Read the passage from A Room of One’s Own. For surely it is time that the effect of discouragement upon the mind of the artist should be measured, as I have seen a dairy company measure the effect of ordinary milk and Grade A milk upon the body of the rat. They set two rats in cages side by side, and of the two one was furtive, timid and small, and the other was glossy, bold and big. Now what food do we feed women as artists upon? I asked, remembering, I suppose, that dinner of prunes and custard . What idea is emphasized by the connotations of the underlined words?
Read the excerpt from "Money to Us Is of No Value." We know that these settlers are poor, or they would never have ventured to live in a country which has been in continual trouble ever since they crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore, this large sum of money which you have offered us among these people: give to each also a proportion of what you say you would give to us annually (over and above this very large sum of money), and we are persuaded they would most readily accept of it in lieu of the lands you sold them. If you add, also, the great sums you must expend in raising and paying armies with a view to force us to yield you our country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purpose of repaying these settlers for all their labor and their improvements. Which quotation explains why the tribes suggested the US government spend the money on its own citizens?
Read the final two paragraphs from "Money to Us Is of No Value." You have talked to us about concessions. It appears strange that you should expect any from us, who have only been defending our just rights against your invasions. We want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be enemies no longer. We desire you to consider, brothers, that our only demand is the peaceable possession of a small part of our once great country. Look back and review the lands from whence we have been driven to this spot. We can retreat no farther, because the country behind hardly affords food for its present inhabitants, and we have therefore resolved to leave our bones in this small space to which we are now confined. Which best describes a central idea of this excerpt?
Read the passage from "Two Kinds.” In fact, in the beginning, I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, trying each one on for size. I was a dainty ballerina girl standing by the curtains, waiting to hear the right music that would send me floating on my tiptoes. I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity. I was Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air. In all of my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect . My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything. But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient. "If you don't hurry up and get me out of here, I'm disappearing for good," it warned. "And then you'll always be nothing." What conflict is indicated by the underlined sentences?
Read the passage from "Two Kinds.” Every night after dinner, my mother and I would sit at the Formica kitchen table. She would present new tests, taking her examples from stories of amazing children she had read in Ripley's Believe It or Not , or Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest , and a dozen other magazines she kept in a pile in our bathroom. My mother got these magazines from people whose houses she cleaned. And since she cleaned many houses each week, we had a great assortment. She would look through them all, searching for stories about remarkable children. The first night she brought out a story about a three-year-old boy who knew the capitals of all the states and even most of the European countries. A teacher was quoted as saying the little boy could also pronounce the names of the foreign cities correctly. "What's the capital of Finland?” my mother asked me, looking at the magazine story. What evidence supports the conclusion that the narrator’s mother reads about children who excel and tries to awaken similar talents in her daughter? Choose three correct answers.
Which statement best evaluates the effectiveness of the argument?
Read the excerpt from Pygmalion and Galatea by Josephine Preston Peabody. Now the festival of Venus was at hand, and Pygmalion, like all who loved Beauty, joined the worshippers. In the temple victims were offered, solemn rites were held, and votaries from many lands came to pray the favor of the goddess. At length Pygmalion himself approached the altar and made his prayer. "Goddess,” he said, "who hast vouchsafed to me this gift of beauty, give me a perfect love, likewise, and let me have for bride, one like my ivory maiden.” And Venus heard. Read the excerpt from Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. THE GENTLEMAN: [returning to his former place on the note taker’s left] How do you do it, if I may ask? THE NOTE TAKER: Simply phonetics. The science of speech. That’s my profession; also my hobby. Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby! You can spot an Irishman or a Yorkshireman by his brogue. I can place any man within six miles. I can place him within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets. How does Shaw’s adaptation challenge the idea in Pygmalion and Galatea that love is what makes people happiest?
