English 10: Semester A Test
Read this sentence and select the dependent clause. response - correct
if I finish my assignments before 10:00
What is the speaker's purpose?
to persuade his audience to revolt against the British
Whistling My Worries Away It was the middle of the summer, and what was I doing? I was up at the crack of dawn, taking the bus across town to spend the day with a bunch of seven-year-olds. How did this happen? Why hadn't I said no? Only a couple days earlier, I had been enjoying my usual, relaxed summer when the phone rang. My cousin Luci—my favorite cousin—was almost in tears. "You have to help me!" she wailed when I answered the phone. Luci had been working as a camp counselor for the summer. "I'm the drama counselor," she said. "I help the kids put on a skit for their parents at the end of camp. Now my dad's got this business trip and he's offering to take my sister and me with him! To Hawaii! For a month! It will be amazing—but I can't just leave. The camp director really needs my help, and Dad says he won't take me unless I can find someone to fill my spot. Will you do it? You're good at plays and all that stuff." "I don't do anything with little kids!" I argued. I'm an only child and the baby of the family: tiny tots are not my thing. "I have no idea how to do a play with these kids." Luci snorted. "It doesn't have to be fancy, Benito. This isn't like those plays your drama class does at school. Just help them throw together some little skit. Sing a song. Dance around a bit. The parents will love it. Besides," she added, "the pay's pretty good. And I know you've been saving up for that new computer you wanted." Maybe that was the thing that did it. Maybe I was temporarily insane. Maybe I just didn't want to disappoint my favorite cousin. But as I watched twenty-five first graders romping around the playground, I wondered: what on earth was I thinking? The camp director, Camila, explained that each camp session was two weeks long. "We're just starting a new session," she said, "so these campers never met Luci. They're all yours." "Great," I said, trying to summon up a smile. Camila rounded up the campers and brought them over to meet me. "Benito is a performer," she told them. "He's going to teach you a little bit about how to perform, too!" "Can you do magic tricks?" one boy asked as Camila left. "I bet he sings," said a little girl. "He looks like—" she whispered to her friend and they both giggled. "Maybe he's a ballerina," another boy volunteered, snickering. I could see where this was headed. Time for a change. "Let's play a game!" I announced brightly. That got their attention. "I'm going to shout out an activity. Then we will all pretend to do it. Ready?" I started running in place. "I'm an Olympic runner!" I shouted. "I'm going for the gold medal!" The kids immediately joined in. Only, while I ran in place, they ran everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I spent the next twenty minutes keeping them out of the street, away from the field where the high school football team was practicing, and peeling them off the walls of the building when—after they got bored with running—they decided to try to climb a drainpipe. I was relieved when Camila called them all to lunch. I wasn't a drama counselor—more like a referee! That night, Camila stopped me as I headed toward the bus stop. "I really appreciate the help," she said. "Especially now. I've applied for a grant to get more money for the camp. The foundation I applied to is really excited that we are starting a drama program. They're even sending a representative to see the presentation in a couple of weeks! Of course, they know we're not an acting camp or anything, so they don't expect a big production. But I'm hopeless with skits and stuff—I don't even like to speak to the group of parents! I don't know what I would have done if Luci hadn't found you to take her place!" I was still thinking about her words as I took my seat on the bus. What was I going to do now? I didn't want to be responsible for the entire camp closing. I was too deep in thought to notice the passengers around me until one of them tapped my shoulder. "Would you please stop whistling?" he said. "Sorry," I said. "I whistle when I'm nervous." As the days went by, I was doing a lot more whistling. I tried everything: every game I could think of, every skit I could suggest. The kids would listen for a minute or two, but then they were off, running and jumping and shouting at the top of their lungs. I caught a doubtful look on Camila's face sometimes, as if she wondered how I was going to make a show out of this. I wondered, too. The two weeks had passed. I knew all the campers by name, but they hadn't learned anything about performing. And the show was tomorrow night. I took up my familiar spot, watching them run around and whistling under my breath. "Benito, you whistle all the time. Can you teach me how?" It was Mariana, one of the sweetest, quietest little ones in the bunch. But after only a little coaching from me, she let out a whistle so loud my ears rang. All the other kids came running. "Who did that?" "Mariana!" "No way!" "Benito taught me!" Mariana piped up. And I was deluged with requests for whistling lessons. At first I was just grateful they were finally willing to listen to me about anything. Watching them practice, though, I began to get an idea. "Hey, campers!" I shouted. No one listened. I