The following questions are from the Sentence Elimination Pattern that are very popular in Verbal Ability for CAT. Sentence Elimination questions often feature in the CAT. Given 4 options, you are asked to choose the one that does not fit in. The other three sentences will make a cogent paragraph. Let us look at some examples below. Make sure you go through these CAT Questions from Sentence Elimination to have an idea on how to solve these! If you would like to take these questions as a Quiz, head on here to take these questions in a test format, absolutely free.
A. By Ptolemy V’s reign in 205 BC , Egypt was in open revolt and the Rosetta stone was one of many that Ptolemy commissioned as a piece of political propaganda in 196 BC, to state publicly his claim to be the rightful pharaoh of Egypt.
B. These Greek rulers could neither speak the language of the people nor read hieroglyphs, and this fuelled resentment amongst the population.
C. Beginning with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, Greek was the language of the governing elite in Egypt.
D. Without the Rosetta stone, we would know nothing of the ancient Egyptians, and the details of their three thousand years of history would remain a mystery.
A. You will know that it has because you will start experiencing aha moments with respect to that problem.
B. Once you admit that your unconscious mind is the source of whatever brilliance you possess, you can take steps to extract the maximum possible benefit from your association with it.
C. What you must instead do is interest your unconscious mind in working on a problem by working on it with your conscious mind
D. What you will quickly discover is that it can’t be ordered about.
A. Cognitive science, however, tells us that students need to develop these different ways of thinking by means of extended, focused mental effort.
B. NO matter what happens in the relatively brief period students spend in the classroom, there is not enough time to develop the long-term memory structures required for subject mastery.
C. A traditional science instructor concentrates on teaching factual knowledge, with the implicit assumption that expert-like ways of thinking about the subject are already present.
D. To ensure that the necessary extended effort is made, teachers need to engage students in thinking deeply about the subject at an appropriate level, monitor that thinking and guide it to be more expert-like.
A. This is nothing remotely like "nature fighting back." This is merely nature operating exactly the way we know it operates, the way it has been operating here for some three and a half billion years
B. Very simply, all too often we've acted as though we could make these small, fast breeding creatures extinct down to the very last member, the way we might do with elephants or pandas
C. We can say, "Yes, it's true that we drive a couple hundred species to extinction every day, but there are tens of millions --hundreds of millions--between us and catastrophe."
D. But of course this constitutes a fundamental misunderstanding of biological realities. What we've done in actual fact is make ourselves the chief agent of natural selection in these enemy species.
A. What we call “fundamentalism” has always existed in a symbiotic relationship with a secularization that is experienced as cruel, violent and invasive.
B. Historically, wherever secular governments were established to separate religion and politics, a counter-cultural movement developed in response, determined to bring religion back into public life.
C. In the developing world, secularization usually came with colonial rule; it was hence seen as a foreign import and rejected as profoundly unnatural.
D. All too often an aggressive secularism has pushed religion into a violent riposte.
A. In the entire body of Harappan and other Indus art and sculpture there are no monuments erected to glorify warfare and no depictions of war or conquered enemies.
B. It is speculated that the rulers might have been wealthy merchants, or powerful landlords or spiritual leaders, who showed their power and status through the use of seals and fine jewelry.
C. Decorated with animal motifs, many of the seals, the most commonly found objects in Harappan cities, are inscribed with short pieces of the Indus script.
D. It appears that the Harappan and other Indus rulers governed their cities through the control of trade and religion, not by military might.
A. Besides generating buzz, a season-based reality show does as well as a top-five show in terms of viewership.
B. The key, then, is for channels to find bankable reality formats and milk them till the cows come home.
C. Then again, they have realized that the easier way to gain ad revenue to cover costs is by luring advertisers to a fail-proof, steady-TRP format like reality TV.
D. The nearly 15% year-on-year rise in production cost levels for reality shows has networks rattled.
A. In China, for example, World Bank money has not been so important quantitatively, yet the Chinese generally credit the bank for having helpful blueprints and information.
B. While most of US$800 billion invested in infrastructure in developing countries each year comes from domestic sources, the provision of infrastructure financing by multilateral development institutions globally is important.
C. By contrast, their greatest failures have come from funding grandiose projects that benefit the current elite, but do not properly balance environmental, social, and development priorities.
D. Multilateral development institutions have had their most consistent success when they serve as “knowledge” banks, helping to share experience, best practices, and technical knowledge across regions.
A. Forecasts say that in just two years, the total quantum of e-waste generated around the world will be 50 million tonnes.
B. In China, for instance, 73.9 million computers, 0.25 billion mobile phones and 56.6 million televisions were sold in 2011.
C. Close to 90 per cent of the world’s electronic waste — worth nearly $19 billion — is illegally traded or dumped each year, to destinations half way across the world.
D. While Europe and North America are by far the largest producers of e-waste, Asia’s cities are fast catching up as consumers of electronic goods and as generators of e-waste.
A. There is a special intimacy to poetry because, in this idea of the art, the medium is not an expert's body, as when one goes to the ballet: in poetry, the medium is the audience's body.
B. In such movement the image fully becomes an intellectual and emotional complex because it dramatically exists both in the space of description and in the time of musical structure.
C. The luminous details in poetry must not only be precise, they must also be rendered so as to elicit and reward a dynamic sense of movement.
D. Poetry is a centaur. The thinking word-arranging, clarifying faculty must move and leap with the energizing, sentient, musical faculties.
A. In 400 BC, Leonidas' 300 Spartans died at Thermopylae in Greece while their countrymen vied at Olympia.
B. Troops were forbidden to enter the sacred Olympic precinct; but they were there in 420 B.C. when a Spartan attack was feared. Spartans had been banned from competing.
C. And yet, Spartan-like, America was represented at the Games while she was still fighting in Vietnam.
D. Civilization has advanced since then and—commendably — Olympiads of 1916, 1940 and 1944 were cancelled due to worldwide conflagration.
A. A mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing.
B. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes.
C. Prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house.
D. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed.
A. Rowling’s declarations on Twitter on what she “always thought” of a particular character are not only newsworthy, but a cause for pride.
B. Rowling seems eager to retain an influence on how we understand her books by revealing ostensibly new information about her characters.
C. Rowling’s chances for being a diverse author lie in the future, not the past.
D. Whether these character points were announced to readers via Twitter or alluded to within the Potter books, however, the meanings that we as a diverse international community of readers wish to take from them trump Rowling’s intentions as an author.
A. Consumers prefer reliability when it’s available, and giving the state’s imprimatur to legalized gambling goes a long way toward ensuring that.
B. Legalizing gambling would only ramp up the incentive to find new ways to fix games.
C. In Britain, betting shops were legalized in 1961, and giant gambling companies, like William Hill and Ladbrokes, watch out for suspiciously prescient bets.
D. Taking gambling into the light makes the marketplace more hostile to cheaters.
A. Since birds are the modern descendants of dinosaurs, they are likely to have once had teeth instead of beaks.
B. However, 100 million years ago a diverse range of non-avian dinosaurs spouted all manner of plumage, and like modern birds, doubtless made a great deal of use of them, even if they could not fly.
C. This fact became known way back in 1861 when paleontologists discovered a bird fossil, about 150 million years old, now classified as Archaeopteryx, which had teeth.
D. Researchers have now published details of how avian edentulism occurred in one common bird ancestor more than 100 million years ago.
A. We don't actually do two, or three or 10 things at once, we just switch from one to another to another.
B. Multitasking makes us demonstrably efficient, increasing cognitive performance.
C. Each time we shift attention, there is a metabolic cost we pay in glucose.
D. Some brain activities are more expensive than others, and switching attention is among the most expensive.
A. Muhammad Ali’s rejection of the Vietnam War was thus a rejection of war itself as a viable means of solving human problems, real or perceived.
B. In refusing the draft, Ali thus also refused to believe that national boundaries somehow categorically divided human beings into “us” and “them”.
C. Violence is the tool of the hegemon; by eschewing it you are already challenging the means through which hegemony is legitimized.
D. The best way to stand up to power and injustice is to be steadfast in your resistance while shunning violence.
A. There are few more emotional ways to view history than through the lens of a camera.
B. To take photographs is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality.
C. They are not about dialing for quotes or quick sound bites.
D. Photographs convey the ultimate journalistic credo: to be present at the site of action at the right time, and alive to capture the fleeting moments that transform our lives.
A. If we are not to make grievous mistakes in the name of good things such as fighting corruption or tackling crime, then we, the people, must reflect.
B. The problem is not of manipulation or political ambition; it is the willingness with which otherwise sensible citizens allow themselves to follow the Piper.
C. If we realize that it is our sentiments that are disturbed, not our security, perhaps we will see the issue with greater equanimity.
D. It is in the nature of democratic politics for ambitious politicians to use emotions to climb up the ladder of power.
A. As global warming speeds up the melting of these glaciers, this weight is lifting, and the surface slowly is springing back.
B. Though the average hiker wouldn't notice, the Alps and other mountain ranges have experienced a gradual growth spurt over the past century or so.
C. These glaciers are giant scrapers that carve out valleys and carry away rock debris on ice conveyor belts, sculpting mountains.
D. For thousands of years, the weight of the glaciers atop these mountains has pushed against the Earth's surface, causing it to depress.
A. India is self-sufficient in strategic armaments – nuclear weapons and delivery systems, including advanced and accurate ballistic and cruise missiles, and nuclear-powered submarines.
B. By focusing militarily on Pakistan and ignoring China’s challenge, India inspires little confidence about its judgment, resolve, and prospects as a consequential power in the extended region.
C. While India wishes to stand up to China and emerge as the other nodal power in Asia, this ambition is undermined by diffidence and skewed capabilities.
D. But paradoxically, India has become the world’s largest importer of conventional weaponry, leaving its foreign policy hostage to the whims and interests of vendor states.
