Which sentence in the passage indicates an optimistic tone? throughout life you're faced with more than your share of forks in the road. every decision shapes who you are and who you will become. that's why big decisions take such careful consideration. as a freshman in high school, my biggest decision was whether to have pancakes or toast for breakfast. but soon i would be faced with a far bigger decision—where to go to college and what career to pursue. by the beginning of junior year, everyone was talking about where they wanted to go to college. i wanted to go to a college out of state, but the schools i was interested in were very expensive. even though my family doesn’t have a lot of money, i knew i could get a scholarship if i improved my grades. i spent my junior year working on raising my gpa. by the time i was a senior, i could clearly see the path to a good school.

"Even though my family doesn’t have a lot of money, I knew I could get a scholarship if I improved my grades."

Explanation:

Although there are several sentences in this passage that could be considered optimistic, this is the one that best conveys an optimistic tone. In this sentence, the speaker tells us that his family does not have a lot of money. Most people would see this negatively, and as an obstacle for achieving their dreams. However, the speaker sees this in an optimistic way, and he is sure that he can get a scholarship if he improves his grades.

"character is what you are in the dark." dwight lyman moody, in this very witty quotation of his, states we act and think differently when we are "in the dark", that is, when the spotlight is not on us and everyone can see us and consequently judge us. when reading, we tend to be sympathetic to some characters and their dilemmas. by being so, we are saying to ourselves that we agree with those characters' acts and choices, even if they are morally questionable if we have common sense in mind. dwight lyman moody's quotation applies very well to "crime and punishment", by   19th century russian writer fiodor dostoyevsky. raskolnikov, the main character, a former law student who spends his days reflecting upon life and its misery, draws a fatal conclusion: mankind is divided in two main categories: ordinary and extraordinary people. the first are the ones who lead a run-of-the-mill existence and are full of imperfections; the latter are the ones who are spiritually superior, the ones who always know better, and have the right to judge the ordinary ones, as well as eliminate them if for common good. raskolnikov considers himself as belonging to the extraordinary category and decides to kill an old lady who is a money lender and in whose house he rents a small room. raskolnikov compares himself to napoleon, who had the undeniable right to execute tons of people during the war in order to save his nation. of course what the main character decides to do is a horrendous crime, but as readers we feel it is the right thing for him to do, since the victim is a mean old woman who only thinks about money and keeps humiliating her younger sister. what one experiences is a mixture of sympathy and empathy for the character, even though he decides to commit homicide, which is not at all accepted or tolerated by civilized citizens. however, since readers are "in the dark", they allow themselves to feel in ways they would probably never dare to confess to anyone, no matter how nasty or vicious a character can be. after all, they are just reading and doing no harm. in other words, readers are in the dark and can be who they are without being judged.

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