Read this excerpt from "are dogs dumb? " by karen hopkin.

and how come we think dogs are so smart? sure a dog might be clever enough to fetch his leash when he wants to go out. but the same mutt might also bark at a vacuum cleaner and spend a whole hour chasing his own tail. is rover really any brighter than a hamster, a chicken, or that kid who's always eating play-doh? how can you measure an animal's brain power?

what is the author's purpose in this paragraph?

a.) to entertain readers with a joke about humans eating play-doh

b.) to explain what dogs can and cannot do

c.) to persuade readers that smaller animals aren't necessarily dumb

d.) to give readers information about animal intelligence

Read the selection below and answer the question. an open boat by alfred noyes o, what is that whimpering there in the darkness? 

 'let him lie in my arms. he is breathing, i know.
 look. i'll wrap all my hair round his neck' – the sea's rising,
 the boat must be lightened. he's dead. he must go.' 


 see - quick - by that flash, where the bitter foam tosses, 
 the cloud of white faces, in the black open boat, 
 and the wild pleading woman that clasps her dead lover 
 and wraps her loose hair round his breast and his throat.
 'come, lady, he's dead.' - 'no, i feel his heart beating,
 he's living, i know. but he's numbed with the cold. 
 see, i'm wrapping my hair all around him to warm him.' -
- 'no. we can't keep the dead, dear. come, loosen your hold.

 'come. loosen your fingers.' - 'o god, let me keep him! ' -
 o, hide it, black night! let the winds have their way! 
 and there are no voices or ghosts from that darkness, 
 to fret the bare seas at the breaking of day. the imagery and word choice in the second stanza creates a tone of liveliness and joy danger and gloom silence and peace anger and hostility

Write a 250-word essay in which you explain the theme of women’s strength and bravery in the poem.

Read the following passage: he roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. the pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly hue— but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out. the once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually characterized his utterance. there were times, indeed, when i thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage. which of the above ideas might be considered foreshadowing? he is wandering all over the chamber his skin tone is really pale his voice is quivering the narrator thinks he is laboring with an oppressive secret