1. art and entertainment
2. books and literature
3. poetry

Access SE_6-7_Final Confirming2 9/24/01 10:45 PM Page 287
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Answer Key
If young people do not act responsibly toward the environment,
wild or crazy things might happen—or so this poet claims. What
could those wild and crazy things be? Get ready to find out as you
read “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”
and “Turning Off the Faucet.”
Reading
Standard 3.4
Define how
tone or
meaning is
conveyed in
poetry through
word choice,
figurative
language,
sentence
structure, line
length,
punctuation,
rhythm,
repetition, and
rhyme.
Shel Silverstein
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She’d scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
5
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
In lines 1–10 circle the
alliteration—repetition of
the same beginning consonant sound. What effect
does the use of alliteration
have on you, the reader?
And so it piled up to the ceilings:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
10
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
“Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel
Silverstein. Copyright © 1974 by Evil Eye Music, Inc. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out
287
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15
Answer Key
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Underline the adjectives in
lines 16–33 that describe the
garbage. What effect do
these words have on you?
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Crusts of black burned butter toast,
20
Gristly bits of beefy roasts . . .
The garbage rolled on down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall . . .
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
25
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
30
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold french fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That finally it touched the sky.
What do you think happened
to Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
(line 43)?
35
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said,
“OK, I’ll take the garbage out!”
But then, of course, it was too late . . .
40
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
That I cannot right now relate
45
Because the hour is much too late.
But children, remember Sarah Stout
And always take the garbage out!
288
Chapter 7
Rhyme and Reason
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Answer Key
Jeff Moss
If you don’t turn the faucet off tight
When you’re done in the bathroom,
And overflow and flood the bedroom,
This poem is a series of
comical causes and effects.
The first event, the original
cause, is cited in line 1. The
final event occurs in line 20.
Underline all the events that
happen in between. You
should be able to find ten
events.
And all your clothes would get soaking wet,
• • • • • •
You’ll be wasting water.
Also, the sink might fill up
5
And overflow and flood the bathroom,
And then the bathroom would fill up
Notes
• • • • • •
And when you wore them, you’d catch a horrible cold
10
And have to stay home from school
And you couldn’t learn anything
Or see your friends.
And after you’d missed school long enough,
All your friends would forget you
15
And you would be so sad and wet
You’d probably just stay in bed
Wearing your sad, wet clothes
With your sad, wet head
On your sad, wet pillow
20
Until you just shriveled up and wasted away.
And nobody would care.
Except your parents
And they’d be all sad and wet
And shriveling and wasting away, too,
25
Because you didn’t turn the faucet off.
“Turning Off the Faucet” from The Butterfly Jar: Poems by Jeff Moss. Copyright © 1989 by Jeff Moss.
Reprinted by permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Electronic format by permission
of International Creative Management, Inc.
Turning Off the Faucet
289
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Tone and Meaning
Answer Key
Fill in the Tone Cards on the following page to
analyze the tone of each poem. Share your completed cards with a
partner, noting similarities and differences in your choices.
Tone
Prepare one of these poems for reading aloud. The Silverstein
poem is longer and more difficult. You might want to present that
poem in a group reading. If you select a group reading, you will
have to determine which lines will be spoken by which reader. In
your reading, focus on pronunciation and fluency, but you will
also have to think about tone. What tone do you want to convey
in your poem?
Personal Word List
Record the words you learned from the poems in
your Personal Word List.
Personal Reading Log
Record these poems in your Personal Reading
Log. Write a few sentences telling how the poems might be the
subject of a poster you find in a hallway or classroom of your school.
Give yourself 1 point on the Reading Meter.
Checklist for Standards Mastery
Each time you read, you learn
more. Check your progress in mastering the standards using the
Checklist for Standards Mastery.
290
Chapter 7
Rhyme and Reason
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Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not
Take the Garbage Out;
Turning Off the Faucet Interactive Reading, page 287
Interact with Literary Texts
Tone Cards Use the following cards to analyze the poems you
have just read. When you finish, write a brief description of the
tone of each poem.
Title: “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”
Word Choice:
Rhyme and Other Sound Effects:
Rhythm:
Description of Tone:
Title: “Turning Off the Faucet”
Word Choice:
Rhyme and Other Sound Effects:
Rhythm:
Description of Tone:
Graphic Organizer
291
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Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take
the Garbage Out; Turning Off the Faucet
Shel Silverstein/Jeff Moss
■
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would Not Take the
Garbage Out; Turning
Off the Faucet
page 287
■
■
Tell students that these poems teach students lessons about life and
responsibility as they entertain them simultaneously with vivid
images and humor. Ask students if they are familiar with either of
the poets. If so, have them share their opinions of other poems by
the poet they have read.
■
■
Have students locate and read the first note, Word Knowledge,
dealing with alliteration. Read aloud to students the first six lines
of the poem, placing deliberate emphasis on the “s” sound. Point
out to students that the alliteration in the rest of the poem may
not be so heavily based on a single consonant sound, but that they
should be able to find many other examples of the technique in
almost every line of the poem.
