Read the excerpt from The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England.

A wide flat field is "finer" than rugged terrain for it can be tilled easily to produce wheat and so represents good white bread. A small thatched cottage, which a modern viewer might consider pretty, will be considered unattractive by an Elizabethan traveler, for cottagers are generally poor and able to offer little in the way of hospitality. Ranges of hills and mountains are obstacles to Elizabethan travelers and very far from picturesque features you go out of your way to see.

Which ideas are stated explicitly in the excerpt?

A. A flat field could easily be used for farming.
B. Today, many people like thatched cottages.
C. Elizabethans preferred large houses.
D. The English were very hospitable people.
E. ills and mountains made travel difficult.
F. Elizabethans did not like to travel.

The lines "original! we're all as like each other as those dolls cut out of the same folded paper. we're like patterns stencilled on a wall. can't you and i strike out for ourselves, may? " reflect which of the recurring themes of 20th and 21st century american literature?

Read the passage from sugar changed the world. sugar is different from honey. it offers a stronger sweet flavor, and like steel or plastic, it had to be invented. in the age of sugar, europeans bought a product made thousands of miles away that was less expensive than the honey from down the road. that was possible only because sugar set people in motion all across the world—millions of them as slaves, in chains; a few in search of their fortunes. a perfect taste made possible by the most brutal labor: that is the dark story of sugar. how does the comparison of sugar to honey reveal the authors’ purpose? it persuades readers that sugar tastes better than honey. it informs readers that there is a connection between slavery and sugar. it informs readers that honey had a major impact on society. it persuades readers that sugar is as important an invention as steel.

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?