took a deep breath and gave my loudest whistle, and they all came running. "How would you like to show off your whistling skills to your parents tomorrow night?" I asked. They loved the idea! Our plan was simple: recreate what just happened. Mariana was thrilled to have the only "real" lines in the skit, and the other kids got to do exactly what they wanted: run around and whistle. We didn't even really need to practice! The next night's performance was spectacular! The kids were really into it and the parents loved it. Afterward, Elizabeth introduced me to the representative of that foundation. "Very creative," he said. "I know it's not exactly Shakespeare or anything..." I began, but he brushed that off. "You got them coordinated on a single task. They had fun. They gave a performance. What more do you expect from seven-year-olds?" Camila gave me a grin and a big thumbs-up. The campers were saying excited goodbyes. "That was the best part of my whole camp," Mariana told me shyly, as she gave me a hug. "Well, Benito," Camila said as the last campers and parents left. "Luci comes back from her trip soon. But I really liked what you did with the kids. The job is yours if you still want it." I thought back to my conversation with Luci, just a few weeks ago. "I don't even like little kids," I had told her. "And I certainly don't know how to do drama with them." "You'll figure it out," Luci had assured me. And she had been right. I smiled at Camila. "I'll take it." I said. "I know exactly what to do with the next group of kids." How does the author use the falling action in this story?
to reinforce Benito's success with feedback from the visiting representative
What is the effect of the Chancellor of the Exchequer entrance at the inn just after Fisher says, "By Jove! that's an idea. You're perfectly right. And that suggests a very queer idea, doesn't it?"
It builds suspense as readers are eager to know what idea it suggests.
How does the flashback just before the end of the story affect the passage?
It demonstrates how much the narrator has changed through this experience, which is a surprise.
In "Heart of Darkness," Marlow, the protagonist, narrates the tale of his voyage up the Congo River into the Heart of Africa. On that journey, Marlow experiences the brutality of the Company toward the natives and is left to wrestle with the hypocrisy and evils of imperialism. excerpt from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad "I left in a French steamer, and she called in every blamed port they have out there, for, as far as I could see, the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom-house officers. I watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you—smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, 'Come and find out.' This one was almost featureless, as if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness. The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam. Here and there greyish-whitish specks showed up clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying above them perhaps. Settlements some centuries old, and still no bigger than pinheads on the untouched expanse of their background. We pounded along, stopped, landed soldiers; went on, landed custom-house clerks to levy toll in what looked like a God-forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed and a flag-pole lost in it; landed more soldiers—to take care of the custom-house clerks, presumably. Some, I heard, got drowned in the surf; but whether they did or not, nobody seemed particularly to care. They were just flung out there, and on we went. Every day the coast looked the same, as though we had not moved; but we passed various places—trading places—with names like Gran' Bassam, Little Popo; names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister back-cloth. The idleness of a passenger, my isolation amongst all these men with whom I had no point of contact, the oily and languid sea, the uniform sombreness of the coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth of things, within the toil of a mournful and senseless delusion. The voice of the surf heard now and then was a positive pleasure, like the speech of a brother. It was something natural, that had its reason, that had a meaning. Now and then a boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks—these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast. They wanted no excuse for being there. They were a great comfort to look at. For a time I would feel I belonged still to a world of straightforward facts; but the feeling would not last long. Something would turn up to scare it away. Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere. "We gave her her letters (I heard the men in that lonely ship were dying of fever at the rate of three a day) and went on. We called at some more places with farcical names, where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb; all along the formless coast bordered by dangerous surf, as if Nature herself had tried to ward off intruders; in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair. Nowhere did we stop long enough to get a particularized impression, but the general sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me. It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares." How does the inclusion of a long paragraph at the beginning of this passage affect the reader's interpretation of the text?
