Read the following passage.
A. John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario, on November 30, 1872. He began writing poetry as a high school student and won a scholarship to the University of Toronto, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1894 and a medical degree in 1898. The following year he worked briefly as an intern under William Osler at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, in the United States. Back in Canada, he worked as a pathologist at the Montreal General Hospital and later became a professor of medicine at McGill University. In 1912 he co-wrote a textbook of pathology for medical students.
B. McCrae had served as an artillery officer in the South African War. When the First World War began, he enlisted quickly and hoped to be a gunner again, but doctors were in short supply, so he accepted a post as brigade surgeon in an artillery brigade. In April 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium, he spent 17 days treating the wounded and operating on Canadian and Allied soldiers. On May 2 his close friend Alexis Helmer was killed and buried under a simple wooden cross. Exhausted and grieving, McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields during a short rest.
C. The poem was published in the London magazine Punch on December 8, 1915, and it quickly became the most popular English-language poem of the war. Its angry third verse was used widely to support the war effort: to recruit soldiers, to raise money, to comfort widows, and to attack pacifists and people who made large profits from the war. Partly because of the poem, the poppy became the flower of remembrance for the war dead in Canada, Britain, France, the United States and other countries.
D. Soon after he wrote the poem, McCrae was moved to No. 3 (McGill) Canadian General Hospital in France, where he was in charge of medical services. He pushed himself and his staff hard and was often sick, but he took little rest. In January 1918 he was appointed consulting physician to the First British Army, the first Canadian given that post, and he died of pneumonia later that month. The house in Guelph where he was born is now a museum, McCrae House. Today the poem is read by millions of people in Canada and around the world each Remembrance Day. Many readers, school children among them, now see it as a poem of peace or as a reminder to reflect on past sacrifices.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: B
Why this is correct: The second paragraph says that at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium he spent 17 days treating the wounded. Seventeen days is more than two weeks, and the wounded are injured soldiers.
Passage Reference: In April 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium, he spent 17 days treating the wounded and operating on Canadian and Allied soldiers.
Tips: Find the battle in Belgium. Then check how long he looked after the injured there, and whether it was more than two weeks.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph covers his studies, his internship in Baltimore and his work in Montreal before the war, not any battle.
- C: Paragraph C is about how the poem was published and used. It does not describe his medical work at Ypres.
- D: Notice that paragraph D mentions a hospital, but it is in France and the paragraph gives no battle or number of days.
- E: The second paragraph gives exactly this: 17 days of treating the wounded at Ypres, in Belgium, in April 1915.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Exhausted and grieving, McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields during a short rest.
Why this is correct: Paragraph B tells us he wrote the poem during a short rest, after his friend was killed. It does not say that he read it to anyone or shared it that day.
Tips: Writing a poem and reading it to others are two different actions. Check whether the passage mentions the second one.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph says he wrote poetry as a high school student, but it says nothing about this poem or other soldiers.
- B: Notice that paragraph B describes the moment he wrote the poem, but it stops there. Nobody else reads it in this paragraph.
- C: Paragraph C starts with the poem in Punch in December 1915, months later, and does not mention the day it was written.
- D: The fourth paragraph moves on to his hospital work in France and how the poem is read today. It is not about the moment it was written.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: The following year he worked briefly as an intern under William Osler at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, in the United States.
Why this is correct: The first paragraph says he earned his medical degree in 1898. The following year he worked briefly as an intern at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, in the United States. "Briefly" means for a short time.
Tips: Trace his career in time order. Check where he went to work right after his medical studies ended, and in which country.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: The second paragraph is about his army posts and the battle at Ypres. It does not mention any hospital in the United States.
- C: The third paragraph names the United States only as one country that uses the poppy, not as a place where he worked.
- D: The fourth paragraph describes a Canadian army hospital in France during the war, not a hospital in an American city.
- E: Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he was briefly an intern, is named in Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Its angry third verse was used widely to support the war effort: to recruit soldiers, to raise money, to comfort widows, and to attack pacifists and people who made large profits from the war.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph C says the poem's third verse was used to support the war effort, including to recruit soldiers. Recruiting soldiers means persuading men to join the army.
