Read this excerpt from part 5 of Zeitoun.It was a test, Zeitoun thinks. Who among us could deny that we were tested? But now look at us, he says. Every person is stronger now. Every person who was forgotten by God or country is now louder, more defiant, and more determined. They existed before, and they exist again, in the city of New Orleans and the United States of America. What assumption does the narrator make in this excerpt?
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 excerpt from Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue.”I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.Which phrase from the excerpt uses informal English?
Read the excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. How does King conclude this claim?
Read the following scene from Trifles.COUNTY ATTORNEY (preoccupied). Is there a cat? (Mrs. Hale glances in a quick covert way at Mrs. Peters.)MRS. PETERS. Well, not now. They’re superstitious, you know. They leave. COUNTY ATTORNEY (to Sheriff Peters, continuing an interrupted conversation.) No sign at all of anyone having come from the outside. Their own rope. Now let’s go up again and go over it piece by piece. (They start upstairs.) It would have to have been someone who knew just the— (Mrs. Peters sits down. The two women sit there not looking at one another, but as if peering into something and at the same time holding back. When they talk now, it is the manner of feeling their way over strange ground, as if afraid of what they are saying, but as if they cannot help saying it.) How would an audio recording most likely convey the characters’ actions during this scene?
Which statement best compares the structure of "Harlem" and "The Weary Blues"?
Read the excerpt from Brown v. Board of Education.Reargument was largely devoted to the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.The Supreme Court studies the Fourteenth Amendment to determine
Read the excerpt from "In Response to Executive Order 9066".I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spellingand a messy room. If it helps any, I will tell youI have always felt funny using chopsticksand my favorite food is hot dogs.Why does Okita include this description of the speaker?
What is meant by the term “intelligent planet” as it is used in "The Intelligent Planet"?
Read this stanza from Allen Ginsberg’s "A Supermarket in California."Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?In this stanza, the speaker wishes
Read the paragraph from a student’s critical analysis essay.In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson talks about independence through his use of big words and fancy argument skills. First, Jefferson states his thesis, which makes it seem important that the colonists get independence. Next, Jefferson gives evidence against the king of England and how he mistreats the American colonies. Finally, Jefferson suggests that colonists should stop paying taxes and fight, which is the obvious answer to the colonists’ problems.What is the best way for the student to revise the essay?
Read the sentence.The president of the company was attending the mandatory sales meeting.Which type of phrase or clause is underlined in the sentence?
Read this excerpt from "Not a Dove, But No Longer a Hawk." I remember distinctly the thrill of climbing aboard a U.S. Army helicopter in the cool of the morning and taking off across the rice fields with a South Vietnamese battalion for a day’s jousting with the Vietcong guerillas. I was proud of the young American pilots sitting at the controls in the cockpit and I was grateful for the opportunity to witness this adventure and to report it. We are fighting now, I used to think, and some day we will triumph and this will be a better country. Based on this excerpt, it can be inferred that
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”?
Use the following definitions to answer the question.evade:1. (verb) to cleverly escape somebody or something, to avoidinvade:1. (verb) to enter by force, to enterWhich sentence contains correct word usage?
Read the excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation.Why does the author include these sentences?
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue."Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no other way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. What can be inferred from the excerpt?
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the events of the Holocaust are relayed from the perspective of
What is the speaker in "The Weary Blues" attempting to convey in his description of the scene?
In part two of Trifles, which of the following is an example of dramatic irony?
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue."Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no other way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. How does Tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. The restaurant opens for business at seven o’clock, and for the next hour or so, Elisa and the manager hold down the fort, handling all the orders. As the place starts to get busy, other employees arrive. Elisa works behind the counter. She takes orders and hands food to customers from breakfast through lunch. When she finally walks home, after seven hours of standing at a cash register, her feet hurt. She’s wiped out. She comes through the front door, flops onto the living room couch, and turns on the TV. And the next morning she gets up at 5:15 again and starts the same routine.How does the description of Elisa’s daily routine support the author’s claim that the fast food industry seeks out teenage employees?
