SAT OwlQuestion bank / Command of Evidence
"The Whistle" is a 1916 poem by Lewis Harrow. In the poem, the speaker suggests that the factory whistle controls the daily lives of the town's residents, as when the speaker says, ______
Which quotation from "The Whistle" most effectively illustrates the claim?
"At six it shrieks, and every door swings wide; / At noon, at six again, the town obeys."
"The river runs as brown as strong-brewed tea / Beneath the bridge where boys once used to fish."
"The chimneys write their letters on the sky / In loops of smoke that no one stops to read."
"My mother kept a garden by the wall / And grew her beans where now the coal is piled."
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The claim is that the whistle controls daily life. In choice A, doors swing open when it shrieks at six, and at noon and six again "the town obeys," so the whistle sets the town's schedule.
Choice C shows the factory's presence through its smoke, but it says nothing about the whistle directing what people do.
Why the other choices are wrong
- B. These lines describe a polluted river and don't connect the whistle to people's routines.
- C. These lines picture the factory's smoke, but nothing in them shows the whistle directing what people do.
- D. These lines describe a lost garden, not the whistle's control over daily life.
Got it wrong? On SAT Owl, Owl looks at the answer you chose and explains the exact mistake, then gives you similar questions until it sticks. Get your predicted SAT score free, or take a free full-length practice test.