semester 1 final: ap lang and comp

1. My parents came here from Colombia during a time of great instability there. Escaping a dire economic situation at home, they moved to New Jersey, where they had friends and family, seeking a better life, and then moved to Boston after I was born. 2. Throughout my childhood I watched my parents try to become legal but to no avail. They lost their money to people they believed to be attorneys, but who ultimately never helped. That meant my childhood was haunted by the fear that they would be deported. If I didn't see anyone when I walked in the door after school, I panicked. 3. And then one day, my fears were realized. I came home from school to an empty house. Lights were on and dinner had been started, but my family wasn't there. Neighbors broke the news that my parents had been taken away by immigration officers, and just like that, my stable family life was over. 4. Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if I had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, I found myself basically on my own. 5. While awaiting deportation proceedings, my parents remained in detention near Boston, so I could visit them. They would have liked to fight deportation, but without a lawyer, and with an immigration system that rarely gives judges the discretion to allow families to stay together, they never had a chance. Finally, they agreed for me to continue my education at Boston Arts Academy, a performing arts high school, and the parents of friends graciously took me in. 6. I was lucky to have good friends, but I had a rocky existence. I was always insecure about being a nuisance and losing my invitation to stay. I worked a variety of jobs in retail and at coffee shops all through high school. And, though I was surrounded by people who cared about me, part of me ached with every accomplishment, because my parents weren't there to share my joy. 7. My family and I worked hard to keep our relationships strong, but too-short phone calls and the annual summer visits I made to Colombia didn't suffice. They missed many important events in my life, including my singing recitals—they watched my senior recital on a tape I sent them instead of from the audience. And they missed my prom, my college application process and my graduations from high school and college. 8. My story is all too common. Every day, children who are U.S. citizens are separated from their families as a result of immigration policies that need fixing. 9. I consider myself lucky because things turned out better for me than for most, including some of my own family members. When my brother was deported, his daughter was just a toddler. She still had her mother, but in a single-parent household, she faced a lot of challenges. My niece made the wrong friends and bad choices. Today, she is serving time in jail, living the reality that I act out on screen.* I don't believe her life would have turned out this way if her father and my parents had been here to guide and support her. 10. I realize the issues are complicated. But it's not just in the interest of immigrants to fix the system: It's in the interest of all Americans. Children who grow up separated from their families often end up in foster care, or worse, in the juvenile justice system despite having parents who love them and would like to be able to care for them. 11. I don't believe it reflects our values as a country to separate children and parents in this way. Nor does it reflect our values to hold people in detention without access to good legal representation or a fair shot in a court of law. 12. President Obama has promised to act on providing deportation relief for families across the country, and I would urge him to do so quickly. Keeping families together is a core American value. 13. Congress needs to provide a permanent, fair legislative solution, but in the meantime families are being destroyed every day, and the president should do everything in his power to provide the broadest relief possible now. Not one more family should be separated by deportation.

"My Parents Were Deported" - Diane Guerrero

1. Warned by the disaster of the last great war,1 the statesmen of all nations have been taking measures to prevent the return of another such calamity. These measures may not constitute an absolute guarantee of peace, but, in my opinion, they constitute the greatest preventive measures ever adopted by nations. It is not to be expected that human nature will change in a day; perhaps it is too much to expect that the age-old institution of war, which has, through the centuries, been recognized by international law as a sovereign right and has darkened the pages of history with the story of blood and destruction, will be at once abolished, but people of all nations should be encouraged by the great progress which has been made since the war in the furtherance of international peace. I cannot in this brief address discuss these measures beyond enumerating them. There is the League of Nations,2 which has been functioning for ten years and which, I am sure, has been most beneficial in adjusting many difficult international problems; the Pact of Paris;3 arbitration treaties; conciliation treaties; and the Court of International Justice;4 and I might add that commendable progress has been made toward reduction of armament. Each one of these treaties is a step for the maintenance of peace, an additional guarantee against war. It is through such machinery that the disputes between nations will be settled and war prevented. 2. It is not my intention today to discuss the Pact of Paris, which has passed into history; perhaps I should not say it has passed into history, but has been cemented in the foundations of the nations' organic law, as a solemn pledge not to go to war for the settlement of their disputes—a pledge which was entered into voluntarily and backed by the united sentiment of the peoples of the world and one which I am convinced the nations intend to carry out in absolute good faith. It was inspired by the determination of peoples not to be again afflicted with the horrors of such an appalling catastrophe. It was inspired by the memory of devastated lands, ruined homes, and the millions of men and women sacrificed in that awful struggle. It was not an ordinary treaty entered into by nations to serve some temporary advantage, like treaties of amity or alliances; it was a sacred promise between all nations and to all peoples of the world not to go to war for the settlement of their differences; to use a common phrase, to "outlaw" war; to make it a crime against the law of nations so that any nations which violate it should be condemned by the public opinion of the world. 3. I know there are those who believe that peace will not be attained until some super-tribunal is established to punish the violators of such treaties, but I believe that in the end the abolition of war, the maintenance of world peace, the adjustment of international questions by pacific means will come through the force of public opinion, which controls nations and peoples—that public opinion which shapes our destinies and guides the progress of human affairs. 4. I regret very much to hear so many people, many of my own countrymen, predicting war, stating that Europe is preparing and arming for such a conflict. I rather share the opinion of those of broader vision, who see in the signs of the time hope of humanity for peace. Have we so soon forgotten those four years of terrible carnage, the greatest war of all time; forgotten the millions of men who gave their lives, who made the supreme sacrifice and who today, beneath the soil of France and Belgium, sleep the eternal sleep? Their supreme sacrifice should inspire a pledge never again to inflict humanity with such a crime. I have said before and I wish to repeat today, with all the solemn emphasis which I can place upon my words, that Western civilization would not survive another such conflict, but would disappear in the universal chaos.

