A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

PART A: Reread the conclusion of the story. How does the author’s portrayal of the old man departing contribute to the meaning of the text?

A. The ending shows how even sympathetic reactions are rooted in selfishness.

B. People have the ability to shape their future, if they’re willing to do what it takes.

C. Although some people believe they can control their fate, it will go away and leave them alone.

D. While people may believe they can outsmart death, it will always be one step ahead of them.

PART B: Which quote from paragraph 13 best supports the answer to Part A?

A. “But he must have known the reason for those changes, for he was quite careful that no one should notice them”

B. “Elisenda let out a sigh of relief, for herself and for him, when she watched him pass over the last houses, holding himself up in some way with the risky flapping of a senile vulture.”

C. “Then she went to the window and caught the angel in his first attempts at flight. They were so clumsy that his fingernails opened a furrow in the vegetable patch and he was on the point of knocking the shed down with the ungainly flapping that slipped on the light and couldn’t get a grip on the air.”

D. “She kept watching him even when she was through cutting the onions and she kept on watching until it was no longer possible for her to see him, because then he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea.”