The woodpeckers all build in about the same manner, excavating the trunk or branch of a decayed tree, and depositing the eggs on the fine fragments of wood at the bottom of the cavity. Though the nest is not especially an artistic work, requiring strength rather than skill, yet the eggs and the young of few other birds are so completely housed from the elements, or protected from their natural enemies—the jays, crows, hawks, and owls. A tree with a natural cavity is never selected, but one which has been dead just long enough to have become soft and brittle throughout. The bird goes in horizontally for a few inches, making a hole perfectly round and smooth and adapted to his size, then turns downward, gradually enlarging the hole, as he proceeds, to the depth of ten, fifteen, twenty inches, according to the softness of the tree and the urgency of the mother bird to deposit her eggs. While excavating, male and female work alternately. After one has been engaged fifteen or twenty minutes, drilling and carrying out chips, it ascends to an upper limb, utters a loud call or two, when its mate soon appears, and, alighting near it on the branch, the pair chatter and caress a moment; then the fresh one enters the cavity and the other flies away.
The tone of this passage is primarily
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Correct Answer: A
Apart from a brief allusion to the close relationship between male and female woodpeckers at the end of the passage—that could perhaps be called “affectionate” or “whimsical”—the tone throughout this passage is primarily “academic.” “Academic” means relating to education and instruction. The author adopts a serious tone and tries to impart several precise lessons throughout the short text. This tone is most clearly seen in the middle of the passage, which reads, “The bird goes in horizontally for a few inches, making a hole perfectly round and smooth and adapted to his size, then turns downward, gradually enlarging the hole, as he proceeds, to the depth of ten, fifteen, twenty inches, according to the softness of the tree and the urgency of the mother bird to deposit her eggs.” To provide further help, “ominous” means threatening or suggesting bad things will happen; “outlandish” means extravagant and ridiculous; “affectionate” means loving; and “whimsical” means silly and quirky.