- Part A Based on the context of the passage, what is the meaning of the
underlined phrase "poised between this world and the next”?
a. between living and dying
b. between despair and hope
c. between sleeping and waking
d. between abandonment and love
Part B Which phrase from the passage provides the best context clue for the
answer to Part A?
a. [B]eing born in a workhouse... was the best thing for Oliver Twist that
could by possibility have occurred.
b. [1]f, during this brief period, Oliver had been surrounded by careful
grandmothers, anxious aunts, experienced nurses, and doctors of
profound wisdom, he would most inevitably and indubitably have been
killed in no time.
c. Oliver and Nature fought out the point between them.
d. [Oliver) proceeded to advertise to the inmates of the workhouse the fact
of a new burden having been imposed upon the parish..