Four alternative summaries are given below the text. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the text. Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows like harmony in music; there is a dark inscrutable workmanship that reconciles discordant elements, makes them cling together. In one society. How strange that all. The terrors, pains, and early miseries, regrets, vexations, lassitudes interfused within my mind, should e’er have borne a part, and that a needful part, in making up. The calm existence that is mine when I am worthy of myself! Praise to the end!According to the poet, one can be worthy of oneself only when one has experienced the terrors and the pains of life and has grown above them to achieve a state of calmness.The mind fuses the past and the present in such a way that the calmness the poet feels at the moment is in a way amnesiac of the past; it is only because of this forgetfulness of the terrors of the past that the poet can be calm in the present. Dust we are and unto dust we will return; in the meanwhile, one must undergo all the pains and travails of life in order to become a worthy human being-- only then can one achieve a praiseworthy end.All the discordant elements in the poet’s life have gone into making him what he is now, and the calmness that he feels in the present is only because of having experienced the terrors in the past; this is what has made him a worthy human being.

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows like harmony in music; there is a dark inscrutable workmanship that reconciles discordant elements, makes them cling together. In one society. How strange that all. The terrors, pains, and early miseries, regrets, vexations, lassitudes interfused within my mind, should e’er have borne a part, and that a needful part, in making up. The calm existence that is mine when I am worthy of myself! Praise to the end!According to the poet, one can be worthy of oneself only when one has experienced the terrors and the pains of life and has grown above them to achieve a state of calmness.All the discordant elements in the poet’s life have gone into making him what he is now, and the calmness that he feels in the present is only because of having experienced the terrors in the past; this is what has made him a worthy human being.The mind fuses the past and the present in such a way that the calmness the poet feels at the moment is in a way amnesiac of the past; it is only because of this forgetfulness of the terrors of the past that the poet can be calm in the present. Dust we are and unto dust we will return; in the meanwhile, one must undergo all the pains and travails of life in order to become a worthy human being-- only then can one achieve a praiseworthy end.

Which of the following best summarizes a central theme of the poem?A. Death in youth can preserve the perfect image of a lost loved one in our memories.B. Grief can unite people, even an entire town.C. War is tragic, but even more so when it takes those with great potential before their time.D. When not given the time to properly form, identities can reflect only one aspect of ourselves.

Which of the following could be the best title for this passage?

Read this excerpt from "Exhalation":Though I am long dead as you read this, explorer, I offer to you a valediction. Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.Which theme is best supported by the excerpt?A.Life is precious.B.The past is full of mistakes.C.Dreams should be pursued.D.The written word is temporary.

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.If a consciousness of the eternal were not implanted in man; if the basis of all that exists were but a confusedly fermenting element which, convulsed by obscure passions, produced all, both the great and the insignificant; if under everything there lay a bottomless void never to be filled—what else were life but despair? If it were thus, and if there were no sacred bonds between man and man; if one generation arose after another, as in the forest the leaves of one season succeed the leaves of another, or like the songs of birds which are taken up one after another; if the generations of man passed through the world like a ship passing through the sea and the wind over the desert—a fruitless and a vain thing; if eternal oblivion were ever greedily watching for its prey and there existed no power strong enough to wrest it from its clutches—how empty were life then, and how dismal!Life would be filled with despair if it lacked a consciousness of the eternal, sacred human bonds, and if everything led to eternal oblivion, rendering human existence vain and dismal.The absence of eternal consciousness and sacred bonds among humans would make life like the passing seasons in the forest, meaningless and destined for oblivion.If man did not have an awareness of the eternal and was subject to a world of chaotic forces and ultimate oblivion, life would be devoid of meaning and hope.Life would be dismal and empty if there were no eternal aspect, no meaningful connections between people, and if all existence was just a transient journey towards oblivion.