that character’s Reader’s Choice

traits. For a real-life example of

•  ake another list of X’s character traits,

M
noting which ones are similar to or different
heroism, read “The Police
Officer Who Saved Her Life” in
your eBook.
from the archetypal superhero you chose.

• Share your findings in a short comparison-

contrast essay.

Super Human 117

 Respond

Expand Your Vocabulary

PRACTICE AND APPLY
Answer the questions to show your understanding of the vocabulary words.

1. Which would make you more pensive, an essay test or a party invitation? Why?

2. If two events happen simultaneously, how might you experience both of them?

3. What does the desk of a meticulous person look like? Why?

4. What is something that some people consider frivolous? Explain whether you agree.

5. If the night sky is devoid of stars, what does it look like? What could be happening?

6. What is a time when a crowd might start to dissipate? Explain.

Vocabulary Strategy
Context Clues Interactive Vocabulary
When you read an unfamiliar word, you probably don’t immediately reach for a Lesson: Using Context
Clues
dictionary. Instead, you look for context clues—hints near the unfamiliar word
that can help you understand it—like these:

• Definition or synonym clues restate the meaning of the unfamiliar word.

• Antonym clues give a single word that means the opposite of the
unfamiliar word.

• Example or counterexample clues help you understand either what the

unfamiliar word is like or what it’s the opposite of.

Read these sentences from the story:

For the last three days since the president called, the threat to her life has felt
abstract—a problem that could be stated and solved with philosophy and words. But
now it doesn’t. She’s never been more aware of her physical body and its breakability.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Here, the word abstract is followed by a definition and a counterexample. These

clues tell you that something abstract is an idea, not something concrete.

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Locate these words in the story: annihilation (paragraph 5), hoax (paragraph
25), abated (paragraph 28), and impervious (paragraph 69). Mark the context
clues that appear near each word. Then define each in your own words, based
on the hints the context clues provide.

118 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Watch Your Language!

Dialect and Dialogue
When you’re chatting with friends, you may use sentence fragments
or informal language. And that’s OK, because your friends generally
understand what you mean. When a fiction author wants to capture the
way people really talk in conversation, sentence fragments and dialect can
bring characters to life.

Sentence fragment: A sentence that is missing a crucial part, such as a

subject or a verb.

Example from the story: “Expecting something different?”

Dialect: A variety of a language spoken by people from a particular social

group or geographic location.

Example from the story: “What you got?”

Think about whether the character of X would seem as true to life if

instead of these examples he had said, “Were you expecting something
different?” and “What do you have?”

Interactive Grammar
Lesson: Sentences and
Sentence Fragments
PRACTICE AND APPLY
Write two versions of a short conversation: one between you and a friend
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Ron Coleman/CartoonStock

and another between you and a teacher.

• In the first version, use only grammatically correct, complete

sentences, as if you are talking to a teacher about something that
happened to you recently.

• Then, write the same conversation, but as if you are talking to a friend.
Use sentence fragments and any particular words or phrases you and
your friend use in common. Share your dialogue with a partner and
discuss how the different conversations changed.

Super Human 119

 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
MENTOR TEXT
How does our point of
How Do You See view shape our view of
the world?
Your Self(ie)?
Informational Text by Sarah Mervosh

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or both of these activities to start
connecting with the informational text you’re about Never Would I Ever
to read.
What situations make you want to
take a selfie? Are there any situations
in which you’d never take one? Discuss
your thoughts with a partner.
The Ideal Me
One purpose of selfies is to present an idealized
version of ourselves to the world. But we don’t need
cameras to do that! Sketch an ad that promotes the
“ideal you” in the space provided.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Jomic/Shutterstock

120 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Identify Central Idea

The central idea of an informational text is developed through the use
of a thesis, key ideas, evidence, and a conclusion. As you read, complete
Focus on Genre
the chart with examples from the text to help you identify the author’s
central idea.
Informational Text
• explores and explains a single
topic
Components of a Central Idea Example from Text
• provides factual information
supported by evidence
The thesis is a statement of the
author’s main idea or purpose for
• is organized in a clear structure
to show connections among
writing. Often the thesis is implied,
ideas
not directly stated.

An author may develop the thesis

through several key ideas.

Each key idea is supported “. . . selfie seekers destroyed flowers

by evidence, including facts,
and left the land looking like a
quotations, and examples.
‘zombie apocalypse.’”

The conclusion explains how the

key ideas point toward the central
idea.

Understand Author’s Purpose and

Point of View
It’s pretty obvious that the author of an informational text is writing to
inform readers about something. But an author can write for several
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

purposes at once and may write to express a particular point of view

about the information being discussed. To pinpoint a more nuanced
purpose and identify the author’s point of view, keep these questions in
mind as you read this informational text:

• Do the examples the author provides spark your emotions about the
topic? In what way?

• What kinds of people are quoted, and what viewpoints, if any, do they
express on the topic?

• If you notice an emotional response as you read, consider the author’s

word choices: Is there a more neutral way the idea could have been
expressed? How does this loaded language affect your viewpoint?

How Do You See Your Self(ie)? 121

 Get Ready

Annotation in Action
Here is an example of how a student might mark clues about the author’s
point of view in “How Do You See Your Self(ie)?” As you read, mark words
that reveal the author’s attitude toward selfies.

All of it paints a picture of a self-obsessed online culture negative, judgmental

hellbent on getting the perfect shareable photo to feed its vanity. word choices; is this the
author’s opinion?

Expand Your Vocabulary

Put a check mark next to the vocabulary words that you feel comfortable
using when speaking or writing.

visceral Turn to a partner and talk about the vocabulary

words you already know. Then, write a few sentences
intrinsic summing up your opinion of selfies, using as many of
the vocabulary words as you can. As you read “How Do
narcissism You See Your Self(ie)?” use the definitions in the side
column to help you learn the vocabulary words you
cathartic
don’t already know.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Stefano Carnevali/Shutterstock

Background
Although the first self-portrait photo dates back to the
beginning of photography (and self-portrait paintings
go back further than that), the term “selfie” didn’t enter
common usage until the 21st century, when cell phones
made these photos easier to take. In 2013, the Oxford
English Dictionary declared “selfie” the Word of the Year.
Journalist Sarah Mervosh has written for publications
such as The New York Times on a wide range of topics.

122 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 How Do You See
Your Self(ie)?
Informational Text by Sarah Mervosh

However annoying selfies can be, they serve some NOTICE & NOTE
As you read, use the side
important purposes.
margins to make notes
about the text.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Alexander Piragis/Shutterstock

1
T his month, when earthquakes rocked Southern California on
back-to-back days, it was a visceral reminder that we may one
day experience the “Big One,” a quake with the power to kill and
visceral
(v∆s´ ∂-r∂l) adj. appealing to
destroy. gut-level emotions rather than
requiring thought.
2 A few people saw something else: a photo opportunity.
3 Tourists flocked to a large crack in a highway to see evidence of
the damage for themselves and, of course, take a quick selfie.
4 It was only the latest example of how our modern love of sharing
photos we take of ourselves in notable situations is colliding with
nature and the world, often in perplexing and even dangerous ways.
5 In Canada, a sunflower farm barred visitors last year after selfie-
seekers destroyed flowers and left the land looking like a “zombie
apocalypse.” In Spain, a man was gored in the neck last weekend
while trying to take a video selfie at the annual running of the bulls in
Pamplona.

How Do You See Your Self(ie)? 123

 NOTICE & NOTE 6 The selfie phenomenon entered the mainstream after Apple and
NUMBERS AND STATS other phonemakers added front-facing cameras starting in 2010, the
When you notice the use of same year Instagram and other photo-sharing apps were becoming
specific quantities or comparisons
popular. From 2011 to 2017, more than 250 people died while taking
to depict the amount, size, or
scale, you’ve found a Numbers
selfies, according to a study by researchers in India, which had by far
and Stats signpost. the highest number of such deaths, followed by Russia and the United
States. Many died after drowning, falling or being attacked by an
Notice & Note: Mark the piece
of numerical information in
animal. Most were under the age of 30.
paragraph 6 that you find most 7 All of it paints a picture of a self-obsessed online culture hellbent
striking. on getting the perfect shareable photo to feed its vanity. With
Evaluate: What does this specific
each like, we feel better about ourselves. But there is no denying
number help you understand? the intrinsic draw of the selfie, which feeds so many of the most
vulnerable parts of ourselves: our innate attraction to images of
intrinsic human faces instead of landscapes or objects, our nostalgia for
(∆n-tr∆n´ z∆k) adj. relating to the capturing memories, and yes, our need for social approval.
essential nature of a thing.
8 It’s easy to be uncomfortable with selfies and even mock them,
especially when they’re risky or in bad taste. But some researchers
have explored different questions: Why do we take selfies? Can they
ever be a healthy form of expression? Can selfies be used for good?
narcissism 9 “Narcissism is one thread,” said Jesse Fox, an associate professor
(när´ s∆-s∆z-∂m) n. excessive self- of communication at Ohio State University, who has studied how
involvement. people use selfies and social media. In one study, she found that
characteristics of narcissism and psychopathy predicted the number
IDENTIFY CENTRAL IDEA of selfies men ages 18 to 40 posted on social media.
Annotate: Mark the key idea 10 But she said the need for social approval and support is universal.
the author begins discussing in 11 “We all have levels of insecurity,” Dr. Fox said. “When someone
paragraph 8. is like, ‘Here is my cancer selfie,’ you are feeling vulnerable right now.
Evaluate: Why is discussing You need that social support. That is not saying you are a narcissist
negative aspects of selfies before for putting it out on social media.”
this key idea an effective way to 12 After all, people have been making self-portraits for centuries,
structure this text? in remarkably similar ways. The 16th-century artist Parmigianino
famously painted a portrait of himself with his arm extended. A self-
portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn, a 17th-century Dutch artist, shows
an expression similar to the classic “duckface” selfie. And during the
Italian renaissance, at least one artist used a self-portrait for “calling
NOTICE & NOTE cards,” as a way to market their work.
QUESTIONING STANCE 13 Since the term “selfie” first caught on — it was the Oxford
When you read informational text, Dictionaries’ word of the year in 2013 — researchers have identified
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

you should take a Questioning three types of selfie-takers.

Stance, which means that you 14 There are communicators, who want to have a two-way
engage with the information conversation (for example, a post with an “I Voted” sticker to
the author provides rather than
encourage civic engagement); autobiographers, who document
accept it without thinking.
their lives for their own purposes, rather than seeking feedback or
Notice & Note: Mark an idea compliments (a selfie at home with a favorite coffee mug, or a photo
in paragraph 14 that helps
at the Grand Canyon); and self-publicists, who want to build a brand
you answer this Big Question:
What challenged, changed, or
and positively curate an image (à la the Kardashians1).
confirmed what I knew? Explain
your choice. 1
the Kardashians: a "famous for being famous" family featured in a long-running reality
television series.

124 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Don’t forget to
Notice & Note as you
read the text.

