5)

The connotations of the word "fungus," which Kingsolver uses to describe the term "want," is one of decay, unwanted growth, and a sort of taking-over by an alien body. Wants spring up unbidden just like fungi, and if left unchecked would swallow the globe. Needs, on the other hand, are described as "few enough to fit in a bucket" and as "dry" and "rattling" things. The first image gives a literal example of needs -- the food and water that could be carried in a bucket would suffice, for instance -- and the dryness suggests a lack of growth and a simplicity; the needs of human beings have not grown or changed.

6)

If survival requires only the smallest bounties of nature, as Kingsolver stresses throughout this essay that it does, tan the few images of beauty that she lists as...

The gulf between survival and poetry is small because both are built best by remaining simple.
7)

Emily Dickinson was also very concerned with -- as in observant of and attentive to -- the natural world, and also often marked with great curiosity and insight the many ways in which the animal kingdom mimicked human behavior, and vice versa. This makes Kingsolver's allusion to her poetry in the last page especially fitting from author to author.

8)

There are many ways Kingsolver's statement could be interpreted, but as a "brute feat" of "fortune," she is essentially reminding us that our birth is the result of animal urges and the accident of biology and genetic mixing.