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11th Grade FSA Practice [1537228] Stude nt Class Date Read the following and answer the questions below: “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Excerpt from Others: An Anthology of the New Verse by Wallace Stevens American Modernist poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), spent his life as an insurance company executive, often writing poetry while commuting to and from his office. His writing is known for its precise language and phrasing. I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime. IV 11th Grade FSA Practice Page 1/160

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11th Grade FSA Practice [1537228]StudentClassDate

Read the following and answer the questions below:

“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”Excerpt from Others: An Anthology of the New Verse

by Wallace StevensAmerican Modernist poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), spent his life as an insurance company executive, often writing poetry while commuting to and from his office. His writing is known for its precise language and phrasing.

I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.

II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds.

III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.

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V I do not know which to prefer— The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.

VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause.

VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?

VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.

IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles.

X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony1

Would cry out sharply.

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XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds.

XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.

XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.  1 euphony: pleasing sound

Poem titled “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” by Wallace Stevens. Found in Others: An Anthology of the New Verse, edited by Alfred Kreymborg. Published by Alfred A Knopf, 1917.  

1. Read this stanza from “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”It was evening all afternoon.It was snowing And it was going to snow.The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs. Which sentence best explains how the author's intended meaning of the line “It was evening all afternoon” impacts the stanza? 

  A. By showing how dark the afternoon was, the author emphasizes the

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sparseness of the snowy environment. 

 B. By highlighting the calm of the afternoon, the author hints at his

feelings of alienation and apathy to his surroundings. 

 C. By revealing the color of the sky through the afternoon, the author

shows his dread for the future. 

 D. By highlighting the volume of snow that occurred in the afternoon,

the author sets an ominous tone. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Making Pysanky Making Pysanky

Making PysankyThe passage below is a student’s first draft. It may contain errors. (1)A pysanka is an egg decorated in the traditional Ukrainian fashion, involving intricate designs and multiple colors of dye. (2)The word pysanka comes from the Ukrainian verb for write because in order to create the designs, you “write” using a special instrument called a kistka on the eggs with beeswax before dipping them in dye. (3)This method is called a “wax, resist process,” meaning that the wax applied to the egg resists penetration by the dye. (4)You begin by drawing on the egg with wax wherever you want the shell to remain white. (5)Then, you dip the egg in the lightest color of dye. (6)The lightest color is usually yellow. (7)And then you wait upwards of fifteen minutes for the brightest possible color. (8)The yellow dye will not be able to permete the wax, leaving the lines of your first round of drawing a nice, crisp white. (9)Then you apply wax to the places where the egg should remain yellow, following with another dip in the next lightest color of dye,

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such as pink or light orange. (10)You continue in this way, dyeing the egg in increasingly darker colors, until you have a very dark egg that is covered in a great deal of wax. (11)But how, then, do you get the wax off the egg? (12)Hold it near a heat source (but not too near!), and the wax will begin to melt, allowing you to gently wipe the wax away (13)Underneath, you will find a gorgeously complicated design that looks like it was painted by hand. 

2. Read Sentence 3 from "Making Pysanky."This method is called a “wax, resist process,” meaning that the wax applied to the egg resists penetration by the dye.Which revision of this sentence conforms to the conventions of standard English punctuation? 

 A. This method is called a “wax-resist process,” meaning that the wax

applied to the egg resists penetration by the dye. 

 B. This method is called a “wax-resist process” meaning that the wax

applied to the egg resists penetration by the dye. 

 C. This method is called a “wax, resist process” meaning that the wax

applied to the egg-resists penetration by the dye. 

 D. This method is called a “wax, resist process”—meaning that the

wax applied to the egg resists penetration by the dye. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

NASA and University Researchers Find a Clue to How Life Turned Left NASA and University Researchers Find a Clue to How Life Turned Left

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Excerpt from NASA and University Researchers Find a Clue to How Life Turned Left

by Bill Steigerwald Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes. . . . [They are] the catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions. Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acids in a huge variety of arrangements to build millions of different proteins. Amino acid molecules can be built in two ways that are mirror images of each other. . . . Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, they can’t be mixed. “Synthetic proteins created using a mix of left- and right-handed amino acids just don’t work,” said Dr. Jason Dworkin. . . . Since life can’t function with a mix of left- and right-handed amino acids, researchers want to know how…life on Earth got set up with the left-handed ones. “The handedness observed in biological molecules—left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars—is a property important for molecular recognition processes and is thought to be a prerequisite for life,” said Dworkin. All ordinary methods of synthetically creating amino acids result in equal mixtures of left- and right-handed amino acids. Therefore, how the nearly exclusive production of one hand of such molecules arose from what were presumably equal mixtures of left and right molecules in a prebiotic world has been an area of intensive research. The team ground up samples of . . . meteorites, mixed them into a hot-water solution, then separated and identified the molecules in them, using a liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer. “We discovered that the samples had about four times as many left-handed versions of aspartic acid as the opposite hand,” said Dr. Daniel Glavin. Aspartic acid is an amino acid used in every enzyme in the human body. It is also used to make the sugar substitute Aspartame. “Interestingly, the same meteorite sample showed only a slight left-hand excess (no more than eight percent) for alanine, another amino acid used by life.” “At first, this made no sense, because if these amino acids came from

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contamination by terrestrial life, both amino acids should have large left-handed excesses,” said Glavin. “However, a large left-hand excess in one and not the other tells us that they were not created by life but instead were made inside…[an] asteroid.” The team confirmed that the amino acids were probably created in space [by] using isotope analysis. Isotopes are versions of an element with different masses. For example, carbon 13 is a heavier, and less common, variety of carbon. Since the chemistry of life prefers lighter isotopes, amino acids enriched in the heavier carbon 13 were likely created in space. “We found that the aspartic acid and alanine in our . . . samples were highly enriched in carbon 13, indicating they were probably created by nonbiological processes in the parent asteroid,” said Dr. Jamie Elsila. . . .This is the first time that carbon isotope measurements have been reported for these amino acids. . . . The carbon 13 enrichment, combined with the large left-hand excess in aspartic acid but not in alanine, provides very strong evidence that some left-handed proteinogenic amino acids—ones used by life to make proteins—can be produced in excess in asteroids. Some have argued that left-handed amino acid excesses in meteorites were formed by exposure to polarized radiation in the solar nebula—the cloud of gas and dust from which asteroids, and eventually the Solar System, were formed. However, in this case, the left-hand aspartic acid excesses are so large that they cannot be explained by polarized radiation alone. The team believes that another process is required. 

“NASA and University Researchers Find a Clue to How Life Turned Left” in the public domain.

  

  

3. Read this sentence from “An Amino Acid Clock.”

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 They provide archaeologists with a range of information on these people, including their eating habits and impact on the environment. Which is the best synonym for impact as it is used in this sentence? 

 A. collisio

 B. effec

 C. forc

 D. impressio

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

American Independence American Independence

 “American Independence” 

Excerpt from History of the United Statesby Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard

The year is 1775 and it is the start of the Revolutionary War. The Second

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Continental Congress is still in talks with King George III, hoping to stop the bloodshed before it becomes too widespread. Before they can get the papers to King George, he issues a proclamation of “rebellion” against anyone who is against his Majesty King George and his laws. Congress knows what the answer is now: war.

 Drifting into War.—Although the Congress1 had not given up all hope of reconciliation in the spring and summer of 1775, it had firmly resolved to defend American rights by arms if necessary. It transformed the militiamen who had assembled near Boston, after the battle of Lexington, into a Continental army and selected Washington as commander-in-chief. It assumed the powers of a government and prepared to raise money, wage war, and carry on diplomatic relations with foreign countries. Events followed thick and fast. On June 17, the American militia, by the stubborn defense of Bunker Hill, showed that it could make British regulars pay dearly for all they got. On July 3, Washington took command of the army at Cambridge. In January, 1776, after bitter disappointments in drumming up recruits for its army in England, Scotland, and Ireland, the British government concluded a treaty with the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel2 in Germany contracting, at a handsome figure, for thousands of soldiers and many pieces of cannon. This was the crowning insult to America. Such was the view of all friends of the colonies on both sides of the water. Such was, long afterward, the judgment of the conservative historian Lecky: "The conduct of England in hiring German mercenaries to subdue the essentially English population beyond the Atlantic made reconciliation hopeless and independence inevitable." The news of this wretched transaction in German soldiers had hardly reached America before there ran all down the coast the thrilling story that Washington had taken Boston, on March 17, 1776, compelling Lord Howe3 to sail with his entire army for Halifax.4

The Growth of Public Sentiment in Favor of Independence.—Events were bearing the Americans away from their old position under the British constitution toward a final separation. Slowly and against their desires, prudent and honorable men, who cherished the ties that united them to the old order and dreaded with genuine horror all thought of revolution, were drawn into the path that led to the great decision. In all parts of the country and among all classes, the question of the hour was being debated. "American independence," as the historian Bancroft says, "was not an act of sudden passion nor the work of one man or one assembly. It had been discussed in every part of the country by farmers and merchants, by

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mechanics and planters, by the fishermen along the coast and the backwoodsmen of the West; in town meetings and from the pulpit; at social gatherings and around the camp fires; in county conventions and conferences or committees; in colonial congresses and assemblies." Paine's "Commonsense."—In the midst of this ferment of American opinion, a bold and eloquent pamphleteer broke in upon the hesitating public with a program for absolute independence, without fears and without apologies. In the early days of 1776, Thomas Paine issued the first of his famous tracts, "Commonsense," a passionate attack upon the British monarchy and an equally passionate plea for American liberty. Casting aside the language of petition with which Americans had hitherto addressed George III, Paine went to the other extreme and assailed him with many a violent epithet. He condemned monarchy itself as a system which had laid the world "in blood and ashes." Instead of praising the British constitution under which colonists had been claiming their rights, he brushed it aside as ridiculous, protesting that it was "owing to the constitution of the people, not to the constitution of the government, that the Crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey." Having thus summarily swept away the grounds of allegiance to the old order, Paine proceeded relentlessly to an argument for immediate separation from Great Britain. There was nothing in the sphere of practical interest, he insisted, which should bind the colonies to the mother country. Allegiance to her had been responsible for the many wars in which they had been involved. Reasons of trade were not less weighty in behalf of independence. "Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will." As to matters of government, "it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice; the business of it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant from us and so very ignorant of us." There is accordingly no alternative to independence for America. "Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries ''tis time to part.' ... Arms, the last resort, must decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the king and the continent hath accepted the challenge.... The sun never shone on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province or a kingdom, but of a continent.... 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year or an age; posterity is involved in the contest and will be more or less affected to the end of time by the proceedings now. Now is the seed-time of Continental union, faith,

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and honor.... O! ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth.... Let names of Whig and Tory be extinct. Let none other be heard among us than those of a good citizen, an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the rights of mankind and of the free and independent states of America." As more than 100,000 copies were scattered broadcast over the country, patriots exclaimed with Washington: "Sound doctrine and unanswerable reason!" The Drift of Events toward Independence.—Official support for the idea of independence began to come from many quarters. On the tenth of February, 1776, Gadsden, in the provincial convention5 of South Carolina, advocated a new constitution for the colony and absolute independence for all America. The convention balked at the latter but went half way by abolishing the system of royal administration and establishing a complete plan of self-government. A month later, on April 12, the neighboring state of North Carolina uttered the daring phrase from which others shrank. It empowered its representatives in the Congress to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independence. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Virginia quickly responded to the challenge. The convention of the Old Dominion, 6 on May 15, instructed its delegates at Philadelphia to propose the independence of the United Colonies and to give the assent of Virginia to the act of separation. When the resolution was carried the British flag on the state house was lowered for all time. Meanwhile the Continental Congress was alive to the course of events outside. The subject of independence was constantly being raised. "Are we rebels?" exclaimed Wyeth of Virginia during a debate in February. "No: we must declare ourselves a free people." Others hesitated and spoke of waiting for the arrival of commissioners of conciliation. "Is not America already independent?" asked Samuel Adams a few weeks later. "Why not then declare it?" Still there was uncertainty and delegates avoided the direct word. A few more weeks elapsed. At last, on May 10, Congress declared that the authority of the British crown in America must be suppressed and advised the colonies to set up governments of their own.

  1Congress: the Second Continental Congress, which consisted of representatives from the Thirteen Colonies  2 Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel: title given to rulers (equal to a Duke, Count, or Bishop) of the Landgraviate of Hess, located in the Holy Roman Empire 3Lord Howe: General William Howe, Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the

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Revolutionary War  4Halifax: town in Nova Scotia, Canada , where the British naval forces held camp during the Revolutionary War 5Provincial convention: gathering of colonists in New Bern, North Carolina , to support the laws created by the First Continental Congress 6Old Dominion: a nickname for the State of Virginia

 

"American Independence" in the public domain.

 

4. Read the sentence from “American Independence.”The conduct of England in hiring German mercenaries to subdue the essentially English population beyond the Atlantic made reconciliation hopeless and independence inevitable.Write one to two paragraphs that define inevitable, and explain the importance of the idea of inevitability to the passage. Support your answer with examples from the passage. 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

How Commodore Perry Opened the Doors of Japan How Commodore Perry Opened the Doors of Japan

How Commodore Perry Opened the Doors of Japan On July 8, 1853, a fleet of four American steamships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in what is now known as Tokyo Bay. Japan had been closed to most outsiders since 1639, when the country had secured its borders under the rule of the Tokugawa shogun.1 The shoguns feared that outside influences, particularly those from the western world, would undermine their power. They maintained a closed-door policy to most outsiders for over two hundred years. Prior to Perry’s arrival, only a small

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number of Dutch and Chinese merchant ships had been allowed to dock in Japan. Contact between foreigners and Japanese people was strictly limited, as the shogun forbade the majority of visitors from interacting with ordinary citizens. Those who did not comply could be forced to leave. This closed-door policy also affected Japanese citizens, who were typically barred from leaving the country.The decision to initiate relations with Japan had been thoroughly evaluated by the United States government. Legislators ultimately decided to dispatch a mission to Japan for three main reasons. First, increased trade with Asian ports would result in major financial gains for California and the other Pacific states and territories. Second, many U.S. citizens had become alarmed by the purported mistreatment of American sailors shipwrecked along the Japanese coast and wished to guarantee the sailors’ well-being. Finally, the United States hoped Japan would become a stopping point where American whaling ships and steamships could resupply themselves with much-needed goods.Once the government concluded that benefits of dealing with Japan outweighed the risks, President Millard Fillmore sent four heavily armed steamships to Japan under Perry’s command. The president believed that a compelling show of force would persuade the Japanese ruling class of the benefits of foreign trade. Perry was a wise choice for this endeavor. At the age of 60, he had enjoyed a distinguished naval career and knew that success would serve as his crowning achievement. He embodied the combination of forcefulness and diplomacy needed for the job. Upon his departure, Fillmore gave Perry a letter of introduction to the Japanese emperor, along with many gifts, including a telegraph, telescope, and small model of a steam engine.The sudden appearance of armed steamships into Tokyo Bay alarmed many Japanese observers. However, Japanese rulers cautiously agreed to engage in discussions. What followed was a period of tense negotiations between Japan’s leadership and the government of the United States.Many influential Japanese military officials and business leaders did not support interacting with the Americans. Separated from outside influences, they had established a flourishing economy and built impressive, populous cities. Opening the country to negotiations or trade with the United States could have negative or unanticipated effects. Commodore Perry, however, remained relentless in his quest to establish a diplomatic and economic partnership with the island. He insisted on meeting with leaders and adamantly refused to cooperate with anyone other than the most important dignitaries. Fearing their continued resistance to trade might lead to armed

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conflict with the United States, the Japanese leaders finally agreed to open their borders. On March 31, 1854, Perry accomplished his mission. After much work, he negotiated a peace treaty with Japan that adhered to four basic principles: It instituted a relationship between the two nations, allowed American access to the port cities of Shimoda and Hakodate, promised amnesty and assistance to shipwrecked American vessels and sailors, and granted American ships permission to buy supplies in Japan. Not long after the signing of the treaty, Japan negotiated similar trade agreements with European nations. In 1860, the first Japanese delegation journeyed to the United States to sign a new trade agreement.Perry’s visit was a monumental event that changed Japanese as well as American history. The shogun soon became overwhelmed with the problems caused by large-scale trade, such as the use of multiple monetary systems in financial transactions with foreign traders. Eventually, the shogun relinquished power to a more centralized government led by the emperor. As Japan became more open to the international community, the age of the shogun faded into history. 1shogun: the hereditary military leader of Japan; while the Japanese emperor was the official head of state, the shogun made most of the political decisions.

 

5. Read this sentence from “How Commodore Perry Opened the Doors of Japan.” He insisted on meeting with leaders and adamantly refused to cooperate with anyone other than the most important dignitaries. What is the meaning of the word adamantly as it is used in the sentence above? 

 A. rudely

objectionable 

 B. intending to

confuse 

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 C. foolishly

shortsighted 

 D. unyielding in

determination 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from “Space Station Research Exposing the Salty Truth of Supercritical Water Transitions”  Excerpt from “Space Station Research Exposing the Salty Truth of Supercritical Water Transitions”

Excerpt from “Space Station Research Exposing the Salty Truth of Supercritical Water Transitions”

by Mike Giannone July 22, 2013

There is a moment when everything changes. Something familiar crosses a boundary and suddenly behaves in new ways. Take water for example. In middle school science class, you probably learned about saturation points when adding salt to a liquid. Or you discovered the importance of phase changes when going from boiling to steam or from freezing to ice. That moment of change is now being studied at a new level in space.At sea level, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and both liquid and water vapor (i.e., steam) coexist. However, water heated under high pressures (more than 3,200 pounds per square inch, about the amount of pressure in 100 car tires) doesn’t boil. Above the critical temperature of 705 degrees Fahrenheit, water behaves like a dense gas where its distinct liquid and vapor phases no longer exist. At this point, any salt in the water no longer is soluble. It separates, or precipitates, from the water and attaches itself to surfaces like heating coils and pipes.

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In order to study this phenomenon, the Supercritical Water Mixture (SCWM) investigation currently is running aboard the International Space Station. It is a joint effort between NASA and Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency.“By studying supercritical and near-critical water without the effects of gravity, we’ll look at how salt precipitates on a very fundamental level,” said Mike Hicks, SCWM principal investigator at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “We’ll look at some fundamental questions: how is salt actually transported in this medium without the influences of gravity; what happens to the salt/water mixture when taken past the critical point; how does it precipitate; at what point does it start to agglomerate and clump together to where you can actually see little salt particles in the water?” Testing occurs in the Device for the Study of Critical Liquids and Crystallization’s (DECLIC) High Temperature Insert (HTI). DECLIC and HTI were built by CNES and are housed in the space station’s Kibo module. SCWM is operated by CNES from its facility in Toulouse, France. Results from the research will be shared between NASA and CNES.“The salt water experiment was something NASA proposed to the French as an experiment that we would be interested in performing in their DECLIC facility,” said Hicks. “The French wanted to perform a similar experiment but didn’t have the funding to pursue this until NASA joined forces with them. So it is a collaboration of mutual interests. We’re looking for ways to handle waste streams in space, and this is just one of the technologies that we’re looking at for that.”SCWM research results can be extended easily to ground-based applications. A better understanding about what happens at near-critical and supercritical conditions is important in designing extended-life and low-maintenance systems, such as power plants, waste management and high salinity aquifers.Use of supercritical fluids in supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) technology has been in place for years. For example, supercritical carbon dioxide is used in dry cleaning and decaffeinating coffee.Learning how to use water efficiently in its supercritical phase is of great interest to researchers since many of our waste streams—like city sewage, agricultural wastes and paper mill wastes—contain water. SCWO provides a way to oxidize sewage in a closed system that essentially will burn out all the organics in a wet waste stream. The beauty of this process is that the combustion products are relatively benign compared with incineration, which produces a range of sulfur and nitrogen oxides. Typically, the SCWO

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processing of an organic waste stream will leave behind only carbon dioxide and water. “SCWM is not just a fundamental science experiment,” said Uday Hegde, SCWM co-principal investigator. “This is actually something that can be of benefit to NASA, in terms of recycling and waste management systems, and has application to real systems on the ground as well. For example, water reclamation in remote places. It may also prove to be extremely useful for waste processing at the single home or neighborhood level or an entire city. It is a relativity green process compared to incineration.”The tendency for salts to “fall out” of solution presents one of the leading challenges of SCWO technology. At ambient temperatures and pressures, salt is easily dissolved in water. However, when water goes to its supercritical state, salt no longer is soluble, and it precipitates out of the water. The salt then adheres to surfaces, building up and corroding systems and fouling pipes resulting in a large maintenance overhead.Typically, these small particles of salt migrate toward the cooler regions, a process known as thermophoresis. Engineers have a hard time designing reactor vessels that can withstand these tremendously corrosive environments without implementing a costly maintenance program.“In a very systematic way, we want to study the nature of these precipitates,” said Hicks. “That’s just the start. There’s a tremendous amount of work to be done to make this technology economically viable. It’s a wonderful technology except for the fact that it tends to be a maintenance nightmare. Hopefully, we can minimize this by better understanding how to handle the corrosion and fouling problems.”A good understanding of the behavior of salt in near-critical and supercritical conditions would assist designers in building next-generation SCWO reactors. With the knowledge gleaned from SCWM, they possibly could design systems that would operate without large maintenance problems.

  Excerpt from article, “Space Station Research Exposing the Salty Truth of Supercritical Water Transitions,” by Mike Giannone. Published by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), July 22, 2013. In the Public Domain. Accessed from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/SCWM/

 

6. Read this sentence from the “Excerpt from ‘Space Station Research

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Exposing the Salty Truth of Supercritical Water Transitions.’”      The beauty of this process is that the combustion products       are relatively benign compared with incineration, which      produces a range of sulfur and nitrogen oxides.Which word best matches the meaning of benign as it is used in the sentence above? 

 A. beneficia

 B. harmles

 C. ineffectiv

 D. reliabl

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Henry Clay's Letter to the National Intelligencer Henry Clay's Letter to the National Intelligencer

Excerpt from Henry Clay's Letter to Editors of the National Intelligencer

Henry Clay opposed Polk and the annexation of Texas. In this letter, Clay explained the reasons for his opposition.

Raleigh, April 17, 1844…Annexation and war with Mexico are identical. Now, for one, I certainly am

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not willing to involve this country in a foreign war for the object of acquiring Texas. I know there are those who regard such a war with indifference and as a trifling affair, on account of the weakness of Mexico, and her inability in inflict serious injury upon this country. But I do not look upon it thus lightly. I regard all wars as great calamities, to be avoided, if possible, and honorable peace as the wisest and truest policy of this country.…I do not think that Texas ought to be received into the Union, as an integral part of it, in decided opposition to the wishes of a considerable and respectable portion of the confederacy. I think it far more wise and important to compose and harmonize the present union, as it now exists, than to introduce a new element of discord and distraction into it…It is useless to disguise that there are those who espouse and those who oppose the annexation of Texas upon the ground of the influence which it would exert, in the balance of political power, between two great sections of the Union. I conceive that no motive for the acquisition of foreign territory would be more unfortunate than that of obtaining it for the purpose of strengthening one part against another part of the common confederacy. Such a principle, put into practical operation, would menace the existence, if it did not certainly sow the seeds of a dissolution of the Union.Annexation would be to proclaim to the world an insatiable and unquenchable thirst for foreign conquest or acquisition of territory. For if today Texas be acquired to strengthen one part of the confederacy, tomorrow Canada may be required to add strength to another. Finally, the part of the confederacy which is now weakest, would find itself still weaker from the impossibility of securing new territory for those peculiar institutions (slavery) which it is charged with being desirous to extend…I consider the annexation of Texas, at this time, without the assent of Mexico, as a measure compromising the national character, involving us certainly in war with Mexico, probably with other foreign powers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, inexpedient in the present financial condition of the country, and called for by any general expression of public opinion."Henry Clay's Letter to Editors of the National Intelligencer" in the public domain.

