Call of The Wild by Jack London

The Grammardog Guide to
The Call of the Wild

by Jack London
All exercises use sentences from the novel.

Includes over 250 multiple choice questions.
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THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London – Grammar and Style
All exercises use sentences from the novel.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Exercise 1 -- Parts of Speech .....3

25 multiple choice questions
Exercise 2 -- Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization, .....5

and Punctuation
Exercise 3 -- Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization, .....6

and Punctuation
Exercise 4 -- Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences .....7

Exercise 5 -- Complements .....9

25 multiple choice questions on direct object,
indirect object, predicate nominative,
predicate adjective, and object of preposition
Exercise 6 -- Phrases . . . . 11
25 multiple choice questions on infinitive,
gerund, prepositional, appositive, and
participial phrases
Exercise 7 -- Verbals . . . . 13
25 multiple choice questions on infinitives,
gerunds, and participles
Exercise 8 -- Clauses . . . . 15
Exercise 9 -- Style: Figurative Language . . . . 17

25 multiple choice questions on metaphor,
simile, onomatopoeia, and personification
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Exercise 10 -- Style: Poetic Devices . . . . 19

25 multiple choice questions on assonance,
consonance, alliteration, repetition, and
rhyme
Exercise 11 -- Style: Sensory Imagery . . . . 21

Exercise 12 -- Style: Allusions and Symbols . . . . 23

Exercise 13 -- Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 1 . . . . 25




Answer Key Answers to Exercises 1-16 . . . . 33
Glossary -- Definitions of Terms Used in

Literary Analysis . . . . 35
2
EXERCISE 1 PARTS OF SPEECH
Identify the parts of speech in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
v = verb n = noun adj = adjective adv = adverb
prep = preposition pron = pronoun int = interjection conj = conjunction
____1. Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley.
____2. The house was approached by graveled driveways which wound about through
wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars.
____3. No one saw him and Buck go off through the orchard on what Buck
imagined was merely a stroll.
____4. Buck had accepted the rope with quiet dignity.
____5. Four men gingerly carried the crate from the wagon into a small,
high-walled back yard.
____6. A stout man, with a red sweater that sagged generously at the neck,
came out and signed the book for the driver.
____7. He had never been struck by a club in his life, and did not understand.
____8. All the pain he had endured was as nothing compared with the exquisite
agony of this.
____9. Buck’s senses came back to him, but not his strength.
____10. Hal cried “Whoa! whoa!” but they gave no heed.
____11. Close in under the sheltering rock Buck made his nest.
____12. There was not one who was not wounded in four or five places, while some
were wounded grievously.
____13. The huskies had chewed through the sled lashings and canvas coverings.
____14. They were coated solidly with ice, and the two men kept them on the run
around the fire, sweating and thawing, so close that they were singed by
the flames.
____15. He sprang on Buck, and twice his teeth sank into his unresisting foe and
ripped and tore the flesh to the bone.
3
EXERCISE 1 PARTS OF SPEECH
____16. From then on it was war between them.
____17. The insidious revolt led by Buck had destroyed the solidarity of the team.
____18. No more was Spitz a leader greatly to be feared.
____19. “Pooh! pooh!” said John Thornton; “Buck can start a thousand pounds.”
____20. He glanced from face to face in the absent way of a man who has lost the
power of thought and is seeking somewhere to find the thing that will start
it going again.
____21. Thornton was running behind, encouraging Buck with short, cheery words.
____22. To Buck it was boundless delight, this hunting, fishing, and indefinite
wandering through strange places.
____23. Another time they chanced upon the time-graven wreckage of a hunting
lodge, and amid the shreds of rotted blankets John Thornton found a
long-barreled flintlock.
____24. Then an old wolf, gaunt and battle-scarred, came forward.
____25. But to prevent them from getting behind him, he was forced back, down
past the pool and into the creek bed, till he brought up against a high
gravel bank.
4
EXERCISE 2 PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION
Read the following passages and decide which type of error, if any, appears in each underlined section.
PASSAGE 1 PASSAGE 2
Buck saw money pass between them, and was Curly and he were taken belowe by Perrault
1 1
not surprised when curly, a good-natured and turned over to a black-faced Giant called
2 2
newfoundland, and he were led away by the Francois Perrault was a French-Canadian,
3 3
little weazened man. That was the last he saw of and swarthy; but Francois was a French-
the man in the red swaeter, and as Curly and he canadian half-breed, and twice as swarthy.
4 4
looked at receding Seattle from, the deck of the They were a new kind of men to Buck (of which
5
narwhal, it was the last he saw of the warm he was destined to see many more, and while
6 5
Southland. he developed no afection for them, he none the
6
less grew honestly to respect them.
____1. a. Spelling ____1. a. Spelling

b. Capitalization b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation c. Punctuation
d. No error d. No error





5
EXERCISE 3 PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION
Read the following passages and decide which type of error, if any, appears in each underlined section.
PASSAGE 1 PASSAGE 2
Nobody spoke. Thorntons bluff, if bluff Men offered ods of two to one that Buck could
1 1
it was, had been called. He could feel a flush not budge the sled. A quibble arose concerning
of warm blood creepping up his face. His tongue the phrase “break out” O’Brien contended it was
2 2
had tricked him. he did not know whether Buck Thornton’s privilege to knock the runners lose,
3 3
could start a thousand pounds. Half a ton! The leaving buck to “break it out” from a dead
4 4
enormousnes of it appalled him. He had great standstill Matthewson insisted that the phrase
5 5
faith in Bucks’ strength and had often thought him included breaking the runners from the frozzen
6 6
capable of starting such a load . . . grip of the snow.






