Probably best known today as the author of the children's books Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, E. B. White (1899-1985) was also a major essayist and a highly regarded prose stylist. His revised version of The Elements of Style is one of our recommended Reference Works for Writers, and his essay "Once More to the Lake" appears in our Essay Sampler: Models of Good Writing (Part Two).
Composed in 1956, "The Ring of Time"--in Essay Sampler (Part Four)--is at once a deceptively casual report about circus performers and a stirring meditation on human mortality and our changing perceptions of time. (For a detailed study of White's prose style, see our Rhetorical Analysis of E B. White's "The Ring of Time.") After you have read the essay carefully, take this brief quiz, and then compare your responses with the answers on page two.
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- What is the setting of E. B. White's essay “The Ring of Time” (in other words, where does the experience take place)?
(A) the winter quarters of Mr. John Ringling North's circus in Sarasota, Florida
(B) the Barnum and Bailey Circus in Madison Square Garden in New York City
(C) the Shrine Circus in Bailey, North Dakota
(D) the Roseville Fair in Illinois
(E) a church fair in New England - In the opening paragraph of "The Ring of Time," the narrator observes that "we spectators were experiencing a languor . . .." Define the noun languor as it's used in this context.
(A) an intermission
(B) a burst of enthusiasm
(C) a notable experience
(D) a lengthy break between main events
(E) a lack of spirit or interest - In the second paragraph of "The Ring of Time," a "girl of sixteen or seventeen" arrives and speaks briefly with "the older woman" in the practice ring. In the mind of the narrator, who is this older woman?
(A) the clown supervisor
(B) the ringmaster
(C) the girl's sister
(D) the girl's mother
(E) the girl's parole officer - In the third paragraph of "The Ring of Time," the narrator characterizes his role as
(A) a writer, a "recording secretary for one of the oldest of societies"
(B) a resident cynic, skeptical about all forms of popular entertainment
(C) a ringmaster
(D) a disgruntled patron who hasn't received his "dollar's worth of entertainment"
(E) a spectator in a short-skirted costume and a conical straw hat - Which one of the following observations about the circus does the narrator not make in the third paragraph of "The Ring of Time"?
(A) It comes as close to being the world in microcosm as anything he knows.
(B) It is an old-fashioned (and rather boring) form of entertainment.
(C) It puts all the rest of show business in the shade.
(D) It is at its best before it has been put together.
(E) It is at its best in the activity of a single performer. - In paragraph four, the narrator reports that the young rider experienced a minor mishap, forcing her to make "minor repairs" while "standing on the back of a moving horse." What was this mishap?
(A) The neck strap of her bathing suit broke.
(B) She lost hold of the horse's mane.
(C) She dropped the long rein used to control the horse.
(D) Her conical straw hat fell off.
(E) One of her high heels fell off. - Paragraph five opens with a paradox--a seemingly contradictory statement. Identify that paradox.
(A) For me the circus is at its best before it has been put together . . ..
(B) All, all would be lost.
(C) The richness of the scene was in its plainness . . ..
(D) One ring is always bigger than three.
(E) Her ride ended as casually as it had begun . . .. - According to the narrator in the sixth paragraph of "The Ring of Time," everything "in the hideous old building seemed to take the shape" of what?
(A) a square
(B) a ghost
(C) a horse
(D) a question mark
(E) a circle - In “The Ring of Time,” what thought does the narrator have as he watches the girl ride round and round the ring?
(A) I still haven't had my dollar's worth of fun.
(B) I wish the lions had not returned to their cages.
(C) This girl looks nothing like her mother.
(D) She will never be as beautiful as this again.
(E) I bet I could do that. - According to the narrator in the sixth paragraph of "The Ring of Time," what is the girl "too young to know"?
(A) The circus is an old-fashioned (and rather boring) form of entertainment.
(B) Time does not really move in a circle at all.
(C) She is being exploited by her mother.
(D) She really ought to be wearing more than a bathing suit in front of this crowd.
(E) She could be making much more money in Vegas.
