Diagnostic PostTest Answers

Read the excerpt from Utopia.In their great council at Amaurot, to which there are three sent from every town once a year, they examine what towns abound in provisions and what are under any scarcity, that so the one may be furnished from the other; and this is done freely, without any sort of exchange; for, according to their plenty or scarcity, they supply or are supplied from one another, so that indeed the whole island is, as it were, one family.

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. MARCIt was a typically hot, dry day in Jerusalem. Marina and I were sitting on a sun-warmed stone patio when I learned my family's sugar story. A cousin of mine was filling in a bit of our history that had always puzzled me.My father's family came from Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, where his father, Solomon, the grand rabbi of Kiev, was the latest in a long line of rabbis that stretched back to the 1300s. Solomon was a forward-thinking rabbi who helped make bridges between the Jewish community and the Christians. He knew that change was coming, and he committed himself to building what was to become the land of Israel. My grandfather moved his family to Tel Aviv, where he became one of the leaders of the Jewish community.

Jefferson begins the introduction to the Declaration of Independence by stating his major premise and giving examples, and then explains

In “Ambush,” which line signals the beginning of the narrative within the frame story?

Read the excerpt from Utopia.The Utopians wonder how any man should be so much taken with the glaring doubtful lustre of a jewel or a stone, that can look up to a star or to the sun himself; or how any should value himself because his cloth is made of a finer thread; for, how fine soever that thread may be, it was once no better than the fleece of a sheep, and that sheep, was a sheep still, for all its wearing it. They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed that even man, for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than this metal . . .

Read the excerpt from part 1 of Zeitoun.In the neighborhood, other homes had been hit by all manner of debris. Windows had been blown out. Wet, black branches covered cars, the street. Everywhere trees had been pulled out of the earth and lay flat.The quiet was profound. The wind rippled the water but otherwise all was silent. No cars moved, no planes flew. A few neighbors stood on their porches or waded through their yards, assessing damage. No one knew where to start or when.What conclusion can readers draw about this society vs. nature conflict?

Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal."This I freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and man

Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.The wind that carried west from Iliumbrought me to Ismarus, on the far shore,a strongpoint on the coast of Cicones.I stormed that place and killed the men who fought.Plunder we took, and we enslaved the women,to make division, equal shares to all—but on the spot I told them: 'Back, and quickly! ‘Out to sea again!' My men were mutinous,fools, on stores of wine. Sheep after sheep theybutchered by the surf, and shambling cattle,feasting,—while fugitives went inland, runningto call to arms the main force of Cicones.This was an army, trained to fight on horsebackor, where the ground required, on foot. They camewith dawn over that terrain like the leavesand blades of spring. So doom appeared to us,dark word of Zeus for us, our evil days. My men stood up and made a fight of it—60backed on the ships, with lances kept in play,from bright morning through the blaze of noonso holding our beach, although so far outnumbered;

Read the excerpt from Enrique’s Journey.Two gangsters had overheard his description and kicked him mercilessly. "Next time, we kill you," the gangsters told him. The teenager, afraid for his life, asked to be deported.Read the excerpt from "Children of the Drug Wars."We should also make it easier for children to apply as refugees when they are still in Central America, as we have done for people in Iraq, Cuba, countries in the former Soviet Union, Vietnam and Haiti. Those who showed a well-founded fear of persecution wouldn’t have to make the perilous journey north alone.

Read the excerpt from chapter 7 of Night.We all got up. We all pulled our soaked blankets tighter around our shoulders. And we tried to take a few steps, to shuffle back and forth, in place.Suddenly, a cry rose in the wagon, the cry of a wounded animal. Someone had just died.Others, close to death, imitated his cry. And their cries seemed to come from beyond the grave. Soon everybody was crying. Groaning. Moaning. Cries of distress hurled into the wind and the snow.The lament spread from wagon to wagon. It was contagious. And now hundreds of cries rose at once. The death rattle of an entire convoy with the end approaching. All boundaries had been crossed. Nobody had any strength left. And the night seemed endless.