Self-Portrait in a Cap, Open

Mouthed, 1630, Etching,
Rembrandt van Rijn

15 “They have become so common that my grandma does them

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Heritage Image Partnership Ltd./Alamy

when we get together,” said Steven Holiday, an author of the study

who argued that the notion of the selfie as narcissistic is outdated.
16 “We have gone beyond the self-centered nature — we need to UNDERSTAND AUTHOR’S
let it go when it comes to selfies,” he said. “Selfies are a way for us to PURPOSE AND POINT OF VIEW
connect and communicate, and feel more personal with people all Annotate: Mark strongly positive
around the world.” and strongly negative words in
17 In one example, researchers developed a #ScientistsWhoSelfie paragraphs 16–18.
campaign studying how scientists’ posting photos of themselves Analyze: What point of view
with their work on Instagram influenced public perception of the toward selfies do the words you
profession. They found that photos with human faces helped improve marked help to develop?
impressions in a field that is often subject to negative stereotypes.
18 “Scientists in general were perceived as warmer, but no less
competent,” said Paige Jarreau, the lead author on the study. “That
was particularly true for female scientists.”
19 While some scientists balked at first, fearing that their colleagues
would consider them self-centered or think they take their work
less seriously, Dr. Jarreau said those concerns dissipated once
researchers explained that it could help build public trust. The
hashtag #ScientistsWhoSelfie has taken off, with thousands of posts
on Instagram.

How Do You See Your Self(ie)? 125

 20 “This is not just me taking a duckfaced selfie or trying to look
cute on camera,” she said. “This is me being able to better tell the
story about my science in a way that helps people trust me.”
21 Similarly, Dr. Fox has studied how self-documenting on social
media can be a powerful tool for gay, transgender and nonbinary2
people who are undergoing an appearance transformation to live
more publicly as their true selves. The public nature of the posts, she
cathartic said, can be a cathartic form of self-expression.
(k∂-thär´ t∆k) adj. helping to 22 “That is a very empowering thing for them,” she said.
process difficult emotions. 23 But in the everyday, most of us post reflexively, even obsessively.
Dr. Fox recalled a road trip she took to national parks, where she
witnessed so many people taking selfies, she began taking photos of
the selfie-takers themselves.
24 “Ask yourself: Why are you posting that picture?” she said. “If
there was a platform that didn’t enable likes, would you post this?”
After all, there are other ways to foster a social connection. You could
send the photo to a private group. You could put it in a frame at
home. You could be mindful in the moment by not taking it at all.
25 But if you do, watch your step.

2
nonbinary: not identifying exclusively as one of two genders, male or female.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

The annual running of the bulls in

Pamplona, Spain

126 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

Before you began reading this article, what was your opinion of How does our point of
view shape our view of the
selfies? Did your opinion change based on the information the
world?
author included? Discuss your thoughts with a partner.
Review your notes and
add your thoughts to your
Response Log.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. What is the main problem with selfies that the author identifies?

A They harm people’s mental health.

B They are destructive and dangerous.

C They minimize people’s accomplishments.

D They don’t present a realistic portrait of people.

2. What is the purpose of the #ScientistsWhoSelfie example?

A to illustrate a positive use of selfies

B to show that even serious people can be self-absorbed

C to convince readers to use selfies to help society

D to demonstrate the importance of including a hashtag (#)

3. What two conclusions does the author reach about selfies?

A that selfies should be banned in certain places

B that they prove young people are too self-absorbed

C that selfies have many positive uses, not just vanity

that no one uses selfies for self-promotion anymore

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

E that people should make careful choices about them

Test-Taking Strategies

How Do You See Your Self(ie)? 127

 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE

1 ANALYZE What thesis, or overall main point, does the author state? Review what
How does the evidence she chooses support that idea? you noticed and
noted as you
read the text. Your
annotations can
2 IDENTIFY What is the author’s purpose (or purposes) for writing this
help you answer
text? What clues in the text make this purpose clear? these questions.

3 EVALUATE Review the structure of the text. How does beginning with
negative aspects of selfies make the author’s point more effective?

4 CONTRAST What emotionally-charged words, or loaded language,

does the author use to discuss negative consequences of taking selfies?
How does this language contrast with her central idea?

5 ANALYZE What kinds of people are quoted in the article? How do these
choices of whom to quote support the author’s central idea?

6 SUMMARIZE Use the T-chart to list positive and negative evidence

about selfies that the author includes in the text. Then, write a statement
of the overall conclusion she reaches based on the evidence.

Positive Negative

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

7 CITE EVIDENCE Choose one example from the article that helps you
answer this Big Question: What challenged, changed, or confirmed what
I already knew or believed about selfies? Explain how the text you quote
fits with your previous knowledge.

128 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of the
ideas in this lesson.

Writing
As you write and discuss,
Selfie Handbook
be sure to use the
Using information from the article, other sources, and experiences Academic Vocabulary
you’ve had or heard about, write a Handbook of Selfie Guidelines to words.
help others make the most of this form of expression. Make sure to differentiate

• credit your sources of information

incorporate
• include photos, graphs, and other forms of visual information

• use formatting, such as headings and sidebars, to guide your

reader
mode

orient

perspective

Media
Selfie Time-Lapse
How have selfies changed over the years? Take
a look at either your own progression of selfies,
Social & Emotional Learning
from the first picture you took of yourself to
Deliver an Argument now, or other ideas of selfies (such as artists’
The author emphasizes the importance of self-portraits) over the centuries. Create a slide
responsible decision-making when it comes show or gallery walk with captions explaining
to taking selfies. What is your position on the circumstance and effect of each image.
selfie-taking?

• Choose a position, either pro-selfie or

anti-selfie, and develop support for your
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

position based on understanding the

consequences of the choice to take or
not take selfies.

• Defend your views in a short speech

using evidence from the article, other
sources, and your own experiences or
the experiences of others.

How Do You See Your Self(ie)? 129

 Respond

Expand Your Vocabulary

PRACTICE AND APPLY
Answer the questions to show your understanding of the vocabulary
words. Be sure to use the boldfaced words in your answers.

visceral intrinsic narcissism cathartic

1. How might seeing something visceral make you feel? Why?

2. What is a feature intrinsic to a cell phone? Why?

3. Is wanting to look nice for a school photo an example of narcissism? Why or why not?

4. Why might listening to an angry song be cathartic?

Vocabulary Strategy
Reference Materials Interactive Vocabulary
The author of this informational text incorporates references to popular Lesson: Using Reference
Sources
culture, art history, and world geography to make her points. A reader
familiar with “the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona,” a city in Spain,
will easily understand how dangerous attempting to take a selfie there
would be. But what if this reference is new to you?

To determine the meaning of an unknown word, name, or reference,

consult general or specialized reference materials, either in print or
digital form. These may include college-level or bilingual dictionaries,
encyclopedias, and online search engines that can lead you to specialized
online resources that will help you identify more obscure references.

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Use print or digital resource materials to thoroughly define or explain
each reference from the text, even if you’re already familiar with it.
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1. Italian renaissance (paragraph 12)


2. Grand Canyon (paragraph 14)


3. Instagram (paragraphs 6, 17, and 19)


4. hashtag (paragraph 19)

130 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Watch Your Language!

Colons
Punctuation marks don’t just guide readers or clarify how a sentence is
structured; they can also add meaning by showing a relationship between
ideas. Colons (:) can show the following types of relationships; most of the
examples are from the text.

Function Example

But some researchers have explored

different questions: Why do we take
to introduce a list selfies? Can they ever be a healthy
form of expression? Can selfies be
used for good?

Dr. Fox makes one benefit clear:

to introduce a direct quotation
“You need that social support.”

to present an example or explanation of A few people saw something else: a

what appears before it photo opportunity.

“Ask yourself: Why are you posting

to precede direct address
that picture?”

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Think of a location you know well where people might be Interactive Grammar
tempted to take selfies. Draft a short list of rules related to Lesson: Colons
taking safe and considerate selfies that apply to that location.
Be sure your rules use colons for two of the purposes listed in
the chart. Share your list of rules with a partner.
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How Do You See Your Self(ie)? 131

 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does our point of

Mirror view shape our view of

the world?
Poem by Sylvia Plath

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or both of these activities to start connecting
with the poem you’re about to read.

A Critical Eye
It’s often said that we are our own harshest
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t critics—that we judge ourselves more negatively
than others do. Write a journal entry or blog post
Is a mirror’s depiction an accurate
exploring something about yourself that you
reflection of who you are? When you
don’t like but that your friends either like or don’t
stand in front of a mirror, what aspects
even notice.
of you does the mirror reflect, and what
aspects does it miss? Make a T-chart or
two-sided illustration of what the mirror
reflects and what it cannot see, and then
discuss it with a partner.

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132 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Analyze Speaker
In poetry, the speaker is the voice that “talks” to the reader. The speaker
is not always the same as the poet, even in a poem that uses I and me. A Focus on Genre
poet chooses a particular speaker to convey a message and to evoke the Lyric Poetry
reader’s emotions. The speaker may be anyone or anything. • expresses the speaker’s
thoughts and feelings
When you read a poem, identify the speaker and the subject. Use the poem’s
words and images to help you get a sense of who the speaker is. Ask: • implies, rather than states, the
speaker’s emotion
• What is significant about this choice of speaker? • written in free verse, using
• What thoughts and feelings does the speaker express? the rhythm of natural speech

• What is the speaker’s tone, or attitude, toward the subject?

instead of regular meter

As you read “Mirror,” record your inferences about the speaker and the
details that led you to make these inferences.

Inferences About the Speaker Evidence from the Poem

Analyze Figurative Language

Figurative language communicates ideas beyond the literal meaning of the words,
making an imaginative comparison that forces a reader to look at familiar things in a
new way. Here are the most common types of figurative language:

A simile is a stated comparison between two things that are unlike, but that have
something in common. A simile contains the words like or as.

The snow settled on the roof like a comforting blanket.

A metaphor implies a comparison between two unlike things that have something
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

in common. It does not contain the words like or as.

The flowers are a carpet of color.

Personification attributes human qualities to an animal, object, or idea. In some poems,

poets use personification by making the speaker the voice of the animal, object, or idea.

The tree stretched its arms to the sky.

As you read “Mirror,” notice how figurative language develops a mood and theme.

Mirror 133
 Get Ready

Annotation in Action
Here are one reader’s notes about figurative language in the poem. As you
read, mark clues about the speaker’s identity and tone.

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Sounds threatening,

Whatever I see I swallow immediately or maybe just
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. not discerning or
thoughtful

Background
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) was born in Boston and won
literary awards as a teen for her stories and poems. She
attended Cambridge University in England as a Fulbright
Scholar.

Plath’s intensely personal and complex poems explore painful

dilemmas of her own life as poet, wife, mother, and daughter.
A critic called her final poems a “triumph for poetry at the
moment that they are a defeat for their author.” After her

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death, her reputation continued to grow, and in 1982, her
Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize.

134 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Mirror
Poem by Sylvia Plath

A mirror can show only what it sees, but what we NOTICE & NOTE
As you read, use the side
bring to it affects the image it reflects.
margins to make notes
about the text.
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I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.1

Whatever I see I swallow immediately
ANALYZE SPEAKER
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful – Annotate: Mark words in the first
stanza that help you identify and
5 The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
understand the speaker.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long Infer: Why does the speaker
claim “I am not cruel, only
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
truthful”? Do you think the
Faces and darkness separate us over and over. speaker is cruel? Why or why not?

1
preconception: an opinion in advance, a bias.

Mirror 135
 ANALYZE FIGURATIVE 10 Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
LANGUAGE Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Annotate: Mark what the mirror Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
compares itself to in the second I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
stanza. She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Kdshutterman/Shutterstock

Analyze: How do images from 15 I am important to her. She comes and goes.
nature change the way you think Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
of the mirror? In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION

How does our point of view
What is the mirror’s attitude toward the woman? Is your attitude
shape our view of
the world? toward her different from the mirror’s? Share your responses
with a partner.