6
EXERCISE 4 SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
Label each of the following sentences S for simple, C for compound, CX for complex,
or CC for compound/complex.
____1. Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was
brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle
and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego.
____2. Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley.
____3. But his strength ebbed, his eyes glazed, and he knew nothing when the train
was flagged and the two men threw him into the baggage car.
____4. His hand was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief, and the right trouser leg
was ripped from knee to ankle.
____5. The kidnapper undid the bloody wrappings and looked at his lacerated hand.
____6. Dazed, suffering intolerable pain from throat and tongue, with the life half
throttled out of him, Buck attempted to face his tormentors.
____7. But he was thrown down and choked repeatedly, till they succeeded in filing
the heavy brass collar from off his neck.
____8. He could not understand what it all meant.
____9. And each time the joyful bark that trembled in Buck’s throat was twisted
into a savage growl.
____10. Then he, and the crate in which he was imprisoned, began a passage through
many hands.
____11. They growled and barked like detestable dogs, mewed, and flapped their arms
and crowed.
____12. He did not mind the hunger so much, but the lack of water caused him severe
suffering and fanned his wrath to fever pitch.
____13. Also he saw one dog, that would neither conciliate nor obey, finally killed in
the struggle for mastery.
____14. He lay down on the snow and attempted to sleep, but the frost soon drove him
shivering to his feet.
7
EXERCISE 4 SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
____15. With drooping tail and shivering body, very forlorn indeed, he aimlessly
circled the tent.
____16. It had snowed during the night and he was completely buried.
____17. The dog driver held the ax poised in his hand, and as Buck shot past him
the ax crashed down upon mad Dolly’s head.
____18. When the sled started, he floundered in the soft snow alongside the beaten
trail, attacking Sol-leks with his teeth, rushing against him and trying to
thrust him off into the soft snow on the other side, striving to leap inside
his traces and get between him and the sled, and all the while whining and
yelping and crying with grief and pain.
____19. Thirty days from the time it left Dawson, the Salt Water Mail, with Buck and
his mates at the fore, arrived at Skagway.
____20. Their feet fell heavily on the trail, jarring their bodies and doubling the
fatigue of a day’s travel.
____21. Three days passed, by which time Buck and his mates found how really
tired and weak they were.
____22. Buck watched them apprehensively as they proceeded to take down the tent
and load the sled.
____23. The dogs sprang against the breastbands, strained hard for a few moments,
then relaxed.
____24. With the newcomers hopeless and forlorn, and the old team worn out by
twenty-five hundred miles of continuous trail, the outlook was anything
but bright.
____25. It was inevitable that they should go short on dog food.
8
EXERCISE 5 COMPLEMENTS
Identify the complements in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
d.o. = direct object i.o. = indirect object p.n. = predicate nominative
o.p. = object of preposition p.a. = predicate adjective
____1. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs,
with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them
from the frost.
____2. He was not so large – he weighed only one hundred and forty pounds – for
his mother, Shep, had been a Scotch shepherd dog.
____3. Hunting and kindred outdoor delights had kept down the fat and hardened
his muscles; and to him, as to the cold-tubbing races, the love of water had
been a tonic and a health preserver.
____4. The Judge was at a meeting of the Raisin Growers’ Association, and the boys
were busy organizing an athletic club, on the memorable night of Manuel’s
treachery.
____5. A stout man, with a red sweater that sagged generously at the neck, came
out and signed the book for the driver.
____6. And Buck was truly a red-eyed devil, as he drew himself together for the
spring, hair bristling, mouth foaming, a mad glitter in his bloodshot eyes.
____7. So terrible was his appearance that Spitz was forced to forgo disciplining
him; but to cover his own discomfiture he turned upon the inoffensive and
and wailing Billee and drove him to the confines of the camp.
____8. His muscles became hard as iron, and he grew callous to all ordinary pain.
____9. His newborn cunning gave him poise and control.
____10. The tent they had discarded at Dyea in order to travel light.
____11. Once, his teeth closed on the foreleg of a husky, and he crunched down
through the bone.
____12. The insidious revolt led by Buck had destroyed the solidarity of the team.
____13. Spitz was a practiced fighter.
____14. Spitz was untouched, while Buck was streaming with blood and panting hard.
9
EXERCISE 5 COMPLEMENTS
____15. Buck and his comrades looked upon them with disgust, and though
he speedily taught them their places and what not to do, he could not
teach them what to do.
____16. Buck refused to move under the rain of heavier blows which now fell
upon him.
____17. This man had saved his life, which was something; but, further, he was
the ideal master.
____18. Nothing was too great for Buck to do, when Thornton commanded.
____19. Later on, in the fall of the year, he saved John Thornton’s life in quite
another fashion.
____20. And through another winter they wandered on the obliterated trails of
men who had gone before.
____21. Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler crimes.
____22. The blood longing became stronger than ever before.
____23. He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided,
alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly
in a hostile environment where only the strong survived.
____24. His nose gave him a varying description of the passage of the life on the
heels of which he was traveling.
____25. One wolf, long and lean and gray, advanced cautiously, in a friendly
manner, and Buck recognized the wild brother with whom he had run
for a night and a day.
10
EXERCISE 6 PHRASES
Identify the phrases in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
par = participial ger = gerund inf = infinitive appos = appositive prep = prepositional
