2023 STAAR Grade 10 Reading Rationales
The speaker is most likely an adult returning to a place he visited in
his youth because the speaker uses past tense to convey the
memory of the experience: “Where a boy once found . . . The
cascading of Leaping Falls.” (lines 9 and 12).
The speaker is most likely not a boy exploring a new environment,
because the memory is conveyed in past tense: “And so it was I
sheered . . . Where a boy once found . . . ” (lines 1 and 9).
Because the speaker refers to the journey as “The forgotten
journey of a child,” the speaker is most likely not a pioneer
discovering an unknown land (line 4).
Although the speaker conveys details about moving through
wilderness, those details are not used to support the idea that the
speaker is a hunter pursuing an animal.
The speaker uses the phrase “The forgotten journey of a child,”
(line 4) to imply that he had “forgotten” events from his childhood,
indicating that he is now an adult. The speaker uses the phrase
“The forgotten journey of a child” (line 4) to imply that he had
“forgotten” events from his childhood, indicating that he is now an
adult.
“Eccentric, into outer space,” (line 2) is not used to give clear
indication of who the speaker is.
“Up the deer-trail,” (line 6) might be used to show that the speaker
knows the trail well enough to call it by name, but the speaker does
not use the phrase to suggest he remembers it from his childhood.
The speaker’s use of the phrase “Without motion or sound,” (line
14) does not convey information about the speaker. It describes
how “the falls lay draped” (line 13).