What caused the people of Poker Flat to be ‘after somebody’?ResponsesA A citizen was in big trouble.A citizen was in big trouble.B A citizen caused a fight in town.A citizen caused a fight in town.C Somebody had committed a murder and fled to the town of Poker Flat to escape capture.Somebody had committed a murder and fled to the town of Poker Flat to escape capture.D The town had lost several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen.The town had lost several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen.

Which best describes the author's perspective toward the outcasts of Poker Flat in this passage?ResponsesA The author is extremely critical of each of the outcasts.The author is extremely critical of each of the outcasts.B The author is indifferent to the fates of each of the outcasts of Poker Flat.The author is indifferent to the fates of each of the outcasts of Poker Flat.C The author believes the outcasts are less than humans and deserve mistreatment.The author believes the outcasts are less than humans and deserve mistreatment.D The author sympathizes with the outcasts and pities their being scapegoated by the town of Poker Flat.

he Outcasts of Poker FlatBret Harte1 As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous.2 Mr. Oakhurst's calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these indications. Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause was another question. "I reckon they're after somebody," he reflected; "likely it's me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which he had been whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture.3 In point of fact, Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had lately suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper persons. This was done permanently in regard of two men who were then hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily in the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, to state that their impropriety was professional, and it was only in such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment.4 Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this category. A few of the committee had urged hanging him as a possible example, and a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them. "It's agin justice," said Jim Wheeler, "to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp--an entire stranger--carry away our money." But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst overruled this narrower local prejudice.5 Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, none the less coolly that he was aware of the hesitation of his judges. He was too much of a gambler not to accept Fate. With him life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the dealer.6 A body of armed men accompanied the deported wickedness of Poker Flat to the outskirts of the settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to be a coolly desperate man, and for whose intimidation the armed escort was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a young woman familiarly known as the "Duchess"; another, who had won the title of "Mother Shipton"; and "Uncle Billy," a suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no comments from the spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader spoke briefly and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to return at the peril of their lives.Question 1Which best describes the author's perspective toward the outcasts of Poker Flat in this passage?ResponsesA The author is extremely critical of each of the outcasts.The author is extremely critical of each of the outcasts.B The author is indifferent to the fates of each of the outcasts of Poker Flat.The author is indifferent to the fates of each of the outcasts of Poker Flat.C The author believes the outcasts are less than humans and deserve mistreatment.The author believes the outcasts are less than humans and deserve mistreatment.D The author sympathizes with the outcasts and pities their being scapegoated by the town of Poker Flat.

Read the excerpt from "The Bet" by Anton Chekov and answer the question.[1] It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was walking up and down his study and remembering how, fifteen years before, he had given a party one autumn evening. There had been many clever men there, and there had been interesting conversations. Among other things they had talked of capital punishment. The majority of the guests, among whom were many journalists and intellectual men, disapproved of the death penalty. They considered that form of punishment out of date, immoral, and unsuitable for Christian States. In the opinion of some of them the death penalty ought to be replaced everywhere by imprisonment for life. "I don't agree with you," said their host the banker. "I have not tried either the death penalty or imprisonment for life, but if one may judge a priori, the death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life. Capital punishment kills a man at once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of you in the course of many years?"[2] "Both are equally immoral," observed one of the guests, "for they both have the same object—to take away life. The State is not God. It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore when it wants to."[3] Among the guests was a young lawyer, a young man of five-and-twenty. When he was asked his opinion, he said:[4] "The death sentence and the life sentence are equally immoral, but if I had to choose between the death penalty and imprisonment for life, I would certainly choose the second. To live anyhow is better than not at all."[5] A lively discussion arose. The banker, who was younger and more nervous in those days, was suddenly carried away by excitement; he struck the table with his fist and shouted at the young man:[6] "It's not true! I'll bet you two million you wouldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years."[7] "If you mean that in earnest," said the young man, "I'll take the bet, but I would stay not five but fifteen years."[8] "Fifteen? Done!" cried the banker. "Gentlemen, I stake two million!"How does the author create tension in the excerpt? aBy describing a dream sequence that shows who the lawyer dreams will win the bet bBy flashing forward to show what happens to the banker at the end of the bet cBy providing a resolution that shows who won the bet fifteen years later dBy using a flashback to show the bet that was made fifteen years earlier