 

7. Read this sentence from Clay’s letter. I conceive that no motive for the acquisition of foreign territory would be more unfortunate than that of obtaining it for the purpose of strengthening one part against another part of the

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common confederacy. In this sentence, confederacy means 

 A. a faction.

 

 B. a league or

compact. 

 C. a conspiracy or plot.

 

 D. a geographic

region. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

A Practical Plan for Building The Pacific Railroad A Practical Plan for Building The Pacific Railroad

Excerpt from A Practical Plan for Building the Pacific Railroadby T. D. Judah

Theodore D. Judah was a civil engineer who lived from 1826–1863. He was instrumental in proposing and raising funds for the Central Pacific Railroad, which would later become part of the Transcontinental Railroad. The following is an excerpt from his 1857 proposal A Practical Plan for Building the Pacific Railroad.

The project for construction of a great Railroad through the United States of America, connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific ocean, has been in agitation for over fifteen years.

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It is the most magnificent project ever conceived.It is an enterprise more important in its bearings and results to the people of the United States, than any other project involving an expenditure of an equal amount of capital.It connects these two great oceans.It is an indissoluble1 bond of union between the populous States of the East, and the undeveloped regions of the fruitful West.It is a highway which leads to peace and future prosperity. An iron bond for the perpetuation2 of the Union and independence which we now enjoy.Many projects for the prosecution of this enterprise have been presented.Various schemes for the fulfillment of these projects have been devised.Our wisest statesmen, most experienced politicians, scientific engineers, and shrewdest speculators,3 have each and all discussed the subject in nearly every point of view, and given the results of their wisdom and experience to the world.Yet—Their projects have proved abortive. Their schemes have failed. The world has listened with attentive ears to the words of eloquence and wisdom, from the lips of great and wise men.Yet—This project has not been consummated. The road has not been finished. Its practicability4 has not been established. A survey has not been made. It has simply been made the subject of reconnaissance.5

Still—During the first twenty-five years, twenty-five thousand miles of Railroad has been constructed in the United States, and a thousand million of dollars expended thereon.This road is but two thousand miles in length, and its cost not over, say $150,000,000.As many as eight or ten great avenues of transit between the present East and West (three of which, in the State of New York alone, cost one hundred million of dollars) have been constructed.This highway, the greatest and most important of them all, remains unbuilt,

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it may be said unsurveyed, simply reconnoitered.6

Why is this? Its popularity is universal. Its importance admitted. Its practicability believed in Its profitableness unquestioned.1st. It is because these projects have been speculative in their nature; and the people are disposed to look with distrust upon grand speculations.2ndly. There are different routes, advocated by diverse interest, each eager that the road be built to subserve its own particular interest, but unwilling to make common cause upon a common route.3dly. From the lack of confidence in private capitalists, dissuading them from investing in any project, through which they cannot see their way clear.This plan assumes to obviate these objections; and,1st. To build the Pacific Railroad.2ndly. To accomplish the same in ten years.3dly. To raise the capital therefore.And suggests practical means for the accomplishment of its object by means of private capital.It assumes that, without confidence of the people, the road cannot be built.Therefore,It proposes to divest7 the project of its speculative features, and thereby endeavor to inspire the public with confidence.To do this, therefore, its direction and destiny must not be controlled by a grand stock jobbing company, whose united aggregate8 wealth will not pay one per cent. upon their magnificent subscriptions.2ndly. To divest it of the difficulties consequent upon sectional prejudices.It is proposed to ask aid of no kind whatsoever from the General or any State Government, but to combine the interest of either the Northern or Southern States, upon their favorite route; to ask for private capital, and confine the sphere of action entirely to one or the other of these sections.This insures unity of action.The experience of all legislation in this country, upon a subject of general interest, but arousing sectional prejudices, shows conclusively that the fate of a project of this nature, dependent upon the general will, is most likely to provide an unhappy one.

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No one doubts that a liberal appropriation9 of money or of public lands by the General Government, ought to insure the construction of this Railroad, but the proposition carries the elements of its destruction with it; it is the house divided against itself; it cannot be done until the route is defined; and, if defined, the opposing interest is powerful enough to defeat it.Nor does the project for three independent routes, with grants of land for each, divest its project of its objections.There is, at present, no necessity for three roads. The traveling public will be very well content with one; the time may come when three roads may be required, but it is at present as impossible to raise, as unnecessary to spend four hundred million of dollars to accomplish the same result which can be obtained with one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. The advocates of any do not believe that more than one road will be built—afraid, therefore, to give all a fair opportunity, lest their neighbor might get the advantage; they will probably manage to do as they have done before, defeat the measure.The same policy is observable on a minor scale, in the action of State governments—as, for instance, in the State of California an appropriation is badly needed for a survey of a wagon road across the Sierra Nevada mountains, but there are here also three routes, the Northern, Middle, and Southern; and each believing its route the best, insists upon the survey being made, and appropriation spent, upon their route—unable to accomplish this, they defeat the whole.We are therefore brought to a consideration of the 3d objection, viz:10 The want of confidence-dissuading capitalists from investing in a new project, through which they cannot see their way clear.We assume, that this road must be built with private capital.

1 indissoluble: permanent and unbreakable2 perpetuation: to make something last or continue for a long time3 speculators: people who make risky investments4 practicability: able to be accomplished5 reconnaissance: investigation or exploration for the purpose of gathering information6 reconnoitered: to find information through reconnaissance7 divest: to make someone else give up something; to take away8 aggregate: combined or total9 appropriation: money taken for a particular use10 viz: term meaning “that is to say” or “as follows”

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“A Practical Plan for Building the Pacific Railroad” in the public domain.

 

8. Read this excerpt from a style guide. Grammarians are divided over the use of the serial or Oxford comma, which is used to separate lists of three or more items or clauses. The debate about the serial comma is primarily focused on using a comma before the conjunction (and, or, but) that precedes the last item in the list. For example: The expansion of the railroad had a tremendous impact on the development of middle America, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Although some would argue differently, serial commas should be used when listing three or more items. Using the serial comma keeps the meaning clear.  For example: The expansion of the railroad had a tremendous impact on the development of middle America, South Dakota and North Dakota. Without the serial comma, readers might think that the middle America being referred to was South Dakota and North Dakota and not the middle American states (and), South Dakota, and North Dakota. Choose the sentence below in which the serial comma is used correctly. 

 A. According to Theodore D. Judah, the issues associated with building

the Pacific Railroad were greed, power and government.  

 

B. According to Theodore D. Judah, the issues associated with building the Pacific Railroad were federal, and state government interference, and greed. 

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C. Theodore D. Judah suggested that the main issues associated with building the Pacific Railroad were needing private investors, state, and federal government, and citizens to work together. 

 

D. Theodore D. Judah suggested that the main issues associated with building the Pacific Railroad were needing private investors, state and federal government, and citizens to work together. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

An Experiment to Confirm Newton's Second Law An Experiment to Confirm Newton's Second Law

An Experiment to Confirm Newton’s Second Law

Introduction:In this experiment, a series of hanging masses are connected by string to a cart on a horizontal track. The weight of the masses, which is a measure of the force of gravity on the masses, causes the entire system (the masses, the cart and the string) to accelerate at the same rate, described by the relationship F = ma. This theoretical acceleration is compared with the experimental acceleration, found by the kinematic equation d = ½ at2, where d is the distance in meters traveled by the cart, a is the experimental acceleration, and t is the time in seconds the cart takes to travel that distance.Purpose:The Purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate that the acceleration of an object is directly related to the net force applied to the object and inversely related to the object’s mass.

Materials:dynamics cart and track, pulley and clamp, set of hanging masses,

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stopwatch, string, paper clips, meter stickProcedure:1. Place the track on top of a table. Ensure that the track is level and the

cart does not accelerate in either direction when placed on top of the track.

2. Use the clamp to attach the pulley to the table at the end of the track.3. Attach a piece of string to the cart and drape the string over the pulley.

Cut the other end of the string so that masses hung on the string will nearly touch the ground when the cart reaches the end of the track, without creating any slack in the string. Put a loop in this end of the string.

4. Place the following masses on top of the cart: 10 g, 2-20 g, 50 g, 500 g.5. Attach paperclips to the loop in the string until the cart appears to

move at constant velocity after being pushed very gently. The weight of these paperclips balances the friction in the system and will be ignored in calculations.

6. Pull the cart back on the track until the loop in the string is just below the pulley. This will be the starting point of the cart in each trial. Measure and record the distance from the front of the cart to the bumper. 

7. Remove a 10 g mass from the cart and hang it on the loop in the string (the paperclips will also remain on the string). Pull the cart back to the starting point.

8. Release the cart. Using the stopwatch, measure the time it takes for the cart to reach the end of the track. Conduct one additional trial with the same hanging mass. Record the average of the two trials.

9. Repeat steps 6 and 7, moving the following masses from the cart to the loop of the string: 20 g, 30 g, 40 g, 50 g, 60 g, 70 g, 80 g.

10. Determine the total mass, Mtotal, of the system, excluding the pulley and track (cart, masses, string).

11. Calculate the theoretical acceleration (at) and experimental acceleration (aexp) using the equations provided.

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Conclusion:The experimental acceleration for each trial approximated the theoretical acceleration calculated using Newton’s second law, F = ma. As the applied force (the weight of the hanging mass) increased, the time it took the cart to move the same distance decreased. Thus, the acceleration of the cart system increased as applied force increased, as predicted by Newton’s second law.

Results:Distance (d): 0.762 metersTotal mass (Mtotal): 1.102 kilograms

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“An Experiment to Confirm Newton’s Second Law” property of the Florida Department of Education.

 

9. Based on information in the footnotes, which of these quantities is a vector? 

 A. 20

feet 

 B. 20

seconds 

 C. 20 feet per

second 

 D. 20 feet per second due North

 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Francis La Flesche: Native American Anthropologist Francis La Flesche: Native American Anthropologist

Francis La Flesche: Native American Anthropologist When Francis La Flesche arrived on the Osage Reservation in Nebraska in 1911, the cumbersome cylinder-recording device he carried must have attracted some attention. Designed to record sound on wax cylinders, the machine was state-of-the-art technology. It was the most recent version in a

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series patented by Thomas Edison at the turn of the twentieth century.La Flesche had come to record the oral traditions of the Osage elders, traditions in danger of dying out. He himself belonged to the Omaha nation, a tribe closely related to the Osage. He had begun his project by interviewing and recording his own father Joseph La Flesche, also known as Iron Eye, the last Omaha chief to be chosen by traditional methods.La Flesche was accompanied by his supervisor, Alice C. Fletcher, one of the first modern scholars to study Native Americans. The two had met in Washington, D.C., in 1879, when La Flesche was serving as an interpreter for a visiting Ponca1 chief from Nebraska. Impressed by the young man’s knowledge of Native American languages, Fletcher hired him as her assistant and trained him to use the recording machine. Eventually, La Flesche also worked as an interpreter for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and collaborated with Fletcher on several scholarly articles on Native American music and rituals. Although both La Flesche and Fletcher initially called themselves ethnologists,2

they are considered today to be pioneers of anthropology. Defined broadly as the comparative study of the physical and cultural traits of human beings, anthropology was a new field in the late nineteenth century. Historians credit German-born geographer and linguist Franz Boas with founding the discipline of anthropology at around the time La Flesche began his work with Fletcher.Boas was a radical thinker for his day. He rejected commonly accepted notions that some cultures were superior to others and that cultures automatically progressed through similar stages from the so-called primitive to the modern, “developed” level. Boas expounded upon the idea that cultures were formed in response to a myriad of geographical, economic, and historical factors; to him, each culture filled a unique niche in the world.Unfortunately, some other anthropologists were less respectful about cultural differences. In studying Native Americans, many anthropologists gathered precious ritual objects with little concern for their purpose and often without the consent of those who owned them. Some even collected specimens from graves. Native American groups often lacked the legal standing to put a stop to such abuses. It took them nearly one hundred years to regain the bones of many of their ancestors and the possession of the items that rightfully belonged to them.In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, requiring museums to return any items unlawfully obtained. The law also set guidelines for how institutions can acquire and display Native American artifacts. Increasingly, anthropologists themselves developed practices to ensure that groups they studied were treated with respect. By the

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twenty-first century, Native Americans were partners in anthropology. As anthropology developed, it became increasingly specialized. Most modern anthropologists work in one of four fields: physical anthropology, which relates to the biological nature and history of humanity; archaeology, or the study of physical remains from the past; cultural anthropology, or the study of the practices and beliefs of different societies; and anthropological linguistics, which relates to the study of human languages. The precise focus of current anthropologists is very different from the practices of La Flesche, Fletcher, and other early anthropologists, many of whom dabbled in all four of the sub-fields. Yet while anthropology has changed greatly over the years, the field still relies on foundations laid by Boas and his followers.What happened to the recordings made by La Flesche? After cylinder recorders became outmoded, La Flesche’s cylinders were relegated to storage to collect dust, unheard and forgotten, for decades. The development of digital media, however, rescued them from obscurity. Founded in 1981, the Federal Cylinder Project has made his work accessible to scholars, students, and most important of all, to Native Americans. The digitized recordings have restored both the words of the Osage people and Francis La Flesche, Native American anthropologist, to history. 1 Ponca: a Native American nation linguistically related to the Sioux2 ethnologist: one who studies the characteristics of different cultural or ethnic groups 

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10. Read this excerpt from “Francis La Flesche: Native American Anthropologist.”

      Although both La Flesche and Fletcher initially called      themselves ethnologists, they are considered today to be      pioneers of anthropology. Defined broadly as the      comparative study of the physical and cultural traits of      human beings, anthropology was a new field in the late      nineteenth century.

Based on the meanings of the words, why might anthropologist be considered a more appropriate term than ethnologist to describe researchers like Fletcher and La Flesche who study diverse human cultures? 

 A. Ethnologist is simply an old-fashioned term, while anthropologist is the

more modern term. 

 B. An ethnologist studies only a certain ethnic group, while an

anthropologist studies all people as well as certain animals. 

  C. The prefix ethno- refers only to early cultures of people, while anthro-

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refers to both early and modern cultures of people. 

 D. The prefix ethno- refers to individual tribes or cultures of people, while

anthro- suggests a field that encompasses cultures of all people. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Lee's Speech for Independence Lee's Speech for Independence

Excerpt from Speech for Independenceby Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee was a prominent leader in colonial America. He was from Virginia and eventually became one of the people to sign the Declaration of Independence. Lee delivered “Speech for Independence in the Continental Congress,” on June 8, 1776.

I know not, whether among all the civil discords which have been recorded by historians, … there has ever been presented a deliberation more interesting or more important than that which now engages our attention; whether we consider the future destiny of this free and virtuous people, or that of our enemies themselves, who, notwithstanding their tyranny and this cruel war, are still our brethren, and descended from a common stock; or finally, that of the other nations of the globe, those whose eyes are intent upon this great spectacle, and who anticipate from our success more freedom for themselves, or from our defeat apprehend heavier chains and severer bondage. For the question is not whether we shall acquire an increase of territorial dominion, or wickedly wrest from others their just possessions; but whether we shall preserve, or lose forever, that liberty which we have inherited from our ancestors, which we have pursued across tempestuous seas, and which we have defended in this land … Why then do we longer procrastinate … ? Let us complete the enterprise already so well commenced; and since our union with England can not longer consist with that liberty and peace which are our chief delight, let us dissolve these fatal ties, and conquer forever that good which we already enjoy; an entire and

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absolute independence …Who has not heard our prayers, and who is ignorant of our supplications? They have wearied the universe. England alone was deaf to our complaints, and wanted that compassion towards us which we have found among all other nations … The time will certainly come when the fated separation must take place … for so it is decreed by the very nature of things, the progressive increase of our population, the fertility of our soil, the extent of our territory, the industry of our countrymen, and the immensity of the ocean which separates the two states. And if this be true, as it is most true, who does not see that the sooner it takes place the better; and that it would be not only imprudent, but the height of folly, not to seize the present occasion, when British injustice has filled all hearts with indignation, inspired all minds with courage, united all opinions in one, and put arms in every hand? And how long must we traverse three thousand miles of a stormy sea, to go and solicit of arrogant and insolent men either councils or commands to regulate our domestic affairs? Does it not become a great, rich, and powerful nation, as we are, to look at home, and not abroad, for the government of its own concerns? And how can a ministry of strangers judge, with any discernment, of our interests, when they know not, and when it little imports them to know, what is good for us and what is not? …Hesitation paralyzes all our measures; the way we ought to pursue is not marked out; our generals are neither respected nor obeyed; our soldiers have neither confidence nor zeal: feeble at home, and little considered abroad, foreign princes can neither esteem nor succor so timid and wavering a people. But independence once proclaimed, and our object avowed, more manly and decided measures will be adopted; all minds will be fired by the greatness of the enterprise, the civil magistrates will be inspired with new zeal, the generals with fresh ardor, and the citizens with greater constancy, to attain so high and glorious a destiny. There are some who seem to dread the effects of this resolution. But will England, or can she, manifest against us greater rigor and rage than she has already displayed? She deems resistance against oppression no less rebellion than independence itself …America has arrived at a degree of power which assigns her a place among independent nations; we are not less entitled to it than the English themselves. If they have wealth, so also have we; if they are brave, so are we; if they are more numerous, our population, … will soon equal theirs; if they have men of renown as well in peace as in war, we likewise have such; political revolutions usually produce great, brave, and generous spirits. From what we have already achieved in these painful beginnings, it is easy to presume what we shall hereafter accomplish, for experience is the source of

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sage counsels, and liberty is the mother of great men. Have you not seen the enemy driven from Lexington by thirty thousand citizens armed and assembled in one day? Already their most celebrated generals have yielded in Boston to the skill of ours; already their seamen, repulsed from our coasts, wander over the ocean, where they are the sport of tempest, and the prey of famine. Let us hail the favorable omen, and fight, not for the sake of knowing on what terms we are to be the slaves of England, but to secure to ourselves a free existence, to found a just and independent government …"Speech for Independence” in the public domain.

 

11. Read the passage from “Speech for Independence.” Lee’s speech is intended to help persuade citizens to declare independence. Write a paragraph describing two ways in which the style or structure of of the speech makes it persuasive. Use details from the passage to support your answer. 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Large Hadron Collider Large Hadron Collider

Large Hadron Collider  Particle accelerators are complex physics machines that use electromagnetic fields to produce fast-moving streams of charged particles. The largest and highest-energy particle accelerator is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is situated beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. A circular tunnel with a circumference of 27 km (about 17 miles) was built and filled with sensitive detectors from 1998 to 2008 by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It is one of the most complex scientific instruments ever built. Its purpose is allowing scientists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics and high-energy physics.

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One specific goal of the LHC was to test the existence of the Higgs boson1.The term hadron means a composite (non-elementary) particle composed of quarks2 held together by the strong interaction (or strong nuclear force). The best-known hadrons are protons and neutrons.The LHC has a synchrotron (which is a cyclic particle accelerator where the guiding magnetic field that accelerates the particles and keeps them in a closed path is synchronized to a particle beam of increasing kinetic energy) designed to collide two counter-rotating beams of protons or heavy ions. In other words, the beams move around the LHC guided by magnets inside a continuous vacuum. The magnets are superconducting, which means that the cables conduct electric current with negligible resistance in their superconducting state. The estimated energy of proton-proton collisions is up to 7 TeV per beam (The prefix T is read “tera” and represents a factor of 1012 and eV is “electron-volt,” defined as the energy gained by the charge of one electron moved across an electric potential difference of 1 volt). The protons inside the LHC are accelerated at 99.999999% of the speed of light and made to collide with each other.In each collision, 100,000 million protons per beam are squeezed to 64 micro meters (about the width of a human hair) at the interaction point. Since protons are extremely small, this procedure results in only about 20 collisions per crossing of counter-rotating beams. The scientists predicted that if the Standard Model of particle physics3 is correct, a single Higgs boson would be produced every few hours as a result of the colliding protons. Two of the experimental teams at LHC, CMS4 and ATLAS5, independently announced on July 4th, 2012, that they had confirmed the existence of a boson that behaved consistently with the Higgs boson. Analysis of the data from both teams first showed a chance of an error of less than one in one million. That error figure was updated to one in 588 million soon after.The discovery of the Higgs boson, or another new particle, is merely the first step into the understanding of particle physics. Scientists will continue to use the data they have collected to ask new questions that will broaden their understanding of the world around us. 1 Higgs boson: a hypothetical elementary particle that is required by some theories to account for the masses of other elementary particles 2 quark: any of a group of subatomic particles thought to be among the fundamental constituents of matter

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3 Standard Model of particle physics: theory concerning nuclear interactions, which mediate the dynamics of known subatomic particles4 CMS: Compact Muon Spectrometer5 ATLAS: particle physics experiment conducted at the European Organization of Nuclear Research

 “Large Hadron Collider” property of the Florida Department of Education.

 

Brookhaven and ATLAS Brookhaven and ATLAS

Brookhaven and ATLAS ATLAS

Brookhaven physicists and engineers are participating in one of the most ambitious scientific projects in the world – constructing, operating, doing physics analysis of the data, and upgrading a machine the size of a seven-story building that will open up new frontiers in the human pursuit of knowledge about elementary particles and their interactions. The machine, dubbed ATLAS, is one of four facilities located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, in Switzerland. The LHC consists of two circular vacuum pipes in which protons travel in opposite directions and collide at nearly the speed of light with a total collision energy of 14 tera-electron volts (TeV), or 14 trillion times the designed energy of an electron. ATLAS is designed to detect particles created by the proton-proton collisions. One of its main goals is to look for a particle dubbed Higgs, which may be the source of mass for all matter. Findings also may offer insight into new physics theories as well as a better understanding of the origin of the universe. Brookhaven is the headquarters for the 44 U.S. institutions contributing to the project. In total, 176 laboratories and universities around the world are involved in the ATLAS collaboration. The ATLAS detector has a cylindrical shape with layers wrapped around each other, like the rings around a tree. Each of the layers detects different types

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of particles. When particles from the accelerator collisions are produced in the center of ATLAS, they move throughout the experiment and are detected by its successive layers.  ATLAS Calorimeter

The ATLAS calorimeter measures the energies of charged and neutral particles. It consists of metal plates (absorbers) and sensing elements. Interactions in the absorbers transform the energy into a “shower” of particles that are detected by the sensing elements. In the inner sections of the calorimeter, the sensing element is liquid argon. This piece of the detector, called the liquid argon calorimeter, consists of radial layers of accordion-shaped lead plates separated by thin layers of liquid argon and electrodes. The accordion geometry has the advantage of reducing the time needed for the signals to reach the electronics. A cryostat surrounding the calorimeter maintains the argon in a liquid state at a temperature of –185 degrees Celsius (above which argon is a gas). When photons and electrons cross the lead plates, part of their energy is transformed into pairs of particles that spread out, thus revealing their presence. This shower creates an electric signal that is first collected on the electrodes. The signal is then transferred from the electrodes to the surrounding electronics through vacuum-sealed cylinders of cables called feedthroughs, specifically designed to preserve the properties of the signals while they make the transition from the cold liquid argon to the warm area where the electronics are located. Before the electronic boards were installed in the calorimeter, a team of Brookhaven physicists, engineers, and technicians tested their response to electrical signals by immersing them in liquid nitrogen. (Liquid nitrogen simulates the cold temperature of liquid argon but is generally cheaper and more readily available.) Another Brookhaven team assembled and tested the 64 feedthroughs of the calorimeter. The team tested the various parts of each feedthrough before assembling them and checked the quality of the connections, looking for possible leaks.  ATLAS Muon Spectometer

Muons are particles that are very similar to electrons but 200 times more massive. Unlike electrons, however, muons are not stopped by the first

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components of ATLAS. Instead, they zip through the inside parts of the experiment, to be detected by the muon spectrometer. The muon spectrometer is organized into three stations surrounding the central and lateral parts of the experiment. Brookhaven developed and tested the lateral stations that lie closest to the interaction point. These stations are disk-shaped (with a hole in the middle), each disk being composed of trapezoidal modules that overlap radially with each other. At a distance of 7 meters from the interaction point, the muon detectors will be particularly vulnerable to the high-radiation environment produced by the colliding high-energy protons. The muon detectors are covered by cathode strip chambers, which are read out by electronics mounted on the detectors. The collected signals are then sent through optical fibers to the experiment’s control room for further processing. A module of cathode strip chambers is composed of five panels of longitudinal or transversal strips (the cathode strips), with anode wires woven between the panels and glued with epoxy on the sides of the panels. The space enclosing the wires between the panels is filled with a gas mixture of argon and carbon dioxide. A team of Brookhaven physicists, engineers and technicians tested the quality of cathode strip chamber components produced in industry. To achieve the required performance, for example, the distance between the planes needs to be uniform to within 50 microns. So the scientists made sure that no distortion of more than 50 microns was detected on the panel surfaces. The team also tested the tensions of the wires to make sure the wires stay parallel to each other and the distance from the panel surface to the wire is constant along the wire. ATLAS Outlook

On July 4, 2012, the team of physicists reported that through the use of ATLAS, they were able to detect a new particle, which was a boson that functioned similarly to the Higgs boson. The findings of a new particle is monumental as it will begin to help scientists understand particle physics. As a result of their findings, physicists are eager to explore an array of scientific theories to advance the world of physics and help us understand the world around us. The discovery of the boson particle helps physicists understand why some particles have mass and others do not. If particles didn’t have mass, then objects would float around us freely, and the theories regarding particles and mass would not exist.