A. Automotive interests have consciously shaped a vision of the streets as places where cars belong.
B. Indeed, the twenty-first century's apex predator is the automobile.
C. A fatal collision is an everyday phenomenon— the kind of death, it seems, that is always expected.
D. Cars prowl the streets, growling in revving ravenousness.
A. Farmers need to be encouraged to grow more pulses not simply because demand is projected to rise by roughly 50 per cent between now and 2024.
B. The Subramanian committee has rightly noted that the worst case scenario for farmers is weak government procurement combined with continuation of stock-holding and export restrictions.
C. Volatility in production and prices of pulses, the committee's report has shown, is far higher than that for cereals, and this is neither in the interests of the producers nor the consumers.
D. Pulses also help in soil rejuvenation and naturally fixing atmospheric nitrogen, without consuming much water.
A. German scientists analyzing the 3300-year-old bust have found evidence suggesting that a royal sculptor at the time may have smoothed creases around the mouth and fixed a bumpy nose to depict the 'Beauty of the Nile' in a better light.
B. The new rendering at the entrance of the Egyptian city of Samalut attempts to re-create the strangeness of the Amarna style. That is probably best done in a museum instead of on a highway, where it might scare people.
C. The miracle of the Nefertiti bust in Berlin is that it combines the realism of the Amarna style, as it is known, with a feel for grace and harmony to create one of the world’s great icons of beauty.
D. By getting the colossally awful sculpture of the ancient queen pulled down, Egyptians have shown the way forward. We need to topple art that’s an insult to our public spaces.
A. Though the “mother of all laws”, the Constitution is external to society and has a largely exhortatory relationship to it.
B. This is not a defect — the Constitution is required to reflect the republic in the best possible light, and is at its most majestic when doing so.
C. However, this also means that the Constitution is unable to directly confront obstinate realities like caste that flout its fundamental tenets, because acknowledging caste amounts to confessing that the republic is more desire than reality.
D. Right from the Preamble, where it presumes that “we, the people” are indeed a unified and homogenous collectivity, the Constitution treats hoped-for outcomes as though they were established facts.
A. The imaginary worlds of fiction serve as means to escape the ties and the ennui of the real world and indulge vicariously in an alternate reality.
B. Reading fiction trains people in this domain, just as reading nonfiction books about, say, genetics or history builds expertise in those subject areas.
C. The defining characteristic of fiction is not that it is made-up but that it is about human, or humanlike beings and their intentions and interactions.
D. The solitary act of holing up with a book is actually an exercise in human interaction.
A. Sea ice acts as a blanket on top of the ocean, protecting the water from incoming solar energy and atmospheric heat.
B. This effect accelerates overall warming, which in turn melts more land ice and drives up sea levels.
C. Although the sea ice is shrinking, it does not add to water levels as it melts because it is already part of the ocean’s mass.
D. As that frozen coating disappears, its white surface is no longer there to reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere—so the ocean absorbs much more solar energy.
A. Party politics is all too often merely the surf, spray and scum of the ocean that is society – it’s the prevailing undercurrents, the slow shifting of tectonic plates, that count in the long run.
B. Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France’s legislative elections is the consummation of a political revolution which started with his triumph in the recent presidential election.
C. While on the surface the dominance of Macron’s party – founded less than two years ago – is a huge transformation of the political landscape in France, the low turnout suggests that this is skin deep.
D. In France, growing abstention is the powerful current that risks, eventually, pulling the country under.
A. Since Plato at least, we have held that subduing our passions to the iron rule of reason is our supreme aspiration; it is the ideal for human cognition.
B. If human beings can indeed be described as rational animals, it is due to the fact that humans, of all animals, are the only ones capable of irrational thoughts and action.
C. Ironically, we think that the more we are like Star Trek's unfeeling alien Mr. Spock, the more human we really are.
D. We delight in pretending that our most prized and most humanly attribute is our forebrain, which houses, we also pretend, our capacity for rational thought.
A. Inflation, which increases nominal but not real wages, is assumed to trick workers into accepting a lower remuneration for their services; it is thus an indirect wage cut that helps prevent an increase in unemployment.
B. An economic concept that serves as the linchpin for monetary policy makers is that wages are quite inflexible in a market economy, so unemployment is bound to shoot up whenever workers refuse to accept lower wages.
C. The stagflation of the 1970s proved quite convincingly that high unemployment and high inflation can very well co-exist, and given that wages may not be as rigid as many economists assume, any effort to micromanage the economy may well be a fool’s errand.
D. While framing monetary policies, central bank chiefs keep this inverse relationship in mind, trying to maintain a non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, which is the unemployment rate at which inflation too is just under control.
A. Sprinters cock the lead knee high and drive the foot into the track with a stiffened ankle—a punch delivered with high velocity and a sudden stop.
B. The swiftest runners achieve top speed by swinging their legs more rapidly than slow runners while repositioning their limbs between takeoff and landing.
C. What faster runners do better is apply a more powerful force to the ground through their foot, and, just as critically, do this in a briefer contact period.
D. Both swift runners and slow runners take roughly the same time when airborne to move their legs back into position for the next stride.
A. If the regions, peoples and nations currently demanding more freedom seem to be driven by “cultural nationalism”, that in turn is driven by technological change plus global competition.
B. Information-rich societies reward the development of human capital; so, the ability to study in your first language, participate in a rich national culture and create unique local selling points for incoming foreign investment is more important than ever.
C. The mixture of austerity, corruption and political sclerosis at the center has limited the reality of regional democracy and pushed autonomous regions such as Catalonia to fight for self-determination.
D. Above the problems of economic failure and racial polarization, the positive factor driving progressive nationalisms, from Scotland to Catalonia, is technological change.
A. Commonwealth enthusiasts believe that the Commonwealth has supposedly vast potential, which could be augmented further with a little additional funding, yet membership will always remain cheaper than the EU, and not only in terms of the UK’s direct financial contribution.
B. But given the fact that there are huge variations in the levels of trade conducted by individual member states, it is difficult to see what we can actually learn from an average figure for “Commonwealth advantage” between two notional Commonwealth states.
C. In this light, the Commonwealth is the international relations equivalent of a homeopathic remedy – a cadre of staff so small as to be almost invisible when dissolved across a body comprising 2.4 billion people, which nevertheless does or could achieve miraculous results.
D. Somehow, this Commonwealth of the future will cost less than the EU in terms of the vast number of hours required to negotiate its treaties and other formal agreements; it will not require members to make significant concessions in return for some collective good; and it will have only the most rudimentary of mechanisms to enforce its will.
A. Museums are not neutral spaces, where objects exist without context; they do more than allow us to engage with history and art.
B. They are forms in and of themselves, which, to varying degrees, enable and propagate missions and legacies through design and architecture.
C. Try as some museums might to go unnoticed as simply the pedestal or wall on which history and art work hangs, there is no escaping the weight of the objects and stories told within their architecture.
D. A museum of modern art in Cologne isn’t so different from a museum of modern art in Chicago – you see the same major-canon artists, arranged in more or less the same way.
A. In the breakneck pace of decolonisation, nations were thrown together in months; often their alarmed populations fell immediately into violent conflict to control the new state apparatus, and the power and wealth that came with it.
B. If there are so few formerly colonised countries that are now peaceful, affluent and democratic, it is not, as the west often pretends, because “bad leaders” somehow ruined otherwise perfectly functional nations.
C. On the premise that the colonial epoch had not permitted the growth of indigenous economic institutions, the new states were encouraged, largely by the West, to entrust economic modernization to parastatal corporations administered by inexperienced bureaucrats.
D. Many infant states were held together only by strongmen who entrusted the system to their own tribes or clans, maintained power by stoking sectarian rivalries and turned ethnic or religious differences into super-charged axes of political terror.
A. The stereotype that creativity is enhanced by a mood disorder is dangerous, both for those with mood disorders and those pursuing creativity: it could keep them from seeking treatment if they believe treatment would diminish their creative ability.
B. However, there are differences that might vary systematically between the groups: for instance, people who have achieved real creative success typically face the stress of being in the public eye, while the average person does not.
C. Most people chosen to be included in the creative groups are successful writers or artists, while those in the less-creative group are typically average people living nearby to wherever the study is taking place.
D. Just that component could account for any number of differences in the instance of mood disorder, given that stress is a major cause for the onset of mood disorders.
A. Many of those who are racked with self-doubt often seek confirmation of their distorted self-perception.
B. This seems logical as those with a negative self-image would be just the ones who would want to overcompensate.
C. The reason for their behaviour is the desire for coherence: if others respond in a way that confirms their self-image, then the world is as it should be.
D. In some cases, individuals actually provoke others to respond negatively to them, in order hear their own bleak view of themselves.
A. In fact, compared to other mammals, humans are actually naturally adapted for a relatively low protein intake, requiring protein to make up just 10% of our daily calorie requirement.
B. Over the past 50 years, research has consistently found that whenever we tinker with our natural protein needs, it can have adverse consequences, at all phases of our lives.
C. This became associated with an increased risk of developing chronic diseases such as cancer in later life, forcing the formula to be adapted to have a lower protein content.
D. Human breast milk is quite low in protein: when cow’s milk formula was first used to create an artificial replacement for breast milk, the excessive protein content was found to cause accelerated growth rates in early life.
A. On the sliding scale of attribution that art historians use – painted by; hand of; studio of; circle of; style of; copy of – each step takes the artist farther from the painting.
B. If a fake is so expert that even after the most thorough examination its authenticity is still open to doubt, is it not as satisfactory a work of art as if it were genuine?
C. Leaving straight forgeries aside, any discussion about the “authenticity” of an artwork opens suddenly, like a trapdoor, into the murk of semantics.
D. Added to this is the unease about overpainting: Salvator Mundi had been worked over so many times and so heavily, critics argue, that it is less by Da Vinci than by his restorers.