Which of the following would be considered the turning point of this story?A banker and the lawyer get into an argument over capital punishment.  The banker condones it, while the lawyer says life in prison would be a more fitting punishment.  This leads the banker to bet that the banker could not last even 15 years alone in prison.  So, the banker wages 2 million rubles against 15 years of the lawyer's life in his garden house, a simulation of life in prison.In the first few years in his garden house prison, the lawyer reads, plays piano, and drinks.  Meanwhile, the banker plots to kill the lawyer a day before the bet is over and blame the murder on the the watchman.When the fifteen years is up, and just as the banker intends to kill the lawyer, he sees him asleep with a letter at his table.  The letter says that the lawyer renounces humanity and intends to leave the garden house minutes before the bet is over and, therefore, lose the bet.  Blindsided, the banker refuses to murder the lawyer and, henceforth, no one wins the bet.When he awakes, the lawyer indeed leaves minutes before he cashes in on the two million rubles. Later, the banker puts the letter in a safe.  Does he do this to prevent himself for being implicated in a crime (reneging on the bet)?  Or, does he value the letter more dearly than money?  In other words, does the bet teach both the banker and the lawyer to renounce vanity and materialism and to value human relationships?Question 13Select one:a.The banker finds and reads the letter.b.The banker puts the letter in a safe.c.The lawyer reads, plays piano, and drinks.  d.The banker wages 2 million rubles on the bet.Clear my choiceQuestion 14Not yet answeredFlag questionTipsQuestion textWhich of these sentences uses concise diction?Question 14Select one:a.Mrs. Moore had a discussion about rhetorical analysis with the class in school.b.Mrs. Moore conversed about rhetorical analysis in front of her entire class. c.Mrs. Moore discussed rhetorical analysis with the class. Clear my choiceQuestion 15Not yet answeredFlag questionTipsQuestion textIn Great Expectations, what was Pip's great expectation for his 21st birthday?Question 15Select one:a.Estella would agree to marry him.b.His benefactor would make her/himself known to Pip.c.Miss Havisham would give him more money.d.He would finally get a job.

Pride Goeth Before a Fall (excerpt)Indian Fairy TaleIn a certain village there lived ten cloth merchants, who always went about together. Once upon a time they had travelled far afield, and were returning home with a great deal of money which they had obtained by selling their wares. Now there happened to be a dense forest near their village, and this they reached early one morning. In it there lived three notorious robbers, of whose existence the traders had never heard, and while they were still in the middle of it the robbers stood before them, with swords and cudgels in their hands, and ordered them to lay down all they had. The traders had no weapons with them, and so, though they were many more in number, they had to submit themselves to the robbers, who took away everything from them, even the very clothes they wore, and gave to each only a small loin-cloth a span in breadth and a cubit in length.The idea that they had conquered ten men and plundered all their property, now took possession of the robbers' minds. They seated themselves like three monarchs before the men they had plundered, and ordered them to dance to them before returning home. The merchants now mourned their fate. They had lost all they had, except their loin-cloth, and still the robbers were not satisfied, but ordered them to dance.There was, among the ten merchants, one who was very clever. He pondered over the calamity that had come upon him and his friends, the dance they would have to perform, and the magnificent manner in which the three robbers had seated themselves on the grass. At the same time he observed that these last had placed their weapons on the ground, in the assurance of having thoroughly cowed the traders, who were now commencing to dance. So he took the lead in the dance, and, as a song is always sung by the leader on such occasions, to which the rest keep time with hands and feet, he thus began to sing:"We are enty men,They are erith men:If each erith man,Surround eno menEno man remains.Tâ, tai, tôm, tadingana."The robbers were all uneducated, and thought that the leader was merely singing a song as usual. So it was in one sense; for the leader commenced from a distance, and had sung the song over twice before he and his companions commenced to approach the robbers. They had understood his meaning, because they had been trained in trade.When two traders discuss the price of an article in the presence of a purchaser, they use a riddling sort of language."What is the price of this cloth?" one trader will ask another."Enty rupees," another will reply, meaning "ten rupees."Thus, there is no possibility of the purchaser knowing what is meant unless he be acquainted with trade language. By the rules of this secret language erith means "three," enty means "ten," and eno means "one." So the leader by his song meant to hint to his fellow-traders that they were ten men, the robbers only three, that if three pounced upon each of the robbers, nine of them could hold them down, while the remaining one bound the robbers' hands and feet.QuestionWhich narrative point in the story creates the most suspense?ResponsesA when the lead merchant begins singing for the dancewhen the lead merchant begins singing for the danceB when the ten merchants are returning home with a lot of moneywhen the ten merchants are returning home with a lot of moneyC when the clever merchant pondered over how to defeat the thieveswhen the clever merchant pondered over how to defeat the thievesD when the thieves force the merchants to strip down to loin clothswhen the thieves force the merchants to strip down to loin cloths