MAKING MEANING

About the Author

from Silent Spring
Concept Vocabulary
You will encounter the following words as you read the excerpt from
Silent Spring. Before reading, note how familiar you are with each word.
Then, rank the words in order from most familiar (1) to least familiar (6).

Even as a child, Rachel WORD YOUR RANKING

Carson (1907–1964)
blight
wanted to be a writer.
Once in college, she
maladies
renewed her interest in
nature and majored in
puzzled
marine biology. She later
earned a master’s degree in stricken
zoology. Carson had long
been worried about the stillness
overuse of pesticides and
wanted to raise awareness deserted
about this problem. Her
book Silent Spring became
After completing your first read, come back to the concept vocabulary
one of the most influential
and review your rankings. Mark changes to your original rankings
environmental texts ever
as needed.
written.

First Read NONFICTION

Tool Kit Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
First-Read Guide and opportunity to complete the close-read notes after your first read.
Model Annotation

NOTICE the general ideas of ANNOTATE by marking

the text. What is it about? vocabulary and key passages
Who is involved? you want to revisit.
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CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing

the selection to what you the Comprehension Check and
already know and what you by writing a brief summary of
have already read. the selection.

 STANDARDS
Reading Informational Text
By the end of the year, read and
comprehend literary nonfiction in
the grades 6–8 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range.

362 UNIT 4 • PEOPLE AND THE PLANET

 ANCHOR TEXT | DESCRIPTIVE NONFICTION

from
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson

BACKGROUND
Pesticides are chemical compounds designed to destroy crop-eating
insects. Pesticides can be deadly to many species—including
humans—in addition to the insects and other pests they are intended
to kill. In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which revealed
to the public the dangers of DDT, a pesticide in wide use at the time.
The awareness raised by Silent Spring eventually led the United States to
ban DDT entirely in 1972. This excerpt comes from the opening pages
of the book.

T
NOTES
1 here was once a town in the heart of America where all life
seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town CLOSE READ
lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields ANNOTATE: In
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of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of paragraph 2, mark
details the author uses
bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple
to describe the rich
and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a environment of the town.
backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently
QUESTION: Why might
crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings.
the author have used such
2 Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and
vivid, descriptive details to
wildflowers delighted the traveler’s eye through much of the describe the town?
year. Even in winter the roadsides were places of beauty, where
CONCLUDE: What can you
countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads
conclude about the town
of the dried weeds rising above the snow. The countryside was, from these details?
in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and
when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and
fall people traveled from great distances to observe them. Others
came to fish the streams, which flowed clear and cold out of the

from Silent Spring 363

 hills and contained shady pools where trout lay. So it had been
NOTES from the days many years ago when the first settlers raised their
houses, sank their wells, and built their barns.
blight (blyt) n. something 3 Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything
that spoils, prevents began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community:
growth, or destroys
mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and
maladies (MAL uh deez) n. sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. The
illnesses or diseases
farmers spoke of much illness among their families. In the town
puzzled (PUHZ uhld) adj. the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of
confused and unable to sickness appearing among their patients. There had been several
understand something
sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even
stricken (STRIHK uhn) adj. among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play
very badly affected by and die within a few hours.
trouble or illness
4 There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where
stillness (STIHL nihs) n. had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and
absence of noise or motion disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted.
The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled
violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the
mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins,
catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices, there
was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and
marsh.
5 On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The
farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs—the
litters were small and the young survived only a few days. The
apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among
the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be
no fruit.
6 The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned
and withered vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were
deserted (dih ZUR tihd) adj. silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now
abandoned; empty lifeless. Anglers* no longer visited them, for all the fish had died.

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7 In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the
roofs, a white granular powder still showed a few patches; some
weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns,
the fields and streams.
8 No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new
life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.
9 This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a
thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world.
I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes
I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened
somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered
a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us
almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a
stark reality we all shall know. ❧
* anglers (ANG gluhrz) n. people who fish with a line and hook.