Kellogg

1. I spent my teens and much of my twenties collecting printed rejections.* Early on, my mother lost $61.20—a reading fee charged by a so-called agent to look at one of my unpublished stories. No one had told us that agents weren't supposed to get any money up front, weren't supposed to be paid until they sold your work. Then they were to take ten percent of whatever the work earned. Ignorance is expensive. That $61.20 was more money back then than my mother paid for a month's rent. 2. I badgered friends and acquaintances into reading my work, and they seemed to like it. Teachers read it and said kindly, unhelpful things. But there were no creative writing classes at my high school, and no useful criticism. At college (in California at that time, junior college was almost free), I took classes taught by an elderly woman who wrote children's stories. She was polite about the science fiction and fantasy that I kept handing in, but she finally asked in exasperation, "Can't you write anything normal?" 3. A schoolwide contest was held. All submissions had to be made anonymously. My short story won first prize. I was an eighteen-year-old freshman, and I won in spite of competition from older, more experienced people. Beautiful. The $15.00 prize was the first money my writing earned me. 4. After college I did office work for a while, then factory and warehouse work. My size and strength were advantages in factories and warehouses. And no one expected me to smile and pretend I was having a good time. 5. I got up at two or three in the morning and wrote. Then I went to work. I hated it, and I have no gift for suffering in silence. I muttered and complained and quit jobs and found new ones and collected more rejection slips. One day in disgust I threw them all away. Why keep such useless, painful things? 6. There seems to be an unwritten rule, hurtful and at odds with the realities of American culture. It says you aren't supposed to wonder whether as a Black person, a Black woman, you really might be inferior—not quite bright enough, not quite quick enough, not quite good enough to do the things you want to do. Though of course you do wonder. You're supposed to know you're as good as anyone. And if you don't know, you aren't supposed to admit it. If anyone near you admits it, you're supposed to reassure them quickly so they'll shut up. That sort of talk is embarrassing. Act tough and confident and don't talk about your doubts. If you never deal with them, you may never get rid of them, but no matter. Fake everyone out. Even yourself. 7. I couldn't fake myself out. I didn't talk much about my doubts. I wasn't fishing for hasty reassurances. But I did a lot of thinking—the same things over and over. 8. Who was I anyway? Why should anyone pay attention to what I had to say? Did I have anything to say? I was writing science fiction and fantasy, for God's sake. At that time nearly all professional science-fiction writers were white men. As much as I loved science fiction and fantasy, what was I doing? 9. Well, whatever it was, I couldn't stop. Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because you're afraid and full of doubts. Positive obsession is dangerous. It's about not being able to stop at all. 10. I was twenty-three when, finally, I sold my first two short stories. I sold both to writer-editors who were teaching at Clarion, a science-fiction writers' workshop that I was attending. One story was eventually published. The other wasn't. I didn't sell another word for five years. Then, finally, I sold my first novel. Thank God no one told me selling would take so long—not that I would have believed it. I've sold eight novels since then. Last Christmas, I paid off the mortgage on my mother's house.

Octavia E. Butler

Self Aware-Fish - The writer would like to introduce the quotation in sentences 12 and 13 (reproduced below) in a way that relates it to the argument presented in the passage.Redouan Bshary offered his opinions on the study: "I never saw a cleaner swimming on its back, and I never saw a cleaner scratching its throat. These are new behaviors that are apparently tightly linked to the mirror." Which of the following versions of the underlined text would best accomplish this goal?

