Two contestants remained in the 2004 national spelling bee—teens akshay buddiga and david tidmarsh. the two finalists alternated spelling words that sound foreign to most people. tidmarsh successfully made it through a minefield of words such as sumpsimus, sophrosyne, and serpiginous. meanwhile, his rival buddiga fainted when he was asked to spell alopecoid, and he was forced to finish the competition from his seat in case he fainted again. buddiga was then asked to spell schwarmerei, which he missed. with a respectable number-two ranking, buddiga was applauded by the crowd, including the defeated spellers, who knew how hard the 13-year-old had worked. tidmarsh, meanwhile, was ecstatic with his victory. buddiga found the situation to be a overwhelming b juvenile c abrasive d monotonous

Read the passage below and answer the question that follows. ‘you make me feel uncivilized, daisy,’ i confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret. ‘can’t you talk about crops or something? ’ i meant nothing in particular by this remark but it was taken up in an unexpected way. ‘civilization’s going to pieces,’ broke out tom violently. ‘i’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. have you read ‘the rise of the coloured empires’ by this man goddard? ’ ‘why, no,’ i answered, rather surprised by his tone. ‘well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. the idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. it’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.’ in this passage, tom’s ideas about race relations come off as uncivilized. what literary device is fitzgerald using here? irony personification metaphor simile

Stress generally occurs when someone? a.becomes overconfident b.disregards others c.feels overwhelmed

Read this excerpt from the lady of shalott by alfred, lord tennyson. in which three lines does the poet reveal the monotomy of the lady’s existence