My first day of college was a disaster. first, i went to the wrong classroom for math. i was sitting in the class, surrounded by people taking notes and paying attention to how to do equations, which would have been okay if i was supposed to be in an algebra class. in reality, i was supposed to be in geometry, and when i discovered my error, i had already missed the first twenty minutes of a one-hour class. when i got to the correct class, all twenty-five students turned and looked at me as the teacher said,
“you’re late.” that would have been bad enough, but in my next class my history teacher spoke so fast i could not follow most of what he said. the only thing i did hear was that we were having a quiz tomorrow over today’s lecture. my day seemed to be going better during botany class, that is, until we visited the lab. i had a sneezing fit because of one of the plants in the lab and had to leave the room. when i finally finished my classes for the day, i discovered i had locked my keys in the car and had to wait for my brother to bring another set. my first day of school was so bad that i know the rest will have to be better.
"my first day of school was so bad that i know the rest will have to be better." what function does this sentence serve in the paragraph as a whole?
a) it serves to give an example to support the thesis.
b) it serves to state the thesis.
c) it serves to counter an argument related to the thesis.
d) it serves to conclude the paragraph.

What do mcmahon’s references to thomas carlyle and john stuart mill do for his own image and credibility?

Skill check questions rearrange the paragraphs below into the correct sequence. that's because engineers on the ultraclean project have invented a self-cleaning, antibacterial metal surface that repels water with an intricate layer of laser-engraved valleys. when it rains, the lotus does not become damp; the water simply trickles off in fat droplets, taking any bugs and dirt with it. the drudgery may not be around much longer, however, if a team of italian scientists has anything to do with it “it's simply an amazing plant,” concluded professor luca romoli, leader of the project, “and we've succeeded in mimicking it. magnifico! ” few tasks in life hold less joy than scrubbing the ghost of somebody else’s porridge from a saucepan. the starting point for the research was the leaves of the lotus flower.

Select the contred text in the passage which sentence in this excerpt from john galsworthy's narrative essay "gone" reflects his view that there is no afterlife? an old woman and mrs. herd's sister were in the sitting-room, they showed us to the crazy, narrow stairway. though we lived distant but four hundred yards of a crows flight, we had never seen mrs. herd before, for that is the way of things in this land of minding one's own business a slight dark girlish-looking woman, almost quite refined away, and with those eyes of the dying, where the spirit is coming through, as it only does when it knows that al is over except just the passing. she lay in a double bed with clean white sheets. a white-washed room, so low that the ceiling almost touched our heads, some flowers in a bow, the small lattice window open. though it was hot in there, it was better far than the rooms of most families in towns, living on a wage of twice as much, for here was no sign of defeat in decency or cleanliness. in her face, as in poor herd's, was that same strange minging of resigned despair and almost eager appeal, so terrible to disappoint. yet, trying not to disappoint it, one felt guilty of treachery: what was the good, the kindness in making this poor bird flutter still with hope against the bars, when fast prison had so surely closed in round her? but what else could we do? we could not give her those glib assurances that naive souls make so easily to others concerning their after state. and the night was so beautiful, so utterly glamourously beautiful, with its star-flowers, and its silence and its trees clothed in moonlight. all was tranquil as a dream of sleep. but it was long before our hearts wandering with poor herd, would let us remember that she had slipped away into so beautiful a dream