Great walls of emerald,    City that is afar,    We gallop along,    Alert and penetrating,5   Roads open about us,    Housetops keep at a distance.    Soft-curling tendrils,    Swim backwards from our image    We are a red bulk10   Projecting the angular city in shadows at our feet.    Black coarse-squared figures,    Bump and growl and assemble;    It is the city that takes us to itself,    Vast thunder riding down strange skies.15   An arch under which we slide    Divides our lives for us,    After we have passed it    We know we have left something behind    We shall not see again.20   Passivity,    Gravity,    Are changed into hesitating, clanking pistons and wheels.    The trams come whooping up one by one,    Yellow pulse-beats spreading through darkness.25   Movie posters squall out,    The passengers shrivel together,    As I enter indelicately into their souls.    It is a glossy skating rink    On which winged spirals clasp and bend each other,30   And suddenly slide backwards towards the center,    After a too-brief release.    A second arch is a wall    To separate our souls from disintegrating cables    Of stale greenness.35   A shadow cutting off the country from us,    Out of it rise crimson walls,    Yet I revolt;    I bend, I twist myself,    I curl into a million convolutions:40   Shapes without angle,    Anything to be soft and woolly,    Anything to escape.    Sudden lurch of clamors,    Two more viaducts45   Stretch out red yokes of steel,    Crushing my rebellion.    My soul    shrieking    Is jolted forwards by a long fiery bar50   Soft-into direct distances,    It pierces the small of my back.1Based on details from the passage, the reader can infer that the narrator A. is enthralled, because he describes seeing "emerald walls" and roads that "open about us." B. is frightened, because he describes "a shadow cutting off the country" and his "soul shrieking." C. feels trapped, because he wants to "revolt" and says that he would do "anything to escape." D. feels liberated, because he describes himself as curling into "convolutions" and becoming a shape "without angle."

Amidst the tapestry of life's grand scheme,A poignant message lies in every theme.Through sunlit days and nights of deepest shade,A lesson lingers, patiently conveyed.From wildflower's bloom to mountains' might,Nature whispers truths to hearts in flight.It teaches us the value of each hue,Embrace diversity, for it's what makes us true.In city's rush and hustle's strife,We find the strength to shape our life.The power to connect, to empathize,To lift each other as the world complies.And in the silence, we discover grace,Reflection's gift, a moment's embrace.To cherish time, to know our worth,To seek the essence of our birth.Through love and courage, we must tread,Defeating darkness, conquering dread.For every heartbeat fuels the fight,To spread compassion's guiding light.So let the message linger on,In every verse, in every song.In unity, we'll find our way,To brighter skies, come what may.Q 19.   Which of the following BEST captures the theme of the poem?A)  The power of nature and reflectionB)  The value of diversity and empathyC)  The lesson of love and courageD)  The unity of life and lightE)  The essence of time and grace

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,And spills the upper boulders in the sun;And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.The work of hunters is another thing:I have come after them and made repairWhere they have left not one stone on a stone,But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,No one has seen them made or heard them made,But at spring mending-time we find them there.I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;And on a day we meet to walk the lineAnd set the wall between us once again.We keep the wall between us as we go.To each the boulders that have fallen to each.And some are loaves and some so nearly ballsWe have to use a spell to make them balance:“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”We wear our fingers rough with handling them.Oh, just another kind of out-door game,One on a side. It comes to little more:There where it is we do not need the wall:He is all pine and I am apple orchard.My apple trees will never get acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonderIf I could put a notion in his head:“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't itWhere there are cows? But here there are no cows.Before I built a wall I'd ask to knowWhat I was walling in or walling out,And to whom I was like to give offense.Something there is that doesn't love a wall,That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,But it's not elves exactly, and I'd ratherHe said it for himself. I see him thereBringing a stone grasped firmly by the topIn each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.He moves in darkness as it seems to me,Not of woods only and the shade of trees.He will not go behind his father's saying,And he likes having thought of it so wellHe says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”Readability and attributionHow does the speaker feel about the wall?Choose 1 answer:Choose 1 answer:(Choice A)   He’s thankful that it keeps his neighbors away.AHe’s thankful that it keeps his neighbors away.(Choice B)   He’s not confident it will stay up for long.BHe’s not confident it will stay up for long.(Choice C)   He’s not convinced that it’s necessary.CHe’s not convinced that it’s necessary.(Choice D)   He’s worried that it needs maintenance.DHe’s worried that it needs maintenance.What evidence best supports the answer to the previous question?Choose 1 answer:Choose 1 answer:(Choice A)   “Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the topIn each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.”A“Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the topIn each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.”(Choice B)   “We have to use a spell to make them balance:‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’”B“We have to use a spell to make them balance:‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’”(Choice C)   “My apple trees will never get acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.”C“My apple trees will never get acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.”(Choice D)   “And on a day we meet to walk the lineAnd set the wall between us once again.”D“And on a day we meet to walk the lineAnd set the wall between us once again.”

Far away on the top of a gently sloping hill stands my house. On one side the hill slopes into a valley, the site of a large country town; on the other it descends into a forest, thick with lofty trees and green, growing things. Here in stately solitude amid such surroundings towers my dwelling; its dull red brick is barely visible through the thick ivy, but the gleaming tops of its irregular roof and sloping gables catch the day's sunlight and crown it with a crown of gold.     An irregular, rambling building is this house of mine, built on no particular plan, following no order save that of desire and fancy. Peculiarly jutting rooms appear and unsuspected towers and bay-windows—the house seems almost to have built itself and to have followed its own will in so doing. If there be any one distinct feature at all, it is that halls long and very broad traverse the various parts of the house, separating a special set of rooms here, making another division there. Splendid halls are these, with fireplaces and cozy armchairs, and delightful, dark corners, and mysterious closets, and broad, shallow stairs. Just the place in winter for a host of young people to gather before the fireplace, and with popcorn and chestnuts, stories and apples, laugh away the speeding hours, while the wind howls without.     The hall on the ground floor has smaller corridors that branch off and lead at their extremity into the garden. Surely, no garden of the East, perfumed with all the odors of Araby, was ever so fair as my garden! Surely, nowhere does the snow lie so pure and smooth and deep, nowhere are the evergreen trees so very tall and stately as in my garden in winter! Most glorious is it in late spring and early June. Out on the green, green sward, I sit under the blossoming trees; in sheer delightful idleness I spend my hours, listening to the blending of windsong with the "sweet jargoning" of little birds.8Which statement provides the best objective summary of the passage? A. A narrator describes the peculiarities of her stately home and the glories of her garden. B. A narrator describes her house on a gently sloping hill and its spectacular garden. C. A narrator describes her house's exterior and interior and its surrounding garden. D. A narrator describes how cozy her home is and how stunning her garden appears in winter.

Constructed in sections over several centuries beginning in the third century BCE, the Great Wall is the most famous monument in China. The oldest sections of the wall are believed to have crumbled away completely. Modern mapping technologies have revealed parts of the wall that had been absorbed by the landscape. Hills and rivers had hidden sections of the wall over the years. Today, many other elements also threaten the structure. Sandstorms nibble away at some portions of the Great Wall. Tourists also do damage, as some sections draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. People's shoes wear down the stone, and many bricks have been carved with people's names.Do It!Human activity is _________ the Great Wall.Press enter to interact with the item, and press tab button or down arrow until reaching the Submit button once the item is selectedA promotingB erodingC infectingD sustaining

The storm clouds gathered on the horizon, casting an __________ shadow over the once sunny landscape.*10 points1- resolve2- affluent3- ominous4- calamitous5- meticulously6-sparse