It helps the reader become immersed in the narrator's experience through the use of an uninterrupted description.
Part B How does the word choice in paragraph 1 help to develop the idea in Part A?
Keller includes descriptions of natural things that she can touch and smell.
Which information is common to both the essay and the video?
A strain of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics is called a superbug.
Read this sentence from the speech. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Which theme does this sentence suggest?
Kindness may hide a dark truth.
Select the word from the drop-down menu that best completes the sentence. The ___ front runner limped off the track after spraining her ankle in the middle of the race.
Devastated
Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death! by Patrick Henry Richmond, Virginia. March 23, 1775 Mr. President: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish the worst, and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves, and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! arduous: difficul tinsidious: subtle subjugation: being under control of another remonstrances: forceful protests inestimable: immeasurable extenuate: to excuse; to make seem less serious Part A In the speech, what is Henry's view of reconciling with the British?
Reconciliation is a hopeful illusion that becomes more costly the longer it is indulged.
excerpt from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller At the age of 18 months, Helen Keller was rendered deaf and blind. Unable to read, write, or speak, it was thought that Helen would never be able to communicate. "The Story of My Life" describes Helen's education with Anne Sullivan and the unorthodox teaching methods that enabled her to learn how to communicate and thrive. We read and studied out of doors, preferring the sunlit woods to the house. All my early lessons have in them the breath of the woods—the fine, resinous odour of pine needles, blended with the perfume of wild grapes. Seated in the gracious shade of a wild tulip tree, I learned to think that everything has a lesson and a suggestion. "The loveliness of things taught me all their use." Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom had a part in my education—noisy-throated frogs, katydids and crickets held in my hand until forgetting their embarrassment, they trilled their reedy note, little downy chickens and wildflowers, the dogwood blossoms, meadow-violets and budding fruit trees. I felt the bursting cotton-bolls and fingered their soft fiber and fuzzy seeds; I felt the low soughing of the wind through the cornstalks, the silky rustling of the long leaves, and the indignant snort of my pony, as we caught him in the pasture and put the bit in his mouth—ah me! how well I remember the spicy, clovery smell of his breath! Sometimes I rose at dawn and stole into the garden while the heavy dew lay on the grass and flowers. Few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand, or the beautiful motion of the lilies as they sway in the morning breeze. Sometimes I caught an insect in the flower I was plucking, and I felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a sudden terror, as the little creature became aware of a pressure from without. Another favourite haunt of mine was the orchard, where the fruit ripened early in July. The large, downy peaches would reach themselves into my hand, and as the joyous breezes flew about the trees the apples tumbled at my feet. Oh, the delight with which I gathered up the fruit in my pinafore, pressed my face against the smooth cheeks of the apples, still warm from the sun, and skipped back to the house! Our favourite walk was to Keller's Landing, an old tumbledown lumber-wharf on the Tennessee River, used during the Civil War to land soldiers. There we spent many happy hours and played at learning geography. I built dams of pebbles, made islands and lakes, and dug river-beds, all for fun, and never dreamed that I was learning a lesson. I listened with increasing wonder to Miss Sullivan's descriptions of the great round world with its burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice, and many other things as strange. She made raised maps in clay, so that I could feel the mountain ridges and valleys, and follow with my fingers the devious course of rivers. I liked this, too; but the division of the earth into zones and poles confused and teased my mind. The illustrative strings and the orange stick representing the poles seemed so real that even to this day the mere mention of temperate zone suggests a series of twine circles; and I believe that if any one should set about it he could convince me that white bears actually climb the North Pole. Part A What does Helen Keller's word choice in her description of her lessons with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, reveal about Keller?
She feels connected to the natural world despite her lack of sight.
How does the rhyme scheme of this poem affect the poem's mood?
The poem's simple rhyme scheme creates a lighthearted mood.
In the last paragraph, the author claims that without regulation of antibiotics, superbugs will form faster than scientists can create new antibiotics. Which statement best evaluates the validity of the reasoning the author uses to support this claim?