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Have students continue reading the poems, using the side-column
notes to guide their reading.
After students have finished reading, divide the class into small
groups, and have students discuss their responses to the sidecolumn notes.
Have students add these poems to their Personal Reading Logs.
Use the Tone Cards on Interactive Reading page 291 to evaluate
students’ understanding of tone.
Photocopy and distribute the “Text Reformulation” Chart in
Section Three of the Teacher’s Edition to use as an informal
assessment.
Use the Comprehension Check on Teacher’s Edition page 95 to
evaluate students’ mastery of the comprehension standard.
Learners Having Difficulty
It might be helpful for students to hear these poems
read aloud, line by line, as
they sit back with closed eyes
and visualize what is taking
place in each.
Benchmark Students
Challenge students to create
comic books for one of the
poems. Make sure each comic
book includes the title of the
poem and accurately presents
the character and events in
the selection. The completed
comic books may be used by
other students as a reader’s
guide to these poems.
Advanced Students Have student groups discuss other topics of personal or social
importance, such as eating
nutritious foods or conserving
energy. Ask students to
develop a fact sheet to support
their cause, and then have
them find or write a poem
that encourages their readers
to take their message seriously. Students can present
their research findings and
poems to each other or to
other classes.
TEACHER TO TEACHER
Both of the poems in this selection lend themselves to partnered or group reading in which
two or more students take turns
reading a line from a poem and
explaining in prose (that is,
reformulating) the meaning
and tone expressed in the line
through the poetic elements of
rhyme, repetition, rhythm, word
choice, sentence structure, punctuation, or figurative language.
Chapter 7
91
95_HRW_ACCESS_GR6TE.PS 9/26/01 1:01 PM Page 95
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Course Print Answer Key
Name ______________________________ Class _____________ Date _____________
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would Not Take the Garbage
Out; Turning Off the Faucet
■
Comprehension Check
Interactive Reading, page 287
Reading Standard 3.4 Define how tone or meaning is conveyed
in poetry through word choice, figurative language, sentence structure, line length, punctuation, rhythm, repetition, and rhyme.
Academic Vocabulary
tone
rhyme
rhythm
word choice
attitude the speaker takes toward the subject
sound repeated at the ends of words
musiclike pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds
selection of words for sound (rhyme and rhythm) and sense
(meaning) in a poem
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
A. Circle the letter of the correct response to each item.
1. How would you describe the pattern of rhymes in “Sarah
Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”?
A Only the first and last lines rhyme. C Every fourth line rhymes.
B Every line has the same rhyme.
D Every two lines rhyme.
2. How would you compare the pattern of rhythm in
Silverstein’s and Moss’s poems?
F Neither poem has a pattern of accented and unaccented syllables.
G The poems have two stressed syllables in each line.
H The first poem has a pattern of stressed syllables in each line, but the
second poem does not.
J The first poem has no regular rhythm, and the second poem has a lot of
rhythm.
3. Which of the following words from Silverstein’s poem shows
how word choice affects a poem’s tone?
A out
C tangerines
B gloppy
D fate
B. Suppose that you were reading these poems to younger children. What would
you say to them about these poems as a brief introduction?
Chapter 7
95
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1:10 PM
Page 116
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Chapter 7
Practice Read: The Just Us Club
Comprehension Check, page 92
A: 1. B
2. H
3. A
B: Answers will vary. Sample answer: I hope my
friend will learn to be friendly with everyone and
not treat some people as if they were inferior.
If We Didn’t Have Birthdays . . .
Comprehension Check, page 93
A: 1. C
2. G
3. B
B: Answers will vary. You might suggest a list
of tones and ask them to choose among
serious, funny, sarcastic, preachy, cruel,
awed, affectionate, etc.
116
Interactive Reading: Teacher’s Edition
Save Our Earth
Comprehension Check, page 94
A: 1. A
2. G
3. D
B: Answers will vary. Most students will point
out that the article is well researched, full of
statistical evidence.
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would
Not Take the Garbage Out;
Turning Off the Faucet
Comprehension Check, page 95
A: 1. D
2. H
3. B
B: Answers will vary. Students could say that
there is a message beyond each poem. The
poets use funny language to get the messages
across to children.
286
Interactive Reading, page 281
Seawater makes up 97%; 2% is frozen; and 1% is freshwater.
homes for animals.
Trees use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen; they provide
The area grows drier, causing a change in the local climate.
Chapter 7
Rhyme and Reason
Student answers will vary.
Evaluation of argument:
Support:
Statement: Cutting down trees can affect the climate.
Support:
Statement: Trees and forest are very important to the environment.
Support:
only a fraction of it.
Statement: Although 2/3 of Earth’s surface is water, we are able to use
Argument-Evaluation Chart Evaluate the arguments in “Save
Our Earth” by filling in the Argument-Evaluation Chart. Then, rate
the writer’s argument based on your findings.
Interact with an Informational Text
Save Our Earth
10
5
poem funny.
287
Alliteration makes the
Sample response:
In lines 1–10 circle the
alliteration—repetition of
the same beginning consonant sound. What effect
does the use of alliteration
have on you, the reader?