Read the excerpt from part one of Trifles.MRS. HALE. I’d hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticizing.Which word has a meaning similar to “snooping” as it is used in this excerpt?
How does the focus of the primary source article "Mrs. Hossack a Murderess" differ from the Midnight Assassin excerpt?
Read the excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia.She considers the vagaries of sports, the happenstance of El Líder, a star pitcher in his youth, narrowly missing a baseball career in America. His wicked curveball attracted the major league scouts, and the Washington Senators were interested in signing him but changed their minds. Frustrated, El Líder went home, rested his pitching arm, and started a revolution in the mountains.Which best explains how Garcia’s word choice helps establish her voice in the excerpt?
Read this excerpt from "Not a Dove, But No Longer a Hawk." Despite these misgivings, I do not see how we can do anything but continue to prosecute the war. We can and should limit the violence and the suffering being inflicted on the civilians as much as possible, but for whatever reasons, successive Administrations in Washington have carried the commitment in Vietnam to the point where it would be very difficult to prevent any precipitate retreat from degenerating into a rout. If the United States were to disengage from Vietnam under adverse conditions, I believe that the resulting political and psychological shockwaves might undermine our entire position in Southeast Asia. Which statement best describes the paradox in this excerpt?
Read this excerpt from "Not a Dove, But No Longer a Hawk." I wonder, when I look at the bombed out peasant hamlets, the orphans begging and stealing on the streets of Saigon and the women and children with napalm burns lying on the hospital cots, whether the United States or any nation has the right to inflict this suffering and degradation on another people for its own ends.How do the allusions in this excerpt reinforce the meaning of the passage?
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, which best helps readers understand the author’s own cultural experiences?
Read this excerpt from "The Intelligent Planet.". . . Computer scientists expect to see an entire world blossoming over the Internet: electronic commerce and banking, cyber malls, virtual universities and schools, cyber libraries, and so on. We will begin to have a glimpse of Hawthorne’s vision when “intelligent agents” became part of this global network, capable of answering our inquiries in plain, conversational language. But the true fruition of Hawthorne’s vision may not come until the period from 2020 to 2050, when true artificial intelligent (AI) programs will finally be added to the Net, capable of reason, common sense, and speech recognition. Select the most accurate summary of Kaku’s argument.
Which excerpt from ”First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban is the best example of magic realism?
Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban.“Lourdes, I’m back,” Jorge del Pino greets his daughter forty days after she buried him with his Panama hat, his cigars, and a bouquet of violets in a cemetery on the border of Brooklyn and Queens.His words are warm and close as a breath. Lourdes turns, expecting to find her father at her shoulder but she sees only the dusk settling on the tops of the oak trees, the pink tinge of sliding darkness. “Don’t be afraid, mi hija. Just keep walking and I’ll explain,” Jorge del Pino tells his daughter.The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones linking them as if by a flaming ribbon.Which best identifies the magic realism found in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban.He stops at the ocean’s edge, smiles almost shyly, as if he fears disturbing her, and stretches out a colossal hand. His blue eyes are like lasers in the night. The beams bounce off his fingernails, five hard blue shields. They scan the beach, illuminating shells and sleeping gulls, then focus on her. The porch turns blue, ultraviolet. Her hands, too, are blue. Celia squints through the light, which dulls her eyesight and blurs the palms on the shore.Which is an example of a hyperbole?
Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. Instead of relying upon a small, stable, well-paid, and well-trained workforce, the fast food industry seeks out part-time, unskilled workers who are willing to accept low pay. Teenagers have been the perfect candidates for these jobs, not only because they are less expensive to hire than adults, but also because their youthful inexperience makes them easier to control.Which of the following choices best presents a counterclaim to the argument presented in this excerpt?
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?
Study the image from Art Spiegelman’s Maus.How does Spiegelman’s visual representation of the Holocaust aid with comprehension?