A. Letters let us write words while emoji let us write gestures.
B. Emoji are so widely used that they are rightly called the lingua franca of the world.
C. They are the equivalent of gesticulating to add emphasis.
D. While they convey a writer's intentions, emoji are not a language in themselves.
A. In laughing along, the target of the joke shows that he’s a good sport, thereby completing the ritual.
B. Ridicule can actually reinforce a group when the target is confident of their in-group status.
C. By laughing together at each other and at themselves, the rest of the group show their membership.
D. Laughing at someone is among the strongest markers of social exclusion in human connection.
A. In its “I Want to Be Recycled” campaign, Keep America Beautiful urges consumers to reduce their plastic footprint by imagining the reincarnation of shampoo bottles and boxes post recycling.
B. Keep America Beautiful has, for decades, publicly opposed or marketed against legislation that would increase producer responsibility for plastic waste management.
C. In fact, its greatest success has been to shift the onus of environmental responsibility onto the public while simultaneously becoming a trusted name in the environmental movement.
D. A corporate greenwashing front, it has built public support for a legal framework that punishes individual litterers, while imposing almost no responsibility on plastic manufacturers.
A. Researchers found that the stone tools of H. erectus were made from stones lying around at the botton of a hill, for instance, rather than from the better-quality stones found uphill.
B. In contrast, H. sapiens and Neanderthals, who came later, put in the effort to find good stone for the tools they made and even transported these stones over long distances.
C. Excavations from the Arabian Peninsula indicate that the species Homo erectus failed to put in enough effort to create good quality stone tools which were crucial to their survival.
D. This lackadaisical attitude, coupled with the inability to adapt to a changing environment, was what, according to these researchers, contributed to the population's demise.
A. The political nature of the target modifies the standard economic constraints, encouraging local governments to generate whatever additional economic activity is required so that, along with the economic activity of the private and real-estate sectors, the target is reached.
B. The fact is that Chinese GDP will be unaffected by a trade war with the U.S., no matter how severe, because the government will do whatever it takes to meet its growth targets. To see the conflict’s true toll, one should look at rising Chinese debt instead.
C. Thus, while GDP numbers may tell us something about the government’s priorities, they’re a poor measure of the underlying performance of the economy, for, as long as China has debt capacity, and the government is willing to use it, China can achieve any GDP growth target it wants.
D. In China, the government sets the GDP growth rate early in the year at a level thought adequate to accommodate its social and political objectives, among which is to keep unemployment low.
A. Expertise is not an isolated event: rather, it changes when the social context changes.
B. Even exceptional players who find themselves in a different team with many other exceptional players, may find themselves playing below par.
C. In team sports, this includes supporting staff such as physical therapists and managers.
D. A network of high performing athletes and support staff provides a rich social platform for professional excellence.
A. Additionally, many native species are only found in the snag forest habitat of dead and dying trees created by high-severity wildfire.
B. Decades of science have shown that forest fires are an essential part of Western U.S. forest ecosystems and create highly biodiverse wildlife habitat.
C. Despite this steadily accumulating evidence, the government has posited that more active management of forests could help prevent future fires.
D. Many native animals thrive in the years and decades after large intense fires, including deer, bats, woodpeckers, and songbirds as well as spotted owls.
A. Coastal wetlands can even grow in height as sea level rises, protecting communities further inland.
B. Salt marshes and mangrove forests store flood waters and protect coasts from hurricanes and storms.
C. Continuously removing and storing atmospheric carbon, wetlands act as 'carbon sinks' that help mitigate climate change.
D. In addition, wetlands make ecosystems and human communities more resilient in the face of climate change.
A. Moreover, as temperatures rise, information technologies will work less efficiently, starting off a vicious cycle.
B. As much of the physical infrastructure that undergirds the internet is right next to the coast, rising seas can seriously imperil the internet.
C. The world’s data centers already have roughly the same carbon footprint as the global aviation industry.
D. The internet, the primary vector of information about climate change, is increasingly a vector of the problem itself.
A. As every language has evolved in a specific geocultural niche, it has different ways of talking of and codifying the world.
B. To learn another language, we must suspend our habit of glossing over differences, which distorts our understanding of others and of ourselves.
C. The work of learning new ways of talking – new sounds, grammars and storytelling techniques – stretches and builds the mind.
D. Therefore, it is not possible to achieve fluency in another language without learning its speakers’ perspectives.
A. The biggest fallout of NPA accumulation, particularly in the public sector banks, is that industrial credit growth rate has plunged in the last few years.
B. Without doubt, there are cases of bad loans where the debt repayment problems have been caused by diversion of funds.
C. Non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans in the Indian banking system have arisen primarily for reasons beyond the control of public sector bank management.
D. But the bulk of the problem has been caused by unexpected changes in the economic environment: timetables, exchange rates, and growth rate assumptions going wrong.
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California State University,
Wildlife Education and Attitudes Toward
[Barbara Wilkinson received her M.A. in Educational
Psychology from California State University, Northridge, in spring 1997.
She is interested in innovative educational programs about wildlife for
children of all ages and wrote her thesis on
multimedia wildlife education.]
Wildlife education enables children to understand the
importance of including animals in their view of the Earth.
Wildlife education "should result in positive changes in knowledge,
attitudes, awareness, and actions toward wildlife" (Morgan and
Gramann, 1989). "Since attitudes encompass both feelings and
beliefs, they have both affective and cognitive components.
Feelings and beliefs are generally directed toward decision-making,
and therefore are important elements of perception" (LaHart, 1978).
Perceptions influence the way individuals evaluate the external
world. An examination of the sources where children are learning
about wildlife can determine whether this type of education is
Most academic sources, in general, focus on the knowledge
component of education. "Learning about animals in school appears
to be so divorced from direct encounters with animals in their
natural habitats that little basic understanding and lasting
knowledge results" (Kellert and Westervelt, 1983). Encyclopedias
and related books include factual information with some drawings or
pictures, but are presented in a rather uninteresting way for
children. Literature and newspapers are less focused on factual,
identifying information about animals, but most children's
storybooks personify animals. They do not educate about real
animals in their natural habitats. Newspaper coverage of wild
animals, except those focusing on human based events, is minimal to
Our opportunity for exposure to wild and international animals
is limited to visiting a zoo. Although the primary reason cited
for visiting a zoo is for the educational benefit of children,
Kellert (1980) has shown that the resulting knowledge scores were
not significantly different from those of non-visitors. Morgan and
Gramann feel that "zoological parks, classrooms, and wildlife
sanctuaries are places where animals often are 'merely exposed' to
onlookers" (1989). Even owning a pet only slightly raises
knowledge scores (Kellert, 1980, Ascione, 1992). However, those
who belonged to wildlife and/or environmental organizations or who
watched animal-related television programs had significantly higher
knowledge scores then any other group studied. Therefore,
wildlife-oriented activities appear important in the development of
knowledge (Westervelt and Llewellyn, 1985, LaHart, 1978, and Eagles
and Muffitt, 1990). It may be that regular learning about wildlife
in their natural habitat results in higher knowledge scores than
more isolated learning experiences such as visiting a zoo.
Learning about animals in their natural habitat may result in
higher knowledge scores than would lessons on animals in school,
consisting mainly of animals in the classroom or experiments in
science class, which can result in limited knowledge about a few
Kellert conducted a five phase report for the United States
Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. From 1977
through 1983, knowledge and attitudes towards animals were
evaluated using survey and interview style questioning. Responses
from children and adults from the United States were evaluated
regarding knowledge and attitudes towards domestic and wild
animals. Knowledge was assessed from a score on a true/false test
of factual information on a wide variety of animals. Attitudes
were determined by like-dislike responses to a list of animals.
The attitudes were broken into categories, described by the
following nine types: naturalistic, ecologistic, humanistic,
moralistic, scientistic, aesthetic, utilitarian, dominionistic, and
negativistic. These attitudes were defined as follows.
- Naturalistic is the primary interest and
affection for wildlife and the outdoors.
- Ecologistic is the primary concern for the
environment as a system, for interrelationships between wildlife
species and natural habitat.
- Humanistic is the primary concern and strong
affection for individual animals, principally pets.
- Moralistic is the primary concern for the right and
wrong treatment of animals, with strong opposition to exploitation
or cruelty towards animals.
- Scientistic is primary interest in the physical
attributes and biological functioning of animals.
- Aesthetic is primary concern in the artistic and
symbolic characteristics of animals.
- Utilitarian is primary concern for the practical
and material value of animals of the animal's habitat.
- Dominionistic is primary interest in the mastery
and control of animals typically in sporting situations.
- Negativistic is primary orientation for an active
avoidance of animals due to indifference, dislike or fear.
In Phase V of this study, Kellert and Westervelt (1983)
focused on the attitudes of children from second through eleventh
grades. A general tendency was found, for all the children
surveyed, to feel mainly anthropomorphic attachments for individual
animals such as pets or "lovable" animals, the humanistic attitude.
The humanistic orientation is to hold certain animals, especially
pets, in high regard but not animals in general. This attitude
remains in spite of very different experiences with animals at the
different grade levels. Younger children were more likely to have
live animals in the classroom and to go on trips to see animals.
Older children were more likely to have conducted experiments on
animals. Further, "no significant difference was found in the
knowledge scores of children who did and did not learn about
animals in school" (Kellert and Westervelt, 1983).
Phase III of this study showed that the pervasive nature of
this attitude is also present among adults, especially females and
those living in cities. A resulting consequence is that "this
challenge to wildlife programs will become even more real as
society becomes more urbanized and more young people and females
assume policy-making positions" (Westervelt and Llewellyn, 1985).
Eagles and Muffitt, using the same definitions as the previous
study, surveyed the attitudes of Canadian children from 12 to 14
years old. The attitude scales were also adapted from Kellert,
with changes to make the questions easier for the children to
understand. Like the United States study, they found the most
common attitude among the Canadian children towards animals was
humanistic. The authors also found that attitudes of those
children who read about wildlife had higher naturalistic and
scientistic scores, compared with non-readers who had higher
utilitarian scores. Those children who watched television wildlife
programs had significantly higher scores in those attitudes
"valuing wildlife in its natural environment" (Eagles and Muffitt,
1990). These findings suggest that those children who are
interested in watching or reading about animals also have attitudes
carrying higher regard for animals.
