So far in this unit, you have read about a young man taking his aunt to a concert, a wounded soldier recuperating from his injuries, an old woman making a trip into town to retrieve medicine for her grandson, and a young boy learning to stand up for himself on a trip to the grocery store. The cross-section of characters and experiences in these stories is typical of modern literature. How do you think the broadening of literature to address such "ordinary" or "common" characters and events affects readers? Does it make stories more or less appealing? Why? Cite specific examples from the text and your personal feelings or beliefs to illustrate the points in your response.

Select the contred text in the passage which sentence in this excerpt from john galsworthy's narrative essay "gone" reflects his view that there is no afterlife? an old woman and mrs. herd's sister were in the sitting-room, they showed us to the crazy, narrow stairway. though we lived distant but four hundred yards of a crows flight, we had never seen mrs. herd before, for that is the way of things in this land of minding one's own business a slight dark girlish-looking woman, almost quite refined away, and with those eyes of the dying, where the spirit is coming through, as it only does when it knows that al is over except just the passing. she lay in a double bed with clean white sheets. a white-washed room, so low that the ceiling almost touched our heads, some flowers in a bow, the small lattice window open. though it was hot in there, it was better far than the rooms of most families in towns, living on a wage of twice as much, for here was no sign of defeat in decency or cleanliness. in her face, as in poor herd's, was that same strange minging of resigned despair and almost eager appeal, so terrible to disappoint. yet, trying not to disappoint it, one felt guilty of treachery: what was the good, the kindness in making this poor bird flutter still with hope against the bars, when fast prison had so surely closed in round her? but what else could we do? we could not give her those glib assurances that naive souls make so easily to others concerning their after state. and the night was so beautiful, so utterly glamourously beautiful, with its star-flowers, and its silence and its trees clothed in moonlight. all was tranquil as a dream of sleep. but it was long before our hearts wandering with poor herd, would let us remember that she had slipped away into so beautiful a dream

Read the excerpt from part 3 of the call of the wild. but it was in giving the law and making his mates live up to it, that buck excelled. dave and sol-leks did not mind the change in leadership. it was none of their business. their business was to toil, and toil mightily, in the traces. so long as that were not interfered with, they did not care what happened. billee, the good-natured, could lead for all they cared, so long as he kept order. the rest of the team, however, had grown unruly during the last days of spitz, and their surprise was great now that buck proceeded to lick them into shape. what theme is most supported by the ideas in this excerpt? good leaders are strong and intelligent. loyalty can be a very powerful force. only the strong survive in the wilderness. we are all ruled by our natural instincts.

The “big dig” the “big dig” (the central artery/tunnel project) has been complex and challenging. located in boston, massachusetts, this tunnel is eight lanes wide and three-and-a-half miles long. what is most amazing about this tunnel is that it is constructed under a major highway and skyscrapers located in boston’s financial district. construction crews used “clamshell excavators” during this dig. these machines carved narrow trenches, and then a special substance was pumped into the trench to keep the dirt from caving in. finally, steel beams were lowered into the trench and concrete was pumped in. one problem that engineers faced while constructing the tunnel is the fact that the soil beneath boston is extremely loose and soggy. engineers solved this dilemma by freezing the soil and pumping very cold water into pipes beneath the city. to strengthen the soil even further, a special type of glue was injected into the ground to with the consolidation of the soil. 23 which phrase best defines the word excavator as used in the passage? a. a device used to measure underground temperatures b. a device used to level uneven surfaces c. a device used to move heavy objects d. a device used to dig holes