Review your notes and

add your thoughts to your
Response Log.

136 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. What does the “terrible fish” in line 18 represent?

A the mirror’s anger toward the woman

B society’s overemphasis on appearances

C the reality of growing old

D the sadness the young girl feels

2. This question has two parts. First, answer Part A. Then, answer Part B.
Part A

Which best describes the relationship between the woman and mirror?

A She rejects what the mirror shows and wants never to look at it again.

B She feels deeply grateful to the mirror for showing her the truth.

C She values the truth the mirror reveals but doesn’t like what she sees.

D She trusts the candles and the moon more than she trusts the mirror.

Part B

Select two lines that provide relevant support for the answer in Part A.

A “Searching my reaches for what she really is.” (line 11)

B “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.” (line 12)

C “She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.” (line 14)

D “I am important to her. She comes and goes.” (line 15)

E “Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.” (line 16)

Test-Taking Strategies
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Mirror 137
 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE

1 INFER Reread the first stanza. What is your impression of the speaker? Review what
What does the phrase “The eye of a little god” suggest about the mirror’s you noticed and
noted as you
personality?
read the text. Your
annotations can
help you answer
2 ANALYZE Reread lines 6–9. How does the mirror feel about its daily these questions.
view? What does the line “But it flickers” mean? How does this
make the wall different from the mirror’s heart?

3 DRAW CONCLUSIONS Reread line 13. If the candles and the moon are
“liars,” why does the woman turn to them? How does this metaphor reveal
the mirror’s perspective?

4 ANALYZE In the second stanza, why is the woman agitated that the
mirror reflects her “faithfully”? Why does she keep returning to the mirror?

5 INTERPRET Choose a few examples of figurative language from the

poem, and interpret them using a dialectical journal such as the format
shown. In the right-hand column, explain what comparison is being made
by the figurative language you list in the left-hand column, and note how
that comparison affects you as a reader.

Example from the Poem My Interpretation

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

6 SYNTHESIZE What is the theme, or message, of this poem? Explain your

answer using evidence from the poem as support.

138 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of the
ideas in this lesson.

Writing
As you write and discuss,
Write a Poem
be sure to use the
Think about the objects and person in “Mirror.” What other Academic Vocabulary
perspective can you imagine for this scene? For example, how words.
would the moon, the candles, or the woman herself perceive the differentiate
scene? Write a free-verse poem about the same situation from your
chosen speaker’s perspective. incorporate

• Choose an object or person as your speaker. mode

• Note what your speaker notices and feels.

orient
• Convey the speaker’s attitude using figurative language.
perspective

Research
Poetry Wall Social & Emotional Learning
Locate 2–3 other poems by Sylvia Plath. Create Self-Awareness Vlog
a poster that includes the following: A mirror is a useful tool, but it may not give us an
• the full text of each poem accurate view of ourselves. Make a short video in

• source citations for the poems, using italics

(or underlining) for the book title and
which you give advice to viewers about when to
disregard what a mirror tells them and how to be
quotation marks around each poem title happy with what they see.

• examples of figurative language in each

poem that you have identified and
rewritten or illustrated

• an explanation for why you chose each

poem
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Mirror 139
 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does our point of

The Night Face Up view shape our view of

the world?
Short Story by Julio Cortázar
Translated by Paul Blackburn

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or more of these activities to start
connecting with the story you’re about to read.

Perspective Shift
Think about your everyday life. What
aspects of it would seem bizarre or even
impossible to someone living hundreds
of years ago? Make a list of objects and
activities that seem ordinary to you that
would be the stuff of science fiction to A Tangled Web
someone from another era.
Think about a book or movie you
have read or seen in which multiple
stories happen at once. What were
the different stories about? How
Dream Journal did they finally connect or come
together? Discuss either the same or
What’s the strangest dream you’ve ever had? Did different works with a partner.

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you ever figure out what caused you to picture
such bizarre events or images? Write or draw about
the dream and its effect on you when you woke up.

140 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Analyze Plot Structure

Most stories tell a single plot in chronological order, or time sequence.
In the story you will read, the author connects two related plots Focus on Genre
happening centuries apart. Parallel plots are two or more plots that Short Story
share equal time and importance in a story. “The Night Face Up” uses
• includes elements
parallel plots to create tension, a sense of anxious anticipation. As you of fiction—setting,
read the story, study these elements to analyze the author’s choices and characters, plot, theme
their effects. • may use a chronological or
a nonlinear plot structure
• can be read in one sitting
Parallel Plots Tension

The author moves back and forth between The author develops tension through
two plots. Each plot has • pacing, spending shorter amounts
• its own tone, created by specific of time in the calmer setting as the
word choices climax nears
• a different pace, or speed of • foreshadowing, or hints and clues
narration about what will happen later
• a bridge or connector that links it • word choices and details with
to the other plot strong emotional connections

Make Inferences
Inferences are logical guesses based on clues in the text and on your
prior knowledge. “The Night Face Up” throws readers into events in two
very different settings. As you read, you will need to use story details to
make inferences about the cultural environments and historical periods
in the story’s parallel plots.

Evidence/Clues from the Text Inference

Setting 1:
They moved his arm carefully, it
didn’t hurt him. The nurses were The man is hurt and in a
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

constantly making wisecracks, hospital, but he feels like he

and if it hadn’t been for the
is in good hands.
stomach contractions he would
have felt fine, almost happy.

Setting 2: The man is being chased

He had to press forward, to stay
out of the bogs and get to the through a dark, swampy
heart of the forest. forest.

The Night Face Up 141

 Get Ready

Annotation in Action
Here are one reader’s comments about the story’s parallel plots. As you
read, mark clues about the shifts in setting.

A woman’s hands were arranging his head, he felt that they were
moving him from one stretcher to another. The man in white
came over to him again, smiling, something gleamed in his right
hand. He patted his cheek and made a sign to someone stationed Sudden change of
behind. setting from hospital
It was unusual as a dream because it was full of smells, and to swamp
he never dreamt smells. First a marshy smell, there to the left
of the trail the swamps began already, the quaking bogs from
which no one ever returned.

Expand Your Vocabulary

Put a check mark next to the vocabulary words that you feel comfortable
using when speaking or writing.

solace
Turn to a partner and talk about the vocabulary words
lucid you already know. Then, write a short poem or a few
sentences describing a dream, using as many of the
beneficent vocabulary words as you can. As you read “The Night
Face Up,” use the definitions in the side column to help

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Ulf Andersen/Getty Images
consecrate
you learn the vocabulary words you don’t already know.
translucent

Background
Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) was an Argentine teacher,
novelist, and short-story writer. A vocal opponent of the
Argentinian government, Cortázar fled to Paris in 1951,
where he remained for the rest of his life. He is best known
for deftly weaving fantasy, hallucinations, and dreams into
his fiction, as he does in this story. The Aztec sacrifice alluded
to in this work was an important part of Aztec religious life.
Human victims were usually prisoners of war or slaves; their
sacrifice was thought to appease the gods and to make the
gods stronger.

142 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 The Night Face Up
Short Story by Julio Cortázar
Translated by Paul Blackburn
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©chris-mueller/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

It’s hard to know what’s real in this dreamlike NOTICE & NOTE
As you read, use the side
story of a motorcyclist recuperating from an
margins to make notes
accident. about the text.

And at certain periods they went out to hunt enemies; they called it the
war of the blossom.*

1
H alfway down the long hotel vestibule,1 he thought that probably
he was going to be late, and hurried on into the street to get out
his motorcycle from the corner where the next-door superintendent
let him keep it. On the jewelry store at the corner he read that it was
ten to nine; he had time to spare. The sun filtered through the tall
downtown buildings, and he—because for himself, for just going
along thinking, he did not have a name—he swung onto the machine,
savoring the idea of the ride. The motor whirred between his legs,
and a cool wind whipped his pantslegs.
*
The war of the blossom was the name the Aztecs gave to a ritual war in which they took
prisoners for sacrifice. It is metaphysics to say that the gods see men as flowers, to be so
uprooted, trampled, cut down. –Ed. [Cortázar’s note]
1
vestibule: a hall or entryway next to a building’s exterior door.

The Night Face Up 143

 ANALYZE PLOT STRUCTURE 2 He let the ministries2 zip past (the pink, the white), and a series
Annotate: Mark several details in of stores on the main street, their windows flashing. Now he was
paragraph 2 that help establish the beginning the most pleasant part of the run, the real ride: a long
setting of the first parallel plot. street bordered with trees, very little traffic, with spacious villas
Evaluate: Based on these details, whose gardens rambled all the way down to the sidewalks, which
how would you describe the tone were barely indicated by low hedges. A bit inattentive perhaps, but
of this part of the story? tooling along on the right side of the street, he allowed himself to be
carried away by the freshness, by the weightless contraction of this
hardly begun day. This involuntary relaxation, possibly, kept him
from preventing the accident. When he saw that the woman standing
on the corner had rushed into the crosswalk while he still had the
green light, it was already somewhat too late for a simple solution.
He braked hard with foot and hand, wrenching himself to the left; he
heard the woman scream, and at the collision his vision went. It was
like falling asleep all at once.
Close Read Screencast 3 He came to abruptly. Four or five young men were getting him
Listen to a modeled close out from under the cycle. He felt the taste of salt and blood, one knee
read of this text. hurt, and when they hoisted him up he yelped, he couldn’t bear the
pressure on his right arm. Voices which did not seem to belong to the
faces hanging above him encouraged him cheerfully with jokes and
solace assurances. His single solace was to hear someone else confirm that
(s≤l´ ∆s) n. source of relief and the lights indeed had been in his favor. He asked about the woman,
comfort. trying to keep down the nausea which was edging up into his throat.
While they carried him face up to a nearby pharmacy, he learned
that the cause of the accident had gotten only a few scrapes on the
legs, “Nah, you barely got her at all, but when ya hit, the impact made
the machine jump and flop on its side . . .” Opinions, recollections of
other smashups, take it easy, work him in shoulders first, there, that’s
fine, and someone in a dust coat giving him a swallow of something
soothing in the shadowy interior of the small local pharmacy.
4 Within five minutes the police ambulance arrived, and they lifted
him onto a cushioned stretcher. It was a relief for him to be able to
lucid lie out flat. Completely lucid, but realizing that he was suffering
(l◊´s∆d) adj. thinking rationally the effects of a terrible shock, he gave his information to the officer
and clearly. riding in the ambulance with him. The arm almost didn’t hurt; blood
dripped down from a cut over the eyebrow all over his face. He licked
his lips once or twice to drink it. He felt pretty good, it had been
an accident, tough luck; stay quiet a few weeks, nothing worse. The
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

guard said that the motorcycle didn’t seem badly racked up, “Why
should it,” he replied. “It all landed on top of me.” They both laughed,
and when they got to the hospital, the guard shook his hand and
wished him luck. Now the nausea was coming back little by little;
meanwhile they were pushing him on a wheeled stretcher toward a
pavilion further back, rolling along under trees full of birds, he shut
his eyes and wished he were asleep or chloroformed.3 But they kept
him for a good while in a room with that hospital smell, filling out

2
ministries: government offices.
3
chloroformed: made unconscious by inhaling an anesthetic.

