Read the sentence from a rough draft.Every kid should take a foreign language class to learn the ins and outs of a whole different culture.
Read the excerpt from "Mending Wall."We keep the wall between us as we go.To each the boulders that have fallen to each.And some are loaves and some so nearly ballsWe have to use a spell to make them balance:"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"We wear our fingers rough with handling them.Oh, just another kind of out-door game,One on a side. It comes to little more:There where it is we do not need the wall:He is all pine and I am apple orchard.What does the line “And some are loaves and some so nearly balls” refer to?
What is the speaker in "The Weary Blues" attempting to convey in his description of the scene?
Read the poem "Autumn" by Emily Dickinson.The morns are meeker than they were,The nuts are getting brown;The berry's cheek is plumper,The rose is out of town.The maple wears a gayer scarf,The field a scarlet gown.Lest I should be old-fashioned,I'll put a trinket on. Which statement best explains the central idea of the second stanza?
Read the excerpt from Roosevelt’s Executive Order No. 9066.Whereas the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities. . . . Which best describes the impact of the words “prosecution,” “espionage,” and “sabotage”?
Read the excerpt from "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins.I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way outWhich statement best interprets the metaphor in these lines?
Read the excerpt from part 5 of Zeitoun.Zeitoun thinks of the simple greatness of the canoe, of the advantages of moving quietly, of listening carefully. When he was released from prison, he and Kathy looked for the canoe where he’d last seen it, at the Claiborne house, but it was gone. The house had been robbed, too. Everything was stolen, because the soldiers and police who arrested Zeitoun had left the house unlocked and unguarded. Thieves walked in unimpeded and made off with all the tenants’ belongings, everything Todd had gathered there in the front rooms to keep dry.All those things were replaced, but he misses the canoe. He keeps his eye out for it, hoping he’ll see it at a yard sale or in someone’s sideyard. He’d pay for it again. Maybe he should get a new one, he thinks. Maybe his girls will like it more now. Maybe little Ahmad, like his uncle and father and grandfather and countless Zeitouns before them, will feel the lure of the sea.Which statement best describes how time progresses in this excerpt?
Read the introduction to a personal statement.Usually, when people talk about "rocky” relationships, it’s with a frown, but mine has enriched my life. I became fascinated with rocks when I was really young, and throughout my childhood you could usually find me with my pockets bulging from whatever stony treasures I’d scavenged that day. When my science teacher taught us a unit on geology, I realized that my fascination could become an exciting career that could also help me make good money. Obtaining an internship to work on the geological exhibit at the museum is an important step on my road to being a geologist.
Read these stanzas from the poem "Keep A-Pluggin’ Away" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. I've a humble little mottoThat is homely, though it's true,—Keep a-pluggin' away.It's a thing when I've an objectThat I always try to do,—Keep a-pluggin' away.When you've rising storms to quell,When opposing waters swell,It will never fail to tell,—Keep a-pluggin' away. If the hills are high beforeAnd the paths are hard to climb,Keep a-pluggin' away.And remember that successesCome to him who bides his time,—Keep a-pluggin' away.From the greatest to the least,None are from the rule released.Be thou toiler, poet, priest,Keep a-pluggin' away. What message is conveyed by both this poem and "Mother to Son"?
Which phrases from the excerpt provide visual details? Select 3 options.
Luiza is writing this paragraph about Sudanese Slit Drum.In "Sudanese Slit Drum,” Neil MacGregor traces the origins of a slit drum from Central Africa. He uses the drum to trace the Sudanese struggle for independence and to explain the battle that Kitchener’s Anglo-Egyptian army fought against the Sudanese.
Read the excerpt from "How to Think Like a Researcher," a chapter from How to Find Out Anything.But don’t throw your hands up in frustration and disgust just yet. Instead, let’s recast that open-ended question into a series of factual questions that you can answer.How much did CEO Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems earn in 2007?What was the average salary paid to the chief executive officers at the ten largest computer companies in the past five years?Who is an expert on computer industry compensation whom I can interview and quote?What books can I consult that discuss compensation trends in the software industry?By coming up with a series of factual questions to ask, the initial abstract question starts to take shape as a concrete project. These factual questions will yield to diligent research because answers to each of them can be found.
Read the conclusion to a personal statement.(1) I’ve had some growth experiences. (2) They’ve helped me to improve my math skills. (3) Moreover, I have learned to apply these skills to designing and constructing movie sets. (4) I’m looking forward to honing my skills by working as a production assistant on a film this summer.
Read the excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s All Rivers Run to the Sea.Why were those trains allowed to roll unhindered into Poland? Why were the tracks leading to Birkenau never bombed? I have put these questions to American presidents and generals and to high-ranking Soviet officers. Since Moscow and Washington knew what the killers were doing in the death camps, why was nothing done at least to slow down their “production”? That not a single Allied military aircraft ever tried to destroy the rail lines converging on Auschwitz remains an outrageous enigma to me.How does Wiesel’s choice of genre prove beneficial in the excerpt?
Read the passage from How to Live Twenty-Four Hours a Day."What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in the train, and in the crowded street again?” Precisely. Nothing simpler!
Which statement best describes the difference between the way the poets address their subjects in "The Author to Her Book" and "A Hymn to the Evening"?
Read the excerpt from "Benin Plaque: The Oba with Europeans.”They and their Dutch and English competitors, who followed later in the sixteenth century, carried gold and ivory to Europe and in return brought commodities from all over the world that were greatly valued by the Oba’s court . . .
Read this excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban.Square by square, she searches the night skies for adversaries then scrutinizes the ocean, which is roiling with nine straight days of unseasonable April rains.What is the meaning of the underlined word?
Read the sentence.During the Cold War, scientists competed in the "space race.”
Read the third stanza of "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls."The morning breaks; the steeds in their stallsStamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;The day returns, but nevermoreReturns the traveller to the shore, And the tide rises, the tide falls.Which statement best describes the purpose of the word “nevermore”?
Did you find these answers helpful?