Redouan Bshary, a biologist familiar with cleaner wrasse behavior, found the study remarkable, stating,

1. (1) Ever since psychologist Gordon Gallup developed the mirror self-recognition test in the 1970s, it's been the classic way to determine whether a species has self-awareness. (2) In the test, researchers surreptitiously place a mark on a subject's body and then place the subject before a mirror. (3) If the subject tries to touch or remove the mark, then he or she must be self-aware. (4) Gallup originally tested chimpanzees (which passed), but other species, mostly other primates, have also recognized themselves in the mirror. (5) Subsequently, humans typically pass the test starting at around 18 months of age. 2. (6) These studies have supported the long-held belief that only the most intelligent creatures are capable of recognizing the self. (7) But a recent study in which a tiny tropical fish seemingly passed the mirror test is turning that assumption on its head, suggesting that self-awareness is more widespread throughout the animal kingdom than previously thought. 3. (8) Researchers in Japan decided to test the bluestreak cleaner wrasse because of its strong eyesight and its habit of eating parasites off other, larger fish. (9) The researchers presumed the fish were intelligent, yet even they were surprised by the study's results. (10) The territorial wrasses at first reacted aggressively when presented with a mirror in their tank, but over time they developed erratic behavior: dancing and bobbing in front of the mirror, sometimes upside down. (11) When researchers placed a colorful gel on the fish's throat, a spot they could see only in the mirror, the wrasses spent a lot of time examining the mark and even tried to scrape it off. 4. (12) Redouan Bshary offered his opinions on the study: "I never saw a cleaner swimming on its back, and I never saw a cleaner scratching its throat. (13) These are new behaviors that are apparently tightly linked to the mirror." (14) While the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, it is already sparking debate, with some scientists citing it as proof that fish are more clever than commonly thought—and may even belong in the exclusive club of self-aware animals, previously dominated by primates.

Self-Aware Fish -

1. (1) If you live in a city, you may have seen references to sister cities in other countries and wondered what the designation means—or whether it really matters. (2) In fact, sister-city programs can matter a great deal: civic organizations and local businesses are often involved in sister-city relationships. 2. (3) Sister-city partnerships were developed to foster international cooperation after the Second World War, and they continue to serve this purpose today. (4) Many of the earliest relationships were between cities that had previously been at war. (5) Nevertheless, the English city of Bristol and the German city of Hanover formed a partnership in 1947, with Bristol shipping relief supplies to Hanover and Hanover sending musicians to perform in Bristol. (6) The partnership evolved to include an educational exchange that continues to give English and German students experience in another culture. 3. (7) Such relationships provide an important complement to diplomacy carried out between governments. (8) Governments can forge alliances between countries, but the particular officials charged with doing so vary from country to country. (9) What's more, as Mary Kane of Sister Cities International notes, "Foreign affairs doesn't have to be done just by the State Department." (10) By conveying international relations into people's lives, sister cities make connections with distant places feel real to citizens. 4. (11) Although the potential benefits of sister cities are great, they can't be taken for granted. (12) Without active participation from community groups, local government, and ordinary citizens, the relationships can fall into neglect. (13) But with engagement from community stakeholders, sister-city programs provide a gratifying and profitable connection to the wider world. 5. (14) Because trust and understanding are essential to business things, the feelings of closeness that connect sister cities can translate into economic benefits. (15) This dynamic is illustrated in the sister-city relationship between Muscatine, Iowa, and Zhengding County in China. (16) In 1985, Xi Jinping visited Muscatine on a research trip to study soybean farming. (17) When Xi later became president of China, his personal connection to Muscatine formed the basis for the sister-city relationship, which in turn led to Chinese investment in Muscatine's hospitality and tourism industries.

Sister Cities

Butler - In the fifth paragraph, the author mentions that she "got up at two or three in the morning and wrote" primarily to

demonstrate the intensity of her devotion to writing

Kellogg - In the fifth sentence of the first paragraph ("There is the League of Nations . . . reduction of armament"), the author comments on the age and effectiveness of the League of Nations primarily to explain

its relevance to his argument regarding advances in peace preservation efforts

Kellogg - In the third sentence of the first paragraph, the author mentions that war "has, through the centuries, been recognized by international law as a sovereign right" primarily to

register a potential objection to position he supports

Butler - In the ninth paragraph, the author makes which of the following claims about the early years of her writing career?

she continued writing despite lacking confidence in her ability

Guerrero - In the first sentence of the sixth paragraph, the author describes her "rocky existence" during high school in order to

support the claim that her parents' absence affected her during her adolescence

Sister Cities - Which version of the underlined text in sentence 2 (reproduced below) provides the most effective claim to set up the discussion that follows in the passage? In fact, sister-city programs can matter a great deal: civic organizations and local businesses are often involved in sister-city relationships.

when effectively cultivated, they bring people together to create mutually beneficial cultural and economic ties