This study presents the second of four reports of the results of the 1970-71 National Assessment of Literature. The educational attainments of nine-year-olds, thirteen-year-olds, seventeen-year-olds, and adults (ages 26-35) were surveyed according to the subjects' ability to become engaged in, find meanings in, and evaluate a work of literature. Respondents made verbal remarks about poems and stories; these remarks were taperecorded and classified according to four categories developed by Alan Purves and Victoria Rippere: engagement-involvement, perception, interpretation, and evaluation. The respondents also wrote essays about stories or poems; these essays were classified as inadequate, barely adequate, adequate, or superior. The bulk of this report consists of sample responses to the exercises; judgments about the worth and implications of the responses are left to the reader. (Some charts have poor reproducibility due to type size; pages 179-231 containing statistical data of results are omitted because of nonreproducibility due to type size.) (DI) Primary type of information provided by report: Results (Topical).