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Excerpt from article, “Brookhaven and ATLAS” by Brookhaven National Laboratory, United States Department of Energy. Accessed September 20, 2013 from

http://www.bnl.gov/atlas/atlas.php

 

12. How has scientific collaboration among nations and teams of scientists contributed to the discovery of the new particle? How do these collaborations help to ensure the accuracy of the teams’ findings, and how are collaborations continuing to fuel research about the particle? Explain your ideas in a one- to two-paragraph response, using details from both “Large Hadron Collider” and “Brookhaven and ATLAS” to support your answer.  

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

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Dickinson's Speech Against Independence Dickinson's Speech Against Independence

Excerpt from Speech Against Independenceby John Dickinson

Although the drive among colonists for American independence in the 1770s was strong, many colonial leaders urged caution and made efforts to avoid separation from Great Britain. Among them was John Dickinson, who was one of the wealthiest men in the American colonies. Dickinson gave “Speech against Independence,” on July 1, 1776.

It too often happens, fellow citizens, that men, heated by the spirit of party, give more importance in their discourses, to the surface and appearance of objects, than either to reason or justice; thus evincing1 that their aim is not to appease tumults, but to excite them; not to repress the passions, but to inflame them … They aspire but to please the powerful, to gratify their own ambition, to flatter the caprices2 of the multitude, in order to captivate their favour. Accordingly in popular commotions, the party of wisdom and of equity is commonly found in the minority; and, perhaps, it would be safer, in difficult circumstances, to consult the smaller instead of the greater number. Upon this principle I invite the attention of those who hear me, since my opinion may differ from that of the majority; but I dare believe it will be shared by all impartial and moderate citizens, who condemn this tumultuous proceeding, this attempt to coerce our opinions, and to drag us, with so much precipitation to the most serious and important of decisions. But, coming to the subject in controversy, I affirm, that prudent men do not abandon objects which are certain, to go in pursuit of those which offer only uncertainty. Now, it is an established fact, that America can be well and happily governed by the English laws, under the same king and the same parliament. Two hundred years of happiness furnish the proof of it, and we find it also in the present prosperity, which is the result of these venerable laws and of this ancient union. It is not as independent, but as subjects; not as republic, but as monarchy, that we have arrived at this degree of power and of greatness …I know the name of liberty is dear to each one of us; but have we not enjoyed liberty even under the English monarchy? Shall we this day renounce that to go and seek it in I know not what form of republic, which will soon change into a licentious anarchy and popular tyranny? In the human body the head only sustains and governs all the members, directing them, with admirable harmony, to the same object, which is self-preservation and happiness; so

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the head of the body politic, that is the king, in concert with the parliament, can alone maintain the union of the members of this empire, lately so flourishing, and prevent civil war by obviating3 all the evils produced by variety of opinions and diversity of interests. And so firm is my persuasion of this that I fully believe the most cruel war which Great Britain could make upon us would be that of not making any; and that the surest means of bring us back to her obedience would be that of employing none. For the dread of the English arms, once removed, provinces would rise up against provinces and cities against cities; and we shall be seen to turn against ourselves the arms we have taken up to combat the common enemy …Still inexperienced and in our infancy, what proof have we given of our ability to walk without a guide? None, and if we judge the future by the past, we must conclude that our concord will continue as long as the danger, and no longer.Even when the powerful hand of England supported us, for the paltry motives of territorial limits and distant jurisdictions, have we not abandoned ourselves to discords, and sometimes even to violence? And what must we not expect now that minds are heated, ambitions roused, and arms in the hands of all? …It is to be feared, that, by changing the object of the war, the present harmony will be interrupted, that the ardour of the people will be chilled by apprehensions for their new situation. By substituting a total dismemberment to the revocation of the laws we complain of, we should fully justify the ministers; we should merit the infamous name of rebels, and all the British nation would arm, with an unanimous impulse, against those who, from oppressed and complaining subjects, should have become all at once irreconcilable enemies. The English cherish the liberty we defend; they respect the dignity of our cause; but they will blame, they will detest our recourse to independence, and will unite with one consent to combat us …1 evincing: revealing the presence of a quality or feeling2 caprices: sudden and unaccountable changes in mood or behavior3 obviating: avoiding, preventing

"Speech against Independence” in the public domain.

 

13. How did Dickinson develop the argument that declaring independence would be unwise in “Speech Against Independence”? 

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 A. by appealing to his listeners’ sense of loyalty to Britain and then

encouraging them to ignore the patriots’ calls for independence 

 

B. by asserting that the British had ruled the colonies fairly for years and then arguing that independence would subject the colonies to unknown dangers 

 

C. by offering a list of reasons that separation from Britain would endanger the colonies and then pointing out that heated debate can often hamper judgment 

 

D. by claiming that independence would be unlikely to succeed and then providing a detailed analysis of why the colonists were weaker than Britain’s military forces 

   

14. Read this sentence from “Excerpt from Speech Against Independence.”   In the human body the head only sustains and governs all the members, directing them, with admirable harmony, to the same object, which is self-preservation and happiness; so the head of the body politic, that is the king, in concert with the parliament, can alone maintain the union of the members of this empire, lately so flourishing, and prevent civil war by obviating all the evils produced by variety of opinions and diversity of interests. Develop a 5-7 slide presentation to explain and analyze this analogy, or comparison, for an audience of your classmates. Your presentation should use digital media tools, such as a digital slideshow, to share your points. Consider these questions in your presentation: Why did Dickinson consider the relationship of the British

government to the colonial people similar to the relationship of the head to the body?

Is Dickinson’s analogy persuasive, and does it help to clarify his argument?

How might Lee respond to Dickinson’s analogy?

Use details from the passages to support your answer. 

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Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from Speech Regarding the Purchase of Alaska Excerpt from Speech Regarding the Purchase of Alaska

Excerpt from Speech Regarding the Purchase of Alaskaby N. P. Banks

In 1867, the United States negotiated with Russia to pay more than $7 million for possession of  the Alaska Purchase. This was a controversial move, opposed by many. Representative N. P. Banks of Massachusetts gave his opinion on this matter before the House of Representatives on June 30, 1868. An excerpt of his remarks appears below. 

 It is said that this territory is worthless, that we do not want it, that the Government had no right to buy it. These are objections that have been urged at every step in the progress of this country from the day when the forefathers from England landed in Virginia or in Massachusetts up to this hour. Whenever and wherever we have extended our possessions we have encountered these identical objections—the country is worthless, we do not want it—the Government has no right to it …[We] remember what was said about Louisiana at the time of its purchase; when a Senator from Massachusetts declared that: “It would benefit the Atlantic States to shut up the Mississippi River; and he should be glad to see it done.” We remember what was said about Texas, that part of the country which from the same disregard of its value had been surrendered by the United States in its negotiations with Spain for the acquisition of Florida; that the country was barren, a wilderness never wanted by us; that it would cost more than it was worth to keep it …There has never been, by any nation, a more unnecessary surrender of territory. We recovered it after the lapse of a quarter of a century with an expenditure of treasure and the sacrifice of life that did not terminate with those who fought or fell in the struggle for the reannexation of Texas to the United States.

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The acquisition of California brought with it the same reproaches. It was called the end of creation, and it was said nobody would ever go there …Now, sir, I propose for a few moments to consider what advantages Alaska possesses for the United States … I speak of its geographical, commercial, and political importance. No man who looks upon the political condition of Europe can fail to see that it is quite possible that it may be thrown at a day not distant into the vortex of a terrible war. There are to be great changes in the future; and it is certain that Russia will be among the first and the greatest of the Powers of that future, whatever it may be. Whoever is engaged against her will strike for the conquest of this territory on the Pacific which did belong to her, and which will still belong to her if we refuse to execute the treaty for its purchase.This territory is not worthless; it is necessary to us; the Government has not only a right, but it is bound by a solemn duty to itself, to the people; at a proper time and by proper means to obtain it if they can do it justly and upon just terms. I pass now to a consideration of the character and resources of the territory itself …For two hundred years nobody supposed or thought anything else except that gold, silver, diamonds, and other precious metals were confined to the tropical regions and chiefly to South America. Every gentleman about me will be able to verify this fact for himself. It was not till California was acquired and gold discovered that this opinion ceased to have control of the public mind …Moving from the tropics northward we found gold in California, even up to the very boundary of British Columbia. It was then discovered still farther northward, and the miners are still flowing it further northward. Mr. Taylor, in his report printed by order of the House only a few days ago, says there are thousands of miners in Montana and other territories waiting for the promulgation of the discoveries now in progress to move northward into the provinces of British America for the purpose of working the rich deposits to be there found. It was this law of nature so recently discovered that led Mark Whiteman and his associates from the sources of the Stikine river, through Alaska, to the Arctic ocean, and that exhibited to them up to the ocean itself its limitless mineral wealth …It is, then, the law of mineral deposits that they are found from the tropics northward, and then as you go northward the mines become more extensive and more valuable. And thus we follow it up in the same line of mountains from Mexico to California, from California to northern California, from northern California to British Columbia, from British Columbia to Alaska, all

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through the chain to the Arctic Ocean. We receive from Alaska the confirmation of this fact …We have from everybody in Alaska—from miners, from correspondents, from sea-faring men, from lumber-men, from explorers, from natives … —confirmation of these deposits they found there …Let me speak now of the timber of Alaska. It consists of white fir, spruce fir, white and tallow pine, cedar and hemlock, alder, some oak, and a few other species of timber of which we know little. The Alaska cedar for ship-building is the best in the world …Now let me say one word in regard to the rivers and harbors of this territory, and I will close what I have to say upon this subject. I have only to refer to what is contained in the report of the committee. These rivers of Alaska, unlike those of Russia, which run north into the Arctic ocean, run mainly southerly and southwesterly into the pacific ocean, with one exception … [B]etween these rivers is a system or chain of lakes, so closely connected that the traders and natives are able to pass by canoes from one to the other with very small portages. It is unlike anything else on our continent that we know of …What is the value of these things to us? They add to the industrial product of the country, from native industries alone, employment for fishermen, lumbermen, miners, … hunters, farmers, ice-cutters, and tradesmen. From the native industries, carrying nothing there but men, we will find, when the resources of the territory are fully developed, employment for two hundred and fifty thousand persons …This is what we may do in the way of developing the country and the increase of industrial product.

Excerpt from speech “Purchase of Alaska,” by N. P. Banks. Delivered June 30, 1868.

 

15. Which statement best describes how Banks structured his “Speech Regarding the Purchase of Alaska”? 

 A. He dismissed unrelated historical examples, explaining why

Alaska offered a new opportunity. 

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 B. He systematically listed objections to Alaska’s acquisition,

responding to each as he named them. 

 C. He discounted objections to the territory’s acquisition and then

listed its advantages in different categories. 

 D. He acknowledged the expense and then argued that the military

importance of the territory outweighed any disadvantages. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

The King of Prussia Inn The King of Prussia Inn

Excerpt from At a Crossroads: The King of Prussia Innby the National Park Services Heritage Educational Services Program

                               

  The history of the King of Prussia Inn begins in 1719, when William Rees, Sr.

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purchased 150 acres of land from his father. The Reeses, like most families in 18th-century Pennsylvania, were farmers. There is evidence that the Rees dwelling was a small, frame, two-room, 1½-story structure, typical for farmers of that period. When William Rees, Sr. died in 1756, his estate passed to his son, William, Jr. Unlike his father, the younger William Rees was not interested in agriculture. He rented out his farmland and began a tavern business in 1769, having constructed a large new stone addition to his parents' farmhouse. William, Jr. was actively involved in running the inn for only three years, after which he turned his tavern license over to someone else. Rees died in April 1776, leaving his family in considerable debt. By 1770, the place was referred to as “the Sign of Charles Frederick Augustus, King of Prussia.” There are several stories about how the inn received its name. One story said that the name was in reference to Frederick the Great of Prussia who assisted the British in defeating the French in the Seven Years War (known as the French and Indian War in North America). Another story said the inn was named for King Frederick the Great for his support of George Washington during the American Revolution. A third account states that a sign was hung outside the tavern honoring the German king to attract the German contingent participating in the American Revolution. Over the years, there has been considerable speculation about the role of the inn during the American Revolution, particularly during the Valley Forge encampment. In September 1777, Sir William Howe and 15,000 British troops invaded Pennsylvania and quickly captured Philadelphia after defeating George Washington's army at the Battle of Brandywine. That winter, the Continental Army went into camp at Valley Forge, which was very close to the King of Prussia Inn. According to James Thomas Flexner, in his biography on George Washington, he made the decision to move his troops at an inn about a mile from Valley Forge. Considering how close it was to the encampment, the assumption that Washington, his officers, and their men spent time at the inn is logical. Local tradition states that George Washington and a number of his officers ate and slept there. The inn was also reputed to have hosted British officers and loyalist spies. Masonic lodge meetings (Masons are part of a universal brotherhood of men dedicated to serving God, Family, Fellowman, and Country), presided over by Washington, are also said to have taken place at the King of Prussia Inn. There is unfortunately no documentary evidence solidly linking the inn to any of the famous names associated with Valley

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Forge. The known connections between the King of Prussia Inn and the Revolution are more ordinary than what tradition passed down through the years. James Berry, who managed the business during the war, was in fact an officer in the militia, and Griffith Rees, William Jr.'s son, served as a private and was wounded in a skirmish with British forces near Darby, Pennsylvania, in October 1777.The family struggled to keep the inn and the farm going, but to no avail. Two years after the official end of the Revolution (1783), the Rees family sold the King of Prussia Inn and surrounding farmland to John Elliot, Sr., who made a series of improvements to the property. Elliot demolished the original log or frame dwelling and constructed a 2½ story stone addition onto the east end of the building. Elliot and his wife Sophia ran the inn and its supporting farm for the next 35 years, and it was then that the inn reached its height as a social center for the surrounding community. In addition to its role as a place of entertainment, the inn served as an informal town hall where meetings were held and as a collection point for U.S. taxes.John Elliott, Jr. and his wife also farmed the property and operated the inn, which, by the 1860s, was known as the King of Prussia Hotel. The change in name most likely came about because of pressure from the temperance movement, which sought to restrict the consumption of alcohol. The term “hotel” served to distance the King of Prussia from its less temperate past.James and Madeline Hoy acquired the property shortly after Elliott died in 1868. They turned the farm into an up-to-date mechanized agricultural operation. The Hoys possibly added the two-story veranda to the front of the building and the porch built onto the rear of the western half of the inn. James Hoy died in 1886, and for the next 20 years his widow, Madeline, ran the farm and presided over the hotel. After Madeline Hoy sold the place in 1906, the King of Prussia went through a period of relatively short-term occupations until Anna Heist bought it in 1920.Anna Heist took advantage of the Americans' newfound love of the automobile and interest in their colonial past by turning the King of Prussia Inn into a modest tourist attraction. Anna Heist continued to operate the King of Prussia Inn until 1952 when the Pennsylvania Department of Highways acquired the property. Ironically, the automobile, which saved the inn from possible oblivion earlier in the century, now proved to be a threat. The rapidly growing suburbs outside of Philadelphia required improved highways,

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and Route 202, like many other roadways, was widened and divided to handle the increased volume of traffic. For nearly 50 years, the inn slowly fell into a state of decay despite local efforts to perform maintenance. By the early 1990s it became clear that additional improvements to the local roadways were necessary to ease traffic congestion and improve safety. Such improvements would clearly impact the historic inn and options to move, demolish, or retain the building were investigated. Because of its connections with the American Revolution and the inn's role in the development of the community, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. This listing required PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) to assess the effects of the proposed highway improvements. After careful consideration, public meetings, and engineering studies, PennDOT and the Federal Highway Administration determined that the best way to minimize damage was to conduct both archeological and architectural investigations of the inn, and then actually pick it up and relocate it!

While PennDOT developed engineering plans to move the inn, found a suitable new location, and identified a new owner, researchers investigated the architectural history and archeology of the inn. The hope was that those investigations would provide some insights into the development of the property and shed some light on the daily lives of the people that lived and worked at the King of Prussia Inn. On Sunday, August 20, 2000 the King of Prussia Inn was ready for its move to a new site. A crowd gathered at dawn to watch the procession. At about 9:00 a.m., the venerable old building began to move. Traveling only feet an hour, the inn made its way up Route 202, passed safely over the culvert, to Gulph Road, where it made a right turn—with contractors soaping the tires so they could slide along the curbing and manually turning the jacks. From there the inn proceeded about a half mile to the entrance of the Abram's Run development, where it was brought to its new site. It took three days to complete this stupendous and successful effort in engineering and historic preservation!With the successful move, the King of Prussia Inn no longer graces what was the southwestern corner of Gulph and Swedes Ford Road. But thanks to the efforts of Pennsylvania's transportation and historic preservation communities working together, the inn's history and archeology, and the inn itself, were all preserved, and an important link in the chain that binds us to our collective past was saved for future generations. 

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"The King of Prussia Inn" in the public domain.  

16. Analyze the sequence of events from “Excerpt from At a Crossroads: The King of Prussia Inn.”1.  The King of Prussia Inn was acquired by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways in 1952.2. By the early 1990s, roadways needed to be improved for congestion and safety reasons.3. The King of Prussia Inn was literally picked up and moved to a new location.Which statement best demonstrates the relationships in the sequence of events above? 

 A. Historical sites on highways need constant upkeep.

 

 B. Most states own historical sites within their borders.

 

 C. Public safety overrides preservation of historical sites.

 

 D. Most historical sites are located a long distance from highways.

 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Aaron Douglas: The Father of Black American Art Aaron Douglas: The Father of Black American Art

Aaron Douglas: The Father of Black American Art

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 Like the playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance, the visual artists rebelled against imagery of African Americans based on caricature and insult. Meta Warrick Fuller, Palmer Hayden, Augusta Savage, and Hale Woodruff were among many important painters and sculptors of the time. The premier artist of the movement was Aaron Douglas. The rhythm of lines, geometric shapes, and tonal gradations1 that he incorporated in his work epitomized the energy of the Harlem Renaissance. Like many who participated in that golden era of black art and culture, Douglas found inspiration in his African heritage and blended African imagery with contemporary subject matter in his paintings, illustrations, and graphic designs. A prolific artist for over fifty years, as well as a longtime teacher and mentor, Douglas has been called “the father of black American art.” Douglas was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1899 and graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1922. He was teaching art at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, when he was introduced to Charles S. Johnson, the editor of Opportunity, the official journal of the National Urban League, based in New York City. Johnson needed illustrators for his magazine and urged Douglas to move east. Douglas moved to New York in 1925 and immersed himself in Harlem’s cultural life. He quickly connected with the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including scholar-editor W.E.B. Du Bois and writer-philosopher Alain Locke. Within months he was contributing illustrations and cover art to leading black publications, including Opportunity and Crisis, the publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, edited by

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Du Bois. Douglas developed a unique style that included imagery inspired by African sculpture. In an early graphic work, the cover of a journal of African-American art and literature called Fire!!, Douglas introduced what became one of his familiar elements: slanted, upward sloping eyes, similar to those found in sculpture from the West African country of the Ivory Coast. A variety of African, and particularly Egyptian, motifs found their way into his art. By applying these to scenes of everyday life, Douglas inspired his black viewers to embrace their African roots, a trend that was not yet common among African Americans generally. His art was also informed by his wide reading and broad range of interests. He was familiar with the diverse work of the leading American and European artists of the day, such as Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Sheeler, Henri Matisse, and Wassily Kandinsky. Everything from Greek vase painting to art deco to jazz was fodder for his creative output.The peak of Douglas’s career was a number of large-scale mural projects, including a four-panel series he painted for the Countee Cullen branch of the New York Public Library (now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), located on 135th Street in Harlem. One of the murals, Aspects of Negro Life: An Idyll of the Deep South, reflects Douglas’s desire to paint “the depths of the souls of our people” and incorporates many of his recurring themes, including black agricultural labor, the contributions of African Americans to American music and dance, and the tragedy of racially-charged injustices. While Douglas tackled tough themes such as slavery in his paintings, he imbued his work with a sense of optimism. This was an important aspect of his aesthetic. He never left the viewer with a sense of hopelessness or despair. Douglas’s legacy is enriched beyond his body of art. In 1939, when the energy of the Harlem Renaissance was fading, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the art department at Fisk University. For the next 25 years, several generations of black students benefited from his wisdom and instruction. In 1963, Douglas was invited to the White House by President John F. Kennedy to attend a celebration of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. He continued to paint and lecture until his death in 1979.1 tonal gradations: a blending of heavier amounts of paint color with lighter amounts

 

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An Artistic Rebirth: The Harlem Renaissance  An Artistic Rebirth: The Harlem Renaissance

An Artistic Rebirth: The Harlem RenaissanceThe English word renaissance comes from a French word meaning “rebirth.” Like the cultural movement that flowered in fourteenth-century Europe at the end of the Middle Ages, a similar rebirth of art and culture took place in New York City in the 1920s into the early 1930s. It was right after World War I that a remarkable group of novelists, poets, playwrights, visual artists, and intellectuals began to come together in the African-American community of Harlem in New York City.  Reconnecting with Africa The Harlem Renaissance, as it was known, lasted until the early 1930s. Those who participated sought to rethink what it meant to be a black American, apart from white stereotypes; to reconnect with their African heritage; and to forge a black aesthetic and a black identity. The Harlem Renaissance laid the foundation for practically all African-American art and literature that followed. Many factors came together to produce the Harlem Renaissance. One was the Great Migration in the early twentieth century, in which some 1.6 million African Americans moved from the rural South to urban areas of the Northeast, Midwest, and West. Many found their way to Harlem, which had been a wealthy, white residential district just north of Central Park.  The Capital of Black America By the early 1920s, Harlem was becoming a black city within the borough of Manhattan. Symbolically, it was evolving into the political and cultural capital of black America. Numerous national organizations, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League, had been created to push for African-American civil rights, to “uplift” the race, and to open economic opportunities for blacks. An emerging racial pride and an interest among whites in African and African-American culture also contributed to the movement. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance is thought of mostly as a literary movement. While it included other art forms, a large number of important literary figures were

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active in Harlem at that time. Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Alain Locke, Claude McKay, Arna Bontemps, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Weldon Johnson produced poetry, fiction, and essays. They were among the movement’s leading writers. Willis Richardson and Georgia Douglas Johnson were just two of many playwrights active during the Harlem Renaissance. The focus of much of their work was overcoming the destructive influence of blackface minstrelsy, a form of theatre that involved white actors mocking African Americans by wearing dark coloring on their faces and behaving in a manner best described as uneducated and outlandish. A very popular form of stage entertainment, minstrelsy promoted many negative black stereotypes. Plays of the Harlem Renaissance—as well as some plays by white playwrights working at that time—offered more realistic portrayals of African Americans and honest depictions of African-American life.  Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance By the mid-1930s, the cultural movement in Harlem had run its course. Some African-American writers were even critical of aspects of the renaissance and tried to separate themselves and their work from it. While the Harlem Renaissance did not achieve its lofty goal of transforming American society, the movement was a landmark in black cultural history and redefined how America and the world perceived African Americans. It opened doors of opportunity for African Americans in publishing houses, theaters, and art galleries. It even had a strong international impact. Black intellectuals in Paris, including leaders of similar cultural and political movements, were inspired by the work of the Harlem Renaissance authors. It demonstrated—to mainstream America and the world—the creative capacities of a marginalized and disadvantaged racial minority. 

