*Read the poem and answer the following questions below.*

SPACESHIPS

We waited behind bushes,
sniper like discipline,
for our uncles to arrive.
The four of us,
recounting the last time
we’d spotted them,
the brilliance in what we saw,
how we squinted and pointed,
dug in penniless pockets
for cameras we didn’t own.

None had large heads
or oval shaped eyes.
They weren’t eight feet tall
with iron claws,
hanging dreads.
But they were out of this world.
When they landed their Chevys
we’d rub our eyes
making sure it was bona fide,
that these flying saucers
had discos inside.

Questions
1. In “Spaceships,” upon witnessing their uncles, the speaker and three others “dug in penniless pockets / for cameras we didn’t own.” Why do they want to take pictures of their uncles?

2. Whom or what are the uncles being compared to throughout the poem? Cite lines or words from the poem as support.

3. Why does the speaker end the poem by “[making sure] that these flying saucers / had discos inside”? How does this image relate to what the speaker is describing, as well as the poem’s meaning? Explain, citing any other passage from the poem that supports your answer.

4. What context clues helped you determine the meaning of the word recounting as it is used in the first stanza of “Spaceships”? Write your own definition of recounting and cite the clues in the text that led you to that definition.
Read the following dictionary entry:

brilliance
extreme or intense light
bright, vivid color
extreme talent or intelligence

5. Which definition most closely matches the word brilliance as it is used in the text? Write the correct definition of brilliance here and explain how you figured it out.

In about two hundred words, explain how the literary devices used in the novel convey theme.

In which sentence is the action arrow pointing to the receiver of the action? a. sentence: hawkeye tracked the deer through the forest. an arrow, pointing to the left, is drawn above the verb 'tracked'. b. sentence: hawkeye tracked the deer through the forest. an arrow, pointing to the right, is drawn above the verb 'tracked'.

Select the correct text in the passage. which sentence in this excerpt from abraham lincoln's second inaugural address conveys that he wanted the us civil war to end as soon as possible? neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. both read the same bible and pray to the same god, and each invokes his aid against the other. it may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just inging their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. the prayers of both could not be answered. that of neither has been answered fully. the almighty has his own purposes. "woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh" if we shall suppose that american slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of god, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both north and south this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living god always ascribe to him? fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. yet, if god wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether." reset next