144 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 a form, getting his clothes off, and dressing him in a stiff, grayish Don’t forget to
smock. They moved his arm carefully, it didn’t hurt him. The nurses Notice & Note as you
read the text.
were constantly making wisecracks, and if it hadn’t been for the
stomach contractions he would have felt fine, almost happy.
5 They got him over to X-ray, and twenty minutes later, with the
still-damp negative lying on his chest like a black tombstone, they
pushed him into surgery. Someone tall and thin in white came over
and began to look at the X-rays. A woman’s hands were arranging
his head, he felt that they were moving him from one stretcher
to another. The man in white came over to him again, smiling,
something gleamed in his right hand. He patted his cheek and made a
sign to someone stationed behind.
6 It was unusual as a dream because it was full of smells, and he ANALYZE PLOT STRUCTURE
never dreamt smells. First a marshy smell, there to the left of the trail Annotate: Mark three details in
the swamps began already, the quaking bogs from which no one ever paragraph 6 that help establish
returned. But the reek lifted, and instead there came a dark, fresh the setting and tone of the second
composite fragrance, like the night under which he moved, in flight parallel plot.
from the Aztecs. And it was all so natural, he had to run from the Analyze: How is the tone of the
Aztecs who had set out on their manhunt, and his sole chance was to second plot different from the
find a place to hide in the deepest part of the forest, taking care not to tone of the first plot?
lose the narrow trail which only they, the Motecas, knew.
7 What tormented him the most was the odor, as though,
notwithstanding the absolute acceptance of the dream, there was
something which resisted that which was not habitual, which until
that point had not participated in the game. “It smells of war,” he
thought, his hand going instinctively to the stone knife which was
tucked at an angle into his girdle of woven wool. An unexpected
sound made him crouch suddenly stock-still and shaking. To be
afraid was nothing strange, there was plenty of fear in his dreams.
He waited, covered by the branches of a shrub and the starless night.
Far off, probably on the other side of the big lake, they’d be lighting
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The Night Face Up 145

 NOTICE & NOTE the bivouac4 fires; that part of the sky had a reddish glare. The sound
AGAIN AND AGAIN was not repeated. It had been like a broken limb. Maybe an animal
When you notice certain events, that, like himself, was escaping from the smell of war. He stood erect
images, or words recurring over a
slowly, sniffing the air. Not a sound could be heard, but the fear was
portion of the story, you’ve found
an Again and Again signpost.
still following, as was the smell, that cloying incense of the war of
the blossom. He had to press forward, to stay out of the bogs and
Notice & Note: Mark the sensory
get to the heart of the forest. Groping uncertainly through the dark,
details in paragraphs 6 and 7 that
appear again and again.
stooping every other moment to touch the packed earth of the trail,
he took a few steps. He would have liked to have broken into a run,
Infer: Why might the author
but the gurgling fens5 lapped on either side of him. On the path and
bring up these details again and
again?
in darkness, he took his bearings. Then he caught a horrible blast of
that foul smell he was most afraid of, and leaped forward desperately.
8 “You’re going to fall off the bed,” said the patient next to him.
ANALYZE PLOT STRUCTURE “Stop bouncing around, old buddy.”
Annotate: Mark where the 9 He opened his eyes and it was afternoon, the sun already low
setting changes from the jungle in the oversized windows of the long ward. While trying to smile at
to the hospital. his neighbor, he detached himself almost physically from the final
Analyze: How does the author scene of the nightmare. His arm, in a plaster cast, hung suspended
bridge, or connect, the two plots from an apparatus with weights and pulleys. He felt thirsty, as though
so that the story flows smoothly he’d been running for miles, but they didn’t want to give him much
from one plot line to the other? water, barely enough to moisten his lips and make a mouthful. The
fever was winning slowly and he would have been able to sleep again,
but he was enjoying the pleasure of keeping awake, eyes half-closed,
listening to the other patients’ conversation, answering a question
from time to time. He saw a little white pushcart come up beside the
bed, a blond nurse rubbed the front of his thigh with alcohol and
stuck him with a fat needle connected to a tube which ran up to a
bottle filled with a milky, opalescent liquid. A young intern arrived
with some metal and leather apparatus which he adjusted to fit onto
the good arm to check something or other. Night fell, and the fever
went along dragging him down softly to a state in which things
seemed embossed as through opera glasses,6 they were real and soft
and, at the same time, vaguely distasteful; like sitting in a boring
movie and thinking that, well, still, it’d be worse out in the street, and
staying.
10 A cup of a marvelous golden broth came, smelling of leeks,
celery, and parsley. A small hunk of bread, more precious than a
whole banquet, found itself crumbling little by little. His arm hardly
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

hurt him at all, and only in the eyebrow where they’d taken stitches
a quick, hot pain sizzled occasionally. When the big windows across
the way turned to smudges of dark blue, he thought it would not be
difficult for him to sleep. Still on his back so a little uncomfortable,
running his tongue out over his hot, too-dry lips, he tasted the broth
still, and with a sigh of bliss, he let himself drift off.

4
bivouac: a temporary camp.
5
fens: wet, swampy land.
6
opera glasses: small binoculars.

146 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 11 First there was a confusion, as of one drawing all his sensations, Don’t forget to
for that moment blunted or muddled, into himself. He realized Notice & Note as you
read the text.
that he was running in pitch darkness, although, above, the sky
criss-crossed with treetops was less black than the rest. “The trail,”
he thought, “I’ve gotten off the trail.” His feet sank into a bed of
leaves and mud, and then he couldn’t take a step that the branches
of shrubs did not whiplash against his ribs and legs. Out of breath,
knowing despite the darkness and silence that he was surrounded,
he crouched down to listen. Maybe the trail was very near, with the
first daylight he would be able to see it again. Nothing now could
help him to find it. The hand that had unconsciously gripped the
haft of the dagger climbed like a fen scorpion up to his neck where
the protecting amulet7 hung. Barely moving his lips, he mumbled
the supplication of the corn which brings about the beneficent beneficent
moons, and the prayer to Her Very Highness, to the distributor of (b∂-n≈f´∆-s∂nt) adj. beneficial;
all Motecan possessions. At the same time he felt his ankles sinking producing good.

deeper into the mud, and the waiting in the darkness of the obscure
grove of live oak grew intolerable to him. The war of the blossom had
started at the beginning of the moon and had been going on for three
days and three nights now. If he managed to hide in the depths of the
forest, getting off the trail further up past the marsh country, perhaps
the warriors wouldn’t follow his track. He thought of the many
prisoners they’d already taken. But the number didn’t count, only the
consecrated period. The hunt would continue until the priests gave consecrate
the sign to return. Everything had its number and its limit, and it was (k≤n´s∆-kr∑t) v. to make or define
within the sacred period, and he on the other side from the hunters. as sacred.

12 He heard the cries and leaped up, knife in hand. As if the sky
were aflame on the horizon, he saw torches moving among the
branches, very near him. The smell of war was unbearable, and when
the first enemy jumped him, leaped at his throat, he felt an almost-
pleasure in sinking the stone blade flat to the haft into his chest. The
lights were already around him, the happy cries. He managed to cut
the air once or twice, then a rope snared him from behind.
13 “It’s the fever,” the man in the next bed said. “The same thing
happened to me when they operated on my duodenum.8 Take some
water, you’ll see, you’ll sleep all right.”
14 Laid next to the night from which he came back, the tepid ANALYZE PLOT STRUCTURE
shadow of the ward seemed delicious to him. A violet lamp kept Annotate: Mark the physical
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

watch high on the far wall like a guardian eye. You could hear actions that the main character
coughing, deep breathing, once in a while a conversation in whispers. takes in paragraph 14.
Everything was pleasant and secure, without the chase, no . . . But he Evaluate: Based on these details,
didn’t want to go on thinking about the nightmare. There were lots how would you describe the pace,
of things to amuse himself with. He began to look at the cast on his or speed, of the plot that takes
arm, and the pulleys that held it so comfortably in the air. They’d left place in the hospital?
a bottle of mineral water on the night table beside him. He put the
neck of the bottle to his mouth and drank it like a precious liqueur.

7
amulet: a charm or necklace believed to have protective powers.
8
duodenum: part of the small intestine.

The Night Face Up 147

 He could now make out the different shapes in the ward, the thirty
beds, the closets with glass doors. He guessed that his fever was
down, his face felt cool. The cut over the eyebrow barely hurt at all,
like a recollection. He saw himself leaving the hotel again, wheeling
out the cycle. Who’d have thought that it would end like this? He
tried to fix the moment of the accident exactly, and it got him very
angry to notice that there was a void there, an emptiness he could not
manage to fill. Between the impact and the moment that they picked
him up off the pavement, the passing out or what went on, there was
nothing he could see. And at the same time he had the feeling that
this void, this nothingness, had lasted an eternity. No, not even time,
more as if, in this void, he had passed across something, or had run
back immense distances. The shock, the brutal dashing against the
pavement. Anyway, he had felt an immense relief in coming out of
the black pit while the people were lifting him off the ground. With
pain in the broken arm, blood from the split eyebrow, contusion on
the knee; with all that, a relief in returning to daylight, to the day, and
to feel sustained and attended. That was weird. Someday he’d ask the
doctor at the office about that. Now sleep began to take over again,
to pull him slowly down. The pillow was so soft, and the coolness of
the mineral water in his fevered throat. The violet light of the lamp up
there was beginning to get dimmer and dimmer.
VOCABULARY 15 As he was sleeping on his back, the position in which he came
Denotation and Connotation: to did not surprise him, but on the other hand the damp smell,
Mark words that create a negative, the smell of oozing rock, blocked his throat and forced him to
ominous feeling in paragraph 15. understand. Open the eyes and look in all directions, hopeless. He
Interpret: What is a more was surrounded by an absolute darkness. Tried to get up and felt
positive way to express the ropes pinning his wrists and ankles. He was staked to the ground on
meaning of one word you a floor of dank, icy stone slabs. The cold bit into his naked back, his
marked? Why might the author legs. Dully, he tried to touch the amulet with his chin and found they
have made the choice he did? had stripped him of it. Now he was lost, no prayer could save him
from the final . . . From afar off, as though filtering through the rock
of the dungeon, he heard the great kettledrums of the feast. They
had carried him to the temple, he was in the underground cells of
Teocalli9 itself, awaiting his turn.
MAKE INFERENCES 16 He heard a yell, a hoarse yell that rocked off the walls. Another
Annotate: In paragraph 16, yell, ending in a moan. It was he who was screaming in the darkness,
mark three historical and cultural he was screaming because he was alive, his whole body with that cry
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

details that help develop the fended off what was coming, the inevitable end. He thought of his
setting of the Aztec plot. friends filling up the other dungeons, and of those already walking
Infer: Based on the details you up the stairs of the sacrifice. He uttered another choked cry, he
marked, how would you describe could barely open his mouth, his jaws were twisted back as if with
the historical period and the a rope and a stick, and once in a while they would open slowly with
culture of the Aztecs?
an endless exertion, as if they were made of rubber. The creaking
of the wooden latches jolted him like a whip. Rent, writhing, he
fought to rid himself of the cords sinking into his flesh. His right
arm, the strongest, strained until the pain became unbearable and

9
Teocalli: an ancient Mexican terraced pyramid and temple.

148 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Don’t forget to
Notice & Note as you
read the text.

he had to give up. He watched the double door open, and the smell
of the torches reached him before the light did. Barely girdled by the
ceremonial loincloths, the priests’ acolytes10 moved in his direction,
looking at him with contempt. Lights reflected off the sweaty torsos
and off the black hair dressed with feathers. The cords went slack,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Charles Mahaux/AGF Srl/Alamy

and in their place the grappling of hot hands, hard as bronze; he felt
himself lifted, still face up, and jerked along by the four acolytes who
carried him down the passageway. The torchbearers went ahead,
indistinctly lighting up the corridor with its dripping walls and a
ceiling so low that the acolytes had to duck their heads. Now they
were taking him out, taking him out, it was the end. Face up, under
a mile of living rock which, for a succession of moments, was lit up
by a glimmer of torchlight. When the stars came out up there instead
of the roof and the great terraced steps rose before him, on fire with
cries and dances, it would be the end. The passage was never going
to end, but now it was beginning to end, he would see suddenly the
open sky full of stars, but not yet, they trundled him along endlessly
in the reddish shadow, hauling him roughly along and he did not
want that, but how to stop it if they had torn off the amulet, his real
heart, the life-center.

