from “The Star,” H. G. Wells
The following passage is from the opening of the science fiction short story “The Star,”
by H. G. Wells. In the remainder of the story, an astronomical event pulls another planet
into the center of our solar system. Read the passage. Then, answer the question(s).

(1) It was on the first day of the New Year that the announcement was made, almost
simultaneously from three observatories ... the motion of the planet Neptune, the outermost
of all the planets that wheel about the sun, had become very erratic.... Such a piece of news
was scarcely calculated to interest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants were
unaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside the astronomical profession did
the subsequent discovery of a faint remote speck of light in the region ... cause any very
great excitement. Scientific people, however, found the intelligence remarkable enough,
even before it became known that the new body was rapidly growing larger and brighter,...
(2) By the second day it was clearly visible to any decent instrument, as a speck with a barely
sensible diameter, in the constellation Leo near Regulus. In a little while an opera glass
could attain it.
(3) On the third day of the new year the newspaper readers of two hemispheres were made
aware for the first time of the real importance of this unusual apparition in the heavens. “A
Planetary Collision,” one London paper headed the news, and proclaimed [the] opinion that
this strange new planet would probably collide with Neptune.... [I]n most of the capitals of the
world, on January 3rd, there was an expectation, however vague of some imminent
phenomenon in the sky...
(4) And in a hundred observatories there had been suppressed excitement, rising almost to
shouting pitch, as the two remote bodies had rushed together; and a hurrying to and fro, to
gather photographic apparatus and spectroscope, and this appliance and that, to record this
novel astonishing sight, the destruction of a world. For it was a world, a sister planet of our
earth ... that had so suddenly flashed into flaming death. Neptune ... had been struck, fairly
and squarely, by the strange planet from outer space...
1. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.
1. Part A. Which theme would most likely be developed in the story? Base your answer on the introduction and the details in the passage.
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1 point
a. Knowledge is important to humanity’s survival.
b. Space travel is a dangerous but necessary mission.
c. Newspapers can create panic by printing incorrect information.
d. Human life is unimportant compared to the rest of the universe.