364 UNIT 4 • PEOPLE AND THE PLANET

 Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read.

1. What are two animals that attracted visitors to the town?

2. What happened to the animals and the people in the town?

3. What fell on the roofs, lawns, fields, and streams?

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4. Notebook Write a brief summary of the excerpt from Silent Spring.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly research
that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of
the text?

from Silent Spring 365

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read the Text

1. This model, from paragraph 3 of the text, shows two sample
annotations, along with questions and conclusions. Close read the
passage, and find another detail to annotate. Then, write a question
from SILENT SPRING
and your conclusion.

ANNOTATE: The author uses descriptive

details to show the changes in the town.
QUESTION: What kind of mood do these
words create? ANNOTATE: The
author uses the
CONCLUDE: This description creates a
words everything
sense of destruction and despair.
and everywhere.
QUESTION: Why
Then a strange blight crept over the does the author
area and everything began to change. use two words
Some evil spell had settled on the containing the
community: mysterious maladies word every?
swept the flocks of chickens; the CONCLUDE:
cattle and sheep sickened and died. The use of these
words shows
Everywhere was a shadow of death.
the widespread
The farmers spoke of much illness impact of the
among their families. blight.

Tool Kit 2. For more practice, go back into the text and complete the
Close-Read Guide and close-read notes.
Model Annotation 3. Revisit a section of the text you found important during your
first read. Read this section closely and annotate what you
notice. Ask yourself questions such as “Why did the author
make this choice?” What can you conclude?

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 STANDARDS CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
Reading Informational Text Analyze the Text to support your answers.
• Cite several pieces of textual
evidence to support analysis of what Notebook Respond to these questions.
the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text. 1. (a) Interpret In paragraph 1, what does the phrase “heart of
• Determine two or more central America” suggest? (b) Speculate Why does Carson use this phrase in
ideas in a text and analyze their the first paragraph?
development over the course of the
text; provide an objective summary 2. Make Inferences In the book, the excerpt you read is called “A Fable
of the text. for Tomorrow.” Why does Carson use this title for this section of the
• Determine the meaning of words
and phrases as they are used in a book?
text, including figurative, connotative,
and technical meanings; analyze the
3. Essential Question: What effects do people have on the
impact of a specific word choice on environment? What have you learned about the effects people have
meaning and tone. on the environment by reading this selection?
Language
Distinguish among the connotations
of words with similar denotations.

366 UNIT 4 • PEOPLE AND THE PLANET

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What effects do people have on the environment?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Author’s Word Choice: Imagery Imagery is language that includes
images—words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five
senses. A writer uses imagery to bring his or her writing to life with vivid
descriptions of how the subjects look, sound, feel, taste, or smell. A writer’s
word choice, or the specific words, phrases, and expressions he or she
uses, contributes to memorable imagery. Look at the following examples
of imagery, and note the ways in which the individual words help create a
realistic image for readers:

• The phrase “sweet, slippery mango slices” appeals to the senses of

taste and touch.
• The phrase “glaring lights and wailing sirens” appeals to the senses
of sight and hearing.

Writers also create mood through their use of imagery, word choice, and
descriptive details. Mood is the feeling created in the reader by a piece
of writing. The mood of a work may be described with adjectives such
as joyous or frightening. To fully appreciate images and experience the
mood of a text, use these strategies:

• determine the specific meanings of unfamiliar words

• consider the connotations, or emotional associations, of words, as
well as their figurative, or nonliteral, meanings
• analyze the author’s word choice, and make inferences, or educated
guesses, as to why the author may have chosen certain words

As you review the excerpt from Silent Spring, notice how Carson uses
word choice and imagery to create a mood that helps make her central
idea more powerful and compelling.

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Practice to support your answers.

Notebook Respond to these questions.

