One night in autumn a few men were gathered about a fire on a hill. They belonged to a small detachment of Confederate forces. Their gray uniforms were worn beyond the point of shabbiness. One of the men was heating something in a tin cup over the embers. Two were lying at full length a little distance away, while a fourth was trying to decipher a letter and had drawn close to the light. He had unfastened his collar and a good bit of his flannel shirt front."What's that you got around your neck, Ned?" asked one of the men.Ned—or Edmond—mechanically fastened another button of his shirt and did not reply. He went on reading his letter."Is it your sweetheart's picture?""Taint no gal's picture," offered the man at the fire. "That's a charm. Hey, French! Ain't I right?" Edmond looked up absently from his letter."What is it?" he asked."Ain't that a charm you got round your neck?""It must be, Nick," returned Edmond with a smile. "I don't know how I could have gone through this year and a half without it."The letter had made Edmond heartsick and homesick. He stretched himself on his back and looked straight up at the blinking stars. But he was not thinking of them nor of anything but a certain spring day when a girl was saying goodbye to him. He could see her as she unclasped from her neck the locket which she fastened about his own. It was an old fashioned golden locket bearing miniatures of her father and mother. It was her most precious earthly possession. Edmond could feel again the folds of the girl's soft white gown and see the droop of the angel-sleeves as she circled her fair arms about his neck. Her sweet face, tormented by the pain of parting, appeared before him as vividly as life. He turned over, burying his face in his arm and there he lay, still and motionless. . . .Octavie wore a plain black dress, severe in its simplicity. A narrow belt held it at the waist and the sleeves were gathered into close fitting wristbands. She had discarded her hoopskirt and appeared not unlike a nun. Beneath the folds of her bodice nestled the old locket. She never displayed it now. It had returned to her sanctified in her eyes; made precious as material things sometimes are by being forever identified with a significant moment of one's existence. . . .Octavie felt as if she had passed into a stage of existence which was like a dream, more poignant and real than life. There was the old gray house with its sloping eaves. Amid the blur of green, and dimly, she saw familiar faces and heard voices as if they came from far across the fields, and Edmond was holding her. It was as if the spirit of life and the awakening spring had given back the soul to her youth and bade her rejoice.1Select the correct answer from the drop-down menu.Read the excerpt. Then choose the correct way to complete the paragraph.One theme in the excerpt is that people hold on to love despite the passage of time. The author develops this theme by describing how the .

Some men on horseback rode up, shouting and sweating; two of them dismounted, while the other hung back to watch the horses."We want food! Give us eggs, milk, beans, anything you've got! We're starving!"The speaker wore chevrons on his arm, his companion red stripes on his shoulders."Whose place is this, old woman? Of course it's not empty. How about the light and that child there? Look here, confound it, we want to eat, and quick too. We’re coming in.""Tell me what they call this ranch, woman?" the sergeant asked."Limon," the woman replied curtly, carrying wood to the fire and fanning the coals.8Select the correct answer.How does the setting influence characterization in the text? A. The setting causes the characters to have difficulty finding food. B. The setting causes the characters to use overly polite manners. C. The setting causes the characters to endure cold temperatures. D. The setting causes the characters to have difficulty riding the horses.

Some men on horseback rode up, shouting and sweating; two of them dismounted, while the other hung back to watch the horses."We want food! Give us eggs, milk, beans, anything you've got! We're starving!"The speaker wore chevrons on his arm, his companion red stripes on his shoulders."Whose place is this, old woman? Of course it's not empty. How about the light and that child there? Look here, confound it, we want to eat, and quick too. We’re coming in.""Tell me what they call this ranch, woman?" the sergeant asked."Limon," the woman replied curtly, carrying wood to the fire and fanning the coals.6Select the correct answer.What does the setting reveal about the time period of the text? A. It takes place during a time when soldiers patrolled city streets. B. It takes place during a time when soldiers were returning from battle. C. It takes place during a time when soldiers were used to protect ranches. D. It takes place during a time when soldiers traveled on horseback.

It was a long, grieving sound, like a sigh--almost like a sob. It attracted Mr. Lorry's eyes to Carton's face, which was turned to the fire. A light, or a shade (the old gentleman could not have said which), passed from it as swiftly as a change will sweep over a hill-side on a wild bright day, and he lifted his foot to put back one of the little flaming logs, which was tumbling forward. He wore the white riding-coat and top-boots, then in vogue, and the light of the fire touching their light surfaces made him look very pale, with his long brown hair, all untrimmed, hanging loose about him. His indifference to fire was sufficiently remarkable to elicit a word of remonstrance from Mr. Lorry; his boot was still upon the hot embers of the flaming log, when it had broken under the weight of Ms foot.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,And towards our distant rest began to trudge.Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf gas-shells dropping softly behind.Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumblingFitting the clumsy helmets just in time,But someone still was yelling out and stumblingAnd flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.In all my dreams before my helpless sight,He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.If in some smothering dreams, you too could paceBehind the wagon that we flung him in,And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;If you could hear, at every jolt, the bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cudOf vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori.*Translation of Latin: It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country4Select the correct answer.What is the mood of the poem? A. restless B. bitter C. bewildered D. remorseful

n stories, there is often a clear beginning, middle and end.Match the parts of the story up with the correct answer. A strong woodcutter heard the screams and rushed into the cottage, holding his axe high. He saw what the wicked wolf had done and brought his axe down mercilessly upon the cruel creature's head. The wolf died instantly and Little Red Riding Hood was safe.One day, Little Red Riding Hood decided to visit her grandmother in the old cottage in the middle of the wood. It was a beautiful day, and not a cloud was in the sky. She hummed as she skipped along the forest path.As she wandered deeper into the wood, the branches became thicker and blocked out most of the sunlight. Little Red Riding Hood, therefore, could not see that she was being followed by a wicked wolf.