Some children read or watch fictional stories about wildlife,
including those considered classics. Fictional stories written
about animals have changed over the years to reflect our changing
attitudes towards them. Oswald (1995) stated that "the definition
of animal hero in realistic animal fiction generally changed from
wild animals that were heroic for surviving against all odds to
domesticated animals that were heroic for rescuing humans from wild
beasts." Human characters have become central to the novel and the
greatest level the animal can attain is to have a relationship with
the most humane character. The author feels that this increase in
romantic and unrealistic descriptions of animals in fiction is due
to a reduction in accessibility to wilderness areas and wild
animals. She concludes that there is a serious problem when this
over romanticizing occurs in children's novels because they may
come to expect real animals to act as the fictional characters do
and therefore "may be disappointed and disillusioned by real animal
behavior" (Oswald, 1995).
Ascione (1992) showed in his review of the literature that
children's attitudes about animal-related issues can be enhanced
either by a focused classroom presentation or by reading materials
and media presentations. The author suggests using the National
Association for Humane and Environmental Education's curriculum
guides, which are integrated into classroom lessons throughout the
school year. They include role playing and creative writing. The
purposes and goals of these guides is to "assist children in
developing compassion, a sense of justice, and a respect for all
living things" (Ascione, 1992).
This wildlife education must go beyond information about
animals because knowledge about animals and attitudes towards them
have only a low correlation. Merely providing information about an
animal increased knowledge but did not promote more positive
attitudes (Morgan and Gramann, 1989, LaHart, 1978). A research
review article by Kameron (1973) on how individuals perceive the
world concluded that "a person's world view is a result of the
'real world' and attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. Knowledge
was not considered as an independent variable" (LaHart, 1978).
Morgan and Gramann (1989) found the combination of message based
and non-message based approaches provided significant increases in
positive attitudes. Unfortunately, some subject matters such as
wildlife issues are difficult to implement non-message based
approaches. The authors suggest that when we are unable to
incorporate non-message based approaches such as modeling,
"attitudes might be enhanced by using a message that focuses on
those aspects of a target species that are most salient to an
audience" (Morgan and Gramann, 1989). For example, show the
audience a picture of an elephant picking up a stick with its trunk
and explain that their trunk is used much like a human hand.
Kellert (1981) found that interest in local animals is greater
than either national or international animals. African animals,
classified as both international and non-domestic, would therefore
be assumed to have low status among Americans. Yet the African
elephant represents one of the most familiar and popular animals in
the United States. In the Kellert and Westervelt study, it ranked
eleventh out of 33 animals on the children's rank order of animal
preference and ninth among adults (Kellert and Westervelt, 1983).
Both Cynthia Moss and Ian Douglas-Hamilton observe elephants in the
wild and write about their experiences. Their books contain a
large and varied selection of photographs. Oria Douglas-Hamilton
wrote The Elephant Family Book, which describes these animals at a
level appropriate for elementary school children.
According to photographer Mitsuaki Iwago, the lion is the most
popular animal among the sightseers on an African safari. His work
concentrates on lions and his books include observations about the
lions he photographs. Angelika Hofer and Gunter Ziesler's book,
The Lion Family Book, illustrates these animals' lifestyle for
younger children. Telling stories about wildlife, with photographs
showing the animals, directed toward younger children may
facilitate the interest in animals that is present in those older
children who belong to wildlife organizations and watch wildlife
The appropriate and most influential age for children to be
exposed to animal education has been estimated by several
researchers. Westervelt and Llewellyn (1985) found that
environmental education programs are most commonly found in grades
11 and 12, which is after attitudes toward wildlife have been
firmly established. "Attitudes toward consumptive and
non-consumptive uses of wildlife appear to be well formed by the
time young people reach eighth grade" (LaHart, 1978). When
describing the developmental progress of the second through
eleventh graders, Kellert and Westervelt found that second through
fifth graders were characterized by changes in affective and
emotional concern for animals. And "in general, the transition
from fifth to eighth grade appeared to signify basic changes in
intellectual and cognitive understandings of animals" (Kellert and
Westervelt, 1983). "Several authors suggest that at this age [10
- 12 years old], students are actively searching for more
information about animals, their attitudes toward animals are still
forming, and therefore excellent opportunities exist for fostering
an appreciation for the natural world" (Westervelt and Llewellyn,
Interactive Multimedia Instruction
In addition to literature, magazines, and television programs,
interactive multimedia computer programs are also available for
children as learning tools. Computers are currently available in
most schools and are being purchased and installed in more schools
across the country every year. Currently, the computer labs in
schools are mainly used to teach programming, for example to use
Macintosh's LOGO program to create a picture. "Some students, who
had developed an expertise in programming, believed that their
teachers were not knowledgeable enough or that their computer
classes were too elementary" (Beyond Technology's Promise, p.103).
When computers are used as learning tools, "most students thought
learning is more exciting with computers ... a majority of students
stated that they learn 'better' using a computer" (Davidson and
Ritchie, 1994). Children use home computers mainly for playing
games. Educational software designers have recognized the
attraction to games, and have responded by incorporating a
game-like format to their programs. As a consequence, "they
permitted children to obtain winning scores by playing the game in
a rapid, repetitive, mindless fashion that precluded learning the
material the program had been fashioned to present" (Lepper and
Multimedia instruction can include features to attract and
hold attention, provide students with lesson information, and
contain features to facilitate learning the material. Norman
believes that the electronic classroom goes beyond computer labs to
provide "a unique potential for the interactive and collaborative
learning of any subject" (1994). The program being evaluated by
the author includes interactive screens, animation, and computer
access to assignments and readings. Designers must integrate
learning principles with multimedia capabilities for effective
instruction. To accomplish this goal, "programmed instruction
requires the highly disciplined application of learning techniques
such as shaping, fading, priming, and prompting" (Bostow et al,
1995). Further, the authors assert that "someone must organize the
interchanges between student and machine into a sequential series
of small steps, each small step being a component leading to the
desired terminal performance" (Bostow et al, 1995). These
interchanges must predict and address ideas that are difficult,
resulting in the illusion of the computer answering questions posed
by the student.
The interactive multimedia instruction can create an
exploratory environment where the student plays an active role in
the learning process. Arnone and Grabowski compared program
control, learner control, and learner control with advisement for
learning and curiosity in first and second graders. The program
control condition provided a linear path through the lesson. Under
learner control condition, the user could choose from multiple
paths through the lesson. Students who had control over
sequencing, pacing, and remediation, combined with advisement to
use the "stop and think" option scored higher and spent more time
on task than under the other conditions. In addition, the authors
feel this condition resulted in higher scores because it provides
the most interaction between student and computer. The learner
control with advisement condition also "generated the most
questions and the most independent ideas" (Arnone and Grabowski,
Rosenzweig sees electronic media as "extremely good at
condensing large amounts of data in small amounts of space"(1993).
This and the wide variety of media available for his subject matter
prompted him to convert a history book into an electronic book
which included audio, film, and pictures, combined with non-linear
search features, using Hypercard and Macintosh. The same hardware
and software combination was selected when an electronic guide at
the Museum of Dion in Greece was developed in 1993. These authors
selected the Macintosh because of its reliability and friendly
interface and Hypercard because it is the first and most widely
used multimedia authoring tool. Hypercard and Macintosh provide a
relatively simple authoring tool to create learning environments in
a wide array of settings.
An advantage to multimedia authoring tools is the ability to
include pictures and audio so children can look at and hear about
the animal simultaneously. Researchers have said that lessons
using two modalities increases learning. Small et al. (1993)
conducted four experiments comparing recall of information about
animals with and without pictures of the animals. Their results
showed that the pictures facilitate recall whether the information
is present in the prose and the picture or only in the prose. This
effect does not exist for information in the picture, but not
addressed in the prose. The picture was even helpful when the
information in the prose was not obviously illustrated in the
picture, so long as the picture was relevant to the prose. The
effect was present for familiar and unfamiliar animals, which is
important because children may be familiar with some of the animals
and not others.
Many suggestions have been made to assist designers intending
to make their programs more user-friendly. Dessipris et al. (1993)
suggest inserting a help button on each screen, and conducting a
pilot study looking for screens on which users hesitate due to
feeling lost, then making changes to ease the navigation.
Rosenzweig (1993) provides his students with over 200 excursions,
or side trips, that elaborate on some fact or idea from the main
text. The use of "quicktime" has enabled him to incorporate films
into some of these excursions. Schweir and Misanchuk, in their
book Interactive Multimedia Instruction, outline the many ways to
approach lessons that are available in this media, such as
simulations and tutorials. In creating education tools, objectives
and learning styles must retain their importance, while elements
such as aesthetics, ease of navigation and help segments must also
be given consideration.
Educating children about wildlife reaches beyond learning
facts about animals to an appreciation, affection, and respect for
these living creatures. Much of what we teach children passes on
the attitudes and values of the society. As we become more
urbanized, our personal experiences with animals becomes more
isolated, much of the time being limited to domesticated pets. The
pervasive attitudes towards animals is described by researchers as
humanistic, which singles out pets and "lovable" animals as
recipients of affection while showing little appreciation for
wildlife in general. Without firsthand experiences with wildlife,
much of urban America has come to depend upon wildlife
organizations, publications, and television programs to educate
forthcoming generations. In the 1990's, children are becoming
enamored with computer technology. The popularity of computer
games, internet, and equipment is reaching children at a younger
age. The advancing technology is resulting in more user-friendly
computer programs. Also, there is a trend for computer programs,
such as the internet, to be exploratory in nature. This format
transfers very well to educational programs in general and to
wildlife programs in particular. Photographs, movies, audio
recordings of animal sounds and narration can breathe life into
these animals. In addition to factual information, stories with
pictures can add an element of familiarity and identification for
these little known animals.