10
acolytes: people who assist in religious services.

The Night Face Up 149

 17 In a single jump he came out into the hospital night, to the high,
gentle, bare ceiling, to the soft shadow wrapping him round. He
thought he must have cried out, but his neighbors were peacefully
snoring. The water in the bottle on the night table was somewhat
translucent bubbly, a translucent shape against the dark azure shadow of the
(tr√ns-l◊´s∂nt) adj. semi- windows. He panted, looking for some relief for his lungs, oblivion
transparent; indistinct. for those images still glued to his eyelids. Each time he shut his eyes
he saw them take shape instantly, and he sat up, completely wrung
out, but savoring at the same time the surety that now he was awake,
that the night nurse would answer if he rang, that soon it would be
daybreak, with the good, deep sleep he usually had at that hour, no
images, no nothing . . . It was difficult to keep his eyes open, the
drowsiness was more powerful than he. He made one last effort, he
sketched a gesture toward the bottle of water with his good hand
and did not manage to reach it, his fingers closed again on a black
emptiness, and the passageway went on endlessly, rock after rock,
with momentary ruddy flares, and face up he choked out a dull
moan because the roof was about to end, it rose, was opening like
a mouth of shadow, and the acolytes straightened up, and from on
high a waning moon fell on a face whose eyes wanted not to see it,
were closing and opening desperately, trying to pass to the other
side, to find again the bare, protecting ceiling of the ward. And every
time they opened, it was night and the moon, while they climbed the
great terraced steps, his head hanging down backward now, and up
at the top were the bonfires, red columns of perfumed smoke, and
suddenly he saw the red stone, shiny with the blood dripping off it,
and the spinning arcs cut by the feet of the victim whom they pulled
off to throw him rolling down the north steps. With a last hope he
shut his lids tightly, moaning to wake up. For a second he thought
he had gotten there, because once more he was immobile in the
bed, except that his head was hanging down off it, swinging. But he
smelled death, and when he opened his eyes he saw the blood-soaked
NOTICE & NOTE
AHA MOMENT figure of the executioner-priest coming toward him with the stone
knife in his hand. He managed to close his eyelids again, although
When you notice a sudden
realization that shifts a character’s he knew now he was not going to wake up, that he was awake, that
actions or understandings, you’ve the marvelous dream had been the other, absurd as all dreams are
found an Aha Moment signpost. — a dream in which he was going through the strange avenues of an
Notice & Note: Mark clues that astonishing city, with green and red lights that burned without fire or
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

tell you what the main character smoke, on an enormous metal insect that whirred away between his
suddenly realizes in the second legs. In the infinite lie of the dream, they had also picked him off the
half of paragraph 17. ground, someone had approached him also with a knife in his hand,
Infer: How might this realization approached him who was lying face up, face up with his eyes closed
change things? between the bonfires on the steps.

150 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does our point of
How did the structure of this story add to the tension you felt
view shape our view of
while reading it? Was the ending what you expected? Share your the world?
responses with a partner.

Review your notes and

add your thoughts to your
Response Log.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. How does the development of the parallel plots create a surprise ending?

A The movement of the story from one plot to the other confuses the reader
about the time and place of the final scene.

B The protagonist’s ability to travel through time makes it surprising that he

lets himself stay in a dangerous situation.

C The confusion and fear the protagonist feels as he moves from one plot to
the other make it surprising that he finally understands what happened.

D The specific, realistic details of the modern city lead the reader to assume
that world is the real world, until the man’s realization.

2. Select two similarities that the parallel plots share.

A A sense of fear and concern hangs over all of the events.

B The protagonist is lying on his back while others control his fate.

C Despite his difficulties, the protagonist is optimistic about his future.

D It is entirely the protagonist’s fault that he is in a dire situation.

E The protagonist is disoriented and confused upon waking in each plot.

3. What seems to be true of the protagonist at the end of the story?

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

A He will make a full recovery from his motorcycle accident.

B He actually lives in Aztec times and is going to be sacrificed.

C He will continue to suffer from nightmares as a result of the accident.

D He is living simultaneously in two different realities.

Test-Taking Strategies

The Night Face Up 151

 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE

1 ANALYZE Cortázar begins the narrative with the plot concerning the Review what
motorcycle accident rather than the one about the manhunt. Why is this you noticed and
noted as you read
choice an effective way to structure the story? Make a time line of story
the text. Your
events to help you answer the question. annotations can
help you answer
these questions.

2 EVALUATE The story’s parallel plots often mirror each other. For
example, in the modern setting the protagonist is x-rayed, taken to
surgery, and approached by a doctor. Where in the second plot does the
author echo this scene? What is the effect of this mode of narration?

3 COMPARE In both plots, the author frequently refers to smells.

Explain how the descriptions of smells differ in each plot. How do these
differences affect the tone of each plot?

4 INFER How does your perception of the protagonist change throughout

the story? Cite text evidence to support your ideas.

5 EVALUATE The story is told through the limited view of the protagonist.
How might an omniscient narrator relate the experiences of other
characters? How would knowing their thoughts affect the story?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

6 ANALYZE Imagery is language that appeals to the senses. How would

you characterize the types of imagery that appear in each setting?
Support your ideas with examples from each setting.

7 NOTICE & NOTE Identify two moments in “The Night Face Up” when the
main character has a realization. What do these Aha Moments suggest
about the man’s changing state of mind and how clearly he is thinking?

152 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of the
ideas in this lesson.

Research
As you write and discuss,
Culture Report
be sure to use the
Ancient Aztec culture featured sophisticated cities, arts, and Academic Vocabulary
science. Research one aspect of Aztec culture to share in a words.
blog post. Practice documenting your sources using your differentiate
teacher’s preferred format, including this information:

• title
incorporate

• author mode

• publisher’s name and location, if known orient

• date of publication
perspective
• URL or page numbers (depending on whether the source
is online or printed)

Speaking and Listening

Discuss Opinions
Which of this story’s settings—if either—do you
Writing
think is “real”? At the story’s end, the protagonist
Write an Analysis thinks he knows, but could he be wrong? Discuss
Identify a key theme, or message, expressed your ideas with a group.
through the story. Write a short analysis of how
the theme is developed by these story elements:
• Review the story, paying attention to when
the setting shifts.
• characters
• Cite details to support your view and listen to
• plot others’ ideas.

• imagery • Sum up opinions in a vote or list.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

• tone

• settings

The Night Face Up 153

 Respond

Expand Your Vocabulary

PRACTICE AND APPLY
Answer the questions to show your understanding of the vocabulary words.

consecrated solace lucid beneficent translucent

1. Have you ever visited a place or seen an item that was consecrated? Explain.
2. When have you sought solace? Why?
3. How can you tell someone is not completely lucid? Explain.
4. When did you behave in a beneficent manner? Explain.
5. Where might a translucent material be used in your home? Why?

Vocabulary Strategy
Denotation and Connotation
Vocabulary Practice:
A word’s literal meaning or definition is its denotation. A word may also
Denotation and
have an implied meaning, an association that evokes a particular emotion. Connotation
This is the word’s connotation. The emotions that words evoke range
from positive to neutral to negative. The denotation of the word solace
from the story is “a source of relief or comfort.” Finding solace connotes a
positive feeling of happiness at being relieved of a problem or burden.

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Find these words in “The Night Face Up.” Look up the words, and then
decide on their connotations based on what you find in a dictionary or in
the text. Work in a group to discuss these denotations and connotations
and complete the chart.

Word Denotation Connotation

reek
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

(paragraph 6)

fragrance
(paragraph 6)

odor
(paragraph 7)

154 UNIT 2 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Watch Your Language!

Absolute Phrases
An absolute phrase is a group of words that modifies an entire sentence or
independent clause. It can be omitted from the sentence without affecting
the overall meaning. The function of an absolute phrase is to set the scene or
provide context for what happens in the rest of the sentence.

An absolute phrase often includes a participle—the -ed, -ing, or -en form of

a verb. Here is an example from the story:

He waited, covered by the branches of a shrub and the starless night.

On the other hand, this example of an absolute phrase from the story does
not include a participle:

He opened his eyes and it was afternoon, the sun already low in the
oversized windows of the long ward.

An absolute phrase can appear anywhere in a sentence.

The elevator having stopped its fall, we all let out a sigh of relief.

The passengers hesitated, given our harrowing experience, before

exiting the elevator.

We smiled sheepishly at one another, grounded at last.

Grammar Practice:
The Phrase
PRACTICE AND APPLY
Write a paragraph about a frightening experience, real or imagined. Then
revise it to include three absolute phrases that set the scene for what
happens in each of their sentences. Try to vary where you place your
absolute phrases and whether you include or omit a participle. Share your
“before” and “after” versions with a partner to get feedback on how the
absolute phrases add to the suspense or excitement of your story.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

The Night Face Up 155

 Collaborate ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does our point of

& Compare
view shape our view of
the world?

Compare Details
As you read, notice how the ideas in both texts relate to the
world around you, as well as how they help you understand
people through the lens of mathematics. Then, look for ways
that the ideas in the two texts relate to each other.

B
A

A
The n Contribut
100-Perso to Statist ion
Planet ics

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (l) ©Science Photo Library/NASA/NOAA/Brand X
Poem by W
isława Szym
Infographic pages 165–
167
borska
161
pages 159–

Pictures/Getty Images; (r) ©Orbon Alija/E+/Getty Images

After you have read both texts, you will collaborate with a small
group to research and present statistical data, following these steps:

• Develop a question

• Gather information

• Synthesize ideas

• Deliver a multimedia presentation

156 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A Get Ready

The 100-Person Planet

Infographic

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or both of these activities to start connecting
with the infographic you’re about to read.

Pleased to Meet You

When you first meet someone new, what
information about them do you want to know
first? Why? Take a poll of your classmates,
and turn the responses you collect into a
circle graph, word cloud, or other visual
representation.

Category Overlap
You can be classified in a wide range of groups: teenagers, Americans, athletes,
people who live in suburbs, and so on. With a group, brainstorm all the ways
that you can statistically classify the world population.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Dan Kosmayer/Shutterstock

Demographic
by age

Geographic
by country

Personal
by hobbies

The 100-Person Planet 157

 Get Ready A

Interpret Graphics
Graphics can sometimes communicate information more clearly than
words. Any time you see a graphic, pause to consider the information it Focus on Genre
represents. Informational texts may include these types of graphics: Infographic
• provides numerical
Type of Graphic What It Does information
• uses a visual representation
Grid that organizes large amounts of data in a • combines elements of charts,
Table logical order to make it easier for a reader to text, and images
understand

Two-dimensional representation of data that shows the

Graph
relationships among the data

Visual material, often accompanying text, that shows details that

Photograph or drawing
are difficult to explain in words

Illustration that shows the relationship of parts to a whole or

Diagram
explains the steps in a process

Combination of charts, text, and images to create a visual that

Infographic
communicates statistical information

Analyze Motives
Even though graphics present objective data, the creators of graphics
make choices about how to present this data. Designers may choose to
include or exclude certain types of data based on the point they hope
to make and the overall purpose of the graphic.