17. Based on the information presented in “Aaron Douglas: The Father of Black American Art” and “An Artistic Rebirth: The Harlem Renaissance,” what inspired and influenced Douglas, as well as others who were at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance movement?  

 A. the reevaluation of what it meant to be a black American

 

 B. the interest that white people had in African art and culture

 

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 C. the desire to incorporate classic literature and art into a new style 

 

 D. the establishing of national organizations created to uplift the black

race 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from “Woman’s Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854”  Excerpt from “Woman’s Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854”

Excerpt from Woman’s Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854”by Antionette Brown

In 1854, leaders of the Women’s Rights Movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, organized a petition drive for women’s suffrage, as well as a related convention in Albany, New York. At this convention, Rev. Antionette L. Brown, the first woman ordained in a denomination recognized in the United States, read a series of resolutions, after which Stanton gave a passionate address to the New York State Legislature. The following excerpts from “Woman’s Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854” include some of the resolutions read by Rev. Brown.

 Resolved,  … that for males to govern females, without consent asked or granted, is to perpetuate an aristocracy, utterly hostile to the principles and spirit of free institutions; and that it is time for the people of the United States and every State in the Union to put away forever that remnant of despotism and feudal oligarchy, the caste of sex.Resolved, That women are human beings whose rights correspond with their duties;  …Resolved, That women’s duties and rights as daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers, are not bounded within the circle of home;  …Resolved, That the fundamental error of the whole structure of legislation

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and custom, whereby women are practically sustained, even in this republic, is the preposterous fiction of law, that in the eye of the law the husband and wife are one person, that person being the husband …Resolved, That  …, it is the duty of the Legislature to make such amendments in the laws of the State as will enable married women to conduct business …Resolved, That as acquiring property by all just and laudable means, and the holding and devising of the same is a human right, women married and single are entitled to this right, and all the usages or laws which withhold it from them are manifestly unjust.Resolved, That every argument in favor of universal suffrage for males is equally in favor of universal suffrage for females, and therefore if men may claim the right of suffrage as necessary to the protection of all their rights in any Government, so may women for the same reason.Resolved, That if man as man, has any peculiar claim to a representation in the government, for himself, woman as woman, has a paramount claim to an equal representation for herself.Resolved, Therefore, that whether you regard woman as like or unlike man, she is in either case entitled to an equal joint participation with him in all civil rights and duties.Resolved, That although men should grant us every specific claim, we should hold them all by favor rather than right, unless they also concede, and we exercise, the right of protecting ourselves by the elective franchise.Resolved, That … the right of such trial by jury be accorded to women equally with men—that women be eligible to the jury-box, whenever one of their own sex is arraigned at the bar …Resolved, That it is the highest duty of legislators impartially to investigate all claims for the redress of wrong, and alter and amend such laws as prevent the administration of justice and equal rights to all.Resolved, That all true-hearted men and women pledge themselves never to relinquish their unceasing efforts in behalf of the full and equal rights of women, until we have effaced the stigma resting on this republic, that while it theoretically proclaims that all men are created equal, deprives one-half of its members of the enjoyment of the rights and privileges possessed by the other.

Excerpt from “Woman’s Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854” by Antoinette

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Brown. Found in History of Women’s Suffrage, published by Fowler & Wells, 1881.  

18. Which statement best describes the effectiveness of the structure of Brown’s argument in “Woman’s Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854”? 

 A. The structure is ineffective because Brown shifts from topic to topic

without clarifying her position. 

 B. The structure is ineffective because Brown discusses men too

much, rather than focusing on women. 

 C. The structure is effective because Brown lists her resolutions and

gives a concise explanation of each one. 

 D. The structure is effective because Brown establishes her authority,

then explains the changes she demands. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

“The Pioneer Suffragist” “The Pioneer Suffragist”

The Pioneer Suffragist 

The obituary “The Pioneer Suffragist,” for women’s rights activist Belva Lockwood, appeared in The Literary Digest on June 16, 1917. The Literary Digest was a popular weekly magazine of the late 1800s and early 1900s that featured current events, analysis, and opinion articles.

 

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Unlike most pioneers, Belva A. Lockwood, who died in Washington on May 19, lived to witness the triumph of the cause to which she devoted much of her life. Woman suffrage a generation ago was little more than the butt of paragraphers, but Mrs. Lockwood lived to see not only women voting, but a woman Congressman in Washington. She was the first woman lawyer to be admitted to practise before the Supreme Court of the United States. Says the New York Times:Mrs. Lockwood has herself told the anecdote of how she became one of the first women in this country to fight for equal rights. A widow at twenty-four years of age, with a child, she was teaching school in her native town, Royalton, N.Y., at a salary of $3 a week. Men teachers doing the same work were getting twice as much or more.“I kicked to the school trustees,” she said. “I went to the wife of the Methodist minister. The answer I got opened my eyes and raised my dander. She said, ‘I can’t help you; you can not help yourself; for it is the way of the world.’”The then apparent helplessness of woman’s cause so aroused Mrs. Lockwood that she fought for more than fifty years against the exclusion of women from rights which men enjoyed. She fortified herself with a collegiate education at Genesee College in the days when higher education was rare among women, and for successive periods was preceptress1 of seminaries at Lockport, Gainesville, and Oswego, N.Y.The most striking incident of her career then came, in 1884, with nomination by the Equal Rights party of the Pacific slope as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. The nomination was renewed by the same party meeting in Iowa four years later.In 1889 she was a delegate of the Universal Peace Union to the International Peace Congress in Paris, and again in 1890 to the Congress at London, where she presented papers on arbitration and disarmament. She lectured throughout the country and until her last days maintained her law office in Washington.

1 preceptress: a woman who is a teacher or who is the head of a school

“The Pioneer Suffragist” in the public domain.

 

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19. Which phrase best describes the purpose of the first paragraph of “The Pioneer Suffragist”?  

 A. to explain how Lockwood could only loosely be considered a

“pioneer suffragist” 

 B. to describe the difficulties of being a “pioneer suffragist” during

Lockwood’s early years 

 C. to emphasize the significance of Lockwood’s contributions and

the changes that occurred during her lifetime 

 D. to illustrate how sharply the issue of women’s suffrage divided

the United States during Lockwood’s lifetime 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Speech before the House of Representatives, July 1, 1868 Speech before the House of Representatives, July 1, 1868

Excerpt from Speech before the House of Representativesby Representative C.C. Washburne of Wisconsin

The Alaska Purchase was somewhat controversial, being approved by the Senate by only one vote. Representative C. C. Washburne spoke about the move in his “Speech before the House of Representatives” on July 1, 1868. An excerpt from his remarks appears below.

After the eloquent and lofty speech of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Banks] … yesterday, I shall consider myself extremely fortunate if I can command the attention of this committee to the remarks I desire now to make. But sir, if gentlemen will come down from the region of the clouds to

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which they were transported by the honorable gentleman, and from those realms of fancy and imagination in which he reveled, to plain matters of everyday fact, I shall not despair of doing something yet to protect the rights of my constituents and of the people of this country.Gentlemen could not fail to observe all through the speech made … yesterday, the extreme lack of authorities to sustain his statements, and the great preponderance, instead, of spread-eagle oratory. Sir, I shall enter into no contest with the gentleman in the eagle business; I resign that to him altogether. But I shall ask those members who … care for such testimony to listen while I unfold the facts that surround this most extraordinary case.I shall attempt to demonstrate five propositions,1 and if I shall succeed in doing so, I think I may claim the judgment of this committee and of the House. Those propositions are:1. That at the time this treaty was negotiated not a soul in the whole United States asked for it.2. That it was secretly negotiated and in a manner to prevent the Representatives of the people from being heard.3. That by existing treaties we possessed every right that is of any value to us without the responsibility and never-ending expense of governing [the native people of Alaska].4. That the country [Alaska] is absolutely without value.5. That it is the right and duty of the House to inquire into the treaty, and vote or not vote the money according to its best judgment. …

1 propositions: statements

"Speech before the House of Representatives” in the public domain.

 

20. Which sentence best identifies two central ideas in “Speech before the House of Representatives”? 

 A. The purchase of Alaska was a poor idea, and the treaty that

formalized the purchase was illegal. 

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 B. It is important to widen American territory, but Alaska was not

valuable enough to justify the treaty. 

 C. Americans should be allowed a voice in their government’s

decisions, and no Americans supported the treaty. 

 D. The people who negotiated the treaty had ill-advised motives, but

the resources acquired were worth the price. 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

A Key Moment in History A Key Moment in History

A Key Moment in History  Contributions"Through the years, Hispanic American citizens have risen to the call of duty in defense of liberty and freedom. Their bravery is well known and has been demonstrated time and again, dating back to the aid rendered by General Bernardo de Galvez during the American Revolution." This Proclamation, issued by President Ronald Reagan during National Hispanic Heritage Week in August 1983, honors the many contributions of Hispanic Americans throughout United States history and refers to sometimes overlooked events in the nation's founding. The event mentioned in the Proclamation, Galvez's aid, was so important that American colonists probably would not have won the Revolutionary War without it. 

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 Students learn about the important alliance with France forged after the Patriot victory at Saratoga, which brought Lafayette, Rochambeau, and the French navy into the fray. They also study the contributions of foreign officers Casmir Pulaski, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, and Baron von Steuben. As important as the contributions of these people were, some historians claim the most important international help came from the Spanish.Even before news of the Declaration of Independence had spread to Europe, France and Spain had devised ways to assist the Patriots against their enemy, Britain. First they established Roderigue Hortalez and Company, a secret and fictitious trading company, to channel supplies to colonists through New Orleans and up the Mississippi River. The Spanish monarchy also opened the rich port of Havana to American trade—this was a vital link to much-needed supplies.Galvez's StartSoon after war was declared in 1775, King Carlos III of Spain appointed General Bernardo de Galvez governor of the Louisiana Territory, a vast region that spread across what would become thirteen of the present United States. Galvez had been raised in a family in service to the Spanish monarchy. He received military training and was sent to New Spain (Mexico) in 1765. In 1769 he was promoted to Commandant of Nueva Vizcaya and

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was charged with the duty of subduing the Apache Indians in the area.Galvez’s duties as governor of Louisiana required him to maintain and develop Louisiana and, more importantly, to disrupt British power in the territory. He also received secret orders to assist the Americans in any way he could. He understood the military and political objectives of his mission. He immediately began corresponding with Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and other colonial leaders, indicating his support of the American cause. George Washington personally requested his help, and Galvez responded by sending munitions—bullets, rifles, and cannon—as well as clothing, medicines, and other supplies. He also declared the port of New Orleans open to Americans, allowing smuggled food and products to flow to the Patriots.Even after France joined an alliance with the United States, General George Washington believed Spanish assistance was crucial, fearing the power of the British Navy. In a letter to Gouvernuer Morris, financier and representative from Pennsylvania, written on October 4, 1778, Washington urged, "If the Spaniards would but join their fleets to those of France, and commence hostilities, my doubts would all subside. Without it, I fear the British Navy has it too much in its power to counteract the Schemes of France."Galvez’s Leadership  Diplomatic urging and self-interest convinced Spain to join France in the war in June 1779, and they began operations to support the American colonists. General Galvez was the right man in the right place. He raised an army in New Orleans and battled British forces in the Mississippi Valley, winning victories at Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. Spanish troops led by the dashing officer captured five British forts, taking more than 1,000 prisoners and driving the British from the region.Galvez continued battling the British. Spanish military units sent by Galvez repulsed the British-led Native American attack on St. Louis and captured a British fort in Michigan. With reinforcements from the Caribbean, and having been rewarded for his success with a promotion to Brigadier General, Galvez captured the British port of Mobil. Then, after being promoted to Field Marshall—the highest military rank in the Spanish army— and commander of all Spanish forces in the Americas, Galvez captured Pensacola, capital of the British colony of West Florida.Historians consider the siege and capture of Pensacola a pivotal defeat for the British and a brilliant military victory for Galvez. For the British, it also was the beginning of the end, which culminated five months later at

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Yorktown. With the British threat in the west and south neutralized by Spanish successes, the Continental Army focused its full attention on the British threat along the eastern seaboard and began the final drive to victory.Galvez CommemoratedAfter the war, the Continental Congress awarded Galvez a commendation for his crucial service. He also received letters from Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson thanking him for his part in the drive for American independence. Texans honored the Spaniard by naming the city of Galveston and Galveston Bay after him.The exploits of General Bernardo de Galvez are only one example of the support from Spanish and Hispanic Americans during the American Revolution. Historians cite other Hispanic individuals and groups for their contributions to the success of the American fight for independence and, indeed, throughout the nation's history. They credit those feats of courage and daring as playing decisive roles in the Patriot success. To commemorate the partnership between Spain and the United States forged more than two centuries ago, King Juan Carlos I of Spain presented a statue of Bernardo de Galvez to the American people during the bicentennial celebration in 1976. The statue stands in front of the State Department in Washington, D.C., a permanent tribute to the early collaboration of two great cultures. 

21. Which question is not answered by the author of ″A Key Moment in History″? 

 A. Why was General Galvez appointed governor of Louisiana?

 

 B. Why was the siege of Pensacola a pivotal defeat for the British?

 

 C. In what way did Galvez aid the American colonists during the

Revolutionary War? 

  D. What other contributions were made by Hispanics during the American Revolution?

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Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from A Woman of No Importance Excerpt from A Woman of No Importance

Excerpt from A Woman of No Importanceby Oscar Wilde

 Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), an Irish-born writer of prose, poetry, fiction, and drama, wrote several comedies of manners satirizing the British upper class. The following scene is excerpted from the beginning of Wilde’s 1893 comedy A Woman of No Importance.

 LADY CAROLINE: I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, Miss Worsley?HESTER: Yes, Lady Caroline.LADY CAROLINE: You have no country houses, I am told, in America?HESTER: We have not many.LADY CAROLINE: Have you any country? What we should call country?HESTER: (smiling) We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline. They used to tell us at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put together.LADY CAROLINE: Ah! you must find it very draughty,1 I should fancy. (to Sir John) John, you should have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if you won’t wear them?SIR JOHN: I am quite warm, Caroline, I assure you.LADY CAROLINE: I think not, John. Well, you couldn’t come to a more charming place than this, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a

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little lax about the people she asks down here. (to Sir John) Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a man of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament,2 Mr. Kettle—SIR JOHN: Kelvil, my love, Kelvil.LADY CAROLINE: He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one’s life, which speaks volumes for a man nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a very suitable person.HESTER: I dislike Mrs. Allonby. I dislike her more than I can say.LADY CAROLINE: I am not sure, Miss Worsley, that foreigners like yourself should cultivate likes or dislikes about the people they are invited to meet. Mrs. Allonby is very well born. She is a niece of Lord Brancaster’s …HESTER: Mr. Arbuthnot is very charming.LADY CAROLINE: Ah, yes! the young man who has a post in a bank. Lady Hunstanton is most kind in asking him here, and Lord Illingworth seems to have taken quite a fancy to him. I am not sure, however, that Jane is right in taking him out of his position. In my young days, Miss Worsley, one never met anyone in society who worked for their living. It was not considered the thing.HESTER: In America those are the people we respect most.LADY CAROLINE: I have no doubt of it.HESTER: Mr. Arbuthnot has a beautiful nature! He is so simple, so sincere. He has one of the most beautiful natures I have ever come across. It is a privilege to meet HIM.LADY CAROLINE: It is not customary in England, Miss Worsley, for a young lady to speak with such enthusiasm of any person of the opposite sex. English women conceal their feelings till after they are married. They show them then.HESTER: Do you, in England, allow no friendship to exist between a young man and a young [woman]?(Enter Lady Hunstanton followed by footman with shawls and a cushion.)LADY CAROLINE: We think it very inadvisable. Jane, I was just saying what a pleasant party you have asked us to meet. You have a wonderful power of selection. It is quite a gift.LADY HUNSTANTON: Dear Caroline, how kind of you! I think we all do fit in very nicely together. And I hope our charming American visitor will carry

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back pleasant recollections of our English country life …(After Hester goes for a walk, others join the party and talk about her.)LADY HUNSTANTON: She is very pretty, is she not?LADY CAROLINE: Far too pretty. These American girls carry off all the good matches. Why can’t they stay in their own country? They are always telling us it is [such a wonderful place for] women.LORD ILLINGWORTH: It is, Lady Caroline …LADY CAROLINE: Who are Miss Worsley’s parents?LORD ILLINGWORTH: American women are wonderfully clever in concealing their parents.LADY HUNSTANTON: My dear Lord Illingworth, what do you mean? Miss Worsley, Caroline, is an orphan. Her father was a very wealthy millionaire or philanthropist or both, I believe, who entertained my son quite hospitably when he visited Boston. I don’t know how he made his money originally.KELVIL: I fancy in American dry goods.LADY HUNSTANTON: What are American dry goods?LORD ILLINGWORTH: American novels.LADY HUNSTANTON: How very singular! … Well, from whatever source her large fortune came, I have a great esteem for Miss Worsley. She dresses exceedingly well. All Americans do dress well. They get their clothes in Paris …KELVIL: I am afraid you don’t appreciate America … It is a very remarkable country, especially considering its youth.LORD ILLINGWORTH: The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years. To hear them talk one would imagine they were in their first childhood. As far as civilization goes they are in their second.KELVIL: There is undoubtedly a great deal of corruption in American politics. I suppose you allude to that?LORD ILLINGWORTH: I wonder.LADY HUNSTANTON: Politics are in a sad way everywhere, I am told. They certainly are in England. Dear Mr. Cardew is ruining the country. I wonder Mrs. Cardew allows him. I am sure, Lord Illingworth, you don’t think that

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uneducated people should be allowed to have votes?LORD ILLINGWORTH: I think they are the only people who should.KELVIL: Do you take no side then in modern politics, Lord Illingworth?LORD ILLINGWORTH: One should never take sides in anything, Mr. Kelvil. Taking sides is the beginning of sincerity, and earnestness follows shortly afterwards, and the human being becomes a bore. However, the House of Commons3 really does very little harm. You can’t make people good by Act of Parliament … 1 draughty: drafty2 Parliament: supreme legislature of the United Kingdom3 House of Commons: the lower house of the British parliament

 Excerpt from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde. Published by John Lane, 1894.  

22. Write a one paragraph response that identifies two themes in "Excerpt from A Woman of No Importance.” How does Wilde develop these themes? How do the two themes interact? Use details from the passage to support your answer. 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

The Building of the Ship  The Building of the Ship

Excerpt from “The Building of the Ship”by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the world’s most widely read poets

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of the nineteenth century. Born in Portland, Maine, in 1807, he frequently traveled abroad but spent most of his life as a writer and university professor in New England, which has a rich seafaring tradition. Longfellow wrote this poem in 1850, as his reputation was nearing its peak.

 “Build me straight, O worthy Master!Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,That shall laugh at all disaster,And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!”The merchant’s wordDelighted the Master heard;For his heart was in his work, and the heartGiveth grace unto every Art.A quiet smile played round his lips,As the eddies and dimples of the tidePlay round the bows of ships,That steadily at anchor ride.And with a voice that was full of glee,He answered, “Erelong we will launchA vessel as goodly, and strong, and stanch, As ever weathered a wintry sea!”And first with nicest skill and art,Perfect and finished in every part,A little model the Master wrought,Which should be to the larger planWhat the child is to the man,Its counterpart in miniature;That with a hand more swift and sureThe greater labor might be broughtTo answer to his inward thought.And as he labored, his mind ran o’erThe various ships that were built of yore,And above them all, and strangest of allTowered the Great Harry, crank and tall, Whose picture was hanging on the wall,With bows and stern raised high in air,And balconies hanging here and there,And signal lanterns and flags afloat,And eight round towers, like those that frownFrom some old castle, looking down

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Upon the drawbridge and the moat.And he said with a smile, “Our ship, I wis,Shall be of another form than this!”It was of another form, indeed;Built for freight, and yet for speed,A beautiful and gallant craft;Broad in the beam, that the stress of the blast,Pressing down upon sail and mast,Might not the sharp bows overwhelm;Broad in the beam, but sloping aftWith graceful curve and slow degrees,That she might be docile to the helm,And that the currents of parted seas,Closing behind, with mighty force,Might aid and not impede her course.In the ship-yard stood the Master,  With the model of the vessel,That should laugh at all disaster,  And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!Covering many a rood1 of ground,Lay the timber piled around;Timber of chestnut, and elm, and oak,And scattered here and there, with these,The knarred and crooked cedar knees;Brought from regions far away,From Pascagoula’s sunny bay,And the banks of the roaring Roanoke! Ah! what a wondrous thing it isTo note how many wheels of toilOne thought, one word, can set in motion!There’s not a ship that sails the ocean,But every climate, every soil,Must bring its tribute, great or small,And help to build the wooden wall!The sun was rising o’er the sea,And long the level shadows lay,As if they, too, the beams would beOf some great, airy argosy,2

Framed and launched in a single day.That silent architect, the sun,

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Had hewn and laid them every one,Ere the work of man was yet begun.Beside the Master, when he spoke,A youth, against an anchor leaning,Listened, to catch his slightest meaning.Only the long waves, as they brokeIn ripples on the pebbly beach,Interrupted the old man’s speech.Beautiful they were, in sooth,The old man and the fiery youth!The old man, in whose busy brainMany a ship that sailed the mainWas modelled o’er and o’er again;—The fiery youth, who was to bethe heir of his dexterity,The heir of his house, and his daughter’s hand,When he had built and launched from landWhat the elder head had planned.“Thus,” said he, “will we build this ship!Lay square the blocks upon the slip,And follow well this plan of mine.Choose the timbers with greatest care;Of all that is unsound beware;For only what is sound and strongto this vessel shall belong.Cedar of Maine and Georgia pineHere together shall combine.A goodly frame, and a goodly fame,And the UNION be her name!For the day that gives her to the seaShall give my daughter unto thee!”1 rood: a quarter of an acre2 argosy: a large commercial ship

"The Building of the Ship" in the public domain.