Which statement best describes why an author might choose to write a memoir over other nonfiction formats?
Read the excerpt from Their Eyes Were Watching God.To her way of thinking all these things set her aside from Negroes. That was why she sought out Janie to friend with. Janie’s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls like the other women who worked in the fields.What does the phrase “to friend with” mean?
Read this excerpt from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.One night, after what felt like a googolplex inventions, I went to Dad’s closet. We used to Greco-Roman wrestle on the floor in there, and tell hilarious jokes, and once we hung a pendulum from the ceiling and put a circle of dominoes on the floor to prove that the earth rotated.How does the narration affect Oskar’s credibility in this excerpt?
Read this excerpt from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.It took me nine hours to make, and I had thought about giving it to Sonny, the homeless person who I sometimes see standing outside the Alliance Française, because he puts me in heavy boots, or maybe to Lindy, the neat old woman who volunteers to give tours at the Museum of Natural History, so I could be something special to her, or even just to someone in a wheelchair. But instead I gave it to Mom. She said it was the best gift she’d ever received. Which word from this excerpt most reveals the tone?
Read the excerpt from A Man's World.FRITZ—Oh—but de talk—de talk—I can't stand it for you. When you go out like dis people don't believe it is for your work. They say you have a lover—they say he writes your books.FRANK—That's very flattering. It means that they think they are too good for a woman to do.Which best describes why this excerpt is ironic?
Read the excerpt from a New York Times review written about the play entitled A Man's World.Well, for one thing, as per the caption of Miss Rachel Crothers’s play, that this is a man’s world. But what is isn’t necessarily right, though there are a lot of people who go on believing so. However, as Miss Crothers probably knows as well as any one, this play and many others equally strong and to the point will not change conditions. Which statement best describes this excerpt?
Read the following scene from A Man's World.FRITZ—But you are a woman. You must not expect people to trust you—too much.FRANK—I’m not going to spend my life explaining.FRITZ—(Sitting at L. of desk.) No—but you—FRANK—Oh, Fritz, don’t. You've been so nice and so comfortable. And now you’re beginning to worry. You see how much better it would have been for both of us if I’d never told you anything about myself and about Kiddie.How would an audio production differ from a stage production of this scene?
Which excerpt from A Man's World contains a stage direction?
Read the excerpt from Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier's Home.”His father was in the real estate business and always wanted the car to be at his command when he required it to take clients out into the country to show them a piece of farm property. The car always stood outside the First National Bank building where his father had an office on the second floor. Now, after the war, it was still the same car.Nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls had grown up.How does Hemingway’s description of the town as unchanged impact the readers’ perception of Krebs?
Read the excerpt from Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier's Home.”A distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war set in because of the lies he had told. All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.What does the excerpt reveal about Krebs?
Read the excerpt from Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier's Home.”Nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls had grown up. They all wore sweaters and shirt waists with round Dutch collars. It was a pattern. He liked to look at them from the front porch as they walked on the other side of the street. He liked to watch them walking under the shade of the trees. He liked the round Dutch collars above their sweaters. He liked their silk stockings and flat shoes. He liked their bobbed hair and the way they walked.The author’s short, descriptive sentences
Read the excerpt from Jackie Robinson’s letter to President Eisenhower.I respectfully remind you sir, that we have been the most patient of all people. When you said we must have self-respect, I wondered how we could have self-respect and remain patient considering the treatment accorded to us through the years.The “treatment” that Robinson refers to is most likely the
Read the excerpt from Richard Wright’s Black Boy.My mother finally went to work as a cook and left me and my brother alone in the flat each day with a loaf of bread and a pot of tea. When she returned at evening she would be tired and sometimes dispirited and would cry a lot. Sometimes, when she was in despair, she would call us to her and talk to us for hours, telling us that we now had no father, that our lives would be different from those of other children, that we must learn as soon as possible to take care of ourselves, to dress ourselves, to prepare our own food; that we must take upon ourselves the responsibility of the flat while she worked.Why does Wright include this text?
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