Read the excerpt from Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick.He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness. His whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze, and shaped in an unalterable mould, like Cellini’s cast Perseus.Which best states the theme that is developed in this excerpt?
Read this excerpt from chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter using comprehension strategies.It was no great distance, in those days, from the prison-door to the market-place. Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might be reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanour was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon.What is the meaning of this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 5 of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott."What in the world are you going to do now, Jo?" asked Meg one snowyafternoon, as her sister came tramping through the hall, in rubberboots, old sack, and hood, with a broom in one hand and a shovel in theother."Going out for exercise," answered Jo with a mischievous twinkle in hereyes."I should think two long walks this morning would have been enough!It's cold and dull out, and I advise you to stay warm and dry by thefire, as I do," said Meg with a shiver."Never take advice! Can't keep still all day, and not being apussycat, I don't like to doze by the fire. I like adventures, and I'mgoing to find some."Why does Alcott most likely begin the chapter with character dialogue?
Read the excerpt from Poe’s "The Fall of the House of Usher."I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in the unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down -- but with a shudder even more thrilling than before -- upon the remodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge. How does this excerpt provide information about the narrator of the story?
Read this excerpt from chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter using comprehension strategies.A blessing on the righteous Colony of the Massachusetts, where iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine!What is the meaning of the word “iniquity”?
Read this excerpt from chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter.Standing on that miserable eminence, she saw again her native village, in Old England, and her paternal home; a decayed house of gray stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half-obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility.What is the effect of the underlined words in this excerpt?
Which event described in chapter 1 of The Scarlet Letter takes place before the story begins?
Read the excerpt from Poe’s "The Fall of the House of Usher."I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity -- an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn -- a pestilent and mystic vapor. Which observation can be made about the narrator?
Read the excerpt from “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allan Poe.The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. What is the effect of parallelism in this excerpt?
Which best explains the symbolism behind Ahab’s ivory leg, fashioned from the jaw of a whale in Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick?
Read the excerpt from “The Oval Portrait,” by Edgar Allan Poe.The rays of the numerous candles (for there were many) now fell within a niche of the room which had hitherto been thrown into deep shade by one of the bed-posts. I thus saw in vivid light a picture all unnoticed before. It was the portrait of a young girl just ripening into womanhood. I glanced at the painting hurriedly, and then closed my eyes. Why I did this was not at first apparent even to my own perception. But while my lids remained thus shut, I ran over in my mind my reason for so shutting them. It was an impulsive movement to gain time for thought?—to make sure that my vision had not deceived me—to calm and subdue my fancy for a more sober and more certain gaze.Which statement best describes the effect of the narration on the story?
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