The reasoning is invalid; the author excludes both information about the time it takes for scientists to develop new antibiotics and data about the pace at which superbugs are growing.
Which statement best compares the essay's tone to the video's tone?
The video's tone is more formal than the essay's tone.
Read this sentence from the passage. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. How do the phrases "guessed vaguely" and "something unusual" affect the meaning of the sentence?
These phrases emphasize the great anticipation Keller is experiencing.
Select the phrases from the drop-down menus that best complete the sentence. The ___ narration affects the story by ___
Third person limited, allowing readers to learn along with a character
Go Down, Moses "Go Down Moses" is a negro spiritual that references the Old Testament and the events of Exodus. Go down, Moses, Way down in Egypt land Tell old Pharaoh To let my people go. When Israel was in Egypt land Let my people go Oppressed so hard they could not stand Let my people go. Go down, Moses, Way down in Egypt land Tell old Pharaoh "Let my people go." "Thus saith the Lord," bold Moses said, "Let my people go; If not I'll smite your first-born dead, Let my people go." Go down, Moses, Way down in Egypt land, Tell old Pharaoh "Let my people go!" Moses: Biblical figure who led the enslaved Israelites out of bondage in Egypt pharaoh: ancient Egyptian ruler smite: strike How do the short stanzas and brief lines of the song shape its impact?
They make the message of the song direct and purposeful.
How does the event at the well-house change Keller's attitude?
For the first time, she feels a sense of connection with the world around her and looks forward to the future.
Read this sentence from the speech. Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Which theme does this sentence support?
Freedom is worth tremendous sacrifice.
Read these lines from the poem. Thus I am lord of the Desert Land, And I will not leave my bounds, To crouch beneath the Christian's hand, And kennel with his hounds: What do these lines suggest about how the Bushman views the white man?
He feels the white man strives to dominate over those he seeks to convert.
Which statement best evaluates the author's response to the counterclaim in Paragraph 6 that by taking antibiotics, patients are taking an action toward trying to improve their health?
It is ineffective because the author uses exaggeration and language that implies judgment, which may anger or isolate readers.
Song of the Wild Bushman by Thomas Pringle The Bushmen are indigenous people living in regions of Africa including Botswana, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. They are one of the earliest hunter-gatherer cultures known to humankind. For centuries, their numbers have dwindled as peoples of other ethnicities and cultures have intruded on their lands, whether to exploit their resources or to change their religious beliefs. Let the proud white man boast his flocks, And fields of foodful grain; My home is 'mid the mountain rocks, The desert my domain. I plant no herbs nor pleasant fruits, I toil not for my cheer; The desert yields me juicy roots, And herds of bounding deer. The countless springboks are my flock, Spread o'er the unbounded plain; The buffalo bendeth to my yoke, The wild horse to my rein; My yoke is the quivering assegai, My rein the tough bow-string; My bridle curb a slender barb— Yet it quells the forest king. The crested adder honoureth me, And yields at my command His poison bag, like the honey-bee, When I seize him on the sand. Yea, even the wasting locust-swarm, Which mighty nations dread, To me nor terror brings, nor harm— For I make of them my bread. Thus I am lord of the Desert Land, And I will not leave my bounds, To crouch beneath the Christian's hand, And kennel with his hounds: To be a hound, and watch the flocks, For the cruel white man's gain— No! the brown Serpent of the Rocks His den doth yet retain; And none who there his stings provokes Shall find his poison vain! Read these lines from the poem. The countless springboks are my flock, Spread o'er the unbounded plain; The buffalo bendeth to my yoke, The wild horse to my rein; What do these lines reveal about the Bushman's viewpoint?
The Bushman feels the benefits of his lifestyle far exceed those of the white man.
Which concept does Paragraph 2 of the speech develop?
The colonies must stop deceiving themselves about the threat of Great Britain.
Which statement accurately compares the essay and the video?
The essay uses a first-person point of view, but the video does not.
Read this claim and evidence from the passage. Claim: Antibiotics are not always prescribed correctly. Evidence: According to the National Center for Biotechnology information, in 30 to 50 percent of cases, the antibiotic prescribed is either the incorrect antibiotic or is prescribed for the wrong amount of time. Which statement best evaluates the relevancy and sufficiency of the evidence to this claim?