Tips: McCrae joining the army is not the same as the poem bringing in others. Look for a list of ways the poem was used.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph mentions his early poetry and his university studies, but nothing about the army.
- B: The second paragraph tells us that McCrae himself enlisted. It does not say his poem was used to bring other men in.
- D: Paragraph D says how people read the poem today, on Remembrance Day. It does not say how it was used in wartime to bring in soldiers.
- E: Recruiting soldiers is one of the wartime uses of the third verse that Paragraph C lists.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: In January 1918 he was appointed consulting physician to the First British Army, the first Canadian given that post, and he died of pneumonia later that month.
Why this is correct: The fourth paragraph says that in January 1918 he was appointed consulting physician to the First British Army. He was the first Canadian given that post. A consulting physician is a senior doctor who gives advice.
Tips: Two places give him a medical job in wartime. Ask which one says no Canadian had held it before.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In the first paragraph he is a physician in Montreal and teaches at McGill. No army appointment is given.
- B: The second paragraph says he was a brigade surgeon in a Canadian artillery brigade. That is a different post from the British one.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it names Britain only as a country that adopted the poppy. It gives McCrae no job there.
- E: The appointment to the First British Army, and the fact that no Canadian had held it before, both appear in Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: On May 2 his close friend Alexis Helmer was killed and buried under a simple wooden cross.
Why this is correct: The second paragraph says his friend was buried under a simple wooden cross and that McCrae then wrote the poem. It never says why he chose any image in it, and it does not say he saw flowers near the grave.
Tips: The grave is described in Paragraph B. Ask whether any paragraph explains why he chose the flowers in the poem.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph covers his studies and his work as a doctor before the war. No grave or flowers appear.
- B: Paragraph B does describe the wooden cross on his friend's grave. It says nothing about flowers growing there or about his reasons.
- C: Notice that paragraph C says the poem helped make the poppy a flower of remembrance, but not why he wrote about it.
- D: His last months in France and today's readers fill paragraph D. The reason for his word choice is missing.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In 1912 he co-wrote a textbook of pathology for medical students.
Why this is correct: The first paragraph says that in 1912 he co-wrote a textbook of pathology for medical students. Co-writing a book means helping to write it, and medical students are people studying medicine.
Tips: He is famous for poems, but the statement is about a book for learners. Look for a kind of school book he made with others.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: A poem written at Ypres is in paragraph B, but a poem is not a book for medical students.
- C: Paragraph C covers his poem being printed in a magazine, not a textbook.
- D: The fourth paragraph describes his medical work in France and how the poem is read now, with no mention of a textbook.
- E: The 1912 pathology textbook that he co-wrote for medical students is in Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: The house in Guelph where he was born is now a museum, McCrae House.
Why this is correct: In paragraph D, the house in Guelph where he was born is now a museum called McCrae House. The first sentence of Paragraph A gives his birthplace as Guelph, Ontario, so the museum is his Ontario birthplace.
Tips: Guelph is named twice in the passage. Check each time to see which one talks about a museum.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A gives Guelph as his place of birth, but it does not say what happened to the house.
- B: The second paragraph is about the war and his friend's grave, not about any building in Canada.
- C: Notice that paragraph C talks about remembrance and the poppy, but it does not mention a museum.
- E: McCrae House, the museum in the Guelph house where he was born, is named in Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Partly because of the poem, the poppy became the flower of remembrance for the war dead in Canada, Britain, France, the United States and other countries.
Why this is correct: The third paragraph says that partly because of the poem, the poppy became the flower of remembrance for the war dead. So the poem helped the poppy become a sign of respect for fallen soldiers.
Tips: Several places talk about the poem. Look for the one that says what it did for a flower.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A describes his education and his early interest in poetry. There is nothing about flowers or remembrance.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it mentions the wooden cross on his friend's grave, but not the poppy.
- D: The fourth paragraph says the poem is read each Remembrance Day, but it does not explain how any flower became a symbol.
- E: Why did the poppy become the flower of remembrance? Paragraph C gives the poem as part of the reason.
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