For example, the creator of the infographic “The 100-Person Planet”

chose to include data about age, religion, and literacy but did not
include data about types of housing or employment.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

When examining “The 100-Person Planet,” think about why the designer
chose to include each category and how doing so serves the purpose
of the graphic. What point of view is expressed by these choices?

158 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A

The 100-Person NOTICE & NOTE

Planet
As you read, use the
side margins to make
notes about the text.
Infographic

If it’s hard to picture how you fit in on a planet of over 7.5 billion
people, try thinking in terms of just 100 people instead.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (t) ©Science Photo Library/NASA/NOAA/Brand X

Where they live

Europe
Asia
North
America 10 60
8 Africa
15
Pictures/Getty Images; (b) ©lesia_g/Shutterstock

Oceania
South
America 1
6

The 100-Person Planet 159

 Their age Their religion

Christian 31
23 Muslim

Other 7
7 17
25 16 41 9 9
Buddhist
15 None

0-14 15-24 25-54 55-64 65+ Hindu

Their nutrition level* Their first language

Adequate
Hi Mandarin
12 Chinese
76 5 English
Olá
Hola
6 Spanish 3 Portuguese

11 13
3 Hindi
Undernourished Overweight
or starving or obese 5 Arabic
3 Bengali
63 Other

Their access to clean water Their access to electricity

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (tl) ©turbodesign/Shutterstock; (bcr) ©Irina
Have
91 Have access 83 access
Do not
Do not have
17 have
9 access access

Their access to the Internet Their literacy

Adamovich/Shutterstock

41 Have access Cannot read

and write 14
Do not
59 have access Can read
and write 86

Source: CIA World Factbook for all except * items

* item source: United Nations
160 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE
 COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

Which statistic did you find the most surprising or interesting? How does our point of view
shape our view of
Why? Share your responses with a partner.
the world?

Review your notes and

add your thoughts to your
Response Log.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions about the infographic before moving on to
the next text in this lesson.

1. Select two facts that are true about this infographic.

A It provides a quick view of some key population facts.

B It represents everything we need to know about people.

C It includes only people who live in the United States.

D It includes statistics about a variety of categories.

E It is based on topics people often argue about.

2. What is the best reason for illustrating the world’s population as 100 people?

A to make it easy to understand challenges most people in the world face

B to distort and oversimplify the world’s population

C to reveal the difficulty many children and adults have with math

D to show how people in all of the categories overlap with each other

3. What inference is supported by the section about Internet access?

A Almost everyone can learn about the world through websites.

B Only a small portion of the population controls online

knowledge.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

C A majority of people can’t benefit from information online.

D Information and ideas are increasingly communicated

electronically.

Test-Taking Strategies

The 100-Person Planet 161

 Get Ready B

A Contribution to Statistics
Poem by Wisława Szymborska

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or both of these activities to start connecting with
the poem you’re about to read.

How Full Is Your Glass?

Do you consider yourself mostly an optimist or
mostly a pessimist? Draw a glass that contains
half water and half air. In the “water” half, list
qualities or traits of people in general that you
consider positive; in the “air” half, list those that
you consider negative. What do your responses
tell you?

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©MediaWorldImages/Alamy

Rollercoaster Day
During any given day, each human being
experiences a range of emotions from joy
to sadness and from doubt to confidence.
Think about a day in which you experienced
numerous emotions. Discuss your experience
with a partner.

162 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 B Get Ready

Analyze Literary Devices

Literary devices are techniques writers use to express and enhance
ideas and lead readers to a deeper understanding of a theme. These Focus on Genre
devices appear in the poem you will read: Poetry
Idioms are phrases or expressions whose intended meaning is • uses figurative language and
different from their literal meaning. The figurative meaning of literary devices

an idiom usually develops over time and is often specific to a • expresses a theme, or a
message about life
particular culture or language.
• is arranged in lines and stanzas

Idiom in Poem Figurative Meaning

glad to lend a hand happy to help another person do something

Parallelism repeats a grammatical construction to show a connection

between ideas.

Parallelism in Poem How It Links Ideas

Those who always know better The poem repeatedly uses the structure of presenting
—fifty-two, a human characteristic followed by a long dash and a
statistical estimate of it.

doubting every step

—nearly all the rest,

Shifts occur when the writer’s tone or focus changes. Shifts help keep a reader
interested in a text and can enhance the clarity of ideas.

Shift in Poem Effect on Tone

glad to lend a hand The first line seems very positive, but the second line
if it doesn’t take too long shifts to show that convenience may be more important
than kindness for some people.
—as high as forty-nine,
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Euphemism expresses an uncomfortable idea in a more pleasant way. A writer

may use euphemism to avoid offending readers or to jar them with irony.

Euphemism in Poem Effect on Theme

mortal The choice of a kinder word here shows sympathy for

—a hundred out of a hundred. people.

A Contribution to Statistics 163

 Get Ready B

Analyze Structure
Poems are often divided into stanzas, with an extra blank line providing
a visual break between them. A stanza functions in a way similar to a
paragraph in a story or essay, forming a meaningful section of the work.
A very long stanza may provide context or detail, while a very short stanza
will usually make an important point.

In “A Contribution to Statistics,” Szymborska uses the stanzas to

communicate her theme. In each stanza, the poem presents a human
characteristic followed by a statistic. The predictable structure of the
stanzas links the poet’s ideas and heightens their impact.

As you read, note the topic or characteristic that each stanza explores.
Considering all of the stanza topics together can help you understand the
poem’s theme, or message about human nature.

Annotation in Action
Here are one reader’s comments about the poem’s structure. As you read,
mark literary devices such as idioms, parallelism, shifts, and euphemisms,
and think about their effect.

Out of a hundred people Each stanza relates to a

percentage of people.
Those who always know better
—fifty-two,

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Wojtek Laski/Getty Images
doubting every step
—nearly all the rest,

Background
Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) was a poet and essayist.
Szymborska lived in Poland her entire life and had to continue
her education in underground classes during World War II.
The poet often employed literary devices to write about
philosophy, obsessions, war, and sometimes quirky subjects.
Some of her poetry appeared in songs and pop culture and was
translated into many languages. She won the 1996 Nobel Prize
in Literature and was still working on new poetry at the time of
her death at age 88.

164 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 B

A Contribution to NOTICE & NOTE

Statistics
As you read, use the
side margins to make
notes about the text.
Poem by Wisława Szymborska
Translated by Stanislaw Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh

A poet examines categories that describe people and

explores their implications.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Orbon Alija/E+/Getty Images

Out of a hundred people ANALYZE STRUCTURE

Annotate: Mark the first three
Those who always know better stanzas in the poem.
—fifty-two, Paraphrase: What pattern do
these stanzas establish? Restate
doubting every step lines 1–5 in your own words,
5 —nearly all the rest, maintaining the original order and
meaning.
glad to lend a hand
if it doesn’t take too long
—as high as forty-nine,

always good,
10 because they can’t be otherwise
—four, well maybe five,

able to admire without envy

—eighteen,

A Contribution to Statistics 165

 suffering illusions
15 induced by fleeting youth
—sixty, give or take a few,

not to be taken lightly

—forty and four,

living in constant fear

20 of someone or something
—seventy-seven,

capable of happiness
—twenty-something tops,

harmless singly,
25 savage in crowds
—half at least,

cruel
when forced by circumstances
—better not to know
ANALYZE LITERARY DEVICES 30 even ballpark figures,
Annotate: Mark the word
ballpark in line 30. wise after the fact
—just a couple more
Evaluate: A number “in the
ballpark” is approximate, not than wise before it,
precise. How does this idiom
affect the tone of this stanza? taking only things from life
35 —thirty
(I wish I were wrong),

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©ultramansk/Shutterstock

hunched in pain,
no flashlight in the dark
—eighty-three
40 sooner or later,

ANALYZE LITERARY DEVICES righteous

Annotate: Mark a word that is —thirty-five, which is a lot,
repeated in lines 41–45.

Analyze: How does the author

righteous
use repetition and parallelism to and understanding
show a contrast here? 45 —three,

worthy of compassion
—ninety-nine,

mortal
—a hundred out of a hundred.
50 Thus far this figure still remains unchanged.

166 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does our point of view
Which categories from the poem do you fit into? Do you
shape our view of
sometimes fit into different categories, or is your identification the world?
with the descriptions you chose constant and unchanging? Share
your responses with a partner.
Review your notes and
add your thoughts to your
Response Log.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Texts
section on the following page.

1. Select two statements that are true about the poem.

A The data represents scientific surveys of how people act.

B The statistics indicate the poet’s view of human nature.

C The statistics help a reader predict how people react in particular

circumstances.

D The poet presents data that supports a negative view of human nature.

E The numbers are only estimates, based on the poet’s own assessments.

2. Which statement about the poem’s structure is true?

A It emphasizes the rhythm and rhyme of the statistics the poet chooses.

B It is predictable to allow the reader to focus on the poet’s message about

humanity.

C It arranges the statistics in numerical order to show which characteristics are

less or more important.
D It moves from serious examples to increasingly humorous ones.

3. What is the meaning of the final stanza of the poem?

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

A The negatives of life outweigh the positives of life.

B Each person should try to live the best life he or she can.

C There is no way to avoid the ups and downs of life.

D Every person dies regardless of how he or she has lived.

Test-Taking Strategies

A Contribution to Statistics 167

 Respond A B

Analyze the Texts

Support your responses with evidence from the texts.

NOTICE & NOTE

1 DRAW CONCLUSIONS How do visual representations help you to
Review what
better understand the data presented in “The 100-Person Planet”? you noticed and
noted as you read
the text. Your
2 MAKE INFERENCES Why do you think the infographic “The 100-Person annotations can
Planet” begins with the data about continents? How does this choice help you answer
prepare the viewer for the information that follows? these questions.

3 ANALYZE Based on the numbers used in the poem, what is the poet’s
opinion of humanity? Use text evidence in your answer.

4 EVALUATE How effective do you find the predictable, parallel structure

of the poem in communicating a message about human nature?
Support your response with examples from the poem.

5 INTERPRET How might you represent the statistics presented in the

poem? Which categories overlap? Make a circle graph that illustrates the
potential overlap and differences between three or four statistics from
the poem. Then explain why these categories do or do not overlap.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

6 EVALUATE The poem’s catalog of statistics begins with a contrast

between two types of people in lines 2–5. How does this contrast help to
prepare you for the statistics that follow it?

168 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A B Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of the
ideas in this lesson.

Writing
Write an Advice Letter
As you write and discuss,
Choose one statistical category from the poem, and write a
be sure to use the
friendly letter to someone who fits in that category. Provide Academic Vocabulary
advice to this real or imagined person, using evidence and words.
persuasive techniques to convince them to follow your
differentiate
recommendation.