The evidence is both relevant and sufficient.
Which option is the best revision of the sentences? The girl ordered sushi at the restaurant. It came with soup.
The girl ordered sushi, which came with soup, at the restaurant.
excerpt from The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton "The Man Who Knew Too Much" follows the protagonist, Fisher, and his friend, March, as they solve crimes in London. Due to his political connections, Fisher is burdened by his knowledge of the secret motivations behind public crimes. Fisher often solves murders only to watch the murderer go free due to political corruption. "You seem to know all about him," observed March, with a rather bewildered laugh, "and about a good many other people." Fisher's bald brow became abruptly corrugated, and a curious expression came into his eyes. "I know too much," he said. "That's what's the matter with me. That's what's the matter with all of us, and the whole show; we know too much. Too much about one another; too much about ourselves. That's why I'm really interested, just now, about one thing that I don't know." "And that is?" inquired the other. "Why that poor fellow is dead." They had walked along the straight road for nearly a mile, conversing at intervals in this fashion; and March had a singular sense of the whole world being turned inside out. Mr. Horne Fisher did not especially abuse his friends and relatives in fashionable society; of some of them he spoke with affection. But they seemed to be an entirely new set of men and women, who happened to have the same nerves as the men and women mentioned most often in the newspapers. Yet no fury of revolt could have seemed to him more utterly revolutionary than this cold familiarity. It was like daylight on the other side of stage scenery. They reached the great lodge gates of the park, and, to March's surprise, passed them and continued along the interminable white, straight road. But he was himself too early for his appointment with Sir Howard, and was not disinclined to see the end of his new friend's experiment, whatever it might be. They had long left the moorland behind them, and half the white road was gray in the great shadow of the Torwood pine forests, themselves like gray bars shuttered against the sunshine and within, amid that clear noon, manufacturing their own midnight. Soon, however, rifts began to appear in them like gleams of colored windows; the trees thinned and fell away as the road went forward, showing the wild, irregular copses in which, as Fisher said, the house-party had been blazing away all day. And about two hundred yards farther on they came to the first turn of the road. At the corner stood a sort of decayed inn with the dingy sign of The Grapes. The signboard was dark and indecipherable by now, and hung black against the sky and the gray moorland beyond, about as inviting as a gallows. March remarked that it looked like a tavern for vinegar instead of wine. "A good phrase," said Fisher, "and so it would be if you were silly enough to drink wine in it. But the beer is very good, and so is the brandy." March followed him to the bar parlor with some wonder, and his dim sense of repugnance was not dismissed by the first sight of the innkeeper, who was widely different from the genial innkeepers of romance, a bony man, very silent behind a black mustache, but with black, restless eyes. Taciturn as he was, the investigator succeeded at last in extracting a scrap of information from him, by dint of ordering beer and talking to him persistently and minutely on the subject of motor cars. He evidently regarded the innkeeper as in some singular way an authority on motor cars; as being deep in the secrets of the mechanism, management, and mismanagement of motor cars; holding the man all the time with a glittering eye like the Ancient Mariner. Out of all this rather mysterious conversation there did emerge at last a sort of admission that one particular motor car, of a given description, had stopped before the inn about an hour before, and that an elderly man had alighted, requiring some mechanical assistance. Asked if the visitor required any other assistance, the innkeeper said shortly that the old gentleman had filled his flask and taken a packet of sandwiches. And with these words the somewhat inhospitable host had walked hastily out of the bar, and they heard him banging doors in the dark interior. Fisher's weary eye wandered round the dusty and dreary inn parlor and rested dreamily on a glass case containing a stuffed bird, with