1. How is Santiago different from the Merchant? What lessons does he learn from the Merchant and as his employee? 2. The Englishman represents the type of character who has book knowledge, but not practical knowledge. He focuses on learning alchemy through the intellect. The Englishman’s personality contrasts with Santiago's character: Santiago focuses on intuition, chance and observation (what he calls Universal Language). Based on the conversation between Santiago and the Englishman on page 79, does it appear that the two have anything to learn from each other?

Read this excerpt from "the all-american slurp." i pulled the strings out of my stalk. z-z-zip, z-z-zip. my brother followed suit. z-z-zip, z-z-zip. to my left, my parents were taking care of their own stalks. z-z-zip, z-z-zip, z-z-zip. suddenly i realized that there was dead silence except for our zipping. looking up, i saw that the eyes of everyone in the room were on our family. mr. and mrs. gleason, their daughter meg, who was my friend, and their neighbors the badels—they were all staring at us as we busily pulled the strings of our celery. what story element does the author develop in this excerpt? a) lot details about the party b) characterization of the lins c) characterization of the gleasons d) setting details about the gleasons’ house