 

23. Which statement from "The Building of the Ship" best supports the inference that the Master will not literally build the ship? 

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A. "Build me straight, O worthy Master!Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel," 

 

B. "For his heart was in his work, and the heartGiveth grace unto every Art." 

 

C. "And first with nicest skill and art,Perfect and finished in every part,A little model the Master wrought," 

 

D. "That with a hand more swift and sureThe greater labor might be brought, To answer to his inward thought." 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from My Man Jeeves Excerpt from My Man Jeeves

Excerpt from My Man Jeevesby P. G. Wodehouse

 P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) was an English-American writer who was best known for his farcical stories and novels about Bertie Wooster and his levelheaded manservant, Jeeves. The following passage is excerpted from “Leave it to Jeeves,” the first short story in Wodehouse’s book My Man Jeeves. In this excerpt, Bruce “Corky” Corcoran has painted a portrait that is not very good. He calls Bertie and asks him to help show the portrait to his uncle, who commissioned it.

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 …One afternoon Corky called me on the ’phone.“Bertie.”“Halloa?” “Are you doing anything this afternoon?”“Nothing special.”“You couldn’t come down here, could you?”“What’s the trouble? Anything up?”“I’ve finished the portrait.”“Good boy! Stout work!”“Yes.” His voice sounded rather doubtful. “The fact is, Bertie, it doesn’t look quite right to me. There’s something about it—My uncle’s coming in half an hour to inspect it, and—I don’t know why it is, but I kind of feel I’d like your moral support!”I began to see that I was letting myself in for something. The sympathetic co-operation of Jeeves seemed to me to be indicated.“You think he’ll cut up rough?”“He may.”I threw my mind back to the red-faced chappie I had met at the restaurant and tried to picture him cutting up rough. It was only too easy. I spoke to Corky firmly on the telephone.“I’ll come,” I said.“Good!”“But only if I may bring Jeeves!”“Why Jeeves? What’s Jeeves got to do with it? Who wants Jeeves? Jeeves is the fool who suggested the scheme that has led—”“Listen, Corky, old top! If you think I am going to face that uncle of yours without Jeeves’s support, you’re mistaken. I’d sooner go into a den of wild beasts and bite a lion on the back of the neck.”“Oh, all right,” said Corky. Not cordially, but he said it, so I rang for Jeeves and explained the situation.

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“Very good, sir,” said Jeeves.That’s the sort of chap he is. You can’t rattle him.We found Corky near the door, looking at the picture, with one hand up in a defensive sort of way, as if he thought it might swing on him.“Stand right where you are, Bertie,” he said without moving. “Now, tell me honestly, how does it strike you?”The light from the big window fell right on the picture. I took a good look at it. Then I shifted a bit nearer and took another look. Then I went back to where I had been at first, because it hadn’t seemed quite so bad from there.“Well?” said Corky, anxiously.I hesitated a bit.“Of course, old man, I only saw the kid once, and then only for a moment, but—but it was an ugly sort of kid, wasn’t it, if I remember rightly?”“As ugly as that?”I looked again, and honesty compelled me to be frank.“I don’t see how it could have been, old chap.”Poor old Corky ran his fingers through his hair in a temperamental sort of way. He groaned.“You’re right quite, Bertie. Something’s gone wrong with the darned thing. My private impression is that, without knowing it, I’ve worked that stunt that Sargent1 and those fellows pull—painting the soul of the sitter. I’ve got through the mere outward appearance and have put the child’s soul on canvas.”“But could a child of that age have a soul like that? I don’t see how he could have managed it in the time. What do you think, Jeeves?”“I doubt it, sir.” …Corky was starting to say something when the door opened and the uncle came in.For about three seconds all was joy, jollity, and goodwill. The old boy shook hands with me, slapped Corky on the back, said that he didn’t think he had ever seen such a fine day, and whacked his leg with his stick. Jeeves had projected himself into the background, and he didn’t notice him.“Well, Bruce, my boy; so the portrait is really finished, is it—really finished?

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Well, bring it out. Let’s have a look at it. This will be a wonderful surprise for your aunt. Where is it? Let’s—”And then he got it—suddenly, when he wasn’t set for the punch, and he rocked back on his heels.“Oosh!” he exclaimed. And for perhaps a minute there was one of the scaliest silences I’ve ever run up against.“Is this a practical joke?” he said at last, in a way that set about sixteen draughts2 cutting through the room at once.I thought it was up to me to rally round old Corky.“You want to stand a bit farther away from it,” I said.“You’re perfectly right!” he snorted. “I do! I want to stand so far away from it that I can’t see the thing with a telescope!” He turned on Corky like an untamed tiger of the jungle who has just located a chunk of meat. “And this—this—is what you have been wasting your time and my money [on] for all these years! A painter! I wouldn’t let you paint a house of mine! I gave you this commission, thinking that you were a competent worker, and this—this—this extract from a comic coloured supplement is the result!” He swung towards the door, lashing his tail and growling to himself. “This ends it! If you wish to continue this foolery of pretending to be an artist because you want an excuse for idleness, please yourself. But let me tell you this. Unless you report at my office on Monday morning, prepared to abandon all this idiocy and start in at the bottom of the business to work your way up, as you should have done half a dozen years ago, not another cent—not another cent—not another—Boosh!”Then the door closed, and he was no longer with us. 1Sargent: John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), a highly regarded portrait painter2draughts: drafts, cold breezes

 

Excerpt from My Man Jeeves by Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. Published by George Newnes, 1919. In the public domain.

 

24. Which sentence from “My Man Jeeves" best supports the inference that Corky's uncle is initially appalled by Corky's exceptionally bad painting? 

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 A. “‘You’re right quite, Bertie. Something’s gone wrong with the

darned thing.’” 

 B. “And then he got it—suddenly, when he wasn’t set for the punch,

and he rocked back on his heels.” 

 

C. “‘I gave you this commission, thinking that you were a competent worker, and this—this—this extract from a comic coloured supplement is the result!’” 

 D. “Then the door closed, and he was no longer with us.”

 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

At the Earth's Core At the Earth's Core

Excerpt from At the Earth’s Coreby Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was a prolific 20th century writer ofpopular stories and novels in a variety of genres, including science fiction. In At the Earth’s Core, a wealthy mining heir, David Innes, asks inventor Abner Perry to create a vehicle that will carry its passengers deep below the Earth’s surface.

Then Perry interested me in his invention. He was an old fellow who had devoted the better part of a long life to the perfection of a mechanical subterranean prospector.1 As relaxation he studied paleontology. I looked over his plans, listened to his arguments, inspected his working model—and then, convinced, I advanced the funds necessary to construct a full-sized, practical prospector.I shall not go into the details of its construction—it lies out there in the desert

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now—about two miles from here. Tomorrow you may care to ride out and see it. Roughly, it is a steel cylinder a hundred feet long, and jointed so that it may turn and twist through solid rock if need be. At one end is a mighty revolving drill operated by an engine which Perry said generated more power to the cubic inch than any other engine did to the cubic foot. I remember that he used to claim that that invention alone would make us fabulously wealthy—we were going to make the whole thing public after the successful issue of our first secret trial—but Perry never returned from that trial trip, and I only after ten years.I recall as it were but yesterday the night of that momentous occasion upon which we were to test the practicality of that wondrous invention. It was near midnight when we repaired to the lofty tower in which Perry had constructed his “iron mole” as he was wont to call the thing. The great nose rested upon the bare earth of the floor. We passed through the doors into the outer jacket, secured them, and then passing on into the cabin, which contained the controlling mechanism within the inner tube, switched on the electric lights.Perry looked to his generator; to the great tanks that held the life-giving chemicals with which he was to manufacture fresh air to replace that which we consumed in breathing; to his instruments for recording temperatures, speed, distance, and for examining the materials through which we were to pass.He tested the steering device, and overlooked the mighty cogs which transmitted its marvelous velocity to the giant drill at the nose of his strange craft.Our seats, into which we strapped ourselves, were so arranged upon transverse bars that we would be upright whether the craft were ploughing her way downward into the bowels of the earth, or running horizontally along some great seam of coal, or rising vertically toward the surface again.At length all was ready. Perry bowed his head in prayer. For a moment we were silent, and then the old man’s hand grasped the starting lever. There was a frightful roaring beneath us—the giant frame trembled and vibrated—there was a rush of sound as the loose earth passed up through the hollow space between the inner and outer jackets to be deposited in our wake. We were off!The noise was deafening. The sensation was frightful. For a full minute neither of us could do aught but cling with the proverbial desperation of the drowning man to the handrails of our swinging seats. Then Perry glanced at

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the thermometer.“Gad!” he cried, “it cannot be possible—quick! What does the distance meter read?”That and the speedometer were both on my side of the cabin, and as I turned to take a reading from the former I could see Perry muttering.“Ten degrees rise—it cannot be possible!” and then I saw him tug frantically upon the steering wheel.As I finally found the tiny needle in the dim light I translated Perry’s evident excitement, and my heart sank within me. But when I spoke I hid the fear which haunted me. “It will be seven hundred feet, Perry,” I said, “by the time you can turn her into the horizontal.”“You’d better lend me a hand then, my boy,” he replied, “for I cannot budge her out of the vertical alone. God give that our combined strength may be equal to the task, for else we are lost.”I wormed my way to the old man’s side with never a doubt but that the great wheel would yield on the instant to the power of my young and vigorous muscles. Nor was my belief mere vanity, for always had my physique been the envy and despair of my fellows. And for that very reason it had waxed even greater than nature had intended, since my natural pride in my great strength had led me to care for and develop my body and my muscles by every means within my power. What with boxing, football, and baseball, I had been in training since childhood.And so it was with the utmost confidence that I laid hold of the huge iron rim; but though I threw every ounce of my strength into it, my best effort was as unavailing as Perry’s had been—the thing would not budge—the grim, insensate, horrible thing that was holding us upon the straight road to death!1 subterranean prospector: underground explorer

 

At the Earth’s Core in the public domain.

 

25. The passage from “At the Earth’s Core” begins after the construction of the machine and shortly before Perry and Innes test the invention. Innes says that he will not discuss the “details of its construction.” Write a two-paragraph response answering these questions: What is the effect of beginning the passage at this point? Why does Innes not want to describe the details of the machine’s

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construction? How is the beginning of the passage from “At the Earth’s Core”

similar to the beginning of the passage from “A Voyage to the Moon”?

Use details from both passages to support your response.    

 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from "Willum's Vanilla" Excerpt from "Willum's Vanilla"

Excerpt from "Willum's Vanilla"Excerpt from The Best Short Stories of 1919

by Edwina Stanton BabcockEdwina Stanton Babcock was an author and poet of the early 1900s. One of eleven children, Edwina learned music and writing at home, since her family could not afford much schooling. As a child, she and her younger brothers wrote and performed imaginative plays for the neighborhood children. The following excerpt is from her short story “Willum’s Vanilla.” The letter came while Mr. Pawket was chopping wood. His ax rested on a stump and piles of white chips breathed fragrance around him as he stood watching the buckboard of the Rural Free Delivery wind down the country road.The Rural Free Delivery consisted of a white horse, a creaking buckboard, and a young woman of determined manner. A Rough Rider’s hat sat with an air of stern purpose on the Rural Free Delivery’s dark head, and a pair of surgeon’s gauntlet gloves heightened her air of official integrity.As the buckboard approached the group of tulip trees opposite Mr. Pawket’s

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residence he shoved back his hat and pulled a blue-spotted handkerchief out of his hip pocket; passing the handkerchief over his face, he greeted the Rural Free Delivery:“Hot enough fer yer?”It was really not so very hot, but if Mr. Pawket had not asked this question he would have felt lacking in geniality. He did not, however, go forward to intercept possible mail. There was the little iron box with his name on it nailed to the tulip tree; there was the red signal to be adjusted. It pleased Mr. Pawket to realize that the government had all this planned out for his special convenience and he was careful not to upset régime. He watched the Rural Free Delivery climb down from the buckboard, go to the little box on the tree, deposit one letter, lock the box, and set up the signal. When the ceremony was concluded Mr. Pawket came out from behind the barn. Walking with the heavy, bent-kneed tread of the lifelong farmer, he leaned upon the bars by the cowsheds.“Many gitten ’em today?” he inquired.The Rural Free Delivery climbed back into the buckboard; she pulled on the gauntlets, replying with black-eyed reserve, “Finn’s folks had two … Mis’ Sweetser’s got a paper—the one her daughter is a manicurer sends her. And there’s a box yet for the Grant girl—her graduatin’-dress, I expect—seems she’s too high-toned to wear anything but machine-made.”The Rural Free Delivery whipped up the white horse and the stern contours of the Rough Rider hat disappeared down the winding, shadowed road. At last Mr. Pawket … took down the bars and crossed the road to the postbox. Dragging from his pocket a cluster of huge barn keys, he sought among them for the infinitesimal key of the box. This small key had the appearance of coquetting with Mr. Pawket—it invariably disappeared behind the larger keys and eluded his efforts to single it out; it seemed to him flirtatious, feminine; and as he stood like an old Druid invoking the spirit of the tulip tree, he addressed this small key with benevolent irony.“You’m a shrimp, that’s what you are,” Mr. Pawket said to the key. “Nothin’ but a shrimp. … Why in tarnation don’t they have a key you can see? … I’d hate to lose you on a dark night, I would,” eying the key severely.But the shrimp key at least did its work, and Mr. Pawket with unconcealed feelings of wonder and concern drew forth from the box the letter. It was a large, rich-looking letter. The envelope was thin and crackly, embossed with purple designs of twisted reptiles coiling around a woman’s face, and in one corner were small purple letters forming the words “Hotel Medusa.” The

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handwriting on the envelope was bold and black, and the dark seal bore impress of a small winged form that Mr. Pawket took to be a honeybee. He regarded the letter suspiciously, studying it from every position as he entered the kitchen door.“Say, Mother, here’s a letter. What’ll I do with it?”Mrs. Pawket came sighing from the washtub. She wrinkled her forehead as one harried by the incessant demands of the outside world. Wiping her hands on her wet apron, she took the letter, regarding it contemptuously.“Leave it be on the parlor mantel,” advised Mrs. Pawket. “The twins is comin’ up the road. I can hear them hollerin’ at that echo down by the swamps. Leave it be; they’ll attend to it.”Mr. Pawket, having carried out this injunction, stood by the door considering whether it was worthwhile to go back to his chopping. The sun was in the middle of the sky; he sniffed odors of the kitchen and discerned a rich atmosphere known to his consciousness as “dinner-time.”“Now I’m here I may as well stay,” he remarked to his wife. He sat heavily down in a turkey-red-covered rocking chair, quoting facetiously, “Ef yer never want to be sad and sorryJust keep away from hurry and worry.” “The Rural says Finn’s folks has heard from that young feller … ”Mrs. Pawket raised a disapproving face from contemplating a small kettle of Irish stew, remarking, severely, “Much the Rural knows about it. She’s into everybody’s business.”Mr. Pawket demurred. “Well, carr’in’ the mail and all, she’s liable to sense a good deal. Some says she’s always been foreknowledged. ’Twuz the Rural foretold the blizzit last winter; ’twuz the Rural found out Hank Jellaby’s nephew was married. Wasn’t it her knowed all the time who sot Mullins’s barn afire? There’s a good many depends on the Rural for keeping up with things.”Soon the sun was a green glare through the tulip trees; that meant it was half past twelve, and the twins raced in. They were hoarse from intriguing with the echo in the swamp; but as they entered the gate (careful to swing it the wrong way and squeeze through) they discussed a tingling problem in

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mental arithmetic.“If Mrs. Fenton gave her son two wapples” (snuffle), “and her nephew one naple” (snuffle), “and two wapples to her son’s friend, reservin’ one napple for herself and conservin’ four rapples for the household, what would be the sum of these given napples multiplied by four?”Reciting this appalling chorus, the twins faced their grandfather, who, poising his battered sun hat on his knees, from the depths of his armchair looked proudly, if fearfully, upon them.“Say, Gramp’, kin’ you answer it?” demanded the twins.Standing before him in the kitchen doorway, they mouthed it, curly-headed, croaking synchronous challenge. They scraped their shoes on a scraper near the door; one peered furtively under a covered dish on the table while the other washed hands and face in a tin basin under the grape arbor. Together they made strange “snorting” noises of repressed masculinity as, seizing knife and fork from the pile in the center of the table, they took seats, elbows on plates, instruments waving in air.“Kin you answer it?”Mr. Pawket hedged. He also drew a chair up to the table and, spearing a slice of bread with his knife, bent bushy brows.“‘Kin I answer it?’ Well, that’s a nice question. Would yer teacher like me to answer it? No, he wouldn’t. It’s for your learnin’, ain’t it? Not for mine. I’m all finished with them conundrums. Of course,” went on Mr. Pawket, airily—“of course I never done figurin’ like that when I was a boy. Them apples, now. Seems to me it all depends on the season. Ef the lady was a widder, like as not she was took advantage of. I mistrust she wouldn’t be no judge of apples; not bein’ a farmer, how could she know that there’s years when apples is valleyble, and other years when you insult the pigs with ’em? But then—you talk about apples—Well, as for a fine apple, whether it’s Northern Spy or Harvest Moon … ” Thus Mr. Pawket skillfully directed the conversation into channels more familiar.  

Excerpt from short story, “Willum’s Vanilla,” by Edwina Stanton Babcock. Found in The Best Short Stories of 1919, edited by Edward J. O’Brien. Published by Small, Maynard & Company, 1919.  

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26. In “Excerpt from Willum’s Vanilla,” Mr. Pawket receives a letter, delivered by the Rural Free Delivery. Explain how the themes of dignity and privacy interact throughout the passage. Write a one paragraph response, using details from the passage to support your answer.  

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Pele and Kahawali Pele and Kahawali

“Pele and Kahawali” Excerpt from Hawaiian Folk Tales: A Collection of Native Legends

Compiled by Thomas G. Thrum Pele, a major figure of ancient Hawaiian mythology, is the central character in the tale “Pele and Kahawali.” Known for her power, creativity, passion, and temper, Pele is the goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes.  In the reign of Kealiikukii, an ancient king of Hawaii, Kahawali, chief of Puna, and one of his favorite companions went one day to amuse themselves with the papa holua (sled), on the sloping side of a hill, which is still called ka holua ana o Kahawali (Kahawali’s sliding-place). Vast numbers of the people gathered at the bottom of the hill to witness the game, and a company of musicians and dancers repaired thither to add to the amusement of the spectators. The performers began their dance, and amidst the sound of drums and the songs of the musicians the sledding of Kahawali and his companion commenced. The hilarity of the occasion attracted the attention of Pele, the goddess of the volcano, who came down from Kilauea to witness the sport. Standing on the summit of the hill in the form of a woman, she challenged Kahawali to slide with her. He accepted the offer, and they set off together down the hill. Pele, less acquainted with the art of balancing herself on the narrow sled than her rival, was beaten, and Kahawali was applauded by the spectators as he returned up the side of the hill.

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Before starting again, Pele asked him to give her his papa holua, but he, supposing from her appearance that she was no more than a native woman, said: “Aole! (no!) Are you my wife, that you should obtain my sled?” And, as if impatient at being delayed, he adjusted his papa, ran a few yards to take a spring, and then, with this momentum and all his strength he threw himself upon it and shot down the hill.Pele, incensed at his answer, stamped her foot on the ground and an earthquake followed, which rent the hill in sunder. She called, and fire and liquid lava arose, and, assuming her supernatural form, with these irresistible ministers of vengeance, she followed down the hill. When Kahawali reached the bottom, he arose, and on looking behind saw Pele, accompanied by thunder and lightning, earthquake, and streams of burning lava, closely pursuing him. He took up his broad spear, which he had stuck in the ground at the beginning of the game, and, accompanied by his friend, fled for his life. The musicians, dancers, and crowds of spectators were instantly overwhelmed by the fiery torrent, which, bearing on its foremost wave the enraged goddess, continued to pursue Kahawali and his companion.They ran till they came to an eminence called Puukea. Here Kahawali threw off his cloak of netted ki leaves and proceeded toward his house, which stood near the shore. He met his favorite pig and saluted it by touching noses, then ran to the house of his mother, who lived at Kukii, saluted her by touching noses, and said: “Aloha ino oe, eia ihonei paha oe e make ai, ke ai mainei Pele.” (Compassion great to you! Close here, perhaps, is your death; Pele comes devouring.) Leaving her, he met his wife, Kanakawahine, and saluted her. The burning torrent approached, and she said: “Stay with me here, and let us die together.” He said: “No; I go, I go.” He then saluted his two children, Poupoulu and Kaohe, and said, “Ke ue nei au ia olua.” (I grieve for you two.) The lava rolled near, and he ran till a deep chasm arrested his progress. He laid down his spear and walked over on it in safety. His friend called out for his help; he held out his spear over the chasm; his companion took hold of it and he drew him securely over. By this time Pele was coming down the chasm with accelerated motion. He ran till he reached Kula. Here he met his sister, Koai, but had only time to say, “Aloha oe!” (Alas for you!) and then ran on to the shore. His younger brother had just landed from his fishing-canoe, and had hastened to his house to provide for the safety of his family, when Kahawali arrived. He and his friend leaped into the canoe, and with his broad spear paddled out to sea. Pele, perceiving his escape, ran to the shore and hurled after him, with prodigious force, great stones and fragments of rock, which fell thickly around but did not strike his canoe. When he had

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paddled a short distance from the shore the kumukahi (east wind) sprung up. He fixed his broad spear upright in the canoe, that it might answer the double purpose of mast and sail, and by its aid he soon reached the island of Maui, where they rested one night and then proceeded to Lanai. The day following they moved on to Molokai, thence to Oahu, the abode of Kolonohailaau, his father, and Kanewahinekeaho, his sister, to whom he related his disastrous perils, and with whom he took up his permanent abode."Pele and Kahawali" in the public domain.

 

27. The passage “Pele and Kahawali” is about the interactions between a goddess and a mortal leader.Write one to two paragraphs identifying two themes in this Hawaiian tale, and analyze their development over the course of the tale. Remember to use textual evidence from the passage to support your response. 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Autumn Woods Autumn Woods

Autumn Woodsby William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant was a nineteenth-century New England poet perhaps most famous for his poem “Thanatopsis.” The poem below, “Autumn Woods,” was first published in the United States Literary Gazette in the 1820s.

Ere, in the northern gale,The summer tresses of the trees are gone,

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The woods of Autumn, all around our vale,Have put their glory on.(5)The mountains that infold,In their wide sweep, the coloured landscape round,Seem groups of giant kings, in purple and gold,That guard the enchanted ground.I roam the woods that crown(10)The upland, where the mingled splendours glow,Where the gay company of trees look downOn the green fields below.My steps are not aloneIn these bright walks; the sweet south-west, at play,(15)Flies, rustling, where the painted leaves are strownAlong the winding way.And far in heaven, the while,The sun, that sends that gale to wander here,Pours out on the fair earth his quiet smile,—(20)The sweetest of the year.Where now the solemn shade,Verdure1 and gloom where many branches meet;So grateful, when the noon of summer madeThe valleys sick with heat?(25)Let in through all the treesCome the strange rays; the forest depths are bright.Their sunny-coloured foliage, in the breeze,Twinkles, like beams of light.The rivulet,2 late unseen,(30)Where bickering through the shrubs its waters run,Shines with the image of its golden screen,And glimmerings of the sun.But ’neath yon crimson tree,Lover to listening maid might breathe his flame,(35)Nor mark, within its roseate canopy,Her blush of maiden shame.Oh, Autumn! why so soonDepart the hues that make thy forests glad;Thy gentle wind and thy fair sunny noon,

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(40)And leave thee wild and sad!Ah! ’twere a lot too blessedFor ever in thy coloured shades to stray;Amid the kisses of the soft south-westTo rove and dream for aye;3

(45)And leave the vain low strifeThat makes men mad—the tug for wealth and power,The passions and the cares that wither life,And waste its little hour.

