Use the story and the poem to answer the following questions.
The Carpenter's Apprentice
1 Before Ben started to work with me, I had advised him to buy a quality set of tools. “Good tools are expensive,” I had told him, “but they will last for years.” On Ben’s first day of work, the head of the cheap hammer he had bought flew off and put a hole in a wall.
2 One Monday, as we ate our lunch in the truck outside the Pine Street house, Ben told me that he had made a few phone calls for us. “The lumberyard across town can deliver what we need tomorrow. We could finish the job by noon on Friday!”
3I turned and met his eyes. “I think I told you that I don’t do business with that lumberyard anymore. The last order I got from them had warps, splits, and four-inch knots on every piece.”
4 “But if we wait until the other delivery on Thursday, we won’t finish the job until Monday or Tuesday of next week.”
5 I continued to look at him. Ben was thinking of his plans for the weekend, but I was thinking of our obligation to the house’s owner to do the job right using only quality materials.
6 “Ben,” I sighed, “how would you like to live in this house?” He looked up at me quizzically, as though I were making him an offer. “Would you like to live in this house if it were built your way, using inferior lumber? Would you want to walk around on a floor with warped supports under it and sleep under a roof built with split and knotted wood? We need to do this right, Ben. You can’t build a house twice.”
7A philosopher, I’m not sure who, once said something to the effect that when you finish building your house, you realize all that you have learned in the process—and you realize, too, that all you have learned you should have known before you started.
Use the story and the poem to answer the following questions.
The Carpenter
1 A house is sketched on paper,
Then drawn on plans of blue.
But it is the carpenter’s careful labor
That makes the dream come true.
5 Calloused hands unroll the blueprint.
Keen eyes review with ease.
A young man might see a house,
But a home the carpenter sees.
He cuts and shapes with vision.
10 His goal is understood:
He converts the lines and numbers
Into lengths of measured wood.
Like an artist he wields his hammer,
Pounding rhythms to his own beat.
15 He sculpts and forms a framework
That painted walls will soon complete.
Like an athlete he climbs and balances.
Lifting, fastening bulky beams,
Building the backbone of a sturdy house,
20 He frames a family’s dreams.
Walls and windows, floors and doors,
The carpenter adds with care.
He knows a fireplace heats a house,
But a happy family warms the air.
25 When the home of dreams is ready,
An inner smile he then sets free.
A young man might see a house,
But a home the carpenter sees.
9
Which sentence BEST describes a difference between the ways that the poem and the story approach their topics?
A
The poem focuses on the steps it takes for an individual carpenter to become successful, while the story focuses on the teamwork necessary for two carpenters to complete a project.
B
The poem focuses on the details of a family who will live in a house, while the story focuses on the frustrations of two carpenters who are having difficulty completing their project.
C
The poem focuses on one carpenter’s relationship to a project, while the story focuses on two carpenters’ different approaches to completing a project.
D
The poem focuses on the relationship between a carpenter and the family he works for, while the story focuses on the individual steps it takes to complete a project.