Read the passage from "Marriage Is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe. Then one day he received a letter from Nene, and in spite of himself he began to glance through it perfunctorily until all of a sudden the expression on his face changed and he began to read more carefully. . . . Our two sons, from the day they learnt that they have a grandfather, have insisted on being taken to him. I find it impossible to tell them that you will not see them. I implore you to allow Nnaemeka to bring them home for a short time during his leave next month. I shall remain here in Lagos . . . The old man at once felt the resolution he had built up over so many years falling in. He was telling himself that he must not give in. He tried to steel his heart against all emotional appeals. It was a re-enactment of that other struggle. He leaned against a window and looked out. The sky was overcast with heavy black clouds and a high wind began to blow filling the air with dust and dry leaves. It was one of those rare occasions when even Nature takes a hand in a human fight. Very soon it began to rain, the first rain in the year. It came down in large sharp drops and was accompanied by the lightning and thunder which mark a change of season. Okeke was trying hard not to think of his two grandsons. But he knew he was now fighting a losing battle. He tried to hum a favorite hymn but the pattering of large rain drops on the roof broke up the tune. His mind immediately returned to the children. How could he shut his door against them? By a curious mental process he imagined them standing, sad and forsaken, under the harsh angry weather—shut out from his house. That night he hardly slept, from remorse—and a vague fear that he might die without making it up to them. How does Okeke’s change in attitude challenge the patriarchy?
Read the passage from "Marriage Is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe. The prejudice against Nnaemeka’s marriage was not confined to his little village. In Lagos, especially among his people who worked there, it showed itself in a different way. Their women, when they met at their village meeting, were not hostile to Nene. Rather, they paid her such excessive deference as to make her feel she was not one of them. But as time went on, Nene gradually broke through some of this prejudice and even began to make friends among them. Slowly and grudgingly they began to admit that she kept her home much better than most of them. What cultural value is revealed through the women's actions toward Nene?
Read the excerpt from act 4, scene 1, of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar . [Exit LEPIDUS] ANTONY: This is a slight, unmeritable man, Meet to be sent on errands. Is it fit, The three-fold world divided, he should stand One of the three to share it? OCTAVIUS: So you thought him, And took his voice who should be pricked to die, In our black sentence and proscription. ANTONY: Octavius, I have seen more days than you: And though we lay these honors on this man. To ease ourselves of divers sland’rous loads, He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold, To groan and sweat under the business, Either led or driven as we point the way; And having brought our treasure where we will, Then take we down his load, and turn him off, Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears And graze in commons. What does this interaction reveal about Antony’s agenda?
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House. Nora: That letter is from Krogstad. Mrs. Linde: Nora—it was Krogstad who lent you the money! Nora: Yes, and now Torvald will know all about it. Mrs. Linde: Believe me, Nora, that's the best thing for both of you. Nora: You don't know all. I forged a name. Mrs. Linde: Good heavens—! Nora: I only want to say this to you, Christine—you must be my witness. Mrs. Linde: Your witness? What do you mean? What am I to—? Nora: If I should go out of my mind—and it might easily happen— Mrs. Linde: Nora! Nora: Or if anything else should happen to me—anything, for instance, that might prevent my being here— Mrs. Linde: Nora! Nora! you are quite out of your mind. Nora: And if it should happen that there were some one who wanted to take all the responsibility, all the blame, you understand— Mrs. Linde: Yes, yes—but how can you suppose—? Nora: Then you must be my witness, that it is not true, Christine. I am not out of my mind at all; I am in my right senses now, and I tell you no one else has known anything about it; I, and I alone, did the whole thing. Remember that. Which statement best describes the conflict?
Read the excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech "A Tryst with Destiny.” The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman. We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country, on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. Which statement best describes Nehru’s appeal to his audience?
Read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 100.” What is the central idea of the third quatrain?
How does the rhythm of iambic pentameter contribute to the meaning of Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 100”? Choose two correct answers.
Read the excerpt from "The Storyteller." "Were there any sheep in the park?” demanded Cyril. "No;” said the bachelor, "there were no sheep.” "Why weren’t there any sheep?” came the inevitable question arising out of that answer. The aunt permitted herself a smile, which might almost have been described as a grin. "There were no sheep in the park,” said the bachelor, "because the Prince’s mother had once had a dream that her son would either be killed by a sheep or else by a clock falling on him. For that reason the Prince never kept a sheep in his park or a clock in his palace.” Which statement best explains the situational irony in the passage?
Read the passage from Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech. Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Who is Reagan’s intended audience for this part of his speech?
Read the sentence. According to a study published in the American Bee Journal , pesticides can cause as much damage to bee hives as Varroa mites do. What type of evidence is used to support the claim in this sentence?
What is the claim in an argumentative text?
What are effective ways to revise a research paper for readability? Choose three correct answers.
Read the scenario. The editor-in-chief of a magazine emails this list to her entire staff: Seek the truth without bias. Always fact-check your information. Never compromise your principles. Which statement about this list is most likely true?
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