Read the passage.The woman in the last apartment down the hall was somewhat of a misanthrope, according to most people in Keira's building. She almost never came out of her apartment, but when she did, she answered hellos with a glare, as if she were being insulted. Keira was sure that she could find a way to get to know the woman, if only she could figure out how to invite herself into the woman's apartment to chat.Based on inferences, what is the most likely meaning of misanthrope?
Read the excerpt from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!O anything, of nothing first create!O heavy lightness! serious vanity!Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!Still-waking sleep, that is not what it isThis love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Read the passage.The headmistress of the boarding school was a buttoned-up, austere woman with a tightly wound, slate-gray bun at the top of her head and clunky black shoes on her feet. She made sure that our uniforms were complete at inspection every morning, and if one of us dared to wear a warmer pair of socks than the thin, oatmeal-colored ones we were issued, there would be trouble.What does the use of the word austere imply?
Read the excerpt from "The Crab That Played with the Sea.”And the Rat said, ‘I am too busy biting through the line that this old Fisherman is spinning. I do not play with the Sea.’ And he went on biting the line.Then the little girl-daughter put up her little soft brown arms with the beautiful white shell bracelets and said, ‘O Eldest Magician! when my father here talked to you at the Very Beginning, and I leaned upon his shoulder while the beasts were being taught their plays, one beast went away naughtily into the Sea before you had taught him his play.And the Eldest Magician said, ‘How wise are little children who see and are silent! What was the beast like?’
Read the passage from a story in The Arabian Nights Entertainments.The fisherman was very unhappy. "What an unlucky man I am to have freed you! I implore you to spare my life.""I have told you," said the genius, "that it is impossible. Choose quickly; you are wasting time."The fisherman began to devise a plot."Since I must die," he said, "before I choose the manner of my death, I conjure you on your honour to tell me if you really were in that vase?""Yes, I was," answered the genius."I really cannot believe it," said the fisherman. "That vase could not contain one of your feet even, and how could your whole body go in? I cannot believe it unless I see you do the thing."Then the genius began to change himself into smoke, which, as before, spread over the sea and the shore, and which, then collecting itself together, began to go back into the vase slowly and evenly till there was nothing left outside. Then a voice came from the vase which said to the fisherman, "Well, unbelieving fisherman, here I am in the vase; do you believe me now?"
Which quotations from "The Crab That Played with the Sea" convey a comic tone? Select two options.
What qualities of the tragic heroine do both of these passages reveal? Select three options.
What qualities of the villain support the universal theme that women are as capable as men? Select two options.
Which event is part of the rising action in "Little Snow White"?
Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale."This first edition is wholly unlike the so-called definitive edition of 1857. In the process of publishing seven different editions over forty years, the Grimms made vast changes in the contents and style. The stories in the first edition are closer to the oral tradition than the tales of the final, which can be regarded more as a literary collection, because Wilhelm, the younger brother, continually honed the tales so that they would resonate with a growing literary public. Their books would become second in popularity only to the Bible in German-speaking lands. By the twentieth century, they would become the most famous collection of folk and fairy tales in the western world.
Read the excerpt from "The Crab That Played with the Sea.”‘Was that well done?’ said the Eldest Magician.‘Yes,’ said the Man. ‘But now we must go back to Perak, and that is a weary way to paddle. If we had waited till Pau Amma had gone out of Pusat Tasek and come home, the water would have carried us there by itself.’‘You are lazy,’ said the Eldest Magician. ‘So your children shall be lazy. They shall be the laziest people in the world. They shall be called the Malazy—the lazy people;’ and he held up his finger to the Moon and said, ‘O Fisherman, here is the Man too lazy to row home. Pull his canoe home with your line, Fisherman.’‘No,’ said the Man. ‘If I am to be lazy all my days, let the Sea work for me twice a day for ever. That will save paddling.’And the Eldest Magician laughed and said, ‘Payah kun’ (That is right).And the Rat of the Moon stopped biting the line; and the Fisherman let his line down till it touched the Sea, and he pulled the whole deep Sea along, past the Island of Bintang, past Singapore, past Malacca, past Selangor, till the canoe whirled into the mouth of the Perak River again. ‘Kun?’ said the Fisherman of the Moon.‘Payah kun,’ said the Eldest Magician. ‘See now that you pull the Sea twice a day and twice a night for ever, so that the Malazy fishermen may be saved paddling. But be careful not to do it too hard, or I shall make a magic on you as I did to Pau Amma.’Then they all went up the Perak River and went to bed, Best Beloved.From that day to this the Moon has always pulled the sea up and down and made what we call the tides. Sometimes the Fisher of the Sea pulls a little too hard, and then we get spring tides; and sometimes he pulls a little too softly, and then we get what are called neap-tides; but nearly always he is careful, because of the Eldest Magician.
Which scenario is an example of a theme for a story?
Read the excerpt from "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale."Though brusque and raw, the Grimms’ tales of the first edition still resonate with us today because they indicate how we can transform ourselves and our conditions to live in a better world. As philologists, collectors, translators, researchers, editors, and mediators, the Grimms worked in the hope that their tales would benefit us in unimaginable ways, and, indeed, it is this hope that can still be felt when we read and listen to their tales.
Read the excerpt from " The Royal House of Thebes ."Antigone and Ismene heard with horror what Creon had decided. To Ismene, shocking as it was, overwhelming her with anguish for the pitiful dead body and the lonely, homeless soul, it seemed, nevertheless, that nothing could be done except to acquiesce [to accept without protest]. She and Antigone were utterly alone. All Thebes was exulting that the man who had brought war upon them should be thus terribly punished. "We are women," she told her sister. "We must obey. We have no strength to defy the State." "Choose your own part," Antigone said. "I go to bury the brother I love." "You are not strong enough," Ismene cried. "Why, then when my strength fails," Antigone answered, "I will give up." She left her sister; Ismene dared not follow her.
Read the passage from "Cinderella" by the Brothers Grimm.The girl went out to her mother's grave every day and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white cloth over the grave, and when the spring sun had removed it again, the man took himself another wife.This wife brought two daughters into the house with her. They were beautiful, with fair faces, but evil and dark hearts. Times soon grew very bad for the poor stepchild. . . ."Why should that stupid goose sit in the parlor with us?" they said. "If she wants to eat bread, then she will have to earn it. Out with this kitchen maid!"They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes. "Just look at the proud princess! How decked out she is!" they shouted and laughed as they led her into the kitchen.Now it happened that the king proclaimed a festival that was to last three days. All the beautiful young girls in the land were invited, so that his son could select a bride for himself. When the two stepsisters heard that they too had been invited, they were in high spirits.They called Cinderella, saying, "Comb our hair for us. Brush our shoes and fasten our buckles. We are going to the festival at the king's castle."Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go to the dance with them. She begged her stepmother to allow her to go."You, Cinderella?" she said. "You, all covered with dust and dirt, and you want to go to the festival? You have neither clothes nor shoes, and yet you want to dance!"However, because Cinderella kept asking, the stepmother finally said, "I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for you. If you can pick them out again in two hours, then you may go with us."
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