Destruction
Why were some of the buildings dynamited?
to prevent them from falling
But the conflagration that followed burned up hundreds of millions of dollar's worth of property.
huge fire
How did the people of San Francisco behave during the tragedy?
They were kind and courteous, helping each other to safety.
“The Story of an Eyewitness” is an example of which genre of literature?
informative nonfiction
MAKE AN INFERENCE: “Never in all of San Francisco’s history, were her people so kind and courteous as on this night of terror.” Why do you think people acted this way?
They were concerned with the needs of others.
What caused the greatest damage in San Francisco?
Fire
With both sides of the street on fire, people were often flanked by burning buildings.
being on both sides of something, surrounded
On Wednesday night, according to London, as “tens of thousands fled before the flames,” what one thing did people hold onto the longest?
their trunks
San Francisco is like the crater of a volcano around which camped tens of thousands of refugees.
simile
The article starts with “Wednesday morning at a quarter past five.” How many days and nights are covered in London’s story?
2
Why was the government setting up tents and serving meals in Union Square just four and a half hours before it caught fire?
No one thought the fires would spread so quickly
All vestiges of the people were destroyed by the flames.
traces, signs, indications
Name one thing London observes on his walk through the city on Thursday morning?
The shattered dome of the City Hall.
Wreckage piled high on Market Street.
A dozen roasted steers in a neat row on Mission Street.
“The smoke of San Francisco burning was a lurid tower” is an example of what type of figurative language?
metaphor
According to London, what man-made device was “lavishly used” to crumble “many of San Francisco’s proudest structures...into ruins”?
dynamite
The wind racing into the city on all sides was caused primarily by the....
vacuum created by the fire
Jack could not give an enumeration of all the people who were killed, because so many of the bodies were burned in the fire.
a list or count
Why were soldiers sent to the disaster?
prevent looting
“Thus did the fire of itself build its own colossal chimney through the atmosphere.” This sentence is an example of…
personification
By nine o’ clock on Wednesday evening, even though “miles and miles of magnificent buildings” remained in perfect order, London concluded that the city “was doomed, all of it.” Why?
No water was left to douse the approaching fire.
How long did the earthquake last?
30 seconds
London compared the city to a shipwreck and its people to the flotsam that covers the waves when a great ship goes down.
wreckage, debris
What hopeful observation does London make at the end of his feature story?
Thanks to the immediate relief given by the US govt., there is not the slightest possibility of a famine.
Over these trunks many a strong man broke his heart that night.
Idiom (break one's heart)
“Remarkable as it may seem, Wednesday night while the whole city crashed and roared into ruin, was a quiet night.” What literary term can be used to describe this?
irony