1 Verdure: lush vegetation2 rivulet: small flow of water; small stream3 aye: forever

“Autumn Woods” in the public domain.

 

28. In “Autumn Woods,” the speaker uses personification to reveal his point of view about the season. Write a paragraph explaining how the speaker feels. Use details from the poem to support your answer. 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Great Expectations Great Expectations

Excerpt from Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens 

 Pip is a young man who dreams of being a part of society's upper class. In these excerpts, Pip leaves his sister's house as he has been summoned to London by Mr. Jaggers. On his way, Pip regrets his behavior while at his

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sister's house.

 

Chapter XIX All night there were coaches in my broken sleep, going to wrong places instead of to London, and having in the traces, now dogs, now cats, now pigs, now men—never horses. Fantastic failures of journeys occupied me until the day dawned and the birds were singing. Then, I got up and partly dressed, and sat at the window to take a last look out, and in taking it fell asleep.

Biddy was astir so early to get my breakfast, that, although I did not sleep at the window an hour, I smelt the smoke of the kitchen fire when I started up with a terrible idea that it must be late in the afternoon. But long after that, and long after I had heard the clinking of the teacups and was quite ready, I wanted the resolution to go down stairs. After all, I remained up there, repeatedly unlocking and unstrapping my small portmanteau and locking and strapping it up again, until Biddy called to me that I was late.It was a hurried breakfast with no taste in it. I got up from the meal, saying with a sort of briskness, as if it had only just occurred to me, “Well! I suppose I must be off!” and then I kissed my sister who was laughing and nodding and shaking in her usual chair, and kissed Biddy, and threw my arms around Joe’s neck. Then I took up my little portmanteau and walked out. The last I saw of them was, when I presently heard a scuffle behind me, and looking back, saw Joe throwing an old shoe after me and Biddy throwing another old shoe. I stopped then, to wave my hat, and dear old Joe waved his strong right arm above his head, crying huskily “Hooroar!” and Biddy put her apron to her face. I walked away at a good pace, thinking it was easier to go than I had supposed it would be, and reflecting that it would never have done to have had an old shoe thrown after the coach, in sight of all the High Street. I whistled and made nothing of going. But the village was very peaceful and quiet, and the light mists were solemnly rising, as if to show me the world, and I had been so innocent and little there, and all beyond was so unknown and great, that in a moment with a strong heave and sob I broke into tears. It was by the finger-post1 at the end of the village, and I laid my hand upon it, and said, “Good by, O my dear, dear friend!” Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried than before,—more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more

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gentle. If I had cried before, I should have had Joe with me then. So subdued I was by those tears, and by their breaking out again in the course of the quiet walk, that when I was on the coach, and it was clear of the town, I deliberated with an aching heart whether I would not get down when we changed horses and walk back, and have another evening at home, and a better parting. We changed, and I had not made up my mind, and still reflected for my comfort that it would be quite practicable to get down and walk back, when we changed again. And while I was occupied with these deliberations, I would fancy an exact resemblance to Joe in some man coming along the road towards us, and my heart would beat high.—As if he could possibly be there! We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me. This is the end of the first stage of Pip’s expectations.                Chapter XX  The journey from our town to the metropolis was a journey of about five hours. It was a little past midday when the four-horse stage-coach by which I was a passenger, got into the ravel of traffic frayed out about the Cross Keys, Wood Street, Cheapside, London. We Britons had at that time particularly settled that it was treasonable to doubt our having and our being the best of everything: otherwise, while I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty.

Mr. Jaggers had duly sent me his address; it was, Little Britain, and he had written after it on his card, “just out of Smithfield, and close by the coach-office.” Nevertheless, a hackney-coachman, who seemed to have as many capes to his greasy great-coat as he was years old, packed me up in his coach and hemmed me in with a folding and jingling barrier of steps, as if he were going to take me fifty miles. His getting on his box, which I remember to have been decorated with an old weather-stained pea-green hammercloth2 moth-eaten into rags, was quite a work of time. It was a wonderful equipage, with six great coronets outside, and ragged things behind for I don’t know how many footmen to hold on by, and a harrow3 below them, to prevent amateur footmen from yielding to the temptation.

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 I had scarcely had time to enjoy the coach and to think how like a straw-yard it was, and yet how like a rag-shop, and to wonder why the horses’ nose-bags were kept inside, when I observed the coachman beginning to get down, as if we were going to stop presently. And stop we presently did, in a gloomy street, at certain offices with an open door, whereon was painted MR. JAGGERS. “How much?” I asked the coachman. The coachman answered, “A shilling—unless you wish to make it more.” I naturally said I had no wish to make it more.“Then it must be a shilling,” observed the coachman. “I don’t want to get into trouble. I know him!” He darkly closed an eye at Mr. Jaggers’s name, and shook his head.

1 finger-post: signpost in the shape of a hand pointing in the direction of a destination2 hammercloth: cloth covering a coachman’s seat3 harrow: agricultural plow-like tool

 

"Excerpt from Great Expectations" in the public domain.

    

29. Read the sentence from “Excerpt from Great Expectations.”I was better after I had cried than before,—more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.Write a paragraph explaining why Pip felt both better yet more sorry after crying.  Remember to include examples from the passage to support your explanation. 

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Read the following and answer the questions below:

Afloat and Ashore Afloat and Ashore

Excerpt from Afloat and Ashoreby James Fenimore Cooper

 James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) was the first American author to write novels of action about life in the United States. The following passage is excerpted from Cooper’s 1844 novel Afloat and Ashore, which was shaped by his own seafaring experiences.

 I frankly admit a strong disinclination to be learned. The law I might be forced to study, but practicing it was a thing my mind had long been made up never to do. There was a small vein of obstinacy in my disposition that would have been very likely to carry me through in such a determination, even had my mother lived, though deference to her wishes would certainly have carried me as far as the license. Even now she was no more, I was anxious to ascertain whether she had left any directions or requests on the subject, either of which would have been laws to me. I talked with Rupert on this matter and was a little shocked with the levity with which he treated it. “What difference can it make to your parents, now,” he said, with an emphasis that grated on my nerves, “whether you become a lawyer, or a merchant, or a doctor, or stay here on your farm and be a farmer like your father?”“My father had been a sailor,” I answered, quick as lightning.“True, and a noble, manly, gentleman-like calling it is! I never see a sailor that I do not envy him his advantages. Why, Miles, neither of us has ever been in town even, while your mother’s boatmen, or your own, as they are now, go there regularly once a week. I would give the world to be a sailor.”“You, Rupert!…”

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“…I have a fancy to the sea. I suppose you know that my great-grandfather was a captain in the navy…”“But there is no navy in this country now—not even a single ship-of-war, I believe.”“That is the worst of it. Congress did pass a law, two or three years since, to build some frigates, but they have never been launched. Now Washington1 has gone out of office, I suppose we shall never have anything good in the country.”I revered the name of Washington, in common with the whole country, but I did not see the sequitur.2 Rupert, however, cared little for logical inferences, usually asserting such things as he wished, and wishing such as he asserted. After a short pause, he continued the discourse.“You are now substantially your own master,” he said, “and can do as you please. Should you go to sea and not like it, you have only to come back to this place, where you will be just as much the master as if you had remained here superintending cattle, cutting hay, and fattening pork the whole time.”“I am not my own master, Rupert, any more than you are yourself. I am your father’s ward and must so remain for more than five years to come. I am just as much under his control as you yourself.”Rupert laughed at this and tried to persuade me it would be a good thing to relieve his worthy [father] of all responsibility in the affair, if I had seriously determined never to go to Yale, or to be a lawyer, by going off to sea clandestinely,3 and returning when I was ready. If I ever was to make a sailor, no time was to be lost, for all with whom he had conversed assured him the period of life when such things were best learned was between sixteen and twenty. This I thought probable enough, and I parted from my friend with a promise of conversing further with him on the subject at an early opportunity. 1 Washington: George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States, from 1789–17972 sequitur: logical conclusion3 clandestinely: secretly

 

"Afloat and Ashore" in the public domain.

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30. Which excerpt from “Afloat and Ashore” best supports the conclusion that Rupert often speaks before he thinks? 

 

A. "'What difference can it make to your parents, now,' he said, with an emphasis that grated on my nerves, ‘whether you become a lawyer, or a merchant, or a doctor…’” 

 

B. “Rupert, however, cared little for logical inferences, usually asserting such things as he wished, and wishing such as he asserted.” 

 C. “‘You are now substantially your own master,’” he said, ‘and can do

as you please.’” 

 

D. “Rupert laughed at this and tried to persuade me it would be a good thing to relieve his worthy [father] of all responsibility in the affair…” 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from The Custom of the Country  Excerpt from The Custom of the Country

Excerpt from The Custom of the Country

by Edith WhartonAfter her parents come into money, Undine Spragg convinces her family to move from the Midwest to New York City to flaunt their wealth.

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 Undine’s white and gold bedroom, with sea-green panels and old rose carpet, looked along Seventy-second Street toward the leafless tree-tops of the Central Park.She went to the window, and drawing back its many layers of lace gazed eastward down the long brownstone perspective. Beyond the Park lay Fifth Avenue—and Fifth Avenue was where she wanted to be!She turned back into the room, and going to her writing-table laid Mrs. Fairford’s note before her, and began to study it minutely. She had read in the “Boudoir Chat” of one of the Sunday papers that the smartest women were using the new pigeon-blood notepaper with white ink; and rather against her mother’s advice she had ordered a large supply, with her monogram in silver. It was a disappointment, therefore, to find that Mrs. Fairford wrote on the old-fashioned white sheet, without even a monogram—simply her address and telephone number. It gave Undine rather a poor opinion of Mrs. Fairford’s social standing, and for a moment she thought with considerable satisfaction of answering the note on her pigeon-blood paper. Then she remembered Mrs. Heeny’s emphatic commendation of Mrs. Fairford, and her pen wavered. What if white paper were really newer than pigeon blood? It might be more stylish, anyhow. Well, she didn’t care if Mrs. Fairford didn’t like red paper—SHE did! And she wasn’t going to truckle to any woman who lived in a small house down beyond Park Avenue…Undine was fiercely independent and yet passionately imitative. She wanted to surprise every one by her dash and originality, but she could not help modelling herself on the last person she met, and the confusion of ideals thus produced caused her much perturbation when she had to choose between two courses. She hesitated a moment longer, and then took from the drawer a plain sheet with the hotel address.It was amusing to write the note in her mother’s name—she giggled as she formed the phrase “I shall be happy to permit my daughter to take dinner with you” (“take dinner” seemed more elegant than Mrs. Fairford’s “dine”)—but when she came to the signature she was met by a new difficulty. Mrs. Fairford had signed herself Laura Fairford”—just as one school-girl would write to another. But could this be a proper model for Mrs. Spragg? Undine could not tolerate the thought of her mother’s abasing herself to a denizen of regions beyond Park Avenue, and she resolutely formed the signature: “Sincerely, Mrs. Abner E. Spragg.” Then uncertainty overcame her, and she re-wrote her note and copied Mrs. Fairford’s formula: “Yours sincerely, Leota B. Spragg.” But this struck her as an odd juxtaposition of formality and

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freedom, and she made a third attempt: “Yours with love, Leota B. Spragg.” This, however, seemed excessive, as the ladies had never met; and after several other experiments she finally decided on a compromise, and ended the note: “Yours sincerely, Mrs. Leota B. Spragg.” That might be conventional. Undine reflected, but it was certainly correct. This point settled, she flung open her door, calling imperiously down the passage: “Celeste!” and adding, as the French maid appeared: “I want to look over all my dinner-dresses.”Considering the extent of Miss Spragg’s wardrobe her dinner-dresses were not many. She had ordered a number the year before but, vexed at her lack of use for them, had tossed them over impatiently to the maid. Since then, indeed, she and Mrs. Spragg had succumbed to the abstract pleasure of buying two or three more, simply because they were too exquisite and Undine looked too lovely in them; but she had grown tired of these also—tired of seeing them hang unworn in her wardrobe, like so many derisive points of interrogation. And now, as Celeste spread them out on the bed, they seemed disgustingly common-place, and as familiar as if she had danced them to shreds. Nevertheless, she yielded to the maid’s persuasions and tried them on.The first and second did not gain by prolonged inspection: they looked old-fashioned already. “It’s something about the sleeves,” Undine grumbled as she threw them aside.The third was certainly the prettiest; but then it was the one she had worn at the hotel dance the night before and the impossibility of wearing it again within the week was too obvious for discussion. Yet she enjoyed looking at herself in it, for it reminded her of her sparkling passages with Claud Walsingham Popple, and her quieter but more fruitful talk with his little friend—the young man she had hardly noticed.“You can go, Celeste—I’ll take off the dress myself,” she said: and when Celeste had passed out, laden with discarded finery. Undine bolted her door, dragged the tall pier-glass forward and, rummaging in a drawer for fan and gloves, swept to a seat before the mirror with the air of a lady arriving at an evening party….She stood up and, going close to the glass, examined the reflection of her bright eyes and glowing cheeks. This time her fears were superfluous: there were to be no more mistakes and no more follies now! She was going to know the right people at last—she was going to get what she wanted! 

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Excerpt from The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913. In the public domain.

 

31. Undine struggles to determine the best way to sign her mother’s name. What does this struggle reveal about her character? 

 A. She is shy and unsure.

 

 B. She is eager to earn her mother’s affection.

 

 C. She is concerned with observing social conventions.

 

 D. She is careful to choose the most articulate way to write.

 

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from "The Mantle" Excerpt from "The Mantle"

Excerpt from "The Mantle"Excerpt from The Mantle and Other Stories

by Nikolai Gogol

 

Originally from what is now Ukraine, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) pioneered a trend in realism in Russian literature. Humor and absurdity are characteristic of Gogol’s dramas, novels and short stories.

 

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 In a certain Russian ministerial department——But it is perhaps better that I do not mention which department it was. There are in the whole of Russia no persons more sensitive than Government officials. Each of them believes if he is annoyed in any way, that the whole official class is insulted in his person.Recently an Isprawnik (country magistrate)—I do not know of which town—is said to have drawn up a report with the object of showing that, ignoring Government orders, people were speaking of Isprawniks in terms of contempt. In order to prove his assertions, he forwarded with his report a bulky work of fiction, in which on about every tenth page an Isprawnik appeared generally in a drunken condition.In order therefore to avoid any unpleasantness, I will not definitely indicate the department in which the scene of my story is laid, and will rather say “in a certain chancellery.”Well, in a certain chancellery there was a certain man who, as I cannot deny, was not of an attractive appearance. He was short, had a face marked with smallpox, was rather bald in front, and his forehead and cheeks were deeply lined with furrows—to say nothing of other physical imperfections. Such was the outer aspect of our hero, as produced by the St Petersburg climate.As regards his official rank—for with us Russians the official rank must always be given—he was what is usually known as a permanent titular councillor, one of those unfortunate beings who, as is well known, are made a butt of by various authors who have the bad habit of attacking people who cannot defend themselves.Our hero’s family name was Bashmatchkin; his baptismal name Akaki Akakievitch. Perhaps the reader may think this name somewhat strange and far-fetched, but he can be assured that it is not so, and that circumstances so arranged it that it was quite impossible to give him any other name.This happened in the following way. Akaki Akakievitch was born, if I am not mistaken, on the night of the 23rd of March. His deceased mother, the wife of an official and a very good woman, immediately made proper arrangements for his baptism. When the time came, she was lying on the bed before the door. At her right hand stood the godfather, Ivan Ivanovitch Jeroshkin, a very important person, who was registrar of the senate; at her left, the godmother Anna Semenovna Byelobrushkova, the wife of a police inspector, a woman of rare virtues.

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Three names were suggested to the mother from which to choose one for the child—Mokuja, Sossuja, or Khozdazat.“No,” she said, “I don’t like such names.”In order to meet her wishes, the church calendar was opened in another place, and the names Triphiliy, Dula, and Varakhasiy were found.“This is a punishment from heaven,” said the mother. “What sort of names are these! I never heard the like! If it had been Varadat or Varukh, but Triphiliy and Varakhasiy!”They looked again in the calendar and found Pavsikakhiy and Vakhtisiy.“Now I see,” said the mother, “this is plainly fate. If there is no help for it, then he had better take his father’s name, which was Akaki.”So the child was called Akaki Akakievitch. It was baptised, although it wept and cried and made all kinds of grimaces, as though it had a presentiment that it would one day be a titular councillor.We have related all this so conscientiously that the reader himself might be convinced that it was impossible for the little Akaki to receive any other name. When and how he entered the chancellery and who appointed him, no one could remember. However many of his superiors might come and go, he was always seen in the same spot, in the same attitude, busy with the same work, and bearing the same title; so that people began to believe he had come into the world just as he was, with his bald forehead and official uniform.In the chancellery where he worked, no kind of notice was taken of him. Even the office attendants did not rise from their seats when he entered, nor look at him; they took no more notice than if a fly had flown through the room. His superiors treated him in a coldly despotic manner. The assistant of the head of the department, when he pushed a pile of papers under his nose, did not even say “Please copy those,” or “There is something interesting for you,” or make any other polite remark such as well-educated officials are in the habit of doing. But Akaki took the documents, without worrying himself whether they had the right to hand them over to him or not, and straightway set to work to copy them.His young colleagues made him the butt of their ridicule and their elegant wit, so far as officials can be said to possess any wit. They did not scruple to relate in his presence various tales of their own invention regarding his manner of life and his landlady, who was seventy years old. They declared that she beat him, and inquired of him when he would lead her to the

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marriage altar. Sometimes they let a shower of scraps of paper fall on his head, and told him they were snowflakes.But Akaki Akakievitch made no answer to all these attacks; he seemed oblivious of their presence. His work was not affected in the slightest degree; during all these interruptions he did not make a single error in copying. Only when the horseplay grew intolerable, when he was held by the arm and prevented writing, he would say “Do leave me alone! Why do you always want to disturb me at work?” There was something peculiarly pathetic in these words and the way in which he uttered them.One day it happened that when a young clerk, who had been recently appointed to the chancellery, prompted by the example of the others, was playing him some trick, he suddenly seemed arrested by something in the tone of Akaki’s voice, and from that moment regarded the old official with quite different eyes. He felt as though some supernatural power drew him away from the colleagues whose acquaintance he had made here, and whom he had hitherto regarded as well-educated, respectable men, and alienated him from them. Long afterwards, when surrounded by gay companions, he would see the figure of the poor little councillor and hear the words “Do leave me alone! Why will you always disturb me at work?” Along with these words, he also heard others: “Am I not your brother?” On such occasions the young man would hide his face in his hands, and think how little humane feeling after all was to be found in men’s hearts; how much coarseness and cruelty was to be found even in the educated and those who were everywhere regarded as good and honourable men. Excerpt from short story, “The Mantle,” by Nicholas Gogol. Found in The Mantle and Other Stories, translated by Claud Field. Published by Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1916.

 

32. Student Directions:Nikolai Gogol’s story “The Mantle” is characteristic of his satirical style of writing. Your task is to read another of his stories and compare its style to that of “Excerpt from The Mantle.” Then you will meet with a small group of classmates to discuss the stories’ use of humor and satire and how they are characteristic of Gogol’s style. Finally, you will write one to two paragraphs that reflect your group’s discussion. Part I:Meet with your group to decide which story you will read and discuss.

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Choose one of the stories on this list: “Diary of a Madman” “Nevsky Prospekt” “The Nose” “The Carriage” “The Portrait” “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” “Viy”

Read the story on your own and take notes as you read. What type of humor does Gogol use in this story? How is it similar to or different from the humor he uses in the excerpt from “The Mantle”? Your notes do not have to be in complete sentences, but make sure they are clear enough to help you contribute to the discussion.

Part II:With your group, discuss the story you have read and compare and contrast it with the excerpt, taking turns explaining your observations. Discuss the different perspectives that each group member brings to the discussion. Use details from the story you have chosen and from the passage provided to support your ideas.  Part III:Write one to two paragraphs that summarize your group’s discussion. Your response should briefly introduce the characters and explain the plot and themes of the story you chose. Then give a brief analysis of Gogol’s humor and how it is used in the story as compared to the excerpt from “The Mantle.” Your writing should incorporate your classmates’ input from the discussion as well as your own.

