Read the excerpt from team moon. so they came by the thousands—kids, really, twenty-somethings, a few in their thirties. no one knew for sure how to get to the moon, how to land, or get home. but their goal was clear-cut, and that was enough. that gave them purpose: a reason to puzzle out the problems and seek solutions rather than sleep. which sentence from the excerpt best identifies the problem? so they came by the thousands—kids, really, twenty-somethings, a few in their thirties. but their goal was clear-cut, and that was enough. no one knew for sure how to get to the moon, how to land, or get home. that gave them purpose: a reason to puzzle out the problems and seek solutions rather than sleep.

Read the following poem and analyze it for ideas, themes, and values that reflect the puritan era. be sure to ask the key questions as a guide for analysis.

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows. no one could have seen it at the time, but the invention of beet sugar was not just a challenge to cane. it was a hint—just a glimpse, like a twist that comes about two thirds of the way through a movie—that the end of the age of sugar was in sight. for beet sugar showed that in order to create that perfect sweetness you did not need slaves, you did not need plantations, in fact you did not even need cane. beet sugar was a foreshadowing of what we have today: the age of science, in which sweetness is a product of chemistry, not whips. in 1854 only 11 percent of world sugar production came from beets. by 1899 the percentage had risen to about 65 percent. and beet sugar was just the first challenge to cane. by 1879 chemists discovered saccharine—a laboratory-created substance that is several hundred times sweeter than natural sugar. today the sweeteners used in the foods you eat may come from corn (high-fructose corn syrup), from fruit (fructose), or directly from the lab (for example, aspartame, invented in 1965, or sucralose—splenda—created in 1976). brazil is the land that imported more africans than any other to work on sugar plantations, and in brazil the soil is still perfect for sugar. cane grows in brazil today, but not always for sugar. instead, cane is often used to create ethanol, much as corn farmers in america now convert their harvest into fuel. –sugar changed the world, marc aronson and marina budhos how does this passage support the claim that sugar was tied to the struggle for freedom? it shows that the invention of beet sugar created competition for cane sugar. it shows that technology had a role in changing how we sweeten our foods. it shows that the beet sugar trade provided jobs for formerly enslaved workers. it shows that sweeteners did not need to be the product of sugar plantations and slavery.

Read the excerpt from infinite jest 'my application's not bought," i am telling them, calling into the darkness of the red cave that opens out before closed eyes. 'tam not just a boy who plays tennis. i have an intricate history. experiences and feelings. i'm complex. "read,' i say. 'i study and read. i bet i've read everything you've read. don't think i haven't. i consume libraries. i wear out spines and rom-drives. i do things like get in a taxi and say, "the library, and step on it." my instincts concerning syntax and mechanics are better than your own, i can tell, with due respect. the theme suggested by the excerpt is about a. being understood b. the value of education c. wisdom versus foolishness d. learning responsibility