____1. His father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judge’s inseparable
companion, and Buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father.
____2. But to his surprise, the rope tightened around his neck, shutting off
his breath.
____3. He had traveled too often with the Judge not to know the sensation of
riding in a baggage car.
____4. There he lay for the remainder of the weary night, nursing his wrath and
wounded pride.
____5. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he was metamorphosed into a raging fiend.
____6. The scene often came back to Buck to trouble him in his sleep.
____7. To his astonishment, they had disappeared.
____8. Buck confidently selected a spot, and with much fuss and waste effort
proceeded to dig a hole for himself.
____9. And always they pitched camp after dark, eating their bit of fish, and
crawling to sleep into the snow.
____10. When he saw Pike, one of the new dogs, a clever malingerer and thief,
slyly steal a slice of bacon when Perrault’s back was turned, he duplicated
the performance the following day, getting away with the whole chunk.
____11. Dave and Sol-leks, dripping blood from a score of wounds, were fighting
bravely side by side.
____12. At daybreak they limped warily back to camp, to find the marauders gone
and the two men in bad tempers.
____13. As Buck drew himself together to spring after them, out of the tail of his eye
he saw Spitz rush upon him with the evident intention of overthrowing him.
____14. The huskies had chewed through the sled lashings and canvas coverings.
11
EXERCISE 6 PHRASES
____15. With four hundred miles of trail still between him and Dawson, he could
ill afford to have madness break out among his dogs.
____16. Also, the dog driver rubbed Buck’s feet for half an hour each night after
supper, sacrificed the tops of his own moccasins to make four moccasins
for Buck.
____17. Later, his feet grew hard to the trail, and the worn-out footgear was
thrown away.
____18. Buck never came near Spitz without snarling and bristling menacingly.
____19. It was her custom to be helpless.
____20. She no longer considered the dogs, and because she was sore and tired,
she persisted in riding on the sled.
____21. In the excess of their own misery they were callous to the suffering of
their animals.
____22. He knew how to take advantage of every cover, to crawl on his belly
like a snake, and like a snake to leap and strike.
____23. For a day and a night he remained by the kill, eating and sleeping, turn
and turn about.
____24. He had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in the face
of the law of club and fang.
____25. Pivoting on his hind legs, and snapping and gashing, he was everywhere
at once, presenting a front which was apparently unbroken so swiftly did
he whirl and guard from side to side.
12
EXERCISE 7 VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES
Identify the underlined verbals and verbal phrases in the sentences below as being
gerund (ger), infinitive (inf), or participle (par). Also indicate the usage by labeling each:
subj = subject d.o. = direct object p.n. = predicate nominative
adj = adjective adv = adverb o.p. = object of preposition
Verbal Usage
____ ____1. There was an instantaneous scattering of the four men who had
carried it in, and from safe perches on top of the wall they prepared
to watch the performance.
____ ____2. Buck rushed at the splintering wood, sinking his teeth into it, surging
and wrestling with it.
____ ____3. The man struck the shrewd blow he had purposely withheld for so long,
and Buck crumpled up and went down, knocked utterly senseless.
____ ____4. The other dog made no advances, nor received any; also, he did not
attempt to steal from the newcomers.
____ ____5. His only apparent ambition, like Dave’s, was to be left alone; though,
as Buck was afterward to learn, each of them possessed one other and
even more vital ambition.
____ ____6. Francois’s whip snapped less frequently, and Perrault even honored
Buck by lifting up his feet and carefully examining them.
____ ____7. As a rule, Perrault traveled ahead of the team, packing the snow with
webbed shoes to make it easier for them.
____ ____8. Six days of exhausting toil were required to cover those thirty terrible
miles.
____ ____9. He alone endured and prospered, matching the husky in strength,
savagery, and cunning.
____ ____10. But when he was at last unearthed, and Spitz flew at him to punish him,
Buck flew, with equal rage, in between.
____ ____11. Their business was to toil, and toil mightily, in the traces.
____ ____12. Three men from a neighboring tent came out and looked on, grinning
and winking at one another.
13
EXERCISE 7 VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES
Verbal Usage
____ ____13. To quarrel was the one thing they were never too weary to do.
____ ____14. Thornton stood between him and Buck, and evinced no intention
of getting out of the way.
____ ____15. The crackling turned into a snapping, the sled pivoting and the
runners slipping and grating several inches to the side.
____ ____16. Fish, in open pools, were not too quick for him; nor were beaver,
mending their dams, too wary.
____ ____17. He killed to eat, not from wantonness; but he preferred to eat
what he killed himself.
____ ____18. The wolf whirled about, pivoting on his hind legs after the fashion
of Joe and of all cornered husky dogs, snarling and bristling, clipping
his teeth together in a continuous and rapid succession of snaps.
____ ____19. He had made no noise, yet it ceased from its howling and tried to
sense his presence.
____ ____20. They stopped by a running stream to drink, and, stopping, Buck
remembered John Thornton.
____ ____21. Unable to turn his back on the fanged danger and go on, the bull
would be driven into paroxysms of rage.
____ ____22. It was harder to kill a husky dog than them.
____ ____23. It was the call, the many-noted call, sounding more luringly and
compellingly than ever before.
____ ____24. Hunting their living meat, as the Yeehats were hunting it, on the
flanks of the migrating moose, the wolf pack had at last crossed
over from the land of streams and timber and invaded Buck’s valley.
____ ____25. It caused him to feel a vague, sweet gladness, and he was aware of
wild yearnings and stirrings for he knew not what.
14
EXERCISE 8 CLAUSES
Indicate how the underlined clauses are used in the sentences below. Label the clause:
subj = subject adj = adjective p.n. = predicate nominative

d.o. = direct object adv = adverb o.p. = object of preposition
____1. Then the rope tightened mercilessly, while Buck struggled in a fury, his
tongue lolling out of his mouth and his great chest panting futilely.
____2. When he flung himself against the bars, quivering, and frothing, they
laughed at him and taunted him.
____3. The toil of the traces seemed the supreme expression of their being, and all
that they lived for and the only thing in which they took delight.
____4. Yet the other dogs, because they weighed less and were born to the life,
received a pound only of the fish and managed to keep in good condition.
____5. A warning snarl told him that the trespasser was Spitz.
____6. The two men were compelled to run back to save the grub, upon which the
huskies returned to the attack on the team.
____7. And that he should be stirred by it marked the completeness with which he
harked back through the ages of fire and roof to the raw beginnings of life
in the howling ages.
____8. As Buck grew winded, Spitz took to rushing, and he kept him staggering for
footing.
____9. While Perrault packed the camp outfit and loaded the sled, the dog driver
proceeded to harness the dogs.
____10. He took Buck by the scruff of the neck, and though the dog growled
threateningly, dragged him to one side and replaced Sol-leks.
____11. The Thirty Mile River was comparatively coated with ice, and they covered
in one day going out what had taken them ten days coming in.
____12. Then, while some broke camp, others harnessed the dogs, and they were
under way an hour or so before the darkness fell which gave warning of dawn.
____13. This other man was shorter of leg and longer of arm, with muscles that were
stringy and knotty rather than rounded and swelling.
15
EXERCISE 8 CLAUSES
____14. About his body there was a peculiar springiness, or resiliency, almost
catlike, and a quick alertness as of one who lived in perpetual fear of
things seen and unseen.
____15. Buck stood it, keeping his mates up to their work and maintaining discipline,
though he, too, was very tired.
____16. Then he fell, and lay where he fell, howling lugubriously as the long train
of sleds churned by.
____17. When they arrived at Skagway they were apparently on their last legs.
____18. The worthless ones were to be got rid of, and, since dogs count for little
against dollars, they were to be sold.
____19. Both men were manifestly out of place, and why such as they should
adventure the North is part of the mystery of things that passes understanding.
____20. Buck heard the chaffering, saw the money pass between the man and the
Government agent, and knew that the Scotch half-breed and the mail-train
drivers were passing out of his life on the heels of Perrault and Francois and
the others who had gone before.
____21. He broke out the runners which had been frozen to the snow.
____22. As they swung on the turn the sled went over, spilling half its load through
the loose lashings.
____23. In the nature of Arctic travel there was a reason why fourteen dogs should
not drag one sled, and that was that one sled could not carry the food for
fourteen dogs.
____24. Outside dogs, whose digestions had not been trained by chronic famine to
make the most of little, had voracious appetites.
____25. And when, in addition to this, the worn-out huskies pulled weakly, Hal
decided that the orthodox ration was too small.
16
EXERCISE 9 STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Identify the figurative language in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
p = personification s = simile m = metaphor o = onomatopoeia
____1. And this was the manner of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the
Klondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen North.
____2. This man talked with Manuel, and money chinked between them.
____3. This time he was aware that it was the club, but his madness knew no caution.
____4. As the day wore along and the sun dropped to its bed in the northwest (the
darkness had come back and the fall nights were six hours long), the young
bulls retraced their steps more and more reluctantly to the aid of their
beset leader.
____5. The great head drooped more and more under its tree of horns, and the
shambling trot grew weak and weaker.
____6. Thus, as token of what a puppet thing life is, the ancient song surged through
him and he came into his own again; and he came because men had found a
yellow metal in the North, and because Manuel was a gardener’s helper
whose wages did not lap over the needs of his wife and divers small copies
of himself.
____7. The wild wave of famished beasts rolled back before them, and Buck shook
himself free.
____8. He skirted the frowning shores on rim ice that bent and crackled under foot
and upon which they dared not halt.
____9. Bellying forward to the edge of the clearing, he found Hans, lying on his face,
feathered with arrows like a porcupine.
____10. The birds talked of it, the squirrels chattered about it, the very breeze
whispered of it.
____11. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that
were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.
____12. Twice his teeth clipped together, like the steel jaws of a trap, as he backed away
for better footing, with lean and lifting lips that writhed and snarled.
17
EXERCISE 9 STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
____13. Over the whiteness and silence brooded a ghostly calm.
____14. It was Buck, a live hurricane of fury, hurling himself upon them in a frenzy
to destroy.
____15. And in her zeal, when she had finished with her own, she attacked the
belongings of her men and went through them like a tornado.
____16. The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur
of awakening life.
____17. He crosses alone from the smiling timber land and comes down into an open
space among the trees.
____18. And often, such was the communion in which they lived, the strength of Buck’s
gaze would draw John Thornton’s head around, and he would return the gaze,
without speech, his heart shining out of his eyes as Buck’s heart shone out.
____19. From below came the fatal roaring where the wild current went wilder and
was rent in shreds and spray by the rocks which thrust through like the teeth
of an enormous comb.
____20. His master’s voice acted on Buck like an electric shock.
____21. The Eldorado emptied its occupants into the street to see the test.
____22. Thornton’s doubt was strong in his face, but his fighting spirit was aroused –
the fighting spirit that soars above odds, fails to recognize the impossible,
and is deaf to all save the clamor for battle.
____23. Thornton’s command cracked out like a pistol shot.
____24. A carnivorous animal, living on a straight meat diet, he was in full flower, at
the high tide of his life, overspilling with vigor and virility.
____25. When Thornton passed a caressing hand along his back, a snapping and
crackling followed the hand, each hair discharging its pent magnetism at
the contact.
18
EXERCISE 10 STYLE: POETIC DEVICES
Identify the poetic devices in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
a. assonance b. consonance c. alliteration d. repetition e. rhyme
____1. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal
and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the
find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland.
____2. In quick rage he sprang at the man, who met him halfway, grappled him
close by the throat, and with a deft twist threw him over his back.
____3. Never in all his life had he been so vilely treated, and never in all his life
had he been so angry.
____4. He opened his eyes, and into them came the unbridled anger of a kidnapped
king.
____5. Then the rope was removed, and he was flung into a cagelike crate.
____6. For two days and nights he neither ate nor drank and during those two days
nights of torment, he accumulated a fund of wrath that boded ill for whoever
first fell foul of him.
____7. So changed was he that the Judge himself would not have recognized him; and
the express messengers breathed with relief when they bundled him off the
train at Seattle.
____8. Straight at the man he launched his one hundred and forty pounds of fury,
surcharged with the pent passion of two days and nights.
____9. With a snarl that was part bark and more scream he was again on his feet
and launched into the air.
____10. But the man, shifting the club from right to left, coolly caught him by the
under jaw, at the same time wrenching downward and backward.
____11. Perrault was a French-Canadian, and swarthy; but Francois was a French-
Canadian half-breed, and twice as swarthy.
____12. Like Dave, he asked nothing, gave nothing, expected nothing; and when he
marched slowly and deliberately into this midst, even Spitz left him alone.
____13. He did not like to be approached on his blind side.
19
EXERCISE 10 STYLE: POETIC DEVICES
____14. Buck made his hole in the snow and slept the sleep of the exhausted just,
but all too early was routed out in the cold darkness and harnessed with
his mates to the sled.
____15. This first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland
environment.
____16. Buck was no less eager, and no less cautious, as he likewise circled back
and forth for the advantage.
____17. Spitz was wild with wrath.
____18. Buck led the pack, sixty strong, around bend after bend, but he could not gain.
____19. He rushed, as though attempting the old shoulder trick, but at the last instant
swept low to the snow and in.
____20. Then three or four Western bad men aspired to clean out the town, were
riddled like pepperboxes for their pains, and public interest turned to
other idols.
____21. They ate before the drivers ate, and no man sought his sleeping robe till he
had seen to the feet of the dogs he drove.
____22. Sometimes, in the traces, when jerked by a sudden stoppage of the sled, or
by straining to start it, he would cry out with pain.
____23. Thornton saw him coming, and as Buck struck him like a battering ram, with
the whole force of the current behind him, he reached up and closed with both
arms around the shaggy neck.
____24. Every muscle, every fiber, every cell, was tired, dead tired.
____25. At such times he would shake off sleep and creep through the chill to the
flap of the tent, where he would stand and listen to the sound of his master’s
breathing.
20
EXERCISE 11 STYLE: SENSORY IMAGERY
Identify the sensory imagery in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
a. sight b. sound c. touch d. taste e. smell
____1. But when the ends of the rope were placed in the stranger’s hands, he
growled menacingly.
____2. For two days and nights this express car was dragged along at the tail
of shrieking locomotives; and for two days and nights Buck neither ate
nor drank.
____3. A stout man, with a red sweater that sagged generously at the neck, came
out, and signed the book for the driver.
____4. When the man brought him water he drank eagerly, and later bolted a
generous meal of raw meat, chunk by chunk, from the man’s hand.
____5. He whined placatingly, squirmed and wriggled to show his good will and
intentions, and even ventured, as a bribe for peace, to lick Buck’s face with
his warm, wet tongue.
____6. His most conspicuous trait was an ability to scent the wind and forecast it a
night in advance.
____7. They yelped and howled under the rain of blows, but struggled none the less
madly till the last crumb had been devoured.
____8. The warm taste of it in his mouth goaded him to greater fierceness.
____9. All day they swung up and down the main street in long teams, and in the
night their jingling bells still went by.
____10. The dark circle became a dot on the moon-flooded snow as Spitz disappeared
from view.
____11. Charles was a middle-aged, lightish-colored man, with weak and watery eyes
and a mustache that twisted fiercely and vigorously up, giving the lie to the
limply drooping lip it concealed.
____12. She dropped on her knees before Buck, with tears in her eyes, and put her
arms around his neck.
____13. Thornton rapped Hal’s knuckles with the ax handle, knocking the knife
to the ground.
21
EXERCISE 11 STYLE: SENSORY IMAGERY
____14. As Buck watched them, Thornton knelt beside him and with rough kindly
hands searched for broken bones.
____15. He would often seize Thornton’s hand in his mouth and close so fiercely that
the flesh bore the impress of his teeth for some time afterward.
____16. His furry coat shone with the sheen of silk.
____17. He would thrust his nose into the cool wood moss, or into the black soil where
long grasses grew, and snort with joy at the fat earth smells; or he would crouch
for hours, as if in concealment, behind fungus-covered trunks of fallen trees,
wide-eyed and wide-eared to all that moved and sounded about him.
____18. His small eyes burned with a vicious and bitter light, while he roared with
fury at sight of Buck.
____19. And always they pitched camp after dark, eating their bit of fish, and crawling
to sleep into the snow.
____20. They were crazed by the smell of the food.
____21. They were mere skeletons, draped loosely in draggled hides, with blazing eyes
and slavered fangs.
____22. From the camp came the faint sound of many voices, rising and falling in a
singsong chant.
____23. The tongues of all were out and lolling, the white fangs showing cruelly white
in the moonlight.
____24. He was whining softly, and, as Buck whined, they touched noses.
____25. Whereupon the old wolf sat down, pointed nose at the moon, and broke out the
long wolf howl.
22
EXERCISE 12 STYLE: ALLUSIONS AND SYMBOLS
Identify the type of allusion or symbol used in the following sentences. Label the underlined
words or phrases:
a. historical b. folklore/superstition c. law/civilization d. primitive/lawlessness
____1. The Judge was at a meeting of the Raisin Growers’ Association, and the boys were
busy organization an athletic club, on the memorable night of Manuel’s treachery.
____2. He opened his eyes, and into them came the unbridled anger of a kidnapped king.
____3. The club was a revelation. It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law,
and he met the introduction halfway.
____4. The Canadian Government would be no loser, nor would its dispatches travel
the slower.
____5. One of them was a big, snow-white fellow from Spitzbergen who had been
brought away by a whaling captain, and who later accompanied a Geological
Survey in the Barrens.
____6. He had suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart
of things primordial.
____7. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang.
____8. It was a token that he was harking back through his own life to the lives of
his forbears; for he was a civilized dog, an unduly civilized dog, and of his
own experience knew no trap and so could not of himself fear it.
____9. The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce
conditions of trail life it grew and grew.
____10. Buck’s feet were not so compact and hard as the feet of huskies. His had
softened during the many generations since the day his last wild ancestor
was tamed by a cave-dweller on river man.
____11. Buck, to whom fair play was a forgotten code, likewise sprang upon Spitz.
____12. And that he should be stirred by it marked the completeness with which he
harked backed through the ages of fire and roof to the raw beginnings of
life in the howling ages.
____13. They quarreled and bickered more than ever among themselves, till at times
the camp was a howling bedlam.
23
EXERCISE 12 STYLE: ALLUSIONS AND SYMBOLS
____14. But it was in giving the law and making his mates live up to it that Buck
excelled.
____15. It was no light running now, nor record time, but heavy toil each day, with a
heavy load behind; for this was the mail train, carrying word from the world
to the men who sought gold under the shadow of the Pole.
____16. He knew it for a Hudson Bay Company gun of the young days in the Northwest,
when such a gun was worth its height in beaver skins packed flat.
____17. He broke into the long easy lope, and went on, hour after hour, never at loss
for the tangled way, heading straight home through strange country with a
certitude of direction that put man and his magnetic needle to shame.
____18. Then a panic seized the Yeehats, and they fled in terror to the woods,
proclaiming as they fled the advent of the Evil Spirit.
____19. And truly Buck was the Fiend incarnate, raging at their heels and dragging
them down like deer as they raced through the trees.
____20. But more remarkable than this, the Yeehats tell of a Ghost Dog that runs at
the head of the pack.
____21. And this was the manner of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the
Klondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen North.
____22. Like giants they toiled, days flashing on the heels of days like dreams as
they heaped the treasure up.
____23. Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble
was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of
muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego.
____24. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness had found a yellow metal, and
because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find,
thousands of men were rushing into the Northland.
____25. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons;
he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on long twilight or early-
morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring
library fire . . .
24
EXERCISE 13 STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 1
Read the following passage the first time through for meaning.
Buck’s first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. Every hour was filled with shock and surprise. He
had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial. No lazy,
sun-kissed life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and be bored. Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a
moment’s safety. All was confusion and action, and every moment life and limb were in peril. There was
imperative need to be constantly alert; for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were
savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang.
He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought, and his first experience taught him an
unforgettable lesson. It is true, it was a vicarious experience, else he would not have lived to profit by it.
Curly was the victim. They were camped near the long store, where she, in her friendly way, made advances
to a husky dog the size of a full-grown wolf, though not half so large as she. There was no warning, only
a leap in like a flash, a metallic clip of teeth, a leap out equally swift, and Curly’s face was ripped open
from eye to jaw.
It was the wolf manner of fighting, to strike and leap away; but there was more to it than this. Thirty or
forty huskies ran to the spot and surrounded the combatants in an intent and silent circle. Buck did not
comprehend that silent intentness, nor the eager way with which they were licking their chops. Curly
rushed her antagonist, who struck again and leaped aside. He met her next rush with his chest, in a peculiar
fashion that tumbled her off her feet. She never regained them. This was what the onlooking huskies had
waited for. They closed in upon her, snarling and yelping, and she was buried, screaming with agony,
beneath the bristling mass of bodies. (Chapter 2 The Law of Club and Fang)
Read the passage a second time, marking figurative language, sensory imagery, poetic
devices, and any other patterns of diction and rhetoric, then answer the questions below.
1 Buck’s first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. Every hour was filled with shock and surprise. He
2 had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial. No lazy,
3 sun-kissed life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and be bored. Here was neither peace, nor rest nor a
4 moment’s safety. All was confusion and action, and every moment life and limb were in peril. There was
5 imperative need to be constantly alert; for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were
6 savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang.
7 He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought, and his first experience taught him an
8 unforgettable lesson. It is true, it was a vicarious experience, else he would not have lived to profit by it.
9 Curly was the victim. They were camped near the log store, where she, in her friendly way, made advances
10 to a husky dog the size of a full-grown wolf, thought not half so large as she. There was no warning, only
11 a leap in like a flash, a metallic clip of teeth, a leap out equally swift, and Curly’s face was ripped open
12 from eye to jaw.
13 It was the wolf manner of fighting, to strike and leap away; but there was more to it than this. Thirty or
25
14 forty huskies ran to the spot and surrounded the combatants in an intent and silent circle. Buck did not
15 comprehend that silent intentness, nor the eager way with which they were licking their chops. Curly
16 rushed her antagonist, who struck again and leaped aside. He met her next rush with his chest, in a peculiar
17 fashion that tumbled her off her feet. She never regained them. This was what the onlooking huskies had
18 waited for. They closed in upon her, snarling and yelping, and she was buried, screaming with agony,
19 beneath the bristling mass of bodies.
____1. All of the following descriptions are parallel in meaning EXCEPT . . .

a. the heart of civilization ( Line 2)
b. lazy, sun-kissed life (Lines 2-3)
c. nothing to do but loaf and be bored (Line 3)
d. neither peace, nor rest, nor a moment’s safety (Line 3-4)

a. the heart of things primordial (Line 2)
b. Curly was the victim (Line 9)
c. They were savages, all of them (Line 5-6)
d. the law of club and fang (Line 6)
____3. The underlined words in Line 14 are examples of . . .

a. assonance b. consonance c. alliteration d. rhyme
____4. In the sentence She never regained them (Line 17), the antecedent of the
word “them” is . . .
a. feet b. dogs c. fashion d. chest

____6. The passage infers all of the following statements EXCEPT . . .

a. The huskies kill Curly.
b. Curly provoked the attack.
c. The strongest survive.
d. The weakest will be eliminated.
26
At the mouth of the Talkeetna, one night after supper, Dub turned up a snowshoe rabbit, blundered it,
and missed. In a second the whole team was in full cry. A hundred yards away was a camp of the
Northwest Police, with fifty dogs, huskies all, who joined the chase. The rabbit sped down the river,
turned off into a small creek, up the frozen bed of which it held steadily. It ran lightly on the surface
of the snow, while the dogs ploughed through by main strength. Buck led the pack, sixty strong,
around bend after bend, but he could not gain. He lay down low to the race, whining eagerly, his
splendid body flashing forward, leap by leap, in the wan white moonlight. And leap by leap, like some
pale frost wraith, the snowshoe rabbit flashed on ahead.
All that stirring of old instincts which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding cities to forest
and plain to kill things by chemically propelled leaden pellets, the blood lust, the joy to kill – all this was
Buck’s, only it was infinitely more intimate. He was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild
thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood.
There is an ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame;
it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the
pack, sounding the old wolf cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him
through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were
deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal
wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was
not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars
and over the face of dead matter that did not move. (Chapter 3 The Dominant Primordial Beast)
1 At the mouth of the Talkeetna, one night after supper, Dub turned up a snowshoe rabbit, blundered it,
2 and missed. In a second the whole team was in full cry. A hundred yards away was a camp of the
3 Northwest Police, with fifty dogs, huskies all, who joined the chase. The rabbit sped down the river,
4 turned off into a small creek, up the frozen bed of which it held steadily. It ran lightly on the surface
5 of the snow, while the dogs ploughed through by main strength. Buck led the pack, sixty strong,
6 around bend after bend, but he could not gain. He lay down low to the race, whining eagerly, his
7 splendid body flashing forward, leap by leap, in the wan white moonlight. And leap by leap, like some
8 pale frost wraith, the snowshoe rabbit flashed on ahead.
9 All that stirring of old instincts which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding cities to forest
10 and plain to kill things by chemically propelled leaden pellets, the bloodlust, the joy to kill – all this was
11 Buck’s, only it was infinitely more intimate. He was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild
12 thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood.
27
13 There is an ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
14 This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame;
15 it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the
16 pack, sounding the old wolf cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him
17 through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were
18 deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal
19 wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was
20 not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars
21 and over the face of dead matter that did not move.
____1. The word “ecstasy” is used to describe all of the following activities EXCEPT . . .
a. a dog chasing a rabbit
b. a soldier attacking the wounded enemy
c. the Northwest Police chasing a suspect
d. an artist creating art
____2. Line 6 contains all of the following poetic devices EXCEPT . . .

____3. All of the following word pairs are examples of assonance EXCEPT . . .
a. lay – race (Line 6)
b. white – moonlight (Line 7)
c. pale – wraith (Line 8)
d. infinitely – intimate (Line 11)
____4. All of the following word pairs are examples of consonance EXCEPT . . .
a. Buck – pack (Line 5)
b. around – bend (Line 6)
c. stirring – instincts (Line 9)
d. rampant – movement (Line 20)
____5. In Lines 18-19, the tidal wave of being is an example of . . .

a. metaphor b. simile c. allusion d. personification
____6. Line 7 contains assonance, consonance, alliteration, repetition, and rhyme.

a. True b. False
28
He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn. He linked the past with the
present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed
as the tides and seasons swayed. He sat by John Thornton’s fire, a broad-breasted dog, white-fanged
and long-furred; but behind him were the shades of all manner of dogs, half wolves and wild wolves,
urgent and prompting, tasting the savor of the meat he ate, thirsting for the water he drank, scenting
the wind with him, listening with him and telling him the sounds made by the wild life in the forest,
dictating his moods, directing his actions, lying down to sleep with him when he lay down, and dreaming
with him and beyond him and becoming themselves the stuff of his dreams.
So peremptorily did these shades beckon him, that each day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped
farther from him. Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously
thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and
to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why,
the call sounding imperiously, deep in the forest. But as often as he gained the soft unbroken earth and
the green shade, the love for John Thornton drew him back to the fire again.
Thornton alone held him. The rest of mankind was as nothing. Chance travelers might praise or pet him;
but he was cold under it all, and from a too demonstrative man he would get up and walk away. When
Thornton’s partners, Hans and Pete, arrived on the long-expected raft, Buck refused to notice them till
he learned they were close to Thornton; after that he tolerated them in a passive sort of way, accepting
favors from them as though he favored them by accepting. They were of the same large type as Thornton,
living close to the earth, thinking simply and seeing clearly; and ere they swung the raft into the big eddy
by the sawmill at Dawson, they understood Buck and his ways, and did not insist upon an intimacy such
as obtained with Skeet and Nig. (Chapter 6 The Love of Man)
1 He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn. He linked the past with the
2 present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed
3 as the tides and seasons swayed. He sat by John Thornton’s fire, a broad-breasted dog, white-fanged
4 and long-furred; but behind him were the shades of all manner of dogs, half wolves and wild wolves,
5 urgent and prompting, tasting the savor of the meat he ate, thirsting for the water he drank, scenting
6 the wind with him, listening with him and telling him the sounds made by the wild life in the forest,
7 dictating his moods, directing his actions, lying down to sleep with him when he lay down, and dreaming
8 with him and beyond him and becoming themselves the stuff of his dreams.
9 So peremptorily did these shades beckon him, that each day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped
10 farther from him. Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously
11 thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and
29
12 to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why,
13 the call sounding imperiously, deep in the forest. But as often as he gained the soft unbroken earth and
14 the green shade, the love for John Thornton drew him back to the fire again.
15 Thornton alone held him. The rest of mankind was as nothing. Chance travelers might praise or pet him;
16 but he was cold under it all, and from a too demonstrative man he would get up and walk away. When
17 Thornton’s partners, Hans and Pete, arrived on the long-expected raft, Buck refused to notice them till
18 he learned they were close to Thornton; after that he tolerated them in a passive sort of way, accepting
19 favors from them as though he favored them by accepting. They were of the same large type as Thornton,
20 living close to the earth, thinking simply and seeing clearly; and ere they swung the raft into the big eddy
21 by the sawmill at Dawson, they understood Buck and his ways, and did not insist upon an intimacy such
22 as obtained with Skeet and Nig.
____1. All of the following relationships are described in the passage EXCEPT . . .
a. John Thornton and Buck
b. John Thornton and civilization
c. Buck and Thornton’s partners
d. Buck and nature
____2. All of the following contrasts are described in the passage EXCEPT . . .
a. life versus death
b. animal versus man
c. past versus present
d. civilization versus the wild
a. he swayed as the tides and seasons swayed (Lines 2-3)
b. the claims of mankind slipped farther from him (Lines 9-10)
c. Chance travelers might praise or pet him (Line 15)
d. the love for John Thornton drew him back (Line 14)
____5. Lines 5-6 describe all of the following sensory experiences EXCEPT . . .
a. sound b. touch c. taste d. smell
____6. The “shades” described in the passage are . . .
a. phantom dogs
b. phantom men
c. phantom winds
d. phantom forests
30
Spring came on once more, and at the end of all their wandering they found, not the Lost Cabin,
but a shallow place in a broad valley where the gold showed like yellow butter across the bottom
of the washing pan. They sought no farther. Each day they worked earned them thousands of dollars
in clean dust and nuggets, and they worked every day. The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty
pounds to the bag, and piled like so much firewood outside the spruce-bough lodge. Like giants they toiled,
days flashing on the heels of days like dreams as they heaped the treasure up.
There was nothing for the dogs to do, save the hauling in of meat now and again that Thornton killed, and
Buck spent long hours musing by the fire. The vision of the short-legged hairy man came to him more
frequently, now that there was little work to be done; and often, blinking by the fire, Buck wandered with
him in that other world which he remembered.
The salient thing of this other world seemed fear. When he watched the hairy man sleeping by the fire,
head between his knees and hands clasped above, Buck saw that he slept restlessly, with many starts and
awakenings, at which times he would peer fearfully into the darkness and fling more wood upon the fire.
Did they walk by the beach of a sea, where the hairy man gathered shellfish and ate them as he gathered,
it was with eyes that roved everywhere for hidden danger and with legs prepared to run like the wind
at its first appearance. Through the forest they crept noiselessly, Buck at the hairy man’s heels; and they
were alert and vigilant, the pair of them, ears twitching and moving and nostrils quivering, for the man
heard and smelled as keenly as Buck. The hairy man could spring up into the trees and travel ahead
as fast as on the ground, swinging by the arms from limb to limb, sometimes a dozen feet apart, letting
go and catching, never falling, never missing his grip. In fact, he seemed as much at home among the
trees as on the ground; and Buck had memories of nights of vigil spent beneath trees wherein the hairy
man roosted, holding on tightly as he slept.(Chapter 7 The Sounding of the Call)
1 Spring came on once more, and at the end of all their wandering they found, not the Lost Cabin,
2 but a shallow place in a broad valley where the gold showed like yellow butter across the bottom
3 of the washing pan. They sought no farther. Each day they worked earned them thousands of dollars
4 in clean dust and nuggets, and they worked every day. The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty
5 pounds to the bag, and piled like so much firewood outside the spruce-bough lodge. Like giants they toiled,
6 days flashing on the heels of days like dreams as they heaped the treasure up.
7 There was nothing for the dogs to do, save the hauling in of meat now and again that Thornton killed, and
8 Buck spent long hours musing by the fire. The vision of the short-legged hairy man came to him more
9 frequently, now that there was little work to be done; and often, blinking by the fire, Buck wandered with
10 him in that other world which he remembered.
11 The salient thing of this other world seemed fear. When he watched the hairy man sleeping by the fire,
31
12 head between his knees and hands clasped above, Buck saw that he slept restlessly, with many starts and
13 awakenings, at which times he would peer fearfully into the darkness and fling more wood upon the fire.
14 Did they walk by the beach of a sea, where the hairy man gathered shellfish and ate them as he gathered,
15 it was with eyes that roved everywhere for hidden danger and with legs prepared to run like the wind
16 at its first appearance. Through the forest they crept noiselessly, Buck at the hairy man’s heels; and they
17 were alert and vigilant, the pair of them, ears twitching and moving and nostrils quivering, for the man
18 heard and smelled as keenly as Buck. The hairy man could spring up into the trees and travel ahead
19 as fast as on the ground, swinging by the arms from limb to limb, sometimes a dozen feet apart, letting
20 go and catching, never falling, never missing his grip. In fact, he seemed as much at home among the
21 trees as on the ground; and buck had memories of nights of vigil spent beneath trees wherein the hairy
22 man roosted, holding on tightly as he slept.
____1. Line 2 contains an example of . . .

a. metaphor b. simile c. personification d. onomatopoeia
____2. In Line 5, like giants they toiled is an example of . . .
a. metaphor and simile
b. simile and allusion
c. metaphor and allusion
____3. All of the following contrasts are described in the passage EXCEPT . . .
a. fear versus security
b. work versus rest
c. silence versus noise
d. reality versus dreams
____4. All of the following statements explain the author’s use of the vision of the
short-legged hairy man EXCEPT . . .
a. Buck’s primitive instincts are becoming dominant.
b. Buck prefers the primitive man to John Thornton.
c. The primitive man foreshadows Buck’s return to the wild.
d. Buck is drawn to the memory of the primitive man as he is drawn to the call.
____5. The word salient in Line 11 probably is closest in meaning to . . .
a. primary b. first c. appealing d. honest
____6. Line 6 contains examples of . . .
a. metaphor and simile b. personification and simile c. allusion and simile
32
ANSWER KEY EXERCISES 1-16
EXERCISE 1: 1. v 2. adj 3. prep 4. adj 5. adv 6. n 7. adv 8. pron 9. conj

10. int 11. adj 12. pron 13. n 14. prep 15. v 16. pron 17. n
18. adv 19. int 20. pron 21. adj 22. n 23. prep 24. adv 25. prep
EXERCISE 2: Passage 1: 1. d 2. b 3. b 4. a 5. c 6. b
Passage 2: 1. a 2. b 3. c 4. b 5. c 6. a
EXERCISE 3: Passage 1: 1. c 2. a 3. b 4. d 5. a 6. c
Passage 2: 1. a 2. c 3. d 4. b 5. c 6. a
EXERCISE 4: 1. CC 2. S 3. CC 4. C 5. S 6. S 7. CX 8. CX 9. CX 10. CX
11. S 12. C 13. CX 14. C 15. S 16. C 17. CC 18. CX 19. S
20. S 21. CX 22. CX 23. S 24. S 25. CX
EXERCISE 5: 1. d.o. 2. p.n. 3. p.n. 4. o.p. 5. d.o. 6. p.n. 7. p.a. 8. p.a. 9. i.o.
10. d.o. 11. o.p. 12. d.o. 13. p.n. 14. p.a. 15. i.o. 16. o.p. 17. p.n.
18. p.a. 19. d.o. 20. o.p. 21. p.n. 22. p.a. 23. p.n. 24. i.o. 25. d.o.
EXERCISE 6: 1. appos 2. par 3. ger 4. par 5. prep 6. inf 7. prep 8. inf 9. par
10. appos 11. par 12. inf 13. ger 14. prep 15. inf 16. inf 17. prep
18. ger 19. inf 20. ger 21. prep 22. inf 23. par 24. appos 25. par
EXERCISE 7: 1. ger subj 2. par adj 3. par adj 4. inf d.o. 5. inf p.n. 6. ger o.p.
7. par adj 8. inf adv 9. par adj 10. inf adv 11. inf p.n. 12. par adj
13. inf subj 14. ger o.p. 15. ger subj 16. par adj 17. inf adv
18. par adj 19. ger o.p. 20. inf adv 21. inf adv 22. inf adv
23. par adj 24. par adj 25. ger o.p.
EXERCISE 8: 1. adv 2. adv 3. o.p. 4. adv 5. d.o. 6. o.p. 7. subj 8. adv 9. adv
10. adv 11. d.o. 12. adj 13. adj 14. adj 15. adv 16. adv 17. adv
18. adv 19. subj 20. d.o. 21. adj 22. adv 23. p.n. 24. adj 25. d.o.
EXERCISE 9: 1. p 2. o 3. p 4. p 5. m 6. m 7. m 8. p 9. s 10. p 11. p 12. s

13. p 14. m 15. s 16. p 17. p 18. m 19. s 20. s 21. p 22. p
23. s 24. m 25. o
EXERCISE 10: 1. a 2. b 3. d 4. c 5. c 6. c 7. a 8. c 9. a 10. c 11. d 12. d

13. a 14. c 15. b 16. d 17. c 18. b 19. e 20. c 21. a 22. c 23. e
24. d 25. e
33
ANSWER KEY EXERCISES 1-16
EXERCISE 11: 1. b 2. b 3. a 4. d 5. c 6. e 7. b 8. d 9. b 10. a 11. a 12. c

13. c 14. c 15. c 16. a 17. e 18. a 19. d 20. e 21. a 22. b
23. a 24. c 25. b
EXERCISE 12: 1. c 2. c 3. d 4. c 5. a 6. d 7. d 8. c 9. d 10. d 11. c 12. d

13. a 14. c 15. c 16. a 17. c 18. b 19. b 20. b 21. a 22. b
23. c 24. a 25. c
EXERCISE 13: 1. d 2. b 3. b 4. a 5. a 6. b
EXERCISE 14: 1. c 2. d 3. b 4. c 5. a 6. a
EXERCISE 15: 1. b 2. a 3. c 4. c 5. b 6. a
EXERCISE 16: 1. b 2. b 3. c 4. b 5. a 6. b
34
35
35
35
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Call of The Wild by Jack London

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The Grammardog Guide to

The Call of the Wild

All exercises use sentences from the novel.

Visit the website at www.grammardog.com

Grammardog.com has a new educational tool for English teachers.

Copyright © 2004 Grammardog.com L.L.C.

Exercise 1 -- Parts of Speech .....3

Exercise 2 -- Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization, .....5

Exercise 3 -- Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization, .....6

Exercise 4 -- Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences .....7

Exercise 5 -- Complements .....9

Exercise 9 -- Style: Figurative Language . . . . 17

Exercise 10 -- Style: Poetic Devices . . . . 19

Exercise 11 -- Style: Sensory Imagery . . . . 21

Exercise 12 -- Style: Allusions and Symbols . . . . 23

Exercise 13 -- Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 1 . . . . 25

Exercise 14 -- Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 2 . . . . 27

Exercise 15 -- Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 3 . . . . 29

Exercise 16 -- Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 4 . . . . 31

Answer Key Answers to Exercises 1-16 . . . . 33

Glossary -- Definitions of Terms Used in

EXERCISE 1 PARTS OF SPEECH

____4. Buck had accepted the rope with quiet dignity.

____10. Hal cried “Whoa! whoa!” but they gave no heed.

EXERCISE 1 PARTS OF SPEECH

____16. From then on it was war between them.

____18. No more was Spitz a leader greatly to be feared.

____24. Then an old wolf, gaunt and battle-scarred, came forward.

EXERCISE 2 PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION

____1. a. Spelling ____1. a. Spelling

____2. a. Spelling ____2. a. Spelling

____3. a. Spelling ____3. a. Spelling

____4. a. Spelling ____4. a. Spelling

____5. a. Spelling ____5. a. Spelling

____6. a. Spelling ____6. a. Spelling

EXERCISE 3 PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION

____1. a. Spelling ____1. a. Spelling

____2. a. Spelling ____2. a. Spelling

____3. a. Spelling ____3. a. Spelling

____4. a. Spelling ____4. a. Spelling

____5. a. Spelling ____5. a. Spelling

____6. a. Spelling ____6. a. Spelling

EXERCISE 4 SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

____8. He could not understand what it all meant.

EXERCISE 4 SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

____25. It was inevitable that they should go short on dog food.

____9. His newborn cunning gave him poise and control.

____13. Spitz was a practiced fighter.

____21. Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler crimes.

____22. The blood longing became stronger than ever before.

____7. To his astonishment, they had disappeared.

____19. It was her custom to be helpless.

EXERCISE 7 VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES

EXERCISE 7 VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES

____ ____22. It was harder to kill a husky dog than them.

subj = subject adj = adjective p.n. = predicate nominative

EXERCISE 9 STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

EXERCISE 9 STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

____13. Over the whiteness and silence brooded a ghostly calm.

____20. His master’s voice acted on Buck like an electric shock.

____23. Thornton’s command cracked out like a pistol shot.

EXERCISE 10 STYLE: POETIC DEVICES

____13. He did not like to be approached on his blind side.

1. a. Spelling 1. a. Spelling

2. a. Spelling 2. a. Spelling

3. a. Spelling 3. a. Spelling

4. a. Spelling 4. a. Spelling

5. a. Spelling 5. a. Spelling

6. a. Spelling 6. a. Spelling

1. a. Spelling 1. a. Spelling

2. a. Spelling 2. a. Spelling

3. a. Spelling 3. a. Spelling

4. a. Spelling 4. a. Spelling

5. a. Spelling 5. a. Spelling

6. a. Spelling 6. a. Spelling

22. It was harder to kill a husky dog than them.