Scoring:Your work will be scored based on the following: how well you prepare for the discussion how well you participate in the small group discussion how well your written response reflects the content of what you

have read and the ideas expressed in your group discussion

 

   

   

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Read the following and answer the questions below:

The Truth About the Facts The Truth About the Facts

The Truth About the Facts:When History Is Not What It Seems 

 “Remember the Maine!” was the angry cry that signaled the start of the Spanish-American War in 1898. But what exactly were we to remember about the Maine? That it was the American battleship sunk by the Spanish? That the tragic incident was a clear matter of cause and effect? Or that the sinking was the reason the United States, urged by a sensationalist war-hungry press, went to war against Spain?While the effect may have been clear—the United States did go to war—the cause turns out not to have been clear at all. Questions about the sinking of the Maine began swirling almost immediately after the event, and many of the facts became murkier as time went on.Here is one undisputed fact: on February 15, 1898, the USS Maine, an American battleship, exploded in Havana Harbor off the coast of Cuba. Here is another undisputed fact: two hundred and sixty men died in the explosion, and another six later died of their injuries. Beyond that, the account of the explosion moves beyond true facts and into the realm of “facts,” ideas and conclusions that are easier to assert than to disprove. A “fact” about the Maine, according to the naval board of inquiry that investigated the event the month after it happened, was that a mine in the water caused the explosion. Case closed.But wait: Philip Alger, a U.S. Naval Academy professor who was an authority on explosive ordnance, was quoted in a newspaper article the day after the explosion, saying, “No torpedo such as is known in modern warfare can of itself cause an explosion as powerful as that which destroyed the Maine. We know of no instances where the explosion of a torpedo or mine under a ship’s bottom has exploded the magazine within.” Alger’s statement makes it clear that the Maine’s magazine, its store of munitions, was the clear location of the explosion, and the gunpowder it held contributed to the destructive force of the blast.Unanswered was the question, what initiated the blast? Alger thought it likely that the explosion was an accident caused by the placement of the coal

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bunker on the battleship. A spontaneous fire among the type of coal used to power the ship—bituminous1 rather than anthracite2—could easily have spread to the magazines, a not-uncommon explosion.The Maine was stationed near Cuba because President William McKinley was concerned about Spain’s military presence there. He was also concerned about the safety of Americans in Cuba. It was logical to assume Spain’s similar concern about the United States sending a battleship in response. Once the explosion occurred, the U.S. Navy did not immediately accuse Spain, but, instead, appointed a board of inquiry—the Sampson Board—to investigate.In its investigation, the Sampson Board did not consult Alger or any other ordnance expert. That may have been due to the influence of Theodore Roosevelt, who was at the time Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In a letter to the chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance, Roosevelt asked, “Don’t you think it inadvisable for Prof. Alger to express opinions in this way?” Presumably, he was referring to Alger’s remarks in the newspaper article. Regardless of whether Roosevelt actually exerted pressure, Alger was not a part of the inquiry.In its report issued March 21, 1898, the Sampson Board concluded that “the MAINE was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her forward magazines.” Significantly, however, the report ends by stating, “The court has been unable to obtain evidence fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the MAINE upon any person or persons.” The country seized upon the former conclusion, not the latter, in its rush to war. This rush was most likely fueled by at least two factors: the first was the U.S. desire for territorial expansion, the second was the hype promoted by a publisher named William Randolph Hearst, who knew that war-related stories would sell more newspapers. The “submarine mine” explanation was based on the observation that the Maine’s keel, the structure along its underbelly, was bent upwards, so that it looked like an inverted letter “V.” A second board of inquiry that convened in 1911 received funds to raise the sunken ship from the harbor and investigate further. According to the Navy’s official historical website, this 1911 board found “the bottom hull plates in the area of the reserve six-inch magazine bent inward and back” and used this observation to conclude “that a mine had detonated under the magazine, causing the explosion that destroyed the ship.”The matter might have ended there, but in 1974, Admiral Hyman Rickover, a naval heavy hitter who was the impetus behind the development of the

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nuclear submarine fleet, became interested in the Maine. He called on Ib S. Hansen and Robert S. Price, naval explosive authorities, to apply their expertise to a new, exhaustive investigation. Hansen and Price concluded that a mine explosion was extremely unlikely for many reasons, including the fact that it would have required a particular type of mine precisely placed under very difficult conditions.Additionally, the two men reasoned that among the alternative explanations for the explosion, which included a bunker fire, a small arms accident, a bomb planted by a visitor, and a crew sabotage, a bunker fire was most likely. They justified their opinion by citing the fact that the coal was bituminous, that it had been stored on the ship for three months (the longer that coal is stored, the more likely it is to combust), and that the bunker’s last inspection had occurred over 12 hours beforehand, which would “indicate ample time . . . for the initiation of a bunker fire, heating of the bulkhead, transmission of the heat to nearby powder tanks, and deflagration of the powder.”Further, spontaneous fires had occurred in other battleships’ bunkers under similar conditions. Hansen and Price’s report makes clear that they took extreme care to make no unwarranted assumptions about the conditions on and around the Maine ; they examined records and eyewitness statements from the time and relied most strongly on what could be verified. The same cannot be said for a 1998 computer analysis done by Advanced Marine Enterprises (AME) at the behest of the National Geographic Society. This analysis concluded that a mine was a likely contributor to the magazine explosion. It indicated that a 100-pound powder-keg mine could have been responsible. Yet, as Hansen and Price had noted, no evidence of such a mine was found. They were careful, however, to note that “the lack of remnants cannot be taken as positive proof that a mine or torpedo was not employed.” In any case, Louis Fisher, a specialist in Constitutional law from the Law Library of Congress, wrote in 2009, “The experts who worked on the Rickover study and some analysts within AME did not accept the conclusions of the AME computer model.” Clearly, the AME study was not convincing.In 2004, in fact, the author of an online review of a television documentary, “Unsolved History: Death of the USS Maine,” declared that viewers will have “learned, through compelling evidence, that the USS Maine sank because of an accident, not enemy action.” Thus, the Rickover conclusion is the one that remains—at least in the United States. In Cuba , things are different. In Cuba, The Miami Herald reported in 2000, “the assumption persists that the United States sabotaged its own ship as an excuse to join the conflict.”

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In the end, we may think we know what happened to the Maine, and we may condemn leaders from that time for basing a rush to war on hastily drawn, and perhaps ill-supported, conclusions. But anyone who feels superior to President McKinley and those around him would do well to bear in mind two things: First, the investigative tools available in 1898 were a far cry from what is available now, or what Admiral Rickover’s group was able to draw upon in the 1970s. Second, and perhaps more important, was the pressure cooker of international relations and domestic politics pushing the board to its decision.Now imagine a similar commission investigating an apparently warlike incident today, doing its work before the television cameras, with news-channel anchors, talk-show hosts, and analysts reporting and dissecting every question and answer. In the midst of true facts, “facts,” and sound bites, would today’s sensationalist media make it more or less likely that investigators arrived at conclusions that history might find inaccurate? Can we learn from history? 1 bituminous: made of bitumen, a mixture of hydrocarbons; a type of soft coal that ignites at a lower temperature than the harder anthracite coal2 anthracite: a hard type of coal with the fewest impurities; burns at a much higher temperature than bituminous coal

 

33. The passage “The Truth About the Facts: When History Is Not What It Seems” presents diverse perspectives about what caused the sinking of the USS Maine.In preparation for a small group discussion, write a brief summary of the areas of agreement or disagreement about the causes of the sinking as explained in the passage.Next, you will be assigned to a small group where you will raise and respond to questions based on the strengths and weaknesses of each of the major explanations advanced by the author. Then you will decide together whether your summary needs additional research to clarify what caused the ship to sink. 

   

   

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Read the following and answer the questions below:

Annabel Lee Annabel Lee

 “Annabel Lee”

by Edgar Allan PoeExcerpt from Elson Grammar School Literature, Book Four

Edited by William H. Elson and Christine Keck 

 Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19th, 1809. He was left an orphan at the age of three years, and was adopted by a wealthy Virginia planter and educated in England and elsewhere. Owing to his erratic habits, Poe's foster-father disowned him, and after that his life was a constant battle with poverty. His poetry is full of imagery, beauty, and melody. ―William H. Elson and Christine Keck  

“Annabel Lee”   It was many and many a year ago,

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        In a kingdom by the sea,    That a maiden there lived whom you may know        By the name of Annabel Lee;    And this maiden she lived with no other thought        Than to love and be loved by me.         I was a child and she was a child,        In this kingdom by the sea:    But we loved with a love that was more than love—        I and my Annabel Lee;    With a love that the wingèd seraphs of heaven        Coveted her and me.         And this was the reason that, long ago,        In this kingdom by the sea,    A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling        My beautiful Annabel Lee;    So that her highborn kinsmen came        And bore her away from me,    To shut her up in a sepulchre        In this kingdom by the sea.         The angels, not half so happy in heaven,        Went envying her and me—    Yes! —that was the reason (as all men know,        In this kingdom by the sea)    That the wind came out of the cloud by night,        Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.         But our love it was stronger by far than the love        Of those who were older than we—        Of many far wiser than we—    And neither the angels in heaven above,        Nor the demons down under the sea,    Can ever dissever my soul from the soul        Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:         For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams        Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;    And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes        Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;    And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side    Of my darling, —my darling, —my life and my bride,        In the sepulchre there by the sea,

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        In her tomb by the sounding sea. "Annabel Lee" in the public domain.

 

34. Reflect on the poem "Annabel Lee." Write and deliver a one- to two-paragraph speech explaining how Poe uses poetic devices in “Annabel Lee.” In your speech, identify and define three poetic devices within the poem, and provide an example of each.   

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Genetic Snapshots Help Brighten Switchgrass’s Future Genetic Snapshots Help Brighten Switchgrass’s Future

Genetic Snapshots Help Brighten Switchgrass’s Futureby the United States Department of Agriculture

 Corn has captured public attention as the crop with potential to quench America’s thirst for ethanol and other such biofuels. Another fuel-friendly crop is switchgrass. Indeed, ARS1-led research in the Midwest indicates an acre of biomass (stems and leaves) from this warm-season perennial grass has the potential to yield 300 to 800 gallons of ethanol.That’s a promising estimate, but more research is needed to improve the conversion technology used and to make the plant biomass easier and less costly to convert into ethanol. Conversion is done by breaking down the plant’s cell walls into sugars and then fermenting them.One approach is to develop new switchgrass varieties with traits geared to producing ethanol rather than traditional uses, like feeding cattle, anchoring soil, or restoring grasslands.“The ideal switchgrass for bioenergy production would have low input

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requirements, good stand establishment—especially the first year—high yield, and excellent conversion-to-ethanol properties,” comments Gautam Sarath. He’s a molecular biologist in ARS’s Grain, Forage, and Bioenergy Research Unit (GFBRU) [in] Lincoln, Nebraska. 

 Building Living “Libraries” 

To expedite breeding efforts, Sarath and collaborators generate tens of thousands of genetic “snapshots” of switchgrass in action—from the moment it sprouts from seed to the time it prepares for overwintering.The snapshots are actually fragments of genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA). In plant cells, mRNA delivers instructions for making proteins and carrying out other tasks assigned by DNA—the so-called blueprint for life.Extracting mRNA from switchgrass offers a glimpse of how this molecular workhorse does the bidding of DNA at particular growth stages or physiological moments in development. In a later step, a technique called “microarray analysis” allows scientists to visually identify which genes were

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active when they plucked the mRNA from the grass’s tissues.The mRNA is difficult to work with outside its natural setting—cells. So the researchers create a more stable version—complementary DNA (cDNA). Using standard biotech methods, they insert the cDNA into specially engineered plasmids, which can be propagated in E. coli bacteria. Plasmids are circular molecules of DNA found outside chromosomes.Thus engineered, the bacteria are cultured on plates, where they form thousands of colonies. At this stage, they become known as “libraries,” because each bacterial colony contains a plasmid with a unique cDNA from switchgrass.Since 2003, Sarath and collaborator Paul Twigg of the University of Nebraska–Kearney have produced several cDNA libraries from switchgrass. From these, Christian Tobias, a molecular biologist at ARS’s Genomics and Gene Discovery Research Unit in Albany, California, has determined the structure or sequence of some 12,000 previously unknown switchgrass gene fragments. Genetic Diamonds in the Rough

In a preliminary analysis of the sequences, Tobias and coinvestigators grouped about 65 percent of the new sequences into clusters based on commonalities in their structures. Each of these groups may prove to be a unique gene. The sequence fragments were then compared with databases containing well-characterized genes to provide insight into the possible function of each new switchgrass sequence.“A closer examination of fragments within clusters revealed that some seemed to have some slight variations. These variations are of interest because they might lead us to a trait that we want to investigate further,” Tobias points out. “These sequence variations reflect and reveal a portion of the genetic variability within the world’s switchgrass gene pool and can be both associated with desirable traits and used in breeding and switchgrass-improvement programs.”Tobias and Sarath posted the gene sequences to publicly accessible databases on the Internet in 2005. This treasure trove of new discoveries is the most extensive catalog of switchgrass genes yet available for scientists everywhere to use. Researchers can, with the aid of computers, quickly compare and contrast the structure of switchgrass genes to those of other grasses or other forms of life.

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Genes from one organism that look like those from another may perform the same job in both. And if that job has already been discovered for the one organism, “you have a head start in correctly identifying its role in switchgrass,” explains Tobias.Using this comparative approach, Sarath and Twigg have pinpointed a cluster of 12 to 14 genes regulating production and deposition of lignin, a molecular “glue” that binds components of plant cell walls. Sarath notes that bioenergy researchers are keen on weakening lignin’s grip—either through conventional breeding or genetic engineering—to free up more sugars from cell walls for fermenting into ethanol. …The team’s original cDNA libraries came from a single switchgrass variety. Others will be added, including lowland bioenergy-switchgrass types from a breeding and economic-evaluation program run by GFBRU research leader Kenneth P. Vogel and rangeland scientist Robert Mitchell. 

Helping Hands 

The scientists are sending these libraries and RNA to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California. There, fast, state-of-the-art gene-sequencing instruments will identify up to a half-million switchgrass sequence fragments, called “expressed sequence tags” (ESTs), within the next 3 years. These sequences will be compared with those from other plants—particularly other grasses, such as corn and rice—providing invaluable data.“These ESTs will give us the tools to really understand, or look for, genes important for breeding purposes,” adds Sarath. For this ambitious venture, he and Tobias have already supplied several of the requisite cDNA libraries for the institute’s ultrafast analyses.Meanwhile, ARS researchers elsewhere are exploring innovative new ways to improve switchgrass for biofuel and other uses. Some examples of this research include: Studying how plant cell walls are made in order to learn how best to

break them down—research that should make forage crops like switchgrass more digestible for livestock and more degradable for biofuel production (Hans Jung, dairy scientist, St. Paul, Minnesota).

Developing switchgrass management tools and conducting greenhouse-gas life-cycle assessments to provide the best combination of biofuel yield and quality and environmental benefits (Paul R. Adler,

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agronomist, University Park, Pennsylvania).

Using enzyme treatments to extract phenolic acids as value-added coproducts (Danny E. Akin, microbiologist, Athens, Georgia).

Putting both dilute[d] acid and enzymes to work in obtaining fermentable sugars from switchgrass and other species (Bruce S. Dien, chemical engineer, Peoria, Illinois).

From seed to fermentable sugars, such research is helping expand switchgrass’s horizons beyond the prairie and into the bioenergy plants of tomorrow. 

Choosing the Right Switchgrass

Because of its many admirable traits, switchgrass is valued as a robust biomass producer, livestock forage, and restorer of once-pristine2 prairie lands. Still, many farmers may want to know: Which switchgrass types are best suited for my lands?Farmers in northern U.S. latitudes may want to check with Michael D. Casler, a plant geneticist with ARS’s U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center (DFRC) in Madison, Wisconsin.After 10 years of switchgrass breeding and evaluation, Casler says he has a pretty good sense of which cultivars for biomass productivity grow best where.For instance, farmers in southern Minnesota would be wise to choose the cultivar Cave-in-Rock, says Casler, instead of Blackwell, which is better suited to Kansas and Oklahoma.Making Casler’s switchgrass selections even easier is a laboratory test developed by fellow DFRC researcher Paul J. Weimer. With the help of enzyme-rich rumen fluid extracted from the digestive tracts of dairy cows, the method can quickly predict the fermentability, or ethanol-producing potential, of a given cultivar.Over the next few years, Casler and Weimer will be working to integrate desirable fermentation traits into switchgrass to increase its farmgate value. 

The Gene Pool Deepens 

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The original cDNA libraries that led to the team’s switchgrass gene discoveries came from a variety called Kanlow. As its name implies, Kanlow is best suited for Kansas prairie lowlands. But researchers need to know about the work of genes in the flowers, leaves, stems, and roots of switchgrass plants … throughout its native range.To make that happen, scientists like ARS plant pathologist Joseph M. Krupinsky at Mandan, North Dakota, have contributed switchgrass tissue to colleague Paul Twigg to create RNA and cDNA libraries with a richer and more diverse assembly of switchgrass genes. Samples also come from Kenneth Vogel’s program at Lincoln.In all, the new RNA and cDNA libraries are pools or mixtures of specimens [e]specially selected to add needed breadth, depth, and diversity that otherwise might be missed were the analyses based solely on a single commercial variety such as Kanlow.The researchers have included individuals encompassing most of the genetic diversity within the 48 conterminous United States. 1 ARS: Agricultural Research Service2 pristine: unspoiled

“Genetic Snapshots Help Brighten Switchgrass’s Future” in the public domain.

 

35. Student Directions:

Corn and switchgrass are two of many natural materials which are used to make biofuels. You will use reliable library and Internet sources to investigate biofuels and the materials used to make them, choosing one type of biofuel to focus on in your research. Then you will use what you have learned from your research, as well as information from the passage “Genetic Snapshots Help Brighten Switchgrass’s Future,” to create a digital slideshow on your topic and present it to the class.Part 1:Use the passage, as well as library and/or Internet resources to research biofuels. As you research, consider the following questions: What types of biofuels exist today? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using and

producing biofuels?

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How are biofuels used today, and why are they not as widely used as other fuels?

Then choose a type of biofuel or a material used to make biofuel on which to focus your research. Possible choices include: grain/sugar ethanol cellulosic ethanol biodiesel butanol algal biofuels

Research the uses of your chosen biofuel as well as advantages and disadvantages of using it. Compare your chosen biofuel to the information about corn and switchgrass presented in the passage. Take notes and include a works-cited page using a standard citation format.Part 2:Using your notes and the audiovisual elements you collected, create a digital slideshow of eight to ten slides using presentation software. Begin with a slide that states your topic and introduces the points you will discuss in the rest of the presentation. The other slides should give details about an aspect of your topic. You do not need to include every word that you will say during your presentation on the slides themselves; the text on each slide should give an overview of the information you want to convey.Be sure to include images and audio files to enhance your presentation. You may, for example, include diagrams that help clarify the process of using your chosen biofuel. You should also include a slide that compares your chosen biofuel to the information in the passage. Your final slide should provide a brief summary of your research to conclude the presentation.Part 3:Present your slideshow to your classmates. Speak slowly and clearly to be easily understood, and make eye contact with your classmates to engage their attention.Scoring:Your work will be scored on the following criteria: Research—You have clearly focused on a central research topic and

have drawn information from a variety of reliable sources. Presentation—Your slideshow is well-organized and purposeful, and

your speech uses language and vocabulary appropriate for your topic

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and audience. Use of technology—You have made good use of the presentation

software to create a successful slideshow.

 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Whip Inflation Now Whip Inflation Now

Excerpt from Whip Inflation Now “Whip Inflation Now” is a speech President Gerald R. Ford delivered in 1974. I will not take your time today with the discussion of the origins of inflation and its bad effect on the United States, but I do know where we want to be in 1976—on the 200th birthday of a United States of America that has not lost its way, nor its will, nor its sense of national purpose.During the meetings on inflation, I listened carefully to many valuable suggestions. Since the summit, I have evaluated literally hundreds of ideas, day and night.My conclusions are very simply stated. There is only one point on which all advisers have agreed: We must whip inflation right now.None of the remedies proposed, great or small, compulsory or voluntary, stands a chance unless they are combined in a considered package, in a concerted effort, in a grand design.Today, I have identified 10 areas for our joint action, the executive and the legislative branches of our Government.Number one: food. America is the world's champion producer of food. Food prices and petroleum prices in the United States are primary inflationary factors. America today partially depends on foreign sources for petroleum,

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but we can grow more than enough food for ourselves.To halt higher food prices, we must produce more food, and I call upon every farmer to produce to full capacity. And I say to you and to the farmers, they have done a magnificent job in the past, and we should be eternally grateful.This Government, however, will do all in its power to assure him—that farmer—he can sell his entire yield at reasonable prices. Accordingly, I ask the Congress to remove all remaining acreage limitations on rice, peanuts, and cotton.I also assure America's farmers here and now that I will allocate all the fuel and ask authority to allocate all the fertilizer they need to do this essential job.Agricultural marketing orders and other Federal regulations are being reviewed to eliminate or modify those responsible for inflated prices.I have directed our new Council on Wage and Price Stability to find and to expose all restrictive practices, public or private, which raise food prices. The Administration will also monitor food production, margins, pricing, and exports. We can and we shall have an adequate supply at home, and through cooperation, meet the needs of our trading partners abroad.Over this past weekend, we initiated a voluntary program to monitor grain exports. The Economic Policy Board will be responsible for determining the policy under this program.In addition, in order to better allocate our supplies for export, I ask that a provision be added to Public Law 480 under which we ship food to the needy and friendly countries. The President needs authority to waive certain of the restrictions on shipments based on national interest or humanitarian grounds....Number three: restrictive practices. To increase productivity and contain prices, we must end restrictive and costly practices whether instituted by Government, industry, labor, or others. And I am determined to return to the vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws.The Administration will zero in on more effective enforcement of laws against price fixing and bid rigging. For instance, non-competitive professional fee schedules and real estate settlement fees must be eliminated. Such violations will be prosecuted by the Department of Justice to the full extent of the law.Now, I ask Congress for prompt authority to increase maximum penalties for antitrust violations from $50,000 to $1 million for corporations, and from

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$50,000 to $100,000 for individual violators.At the Conference on Inflation we found, I would say, very broad agreement that the Federal Government imposes too many hidden and too many inflationary costs on our economy. As a result, I propose a four-point program aimed at a substantial purging process.Number one, I have ordered the Council on Wage and Price Stability to be the watchdog over inflationary costs of all governmental actions.Two, I ask the Congress to establish a National Commission on Regulatory Reform to undertake a long-overdue total reexamination of the independent regulatory agencies. It will be a joint effort by the Congress, the executive branch, and the private sector to identify and eliminate existing Federal rules and regulations that increase costs to the consumer without any good reason in today's economic climate.Three: Hereafter, I will require that all major legislative proposals, regulations, and rules emanating from the executive branch of the Government will include an inflation impact statement that certifies we have carefully weighed the effect on the Nation. I respectfully request that the Congress require a similar advance inflation impact statement for its own legislative initiatives.Finally, I urge State and local units of government to undertake similar programs to reduce inflationary effects of their regulatory activities.…The Council on Wage and Price Stability will, of course, monitor wage and price increases in the private sector. Monitoring will include public hearings to justify either price or wage increases. I emphasize, in fact reemphasize, that this is not a compulsory wage and price control agency.Now, I know many Americans see Federal controls as the answer. But I believe from past experience controls show us that they never really stop inflation—not the last time, not even during and immediately after World War II when, as I recall, prices rose despite severe and enforceable wartime rationing.Now, peacetime controls actually, we know from recent experience, create shortages, hamper production, stifle growth, and limit jobs. I do not ask for such powers, however politically tempting, as such a program could cause the fixer and the black marketeer to flourish while decent citizens face empty shelves and stand in long waiting lines. “Whip Inflation Now” in the public domain.

 

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36.Student Directions: When Gerald Ford became president in 1973, the United States was facing rising inflation rates. Your task is to learn more about Ford’s economic plan and its major components. Then, you’ll present the information to your classmates either in favor of or against each of the major components.   Part 1:In “Whip Inflation Now,” you read about two parts of  President Ford’s ten-part plan. Start with the information from the passages, and then do additional research to answer these main research questions: What are three other parts, or areas, of President Ford’s economic

plan? What are the positive or negative outcomes of each for the

American economy?

Learn about three of President Ford’s ten areas for joint action between the executive and legislative branches of government. Make sure the areas you research are different from the two explained in the passage—food and restrictive practices.  Organize the information into a 3–5 minute speech. The speech should explain three components of President Ford’s plan. It should also include an evaluation of each component. That is, explain whether each was a good idea for the economy or not. The evaluation should present a clear line of reasoning and be supported with evidence.  Part Two:Present your speech to your classmates. During your presentation, be sure to speak clearly so that your audience can follow your explanation and understand how you arrived at your conclusions and evaluations. Submit a copy of your speech in writing and include a works cited page using a standard citation format. Scoring:Your speech will be scored on the following: Research—you have answered the main research question

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thoroughly and have used reliable sources. Organization—your speech is organized logically and concludes

with evaluations of parts of the plan you researched. Language—your speech uses language that is appropriate for the

intended audience and is grammatically correct.

  

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from "The Nation Denounces Roosevelt’s Actions in Panama" Excerpt from "The Nation Denounces Roosevelt’s Actions in Panama"

Excerpt from “The Nation Denounces Roosevelt’s Actions in Panama”by The Nation

In 1902, the United States negotiated with Colombia for the rights to begin construction on the Panama Canal. When Colombia showed signs of wanting to back out of the deal, Panama revolted against Colombia with the approval of the U.S. government. This revolt formed the Republic of Panama, which had previously been under Colombian rule. The following article, “The Nation Denounces Roosevelt’s Actions in Panama,” appeared on November 12, 1903, in the periodical The Nation. President Roosevelt has now ordered acts of war against Colombia. No other interpretation can be put upon his instructions to our naval commanders to prevent Colombia troops from embarking at Buenaventura or any other national port. This goes far beyond the preliminary affront to Colombia in recognizing the twenty-minute republic of Panama, as Senator Teller aptly calls it. That was bad enough. It was an act which Professor Woolsey of the chair of international law in Yale University declares to be without justification in correct principles. To notify a Government that a seceding State has “accomplished” its independence, almost before the central authorities had heard that there was even a revolution, was a step which would, of course, have led to an instant declaration of war if the offended

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nation had not been as an infant to a prize-fighter. But now the President has outdone even that act of aggression, and has put us technically in a state of war with Colombia. Almost more amazing is the reason which he assigns for it. “The Washington Government,” says the official dispatch, “holds that this policy is in the interest of the general good.” But the President of the United States is a creature of law. Warrant for his public acts he must seek, not in his own magnanimous though possibly fallible impulses, but in the law of the land—in treaties, in the Constitution, in the statutes of the United States. It is safe to say, however, that in none of these can Mr. Roosevelt find the shred of a sanction for his hostile course towards Colombia. He sends his vessels of war to Colombian waters and asserts jurisdiction there. He threatens to sink any transport which may put to sea, with troops of a country with which we are at peace. And when we ask [why?] the answer is “the general good”—that is, Mr. Roosevelt’s own notion of what the general good requires. It is the stereotyped plea of irresponsible tyrants in all ages.