a gun hung on hooks above it, which seemed to be its only ornament. "Puggy was a humorist," he observed, "at least in his own rather grim style. But it seems rather too grim a joke for a man to buy a packet of sandwiches when he is just going to commit suicide." "If you come to that," answered March, "it isn't very usual for a man to buy a packet of sandwiches when he's just outside the door of a grand house he's going to stop at." "No . . . no," repeated Fisher, almost mechanically; and then suddenly cocked his eye at his interlocutor with a much livelier expression. "By Jove! that's an idea. You're perfectly right. And that suggests a very queer idea, doesn't it?" There was a silence, and then March started with irrational nervousness as the door of the inn was flung open and another man walked rapidly to the counter. He had struck it with a coin and called out for brandy before he saw the other two guests, who were sitting at a bare wooden table under the window. When he turned about with a rather wild stare, March had yet another unexpected emotion, for his guide hailed the man as Hoggs and introduced him as Sir Howard Horne. He looked rather older than his boyish portraits in the illustrated papers, as is the way of politicians; his flat, fair hair was touched with gray, but his face was almost comically round, with a Roman nose which, when combined with his quick, bright eyes, raised a vague reminiscence of a parrot. He had a cap rather at the back of his head and a gun under his arm. Harold March had imagined many things about his meeting with the great political reformer, but he had never pictured him with a gun under his arm, drinking brandy in a public house. "So you're stopping at Jink's, too," said Fisher. "Everybody seems to be at Jink's." "Yes," replied the Chancellor of the Exchequer. "Jolly good shooting. At least all of it that isn't Jink's shooting. I never knew a chap with such good shooting that was such a bad shot. Mind you, he's a jolly good fellow and all that; I don't say a word against him. But he never learned to hold a gun when he was packing pork or whatever he did. They say he shot the cockade off his own servant's hat; just like him to have cockades, of course. He shot the weathercock off his own ridiculous gilded summerhouse. It's the only cock he'll ever kill, I should think. Are you coming up there now?" Fisher said, rather vaguely, that he was following soon, when he had fixed something up; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer left the inn. March fancied he had been a little upset or impatient when he called for the brandy; but he had talked himself back into a satisfactory state, if the talk had not been quite what his literary visitor had expected. Fisher, a few minutes afterward, slowly led the way out of the tavern and stood in the middle of the road, looking down in the direction from which they had traveled. Then he walked back about two hundred yards in that direction and stood still again. "I should think this is about the place," he said. "What place?" asked his companion. "The place where the poor fellow was killed," said Fisher, sadly. "What do you mean?" demanded March. "He was smashed up on the rocks a mile and a half from here." "No, he wasn't," replied Fisher. "He didn't fall on the rocks at all. Didn't you notice that he only fell on the slope of soft grass underneath? But I saw that he had a bullet in him already." Then after a pause he added: "He was alive at the inn, but he was dead long before he came to the rocks. So he was shot as he drove his car down this strip of straight road, and I should think somewhere about here. After that, of course, the car went straight on with nobody to stop or turn it. It's really a very cunning dodge in its way; for the body would be found far away, and most people would say, as you do, that it was an accident to a motorist. The murderer must have been a clever brute." Reread Paragraph 8 from the passage. At the corner stood a sort of decayed inn with the dingy sign of The Grapes. The signboard was dark and indecipherable by now, and hung black against the sky and the gray moorland beyond, about as inviting as a gallows. March remarked that it looked like a tavern for vinegar instead of wine. Why does the author choose to include details about The Grapes Inn?
to reinforce the dark and somber mood of the story
What is the meaning of the word timely in this sentence? The decision to repair the snowplow was quite timely, as an unexpected blizzard buried the town in snow one day later.