• Use the conventional format of a friendly letter. incorporate

• Clearly identify your audience and why the person needs

your advice.
mode

orient
• Support your recommendations with real-life examples.
perspective

Social & Emotional Learning

Conduct a Poll
What distinctions do you see among your
classmates? Are there clear dividing lines
among preferred types of music, leisure Media
activities, or political leanings? Create and Create an Infographic
administer a poll that will quantify one
What characteristic of human
category that fits your school.
populations interests you? Find
• Conduct initial research to determine all of
the options for the category you choose,
several kinds of data on the topic of
your choice. For example, if you were
and include an “Other” option in your poll. interested in how levels of education

• Poll a wide range of fellow students in a vary around the globe, you might locate
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

variety of settings; gather as much data as statistics on percentages of people who

you can. complete high school and college on

• Use digital tools to summarize your findings

in a podcast or an infographic.
each continent or in rich countries vs.
developing ones. Use digital tools to
create an infographic that clearly and
accurately reflects your findings.

The 100-Person Planet/A Contribution to Statistics 169

 Respond A B

Compare Details

The infographic and the poem are based on the same idea but
emphasize different details through different text forms. In a
small group, complete the charts to track the details and their
effect on the message of each text.

“The 100-Person Planet”

A Detail from Text Message

Literacy Almost a fifth of people cannot read

or write.

Electricity

Internet

Clean Water

Nutrition

“A Contribution to Statistics” © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (t) ©Science Photo Library/NASA/NOAA/Brand X

B
Pictures/Getty Images; (b) ©Orbon Alija/E+/Getty Images

Detail from Text Message

able to admire without envy Most people feel envy.

—eighteen,

not to be taken lightly

—forty and four,

capable of happiness
—twenty-something tops,

worthy of compassion
—ninety-nine,

170 UNIT 2 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A B Respond

Analyze the Texts

Discuss these questions in your group.

1 COMPARE What are the similarities between the infographic and poem?

2 CONTRAST What are the differences between the two?

3 EVALUATE How are the purposes of the texts similar? How do they
differ?

4 SYNTHESIZE What have you learned about the world’s population from
these two texts?

Research and Present

In a group, continue exploring the ideas in this lesson by researching more Interactive Speaking &
statistics and using them in a multimedia presentation. Follow these steps: Listening Lesson: Types of
Media: Audio, Video, and
1 DEVELOP A QUESTION Brainstorm what the members of your group Images

would like to research, and decide what statistics might be available for
this topic. Choose a statistic not included in “The 100-Person Planet.”

2 GATHER INFORMATION Try a variety of methods for locating valid,

relevant sources of statistical information, including searching in a library
database and searching online. If you do not find sources that answer your
original question, modify your research question to a related topic and try
again. Document each source using an approved citation format.

3 SYNTHESIZE IDEAS Draw a conclusion about your question using

information from two or more sources. Record details in a chart like this:

My Question:

Source 1: Source 2:

Source 1 Information: Source 2 Information:

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

My Answer:

4 DELIVER YOUR PRESENTATION Your group will present what you have
learned in a brief multimedia presentation. You will share your original
question, the information you gathered, and an answer in the form of a
statistic with elaboration. Present images and graphics to support your
ideas. Compare the idea you present with the details in the infographic
and the poem. Which of the two texts does your topic best fit?

The 100-Person Planet/A Contribution to Statistics 171

 Reader’s Choice
Continue your exploration of the Essential Question by doing some
independent reading on the unit topic. Read the titles and descriptions ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
shown. Then mark the texts that interest you. How does our point of
view shape our view of
the world?

Short Reads Available on

These texts are available in your eBook. Choose one or more to read
and rate. Then defend your rating to the class.

What Our Telescopes Why Seeing (the

Before I got my eye put Unexpected) Is Often
out Couldn’t See
Essay by Pippa Goldschmidt
Not Believing
Poem by Emily Dickinson Informational Text by Alix
Read what one of our most famous When we look to the skies, what do Spiegel
poets has to say about how we see we miss seeing here on Earth?
Find out why eyewitnesses may not
things. be a reliable source of information.

(tc) ©Paulo Afonso/Shutterstock; (tr) ©sasha2109/Shutterstock; (bl) ©eastvanfran/Shutterstock; (br) ©Ted Pink/Alamy
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (tl) ©Ivy Reynolds/The Image Bank/Getty Images;
Rate It
Rate It
Rate It

The Handsomest
Drowned Man in the The Police Officer Who
World Saved Her Life
Short Story by Gabriel García
News Article by Edgar Sandoval
Márquez
A police officer never forgot about
When a body washes up onshore,
the five-year-old struck by a stray
the people of a seaside village
bullet whose life he saved while on
construct an identity for this
patrol. Decades later, he found her.
mysterious drowned man.
Rate It
Rate It

172 UNIT 2 READER’S CHOICE

 Reader’s Choice

Long Reads
Here are three recommended books that connect to this unit’s topic. For
additional options, ask your teacher, school librarian, or peers. Which titles
spark your interest?

Women in Blue Does My Head Look Big in All the Light We Cannot See
This?
Nonfiction by Cheryl Mullenbach Novel by Anthony Doerr
Novel by Randa Abdel-Fattah
How have female police officers A blind French girl and a German boy
been viewed throughout history? Amal decides to embrace her faith cross paths in occupied France as both
Find out why they continue to protect and wear a hijab to school. Can she try to survive the devastation of World
and serve and face the dangers that handle the taunts and prejudices of War II.
they do. her classmates?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (l) ©John Roman Images/Shutterstock; (c) ©Zurijeta/

Extension
Connect & Create
A THOREAU UNDERSTANDING Think about the quotation
NOTICE & NOTE
from Henry David Thoreau that introduces this unit: “The question
is not what you look at, but what you see.” How does this quotation • Pick one of the texts and
annotate the Notice & Note
apply to the text you chose? Discuss your ideas with others who
signposts you find.
read the same text you did, or create a web page or podcast to share
your thoughts. • Then, use the Notice &
Note Writing Frames
PERSPECTIVE SHIFT One benefit of reading is experiencing to help you write about
a change of perspective, getting the opportunity to see the the significance of the
Shutterstock; (r) ©Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock

world through someone else’s eyes. In a blog post or short essay, signposts.
describe how your perspective changed as a result of reading the
• Compare your findings with
text you chose. those of other students who
read the same text.

Notice & Note Writing

Frames

Reader’s Choice 173

 Write an
Explanation

Writing Prompt
Using ideas, information, and examples from multiple
texts in this unit, write an explanation that reflects on
the variety of different points of view on a particular
Review the
issue or problem. Mentor Text
Manage your time carefully so that you can For an example of a well-written

• review the texts in the unit;

informative text that you can use as
a mentor text for your explanation,
• plan your explanation;
review
• write your explanation; and
••“How Do You See Your Self(ie)?”
• revise and edit your explanation.
(pages 123–127)
Be sure to Review your notes and annotations

• include an introduction with a clear thesis

statement;
about this text. Think about how the
author expresses and supports ideas

• organize ideas logically;

about the topic.

• support ideas with evidence; and

• sum up the central idea in a logical conclusion.

Consider Your Sources

Review the list of texts in the unit and choose at UNIT 2 SOURCES
least three that you may want to use as sources
of support for your explanation. Super Human

As you review potential sources, consult the How Do You See Your Self(ie)?
notes you made on your Response Log and
make additional notes about ideas that might Mirror
be useful as you write. Include titles and page
The Night Face Up
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

numbers so that you can easily find information

later. Accurate text evidence and citations will The 100-Person Planet
support the presentation of your ideas to your
readers. A Contribution to Statistics

174 UNIT 2 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Analyze the Prompt

Review the prompt to make sure you understand the assignment.
Consider Your Audience
1. Mark the phrase in the prompt that identifies the general
topic of your explanation. Restate the topic in your own Ask yourself:
words. ••Who will read my explanation?
2. Next, look for words that suggest the purpose and audience ••What do my readers already know
of your explanation, and write a sentence describing each. about my topic?

••What will help readers understand

the different viewpoints I explain?

What is my topic? What is my writing task?

What is my purpose?

Who is my audience?

Review the Rubric

Your explanation will be scored using a rubric. As you write, focus on the
characteristics of a strong explanation described in the chart. You will learn
more about these characteristics as you work through the lesson.

Purpose, Focus, and Conventions of

Narrative Techniques
Organization Standard English

The response includes: The response includes: The response may include:

•• Acontrolling •• Effective •• Some

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

strongly maintained use of evidence and minor errors in usage but

idea sources no patterns of errors

•• Use of transitions to connect •• Effective use of elaboration •• Correct punctuation,

ideas
•• Clear and effective expression of capitalization, sentence

•• Logical progression of ideas ideas formation, and spelling

•• Appropriate style and tone •• Appropriate vocabulary •• Command of basic conventions

•• Varied sentence structure

Write an Explanation 175

 Writing Task

1 PLAN YOUR EXPLANATION Define Your Topic

and Thesis
Identify Your Topic
•• essay.
A topic is the subject of the
Think about issues or problems in society and the various
perspectives people might have about them. In the chart, list
possible topics and the different points of view you might
•• Aupthesis statement sums
the writer’s main ideas
explore. Then circle the topic you would like to focus on for about the topic. The thesis
your explanation. is the controlling idea of the
explanation.

Possible Topics Points of View

Develop Your Key Ideas and Thesis

With your topic in mind, review the sources you chose from Unit 2 as well Help with Planning
as any other sources that more specifically address your topic. Synthesize Consult Interactive Writing
these sources to develop your key ideas or major points about the topic. Lesson: Writing Informative
Texts.
List those ideas in the chart, and then decide what thesis or controlling
idea the key ideas all support. Draft a thesis statement that expresses
that controlling idea in the chart.

Key Idea 1
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Key Idea 2

Key Idea 3

Thesis

176 UNIT 2 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Gather Evidence
Your evidence should include facts, examples, and concrete details that
support your key ideas. Review the notes in your Response Log and
consider other sources that might help you develop your ideas. Record
your evidence and source information in the chart.

Evidence Source

Organize Ideas
Determine a Pattern of
Think about the most logical and engaging way to structure your Organization
explanation. Use the chart to help you plan your draft.
Here are some useful patterns of
organization for your essay:
INTRODUCTION •• Introduce your topic. •• Cause and Effect: explains reasons
•• Clearly state your thesis. for and results of an issue or event
•• Express
and tone.
your purpose through word choice
•• similarities
Comparison-Contrast: examines
and differences in
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

BODY •• Devote a paragraph to each key idea. viewpoints toward the topic
PARAGRAPHS
•• Support each idea with evidence. •• Main Idea and Details: categorizes

•• Use transitional words, phrases, or sentences

to connect ideas.
important ideas and develops them
with details, facts, and examples

CONCLUSION •• Restate your thesis and its significance.

•• End with a final thought for readers to consider.

Write an Explanation 177

 Writing Task

2 DEVELOP A DRAFT Drafting Online

Check your assignment list
for a writing task from your
Now it is time to draft your essay. Examining how professional writers
teacher.
craft informative texts can help you develop your own writing skills. Read
about techniques you might use as you draft your explanation.
DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info”

Use Evidence
CorrectionKey=NL-A;FL-A

How Do You See

EXAMINE THE MENTOR TEXT Your Self(ie)?
Informational Text by Sarah Mervosh

Notice how the author of “How Do You See Your Self(ie)?” uses
evidence to develop a key idea about selfies.