With knowledge and understanding, children can come to
appreciate the animal's unique qualities. This requires time and
effort, so the learning tool must capture the children's interest
and provide continued curiosity throughout the lesson. "More
ambitious and imaginative efforts are required as the eventual
condition of wildlife will, of course, depend on the future
commitment and concern of today's children" (Kellert and
- Arnone, M. P. & Grabowski, B. L. (1992). Effects on
children's achievement and curiosity of variations in learner
control over an interactive video lesson. Educational Technology
Research & Development, 40 (1):15-27.
- Ascione, F. R. (1992). Enhancing children's attitudes about
the humane treatment of animals: Generalized to human-directed
empathy. Anthrozoos, 5 (3):176-191.
- Bostow, D. E., Kritch, K. M., & Tompkins, B. F. (1995).
Computers and pedagogy: Replacing telling with interactive
computer-programmed instruction. Behavior Research Methods,
Instruction, & Computers, 27 (2):297-300.
- Davidson, G. V. & Ritchie, S. D. (1994). How do attitudes of
parents, teachers, and students affect the integration of
technology into schools? A case study. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 373 710)
- Dessipris, N. G., Pandermalis, D., Zambelaki, M., &
Vassiliadou, Y. (1993). The electronic guide at the Museum of
Dion. Information Services & Use, 13:313-322.
- Douglas-Hamilton, O. (1990). The elephant family book. New
York: North-South Books Inc.
- Eagles, P. F. J. & Muffitt, S. (1990). An analysis of
children's attitudes toward animals. Journal of Environmental
Education, 21 (3):41-44.
- Giacquinta, J. B., Bauer, J. A., & Levin, J. E. (1993).
Beyond Technology's Promise. New York: Cambridge University
- Hofer, A. & Ziesler, G. (1988). The lion family book. New
York: North-South Books Inc.
- Iwago, M. (1995). In the lion's den. California: Chronicle
- Kellert, S. R. (1979). Public attitudes toward critical
wildlife and natural habitat issues, phase I. United States
Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Kellert, S. R. (1980). Phase II: Activities of the American
public relating to animals. United States Department of the
Interior Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Kellert, S. R. & Berry, J. K. (1980). Phase III: Knowledge,
affection and basic attitudes toward animals in American society.
United States Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Kellert, S. R. & Westervelt, M. O. (1981). Trends in animal
use and perception in twentieth century America: Phase IV. United
States Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Kellert, S. R. & Westervelt, M. O. (1983). Children's attitudes,
knowledge and behaviors toward animals: Phase V. United States
Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service.
- LaHart, D. E. (1978). The influence of knowledge on young
people's perceptions about wildlife. The Florida State University,
College of Education.
- Lepper, M. R. & Cordova, D. I. (1992). A desire to be taught:
Instructional consequences of intrinsic motivation. Motivation and
Emotion, 16 (3):187-208.
- Morgan, J. M. & Gramann, J. H. (1989). Predicting
effectiveness of wildlife education programs: A study of students'
attitudes and knowledge toward snakes. Wildlife Society Bulletin,
- Moss, C., & Colbeck, M. (1992). Echo of the elephants. New
York: William Morrow & Co. Inc.
- Nelson, W. A. (1994). Efforts to improve computer-based
instruction: The role of knowledge representation and knowledge
construction in hypermedia systems. Computers in the Schools, 10
- Norman, K. L. (1994). Hypercourseware for interactive
instruction in the electronic classroom. Behavior Research
Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 26 (2):255-259.
- Oswald, L. J. (1995). Heroes and victims: The stereotyping
of animal characters in children's realistic animal fiction.
Literature in Education, 26 (2):135-148.
- Rosenzweig, R. (1993). Digitizing the past: A history book
on CD-ROM. Information Services & Use, 13:35-40.
- Schweir, R. A., & Misanchuk, E. R. (1993). Interactive
multimedia instruction New Jersey: Educational Publications, Inc.
- Small, M. Y., Lovett, S. B., & Scher, M. S. (1993). Pictures
facilitate children's recall of unillustrated expository prose.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 85 (3):520-528.
- Westervelt, M. O. & Lewellyn, L. G. (1985). The beliefs and
behaviors of fifth and sixth grade students regarding non-domestic
animals. Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of


STAR Ideas: Simple, Technology Application Resource Ideas
How can I use technology applications in simple, yet powerful ways?
The only software I have on my computer is Microsoft Office, how can I use this in my classroom?
How can I create simple, motivating activities that will engage my students in learning?
Photo libraries such as CalPhotos, the NOAA Photo Library and American Memories Collection Finder provide wonderful resources for student projects. A photograph can generate enthusiasm, motivate reluctant learners, and provide alternative perspectives on a topic.
The following page contains ideas for getting started with simple activities you can do using the software you already have in your building such as Microsoft Office and Inspiration. Many of the activities below contain links to photos that can be helpful in developing activities.
Repurpose a Website
Repurposing refers to using a resource in a way it was not originally intended. For example, you might use a science website to discuss a social issue. Or, use the photographs from a history site as part of a writing activity. Or, you might use the visuals from a website for a vocabulary assignment. Apply the information (i.e., text, graphics, video, audio) from a website for a new purpose.
- Use the photos for discussion starters.
- Use the photos in a quiz.
- Use the photos in a sequencing activity.
- Ask students to write text or create oral narration to go with photos.
- Use the content as a story or report starter.
- Rewrite the information at a lower reading level.
When you repurpose a website, be sure to get permission if you plan to share it online. If you just plan to use it in your classroom, you should still cite the resources you used.
Our Community. Use photographs from local government websites for an "our community" virtual field trip. For example, go to City of Quincy or Virtual Quincy, IL. Also use maps from Yahoo Maps, MapQuest, or Google Maps and Google Earth (must download software) (Grades K-3)
Our Government. Use photographs from the federal goverment to create a question game about our goverment. Use KidZone Illinois, Kid Gov (Grades K-6) or USAGov (Grades 7-12) to locate specific agencies and resources. Who are these people? Why are they important? What are these symbols? Why are the important? (Grade K-8)
Birdhouses. Repurpose ideas from the Birdhouse Project. For example, ask students to read the events from a specific birdhouse cam project. Then, sequence the photos from another birdhouse in PowerPoint or Word and ask students to write narration. Other ideas can be found at Journey North such as bald eagle, caribou, hummingbirds, manatee, robin, whooping crane, gray whale, and Monarchs. Go to the CIESE Real-Time Data or Escrapbooking: Data site for other ideas. (Grades K-8)
WWII Primary Sources. Repurpose posters, photographs, and historical documents from the WWII Project at the National Archives. Find project ideas at the Digital Classroom at NARA. Also consider other time periods in US history. (Grades 5-9)
Author Exploration. Locate an author or illustrator using the Teacher Tap: Author and Illustrator Resources page. Repurpose photographs from various sites to provide a brief biography of the author. (all ages)
Science in Our World. Use SciNetPhoto website to explore since over that past thirty years. Topics including energy, medicine, technoloyg, portraits, and features. Ask students to start with questions they have about the photo. Then write a paper based on the photo. (Grades 5-9)
Using photos you've taken or gathered from the web, create a short (4-5) slide PowerPoint springboard activity as a motivating introduction to a new unit.
- Use photos illustrating the concept or idea.
- Use photos to stimulate meaningful questions.
- Use music to draw interest to a subject.
A PowerPoint slide show that...
- introduces a letter of the alphabet in a visual way such as ball, bat, basket for the letter B. Use the Pics4Learning objects photos. (Grade K)
- introduce color words using food, or flowers (Grades K).
- introduce weather words using Weather Photography, Pics4Learning weather and Freefoto weather photos (Grades K-1).
- introduce transportation words using Freefoto transport photos (Grades K-2).
- introduce food words using Pics4Learning food, Freefoto food/drink words (Grades K-2).
- introduce parts of the body words using Pics4Learning. (Grades K-2)
- introduce plants words using Pics4Learning. (Grades K-2)
- introduce insect words using Pics4Learning (Grades K-2).
- introduce animal words using Nature Gallery, Pics4Learning oceans and animals, Pics4Learning Page animals, FPnet birds, mammals, marine life, (Grades K-2).
- introduce Pics4Learning land forms and geography words. (all ages)
- introduces a part of speech in a visual way such as photographs that can be used to discuss adverbs such as quickly, quietly, slowly, daily, weekly, frequently.
- illustrates 3-4 reasons we need to know about mathematics such as angles. Use Pics4Learning architecture. FreeFoto bridges, castles, or buildings for shapes and angles. Use Pics4Learning Page's architecture.
- introduce a science topic using SciNetPhotos. Or check topics such as light, electronics, landforms. (all ages)
- introduce a history lesson with a political cartoon. Use the Clifford K. Berryman Political Cartoon Collection, and Cagle's Professional Cartoonist page to get started. Also check out the Teaching with Documents: Political Cartoons.
- introduce the horrors of war, hunger, poverty. For example, use the NARA: Pictures of the Civil War page. (Grade 5-9)
Create a Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling is a great way approach to writing. Students enjoy writing based on visuals. Provide students with photographs or let them take their own with a digital camera. Then, ask students to record their voice narrating the story.
Pick a Pet. Provide students with photos of pet. Ask them to create a name for their pet and write about the day they found a new home. Do a Google images search for an animal name, or go to Pics4Learning animals, or use FPnet.