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1. Review the selection. Then, use a chart like this one to list four images in the
text and the sense to which each image appeals.
IMAGE SENSE

2. (a) A specter is a source of terror or dread. Why might Carson have chosen
to use this word in the last sentence of the excerpt? (b) What mood does this
word choice create?
3. How does Carson’s use of imagery help to develop the central idea of the
excerpt? Cite at least two textual examples to support your response.

from Silent Spring 367

 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Concept Vocabulary
blight puzzled stillness
maladies   stricken    deserted
from SILENT SPRING
Why These Words? The concept vocabulary words from the text are
related to unwelcome change—in this case, to a town’s landscape. For
example, after the town is stricken with the mysterious blight, there is a
strange stillness everywhere.

1. How does the concept vocabulary sharpen the reader’s understanding

of what happens to the town and its people?

2. What other words in the selection are related to this concept?

 WORD NETWORK Practice

Add interesting words Notebook First, correctly complete each sentence using a concept
related to people and the vocabulary word. Then, identify one synonym, or word with a similar
planet from the text to your meaning, and one antonym, or word with an opposite meaning, for
Word Network. each vocabulary word.
1. When she returned home from the music festival, the woman found
the ________ of her apartment strange in comparison.
2. When the concert hall was ________, you could hear a pin drop from
across the room.
3. After carefully following the recipe, Alfredo was _______ when the
cake came out of the oven, hard as a rock.
4. The _______ destroyed the potatoes grown in the county.
5. Common ________, such as colds and flus, affect the most people
during the winter.

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6. Before the return of their lost pet, the family had been ________ with
worry and fear.

 STANDARDS
Language Word Study
• Demonstrate command of the
conventions of standard English Notebook Anglo-Saxon Suffix: -ness The Anglo-Saxon suffix
grammar and usage when writing or
-ness means “the condition or quality of being.” It usually indicates that
speaking.
• Use knowledge of language and its the word in which it appears is a noun. In the text, Carson describes the
conventions when writing, speaking, stillness that occurs after the blight as “strange.” It is strange because
reading, or listening.
• Determine or clarify the meaning
the absence of noise and movement is unusual in the town.
of unknown and multiple-meaning 1. Write your own sentence that correctly uses the word stillness.
words and phrases based on grade 7
reading and content, choosing 2. Find a word in paragraph 3 of the excerpt that ends with the suffix
flexibly from a range of strategies.
• Use the relationship between -ness, and write a sentence that shows your understanding of it.
particular words to better understand
each of the words.

368 UNIT 4 • PEOPLE AND THE PLANET

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What effects do people have on the environment?

Conventions
Verb Mood—The Subjunctive Speakers and writers convey their
attitudes toward the actions expressed by verbs by using different
moods. The indicative mood is used for statements of fact. By contrast,
the subjunctive mood expresses one of the following:
• a wish or desire
• a condition that is highly unlikely or contrary to fact
• a request or demand for action

Subjunctive verbs are often found in clauses that begin with if, as if, as
though, or that. This chart shows situations in which a speaker or writer
would use the subjunctive mood.

Indicative Mood Subjunctive Mood What Subjunctive Expresses

Jill is coming with us. I wish that Jill were coming with us. wish
She knows the answer. She wishes that she knew the answer.

He will not be elected. If he were elected, we’d be shocked. condition that is highly unlikely

I am at home. If I were at home, I’d take a nap. condition that is contrary to fact
Jake has a new car. If Jake had a new car, he’d be happy.

They are quiet. We asked that they be quiet. request

Matt works hard. Kia insisted that Matt work hard. demand or strong suggestion

Avoid using the incorrect verb form to express the subjunctive mood,
especially for third-person singular verbs and all forms of the verb be.
Incorrect: Blake speaks as if he was in charge.
Correct: Blake speaks as if he were in charge.

Incorrect: Julia’s mother requires that she gets home before dinner.
Correct: Julia’s mother requires that she get home before dinner.
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Read It
Identify the mood of each sentence, and tell what it expresses.
1. I wish that the town were filled with birds again.