It was only the latest example of how our modern love However annoying selfies can be, they serve some NOTICE & NOTE

of sharing photos we take of ourselves in notable situations

As you read, use the side
important purposes.
margins to make notes
about the text.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Alexander Piragis/Shutterstock

T 1 his month, when earthquakes rocked Southern California on

is colliding with nature and the world, often in perplexing

back-to-back days, it was a visceral reminder that we may one visceral

The author explains how

day experience the “Big One,” a quake with the power to kill and (v∆s´ ∂-r∂l) adj. appealing to
destroy. gut-level emotions rather than
requiring thought.
2 A few people saw something else: a photo opportunity.

people demonstrate
Tourists flocked to a large crack in a highway to see evidence of

and even dangerous ways.

3
the damage for themselves and, of course, take a quick selfie.
4 It was only the latest example of how our modern love of sharing

negative aspects of selfies.

photos we take of ourselves in notable situations is colliding with
nature and the world, often in perplexing and even dangerous ways.

In Canada, a sunflower farm barred visitors last year

5 In Canada, a sunflower farm barred visitors last year after selfie-
seekers destroyed flowers and left the land looking like a “zombie
apocalypse.” In Spain, a man was gored in the neck last weekend
while trying to take a video selfie at the annual running of the bulls in

after selfie-seekers destroyed flowers and left the land

Pamplona.

She provides two

additional examples
looking like a “zombie apocalypse.” In Spain, a man was How Do You See Your Self(ie)? 123

to further develop
gored in the neck last weekend while trying to take a video
10_LNLESE416432_U2AAS2.indd 123 9/9/2020 6:19:00 AM

this idea.
selfie at the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Try These Suggestions

Vary the way you develop your key ideas. Try
APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT
these out:

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Alexander Piragis/Shutterstock

Use the chart to practice developing one of your
key ideas. Draft sentences that illustrate a key •• complex
use an extended definition to explain a
idea
point, explain it, and elaborate on it. Then apply
these techniques to your draft. •• provide concrete details that help readers
picture what you mean

Key Idea:
•• include quotations to reflect a perspective
•• use examples to help clarify ideas
Illustrate

Explain

Elaborate

178 UNIT 2 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Use Transitions
EXAMINE THE MENTOR TEXT
In informative texts, transitions help readers understand how ideas are
related. Here are some examples of transitions the author of “How Do You
See Your Self(ie)?” uses to link ideas. Notice that each transition serves a
different purpose.

. . . “That is not saying you are a narcissist for

putting it out on social media.”
The author uses the After all, people have been making self-portraits
transition “After all” to for centuries. . . .
signal that she is about
to elaborate on the . . . “Selfies are a way for us to connect and
quotation. communicate, and feel more personal with people
all around the world.” The author uses the
In one example, researchers developed a transition “In one
example” to introduce
#ScientistsWhoSelfie campaign. . . . an illustration of the
. . . “This is me being able to better tell the point made in the
story about my science in a way that helps people quotation.

trust me.”
Similarly, Dr. Fox has studied how The transition “Similarly”
signals a shift to a
self-documenting on social media can be a
related topic.
powerful tool. . . .

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

Your explanation should include transitions that link ideas and make your
organization clear. Practice using the transitions in the chart to show
different types of connections between ideas. As you write, apply this
technique to your draft.

Transition Idea Connection

However,
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

For example,

As a result,

Furthermore,

Write an Explanation 179

 Writing Task

3 REVISE YOUR EXPLANATION

Professional writers don’t simply type up a perfect piece of writing. They
draft and then revise many times. Use the following guide to help you as Help with Revision
you revise your explanation. Find a Peer Review Guide
and Student Models online.

REVISION GUIDE

Ask Yourself Prove It Revise It

Introduction Underline your thesis statement. Reword your thesis statement

Does my introduction clearly so that your purpose for writing
state my controlling idea? is clear.

Supporting Evidence Put a star( ) next to each key Add facts, details, and examples
Do I develop my key ideas with idea. Put a check mark ( ) next to support key ideas.
supporting evidence? to supporting evidence.

Organization Underline transitional words and Rearrange paragraphs,

Is the structure of my explanation phrases. if needed, to clarify your
clear? organizational structure. Add
transitions to show connections
between ideas.

Style Cross out ( ) slang or words that Reword to avoid informal or

Have I used a formal, objective express strong opinions on your emotionally-charged language.
style? topic.

Conclusion Highlight your concluding Add a closing statement,

Does my conclusion follow statement. if needed, to sum up the
logically from the ideas I present? information that your
explanation presents.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

Reread your explanation and look for opportunities to improve your writing.

• Check that all evidence clearly relates to your controlling idea.

• Make sure the explanation flows logically from one idea to the next.
• Be sure your conclusion sums up your key points in a memorable way.

180 UNIT 2 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Peer Review in Action

Once you have revised your explanation, you will exchange papers with a
partner in a peer review. During a peer review, you will give suggestions
to improve your partner’s draft.

Read the introduction from a student’s draft and examine the comments
made by the peer reviewer to see how it’s done.

Seeing Isn’t Always Believing

Draft
By Gabriella Marcos, Lakeside High School

Today, information seems to spread like wildfire. The trouble is, this
I like your
opening, but try information can be true or false, and it can sometimes be difficult to
adding more tell the difference. In our online world, seeing isn’t always believing.
information As digital citizens, it’s up to us to help put out dangerous wildfires. You lost me here—it
about your topic might help to use
to make the a formal style to
context clear. clearly state your
thesis.

Now read the revised introduction. Notice how the writer has improved the
draft by making revisions based on the reviewer’s comments.

Seeing Isn’t Always Believing

Revision
By Gabriella Marcos, Lakeside High School

Today, information travels in a fraction of a second. However, this

information can be true or false, and discerning the difference
is not as easy as it might seem. In our online world, seeing isn’t
always believing. We live in a time when algorithms and bots can Good job! These details you
shape people’s opinions. Given the power of this technology, added help me understand
online users must empower themselves by constantly asking your focus.
simple but smart questions like Who created this source and why?
Now this is a and Is the message fair and accurate? As digital citizens, we have a
strong thesis! duty and responsibility to carefully evaluate the content we consume
and share.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

During your peer review, give each other specific suggestions for how you
could make your explanation more clear or engaging. Use your revision
guide to help you.

When receiving feedback from your partner, listen attentively and ask
questions to make sure you fully understand the revision suggestions.

Write an Explanation 181

 Writing Task

4 EDIT YOUR EXPLANATION

Edit your final draft to check for proper use of standard English
conventions and to correct any misspellings or grammatical
errors.
Interactive Grammar
Lesson: Sentence Structure
Watch Your Language!
USE PARALLEL STRUCTURE
Purposes of Parallel
Strategic use of parallel structure—using the same grammatical Structure
structure for two or more elements—emphasizes meaningful
Here are some ways to use
links between your ideas and also makes your writing flow more
parallel structure:
smoothly.
••to highlight key points
Read the following sentences from “How Do You See Your
Self(ie)?”
••to organize and clarify ideas
••to add rhythm and interest
••toideas
draw connections between
After all, there are other ways to foster a social
connection. You could send the photo to a private
group. You could put it in a frame at home. You could
be mindful in the moment by not taking it at all.

The author emphasizes the different choices people could make

by repeating the words “You could” at the beginning of each
sentence.

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

Now apply what you’ve learned about parallel structure to your
own work.

1. Read your paper aloud and underline examples of parallel

structure.
2. Check your essay to correct any passages, such as lists, that
should be parallel but use different grammatical structures.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

3. Exchange drafts with a peer and check for correct grammar

and spelling. Ways to Share

••Record a podcast to share your

information about your topic.
5 PUBLISH YOUR EXPLANATION
••Design an infographic that
summarizes your key ideas and
Share It! evidence.

Finalize your explanation, and then choose a format for sharing it ••Create a multimedia
with others that aligns with the subject matter and your intended presentation. See the next task
audience. for tips on how.

182 UNIT 2 WRITING TASK

 Speaking & Listening

Deliver a Multimedia
Presentation
Consider your answer to the Essential Question: How does our point
of view shape our view of the world? Create and present a 3– to 5–
minute multimedia presentation that reflects on different points of
view on an issue or problem.

Plan Your Presentation Engage Your Audience

• Select ideas for which
Your presentation should focus on a clear thesis statement and you can imagine effective
strong key ideas. Think of strategies that will help you engage and visuals and audio in a
inform your audience. presentation format.

Use the chart to guide you as you plan your presentation. Then
• Include memorable
quotations or surprising
refer to the chart as you draft a script and combine your audio, facts and details.
visual, and graphic elements using presentation software.

Presentation Planning Chart

What is the thesis of my presentation?

What key ideas will best support my

thesis?

What visuals and graphics will add

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

interest and support my key ideas?

What music or sound effects will help

convey my ideas?

Deliver a Multimedia Presentation 183

 Speaking & Listening

Prepare to Present Listen Actively

Once you’ve completed a draft of your presentation, As you work to improve your presentation,
practice with a partner or group to improve both be sure to
media elements of your presentation and your
spoken delivery. Use the chart to note the feedback
•• Listen closely to one another.
you receive and to plan ways to make your final •• Stay on topic.
presentation more effective. •• Ask helpful, relevant questions.
•• answers.
Provide clear, thoughtful, and direct

Presentation Goal Notes for Improvement

Make eye contact with your audience

members to help you gain and hold their
interest.

Express ideas clearly and logically with

appropriate rate, volume, and expression.

Maintain a relaxed posture, using gestures

for emphasis but avoiding movements
that distract from your message.

Support ideas and add interest with

effective use of audio, visuals, and
graphics.

Deliver Your Presentation

Share It!
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Use the suggestions you received during practice to make final

changes to your presentation. Practice incorporating your media •• your
Create a screencast recording of
presentation with a visual
elements a few times before your presentation. slideshow and audio narration.
• Use effective verbal and nonverbal techniques to
communicate your ideas to your classmates.
•• about
Have a group discussion
the effectiveness of each
• Respond to listeners’ questions and comments with relevant
evidence, observations, and ideas.
presentation.

• After you listen to your classmates’ speeches, pose questions

that connect the ideas of several speakers. Interactive Speaking &
Listening Lesson: Using
Media in a Presentation

184 UNIT 2 SPEAKING & LISTENING TASK

 Reflect & Extend
Here are some other ways to show your
understanding of the ideas in Unit 2.

Project-Based Learning
Reflect on the
Create a Perspective Map
Essential Question
You’ve read about differences in our perceptions of the
How does our point of view shape
world. Now, explore the range of views around a topic
our view of the world?
that interests you. For example, if you have a favorite
Has your answer to the question musical artist, you can find critical reviews that discuss
changed after reading the texts in the the artist’s influences and that point out strong aspects
unit? Discuss your ideas. of his or her work as well as weaknesses. You can then
consider where each critic’s views come from: Is one a
You can use these sentence starters to
serious scholar and another a pop-culture columnist?
help you reflect on your learning.

• My thoughts on the question

Research a wide range of views on your topic, and
capture your ideas in a sketchnote. Use what you find
changed because . . .
to create a visual representation of the constellation
• Now that I’ve considered . . . ,
of views you find about your topic and the sources of
I realize . . .
those views. Then, answer these questions:
• I still wonder about . . .
• Is any one view the “correct” one?
• How do multiple perspectives give you a more
thorough picture of your topic?

Media Project
To find help with this task
online, access Create a
Writing Sketchnote.
Write a Narrative Poem
A narrative poem tells a story, using elements such as character, setting,
and plot to develop a theme. Write a narrative poem in which the main
characters realize something new about their view of the world. Use the
chart to brainstorm ideas. Then, write your poem.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Characters

Setting

Plot

Theme

Reflect & Extend 185