Poetry should evoke feelings within the reader. read robert frost’s poem “birches” and then write a personal response to explain the feelings the poem evokes in you. be sure to refer to specific lines of the poem which support your thoughts.

birches
by robert frost

when i see birches bend to left and right
across the lines of straighter darker trees,
i like to think some boy's been swinging them.
but swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
as ice storms do. often you must have seen them
loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
after a rain. they click upon themselves
as the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
as the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
shattering and avalanching on the snow crust—
such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
you'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
they are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
and they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
so low for long, they never right themselves:
you may see their trunks arching in the woods
years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
but i was going to say when truth broke in
with all her matter of fact about the ice storm,
i should prefer to have some boy bend them
as he went out and in to fetch the cows—
some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
whose only play was what he found himself,
summer or winter, and could play alone.
one by one he subdued his father's trees
by riding them down over and over again
until he took the stiffness out of them,
and not one but hung limp, not one was left
for him to conquer. he learned all there was
to learn about not launching out too soon
and so not carrying the tree away
clear to the ground. he always kept his poise

Read the passage. when mother’s fever persisted for a week, father summoned our family doctor. dr. blakemore applied leeches to mother’s skin in hopes of reducing the amount of blood in her body. despite the doctor’s efforts, she languished in bed for three more days before her appetite returned and she requested a thin broth. our dear cook, mrs. davis, prepared the broth and delivered it to my mother directly, eager to ease her discomfort. what can readers infer about the time period of the passage?

Read the passage. excerpt from "why equal pay is worth fighting for" by senator elizabeth warren, april 17, 2014 i honestly can't believe that we're still arguing over equal pay in 2014. when i started teaching elementary school after college, the public school district didn't hide the fact that it had two pay scales: one for men and one for women. women have made incredible strides since then. but 40 years later, we're still debating equal pay for equal work. women today still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, and they're taking a hit in nearly every occupation. bloomberg analyzed census data and found that median earnings for women were lower than those for men in 264 of 265 major occupation categories. in 99.6 percent of occupations, men get paid more than women. that's not an accident; that's discrimination. the effects of this discrimination are real, and they are long lasting. today, more young women go to college than men, but unequal pay makes it harder for them to pay back student loans. pay inequality also means a tougher retirement for women. . for middle-class families today, it usually takes two incomes to get by, and many families depend as much on mom's salary as they do on dad's, if not more. women are the main breadwinners, or joint breadwinners, in two-thirds of the families across the country, and pay discrimination makes it that much harder for these families to stay afloat. women are ready to fight back against pay discrimination, but it's not easy. today, a woman can get fired for asking the guy across the hall how much money he makes. here in the senate, sen. barbara mikulski (d-md.) introduced the paycheck fairness act to give women the tools to combat wage discrimination. it would ensure that salary differences have something to do with the actual job that they are doing, and not just because they are women. senator warren states that the effects of pay discrimination are long-lasting. is this a valid argument supported by accurate evidence? no; warren weakens her point by claiming that the paycheck fairness act would "give women the tools to combat wage discrimination." yes; warren supports her point by noting, "for middle-class families today, it usually takes two incomes to get by." yes; warren supports her point by noting, "pay inequality also means a tougher retirement for women." no; warren weakens her point by noting, "today, a woman can get fired for asking the guy across the hall how much money he makes."

Which of the following sentences requires a colon to be correct? a. in his vacation suitcase, jonathan packed two pairs of pants, four shirts, his swimsuit, and his favorite pajamas. b. when she decided to write a letter, she grabbed her pen, paper, stamps, and address book. c. the new dessert recipe called for equal parts of sugar, cream, peanut butter, and crushed pecans. d. she gathered all of her ingredients to make a smoothie strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and yogurt.