Read the excerpt from Roosevelt’s State of the Union address and the poster below it.As spokesmen for the United States Government, you and I take off our hats to those responsible for our American production—to the owners, managers, and supervisors, to the draftsmen and the engineers, and to the workers—men and women—in factories and arsenals and shipyards and mines and mills and forests—and railroads and on highways.

Read the excerpt from The Fellowship of the Ring.Many people from other parts of the Shire were also asked; and there were even a few from outside the borders. Bilbo met the guests (and additions) at the new white gate in person. He gave away presents to all and sundry—the latter were those who went out again by a back way and came in again by the gate. Hobbits give presents to other people on their own birthdays. Not very expensive ones, as a rule, and not so lavishly as on this occasion; but it was not a bad system. Actually in Hobbiton and Bywater every day in the year it was somebody’s birthday, so that every hobbit in those parts had a fair chance of at least one present at least once a week. But they got tired of them.

Read the excerpt from part 2 of Zeitoun.Zeitoun went outside, the air humid and gusty. He tied the canoe to the back porch. The water was whispering through the cracks in the back fence, rising up. It was flowing into his yard at an astonishing rate. As he stood, it swallowed his ankles and crawled up his shins.Back inside, he continued to move everything of value upward. As he did, he watched the water erase the floor and climb the walls. In another hour there was three feet of water indoors. And his house was three feet above street level.What conclusion can readers draw about this character vs. nature conflict?

Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale."All of the tales in the first edition bear the marks of their diverse storytellers who believed in the magic, superstitions, and miraculous transformations of the tales. It may be difficult for us to understand why this is the case, but for the storytellers and writers of these tales, the stories contained truths about the living conditions of their times. The tales in the first edition were collected not from peasants, as is commonly believed, but mainly from literate people whom the Grimms came to know quite well. Evidence shows that these people often obtained their tales from illiterate or anonymous informants. Even if they did not know their informants, the Grimms came to trust almost everyone who contributed to their collection. It is this mutual trust that marks the tales as something special and endows them with a certain humanity, what Germans call Menschlichkeit, and it is this mutual trust among folklorists in the nineteenth century that marks it as the golden age of folk and fairy tales. The tales in the first edition set a certain standard that collectors began to follow and still follow even today.

Read the excerpt from Thoughts and Sentiments.After coming to England, and seeing others write and read, I had a strong desire to learn, and getting what assistance I could, I applied myself to learn reading and writing, which soon became my recreation, pleasure, and delight; and when my master perceived that I could write some, he sent me to a proper school for that purpose to learn. Since, I have endeavoured to improve my mind in reading, and have sought to get all the intelligence I could, in my situation of life, towards the state of my brethren and countrymen in complexion, and of the miserable situation of those who are barbarously sold into captivity, and unlawfully held in slavery.Read the excerpt from Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African.The first part of my life was rather unlucky, as I was placed in a family who judged ignorance the best and only security for obedience.—A little reading and writing I got by unwearied application.—The latter part of my life has been—thro' God's blessing, truly fortunate, having spent it in the service of one of the best families in the kingdom.—My chief pleasure has been books.

Read the excerpt from Chapter 3 of Wheels of Change .In 1881, as women in the United States continued to struggle with hoops and corsets and other fashion architecture, their counterparts in England formed the Rational Dress Society. This society called for more reasonable clothing solutions, including limiting the weight of a woman's undergarments to seven pounds.

Read the excerpt from Chapter 1 of Wheels of Change .Sometime between May and November, 1876, Colonel Albert Augustus Pope took a trip that changed American life forever. It didn't happen overnight. But this one sojourn, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from Pope's home near Boston, Massachusetts, was the first step in a chain of events that ultimately led to the rise of the bicycle, the fall of the horse, the paving of America's roadways, the dawn of modern advertising, and the development of the automobile. Equally important, it helped American women gain increased independence, better health, freedom from restrictive clothing, and eventually, the right to vote.