Predictable Books. Read a predictable book like Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Adapt the format of the book to PowerPoint. Include photographs to get the story started. Student simply add the words. (Grades K-3)
Q&A Story. Tell a story through a series of questions and answers. Use your digital camera to take photographs, then insert them in PowerPoint slides. For example, a screen may show the outside of the door and ask readers what's inside. Then, the next screen shows what's inside. The next page may show a drawer. The following screen shows what's in the draw. Students add the text and audio narration. (Grades K-3)
A Trip to Outerspace. Use photos from NASA to create your own virtual field trip to outerspace. Focus on a particular time period such as shuttle history, aspect of space such as careers, or location such as the moon. Use GRIN, JSC Digital Collection, NASA Multimedia gallery, NSSDC Photo Gallery, or NASA Planetary Photojournal.
A Trip to the ... Create a story or virtual field trip by providing a set of visuals for writing. Use for simple trips to a farm, zoo, or store. Or, use this idea for a trip to a particular habitat such as wetlands, desert, mountains, river, or beach. Use theFreefoto photos for farm activities, UFWS for wildlife photos, NASA for space photos, and NOAA for weather and ocean photos. Use the Teacher Tap: Digital and Virtual Field Trips for ideas. Use Pics4Learning farms and barns. (All Grades)
A Day in the Life of... Start with a series of photos from a particular community worker such as a police officer, fire fighter, baker, or farmer. (Grades 2-3)
The Day of the Disaster... Start with a series of photos from a natural disaster. Ask students to tell a story that includes science information as well as information about the social impact of a disaster. Check out the Pics4Learning Natural Disaster photos. Get photos from Freefoto including 911 emergency, floods, nature, weather. (Grades 3-9).
Colonial Life. Start with a series of photos from different occupations in a historical time period such as Colonial days. Use photos and information from Colonial Williamsburg. (Grades 2-3)
Historical Fiction. Use the photographs from a historical photo website such as the Library of Congress American Memories or Presidential Libraries to provide visual resources for writing. (Grades 3-8)
Electronic postcards are lots of fun. You may be able to find an electronic postcard website that fits your needs from the Teacher Tap: Electronic Postcards in the Classroom page. Another option is to use a Word document, single PowerPoint slide, or KidPix picture and make your own postcards.
Historical Postcards. Start with a historical photograph in Word. Ask students to use the photograph like a postcard and write a letter. Use the American Memories Collection Finder to locate a good photo. Or go directly to the Photos and Prints or the Panoramic Photos section. Use Pics4Learning History for photos. (all ages)
Postcard Storytelling. Start with a photograph of a location. Ask student to use the photograph like a postcard and write a letter. For example, pick a photo of a lighthouse (Freefoto). (all ages).
National Geographic Postcard. Use the National Geographic Photography page. Ask students to select a photograph for use on a postcard that represents a particular social studies or science concept.
Use audio, video, photographs, and other resources to increase vocabulary and facilitate content area reading. For example, you might introduce a new set of words related to a particular topic.
Money Words. Provide pictures of money and a photograph of a situation or object. Ask students to write a sentence or story about the photograph that includes the money. For example, "I bought an apple for sixty cents." (Grades K-2)
Opposites. Provide pictures of opposites such as in/out, up/down, quiet/loud, inside/outside. Ask students to match the pictures and put them in groups in Kidspiration. Then, students can create their own narration. (Grades K-1)
Career Words. Create a visual glossary of community workers or careers. Use Kids.gov: Careers and Freefoto business for ideas. Or, try Google images. Record a sentence that includes the proper name of the job such as veterinarian or accountant. (Grades 2-8)
Visual Spelling Words. Use Excel to create a spreadsheet of vocabulary words, definitions, and matching photographs. Use the National Resources Conservation Photo Gallery for ideas. Use the Pics4Learning oceans page. Try the Natural Science, Travel, Industry (wind power, pollution, construction) and Places/Sights of Earth photographs. (All ages)
Speaking Science. Pronunciation is a common problem in science. There are many words that students are able to use in their writing, but they have a hard time pronouncing. Create links to dictionary website vocabulary words that read words aloud. For example, go to Dictionary.com to see and hear the word "amphibian". Locate lots of health and science photographs at the Public Health Image Library. (All grades)
Visual Dictionary. Use Google to create a visual dictionary of words that students can categorize. Or, ask students to add a word, definition, example, sentence, and visual.
Words Alive. Use short videos to promote the use of vocabulary. For example use the videos form Bee Videos or the Bee Cams and ask students to write using their vocabulary related to science and language arts. Use the Naturescapes: Video and Image Starters for other nature topics.
Students need lots of examples and nonexamples for concept and rule development. Create simple projects that provide students with a variety of resources that can be used in knowledge construction.
When students only use one resource in the classroom they may miss the "big picture." For example, rather than a single illustration from a textbook, students need many examples of a concept. They should see line drawings, photographs, animations, videos, and audio narration. Different representations are useful for different learning styles. In addition, some students need more concrete examples, while others are ready for more abstract representations.
Fictional vs Real Creatures. Create a Kidspiration document that contains both cartoon versions of animals and photographs of real animals. This could also be done with fictional creatures (i.e., dragons, unicorns) vs real creatures. Use super group to categorize. (Grades K-2)
Healthy Food. Provide students with photographs of variety of a healthy and unhealthy use Use Freefoto food and drink photos, Pics4Learning food, morgueFile food, or foods photo page. Categorize the foods. List the characteristics of these foods. (Grades 3-6)
Phases of Mitosis. In Inspiration, provide students with a variety of line drawings, photographs, and animations of the different phases in mitosis. Ask students to categorize them. Then, take their favorite series, put them in the correct sequence and create notes detailing each phase. (Grades 7-9)
Science Concepts. Identify three different photos representing the same concept. Write about how the photos highlight different aspects of the concept. Use the National Resources Conservation Photo Gallery for ideas. Use the Pics4Learning science page to locate astronomy, energy, fossils, geology, medicine, or other photos.
Up-Close. Get students to examine their world up-close. Take a photograph at a distance, then take another version close-up or with a scanner. Ask students to write about what they see. For example, describe look at plants. Use the Microscopy website for close-up photos on a wide variety of topics. (Grades K-12)
Science through History. Use the Visual Archives to explore the human face of Physics. This website contains photos and stories related to famous physicists and astronomers. Use the Science Service from the Smithsonian for other photos.
Sequencing and Directions
Students have difficulty writing and following directions. Use technology to help.
Action. Use a digital camera to record still photos or short video from an event, demonstration, or science experiment. Or use FreeFoto's general section for ideas. Or, focus on a particular type of action such as FreeFoto's sports and recreation. Use the audio recorder in Word, Inspiration (Kidspiration), or PowerPoint to record directions for students to follow. Or, ask students to write about the visuals. (All ages)
Around Town. Ask students to sequence photographs or create a map, then record their voice providing directions or steps in the procedure. (All ages)
Maps. Start with a map at GraphicMaps.com. Draw lines on the map showing where you might go. Then write directions.
Creating persuasive communications can be powerful teaching and learning tools. Use visuals, audio, and other media tools to bring these activities alive.
PSAs. Watch public service announcements from Ad Council. Then, create a PowerPoint-based public service announcement using still photos and audio narration. Check out the freefoto industry page for pollution, energy, and wind power photos. Also consider topics such as trash/recycling and old junk. Conder anti-smoking photos for ads.
Safety and Disaster Prevention. Create a presentation on safety or disaster prevention such as bike safety. Use photos from FreeFoto's 911-Emergency page including ambulance, fire, and police. For example, start with resources from Bicycle Safety from the Illinois State Police. You can provide the still photos or give students digital cameras to make their own (i.e., natural disasters, bike safety, fireworks safety, water safety, fire safety, tornado preparation) (Grades 3-12).
PowerPoint is a great tool for conducting electronic comparisons. How are things similar and different? What do you like and dislike? Select a topic that would involve making a comparison. Identify the key differences or issues for discussions.
Creature Comparison. Create a Venn diagram or comparison chart comparing the characteristics of two creatures. For example, read the book Stellaluna then compare birds and bees. Other good topics include comparing ants and spiders, the lifecycles of bees and butterflies, or dogs and cats as pets. Use Pics4Learning animals and insect photos. Use DiscoverySchool science cartoons. Use the Jungle clipart from DK. (Grades K-3)
Seasons. Each month, take a photograph of that class standing in front of a tree outside. Compare how thing change over time. Or, get Freefoto four seasons photos. (Grades K-2)
Book or Movie. Use Kidspiration or Inspiration to create a diagram comparison a book with it's movie version. (Grades 3-12)
Erosion Comparison. Compare and contrast different types of erosion. Use the National Resources Conservation Photo Gallery for photos (choose by category).
Then and Now. Use Kidspiration, Inspiration, or PowerPoint slideshow to compare "then and now." For example, before and after a fire, before and after a volcano, or trace the history of your town. You could adapt the idea for other topics such as "young vs old", "rural vs urban", and "before and after." Use the Picturing the Century website at the National Archives for 100 years of photographs. (All ages)
PowerPoint is a great tool for conducting electronic debates. Select a controversial topic that involves two or more perspectives. Identify the key differences or issues for discussions. These become the core slides in the PowerPoint presentation or Inspiration/Kidspiration document.
Native Americans or Europeans. Read the book Sign of the Beaver or another historical fiction book that involves comparing Native American and European life during early America. Create a PowerPoint debate comparing the Native American and the Colonist ways of life. (Grades 5-9)
Energy Issues. Debate the pros and cons of different energy sources. Check out the SciNetPhotos page. For example, use the Wind Farm, Windmill photos in a wind energy e-debate. Also check out the Forces and Energy photos from DK.
News Organization Comparison. Select a single news event at Google News. Compare the reports from at least two different resources. Describe the similiaries and differences on particular aspects of the report such as numbers of casualities, people involved, and major issues. Use a chart to make comparisons. (Grades 5-9)
Electronic Posters, Brochures & Fliers
Students love to create posters, brochures, and fliers. It's often difficult time consuming to locate visuals. Start with the visuals and ask students to write the words.
Travel Brochures. Start with location photos such as Freefoto Europe, Japan, United Kingdom, and transport photos. Also try, Pics4Learning countries photos. Get a map at GraphicMaps.com. Check out the DK Maps.
