Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban.The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones, linking them as if by a flaming ribbon. Lourdes massages her eyes and begins walking with legs that feel held by splints.“I’m glad to see you, Lourdes. Thank you for everything, hija, the hat, the cigars. You buried me like an Egyptian king, with all my valuables!” Jorge del Pino laughs.Lourdes perceives the faint scent of her father’s cigar . . .“Where are you, Papi?”The street is vacant, as if a force has absorbed all living things. Even the trees seem more shadow than substance.“Nearby,” her father says, serious now.The author uses magic realism by
What are the plaintiffs seeking for their children in Brown v. Board of Education?
Read the passage from Etiquette, by Emily Post.New York's bad manners are often condemned and often very deservedly. Even though the cause is carelessness rather than intentional indifference, the indifference is no less actual and the rudeness inexcusable.What is the closest meaning of the underlined phrase as it used in the excerpt?
Which signal word helps you identify a cause-and-effect text structure?
Read the excerpt from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Death by Black Hole.”If you stumbled upon a black hole and found yourself falling feet-first toward its center, then as you got closer, the black hole’s force of gravity would grow astronomically. Curiously, you would not feel this force at all because, like anything in free fall, you are weightless. What you do feel, however, is something far more sinister. While you fall, the black hole’s force of gravity at your two feet, they being closer to the black hole’s center, accelerates them faster than does the weaker force of gravity at your head. Read the excerpt from Billy Collins’s “Man Listening to Disc.”the only true point of view,is full of the hope that he,the hub of the cosmoswith his hair blown sideways,will eventually make it all the way downtown.Which choice best describes the differing views Tyson and Collins present of humanity?
Which of the following excerpts from Fast Food Nation best provides evidence that fast food restaurants are designed for using unskilled labor?
Read the passage from Etiquette, by Emily Post.New York's bad manners are often condemned and often very deservedly. Even though the cause is carelessness rather than intentional indifference, the indifference is no less actual and the rudeness inexcusable.What is the closest meaning of the underlined phrase as it used in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. English is now the second language of at least one-sixth of the nation’s restaurant workers, and about one-third of that group speaks no English at all. The proportion of fast food workers who cannot speak English is even higher.Which type of evidence does the author use in this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Leslie Marmon Silko’s story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds."The sun was approaching the long mesa where it disappeared during the winter. What type of figurative language is included in this passage?
Which excerpt from The Great Gatsby best indicates that Nick is not fully content with his life?
What are the plaintiffs seeking for their children in Brown v. Board of Education?
Read the excerpts from “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” and “Speaking Arabic.”My friend had concluded that if he took his language and culture out of his poetry, he stood a better chance of receiving a fellowship. He took out his native language, the poetic patois of our reality, the rich mixture of Spanish, English, pachuco and street talk which we know so well. In other words, he took the tortillas out of his poetry, which is to say he took the soul out of his poetry. At a neighborhood fair in Texas, somewhere between the German Oom-pah Sausage Stand and the Mexican Gorditas booth, I overheard a young man say to his friend, “I wish I had a heritage. Sometimes I feel—so lonely for one.” And the tall American trees were dangling their thick branches right down over his head.Which best states how the structures of both excerpts support ideas about cultural diversity?
Read the excerpt from Leslie Marmon Silko’s story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds."Leon knocked at the old carved door with its symbols of the Lamb. While he waited he looked up at the twin bells from the king of Spain with the last sunlight pouring around them in their tower.What does the image of the Lamb above the priest’s door symbolize?
Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. Up and down Academy Boulevard, along South Nevada, Circle Drive, and Woodman Road, teenagers like Elisa run the fast food restaurants of Colorado Springs. Fast food kitchens often seem like a scene from Bugsy Malone, a film in which all the actors are children pretending to be adults. No other industry in the United States has a workforce so dominated by adolescents.How does Schlosser effectively build his argument in this excerpt?
Read the following excerpt from Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics.In the real world, Feldman learned to settle for less than 95 percent. He came to consider a company “honest” if its payment rate was above 90 percent. He considered a rate between 80 and 90 percent “annoying but tolerable.” If a company habitually paid below 80 percent, Feldman might post a hectoring note, like this one:The cost of bagels has gone up dramatically since the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, the number of bagels that disappear without being paid for has also gone up. Don’t let that continue. I don’t imagine that you would teach your children to cheat, so why do it yourselves? The excerpt serves as which type of support for the authors’ argument?
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue."I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language—the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with.How does Tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from part 4 of Zeitoun.They were tense, each of them with their fingers on their triggers. In the foyer, one officer was frisking Ronnie. Another officer had Nasser against the wall by the stairway.“Give me your ID,” one man said to Zeitoun.Zeitoun complied. The man took the ID and gave it back to Zeitoun without looking at it.“Get in the boat,” he said.“You didn’t look at it,” Zeitoun protested.“Move!” another man barked.What conclusion can readers draw about this character vs. society conflict?
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue."Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world. Which best summarizes the central idea of the excerpt?
Read the paragraph.Competitive sports are valuable activities for young people today. They emphasize the importance of being part of a team and working toward a common goal. Competitive sports give today's youth an advantage as athletes tend to be more confident in themselves and their abilities. Participation in competitive sports is strongly recommended for our students.Which strategy does the author use in her choice of language to convey her message?
Read this excerpt from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.I knew I could never let Mom hear the messages, because protecting her is one of my most important raisons d’être, so what I did was I took Dad’s emergency money from on top of his dresser, and I went to the Radio Shack on Amsterdam. It was on a TV there that I saw that the first building had fallen. I bought the exact same phone and ran home and recorded our greeting from the first phone onto it. I wrapped up the old phone in the scarf that Grandma was never able to finish because of my privacy, and I put that in a grocery bag, and I put that in a box, and I put that in another box, and I put that under a bunch of stuff in my closet, like my jewelry workbench and albums of foreign currencies.Which word best describes the tone of this excerpt?
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