Read the excerpt from a short story.The apartment house had a communal attic rarely visited by its tenants. The labeled boxes and cast-off furniture offered little intrigue, so few explored its depths. Then one rainy afternoon, I ventured there seeking solitude. Roaming beyond the beams of the lone ceiling bulb, I spied only cobwebs until I rounded the corner of a hulking armoire. Beyond this antique was unrelenting shadow, but I willed myself to advance. Then a grim bellow of thunder resounded, sending me to the floor. Prostrate on the splintered beams, my hands felt a shaft of cold steel and I could but imagine the evil article I’d encountered.What technique does the author use to build suspense in the excerpt?
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?
Read the excerpt from "The Adventure of the Mysterious Picture."“[T]here is a secret about one of my rooms on which I feel disposed to try an experiment. So, gentlemen, none of you shall know who has the haunted chamber, until circumstances reveal it. I will not even know it myself, but will leave it to chance and the allotment of the housekeeper. At the same time, if it will be any satisfaction to you, I will observe, for the honor of my paternal mansion, that there’s scarcely a chamber in it but is well worthy of being haunted.”What technique does Irving use to build suspense in the excerpt?
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 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?
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 Adventure of the Mysterious Picture."The expression was that of agony—the agony of intense bodily pain; but a menace scowled upon the brow, and a few sprinklings of blood added to its ghastliness. Yet it was not all these characteristics—it was some horror of the mind, some inscrutable antipathy awakened by this picture, which harrowed up my feelings.What effect does the tone of the excerpt have on the reader?
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?
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 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 a short story.The cave had offered a greater challenge than the group expected. This was not a tourist’s cavern, and there was no stopping to photograph stalagmites—far from it. Each spelunker wore a headlamp, and each had gone so far as to belly crawl through a tight fissure at the urging of their guide. Riya had kept up all afternoon, ignoring her aching legs and the shadows of abundant bats. And now she awaited her turn to walk, legs splayed, across a yawning crevice. Even Old Dot had done it; she could hear the group clapping for her across the darkness. Finding footholds on the left and right, she advanced—one foot, then the other. Reaching ambitiously for jutting rock beyond her grasp, she heard a sickly crumble below and began to fall.How does the excerpt exemplify the ideas King describes in "Danse Macabre"?
Based on Chapter 4 of The Scarlet Letter, what biased view do Hester Prynne and most of her fellow settlers hold of themselves in relation to the Indigenous population in the area?
Read the sentence relating to Roger Chillingworth from Chapter 4 of The Scarlet Letter.“Never, sayest thou?” rejoined he with a smile of dark and self-relying intelligence.What trait of Roger Chillingworth does Hawthorne develop in this sentence?
In Chapter 3 of The Scarlet Letter, how does Hawthorne show that Master Dimmesdale is uncomfortable with the public aspect of his profession?
Which event described in chapter 1 of The Scarlet Letter takes place before the story begins?
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