Appropriate
excerpt from Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy's Victorian novel follows Tess, a pure, rural girl, whose path crosses with the d'Urbervilles, an old and wealthy English family. In this scene, Tess and her admirer, Angel, travel through the English countryside. As they drove on, the fragment of an old manor house of Caroline date rose against the sky, and was in due course passed and left behind. "That," he observed, to entertain her, "is an interesting old place—one of the several seats which belonged to an ancient Norman family formerly of great influence in this county, the d'Urbervilles. I never pass one of their residences without thinking of them. There is something very sad in the extinction of a family of renown, even if it was fierce, domineering, feudal renown." "Yes," said Tess. They crept along towards a point in the expanse of shade just at hand at which a feeble light was beginning to assert its presence, a spot where, by day, a fitful white streak of steam at intervals upon the dark green background denoted intermittent moments of contact between their secluded world and modern life. Modern life stretched out its steam feeler to this point three or four times a day, touched the native existences, and quickly withdrew its feeler again, as if what it touched had been uncongenial. They reached the feeble light, which came from the smoky lamp of a little railway station; a poor enough terrestrial star, yet in one sense of more importance to Talbothays Dairy and mankind than the celestial ones to which it stood in such humiliating contrast. The cans of new milk were unladen in the rain, Tess getting a little shelter from a neighbouring holly tree. Then there was the hissing of a train, which drew up almost silently upon the wet rails, and the milk was rapidly swung can by can into the truck. The light of the engine flashed for a second upon Tess Durbeyfield's figure, motionless under the great holly tree. No object could have looked more foreign to the gleaming cranks and wheels than this unsophisticated girl, with the round bare arms, the rainy face and hair, the suspended attitude of a friendly leopard at pause, the print gown of no date or fashion, and the cotton bonnet drooping on her brow. She mounted again beside her lover, with a mute obedience characteristic of impassioned natures at times, and when they had wrapped themselves up over head and ears in the sailcloth again, they plunged back into the now thick night. Tess was so receptive that the few minutes of contact with the whirl of material progress lingered in her thought. "Londoners will drink it at their breakfasts to-morrow, won't they?" she asked. "Strange people that we have never seen." "Yes—I suppose they will. Though not as we send it. When its strength has been lowered, so that it may not get up into their heads." "Noble men and noble women, ambassadors and centurions, ladies and tradeswomen, and babies who have never seen a cow." "Well, yes; perhaps; particularly centurions." "Who don't know anything of us, and where it comes from; or think how we two drove miles across the moor to-night in the rain that it might reach 'em in time?" "We did not drive entirely on account of these precious Londoners; we drove a little on our own—on account of that anxious matter which you will, I am sure, set at rest, dear Tess. Now, permit me to put it in this way. You belong to me already, you know; your heart, I mean. Does it not?" "You know as well as I. O yes—yes!" "Then, if your heart does, why not your hand?" "My only reason was on account of you—on account of a question. I have something to tell you—" "But suppose it to be entirely for my happiness, and my worldly convenience also?" "O yes; if it is for your happiness and worldly convenience. But my life before I came here—I want—" "Well, it is for my convenience as well as my happiness. If I have a very large farm, either English or colonial, you will be invaluable as a wife to me; better than a woman out of the largest mansion in the country. So please—please, dear Tessy, disabuse your mind of the feeling that you will stand in my way." What do paragraphs 1 and 2 most suggest about the old families of rank?
By the nineteenth century, some of the ancient English families had lost their power, wealth, and influence.
Camila, the camp director, and Benito have a talk at the end of Benito's first day. How does their conversation foreshadow the ending of the story?
Camila says the final production needs to be good, which increases the tension. However, the visiting representative is satisfied with the simple skit Benito organizes.
Part B How does Henry support his point of view as described in Part A?
He uses imagery and references mythology to provoke an emotional response.
What is the best description of the connotative meaning of the word childlike in this sentence? The astrophysicist retained his childlike sense of wonder and never tired of looking at the stars in the night sky.
It has a positive connotation, suggesting the astrophysicist's long-lasting and innocent fascination with the universe.
Read this sentence from the passage. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word "d-o-l-l." Which statement best describes how this sentence functions in the passage?
It introduces the method that Sullivan uses to teach Keller language.
Which statement best describes the organization of the passage?
Keller states her main idea in the first paragraph and then uses a chronological recollection to support the main idea.
My Cat A bump of black and white Is purring in my bed. And later on at night I find him near my head. The pillow quakes and quivers Like pudding on a plate. He wakes me up at midnight. I sure hope he sleeps late! Read these lines from the poem. The pillow quakes and quivers Like pudding on a plate. How does the simile affect the meaning of this poem?
The cat is on the speaker's pillow, moving around and purring, which keeps the speaker awake.
Select the noun phrase.
a year's salary