Article “The Nation Denounces Roosevelt’s Actions in Panama.” Published by The Nation, November 12 and 19, 1903.   

The Benefits of American Intervention in Panama The Benefits of American Intervention in Panama

The Benefits of American Intervention in Panama  In 1898, the U.S. battleship Oregon steamed from the West Coast around the tip of South America to join the rest of the naval fleet off Cuba during the Spanish-American War. While the trip took two months, the war itself lasted only three. If the Panama Canal had existed at that time, the voyage would have taken, at most, three weeks. For this reason alone, President McKinley proclaimed, the construction of an American-controlled canal in Central America was essential to national security.The idea of constructing a canal in Panama had been around for at least 300 years. Early explorers, including Vasco Núñez de Balboa, had considered the benefit of such a construction, but only in the nineteenth century did people make serious plans for the project. French forces tried and failed to construct a canal in the 1880s; soaring costs and illness among the workers derailed

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their project. Following the end of the French effort, President McKinley and his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, vigorously pursued the construction of the Panama Canal.At the time, Panama was under Colombian control, though the people of Panama had attempted to secede from Colombia on five occasions. This unrest led to frequent changes in government in Panama as well as occasional violence. The United States initially worked with the Colombian government, requesting a lease to a six mile-wide zone in perpetuity for an initial payment of $10 million and an annual cost of $250,000. The Colombian senate rejected this offer. Roosevelt, infuriated by this response, then assisted the efforts of Panamanian rebels by sending U.S. naval forces to block Colombian troops from entering Panama to fight the uprising. With Roosevelt’s support, Panamanians were finally able to free themselves of Colombian rule. On November 3, 1903, after only a brief conflict with few casualties and little destruction, Panama became an independent nation with a democratic government and a constitution. The new Panamanian government immediately drew up a contract with the United States to hand over the canal zone, now widened to 10 miles, for the same fees Roosevelt had previously offered to Colombia.Roosevelt’s strategy was not without its critics. In the November 12, 1903 issue of The Nation, opponents railed that the president had acted in an unlawful, unconstitutional, and reckless manner. Roosevelt’s critics were also quick to establish that American assistance to the rebels violated the Monroe Doctrine. This doctrine, established in 1823, declared that the United States had the right to prevent Europe from creating new colonies in the Americas. Yet it did not authorize the United States to intervene directly in the affairs of Latin American nations. However, the act of assisting the rebels both furthered American interests and led to a newly stable government in Panama. The intervention in Panama ultimately increased national prosperity, installed new military protections, and expanded global trade. None of these benefits would have been attained without Roosevelt’s bold decision to aid Panamanian rebels struggling to free their country from Colombia’s rule. The victory of Panamanian forces not only helped the people of Panama but also greatly benefited economies throughout the world. In today’s age of real-time communication between continents, people may forget that the world moved at a far slower pace at the turn of the twentieth century. Transporting goods between San Francisco and New York required ships to spend months at sea, traversing a distance of 13,000 miles around the tip of South America. A shorter trip via the Isthmus of Panama entailed overland

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treks through dense jungles and dangerous terrain to the opposite shore where another ship would then take the travelers and their cargo to their final destination. A canal through Panama would ultimately save not just time and money, but human energy as well.   

  The Panama Canal was an unprecedented feat of engineering. Construction on the Panama Canal began in 1905 and ended in 1914 at an initial cost of $400 million. Builders blasted through jungle, swampland, mountains, and rocks to construct a waterway with massive locks that would enable ships of all sizes to pass through Central America for the first time in history. The canal made it possible for merchants to transport more than twice the amount of goods at the same expense they had earlier paid. Militarily, the canal would make it easier for the U.S. to dispatch ships to defend its recently acquired territories of Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. In addition, the increased U.S. presence in the Caribbean sent a strong message to European powers, several of which had claims on land in the area. In addition, the canal brought important innovations in public health. Aware that the earlier French effort to build a canal had suffered from a high

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incidence of injury and disease, the United States appointed a chief sanitary officer to avoid such harmful consequences. This public health effort was incredibly successful in improving health both among the workers and among others in Panama.The Panama Canal has provided indisputable long-term economic, military, and public health benefits to the United States, Panama, and the world in general. Today, the canal is completely under Panama’s control, but continues to be open to peaceful commerce among all nations. Had the United States allowed Panama to remain under the rule of Colombia, it is likely that the canal would have not been built so rapidly nor administered so efficiently. Since the time of the canal’s opening, more than 800,000 vessels have passed through it."The Benefits of American Intervention in Panama" property of the Florida Department of Education.

 

37. Student Directions: The two articles “The Nation Denounces Roosevelt’s Actions in Panama” and “The Benefits of American Intervention in Panama,” portray different positions on whether the American intervention in Panama was justifiable. Write a speech in which you will argue either for or against American intervention in Panama. To decide, you will first perform research on the subject. Then, you will present your speech to your classmates.Part 1:Take a position on the issue of whether or not American intervention in Panama was justifiable during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. Conduct research on the subject to strengthen your position. When researching, consider the following: Who were the Panama Canal’s main opponents? What were the results, both positive and negative, of the revolt that

led to Panamanian independence? What was the Monroe Doctrine, and did Roosevelt’s actions truly

violate it? What were Roosevelt’s motives in wanting to build the canal, and

were they just?

Part 2:Organize your evidence into a three to five minute speech, including

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details from your research as well as the passage. Include a list of works cited, using a standard citation format. Part 3:Present your speech to your classmates. During your presentation, be sure to speak clearly so that your audience can follow your explanation and understand how you arrived at your conclusions. Scoring:Your work will be scored on the following criteria: Speech is persuasively argued in favor of your chosen position. Speech is organized logically and includes details from research

and the passage for support. Speech uses language that is appropriate for the intended audience

and is grammatically correct. Includes a list of works cited in correct format.

 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Rising Papers from a Sinking Ship Rising Papers from a Sinking Ship

Rising Papers from a Sinking Ship 

A sensational headline grabbed the attention of the American public on the evening of February 17, 1898. That was when the New York World printed the following: “Maine Explosion Caused by Bomb or Torpedo?”For most of the country, the article was the first they had heard of the tragic incident. The USS Maine was an American battleship that had been sent to Cuba by President William McKinley to establish its presence in a territory where U.S. interests ran deep. Only ninety miles south of Florida and host to many U.S. businesses and vacation homes, Cuba was a Spanish colony on the brink of

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revolution. Politically governed by Spain, much of its economic development was influenced by its trade with the United States. Cuban sugar and tobacco producers anticipated that greater wealth would bring greater political influence.Instead, the Spanish military cracked down on anyone whose loyalty was in question. Crops were burned and Cuban farmers were forcibly removed from their lands. The situation was widely reported by U.S. newspapers. Most Americans favored Cuban independence, hoping for an end to Spanish control of the island.The New York World headline captured much of the nation’s sentiment. For those without an opinion, it helped to form one. But the headline also achieved something else—it pinned the blame on Spain without any solid evidence. Moreover, being quick to judgment, the newspaper failed to consider any other explanation.Other newspapers did the same. A popular cartoon appearing in numerous publications that year depicts a savage ape leaning over a headstone with the inscription, “Maine Sailors Murdered by Spain.” Wielding a sword and wearing a sash with the word “SPAIN” emblazoned across it, the menacing figure stands in the foreground of a battlefield littered with fallen soldiers.Such headlines and graphics were clearly intended to rouse public outrage by implicating Spain as the culprit. The strategy appeared to work, as war was declared only two months later. But was it the sinking of the USS Maine that started the war, or was it the biased coverage by newspapers with their own reasons for wanting to see the United States go to war with Spain? Did the ship serve as an indirect cause by providing the papers with an excuse to bolster their own interests?Such blatantly one-sided reporting became known as “yellow journalism.” Its goal was simple enough: sensationalize the story in order to sell as many papers as possible. The New York World appeared to do well with this strategy, outselling its more traditional rival, the Times. Secondary to that motive was the additional advantage of promoting a particular political opinion. In other words, the yellow press could become a useful tool for influencing voters to focus on those opinions that the editors endorsed.But profit was the real motivation of the editors of the nation’s two most successful yellow journals, Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. Each tried to outdo the other by publishing increasingly exaggerated accounts of the sinking of the USS Maine. At nearly a quarter million copies sold each day, both papers

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bombarded the public with their competing accounts of the incident.Each espoused a different theory. One reported that the Spanish had directly bombed the ship with a torpedo or explosive mine. The other implied that the ship had been blown up by a Spaniard sympathetic to the Cuban cause, hoping that the incident would provoke U.S. intervention. Either way, both papers pinned the blame on Spain.That a third and even more plausible theory might account for the explosion never entered the pages of these two journals. Yet, the omission of contradictory evidence is characteristic of this type of journalism, which got its name from a comic strip character called the “yellow kid” who was routinely included to popularize the printed point of view. These papers were also noted for their use of vibrant colors, including a special yellow ink, an additional reason for the term “yellow journalism.”       The third theory, ignored by yellow journalists, proposed that the USS Maine might have blown up accidentally. After all, the ship did carry a highly combustible type of coal that was used to fuel its steam-powered engines. And being a warship, it was loaded with powerful explosives. An accident in the engine room would have been all that was needed to ignite an even more catastrophic explosion. As tragic as the explosion was, the theory of an accident was decidedly less sensational than a sabotage attack. Given the choice of which would sell more papers, a report of a brazen assault by a hostile force was far more effective. It practically guaranteed that yellow newspapers would outsell traditional newspapers.The fortunes of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst were greatly enhanced by the success of their publications. Indeed, Hearst’s newspaper’s growing influence enabled him to build the largest newspaper and magazine business of his time. Perhaps no other individual could rival the prominence of Hearst’s far-reaching political influence.While we may never know the actual cause of the sinking of the USS Maine, it is evident that the manner in which the tragedy was reported helped shape popular opinion. Indeed, such reporting went a long way in drawing the nation into war. The incident raises more questions than answers, not the least of which is whether it is wise to believe everything that is reported by the media. 

38. “Rising Papers from a Sinking Ship” provides three possible explanations for the sinking of the USS Maine. Choose one explanation and examine

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the facts supporting this explanation as well as any information that might refute this explanation. Take notes as you consider the following questions: 1. What was a possible motive?2. Who benefited from this situation?3. How can this explanation be proven?

Now, you will engage in a discussion with a classmate who has chosen a different explanation. Pose and respond to questions, clarifying and challenging your own ideas and those of your classmate. Be sure to use evidence from the passage to support your discussion. 

   

   

Read the following and answer the questions below:

Excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Ichabod Crane, a school teacher, is riding home from a party on his horse, Gunpowder, when he realizes he is being followed. Even though Ichabod has an “active imagination,” he never thought he would ever see this sight . . .

 As Ichabod approached this fearful tree, he began to whistle; he thought his whistle was answered; it was but a blast sweeping sharply through the dry branches. As he approached a little nearer, he thought he saw something white, hanging in the midst of the tree: he paused and ceased whistling but, on looking more narrowly, perceived that it was a place where the tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood laid bare. Suddenly he heard a groan—his teeth chattered, and his knees smote against the saddle: it was but the rubbing of one huge bough upon another, as they were swayed about by the breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils lay before him.

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About two hundred yards from the tree, a small brook crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded glen, known by the name of Wiley's Swamp. A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape-vines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate André was captured, and under the covert of those chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who surprised him. This has ever since been considered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy who has to pass it alone after dark.As he approached the stream, his heart began to thump; he summoned up, however, all his resolution, gave his horse half a score of kicks in the ribs, and attempted to dash briskly across the bridge; but instead of starting forward, the perverse old animal made a lateral movement, and ran broadside against the fence. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the contrary foot: it was all in vain; his steed started, it is true, but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road into a thicket of brambles and alder bushes. The schoolmaster now bestowed both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, but came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head.Just at this moment a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge caught the sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller.The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with terror. What was to be done? To turn and fly was now too late; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the wind? Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, he demanded in stammering accents, "Who are you?" He received no reply. He repeated his demand in a still more agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he cudgelled the sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm tune. Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, and with a scramble and a bound stood at once in the middle of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the form of the unknown might now in some degree be ascertained. He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. He made no

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offer of molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side of the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gunpowder, who had now got over his fright and waywardness.Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight companion, and bethought himself of the adventure of Brom Bones with the Galloping Hessian, now quickened his steed in hopes of leaving him behind. The stranger, however, quickened his horse to an equal pace. Ichabod pulled up, and fell into a walk, thinking to lag behind, —the other did the same. His heart began to sink within him; he endeavored to resume his psalm tune, but his parched tongue clove to the roof of his mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There was something in the moody and dogged silence of this pertinacious companion that was mysterious and appalling. It was soon fearfully accounted for. On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless! —but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle! His terror rose to desperation; he rained a shower of kicks and blows upon Gunpowder, hoping by a sudden movement to give his companion the slip; but the spectre started full jump with him. Away, then, they dashed through thick and thin; stones flying and sparks flashing at every bound. Ichabod's flimsy garments fluttered in the air, as he stretched his long lank body away over his horse's head, in the eagerness of his flight.They had now reached the road which turns off to Sleepy Hollow; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, instead of keeping up it, made an opposite turn, and plunged headlong downhill to the left. This road leads through a sandy hollow shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story; and just beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed church.As yet the panic of the steed had given his unskillful rider an apparent advantage in the chase, but just as he had got half way through the hollow, the girths of the saddle gave way, and he felt it slipping from under him. He seized it by the pommel, and endeavored to hold it firm, but in vain; and had just time to save himself by clasping old Gunpowder round the neck, when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it trampled under foot by his pursuer. For a moment the terror of Hans Van Ripper's wrath passed across his mind, —for it was his Sunday saddle; but this was no time for petty fears; the goblin was hard on his haunches; and (unskillful rider that he was!) he had much ado to maintain his seat; sometimes slipping on one side,

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sometimes on another, and sometimes jolted on the high ridge of his horse's backbone, with a violence that he verily feared would cleave him asunder.An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection of a silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was not mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones's ghostly competitor had disappeared. "If I can but reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, "I am safe." Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over the resounding planks; he gained the opposite side; and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash, —he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirlwind. 

"Excerpt from 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'" in the public domain.

 

39. Read this sentence from the passage “Excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” To pass this bridge was the severest trial.  Does crossing this bridge turn out to be the “severest” trial for Ichabod Crane? Write a speech informing your classmates why, for Ichabod Crane, passing that particular bridge is the “severest” trial. Your informative speech should include the definition of the word “severest,” and explain why the bridge is described this way.  Support your speech with details from the passage, including descriptions of the surrounding area and information regarding legends about the bridge. Be sure to organize your speech logically and use language and vocabulary appropriate to the audience. 

   

   

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Read the following and answer the questions below:

James Madison and the Bill of Rights James Madison and the Bill of Rights

James Madison and the Bill of RightsMany contemporary Americans consider the first ten amendments of the Constitution essential to American democracy. Known as the Bill of Rights, these amendments guarantee citizens fundamental rights and freedoms, such as freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial. Yet when originally proposed, the idea of a bill of rights engendered fierce controversy and nearly cost the young nation its unity.When delegates gathered at the Constitutional Convention in May 1787, their goal was simply to improve the Articles of Confederation, the legal document governing the recently established nation. From the beginning, the Articles had displayed obvious weaknesses. The central government had little real power, there was no national court system, and the federal government had no legal authority to regulate business and trade. The convention’s delegates spent the summer wrestling with these problems. By September, they had drafted a new Constitution and submitted it to the states for ratification.This ratification was by no means assured. The central issue was the Constitution’s lack of clearly defined rights for individual Americans.The Constitution placed limits on federal power in two ways. First, it created separate powers for the national and state governments. Second, it instituted checks and balances among the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the federal government. It did not, however, name individual rights, such as the freedom of speech or the protection from unreasonable searches by authorities.The Federalist majority in government, led by Alexander Hamilton, believed there was no need to specify individual rights. All government power was granted by the people, Federalists explained, so there was no reason to enumerate the powers that people had not granted to the government. Hamilton feared that a bill of rights outlining specific freedoms would suggest that these listed freedoms were the only ones people possessed. In other words, a bill of rights would limit rather than protect the rights of individuals.

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Anti-Federalists eagerly committed individual freedoms to writing, because they believed that a public document could better explain and help protect people’s rights. Unwritten rights would be difficult to defend in court. Once inscribed in the Constitution, individual rights would become part of the nation’s legal code and more readily upheld in state and federal courts. However, these arguments did not sway the convention. Approving the Constitution’s final draft had been a torturous process, full of painful compromises. Few delegates wanted to risk derailing the entire project by entering into a new debate about amendments.Anti-Federalist factions in several states fought against ratifying a constitution without a means of guaranteeing freedoms for each individual American. The legislatures of North Carolina and Rhode Island refused ratification until a series of amendments to enumerate people’s rights was included. Nine states needed to ratify the Constitution for it to pass, but by January 1788, only five states had done so. Anti-Federalist leaders in Massachusetts agreed to ratify the Constitution with the understanding that Congress would consider their recommendations for amendments in a bill of rights. This “Massachusetts Compromise” ensured that Anti-Federalists across the nation would provide the Constitution with enough support to pass.Federalist James Madison initially thought a bill of rights of dubious value to Americans. When it became clear that the Constitution would not pass without such a bill, he reluctantly agreed to support it. He developed and introduced a total of seventeen amendments into Congress. These amendments formed the basis of the Bill of Rights, and Madison became their greatest champion.Madison believed that the Bill of Rights would serve several purposes, including giving the judicial system a central role in protecting individual rights. As first written, the Constitution did not clearly describe how the government could enforce its newly augmented powers. This lack of specificity, Madison stated, made the nation vulnerable to abuses of government power. The Bill of Rights would help citizens determine when government authorities had overstepped their authority and violated their rights. They could assert their rights through the power of the courts.In 1789, Congress approved twelve of Madison’s amendments as the Bill of Rights and sent the bill to the state legislatures for ratification. Ten of the amendments were approved by the states, and by 1790, all thirteen states had ratified the Constitution. Over the years that followed, more amendments were added to the Constitution, with most of them protecting people’s rights or clarifying the limits of government power. The Bill of Rights

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would remain an essential safeguard of Americans’ rights and freedoms. 

Excerpt from Speech Proposing the Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives Excerpt from Speech Proposing the Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives

Excerpt from Speech Proposing the Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives

by James Madison

In the months following the states’ acceptance of the United States Constitution, James Madison presented his idea for a bill of rights to the first United States Congress on June 8, 1789. He outlined several rights, which he believed should be specifically protected by making amendments to the Constitution. The following is an excerpt from his speech.

 I will state my reasons why I think it proper to propose amendments … I wish, among other reasons why something should be done, that those who have been friendly to the adoption of this Constitution may have the opportunity of proving to those who were opposed to it that they were as sincerely devoted to liberty and a Republican Government, as those who charged them with wishing the adoption of this Constitution in order to lay the foundation of an aristocracy or despotism. It will be a desirable thing to … [calm] any [fears] that there are those among his countrymen who wish to deprive them of the liberty for which they [bravely] fought and honorably bled. And if there are amendments desired of such a nature as will not injure the Constitution, and they can be [added] so as to give satisfaction to the doubting part of our fellow-citizens, the friends of the Federal Government will [show] that spirit of [respect] for which they have hitherto been distinguished.It cannot be a secret to the gentlemen in this House, that, notwithstanding the ratification of this system of Government by eleven of the thirteen United States, in some cases unanimously, in others by large majorities; yet still there is a great number of our [people] who are dissatisfied with it; among whom are many respectable for their talents and patriotism, and respectable for the jealousy they have for their liberty, which, though mistaken in its object, is [noble] in its motive. [Many] people [fall] under this description,

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who at present feel much inclined to join their support to the cause of Federalism, if they were satisfied on this one point. We [should] conform to their wishes, and expressly declare the great rights of mankind secured under this constitution. The [acceptance] which our fellow-citizens show under the Government, calls upon us for a like return of moderation. But perhaps there is a stronger motive than this for our going into a consideration of the subject. It is to provide those securities for liberty which are required by a part of the community; I allude in a particular manner to those two States that have not thought fit to throw themselves into the bosom of the Confederacy. It is a desirable thing, on our part as well as theirs, that a reunion should take place as soon as possible. I have no doubt, if we proceed to take those steps which would be prudent and requisite at this [moment], that in a short time we should see that disposition prevailing in those States which have not come in, that we have seen prevailing in those States which have embraced the Constitution.But I will candidly acknowledge, that … I do [believe] that the Constitution may be amended; that is to say, if all power is subject to abuse, that then it is possible the abuse of the powers of the General Government may be guarded against in a more secure manner than is now done, while no one advantage arising from the exercise of that power shall be damaged or endangered by it. We have in this way something to gain, and, if we proceed with caution, nothing to lose. And in this case it is necessary to proceed with caution; for while we feel all these [reasons] to go into a revisal of the Constitution, we must feel for the Constitution itself, and make that revisal a moderate one. I should be unwilling to see a door opened for a reconsideration of the whole structure of the Government — for a re-consideration of the principles and the substance of the powers given; because I doubt, if such a door were opened, we should be very likely to stop at that point which would be safe to the Government itself. But I do wish to see a door opened to consider, so far as to incorporate those [terms] for the security of rights … It … has been said that a bill of rights is not necessary, because the establishment of this Government has not repealed those declarations of rights which are added to the several State constitutions. [These objections state] that those rights of the people …  could not be [overpowered] by a subsequent act of that people, who … declared … that they … established a new system, for the express purpose of securing to themselves and posterity the liberties they had gained by an arduous conflict.I admit the force of this observation, but I do not look upon it to be conclusive. In the first place, it is too uncertain ground to leave this [matter]

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upon, if [amendments are] at all necessary to secure rights so important as many … are [believed] to be, by the public in general, as well as those in particular who opposed the adoption of this Constitution. Besides, some States have no bills of rights, there are others provided with very defective ones, and there are others whose bills of rights are not only defective, but absolutely improper; instead of securing some in the full extent which republican principles would require, they limit them too much to agree with the common ideas of liberty.It has been objected also against a bill of rights, that, by [listing] particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would [belittle] those rights which were not placed in that [list. It] might follow that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard urged against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I [believe], that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it … "Speech Proposing the Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives" in the public domain.

 

40. (This item requires an oral response.)Explain and defend the Federalists’ view of adopting a bill of rights. Your response should be a one- to three-minute formal speech, delivered to your classmates. Use details from "Speech Proposing the Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives" and "James Madison and the Bill of Rights" to support your answer. 

   

   

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