Reading
Standard 3.4
Define how
tone or
meaning is
conveyed in
poetry through
word choice,
figurative
language,
sentence
structure, line
length,
punctuation,
rhythm,
repetition, and
rhyme.
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out
“Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel
Silverstein. Copyright © 1974 by Evil Eye Music, Inc. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
And so it piled up to the ceilings:
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
She’d scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Would not take the garbage out!
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Shel Silverstein
and “Turning Off the Faucet.”
read “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”
could those wild and crazy things be? Get ready to find out as you
wild or crazy things might happen—or so this poet claims. What
If young people do not act responsibly toward the environment,
Access TE_6-Ch7Anno_Final 10/17/01 4:36 PM Page 263
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Chapter 7
Pupil Pages 262–291
Pupil Pages with Answers
263
264
Interactive Reading: Teacher’s Edition
288
Chapter 7
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
Rhyme and Reason
Answers will vary.
What do you think happened
to Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
(line 43)?
disgusting.
make the garbage
say the adjectives
Most students will
Underline the adjectives in
lines 16–33 that describe the
garbage. What effect do
these words have on you?
And always take the garbage out!
But children, remember Sarah Stout
Because the hour is much too late.
That I cannot right now relate
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
The garbage reached across the state,
But then, of course, it was too late . . .
“OK, I’ll take the garbage out!”
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And all the neighbors moved away,
That finally it touched the sky.
At last the garbage reached so high
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
Cold french fries and rancid meat,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall . . .
The garbage rolled on down the hall,
Gristly bits of beefy roasts . . .
Crusts of black burned butter toast,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
25
20
15
10
5
“Turning Off the Faucet” from The Butterfly Jar: Poems by Jeff Moss. Copyright © 1989 by Jeff Moss.
Reprinted by permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Electronic format by permission
of International Creative Management, Inc.
Because you didn’t turn the faucet off.
And shriveling and wasting away, too,
And they’d be all sad and wet
Except your parents
And nobody would care.
Until you just shriveled up and wasted away.
On your sad, wet pillow
With your sad, wet head
Wearing your sad, wet clothes
You’d probably just stay in bed
And you would be so sad and wet
All your friends would forget you
And after you’d missed school long enough,
Or see your friends.
And you couldn’t learn anything
And have to stay home from school
And when you wore them, you’d catch a horrible cold
And all your clothes would get soaking wet,
And overflow and flood the bedroom,
And then the bathroom would fill up
And overflow and flood the bathroom,
Also, the sink might fill up
You’ll be wasting water.
When you’re done in the bathroom,
If you don’t turn the faucet off tight
Jeff Moss
Notes
289
• • • • • •
Turning Off the Faucet
• • • • • •
This poem is a series of
comical causes and effects.
The first event, the original
cause, is cited in line 1. The
final event occurs in line 20.
Underline all the events that
happen in between. You
should be able to find ten
events.
HRW TE_6_S2 CH7_2nd Printing_F 12/28/01 1:32 PM Page 264
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Chapter 7
Pupil Pages 262–291
290
Chapter 7
Fill in the Tone Cards on the following page to
Prepare one of these poems for reading aloud. The Silverstein
Record the words you learned from the poems in
Record these poems in your Personal Reading
Each time you read, you learn
Rhyme and Reason
Checklist for Standards Mastery.
more. Check your progress in mastering the standards using the
Checklist for Standards Mastery
Give yourself 1 point on the Reading Meter.
subject of a poster you find in a hallway or classroom of your school.
Log. Write a few sentences telling how the poems might be the
Personal Reading Log
your Personal Word List.
Personal Word List
in your poem?
also have to think about tone. What tone do you want to convey
your reading, focus on pronunciation and fluency, but you will
have to determine which lines will be spoken by which reader. In
poem in a group reading. If you select a group reading, you will
poem is longer and more difficult. You might want to present that
Tone
partner, noting similarities and differences in your choices.
analyze the tone of each poem. Share your completed cards with a
Tone and Meaning
Description of Tone: serious but silly
Rhythm: conversational; some sentences repeated for rhythm
Rhyme and Other Sound Effects: none
Title: “Turning Off the Faucet”
Word Choice: normal; expected words for the situation described
Description of Tone: funny, silly, nonsensical
Rhythm: bouncy and lively; four stressed syllables per line
lots of alliteration
Graphic Organizer
some funny rhymes: peel/oatmeal, ceilings/peelings, baloney/macaroni;
Rhyme and Other Sound Effects: rhymes every two lines except lines 37–38;
gooey bubble gum
Title: “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”
Word Choice: great sound effects: gloppy glumps, gristly bits, globs of
Tone Cards Use the following cards to analyze the poems you
have just read. When you finish, write a brief description of the
tone of each poem.
Interact with Literary Texts
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not
Take the Garbage Out;
Turning Off the Faucet Interactive Reading, page 287
291
Access TE_6-Ch7Anno_Final 10/17/01 4:36 PM Page 265
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Chapter 7
Pupil Pages 262–291
Pupil Pages with Answers
265