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Read the opening paragraph from "Primates, Empathy, and Making Connections."
What intrigues me most about laughter is how it spreads. It's almost impossible not to laugh when
everybody else is. There have been laughing epidemics, in which no one could stop and some even
died in a prolonged fit. There are laughing churches and laugh therapies based on the healing power
of laughter. The must-have toy of 1996—Tickle Me Elmo-laughed hysterically after being squeezed
three times in a row. All of this because we love to laugh and can't resist joining laughing around us.
This is why comedy shows on television have laugh tracks and why theater audiences are sometimes
sprinkled with "laugh plants": people paid to produce raucous laughing at any joke that comes along.
The infectiousness of laughter even works across species.
How does the information in the excerpt help contribute to the meaning and power of the word
infectiousness?
Primates, Empathy, and Making Connections

Read the two excerpts from act 4, scene 3, and act 5, scene 5, of julius caesar. cassius. ha! portia? brutus. she is dead. cassius. how scaped i killing when i crossed you so? o insupportable and touching loss! upon what sickness? brutus. impatient of my absence, and grief that young octavius with mark antony have made themselves so strong—for with her death that tidings came. with this, she fell distraught, and, her attendants absent, swallowed fire. brutus. why this, volumnius. the ghost of caesar hath appeared to me two several times by night—at sardis once, and this last night, here in philippi fields. i know my hour is come. volumnius. not so, my lord. brutus. nay, i am sure it is, volumnius. thou seest the world, volumnius, how it goes. our enemies have beat us to the pit, [low alarums] it is more worthy to leap in ourselves than tarry till they push us. good volumnius, thou know’st that we two went to school together. even for that, our love of old, i prithee, hold thou my sword hilts, whilst i run on it. . so fare you well at once, for brutus’ tongue hath almost ended his life’s history. night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest, that have but laboured to attain this hour. . i prithee, strato, stay thou by thy lord. thou art a fellow of a good respect. thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it. hold then my sword, and turn away thy face while i do run upon it. wilt thou, strato? which statement best compares brutus’s remarks at the death of his wife, portia, to his words before his own death? brutus shows more sadness for portia’s death than he does for his own. brutus is more philosophical about his own death than he is about portia’s. brutus uses more imagery when speaking about portia’s death than about his own. brutus reacts more matter-of-factly about his own death than he does about portia’s.

Now long and short works of fiction have different characteristics beyond simply the length of the work. think of a short story that you like and a longer work (novel or novella) that you like. you can use the story and novella from this unit if no other works come to mind quickly. discuss the elements of each work that made it enjoyable to read. what relationship did the form of the work (short story, novella, or novel) have in making it an enjoyable read? what elements of fiction were strongest in the work, and how did they impact your enjoyment of the story? compare the two works you chose. how are they representative of short fiction versus longer forms of fiction?

In "tell me, o swan, your ancient tale," to what does the land where no doubt nor sorrow have rule refer? nature heaven the promised land an imaginary country