Use the following starting points to locate visuals and other materials for your projects.
- 42eXplore - topic index
- Daily Resources
- Digital and Virtual Field Trips
- Digital and Virtual Libraries
- Digital and Virtual Museums
- Electronic Postcards in the Classroom
- Multimedia Seeds: Starting Points for Audio, Video, and Video Resources
- News Resources
- Primary Resources and Real-World Data
- Reference Materials
- Visual Resources: Clipart, Photos, and Visual Indexes


The Canterbury Tales is the culminating life’s work of Geoffrey Chaucer, a fourteenth-century Englishman considered to be one of the greatest poets to write in the English language. In addition to its literary value, The Canterbury Tales is significant because it is the first major work of literature to have been written in English, a language that during Chaucer’s time was considered unworthy of poetry or prose. Full of romance, drama, pathos, and humor, Chaucer’s diverse collection of tales paints a vivid literary portrait of his medieval society. His writing influenced many English authors of great renown who succeeded him, including William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
Chaucer was born between 1340 and 1345 to John Chaucer, a successful merchant who supplied wine to the royal court. Through this family connection, Chaucer worked as a page in an aristocratic household and went on to pursue a busy life in English society. He served a brief stint in the army, attended the royal court as a poet, and held various royal clerkships and public appointments, including the lucrative position of Controller of Customs for the Port of London. He also served as a Member of Parliament. At a time when it was nearly impossible to rise above one’s social class, Chaucer enjoyed the patronage of King Edward III’s son, John of Gaunt, one of the most powerful noblemen of the time. Chaucer’s intellect, wit, and knowledge of human nature, qualities that characterize The Canterbury Tales, likely contributed to his professional and social success as a commoner among members of the aristocracy.
Chaucer’s diplomatic and military travels afforded him an invaluable opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and to read the literature of the European continent, experiences which influenced The Canterbury Tales. He traveled in England and Ireland, as well as in Spain, Flanders, France, and Italy. Already versed in the French poetry popular in the royal court and knowledgeable of classical literature from his studies as a youth, Chaucer became familiar with the Italian language. His knowledge of both French and Italian is reflected in his poetry. Chaucer, however, wrote The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, a fact that is significant because English during Chaucer’s time was not the language of poetry or prose. Because of the Norman invasion in 1066, which made William the Conqueror the King of England, the Anglo-Norman aristocracy of the English court spoke French, and the language of the cultured was French or Latin. In seeing the poetic possibilities of writing in English and in creating a masterpiece in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer gave literary authority to the English language.
During his time in Italy, Chaucer may have read Italian poet Boccaccio’s recently written The Decameron, a collection of tales told by upper-class characters traveling in the Italian countryside to avoid the Florentine plague. The Decameron is thought to be an inspiration for The Canterbury Tales’ ambitious collection of storytellers and their tales. Chaucer’s individual tales drew on many other literary works. It is uncertain when Chaucer began work on The Canterbury Tales. He had certainly written versions of some of the tales for other purposes before he generated the idea of framing the tales with the story of a pilgrimage in the late 1380s. During the last decade of his life, Chaucer edited and added to the project. It remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1400.
The Canterbury Tales is structured as a collection of stories told by a socially diverse group traveling to Canterbury to pay homage to St. Thomas. Chaucer introduces his characters in the Prologue and then presents each pilgrim’s tale interspersed with dialogue between and among the travelers. Two tales, the Squire’s and the Cook’s, are incomplete. The Prologue indicates that the pilgrims intended to continue their storytelling game on the trip back from Canterbury. From manuscripts and early print editions of The Canterbury Tales, ten distinct fragments are evident. Chaucer’s intended ordering of the fragments is a matter of debate; scholars and editions differ somewhat on this point.
The tales told by Chaucer’s pilgrims include a variety of medieval literary genres, such as the courtly romance, the fabliau, saint’s life tales, and a beast fable. They explore ideas about marriage, sex, fidelity, honor, religion and class, often from multiple perspectives. Many of his characters spring from the page as comic caricatures, while others are vivid portraits of unique individuals. Perhaps his most memorable pilgrim is the bawdy and loquacious Wife of Bath, who proudly details her experience of dominating her five husbands. Historians have identified possible real-life inspirations for some of the pilgrims, including the Wife of Bath; she may have been based on Alice Perrers, the licentious mistress of King Edward III, one of Chaucer’s royal patrons.
Chaucer’s lively use of language, his astounding versatility as a storyteller, and the ambition of his project make The Canterbury Tales a much studied work, even seven hundred years after his death. Chaucer’s tales reflect the complex interrelationships of the nobility, the church, and the commoners, called in the Middle Ages the “three estates.” Chaucer portrays not only the tensions that arise from the hierarchy of the three estates, but also those that arise from any challenge to the status quo in terms of age, gender, profession, or ethics. These tensions continue today. Many of the tales’ themes—morality, marriage, money, and social standing—are still central to our world and our literature, and in moving from the allegorical tradition toward realism, The Canterbury Tales anticipates modern fiction, despite having been written in the 1300s. For its influence, historical significance, poetic brilliance, sharp satire, and canny portraits of human nature, The Canterbury Tales will continue to engage readers, just as it has for more than seven centuries.
By the end of the unit the student will be able to:
1. Identify the historical importance of The Canterbury Tales as a societal portrait of Chaucer’s time.
2. Identify and describe the characters introduced in the Prologue and discuss the social hierarchy they illustrate.
3. Describe the stories-within-a-story framing narrative of The Canterbury Tales.
4. Compare tales with regard to style, genre, subject matter, and rhyme scheme.
5. Identify Chaucer’s use of humor and irony to explore elements of his society.
6. Define characteristics of knighthood, chivalry, and courtly love.
7. Describe the Wife of Bath’s character and her ideas on chastity and sovereignty in marriage.
8. Compare tales in their portrayals of marriage.
9. Contrast tales in regard to themes of morality, religious virtue, and religious corruption.
This eNotes lesson plan is designed so that it may be used in numerous ways to accommodate ESL students and to differentiate instruction in the classroom.
Student Study Guide
- The Study Guide is organized to study the Prologue and each tale separately. Study Guide pages may be assigned individually and completed at a student’s own pace.
- Study Guide pages may be used as pre-reading activities to preview for students the vocabulary words they will encounter in reading the Prologue and each tale and to acquaint them generally with their content.
- Before Study Guide pages are assigned, questions may be selected from them to use as short quizzes to assess reading comprehension.
(The entire section is 953 words.)
1. Why might Chaucer have set his storytelling contest in the context of a religious pilgrimage?
2. In the Prologue, who are the characters with high status? Who are the least respected? What are their analogs in society today? Why are some professions more highly esteemed than others?
3. What virtues and vices do the pilgrims possess? How do the tales reflect the characters of the pilgrims who tell them?
4. Bravery, honor, and courtesy are the tenets of medieval chivalry in its ideal form. Do these standards of conduct exist in modern life?
5. Discuss the elements of story and character that make The Miller’s Tale humorous.
6. The Nun’s Priest’s...
(The entire section is 813 words.)
amor vincit omnia: Latin “love conquers all”
baldrick: a belt worn across the chest to carry a sword
cunningly: slyly, deceitfully
heathen: an uncivilized or irreligious person
hurdy-gurdy: a stringed musical instrument played by turning a crank
manciple: a food buyer
miller: a person who makes flour from grain
obstinate: stubborn, resistant
palmer: a pilgrim of the Middle Ages
pilgrimage: a journey, especially one with a religious purpose
reeve: a manager of an estate
sovereign: supreme in rank
summoner: a member of the clergy who calls...
(The entire section is 885 words.)
Amazon: Greek mythology a member of a race of female warriors
armipotent: archaic powerful in battle
cithern: a musical instrument similar to a guitar
coppice: a thicket of small trees
Diana: Roman mythology goddess of chastity, the moon, and the hunt
disconsolate: unhappy, cheerless
Mars: Roman mythology god of war
paragon: a model of excellence or perfection
pomp: ceremonial display
sleight: a skillful trick
Venus: Roman mythology goddess of love
wont: a habit or...
(The entire section is 644 words.)
Cato: short for the Distichs of Cato, an ancient Roman book of moral wisdom
censer: a person who performs incense rituals in a church
churl: a peasant; a rude ill-bred person
coulter: a plow blade
cuckold: a man whose wife is unfaithful
geomancy: an ancient form of divination performed by reading patterns on the ground
jape: a trick meant to amuse or deceive
kip: a lodging house
scud: a driving shower of rain or snow
sloe: black or dark purple fruit of the blackthorn tree
(The entire section is 668 words.)
byre: a barn
canny: British pretty
coltish: archaic lustful
dotage: senility, especially in old age
fen: a marshland
mote: a particle of dust
palfrey: a riding horse
wor: dialect our
1. Why are the scholars Alan and John angry with the miller?
John and Alan’s plan to extract their fair share of flour fails when the notoriously dishonest miller sets their horse loose. They leave to retrieve the horse, and by the time they return, the miller...
(The entire section is 480 words.)
Hodge: a nickname for Roger
prentice: an apprentice
publican: a tavern owner
1. What reason does the master give for firing his apprentice, Revelling Peterkin?
Peter is a “riotous servant,” and the master fears he will corrupt the other servants. The master arrives at this decision by remembering a version of the familiar proverb, “Throw out a rotten apple from the hoard / Or it will rot the others.”
2. Where does Peter go after being fired?
He goes to stay with a similarly merry friend whose wife is a prostitute.
3. What does the tale...
(The entire section is 242 words.)
citadel: a fortress that commands a city; a stronghold
fete: French to celebrate
penance: self-punishment undertaken to purify sin or guilt
pithy: brief but full of meaning
rend: to rip
thrall: one who is in bondage
1. What must the Sultan of Syria do in order to marry Constance? How does Constance feel about leaving Rome for Syria?
The Muslim Sultan must convert to...
