“So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition [state of repenting or making up for bad deeds] of my heart, when lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting and oft [often] repeating, ‘Take up [take an interest] and read; Take up and read.’ Instantly, my countenance [physical state, attitude] altered [changed], I began to think most intently [with great focus], whether children were wont [likely] in any kind of play to sing such words; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent [steady flow] of my tears, I arose; interpreting [determining] it to be no other than a command from God, to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. . . . Instantly at the end of [the first] sentence, by a light as it were of serenity [peace] infused [filled] into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” —Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine According to the excerpt, how was Augustine feeling at the beginning of the passage?

A. happy
B. peaceful
C. puzzled
D. Troubled

D. Troubled

Explanation:

There are three key moments to identify the emotion that Augustine was feeling. First, he states that he was "weeping in the most bitter contrition". This means that he was crying because he was worried about the bad deeds he had done, and was thinking about repenting. Therefore, he was troubled by his thoughts of the sins he had commited and how to make up for them by repenting.

Second, when he says he was "checking the torrent of my tears", he confirms that before listening to the voice of the children he was crying, which indicates he was not feeling well and was troubled by his thoughts.

Third, Augustine states that reading the passage of the bible "by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away". This explains why he was feeling troubled, as before reading he was feeling doubts about his faith and the passage reassured him gave him peace.

after the civil war, and with the termination of slavery, the south was faced with a big problem; what was supposed to happen and how they were supposed to deal with the freedom and the rights that black people and freed slaves had gained as a result of the north defeating the south and forcing the end of slavery. first, most, if not all, of the workforce of the south came from slaves and they did not have an option to replace the loss of said workforce. second, particularly in the south, people were convinced that black people were lesser, less intelligent, less capable and less smart than whites. this posed a huge problem for them. also, southerners were faced with another issue; freed slaves now had a say in how their lives would be lived and the right to politically choose the way they would be governed. people in the south did not want to accept this, none of this and this opposition and the conflicts that arose from it, not to mention the afereffects of the war, forced the congress of the time to enact and enforce the reconstruction plans that had been proposed by president andrew johnson.

the deaths of over a million communist soldiers

post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans