9
QuizMultiple Choice

Skills Lesson: Theme

Question 9 • VA-English 10 CR

Read the excerpt below from the novel It by Stephen King and answer the question that follows. Richie had felt a mad, exhilarating kind of energy growing in the room. . . . He thought he recognized the feeling from his childhood, when he felt it everyday and had come to take it merely as a matter of course. He supposed that, if he had ever thought about that deep-running aquifer of energy as a kid (he could not recall that he ever had), he would have simply dismissed it as a fact of life, something that would always be there, like the color of his eyes . . . . Well, that hadn't turned out to be true. The energy you drew on so extravagantly when you were a kid, the energy you thought would never exhaust itself—that slipped away somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four, to be replaced by something much duller . . . purpose, maybe, or goals . . . . Source: King, Stephen. It. New York: Penguin, 1987. Print. Which theme would be advanced by the tone in the above passage best?

Answer
A
Despite age and experience, some people never grow up.
B
Childhood has a magical quality that slips away.
C
Don't take childhood for granted.
D
Children should be given the chance to expand their vast energy.

Explanation

Richie remembers childhood as a time of seemingly endless, exhilarating energy, then contrasts it with the duller purpose and goals of adulthood. That wistful contrast gives the passage a nostalgic tone and supports the theme that childhood has a special, almost magical quality that eventually slips away. Choice C is related, but B more directly captures the passage’s focus on childhood’s lost energy.

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.

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