2. If the town’s settlers were present, they would be sad.

Write It
Notebook Identify the incorrect verb form in each sentence. Then,
rewrite the sentence correctly.
1. Carson wishes that she was wrong about the fate of the town.
2. The situation Carson relates seems to demand that I am more aware
of my effects on the environment.

from Silent Spring 369

 EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION

Writing to Sources
Assignment
In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson paints a harsh picture of the future.
Write an argument in which you answer this question: Does Carson’s
from SILENT SPRING
description inspire readers to take action, or does it discourage action
because the problem seems so big?
First, decide on your position. Then, review the selection to find
specific details that support your position. As you draft, be sure to do
the following:
• State your position clearly in the introduction.
• In the body of your argument, support your position with reasons
and evidence, including specific details from Silent Spring.
• Address alternate, or opposing, positions, and respond with
counterarguments that address these views.
• Use transitional words and phrases to connect your ideas and
show the relationships among them.
• Establish and maintain a formal style.

Vocabulary and Conventions Connection Think about including

several of the concept vocabulary words in your writing. Also, remember
to avoid improper shifts in mood in your writing by using verbs in the
indicative and subjunctive moods correctly.

blight puzzled stillness

maladies    stricken    deserted

Reflect on Your Writing

After you have written your argument, answer these questions.
 STANDARDS Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Writing 1. Was it easy or difficult to determine your position?
Write arguments to support claims
with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.
a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge
alternate or opposing claims, and 2. Have your ideas about our ability to solve environmental problems
organize the reasons and evidence changed after writing this argument? Why or why not?
logically.
b. Support claim(s) with
logical reasoning and relevant
evidence, using accurate, credible
sources and demonstrating an 3. Why These Words? The words you choose make a difference in
understanding of the topic or text. your writing. Which words did you specifically choose to make your
c. Use words, phrases, and clauses argument stronger?
to create cohesion and clarify
the relationships among claim(s),
reasons, and evidence.
d. Establish and maintain a formal
style.

370 UNIT 4 • PEOPLE AND THE PLANET

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What effects do people have on the environment?

Speaking and Listening

Assignment
Choose one of the following topics, conduct research on the topic, and
deliver a multimedia presentation of your findings to the class.
the importance of Silent Spring and the impact it had on the way
in which humans view their environment
the struggle to ban DDT and the ban’s eventual victory
the parallels between the current threats to bee populations
worldwide and the impacts DDT had on wildlife when Carson
wrote Silent Spring

1. Organize Your Presentation

• Research the topic you have chosen.
 EVIDENCE LOG
• Use credible Internet and library resources to gather information
Before moving on to a new
and relevant visual aids.
selection, go to your log
2. Prepare Your Presentation and record what you’ve
• Use the information you find to create your presentation. learned from Silent Spring.

• Decide how to sequence textual and visual information so that

each emphasizes your main points.
3. Deliver Your Presentation
• Explain why you chose your topic.
• Maintain eye contact with your audience.
• Speak at an appropriate volume and with clear pronunciation so as
to be heard by the entire class.  Standards
Writing
4. Evaluate Presentations Use a presentation evaluation guide like the
• Conduct short research projects
one shown to analyze your classmates’ presentations. to answer a question, drawing on
several sources and generating
additional related, focused questions
for further research and investigation.
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PRESENTATION EVALUATION GUIDE

• Gather relevant information from
Rate each statement on a scale of 1 (Not Demonstrated) to multiple print and digital sources,
5 (Demonstrated). using search terms effectively; assess
the credibility and accuracy of each
source; and quote or paraphrase the
The speaker clearly explained the topic and his or her reasons for data and conclusions of others while
choosing the topic. avoiding plagiarism and following a
standard format for citation.
The presentation included well-sequenced multimedia that Speaking and Listening
emphasized the main points. • Present claims and findings,
emphasizing salient points in a
focused, coherent manner with
The presentation was easy to follow, and the speaker maintained pertinent descriptions, facts, details,
appropriate volume and eye contact. and examples; use appropriate eye
contact, adequate volume, and clear
pronunciation.
• Include multimedia components
and visual displays in presentations
to clarify claims and findings and
emphasize salient points.

from Silent Spring 371