Identify the theme of the excerpt from blind and the main or controlling idea of phineas gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science, and support your conclusions with evidence from each selection. compare the ways in which the authors describe these two incidents. how do the authors make each story or account compelling?

Read this excerpt from the exposition in "the monkey's paw." father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire. what is one piece of information you can infer about the story from this sentence? a. the father in the story is possessed, so he probably says insane things a lot. b. the woman in the story is knitting, so the characters probably don't have good clothes to wear. c. the father is playing chess with the son, but the son is not old enough to know the rules. d. since the father likes taking risks in a game, he might like taking risks in life as well.

Read the quotation from "an occurrence at owl creek bridge." and now he became conscious of a new disturbance. striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. he wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably distant or near by—it seemed both. its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. he awaited each stroke with impatience and—he knew not why—apprehension. the intervals of silence grew progressively longer, the delays became maddening. with their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. they hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. what he heard was the ticking of his watch. which best describes the effect of the narration in the excerpt? it suggests that the man being executed feels tranquil and at peace. it suggests that the narrator is sympathetic to the man being executed. it suggests that the plot will become less tense as the story continues. it suggests that the story will become more intense and mysterious.

Read this paragraph from chapter 5 of the prince. there are, for example, the spartans and the romans. the spartans held athens and thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. the romans, in order to hold capua, carthage, and numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. they wished to hold greece as the spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. so to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. and he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. and whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the florentines. what idea is stressed in the passage? the desire for liberty the establishment of an oligarchy the dismantling of an acquired state the tendency toward rebellion