(The entire section is 433 words.)
countenance: behavior, demeanor
effusive: overflowing in emotion or affection
plight: to pledge
repair: to go, to take oneself
requite: to repay
sumptuous: expensive, magnificent
thither: archaic there
tonsure: the shaven crown or patch worn by monks and other clerics
1. Where does Sir John get the money he gives to the merchant’s wife? What does he get in return?
(The entire section is 449 words.)
bier: a stand on which a corpse is placed before burial
canticle: a hymn
chorister: a member of a choir
comrade: a friend
diligence: persistent work
Herod: an ancient king of Judaea
O Alma Redemptoris: Latin O Redemptive Soul
privy-drain: a sewer
prostrate: lying face down
reverence: deep respect, worship
throng: a crowd
usury: moneylending with very high interest
vouchsafe: to grant a privilege or special favor in a gracious or condescending manner
1. Rhyme royal, the rhyme...
(The entire section is 590 words.)
bower: a lady’s private rooms, boudoir
for the nonce: indeed
hauberk: a piece of armor worn like a tunic
swain: a country youth, a young lover or suitor
1. Describe Sir Topaz. Whom is he in love with?
Sir Topaz is a handsome and virtuous knight. After hearing some particularly melodious birdsong, he dreams of an Elf Queen who will be his bride. He vows to make the dream a reality because no other women are worthy of him.
2. Why does the Host interrupt The Tale of Sir Topaz?...
(The entire section is 218 words.)
annunciation: an announcement
assail: to attack
diadem: a crown
distaff: a tool for spinning fleece into wool
knave: a man of low character
magnanimity: generosity of spirit
quern: a small hand-mill for grinding corn
1. Before beginning his first tragedy, the Monk states the moral of the stories to follow. What does he say?
The monk says, “For sure it is, if Fortune...
(The entire section is 326 words.)
Words of the Knight and the Host, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, and Words of the Host to the Nun’s Priest
altercation: a noisy, angry dispute
apoplexy: sudden physical impairment
debonair: archaic gracious, pleasant
derision: scorn, mockery
forsooth: archaic truly
implore: to beg
mulier est hominus confusio: Latin “woman is man’s ruin”
poltroon: a coward
ravish: to rob; to destroy
repletion: being full of food
sycophant: a flatterer, a toady
(The entire section is 548 words.)
ashen: whitish grey
Bacchus: Roman mythology god of wine
blackguard: a villain
clemency: leniency, mercy
forsake: to give up, renounce, or abandon
intemperance: lack of self-restraint
Pallas: Greek mythology Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom
panacea: a remedy
Phoebus: Roman mythology god of light
ribaldry: debauchery, lewd behavior
shamefast: shy, modest
sterling: thoroughly excellent
1. Describe the many virtues of Virginius’s...
(The entire section is 486 words.)
acquit: to free
bull: a sealed document issued by the Pope
florin: a gold coin
haughty: grand, lofty
papal: of or relating to a pope
parley: to debate
perdition: utter ruin
prating: foolish talking or preaching
Radix malorum est cupiditas: Latin (literal translation) “the root of evil is greed”; (more common translation) “the love of money is the root of all evil”
shrive: to offer a church-sanctioned pardon for sin
stertorous: characterized by snoring
stile: steps to allow people to pass over a livestock fence
(The entire section is 440 words.)
annexed: attached, associated
bequeath: archaic speak about
bigamy: marriage with a second spouse when already married
calumniate: to slander, to speak against
dejected: discouraged, depressed
demur: to raise doubts, to hesitate or show reluctance
dilection: spiritual love
expound: to explain in detail
incubus: an evil spirit who attacks women
mead: a meadow
pestilence: a fatal disease, a plague
propagation: production of offspring
provident: psychic (in context)
rail: to complain
rebuke: to scold...
(The entire section is 945 words.)
bailiff: a man who manages a lord’s estate and collects rent
bawd: archaic one who arranges opportunity for sexual immorality
bawdry: archaic the business of arranging opportunity for sexual immorality
extortion: taking money by illegal use of force, authority, or threat
limiter: a friar licensed by the church to beg within a certain geographical area
ordinand: a person about to be ordained as clergy
retinue: an entourage
scoff: to mock, to ridicule
simony: bribery within the church
slough: a muddy area
(The entire section is 447 words.)
cavil: to find fault without good reason
curate: a clergyman
fie: an exclamation of disgust
gloze: archaic to talk smoothly, to flatter
guerdon: a reward
je vous dis sans doute: French “I tell you without a doubt”
orison: a prayer
potentate: a ruler
rout: a group, a pack
scrip: a beggar’s purse
spoor: a trail, a track
supplication: a plea
tabor: a small drum
varlet: an attendant, a servant
1. In The Summoner’s Tale, what does the friar write on his wax-covered tablet...
(The entire section is 412 words.)
abstruse: difficult to understand
acquiesce: to agree
adversity: a hardship
assay: to test, to try
besot: to stupefy, to make dull or stupid
buffet: a blow or strike, usually of the hand
caprice: a change of mind without sufficient reason
changeful: sparkling (in context)
coronet: a small crown
defray: to pay
deputation: a group of people sent on a mission on behalf of someone else
legion: a multitude, a large number
rancor/rancour: deep resentment...
(The entire section is 509 words.)
billet-doux: a love letter
convivial: festive; pertaining to a feast
cordial: a sweetened alcoholic beverage
derision: scorn, mockery
disport: archaic amusement, relaxation
eschew: to avoid
fettered: bound, limited, hampered
laity: lay people (not clergy)
pedant: overly academic person
Pluto: Greek mythology god of the underworld
qualms: pangs, sudden feelings
sum: summarize (in context)
superlative: utmost, highest degree
(The entire section is 582 words.)
canticle: a hymn
caracole: a half turn to the right or the left by a horse
courser: a powerful horse
dissimulation: the act of lying
emulous: motivated by rivalry
feign: to fake, to pretend
gossamer: fine cobwebs that float in the air
insinuation: subtle instilling of anything into the mind
sepulchre: a tomb
sophistry: trickery, false reasoning
stationary: still, unmoving
steed: a male horse, a stallion
tercelet: a male hawk
(The entire section is 308 words.)
beseech: to beg earnestly
betwixt: archaic between
conjouror: a magician
covenant: an agreement, a contract
graft: cultivated trees
hoodwink: to trick
mead: a meadow
pleach: interwoven tree branches
proffer: to offer
roundel and virelay: types of song
soothed: confirmed, proved
troth: archaic loyalty
(The entire section is 465 words.)
abjure: to renounce
boon: archaic a request, a prayer
cloister: an enclosed place
coronal: a circlet for the head implying rank or dignity
dispel: to scatter
hallow: to make holy
idleness: inactivity, avoidance of work
Interpretatio Nominis Ceciliae: Latin interpretation of the name Cecilia
inured: accustomed, used to something
Invocacio ad Mariam: Latin invocation of Mary
Jove: Roman mythology Jupiter, king of the gods
(The entire section is 476 words.)
amalgaming: mixing with mercury
beechen: made of wood from the beech tree
Benedicite: an exclamation of surprise, “Good Gracious!”
calcination: the process of reducing a substance to powder using fire
canon: a clergyman
cozen: to cheat, to defraud
crupper: hindquarters of a horse
daub: to coat or to cover (often with clay)
disabuse: to free from error or misconception
dock-leaf: a plant used medicinally
enumerate: to list, to count
gull: a fool
hack: a low-quality or worn-out horse
hose: pants, tights
ignotum per ignotius: Latin “the unknown by the more unknown” (refers to...
(The entire section is 558 words.)
arrant: wandering, vagrant
assuage: to calm, to pacify, to relieve
blear the eyes: to deceive
broach: to begin discussion about
cavalry: horsemanship (in context)
compass: to achieve, to bring about
imbecility: mental incompetence
paladin: a heroic knight
pallid: pale in color
plumb: to have sex with (in context)
psaltery: an ancient stringed instrument
punk: archaic a prostitute
unwieldy: awkward to handle
wreak: to bring about, to cause
1. In The Prologue to The Manciple’s Tale, what...
(The entire section is 741 words.)
bale: a bundle
bewail: to express sorrow audibly, to make a mournful cry
castigation: correction, criticism
cavalcade: a procession on horseback
enditings: archaic writings
homily: a sermon
Paternoster: a prayer
1. What is the theme of The Parson’s Tale? Why is it appropriate that The Parson’s Tale is the last tale to be told before the pilgrims reach Canterbury?
The Parson’s sermon concerns sin and its remedies for the purpose of religious salvation. After many tales differing in tone and topic, the solemn religious theme emphasizes the purpose of...
(The entire section is 425 words.)
1. Why are the characters in The Canterbury Tales traveling to Canterbury?
A. To visit the queen.
B. To escape legal trouble.
C. To attend a wedding.
D. To make a religious pilgrimage.
E. To act in a theater.
2. Which of the following is NOT a character introduced by the narrator in the Prologue?
3. What does the tavern host suggest as entertainment for the journey to Canterbury?
A. wine drinking
B. a horse race...
(The entire section is 1295 words.)
1. A fabliau is a type of irreverent comic tale, with elements of trickery and vulgarity, written about common people rather than the aristocracy. Explain how The Miller’s Tale and The Reeve’s Tale fit the fabliau genre. Who are the heroes and the fools? How is justice done, and how does it differ in the two tales?
Both The Miller’s Tale and The Reeve’s Tale portray tradesmen who are outsmarted and cuckolded by poorer, younger men of learning. Each tale includes the hallmark elements of fabliau: tricksters, fools, and bawdy subject matter.
In The Miller’s Tale, Nicholas and Alison are the trickster-heroes. They conspire against Alison’s husband John to enable their illicit tryst. To amuse...
(The entire section is 3415 words.)