Read the excerpt from “A Visit from the Goon Squad.” Scotty climbed onto the platform and sat on the stool. Without a glance at the audience or a word of introduction, he began to play “I Am a Little Lamb,” a tune whose childishness was belied by the twanging filigree of his slide guitar, its gushy metallic complexity. He followed that with “Goats Like Oats” and “A Little Tree Is Just Like Me.” The amplification was fine and powerful enough to eclipse the chopper throb and deliver the sound even to the distant reaches of the crowd, where it disappeared between buildings. Alex listened in a sort of cringe, expecting a roar of rejection from these thousands he’d managed secretly to assemble, whose goodwill had already been taxed by the long wait. But it didn’t happen; the pointers, who already knew these songs, clapped and screeched their approval, and the adults seemed intrigued, attuned to double meanings and hidden layers, which were easy to find. Which of the following choices best describes the structure used in this excerpt?
Read this excerpt from "A Visit from the Goon Squad."Whatever the reason, a swell of approval palpable as rain lifted from the center of the crowd and rolled out toward its edges, where it crashed against buildings and water wall and rolled back at Scotty with redoubled force, lifting him off his stool, onto his feet (the roadies quickly adjusting the microphones), exploding the quavering husk Scotty had appeared to be just moments before and unleashing something strong, charismatic, and fierce. Anyone who was there that day will tell you the concert really started when Scotty stood up.How does the author portray Scotty in this excerpt?
Read this excerpt from "Look Homeward, Angel."Like all the older children of Major Pentland she had, since her twentieth year, begun the slow accretion of land: from the savings of her small wage as teacher and book-agent, she had already purchased one or two pieces of earth. From this excerpt, Eliza can best be described as a
How does Thomas Wolfe organize the text "Look Homeward, Angel"?
Which policy do the plaintiffs disagree with in Brown v. Board of Education?
Read this excerpt from "A Visit from the Goon Squad."At last he found Rebecca, smiling, holding Cara-Ann in her arms. She was dancing. They were too far away for Alex to reach them, and the distance felt irrevocable, a chasm that would keep him from ever again touching the delicate silk of Rebecca’s eyelids, or feeling, through his daughter’s ribs, the scramble of her heartbeat. Without the zoom, he couldn’t even see them. In desperation, he T’d Rebecca, pls wAt 4 me, my bUtiful wyf, then kept his zoom trained on her face until he saw her register the vibration, pause in her dancing, and reach for it.Which of these is the best question to address the societal issue raised in this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "African American Women in World War II."For many American citizens, African American women among them, democracy was far from complete at home. However, these women joined the war effort and played a significant role in America’s success in World War II.
Read this excerpt from "A Visit from the Goon Squad."That’s when he began singing the songs he’d been writing for years underground, songs no one had ever heard, or anything like them—“Eyes in My Head,” “X’s and O’s,” “Who’s Watching Hardest”—ballads of paranoia and disconnection ripped from the chest of a man you knew just by looking had never had a page or a profile or a handle or a handset, who was part of no one’s data, a guy who had lived in the cracks all these years, forgotten and full of rage, in a way that now registered as pure. Untouched.How does the author use satire in this excerpt?
Read this excerpt from “Not a Dove, But No Longer a Hawk.” I remember distinctly the thrill of climbing aboard a U.S. Army helicopter in the cool of the morning and taking off across the rice fields with a South Vietnamese battalion for a day’s jousting with the Vietcong guerillas. There was hope then that the non-Communist Vietnamese might win their war. I was proud of the young American pilots sitting at the controls in the cockpit and I was grateful for the opportunity to witness this adventure and to report it. We are fighting now, I used to think, and some day we will triumph and this will be a better country. Which choice best describes how the author builds conflict in this excerpt?
How do the authors differ in the way they present the war in “Facing It” and “Ambush”?
The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and Harrison stripped them of their handicaps, too. “Play your best,” he told them, “and I’ll make you barons and dukes and earls.”The music began. It was normal at first—cheap, silly, false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs.
Which best describes the sequencing of “Ambush”?
Read the excerpt from “I Dream a World” by Langston Hughes.A world I dream where black or white,Whatever race you be,Will share the bounties of the earthAnd every man is free,Where wretchedness will hang its headAnd joy, like a pearl,Attends the needs of all mankind—Of such I dream, my world!Based on the dreams that the speaker describes, it is reasonable to infer that the speaker
In Langston Hughes’s poem “I Dream a World,” the repetition of the word “dream” emphasizes
The speaker in Hughes’s poem “Democracy” encourages people to
Langston Hughes yearns for equality in the poem “I Dream A World,” while in the poem “Democracy” he
Read the excerpt from President Clinton's 2001 farewell address.As for me, I'll leave the presidency more idealistic, more full of hope, than the day I arrived, and more confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead.
Read the following excerpt taken from the US Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).The case coming on for a hearing before the Supreme Court, that court was of opinion that the law under which the prosecution had was constitutional, and denied the relief prayed for by the petitioner. Ex parte Plessy, 45 La.Ann. 80. Whereupon petitioner prayed for a writ of error from this court, which was allowed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana.MR. JUSTICE BROWN, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.This case turns upon the constitutionality of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, passed in 1890, providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races. Acts 1890, No. 111, p. 152.The first section of the statute enacts"that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this State shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations: Provided, That this section shall not be construed to apply to street railroads. No person or persons, shall be admitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them on account of the race they belong to." The Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson was problematic because
Read the excerpt from the US Supreme court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).The statute of Louisiana, acts of 1890, c. 111, requiring railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in that State, to provide equal, but separate, accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations; and providing that no person shall be permitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them, on account of the race they belong to; and requiring the officer of the passenger train to assign each passenger to the coach or compartment assigned for the race to which he or she belong; and imposing fines or imprisonment upon passengers insisting on going into a coach or compartment other than the one set aide for the race to which he or she belongs; and conferring upon officers of the train power to refuse to carry on the train passengers refusing to occupy the coach or compartment assigned to them, and exempting the railway company from liability for such refusal, are not in conflict with the provisions either of the Thirteenth Amendment or of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Which best explains why the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional?
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